In this session, we will talk about where we are currently in the AI journey and make impressive plans for changing our practices. Plans will be fluid enough to ensure we can adjust as the technology evolves. Come have some fun talking about the good, the bad, and the AI.
Stop feeling limited by traditional multiple choice testing and start building assessments that assess and inform student understanding. This session shows you different ways to use Renaissance DnA Flexible assessments to collect data “beyond the bubble”. We’ll learn how to create multiple select, partial credit, fill in the blank, and essay questions in DnA. Other bonus tips include how to capture detailed rubric scores for student papers, speeches, and projects. You'll walk away with ready-to-use templates and time-saving shortcuts that make high-quality assessment creation a breeze!
Black boys are often situated the furthest from success . This is usually due to a lack of a sense of belonging . By understanding the origins of Black English and how to leverage it in the classroom Black boys will be seen and affirmed resulting in higher esteem and academic performance
This session will explore executive functioning and its impact on students' ability to plan, organize, regulate, and successfully navigate daily demands within the classroom. Participants will learn proactive strategies for anticipating student needs and creating effective supports that promote independence, engagement, and success.
If you are working in or with a Ford Lab and want to see what other districts are doing, come to this open brainstorming session. Together, we will share wins and struggles as we work on implementing the Lab in our districts.
The Multilingual student experience as told by the students themselves. This session will explore the many different experiences of our multilingual students, including the events that led them to immigrate to the USA and the student experience once they enter our system.
This session will explore practical ways to integrate growth mindset principles into daily classroom routines, instruction and student interactions. Participants will be provided real life examples and strategies as well as collaborate with their peers.
This session will allow participants to walk away with tools and strategies for differentiation, accommodations, modifications, and interventions for the music classroom. Understanding how to diagnose and treat various students and situations in the music classroom will allow music educators to utilize class time and teach more curriculum more effectively.
This session is designed for general education teachers who want practical, realistic ways to support all learners in their classrooms. We’ll focus on what strong Tier 1 instruction looks like through Universal Design for Learning (UDL), how to layer in Tier 2 supports when students need more, and how to effectively implement IEP accommodations during everyday instruction.
You’ll leave with strategies you can use right away, a clearer understanding of your role in supporting students with IEPs, and tools to make inclusion work in real classrooms. This is about making your instruction stronger for every student, not adding more to your plate.
Stop hunting for resources and start leveraging them! This session explores an array of support available through REMC Michigan & REMC 12E. From AI-driven professional learning and virtual courses to our physical "Library of Things"—featuring Engineering Kits, robotics, and 3D printers—we will explore tools designed to do the heavy lifting for you.
This isn't just a sit-and-get; you’ll get hands-on time with our newest kits and discover "grab-and-go" resources that save you planning time while sparking student engagement. Join us to reclaim your prep period and have some fun doing it!
Learn about The Grid Method - a self-paced, mastery-based learning structure that can be applied to ANY grade level and ANY content! Students track their progress through learning skills as the teacher facilitates the learning and checking for understanding along the way. Come see it in action and how to structure your classroom for Differentiation and Mastery!
This workshop is designed to help teachers navigate and utilize Skyward. Participants will explore key features including attendance, gradebook setup, assignment management, and family communication tools. Learn new tips and tricks and share your helpful Skyward hints!
This session focuses on social studies education in Michigan. In this session, participants will learn about social studies requirements in our state and have time to review social studies resources and practices that align with Michigan's K-12 Standards for Social Studies. Participants will leave this session gaining new thinking that can be applied to their current practices for student learning.
Scott Koenig serves as a Social Studies Consultant for the Michigan Department of Education (MDE). His work focuses on guiding educators with their efforts implementing Michigan’s social studies content expectations. Scott’s work includes supporting the creation of inclusive learning... Read More →
After a brief introduction to who English Learners are, and what we as school districts and educators are legally required to do for them, you will learn practical tips and tricks for how to support multilingual students in your classroom.
Our focus is on understanding the “why” behind behavior as the foundation for effective, nonviolent crisis prevention and response. Participants will explore how behavior serves as a form of communication, with an emphasis on identifying triggers and recognizing early warning signs of escalation. A key component of the session is the distinction between comfort and control, shifting adult responses away from compliance driven reactions toward approaches that prioritize safety, dignity, and emotional regulation. The session highlights the critical role of adult self-regulation, relationship-based practices, and proactive environmental supports in reducing the likelihood of crisis situations. It also prioritizes psychological safety for both students and staff, promoting respectful, non-restrictive responses that support de-escalation, long-term behavior change, and increased access to instruction.
This professional development experience immerses educators in movement-based learning through Salsa dancing to explore how structured movement builds student engagement, self-regulation, and a positive school experience. Participants will experience how intentional instruction in balance, rhythm, spatial awareness, and movement control can strengthen classroom culture, increase student belonging, and support standards-based outcomes. The session models instructional strategies aligned with the BCPS Theory of Action by emphasizing active engagement, culturally responsive practices, trauma-informed movement, and joyful participation. This PD experience will help educators create environments where students and staff feel safe, seen, and motivated to attend and participate every day.
This session will help you learn to analyze assessment data in ELA and Math to help drive learning in your classroom, during intervention or WIN times and 1 on 1 learning situations.
Educational Field trips are a great way to build excitement within your school music program. This session will provide tips and tricks to help from the initial brainstorming to final trip execution - and all the stuff in between!
Many teachers build social contracts (Or develop rules in conjuction with thier students) to create a learning environment. So why don't they work? We will learn about building social contracts and expectations with your students and how to make sure they are effective in your classroom.
What if writing wasn’t just an assignment—but the way students think, process, and make sense of everything they learn? This session shows how to build a culture of writing where students actively record, analyze, and develop ideas across any content area while taking ownership of their thinking. Participants will experience practical strategies—including the “Deep Dive” note-taking approach—that help students move from passive consumption to meaningful synthesis and expression. Walk away with clear, adaptable practices that turn notebooks into powerful tools for thinking, learning, and authentic academic writing.
Designed for secondary physical educators and coaches, these sessions offer a practical blueprint for modernizing weight room and gymnasium environments. Participants will learn how to seamlessly integrate high-level athletic movement patterns into a standard 45-minute instructional block.
