In Canyons School District, we believe that all stakeholders benefit from purposeful technology integration within the learning process, focusing on student achievement. Educational technology will be used to empower teachers, students, and other stakeholders to gain the knowledge and skills needed to adapt, create, consume, and connect responsibly and ethically with the broader world in preparation for meaningful life opportunities.
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This session will be structured as an Assistive Technology Sandbox, where participants rotate through short, hands-on stations to explore tools that support student access, communication, and independence. Each station will feature a brief overview, quick demonstration, and time to interact with the technology while considering real classroom scenarios.
The sandbox format encourages participants to experiment with tools in a low-pressure environment, helping build familiarity and confidence with assistive technology. By the end of the session, participants will have explored several AT options and identified tools or strategies they may want to try in their own classrooms.
AT/AAC Teacher Specialist, Canyons School District
Michaela Ball is a Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) who works to support teachers and SLPs in the Canyons School District in Sandy, Utah and serves on the district’s Utah Assistive Technology Team. She began her journey working in film as a production sound recordist and now uses... Read More →
Ready to work smarter, not harder? Join us for a fast-paced session packed with practical tech tips across Outlook, Google Workspace, Canvas, Apple, Notability, and beyond. These basic, easy-to-implement strategies will help you streamline your workflow, save time, and simplify your day — starting immediately.
Literacy in the secondary classroom doesn't have to feel scary! In this session we'll provide easy, supportive techniques for how to build up all student vocabularies that you can build into your routines, regardless of content area. Literacy is everyone's responsibility, so let's help students grow their literacy skills!
Instructional Coach, Hillcrest High, Canyons District
Sydnie has 17 years in education and a PhD in Curriculum & Instruction. She loves to nerd out about all things learning and EdTech. When she's not working, you can catch her playing with her two puppies, reading, or both.
I am a Literacy teacher at Hillcrest High School. I have taught elementary school for many years, and I am very interested in using technology to increase students' reading ability and vocabulary. I have experience teaching small group intervention, ESL, and have worked with all grades... Read More →
Participants will learn about the differences between healthy and unhealthy conflict, why conflict is scary, how to facilitate healthy conflict in a team, and how to respond to unhealthy conflict.
Jodi Ide has taught high schoolers and educators to question everything—except her music preferences and the Oxford comma. A social studies specialist with a soft spot for media literacy-themed picture books, she’s on a mission to make sure “once upon a time” doesn’t mean... Read More →
District library media specialist, Canyons School District
As co-lead of the Utah Information, News, and Media Literacy Collaborative, Gretchen Zaitzeff brings a strong background in fostering critical media engagement and empowering educators to integrate information, news, and media literacy across the curriculum. She works as the District... Read More →
Basics: This session provides a practical overview of co-teaching models—from Station Teaching to Team Teaching—designed to enhance student engagement and support diverse learners in general education settings. Participants will learn how to build professional relationships, share instructional responsibilities, and move beyond "one teach, one assist" to create true parity in the classroom.
How a Simple Weekly A-B-C Check-In Improved Attendance, Engagement, and Passing Rates Many secondary schools struggle to make advisory periods meaningful for students and manageable for teachers. At Alta High School, the Building Leadership Team developed a simple weekly check-in system that helps students track three key indicators of success: Attendance, Behavior, and Class performance (A-B-C). During advisory, students review their grades, identify missing assignments, and set short-term goals while teachers engage students in quick academic conversations. This simple structure encourages accountability, increases teacher-student interaction, and helps students stay aware of their academic progress. Since implementation, Alta has observed improvements in attendance, passing rates, and advisory participation, along with stronger relationships between teachers and students. In this session, participants will learn how the A-B-C Check-In works, how it was implemented during advisory, and how other schools can adapt this practical structure to strengthen student engagement and academic awareness.
Ready to power up your instruction and take your training to the next level? In this pop-culture themed interactive session, step into a model lesson that demonstrates how to maintain grade-level rigor in secondary classrooms while increasing access for all learners, especially Multilingual Learners (MLs). Through structured interaction, guided inquiry, and collaborative meaning-making, participants will explore how all students can engage with complex texts and experience a higher level of academic success. Walk away with effective instructional moves to power up learning and build a stronger toolkit of strategies for your classroom.
