Innovate. Lead. Excel. 26-27

The session will give teachers ideas on how to motivate their students to write, the importance of writing accross content areas and ways to make connections to what they are learning in a fun and engaging way.

Students in grades 3–8 often struggle to transform reading comprehension into clear, organized, evidence-based writing. This highly interactive session equips educators with research-aligned, classroom-ready writing strategies that accelerate growth while strengthening student confidence and ownership.


Participants will experience an interactive blended-learning writing model that includes live instructional stations, targeted scaffolds, and data-driven progress monitoring designed to move students from minimal responses to proficient multi-paragraph and extended constructed writing.


Teachers will leave with ready-to-implement tools, rubrics, graphic organizers, and station structures they can use immediately to improve writing outcomes in grades 3–8.

Student collaboration is most powerful when it is intentionally structured. In this interactive session, teachers will learn how to strategically pair students to increase meaningful academic conversations and engagement in the classroom. Participants will explore practical strategies for structuring partner work and sheltering academic interactions to enable emergent bilingual students to fully participate in rigorous learning. Teachers will leave with ready-to-use conversation supports, pairing structures, and routines that promote equitable participation and language development.

Planting Seeds for Safety: Meeting Social-Emotional Needs First focuses on understanding trauma and its impact on student behavior and learning. Participants will learn practical strategies to build emotional safety, support regulation, and respond to behavior through connection rather than reaction. This session highlights the role of adults in planting intentional seeds that promote calm classrooms, readiness to learn, and long-term student growth.