This interactive breakout session is for secondary educators committed to building a Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum (GVC) with the identification of Essential Standards in Tier 1. This session will provide some time, space, and collaborative structures around the process of selecting and implementing the use of essential standards. A curriculum is only "guaranteed" if we have collectively agreed upon what is non-negotiable. Having essential standards identified allows us to move towards a more equitable educational landscape, ensuring that a student’s zip code doesn't determine the quality or depth of their core instruction. Participants will engage with colleagues from across the county who are working on building a Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum through Essential Standards. Using structured protocols, this session will provide dedicated time, tools and facilitation to support meaningful dialogue, alignment, and cross district collaboration. Educators will leave with greater clarity on the process of identifying and implementing essential standards and practical next steps for strengthening Tier 1 instruction within their local context. Please bring any materials you have been working on in your district with identifying essential standards.
This professional learning session is designed to empower secondary math teachers with innovative strategies for integrating manipulatives into their math instruction. Participants will explore the use of three specific types of manipulatives—x-y coordinate slide boards, exploragons, and algebra tiles. These tools are chosen for their ability to enhance understanding of complex mathematical concepts and to promote student engagement.
A Homer Middle School 6th grade ELA teacher and a special educator share their multi-year journey of designing and implementing effective Tier 3 literacy intervention for students.
I learned so much at MACUL 2026 that I can't wait to share. I am a math teacher, but most of the programs I will discuss work well in ANY subject! Learn how programs like Snorkl can help you give feedback to each student using AI (it actually works!) for any subject (and in several languages). Learn how to prepare students for SAT, M-Step and NWEA testing by integrating Desmos into your teaching. Learn how to engage all students using different gaming style programs.
How can PBIS work at the secondary level? This session will include a discussion of different strategies that have worked for us at Homer High School with a focus on the implementation of a Leadership Class to support PBIS initiatives.
The Michigan Merit Curriculum (MMC) graduation requirements are intended to be flexible, allowing students to create an individualized diploma pathway. This flexibility is especially important for students who may benefit from waving certain MMC credits with a PC. Ideally, PC teams would use the EDP as a guide, removing unnecessary MMC credits based on unique student needs and post-school plans. This session will review the MMC requirements as needed before digging into the personal curriculum options and suggested use. Participants will also utilize student scenarios to strategize implementation in their local district.
Rashell Bowerman has been an Instructional Consultant with the Michigan Department of Education for over 14 years. As the department’s resident expert on Michigan’s graduation requirements, the Michigan Merit Curriculum (MMC), she supports local districts in ensuring that students... Read More →
While early literacy often receives the most attention, reading difficulties—particularly dyslexia—persist and evolve as students transition into middle and high school where the academic focus shifts from "learning to read" to "reading to learn." This session will explore how dyslexia manifests in adolescents through subtle red flags such as slow reading pace, hesitant speech, word-retrieval issues, and difficulty with multi-syllabic terms or foreign languages. We will move beyond common myths to address the academic impact and the emotional toll of "hidden" literacy gaps, while simultaneously highlighting the unique cognitive "Sea of Strengths" these students possess, including high-level conceptualization, big-picture thinking, and sophisticated listening vocabularies. Participants will leave with a curated toolkit to identify struggling learners and implement accommodations that bridge the gap between a student's decoding abilities and their true intellectual potential.
In this session, a superintendent and finance director will go beyond the budget and talk about how finance, staffing, operations, communication, and instruction all connect. We will share real examples, lessons we have learned, and some of the “why” behind district-level decisions. Our goal is to help participants better understand how the whole school system works and why working together across departments matters for both students and staff.
In today's multicultural and multilingual classrooms, it's imperative to recognize and celebrate linguistic diversity. This proposal advocates for a conference focused on the significance of teaching African American English (AAE), code-switching, and code-meshing to Black boys in schools. By understanding and embracing their linguistic heritage, educators can empower Black boys to succeed academically, socially, and culturally.
The film, Counted Out, investigates the biggest crises of our time through an unexpected lens: math. In our current information economy, math is everywhere. The people we date, the news we see, the influence of our votes, the candidates who win elections, the education we have access to, the jobs we get—all of it is underwritten by an invisible layer of math that few of us understand, or even notice. Through a mosaic of personal stories, expert interviews, and scenes of math transformation in action, Counted Out shows what’s at risk if we keep the status quo. Do we want an America in which most of us don’t consider ourselves “math people”? Where math proficiency goes down as students grow up? Or do we want a country where everyone can understand the math that undergirds our society—and can help shape it?
The Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5a2la9WTtY
Level up your teaching toolkit by mastering Canva’s suite of integrated AI tools. In this hands-on workshop, participants will engage with an interactive presentation on their own devices to explore practical applications for the classroom. Learn to leverage AI for image manipulation, design professional-grade flyers, and utilize Canva’s "Coding" features to build custom classroom games. Leave this session with the technical confidence to transform your digital workspace and boost student engagement.
If you are working in or with a Ford Lab and want to see what other districts are doing, come to this open brainstorming session. Together, we will share wins and struggles as we work on implementing the Lab in our districts.
The Michigan Health Education Standards Guidelines were updated in 2025. This session will review what has changed from the 2007 version to the 2025 version and allow time for you to identify gaps in your current teaching practice. We will also discuss identification of power standards or essential standards as it relates to health education and Michigan laws. This is an interactive session where you will explore available resources. Please bring a device with you to the session.
This session introduces K–5 classroom teachers, special education teachers, and instructional coaches to the core concepts of how to use data from different assessments to make instructional decisions. Participants will explore the essential components of a Balanced Assessment System and develop a clearer understanding of how different types of assessments work together to support student learning within a Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS). During this session, educators will examine the purpose of key assessment types (e.g., screening, formative, and progress monitoring) and how each answers critical instructional questions. Participants will engage in brief reflection activities to consider how assessment data is currently used in their classrooms or systems and identify opportunities to strengthen alignment and decision-making practices. This session is designed to build foundational awareness with an overview of using data to make instructional decisions.
The Multilingual student experience as told by the students themselves. This session will explore the many different experiences of our multilingual students, including the events that led them to immigrate to the USA and the student experience once they enter our system.
