Prosper Connects '26

Students with ADHD often experience more than challenges with attention, impulsivity, and executive functioning. Many also struggle with Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria (RSD)—an intense emotional response to perceived criticism or failure that can significantly impact behavior, relationships, and academic engagement.
This session will deepen educators’ understanding of how ADHD and RSD intersect and manifest in the classroom. Participants will explore how commonly misinterpreted behaviors (e.g., avoidance, defiance, emotional outbursts, shutdown) may actually be rooted in emotional dysregulation and fear of rejection.
Educators will leave with practical, research-informed strategies and ready-to-use tools that foster emotional safety, improve student-teacher relationships, and support self-regulation and resilience in students with ADHD. There will be opportunity to understand that these students aren't “overreacting on purpose”, but instead their brain has difficulty regulating emotional intensity.

Required Mental Health Training: All district employees who regularly interact with students must complete an evidence-based mental health training program. This training will cover recognizing and supporting students with mental health or substance use issues that could threaten school safety.
Key Information:
One-time Training: This is a one-time training. Participants must keep their certificates.
Prior Training Exemption: If you completed Youth Mental Health First Aid in a previous district or through an outside provider, you do not need to repeat this training. Simply upload your existing certification.

For decades, autism has too often been viewed through the narrow lens of behavior, compliance, and outdated assumptions rather than current brain science.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.

How can secondary teachers ensure that every student is challenged with meaningful, grade-level work while still meeting diverse learning needs? This professional learning session includes powerful, research-based frameworks to help educators design rigorous and equitable instruction.
Participants will explore how to “teach up” by maintaining high expectations and using scaffolds rather than lowering cognitive demand. The session also highlights the use of Depth & Complexity prompts to cultivate critical thinking, along with strategies for aligning tasks to appropriate levels of Depth of Knowledge to increase student engagement and intellectual challenge. Teachers will learn how to design tiered tasks that provide multiple pathways to mastery without compromising rigor.
Through interactive activities, real classroom examples, and collaborative planning, participants will leave with practical tools and ready-to-implement strategies that support all learners in accessing complex content. This session is ideal for secondary content teachers seeking to strengthen differentiation practices while promoting deeper student thinking and achievement.

Students with ADHD often experience more than challenges with attention, impulsivity, and executive functioning. Many also struggle with Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria (RSD)—an intense emotional response to perceived criticism or failure that can significantly impact behavior, relationships, and academic engagement.
This session will deepen educators’ understanding of how ADHD and RSD intersect and manifest in the classroom. Participants will explore how commonly misinterpreted behaviors (e.g., avoidance, defiance, emotional outbursts, shutdown) may actually be rooted in emotional dysregulation and fear of rejection.
Educators will leave with practical, research-informed strategies and ready-to-use tools that foster emotional safety, improve student-teacher relationships, and support self-regulation and resilience in students with ADHD. There will be opportunity to understand that these students aren't “overreacting on purpose”, but instead their brain has difficulty regulating emotional intensity.

Campus reflection of learning from the day