Professional Development Workshops
Many assumptions surround gifted and advanced learners—but the reality is far more complex. This session unpacks the truths (and common myths) about who these students are and what they need. You’ll leave with ready-to-use strategies, deeper insight into how gifted learners think and process, and practical tools to support them in any classroom setting. No superpowers required—just curiosity, clarity, and a few well-placed questions.
This course includes independent applications of learned material in classroom situations. Upon successful completion of this class, participants will receive 12 hours of recertification credit.
Date: August 19 - September 20
Location: Virtual: Asynchronous and self-paced
Cost: $40
Facilitators:
Christine In-Albon has been an educator in the Vail Unified School District for the last 25 years. Currently she is the Coordinator of the Gifted Program for the District, and has designed and implemented a school wide cluster model at three elementary sites. She also teaches honors environmental science courses, and has taught middle school science, gifted humanities, AP seminar and has started many enrichment opportunities for students. As an educator she strives to engage students in their learning and aid them in making connections outside of the classroom. Before teaching, Christine helped establish and run a non-profit working in Mexico and Southern Arizona focused on marine education and conserving sea turtle nesting beaches in Nayarit. Her passion is providing students engaging opportunities to discover and grow their strengths, abilities, and passions. Christine is an active member of the Southern Arizona Gifted Network and member of AAGT.
Mary Garcia is the Gifted and Advanced Program and Professional Development Specialist for the Vail Unified School District. She has a passion for connecting content and cultivating curiosity. She has over 25 years of experience teaching including an elementary reading specialist, middle school English Language Arts teacher, and gifted enrichment instructor. She recently partnered with Christine In-Albon to design and implement a school-wide cluster model at three elementary sites in the Vail Unified School District to increase access for all students. Her early educational experiences in Syria and the United States informed her educational philosophy that there is the power of perspective, connection and community and that learning must transcend the four walls of the classroom. Mary is an active member of the Arizona Association of Gifted and Talented and National Association of Gifted Children.
Planting SEEDs: Episodes for Thinking and Feeling is a Community of Practice that sets a different stage for learning, thinking, and talent identification. During each session, teachers will experience how to engage students in convergent, divergent, cooperative, and reflective thinking through episodes using the “power of puzzles and the significance of stories”.
Learning Outcomes are:
Educators will describe, recognize, and implement convergent and divergent thinking within their content and standards to support student thinking.
Educators will experience the activation of four types of thinking within story, creative activities and puzzles in order to understand how to enrich thinking and diagnose talent.
Educators will understand the role of collaborative and reflective thinking, and how they work alongside divergent and convergent thinking to complete the experience of both deep learning, critical thinking, and metacognition.
SEED: Silverquicken Episodes for Enrichment and Diagnosis, by Brian Housand, Leslie Kerner, and Chris Ryan is the basis for this engaging, exciting, and active Community of Practice. As co-author Brian Housand states, “SEED integrates cognitive challenges with emotional intelligence, creating immersive and meaningful learning experiences”. Action, adventure, beauty and wonder in stories offer an avenue to rich learning.
Teachers will leave each session with the skills and materials needed to implement SEED with their students. Teachers will also gain experience in activating and implementing thinking skills in their lessons. Each experience offers a glimpse into how students think and reason, which can help spot those hidden gifted gems in our classrooms and develop their talent to its fullest.
Dates: August 25, September 8, September 29, October 27, November 17, 2025, January 5, February 2, March 2, April 13, 2026
Time: 4:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
Location: Pima County School Superintendent's Office 200 N. Stone Avenue
Cost: $125 (includes book and materials)
Amanda Chavez is currently a STEAM middle school teacher in the Santa Cruz County Unified School District. She has 20 years experience in education which includes eight years as an elementary general education teacher, four years as a special education teacher and for the past eight years, the Gifted Coordinator and teacher in Sahuarita Unified School District. As the Gifted Coordinator Amanda created the program design and curriculum to meet the needs of the 2-5th grade identified gifted population. Along with creating lessons and curriculum for the pull-out gifted classroom, she partnered with gifted cluster teachers to support the needs of these students in their general education classrooms. As a former gifted student in the S.U.N. Program in Sunnyside Unified School District, and a parent of two gifted sons, Amanda is well informed on the academic and social/emotional needs of gifted learners, and the support needed for them to to reach their potential. Amanda is a member of the Arizona Association of Gifted and Talented and the National Association of Gifted Children.
Marianne Landrith is the Program Director of GiftED, and CommunityShare, and is the Coordinator of the Southern Arizona Gifted Network at for the Pima County School Superintendent's Office. Prior to being with Pima County, Marianne taught for 35 years in regular and gifted education in Tucson, AZ. She also coordinated a Jacob K. Javits Grant, and served as a Teacher Trainer/Mentor, Peer Coach Trainer and Program Facilitator. Marianne currently serves on the Board Directors of the Arizona Association for Gifted and Talented (AAGT) and on several committees with the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC).
