Description: 

This session transforms EVAAS data from numbers on a screen
into a powerful story about student growth and instructional impact.
Participants will gain a clear understanding of how the EVAAS value-added
system works and learn how to interpret and apply its insights to improve
teaching and learning. Through a hands-on exploration of real data, you’ll
leave equipped to turn your school’s data into actionable strategies for student
success.

Presenter: Scott Rhodes

Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources
Henderson County Public Schools

Mr. Rhodes is in his 34th year in public education. He has served in
Henderson County in various capacities, including teacher, coach, assistant
principal, middle and high school principal, and currently serves as assistant
superintendent for Human Resources.

Mr. Rhodes received his undergraduate degree in Health and Physical
Education from Western Carolina University and his master’s degree in
School Administration from Gardner-Webb University.
Mr. Rhodes was named the 2015 NASSP North Carolina Secondary Principal
of the Year.

Presenter: Kimberly Henderson

Director of Accountability 
Henderson County Public Schools

Mrs. Henderson is in his 29th year in public education. She has served in
Henderson County in various capacities, including math and science teacher,
coach, assistant principal, elementary principal, and currently serves as
director of accountability.

Mrs. Henderson received his undergraduate degree in Math from Gardner
Webb College and his master’s degree in Leadership from Gardner Webb
University.

If you have additional questions, contact Candie Sellers at csellers@wresa.org

If you are unsure whether your school system is a WRESA member, click  WRESA MEMBER List.

REGISTRATION COMING SOON!

The post Turning Numbers into Narratives: Making EVAAS Work for you appeared first on WRESA.

Description:

During this work session, we will analyze instructional videos using edTPA
rubrics, select and clip videos, and learn more about expectations for the Task 2
commentary.
We will also begin working on the Task 3 commentary, including identifying and
organizing assessment artifacts.

Presenter: Dr. Myra Watson is an educator whose work focuses on teacher preparation,
early childhood education, and induction support for early-career teachers in North
Carolina. Dr. Watson currently serves as Director of Teacher and Professional
Education at Western Carolina University.

If you have additional questions, contact April Spencer at aspencer@wresa.org

If you are unsure whether your school system is a WRESA member, click  WRESA MEMBER List.

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The post edTPA Tasks 2 and 3 appeared first on WRESA.

Description: Do you have a plan for what to do when a student doesn’t comply with your request? Do you want to avoid power struggles with challenging students? This session will guide you in developing a preventative plan for handling issues from low-level distractions to more chronic behaviors. You will reflect on your current practices, learn the purpose of behavior, how to respond vs. react, and how to reboot your current systems to support student behavior and GAIN instructional minutes. This is a practical, strategy-filled session with concrete steps you can implement immediately to help students – and yourself. 

Presenter:  Amie Dean is an educator who spent years teaching in classrooms with challenging students. She believes most teachers want to help these students, but they are not trained on HOW to do it. Amie’s mission is to help teachers implement positive, practical strategies to reach the most challenging students. 

If you have additional questions, contact Michelle Bean at mbean@wresa.org

If you are unsure whether your school system is a WRESA member, click  WRESA MEMBER List.

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The post Amie Dean: Behavior Interventions That Work – Nov 2026 appeared first on WRESA.

Description:

Join us on November 20, 2026, at Haywood Community College for PEAK: Purposeful, Ethical
AI for K–12 Learning—a hands-on conference designed to help educators move beyond AI hype and
use emerging tools with intention.
Explore how AI can strengthen human agency, standards-aligned instruction, assessment, accessibility,
and authentic learning. Sessions will help educators build practical skills, create useful teaching tools, and
redesign learning experiences while keeping human judgment at the center. Breakout sessions for
elementary and secondary educators, as well as beginners to experienced AI users. Not more screen time.
More purposeful learning time.

Presenters:

Vera Cubero 
Vera recently retired after 30 years in public education in NC, from the classroom to the state level.  Most
recently, she served as the Emerging Technologies Consultant, where she led the NC AI implementation
and the NC AI Guidelines.  After retiring, she started Cubero Consulting, where she supports districts and
businesses in implementing responsible AI and serves as Strategic K12 Advisor to MagicSchool AI.