Amy has dedicated the past 26 years to education in various capacities, starting as a middle and high school ESL and Spanish teacher, then serving as a Culture and Equity Coordinator. Currently, she is a Teacher Specialist for Canyons School District in Sandy, Utah. Throughout her... Read More →
Scott Christensen brings 20+ years of experience in education as a teacher, instructional coach, and education specialist in grades K-12 in public schools and charter schools from Washington State, Florida, North Dakota, and Utah. He has taught English/Language Arts in grades 7-11... Read More →
Ready to work smarter, not harder? Join us for a fast-paced session packed with practical tech tips across Outlook, Google Workspace, Canvas, Apple, Notability, and beyond. These basic, easy-to-implement strategies will help you streamline your workflow, save time, and simplify your day — starting immediately.
This session is designed to bring you to the cutting edge, showcasing the most exciting and education-relevant innovations. We'll explore transformative breakthroughs, AI-driven scientific research in fields like medicine and data analysis. We'll also dive into deep learning models and AI-generated simulations that are redefining what's possible. Whether you’re tech-savvy or just getting started, this session will ground you in what’s real, what’s on the horizon, and how you can strategically engage with the next frontier of AI innovation.
Digital Teaching & Learning Specialist, Canyons School District
Emma Moss is a Digital Teaching and Learning Specialist and AI Project Co-Lead in Canyons School District, as well as the Artificial Intelligence for K-12 Program Director in Utah. She founded the Utah AI Collaborative and leads monthly meet-ups on AI and innovation in education... Read More →
Jonathan Stewart has been an educator for over 20 years. He is a facilitator and trainer for the AI in K12 project for the Utah State Board of Education. He is also the co-lead of the AI team in Canyons School District in Sandy, UT, in addition to other projects related to education... Read More →
Strong PLCs drive student achievement through collaboration and continuous improvement. This session explore research-based strategies to maximize PLC time including: setting clear goals and maintaining accountability, using data to inform instruction, fostering meaningful collaboration, structuring productive student-centered discussions. Participants will leave with actionable strategies to enhance their PLCs. Derivita will also showcase how its PLC features support these best practices.
Science tells us that we think in stories, remember in stories, and make meaning of our experiences through stories. Students connect to the story structure in media and games they consume. Teachers can harness the power of narrative structure to build engaging lessons. Come explore what conflict, rising action, and resolution look like through an educator's lens and discover how story structure can help you build compelling and rigorous instruction.
What if AI could help students talk more, not less? In this hands-on model lesson, participants step into a student role and experience a collaborative simulation set in the world of "The Giver". Each person takes on a secret role in a town hall meeting and uses AI guided prompts, hidden memories, moral dilemmas, and character motivations to spark live student to student discussion. Built around the QTEL PIE framework: Prepare, Interact, Extend; this session invites educators to experience the lesson and then debrief how the chatbot supports engagement, peer collaboration, and standards based instruction.
Although the example uses "The Giver," the approach can be adapted across grade levels and content areas, from science debates to historical simulations to collaborative math problem solving. Participants will leave with a practical model for using AI as a behind the scenes facilitator that amplifies student voice, supports purposeful talk, and deepens engagement with content, with one another, and with complex ideas. Ideal for classroom teachers, instructional coaches, and leaders looking for student-centered ways to integrate AI into instruction.
Scott Christensen brings 20+ years of experience in education as a teacher, instructional coach, and education specialist in grades K-12 in public schools and charter schools from Washington State, Florida, North Dakota, and Utah. He has taught English/Language Arts in grades 7-11... Read More →
Participants will learn about how a Coaching Cycle is personalized professional learning with the purpose of increasing teacher skills and student outcomes. All teachers have access to coaching and some teachers can choose to engage in a deep coaching cycle to improve their instruction and earn USBE credit at the same time.
