In-Person
Professional Development
IN-PERSON PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Professional development should leave educators with more than good ideas. It should give them practical strategies, renewed confidence, and a clear sense of what they can do differently tomorrow.
Positive School Solutions brings engaging, relevant professional learning directly to your school. We work with you to understand your goals, your staff, and your needs—then create learning experiences that connect to the real work happening every day.
WHAT GREAT PROFESSIONAL LEARNING SHOULD BE
If We Want Great Learning for Students, We Need Great Learning for Educators.
We believe professional learning should reflect the same things we know about great learning for students: it should be relevant, engaging, active, and connected to real needs. That means less sitting and listening—and more thinking, talking, practicing, reflecting, and leaving with something educators can actually use.
Relevant
Connect learning to the challenges educators are actually facing and the goals your school is working toward.
Practical
Give educators concrete strategies, tools, and language they can put into practice right away.
Engaging
Model the active, meaningful learning experiences we want educators to create for students.
Built for Application
Create time to reflect, practice, collaborate, and consider how new learning will translate into everyday work.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT TOPICS
What Does Your Staff Need Right Now?
Every school community has different strengths, challenges, and priorities. Our in-person professional development can be customized around what your educators need most.
Explore some of our most commonly requested topics below.
Classroom Culture, Behavior, & Communication
Mastering Challenging Behaviors
Explore a practical framework for preventing behavior challenges, responding effectively in the moment, and addressing patterns that keep resurfacing. Educators apply the framework to real classroom challenges and leave with strategies, a clearer plan, and greater confidence.
SPEAK So They Listen: The 5 Rules for Classroom Communication That Actually Works
Learn a simple five-step framework for making directions clearer, gaining buy-in, and reducing the need to repeat yourself. Through real-life examples and practice, educators strengthen communication with students, families, and colleagues while building greater clarity and follow-through.
Accountability in Action: Tools, Language, and Systems That Stick
Move beyond repeating expectations and chasing unfinished work with practical strategies that build student accountability. Explore discipline approaches, academic accountability tools, and simple goal-setting systems that help students monitor their progress and follow through.
Advanced Classroom Problem-Solving Workshop
Designed for educators with a strong foundation in positive discipline and restorative practices who are ready to tackle challenges that keep resurfacing. Bring a real classroom challenge, collaborate with colleagues, and leave with greater clarity, renewed confidence, and practical next steps.
Establishing Consistent Routines, Procedures, and Classroom Rules
Learn how to explicitly teach routines and procedures, reinforce success, and create clear, positive rules that influence behavior. Educators leave with practical ways to increase student investment and build a more predictable, positive learning environment.
Start Smart: Planning for a Thriving Classroom
Design an intentional start to the school year that brings together academics, community, routines, procedures, and executive functioning skills. Educators leave with a purposeful plan for creating a classroom where students feel connected, capable, and ready to learn.
Engagement, Motivation & Learning
Strategies for Increasing Academic Engagement
Shift from teacher-driven to student-driven learning without sacrificing structure or clarity. Educators experience practical strategies for designing active learning, managing dynamic classrooms, increasing student ownership, and troubleshooting the challenges that come with more interactive instruction.
Building Intrinsic Motivation in the Classroom
Look beyond points, prizes, and reward systems to explore what truly motivates students. Educators leave with practical ways to build student ownership and make small shifts that encourage students to engage because the learning matters—not simply because they’re earning something.
From Helpless to Engaged
Explore what student effort actually looks like, why it can be difficult, and the conditions that make trying feel possible. Educators leave with practical strategies that shift responsibility back to students while creating the support they need to engage and persist.
Joy Is Not Extra: Making Learning Fun Without Doing More
Discover realistic ways to bring more fun, play, and relevance into everyday instruction—without adding more to teachers’ plates. Educators leave with immediately usable strategies that boost engagement and make learning more joyful for everyone in the room.
Integrating Effective Brain Breaks
Explore how short, intentional Brain Breaks can increase energy, focus, and engagement throughout the school day. Educators experience a variety of movement and mindfulness strategies and leave with practical guidance—and ready-to-use activities—for integrating them effectively.
Designing the Day: Structures That Build Engagement, Reduce Behavior, and End Strong
Learn simple, high-impact structures for key parts of the school day that increase engagement, reduce behavior challenges, and build student independence. Educators experience practical routines for reflection, Closing Circle, and ending the day with greater purpose.
SEL, Connection & Educator Well-Being
A+SEL / Essential Skills: Academic + Social Emotional Learning
Explore how academic learning and personal and interpersonal skill development can work together to create classrooms where students feel safe, connected, and ready to learn. Educators leave with practical ways to embed skill-building, strengthen relationships, and create engaging learning experiences throughout the school day.
