Teaching & Learning Summit 2025
SESSION II PROGRAMS
VOICE & CHOICE SESSIONS
- SESSION II -
11:15AM - 12:00PM
Annotation Strategies for the Content Areas
This session highlights annotation techniques that turn reading into active thinking. We will focus on methods such as the X Marks the Spot, the 4As, and the Three Levels of Response to help students analyze and understand complex texts. Participants will leave with a set of practical tools that improve comprehension and support stronger critical analysis in any subject.
Presenters: Mai-Linh Cummings
Target Audience: All Educators
Location: E229
Sessions Offered: II, III, IV
MTSS Practices: Learning Objectives, Flexible Methods, Learner's Mindset or Self-reflection, Critical Thinking or Feedback
Art as a Therapeutic Tool for Students
This session will explore how art can be used as a therapeutic tool to support student well-being, self-expression, and resilience. Teachers will learn strategies for integrating creative practices into daily instruction that help students manage emotions, reduce stress, and build positive connections. The session will also highlight how these approaches align with MTSS Tier 1 supports and promote social-emotional learning.
Presenters: Bridget O'Leary
Target Audience: K-8
Location: M8
Sessions Offered: II, III
MTSS Practices: Perseverance or Social/Emotional Learning
Bullying, Cyberbullying and Harassment: What Are They? What Are Gateway Behaviors to Them? And How Can We Address Them?
Join this interactive presentation based on the work of the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center (MARC) out of Bridgewater State University. Educators will explore the various kinds of bullying and harassment and what they look like in today's classrooms. The session will include understanding "gateway behaviors" to bullying and how we can address them.
Presenters: Pete Cavanaugh
Target Audience: All Educators
Location: Library
Sessions Offered: II, III
MTSS Practices: N/A
CKLA Problem Solving Session in Grades 3-5
Join your fellow educators for an interactive 45-minute professional development session focused on solving real-world challenges with our CKLA curriculum. Bring a specific "problem of practice" you're currently facing, and we will use a collaborative protocol to identify its root cause, brainstorm practical solutions, and leave the session with a concrete, actionable plan to implement in your classroom. This is an opportunity to get to the heart of our shared challenges and work together to find effective solutions.
Presenters: Nina Mancinelli
Target Audience: K-5
Location: W202
Sessions Offered: I, II, IV
MTSS Practices: Learning Objectives, Communication & Collaboration or Community, Flexible Methods, Flexible Materials, Learner's Mindset or Self-reflection, Critical Thinking or Feedback
Connecting Thinking Classrooms to the Portrait of a Learner
Teachers will participate in a Building Thinking Classrooms task to understand the student experience. We will connect the Thinking Task to Dedham's Portrait of a Learner competencies, seeing just how many of them can be addressed through these activities. You will have time to plan how you can incorporate Thinking Tasks into your math instruction.
Presenters: Kristen Mahoney and Aubrey Dolleman
Target Audience: K-5
Location: E231
Sessions Offered: I, II
MTSS Practices: Global Citizens or Student Identity, Perseverance or Social/Emotional Learning, Communication & Collaboration or Community, Learner's Mindset or Self-reflection, Critical Thinking or Feedback
Creativity Meets Service Learning
Students have ideas, passions, and the power to make a difference—but they need guidance, support, and a spark to get started. In this interactive session, Jacob Cramer will share stories from his decade-long journey creating Love For Our Elders, a national initiative connecting students with older adults through letter writing. Participants will explore how small acts can grow into meaningful service projects, discover strategies for integrating service learning into classrooms, and leave with actionable tools to ignite curiosity, empathy, and action in their students.
Presenters: Jacob Cramer
Target Audience: All Educators
Location: W203
Sessions Offered: I, II, III, IV
MTSS Practices: Global Citizens or Student Identity, Perseverance or Social/Emotional Learning, Communication & Collaboration or Community
Demystifying AI: What It Is, What It Isn’t, and What It Means for Teaching & Learning
AI is here — but what does that really mean for you as an educator? What does it mean for your students? In this session, we’ll clear up the confusion and talk plainly about what AI can actually do, what it can’t, and how to use it without feeling overwhelmed. We’ll look at real examples of classroom applications, discuss the risks and limitations, the need for AI literacy at every level, and try out a simple framework you can use to decide when and how AI might help you. You’ll leave with practical takeaways you can apply right away — and the confidence to approach AI on your terms.
