July 15th, 2025
View the offerings below. Click the dropdown arrows on the right to see session descriptions. ALL virtual sessions will be hosted on Zoom [account required; DVUSD users sign in with Google].
Sessions align with the three areas of digital skills as noted by the corresponding icon:
🧭 NAVIGATE | 💡 INNOVATE | 💬 COMMUNICATE
All Staff | Start your day in conversation with colleagues about balanced & purposeful uses of technology. Participants will engage in group conversations guided by facilitated prompts centered around our #DVUSDTech motto - Connecting with Purpose.
Presented by: Liz Reyes | DVUSD | Tuesday @ 9:00 | Zoom - Breakout Room: Mountain
Grades PreK-12 & Staff | Beginner, Intermediate, Experienced| In this session, participants will experience an "AI tasting," where we will explore a curated selection of AI tools designed for education. We will learn the distinct characteristics of each AI tool and discover their practical applications for enhancing both teaching and learning. Participants will develop a foundational understanding of the variety of AI resources available for education and leave with a valuable toolbox of these resources ready for immediate implementation.
Presented by: Adobe Express for Education | Tuesday @ 9:00 | Zoom - Breakout Room: Valley
Grades PreK-12 | Beginner, Intermediate| Discover how to enhance student engagement and creativity with real-time feedback using Classrooms in Adobe Express. In this session, educators learn the basics of creating a Classroom, building an Assignment, and enabling Class Galleries for student collaboration. Objective: Learn about using Adobe Express to differentiate instruction, to provide quick, real-time feedback, and to support students with opportunities to authentically collaborate. Audience: All skill levels, any content area.
Presented by: Michelle Coots | DVUSD | Tuesday @ 9:00 | Zoom - Breakout Room: Cactus
Grades K-12 | Beginner, Intermediate | Canvas courses are an extension of the classroom. Just like taking time to arrange a classroom and resources to improve flow and set students up for success, the same is true with Canvas courses. During this session, walk through simple course setup basics to get Canvas classes ready for students, including easy-to-navigate Course Shells, Modules, and Assignments. This session will walk participants through how to create and improve Canvas Courses for student use, along with how to add your own content that supports teaching and learning in your classroom. Participants will have a chance to get classes ready for use with students by applying what they learn to their courses with step-by-step instructions.
Presented by: Rhiannon Cummings | DVUSD | Tuesday @ 9:00 | Zoom - Breakout Room: Sunlight
Grades PreK-12 & Staff | Beginner | In this session, you will learn how to create a Google Form that can be used for multiple purposes. You will learn how to design your form, the different question types, how to share the form vs. how to send it for it to be filled out, and how to create and manage a spreadsheet of responses. You will also get some time to practice with your new knowledge.
Presented by: Aaron Vogel & Keri Schoeff | Tuesday @ 9:00 | Zoom - Breakout Room: Canyon
Grades PreK-12 & Staff | Beginner, Intermediate, Experienced| In this workshop, participants will explore research regarding students and smartphones, strategies for best practices regarding devices in the classroom, and recommendations for students, including internet and device safety.
Presented by: Rachel Rutan | DVUSD | Tuesday @ 9:00 | Zoom - Breakout Room: Oasis
Grades 6-12 | Beginner | In an era where Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the landscape of education, it's vital for educators to adapt and innovate their teaching strategies, especially in writing instruction across various subjects. This professional development session, "Writing in the Age of AI," is designed to equip teachers from ELA, Science, Social Studies, and Electives with the tools and knowledge to pivot their writing instruction to incorporate and address the ethical use of AI in the classroom. Our goal is to empower educators with ideas and strategies to navigate the challenges and opportunities presented by AI, ensuring the cultivation of authentic student writing tasks.
Presented by: Michelle Coots, Rhiannon Cummings, Rebecca Fain, Liz Reyes, Rachel Rutan, and Adobe | Tuesday @ 10:10 | Zoom - Lobby
Grades K-12 | Beginner, Intermediate, Experienced | Step into the Digital Tech Playgrounds for an exploration of exciting technologies! Freely move between interactive breakout rooms, connect directly with presenters, witness live demonstrations, and even try out the resources yourself. Leave inspired with new tools and insights to bring the latest tech to your classroom.
