Elevate Sessions

It’s Just Me, Myself and I – and some Planning! Are you an Advancement Office of one, overwhelmed with all the things you could and should be doing for fundraising, marketing, alumni relations and more?  Join us to discuss how to prepare and automate for a successful year – and use the resources you have to make it work!

Considering taking the dive and starting a capital campaign? Let’s discuss what you need to be thinking about and what you need to put in place to run a successful campaign.  Whether you are raising $10k or $10 million, the basic steps remain the same.

Whether you have been using FACTS Giving and would like to learn more about all the new features and product enhancements that have been released over the past year or you are in the market for a new donor management and online giving platform  – this session will talk all about FACTS Giving and the incredible amount of new features that are available!

Increasing your gifts requires cultivating meaningful relationships with your potential and current donors. In this session we’ll explore time-tested as well as new ways to find new donors and keep the ones you’ve worked so hard to get.

Garbage in means garbage out. The key to a successful advancement office is having good information about your current and potential donors. In this session we’ll discuss ways to keep your data clean.

Participate in this interactive session to learn, discuss, and implement high yield activities for your student body using Title I funds. Attendees will walk away with new activities that have a proven track record to improve student outcomes while using the federal funds to carry them out. Important resources will be shared for continued learning long after the conference. The presenter is Nathan Williamson, a former local and state-level Title I director and equitable-services Ombudsman.

This session will discuss the advantages of having an annual financial commitment and a licensed, professionally managed tuition refund program to address tuition income protection and student withdrawal risk.

Our schools’ diverse student populations deserve our best, but their different needs and the various funds to support them are hard to track and understand. Participate in this session to dig deeper into the specific needs and funding streams for students with disabilities, English learners, students experiencing homelessness, foster children, and more. The presenter is Nathan Williamson, a former local English learner leader and special education director.

It’s simple…Collaborate. Optimize your full potential in the classroom by learning the ins and outs of Samsung Interactive Panel. This fun filled panel keeps students engaged. Find out how to make your teaching less stressful while keeping the students focused and alert on any subject.

This course will focus on all of the advanced tools within the Google Workspace for Education apps such as Google Classroom, Docs, Slides, Sites, Sheets, Keep, Chrome, Calendar and so much more. Whether you teach Kindergarten or a high school technology course, these tips are going to help you and your students communicate and collaborate to help prepare them for the real world.

Join Dr. Monica Burns, author of EdTech Essentials, for a conference kick off unpacking the top ten essentials for classroom technology use. You’ll explore the core ways to incorporate EdTech into a learning environment, and leave ready to choose your own focus area, or “EdTech Adventure” for the remainder of the school year.

This course will focus on how to use three new Google for Education tools that have just been released in the last school year: Practice Sets, Cast Moderator and Screencast.

Tired of the same traditional activities year after year? Join us to learn how to spice them up with resources old and new! Bring in the tech while learning how to enhance classroom resources and incorporate them into hands-on, cross-curricular experiences. Walk away with innovative and engaging ideas to reinvigorate favorite lessons. Participants will have the opportunity to use available resources to complete a STEAM challenge of their own!

Have you heard your students or techie friends talking about ChatGPT and wondered what in the world they’re talking about? Learn about the new AI (artificial intelligence) everyone is talking about.  Explore the possibilities it brings to schools and how it might shape the future of education.

This session will feature 50 enrollment and marketing strategies that you can implement at your school in 50 minutes. That means that every minute you will get a new idea that you can consider implementing at your school. You will not want to miss this session that will be filled with great examples of strategies that have worked in other schools.

We will discuss this interesting enrollment model and help you weigh the pros and cons. You will walk away with an understanding of the options you have within FACTS if you choose to move to continuous enrollment for your school.

Learn to nurture your prospective families by leading them through the stages of courtship, engagement, and a long-term commitment to your school. Theirs is a personal journey with many touchpoints along the way.

You’ve downloaded all this new information…now what? Spend some time debriefing with your fellow Enrollment Directors and share actionable steps you can take back to your school to supercharge your enrollment season.

