Lainie Rowell – Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc.

Lainie Rowell is an educator, international keynote speaker, and author. She is dedicated to building learning communities and her areas of focus include learner-driven design, social emotional learning, online/blended learning, and professional learning.

During her more than 25 years in education, Lainie has taught elementary, secondary, and higher education. She also served in a district-level leadership position supporting 22,000 students and 1,200 teachers at 33 schools. She earned her degree in psychology and went on to earn postgraduate degrees in education.

As a speaker and a consultant, Lainie's client list ranges from Fortune 100 companies like Apple and Google to school districts and independent schools. She is a keynoter and TEDx Speaker with more than 15 years experience presenting at local, regional, and international conferences including Learning Forward, CISC Leadership Symposium, the California MTSS Professional Learning Institute, IDEAcon, Digital Learning Annual Conference (DLAC), and Building Learning Communities (BLC).

Lainie’s work has been highlighted in many publications, including Edutopia, ASCD K-12 Leadership SmartBrief, Getting Smart, and PBS NewsHour.

Since 2014, Lainie has been a consultant for the Orange County Department of Education's Institute for Leadership Development.

She is the author of Evolving with Gratitude, the lead author of Evolving Learner, and a contributing-author of Because of a Teacher.

Keynote

Evolving with Gratitude: Nurture Relationships, Improve Well-Being, and Activate Learning

Research proves that by intentionally practicing gratitude, we can dramatically improve our disposition, bringing us more joy and better health. It also makes a huge difference in relationships and leads to more successful learning experiences. In this keynote, Lainie Rowell shares how educators can use small gratitude practices to make a big difference with kids, peers, and the world. We can use gratitude to shift from barely surviving to actually thriving and flourishing.

Be sure to bring a fully charged device to participate in this interactive keynote!

Evolving with Learning Communities That Are Grateful, Engaged, And Empowered

Get back to the joy of teaching, learning, and leading with innovative, research-backed practices to create safe, equitable, empowering learning experiences for all learners. Drawing on recent discoveries in neuroscience as well as classroom experience, this talk focuses on cultivating positive culture in a community of inquiry.

Be sure to bring a fully charged device to participate in this interactive keynote!

Evolving Learner: Shifting to Continuous Improvement with Kids, Peers, and the World

We can evolve as learners and shift from an overreliance on "spray-and-pray" workshops to personalized professional learning. Examine ideas and strategies that empower us, as educators, to learn from kids, peers, and the world in a cycle of continuous improvement. Leave ready to implement effective professional learning models and focus on inquiry-based learning to increase educator effectiveness and results for all learners.

Participants will:

Engage in a hands-on activity to analyze adult learning theory and effective professional learning models focused on equity and excellence
Examine innovative and sustainable ways to learn from kids, peers, and the world through job-embedded cycles of inquiry

Be sure to bring a fully charged device to participate in this interactive keynote!

Breakout/Workshop Sessions

Evolving with Gratitude: Three Ways to Use Gratitude to Promote Well-Being & Improve Learning

Thankfully, our education community is focusing on Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and serving the whole child. The challenge is, how do we start with, build from, and embed SEL into our practice? Where do we begin? Research proves that by intentionally practicing gratitude and wiring our brains in this way, we dramatically improve our mindset, bringing us more joy and better health. It also makes a huge difference in relationships and leads to more successful learning experiences. In this session, we will explore small gratitude practices that make a big impact with kids, peers, and the world.

Together, we will:

Discover how we can empower kids to be grateful for learning which leads to engagement. We will also discover how to cultivate a culture of authentic gratitude in our learning communities.
Discuss ways we can practice gratitude with our peers to help us cope with stress, regulate our emotions, and nurture relationships.
Explore how gratitude promotes prosocial behavior in our world.

This session is applicable to all grade levels, subject areas, and ability levels. Regardless of age and stage, we can practice gratitude to establish psychological safety and nurture a sense of belonging while also promoting all five of CASEL’s SEL competencies:

relationship skills
social awareness
self-awareness
self-management
responsible decision-making

Are you already familiar with gratitude practices? Just considering implementing gratitude? Either way, this interactive session will be a rich source of ideas, resources, and information about using gratitude to create safe, equitable, empowering learning experiences for all students. All leading to increased resilience and improved well-being for all. We can use gratitude to shift from barely surviving to actually thriving and getting back to the joy of teaching, learning, and leading.