Conference Details

Title:  CTE Connect
Audience:  CTE Educators, Woodshop & Career Exploration Educators
Presenter/Facilitator: Michele Deming, CTE Instructional Mentor & Consultant; and Hannah Sanderson, CTE Consultant
Location: Char-Em Charlevoix Office

Description: This hands-on professional community brings together Career and Technical Education (CTE) teachers across the ISD to collaborate and strengthen their skillset in the classroom. Educators will dive into practical topics like increasing student engagement, managing classroom behaviors, implementing self-paced and mastery-based learning and using AI as a teaching tool.

Title: Adventures in Learning: Smooth Sailing through Strategic Design
Audience: Early Childhood Educators
Presenter/Facilitator: Amy Nelson, LCSW, LSCSW, RPT-S
Location: Castle Farms Charlevoix

Description: Prepare to set sail on an extraordinary educational voyage with our captivating workshop! Delve into the art of crafting a sensory-smart classroom while harnessing the power of universal design. Through this collaborative experience, you'll uncover strategies to promote behavioral regulation while nurturing social and emotional growth in children of all abilities. Get ready to navigate the seas of strategic design and create an early learning classroom environment where every child can flourish.

Title:  ELA - Secondary
Audience:  4-12 ELA Educators, 5-12 Administrators
Presenter/Facilitator: Kim St Martin &  Johanna Toth, MiMTSS TA Center; Local Educators
Location: Petoskey High School

Description:  Join secondary ELA educators and administrators for an engaging day of professional learning focused on actionable, evidence-based practices that inspire learners and elevate instruction. Featuring an opening keynote from Kim St. Martin (MiMTSS TA Center), this workshop covers key topics including active participation strategies, explicit vocabulary instruction as well as other practices to support adolescent literacy. Participants will engage in peer networking, educator breakout sharing, and a dedicated structured implementation block so that they leave with ready-to-use resources and actionable plans for immediate classroom impact.

Title:  Literacy in Stereo: How Music Instruction Strengthens Reading, Language and Learning
Audience:  K-12 Music, Band and Choir Teachers
Presenter/Facilitator: Holly Cowdery. Music and Band Educator
Location:  Petoskey Middle School

Description:  Music educators already teach the brain skills that make strong readers—this session shows you how to leverage what you’re already doing to meet literacy goals without sacrificing musicianship. Instead of treating literacy as an “extra,” we’ll show how the core processes of music—rhythm reading, phrasing, audiation, pattern recognition, breath control, and text interpretation—already build the same cognitive and linguistic skills students need to become strong readers.

This session is designed specifically for music educators who want to protect their instructional time while still meeting Michigan’s PA-146 requirements in a way that actually makes sense for their discipline. Together, we’ll explore how musical training supports phonemic awareness, decoding, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension—and how ensemble routines naturally reinforce structured literacy practices without changing what you already do. No extra worksheets. No abandoning your curriculum. No pretending to be a reading teacher. Just practical, musician-friendly connections that help you advocate for your program, deepen student learning, and show administrators why music is essential—not supplemental—to literacy development.

You’ll leave with usable strategies, stronger language for advocating your program, and a renewed sense of how your work in music education directly supports lifelong reading success.

Title: Secondary Science
Audience: 6-12 Science Educators
Presenter/Facilitator: Linnea Gibson, K-12 Science Consultant; Local Educators
Location: Boyne Falls Public Schools

Description: Join regional 6–12 science educators for a full day of connection, collaboration, and practical learning centered on Disciplinary Literacy within our very own Science and Engineering Practices. Hear from local teachers, explore a variety of breakout sessions, experience instruction from a student perspective, and collect strategies, resources, and tools to take directly back to your classroom.

This is more than a day of professional learning—it’s an opportunity to learn from what’s happening in science classrooms across our region and build connections with educators who are asking the same questions you are. After this wonderful day of learning, you’ll be invited to join the Char-Em ISD Science Network for collaboration and discover an ongoing community for sharing ideas, tackling challenges, and growing science instruction together.

Title: Special Ed Collaborative
Audience: Special Education Educators, Paraeducators, Administrators
Presenter/Facilitator: Lauren Ringle, Char-Em ISD Special Education Admin Team
Location: Castle Farms Charlevoix

Description: Join the ISD Special Education Administrative Team for a day of learning about developing and supporting specially designed instruction, learning quality practices in special education, and updated guidance from the field. The day will include mini-sessions designed to promote collaboration, networking, and problem-solving. Districts are encouraged to send at least one representative to this collaborative.

Title:  Ukeru Training
Audience:  Special Education Educators, Paraeducators
Presenters/Facilitators:  Mary Corder, SLP, Ukeru Certified Trainer, Eric Daniel, Behavioral Consultant, Ukeru Certified Trainer; Jessica Wright, Behavior Specialist (BCBA), Ukeru Certified Trainer
Location:  Castle Farms Charlevoix

Description: Ukeru is designed to equip educators, behavioral health professionals, and caregivers with trauma-informed, restraint-free strategies for de-escalation and crisis management. Rooted in compassion, safety, and respect, Ukeru shifts the focus from controlling behavior to understanding it -- emphasizing communication, connection, and the creation of supportive environments.

This training helps participants recognize the impact trauma has on behavior and prioritizes strategies that promote emotional and physical safety for all. The program is committed to eliminating the use of physical restraints and seclusion, replacing them with proactive and respectful interventions. Ukeru teaches staff to prioritize comfort and emotional safety over compliance, cultivating trust and reducing fear-based responses. Ukeru can be used in conjunction with more restrictive techniques (CPI), if necessary.