This session showcases how media-literacy themed picture books can be a powerful tools for teaching essential media literacy dispositions, knowledge, and skills to learners of all ages. Educators will learn how to select and use picture books that spark inquiry, promote critical thinking, and encourage discussions about how media shapes our understanding of the information landscape. Participants will explore how themes such as triggers, news, misinformation, and representation are made accessible through engaging stories and illustrations. Strategies for adapting these books to different grade levels and collaborating with school librarians will be shared. Attendees will leave with practical ideas and resources to support students in becoming reflective, responsible, and media-savvy learners across the K-12 spectrum.
Jodi Ide has taught high schoolers and educators to question everything—except her music preferences and the Oxford comma. A social studies specialist with a soft spot for media literacy-themed picture books, she’s on a mission to make sure “once upon a time” doesn’t mean... Read More →
District library media specialist, Canyons School District
As co-lead of the Utah Information, News, and Media Literacy Collaborative, Gretchen Zaitzeff brings a strong background in fostering critical media engagement and empowering educators to integrate information, news, and media literacy across the curriculum. She works as the District... Read More →
This interactive 60-minute workshop supports teachers in integrating purposeful, structured student movement into instruction—without sacrificing clarity, safety, or learning focus. Participants will explore how clearly defined “look fors” (observable student behaviors and conditions) create structure for movement-rich classrooms. Through collaborative scenarios and guided practice, teachers will develop and refine their own look fors for a variety of movement opportunities. The session will be tech "light" with an opportunity to apply the "look for" guidelines within the Magic School AI tools as a support for planning, refining, and adapting movement routines for diverse classroom contexts.
By the end of the session, participants will: Identify and articulate clear, observable “look fors” for student movement Practice designing "look fors" across multiple instructional scenarios Use MagicSchoolAI to generate structured academic tasks refined by teacher determined "look fors" Establish norms and routines that support safe, efficient movement
Experienced as a classroom teacher and as an Ed Tech Coach, my current role is supporting my classroom colleagues in using instructional best practices. I am excited to collaborate with you!
Do you know your role in the IEP process? This session outlines the crucial contributions general education teachers bring to the IEP table, including data collection, implementing modifications, and supporting student success in the inclusive classroom. Participants will learn how to turn legally required attendance into meaningful collaboration, ensuring students with disabilities thrive in the general education curriculum.
This session prepares middle and high school teachers to confidently begin the school year using Qmlativ Student. Participants will explore essential daily workflows, including taking attendance, creating and managing seating charts, and using the gradebook. The session will also highlight new features and updates that streamline teacher workflows and improve access to data.
Instructional Technology Specialist, Canyons School District
Camille Cole is an Instructional Technology Specialist for Canyons School District, where she supports educators in developing innovative digital teaching and learning practices. In her role, she leads professional learning, instructional design, and technology integration initiatives... Read More →
Teachers know that data helps them understand their students' progress and plan for instruction. However, teachers who work in classes that do not have standardized tests sometimes struggle in collecting student data. Let us help you prep for your next CTESS cycle or simply help you better understand by using your current assignments and activities as the basis of formal data collection.
In the session "Extracting Fundamental Skills from Performance Repertoire," we will explore methods of how to systematically identify and teach specific skills through the performance materials that we as teachers select. The session also includes guided collaboration time where you will work with colleagues to apply these strategies to your own repertoire choices.
Do you love the idea of students collaborating on creative group projects but struggle to keep them accountable, productive and on task? Participants will have the chance to practice effective grouping strategies and a students self-tracking system to scaffold group projects and keep students on track and moving through a creative project step-by-step.
This professional learning session equips educators with high-impact protocols to ensure students become critical thinkers—not passive copy-pasters. They will learn and practice protocols that prioritize student agency and human judgment to guide students to critically read, question, and humanize AI's authoritative yet flawed answers. Leave with the transformative strategies needed to ensure every student embraces their intellectual agency and takes the AI driver’s seat in their learning journey.
Learning Intention: Cultivate intellectual agency by shifting from a focus on AI-generated products to a focus on the human-led process, ensuring students maintain cognitive ownership and authority over their work.
Success Criteria: Design learning experiences where students demonstrate authority over AI to reflect their own informed perspectives and academic nuance.
