Powerful Learning Practice: Speaking

Book Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach to speak at your event

Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, Powerful Learning Practice co-founder & CEO

View Sheryl’s bio

Passionate, Engaging, Grounded in Evidence

As a speaker, Sheryl weaves her personal journey, experience, and scholarship into every presentation and workshop. She is best known for bringing in the expertise of her personal learning network (PLN) into your event via social media. Collective intelligence building, co-construction of knowledge, and collaboration among participants make her stand out as a presenter. She will inspire your team, group or conference with her direct, no-nonsense approach to leadership and life.

Powerful Learning Practice CEO and co-founder Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach is available to speak on a variety of topics related to her passion or yours. Topics such as Future Ready leadership, 21st Century teaching, passion-based learning, and more.

She tailors keynotes and workshops to address the audience at hand, whether presenting to teachers, educational leaders, parents, or non-profit organizations.

What they're saying

Highly successful

The Alabama Best Practices Center partnered with Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach on a statewide, multi-year project supported by Microsoft Partners in Learning. As our primary professional development provider, she was highly successful (both online and in person) in energizing a core group of teachers and principals to become leaders of 21st century learning in Alabama.

Cathy W. Gassenheimer


Executive Vice President for the Alabama Best Practices Center
, A+ Education Partnership

Inspiring and amazing keynote

I just wanted to say that your closing keynote was an inspiring and amazing stamp on an excellent conference.  Your speech/presentation really hit home and summarized the two days of learning in a powerful and personal performance. As a First Nations person, to hear you share of yourself and your own family and beliefs gave tremendous power to your words, and enabled me to connect to your ideas and examples in a way that very few, if any, public speakers do.  I want to thank you for not only sharing your wisdom and words, but for sharing a piece of yourself in your presentation. I would absolutely LOVE for the district I work in to hear your message. I work on Six Nations reserve with mostly First Nation educators. I am contacting you primarily to thank you, but also with the hopes that somewhere down the line, the rest of my colleagues can share in the spirit that you brought to ECOO.

Joe Restoule General


Elementary School Teacher

Brilliant

I had the opportunity several years ago to work with Sheryl on a project in which she led more than 100 professional development webinars for teams of classroom teachers. She was brilliant. I’ve since participated in dozens of other online PD experiences and have never seen her equal at effectively using web tools to advance professional learning and produce genuine change in attitudes and actions.

John Norton


Education Writing & Virtual Community Development
, Little Switzerland, NC

Contagious passion

Meeting you in person at ECOO was a bit too brief for my liking. You have a passion for what you do that is contageous, and you demonstrated in your talk, that you truly listened to the people you met. You modeled the importance of ‘relationship’ in a way I’ve rarely seen a speaker do. It’s something I believe is at the heart of all learning, and we now have tools that keep the relationships percolating beyond face-to-face meetings.

Rodd Lucier


Educator, Komoka, Ontario, Canada

Vision, practical experience and a keen intellect

Sheryl’s infectious enthusiasm for education reform was a great addition to our recent coach “boot camp”. She brings vision, practical experience and a keen intellect to her work. We love working with Sheryl because she listens carefully and tailors her work to her clients’ needs.

Holly M. Jobe


Project Manager
, 21st Teaching and Learning with Technology
, Pennsylvania Department of Education

You rock!

Sheryl, you rock!  Your work with 21st century learning continues to influence my work. Not only do I learn more about technology from you than from any coursework I’ve taken, I also learn new things about professional learning communities.

Anne Jolly


Professional Learning Team consultant and STEM curriculum writer

Speaking Topics

These speaking topics are suggestions based on Sheryl’s most popular speaking events and workshops.

Any of these sample presentations can be structured as a keynote address or a day-long, hands-on workshop.

In addition to these, Sheryl is an active presenter on homelessness, children of poverty, teacher leadership and community-building.

The Connected Educator: Learning and Leading in a Digital Age

This hands-on, interactive workshop is based on Sheryl’s popular book The Connected Educator: Learning and Leading in a Digital Age. A revolution in technology has transformed the way we can find each other, interact and collaborate. This wave of tech helps us to create knowledge as connected learners and to develop the social fabric, capacity, and connectedness found in communities of practice and learning networks.

