What's the difference between The National Direct Instruction Conference and Institutes and the Southwest Direct Instruction Training Conference and Institutes?
This question comes to mind when trying to determine the best fit for your staff development needs. The events are quite similar and will provide you with quality training and information. The Eugene conference will continue to offer the 5 day-long Institutes (Coaching, Trainer Training, and Administrative development.) There is a focus on training mainline DI programs, through the end of the program. These are 4 1/2 day workshops. Eugene also features shorter, 2 1/2 day sessions and a set of Sunday preconference workshops in topics related to DI, but not necessarily program-specific (behavior management, introduction to DI, etc.)
The Southwest conference also features the 5 day-long Institutes as well as the 4 1/2 day program trainings. A key difference is the program training here is focused on the first 30 lessons of the programs, with practice to mastery of key formats. Later lessons in the programs will be highlighted and practiced. This conference is particularly well suited for a school that will receive ongoing support from an external partner and utilizing this event as their intensive preservice, with follow-up training through the year.
Common features of both events are high quality trainers and the opportunity for participants to "check out" on their training. Our trainers have substantial experience in classroom implementation, preservice and followup with educators from literally around the world. Each program training has a check out component wherein participants demonstrate their ability to deliver instruction. Once they have checked out on a particular program, they are given a certificate of proficiency.