Presenters: Erick Straghalis
Target Audience: All Educators
Location: W206
Sessions Offered: I, II, III
MTSS Practices: Learning Objectives, Global Citizens or Student Identity, Communication & Collaboration or Community, Flexible Methods, Flexible Materials, Learner's Mindset or Self-reflection, Critical Thinking or Feedback
Employing Visible Thinking Strategies for Engagement
This presentation will offer a hands-on professional development session focused on making student thinking visible! Together, we’ll explore engaging routines and resources that help students share their reasoning, reflect on their learning, and build deeper understanding. Teachers will walk away with resources to build a toolbox of ready-to-use strategies that can be applied across subjects to spark curiosity, encourage collaboration, and strengthen critical thinking in the classroom.
Presenters: Ethan Dolleman
Target Audience: 6-12
Location: W302
Sessions Offered: II, III
MTSS Practices: Communication & Collaboration or Community, Flexible Methods, Learner's Mindset or Self-reflection, Critical Thinking or Feedback
Empower Student Leadership Through Discourse
This session will focus on ways to empower student leadership by creating opportunities that promote productive discourse in the classroom. Strategies we discuss will be relevant for all educators and learners PK-12. Teachers are invited during this session to share out other instructional strategies they recommend as well. If this session sounds right for your students come talk with us!
Presenters: Kate Garand
Target Audience: All Educators
Location: W308
Sessions Offered: I, II, III
MTSS Practices: Perseverance or Social/Emotional Learning, Communication & Collaboration or Community, Learner's Mindset or Self-reflection, Critical Thinking or Feedback
From Chaos to Clarity: A Hands-On Google Workspace Workshop
This hands-on workshop will walk you through the process of organizing your digital life. You'll leave with a cleaner and better structured Google Drive, a personalized system for managing your to-do lists whether it be using Google Calendars, Tasks, Google Keep or Gmail. Get ready to get organized and start the school year with a clear mind and a streamlined digital system.
Presenters: Judy Foley
Target Audience: All Educators
Location: W303
Sessions Offered: I, II
MTSS Practices: Communication & Collaboration or Community
How to Become a Screencastify Superstar
Making videos for lessons can be a great way to engage students in ways you never have before! Come learn easy and manageable ways of how to use Screencastify, a tool for planning a UDL lesson!
Presenters: Jenny Dolan and Meghan Armstrong
Target Audience: All Educators
Location: W107
Sessions Offered: II, III, IV
MTSS Practices: Flexible Methods, Flexible Materials, Learner's Mindset or Self-reflection
Inclusive by Design: UDL & MTSS with NotebookLM
Struggling to find the time to adapt materials for every learner? Meet NotebookLM, your new AI-powered thinking partner from Google. In this hands-on session, you'll learn how to upload your existing curriculum documents - like PDFs, articles, and even Google Docs - and instantly create summaries, FAQs, and differentiated activities. Join us to explore a powerful tool that helps you effortlessly design instruction that meets the needs of all students.
Presenters: Kevin Kaufman
Target Audience: All Educators
Location: E222
Sessions Offered: II, III
MTSS Practices: Flexible Methods, Flexible Materials, Flexible Assessments, Learner's Mindset or Self-reflection
Learn with Inquiry Journeys!
You teach all day...it's time for a change! Come be a student in an Inquiry Journeys class taught by Avery Asst. Principal Julia Oettgen. During the lesson, teachers will be able to see first hand how to execute an IQ lesson and identify teacher moves that promote engagement and curiosity!
Presenters: Julia Oettgen
Target Audience: K-5
Location: E331
Sessions Offered: I, II, III
MTSS Practices: N/A
Level Up Your Classroom: Strategies to Promote Student Engagement
Level up your classroom with innovative, hands-on activities that spark student engagement and differentiate instruction for all learners. Learn how a library media specialist and a classroom teacher collaborated to incorporate project-based learning units and empower students through tools like 3D printing, escape rooms, and makerspaces. These projects can be easily adapted to any content or grade level, allowing students to showcase their diverse skills and talents. The session concludes with hands-on time, where you can try the tools yourself and receive personalized support and answers from the presenters.
Presenters: Alice Johnson & Michael Medeiros
Target Audience: All Educators
Location: W311
Sessions Offered: I, II
MTSS Practices: Learning Objectives, Global Citizens or Student Identity, Perseverance or Social/Emotional Learning, Communication & Collaboration or Community, Flexible Methods, Flexible Materials, Formative Assessments, Flexible Assessments, Learner's Mindset or Self-reflection, Critical Thinking or Feedback
Make It Vertical: Jump-Start Your Building Thinking Classroom - Secondary
Experience Building Thinking Classrooms using vertical boards and random groups, then see how using hints & extensions sustain productive struggle. Walk out with a one-page quick start lesson frame you can try tomorrow. A friendly intro for anyone curious about BTC—no prior experience needed.
