This session will help staff make sense of how the many pieces of school improvement fit together by introducing the updated KESA accreditation model and examining how it aligns with the TPS Strategic Plan, Ci3T, and PLCs. Participants will learn how these systems are designed to support one another and create a unified approach to school improvement, accountability, and student success. Through collaborative learning and discussion, staff will explore how their current efforts contribute to the bigger picture, identify ways to strengthen alignment within their own roles, and reflect on next steps to support student learning and college and career readiness across the building.
Participants may complete online LETRS modules during this session to meet LETRS training requirements. Participants must bring their laptops and earbuds or headphones to individually complete online modules in a study hall format.
Participants may complete online LETRS modules during this session to meet LETRS training requirements. Participants must bring their laptops and earbuds or headphones to individually complete online modules in a study hall format.
Dyslexia: This professional development session provides an in-depth understanding of dyslexia, including its definition, characteristics, and impact on learning. Participants will explore the neurological basis of dyslexia, common misconceptions and early identification.
Quality Instruction Consistent instructional routines foster a structured yet flexible environment where students can engage deeply with content, think critically, and participate in meaningful discussions. In this session, we will explore high-impact routines and strategies that promote curiosity, student voice, and deeper learning across all content areas. You will leave with ready-to-use routines that enhance engagement and make learning more interactive and thought-provoking.
The district will implement a Science of Reading rubric for the 2025-2026 school year, and we would like to gather feedback from educators. The rubric will be utilized as a walk-through tool and a self-reflection rubric.PARTICIPANTS WILL BE LIMITED TO 10 PEOPLE.
Assessment In this session, we will explore the PAST assessment, QPA, math screeners, and comprehension passages, examining their roles in diagnosing student learning needs. We’ll discuss how these tools provide valuable insights to guide targeted interventions and improve student outcomes.
School improvement is not a one-time initiative—it’s a continuous process that requires strong leadership, strategic vision, and collaborative effort. This session will equip educational leaders with the tools and strategies needed to drive meaningful and sustainable school improvement.
In this training, FBI experts will equip educators with the knowledge to recognize the signs of human trafficking in students and understand how traffickers target vulnerable youth. Participants will learn strategies for prevention, intervention, and how to respond appropriately to protect and support at-risk students
PLCS: You've collected the data—now what? This interactive session will empower educators to move beyond data collection and dive into meaningful analysis that drives action. Participants will explore practical strategies for using student data to guide collaborative conversations within the PLC process, identify root causes of learning gaps, and plan targeted instruction that meets diverse student needs. Whether you're new to PLCs or looking to deepen your team's impact, you'll leave with tools, protocols, and a clear roadmap for turning data into results.
This session will explore the impact of mentoring programs like Big Brother & Big Sister, focusing on building positive relationships, fostering resilience, and supporting student growth. Participants will learn effective mentoring strategies, how to create meaningful connections, and ways to empower young minds through guidance and encouragement.
🤔 Ever feel stuck asking the same old questions in class? Shake things up and elevate your students’ thinking with Diffit.me, your new AI-powered questioning assistant! In this dynamic 90-minute session, you'll explore how to craft questions that spark deeper thinking, promote rigorous student discussions, and empower your learners to generate their own challenging questions. Using the High-Level Questioning Rubric as your roadmap, you'll learn practical strategies to move from basic recall to rich analysis, synthesis, and evaluation—all with just a few clicks! 💻✨
Get hands-on practice, collaborate with colleagues, and walk away confident to immediately enhance student engagement and classroom dialogue. Ready to transform your classroom questions from good to GREAT? 🚀
Curriculum Technology Specialist, Topeka Public Schools
Travis True is an accomplished professional with a strong foundation in instructional design and development, e-learning, and curriculum development. With a career that spans over 20 years and various roles, including Technology Integration Specialist/Instructional Designer at Topeka... Read More →
Quality Instruction: Are your students truly thinking, or just going through the motions? In this interactive session, we will explore the core principles of Building Thinking Classrooms and how they apply across all content areas. Learn practical strategies to foster engagement, collaboration, and deep thinking while shifting students from passive learners to active problem solvers. Walk away with actionable techniques to implement in your classroom immediately—no matter your subject area!
