2025 Elevated Teaching Summit

Nearpod is a valuable tool for enhancing social studies instruction by allowing educators to customize pre-made lessons to fit their specific needs. It offers interactive activities and quick assessments to engage students and promote personalized learning. Educators can enrich their social studies lessons by adding content, videos, quizzes, and interactive features. Nearpod's reporting tools help teachers track student progress and adjust their instruction as needed. Additionally, it serves as a resource for students to achieve the US Constitution Fitness Award by meeting grade-level requirements.

This presentation will help elementary teachers learn how to better utilize Canva and Peardeck to up their engagement during lessons as well as how to better partner students for optimum engagement. Struggling with students being bored while you present? Then this is the class for you!

Targeted for 4th and 7th Grade Teachers of Utah History/Utah Studies, this session introduces five simple handicrafts students can complete to make history come alive and drive academic conversations about the past. Create your own versions of Archaic split-twig figurines, Fremont Pilling Figurines, Pioneer "Whirlygigs" (button spinners), Cornhusk Dolls, and Caesar Cipher Wheels; then explore Inquiry/Structured Classroom Discussion strategies for connecting the crafts to the historic eras they represent in Utah History. Digital resources, Lesson plan ideas, Possible Discussion Prompts, and templates provided.

Quick review of QTEL philosophy and implementation of it in your school

Building Collective Efficacy for a Positive Schoolwide Culture

I will talk about how I use MagicSchool to help my students generate topic ideas for presentations, and use A.I. in ways that aren't cheating, but helpful and fun.

**Presentation Proposal: Worldview Scaffolding in Literacy Instruction**

This presentation explores the concept of *worldview scaffolding*—the individual cultural framework each student brings to the classroom—and how it influences their learning. The presenter will discuss how educators can connect new content to students' existing worldviews, making lessons more comprehensible and engaging. Practical strategies for incorporating cultural elements into literacy instruction will be shared, focusing on creating connections between students' cultures and the material being taught. Attendees will gain insights into how a student's cultural background shapes their learning and how to adapt instruction to support all learners, particularly those with varying levels of worldview scaffolding.