Presenters: Sue Looney
Target Audience: 6-12
Location: W201
Sessions Offered: II
MTSS Practices: Learning Objectives, Communication & Collaboration or Community, Flexible Methods, Flexible Materials, Formative Assessments, Learner's Mindset, Critical Thinking or Feedback
Moving is Key to Engagement: Exploring Strategies to Ingrain Physical Activity Into Your Lessons
Many of us have seen our students exhibit dropping eyes, head on the desk, non-stop talking, slouched posture, anxiousness, and apathy during our lessons. Sometimes these are outcomes from things in our students' lives that are completely out of our control. However, most of the time we could probably make some adjustments to our lessons that allow children to be children. Children need movement to help regulate emotions, to motivate, to excite, and to improve self-esteem. Take this session to explore different strategies together.
Presenters: Alexandra Blenis-Gittens
Target Audience: All Educators
Location: W312
Sessions Offered: II
MTSS Practices: Perseverance or Social/Emotional Learning, Communication & Collaboration or Community, Flexible Methods, Flexible Assessments, Learner's Mindset or Self-reflection, Critical Thinking or Feedback
Musical Transitions
Moving students from one activity to another can be tricky: lost instructional time, behavior issues, etc. In this session, you'll experience movement breaks and musical transitions that maximize student learning and re-energize students, ready for the next activity of the day.
Presenters: Heather Kirby
Target Audience: K-5
Location: E322
Sessions Offered: II
MTSS Practices: Communication & Collaboration or Community
Newsela: Advanced PD for Users: Supporting Multilingual Learners
Explore Newsela content and features that meet the needs of multilingual learners, intentionally select resources to support student content-based needs, and plan a learning experience using Newsela tools and activities to support MLLs’ linguistic needs!
Presenters: Newsela Consultant
Target Audience: All Educators
Location: E324 - VIRTUAL
Sessions Offered: II
MTSS Practices: Learning Objectives, Global Citizens or Student Identity, Flexible Materials, Flexible Methods, Critical Thinking or Feedback
One for All
Teaching can often feel like juggling endless initiatives—UDL, SEL, CLSP, behavior supports, and more. This session will reframe that challenge by showing how one well-chosen practice can meaningfully address multiple components at once. Grounded in the vision of One Dedham, educators will learn and design strategies that multiply their impact, simplify their planning, and ensure that all students are included, supported, and challenged to thrive.
Presenters: Shannon Sheldon
Target Audience: All Educators
Location: W101
Sessions Offered: II, IV
MTSS Practices: Learning Objectives, Global Citizens or Student Identity, Perseverance or Social/Emotional Learning, Flexible Methods, Flexible Materials, Learner's Mindset or Self-reflection, Critical Thinking or Feedback
Retrieval Practices & The Science of Learning
This session will delve into the implications of the science of learning for classroom instruction, defining retrieval practice as a powerful strategy for memory and boosting student learning. We'll explore best practices for effective implementation, including the importance of low stakes and varied formats, and clarify the difference between useful examples (like brain dumps or quizzes) and common non-examples (like simple re-reading). Participants will then see practical application examples tailored for elementary grades and leave with a curated list of further resources to continue their professional learning journey.
Presenters: Amanda Porter and Olivia Eastwood
Target Audience: All Educators
Location: W102
Sessions Offered: I, II
MTSS Practices: Flexible Methods, Formative Assessments, Flexible Assessments, Learner's Mindset or Self-reflection, Critical Thinking or Feedback
Show What You Know: Performance Based Assessments
Massachusetts is shifting toward performance-based assessments, with the 2027 Gr 5 and 8 STE MCAS serving as an early example of this statewide change. In this interactive session, participants will unpack what makes a strong performance task and experience examples developed by MA DESE alongside select local DHS science assessments that bring these ideas to life in classrooms. Teachers will leave with practical tools and inspiration to design or adapt performance tasks that align with both state expectations and the Dedham's Portrait of a Learner goals.
Presenters: Amy Hill
Target Audience: All Educators
Location: W305
Sessions Offered: II, IV
MTSS Practices: Learning Objectives, Flexible Methods, Critical Thinking or Feedback
Strategies for Making Content Comprehensible for Multilingual Learners
We will look at specific strategies on what helps second language learners (and what does not). Please bring a lesson to take a deep dive into how you could possibly revamp it to engage all students.
Presenters: Alison Guifarro
Target Audience: All Educators
Location: E226
Sessions Offered: II, IV
MTSS Practices: Global Citizens or Student Identity, Flexible Methods, Flexible Materials
Structures for Improving Student Executive Functioning Skills in your Classroom
In this session we will address whole class systems for supporting all students with a focus on "STOP and Read the Room" language. We will additionally provide templates, tools and tricks that support students ability to attend to tasks, and build their skills as a independent learner.
