Mickey Smith, Jr.
Mickey Smith, Jr., is a motivational speaker, an expert musician, and an experienced educator who is dedicated to helping both children and teachers. While delivering keynote address speeches and workshops for elementary, middle, and high school teachers, he strives to provide a motivational mixture of music and message to his audience. With his children’s book “Keep On Going”, Mickey wants to make learning easy and interesting for everyone. It’s time to discover the sound inside us all!
Keynote Session Description
See the Sound
Mickey Smith, Jr.
(Equity & Inclusion, Leadership)
Any teacher can know all the latest techniques, plan the greatest lessons, and implement effective classroom management strategies. But what is your “sound?” Your “sound” is your value as well as the unique personal significance you bring to the classroom. Maximizing your awareness and perspective in those you teach and seeing the “sound” in yourself is arguably the most important skill you can possess as a teacher. Without a strong sense of personal significance and emotional resilience, most teachers won’t stick around long enough in the profession to realize their potential and become not just teachers but phenomenal educators. In a profession that loses 50% of its workforce within the first five years of their careers, and with teacher shortage estimates in the hundreds of thousands yearly for qualified teachers, it is critical now more than ever to find new ways to encourage, equip, and empower teachers to fall in love with teaching. That starts by seeing the “sound.”
Concurrent Session Description
Sound180 Living: Establish Your Purpose & Perspective at Work and at Home with the Promise-Compass
Mickey Smith, Jr.
(Social-Emotional Learning, Equity & Inclusion, ELL, Leadership)
All any of us can really leave in this thing called life is what we believe, so our actions and deeds become seeds for our students’ future. A teacher who is aware of their values, strengths, and can also affirm their purpose is both sound and unstoppable. Finding the tools to be a SOUND ADULT at work for students and at home for the family is something we all hope for. Everything starts with having a purpose but that starts with being on purpose as well. Mickey works with educators on their purpose as a teacher and as a person. Understanding your motivation for teaching and living makes you more likely to respond to challenging situations in ways that are consistent with your defined purpose and bounce back from any setbacks with poise so that you KEEP ON GOING.
Target Audience(s): Early Childhood (Birth – 4 years), Elementary, Middle/ Jr. High, High School
Education Track(s): New to the Science of Reading, Advanced Science of Reading, Equity & Inclusion, Leadership