Why choose this session? While other sessions offer new tips, we offer the biological blueprint for learning. We uncomplicate concepts like neuroplasticity and neurons and provide evidence-based, brain-friendly strategies that are scientifically proven to enhance memory, engagement, and long-term retention. This is not just theory; it’s the science of learning translated directly into powerful classroom practice.
This session explains why whole-class reading of extended texts matters and demonstrates how to make it work in elementary classrooms through concrete examples, illustrating how shared texts build understanding, discussion, and classroom community.
Laura Stam is an elementary educator at Hot Springs County School District #1. She is a 2024-2025 Goyen Fellow and a founding board member of The Reading League Wyoming. She writes a Substack, The Knowledge Exchange: Knowledge-Building for Teachers. She is passionate about the sciences... Read More →
"AI is a “brave new world” for educators. What do terms like bots, AI smashing, hallucinations, and closed-garden AI really mean—and how do they impact teaching and learning?
In this hands-on session, participants will demystify these concepts while actively creating practical AI tools for their own professional use. Attendees will build a custom AI bot designed to serve as a PLC thinking partner. They will also learn how to engineer prompts to make AI resources better. Lastly, we will compare and contrast differ AI's using AI smashing tools.
This session is not lecture-based. Participants will engage in guided, hands-on work and leave with ready-to-use AI skills they can immediately incorporate into classroom instruction, planning, and assessment design."
Why choose this advanced session? This workshop moves Beyond Basics provided in the Introduction workshop. We provide the essential next step: understanding the brain as an integrated circuit. Participants will learn not just what the lobes do individually, but how their interconnections dictate the success or failure of learning, using the Information Processing Model as our guide. Participants will leave with precision strategies and a powerful neurological framework for fostering true Deeper Learning.
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.
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.
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?
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.
