MACE: Full Schedule

9:00am CST

Amplify Success: The Impact of Instructional Audio on Education

Thursday March 6, 2025 9:00am - 9:45am CST

Did you know that hearing is the primary way students receive instruction? Creating an equitable and intelligible listening environment is essential for student success. In this session, discover how instructional audio enhances academic outcomes, improves classroom management, and supports teacher retention.

Speakers

Bonnie Meyer, LightSpeed Technologies

LightSpeed Technologies

Thursday March 6, 2025 9:00am - 9:45am CST
KSU Union Room 227

12:45pm CST

Building Thinking Classrooms

Thursday March 6, 2025 12:45pm - 1:30pm CST

KSU Union Room 227

Do you have students working at vertical white board space around your classroom rather than at their seats? While the basis of Building Thinking Classrooms (BTC) and the work of Peter Liljedahl is from math classrooms these ideas can be put in place in all content areas. During this session we will briefly discuss the pedagogy behind vertical collaboration, visibly random grouping, look at online options for pre-made resources, and then spend time collaborating and designing a lesson to take back to your classroom.

BTC Presentation

Speakers

Stacy Wall

9th Grade Math, Teacher, Seaman High School

My name is Stacy Wall. I currently teach Math 1 at Seaman High School in Topeka, KS; I have been at Seaman USD 345 since August of 2012. Prior to teaching at USD 345, I taught at Tonganoxie Middle School and Shawnee Heights High School. I graduated with my undergraduate from Emporia... Read More →

Thursday March 6, 2025 12:45pm - 1:30pm CST
KSU Union Room 227

Instructional Strategies

Audience All

1:45pm CST

Writing in an AI World

Thursday March 6, 2025 1:45pm - 2:30pm CST

KSU Union Room 227

Creating meaningful and authentic writing activities and assignments to encourage and engage students to not utilize AI alternatives.

Speakers

Wendi Terpstra

English/Language Arts Instructor, Garden City High School

I am in my 36th year of teaching, and I still passionately love my job! I continuously enjoy learning about new techniques, tips, and tools to make English more applicable for my students.

Thursday March 6, 2025 1:45pm - 2:30pm CST
KSU Union Room 227

Instructional Strategies

3:00pm CST

Extended Reality and AI: Social Skills Are Hard to Teach, But We’ve Made It Fun!

Thursday March 6, 2025 3:00pm - 3:45pm CST

KSU Union Room 227

Come play VOISS, an evidence-based, extended reality environment for students 5th grade and up for learning and practicing social skills. Explore VOISS Advisor, a free AI-enhanced website designed to support educators as they teach social skills. Advisor offers a social skill inventory, lesson plans, case studies, standards alignment, evidence-based practice, and data collection sheets, aligned with instruction and generalization of social skills. Walk away with practical, free, easy-to-use strategies for you and your students!

Speakers

Amber Rowland

Associate Research Professor, University of Kansas

My work at KU involves extended reality and artificial intelligence to support middle school students who struggle with social skills and their teachers. I also published a book on virtual coaching and specifically, the VECTOR model of virtual coaching, with my friends Suzy Myers... Read More →

Thursday March 6, 2025 3:00pm - 3:45pm CST
KSU Union Room 227

Instructional Tools, VOISS

Subject Social Skills

4:00pm CST

Adaptive Professional Learning Model and Online Platform: Free PD Support for Evidence-Based Practice

Thursday March 6, 2025 4:00pm - 4:45pm CST

KSU Union Room 227

“Professional learning” occurs during the structures and activities of professional development, coaching, and implementation. The success of professional learning depends greatly on the contexts in which the teaching will be applied. In this session, we will share the APLM Model and the APLM Online Dashboard which are designed to support PDers and coaches as they facilitate teacher professional learning and the implementation of evidence-based writing and reading instruction. Creators of the model and dashboard will share how our Infrastructure Survey, Systematic Goal Setting, and Coaching Log tools support PDers and educators as they implement data-driven decision-making using evidence-based writing and reading strategies. We would love to have you use our free tools!

