APS Rising Educator Summit 2026

How do we bridge the gap between classroom instruction and meaningful student achievement? This series of presentations offers practical pathways for fostering critical thinking and civic engagement while providing essential academic support. Explore how project-based civic research allows students to pitch real-world solutions to community stakeholders and school boards. Then, gain actionable teaching strategies to elevate core academic skills, featuring specialized tools for developing Strategic Intervention Materials and differentiated writing frameworks that ensure students of all abilities thrive. Join us in La Sala for a dynamic and interactive series of poster sessions designed to spark innovation and provide practical solutions for today’s educators. These sessions offer a unique opportunity to engage directly with experts, explore visual data, and take away actionable strategies in a concise, high-impact format.

Inspire Young Leaders! Amplify Student Voice with the Civic Action Project: Connect students to real-world issues through informed civic action. Civic Action Project (CAP) uses project-based learning to empower students to create meaningful, policy-informed solutions in their community. With lessons for elementary, middle, and high school classes, CAP helps students identify an issue, connect it to public policy, take action, and reflect on their work. CAP is flexible and is used across academic disciplines, including ELA, social studies, and science. The curriculum includes academic pathways such as media literacy, social movements, and environmental science to help students make connections between classroom learning and community issues. Kathleen Hughes

Strategic Intervention Material: A Better Way in Increasing the Academic Achievements of Students: This session is designed to equip teachers with the knowledge and skills needed to develop effective Strategic Intervention Materials (SIM). The focus is on helping educators address learning gaps and support students who struggle with specific competencies. Participants will explore the purpose and importance of SIM in improving student understanding and performance. The session will guide teachers through the key components of a well-designed SIM, including identifying least-mastered skills, setting clear objectives, and organizing content in a simple, engaging, and learner-friendly format. Irene Gonzales

Writing the 5-Paragraph Essay: All participants will learn about how to get students to write a 5-paragraph essay. To get students to write a five paragraph essay, the presenter will also show previous writing strategies (that help students build connections) like "Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning" assignments and the RACES Writing strategies. Work samples will be included to show the audience what completed/exceptional assignments look like. The presenter also has a strong background in special education (5 years of working in a SES Middle School Environment, working in a cross cat High School Setting, and being a Head Teacher) and can show how to modify, differentiate, and provide appropriate accommodations to help students with their writing assignments and provide teachers with additional tools/skills to provide quality small group instructional practice and/or inclusive practices. Andrew Marcus

Community Civics Projects Proposals: This poster gallery will include a few high school juniors, seniors, and alumni to discuss their research while as a student at APS. The students choose a meaningful topic they want to research, problem solve, and then facilitate, direct, and implement presentations from local, district, state, and sometimes national level to multiple shareholders each year. The topic is carefully researched from multiple perspectives, then students will problem solve several solutions to the issue or concern. These posters will show the topic, research, proposals, interviews, and presentations for the past 3 years. The topics are
1) Grading for equity from a students lens.
2) Capstone: The students big ideas on student directed learning.
3) PBL: What is it from multiple perspectives. How can PBL realistically be implemented? A research from multiple shareholders in APS
4) Representation matters: Ideas and proposals from multiple perspectives in education.
Michael Nair

Learn how to transform your classroom with efficient data collection. These sessions highlight using tools like Google Forms to streamline assessment and drive informed instructional decisions. Join us on the Sky Bridge for a dynamic and interactive series of poster sessions designed to spark innovation and provide practical solutions for today’s educators. These sessions offer a unique opportunity to engage directly with experts, explore visual data, and take away actionable strategies in a concise, high-impact format.

Google Forms for Data Collection: Want to streamline data collection for your student's behaviors, BIP, academic achievement, or anything else, and be provided with immediate visuals including graphs, charts, and summaries of the results? Need to collaborate across multiple classrooms in a quick and easy way without having to spend time organizing the results in order to analyze your data? Learn to use Google Forms for a variety of data collection in your classroom. Meghan Hendricks

District Utility Data Revealed!: Did you know APS has a dashboard that allows you to see utility usage data in real time and separated by school? Cufflink is this dashboard and can provide you and your students real-world, relevant data to explore and analyze. Curious what your school's electric or water usage is? Check! Curious about solar panel output? Check! Learn with members of the Sustaining the Future and Cufflink teams how to access and apply these data with your students. Abel Abeita, Erika Edgerly

Data Driven Decision-Marking using Progress Learning or CB Assessments: This a presentation on how we can utilize the Progress Learning Interim Assessments aligning with the PSAT/NMSQT and SAT. Maria Santos

A thriving school starts with a strong community. This session track is dedicated to building inclusive, high-energy school environments where both students and families feel valued and connected. Learn from peer leaders about successfully implementing a "Culture of Care" across all grade levels, and discover out-of-the-box, humorous strategies to supercharge family and community engagement. Plus, walk away with actionable ideas to revive lagging school spirit and tools to instill deep-rooted grit, tenacity, and a growth mindset in your students. Join us to find the spark that brings your school community together! Join us on the Sky Bridge for a dynamic and interactive series of poster sessions designed to spark innovation and provide practical solutions for today’s educators. These sessions offer a unique opportunity to engage directly with experts, explore visual data, and take away actionable strategies in a concise, high-impact format.