Presenters: Kimberly Hermesch
Target Audience: All Educators
Location: E330
Sessions Offered: I, II, III
MTSS Practices: Perseverance or Social/Emotional Learning, Communication & Collaboration or Community, Flexible Methods, Flexible Materials, Learner's Mindset or Self-reflection
Student Analytics: Exploring Classroom Tools for Teachers
In this course, learn how to use Student Analytics to access a variety of student information. Learn how to navigate the system and use system tools; then explore the classroom dashboard metrics to drive instructional decisions.
Presenters: Susan Brock (PowerSchool Consultant)
Target Audience: All Educators
Location: DLL - Virtual Presentation
Sessions Offered: I, II
MTSS Practices: N/A
Student Collaboration and Writing Instruction: Students Helping Students
This session will illustrate how collaborative writing activities promote student engagement, accountability, critical thinking, and skill development while preparing students to meet writing expectations.
Presenters: Tricia Rocha
Target Audience: All Educators
Location: W103
Sessions Offered: I, II
MTSS Practices: Learning Objectives, Communication & Collaboration or Community, Flexible Methods, Flexible Materials, Formative Assessments, Learner's Mindset, Critical Thinking or Feedback
UFLI Foundations: Simple, Systematic, and Science-Based Reading Instruction
This workshop introduces UFLI Foundations, a comprehensive and explicit reading program that builds strong foundational reading skills. The curriculum is evidence-based and provides teachers with a systematic, eight-step lesson routine. We'll explore how this program targets essential skills like phonemic awareness, grapheme-phoneme correspondences, and decoding automaticity. You will leave with a clear understanding of UFLI Foundations and the tools to implement this powerful, research-based program in your classroom. Participants will also leave the workshop with a UFLI Teacher’s Manual.
Presenters: Michelle Canty and Allison Kieffner
Target Audience: K-3
Location: W108
Sessions Offered: I, II, IV
MTSS Practices: Learning Objectives, Flexible Methods, Flexible Materials, Formative Assessments, Flexible Assessments
Understanding Implicit Bias and Cultivating Equity in Education and Mental Health
This session will be an overview and really should be a first part of ongoing learning on this topic. We will look at our own identities and define and explore the foundations and implications of implicit bias, take an implicit Association Test (on own time for shorter session) and have a group discussion about the impacts of bias and ways to address it, looking at and defining microaggressions, intersectionality, power and privilege. If you're considering attending, it's suggested you take the Implicit Association Test (Harvard Implicit Association Test - takes about 5 minutes).
Presenters: Elaine Goldberg Sheehy
Target Audience: All Educators
Location: W110
Sessions Offered: II
MTSS Practices: Global Citizens or Student Identity, Perseverance or Social/Emotional Learning, Communication & Collaboration or Community, Learner's Mindset or Self-reflection, Critical Thinking or Feedback
Unlocking CKLA: Library Supports and Creative Extensions
In this interactive session, elementary teachers will learn how to strengthen their CKLA units by tapping into the power of the school library. Participants will explore how to access and use library resources that directly connect to CKLA content, discover additional online tools that provide equitable access through translation and audio features, and design engaging STEM/Makerspace challenges that extend CKLA themes into creative, hands-on learning opportunities. Teachers will leave with practical strategies, ready-to-use resources, and new ideas for enriching their CKLA instruction.
Presenters: Katie deWit, Wendy Garland, and Ingrid Mayyasi
Target Audience: K-5
Location: W111
Sessions Offered: I, II
MTSS Practices: Communication & Collaboration or Community, Flexible Methods, Flexible Materials, Critical Thinking or Feedback
Using Artifacts to Engage Students Across the Curriculum
The presenters will share material from the Dedham Museum educational collection, demonstrating how objects and documents can be used to engage students in critical thinking. Attendees will brainstorm about potential historic and everyday objects/materials that can have connections with curriculum, and possible activities associated with such objects.
Presenters: Johanna McBrien and James Parr
Target Audience: 2-8
Location: W306
Sessions Offered: I, II
MTSS Practices: Communication & Collaboration or Community, Flexible Methods, Flexible Materials
Using the Wonder of Science Mini Lessons to Teach NGGS Science Practices at Any Grade Level
This session will introduce participants to the Wonders of Science beginning with the NGGS practices terms. Then participants will explore the resources available to support the practices. Finally participants will learn how to teach system modeling using a mini-lesson that is designed to be simple and accessible to all learners.
Presenters: Christine Casali
Target Audience: All Educators
Location: W112
Sessions Offered: I, II
MTSS Practices: Learning Objectives, Flexible Methods, Flexible Materials, Formative Assessments, Flexible Assessments