Secondary ELA Specialist, USBE - Utah State Board of Education
Dr. Naomi Watkins is the Secondary English Language Arts Specialist for the Utah State Board of Education, where she provides strategic oversight for ELA instruction, standards, and adolescent literacy. With over 20 years of experience in education and a Ph.D. specializing in adolescent... Read More →
Ready to energize your reading instruction? In this interactive session, participants will explore active reading strategies that “jazz up” literacy through purposeful collaboration. Attendees will learn creative and structured ways to partner students so they read, think, and process text together in meaningful ways. Participants will leave with ready-to-implement structures that increase student voice, accountability, and engagement while building strong comprehension skills through collaborative learning.
Detailed instruction on how to use each type of question in Canvas New Quizzes to maximize student engagement, reduce cheating, and minimize grading time.
This presentation would go over tips and tricks about how to better use things such as Skyward, Canvas, and Outlook, with things such as how to develop rules to automatically sort emails, how to set up Nightly Sync in Canvas, how to get attendance reports, how to email and print progress reports and missing assignment lists, downloading and uploading XLSX files and analyzing data, etc.
This session will introduce teachers to the Scribble creative writing platform and demonstrate how it can be used in K–12 classrooms to increase student engagement and creativity in writing. Scribble allows students to create their own stories using guided prompts and interactive tools, helping them build vocabulary, strengthen grammar skills, and develop confidence as writers. As students write, their ideas can come to life through visuals and storytelling features, making the writing process more engaging and meaningful. We will also focus on the research aspect of the program and go over the components. Participants will learn practical ways to integrate Scribble into literacy lessons, small group activities, and whole-class instruction to support creative expression and language development across grade levels.
Do you feel like you are the only one in your grade level/PLC/school implementing or promoting best practices? Are you wanting to help shift mindsets among your peers? In this session we will talk about 5 things YOU can do to become an effective change agent in your school to help shift instructional practices.
Join this practical session to move beyond the theory of multi-tiered systems and explore high-leverage, evidence-based strategies that can be implemented immediately. Participants will learn how to strengthen Tier 1 instruction, utilize diagnostic data to form flexible small groups, and implement targeted Tier 2 and 3 interventions that address specific skill gaps in reading and math. Whether you are looking to refine your current process or build a more collaborative intervention team, this session provides actionable tools to boost student achievement and prevent academic failure.
This session will introduce educators to accessible assistive technology strategies that support students’ executive functioning skills. The training will focus on leveraging embedded Google tools (such as Google Docs, Google Keep, Google Calendar, and Google Tasks) alongside emerging AI tools within MagicSchool to scaffold student independence. Participants will explore hands-on strategies for using built-in features—such as checklists, reminders, templates, and AI-generated task supports. By the end of the session, educators will leave with ready-to-use routines and digital supports that can be embedded into daily classroom instruction to strengthen executive functioning and increase student access to learning.
Jonathan Stewart has been an educator for over 20 years. He is a facilitator and trainer for the AI in K12 project for the Utah State Board of Education. He is also the co-lead of the AI team in Canyons School District in Sandy, UT, in addition to other projects related to education... Read More →
AT/AAC Teacher Specialist, Canyons School District
Michaela Ball is a Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) who works to support teachers and SLPs in the Canyons School District in Sandy, Utah and serves on the district’s Utah Assistive Technology Team. She began her journey working in film as a production sound recordist and now uses... Read More →
This session explores how Tier 2 academic vocabulary—high-utility, cross-disciplinary thinking words—can act as a hidden barrier to student success when not explicitly taught. Participants examine how students may understand content but struggle with the language of tasks, and learn practical strategies for embedding, modeling, and reinforcing Tier 2 vocabulary to improve clarity, equity, and student performance across disciplines.
Jodi Ide has taught high schoolers and educators to question everything—except her music preferences and the Oxford comma. A social studies specialist with a soft spot for media literacy-themed picture books, she’s on a mission to make sure “once upon a time” doesn’t mean... Read More →
Amy has dedicated the past 26 years to education in various capacities, starting as a middle and high school ESL and Spanish teacher, then serving as a Culture and Equity Coordinator. Currently, she is a Teacher Specialist for Canyons School District in Sandy, Utah. Throughout her... Read More →