Let's break down Graphic Novels as a genre; the stigma around them, their fundamental parts, and how you can use them to increase literacy in your classroom.
This session will explore practical ways to integrate growth mindset principles into daily classroom routines, instruction and student interactions. Participants will be provided real life examples and strategies as well as collaborate with their peers.
This professional development session is designed to support music educators and administrators in building a cohesive, collaborative, and vertically aligned K–12 music program. Drawing on real-world practices from a district music department that prioritizes regular collaboration time, participants will explore structures and strategies that promote consistent communication, shared goals, and curricular alignment across grade levels.
Join us in understanding the areas/skills associated with Executive functioning and how these skills impact students and student learning across content areas. We will also explore quick activities and strategies to support Executive Functioning skill development within your learning space.
This session is designed for general education teachers who want practical, realistic ways to support all learners in their classrooms. We’ll focus on what strong Tier 1 instruction looks like through Universal Design for Learning (UDL), how to layer in Tier 2 supports when students need more, and how to effectively implement IEP accommodations during everyday instruction.
You’ll leave with strategies you can use right away, a clearer understanding of your role in supporting students with IEPs, and tools to make inclusion work in real classrooms. This is about making your instruction stronger for every student, not adding more to your plate.
Stop hunting for resources and start leveraging them! This session explores an array of support available through REMC Michigan & REMC 12E. From AI-driven professional learning and virtual courses to our physical "Library of Things"—featuring Engineering Kits, robotics, and 3D printers—we will explore tools designed to do the heavy lifting for you.
This isn't just a sit-and-get; you’ll get hands-on time with our newest kits and discover "grab-and-go" resources that save you planning time while sparking student engagement. Join us to reclaim your prep period and have some fun doing it!
Learn about The Grid Method - a self-paced, mastery-based learning structure that can be applied to ANY grade level and ANY content! Students track their progress through learning skills as the teacher facilitates the learning and checking for understanding along the way. Come see it in action and how to structure your classroom for Differentiation and Mastery!
Discover how the K–1 Specials Team at North Pennfield Elementary is making an impact far beyond the specials classroom. This dynamic session highlights how collaborative specialists can become powerful drivers of schoolwide success through innovative partnerships and student-centered support. Learn how the team contributes to reading proficiency through their cross-curricular Manual Dexterity Assessment, supports student wellness through teaching the TRAILS program, and helps build a consistent schoolwide SEL language that empowers students and strengthens community culture. Walk away with practical ideas for maximizing the impact of your own specials team through collaboration, consistency, and creativity.
Human behavior is communication; regulation comes before reasoning; and educators can use relationship-based strategies to help students move from distress toward readiness to learn.
Restorative practices positively impact student behavior and school climate. They create a sense of belonging, minimize harm, and support student learning while cultivating students who are better equipped to navigate complex challenges, self-regulate, manage conflict, and become better citizens. They uncover the root causes of conflict and create a space to facilitate complex conversations to minimize harm, repair relationships, and identify solutions.
This presentation is designed to increase educators’ awareness of stress, burnout, and compassion fatigue while exploring mindfulness, breathing techniques, and emotional wellness through reflection and creativity. Participants will identify practical self-care strategies that can be incorporated into daily routines and engage in a hands-on rock-painting activity focused on promoting resilience.
This workshop is designed to help teachers navigate and utilize Skyward. Participants will explore key features including attendance, gradebook setup, assignment management, and family communication tools. Learn new tips and tricks and share your helpful Skyward hints!
This session focuses on social studies education in Michigan. In this session, participants will learn about social studies requirements in our state and have time to review social studies resources and practices that align with Michigan's K-12 Standards for Social Studies. Participants will leave this session gaining new thinking that can be applied to their current practices for student learning.
Scott Koenig serves as a Social Studies Consultant for the Michigan Department of Education (MDE). His work focuses on guiding educators with their efforts implementing Michigan’s social studies content expectations. Scott’s work includes supporting the creation of inclusive learning... Read More →
After a brief introduction to who English Learners are, and what we as school districts and educators are legally required to do for them, you will learn practical tips and tricks for how to support multilingual students in your classroom.
This 90 minute professional learning session is grounded in the research and framework of Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning. This professional learning experience explores why educator social and emotional learning (SEL) is essential for thriving schools, strong relationships, and positive student outcomes. Using CASEL’s five core competencies—self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making—as the foundation, educators will deepen their understanding of how SEL shapes classroom culture, educator well-being, instructional practice, and student success. Participants will engage in reflection, practical strategies, and collaborative learning designed to strengthen both personal resilience and professional impact across K–12 settings.
Discover how Common Formative Assessment (CFA) data can move beyond numbers to become a powerful tool for improving instruction and student learning. In this interactive workshop, teachers will collaborate to analyze student evidence, identify misconceptions, and plan meaningful instructional responses that support all learners. Participants will engage in hands-on data protocols, real-world classroom applications, and practical strategies that can immediately strengthen PLC conversations and instructional decision-making.
Students are often expected to write about what they read, yet many struggle to express their thinking in complete, meaningful sentences. This session explores how structured talk can strengthen both comprehension and writing by helping students build the language they need to process and communicate their ideas.
Using routines grounded in Talk Read Talk Write, participants will learn practical strategies—such as sentence frames, structured partner talk, and simple routines—that can be embedded into any lesson to support all students. These strategies are especially beneficial for multilingual learners who need additional language support.
Our focus is on understanding the “why” behind behavior as the foundation for effective, nonviolent crisis prevention and response. Participants will explore how behavior serves as a form of communication, with an emphasis on identifying triggers and recognizing early warning signs of escalation. A key component of the session is the distinction between comfort and control, shifting adult responses away from compliance driven reactions toward approaches that prioritize safety, dignity, and emotional regulation. The session highlights the critical role of adult self-regulation, relationship-based practices, and proactive environmental supports in reducing the likelihood of crisis situations. It also prioritizes psychological safety for both students and staff, promoting respectful, non-restrictive responses that support de-escalation, long-term behavior change, and increased access to instruction.
