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National Consultants

Renée McAlister

Background

• Renée is currently a creative consultant for Sadlier, and a coauthor of the teacher guides for Sadlier's Discovering God program.
• Renée is the founder and past principal of the St. Mary Early Learning Center in Lafayette, Lousiana.
• Renée cofounded an educational forum to promote the development of multicurricular instruction for preschool age children.
• Teaming with Sadlier consultant Julie Brunet, Renée has conducted numerous educational workshops, in all areas of the curriculum, for educators of children from preschool through junior high. These have included workshops at the National Catholic Education Association convention.
• Renée received both a B.S. and an M.S. in early childhood development from Louisiana State University.

Presentation Style
Renée traditionally presents as a team with Sadlier consultant Julie Brunet.  Their boundless enthusiasm draws audiences into their creative hands-on workshops. Dynamic and widely knowledgeable, they draw on music, drama, center activities, and sensory experiences to make their presentations both exciting and interactive.

Topics of Professional Workshops

Renée has a marvelous ability to move across the curriculum.  She is an expert presenter in the areas of creative catechesis, religion, mathematics, and language arts.

• Prayer:  Developing and Improving Our Relationship with God
  We are all called to come to know and understand our Catholic failth and to develop a relationship with God.  This relationship is developed through prayer.  Various forms of prayer and different ways to pray will be discussed and illustrated.  Participants will learn ways to improve and increase their prayer lives and incorporate praying as a family into their busy schedules.  Sensory experiences throughout this presentation will engage all who attend.
• Prayer:  Helping Children Develop and Improve Their Relationship with God
  As catechists, we have been called to help young children come to know and understand their Catholic faith and to help each child develop a relationship with God.  This relationship is developed through prayer.  Various forms of prayer and different ways to pray will be discussed and illustrated.  Through sensory experiences, participants will learn ways to encourage prayer in children.
• Creative Catechesis:  Going Beyond the Worksheet
  This interactive presentation will demonstrate how to enthuse and involve students in the learning process while making religion lessons come alive.  Attendees will be shown how to incorporate seasonal themes and liturgical events, giving relevance and meaning to religion lessons.  Through literature, music, art, drama, and many hands-on experiences, attendees will become active participants in this presentation.
• Scripture Comes Alive 
  This presentation will explore creative ways of making scripture come alive.  Through storytelling, music, drama, and hands-on activities, teachers will discover how to involve students in the learning process while making scripture meaningful and relevant for the young child.
• Saints Throughout the Seasons
  In this interactive presentation, participants will learn about various saints as we travel through the seasons.  Hands-on activities will be demonstrated which will involve the participants and show them ways to make the saints real and relevant to their students.
• The Quilt of Religious Education:  Piecing It All Together
  This interactive presentation will demonstrate how to enthuse and involve students in the learning process.  A quilt of learning will be pieced together incorporating seasonal themes and liturgical events.  Through literature, music, art, drama, and many hands-on experiences, attendees will become active participants in this presentation.
• Preparing Liturgies for Children
  This workshop gives assistance on preparing children for liturgy and also on preparing liturgy for children.  The Liturgy Documents are explored, paying close attention to those areas that affect liturgies in which the majority present are children.  Participants will be involved in several sample liturgies as they learn about the process of preparing liturgies for children.
• The Boarding Pass:  A Global Adventure
  In this presentation, participants will embark on a global adventure experiencing cultures of other countries through literature and multi-curricular activities.  This presentation will demonstrate how to help students understand the similarities and differences of other cultures as a basis for respect of others.  Developmentally appropriate multi-sensory activities will be used to illustrate how to build an appreciation for cultural diversity.
• Hands Across the Curriculum
  This presentation will demonstrate how to involve students in the learning process while enhancing their natural curiosity and helping them develop a love of learning.  Through this presentation, teachers will explore creative ways of teaching across the curriculum, giving meaning to concepts presented.   Attendees will become active participants through storytelling, music, drama, and hands-on experiences as they discover how to make learning fun and meaningful for their young students.
• Planting the Seeds of Learning 
  This presentation will demonstrate how to involve young students in the learning process while enhancing their natural curiosity and helping them develop a love of learning.  Creative ways of making education fresh and alive using themes will be explored.  Those who attend this presentation will become active participants through storytelling, music, drama, and hands-on experiences as they learn how to make learning fun and meaningful for students.