Presented by: Liz Reyes | DVUSD | Tuesday @ 11:00 | Zoom - Breakout Room: Mountain
PreK-12 | Beginner | This session will introduce participants to the fundamentals of School AI, focusing on its powerful Tools and Assistants features designed to streamline workflow. We'll also dive into Student Spaces and discover how this innovative feature supports student engagement and learning! Participants will leave with the practical skills to confidently use School AI's tools and assistants, along with a clear understanding of Student Spaces and how to create them for their students to use.
Presented by: Rachel Rutan | DVUSD | Tuesday @ 11:00 | Zoom - Breakout Room: Oasis
Grades 6-12 | Intermediate, Experienced | In this hands-on workshop, we’ll dive into best practices for setting up and organizing your Canvas courses. Whether you're looking to optimize your course structure for easy navigation or streamline the process of adding lessons and assignments, this session will provide practical tips and tricks to enhance your Canvas experience. By the end of this session, you'll leave with a more organized and intuitive course layout that enhances student engagement and simplifies your workflow. *Bring a charged laptop*
Presented by: Malissa Utter | DVUSD | Tuesday @ 11:00 | Zoom - Breakout Room: Cactus
Grades K-8 | Beginner | Learn more about the "Canvas for Elementary" setting, the simplified interface for K-6/K-8 students in DVUSD, introduced in Summer 2024. This session will provide an overview of its features and how it integrates with existing Canvas content.
Presented by: Taylor-Ann Charles | EOS Education by Boxlight | Tuesday @ 11:00 | Zoom - Breakout Room: Canyon
Grades PreK-12 & Staff | Beginner | Best practices for sharing, collaborating, and organizing files. Boost workflow with share features, organize workspace, and explore tools for collaboration.
Presented by: Michelle Coots | DVUSD | Tuesday @ 11:00 | Zoom - Breakout Room: Sunlight
Grades 1-12 | Beginner | Increase on-task accountability when students use Chromebooks in the classroom. With Securly Classroom, teachers can monitor class activity, guide digital learning, promote student focus, and communicate with students. Learn about how to use the features of this tool to help students develop skills for appropriate tech use, whether your goal is to reclaim instructional time, minimize distractions, or simply get insight into student activity on devices during class
Presented by: Adobe Express for Education | Tuesday @ 11:00 | Zoom - Breakout Room: Valley
PreK-12 | Beginner, Intermediate | Discover how to help students present complex ideas and stories in new and creative ways. In this hands-on session, learn how to build presentations and instructional webpages. Help students get creative with slideshows, brochures, and infographics that enable them to present complex ideas in new ways and voiceover videos for advanced concepts. Objective: Learn how to prepare students for college and careers by teaching them how to create multimedia presentations.
12:00 PM Lunch Break (on your own)
Presented by: Kirsten Harder & Rhiannon Cummings | DVUSD | Tuesday @ 1:00 | Zoom - Breakout Room: Sunlight
Grades 3-12 | Beginner, Intermediate | Great combinations include peanut butter + jelly, chips + salsa, and especially Canvas + Google! Learn how to include Google files, including Docs, Slides, Sheets, & PDFs, in your Canvas course. Options for collecting student work, providing templates to students, and embedding resources will all be explored during this workshop session.
Creating SchoolCity Item Banks, Passages, and Items 🧭
Presented by: SchoolCity | Tuesday @ 1:00 | Zoom - Breakout Room: Cactus
Grades K-12 | Beginner | Learn how to create, manage, and use Item Banks, Passages, and Items for use in crafting your own SchoolCity assessments.
Presented by: Matt Sammon | DVUSD | Tuesday @ 1:00 | Zoom - Breakout Room: Horizon
Grades PreK-12 & Staff | Intermediate | This session is for employees granted editing access to DVUSD school webpages/websites ONLY. Those without access will not benefit from this course. We will cover some of the basics of the website, including how to log in, edit, and add text and images. We will also dive into some more complex issues, such as embedding live documents or uploading PDFs.