Good assessments are essential to good teaching. Can AI help to bridge the gap between high-level test design and high-quality question writing--all while saving teachers time? Yes! In this session you'll also learn to use AI to instantly "blueprint" assessments aligned with your specific standards, ensuring that what you teach is exactly what you measure. You'll master prompting techniques to generate valid, reliable test items—from multiple-choice to essays—while using AI tools to slash grading time and provide personalized student feedback. This is the ultimate shortcut for educators who want to use their testing data to help students without spending hours on manual test construction.
This professional development experience immerses educators in movement-based learning through Salsa dancing to explore how structured movement builds student engagement, self-regulation, and a positive school experience. Participants will experience how intentional instruction in balance, rhythm, spatial awareness, and movement control can strengthen classroom culture, increase student belonging, and support standards-based outcomes. The session models instructional strategies aligned with the BCPS Theory of Action by emphasizing active engagement, culturally responsive practices, trauma-informed movement, and joyful participation. This PD experience will help educators create environments where students and staff feel safe, seen, and motivated to attend and participate every day.
What does Explicit Instruction actually look like in practice? In this session, we'll focus on a few elements of explicit instruction to increase engagement for all students. Participants will walk away with simple practical strategies that they can try right away to move beyond a few volunteers to EVERYONE thinking and responding.
In this session, we will take a closer look at Lindsay Kemeny's book which makes the science of reading very practical with moves you can implement in your classroom immediatley. Strategys are focused around K-3rd grade level students.
Why can some students decode perfectly but fail a comprehension check? Why do others read with great expression but can’t tell you a single detail of the story? In this interactive "Forensic Lab," teachers will become Literacy Detectives. Using real student data (evidence), participants will learn to identify the "Reading Bottlenecks" that stall progress. We will move beyond the "low score" to find the "root cause" using the Simple View of Reading & Scarborough’s Rope as our magnifying glass.
Equip teachers with practical strategies to improve student performance on state assessments by focusing on two high-impact areas: student motivation and effective data use. Participants will explore how student mindset, engagement, and goal-setting directly influence academic outcomes, and they’ll learn techniques to foster a classroom culture where students feel invested in their own success.
What does strong Tier 1 math instruction look like in a K–5 classroom? This session provides a clear starting point for building an effective math block, with a focus on high-impact Number Sense Routines and daily instructional structures.
Participants will explore how to: Establish consistent structures that support access, thinking, and meaningful math discussion Use Number Sense Routines to build fluency, reasoning, and active student participation
This session serves as a foundation for deeper learning, including a follow-up session focused on the Launch–Explore–Summarize lesson cycle within the Framework for Tier 1 Mathematics Instruction.
Educators will leave with practical routines and strategies they can immediately implement to strengthen Tier 1 instruction and support all learners.
Common Formative Assessments (CFAs) are powerful tools for improving instruction, informing responsive teaching, and strengthening collaborative Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). In this interactive session, participants will explore the purpose and characteristics of effective CFAs, learn how to intentionally design assessments aligned to learning targets, and examine how assessment data can guide instructional decisions.
Bring the world into your social studies classroom through Amateur Radio. Discover how real-time conversations and communication with people around the US and World can help students explore geography, culture and current events. You will leave with practical lesson ideas and classroom activities you can incorporate into your lessons immediately!
Many teachers build social contracts (Or develop rules in conjuction with thier students) to create a learning environment. So why don't they work? We will learn about building social contracts and expectations with your students and how to make sure they are effective in your classroom.
Becki Leskowich, a 5th grade teacher at Homer Middle School, will share her journey to focus instruction on essential standards and to use data to inform whole- and small-group instruction and intervention.
Designed for secondary physical educators and coaches, these sessions offer a practical blueprint for modernizing weight room and gymnasium environments. Participants will learn how to seamlessly integrate high-level athletic movement patterns into a standard 45-minute instructional block.
I learned so much at MACUL 2026 that I can't wait to share. I am a math teacher, but most of the programs I will discuss work well in ANY subject! Learn how programs like Snorkl can help you give feedback to each student using AI (it actually works!) for any subject (and in several languages). Learn how to prepare students for SAT, M-Step and NWEA testing by integrating Desmos into your teaching. Learn how to engage all students using different gaming style programs.
How can PBIS work at the secondary level? This session will include a discussion of different strategies that have worked for us at Homer High School with a focus on the implementation of a Leadership Class to support PBIS initiatives.
The Michigan Merit Curriculum (MMC) graduation requirements are intended to be flexible, allowing students to create an individualized diploma pathway. This flexibility is especially important for students who may benefit from waving certain MMC credits with a PC. Ideally, PC teams would use the EDP as a guide, removing unnecessary MMC credits based on unique student needs and post-school plans. This session will review the MMC requirements as needed before digging into the personal curriculum options and suggested use. Participants will also utilize student scenarios to strategize implementation in their local district.
Rashell Bowerman has been an Instructional Consultant with the Michigan Department of Education for over 14 years. As the department’s resident expert on Michigan’s graduation requirements, the Michigan Merit Curriculum (MMC), she supports local districts in ensuring that students... Read More →
(This is a repeat from 2025-2026 Calhoun County PD Day)
Transform your classroom into a hub of mathematical thinking and problem-solving! This session explores strategies to create a thinking math classroom where students actively engage, collaborate, and develop deeper conceptual understanding. Learn how to foster curiosity, encourage productive struggle, and implement routines that build critical thinking skills and mathematical confidence in every learner. Technology access will be incorporated to explore resources.
While early literacy often receives the most attention, reading difficulties—particularly dyslexia—persist and evolve as students transition into middle and high school where the academic focus shifts from "learning to read" to "reading to learn." This session will explore how dyslexia manifests in adolescents through subtle red flags such as slow reading pace, hesitant speech, word-retrieval issues, and difficulty with multi-syllabic terms or foreign languages. We will move beyond common myths to address the academic impact and the emotional toll of "hidden" literacy gaps, while simultaneously highlighting the unique cognitive "Sea of Strengths" these students possess, including high-level conceptualization, big-picture thinking, and sophisticated listening vocabularies. Participants will leave with a curated toolkit to identify struggling learners and implement accommodations that bridge the gap between a student's decoding abilities and their true intellectual potential.
What if reading wasn’t about finding answers—but about building meaning? In this immersive session, you’ll experience how using writing and thoughtbooks transforms reading into a process of thinking, connecting, and making sense of ideas across multiple texts. Step into the role of a student and engage in high-impact strategies that move beyond comprehension to true synthesis and insight. Walk away ready to help students think more deeply, make connections, and use writing to clearly articulate their understanding.