Getting students to enroll in your school is difficult. Keeping them enrolled is even harder. Many schools are stunned when they look back at years of enrollment data and realize how many families left at the end of each year. In this training, Kurt Lewis will teach you how to understand your retention numbers, the reasons families leave, and most importantly, the reasons families stay. Based on the book The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman, Kurt has developed strategies to offer every parent the experience they want and the attention they need to keep them coming back year after year.

“If I could only get them on campus…” Sound familiar? Many admissions professionals take the wait-and-see approach rather than deploying a proactive sales strategy to parents from inquiry to enrollment. During this workshop, we will discuss the sales process in admission with a focus on understand the processes and strategies for each stage of the admissions funnel: Inquiry, Follow-up, Campus Visits, Application, Enrollment and Onboarding. This session is geared to staff in admissions, marketing and administrative leadership.

Whether you are a Head of School, Director of Admissions, or board member, you will understand what every school leader should know about enrollment and marketing. You will leave this workshop smarter than you were as you learn these key areas and the meaning behind the Get S.M.A.R.T. acronym.

Wouldn’t it be amazing to know exactly what a prospective parent wants to see when they visit your website? Great news: Kurt Lewis knows, and he wants to tell you! Kurt has compiled website analytics from private and faith-based schools across the country and has discovered that parents visit the same seven pages on nearly every school site. In this training, you will learn what those pages are, why they are important, and how to create compelling content which will get parents to click the most important link of all: Request a Tour.

Online marketing is not about the relentless pursuit of more. It’s about connecting with right-fit families, which contributes to Healthy Enrollment. Whether you’re full, sorta full, or in desperate need of driving more admissions conversations, digital marketing can be a turbo button for your team. But where do you begin? Or if what you’re doing now isn’t working…why not? In this action-packed session, we’ll explore foundational principles such as the Family Journey, Age-and-Stage™, and campaign funnels. We’ll discuss content strategies that resonate with prospective families. And, if you’re full, we’ll help you think strategically about how to leverage digital marketing to make the most of this season of opportunity.

Your tuition price is the greatest barrier for prospective parents to consider your school. Most often, schools list their tuition prices and hope that parents will inquire and visit. However, it is critical that we market the affordability of our school. During this workshop, we will discuss Variable Tuition and other models to market the affordability of your school.

Does my website look okay? What’s my first step in making a marketing plan? Where should I focus my ad budget? Take this time to “pick a marketer’s brain” and be ready for the school year to take off!

We’re living in a world of accelerated change and it’s putting those who can’t keep up at risk. The ability to innovate and quickly adapt to what’s coming next will be the skills most important to creating value for yourself and your organization. This session highlights the lessons and insights from Brian’s best-selling new book, Accelerated: A Guide to Innovating at the Speed of Change. Find out how to build a new competency of innovation, and learn new ways to explore, engage, and experiment to turn ideas into valuable innovations.

Taking a deeper dive into the differences and similarities of each generation, their needs, and best methods for bridging the gaps is an essential component that needs to be incorporated into our educational systems. The diversity among generations continues to grow, and we must explore best practices within our educational settings to ensure success for everyone.

The session will discuss ways that a Title 1 school embraced a focus on leadership skills for staff and students and significantly impacted the school’s culture and student achievement.

Data is an incredibly powerful tool that can be used to make informed decisions in a wide range of fields, from business to healthcare to government policy. However, it’s important to recognize that data is not just about the numbers – in order to truly understand and make use of the information that data provides, it’s necessary to look beyond the raw figures and consider the context and underlying factors that influence the data.

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.

Learners will be able to, have a plan and a clear path on how to leverage the art of observation: how to observe your current faculty members to spot the potential for growth. Scientifically observing behavioral patterns. Knowing how to create opportunities.

Participants will evaluate their current leadership practices and learn how adjustments can make for improved climate, relationships, support for change, and ideas that support positive growth for the entire school community. Participants will also walk away with an action plan that allows leaders to implement change strategies quickly and efficiently.

This presentation will focus on engagement strategies that will assist leaders in schools to develop and sustain cultures of respect and support for all stakeholders through modeled activities.

