Presented by Kris Bruno

Learn how AI tools can help bring elementary math concepts to life while saving teachers time and supporting diverse learners. This hands-on session will highlight ways to use AI for creating math centers, generating differentiated practice activities, supporting problem-solving, and encouraging student collaboration and mathematical thinking. 

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Presented by Melissa Graves

Stop losing hours to repetitive admin and start automating your workflow with the power of Google Apps Script and Gemini. This hands-on session dives straight into practical application, beginning with a real-world code example.  No coding skills are necessary; as long as you can prompt a generative AI, you’ll leave with a functional tool and the skills to prompt your way to a more efficient school day. 

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Presented by Kris Bruno

Explore how Canva can be a powerful tool for student collaboration and creativity. This session will show you how to use Canva’s shared design features for group projects, presentations, and multimedia storytelling. Learn how students can co-create visually engaging content while building teamwork and digital design skills. Perfect for any subject area and adaptable for all grade levels.

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Presented by Kris Bruno

Get your students Chromebook-ready with engaging, age-appropriate activities that build digital confidence from day one! In this session, we’ll explore creative ways to introduce essential tools like Canva, Padlet, and Book Creator through fun, low-stress projects that teach tech skills while supporting learning goals. Whether it’s designing an “All About Me” page, collaborating on a virtual class mural, or creating a digital storybook, you’ll walk away with ready-to-use ideas that make tech integration meaningful and manageable.

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Presented by Lisa Packley

Discover how to make your lessons more engaging and interactive with Adobe Express. This digital AI platform empowers students to easily create presentations, posters, videos, and animations. Explore creative ways to enhance student learning, foster creativity, and bring classroom projects to life. 

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Presented by Becky Young

Formative assessments are essential in any classroom as they inform both the teachers of next steps in our instruction and the students of where they are in their learning.  But let’s be honest, they might not be happening as much as they are needed because of time.  It takes time to create and analyze the information and it takes time in the classroom.  In this session, we will learn some tips and tricks how to create, analyze, and implement formative assessments using digital tools.  We will have time to play and create in this session!

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Presented by Kris Bruno

Discover engaging ways to combine picture books and Padlet to support elementary reading instruction. Using picture books as mentor texts, participants will learn ways to incorporate Padlet Sandbox and boards to teach comprehension strategies, vocabulary development, text connections, student discussion, and creative student responses to reading.

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Presented by Kris Bruno

This hands-on session will demonstrate how Padlet can be used to support student writing in meaningful and interactive ways. Participants will create activities using Sandbox and collaborative boards to encourage creativity, collaboration, peer responses, and student publishing.

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Presented by Jen Manfredi

iXL is a very powerful tool to help support your students in Math! Learn how to incorporate iXL practice into your daily routines, how to take advantage of test prep features, and so much more!

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Presented by Roman Africa

Discover tips to use the current tools and the newer features of Edpuzzle. Gain practical strategies to integrate Edpuzzle effectively into your classroom and empower your students for success. 

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Presented by Kimmy Schuelke

In this session, you'll learn how to use Google Forms, Sites, and Vids to build collaborative, student-driven tech projects. We’ll look at quick examples of ‘escape’ rooms, collaborative research hubs, and student-led video updates that improve parent communication. If you are tired of just using google slides and want to try more interactive options, this is the session for you! 

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Presented by Becky Young

Google Classroom is always rolling out new features to support teachers and students in and out of the classroom.  Sometimes it is hard to keep up with the new features! In this session, we will learn about the newest features of Google Classroom that will want to use this new school year. We will have time to play and create!

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Presented by Becky Young

The 2024 Illinois Comprehensive Literacy Plan is live!  Literacy is not just for the ELA classroom - literacy is everywhere!  The literacy plan is based on the 7 components of literacy and this session will focus on oracy (effective spoken communication).  Group presentations, podcasts, audio discussions, and book reviews are just a few great ways to increase student speaking and listening in any subject.  In this session, we will dive into multiple ways that students can use Padlet to do just this!  Each idea will be matched with a specific Padlet skill to learn.  All participants will walk out of the session with examples and directions to help our students to speak and listen more in our classrooms!

