This session focuses on how to build digital assessments that can provide immediate feedback to students and valuable data to you. Whether you are looking to create a quick "exit ticket" or a comprehensive end-of-unit exam, we will walk through the process of building, managing, and moderating quizzes within your course. Key Topics 📋 Question Types: Explore a variety of formats—from simple multiple-choice to more interactive options like matching and fill-in-the-blank. Question Banks: Discover how to organize and store your questions so you can easily reuse them across different assessments or school years. Quiz Settings: Learn how to manage time limits, shuffle answers, and set up multiple attempts to fit your instructional goals. Moderation & Accommodations: Learn how to grant extra time or attempts for specific students to ensure every learner's needs are met. 💻 Hands-on workshop time is embedded into this session; remember to bring your OPS device and charger!
This session will provide an overview of findings from the 2025 Kansas Teacher Retention Survey, conducted during the second quarter of the school year. With a strong response rate from Olathe educators, the data offers a highly representative view of the elementary teacher experience across USD 233. Participants will receive a brief foundation of the research approach, followed by a summary of key district-level findings related to teacher experience, engagement, and factors influencing retention. The session will then transition into a facilitated focus group, where elementary educators will have the opportunity to reflect on the data, share perspectives, and provide context that helps deepen understanding of the results. The goal of this session is to pair quantitative findings with educator voice to better understand what is shaping the elementary teaching experience in USD 233.
In this session, we’ll dig into Wit & Wisdom lessons to uncover the rigorous questions already built into the curriculum and explore how they can spark meaningful student conversations. We’ll share simple engagement strategies that create more opportunities for students to think deeply, respond to one another, and participate in discussion. With intentional planning, we can shift from teacher talk to student talk and build classrooms full of curious, active, and engaged learners.
Spelling is not a matter of visual memory; it is the visual representation of language. This session tracks the developmental trajectory of spelling from the primary grades through upper elementary, showing how early speech-to-print foundations evolve into advanced structural word study. In the first half of the session, we will focus on the primary orthographic pathway (Grades K–2). In the second half, we will shift to the intermediate grades (Grades 3–5) to explore the morphological advantage. Because English orthography is patterned by both sound and meaning, we will demonstrate how teaching meaning-bearing word parts stabilizes spelling for older students including sound-mapping frameworks and morphological matrices strengthen spelling.
This refresher session is a repeat of our 12/19 professional learning over Introducing: Canvas. This session is designed to give you a solid foundation before you dive into more specialized topics. Whether you are seeing the platform for the first time or simply want a comprehensive review of the essentials, this session provides the space to get comfortable with the interface and ensure your digital classroom is ready for students. đź’» Hands-on workshop time is embedded into this session; remember to bring your OPS device and charger!
This session is designed to help you master the Canvas Gradebook and SpeedGrader—two powerful tools that work together to streamline your grading workflow and provide meaningful, timely feedback to your students. Whether you are looking to automate your grading process or enhance the quality of your student feedback, this session will show you how to spend less time on paperwork and more time on instruction. 📋 Key Topics Gradebook Fundamentals: Learn how to set up grading schemes, weighted groups, and "Missing" or "Late" policies to automate your workflow. SpeedGrader Mastery: Discover how to view, grade, and annotate student submissions all in one place without downloading a single file. Rubrics for Success: Build and attach rubrics to assignments to ensure consistent grading and clear expectations for students. Effective Feedback: Explore various ways to provide feedback, including inline comments, text summaries, and even video/audio clips. 💻 Hands-on workshop time is embedded into this session; remember to bring your OPS device and charger!
This session will provide an overview of findings from the 2025 Kansas Teacher Retention Survey, conducted during the second quarter of the school year. With a strong response rate from Olathe educators, the data offers a highly representative view of the elementary teacher experience across USD 233. Participants will receive a brief foundation of the research approach, followed by a summary of key district-level findings related to teacher experience, engagement, and factors influencing retention. The session will then transition into a facilitated focus group, where elementary educators will have the opportunity to reflect on the data, share perspectives, and provide context that helps deepen understanding of the results. The goal of this session is to pair quantitative findings with educator voice to better understand what is shaping the elementary teaching experience in USD 233.
