Spelling and Morphology with Gray Matter Connections

Webinar Overview

Through this webinar, you will learn ways to use Gray Matter materials to expand your student's skills and strategies for accurately spelling English words. Emphasis will be given to the importance of incorporating concepts from morphology and etymology, along with phonology, for younger students as well as for older students. Practical examples of ideas will be shared that educators can use when working with students.

About Your Instructors:

Vesta Gillette, M.S.

Vesta is a retired missionary and educator with three adult children and four college-aged grandchildren. Vesta and her husband served with The Evangelical Alliance Mission (TEAM) for thirty years in Venezuela.  She earned her BS in Elementary Education from Northern Illinois University (NIU).  In 1985, Vesta became acquainted with the National Institute for Learning Development (NILD) and took her first NILD course.  NILD became her new passion and ministry.  She began an NILD program at Christiansen Academy in western Venezuela, which continued until the school closed in 2001.  After moving to Caracas, Venezuela, she worked in another NILD program for three more years before she and her husband had to return to the US for his health needs.  Over the years, Vesta earned her PCET with NILD, her M.S. in Educational Psychology from NIU, expanded her training with various workshops, taught some NILD courses, and mentored new educational therapists.  After returning to the US, she worked part-time with the mission and part-time with a faith-based, alternative school for struggling students in the Rockford, IL area, which adopted the NILD program and incorporated it into the school’s services until 2020 when it closed. Since the alternative school’s closure, Vesta has had two teletherapy students, continues to provide diagnostic evaluations, and helps a fellow NILD educational therapist in her small homeschool.

Kristin Barbour, Ed.D.
NILD Executive Director

Kristin’s passion is bringing life-long learning to life and developing independent learners. She is an internationally respected educator and keynote speaker. In addition to being an NILD educational therapist, Kristin is an authorized trainer in the Feuerstein Instrumental Enrichment Program. Prior to becoming NILD’s Executive Director, Kristin was the Director of Discovery Program, Inc (DPI) a community-based organization providing intervention services to students with dyslexia, learning disabilities, and ADHD in Hampton Roads, Virginia.  Kristin has also worked as an inpatient speech-language pathologist at Children’s Hospital of the Kings Daughters in Norfolk, Virginia. Kristin recently completed her EdD at Johns Hopkins University in the Mind, Brain, Teaching program.