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Presented by Jillian Zirbes

Think Edpuzzle is just for assigning video homework? Think again! Join this session to unlock the platform’s hidden superpowers, from hosting review games with Live Mode to creating interactive reading comprehension activities to empowering students as creators through Video Projects. You'll walk away with a complete toolkit to transform passive screen time into an active, data-driven learning experience.

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Presented by Becky Young

Beginning this year, all students in K-8 in Plainfield will have access to Math iXL.  iXL is a powerful tool to help students practice and refine their math skills.  But what happens when students struggle while trying to increase their SmartScore?  Sometimes students feel frustrated and want to give up and we don’t want that to happen.  In this session, we will learn how to use the teacher tools in iXL to monitor student progress and how to help our students and their families understand how to harness the resources within the tool to support them wherever they are. 

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Presented by Jillian Zirbes

Discover how Canva and ChatGPT can be powerful tools to support social-emotional learning (SEL) in K–5 classrooms. This session will showcase creative, tech-friendly ways to foster connection, self-awareness, and empathy through engaging visuals and AI-powered prompts. Walk away with ready-to-use ideas and inspiration to make SEL both meaningful and fun.

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Presented by Becky Young

The truth is that students will use Gemini or another AI tool to get help if they get stuck doing their work.  The problem is that the AI tool will generally just give them the correct answer.  In this session, we will learn how to teach our students how to use, modify, and then create their own Gemini Gems to use as a tutor that will help them to relearn the material or address misconceptions in those moments where they get stuck.  We can help our students use AI for “good” and not “evil” and this is one way we can do that in our classrooms. 

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Presented by Becky Young

Notebook LM is a really impactful AI tool that is powered by Google Gemini.  What makes Notebook LM different from using Gemini is that Notebook LM only uses the sources you provide to create quizzes, flashcards, mind maps, podcasts, infographics, videos, and more!  This means that teachers and students can use their class materials to create targeted study tools.   In this session, we will learn how to teach our students how to use, modify, and then create their own Notebook LM “notebooks” to use as a study tool that will help them to practice and prepare for assessments.  We can help our students use AI for “good” and not “evil” and this is one way we can do that in our classrooms. 

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Presented by Jillian Zirbes

Stop reinventing the wheel and learn how to create stunning, high-quality classroom materials in a fraction of the time. Discover how to leverage Canva’s smart AI features, ready-to-use templates, and hidden design shortcuts to transform your weekly prep from stressful to effortless. 

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Presented by Roman Africa

If you are an experienced user with Formative, come to this session to make your Formatives more engaging! We will review current updates and discuss different ways to “app-smash” digital tools you are already using within a Formative. 

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Presented by Kris Bruno

Learn how digital tools and AI can help create supportive, student-centered learning environments. This session will focus on using technology to foster communication, reflection, relationship-building, and emotional growth through engaging and age-appropriate classroom activities.

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Presented by Steve Eighner

Are you feeling overwhelmed with having to differentiate your instruction to help meet the needs of your students?  Are you looking for someone (or something) to help make it easier for you to modify, translate, or re-level text? Well Gemini is the best friend you have been looking for!!! In this training, I am going to show you how to use Gemini to differentiate your lesson plans, translate your text to a different language, re-level your texts and modify your quizzes in seconds, to help meet the needs of all of your students!

Presented by Jillian Zirbes

In this session, you’ll learn how to transform passive screen time into active learning time. This is your step-by-step guide to mastering the Google Classroom + YouTube + Edpuzzle trifecta. Learn how to take any video, add interactive questions, push it out to your students, and sync those grades automatically to your gradebook in just a few clicks.

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Presented by Kris Bruno

Explore how Vivi makes it simple for both teachers and students to share content directly from their devices. Participants will learn strategies for increasing participation, showcasing student learning, and creating a more connected classroom environment.

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