The One Thing Conference
Professional Learning to Transform Education for Good
Registration for the Spring 2026 workshops is now open!
Overview
The One Thing Conference Workshops will be hosting four workshops throughout Spring 2026, each one aligned to an MSDE Professional Development Point (PDP) focus area. Scroll down to learn more about each workshop.
| Workshop Date | MSDE Professional Development Point (PDP) Area Alignment | Registration Link |
|---|---|---|
| Saturday, April 18, 2026 | 9am-1pm | Strategies for Teaching Students with Disabilities | |
| Saturday, May 2, 2026 | 9am-1pm | Content or Pedagogy Related to an Area of Licensure | |
| Saturday, May 30, 2026 | 9am-1pm | English as a Second Language | |
| Saturday, June 13, 2026 | 9am-1pm | Culturally Responsive Teaching |
We can support Bulk Registration!
Interested in registering a group of educators from your school or district? This can be done in one of two ways.
(1) If you would like to pay by Credit Card, simply select "Bulk Purchase" on the registration page for the workshop(s) for which you would like to register your educators! You will then select the number of educators you want to register for that workshop. After you pay via credit card, you will be prompted to invite the individual educators to register via email. Note: You will need to repeat this for each workshop for which you want to register educators.
(2) If you would like to pay by invoice (check), please contact Elizabeth Gotwalt egotwalt@umd.edu for assistance. For this option, you will pre-pay via check; we will then provide you with a list of unique promotional codes to distribute to your educators. Your educators can use these codes to register themselves for the workshop of their choice.
Location
Workshops will be held in-person on the ËÄÉ«AV of Maryland College Park Campus. Building and parking information will be provided following registration.
Cost
Registration for each workshop is $120 and includes:
- 4-hours of interactive, engaging, and practice-based professional learning
- PDP-aligned professional learning content, with PDP paperwork provided via email following workshop completion
- Coffee and light snacks
- No cost on-campus parking options available near workshop location (see below for details)
Workshop 1: Saturday, April 18, 2026 | 9am-1pm
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PDP Focus: Strategies for teaching students with disabilities or differentiated instruction for diverse learning needs
Cost: $120
Title: Building Inclusive Classrooms: A Support Plan Grounded in Relational, Instructional, and Responsive Strategies
Audience: Early Childhood, Elementary, Middle, and Secondary Educators
Facilitators: Dr. Shanna Hirsch & Dr. Jennifer McCatharn
Building a genuinely inclusive classroom requires practice and intentional strategy. In this workshop, you’ll observe live models of inclusive classrooms and explore relational, instructional, and responsive strategies that benefit every learner in your room. You’ll leave with a personalized, inclusive classroom support plan and the step-by-step resources to put it into action.
Workshop 2: Saturday, May 2, 2026 | 9am-1pm
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PDP Focus: Content or Pedagogy Related to an Area of Licensure
Cost: $120
In this workshop, learners will choose one of two tracks. Registration is the same for both tracks; you will be prompted to select a track after registration, closer to the event.
Track 1: Leveraging Math Games to Improve Student-to-Student Discourse and Mathematical Reasoning
Audience: Elementary and Middle Grade Educators
Facilitators: Dr. Sara Kirschner and Dr. Carolina Napp-Avelli
In this workshop, you’ll play games, experience purposeful teacher moves firsthand, and discover how small shifts in how games are facilitated can unlock deeper reasoning and genuine student-to-student dialogue in your mathematics classroom. You’ll analyze your own curriculum games with fresh eyes and leave with game-based lesson plans designed to spark the mathematical thinking your students are capable of.
Track 2: Teacher-as-Writer Workshop
Audience: Early Childhood, Elementary, Middle, and Secondary Educators (all content areas welcome)
Facilitators: Dr. Margaret Peterson and Dr. Kerry Alexander
The best writing teachers are writers themselves, but many educators do not see themselves as writers. If you want to improve your skills and develop your identity as a writer and writing instructor—regardless of grade level or content area—this workshop is for you! In this workshop, you’ll pick up a pen alongside your colleagues and compose your own original mentor text through three guided writing experiences focused on volume, variety, and depth. Along the way, you’ll grapple with the real challenges your students face as writers—and problem-solve them together. You’ll leave with an authentic mentor text in hand and three mini-lessons ready to bring student authorship to life across any grade or discipline.
Workshop 3: Saturday, May 30, 2026 | 9am-1pm
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PDP Focus: English as a Second Language, Sheltered English, or Bilingual Education
Cost: $120
Title: Making Language Visible: Using SIOP to Support English Learners in Every Classroom
Audience: Early Childhood, Elementary, Middle, and Secondary Educators
Facilitators: Dr. Nihat Polat and Dr. Laura Mahalingappa
Every student deserves access to rigorous content—and English learners are no exception. In this hands-on workshop, you’ll dive into the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) model, a research-backed framework for teaching academic content to English Language Learners (ELLs) across grade levels. SIOP will help you make language visible and content accessible in your classroom. You won’t just learn about SIOP—you’ll practice it, applying the protocol directly to your own teaching context and walking away with objectives and strategies you can use immediately in the classroom.
Workshop 4: Saturday, June 13, 2026 | 9am-1pm
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PDP Focus: Culturally Responsive Teaching or diverse student identities in education
Cost: $120
In this workshop, learners will choose one of two tracks. Registration is the same for both tracks; you will be prompted to select a track after registration, closer to the event.
Track 1: Hip Hop Pedagogy as a Tool for Culturally Sustaining Practice
Audience: Middle and Secondary Educators
Facilitators: Dr. Sehrish Shikarpurya and Diamond E. Williams
Hip Hop Pedagogy offers a powerful approach to culturally relevant and sustaining instruction. In this workshop, you’ll explore the principles behind this culturally sustaining approach, write and perform your own rap using primary sources, and develop a ready-to-pilot assessment—complete with rubrics—designed to honor and elevate your students’ voices and experiences. If you’re looking for an assessment tool that is both rigorous and real, this workshop is for you. Note: This track's target audience is middle and secondary educators. We will be running a concurrent track for early childhood and elementary educators on culturally responsive pedagogy; please see Layered Read Alouds to Amplify Cultural and Linguistic Diversity for the early childhood and elementary educator option on this date!
Track 2: Layered Read Alouds to Amplify Cultural and Linguistic Diversity
Audience: Early Childhood, Elementary, and Middle Grade Educators
Facilitators: Dr. Reka C. Barton & Dr. Keisha Allen
Imagine a read aloud that does more than tell a story—one that opens windows, builds bridges, and invites every student’s identity into the room. Layered Read Alouds do exactly that. In this workshop, you’ll experience one from the inside, unpack what makes it work, and collaboratively create your own LRA tailored to your grade level and students. You’ll leave with a finished, classroom-ready LRA and the confidence to keep building more. Note: This track's target audience is early childhood, elementary, and middle grade educators. We will be running a concurrent track for middle and secondary educators on culturally responsive pedagogy; please, see Hip Hop Pedagogy as a Tool for Culturally Sustaining Practice for the middle and secondary educator option on this date!
Parking and Transportation Information
Parking
Free parking is available in select parking lots and garages on Saturdays. Parking details will be provided via email following registration. All parking lots have ADA-accessible parking.
Public Transportation
The ËÄÉ«AV of Maryland is accessible by Metro and other forms of .