Your campus probably has a mission statement, but does everyone know what it is, and why it’s so important? How do you establish a common mission, vision, and goals for your institution? Join us to examine the importance of crafting and communicating a clear, powerful statement that can chart the course for your school, make your educators more effective, increase parental buy-in, and positively impact outcomes for your students.

Let’s define the words leader and leadership. This is crucial because if our presuppositions are flawed our understanding of leadership will be flawed as well leading to frustration and too often failure. Leadership is not just management writ large. Rather leaders have a specific role to play in every organization without which the organization will never achieve its greatest potential.

Oftentimes, teacher candidates come to the non-traditional schools to get away from the public school system rather than because they value what makes non-traditional schools unique. Most graduates of education programs are unfamiliar with the benefits of these schools. Participants will share ways they have lessened their teacher shortage including recruiting and retention strategies.

This session will focus on the foundational skills teachers and administrators need in order to mentor new teachers. There will be a huge focus on the best techniques and tools that should be incorporated during mentoring sessions as well as the importance of learning circles.

Curriculum mapping is often a major school initiative driven by accreditation and other external expectations. But, curriculum mapping is best seen as a key cultural component for any school. It can help teachers and administrators alike prioritize school mission, vertically align instruction from one grade to the next, identify key areas for professional development, and enhance collaboration opportunities. Collecting and streamlining instructional decisions allows teachers to gain the freedom and flexibility that make their relationships with students, parents, and the broader community flourish. This workshop will outline the basic questions curriculum mapping explores as the practice becomes part of school culture.

Say goodbye to boring, traditional teaching and adopt fresh, new ways to wake up your student’ brains and increase retention. Melissa introduces six innovative strategies you can use tomorrow. Planning multiple ways to address engagement, representation, action and expression in your room just got easier!

How do you collect formative assessment data? This session will cover strategies for collecting data with digital tools so educators can take action through instructional pivots and interventions. This includes how to check for understanding before, during, and after instruction. Participants will explore how digital tools provide a clear value add as you check for understanding in any subject area.

What is 21st century learning? How do we teach it, learn it and apply it? I give examples of how FACTS provides an all in one process for streamlining, updating, and forging ahead in the 21st century world to transform the educational system.

This session will address the causes, prevalence, and diagnosis of attention deficits and/or hyperactivity disorder. Additionally, instructional and behavioral strategies will be addressed for working with these students in the classroom.

Participants will walk away with a thorough understanding of what dyslexia is and the experience of individuals with dyslexia, as well as the tools to screen for dyslexia, and an understanding of the essential components of dyslexia intervention.

How can we engage students in deeper learning and embrace the variability in individuals? We know that in a connected world, learners can collaborate, interact with experts, perform research, and produce creative works, but how do we implement this effectively? The answer is universally designed learning experiences in a community of inquiry.

For many students, school doesn’t work because teachers haven’t thought hard enough about incentive structures. One way to fix this fast is to give the answers away. Students are human, so what works for other human beings will work on them, too.

In this session, participants will take a dive into the inner workings of the brain and learn how to develop a classroom culture that has Growth Mindset as a focus.

In this workshop, Dr. Beverly Ann Chin demonstrates the strategy of a “framed” structure for writing memoir and reflection. The “framed” structure enables students to organize ideas; add specific, relevant details; and use descriptive language in their writing. Dr. Chin shows how the pre-writing, drafting, and revising process builds a community of writers and reminds students to “writer like a reader” and “read like a writer.”

Double the speed of your student’s learning with this 4-step instructional cycle designed to provide high-quality, engaging instruction and differentiation. Each step offers brain-friendly teaching strategies that transform students into active learners and independent thinkers. The Instructional Cha-Cha is based on the synthesis of educational neuroscience, formative assessment, and differentiated instruction allowing teachers to gradually release learning to their students.

It is undeniable, the rate of students with learning differences has increased substantially over the last decade. The pressure to accommodate these students is added to our ever-growing workload and sometimes with limited resources to pull from. This workshop will give you insight into understanding who your divergent learners are, the difficulties they are facing and how you can reduce their stressors through accommodations.

