The One Thing Conference
Professional Learning to Transform Education for Good
Registration for the Spring 2026 workshops is now open!
Overview
The One Thing Conference Workshops will be hosting four workshops throughout Spring 2026, each one aligned to an MSDE Professional Development Point (PDP) focus area. Scroll down to learn more about each workshop.
| Workshop Date | MSDE Professional Development Point (PDP) Area Alignment | Registration Link |
|---|---|---|
| Saturday, March 28, 2026 | 9am-1pm | Culturally Responsive Teaching | 3/28 Registration Link |
| Saturday, April 18, 2026 | 9am-1pm | Strategies for Teaching Students with Disabilities | 4/18 Registration Link |
| Saturday, May 2, 2026 | 9am-1pm | Content or Pedagogy Related to an Area of Licensure | 5/02 Registration Link |
| Saturday, May 30, 2026 | 9am-1pm | English as a Second Language | 5/30 Registration Link |
Location
Workshops will be held in-person at the Edward St. John Building (4131 Campus Dr, College Park, MD 20742) on the University of Maryland College Park Campus. Room details will be provided following registration. Transportation information, including parking and public transit instructions can be found at the bottom of this page.
Cost
Registration for each workshop is $120 and includes:
- 4-hours of interactive, engaging, and practice-based professional learning
- PDP-aligned professional learning content, with PDP paperwork provided via email following workshop completion
- Coffee and light snacks
- No cost on-campus parking options available near workshop location (see below for details)
Workshop 1: Saturday, March 28, 2026 | 9am-1pm
⇒ Workshop 1, 3/28 Registration Link
PDP Focus: Culturally Responsive Teaching or diverse student identities in education
Cost: $120
In this workshop, learners will choose one of two tracks. Registration is the same for both tracks; you will be prompted to select a track after registration, closer to the event.
Track 1: Hip Hop Pedagogy as a Tool for Culturally Sustaining Practice
Audience: Middle and Secondary Educators
Facilitators: Dr. Sehrish Shikarpurya and Diamond E. Williams
Hip Hop Pedagogy offers a powerful approach to culturally relevant and sustaining instruction. In this workshop, you’ll explore the principles behind this culturally sustaining approach, write and perform your own rap using primary sources, and develop a ready-to-pilot assessment—complete with rubrics—designed to honor and elevate your students’ voices and experiences. If you’re looking for an assessment tool that is both rigorous and real, this workshop is for you. Note: This track's target audience is middle and secondary educators. We will be running a concurrent track for early childhood and elementary educators on culturally responsive pedagogy; please see Layered Read Alouds to Amplify Cultural and Linguistic Diversity for the early childhood and elementary educator option on this date!
Track 2: Layered Read Alouds to Amplify Cultural and Linguistic Diversity
Audience: Early Childhood, Elementary, and Middle Grade Educators
Facilitators: Dr. Reka C. Barton & Dr. Keisha Allen
Imagine a read aloud that does more than tell a story—one that opens windows, builds bridges, and invites every student’s identity into the room. Layered Read Alouds do exactly that. In this workshop, you’ll experience one from the inside, unpack what makes it work, and collaboratively create your own LRA tailored to your grade level and students. You’ll leave with a finished, classroom-ready LRA and the confidence to keep building more. Note: This track's target audience is early childhood, elementary, and middle grade educators. We will be running a concurrent track for middle and secondary educators on culturally responsive pedagogy; please, see Hip Hop Pedagogy as a Tool for Culturally Sustaining Practice for the middle and secondary educator option on this date!
Workshop 2: Saturday, April 18, 2026 | 9am-1pm
⇒ Workshop 2, 4/18 Registration Link
PDP Focus: Strategies for teaching students with disabilities or differentiated instruction for diverse learning needs
Cost: $120
Title: Building Inclusive Classrooms: A Support Plan Grounded in Relational, Instructional, and Responsive Strategies
Audience: Early Childhood, Elementary, Middle, and Secondary Educators
Facilitators: Dr. Shanna Hirsch & Dr. Jennifer McCatharn
Building a genuinely inclusive classroom requires practice and intentional strategy. In this workshop, you’ll observe live models of inclusive classrooms and explore relational, instructional, and responsive strategies that benefit every learner in your room. You’ll leave with a personalized, inclusive classroom support plan and the step-by-step resources to put it into action.
