Artificial Intelligence
The following are led by Phillip D. Hochman M.Ed. Phil has 20 years of experience designing and teaching graduate-level courses on technology, Universal Design for Learning, and wellness. He teaches for TCNJ, LaSalle University and Neumann University.
Artificial Intelligence 101 – An Introduction to the Basics of AI
This training explores the foundations of artificial intelligence, including a brief history of AI, how AI systems work, and how to demystify AI for classroom use. Participants engaged in hands-on activities focused on effective prompting, explored real-world classroom applications, and discussed ethical and practical considerations for using AI confidently and responsibly in teaching and learning.
Teaching and Learning with AI
This training is focused on practical ways to integrate AI into daily instructional practice. Educators explored classroomready strategies for lesson design, differentiation, feedback, and assessment, while reviewing some of the best AI tools available for teachers. The session emphasized efficiency, instructional impact, and responsible use of AI to support teaching and learning.
The following are led by Brendan McIsaac. Brendan is an English supervisor with 28 years of teaching and administrative leadership experience. NJPSA Visionary Leadership Award winner and twelve years of Board of Education Experience.
Integration & Policy in Education: District Approaches & Best Practices
This session is designed for educators and administrators seeking to understand and navigate the evolving landscape of AI integration in educational settings. Participants will explore frameworks, AI policies, PD strategies, coaching, and effective approaches for evaluating AI tools and their impact on teaching and learning. The goal is to foster a collaborative environment where attendees can connect with peers, learn best practices, and gain clarity on establishing responsible and effective AI integration at both individual and district levels.
AI-Infused Curriculum & Instruction Workshop: Designing for Balance & Deeper Learning
This interactive workshop is designed for educators ready to transform their instruction by integrating artificial intelligence. Inspired by our successful AI curriculum work with teachers, this session provides hands-on opportunities to deepen understanding of relevant AI tools, resources, and strategies while preserving and fostering deeper learning, critical thinking, and student engagement. Participants will collaborate and leverage AI to enhance and create activities, assessments, and even units and courses. The focus will be on practical application, collaborative development, and sharing innovative instructional approaches.
Intentional AI Design for Teaching and Learning: Core Principles & Practical Application
This session is dedicated to developing and exploring foundational principles of designing AI-integrated lessons that prioritize student voice, creativity, and critical thinking. Building upon established guidelines for AI instructional design, participants will delve into ethical considerations, cultivate metacognitive opportunities for students, and engage in practical strategies for applying AI effectively across diverse school contexts and disciplines. The workshop emphasizes leading with intention, expertise, and best practice when selecting AI tools and their use.
The following are led by: Dr. Barbara McCarty. She has been teaching middle school for over 27 years, entering the profession as a 7th grade LA teacher and currently working as a middle school media specialist and adjunct professor in the Educational Technology department of New Jersey City University.
Using AI in the Classroom to Support Student Success: Tips, Tools and Tricky Topics
Are you ready to explore how to use AI to enhance your students’ learning? This interactive session is designed to equip educators with key knowledge and tools necessary to use AI responsibly and effectively in your classroom. From understanding the principles and best practices for using AI to practical applications of curated sites, we’ll explore how AI can be harnessed to support your classroom activities, create engaging lessons and empower students to be both informed users and critical thinkers. Get ready to experiment with a variety of AI tools firsthand, both as a teacher and a student, to seamlessly integrate or address the use of AI in your teaching practices. Leave with a toolkit of ideas and techniques that will enrich your teaching and inspire your students to become innovative and ethical users of AI. Secondary 6 -12
Truth, Tech & Teenagers: Research and Media Literacy in the Age of AI
Teaching research and media literacy in an AI-driven world requires a shift in focus to critical thinking, source evaluation, and ethical considerations related to AI-generated content. Learn how to equip your students with the skills to navigate this complex information landscape, including identifying misinformation, understanding AI’s role in content creation and distribution, fostering responsible AI use and approaches to support critical thinking in your students’ research. Walk away with ready-to-use lesson ideas and a curated list of useful sites and resources to bring these essential skills to life in your classroom. Secondary 6-12.
