Are you looking for a kick-off to the school year?
A rejuvenating session for staff throughout the year?

An in-depth PD Session for teacher growth?
A topical discussion or keynote to increase instruction

and learning?

A developmental session to engage teams and

faculty growth?

An opening address to your conference, meeting or education event?

Whatever your goal; with over 30 years of experience, Dr. Barbara Blackburn has the solutions available for you and the best interests of your school. Discover the reason behind Dr. Blackburn delivering growth for tens of thousands of educators across the globe with her inspiring, lively, humorous and result-driven keynotes and workshops.

Customized in collaboration to meet your goals, keynotes and workshops are designed by Dr. Blackburn to ensure they appeal to all grade levels and subject areas.

Sessions can be from 1 hour, to full day, to multi day events. and developed with you in direct consultation with Dr. Blackburn. Both workshops and keynotes can include customized follow-up sessions and materials to ensure ongoing success and support.

Dr. Blackburn’s most popular topics are listed below, but areas of focus are always customized to your audience.

Feel free to contact Dr. Blackburn to discuss your goals or to book a session. Dr. Blackburn will listen to your goals and work with you to design a specific and self-reinforcing program that will impress your educators and leaders alike.

Dr Blackburn works with you to customize every session to meet the direct needs of you, your students and school.

dr.blackburn's most popular keynotes, workshops & seminar sessions

You can customize your session or choose from one of Dr Blackburn's renown sessions below that have delivered results for both educators and

students across the globe.

In this customized keynote or workshop, you’ll learn how productive struggle is connected to intrinsic motivation and how to scaffold instruction so you’re not just throwing students into the deep end. You’ll also find out how to pick the appropriate level of struggle and how to scaffold learning for students.



Highly practical and designed for next day implementation to your classroom, you’ll be able to help students enjoy the fulfilment, confidence, and growth that comes with working through a challenging learning process.

In an ideal world, we would teach a lesson, and each of our students would understand the content and the use the information to achieve higher levels of learning. But that does not always happen. 



Some students immediately grasp the material and move forward, but others need additional assistance.

Rigor is a key focus of today's educational reform.

• But What Exactly is Rigor?
  
• What Does Rigor Look Like in My Classroom?
  
• What are the Myths [and Truths] About Rigor?

 Rigor is NOT a negative; it can be integrated into everyday lessons by teachers to increase learning for ALL their students.

Gain a true understanding of the aspects of rigor: expectations, support, and demonstration of learning.

Implementing rigor at the classroom level is best supported by leadership practices. 

This workshop or keynote breaks down the variety of strategies teachers can incorporate to spur student growth and raise the level or rigor and achievement in their classroom.

Do you have students who are unmotivated?

That's a MYTH!

This workshop or keynote unpacks and discussed the myths of motivation and the keys to creating a motivating environment for every student and the strategies that will help them thrive.

Do you need a jumpstart for the year or the semester?

Are you tired, and at times hopeless about the progress of your students?

Do some days just seem overwhelming?

In this interactive workshop or keynote, learn how to inject hope and nourishment for self-motivation and wellbeing, mixing in practical strategies and implementation for equally a motivated classroom as well. 

How do we determine which strategies are most effective?

This workshop or keynote look at those strategies that are research-based, with a particular eye toward John Hattie's work.

Participants experience hands-on activities for all subject areas and grade levels.

One of the challenges in today's schools is working with students with learning disabilities.

In this workshop, seminar or keynote, we look at:

• the facets of motivation that impact our students with special learning needs.
• how to tailor your classroom instruction accordingly.
• how to incorporate the elements of rigor for special needs students to ensure they receive the same high-level expectations opportunities.

Motivation, Engagement, & Expectations!

In this workshop or keynote, we work through the "BIG 3" challenges in he classroom for teachers today:

1. Student Motivation
2. Student Engagement
3. High Expectations for Learning

The session will provide practical learnings that can be implemented the very next day

"Dr Blackburn effectively engages her audience and challenges them to new levels"

"TEPSA applauds the work Dr Blackburn has done in the areas of academic rigor. A long-time partner, Dr Blackburn has consistently provided top-notch professional development to Texas elementary principals through both face-to-face training and webinars.

Regardless of the platform, Dr Blackburn effectively engages her audience and challenges them to new levels of rigor for their students."

"a true expert on everything pertaining to educational leadership!"

Dr. Blackburn is a phenomenal author, presenter, and true expert on everything pertaining to educational leadership! I had the privilege of attending her three-day PD for my district last summer. I was wowed by her ability to engage and educate us with practical ideas to increase the rigor for our students. She is so down to earth and her presentation style is so interactive, informative, and relevant.

My colleagues and I walked away with strategies on how to have students activate higher-order thinking skills and enmesh with content in more meaningful and challenging ways. In addition, she provided so many resources that we were able to walk away with and implement immediately. Dr. Blackburn truly cleared up my misconceptions about rigor. Consequently, I am much more intentional and strategic in my instructional planning and delivery. I look forward to attending her future PDs! 

"provide practical strategies to teachers that could be implemented the very next day "

Dr. Blackburn was able to define what rigor looks like, sounds like, and feels like with my staff. She was able to provide practical strategies to teachers that could be implemented with students the very next day. Dr Blackburn worked with our teachers on activities for implementation in future lessons and was able to help them increase the rigor level in their classroom".

"Her work on rigor has made her possibly the education arena's top authority on the subject "

" I can highly recommend Dr Blackburn as a keynote speaker. A skilled seminar leader with engaging and practical content, and one who can make anything from a breakout session to a full-day event a huge success. During my time as a Central Office Administrator, we brought Dr Blackburn in to conduct out back-to-school keynote address. Her message was one of hope that inspired us long after the day was over. Her work on rigor has made her possibly the education arena's top authority on the subject".