Culture of Care Experience, Strength & Hope: Do you know a little or a lot about Culture of Care? Do you wonder how you can make it work at YOUR school? Join three teacher leaders from an Elementary, Middle and High School for a panel presentation and discussion/Q&A on how Culture of Care has been implemented in their school communities so far. We will also review sample models of support to help get you started on next steps in implementing Culture of Care at your school with plenty of district support available to help. Monica Asebedo; Michelle Baucom; Andrew Roberts; Stephanie Breezee

Family and Community Engagement. Thinking Outside the Box: Staff members will learn about new and exciting ways to engage families and community members and harness resources in symbiotic relationships. The presentation will be filled with humor and interaction. Ralph Pena

Why don't we have spirit? We have spirit weeks...Strengthening school spirit & culture: Is your school/class struggling with school spirit? You're having spirit weeks but participation is down? Join me for a brief overview of student activities to get students excited, engaged and building culture. Leslie Coe

Building a Culture of Care through Employee Well-being: A culture of care for students starts with a strong foundation. Our educators and employees are the bedrock of that building. We can't authentically teach and model Goal #4 and a Culture of Care if we're not actively participating in the process and understanding how they apply to our personal well-being.The session will highlight Goal #4 and flip the script on the Culture of Care core tenets from students to how they apply to educators; mindset shifts for stress management, emotional regulation, short, specific techniques for conflict/resolution & interpersonal communication, and holistic well-being through thrifting and iterative practices.The goal is to provide educators with resources to help them start and finish the year with higher retention, reduced burnout, and improved overall satisfaction. This session treats well-being as a foundational necessity rather than an afterthought. Becky MacGregor

How do we create a safe, vibrant classroom environment where every student can thrive? This series of presentations focuses on innovative approaches to student safety, behavior, and academic depth. Discover creative management techniques—from curbing middle school behavior challenges to high-interest, pop-culture-inspired strategy rotations. Learn how to safely navigate student health and self-regulation needs, facilitate empathetic student dialogues on controversial issues, and leverage visual tools to deepen critical thinking, all while collaborating with fellow educators on real, meaningful classroom differentiation. Join us to find the spark that brings your school community together! Join us on the Sky Bridge for a dynamic and interactive series of poster sessions designed to spark innovation and provide practical solutions for today’s educators. These sessions offer a unique opportunity to engage directly with experts, explore visual data, and take away actionable strategies in a concise, high-impact format.

Motivating Middle Schoolers: Get your Middle school students participating in class and curb those behavior problems. Asia Alvarado

"Now Climb that Tree": Discussing Effective Differentiation Strategies: Education is, at times, a river of pedagogical jargon. The jargon comes and goes, but often the core problems remain. Our students are behind. Our state is underperforming. I have been teaching for over 20 years. As an ELD teacher and Co-teacher, the one piece of jargon I observe consistently missing from our classrooms is differentiation. I want to facilitate a collaborative learning session where teachers can come together to discuss the most effective strategies they have used to differentiate for their students, and to hear from all APS teachers who are experts in, or struggling with, differentiation. I want to discuss how to raise our scores without drill and kill, to explore differentiation in a safe space where teachers share their experiences, vent their frustrations, and find solutions. I want teachers to leave with new solutions, as well as solid plans for proven differentiation techniques they can use to get off to a great start for the new year. Megan Blaich

"Would You Know What to Do?" -Student Safety, Chronic Conditions & Self-Regulation in Schools: This interactive gallery walk engages teachers, educational assistants, administrators, and support staff in recognizing and responding to common student health needs in the school setting. Using real-world scenarios, participants will explore how everyday staff actions impact student safety, engagement, and self-regulation. This session highlights a practical framework—Recognize, Respond, Support—to guide decision-making when students report symptoms or show signs of distress. Participants will also engage with demonstration emergency medications (e.g., inhalers, epinephrine auto-injectors) to build confidence in real-time response. Attendees will leave with clear, actionable strategies to support student voice, ensure timely care, and reduce barriers to learning. Pamela Garcia Arnold

Tackle Complex or Controversial Issues in the Classroom Through Civil Conversation: Students are eager to discuss real-world issues. Help transform their curiosity into meaningful dialogue that builds empathy and critical thinking. The Civil Conversation method helps students gain a deeper understanding of complex topics through a combination of close reading and guided small-group discussion. This strategy uses graphic organizers and discussion guides to help students consider multiple perspectives, use evidence to support their claims, and ask clarifying questions. Join us in this session to learn more about Civil Conversation, explore resources, and discuss best practices for using student deliberation in the classroom. This workshop will include collaborative planning time and participants will leave with a ready-to-use lesson tailored to their course and grade level. Kathleen Hughes

Attention Mandalorians: This Strategy Rotation Session is inspired by both Harry Potter and Star Wars: The Mandalorian this is a strategy for classroom management that is engaging, relevant and fun. It can be used in a classroom setting or adapted for school wide program. Alyssa Anaya

Hexagonal Thinking: Bringing Collaboration and Critical Thinking into the Classroom: Hexagonal thinking is a simple classroom strategy to engage students in collaboration and critical thinking. Students review terms and concepts in any given subject and connect or link them using hexagons. If hexagon sides touch, the terms and concepts must relate to one another. Because hexagons have six sides, multiple connections can be made and students must be able to justify any and all connections. This activity fosters student engagement through discussion, debate, problem solving, and critical thinking. Each group’s unique visual map of hexagons helps students to see the bigger picture of how terms/concepts relate within the content. Stacy Cooley