This year we are partnering with our experts at NKCES to bring a variety of ongoing, sustained, personalized and reflective opportunities for professional learning. 

Participants in this format will choose one of the options below and participate as a community of learners throughout the course of the year.  Each cadre will open up with a training time on August 14, a District PD Day, and will meet periodically through the rest of the year. 

NKCES

Strategic Plan: Achievement

PGP Alignment: Planning and Preparation 

Supports educators in internalizing Amplify - HQIR materials hile maintaining rigor, coherence, and student-centered instruction. Provides ongoing support for effective HQIR implementation through collaborative planning and reflection.

Dates

August 14 - 3 hours

3 hours TBD

NKCES

Strategic Plan: Individual Student Growth

PGP Alignment: Classroom Environment

A humanized approach to failing intellegently, in the classroom and in life.

Dates

August 14 - 3 hours

3 hours TBD

District Lead: Heidi Neltner

Strategic Plan: Achievement

PGP Alignment: Planning and Preparation

Participants will attend the District AICamp where they will have a choice in sessions to attend that meet their personal learning needs. For the rest of the meetings teachers will consider how to use AI to think more deeply about teaching and learning through the framework of NASOT, how to design assignments and structures that will encourage students to think for themselves, and AI Literacy.

Dates & tentative agenda

*3 hours May 29, AICamp (no meeting August 14)

3 hours cadre meetings 

• Thursday, September 17 AI: From Saving Time with AI to Deeper Thinking about Teaching and Learning

• Thursday, October 22 AI: Beyond the Student Shortcut - Tasks that Demand Human Thought

• Thursday, November 19 - Teaching Students to Think about AI

District Lead: Carrie Murray

Strategic Plan: Positive and Engaged Culture

PGP Alignment: Instruction

the AP Teacher Cadre is a collaboration of AP teachers across the curriculum to improve the AP course offerings and to provide the most meaningful AP experience for all students.

By having time to collaborate and share, AP teachers in all content areas will be able to learn about new resources, teaching techniques, and best practices from our colleagues. Upon implementation of these ideas, teachers will be able to share successes and challenges with each other during 

Dates:

TBD

District Lead: Rachael King

Strategic Plan: Student Experiences, Positive and Engaged Culture

PGP Alignment: Planning & Preparation

Teachers will choose or adapt integration strategies that align with their content area and student needs. Sessions will include flexible work time for individualized lesson planning and application. Each meeting includes structured reflection protocols, peer feedback, and opportunities to assess instructional impact and adjust practices.

Goals:-Develop an understanding of arts integration strategies across content areas

• Create vertically aligned visual arts connections across grade bands

• Design and implement interdisciplinary lessons

• Build partnerships with local arts organizations

• Increase student engagement through creative, inquiry-based learning

Dates:

August 14 - 3 hours

TBD

District Lead: Keith Faust and Heidi Neltner

Strategic Plan: Achievement

PGP Alignment: Planning and Preparation, Instruction

This cadre is designed to support your initial journey in the Fort Thomas Independent School District. Whether you're a first-year teacher or an experienced educator new to our community, this cadre is designed to help you ignite your passion for teaching in District, while integrating the digital tools, instructional practices, and curriculum resources that will empower your students to thrive.

The August session is your launch point—a space for connection, creativity, and confidence building. In the initial session you'll:

• Explore the core instructional platforms used in your grade band

• Create a ready-to-use digital activity or lesson

• Begin designing a learning environment that blends tech, engagement, and best practices

Dates

TBD

District Leads: Nina Kearns, Katie Stewart, Kevin Listerman

Strategic Plan: Individual Student Growth

PGP Alignment: Classroom Environment

Year 3 work for High School teachers. We will work across discplines to take a look at curriculum for our first year of legacy and determine what went well that we would like to continue and change things that we think did not go as well to inform what we change and build for subsequent years.  We will also reflect on trends that we are seeing within the student body that are both positive and negative in order to inform our curriculum.

Tentative Dates:

July 30

August 5

August 14

September 23

District Lead: Jenny Miller Horn

Strategic Plan: Individual Student Growth, Achievement

This cadre will begin with a focus on instruction in the completion of new special education documents on Infinite Campus. There will also be a review of procedures, identification of common paperwork errors, discussion around legal updates, scenarios and cases from the field, review of records, time for colleague collaboration and alignment.

The cadre is appropriate for all district special education staff, including SLP’s, OT and preschool.

Dates

TBD

District Lead: Brian McDowell

Strategic Plan: Achievement

PGP Alignment: Planning and Preparation

Teachers will collaborate with each other throughout the NBCT process as they check for understanding and give each other feedback about their products.

Dates:

August 14 - 3 hours

TBD

District Lead: Heidi Neltner

Strategic Plan: Student Experiences and Opportunities

PGP Alignment: Planning & Preparation

Take a unit you want to improve and make it into a real world experience for your students through project based learning. In the initial 6 hours you will generate a project plan, get feedback from your peers, and begin developing your assessment map including a toolkit for students to use. 

You will use the remaining 3 hours to fully develop and implement the project with feedback and one on one support from Heidi.

Dates:

August 11 - 6 hours

3 hours of planning and implementation time with Heidi

District Lead: Heidi Neltner

Strategic Plan: Achievement

PGP Alignment: Planning and Preparation

This cadre is for high school science teachers engaging in Curriculum Stage 1 Unit development and reflection. Participants will identify unit standards, skills, compelling and supporting questions and required vocabulary for each topic of study as they determine which HQIR will be most beneficial for students.

3 hours of initial work in June will focus on clarity around Stage 1 work, writing compelling and supporting questions, identifying skills and academic vocabulary. 3 check point meetings will follow for review of work and standard clarification/deconstruction.

Dates & tentative agenda

District work TBD- hours may be paid or used for Professional Learning in combination with above work

3 hours checkpoint cadre meetings  - tentative

• Thursday, October 1

• Thursday, December 3

• Thursday, February 4

District Lead: Heidi Neltner & Jenny Davis

Strategic Plan: Individual Student Growth, Achievement

PGP Alignment: Classroom Environment

School level teams will to create a system of support for existing and emerging technologies. The cadre will function as a committee that will work to review thoughtful integration of educational technologies that allow for transformative learning experiences and encourage creativity and life long learning. They will help establish structures that can be used for student digital citizenship, media literacy and AI literacy. 

The goal is to include membership from each building with a goal to be in the cadre for 2 years. HMS participants will pilot a full committee experience. Members will help to guide decisions about Digital Citizenship, what thoughtful integration of technology looks like at each level, and take on a leadership role in the building with knowledge of edtech tools that support teaching and learning. We will collect data about usage and concerns in buildings and troubleshoot 

Participants will have first option to attend the state KAST conference (formerly KySTE), and potentially be part of pilots for edtech tools.

Dates

• June 4 -2 hours: Goal setting, group norms and District vision and mission

• Thursday, September 3

• Thursday, November 5

• Thursday, January 7

• Thursday, March 4

Each cohort group (K-5, SPED, Reading specialists) will engage in professional learning over two years and cover eight professional learning units on topics essential for literacy instruction, including phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, comprehension, writing and assessment. Each unit will include asynchronous, self-paced study and six hours of facilitator-led learning. Participants must commit to completing the full two-year course and will devote approximately an hour each week plus six hours for each unit for live training to complete the program. 

Teachers will receive 4 sub days to work with their learning group for each facilitator-led training + 9 hours of District Level PD

Teachers who participated in Phase 2, will continue in their same cadres. 

Registration for Phase 5 will open May 4 - click here for information