Empowered Classrooms: A 3-Day Workshop on Emotional Intelligence, Connection & Culture
More coming soon!
The Ripple Effect: How Your Energy Shapes the Classroom
Explore how your own steadiness can influence student behavior, classroom energy, and the way challenging moments unfold. Educators leave with practical strategies for responding calmly, regulating students in the moment, and staying grounded when the classroom gets chaotic.
Empowered, Not Exhausted
Learn how to navigate difficult conversations with students, families, and colleagues without carrying the stress with you afterward. Educators explore practical language, boundary-setting strategies, and ways to stay calm and grounded when conversations get tense.
Specialized Staff Support
Support Staff: Empowering Students to Increase Independence
Help support staff move from doing for students to intentionally building students’ independence, responsibility, and ownership. Participants explore practical strategies for teaching expectations, MODELing essential skills, and using effective adult language to support student growth throughout the school day.
More Time to Teach: Practical Structures for Integrated Arts Classrooms
Create consistent, predictable learning environments while honoring the unique needs of Integrated Arts classrooms. Educators explore practical strategies for expectations, routines, teacher language, modeling, and engagement that reduce time spent managing and maximize time spent teaching.
Creating A Calm Café – 3-hour Paraprofessional Training
Give paraprofessionals practical tools for creating a calmer, more positive, and predictable cafeteria environment. Participants learn how to establish and model clear expectations, use consistent language, and effectively reinforce, remind, and redirect students throughout the lunch period.
Don’t see exactly what your staff needs?
These are just some of our most commonly requested topics. We’ll work with you to build professional learning around your school’s goals, challenges, and priorities.
BUILT AROUND YOUR SCHEDULE
Professional Learning That Fits the Reality of Your School Day.
Professional development doesn’t have to look the same in every school. We’ll work with you to design a format that fits your goals, your staff, and the time you actually have available.
Half-Day Workshop
Focused, interactive professional learning with time to explore practical strategies, reflect, and plan for application.
Full-Day PD
A deeper learning experience with more time for discussion, practice, collaboration, and planning.
Small Group Focused Sessions
Repeat focused sessions throughout the day so smaller groups can engage in learning tailored to their role, grade level, or specific needs.
Multi-Session Learning
Build learning over time, giving educators opportunities to apply new strategies, reflect on what they’re noticing, and continue developing their practice.
Leadership Development
Customized learning and planning for leadership teams or specialized groups working toward a shared goal, challenge, or schoolwide priority.
Need something different? We’ll work with you to create a format that makes sense for your school.
NOT EVERY SCHOOL NEEDS THE SAME THING
Start With Your School. Build From There.
We don’t start with a slide deck. We start by listening. Before we plan your professional learning, we take time to understand what your school is working toward, what your staff is experiencing, and what you hope will be different as a result.
From there, we tailor the learning to fit your school—building on what you’re already doing, using language that makes sense for your staff, and focusing on strategies that support your priorities.
We Consider...
- Your goals & priorities
- Your staff & student needs
- Your existing initiatives
- Previous professional learning
- The time you have available
- What you want to be different afterward
NOT SURE WHERE TO FOCUS?
Sometimes the First Step Is Understanding What's Really Happening.
If you know your staff needs support but aren’t sure where professional learning would have the greatest impact, a School Culture Assessment can help identify patterns, strengths, and priorities before you build your professional development plan.
NEED MORE FLEXIBILITY?
Professional Learning, On Your Schedule.
In-person learning isn’t always the best fit for every educator – or every professional learning need. Our asynchronous courses give schools another way to provide meaningful professional development while allowing educators to learn when and where it works best for them.
Online learning can be especially helpful when you want to:
Differentiate professional learning by allowing staff members to access the learning most relevant to their role or needs.
Provide greater flexibility when finding shared professional development time is difficult.
Support individuals or small groups who need targeted learning that may not make sense as a schoolwide session.
Meet varied staff needs without requiring every educator to participate in the same professional learning at the same time.
Educators can work through practical, self-paced learning on their own schedule while still gaining strategies they can bring directly into their work.
WHAT EDUCATORS SAY
Engaging in the Room. Useful After They Leave.
The most valuable part was connection, community, and a confidence boost. I’m leaving feeling capable and ready to create a classroom where students feel comfortable making mistakes, taking risks, and connecting with each other and with me.
It’s the first time that I have felt all aspects of our staff were represented and listened to.
I loved how the facilitator acted as a teacher herself. I learned great strategies just by watching. The training showed us how to run an effective advisory period.
LET'S PLAN YOUR PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
Bring Professional Development That Fits Your Staff and Your School.
Tell us what’s happening in your school, what your staff needs, and what you’re hoping to accomplish. We’ll help you design professional learning that’s practical, relevant, and built around your community.