Stacy Lovdahl
Stacy Lovdahl is the Western Digital Learning Consultant for the North Carolina Department of Public
Instruction (NCDPI) and an AI literacy trainer with more than 24 years of experience in educational
technology. A former middle school science teacher and instructional technology facilitator, she helps
educators thoughtfully integrate AI, digital tools, and high-impact instructional practices to strengthen teaching
and learning. Stacy has led professional learning across North Carolina and nationally, empowering educators
to use generative AI in purposeful, ethical and standards-aligned ways.

If you have additional questions, contact Candie Sellers at csellers@wresa.org

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The post PEAK: Purposeful, Ethical AI for K-12 – AI Conference * appeared first on WRESA.

Description:
In this interactive one-day learning experience, educators will explore how to use student
thinking to identify instructional priorities, make key mathematical ideas explicit through
purposeful representations and mathematical language, and design intervention experiences
that include routines, contextual problems, and meaningful practice or games.
Together, we will consider how intervention can go beyond “more practice” to offer students
intentional access to important mathematical ideas. Participants will engage in examples and
plan instructional experiences that connect conceptual understanding, problem solving, fluency,
and communication.

Presenter: 
Meredith Stanley is an independent math coach and specialist for K-8. A former
elementary classroom teacher and instructional coach for Buncombe County, she is a
two-time finalist for the Presidential Award for Math and Science, a Buncombe County
Teacher of the Year, a Buncombe County Math Teacher of the Year, and a National
Board certified teacher. She received her Master’s in Mathematics Teaching from Mount
Holyoke College and currently lives in Asheville with her husband and two children. She
loves to run, hike, and gather random assortments of objects for counting collections.
You can find her (and a bank of her recommended instructional resources) at
www.meredith4math.com and @meredith4math.

If you have additional questions, contact Candie Sellers at  csellers@wresa.org

If you are unsure whether your school system is a WRESA member, click  WRESA MEMBER List.

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The post Productive Math Interventions appeared first on WRESA.

Description:

Discover how to use student voice and choice to strengthen learning and extend a lesson’s impact beyond the classroom. Whether you teach art, science, ELA, history, or any other subject, students must communicate information. Students also must interpret a variety of data and information that is communicated in visual formats. This session will use a variety of resources (digital to analog) to highlight this skill. Join us to incorporate some amazing tools into your lessons and explore more ways for you and your students to express yourself. (This session highlights the SEP: Obtaining, Evaluating and Communicating Information and the Communication Skill in NC Portrait of a Graduate.- best suited for teachers of grades 3-12, any subject).

For more information about the class, contact Michelle Taylor at michelle@openwaylearning.org and/or 828-206-3014

For questions/issues about registering for the course, send an email to registrations@wresa.org or call WRESA at 828-774-5681

If you are unsure whether your school system is a WRESA member, click  WRESA MEMBER List.

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The post From Open Way Learning: Using Storytelling in Your Classroom appeared first on WRESA.

Description:

Early in the school year is the right time to establish strong co- teaching behaviors. Provide your co-teaching staff with a live, team-by-team, professional development, designed to help them reflect, recalibrate, and strengthen their collaborative practice.

Teams Receive:

• A Window into Co-Teaching- An introduction to 20 behaviors that contribute to successful co- teaching.
• A detailed analysis of their co-teaching relationship (based on a brief, confidential, 5 – 10 – minute survey).
• Your PlayBook for Co-Teaching- a digital resource with over 100 field-tested coteaching strategies.
• A 35–45-minute private consultation, via Zoom, with Rick Welsh, Director of CoTeach America, to discuss their data and to learn how to use Your PlayBook for Co-Teaching to enhance their co-teaching practices throughout the year.

Presenter: Rick Welsh has over 40 years of experience working with teachers and students. He is currently the Director of Co-Teach America. Following Graduate School at UNC in 1980 he served as a Public School Speech/Language Pathologist. Since 1994 he has worked in the field, consulting with teachers to support their co-teaching efforts.

If you have additional questions contact April Spencer at aspencer@wresa.org  

If you are unsure whether your school system is a WRESA member, click  WRESA MEMBER List. 

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The post Get Your Co-Teaching Year Off on the Right Foot! appeared first on WRESA.