Fluency in mathematics is more than just speed or memorization. According to the book "Figuring Out Fluency in Mathematics", fluency is the ability to use efficient, flexible, and accurate strategies to solve problems. In this session we will dive into key components of fluency, what fluency is NOT, how fluency develops, and why fluency matters. We will also explore the Eureka strategies and discuss which strategies to prioritize. Please bring a district device (Surface Pro or iPad) to use during this session.
I have been with OSD for 33 of 37 years teaching. I have taught second and third grade at Indian Creek Elementary and have enjoyed being a Title math interventionist now for 22 years. I enjoy getting to work with K-5th grades and love watching them grow in math and feel good about... Read More →
I have worked in Olathe School District for 9 years. I have taught 4th and 5th grade. Â I currently am the math interventionist at Indian Creek Elementary. Â I love working with K-5 grades grow in their math journey!
Thursday May 28, 2026 10:00am - 11:30am CDT Room 814
As classroom teachers, we understand the challenges that come with preparing, planning, and teaching Wit & Wisdom. We will look at backwards planning, identifying the important parts of the lesson, and some fun ideas we have incorporated to increase student engagement. This collaborative session will include time to share ideas with teachers as we all dive into year 3.
Meeting the individual needs of every student takes a village, especially when behavior and mental health struggles are extreme. This session will evaluate two case studies with practical tips for partnering with team members and collaborating with parents. We will also focus on how to navigate obstacles including resistant staff members or parents. We will address the 4 R’s of collaboration: Relationships, Resources, Responsibilities, and Results.
Juliana has been a Behavior Coach for Olathe Schools for six years. Prior to that, she has been a general education teacher, resource teacher, and SER teacher. She recently earned her Doctorate in Educational Leadership. She actively collaborates with teams to problem-solve and... Read More →
Deb has been an elementary counselor for 12 years (8 in Olathe Schools) as well as a general education teacher.  Deb is passionate about working collaboratively with all stakeholders to best meet the emotional and behavioral needs of all students. She could not do her job without... Read More →
Thursday May 28, 2026 12:30pm - 2:00pm CDT Room 315
In Canvas, Modules and Pages serve as the structural backbone of your digital classroom. This session focuses on how to organize your content so that students can navigate your course intuitively and access materials without confusion. đź“‹ Key Topics
Module Organization: Learn how to use Modules to categorize and sequence your content logically.
Effective Page Design: Master the Rich Content Editor (RCE) to create central hubs for lessons, combining text, images, and video in one place.
đź’» Hands-on workshop time is embedded into this session; remember to bring your OPS device and charger!
As millennial parents increasingly shape the K–12 education landscape, schools must reconsider how they approach family engagement. This workshop presents findings from a qualitative study exploring millennial parents’ perceptions of parental involvement in elementary education in the JOCO area. Participants will review key themes from the research, including parents’ expectations for transparent communication, consistent access to information, and meaningful opportunities to collaborate with schools. The session will also highlight the most common concerns parents raise and examine how leadership practices influence school-family relationships. Participants will then explore how PBIS can serve as a framework for creating more inclusive and responsive family engagement practices. Through discussion and reflection, attendees will identify strategies to strengthen partnerships with families and build school cultures grounded in trust, collaboration, and shared responsibility.
Juliana has been a Behavior Coach for Olathe Schools for six years. Prior to that, she has been a general education teacher, resource teacher, and SER teacher. She recently earned her Doctorate in Educational Leadership. She actively collaborates with teams to problem-solve and... Read More →
Thursday May 28, 2026 2:30pm - 4:00pm CDT Room 315