Empowering Education with AI: An Overview of the Role of AI in Student Success and Teacher Support
Come explore the exciting, sometimes intimidating, world of generative AI and its impact on education. In this interactive session, we’ll unpack and demystify the potential and pitfalls of this groundbreaking innovation. From exploring how AI can enrich your teaching to tackling ethical concerns like academic integrity, misinformation and bias, we’ll examine how AI can support student success and save you time and effort. By the end, you’ll walk away with a deeper understanding of AI, practical assignment modifications, and a handy list of AI tools to enhance your teaching and students’ learning. For Secondary 6-12
AI & Ethics: Guiding Students Through the Grey Areas
AI is everywhere—writing essays, curating our news, creating videos—and with it comes a whole new set of ethical challenges for our students to navigate. This session will equip you to lead meaningful conversations about bias, privacy, intellectual property, and misinformation in an AI-driven world. Discover ways to integrate AI ethics into any subject area with engaging lesson ideas, a curated list of resources, and greater confidence to help your students not just use AI but use it responsibly. Secondary 6 – 12
Led by: Noemí Rodríguez (@team_lologramos) is a veteran language educator who has been sharing and supporting teachers across the globe since 2005.
Engaging Uses of Generative AI for Language Educators – Virtual
It’s time to meet your new personal assistant! Maximizing productivity is essential, and artificial intelligence is here to help language teachers! Discover how AI-powered tools can revolutionize content creation, save valuable time, and enhance effectiveness in the language classroom through differentiation. Let’s unlock the potential of teacher-friendly AI tools to save time and positively impact students’ language learning journeys.
Led by: Noemí Rodríguez (@team_lologramos) is a veteran language educator who has been sharing and supporting teachers across the globe since 2005.
English Language Arts
Beyond the Academic Essay: Composing in the Secondary Classroom
In this session, participants will explore other modes of writing they might invite into secondary ELA classrooms to develop students’ writers as well as assess student content knowledge. These modes of composition will include print as well as digital examples and we will discuss how teachers might blend narrative, informative, and argumentative forms. Participants will look at, evaluate, and replicate mentor texts as well as consider assessment of and feedback on student writing. Emphasis will be placed on composing as a humanizing practice.
Seminar Leader: Emily Meixner, Professor of English, Coordinator of English Secondary Education Program
Strengthening Student Literacies in a Time of AI
As schools grapple with how to navigate and perhaps integrate both AI and AI literacy into curricula, they must also determine what non-AI reading and writing proficiencies need to be preserved and strengthened. This session will provide a framework for that thinking by responding to concerns raised when students outsource reading and writing tasks (in general and in specific disciplinary contexts) to AI. Session participants will have the opportunity to reflect on the ways in which these non-negotiable literacies are (or are not) currently embedded in school curricula and envision how they might be made more visible.
Seminar Leader: Emily Meixner, Professor of English, Coordinator of English Secondary Education Program
Crafting Visual Literary Analyses
How might secondary students compose literary analyses using visual forms? This session will explore visual options for middle and high school teachers looking to build student engagement and deepen students’ close reading and public speaking skills. Participants will have the opportunity to create example visual analyses of their own.
Seminar Leader: Emily Meixner, Professor of English, Coordinator of English Secondary Education Program
Reading and Writing Nature
This workshop will focus on building reading and writing curricula around nature topics from hiking and camping to environmental degradation and climate change. Session attendees will be introduced to essential vocabulary, possible texts (ranging from picture books to fiction and nonfiction published for teens and adults to digital texts), and muti-modal writing assignments. Connections will be drawn between the NJ Content and Climate Change Standards.
Seminar Leader: Emily Meixner, Professor of English, Coordinator of English Secondary Education Program
The Power of Story
In Minds Made for Stories, author and educator Tom Newkirk argues that narrative is “the deep structure of all good writing” (19). Although many K-12 standards, including the NJ ELA standards and the CCSS, distinguish between narrative and informational text as well as narrative, informational, and argumentative writing, Newkirk troubles these categories, asserting they are not as clear cut as they might seem. We instinctively use story “to inform, to persuade, to entertain, to express” (6); we use story to make sense of the world and our own place in it. Narrative is “a property of mind, an innate and indispensable form of understanding” (34). We will explore the power of story in the texts we read, write, and teach.