This session will focus on prevention and ways we can keep our school and community safe by looking at previous incidents of school shootings and using the knowledge to change the narrative.
In this session, we will talk about where we are currently in the AI journey and make impressive plans for changing our practices. Plans will be fluid enough to ensure we can adjust as the technology evolves. Come have some fun talking about the good, the bad, and the AI.
Stop feeling limited by traditional multiple choice testing and start building assessments that assess and inform student understanding. This session shows you different ways to use Renaissance DnA Flexible assessments to collect data “beyond the bubble”. We’ll learn how to create multiple select, partial credit, fill in the blank, and essay questions in DnA. Other bonus tips include how to capture detailed rubric scores for student papers, speeches, and projects. You'll walk away with ready-to-use templates and time-saving shortcuts that make high-quality assessment creation a breeze!
Black boys are often situated the furthest from success . This is usually due to a lack of a sense of belonging . By understanding the origins of Black English and how to leverage it in the classroom Black boys will be seen and affirmed resulting in higher esteem and academic performance
Throughout history, conversations have allowed us to see different perspectives, build ideas, and solve problems. Academic conversations push students to think and learn in lasting ways, building their academic language and content knowledge. This interactive session will let you experience and learn the how and the why behind using academic conversations in your classroom. This session is applicable to teachers of all subjects and grade levels.
The Multilingual student experience as told by the students themselves. This session will explore the many different experiences of our multilingual students, including the events that led them to immigrate to the USA and the student experience once they enter our system.
Learn how to incorporate experiential and project-based learning into your social studies lessons. Information will be presented and demonstrated on incorporating hands-on experiential learning, bringing community into the classroom, and exploring careers and business all while fulfilling the objectives of the Michigan State Standards.
This session will explore practical ways to integrate growth mindset principles into daily classroom routines, instruction and student interactions. Participants will be provided real life examples and strategies as well as collaborate with their peers.
This session will allow participants to walk away with tools and strategies for differentiation, accommodations, modifications, and interventions for the music classroom. Understanding how to diagnose and treat various students and situations in the music classroom will allow music educators to utilize class time and teach more curriculum more effectively.
This session is designed for general education teachers who want practical, realistic ways to support all learners in their classrooms. We’ll focus on what strong Tier 1 instruction looks like through Universal Design for Learning (UDL), how to layer in Tier 2 supports when students need more, and how to effectively implement IEP accommodations during everyday instruction.
You’ll leave with strategies you can use right away, a clearer understanding of your role in supporting students with IEPs, and tools to make inclusion work in real classrooms. This is about making your instruction stronger for every student, not adding more to your plate.
Learn about The Grid Method - a self-paced, mastery-based learning structure that can be applied to ANY grade level and ANY content! Students track their progress through learning skills as the teacher facilitates the learning and checking for understanding along the way. Come see it in action and how to structure your classroom for Differentiation and Mastery!
Teaching is a lot.. mentally, physically, and emotionally. This session is your chance to pause, breathe, and reset. We’ll start with a quick, real-talk conversation about stress, burnout, and what it actually looks like to take care of yourself during the school year. Then we’ll move through an accessible, feel-good yoga flow with simple postures, breathwork, and mindfulness techniques you can take straight back into your daily routine. This isn’t about being perfect or flexible, it’s about creating small, sustainable moments of calm so you can show up as your best self, both in and out of the classroom.
This workshop is designed to help teachers navigate and utilize Skyward. Participants will explore key features including attendance, gradebook setup, assignment management, and family communication tools. Learn new tips and tricks and share your helpful Skyward hints!
Are you using AI as a typewriter, or as a Systems Consultant? Most use AI for "one-off" tasks: writing an email, generating a quiz, or summarizing a text. While these are incredibly helpful, these are temporary fixes, and each time you have to repeat the directions.
In this session, we shift from "Task-Oriented AI" to "Process-Oriented AI." We will explore Gemini Gems to build repeatable, high-level systems that do the heavy lifting for you all year long. Whether you are an administrator looking to streamline evaluations, an instructional coach building personalized PD paths, or a classroom teacher designing a sustainable differentiation engine, this session will provide you with the "Meta-Prompts" and workflows to make it happen.
Bring a laptop and one "clunky" process you’d like to automate. We will build the system together.
This 90 minute professional learning session is grounded in the research and framework of Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning. This professional learning experience explores why educator social and emotional learning (SEL) is essential for thriving schools, strong relationships, and positive student outcomes. Using CASEL’s five core competencies—self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making—as the foundation, educators will deepen their understanding of how SEL shapes classroom culture, educator well-being, instructional practice, and student success. Participants will engage in reflection, practical strategies, and collaborative learning designed to strengthen both personal resilience and professional impact across K–12 settings.
Compassion is a powerful resource educators use to support others, but what happens when we shift from helping others to owning others’ problems? During the session we will define empathetic distress and learn how to detect signs and symptoms, so you can prevent burnout and increase your resilience throughout the school year. In addition, we will explore self-compassion as a source of coping and resilience to improve our mental and physical wellbeing.
Discover how Common Formative Assessment (CFA) data can move beyond numbers to become a powerful tool for improving instruction and student learning. In this interactive workshop, teachers will collaborate to analyze student evidence, identify misconceptions, and plan meaningful instructional responses that support all learners. Participants will engage in hands-on data protocols, real-world classroom applications, and practical strategies that can immediately strengthen PLC conversations and instructional decision-making.
Our focus is on understanding the “why” behind behavior as the foundation for effective, nonviolent crisis prevention and response. Participants will explore how behavior serves as a form of communication, with an emphasis on identifying triggers and recognizing early warning signs of escalation. A key component of the session is the distinction between comfort and control, shifting adult responses away from compliance driven reactions toward approaches that prioritize safety, dignity, and emotional regulation. The session highlights the critical role of adult self-regulation, relationship-based practices, and proactive environmental supports in reducing the likelihood of crisis situations. It also prioritizes psychological safety for both students and staff, promoting respectful, non-restrictive responses that support de-escalation, long-term behavior change, and increased access to instruction.
