Prosper Connects '26

This professional development session is designed to help special education paraprofessionals build a clear and practical understanding of the Individualized Education Program (IEP) and their critical role in supporting it. Participants will explore key components of an IEP—including goals, accommodations, modifications, and service delivery—and learn how these elements translate into daily classroom practices. The session will emphasize how paraprofessionals can effectively support student learning, collaborate with teachers and service providers, and maintain compliance while fostering student independence. Through real-life examples and interactive discussion, paraprofessionals will leave with actionable strategies to confidently implement IEP supports and better advocate for student needs.

Every lesson, behavior, emotional reaction, forgotten assignment, shutdown, outburst, and success story in a classroom is being driven by one invisible system: executive functions. Attention, working memory, emotional regulation, impulse control, flexibility, planning, and self-monitoring are the brain skills that determine whether students can actually access learning and behavior expectations in the first place. In this powerful and practical session, educators will explore the neuroscience behind executive functions, why so many students appear “unmotivated” or “defiant” when the real issue is skill development, and what schools can immediately do to strengthen the brain systems that truly drive learning, behavior, mental health, and long-term outcomes.

Every lesson, behavior, emotional reaction, forgotten assignment, shutdown, outburst, and success story in a classroom is being driven by one invisible system: executive functions. Attention, working memory, emotional regulation, impulse control, flexibility, planning, and self-monitoring are the brain skills that determine whether students can actually access learning and behavior expectations in the first place. In this powerful and practical session, educators will explore the neuroscience behind executive functions, why so many students appear “unmotivated” or “defiant” when the real issue is skill development, and what schools can immediately do to strengthen the brain systems that truly drive learning, behavior, mental health, and long-term outcomes.

For decades, autism has too often been viewed through the narrow lens of behavior, compliance, and outdated assumptions rather than current brain science. This engaging session explores emerging neuroscience revealing how the autistic brain is differently organized in areas involving sensory processing, executive functions, regulation, attention, movement, emotion, and information flow. Participants will examine how stress, predictability, co-regulation, movement, and learning environments directly impact autistic learners and why understanding the neurobiology beneath the behavior changes everything. Educators will leave with practical, brain-based strategies that move beyond control and compliance to create safer, more supportive, and more effective outcomes for autistic students.

This session will introduce elementary teachers to a variety of engaging and effective digital tools designed to enhance instruction and support student learning. Participants will explore how to create and use interactive phonics games with Canva, implement resources from Learning A-Z to support differentiated literacy instruction, and utilize Gemini to streamline planning, generate ideas, and personalize learning experiences. 

Campus reflection of learning from the day