Balanced Assessment The Claim-Evidence-Reasoning (CER) framework is a powerful way to help students think critically, write clearly, and support their ideas with evidence. This interactive session will explore how CER can be used across all subjects as a meaningful formative assessment tool. Through hands-on activities and collaboration, participants will gain practical strategies to scaffold CER for diverse learners and apply it to their own classrooms. Expect to leave with fresh ideas and ready-to-use techniques to strengthen student reasoning and communication in any content area.
Quality Instruction: Dr. Liljedahl's research shows that when students work on thinking tasks in random groups on a vertical whiteboard, they are capable of co-creating incredible amounts of mathematical meaning and collective knowing-and-doing. In this session, participants will look at the Thinking Classroom practices that help students move this collective knowing-and-doing into individual knowing-and-doing while, at the same time, beginning to take responsibility for their own learning. The practices discussed will intertwine with, and make extensive references to, the recently published book, Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics (Grades K-12): 14 Teaching Practices for Enhancing Learning.
Disciplinary Literacy: This session equips secondary educators with practical strategies for fostering robust vocabulary acquisition across all subject areas. Participants will explore discipline-specific lexical demands and learn to implement engaging, research-based techniques for vocabulary instruction. We will focus on integrating vocabulary development into existing curricula, ultimately enhancing student comprehension and academic success.
Participants will unlock the power of literacy in a variety of contexts. We will explore the morphology of vocabulary, consider the types of skills students need to be literate in different subject areas, and choose texts with purpose for the content areas.
Quality Instruction Consistent instructional routines foster a structured yet flexible environment where students can engage deeply with content, think critically, and participate in meaningful discussions. In this session, we will explore high-impact routines and strategies that promote curiosity, student voice, and deeper learning across all content areas. You will leave with ready-to-use routines that enhance engagement and make learning more interactive and thought-provoking.
Quality Instruction: In this session, we’ll dive into practical, easy-to-use reading strategies that help secondary students become stronger, more confident readers. We’ll walk through before, during, and after reading techniques that can be used with any text. You’ll get a chance to see the strategies in action, collaborate with fellow teachers, and walk away with a set of ready-to-use tools and ideas you can bring straight into your classroom.
Quality Instruction: This session will explore Costa’s Levels of Thinking as a framework for increasing cognitive rigor in the classroom. Participants will learn how to guide students in asking higher-order questions, deepening their understanding, and engaging in meaningful academic discussions. Practical strategies will be shared to help teachers integrate Costa’s questioning techniques into lessons to enhance critical thinking and student inquiry.
In this interactive professional development session, teachers will explore common barriers that prevent the use of academic discussion and cooperative learning strategies in the classroom. Participants will engage in strategies they can take back and implement in their own classrooms—while collaboratively identifying solutions to these barriers.
Nursing Services will discuss topics related to the new Cardiac Emergency Response Plan and other topics that need to be addressed in the break out sessions with their Roving RNs.
This session is for current members of the Washburn Literacy Blueprint cohort. Participants will continue to work through course content focused on structured literacy and quality instruction.
Quality Instruction This professional development provides Intensive Instructional Classroom (IIC) teachers Paraprofessionals throughout the district with an opportunity to collaborate on strategies and best practices in supporting their students with complex needs
Quality Instruction: This session explores the powerful connection between teacher expectations and student achievement. Participants will examine how their beliefs about students influence the depth and rigor of questions posed in the classroom. The session will highlight what makes a question high level, how questioning impacts student thinking and discussion, and practical strategies for designing and using questions that push learning forward. Participants will leave with a toolbox of strategies to enhance and refine their questioning practices to deepen learning in their classroom.
