View General Sessions from
Smart & Good Schools Summer Institutes

Below are two presentations from our 2009 Summer Institute along with Ron Berger's much-requested general session from 2005. We will be alternating the first two videos monthly with others from the 2009 Summer Institute. Please check back to see presentations by Michele Borba, Tom Lickona, Hal Urban, Rich Parisi, Phil Catania, and others.

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• Matt Davidson, Developing the Catalytic Power of Character
  Needed for Learning (2009)

• Usha Balamore, Courage for the Deed, Grace for the Doing (2009)

• Ron Berger, Creating a Culture of Excellence in the Classroom: Strategies That Inspire Students to do Their Best Work (2005)

Matt Davidson, "Developing the Catalytic Power of Character Needed For Learning" (2009) (approx. running time: 2.5 hours)

Matt Davidson is president and director of education at the Institute for Excellence and Ethics, and can be reached at mdavidson@excellenceandethics.com. He is co-author of Smart & Good High Schools and lead author of Power2Learn^TM and Power2Teach^TM (www.excellenceandethics.com). In this presentation, he explains how to use 4 KEYS to unlock the power of character needed for learning.

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Usha Balamore, "Courage for the Deed, Grace for the Doing" (2009) (approx. running time: 2.5 hours)

Usha Balamore is director of character education at The Shipley School (Bryn Mawr, PA) and can be reached at ubalamore@shipleyschool.org. She is the co-author of Teaching Goodness: Engaging the Moral and Academic Promise of Children. She has led Shipley's innovative efforts to implement the Smart & Good Schools vision of excellence and ethics. In this presentation, she reports on the school's most recent strategies for helping students do their best work and be their best selves. 

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Ron Berger, "Creating a Culture of Excellence in the Classroom: Strategies That Inspire Students to Do Their Best Work" (2005) (approx. running time: 2.5 hours)

Ron Berger taught elementary school for 28 years. He is currently program director for Expeditionary Learning Schools (www.elschools.org) and can be reached at rberger@elschools.org. He is author of An Ethic of Excellence: Building a Culture of Craftsmanship with Students. In this presentation, he gives many examples of how project-based learning can be used to help even young children produce work of very high quality.

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