Description:

Join us for a day of digging into phenomena. Co-design lessons with tons of resources. Learn how to best incorporate phenomena into lessons, and how to expand phenomena into student driven instruction. You will have time to plan a phenomena based lesson and explore community connections to make your standards relevant and real to your students! This session is most appropriate for grades 3-12 science teachers.

For more information about the class, contact Michelle Taylor at michelle@openwaylearning.org and/or 828-206-3014

For questions/issues about registering for the course, send an email to registrations@wresa.org or call WRESA at 828-774-5681

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The post From Open Way Learning: Phenomenal Use of Phenomena – Mar 2027 appeared first on WRESA.

Description:

High-leverage practices (HLPs) are instructional approaches educators in
K–12 settings can use to teach a wide range of learners and content. The 22
research-based practices are organized into four essential aspects of teachers’
work: collaboration, assessment, social/emotional/behavioral practices, and instruction.
Together, they provide a shared framework and common language to support students
with disabilities and those who benefit from additional instructional support.

This two-day professional development workshop introduces participants to selected
HLPs that can be used across grade levels and content areas. Participants will examine
how these practices connect to daily instruction, classroom routines, student
engagement, behavior support, and planning for generalization of learning.

In this 2-day professional development, participants will be introduced to the HLPs and
address the following content.

“WHAT TO TEACH” Pillar HLP 7: Learning environments

● HLP 9: Teach Social Behaviors
● HLP 14: Teach cognitive and meta cognitive strategies
● HLP 21 Teach students to maintain and generalize new learning.

“HOW TO TEACH” Pillar HLP 16 Explicit Instruction
● HLP 18: Active Student Engagement
● HLP 15: Scaffolded Instruction
● HLP 13: Adapt Curriculum Tasks & Materials
● HLP 19: Use Assistive and Instructional Technologies
● HLP 17: Use Flexible Grouping
● HLPs 8/22: Provide Positive & Constructive Feedback

Presenter: Kelly Doppke is an IDEA Consultant for the Western Region with the Office
of Exceptional Children, where she provides regional support to EC leadership and
school teams in LEAs and Charters across the area.

For more information, contact April at aspencer@wresa.org, or 828.774. 5681 ext 103

REGISTER

The post High Leverage Practices for All: 2-day PD appeared first on WRESA.

Description:
WRESA, in partnership with NCASBO, is providing  a structured, professional development series
for superintendents, finance officers, and human resource directors across the Western Carolina
Region.
This series will strengthen financial leadership capacity, improve transparency, and ensure
accountability in the management of public school funds. Training to be led by teams consisting of
one superintendent and one finance officer – a pairing that reflects the essential collaboration
required for effective financial management in school districts.

OUTCOMES –  Participants will:
• Leave each session with at least one ready to use tool
• Strengthen collaboration
• Increase operational efficiency
• Improve compliance readiness
• Understand the fiscal cycle
• Build a regional network of peers

Session 1: September 22, 2026 – Laying the Foundation
• NC Public School Fiscal Control Act/Fund Accounting/Chart of Accounts
• Financial Reporting Requirements
• Current Year Allotments
• Continuing Budget Resolutions & Budget Adoption
• Position Control & Staffing Alignment

Session 2:  October 13, 2026 – Building & Communicating the Budget
• Presenting Budgets to Boards of Ed. & Stakeholders
• Working on Budgets with Central Office Directors & Principals
• Annual External Audit & Preparing for Annual Audit Presentation
• Spending Projections for Current Year
• State & Federal Allotments for Special Populations
• Cash Management Requirements
• Investment of Idle Funds

Session 3: November 3, 2026 – Operational Controls & Assets
• Purchasing & Compliance – Board Approval Requirements
• Fixed Asset Tracking
• Property Disposal Rules
• Internal Controls & Risk Management
• Long Term Planning for Declining Enrollment

Session 4: January 12, 2027 – Preparing for the New Fiscal Year
• State Planning Allotments for 2027-2028
• Budget Projections for 2027-2028
• Salary Audit Exceptions

Session 5: March 9, 2027 – Fiscal Year End Close
• Planning and Preparing for Year-End Fiscal Close out
• Allotment Projects
• Fund Balance Projects

REGISTER

The post Finance Series for Superintendents, Finance Officers & HR Directors appeared first on WRESA.