Our Sunday Keynote Speaker is

Christian Moore
Youth Advocate & Founder, WhyTry, Inc., Orem, UT

Keynote Title: Why Try? Overcoming Poverty, Violence and Failure

Keynote Summary: Christian Moore will share motivational stories from his own life experiences as a youth with severe learning disabilities. He will walk the audience through the social and emotional assets that allowed him to get a masters degree and become a nationally recognized child advocate. He will explore the seeds of motivation and hope which enable children to overcome poverty, violence, and failure, and succeed in education, the workplace and life.

Christian Moore is an internationally renowned author, speaker and advocate for at-risk youth. The WhyTry Program he authored has proven to be one of the most effective ways to teach the critical social and emotional skills that determine the success and happiness of individuals facing life’s challenges.

The WhyTry Program is now in use in thousands of schools, correctional facilities and mental health agencies in the United States, Canada, and Australia and continues to be one of the fastest growing intervention programs for at-risk youth.

Christian grew up in the Washington, D.C. area in a family of twelve children. By the second grade, Christian had been diagnosed with Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder, conduct disorder, and severe learning disabilities. Despite overwhelming obstacles, Christian rose from special education to receive a master’s degree in social work.

His work with youth like himself lead him to the realization that they usually lacked only one thing to experience the same success he had: hope. The WhyTry Program delivers the key social and emotional skills that open the door to hope in a way that is both easy to understand and powerful.

When he is not traveling the world inspiring audiences, he is home with his family in the Rocky Mountains.

Our Monday Keynote Speaker is

Larry Bell
Motivational Speaker & Teacher, Multicultural America, Inc., Manassas, VA

Keynote Title: Raising Expectations & Closing Achievement Gaps

Keynote Summary: Learn how you can reach and teach any child by using "high expectations" to transcend all barriers. In today's schools, teachers are challenged to raise students' standardized test scores, involve parents in their children's academic success, help students deal with real-life issues that get in the way of their learning, and much, much more. Using personal stories and educational research, Bell inspires participants to feel the true greatness that lies within all of us and to experience the power to make a positive difference.

Larry Bell is a 25 year veteran in education.

Fifteen of those years were spent as a classroom teacher where he was nominated for the National Agnes Mayer Outstanding Teacher Award.

Larry Bell has been the keynote speaker at many conferences across the country such as the National ASCD Conference, the National Association of Multicultural Education Conference, numerous state NEA affiliates and hundreds of local and regional conferences.

Larry, who taught at Gar-field High School, a school with over 3,000 students speaking 36 different languages, was recognized for his innovative classroom strategies that allowed his so called “Tough Kids” as well as his “Gifted and Talented” to excel!
For seven years, Larry Bell served as the Supervisor of Multicultural Education for Prince William County which meant providing hands-on workshops for teachers and students in 67 schools with 3000+ teachers and 50,000 students.

Larry’s efforts in this position were recognized when he was given a $550,000 grant by the federal government to pilot his ideas in 1996, and again when he was selected as the Mary Hatwood Futrell Award winner by the Virginia Education Association in 1998. He was also invited, and traveled, to South Africa to share ideas in 1996.

Larry, a Citadel graduate, is now a full time consultant who owns his own company.

Sponsored in part by Magnolia Coastlands Area Heath Education Center, Statesboro, GA

Our Wednesday Keynote Speaker is

Jane Bluestein, Ph.D.
Author & Counselor, Instructional Support Services, Inc., Albuquerque, NM

Keynote Title: Creating Emotionally Safe Schools

Keynote Summary: Emotional safety is critical to learning and achievement, and a key component of an atmosphere that discourages passivility, aggression or acting out for revenge or self-protection. The issue goes beyond threats, bullying, and violence, however, and also includes school policies, power dynamics and teacher-student relationships, academic priorities, and instructional practices. We’ll examine the effect of threat and stress on the brain, and its impact on learning and student behavior. The presentation also offers dozens of practical and effective alternatives to build a positive school culture and maximize achievement, commitment and cooperation.

A dynamic and entertaining speaker, Dr. Bluestein has worked with thousands of educators, counselors, healthcare professionals, parents, childcare workers and other community members world-wide. She has appeared internationally as a speaker and talk-show guest, including several appearances as a guest expert on CNN, National Public Radio and The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Dr. Bluestein specializes in programs and resources geared to provide practical and meaningful information, training and hope in areas related to relationship building, effective instruction and guidance, and personal development. Much of her work focuses on interactions between adults and children, especially children at risk. Her down-to-earth speaking style, practicality, sense of humor, and numerous stories and examples make her ideas clear and accessible to her audiences.

Jane is an award-winning author whose books include Creating Emotionally Safe Schools; High School’s Not Forever; 21st Century Discipline; Being a Successful Teacher; Parents in a Pressure Cooker; Parents, Teens, & Boundaries; The Parent’s Little Book of Lists: Do’s and Don’ts of Effective Parenting; Mentors, Masters, and Mrs. McGregor: Stories of Teachers Making a Difference; and Magic, Miracles & Synchronicity : A Journal of Gratitude and Awareness. Dr. Bluestein’s latest books include The Win-Win Classroom and a companion facilitator’s guide.

Formerly a classroom teacher (in inner-city Pittsburgh, PA), crisis-intervention counselor, teacher training program coordinator, and volunteer with high-risk teens at a local Day Treatment Program, Dr. Bluestein currently heads Instructional Support Services, Inc., a consulting and resource firm in Albuquerque, New Mexico.