This session will look for innovative ways to approach our teachers, to calm their fears, to acknowledge their voices, to help them place their own oxygen masks on first. As social emotional learning has found its way into the classroom, that is not necessarily true for the professional development process for teachers. After all the challenges these past couple years has presented, there is not an easy fix for building resilience, for addressing disillusionment, but having a strong professional development program and instructional support that recognizes that teachers need social and emotional strategies themselves is crucial.

Sensory processing disruptions co-occur within the profile of various disorders and student learning and behavioral profiles. This workshop will provide methods for creating classroom environments that are supportive of sensory integration and facilitate school based learning. While sensory spaces are all the hype, not all sensory spaces are created equally and they can be quite costly. This session will delve into the objectives of creating a sensory space and how to create a tailed sensory space on any budget.

Explore how to develop a school-wide culture that utilizes practical short and long-term strategies to help challenging students begin to develop the desire to work, be productive and put forth effort to find success in school and life. Break the cycle of discouragement in students who “just don’t care” with practical strategies that help students learn to reframe negative thoughts and perceptions into a more positive growth mindset.

In this lively session, Dr. Beverly Ann Chin demonstrates how guided reading workshops help students read with deeper comprehension. Using multicultural literary texts, Dr. Chin shows how teaching inference engages students in reading as a social, dynamic, meaning-making process. By modeling how to “read between the lines,” Dr. Chin illustrates the importance of students’ background as they interpret complex texts.

From day one, most students are already formulating a concept of what each teacher and classroom will be like, for better or worse. While almost all information may feel mission critical to new teachers, there are a few key things that need to be place to help optimize success. Come learn the “what” and “how” of equipping new teachers and start your year off with success!

Trauma impacts brain function; with this knowledge in mind, teachers can strategically plan lessons that soothe the brain and allow students to learn and retain new information more effectively.

Learn the three magic bullets to make life simpler and more stress-free while enhancing relationships with your students. Intrigued? Learn the one sentence you should say every day, the one question you should ask before making any classroom rule or policy, and the one magic question that will help solve discipline issues in the classroom

Administrators have a 33% chance at providing good customer service when fielding referrals. The system is set up in a way for the student, teacher, and administrator to fail. Join us as we break down the referral process, and remedy its existence to work towards accountability and foster trust between teachers and administrators.

Have you ever been left scratching your head about a student’s actions or behavior? You’re not alone. This workshop was designed to help you better understand and respond to others (and maybe even yourself) by considering self-regulation. By diving deeper into the roots of behavior and recognizing the variety of stressors that those we support experience, we can enhance the classroom environment and alleviate the pressure that is classroom management.

Sensory processing disruptions co-occur within the profile of various disorders and student learning and behavioral profiles. This workshop will provide methods for creating classroom environments that are supportive of sensory integration and facilitate school based learning. While sensory spaces are all the hype, not all sensory spaces are created equally and they can be quite costly. This session will delve into the objectives of creating a sensory space and how to create a tailed sensory space on any budget.

This session will address the theory, cause, and remediation of behavior at the classroom level for students of all ability levels. Additionally, stress free behavioral interventions will be discussed for participants that can be implemented on the first day of school.

Explore the essential research-based “High Five” components to help teachers reach and challenge advanced learners. In addition to understanding what the “High Five” essentials are, participans will examine ways to manage classrooms with whole group, small flexible groups, rotation stations/centers to ensure instruction is effectively differentiated for the diverse learners in your classroom.

Join us as we take the audience through the evolution of classroom contracts, and how the Treatment Agreement is the game changer for teacher student interaction. Learn how the 4 quadrant document works, and leave with how to create one and, how to utilize it real time to increase accountability and aid with healthy relationship centered redirection.

This session is for educators looking for a solution on how to effectively implement literacy best practices both in your literacy block and beyond. If you are concerned with the lack of reading, writing, and phonics strategies in other content areas, this session will dive into some of the Science of Reading and structured literacy conversations that will ignite and excite your literacy instruction for the new school year.

