OPENING TALK

KEYNOTE

WORKSHOPS:

Performance: The New Learning Model of the All Stars Project's Youth Programs
Pamela A. Lewis

The innovative learning model of the All Stars Project focuses on performance, creativity and development and their critical importance as complementary experiences to the acquisitional learning of the school day. Join Pamela A. Lewis, Director of Youth Programs and young participant/builders of the All Stars Talent Show Network and the Joseph A. Forgione Development School for Youth in creating conversation -- and a Hip Hop show!

An Improvisational ZPD: Teachers (Re) learning to Play
Carrie Lobman

Improv comedy is a great tool for (re) connecting adults to a skill we all had as children--the ability to play. Theatrical improvisation (the art of inventing the script on the spot) helps teachers respond more creatively and playfully to their students. In this interactive workshop, participants will be introduced to several of the basic improv exercises that have been used in professional development for teachers and other school personnel throughout the New York metropolitan area.

Performance and Improvisation: A New Organizational Development Approach
Cathy Salit

Is it possible - and advisable - to take top level executives from Fortune 500 companies and have them move around a room like they're stuck in molasses while creating gibberish conversations and call it Leadership Training? Performance of a Lifetime and their clients at Lehman Brothers, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Standard & Poor's, IBM and Citigroup think so. Find out why at this workshop

Creating Emotional ZPDs in Social Therapy
Bette Braun and Christine LaCerva

Two leading social therapists will introduce this Vygotskian-influenced practice. In social therapy groups, therapists and clients create environments in which the group's collective capacity to create new emotional performances is continuously developed. Creating the group (the ZPD) is how everyone develops emotionally and, in that process, gets help with their emotional pain.

A New Approach to Inclusion: Special Education with a Focus on the Group
Matthew Lundquist and Barbara O'Neill

How can special educators who recognize the social-cultural nature of learning (and of special ed) practice within an institutional context in which this is ignored or underemphasized? In this workshop, two teachers will share how they effectively use a group-oriented and development-focused approach within a special education system that is based on individual learning and labeling.

What Does Vygotsky Have to Do with Evaluation?
Elizabeth Kelly and Kim Sabo

Two evaluators will share how Vygotsky's theories of learning and development have influenced their practice in youth and community development programs, capacity building projects, after school settings, and teacher training programs. A performatory dialogue with audience members will address how evaluation can be more inclusive, playful and developmental for individuals and organizations.

Let's Talk About It: Collaborating with Youth to Create Positive Mental Health Environments in School Settings
Barbara Silverman and Brannon Woodfin

This workshop will explore how to help young people deal with the emotionally challenging situations they face in inner city school environments that are increasingly structured, authoritarian and coercive. Participants in the school-based Let's Talk About It program believe that developing their capacity to perform beyond themselves gives them a powerful and important weapon in their arsenal