Presented by: Rachel Rutan | DVUSD | Tuesday @ 1:00 | Zoom - Breakout Room: Oasis
Grades K-12 | Beginner | Discover how to equip students with essential AI-related skills by embedding meaningful, subject-specific lessons into your classroom practice. In this session, we’ll explore practical strategies to move students from simply recognizing AI to understanding its functions, implications, and uses in the world around them. Walk away with adaptable lesson ideas that foster critical thinking, ethical reasoning, and creative engagement with AI—no matter what you teach.
Presented by: Taylor-Ann Charles | EOS Education by Boxlight | Tuesday @ 1:00 | Zoom - Breakout Room: Canyon
Grades PreK-12 & Staff | Beginner | Support autonomous learning with choice! Evaluate different styles and types of choice boards/ Apply fundamental design strategies in Google Slides using tables, lists, and shapes
Presented by: Liz Reyes | DVUSD | Tuesday @ 1:00 | Zoom - Breakout Room: Mountain
Grades PreK-12 | Beginner, Intermediate, Experienced | This session will explore how School AI's Student Spaces can provide powerful learning analytics. Discover the Pulse Check feature, a way to use Student Spaces for exit tickets and instantly visualize student content mastery. We'll also explore School AI's Essay Grader, a tool that provides valuable essay feedback for both teachers and students. By the end of this session, you'll have firsthand experience with how School AI delivers actionable student learning insights and the practical skills to implement Pulse Checks and the Essay Grader in your own classroom.
Presented by: Adobe Express for Education | Tuesday @ 1:00 | Zoom - Breakout Room: Valley
Grades PreK-12 & Staff | Beginner, Intermediate | Discover how to help students show their thinking in creative ways. In this session, you will learn how to support students with thinking metacognitively about how to portray their ideas using generative AI and voiceover tools. This instruction will enable them to build and explain images, webpages, infographics, and presentations. Objective: Learn how to incorporate generative AI and think-aloud activities into any classroom.
Presented by: Rhiannon Cummings & Rachel Rutan | DVUSD | Tuesday @ 2:10 | Zoom - Breakout Room: Oasis
Grades 3-12 | Beginner | This session will guide you through creating, uploading, editing, annotating, and embedding quiz questions within Canvas Studio videos to enhance student engagement and learning.
Presented by: Adobe Express for Education | Tuesday @ 2:10 | Zoom - Breakout Room: Valley
Grades PreK-12 | Beginner, Intermediate | Discover how to help students visualize complex topics with ease and precision. In this hands-on session, you will learn how to create simple infographics for any topic and explainer videos to help students think out loud about infographics. Objective: Learn how to enhance instruction and learning about complex topics in any class. Audience: All skill levels; CTE, Science, Social Studies, Math.
Presented by: Rebecca Fain | DVUSD | Tuesday @ 2:10 | Zoom - Breakout Room: Canyon
Grades 9-12 | Beginner | In this hands-on workshop, we will explore the power of Canva as a versatile tool for designing images, lessons and spaces that promote student engagement in the classroom allowing for increased participation and collaboration in the classroom. Through a guided tutorial we will create an interactive video lesson designed for your classroom and content area.
Presented by: SchoolCity | Tuesday @ 2:10 | Zoom - Breakout Room: Cactus
Grades K-12 | Beginner | Discover various ways you can customize SchoolCity assessment data reports including Custom Reports, Pivot Tables, Standards Progression Report, and Dashboards.
Presented by: Michelle Coots & Liz Reyes | DVUSD | Tuesday @ 2:10 | Zoom - Breakout Room: Mountain
Grades PreK-12 & Staff | Beginner, Intermediate | Unlock the potential of artificial intelligence in your daily professional tasks! This session explores how AI and generative AI tools like Google Gemini and Grammarly can streamline your workflow, enhance productivity, and improve communication. Learn foundational AI concepts, dispel common misconceptions, and understand the district’s guidelines for ethical, secure, and effective AI integration. Through hands-on examples, collaborative activities, and practical tips, you’ll gain confidence in using AI to accomplish routine tasks, manage information, and support your work with efficiency and integrity.