This session will focus on Fundamental 4-Quality Instruction- and will be a deep dive into the lingering effects of COVID-19 on student learning and well-being, social emotional development with a focus on how educators may support recovery through qualitySEL instruction. Participants will gain an understanding of updated/current data regarding the impacts on learning after COVID-19, including the impact on mental health, cognitive impairments associated with long-COVID, and related issues such as problems with attention, and sleep disorders. Additional concerns include declines in working memory, language expression, overall executive function, central nervous system problems, brain fog, medical fatigue, heart issues, and overall cognitive decline as indicated in IQ tests. Our teams will explore next steps for recovery.
This session will focus on ways to help EL students cope with the current political climate and offer strategies for managing challenging behaviors while utilizing informal assessment methods to gauge students' learning and language needs on an ongoing basis.
Join us for a flexible, come-and-go professional development opportunity focused on Section 504 plans. This informal session is designed as a Q&A forum where counselors can bring their questions, clarify procedures, and explore practical scenarios related to 504 accommodations. A variety of helpful resources will be available to support your work, including quick reference guides, templates, and documentation tools you can take with you. Whether you're new to 504s or looking for a refresher, this is a great chance to connect, learn, and leave with ready-to-use materials.
Join us for a flexible, come-and-go professional development opportunity focused on Section 504 plans. This informal session is designed as a Q&A forum where counselors can bring their questions, clarify procedures, and explore practical scenarios related to 504 accommodations. A variety of helpful resources will be available to support your work, including quick reference guides, templates, and documentation tools you can take with you. Whether you're new to 504s or looking for a refresher, this is a great chance to connect, learn, and leave with ready-to-use materials.
Participants may complete online LETRS modules during this session to meet LETRS training requirements. Participants must bring their laptops and earbuds or headphones to individually complete online modules in a study hall format.
Participants may complete online LETRS modules during this session to meet LETRS training requirements. Participants must bring their laptops and earbuds or headphones to individually complete online modules in a study hall format.
Dyslexia: This professional development session will equip educators with practical strategies and accessible resources to effectively support students with dyslexia in the classroom. Participants will deepen their understanding of how dyslexia impacts learning and explore evidence-based approaches to enhance reading, writing, and overall academic achievement.
This session will provide ways to incorporate multisensory instruction with phonics instruction. Participants will need to bring a CR Success board and magnetic tiles.
Quality Instruction: In this Make It, Take It session, you'll create Higher-Order Questioning Pull Sticks—a simple, interactive tool to encourage critical thinking and deeper discussions in the classroom. Using these thought-provoking question stems, you can easily prompt students to engage in meaningful conversations and analytical reasoning across subjects.
Ci3T & Quality Instruction: In the ever-evolving landscape of education, resilience isn't just a nice-to-have — it's essential. This professional development session is designed for anyone seeking to strengthen their personal and professional resilience in the face of daily challenges. Through interactive discussions, reflective exercises, and evidence-based tools, participants will explore the impact of stress and trauma on adults, understand the science of regulation and co-regulation, and learn practical strategies to foster a culture of wellness, connection, and resilience. Participants will: -Gain a deeper understanding of the science behind adult resilience and emotional regulation -Explore tools for maintaining personal well-being and work-life balance -Learn techniques to build a resilient school culture and support colleagues -Engage in reflective practices to identify personal strengths and areas for growth
In this training, FBI experts will equip educators with the knowledge to recognize the signs of human trafficking in students and understand how traffickers target vulnerable youth. Participants will learn strategies for prevention, intervention, and how to respond appropriately to protect and support at-risk students
Ever feel like your students are lost in the fog when it comes to understanding lesson goals and expectations? Let's clear things up! Inspired by John Hattie's groundbreaking research, this hands-on session will show you how to transform confusing lessons into crystal-clear learning adventures using SchoolAI.com. You'll learn simple yet powerful strategies to craft precise learning intentions, develop student-friendly success criteria, and build interactive AI-powered resources that keep your students confidently on track. Leave the fog behind—it's time to get focused with SchoolAI!