Teaching Drama Without Fear
Drama is a genre particularly well-suited to classroom study and yet often neglected. Drama is a communal genre – written to come to life through a company of performers and artists and to be played before a crowd of patrons. Unlike the novel, which is written to be privately appreciated, drama lends itself to classroom study and exploration. This program is designed to increase teachers’ confidence and resources in reading, analyzing, teaching, and critiquing drama from the Western tradition.
Teaching Poetry Without Fear
Attendees will develop greater confidence teaching poetry; understand and appreciate poetic texts as literature.
expand their own critical repertoire and be able to deploy that expanded critical toolkit in designing and delivering material to their students; participate in a community of teachers that promotes curiosity and inquiry and that offers mentorship from experts in poetry, the English language, and pedagogy.
Movement, Motivation, Nutrition, Supporting Students with ADD
The following are presented by Mike Kuczala. Mike is President of Kuczala Consulting and Chief Executive Officer for Regional Training Center in partnership with La Salle University and TCNJ. In his role as Chief Executive Officer for Regional Training Center, Mike leads a cadre of more than 70 graduate instructors who regularly provide graduate coursework to thousands of teachers across Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey and beyond in partnership with The College of New Jersey and La Salle University.
The Kinesthetic Classroom: Teaching and Learning through Movement
Teachers will not only leave with dozens of immediately usable strategies for k-12 classrooms across all disciplines, but they will also gain a more focused understanding of how the brain learns and a
working knowledge of a 6-part theoretical framework for thoughtfully and purposefully using movement to raise student achievement. The key to the training is the hands-on involvement
of the teachers themselves, teachers experience the transformation of theory and research into practical application in an exciting manner.
Wired to Move: Harnessing Movement to Support Students with ADHD
Students with ADHD are not broken—they are wired differently. This dynamic and highly interactive professional development session explores how the brain-body connection can be leveraged to improve attention, regulation, and academic success. Grounded in neuroscience and classroom practice, participants will discover why movement is not a distraction but a powerful support for the ADHD brain. Teachers will leave with practical, immediately usable strategies that help students channel energy productively, strengthen executive function, and increase engagement—without adding more to their already full plates. When we stop fighting
movement and start using it intentionally, we create classrooms where all learners can thrive.
Staff and Student Motivation
Through Mike’s research and study about the brain and motivation he has designed the graduate course Motivation: The Art and Science of Inspiring Classroom Success and custom builds motivation seminars and workshops based on 9 motivational insights that improve classroom climate, instruction, and academic achievement. Motivation as it applies to the teaching and learning process are experienced: basic human needs, the driving force behind all human behavior, inspiration and peak performance, energizing classroom strategies, and frameworks that encourage change and achievement.
The Peak Performing Teacher
Mike teaches educators how to create a more well and happy life to live to their fullest potential. This path enables them to not only live a more fulfilled life but be at their very best for students every day. I seek to do this within the framework of 5 Peak Performing Habits including living the physical life, reducing stress through changing your mind, sharpening your mental game, practicing gratitude, and creating effective morning routines.
The following are led by Phillip D. Hochman M.Ed. Phil has 20 years of experience designing and teaching graduate-level courses on technology, Universal Design for Learning, and wellness. He teaches for TCNJ, LaSalle University and Neumann University.
Move to Learn: Simple, Fun Ways to Energize Your Teaching
Get students out of their seats and into the learning! Move to Learn is an interactive, hands-on seminar designed to help educators infuse movement into their daily teaching practice. Discover how purposeful movement can boost focus, deepen understanding, and bring more fun into every lesson— without sacrificing academic rigor.
The Motivation Toolkit: Practical Strategies for An Engaged Classroom
The Motivation Toolkit translates the latest behavioral research and the core pillars of human psychological needs into a high-utility framework for the modern classroom. Instead of relying on traditional rewards, this session equips educators with the “why” behind student behavior and the “how” of shifting learning states. Participants will walk away with a practical arsenal of strategies designed to transform passive observers into self-driven, resilient learners.
Nutrition. Eat Better. Feel Better. Teach Better. Research Based Life Skills for You and Your Students
Tired of running on caffeine and chaos? Join us for an energizing training designed for teachers who want to feel better, think more clearly, and stay resilient. This session translates the latest in nutritional and metabolic research into easy-to-understand life skills. In this practical, no fluff session, we cut through the noise of social media fads to focus on evidence-based nutrition skills that support cognitive stamina and long-term health.
