The goal for the 9 essential skills for the Love and Logic classroom is to provide low-stress strategies for highly successful educators that make positive and lasting effects in their school and communities.  Through the program, educators will become further equipped with practical techniques that:

        are simple and easy to learn

        teach responsibility and good character

        change lives and lower stress levels

        have immediate, positive effects on students and schools

Although this will be the second day of training for many of the participants, and we will be focusing primarily on the last 5 skills (positive relationships, limits and enforceable statements, providing choices, preventive interventions, guiding students to solve their own problems), first-time participants are welcome.  We will review the first four skills and the program's foundational Love and Logic principles, and the skills can be taught in various orders.

The course will be taught in person by the independent facilitator Joe Moriarty and by video from Dr. Charles Fay (Founder and Owner of the Love and Logic Company).  The nine essential tools include:

•         Neutralizing Arguing

•         Delayed Consequences

•         Sincere Empathy

•         Short-Term Recovery

•         Positive Teacher – Student Relationships

•         Setting Limits and Enforceable Statements

•         Providing Choices within Limits

•         Quick and Easy Preventive Interventions

•         Guiding Students to Solve their problems

Joe Moriarty currently lives in Lewistown.  Mr. Moriarty is a long-time educator entering his 43rd year in the field, and is authentically grateful for his career, the multitude of students and incredible colleagues he has worked with, and the humble contributions that he is able to continue making.

His experiences have included classroom instruction as a math, science, and social studies teacher; in the moving laboratory (the traffic education arena); and coaching football, basketball, track, and tennis.  He was the assistant principal at Sacajawea Middle School in Bozeman for the latter third of his twenty-four years with that district.  Joe then began working as an adjunct professor and field supervisor for Montana State University, and a consultant for the Office of Public Instruction as a trainer and MTSS coach.  Joe has a special passion for public health and wellness (especially students, teachers, and all members of the educational team).  He addresses that passion through his trainings in the PBIS, Better Stress Management, Effective Classroom Practices, Social and Emotional Learning, and the Love and Logic Workshop.

Grounded in current neuroscience, trauma-informed practice, and embodied learning, this workshop offers practical, immediately applicable tools for nervous system regulation, the missing foundation beneath effective behavior management. Rather than treating regulation as a crisis response, this workshop emphasizes embedding micro-regulation moments into the existing rhythms of the school day, so that calm becomes a predictable, culturally embedded practice rather than a reactive one.

Participants will experience and practice:

• Breathwork and vestibular movement to activate the body’s natural

regulation system

• Embodied creative processes designed to simulate flow state and reset the

nervous system

• Outdoor sensory engagement using nature as a co-regulating environment

• Practical strategies for weaving micro-regulation moments into daily

classroom rhythms — transitions, morning routines, pre-assessment moments — so

students grow to expect these resets as a normal part of their day

• Calming kit tools to take back into the classroom immediately 

The goal is not a toolkit pulled out in crisis, but a rhythm students grow to trust-brief, repeated moments of reset that become as familiar as any other classroom routine.

Sara Ness and team at Art of Wellness; Sara Ness is a former Life Skills Special Education teacher at Skyview High School who left the classroom after seven years to found Art Of Well:Ness, a Billings-based creative community and studio for adults with developmental disabilities. She is looking to bring collaboration with her team to Educators.

Are you ready to re-learn fractions? In this hand-on, highly interactive workshop, you will learn how to understand and teach fractions in a whole new way! Fractions are numbers. We can count fractions just like we count numbers. We need fractions to help us represent amounts between whole numbers. Students must understand benchmark fractions, numerators, denominators, the importance of the “whole” and then use these skills to reason and explain their understanding. We will look at student misconceptions in all areas of fractions and learn how to correct this. The skills included are also helpful for older students who still do not understand fractions and how to work with them.

Skills covered include equal parts, unit fractions, benchmark fractions, what is a “whole”, fractions of a set, equivalent fractions, mixed numbers, use number lines to understand fractions, comparing and ordering fractions, adding and subtracting fractions, and multiplying and dividing fractions.

Learning Targets:

●        Learners will practice activities to teach fractions using examples and counterexamples.

●        Learners will practice skills to help students understand fractions at a deeper level.

●        Learners will use words and phrases to help students understand their own knowledge of fractions.

Participants will have a full day of “make and take” activities. Plan to put your computers away and be a learner yourself!

Materials to bring: markers or colored pencils, scissors, glue stick

Executive Functioning: Skills That Make a Big Difference for Children is a full-day professional learning session designed for PK–12 educators, specialists, support staff, and administrators. Participants will explore how executive functioning skills impact learning, behavior, social development, organization, attention, self-control, flexibility, working memory, and independence. This interactive training will help educators understand the three core executive functioning processes—working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibitory control—and identify practical ways to strengthen these skills through classroom routines, modeling, reflection, and intentional supports. Participants will leave with actionable strategies to help every learner succeed every day.