• The Quilt of Learning:  Piecing It All Together
  This interactive presentation will demonstrate how to enthuse and involve students in the learning process.  Through hands-on activities, we’ll piece together a quilt of learning incorporating the various curriculum areas.
• Let’s Investigate!
  Purposeful inquiry challenges young children and their natural curiosity to use their senses, to ask questions, and to find answers in an interactive, language-rich environment.  Those who attend will experience how to engage children throughout the year while challenging them to think scientifically, construct mathematical concepts, develop literacy skills, and engage in meaningful thought processes and conversations. This is a hands-on workshop with many creative ideas and activities for participants to take back with them.
• Making Phonics Fun and Meaningful
  This presentation will demonstrate how to involve students in the learning process in the language arts classroom.  Through hands-on activities, attendees will become active participants in this session as they learn how to use the students’ natural curiosity about the world around them to introduce and increase phonics skills, vocabulary acquisition, and early literacy skills.    
• Language Arts Throughout the Day
  This presentation will demonstrate how to incorporate literacy and language arts throughout the curriculum.  Teachers will be shown how to use creative activities to increase phonics skills, vocabulary acquisition, and literacy skills.  Grammar usage, punctuation, and sentence variety will be taught in the context of writing.  Teachers will be shown how to increase communication skills which are needed for our rapidly changing world.   Developmentally appropriate multi-sensory activities will be presented as those who attend become involved in this presentation.
• A Guide to Guided Reading
  In this presentation, guided reading will be explained, and ways of incorporating this approach to literacy instruction will be demonstrated.  This presentation will involve those who attend through hands-on activities designed to enhance literacy instruction. 
• Literacy and Numeracy:  Making Connections
  This presentation will demonstrate how to use children’s literature to teach both language arts skills and mathematical concepts.  Participants will be shown how to use books to increase phonics skills, vocabulary acquisition and early literacy skills while also developing the mathematical skills of number and number operations, sorting and classifying, geometry, patterning, problem solving, graphing, organizing data, and measurement.  This presentation will involve those who attend through storytelling, music, drama, and hands-on experiences as they discover how to integrate language arts and mathematics, thus making learning fun and meaningful for students.
• Math Mania
  This presentation will help teachers make math lessons meaningful as well as fun.  Attendees will become active participants in this presentation by engaging in multi-sensory experiences demonstrating the teaching of mathematical skills and concepts such as number and number operations, sorting and classifying, geometry, patterning, problem solving, graphing, organizing data, and measurement in ways that have meaning for students.
• Planting the Seeds of Learning in Math and Science
  This presentation will demonstrate how to involve young students in the learning process while helping them develop a love of learning.  This presentation will explore creative ways of making math and science education fresh and alive through the use of themes.  Attendees will become active participants through storytelling, music, drama, and hands-on experiences as they learn how to make math and science learning fun and meaningful for students.
• The Wonder of Science
  This presentation will demonstrate how to create and enhance a science curriculum that will encourage thinking skills in young children.  Participants will become involve in theme-centered hands-on science experiments.  Teachers will learn how to empower and encourage creativity, problem solving, and scientific discovery in their students.
• Connecting Common Core Standards to Curriculum
  This presentation will discuss the significance of Common Core Standards on curriculum, instruction, and assessment.  Participants will be shown how to use Common Core Standards as an effective tool in the classroom.  Connecting curriculum, instruction, and assessment to Common Core Standards will be discussed and illustrated.
• Assessment Strategies:  Getting the Right Answer
  Effective assessment enables teachers to know where their students are in relationship to where they would like them to be. Creative ways of assessing students using both authentic and performance assessment will be illustrated.  How and when to use different forms of assessment such as formative and summative, will be discussed.  Those who attend this presentation will become active participants as they experience various forms of assessment, learn about documentation, and participate in creating intervention strategies for students.

Titles of Professional Talks

• The Boarding Pass: A Global Adventure
• A Festival of Tales: Teaching Cultural Diversity
• Hands Across the Curriculum
• Getting to Know You - Prayer (Fostering Our Relationship with God)
• Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall: Incorporating Seasonal Themes in the Clasroom
• Math Mania
• Literature Across the Curriculum
• Creative Catechesis: Going Beyond the Coloring Worksheet
• Global Awareness: God Made Us All
• Come to My Table: Jesus' Invitation
• Teaching Scripture to the Young Child