Legacy Leadership: Are You Future Ready?

Future Ready leaders lead from their passions, believe in collaboration, and understand innovative uses of technology with respect to curriculum and pedagogy. Join Sheryl as she shares highlights of her learning from her 30 day road trip and year-long work on the United States Department of Education’s Future Ready Leaders project. Find out what exemplary, Future Ready superintendents around the country are doing to ensure they leave a legacy for others to follow.

Schooling for the 21st Century: Unleashing Student Passion

A passionate student is a learning student. As the people of the world are becoming increasingly connected, the nature, use, ownership, and purpose of knowledge are changing in profound ways. Our goal as educators is to leverage these connections and changes as powerful means to improve teaching and learning in our schools. Come listen as Sheryl stirs a sense of urgency for shifting classroom practice toward more engaging approaches that unleash the passion that lies within each learner.

Keeping Up with the Net Generation

A passionate student is a learning student. Using digital media students are building their own learning experiences, constructing meaning, and collaborating in teams to solve authentic content-based problems. Teachers who use these empowering technologies are discovering we can have rigor without sacrificing excitement. The secret: Focus on student passion and interest.

Engaging Staff & Students- Creating Personal Learning Networks for Global Collaboration

How do we promote the knowledge, skills and sense of urgency for 21st Century teaching and learning among all teachers in our schools? As the physical and virtual worlds converge to become the ‘real world’ of teaching and learning, virtual exchanges, online mentoring and other Web-based environments will play increasingly important roles in educational reform. The “new” Web affords us an amazing opportunity to pursue our passions within online communities of like-minded learners from around the globe. Participants will learn valuable lessons for designing and leading global collaborations.

Creating Environments that Support Passion- The Role of Emerging Technologies in the Core Curriculum

In this follow-up to her opening keynote, Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach focuses on real-world examples of learning environments that extend the walls of the traditional classroom, offering new possibilities and igniting a passion for learning. Evidence based on exemplary practices in education suggests that new models of teaching and learning have the power to improve educational outcomes dramatically. Come learn how to have it all — including both creativity and rigor — when delivering your core content curriculum.

Introduction to 21st Century Learning: The Digital Natives are Restless

What is 21st Century learning? Why is it important? Come gain an understanding of the shifting learning literacies that the 21st Century demands and why developing a 21st Century pedagogy is critical to student learning in a digital age. Leave with a sense of urgency for why you should shift your classroom practice toward more engaging approaches.

PLCs in the 21st Century: Partnerships for Powerful Learning

Learning is now an anytime, anywhere, anyone experience; and, for educators to fully understand the implications of an interconnected, networked world for their students, we must begin to see ourselves as a part of a global community of learners. This means a willingness to share what happens in our classrooms with others beyond our own hallways and to collaborate and reflect with other educators without the constraints of time and space. It also means working to build a culture of openness and trust on a local level that will lead to greater connections and learning for every constituency, from students to parents to teachers themselves. This session will look at the way school teams from around the world are making these shifts and will discuss in detail the results from studying the interactions of one global PLC in particular.

Leveraging the Wisdom of the Crowd: Collaborative Action Plans

If using technology is so easy, why is implementation so difficult? Preparing students for the 21st Century calls for collective action of all stakeholders and this workshop looks at the steps needed to build momentum and garner buy-in from the entire school community. Participants will discuss ways to plan collectively and strategically for the future, develop a professional development plan for 21st Century skill building, and make sure all students have equitable access to a 21st century education.

Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach

Select Past Speaking Engagements

Keynote

The Digital Learners are Restless. The Literacy Fair. Ontario, CA

Learning and Leading in the Connected School. Independent School Association of the Southwest. Houston

The Connected Leader. Northern Ontario Education Leaders Ontario

Unleashing Passion: Leading in the 21st Century. ABEL: Mobilizing 21st Century Teaching and Learning Leadership conference at York University, Toronto, Canada

Effective School Leadership through Technology: the 21st Century Administrator. Virginia Association of Independent Schools Heads Williamsburg

Schooling for the 21st Century: Unleashing Student Passion. South Carolina’s state EdTech conference in Myrtle Beach

Implementing 21st Century Skills: Steps to Build Momentum. Shanghai, China.