Stephanie Lester brings over 40 years of experience in education, including roles as an educational consultant, classroom teacher (preschool through elementary), Child Development college instructor, instructional leader, Director of Early Childhood Education, successful grant writer, and Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment. Her work reflects deep expertise in supporting systems-level implementation of evidence-based practices that improve student outcomes.

As the owner of S.L Lester Educational Consulting, LLC, Stephanie partners with schools and districts to strengthen instruction through the Science of Reading, MTSS-aligned systems, data-informed decision-making, and high-impact instructional strategies. She has extensive experience supporting early childhood and elementary programs in developing developmentally appropriate learning environments that integrate literacy, mathematics, and social-emotional development. Stephanie’s professional learning is grounded in current research and designed for immediate classroom application, with a focus on building educator capacity, leadership sustainability, and measurable impact on student learning. She has successfully supported and secured multiple state and federal grant initiatives focused on literacy and early childhood education, aligning professional development,  coaching, and progress monitoring systems to program requirements and district goals.

A research-based professional learning experience designed to support educators in creating developmentally appropriate learning environments for four-year-old learners that promote foundational academic, social-emotional, and executive functioning skills.                                                                      

Participants will explore how young children develop early literacy and mathematical understanding through oral language, vocabulary, phonological awareness, play, routines, and intentional interactions. Emphasizing the critical role of play as the primary context for learning, educators will learn how to design environments and daily experiences that naturally support language, thinking, and independence.    Special emphasis is placed on free choice time as a powerful driver of executive functioning, language development, and problem-solving. The training affirms that four-year-old learners have unique developmental needs that differ from Kindergarten 

Stephanie Lester has over 35 years in education including: teaching preschool and a Project-Based Learning Multiage K-1st program, professional development speaker, author, Assistant Principal, Early Childhood Education Director, and Director of Curriculum, Instruction & Assessment.

Currently Stephanie partners with school communities as an Educational Consultant focusing on providing literacy support aligned with the science of reading, as well as professional development training on a variety of topics. Stephanie believes that children learn best when they are excited, engaged, and experiencing success in the learning environment. Stephanie has published two books: Year-Round Project-Based Activities for STEM and Science Through the Year. Stephanie is passionate about inspiring, educating, and motivating teachers to implement evidence-based instructional practices with the goal of developing the social, emotional, physical and cognitive skills that children will need to experience SUCCESS as 21st Century learners.

When Stephanie isn’t exploring with her grandchildren, you will find her creating hands-on STEM activities, presenting workshops on a variety of topics, and consulting with teachers throughout the country. Stephanie Lester holds a MA degree in Education: Curriculum and Instruction, an Administrative Credential, a Multiple Subject Teaching Credential, a CLAD Certification, CLASS certification, and a Program Director Child Development permit.

This training addresses the need for a  broad differentiated structure that will  support students according to risk categories of Advance, Benchmark, Strategic and Intensive.   This  seminar will focus on developing clear protocols for differentiating instruction within the risk categories, i.e. differentiating instruction for strategic level students, included will specific information on how to (a) use assessments to identify the instructional focus (b) establish a structure/schedule for small group instruction (c) select research validated interventions that target specific skills (i.e., vocabulary, multisyllabic decoding, etc.), and (d) create differentiated progress monitoring plans.  Participants will be provided planning tools for establishing differentiated protocols at each grade level.

Wayne Callender Ed.S. is one of the county’s leading RTI / MTSS Consultants who has worked at the state, district and building level implementing RTI and MTSS. A former statewide RTI director, Wayne currently trains and advises educators across the country in the implementation of MTSS and in the area of school improvement.  In addition to being featured as keynote speaker at over a dozen state and national conferences, Wayne has authored numerous RtI articles one of which was recently published in Principal Magazine, as well as writing RtI for Secondary Schools – A School‐Wide Approach published by Corwin Press in 2014.

Focus: Training school teams to identify and respond to dysregulation early

Includes: Spotting signs of trauma and chronic stress Building systems of early intervention Redefining “discipline” through a trauma-informed lens  Aligning SEL and behavior supports 

Presented by Stacy York Nation. As a professional speaker, I have delivered over 100 speeches/trainings in 7 countries, including the United States, Kuwait, Iraq, Syria, United Arab Emirate, Canada, and Tunisia, and  several States. My audiences have been as large as 1500 and a small as 3. I have delivered interactive trainings in person and virtually. I have been a keynote speaker. I have developed trainings as short as 30 minutes and as long as four 8-hour days. I have contracted with school districts, mental health agencies, and parent groups. I am known for engaging the audience, making content relevant, great stories, and using humor to teach. Participants always leave with skills that can be used immediately and are relevant for each setting-home, office, or school. Presentation topics include, but are not limited to: Trauma-Informed Practices in Classrooms, Mental Health and Education, Trauma and Resilience in Military Members, Brain-Based Strategies for Parents