Speakers

Amber Rowland

Associate Research Professor, University of Kansas

Thursday March 6, 2025 4:00pm - 4:45pm CST
KSU Union Room 227

Professional Development, APLM Online Dashboard

Audience All

8:00am CST

Giving Your Staff a Room Full of Teacher Assistants

Friday March 7, 2025 8:00am - 8:45am CST

KSU Union Room 227

We know that Ai is here to stay in the Education Community and you just came home from a great conference talking about the many tools out there to use. This session is created to explore ideas and answer questions about how teachers can use this intimidating new technology in the classroom. We will look at variety of lessons geared to get the most out of your new teachers Ai assistants. I will also share examples of how I have used Ai chat bots to help field questions before students and teachers come to me for Tech support. If your are interested or excited about Ai and it's applications for eduction, but still looking for a way to explain it to others who are skeptical, this session is for you.

Speakers

Jeff First

Technology Integration / educator, Goodland Jr/Sr High School

Friday March 7, 2025 8:00am - 8:45am CST
KSU Union Room 227

AI, AI

Audience ALL

9:00am CST

Creating Personalized Game-Based Instruction Tools with SchoolAI.com

Friday March 7, 2025 9:00am - 9:45am CST

KSU Union Room 227

If you are a seasoned teacher you have more than likely used some form of gamification or gamified tool in your classroom. Tools like Gimkit, and Kahoot can be welcomed changes of pace for both students and teachers. These tools are wonderful motivators but often leave a gap for true evaluation of student comprehension.
Game based learning with the use of Ai chat bots can help to provide individualized conversations and knowledge validation for every student in the room. This in depth evidence can become invaluable to teachers while at the same time make Knowledge retrieval engaging for students. This process can be used at any level or difficulty and I will show you how to drop these activities into any lesson.

Speakers

Jeff First

Technology Integration / educator, Goodland Jr/Sr High School

Friday March 7, 2025 9:00am - 9:45am CST
KSU Union Room 227

Instructional Strategies, schoolai

Audience ALL
Subject All

10:00am CST

Establishing a Student Led Helpdesk

Friday March 7, 2025 10:00am - 10:45am CST

KSU Union Room 227

Learn how to set up a student led helpdesk that gives students hands-on IT experience while delivering top-notch tech support to your school. This session will break down the steps to design, launch, and keep a successful student-led helpdesk running.

Speakers

Kelli Francis

Ed Tech Coach, JCHS

I have been in education for 10 years. I have taught ELA, World History, and now CS.

Friday March 7, 2025 10:00am - 10:45am CST
KSU Union Room 227

Instructional Strategies, Instructional Technology

Audience Middle School, High School
Subject Technology

11:00am CST

Teachers as Private Investigators: Eliciting Evidence of Learning (REPEAT)

Friday March 7, 2025 11:00am - 11:45am CST

KSU Union Room 227

In this engaging and interactive session, you’ll step into the shoes of a private investigator to uncover the hidden clues of student learning. As educators, we often face the challenge of determining whether our students have truly grasped the lessons we teach. This session will equip you with a toolkit of strategies to gather meaningful evidence of student learning, ensuring you can identify who has mastered the content, who needs additional support, and how to guide all students forward in their educational journey.

Join us to explore a variety of methods for eliciting evidence, ranging from high-tech solutions to low or no-tech options. You’ll leave with practical techniques that can be immediately implemented in your classroom to enhance your assessment practices and support student success. Whether you’re a tech enthusiast or prefer traditional approaches, this session has something for everyone.

Speakers

Marie Henderson

Instructional Technology Specialist, PK-12, Hays USD 489

Marie Henderson is the Instructional Technology Specialist for Hays Unified School District in Hays, KS where she serves local teachers as a technology trainer and instructional coach. She designed and continues to facilitate a flexible professional learning model for district staff... Read More →

Friday March 7, 2025 11:00am - 11:45am CST
KSU Union Room 227

Instructional Strategies

Audience ALL