Workshop 3: Saturday, May 2, 2026 | 9am-1pm
⇒ Workshop 3, 5/02 Registration Link
PDP Focus: Content or Pedagogy Related to an Area of Licensure
Cost: $120
In this workshop, learners will choose one of two tracks. Registration is the same for both tracks; you will be prompted to select a track after registration, closer to the event.
Track 1: Leveraging Math Games to Improve Student-to-Student Discourse and Mathematical Reasoning
Audience: Elementary and Middle Grade Educators
Facilitators: Dr. Sara Kirschner and Dr. Carolina Napp-Avelli
In this workshop, 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.
Track 2: Teacher-as-Writer Workshop
Audience: Early Childhood, Elementary, Middle, and Secondary Educators (all content areas welcome)
Facilitators: Dr. Margaret Peterson and Dr. Kerry Alexander
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.
Workshop 4: Saturday, May 30, 2026 | 9am-1pm
⇒ Workshop 4, 5/30 Registration Link
PDP Focus: English as a Second Language, Sheltered English, or Bilingual Education
Cost: $120
Title: Making Language Visible: Using SIOP to Support English Learners in Every Classroom
Audience: Early Childhood, Elementary, Middle, and Secondary Educators
Facilitators: Dr. Nihat Polat and Dr. Laura Mahalingappa
Every student deserves access to rigorous content—and English learners are no exception. In this hands-on workshop, you’ll dive into the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) model, a research-backed framework for teaching academic content to English Language Learners (ELLs) across grade levels. SIOP will help you make language visible and content accessible in your classroom. You won’t just learn about SIOP—you’ll practice it, applying the protocol directly to your own teaching context and walking away with objectives and strategies you can use immediately in the classroom.
Parking and Transportation Information
Parking
Free parking is available in a nearby garage on Saturdays. If you are arriving by car, please park in the Regents Drive Garage, which has free parking on Saturdays. Please follow all posted parking guidance to ensure compliance with university parking regulations. The address for Regents Drive Garage is 8056 Regents Drive, College Park, MD 20742.
*Please note that the garage is located near, but not attached to, the Edward St. John Building. Please allow 5-10 minutes to walk from your car to the workshop location. Follow the walking route in red from the garage to the Edward St. John Building, the location of the workshops (4131 Campus Dr, College Park, MD 20742).
- Take the pedestrian bridge on the third floor of the garage. OR, from the ground floor of the garage, cross Fieldhouse Drive and follow the path between the Biology-Psychology and Plant Sciences building.
- Continue through Hornbake Plaza. You will pass a statue of Frederick Douglass on your right.
- Cross Campus Drive and enter Edward St. John on the first floor.
ADA Parking is available adjacent to the workshop venue in the small parking lot on the east side of the Edward St. John building, facing Symons Hall (building 076). If these spots are full, there are additional ADA parking spots available in the HJ Patterson LOT (building 073) and west of the Health Center (building 140). This annotated map should help you to locate ADA parking near the workshop venue. If you require additional assistance with accessibility for the event, please contact Elizabeth Gotwalt egotwalt@umd.edu
Public Transportation
The University of Maryland is accessible by Metro and other forms of public transportation.
To Metro, take the Green line to the College Park, University of Maryland station. Then take the free UM Shuttle Bus 104 from bus bay E toward UMD Main Campus.* The bus arrives approximately every 22 minutes. Get off at the Regents Drive Garage stop.
Follow this walking route in purple from the bus stop to the conference in the Edward St. John building.
- Walk South along Regents Drive toward Fieldhouse Drive.
- Continue past the Plant Sciences and Geology buildings on your right.
- Turn right on Campus Drive, then cross Campus Drive and enter Edward St. John on the first floor.
*Note that there is also a 104 bus that departs from bus bay D to the "Discovery District," which will not take you to campus. You want the bus from bus bay E marked "UMD Main Campus." The drivers are happy to clarify if you ask.