Keeping Up with the Net Generation. Perth, Australia

Building the Network. Expanding Learning Horizons conference Lorne, Australia.

Here Comes Learning. Ulearn08 conference in Christchurch, New Zealand

Unexpected outcomes: Empowering those who need it most. National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth . Little Rock

Keeping up with the net generation. Keynote. Birmingham, AL.

 

Featured Presenter

Tapped In as a Tool for Electronic Induction with Novice STEM Teachers. Principal Investigators Conference. Robert Noyce Scholars Washington, DC.

Hope Realized: Giving Hope to Those Who Work with the Homeless. State Conference on Homelessness. Virginia.

Presentations

Endapt: Electronically Mentoring to Develop Accomplished Professional Teachers. AACTE 59th Annual Meeting. New York.

Examining technology’s role in scaling-up education innovations. National Staff Development’s 38th annual conference. Nashville.

Students as technology leaders. Connected Classroom Conference, Philadelphia,

Integrated curriculum design and strategies. Belize Teachers College, Belize, Central America,

Everything you wanted to know about puppets but were afraid to ask. Georgia Council International Reading Association, Atlanta, GA,

What they're saying

Dynamic, detailed and innovative

Sheryl is dynamic, detailed and one of the most innovative educators I know. She is on the cutting edge of technology and it’s use in schools. A true pleasure to work with and has knowledge incomparable to anyone I know in her field.

Neil Rochelle

Superintendent of Schools, Iroquois Central school

Walks the talk

Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach walks the talk of ‘passion-based learning and teaching’. Passionate is the word that best describes Sheryl – I have never met a more passionate educator/leader. She is a teacher extraordinaire, who understands the need to balance the amazing abilities that Web 2.0 technology allows with the tried and true. She always goes the extra mile to support those who are struggling or have extracurricular need or interests, and seems to be everywhere, doing everything, at once (and sometimes, with the assistance of these technologies, she literally is!), yet she never seems to tire.  And she is humble enough to realize that there often will be things for her to learn from those she is leading.

Barbara Kraus-Blackney


Executive Director, Association of Delaware Valley (140 DE, NJ & PA) Independent Schools

Enthusiasm & tremendous energy

Sheryl’s personal knowledge about 21st Century use of technology is amazing.  Through her enthusiasm and tremendous energy she easily relates to the most reluctant user.  Every teacher who has ever use any type of technology in the classroom will be excited and challenged to use technology at a higher level.  Yippee Skippee to you Sheryl!

Sister Geralyn Schmidt

SCC
Wide Area Network Coordinator, Diocese of Harrisburg

Phenomenal work

Sheryl does phenomenal work and I have been fortunate to be able to tap into her knowledge and skills on multiple occasions. Whether it’s winning our inaugural technology leadership research award, her ongoing blogging, contributing a chapter to our new book, or her continued work with the PLP Network, her contributions to the field of P-12 technology leadership have been extremely valuable and greatly appreciated. I would highly recommend Sheryl to anyone that is interested in working with her!

Scott McLeod, J.D., Ph.D.


Associate Professor, Educational Administration
Director, UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE), 
UCEA Associate Director, Communications and Marketing

Unbounded energy

Sheryl has unbounded energy in the pursuit of spreading the message that online learning can benefit teachers and pupils hugely in the modern world. She is a beacon to us all.

Paul Harrington


Primary teacher Key Stage 2, Forest Primary School

Straight-forward approach

Sheryl has a straight-forward approach that engages people, and her experience as an educational leader for the effective use of technology for teaching and learning makes her a excellent choice for professional/leadership development sessions. Sheryl’s excellent ability to facilitate and guide discussion ensured our Leadership Symposium on mobilizing 21st century teaching and learning was a success.

Janet Murphy


Manager Innovative Learning Solutions
, Director Advanced Broadband Enabled Learning, 
York University and York Region District School Board
, Toronto, Ontario

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