This session is for educators looking for a solution on how to effectively implement literacy best practices both in your literacy block and beyond. If you are concerned with the lack of reading, writing, and phonics strategies in other content areas, this session will dive into some of the Science of Reading and structured literacy conversations that will ignite and excite your literacy instruction for the new school year.

Learn how to create database fields for standardized tests and upload test scores in mass through FACTS provided tools in the standardized test screens.

Learn how to generate your Class Ranking and Honor Roll in FACTS, and deep dive into the grade calculator to unlock advanced reports on students’ grades from a variety of sources.

Learn the basics of setting up a schedule template and groups, and use the group enrollment tool to schedule and enroll your students quickly and efficiently. You really can schedule your specials in FACTS!

Learn how FACTS creates transcript records, how templates are populated by report card data, and how to more effectively manage and administer your school transcripts.

Learn the basics of generating a report card. From the administrative tools, to generating a traditional report card, to producing a skills-based report, you will leave with the skills needed to make your next report card season a breeze.

Dive deep into the advanced features FACTS scheduling has for upper schools. In addition to this, set up student course requests, use our auto-scheduler, and audit coursework completed with Graduation Planner.

Start your day with the classroom dashboard, keep tabs on key performance analytics, and utilize parent conference scheduler. Learn about all the ways FACTS classroom can be used to enhance your experience.

Is Google Classroom your favorite? We like it too! Join us for this session all about our Google Classroom integration with FACTS.

Learn about FACTS Standards Based Grading, and how your school can utilize Standards Mastery gradebook views in the FACTS classroom.

Seating charts, skill sets, standards, and so much more. Learn the basics of setting up and improving your classroom experience, optimized for lower school teachers.

Lesson planning, gradebook assignments, and class website. Learn the basics of setting up and improving your classroom experience, optimized for middle and upper school teachers.

Newsletters, websites, calendars, P/T conferences, events, and so much more. Ccommunication with your families doesn’t have to be hard. Learn more about the FACTS tools you can use to tackle those communication challenges, including the email tool, maintenance manager, and conference scheduler.

Eager to effectively navigate and grow your School Site’s effectiveness?  Master the Content Management System (CMS) in School Site to strategically communicating with current and prospective families.  Ready to master the announcement and calendar functions, navigate through the page builder, create and edit forms, and upload and organize your files? This workshop will make sure you are equipped and ready for your new prospects and returning families this fall.

Wishing more parents would use your Family Portal? Learn about all the features available and how to create the best experience possible for your families. Increase family engagement via the FACTS Family Portal.

Discover how to centralize your school announcements, calendar events, and even schedule conference all through the FACTS Calendar. Learn how to integrate your school’s Google Calendar(s), and much more.

Does taking attendance seem like a chore? Attend this session and learn all about taking attendance in FACTS, from setup to managing your daily tasks and few tips and tricks to take back to your school.

Create the school year, set up the grade books, promote the students, and manage the staff changes. There is a lot to do to get on the right foot when starting the new school year! We will walk you thorough all the scenarios you need to address within FACTS SIS.

Is your database a mess? Learn about existing FACTS reports and tools designed to help you proactively manage your database. A clean database is within reach!

Archiving report cards and transcripts, chasing down the last-minute changes of students’ grades. verifying which students are leaving and locking in those last few class spots. There is a lot to do to close out your school year, especially when all you can think about is summer vacation. Take this session to learn how to successfully close out your year with FACTS.

Managing complex family scenarios and making sure the parents/guardians of each student have access to the right information about their student(s) doesn’t have to be such a chore! Learn how to manage unique families situations and create the right structures for each student’s family dynamics.

Hear about new updates in FACTS SIS, including the Cafeteria and Classroom screens and more!

Learn about some of the most commonly used and most powerful reports FACTS has to offer via our Report Manager tool.

Need some help managing permissions and security groups for your school? Learn how to effectively create security groups based on personas or rights, and create the right security assignments for each member of your school.

Unleash the power of Create A Report that is sure to leave you with some great takeaways to help your school track data and create reports you never knew you needed.