This professional development experience immerses educators in movement-based learning through Salsa dancing to explore how structured movement builds student engagement, self-regulation, and a positive school experience. Participants will experience how intentional instruction in balance, rhythm, spatial awareness, and movement control can strengthen classroom culture, increase student belonging, and support standards-based outcomes. The session models instructional strategies aligned with the BCPS Theory of Action by emphasizing active engagement, culturally responsive practices, trauma-informed movement, and joyful participation. This PD experience will help educators create environments where students and staff feel safe, seen, and motivated to attend and participate every day.
This session will help you learn to analyze assessment data in ELA and Math to help drive learning in your classroom, during intervention or WIN times and 1 on 1 learning situations.
Educational Field trips are a great way to build excitement within your school music program. This session will provide tips and tricks to help from the initial brainstorming to final trip execution - and all the stuff in between!
In this session we will explore the powerful relationship between decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling and writing). When students connect the two they deepen their understanding of how our written language works.
Why can some students decode perfectly but fail a comprehension check? Why do others read with great expression but can’t tell you a single detail of the story? In this interactive "Forensic Lab," teachers will become Literacy Detectives. Using real student data (evidence), participants will learn to identify the "Reading Bottlenecks" that stall progress. We will move beyond the "low score" to find the "root cause" using the Simple View of Reading & Scarborough’s Rope as our magnifying glass.
Equip teachers with practical strategies to improve student performance on state assessments by focusing on two high-impact areas: student motivation and effective data use. Participants will explore how student mindset, engagement, and goal-setting directly influence academic outcomes, and they’ll learn techniques to foster a classroom culture where students feel invested in their own success.
This interactive breakout session is for elementary educators committed to building a Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum (GVC) with the identification of Essential Standards in Tier 1. This session will provide some time, space, and collaborative structures around the process of selecting and implementing the use of essential standards. A curriculum is only "guaranteed" if we have collectively agreed upon what is non-negotiable. Having essential standards identified allows us to move towards a more equitable educational landscape, ensuring that a student’s zip code doesn't determine the quality or depth of their core instruction. Participants will engage with colleagues from across the county who are working on building a Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum through Essential Standards. Using structured protocols, this session will provide dedicated time, tools and facilitation to support meaningful dialogue, alignment, and cross district collaboration. Educators will leave with greater clarity on the process of identifying and implementing essential standards and practical next steps for strengthening Tier 1 instruction within their local context. Please bring any materials you have been working on in your district with identifying essential standards.
How do students move from using manipulatives to solving problems with efficient strategies? In this K–5 session, educators will explore the progression from direct modeling to counting strategies and student-invented methods.
Participants will engage in hands-on tasks, analyze student work, and learn to recognize common strategies across grade levels. The session focuses on anticipating student responses, asking purposeful questions, and using student thinking to guide instruction.
Educators will leave with practical tools and routines to make student thinking visible and support deeper mathematical understanding.
Discover how the K–1 Specials Team at North Pennfield Elementary is making an impact far beyond the specials classroom. This dynamic session highlights how collaborative specialists can become powerful drivers of schoolwide success through innovative partnerships and student-centered support. Learn how the team contributes to reading proficiency through their cross-curricular Manual Dexterity Assessment, supports student wellness through teaching the TRAILS program, and helps build a consistent schoolwide SEL language that empowers students and strengthens community culture. Walk away with practical ideas for maximizing the impact of your own specials team through collaboration, consistency, and creativity.
Are students truly invested in their learning? In this one-hour session, Educators will explore different ways to strengthen student engagement. Participants will reflect on how classroom culture, meaningful learning experiences, and intentional instructional practices influence student motivation and involvement.
In this session, participants will learn about the components of the MSTEP ELA test. In addition, they will learn about multiple strategies that can be integrated into your daily instruction which will prepare students for what they will see on the test .
We have heard of the Simple View of Reading but what about the Simple View of Writing or the Writing Rope? In this session, participants will learn what makes writing so difficult for our students. We will spend time learning about important writing foundational skills and how they develop.
Common Formative Assessments (CFAs) are powerful tools for improving instruction, informing responsive teaching, and strengthening collaborative Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). In this interactive session, participants will explore the purpose and characteristics of effective CFAs, learn how to intentionally design assessments aligned to learning targets, and examine how assessment data can guide instructional decisions.
As educators, we all know the importance of early intervention in a child's life, though many may not be familiar with the services available in our county. What does that intervention look like, especially when it comes from professionals supporting not just the child, but the family's skills as well? The Calhoun County Early On program is run through the CISD, serving children from birth to age three with developmental delays. Join us to learn how the program works, how families are supported, and the impact these services can have in their future education.
This session will focus on prevention and ways we can keep our school and community safe by looking at previous incidents of school shootings and using the knowledge to change the narrative.
In this session, we will talk about where we are currently in the AI journey and make impressive plans for changing our practices. Plans will be fluid enough to ensure we can adjust as the technology evolves. Come have some fun talking about the good, the bad, and the AI.
In today's multicultural and multilingual classrooms, it's imperative to recognize and celebrate linguistic diversity. This proposal advocates for a conference focused on the significance of teaching African American English (AAE), code-switching, and code-meshing to Black boys in schools. By understanding and embracing their linguistic heritage, educators can empower Black boys to succeed academically, socially, and culturally.
In the 21st century, fueled by technology, data, and algorithms, math determines who has the power to shape our world. Discuss the film, Counted Out, and investigate one of the biggest crisis in our time.
Level up your teaching toolkit by mastering Canva’s suite of integrated AI tools. In this hands-on workshop, participants will engage with an interactive presentation on their own devices to explore practical applications for the classroom. Learn to leverage AI for image manipulation, design professional-grade flyers, and utilize Canva’s "Coding" features to build custom classroom games. Leave this session with the technical confidence to transform your digital workspace and boost student engagement.
Throughout history, conversations have allowed us to see different perspectives, build ideas, and solve problems. Academic conversations push students to think and learn in lasting ways, building their academic language and content knowledge. This interactive session will let you experience and learn the how and the why behind using academic conversations in your classroom. This session is applicable to teachers of all subjects and grade levels.
