Professional Development Workshops
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. Upon completion of the Community of Practice, participants will receive 14 hours of credit, which can be used towards a gifted endorsement.
Dates: 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: $50 (includes book and materials)
Facilitators:
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).
Cognitive giftedness is one type of neurodivergence. Twice exceptionality refers to cognitive giftedness layered with another type of neurodivergence, such as ADHD, Autism, Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, or Dysgraphia. Participants will learn about the four key ingredients needed to create a neurodiversity affirming classroom and school as described by Emily Kircher-Morris, gifted educator and counselor. Participants will walk away with the skills they need to meet the needs of every gifted learner.
This course includes independent applications of learned material in classroom situations. Upon successful completion of this class, participants will receive 6 hours of recertification credit.
Date: January 12, 2026 - February 23, 2026
Location: Virtual: Asynchronous and self-paced
Cost: $25
Facilitator: Vanessa Hill
Vanessa has been an educator for over twenty years. She is a gifted specialist who taught in Title 1 schools for a decade before becoming Amphitheater Public Schools Gifted Education Coordinator. Vanessa has two twice exceptional children of her own, so understands the unique needs of this population on a very personal level. She has presented at the AAGT Annual Conference, the NAGC Annual Convention, and the ADE Teacher's Institute and Leading Change Conference. Vanessa facilitates professional learning experiences for gifted and general classroom educators. Vanessa is the 2019 AAGT Gifted Educator of the Year, Raytheon Leaders in Education Award Finalist 2021, and the 2024 NAGC National Gifted Coordinator Award Recipient.
Please register (detailed directions below) any adults and youth from your school or youth program who will be attending the conference and provide the requested information. It is expected that 1 adult will attend per 10 students.
Fourteen (14) 1-hour workshops will be offered during the 14th Annual Youth & Peace Conference. Please select a first choice, second choice, and third choice workshop. The committee will do its best to place attendees in their first or second choice workshop, but cannot guarantee this. Although attendees will select three workshops, they will only be attending one workshop.
Link to detailed workshop descriptions: https://www.youthandpeace.org/workshop-descriptions
Conference Website: https://www.youthandpeace.org/getinvolved
Registration Instructions
A separate registration form is required for each attendee. We recommend that the School Registration Contact submit registrations on behalf of students and chaperones. You may register all attendees using a single email address. Individual email addresses are not required.
Steps to Register Multiple People
Register yourself first.
After submitting your registration, click “Return to event.”
Select “Register” or “Already Registered,” then click “New Registration.”
When prompted, enter your email again. The system may indicate that the email has already been used - you may proceed anyway. Scroll to continue to the form. You do not need to log in at this step.
Complete the form and repeat the process for each additional attendee.
You will receive a confirmation email from the Pima County School Superintendent's Office for each registration, and a separate email with login details to view all submissions.
Questions or changes to your registrations? Contact cwaters2@arizona.edu.
This virtual class is an introduction to the art of differentiation. We will be looking at the critical elements for success in today's classrooms by exploring evidence-based strategies and user-friendly tools to seamlessly integrate differentiation practices and optimize teaching, learning, and assessment for all students, every day. The course will involve synchronous and asynchronous content and assignments. The entire course will take 20 hours and these hours can count towards the Arizona Gifted Endorsement. We will be using the book, Making Differentiation a Habit by Diane Heacox. Please be sure to purchase this book prior to the start of the course.
Date: Tuesdays: February 17, 24, March 3, 24, 31, 2026
Time: 4:15 - 5:15 p.m.
Location: Virtual, Synchronous and Asynchronous
Cost: $45
Facilitator: Kari Sjursen, M.ED., NBCT
Kari Sjursen is the Gifted Education Specialist at Dove Mountain CSTEM K-8 in the Marana Unified School District. Utilizing a variety of programming models, including K-2 Talent Development, content acceleration, K-5 send-out, and Middle School Gifted Elective, Kari strives to provide students with gifted services that both stimulates and supports their developing brains. She is a 2021 Notre Dame Trustey STEM Fellow and a 2022 Arizona State University ASAP STEM Fellow. A Nationally Board Certified Teacher, Kari has presented both nationally and internationally on topics related to gifted education, problem based learning, computer science, and STEM Integration.
Looking for a FREE hands-on, workshop for PreK-6th grade teachers that will spark curiosity and deepen science learning through wildlife-related phenomena. Teachers will explore by using 3D printed animal skulls which can anchor student investigations.
Teachers receive $50 worth of materials which includes three 3D printed animal skulls and ready-to-use lessons aligned with Arizona State Standards that will guide young learners through inquiry-based exploration of wildlife.
Dates, Times, & Locations:
Saturday, March 7, 2026, 9:00am-12:00pm @ Pima County School Superintendent's Office, 200 N. Stone Ave, Tucson, AZ 85701
Light breakfast will be served.
Please select purchase order for payment.
Spring Book Fair 2026
This FREE self-paced professional development program on Nearpod will give K-6 educators an opportunity to explore two children's books accompanied by lesson plans that teach STEAM concepts. We will complete one book each week for two weeks.
The two children's books we will explore are:
Glitter Everywhere! Where it Came From. Where It's Found & Where It's Going by Chris Barton
We are STARLINGS: Inside the Mesmerizing Magic of Murmuration by Robert Furrow, Donna Jo Napoli, & Marc Martin
Registrants who complete all program requirements (2 self-paced 45-minute modules) will receive the two books utilized in the module. Participants will also receive a certificate of professional development (1.5 hours).
March 16-29, 2025-Online Book Fair
Please register: https://schoolspimagov.wildapricot.org/event-6541321
Please choose purchase order for payment option.
This five week course will explore Emily Hollett and Anna Cassalia’s five Thinking for Advanced Learners books and equip educators with proven strategies to cultivate higher-level thinking in gifted students. Each week, participants will complete independent work and meet online to focus on a different thinking skill for advanced thinking—evaluative, analytical, convergent, divergent, and visual-spatial—while modeling cohesive, focused, scaffolded lessons to teach target skills of competency.
By the end of the 5 weeks, participants will
This professional learning series, involving synchronous and asynchronous content and assignments, is designed for gifted educators, classroom teachers, and instructional leaders seeking to deepen students’ capacity for advanced, critical, and creative thinking.
The entire course will take 16 hours and these hours can count towards the Arizona Gifted Endorsement.
Copies of the five different Thinking for Advanced Learners books will be available for participants to borrow from Marianne Landrith, or can be purchased independently.
Date: Tuesdays: April 7, 14, 21, 28, and May 5
Time: 4:00 - 5:00 p.m.
Location: Virtual. Synchronous and Asynchronous
Cost: $50
Kari Sjursen is the Elementary Gifted and Advanced Programming Specialist for the Marana Unified School District, as well as one of the Gifted Education teachers at Dove Mountain CSTEM K-8. Supporting a variety of programming models, Kari strives to provide students with gifted learning opportunities that both stimulate and support their developing brains. She is a 2021 Notre Dame Trustey STEM Fellow and a 2022 Arizona State University ASAP STEM Fellow, and currently sits on the Arizona Association for Gifted and Talented (AAGT) Board of Directors. A Nationally Board Certified Teacher, Kari has presented both nationally and internationally on topics related to gifted education, problem based learning, computer science, and STEM Integration.
Location: Virtual through the Pima County School Superintendent's Office
Cost: $
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