Professional Workshops

Scroll below to see examples of various presentation topics.

Beyond working with teachers in professional development contexts, I consult with school districts and organizations regarding honors programming, access to cognitive rigor, coaching and collaboration, and differentiated instruction.

Vertical Differentiation: Strategies to Stretch Student Thinking

How do we guide students to “dig deeper” beyond surface-level learning? This session highlights the use of “stretch prompts” to stimulate and challenge gifted students in their learning. These strategies can be used as “vertical differentiation” to dial up instruction, assignments, and tasks to ignite inquiry and deeper learning. Learn to apply these ideas with concrete examples applied across various content areas and grade levels.

Using Advanced AI Prompts to Differentiate and Design for Deeper Learning

This session provides educators with a guide to integrating AI into gifted instruction. Learn how to design engaging, rigorous tasks using AI, and discover how to evaluate AI-generated outputs for alignment with best practices in differentiation for advanced learners. Gain skills to assess the depth and quality of AI-driven responses, ensuring these tools enhance creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. Practical examples and hands-on activities will equip educators to elevate their instructional practices and inspire deeper learning.

Collaboration and Coaching in Gifted Education

Collaborative teaching practices support regular education teachers in learning skills and strategies to differentiate for gifted students. Learn the tools and “how-to” steps for facilitating and sustaining collaborative teaching and instructional coaching in ways that build capacity for teachers to challenge and support gifted students all day every day.

This session is based on work I have co-developed with Dr. Vicki Phelps. This presentation can be tailored specifically to co-teaching, coaching, and/or push-in contexts.

What Makes Honors Classes More Than a Name?

What makes honors classes different from standards classes? Often Honors classes offer an additional project or move at a faster pace, but is that enough? Learn a framework for defining features of honors-level classes. Leave with tools to create challenging learning experiences for your students.

What to do About Gifted Kid Burnout: Strategies for Building Resilience

Do you notice that some gifted children can sometimes be overly self-critical and insecure, even though they have a long-list of accomplishments and accolades? How can we help gifted students manage perfectionism and develop resilience to persevere in the face of setbacks? How do we teach students to develop academic tenacity to stick to their goals? In this session, you will learn lesson ideas for helping students take intellectual risks, use self-regulation strategies, develop self-awareness of how emotions can paralyze or catalyze pursuits towards achievement, use problem-solving to cope with setbacks, and reflect and appropriately respond to criticism.

This session is based on research I have co-authored with Dr. Megan Parker Peters.

Cognitive Rigor in Action: Tools for Deeper Learning

Are you ready to elevate instruction to the next level? Learn guiding principles to plan learning experiences that challenge students with the “just right” amount of friction in their learning. Plan ways to go beyond surface level learning to deeper layers of meaning. Walk away with several tools and strategies that add layers of challenge, ignite curiosity, and promote cognitive rigor.

Elevating English Language Arts: Designing for Depth

How can you add rigor to student learning in English Language Arts? How can we make sure advanced English Language Arts classes are truly advanced? What does it mean to develop expertise in Language Arts? Learn to apply easy-to-use models to develop tiered assignments, projects, and tasks to ensure gifted and advanced students are challenged.

This session content is based on co-authored work with Dr. Tamra Stambaugh.

Wired Differently: Creating Space for Deep Thinking in a Distracted World

In a world of constant digital connection, today’s gifted students face new challenges to their focus, creativity, and depth of thought. This session explores how the pace and patterns of a screen-saturated environment shape how gifted learners think, imagine, and engage with academic content. Drawing on insights from neuroscience and gifted development, we will examine how educators can create intentional classroom conditions that encourage curiosity, reflection, and deeper thinking—reclaiming the space students need to engage meaningfully beyond the screen. (This session has been tailored to keynote)