Discover how to engage gifted learners by tapping into what we know about the brain! This interactive professional development session explores research-based strategies from Brain-Based Learning With Gifted Students by Kathryn Fishman-Weaver. Designed for educators of gifted students in grades 3–6, this training bridges neuroscience with practical, classroom-ready tools to enhance motivation, metacognition, creativity, and well-being.
Participants will:
Gain foundational understanding of how learning happens in the brain and why this matters for gifted students.
Explore the concepts of neuroplasticity, curiosity, and metacognition, and how to teach these directly to students.
Engage with sample activities that model brain-based strategies aligned to gifted programming standards.
Discuss extension ideas to apply these strategies across content areas and differentiated learning environments.
Whether you're new to gifted education or looking to deepen your teaching toolkit, this session will empower you with engaging, research-backed approaches to meet the unique needs of high-ability learners. Join us for two hours of insight, inspiration, and actionable ideas you can use right away.
Completion of the class will result in 2 hours of recertification credit. This class can contribute towards a gifted endorsement.
Dates: August 26
Time: 4:00 - 6:00 p.m.
Location: Virtual through the Pima County School Superintendent's Office
Cost: $25
Facilitator: Ashley Romanoski
Ashley Romanoski is passionate about learning and building connections with others, particularly through her work with educators, gifted students, and their families. Her journey in education began as a sixth-grade teacher, where she discovered her love for working with gifted learners. This passion led her to become a gifted resource teacher, allowing her to support students from kindergarten through sixth grade. In this role, she gained a deep understanding of the unique needs of gifted students and their families, which further fueled her advocacy for this population.
Outside the classroom, Ashley has worked to empower parents of gifted children by founding a S.E.N.G. Virtual Community Parent Group in her district which provides resources and support to the district's community, and she is the leader of Marana Supporters of the Gifted, an A.A.G.T Parent Affiliate. With a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from the University of Arizona and a Master’s degree in Educational Technology from Northern Arizona University, she holds a gifted endorsement and is a certified SENG Model Parent Group Facilitator. She has also presented at SENG, AAGT, and NAGC conferences. Ashley is committed to sharing strategies for fostering meaningful connections between educators, families, and gifted learners. When not teaching or presenting, Ashley enjoys spending time outside with her husband and three children exploring Arizona in their camper or running her children from sports and dance events. You can also find her frequently lost in a good book or watching Hallmark movies.
The Pima County School Superintendents' Office is offering Cognitive Coaching℠ Foundations Seminar in collaboration with the AZK12 Center. This seminar is designed for principals, assistant principals, instructional coaches, teacher leaders and others who strive to support and guide a higher level of practice with their colleagues. In this seminar, participants learn ways to expand and refine knowledge and skills to promote more effective teaching and learning. The focus is on strategies that enhance teachers’ intellectual growth and strengthen instructional decision-making. During the workshop the maps and tools of Cognitive Coaching℠ are demonstrated and practiced. Specifically, participants learn to: establish rapport, create trust, and conduct planning, reflecting, and problem-resolving conversations. These maps and tools develop teacher self-efficacy and cognitive autonomy, while also developing a sense of community and professional culture within a school.
Facilitator: Mary Bouley is an experienced educator and consultant with expertise in coaching, mentoring, project management, and professional development. She is a Cognitive CoachingSM Training Associate and specializes in one-on-one coaching as well as group facilitation. Through AZK12, Mary has been providing Cognitive CoachingSM Foundation training for the past 8 years.
Training each day (8:30-4:00) will cover the following topics:
Location: Pima County School Superintendent's Office | 200 N. Stone Tucson, AZ 85701
Registration fee: $1,000
Where can you find an endless supply of authentic problems for your students to solve, allowing them to develop and grow their collaboration and critical thinking skills? It turns out, you already have most of what you need on your school campus! This Community of Practice will provide support in developing authentic problem solving opportunities for your students through a student run Repair Cafe.
Approximately two years ago, my STEM students and I set out to answer the question: “What if STEM students created and ran a fix-it shop at our middle school?” As we are about to start our third year of this experiment, we can share that this opportunity has provided a seemingly endless supply of authentic problems for the students to solve. More importantly, however, the students love it.
At our first meeting, you will get to hear from both students and educators about what we have tried (our failures and successes). In addition, we will share what we have learned along the way as well as our plans for growth in the coming year, which include an afterschool club and a partnership with the Tucson Repair Cafe.
If you discover that you would like to try building a similar program on your campus, you have the opportunity to join us as we establish a collaborative community of practice focused on just that. We will meet a few times in person over the school year (and maybe try to build an online collaboration tool) to share ideas, tools, materials, and anything else we decide will support us as we endeavor to provide this opportunity for our students.
Dates: September 2, 2025. Future dates and frequency of meetings will be determined by participants at the first meeting.
Time: 4:30 - 6:00 p.m.
Location: Pima County School Superintendent's Office, 200 N. Stone Avenue. Subsequent meetings will be at Wakefield Middle School, 101 W 44th Street.
