Pam Walker has been an educator since 1981. She presently teaches Honors Biology, Honors Physical Science, and Chemistry at Alexander High School in Douglasville, and serves as the High School Resource Teacher for Douglas County. Before coming to Douglas County, Ms. Walker taught in Telfair County, Fitzgerald City, and Laurens County.  She is a former Star Teacher and basketball, tennis, and softball coach.

     Ms. Walker is the co-author of a Biology textbook, Biology in Our Lives, and over twenty teacher science resource and experiment books. Two of her forensic science experiment books, Crime Scene Investigations for Secondary School and Crime Scene Investigations for Elementary School, were best sellers for Prentice-Hall Publishers. These two books were featured in an article that appeared in the Wall Street Journal.

 BACKGROUND
     Ms. Walker is a huge advocate of the Georgia Performance Standards (GPS) and Learning Focus Schools (LFS). She serves as a Georgia Performance Standard facilitator and a Learning Focus Coach for Douglas County. She has taught staff development classes to the teachers at her school on how to integrate the new performance standards with learning focus techniques into the classroom. Walker also served on a small team of Douglas County educators that took the GPS information provided by the State Department and transferred it to Blackboard- a format for teaching topics on line.
    Ms. Walker received her Bachelors and Masters degrees in biology education from Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville. She received her specialist degree in Broad Field Science from Georgia Southern University. She attained her Gifted endorsement in science in 2003.

PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION
      Ms. Walker’s philosophy of education is that every student can learn, given the right motivation and tools.  She believes that the ultimate goal of a teacher is to be able to help students become able problem solvers that can apply what they have learned in the classroom to a multitude of different situations in life. She further states that all teachers should be able to answer the age-old student question, “Why do we need to learn this?”

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
    Ms. Walker is a member of the Professional Association of Educators, Georgia Science Teachers Association, and the National Science Teachers Association.  She is a former facilitator for both Project Learning Tree and Project Wild.  In the capacity of an Applied Biology trainer, Walker traveled across Georgia conducting certification workshops. She has also conducted workshops and done presentations on numerous topics at both the state and national level.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH
    Ms. Walker is involved with numerous community activities, but her real passion rests with the protection and care of animals. One of her personal goals is to reduce overpopulation of cats by spaying and neutering and finding a home for as many homeless animals as possible.  In response to this goal, Ms. Walker has been responsible for the organization of a Feral Cat Rescue Team in her community.

SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

Effective Teachers are Good Dancers:
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teachers

    There is no one best fit model when describing an effective teacher, but there are some commonalities that most effective teachers share.  The presentation identifies seven of these common traits and takes an in–depth look at each of them.  It is said that education is like a dance– sometimes you lead and sometimes you follow, but you always match your steps with the one with whom you dance. How good a dancer are you?

Best Practices for Teachers
as Indicated by Brain Based Research

    One thing is very clear students are all different. Each student is unique in the way he processes information.  Medical technology and research have helped us understand much more about the brain than we ever knew before. This presentation will take a look at the research data provided by neuroscience about how the brain works and how students learn best.  Educators can and should use this valuable information to adjust their classroom practices to present information in a variety of ways that enable each student to have an equal opportunity for success. 

Blessed are the Flexible for They Shall not be Bent Out of Shape:
Change and the School Climate

    Even though, education has changed over time, not everyone’s views have changed. This presentation examines types of change, why teachers may resist change, and the impact of a change on the school climate. Other key points include the timeliness of the rationale behind the restructuring of today’s schools, and the shift made by schools to prepare a generation that embraces change with enthusiasm. The presentation offers the listener a three “C” approach to dealing with change and emphasizes why a healthy school must have a positive attitude.  

EDUCATION WORKSHOPS

21^st century students– How to Hook ‘Em and Reel ‘Em In:
Effective Techniques for Launching and Summarizing Lessons

    It is no mystery that the 21^st century student is difficult to teach using traditional teaching techniques. The workshop helps you gain awareness about the mind set of the 21st century student. The workshop explores strategies that can be used to engage students and strategies to help students summarize what they learned from the lesson. A variety of hook activities that motivate and establish prior knowledge, as well as wrap up activities that summarize the major concepts will be presented.

Inquiry Labs in Science:
Converting Traditional Cookbook Labs into Inquiry Labs

    What is inquiry? It is often described as an open or guided method that engages students to become critical thinkers and problem solvers.  Many people misunderstand inquiry and think it involves one extreme technique or the other with no middle ground allowed. The workshop shows why that is a fallacy and helps explain how teachers can successfully implement inquiry into their classrooms. The components of inquiry and the need for teachers to move away for the traditional lab and toward inquiry labs will be discussed. The heart of the workshop is an easy ten step plan that enables all science teachers to convert their traditional cookbook labs into inquiry labs.

If Critical Thinking is the Lock, then Effective Questioning is the Key

      All teachers question their students daily, but how effective are your questions at promoting critical thinking? The workshop discusses the traits of critical thinkers and shows how research views the impact of questioning on the ability of students to think critically. The importance of high level questions in the classroom and reasons why teachers need to take a close look at their questioning techniques are explored. This workshop provides a five “P” method for effective questioning techniques.

Note:
---Speaking engagements are 30 minutes to 45 minutes and workshops are 45 minutes to 60 minutes. The length of either can be adjusted upon request.
----Speaking engagements and workshops will be presented by power point and the host should provide an LCD projector and screen.