In the News
 June 28-30, 2012
Theresa West, Just ASK Consultant, and Fiona Green, Directof of Marketing, will represent Just ASK at the Virginia Association of Elementary School Principals (VAESP) 2012 Annual Conference in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Theresa and Maria Eck, the former and present principals of McNair Elementary School, Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia will lead a session at 10:30 on Friday titled Taming Those Difficult Conversations. This dynamic duo teamed up to turn around two elementary schools that were struggling to meet AYP. Stop by our exhibit on Wednesday or Thursday and t to learn more about our services and publications and then attend Theresa and Maria’s session on Friday to hear about how they created a culture for learning for adults and students. Register here.
June 25, 2012
Congratulations to the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) on the 20th anniversary of its principals’ summer institute at UCLA! Paula Rutherford, Just ASK president and senior consultant, is proud to be a member of the faculty of the institute for the 16th consecutive year. The title of her session this year is Creating a Culture for Learning, which is also the title of her most recent book.
This highly acclaimed week-long institute provides principals an opportunity to spend a concentrated period of time learning, discussing, and reflecting on leadership practices in a residential setting at UCLA. Learn more about institute.
June 6-8, 2012
Paula Rutherford will be a keynote speaker at the Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships Leadership Conference hosted by Cypress-Fairbanks ISD in Cypress, Texas. Her presentation is titled Creating a Culture for Learning for Adults and Students. Other speakers at this annual conference, which is attended by over 1,200 educators from 50 Texas school districts, include Tom Many, Debra Pickering, Todd Whitaker, Willard Daggett, and Joseph Renzulli. Register for the conference.
April 18-20, 2012
Just ASK hosted a Meeting the Needs of Diverse Learners® Institute in beautiful Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. This institute, led by Paula Rutherford, author of Meeting the Needs of Diverse Learners, focused on ways to recognize, respect, and respond to differences in learners with practical and research-based approaches that scaffold and extend learning.
April 11-14, 2012
Just ASK exhibited at the 2012 Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) Convention and Expo, in Denver, Colorado. Julie McVicker and Sherri Stephens-Carter, Just ASK consultants represented Just ASK and highlighted our publication Meeting the Needs of Diverse Learners.
March 24-26, 2012
Just ASK exhibited at the ASCD Annual Conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Paula Rutherford, Brenda Kaylor, Julie McVicker, Ronni Reed, Fiona Green, and Mike Rutherford enjoyed reconnecting with old friends, sharing information about our products and services, and introducing our newest publication, Active Learning and Engagement Strategies.
March 21, 2012
Ronni Reed, Just ASK Associate, represented Just ASK at the Learning Forward New Jersey Spring Conference held at Kean University. She also presented an overview of Meeting the Needs of Diverse Learners. Ronni, recently retired as Staff Development Leader in the Monmouth County Vocational School District in, Freehold, New Jersey. We are proud that she continues to be very active in Learning Forward New Jersey which she has served as president and in other professional development work throughout the state. Contact Ronni at
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to discuss with her how she could support your professional development initiatives in New Jersey.
March 8-11, 2012
Paula Rutherford led multiple workshops on Creating a Culture for Learning and Meeting the Needs of Diverse Learners for teachers and administrators at the QSI International School of Tbilisi in the Republic of Georgia. The school is a private non-profit institution, offering high quality education in the English language for elementary students from three years of age through secondary 4. The school is located in a brand new, 5000 square meter purpose built facility located a few kilometers from the U.S. Embassy. Jim Rehberg, the school’s director, said “This intensive professional development supported our understanding of learning and learners as we work together toward high achievement by all of our students.”
February, 2012
Active Learning and Engagement Strategies, by Paula Rutherford, was recently published by popular demand, and includes over 60 ways to engage students through speaking, reading, writing, and movement. These strategies ensure that students are focused on and interacting with the concepts, processes, and information under study in ways that promote relevance and retention. The purposes, the processes, and the possibilities are explained with clarity and examples of classroom use with students of all ages are included. More than 50 tools and templates for this text are available online.
Download a Sneak Peek of Active Learning and Engagement Strategies.
December 3-7, 2011
Just ASK was a Silver Sponsor, exhibitor, and presenter at the 2011 Learning Forward Annual Conference (NSDC), in Anaheim, California.
Just ASK consultants Paula Rutherford, Brenda Kaylor, and Julie McVicker enjoyed reconnecting with old friends and talking to attendees about our publications, products and workshops. Just ASK consultant Harriet Hopkins, pictured below, and Stephen Hockett, principal of Colvin Run Elementary School, Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia, presented a four-hour session titled “Creating a Culture for Learning Using Time during the School Day.”
