2026 Nevada PhD

Do you ever feel like your day is a soundtrack but you didn't get to choose it?  In this session learn a few practical skills to stay focused, balanced and productive leading to regaining the position of DJ to your day.

This session will provide an overview of how to administer and interpret the Core Phonics Survey and the PAST (Phonological Awareness Screening Test) to identify students’ foundational literacy strengths and needs. Participants will learn how to use assessment data to determine students’ phonics and phonemic awareness levels, plan targeted instruction, and support early reading development through data-informed decision making.

When we send out weekly newsletters, permission slip updates, or classroom announcements, we want 100% of our families to receive the message. But did you know that standard practices, like emailing a screenshot of a flyer or pasting giant website links, accidentally lock out parents who rely on translation apps, screen magnifiers, or smartphones to read school updates?
In this practical, 45-minute session, we will shift our focus to parent and student communication. You will learn how a few tiny, effortless tweaks to your emails and newsletters can ensure your messages are perfectly readable for every family, every time.
This is a hands-on session. Bring a template or draft of a communication you send home often (a weekly update, a syllabus, or a field trip flyer). We will give it an "accessibility makeover" together so you can start the upcoming school year communicating with total confidence!

What if we approached unit planning more like flood prevention? We would anticipate pressure points before problems arise, and put supports in place beforehand. This session will give you (K-12, any content) a practical diagnostic framework to prepare for the academic, social, and executive demands of a unit before it trickles over. We will build support proactively and make instruction more efficient for both students and teachers. You will be given time to listen, then time to work.

This session will provide special education teachers with time to collaborate to discuss the needs of students and strategies that have been used successfully. We will also be looking at how to write goals that will transition easily as students move to the next grade level or building.

Early Childhood Literacy - Come explore phonemic awareness sequencing from rhyming, alliteration, and syllables to phonemic manipulation! This is a great session to see the progression of literacy from preschool - 1st grade and even 2nd grade interventions. We will present many different approaches to integrating phonemic awareness in your literacy lessons from Literacy Footprints, Kickstart, and LETRS. We hope to share our passion for early childhood literacy along with providing work time and team discussions!

This session is designed to strengthen teachers’ skills in building effective and consistent communication with families. We will focus on how and when to have honest and caring conversations with families.  Teachers will also engage in scenarios to practice navigating conversations with empathy, professionalism, and clarity.