Universal Design for Learning: Breaking Barriers for a Flexible Curriculum
This training moves beyond the “one-size-fits-all” curricular model. It equips educators with the tools to proactively identify and remove instructional obstacles before they hinder student progress. By providing multiple pathways for engagement, representation, and expression, participants will transform their existing curriculum into a high-impact roadmap where every learner has an equal opportunity to excel.
Math and Science
“Seeing the Math in Play: Nurturing Early Number Sense” for Early Childhood Educators
Turning play into a classroom full of math discoveries. Discover how young children build strong math foundations through play as we explore counting, sorting, ordering, patterns, measurement, and
number relationships. Learn to “mathematize” your teaching—seeing the math in everyday play—and gain practical strategies to support learning through intentional language, questions, and toys. Spark curiosity, confidence, and joyful math exploration in every child!
Instructor – Dr. Judith Fraivillig is a leader in mathematics education with decades of experience inspiring teachers and children alike. Known for her dynamic, hands-on workshops, she helps educators discover how to make math meaningful and accessible for every learner. Her sessions blend research-based strategies with practical classroom insights, leaving teachers energized and eager to bring new ideas to their students. Dr. Fraivillig holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics Education from Northwestern University, and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in science education and biology from the University of Pennsylvania. She teaches courses in mathematics education to future elementary teachers at TCNJ.
Concrete to Concept: Base-Ten Strategies for K–2 teachers
In this K–2 interactive workshop on Place-Value Understanding, teachers dive into hands-on activities that make base-ten concepts visible, strengthen students’ ten-structured thinking, and provide practical strategies you can use right away to boost early place-value understanding.
Instructor – Dr. Judith Fraivillig is a leader in mathematics education with decades of experience inspiring teachers and children alike. Known for her dynamic, hands-on workshops, she helps educators discover how to make math meaningful and accessible for every learner. Her sessions blend research-based strategies with practical classroom insights, leaving teachers energized and eager to bring new ideas to their students. Dr. Fraivillig holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics Education from Northwestern University, and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in Science Education and Biology from the University of Pennsylvania. She teaches courses in mathematics education to future elementary teachers at TCNJ.
Sequencing for Success: Developing Teachers’ Skills in Linking and Organizing Mathematical Ideas
This professional development session focuses on enhancing teachers’ ability to recognize and make connections between mathematical ideas and concepts across grade levels. It emphasizes the importance of understanding how mathematical concepts are interrelated and how these relationships evolve throughout the educational journey. Teachers will explore strategies to strengthen their awareness of these connections, enabling them to link concepts and procedures effectively. The session will also address how to anticipate the hierarchical structure of mathematics, recognizing the increasing complexity of ideas as students’ progress. Through discussions and practical exercises, participants will develop the skills to make informed decisions about sequencing mathematical content in ways that promote student understanding and facilitate meaningful learning. The aim is to equip educators with the tools necessary to support students’ long-term mathematical development by fostering a cohesive and integrated approach to teaching mathematics.
Seminar Leader: Judit Kardos is an Associate Professor of Mathematics
Teaching students to think as a Mathematician using the Pósa Method
Born in 1947, Pósa was a child prodigy, silver and gold medalist in the International Mathematical Olympiads in 1965 and 1966. He was only 15 years old when he wrote his first research paper with Paul Erdős, one of the most celebrated mathematicians of the 20th century. Pósa was Erdős’ favorite and most talented “epsilon” (Erdős called all kids “epsilons”). After finishing his Ph.D. in Mathematics, Pósa stopped writing research papers in mathematics and, instead, he became a full-time teacher in high school. Using his boundless mathematical creativity, Pósa developed unique sequences of math problems that taught students how to think like a mathematician. His problem sets pose and abandon, repeat or vary different mathematical ideas. Different threads of problems run parallel for a while but then at the next level they also intersect, intertwine. Fundamental mathematical ideas return in various forms and at various levels over multiple years in Pósa’s method, enabling students at the end to think freely and creatively. In this workshop, we will immerse participants in the Pósa method as a student, using problem sets of Pósa. Then we will look at the problem sets from a teacher’s perspective and learn how to apply Pósa’ s discovery method in one’s own teaching.
