Academic/Professional Development Workshops 2026 #1

In today’s increasingly polarized educational landscape, curiosity is a powerful tool for connection and understanding. This course invites educators to explore how fostering curiosity can transform classroom dynamics, strengthen relationships, and build inclusive school cultures.

Grounded in the work of Mónica Guzmán and her book I Never Thought of It That Way, this course equips participants with practical strategies to:

Listen deeply and engage across differences

Model and facilitate respectful, open conversations

Navigate challenging dynamics with students, colleagues, and families

Through reflection, practice, and application, educators will gain tools to bridge divides, foster civil discourse, and create more compassionate, connected learning environments. This course is designed for PK–12 teachers, counselors, instructional coaches, and school leaders seeking to strengthen their impact and cultivate inclusive communities.

This self-paced online course explores best practices for fostering inclusion, equity, and effective classroom management in early childhood and K-12 education. Through readings, videos, podcasts, and reflection-based assignments, participants will deepen their understanding of how to create calm, supportive, and inclusive spaces for all learners.

Key Learning Areas:

✅ Understanding Inclusion & Equity – Defining inclusive education and reflecting on personal beliefs and practices.
✅ Building a Culture of Belonging – Strategies for fostering student connection, equity, and care.
✅ Behavioral Supports & Responsive Relationships – Approaching challenging behaviors through relationships and culturally responsive strategies.
✅ Classroom Environment & Visual Supports – Designing physical spaces and routines that promote student independence and regulation.
✅ Teaching Behavioral Expectations – Using visuals, routines, and reinforcement strategies to maintain a structured classroom.
✅ Transitions & Daily Routines – Developing smooth, engaging transitions to support student regulation.
✅ Social-Emotional Learning & Peer Interactions – Encouraging collaboration, empathy, and social skill development.
✅ Advocacy & Equity in Education – Addressing systemic barriers and developing small-scale advocacy efforts to support marginalized students.

For teachers tending to the demands of a rigorous and challenging teaching schedule this mindfulness class includes time-honored and research-supported methods for enhancing our well-being, mental clarity and happiness. Included will be meditations for developing steady equanimity, confidence and a sense of authenticity when communicating with, and admired by, your students.

Technology – smart phones, social media, the Internet – can make our lives easier and more fulfilling.  However as with everything else, too much can be overwhelming and even unhealthy.  It is important that we – and our students - learn to disconnect and pursue activities and have experiences that are not technologically dependent. Participants explore the why and how to unplug/disconnect, spend some time experiencing unplugged time, and learn how to implement some unconnected time in the classroom as well.

In this practical, hands-on course, I’ll show you how to harness the power of AI to engage your students and transform their learning experience. I’ll introduce you to AI tools and techniques that help you teach everything from math to rap battles (yes, you read that right).

This course is designed to support teachers in developing language and techniques for teaching decision-making skills to students. Teaching this skill is important because our decisions shape the quality of our lives, communities, and environment. Many decision-making models are available; this course is designed around the Stakeholders-Consequences Decision Making (SCDM) model. It is a flexible model and can be used in many different ways, with multiple grade levels, and in many subject areas including academic and social-emotional learning. You can confidently use and teach this model which is powerful for both individual and team-based decisions. 

Today's educators have been trained to teach opposition and defiant students by giving them rewards as they see them finally do the desired behavior. Studies show this is not working in most schools, and behaviors are escalating. The author of Conscious Discipline will give you the knowledge needed to understand why.

Why do some children succeed while others fail? Have you experienced burnout with certain students and are not sure where to turn? Let’s turn this around. When students believe that dedication and hard work can change their performance in school, they grow to become resilient, successful students. Mindsets in the Classroom provides educators with ideas and strategies to build and maintain a growth mindset culture. The focus is on how persistence, hard work and grit can change students’ school performance. All teachers are looking for tools that will ignite a love of learning while communicating that every student can succeed. Do you want to find out how to capture and identify that mindset? Are you ready to create successful and resilient learners? Are you interested in learning the new research on IQ and brain plasticity in order to motivate and engage all students? Then join me for this exciting and transformative course. I recommend this course to any teacher, student, administrator, parent or professional developer who is looking to up their game.

Using a basic workbook created by Larry Ferlazzo, an award-winning author, you will find strategies to engage your students more effectively. You will learn how to deal with getting students motivated and helping students see the importance of personal responsibility. You will also learn to deal with disruptive students and classes, while finding the best ways to maximize the chances that a lesson will be successful, and more. 

Investigate the many aspects of high needs people and their behaviors. Gain a greater understanding of how to interact with student and adult explosive behavior, dependent behavior, poor listener behavior and more.