Target Audience: Teachers and Administrators

Join us for a virtual book study of The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America’s Broken Education System and How to Fix It by Natalie Wexler. This eye-opening book explores why so many students, especially those from under-resourced communities, struggle with reading comprehension and what educators can do to close the gap.

Each registered participant will receive a complimentary copy of the book prior to the first session.

Together, we’ll unpack Wexler’s insights about the importance of building background knowledge, the limitations of skills-based instruction, and how schools can improve outcomes by embracing a content-rich curriculum.

Each session will include guided discussion, practical classroom connections, and opportunities to collaborate with other educators. Whether you’re a classroom teacher, instructional coach, or district leader, this study will deepen your understanding of literacy development and challenge conventional approaches to reading instruction.

The Zoom link for this session will be shared no later than September 8, 2025.

4 hours of EILA credit will be provided.

$50 fee for Non-Member Districts. Contact lindsey.ellis@ckec.org with questions.

 

Teacher Audience: Multilingual Learner Teachers and Administrators, All Teachers, Support Staff, School and District Level Administrators

The CKEC Multilingual Learner Teacher Network will be a time to work with other EL/ML teachers, specialists, admin, and other educators in the region. Through participant input, training and workshop opportunities will be developed based on the needs, trends, and ongoing issues that face schools and districts across our region and the state. The network will provide open chair time for members to share success stories.  There will also be time to vet specific issues in a supportive and constructive manner.

There will be two in-person sessions: September  8, 2025 and March 2, 2026

There will be one virtual session on October 20, 2025 from 4:00-5:00 pm ET

EILA credit will be awarded each day.

Contact mark.helton@ckec.org with questions.

Target Audience: General and Special Education Teachers, Grades 7-12; Co-Teaching Teams; Interventionists

Are you looking for tools to help you gauge where your students are and how they are progressing with respect to essential skills in the Algebra classroom?  If so, then this training is for you!  Project AAIMS (Algebra Assessment and Instruction: Meeting Standards) is a project funded by the US Department of Education with the purpose of developing algebra assessment tools that can be used for monitoring the progress of students with and without disabilities as they learn algebra.  Outcomes of this training include:

• Develop an understanding of progress monitoring
• Know how to administer, score, and use data from three (3) different measures
• Understand the relative merits and weaknesses of each of the measures
• Consider issues related to implementing algebra progress monitoring.

These measures are designed to be administered in person, not in a virtual setting.

To ensure fidelity, participants of this training may use the probes with their classes ONLY.  They may NOT share the probes with others or train other teachers to use them.  Participants will be asked to sign a User Agreement prior to the training.

At the completion of the training, participants will be given a link to a Google Folder containing the measures.

$125 fee for Non-Member Districts

Contact mark.helton@ckec.org with questions.

 

Target Audience: K-12 teachers, principals, and district administrators

This introductory training, led by world-renowned educator, trainer, author, and consultant Dr. Mike Rutherford, is based on his best-selling book The Artisan Teacher. The most successful teachers are skillful. They do things. They make moves. They teach with an attention to detail and a level of execution that produces extra success for learners. They see teaching as a set of skills, some natural and some learned, that combine to produce optimal learning for students. As I have thought about this skillful approach and how it might be best described, I am reminded of an old term that has recently enjoyed a renaissance. The term is Artisan. The teachers who best exemplify this skillful approach to instruction are Artisan Teachers; skilled in the craft of teaching.

EILA provided

 

Target Audience: CKEC and Statewide Crisis Response Team members

This day is for all CKEC Crisis Response Team leads and other team members who wish to join. Part of the day will include the annual psychological first aid training and updates required to be a part of the team.  

Contact mark.helton@ckec.org with questions.

6 hours of EILA.

 

 

Target Audience: Any School or District Crisis Response Team Member

This 2-day workshop develops the knowledge and skills required to provide immediate mental health crisis interventions to the students, staff, and school community members who have been simultaneously exposed to an acute traumatic stressor. The PREPaRE model emphasizes:

• preventing and preparing for crises
• reaffirming physical health and welfare, and perceptions of safety and security
• evaluating psychological trauma risk
• providing interventions
• responding to mental health needs
• examining the effectiveness of crisis preparedness

$250 for Member Districts and $300 for Non-Member Districts

NOTE: Registration Deadline is Tuesday, October 21, 2025 at 12:00 noon ET.

13 Hours of EILA will be available.  Participants must commit to attending both days and allow for some preparation time prior to the training.

Target Audience: School/District Crisis Team Members, School Mental Health Professionals, Administrators, Teachers, Pupil Services Personnel, SROs, Front Office Staff, Transportation Directors, Communication Directors, Operations Personnel, and Before and After School Activities Coordinators

In this 1-day workshop, participants will learn how to establish and sustain comprehensive school safety efforts that attend to both physical and psychological safety. The workshop addresses critical components needed to develop, exercise, and evaluate safety and crisis teams and plans, and conduct building vulnerability assessments. The model also integrates school personnel and community provider roles in providing school-based crisis preparedness and response activities. Additional topics addressed also include media/social media, communication, reunification, students with special needs, culture, and memorials. After this workshop, participants will be better prepared to improve their school’s climate, student resilience, and crisis response capabilities of school personnel. With updated research and strategies, this workshop makes a clear connection between ongoing crisis prevention, mitigation, protection, response, and recovery.  PREPaRE Workshop 1 provides a broad overview of the school crisis team’s roles and responsibilities, with a special emphasis on crisis prevention and preparedness.

NOTE: Registration Deadline is Friday, September 5, 2025, at 12:00 noon ET.

$150 fee for Member Districts and $200 for Non-Member Districts

6.5 hours of EILA credit will be available. Participants must allow time for some preparation prior to the training. Contact mark.helton@ckec.org with questions.

Target Audience: Grades Pre-K-2.  Special Education and General Education Teachers of students with disabilities, Instructional Coaches, & Paraprofessionals (must attend with collaborating teacher)

Student Numeracy Assessment Progressions (SNAP) is a two-day course that provides professional development in administering and analyzing concise, diagnostic, individual assessment in early numeracy. Topics include number words and numeral identification, structuring, and addition and subtraction strategies. This formative assessment system provides a way to track individual and group performance and enables teachers to differentiate instruction based on the results. SNAP is most appropriate for pre-kindergarten through first-grade classrooms and special education teachers.

Participants MUST attend both days and use the assessment interview with students between sessions. $250 fee for Member and Non-Member districts.

Contact mark.helton@ckec.org with questions.