BREAKOUT SESSIONS | CONNECTING TO STAFF
This literacy presentation focuses on foundational reading components and practical instructional strategies for primary and elementary classrooms:
Fluency & Assessment: Explores the definition and significance of oral reading fluency (ORF) as a key predictor of comprehension.
Instructional Strategies by Grade Level: Outlines targeted classroom practices, such as partner reading and rhyming, repeated readings or Reader’s Theater.
Core Comprehension Strategies: Covers essential techniques and strategies for helping students with constructing meaning.
Explicit & Implicit Modeling: Differentiates between modeling fluent reading implicitly through read-alouds and explicitly through teacher think-alouds.
Navigating Informational Texts: Addresses the high demands complex non-fiction texts place on students, offering practical reading strategies and examples.
The culture we live or work in impacts our experience as well as our personal and professional development. This session presents four components of a healthy and effective culture that creates high levels of safety, trust, and belonging.
When these components are present, enjoyment, potential fulfillment, and high performance are more likely to occur:
(1) everyone’s first job is to help others succeed,
(2) communicate ‘you matter,’
(3) honor the absent, and
(4) see the problem, own the problem.
It also presents a tool for assessing the degree to which these components exist in a culture.
The reactions and handling of a student or colleague in the moment a mistake is made is more impactful than we think! This session focuses on:
(1) the beliefs formed about ourselves from the messages we receive from others when we make a mistake,
(2) what keeps us stuck in our comfort zone, and
(3) more effective ways of responding to our own mistakes and the mistakes of others.
In mission-driven schools, many of us avoid hard conversations because accountability feels like it betrays grace. So deadlines slide, problems go unaddressed and our best people quietly burn out.
The fix starts long before the conversation. When a school is explicit about who it is and who it isn’t, with clear core behaviors and clear performance expectations, those expectations can be built into everything: how you hire, how you welcome fit families, and how you lead day to day.
Casey shows how a simple scorecard for every role, and a clear picture of a fit family, turn accountability into an act of care. Then when someone misses the mark, the conversation isn’t out of the blue. It’s grounded in what everyone already agreed to, and it can be honest, short and loving.
Participants will:
– See why avoiding accountability damages the very relationships it is meant to protect
– Define clear behavior and performance expectations for any role, and what a fit family looks like for their school
– Learn how to build those expectations into hiring and enrollment, so every hard conversation starts on common ground
Too many schools are stuck on a hamster wheel: busy for busyness’ sake, playing whack-a-mole with the same problems, fixing the blame instead of fixing the process.
Teachers and principals end the year exhausted and can’t point to much that actually moved the school forward. Sit in a school’s meetings and you’ll learn almost everything about its health.
This session introduces a simple leadership rhythm (a short daily huddle, a weekly team meeting, monthly and quarterly check-ins and an annual planning day) that works ON the school, not just in it. Problems get traced to their root causes and carried up to quarterly and annual planning, and the wins flow back to everyone.
The result is a cohesive team with clarity, a shift from scarcity to abundance, and people who thrive because they can see the success and know they helped make it happen.
Participants will:
– Spot whether their school is fixing the process or fixing the blame, and where their own time really goes
– Map a weekly, monthly and quarterly rhythm that fits a thin staff
– Leave with one change to make before Christmas break
A school’s culture is shaped in the small, everyday moments between leaders and the people they serve.
This interactive session begins with an experience that helps participants see and feel how emotions influence their decisions, relationships, and impact on others. From there, participants will explore practical emotional intelligence strategies for managing themselves under pressure, responding instead of reacting, and creating Meaningful Micro Moments.
School leaders will leave with simple tools they can use immediately to strengthen relationships, navigate challenging conversations, and help build a culture where people feel valued, supported, and ready to do their best work.
When change creates uncertainty, people look to their leaders for more than answers. They need honesty, connection, and someone willing to listen.
In this interactive session, Steve Fredlund combines memorable safari stories with practical leadership insights to explore what school leaders and educators can do when the familiar playbook no longer fits. Through reflection and conversation, participants will consider how to show up authentically, strengthen trust, and approach difficult conversations with curiosity.
