One Day Trainings: In-Person and Webinars
SMCAA Member One Day Webinars: $100.00 per training | In-Person Trainings: $130.00 per training
NEW 2025-2026 – Unlimited Webinar Package: SMCAA Member Districts can purchase unlimited district staff registration for up to 6 guaranteed Webinars, July 1, 2025 – June 30,2026, for $450.00. Contact Julie Riley (jriley@smcaa.org) to take advantage of this savings opportunity!
Registered virtual attendees will receive a recording of the session 24 hours after it has concluded.
Graduate Credit Syllabus for 2025-2026 – Coming Soon
Let’s Consider Instructional Coaching: A Review of Skills and Processes – November 6th and 7th
Instructional Coaching is an important part of improving student learning by providing teachers with support, feedback, and research-based practices. What are the qualities and skills that coaches should possess? How does an instructional coach determine what a teacher needs to improve student learning? What does effective feedback look like and what type of feedback works? How do you determine which practices to share with teachers? What data should we look at and what questions should we be asking? All these questions and MORE will be answered in this training session. We will provide current coaches and future coaches with research-based strategies to help improve their practice as well as help teachers.
To accommodate attendees, this training is broken apart into two half-day trainings, 9:00 a.m. – 12:00p.m.
Day 1 (Half Day) Focus:
- Qualities and skills needed to be an effective instructional coach, along with discussion around the idea of influence without authority.
- Review aspects of strong instruction, what it looks like, and the instructional behaviors we should expect from classroom teachers.
- The difference between techniques and strategies in instruction and the effective use of both
Day 2 (Half Day) Focus:
- Aspects of planning lessons, logical progression, execution and reflection.
- The best data to use to readily address instructional practice, and a useful process for data review for stronger instruction.
- What to do next in your instructional coaching journey
Target Audience: Curriculum Directors, Administrators, Instructional Coaches, content teachers looking to increase student engagement in their classrooms.
Materials Needed/Interactive Level: Be prepared with any information you may want to share or know more about. This webinar is designed to promote discussion. This can be audio or through the chat box.
Curriculum Director Training Level I – In-Person: Jefferson City- June 17th
Curriculum Director: easy to say, harder to define. What is a curriculum director? What do they do? Ask 10 districts this question and you will get 15 different answers. Oftentimes thrown into a large melting pot with other duties, the role of Curriculum Director can become muddled with uncertainty as to what the job entails. In this workshop we will dig into the skills and knowledge needed in creating a guaranteed, viable, and credible curriculum; along with tools to build instructional leadership and the importance of vertical alignment. The major focus topics which will be explored during this workshop include the following:
- What the Job Entails and the Role of Instructional Leadership
- Creating a Guaranteed, Viable and Credible Curriculum
- The Five Standards of Curriculum Evaluation
- Ensuring a Comprehensive Written Curriculum
- The Importance of Vertical Alignment and Vertical Conversations
- Types of Assessments and How to Choose the Best Fit
Come join us and your fellow curriculum folks from across the state as we look at the essential basics needed to fulfill your role as a Curriculum Director in your district!
Target Audience: Curriculum Directors, Administrators, or lead teachers assigned to the duty of overseeing curriculum writing.
Materials Needed/Interactive Level: Mid-level interaction as participants will be asked to reflect and share throughout the workshop.
Curriculum Director Training Level II – In-Person: Jefferson City – June 18th
The curriculum is written, but what now? How do we know it is working? What do we do now? How do we evaluate our curriculum? This advanced workshop takes the information from Curriculum Director Training Level I and goes beyond the classroom to look at the curriculum from an outside view. Major focus topics covered in CD Level II include the following:
- The importance of consistent shared vocabulary
- A deeper look at the Five Standards of Curriculum Evaluation
- The need for Curriculum Handbooks and District Assessment plans
- Reviewing data to understand the impact of your curriculum
- The collaborative process and its role in curriculum
- Working with a curriculum evaluation rubric
All of these items and more will be discussed as we collaborate and learn from each other during Curriculum Director Training Level II
Target Audience: Curriculum Directors, Administrators, Instructional Coaches, content teachers looking to increase student engagement in their classrooms.
Materials Needed/Interactive Level: Low to Mid-level interaction. Participants will have some opportunity to share their reflections and insights with fellow participants.
Let’s Talk Math – 2025-2026 Dates TBA
During this workshop, we will briefly revisit the Math MLS, DESE Priority Standards, and the 8 Standards of Mathematical Practice. We will dive into different ways to enhance our math curriculum and ways to beef up our math assessments through the use of DESE’s Performance Indicators. Different instructional methods will be discussed, as well as the importance of having a growth mindset and productive struggle within our lessons.
Target Audience: Curriculum Directors, Instructional Coaches, Teachers of Mathematics
Curriculum Design and Review – 2025-2026 Dates TBA
What questions do you or your staff have about standards-based learning?
Are you making a move towards standards-based reporting?
Let us help you answer those questions.
Standards-based learning is an excellent way to evaluate students’ progress to mastering standards or competencies. It provides a fair and objective method for teachers to use in the classroom and for students to clearly understand their status. Standards-based learning is a system that includes the instruction, assessment, measuring, and reporting needed to determine a student’s mastery of the knowledge, processes and skills identified as a priority. We will discuss what standards-based learning is, the steps involved in developing both the classroom system and a school-wide system. We will also discuss the importance of community and parents in the process. We will spend some time examining standards-based reporting as well.
Target Audience: Curriculum Directors, Administrators, or lead teachers assigned to the duty of overseeing curriculum writing.