This session introduces K–5 classroom teachers, special education teachers, and instructional coaches to the core concepts of how to use data from different assessments to make instructional decisions. Participants will explore the essential components of a Balanced Assessment System and develop a clearer understanding of how different types of assessments work together to support student learning within a Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS). During this session, educators will examine the purpose of key assessment types (e.g., screening, formative, and progress monitoring) and how each answers critical instructional questions. Participants will engage in brief reflection activities to consider how assessment data is currently used in their classrooms or systems and identify opportunities to strengthen alignment and decision-making practices. This session is designed to build foundational awareness with an overview of using data to make instructional decisions.
The Multilingual student experience as told by the students themselves. This session will explore the many different experiences of our multilingual students, including the events that led them to immigrate to the USA and the student experience once they enter our system.
Learn how to incorporate experiential and project-based learning into your social studies lessons. Information will be presented and demonstrated on incorporating hands-on experiential learning, bringing community into the classroom, and exploring careers and business all while fulfilling the objectives of the Michigan State Standards.
This session will explore practical ways to integrate growth mindset principles into daily classroom routines, instruction and student interactions. Participants will be provided real life examples and strategies as well as collaborate with their peers.
This professional development session is designed to support music educators and administrators in building a cohesive, collaborative, and vertically aligned K–12 music program. Drawing on real-world practices from a district music department that prioritizes regular collaboration time, participants will explore structures and strategies that promote consistent communication, shared goals, and curricular alignment across grade levels.
Join us in understanding the areas/skills associated with Executive functioning and how these skills impact students and student learning across content areas. We will also explore quick activities and strategies to support Executive Functioning skill development within your learning space.
Schools do not struggle because they lack ideas, initiatives, or dedicated educators. More often, improvement stalls when there is a gap between what we intend to do and what consistently happens in classrooms. Drawing from experiences leading five Michigan Reward Schools, including a school that moved from the bottom 5% to Reward School status, this session explores how leaders can create the conditions for meaningful adult reflection, collective responsibility, and sustained improvement. Participants will examine practical strategies for strengthening feedback loops, aligning adult actions, and turning plans into measurable results for students.
This session is designed for general education teachers who want practical, realistic ways to support all learners in their classrooms. We’ll focus on what strong Tier 1 instruction looks like through Universal Design for Learning (UDL), how to layer in Tier 2 supports when students need more, and how to effectively implement IEP accommodations during everyday instruction.
You’ll leave with strategies you can use right away, a clearer understanding of your role in supporting students with IEPs, and tools to make inclusion work in real classrooms. This is about making your instruction stronger for every student, not adding more to your plate.
Learn about The Grid Method - a self-paced, mastery-based learning structure that can be applied to ANY grade level and ANY content! Students track their progress through learning skills as the teacher facilitates the learning and checking for understanding along the way. Come see it in action and how to structure your classroom for Differentiation and Mastery!
Human behavior is communication; regulation comes before reasoning; and educators can use relationship-based strategies to help students move from distress toward readiness to learn.
Teaching is a lot.. mentally, physically, and emotionally. This session is your chance to pause, breathe, and reset. We’ll start with a quick, real-talk conversation about stress, burnout, and what it actually looks like to take care of yourself during the school year. Then we’ll move through an accessible, feel-good yoga flow with simple postures, breathwork, and mindfulness techniques you can take straight back into your daily routine. This isn’t about being perfect or flexible, it’s about creating small, sustainable moments of calm so you can show up as your best self, both in and out of the classroom.
Restorative practices positively impact student behavior and school climate. They create a sense of belonging, minimize harm, and support student learning while cultivating students who are better equipped to navigate complex challenges, self-regulate, manage conflict, and become better citizens. They uncover the root causes of conflict and create a space to facilitate complex conversations to minimize harm, repair relationships, and identify solutions.
This presentation is designed to increase educators’ awareness of stress, burnout, and compassion fatigue while exploring mindfulness, breathing techniques, and emotional wellness through reflection and creativity. Participants will identify practical self-care strategies that can be incorporated into daily routines and engage in a hands-on rock-painting activity focused on promoting resilience.
This workshop is designed to help teachers navigate and utilize Skyward. Participants will explore key features including attendance, gradebook setup, assignment management, and family communication tools. Learn new tips and tricks and share your helpful Skyward hints!
Are you using AI as a typewriter, or as a Systems Consultant? Most use AI for "one-off" tasks: writing an email, generating a quiz, or summarizing a text. While these are incredibly helpful, these are temporary fixes, and each time you have to repeat the directions.
In this session, we shift from "Task-Oriented AI" to "Process-Oriented AI." We will explore Gemini Gems to build repeatable, high-level systems that do the heavy lifting for you all year long. Whether you are an administrator looking to streamline evaluations, an instructional coach building personalized PD paths, or a classroom teacher designing a sustainable differentiation engine, this session will provide you with the "Meta-Prompts" and workflows to make it happen.
Bring a laptop and one "clunky" process you’d like to automate. We will build the system together.
This 90 minute professional learning session is grounded in the research and framework of Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning. This professional learning experience explores why educator social and emotional learning (SEL) is essential for thriving schools, strong relationships, and positive student outcomes. Using CASEL’s five core competencies—self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making—as the foundation, educators will deepen their understanding of how SEL shapes classroom culture, educator well-being, instructional practice, and student success. Participants will engage in reflection, practical strategies, and collaborative learning designed to strengthen both personal resilience and professional impact across K–12 settings.
Although IDEA says that transition planning is only required for students with disabilities starting the year they will turn 16, we know that there are many things that can be done starting at a young age to prepare students for life after graduation. This session will include an overview of Transition Planning expectations in Calhoun County, samples of resources to help achieve transition goals as well as provide an overview of services and agencies that can support students with reaching their future goals.
Are you ready to transform "test day" into an interactive, high-engagement experience? In this session, you’ll learn the questions available in the digital Item Bank assessments in DnA. There are over 17 different question styles that go way beyond a simple mouse click. From graphing and math equations to drag-and-drop sequencing and drawing, you’ll learn how to engage students with interactive questions just like on high-stakes tests. We’ll also learn about bonus features such as locked browser, text-to-speech,syncing to Google Classroom and/or Skyward. Join me to start using digital assessments to capture your students’ deep, critical thinking and collect data to inform instruction!