Curriculum Technology Specialist, Topeka Public Schools
Travis True is an accomplished professional with a strong foundation in instructional design and development, e-learning, and curriculum development. With a career that spans over 20 years and various roles, including Technology Integration Specialist/Instructional Designer at Topeka... Read More →
PLCS: You've collected the data—now what? This interactive session will empower educators to move beyond data collection and dive into meaningful analysis that drives action. Participants will explore practical strategies for using student data to guide collaborative conversations within the PLC process, identify root causes of learning gaps, and plan targeted instruction that meets diverse student needs. Whether you're new to PLCs or looking to deepen your team's impact, you'll leave with tools, protocols, and a clear roadmap for turning data into results.
This session will explore the impact of mentoring programs like Big Brother & Big Sister, focusing on building positive relationships, fostering resilience, and supporting student growth. Participants will learn effective mentoring strategies, how to create meaningful connections, and ways to empower young minds through guidance and encouragement.
Quality Instruction: Are your students truly thinking, or just going through the motions? In this interactive session, we will explore the core principles of Building Thinking Classrooms and how they apply across all content areas. Learn practical strategies to foster engagement, collaboration, and deep thinking while shifting students from passive learners to active problem solvers. Walk away with actionable techniques to implement in your classroom immediately—no matter your subject area!
Balanced Assessment The Claim-Evidence-Reasoning (CER) framework is a powerful way to help students think critically, write clearly, and support their ideas with evidence. This interactive session will explore how CER can be used across all subjects as a meaningful formative assessment tool. Through hands-on activities and collaboration, participants will gain practical strategies to scaffold CER for diverse learners and apply it to their own classrooms. Expect to leave with fresh ideas and ready-to-use techniques to strengthen student reasoning and communication in any content area.
Quality Instruction: Dr. Liljedahl's research shows that when students work on thinking tasks in random groups on a vertical whiteboard, they are capable of co-creating incredible amounts of mathematical meaning and collective knowing-and-doing. In this session, participants will look at the Thinking Classroom practices that help students move this collective knowing-and-doing into individual knowing-and-doing while, at the same time, beginning to take responsibility for their own learning. The practices discussed will intertwine with, and make extensive references to, the recently published book, Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics (Grades K-12): 14 Teaching Practices for Enhancing Learning.
Disciplinary Literacy: This session equips secondary educators with practical strategies for fostering robust vocabulary acquisition across all subject areas. Participants will explore discipline-specific lexical demands and learn to implement engaging, research-based techniques for vocabulary instruction. We will focus on integrating vocabulary development into existing curricula, ultimately enhancing student comprehension and academic success.
Participants will unlock the power of literacy in a variety of contexts. We will explore the morphology of vocabulary, consider the types of skills students need to be literate in different subject areas, and choose texts with purpose for the content areas.
Quality Instruction Consistent instructional routines foster a structured yet flexible environment where students can engage deeply with content, think critically, and participate in meaningful discussions. In this session, we will explore high-impact routines and strategies that promote curiosity, student voice, and deeper learning across all content areas. You will leave with ready-to-use routines that enhance engagement and make learning more interactive and thought-provoking.
Quality Instruction: In this session, we’ll dive into practical, easy-to-use reading strategies that help secondary students become stronger, more confident readers. We’ll walk through before, during, and after reading techniques that can be used with any text. You’ll get a chance to see the strategies in action, collaborate with fellow teachers, and walk away with a set of ready-to-use tools and ideas you can bring straight into your classroom.
Quality Instruction: This session will introduce secondary teachers to the foundational principles of AVID’s Collaborative Study Groups (CSGs). Participants will learn how to structure and facilitate student-led study groups that promote inquiry, critical thinking, and academic engagement. The session will cover key roles, procedures, and strategies to ensure CSGs are effective in supporting student learning across content areas.
In this interactive professional development session, teachers will explore common barriers that prevent the use of academic discussion and cooperative learning strategies in the classroom. Participants will engage in strategies they can take back and implement in their own classrooms—while collaboratively identifying solutions to these barriers.
This session will be for current Physical Education teachers PK-8 to get a chance to learn a new activity that combines 4 square and volley into one exciting activity!