November 30-December 2, 2011
Bruce Oliver, Just ASK consultant represented Just ASK at the 2011 VASCD Annual Conference in Williamsburg, Virginia. Attendees stopped by the Just ASK booth to chat with Bruce about their professional development needs and to take a look at our new book, Creating a Culture for Learning, of which Bruce is one of the authors. Bruce also led a session titled “Meeting the Needs of Diverse Learners.”
VSDC is now Learning Forward Virginia
November 4, 2011
Theresa West and Mike Rutherford once again represented Just ASK at the Learning Forward Virginia Fall Conference in Charlottesville, Virginia. Visitors stopped by our table to discuss their professional development needs and explored our extensive array of publications and products to support their professional development work. Virginia educators working with Just ASK this year include educators from Winchester, Spotsylvania, Henry, Louisa, Alexandria, Orange, Danville, Fauquier, Fairfax, Williamsburg-James City County, York, Shenandoah, and Prince William.
Fall 2011-Spring 2012
Julie McVicker and Theresa West, Just ASK consultants are leading the four-day workshop series, Meeting the Needs of Diverse Learners®, with over 125 special and general education teachers and administrators in Memphis City Schools, Tennessee. The consulting team will make four site visits in each participating school throughout the school year. They will provide coaching support and other professional development opportunities.
October 2011
Just ASK is pleased to introduce that we have two new Associate Office Dogs! Bella, the Senior Office Dog, and the new associates, Sasha and Pepper, are pictured below.
Bella
Senior Office Dog
Sasha
Associate Office Dog
Mistress: Connie Tan
Pepper
Associate Office Dog
Master: Gary Yeo
October 2011, Creating a Culture for Learning is now shipping!
Paula Rutherford, Brenda Kaylor, Heather Clayton Kwit, Julie McVicker, Bruce Oliver, Sherri Stephens-Carter, and Theresa West, pictured below, collaborated to create a unique resource that provides the tools and templates, self-assessments, and practitioner exemplars we need to take our collaborative teams to the next level.
 September 5-9, 2011
Paula Rutherford, Just ASK consultant, led multiple workshops in Singapore with Educare, a co-operative of the Singapore Teacher’s Union. The workshops included Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century: Active Learning, an overview of Creating a Culture for Learning, and Instruction for All Students. September 12-15, Paula trained staff members of Educare as Certified Local Trainers (CLTs) to lead the workshops  Active Learning and Instruction for All Students. This will allow them to independently offer these workshops in Singapore in the future. Educare was pleased to introduce our upcoming book, Active Learning and Engagement Strategies. New CLTs pictured below are Mike Thiruman, Jaya Das, M. Akshir Ab. Kadir, Sumithra Kalidas, Nelson Ang Beng Ho, Connie Tan, and Zakiah M Ali.
August 9-10, 2011
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles Department of Catholic Schools Teacher Induction Program (TIP) was led by Paula Rutherford for the third consecutive year. This two-day workshop was for all teachers new to their school for the 2011-2012 school year. Over 100 teachers participated in these highly interactive TIP sessions and left with a plan for the first week of school, a comprehensive list of procedures and routines to put in place so that their classrooms are organized for learning, and strategies for creating a learning-centered environment that is welcoming, safe, non-threatening, yet appropriately challenging.
August 4-7, 2011
ASK Group consultants gathered in Alexandria, Virginia, for the 11th Annual ASK Group Meeting. Colleagues engaged in new learning and collaboration around Creating a Culture for Learning, Meeting the Needs of Diverse Learners, and the Common Core Standards. Congratulations and champagne celebrated the publishing of Creating a Culture for Learning, a collaborative effort by Paula Rutherford, Brenda Kaylor, Bruce Oliver, Theresa West, Julie McVicker, and Heather Clayton Kwit. Dinner and Greek dancing were highlights of Thursday evening and Saturday found the group once again gathered around the amazing brownie cobbler from Windows!
 July 27-29, 2011
A Just ASK consulting team consisting of Brenda Kaylor, Julie McVicker, Bruce Oliver, Sherri Stephens-Carter, and Theresa West led the second annual Creating a Culture for Learning™ Summit in Las Cruces Public Schools, New Mexico. One hundred and sixty educators from 35 schools attended this year’s system-wide summit.
 July 12-14, 2011
Julie McVicker, ASK Group Senior Consultant, led a four-day workshop series with over 200 special educators in Memphis City Schools, Tennessee. The title of the workshop series was Teaching, Learning, and Leading in the 21st Century, designed for teachers and educators with 0-3 years of experience.
