Before students can argue or analyze, they need to know how to read like a historian. Rooted in the Science of Reading and disciplinary literacy, this session explores how comprehension instruction directly strengthens social studies learning. Dig into the core historical thinking skills — sourcing, contextualization, close reading, and corroboration — and explore practical routines for teaching kids to question where evidence comes from, when and why it was created, and how it stacks up against other sources. Go beyond basic decoding to show students how to extract deep meaning, build background knowledge, and navigate complex informational texts. Designed for K–12 social studies, these approaches build the foundation every inquiry depends on and are ready to use on Monday.

You’ve designed your plan, built your culture, and sharpened your instruction — now how do you keep it going? In this session, you’ll explore Danielson’s Domain 4 and focus on the professional habits that separate good years from great ones. You’ll dig into reflective practice that goes beyond “that went well” or “that was a disaster” and learn how to use student data to drive real decisions about your teaching. You’ll build sustainable family communication systems — not ones that burn you out by October — and explore what it means to contribute to your professional community through collaboration, mentoring, and advocacy. You’ll also tackle the conversation no one has enough — preventing burnout through boundaries, realistic self-care, and sustainable practice.

Whether you’re a veteran ready to mentor and model for the next generation, a new teacher building professional habits that will serve you for decades, or an alternatively certified teacher learning how to navigate the professional side of education, this session helps you finish the series with a plan that lasts. Walk away with a reflective practice template, a family communication toolkit, a professional growth plan aligned to Danielson, and a one-page classroom system summary that connects all four sessions into a system that works together.

Great instruction isn’t a performance — it’s a responsive conversation between you and your learners. In this session, you’ll dive into Danielson’s Domain 3 and explore what it takes to move beyond delivering content to truly reaching every student in the room. You’ll examine the difference between student engagement and student compliance, and learn how to build classroom learning systems that keep students thinking, discussing, and participating at every level. From questioning techniques that push past recall into critical thinking, to differentiation strategies you can adjust in real time, this session is about sharpening your instructional toolkit. You’ll also explore academic mindsets — how what students believe about their ability to learn shapes everything they do in your classroom, and what you can do to shift those beliefs.

Whether you’re a veteran who’s ready to take instructional risks again, a new teacher building a repertoire of go-to strategies, or an alternatively certified teacher learning how to make instruction land for diverse learners, this session meets you where you are and pushes you forward. Walk away with an engagement strategy menu, a questioning stems guide, formative assessment tools you can use tomorrow, and a differentiation framework that won’t overwhelm you.

Your classroom culture isn’t what’s posted on the wall — it’s what students feel the moment they walk in. In this session, you’ll explore Danielson’s Domain 2 and learn that classroom culture is designed, not discovered. You build it or it builds itself. Grounded in Conscious Discipline and the brain science behind it, you’ll examine how survival, emotional, and executive brain states shape both your students’ behavior and your own. Because here’s the truth — you can’t regulate students if you can’t regulate yourself. You’ll unpack the difference between routines, procedures, and expectations, and why practicing them daily matters more than posting them on a bulletin board. You’ll dig into what it means to build a classroom family instead of just managing a room full of students — from learning what makes your kids tick to knowing when to hold firm and when to flex.

Whether you’re a veteran reexamining the invisible messages your systems might be sending, a new teacher designing culture from scratch, or an alternatively certified teacher learning what no one taught you about classroom environment, this session gives you the tools to build a space where every student feels safe — physically, emotionally, and psychologically. Walk away with a customized routines and procedures plan, strategies based on Conscious Discipline, a composure plan for managing your own triggers, and a classroom layout designed with intention.

What if the very first thing students did in a science lesson was notice something — and ask why? In this session, K-12 science teachers will step into the role of learner and experience firsthand how a well-chosen phenomenon or problem can spark genuine curiosity, surface prior knowledge, and launch meaningful three-dimensional learning. Because you can’t really talk about phenomena without talking about the three dimensions — science and engineering practices (SEPs), crosscutting concepts (CCCs), and disciplinary core ideas (DCIs) — we’ll explore both together, the way they actually show up in the classroom.

Rather than talking about phenomena-driven, three-dimensional instruction, we’ll engage with it together, then unpack what made it work. You’ll leave with a clear understanding of what makes a phenomenon or problem effective, criteria for evaluating phenomena in your own curriculum, practical tools for identifying where tasks and assessments are missing a dimension, and dedicated time to strengthen upcoming lessons with grade-band colleagues from across the region.

Note: This is the first session of a three-session series running throughout the year. Sessions may be attended individually or as a full series — choose what works best for you!

6 Hours of PD/EILA credit 

The goal of the Adaptive Schools Foundation Seminar is to develop the collective identity and capacity of organization members as collaborators and inquirers. School-wide improvements in student learning accrue in schools whose work cultures are collaborative. In such cultures, professionals learn to talk about the hard-to-talk-about details of learning, teaching, assessment and the cumulative effects of their work with students. The Adaptive Schools Foundation Seminar presents a productive, practical set of ideas and tools for developing collaborative groups in becoming effective and better equipped to resolve complex issues around student learning. The work of the Adaptive Schools Foundation Seminar is to develop the resources and capacities of the organization and of individuals to cohesively respond to the changing needs of students and society.

NOTE: a PO Number is required to register.

 

EILA will be applied for each day.

Contact:  mark.helton@ckec.org

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.

Participants must attend the entire day and stay through the end of the day to take the post-test in order to receive a certificate of completion.

NOTE: Registration Deadline is Monday, August 31 at 4:00 pm ET.

NOTE:  This training is offered at no cost by the KDE Stronger Connections Grant!  However, due to having to purchase seat licenses ahead of time, anyone who cancels registration after Monday, August 31, 2026 will be billed for the license fee.

6.5 hours of EILA credit will be available. Participants must allow time for some preparation prior to the training.

 

Cognitive Coaching℠ is a form of mediation that can be applied to professional interactions in a variety of settings and situations with the intention of enhancing self-directed learning. It is a composite of skills, strategies, maps, and tools as well as mental models and beliefs. It is also a model for classroom mediation to enhance students’ self-directed learning. Research on Cognitive Coaching℠ has linked its implementation to increased student achievement, greater teacher efficacy and satisfaction, higher levels of teacher cognition and professional, collaborative cultures. 

This is the 8-day Foundational Training and is presented only in a face-to-face format. Participants will develop understanding of three structured conversations focusing on planning, reflecting, and problem resolving.  In addition, they will develop knowledge and skills for expanding teacher thinking.

EILA will be applied for each day.

Scientists write to make sense of the world by observing, hypothesizing, arguing from evidence, and explaining. This one-hour session explores simple writing routines that strengthen scientific reasoning, build precise academic language, and make student thinking visible. Designed for K–12 science and aligned with phenomena based instruction, these strategies fit into everyday lessons and take minutes, not class periods. Leave with tools you can use in your classroom tomorrow.

Format: Virtual (Zoom) • 1 hour of PD/EILA credit provided • Zoom link sent prior to the session

When students explain their thinking, they understand math more deeply and writing makes that thinking visible. In this one-hour session, explore simple, high-impact writing strategies that strengthen mathematical reasoning, build precise language, and surface misconceptions in real time. Designed for K–12 math teachers, this session focuses on writing-to-learn and writing-to-demonstrate-learning routines that fit seamlessly into everyday instruction without adding extra workload. Leave with ready-to-use strategies you can use in tomorrow’s math lesson.

Format: Virtual (Zoom) • 1 hour of PD/EILA credit provided • Zoom link sent prior to the session