Standards Based Learning – 2025-2026 Dates TBA
Standards-based learning is an excellent way to evaluate students’ progress to mastering standards or competencies. It provides a fair and objective method for teachers to use in the classroom and for students to clearly understand their status. Standards-based learning is a system that includes the instruction, assessment, measuring and reporting needed to determine a student’s mastery of the knowledge, processes and skills identified as a priority. We will discuss what standards-based learning is, the steps involved in developing both the classroom system and a school-wide system. We will also discuss the importance of community and parents in the process.
Target Audience: Curriculum Directors, Administrators, Instructional Coaches, or lead teachers assigned to the duty of overseeing curriculum writing.
APR Deep Dive: Are We Success Ready in Our Success Ready Measures – 2025-2026 Dates TBA
The Success-Ready component of our APR only makes up 10% of the Performance portion and 6% of the Continuous Improvement area yet plays a major role in our students’ futures. Join us for this hands-on, in-person workshop as we take a deep dive into YOUR district’s APR data and district offerings to see how you can help improve your Success Ready measures. We will also look at specific district offerings to see how we can help prepare students to be success ready in the post high school life. Attendees are being asked to bring a copy of (or have access to) your district’s APR from the last three years, including any supporting documentation related to the Success Ready component.
Target Audience: Curriculum Directors and those in charge of their district APR reviews and Analysis
Let’s Consider Instructional Coaching: A Review of Skills and Process – 2025-2026
Instructional Coaching is an important part of improving student learning by providing teachers with support, feedback, and research-based practices.
What are the qualities and skills that coaches should possess?
How does an instructional coach determine what a teacher needs to improve student learning?
What does effective feedback look like and what type of feedback works?
How do you determine which practices to share with teachers?
What data should we look at and what questions should we be asking?
All these questions and MORE will be answered in this training session. We will provide current coaches and future coaches with research-based strategies to help improve their practice as well as help teachers.
Target Audience: Curriculum Directors, Administrators, Instructional Coaches, content teachers looking to increase student engagement in their classrooms.
Materials Needed/Interactive Level: Be prepared with any information you may want to share or know more about. This webinar is designed to promote discussion. This can be audio or through the chat box.
Join us online for two half day trainings that can be attended together or separately.
SMCAA Member District: $65.00 Per person
Non SMCAA Member District: $95.00 per person
Half Day One:
Time: 9:00 a.m. – 12 p.m.
- Qualities and skills needed to be an effective instructional coach, along with discussion around the idea of influence without authority.
- Review aspects of strong instruction, what it looks like, and the instructional behaviors we should expect from classroom teachers.
- The difference between techniques and strategies in instruction and the effective use of both
Half Day Two:
Time: 9:00 a.m. – 12 p.m.
- Aspects of planning lessons, logical progression, execution and reflection.
- The best data to use to readily address instructional practice, and a useful process for data review for stronger instruction.
- What to do next in your instructional coaching journey
Let’s Talk Elementary Social Studies – 2025-2026 Dates TBA
Social Studies…easily overlooked but so important to focus on. During this workshop, we will focus on what makes a guaranteed and viable Social Studies curriculum, ways to integrate Social Studies into other content areas to make the most use of our time, and how to bring Social Studies and History to life with our elementary students.
Target Audience: Curriculum Directors, Instructional Coaches, Elementary teachers
Let’s Talk Science – 2025-2026 Dates TBA
The Science MLS are not new but are you sure that your district curriculum is aligned to them? Are the assessments your teachers using assessing all the dimensions or just the core knowledge? Join us as we dive into the processes that need to occur as your teachers build units of instruction, including assessments and determine quality activities.
We will examine the science MLS, the 3-dimensional standards and other great science resources. We will discuss how to ensure that science instruction is aligned to the standards, effective instructional practices, and quality assessment development. We will dive into the importance of science instruction at all levels and how to inspire critical thinking and collaboration.
Target Audience: Curriculum Directors, Administrators, or lead teachers assigned to the duty of overseeing curriculum writing.
Using Curriculum Improvement Cycles to Enhance Curriculum Writing
Sometimes, when it comes to curriculum writing, you have to stop…reflect…and rethink what you are doing and what has been done. The curriculum we write should not only benefit our teachers, both present and those to enter our districts later, but should also be written to meet the needs of our students, community, and DESE mandates.
This training will explore how a Curriculum Improvement Cycle can not only help you write a guaranteed and viable curriculum, but also help ensure that it is written in a way to benefit the students. We will start the training by taking a look at why we even bother worrying about having a written curriculum, then we will dive into the five steps of a Curriculum Improvement Cycle: Evaluate & Diagnose; Prioritize & Set Goals; Develop and Plan; Curriculum Writing; and Implement and Monitor. By going through the process, individuals will walk away with the knowledge needed to know where to either start or where to head next in their curriculum writing and implementation journey.
Target Audience: Curriculum Directors, Administrators, or lead teachers assigned to the duty of overseeing curriculum writing.
Developing Quality Aligned Assessments – 2025-2026 Dates TBA
How do you know if the assessments in curriculum units are aligned to the standards they are supposed to measure? What are the steps in aligning assessments as they are developed? What supporting documents can be used? How can you audit the assessments provided by textbook series?
A quality assessment should clearly assess the chosen standard. This training will include the process for writing a quality assessment with samples as well as a process to audit the alignment of the assessments to the standards. We will also practice with Missouri Learning Standards and discuss the potential of the Moleap Blocks, Mo OER site and using technology platforms.
Target Audience: Curriculum Directors, Administrators, Instructional Coaches, Classroom teachers, and Assessment Coordinators