This cohort is for districts who are participating in the Career Consultant program. District identified career committees will attend to engage in professional learning, collaboration, and program planning. Development of career pathways is based on the nationally recognized Redefining Ready metrics and professional learning will include outside expertise and exemplars to guide district teams in design. Cohort sessions may take place at Sourcewell or another location dependent on content of the session.

The New Teacher Academy is designed to increase confidence and capacity in novice educators by combining relevant training with growth-focused coaching support. Support throughout the year includes five full-day trainings at Sourcewell, four individual in-classroom coaching sessions, Catalyst Whole Group Leadership, and Catalyst Live.

Add+VantageMR® (AVMR) Course 2 includes dynamic, diagnostic, individual assessments in place value, multi-digit addition and subtraction, and multiplication and division strategies. The assessment, organizational, and teaching tools accelerate the educator's ability to recognize the students' current levels of numeracy understanding to make data-driven instructional decisions. AVMR Course 2 is most appropriate for kindergarten through elementary classroom and special education teachers, as well as interventionists who work with children in kindergarten through middle school.

Would you like to know how to have a cohesive AVID system at your school? Come and spend a day reviewing the AVID Framework, learning, and collaborating with other administration from AVID schools in the region. You will learn what AVID can look like in your district, reflect on your current practices, and determine what will be your next steps. This is a follow-up session to ADL 5 that was held in August at Sourcewell. You will learn the critical methods of AVID schoolwide, revisit AVID elective expectations, learn how to build capacity with AVID professional development, and determine what it can look like at a district leader level.

CTE Spotlight: Ag/Food/Natural Resources/FACS & Culinary is an event that will highlight these programs at Central Lakes College in Brainerd and Staples. This learning opportunity will include tours of the facilities, interaction with the faculty, and time for discussion and networking.

This workshop on cultural competency will cover several topics, including frames of reference, implicit bias, impact, and more. The training is state approved by the Minnesota licensing board (PELSB), and teachers can receive approved clock hours for their cultural competency license hours.

The Minnesota Service Cooperatives have collaborated to bring you a virtual, asynchronous option to meeting your Cultural Competency licensure requirement. This course provides video learning, personal reflection time, an opportunity to hear from educators in the field, and many additional resources to explore as you continue your journey to be an even more culturally competent educator.

What makes a school experience excellent? In this speaker series we will excavate the supports needed across the academic continuum that ensure each student gets what they need and is given opportunities to grow. We will hear from educators specializing in both special education as well as gifted and talented programs. Each will unpack how to deliver specialized instruction both within the general classroom and beyond that supports students no matter where they are in their learning journey or how their brains are wired. Every student deserves excellence in their education.

Ed Venture boxes provide ideas and strategies for teachers in every box. Subscribers will receive a physical box complete with ready-to-use tools and strategies, access to on-demand content and CEUs, online network to collaborate with other subscribers, exclusive content, and supplies to support the strategies. Every box will have learning focused on deepening understanding, assessment and feedback, engagement, classroom management, relationships, direct instruction, Minnesota, and a bonus category!

For more information, visit the Ed Venture boxes webpage >

Registration deadlines:

September box: Sept. 15, 2023

November box: Nov. 10, 2023

March box: March 8, 2024

This speaker series and cohort excavates what contributes to excellence in schools. Topics include curriculum and student voice, using an indigenous lens, creating psychological safety, and supporting academics across the continuum: special education to gifted and talented. The cohort includes four full days with guest speakers in the morning and a deeper dive, personal applications, and individual action plans in the afternoon. Members of the cohort will also be invited to three, one-hour after-school virtual connects and have access to up to three 1:1 coaching sessions to support putting your learning into action.

This on-demand course will define formative assessment and explore the benefits of utilization. Participants will learn about various formative assessment techniques for both virtual and in-person learning, and will leave the session ready to implement and achieve some formative assessment quick wins.

Using formative assessments regularly and consistently can give both educators and learners an even clearer picture around what learners know. Formative assessments also provide educators with a guide to developing learning experiences and lesson planning that can meet the needs of all learners. By using formative assessments with purpose, educators can maximize student learning and increase the effectiveness of their lesson design and delivery.

