The WGFD offers a variety of exciting conservation education programs for schools under the Department's "Inspire a Kid" campaign, in conjunction with our supporting partners. We offer schools and educators a variety of conservation education programs and resources, including Trout in the Classroom, National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP), Hunter Education in the Schools, Conservation Crates, and Project WILD. These programs are unique in that they offer educators creative ways to bring the outdoors inside their classrooms, to grow students' appreciation and understanding of wildlife and natural resources in Wyoming.
Mixed Six tasks help teachers break down complex concepts and examine student understanding across multiple levels, rather than treating learning as a single progression from “right” to “wrong.” What makes this session unique is its focus on the design of thinking rather than the delivery of content. Mixed Six is presented as a reusable instructional design framework, not a subject-specific strategy. This session is intentionally practical. Participants will experience a Mixed Six task firsthand and leave with a clear, adaptable template they can use to design their own Mixed Six tasks in any subject area. Educators will gain a new way to think about cognitive demand and complexity—one that supports differentiation, deepens understanding, and can be immediately implemented in their own classrooms.
This session boasts engagement strategies, teaching strategies, and even a rap. Through the session, I will both model and provide structured work time to incorporate AI as a tool for learning, as well as hosting classroom discussions about ethical use to help students see technology holistically.
This session offers Wyoming principals, instructional coaches, and PLC leaders access to a complete, hands-on workflow for visualizing WyTOPP data—from raw score cleaning to uploading and generating customized visual dashboards. Participants won’t just learn “about” data analysis; they will engage directly with their own school or district datasets using the Vizit Suite (Vizit, Vizit Over Time, and Vizit Create), a set of tools developed specifically for Wyoming educators and aligned to WyTOPP data structures.
Dual and concurrent enrollment can give students a head start on college, but without the right guidance, it can also feel a bit like sending them onto a college campus with a backpack full of good intentions and a very confusing course catalog. In this interactive session, we’ll explore how high school counselors, college advisors, and faculty can work together to create a supportive system that helps students choose the right courses, understand expectations, and build the confidence and skills they need to succeed in college. Through conversation and shared experiences, participants will exchange practical strategies for advising students, strengthening high school–college partnerships, and ensuring dual enrollment is more than just earning credits, it’s a meaningful step toward long-term college success.
Jeana Lam-Pickett is the Manager of Central Wyoming BOCES, where she has served for the past 13 years. In this role, she oversees a variety of educational programs, including one of the organization's largest initiatives—dual and concurrent enrollment. Throughout her career, Jeana... Read More →
Every teacher knows this moment… You’re talking. Half the class is listening. Three kids are still finishing a story. Someone drops a pencil. And the room slowly slides off the rails.
Whole Brain Teaching gives us a reset button:
""Class!"" ""Yes!""
Think about the best things from the 90s.
A Nintendo controller. A Tamagotchi. A pair of LEGO bricks.
None of them were complicated. In fact, the magic was the opposite. The rules were simple enough that anyone could jump in instantly. But once you had the basics, the possibilities never ran out.
That’s exactly what Class! / Yes! is.
At its core, it’s the simplest routine you’ll ever teach.
Teacher says “Class!” Students respond “Yes!”
Whatever tone, rhythm, or energy the teacher uses, the class mirrors it. That mirroring locks in attention, gets every voice involved, and resets the room in seconds.
Students already know the game. They know the rule. Their brains don’t have to figure out what to do. But the tiny variations keep it fresh, playful, and engaging.
It’s like the Macarena of classroom management. Everyone knows the moves.
By 2030, the global gaming industry will be worth over $600 billion—larger than the film and music industries combined. Yet, we still treat 'screen time' as a hurdle to learning rather than the finish line. What if the hours your students spend in Minecraft or Roblox weren't a waste of time, but an unrefined apprenticeship in systems thinking, Boolean logic, and collaborative project management?
I have been in education for 24 years and have my PhD in Educational Technology. I am currently a teacher at Rawlins High School and just completed year 4 there. I am also the Yearbook advisor, the Key Club Advisor and one of the eSports coaches.
Tuesday August 4, 2026 1:45pm - 2:45pm MDT Cheyenne
Indigenous Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics is practiced by my middle school students as they learn how develop a research project around camera trap data. This project is an on going project where students are introduced to what research is. Students use an Indigenous approach that utilizes their ancestral knowledge systems through three questions from Yunkaporta (2020): What can we know?, What do know?, and How do we know it?
As with the seasons of the calendar year, teachers also experience different seasons in his/her teaching career and/or school year that are both uplifting and challenging. With these highs and lows it is vital for educators in all areas to know about each of these seasons and how to use mental health and wellness self-care to "weather" the storms and when the sun is shining brightly upon our face. This session breaks down the school year by 9-week quarters and provides strategies and routines each week to bolster educators' mental health and wellness. These strategies are fun, entertaining, and allow users to find what works the best and overcome the challenges we all encounter as educators.
Southwest Region President, Wyoming Education Association
Wyoming Education Association Southwest Region PresidentWyoming Education Association Southwest Region Mental Health & Wellness ChampionWyoming's First Fully Certified Marzano High Reliability TeacherQPR GatekeeperTrue Colors Certified FacilitatorHigh Reliability School Leader
Understanding natural systems requires more than vocabulary, it requires helping students see patterns, interactions, and feedback within dynamic systems. This session provides Wyoming educators with practical, classroom-ready strategies for teaching ecosystem dynamics and shared resource systems through modeling and structured simulations. Attendees will engage in a condensed version of a classroom modeling activity and walk away with adaptable templates and implementation-ready resources. This session draws from graduate-level coursework developed through the Science and Mathematics Teaching Center (SMTC) at the University of Wyoming. Educators seeking high-engagement, standards-aligned instruction grounded in systems thinking will find concrete strategies they can implement into their classrooms.
This high-energy, collaborative session focuses on using multiple learning pathways to engage every student. Attendees will explore practical ideas, share strategies with peers, and leave with ready-to-use classroom experiences that clarify content, differentiate naturally, and sustain student growth.
Megan Diede is an educational leader, instructional design expert, and speaker who helps educators transform learning through intentional design and meaningful connection. With more than 15 years of classroom experience, she understands firsthand the challenges teachers face... Read More →
Tuesday August 4, 2026 3:15pm - 4:15pm MDT Shoshoni
Don’t just learn about STREAM—experience it. In this fast-paced, hands-on session, participants jump into a literature-based design challenge within the first 10 minutes, modeling exactly how to spark creativity and problem-solving in K–5 classrooms.
How does the literal structure of Arithmetic inform Teachers' methods of teaching? What is the literal structure of Arithmetic? How does that help students understand not just basic Mathematics, but some higher level Maths? How can we make the structure of Arithmetic understandable to the Teachers, show that they can make it understandable to the Students? Many people approach Mathematics as a set of rules that need to be memorized. Having a clear understanding of why the "Rules" of Exponents work, because of how they are ties to Multiplication; and why Multiplication works, because it is ties to Addition; and why Addition works because it is tied to Counting, and Counting is where Arithmetic starts: explains the how one builds to the next in a logical order fashion- the structure of Arithmetic. It is an opportunity to review things that Teachers understand, and show how they connect, as well as learning a few things not usually taught in the many college courses we endured to become educators. Most importantly, it has a visual, potentially hands on approach, we can use with students from Counting to Quantities to help them understand Mathematics.