 July 1, 2011
Just ASK welcomed another new member to ASK Group, Heather Clayton Kwit. Heather, an ASK Group Associate, lives in Webster, New York, a suburb of Rochester. She is the principal of Mendon Center Elementary School in Pittsford Central School District, New York. Previous principalships include two schools in the Greece Central School District, New York. In 2005 Longridge Elementary School where she was principal was recognized by the NY State Department of Education as a high performing/gap closing school and as a high achieving school for English Language Learners. Earlier Heather was a teacher and curriculum leader for English Language Arts in the award-winning West Irondequoit Central School District where she did extensive professional development work in the areas of standards-based planning, differentiation, and ongoing assessment. Her book Great Mini-Lessons for Teaching Genre Writing was published by Scholastic in 2001. She is also a co-author of Just ASK’s newest publication Creating a Culture for Learning.
 June 30, 2011
Congratulations to Theresa West, ASK Group Associate, on her retirement from her position as principal of McNair Elementary School, Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS), Virginia! Dr. West assumed the principalship in 2008, and has had a highly successful tenure as an administrator, turning around two schools in a five-year period. She was also the recipient of the prestigious 2010 Robert R. Spillane Leadership Award at the FCPS 2010 Leadership Conference.
Her retirement means that she is now able to work with Just ASK as an ASK Group consultant year round! Welcome aboard, Theresa!
 June 30, 2011
We are pleased to extend a warm welcome to our newest ASK Group Associate, Ronnie Reed, and congratulations to Ronni on her retirement from her position as Staff Development Leader in the Monmouth County Vocational School District, Freehold, New Jersey! In that position, Ronni planned and delivered professional development, oversaw the District’s induction and mentoring program, and wrote and implemented the District’s Equity Plan/NCLB Grant. Ronni has been very active in New Jersey professional development initiative and served as president of New Jersey Learning Forward (NSDC). Just ASK is very fortunate to have Ronni working with us!
 June 28-29, 2011
Bruce Oliver, ASK Group Senior Consultant and author of Just ASK's e-Newsletter Just for the ASKing!, led summer seminars on Meeting the Needs of Diverse Learners™ for the Warrenton Educational Consortium and Lord Fairfax Educational Consortium in Southwest Virginia.
 June 27, 2011
Paula Rutherford was the opening speaker at the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) Principal’s Summer Institute at UCLA. This was her 15th consecutive year as a member of the faculty of the Principal’s Institute. The title of her keynote was Leading the Learning in a Standards-Based Environment.
 June 22-24, 2011
Brenda Kaylor, ASK Group Senior Consultant, led a multi-day summer workshop series in Omaha Public Schools, Nebraska on Why Didn’t I Learn This in College?® The workshops focused on topics of interest to novice teachers and is based on the construct that a strong instructional program is the best management program. Topics such as establishing a positive learning-centered environment, using the standards-based planning process, building a repertoire of active learning strategies, and developing organizational skills were covered in detail.
June 14-16, 2011
Over 150 educators from Memphis City Schools, Tennessee attended a four-day Meeting the Needs of Learners™ workshop series. The workshop, led by Paula Rutherford, ASK Group Senior Consultant and author of Meeting the Needs of Diverse Learners, was for veteran educators in special education.
 June 6-8 2011
Theresa West and Sarah Wolfe Hartman, ASK Group Consultants, led sessions at the Muscogee County (Georgia) School District’s 2011 Best Practices Institute: Designing for Diversity. This institute featured over 50 national consultants including Crystal Kuykendall and Pam Robbins. Theresa led two sessions on Meeting the Needs of Diverse Learners and Sarah led two sessions on Organizing a Learning-Centered Classroom.
 June 6-8, 2011
Bruce Oliver, ASK Group Senior Consultant and author of Just ASK’s e-newsletter Just for the ASKing!, led a three-day Meeting the Needs of Diverse Learners™ Institute with 100 educators from Jenks Public Schools, Oklahoma.
June 2011
Just ASK is excited to announce the availability of another professional development resource that will help you take your Professional Learning Community to the next level! The Meeting the Needs of Diverse Learners PLC Pack provides content to expand and refine repertoires of strategies for working with diverse learners.
 June 2011
Brenda Kaylor, ASK Group Senior Consultant, led two Mentoring in the 21st Century® Institutes at Jeffco Public Schools, Jefferson County, Colorado. These mentoring institutes are designed for all who play a role in the new teacher induction process. Participants worked collaboratively to explore information and tools they need to work with and support novice teachers. Jeffco is building in-house capacity by working with Just ASK to train Certified Local Trainers (CLTs) to lead these institutes.
 June 2011
The Meeting the Needs of Diverse Learners Facilitator’s Handbook by Paula Rutherford was released in June 2011. This 150-page facilitator’s handbook is the perfect tool for principals, professional developers, and teacher leaders to use in planning a comprehensive year-long professional development program. It can also be used to plan focused data-driven discussions around specific challenging issues that teachers are facing on a daily basis. Each of the 30 to 60 minute exercises include the purpose, the time needed, the materials to use, the process to follow, and suggestions for follow-up professional practice in the classroom.
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