Professional Learning Opportunities

A group of people pose in front of a screen showing a diagram of the brain.

Westmark School is proud to present or host occasional programs designed for educational professionals. These expert presentations often offer continuing education credit.

See below for upcoming and/or recent professional learning programs held on our campus. 

Upcoming Programs

Orton-Gillingham Classroom Educator Course
Organized by Orton-Gillingham Academy and International Dyslexia Association–Los Angeles (IDA-LA)
Monday, July 14–Friday, July 18, 2025, 9:00 am–4:00 pm
Westmark School

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This classroom educator training provides and understanding of structured literacy and the use of the Orton-Gillingham (OG) Approach based on the research about the science of reading. The five-day, in-person course offers the skills to teach beginning readers, struggling readers, and those who have dyslexia. Topics will include:

  • The reading brain
  • Dyslexia and reading disorders
  • The rationale for structured literacy, in particular the OG Approach
  • Phonology and phonological/phonemic awareness
  • The motor component, the orthography of English, and the writing process
  • Basic and Intermediate phonics for reading and spelling
  • OG lesson plans and teaching materials
  • General history of the English language and beginning morphology
  • Informal assessment and diagnostic-prescriptive teaching
  • Achieving accuracy, automaticity, and fluency in reading and spelling

The course will be led by Vanessa Silver, M.S., BCET/AET, Fellow/OGA, C-SLDS/IDA, a board-certified educational therapist in private practice in Los Angeles for the past twenty-seven years.

Past Programs

Southern California Workshop for Educational Therapists 2025
Organized by Association of Educational Therapists
Saturday, February 22, 2025, 9:00 am–3:20 pm
Westmark School

Self-regulation—the ability to process information, weigh choices and consequences, and make adaptive decisions to pursue a goal—is critical for success in school. For children and young people, engaging in self-regulation can be particularly challenging, especially when learning is challenging. Supporting emotional and cognitive skills, and understanding how these skills relate to the behavior we observe, is equally important in fostering their development.

In this year's workshop—"The Science of Self-Regulation and How It Intersects with Clients' (and, Our Own) Daily Lives"—guest speaker Jennie Grammer, Ph.D., explored the neuroscience of cognitive and emotional development as it relates to self-regulation. Participants gained insight into how these processes are interconnected, their behavioral implications, and how these connections evolve from preschool to early adulthood. Following the introduction, the workshop delved into how insights from developmental and cognitive neuroscience can inform your work with children and youth. 

 

Orton-Gillingham Classroom Educator Course
Organized by Orton-Gillingham Academy and International Dyslexia Association–Los Angeles (IDA-LA)
Monday, July 15–Friday, July 19, 2024, 8:30 am–4:00 pm
Westmark School

The Orton-Gillingham (OG) Approach is a structured, systematic, multisensory, and diagnostic-prescriptive approach for the teaching of language skills (including reading, spelling, and handwriting) for students with dyslexia. This course provided an introduction to the basics of the OG Approach within a classroom or small group. Completion of this course and a supervised practicum prepared the trainee to apply for OG Classroom Educator Certification through the Orton-Gillingham Academy. Thank you to the participants, pictured above on our Lower School Campus, where the training was held.

 

Southern California Workshop for Educational Therapists 2024
Organized by Association of Educational Therapists
Saturday, March 16, 2024, 8:30 am
Westmark School

This program featured the following expert presentations: "Auditory Processing Disorder and Listening Challenges: Strategies for Successful Intervention" by Lois Kam Heymann, M.A., CCC-SLP; and "Understanding the Dyslexia in Dyscalculia: How to Support Your Clients If You Don't 'Do' Math!" by Sandra T. Elliott, Ph.D.