About
Melanie Mayer was a three-time college All-American basketball player, who taught high school and college English for over thirty years. She is the winner of several outstanding teacher awards, including Humanities Texas, Texas Exes, and HEB Excellence in Education; and she is the author of numerous articles and three books. Her humorous and inspirational keynotes and teacher trainings are popular across Texas; and her Facebook page for teachers, Melanie Mayer Inspire, continues to support, encourage, and inspire educators with practical tips for the classroom and for life.
Melanie enjoys fishing and golfing on the Texas Gulf Coast, where she has hosted Teach Rhymes With Beach: The (not your ordinary) Conference for English Teachers in Port Aransas for five years.
For a resume of recent presentations, keynotes, teaching trainings, classroom coaching, and other information, please email melter215@aol.com.
Most requested Workshops/Presentations:
Convocation/Keynote Suggestions
This is Not Your Practice Classroom Teachers get one opportunity to create wow moments for students - to teach what matters – to create a classroom you can love. It is imperative that you make the most of your time. These strategies for success in every classroom and on every campus will create a more engaged learning community, strengthen relationships, and elevate student achievement. A must for every classroom teacher, this session will also help teacher-leaders and administrators specifically empower teachers. This is Not Your Practice Life. And it’s not your practice classroom, either.
The Top Ten Signs You Might Be a Great Teacher! humorously inspires and reminds all teachers of how the seemingly “little things” can move classroom instruction, and an entire school district, from good to great. A must for every school district!
Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teachers/Leaders Research shows the number one thing affecting student achievement is the teacher. Administrators wanting to take their campus or district to the next level must hire the best teachers they can, and help the ones they have go from good to great. But what makes a great teacher? Simple, practical, invaluable tips and reminders for creating buy-in, building relationships, and engaging all students - resulting in greater overall success!
Blueprint for Success: How to Live, Lead, and Teach by Design Are you living, leading, or teaching by default? Are you just going through the motions: financially, relationally, spiritually, physically – and at work? You don’t have to settle! In this timely, inspiring presentation, Melanie suggests five practical ways to powerfully transform your classroom, campus, or school district, and all areas of your life from what is to what could be. The result is higher student/employee achievement; and greater personal wellness, balance, and joy!
The Five P’s of Powerful Leadership Great leaders inspire greatness in others; and raise the level of productivity, success and morale in all those around them. This does not happen by default, or by sweeping proclamations, or even sound theoretical advice. Great leadership happens in practice and by example. Now more than ever, teachers need campus leadership to help them manage classrooms, implement instructional strategies, and reach the next level of excellence. In this session, Melanie suggests five habits and traits of great leaders, and the practical things they do that matter most.
Teacher Trainings
Reading and Writing Across the Curriculum In this half-day training, teachers in all content areas will model effective and practical reading strategies, such as pre-teaching vocabulary; read-aloud, think-aloud; teaching summary skills; and more; and implement a simple and consistent writing paragraph structure and other requirements (“Sentences start with a capital letter and end with a period.” The commandment that was lost…) that are guaranteed to elevate student performance in all subject areas!
Read Like a Writer: The Mentor Text Makeover Everything we read is a mentor text! See how to seamlessly connect powerful reading instructional strategies with writing response, author’s craft, and grammar lessons in ways that are engaging, meaningful, and productive. We’ll model three reading strategies (including one for pre-teaching vocabulary), imitate amazing texts, and practice inferencing, summarizing, and responding – using students’ own writing! What does this mean? STAAR is a walk in the park. And reading and writing are fun again. Available for all grade levels. Teachers receive materials.
Meaningful Writing – and Reading- Instruction in an Age of Testing In this popular and practical full or two-day workshop, ELA teachers model instructional strategies and activities that engage today’s students and elevate their reading and writing abilities. Includes creative, critical, expository, and persuasive writing and revision activities; connecting and analyzing various genres and responding to text; fresh vocabulary, grammar, and poetry instruction; and using classroom reading and students’ own writing to teach summary, inference, and craft. These easy-to-implement strategies increase engagement, elevate achievement, and make reading and writing fun again!
Reading and Writing for College Readiness half or full day training focuses on scaffolding assignments in areas in which students are personally invested with the skills they need to be successful in college. Includes active reading strategies; writing, research and documentation skills; and academic behaviors. A must for HS ELA, this session can also be integrated into either of the two above.