Join us for an engaging half-day training session designed to equip educators in Region 5 with the knowledge and skills necessary to understand and harness the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) and ChatGPT in the classroom. This session will help educators will engage in practical exercises to familiarize themselves with ChatGPT and its functionalities, share insights and ideas for leveraging AI to create innovative learning experiences, and address potential concerns and ethical considerations related to AI usage in education.

This webinar will identify elements of differentiation and explore differentiation strategies such as questioning, grouping, and choice. Use these strategies to meet both support and challenge needs of your diverse students.

Led by a mental health professional and educator, this webinar will cover key facts about children's mental health, early warning signs of mental health disorders, and signs and symptoms of childhood suicide. Discussion will include strategies for how to respond and how to access help for students.

This training focuses on why and how our body and brain respond to stress/crisis and how that affects our work, wellness, and interactions. Explore Social-Emotional Learning strategies to recognize dysregulation in yourself and others, as well as strategies to regain and retain regulation. These strategies apply to interactions with students, colleagues, and caregivers.

This webinar provides participants an opportunity to explore components of effective reading instruction including phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and motivation and engagement. Within each component, participants will learn what it is, why we teach it, and how we teach it.

Multilingual learners in our classrooms are a huge asset. Not every educator may feel confident in how to best support and include these students. This webinar offers insights to support educators in creating optimal learning environments and instructional strategies for each learner.

We know that the teaching of reading is of paramount importance. We also know from the recent Minnesota Principals Survey that principals cite ‘Instructional Leadership’ as an area they feel a lack of confidence. Through a generous partnership between the Higher Education Literacy Partnership (HELP) and the University of Minnesota’s Principals Academy (MPA), we are able to offer this professional learning opportunity for our regional administrators.

Join this on-demand training opportunity to access a wide variety of online courses designed to provide paraprofessionals the targeted training needed to succeed as a Title I paraprofessional, including strategies that can be applied immediately.

The training includes access to over 150 courses and can be used for professional development or certification. Access to the content will be available for one year from your registration date. If you are using this training for certification, you must complete PARA Assessment 1 and PARA Assessment 2. The assessments must be proctored. Please be aware that this is an on-demand training and any preparations for the assessments are up to the individual to complete online.

Sourcewell will not be hosting proctoring sessions at this time, please see this FAQ document for more information.

Join fellow paraprofessionals to collaborate and learn strategies to support students with social, behavioral, and academic needs, to understand how adult mindsets can impact the student experience, and understand trauma in students and adults.

This event is a repeat of the Paraprofessional Professional Development Day held in August of 2023.

Sourcewell is partnering with Agile Ideas Leadership (AIL) to bring this 5-session series to school leaders. Topics will include developing instructional leadership, fostering a positive and supportive work environment, providing instructional feedback, engaging in challenging conversations, and aligning your building teams.

What makes a school experience excellent? In this speaker series we will excavate the hidden parts of a school experience that can make or break a student (and their families/caregivers') school journey and in some cases, what makes a student safe or not while they attend school. Lisa Worden will unpack what it means to have psychological safety in a school building, as well as why it is imperative that we take the time to understand it and create it every day for every student. Students cannot learn if they do not feel safe, not taking the time to create a safe and inclusive culture undermines any additional learning efforts.

Language is ever evolving and changing. Sometimes knowing which terms or descriptions to use can be difficult and sometimes we don’t even know we are using outdated or harmful language. This webinar is focused on promoting positive language around topics such as race, gender, and common school-based labels and language.

Superintendents, school leaders, and all staff members engaged in communications work in central Minnesota schools are cordially invited to join in a series of school communications professional development sessions specifically tailored for schools in Cass, Crow Wing, Morrison, Todd, and Wadena counties. Sourcewell is committed to bringing you best practices in and practical application of school communications. 

The state of Minnesota is committed to using structured literacy as its primary focus for teaching reading. There is a tremendous amount of information available to teachers; so much, that it can be very difficult to know where to start. For some, LETRS training has been an entrance point for their learning about the science of reading. However, the expense, intensity, and time commitment, may not be a good match for some educators. Shifting the Balance, 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Balance Literacy Classroom: The Online Course, is an excellent resource that serves a similar purpose as LETRS, but in a more manageable and practical way.

In partnership with authors Kari Yates and Jan Burkins, Sourcewell has customized the course for regional educators. Participants will not only engage in the content but will also network with other regional participants to consider practical application and systems implementation.