Seminar Leader: Judit Kardos is an Associate Professor of Mathematics.
Student – Centered Learning: What does student-centered learning in mathematics look like?
This workshop will seek to answer this question with examples at the middle school and high school levels. Problem-based lessons at these grade levels will be discussed and resources will be provided.
Seminar Leader: Cathy Liebars Ph.D.
Professor of Mathematics Education | Math Education Coordinator
Using algebra tiles and other manipulatives to teach algebraic concepts
Participants will learn how to use algebra tiles to model concepts such as integer operations, arithmetic on polynomials, factoring of polynomials, and solving equations, with connections to other topics. We will discuss reasons for using manipulatives or other concrete materials to teach fundamental algebraic concepts. There will be discussion and hands-on participation throughout the workshop. Grade levels: middle school or high school
Seminar Leader: Cathy Liebars Ph.D.
Professor of Mathematics Education | Math Education Coordinator
Teaching Science Through Issues to Increase Engagement, Meet the NGSS, and Prepare Citizens
Science plays a critical role in society, providing us with the knowledge we need to understand the universe and to better our lives. All persons, not just practicing scientists, need a great science education, and this education must provide students with the ability to use science in their everyday lives, a necessity made crystal-clear by the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the importance of science to all, many students are less than enthusiastic about their science courses. Participants will explore how teaching science through personal and current societal issues increases student interest in science, while simultaneously meeting the NGSS and creating citizens capable of applying high-quality scientific information to address these issues. Participants will develop an issue and a module based on that issue that they can implement in their courses.
Seminar Leader: Christopher Murphy, Ph.D.
Christopher Murphy is the Associate Provost for Curriculum and Liberal Learning and a Professor of Biology
Multi Language Learners
Bilingualism & Disabilities: Critical Steps to Differentiate Both
The proper assessment of multilingual populations for disabilities has been a concern among professionals in K-12 settings. This session will explore steps that professionals should consider to prevent the misidentification of these learners for special needs. The presenter will engage participants in reflection and in high levels of participation. Grade Levels: K-12
Strategies to Detect & Correct Misclassification of Multilingual Learners
Detecting whether a multilingual learner has a legitimate disability is a layered and complex task. It requires collaborative efforts and examination of a variety of factors so that appropriate decisions can be made to meet the unique characteristics and needs of multilingual learners. Participants will engage in interactive and collaborative activities as they explore critical information to properly identify and support multilingual learners with disabilities.
Diversity and Inclusion
Teaching LGBTQIA* Literature in Secondary School
We will examine how teachers might invest secondary English classrooms with LGBTQ literature as well as methods for teaching it. Seminar participants will read two middle grade novels with LGBTQ content, Ashley Herring Blake’s Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World and Kacen Callender’s King and the Dragonflies, as well as excerpts from other texts (fiction and nonfiction) written for children and teens. Using seminal concepts from gender and queer theory as close-reading lenses, participants will investigate how theory is experienced – as embodied, lived, and real – in the lives of the characters in these books. Participants will also explore how to make these concepts accessible to secondary students by examining models of curriculum with LGBTQ content currently in place in local schools. Approaches relevant to whole class novel, book club, or reading/writing workshop models of instruction will be discussed.
Creating Affirming and Inclusive Educational Environments
This four-hour intensive will examine how teachers can break through bias and provide an appropriate curriculum aligned with the new laws, while supporting all students who are still grappling with understanding and embracing the uncertainty in education. By the end of this workshop you will have learned to :
- Break Binaries and Bias
- Create Equitable Classrooms and Lesson Plans
- Customize your LGBTQ Content Curriculum
- How to best support LGBTQ youth throughout the school year.
Your Role In Supporting LGBTQ+ youth
I. Understanding the Impact/Need for Support
II. Terminology, Is It Important?
III. Creating a Safe and Welcoming Environment
a. Individual Support
b. Group Support
c. School/District level Support
IV. Additional Resources for Supporting Youth
Your Role In Supporting LGBTQ+ youth is available for in district professional development.
Please contact me about In – District Professional Development by TCNJ