Compassion is a powerful resource educators use to support others, but what happens when we shift from helping others to owning others’ problems? During the session we will define empathetic distress and learn how to detect signs and symptoms, so you can prevent burnout and increase your resilience throughout the school year. In addition, we will explore self-compassion as a source of coping and resilience to improve our mental and physical wellbeing.
Discover how Common Formative Assessment (CFA) data can move beyond numbers to become a powerful tool for improving instruction and student learning. In this interactive workshop, teachers will collaborate to analyze student evidence, identify misconceptions, and plan meaningful instructional responses that support all learners. Participants will engage in hands-on data protocols, real-world classroom applications, and practical strategies that can immediately strengthen PLC conversations and instructional decision-making.
Students are often expected to write about what they read, yet many struggle to express their thinking in complete, meaningful sentences. This session explores how structured talk can strengthen both comprehension and writing by helping students build the language they need to process and communicate their ideas.
Using routines grounded in Talk Read Talk Write, participants will learn practical strategies—such as sentence frames, structured partner talk, and simple routines—that can be embedded into any lesson to support all students. These strategies are especially beneficial for multilingual learners who need additional language support.
Get ready for an Amazing Race-style adventure as your team explores all the incredible opportunities the CACC offers your students! This is a perfect chance for educators who haven't visited our Career Center before, or for anyone looking to discover more about how we can partner to prepare students for future success.
This professional development experience immerses educators in movement-based learning through Salsa dancing to explore how structured movement builds student engagement, self-regulation, and a positive school experience. Participants will experience how intentional instruction in balance, rhythm, spatial awareness, and movement control can strengthen classroom culture, increase student belonging, and support standards-based outcomes. The session models instructional strategies aligned with the BCPS Theory of Action by emphasizing active engagement, culturally responsive practices, trauma-informed movement, and joyful participation. This PD experience will help educators create environments where students and staff feel safe, seen, and motivated to attend and participate every day.
What does Explicit Instruction actually look like in practice? In this session, we'll focus on a few elements of explicit instruction to increase engagement for all students. Participants will walk away with simple practical strategies that they can try right away to move beyond a few volunteers to EVERYONE thinking and responding.
In this session, we will take a closer look at Lindsay Kemeny's book which makes the science of reading very practical with moves you can implement in your classroom immediatley. Strategys are focused around K-3rd grade level students.
In this session we will explore the powerful relationship between decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling and writing). When students connect the two they deepen their understanding of how our written language works.
Why can some students decode perfectly but fail a comprehension check? Why do others read with great expression but can’t tell you a single detail of the story? In this interactive "Forensic Lab," teachers will become Literacy Detectives. Using real student data (evidence), participants will learn to identify the "Reading Bottlenecks" that stall progress. We will move beyond the "low score" to find the "root cause" using the Simple View of Reading & Scarborough’s Rope as our magnifying glass.
Discover how the K–1 Specials Team at North Pennfield Elementary is making an impact far beyond the specials classroom. This dynamic session highlights how collaborative specialists can become powerful drivers of schoolwide success through innovative partnerships and student-centered support. Learn how the team contributes to reading proficiency through their cross-curricular Manual Dexterity Assessment, supports student wellness through teaching the TRAILS program, and helps build a consistent schoolwide SEL language that empowers students and strengthens community culture. Walk away with practical ideas for maximizing the impact of your own specials team through collaboration, consistency, and creativity.
How can the Launch–Explore–Summarize lesson cycle move more of the thinking to students? In this K–5 session, educators will take a deeper look at each phase of the lesson and what it looks like in practice.
Participants will explore how to:
Design and launch tasks that promote thinking without over-scaffolding Facilitate the Explore phase by monitoring student strategies and asking purposeful questions
Lead Summarize discussions that connect student strategies to key mathematical ideas Through classroom examples and hands-on tasks, teachers will practice anticipating student responses, selecting and sequencing student work, and guiding discussions that make thinking visible.
Educators will leave with clear moves and planning strategies to implement the Launch–Explore–Summarize cycle in ways that increase student ownership and deepen mathematical understanding.
As educators, we all know the importance of early intervention in a child's life, though many may not be familiar with the services available in our county. What does that intervention look like, especially when it comes from professionals supporting not just the child, but the family's skills as well? The Calhoun County Early On program is run through the CISD, serving children from birth to age three with developmental delays. Join us to learn how the program works, how families are supported, and the impact these services can have in their future education.
Bring the world into your social studies classroom through Amateur Radio. Discover how real-time conversations and communication with people around the US and World can help students explore geography, culture and current events. You will leave with practical lesson ideas and classroom activities you can incorporate into your lessons immediately!
Many teachers build social contracts (Or develop rules in conjuction with thier students) to create a learning environment. So why don't they work? We will learn about building social contracts and expectations with your students and how to make sure they are effective in your classroom.
Now that you have determined which standards students will need to be proficient in for your course, what do you do next? This session provides guidance for transforming those essential standards into effective instructional and assessment design. You will engage in exploring work around: AI tools to be leveraged in the various steps.
Becki Leskowich, a 5th grade teacher at Homer Middle School, will share her journey to focus instruction on essential standards and to use data to inform whole- and small-group instruction and intervention.
Designed for secondary physical educators and coaches, these sessions offer a practical blueprint for modernizing weight room and gymnasium environments. Participants will learn how to seamlessly integrate high-level athletic movement patterns into a standard 45-minute instructional block.
I learned so much at MACUL 2026 that I can't wait to share. I am a math teacher, but most of the programs I will discuss work well in ANY subject! Learn how programs like Snorkl can help you give feedback to each student using AI (it actually works!) for any subject (and in several languages). Learn how to prepare students for SAT, M-Step and NWEA testing by integrating Desmos into your teaching. Learn how to engage all students using different gaming style programs.
What if reading wasn’t about finding answers—but about building meaning? In this immersive session, you’ll experience how using writing and thoughtbooks transforms reading into a process of thinking, connecting, and making sense of ideas across multiple texts. Step into the role of a student and engage in high-impact strategies that move beyond comprehension to true synthesis and insight. Walk away ready to help students think more deeply, make connections, and use writing to clearly articulate their understanding.
