Professional Learning Page: TOTC May 2, 2026 Workshop

Track 1: Leveraging Math Games to Improve Student-to-Student Discourse and Mathematical Reasoning

In this track, you’ll play games, experience purposeful teacher moves firsthand, and discover how small shifts in how games are facilitated can unlock deeper reasoning and genuine student-to-student dialogue in your mathematics classroom. You’ll analyze your own curriculum games with fresh eyes and leave with game-based lesson plans designed to spark the mathematical thinking your students are capable of. This track is intended for Elementary and Middle Grades educators.

Track 2: Teacher-as-Writer Workshop

The best writing teachers are writers themselves, but many educators do not see themselves as writers. If you want to improve your skills and develop your identity as a writer and writing instructor—regardless of grade level or content area—this workshop is for you! In this workshop, you’ll pick up a pen alongside your colleagues and compose your own original mentor text through three guided writing experiences focused on volume, variety, and depth. Along the way, you’ll grapple with the real challenges your students face as writers—and problem-solve them together. You’ll leave with an authentic mentor text in hand and three mini-lessons ready to bring student authorship to life across any grade or discipline. This track is intended for all educators, or all disciplines, from Early Childhood through Secondary Education.

This workshop aligns with the MSDE professional learning area "Content or pedagogy that is related to an area on your license" and provides learners with eligibility for 4 MSDE Professional Development Points (PDPs). 

You can learn more about PDPs at the MSDE website. Following each workshop or conference,  attendees will be provided with the following completed PDP documentation via email. Attendees will be responsible for submitting the documentation to the appropriate entity to ensure points are counted toward their recertification: 

• If you are employed by a local educational agency (LEA), you must provide two signed copies of this form to your LEA to be signed by the appropriate representative. After both copies of the form are signed by your LEA, your LEA will retain one of the copies and return the other to you. Each LEA has a method for processing.  Please do not send the form to MSDE.
• If you are not employed by a local educational agency (LEA) but hold a Maryland certificate, you should retain the credit form and submit it to the MSDE Licensure Office when requesting renewal of your license.
• If you are employed in a non-public school, you should deal directly with the MSDE Non-Public Liaison assigned to the school in which you are employed.

In some districts, this paperwork may also be used to submit for district professional learning reimbursement. Please check with your district's tuition reimbursement office for information and details.

Free parking is available in select parking lots and garages on Saturdays. Parking details will be provided via email following registration. All parking lots have ADA-accessible parking.

Coffee and light snacks will be provided.

Special Instructions for Non-UMD Students, Faculty, and Staff

If you are not currently affiliated with the University of Maryland (welcome!), you will be prompted to create an affiliate account upon registration. Please do this first by simply following the prompts to create an affiliate account, then you will be able to register. If you encounter issues creating an affiliate account, you may contact the IT Service Desk at 301-405-1500.

• Note: Some users have reported difficulties creating an affiliate account on a Safari Browser. If you encounter issues with this process on a Safari Browser, we apologize; please switch to a Chrome, Firefox, or alternate browser of your choice. We apologize for the inconvenience. 

Entering a Promotion Code

If you are entering a promotion code during registration, please make sure you are logged in to your UMD or UMD affiliate account before entering the code. When you are logged in, your screen will read: "Logged in as [Name]" above the promotion code box.

We can support Bulk Registration!

Interested in registering a group of educators from your school or district? This can be done in one of two ways. 

(1) If you would like to pay by Credit Card, simply select "Bulk Purchase" on the registration page for the workshop(s) for which you would like to register your educators! You will then select the number of educators you want to register for that workshop. After you pay via credit card, you will be prompted to invite the individual educators to register via email. Note: You will need to repeat this for each workshop for which you want to register educators.

(2) If you would like to pay by invoice (check), please contact Elizabeth Gotwalt egotwalt@umd.edu for assistance. For this option, you will pre-pay via check; we will then provide you with a list of unique promotional codes to distribute to your educators. Your educators can use these codes to register themselves for the workshop of their choice. 

We believe that high-quality professional learning should be accessible to all educators, and we make every effort to make our learning experiences as financially accessible as possible. 

If you work for a Maryland School District, we encourage you to contact your district office of educator professional learning or tuition reimbursement team to inquire if you are eligible for reimbursement for this experience. For many districts, the PDP paperwork that you will be provided upon completion of the workshop qualifies as eligible documentation for reimbursable professional learning. 

If you would like to register for this learning experience but cost is an obstacle to registration, please complete the following scholarship application form. 

Limited scholarship funds are made available through the support of donors to the College of Education.