Participants will leave with small, specific actions they can use to support colleagues and build stronger school communities, even when they don’t know what comes next.
Artificial intelligence continues to evolve, creating new opportunities for educators and administrators. In this session, we’ll explore some AI tools and practical ways to improve communication, instruction, and everyday school operations. Through real-world examples and live demonstrations, discover how AI can save time, increase efficiency, and make your job easier.
Participants will explore proactive classroom practices that prevent escalation, de-escalation approaches for tense moments, and ways to repair and reconnect afterward. The session also demystifies the role of school counseling: when and how to refer, what counselors can (and can’t) do, and how teachers, administrators, and counselors can work as a coordinated team to support students with the greatest needs.
Attendees will leave with ready-to-use tools, a clearer picture of how to collaborate with their school counseling team, and renewed confidence in responding to difficult behavior.
Learning objectives:
- Identify common functions and underlying causes of student behavior
- Apply two to three proactive and de-escalation strategies immediately in the classroom
- Understand the school counselor’s role and recognize when to refer a student
- Strengthen communication and collaboration between teachers, administrators, and counseling staff
Generation Z is unraveling. As adults, we need to significantly change how we raise, mentor, and interact with the next generation. Young people need to know they are Strong, not fragile; responsible, not self-absorbed; and that, at their core, they have intrinsic dignity… They are Precious, not Perfect.
This presentation draws on outside experts and offers practical tips you can use in your next interaction with a young person in your life. It is suited for any group working with young people (parents, educators, youth workers, etc.).
School culture isn’t built through a mission statement on the wall. It’s built through everyday interactions, traditions, expectations, and relationships. Discover small, intentional practices that help students, staff, and families feel connected, valued, and part of something special.
Whether it’s a conversation with a parent, colleague, or student, educators and administrators often face situations where the message is difficult but necessary. Learn how to communicate with warmth, clarity, confidence, and compassion without avoiding accountability.
We spend years learning how to run schools/companies — but almost no time learning how to lead humans.
This breakout is for educators who want more than survival and compliance; it’s for leaders who care about connection, culture, and the legacy they’re building every single day. You’ll walk away with leadership tools you can actually use on Monday — short videos, simple lessons, and practical activities that strengthen confidence, human connection, and gratitude in both adults and students. Nothing fluffy. Nothing theoretical. Just real tools that work in real schools. (And yes — there may be a few free things along the way.)
If you’re tired of initiatives that don’t stick and ready to lead in a way that actually lasts, this session is for you.
In today’s fast-paced environment, building emotional resilience is an important foundational skill that will benefit everyone’s mental well-being.
This session will share the connection that the Saints have with breathing tools to help students and teachers regulate when emotions may be high. You will walk away with knowledge about the Saints and how you can utilize different social-emotional tools in the classroom and in your own lives.
A look at how peer duos and strong relationships can have a positive impact in Preschool classrooms. Hear about practical strategies for connecting students, fostering leaders, and differentiating instruction.
The beauty of ECE and its value, licensing requirements, and state standards.
Conflict is inevitable—but it doesn’t have to be destructive.
In this highly interactive session, participants will explore a framework for identifying and navigating “bear attacks” (challenging conversations) with their team, parents and external partners. We’ll examine how to proactively build trust and understanding, recognize when tension arises, and use practical tools to turn potential conflict into opportunities for relationship and clarity.
Attendees leave with strategies to communicate with greater confidence, empathy, and purpose.
Everyone has heard of a growth mindset. But what does it actually look like in practice? And how do we move beyond simply encouraging people to “try harder” or “keep a positive attitude” to genuinely creating environments where growth mindset thrives?
In this highly interactive session, participants will challenge their own assumptions about growth mindset, explore the differences between fixed and growth mindsets, and examine five core messages that can transform how we approach learning, leadership, and challenges. Through reflection, discussion, and hands-on activities, participants will discover practical strategies for making growth mindset more than a slogan—turning mistakes into opportunities, challenges into catalysts, and everyday interactions into opportunities for growth.
Participants will leave with concrete strategies they can immediately apply in their own organizations.