EHRs allow your school to digitally collect, manage, and report on student and staff health data, authorizations, waivers, and more. Features like electronic medication administration, illness/injury logs, and immunization tracking improve the standard of care and reduce risk/ liability to schools.

This session is designed to help ease the fears of first year SIS users. Participants will learn how to make FACTS SIS custom to their school’s necessary data, like how to add and edit user defined fields and run reports on those fields and how to utilize grid edit.

After completing this session, you will walk away with your own customized admission checklist! Learn how FACTS can automatically check off items for you as well as help you keep track of what you still need to do through the queue. We will help you take your admissions process and build it into a fantastic checklist that will save you hours of time.

Does your nurse return from summer break to a carton full of documents to go through and file? Do you have filing cabinets full of sensitive documents that you have to sort through each year? Learn how to use FACTS to electronically collect medical documents and information and have all these items filed in a student’s online record – giving ease of access in an emergency to needed information in the nurse’s office, main office, classroom, or field.

Utilize FACTS to report on your schools enrollment numbers. Gain insights with the enrollment snapshot, master the enrollment dashboard, and learn about other important performance indicators avaialble to you through FACTS.

Need a better way to track invitations to your admission events? We will teach you how to incorporate events into your inquiry form that allow parents to register, reschedule and receive event reminders. Learn how to print attendee lists, manage cancellations, invite parents to register and more!

Starting the new admissions season is sure to be a breeze after this session. Learn how to copy last year’s application, make improvements to your application, and launch and begin accepting new applications.

Wishing to improve your enrollment packets? Learn how to streamline the parent experience, customize your packets to require everything you need to enroll a student, and make sure enrollment fees are set up properly.

Ditch the spreadsheets and unlock the power of FACTS reports and reconciliation tools.

For schools using Advanced Accounting, learn about all the reports and tools used to help with month-end reconciliation.

From online ordering to a la carte items, learn how to manage your cafeteria program in FACTS.

Learn how to create, configure, and assign childcare plans using the FACTS live time clock billing solution. Clock students in and out, and automate your billing processes.

Setting your families up for success during the application process not only reduces their stress – but can save you lots of time as well!  In this session we will go through the families process in FACTS Grant & Aid, customization options, reviewing families progress during the application season, and other tips for helping create a smooth experience for your families.

Learn everything that goes into calculating your students and families need. We will discuss the calculation and philosophy of the FACTS formula, customization options, and how to evaluate your families financials to determine that customization.

Reading the aid assessment, managing funds, and communicating awards to your families. Where do you start? Learn the basics of FACTS Grant & Aid.

Ever wondered what a family experiences while viewing, making payments, and adding funds to a prepay account? Join us for an in-depth session to better understand the family experience with FACTS.

Determining an award amount is a balancing act between the families need, available funding, enrollment goals, and your school or organization’s mission. In this session we will discuss awarding techniques, how to leverage the FACTS system to help automate awarding, and ways to analyze the effectiveness of your tuition assistance program.

Schedule K-1? What is an S-Corp? What do you mean there are differences in the documentation needed this year? Let us help you understand the myriad of tax forms that FACTS can collect on your behalf, why we collect them, what we do with them, and what that means for you and your applicants.

Tired of chasing families to return a signed tuition contract? Learn how FACTS can present your families with their tuition contracts as a part of online enrollment or their payment plan selection process.

Reviewing applications prior to awarding allows you to make better and quicker decisions. Learn what to review and why, and ways within FACTS that you can automate and triage your processes to save yourself time.

Learn how FACTS can help you manage delinquencies and increase successful payments.

Finding the right payment plan options for every family can be challenging. Learn about the features payment plans can offer to help you and your families’ find a payment plan option that suits them.

Learn the ins and outs of maintaining and servicing your payment plans.

Learn how to properly configure split/blended family scenarios and other unique family situations in order to accurately bill your families in FACTS.

Have trouble managing all the various fees and incidentals that pop up during the school year? Learn how FACTS Incidental Billing makes managing your incidental charges a breeze.