Facilitator: Leslie Ferre
Leslie has over 15 years of teaching experience with students aged 2 - 14 and she currently teaches a STEM elective that focuses on engineering design at Wakefield Middle School in the Tucson Unified School District. Through her work with the Youth Impact Program and the Bisbee Science Center’s Sky Island STEAM Express mobile lab, she has developed curriculum to provide inquiry-based learning opportunities directly to over 4,000 students in Southern Arizona. Through ASTA’s Deeper Dive Program and as a Noyce Borderlands Master Teacher Fellow, Leslie’s work provides teachers from all over the state with a variety of inquiry-based teaching tools. Leslie is a professional scientist turned educator who is driven to help students and peers rediscover and hone their innate STEM abilities.
Join us for a free event featuring author, educator, and speaker, Emily Mofield.
Dr. Emily Mofield is an Associate Professor at Lipscomb University, where she is the co-director of the Gifted Education and Advanced Academics Programs. With over 20 years of experience as a teacher, district leader, and researcher, Emily focuses on helping educators and families support gifted and high-potential students through challenging curriculum, differentiation, and social-emotional supports.
Her research explores the social-emotional needs of gifted learners and, more recently, the impact of screen use on students’ abilities to engage in creative and in-depth thinking. She is nationally recognized for her work on advanced learning and cognitive rigor and has authored several award-winning books and resources including Vertical Differentiation for Gifted, Advanced, and High-Potential Students. She’s also a mom to a curious and creative middle schooler, which inspires both her professional and personal passion for supporting gifted learners. She lives in Nashville with her family and their beloved poodle.
Breakout sessions will be presented by Dr. Paul Beljan, neuropsychologist at Beljan Psychological Services, along with other experts in the field of gifted education from Pima County.
Bright Child Books will be with us again and will have many titles for parents and teachers of the gifted available for purchase.
We are grateful for our sponsors, Tucson Electric Power and Riverside Insights.
Date: Saturday, September 6, 2025
Time: 8:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Audience: Parents, teachers, counselors, instructional coaches, and administrators. This event is appropriate for those supporting all students, not just those who are identified as gifted.
Location: Sheraton Tucson Hotel and Suites, 5151 E Grant Rd, Tucson, AZ
Cost: Free, registration required
Questions: Contact Marianne Landrith at marianne.landrith@pima.gov
This online interactive professional development class equips educators with a deeper understanding of gifted identification, with a focus on equity, accuracy, and the diverse profiles of gifted learners. Using the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) Standards as a guiding framework, we'll examine how to translate them to your classroom through the use of research-based strategies. Educators will explore the complexities of asynchronous development, how it impacts student behavior, performance, and emotional needs, and will also compare and evaluate a variety of gifted service models to determine what works best for meeting the unique academic and social-emotional needs of gifted students in both inclusive and specialized settings. Suggested pre-requisite class is No Cape Required: Tools and Truths About Gifted Learners.
Successful completion of the class will result in 12 hours of recertification credit. This class can contribute towards a gifted endorsement.
Dates: September 29 - November 10
Location: Virtual and self-paced
Facilitator: Amanda Chavez
Educators who facilitate meetings with their peers encounter unique challenges. Often, they struggle to balance the demands of managing time, energy and processes while simultaneously navigating the challenges of being a colleague and maintaining one’s own professional integrity.
This is the workshop for educator-leaders who:
The goal of this two-day workshop is to increase the quality of collaboration that produces benefits for students. You will gain an enhanced understanding of the importance of facilitation. Through a variety of learning formats, you will experience the effects of the Five Mindsets and recognize them in facilitation. You will increase your efficacy and repertoire of tools and processes to operationalize each Mindset.
Based on the Teachers As Facilitators handbook and Teachers As Facilitators workshop design of Bob Garmston and Carolyn McKanders, presenter Mary Bouley provides practical strategies and tools organized by Five Mindsets with a focus on individual contexts and applications.
More about Teachers as Facilitators: https://teachersasfacilitators.com/
Seminar Materials included in the cost: -It’s Your Turn: Teachers as Facilitators A Handbook, Garmston and McKanders -It's Your Turn: Teachers as Facilitators Participant Guide
Intended Audience: Classroom Teachers and any Educational Professionals who facilitate or plan to facilitate groups of teachers through PLC’s, Department collaborations and other school and district leadership opportunities.
Dates: September 29 & 30, 2025
Time: 8:30a.m. - 4:00 p.m. with breakfast provided at 8:00 a.m.
Fee: $300 Registration deadline is September 15.
Presenter: Mary Bouley, M.Ed
Mary Bouley is a trainer, facilitator and consultant who strives to impact systems through professional development and coaching. In addition to her work as a Teachers as Facilitator presenter, Mary is a Training Associate for Thinking Collaborative, providing professional development in Cognitive Coaching℠. Her commitment to building self-directedness, supporting thinking and facilitating learning allows her to impact individuals, groups and systems as they build relationships and adapt to change and challenge.
© 2017 Pima County School Superintendent's Office
