Professional Development

I have delivered hundreds of in-person and virtual professional development sessions to thousands of educators—including teachers, paraeducators, related service providers, and administrators. My sessions focus on evidence-based behavioral and instructional practices across all tiers of support and are grounded in adult learning science and Universal Design for Learning (UDL).

Before each session, I meet with school or district teams to understand their goals, priorities, and specific context. This allows me to tailor the content to meet the unique needs of each audience and ensure the training is relevant, actionable, and aligned with school and district initiatives.

During sessions, I provide handouts and guided notes to support participant engagement and organization. I use interactive tools like PearDeck, Kahoot, and Quizlet as real-time formative assessments to check understanding, guide pacing, and ensure content remains responsive to participant needs. These tools also serve as models of effective, classroom-ready strategies.

I approach professional learning with humility, collaboration, and a commitment to equity. My goal is always to make content accessible, culturally responsive, and directly applicable to the real work educators do every day.

How can I help you?

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Sessions

All sessions are tailored to your school or district’s needs and can be delivered in-person (Illinois Counties: Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Will) or virtually (anywhere!)

Applicable to all Tiers

Defining and Understanding Challenging Behavior
Have you ever worked with a student and wondered, "WHY does she keep doing that?" Collecting antecedent-behavior-consequence (ABC) data will help you find the answer! This PD will teach you how to objectively define behavior and collect meaningful ABC data to help get to the root of the purpose (function) of students' challenging behaviors. 1-3 hours based on preference

What Works and Why: Function-Based Behavior Planning
Using results of ABC data, participants will learn the basics in how to select and implement function-based prevention strategies, replacement behaviors, and how to respond to desired behavior and problem behavior. 1-3 hours based on preference

Beyond Stickers and Candy: Finding Natural, Practical, Motivating Reinforcers
Whether looking for class-wide or individual motivators for behavior, preference assessments can help! This PD will cover tips for how to choose effective, inexpensive (or free!), naturalistic rewards to use as motivators for desired behavior. 1-2 hours based on preference

Simple Behavior Data Collection in the Classroom
Progress monitoring on behavior is imperative for students receiving, or at-risk for being referred for, tiered or special education behavior support. This PD provides easy, simple methods for teachers to collect objective, quantitative data on behavior to measure progress. 1-3 hours based on preference

Tier I Behavior Supports

From Chaos to Community: Class-wide Behavior Supports
This training describes low-intensity, high-impact Tier I behavior practices that should be implemented in every classroom. Practical examples for how to explicitly teach desired behaviors, increase opportunities-to-respond within instruction, improve rates of behavior-specific praise, and an introduction to class-wide reinforcement systems will be discussed.
1-3 hours based on preference

Class-wide Function-Related Intervention Teams (CW-FIT)
CW-FIT is an evidence-based class-wide behavior management procedure that includes four main components: 1) explicit instruction of desired behaviors that address common functions of disruptive behavior in the classroom; 2) dividing the class into teams of 4-6 students; 3) delivering points and behavior-specific praise to groups where all students were on-task at the time the teacher checks; and 4) delivery of a brief reward to teams who met a pre-determined point goal.

Note: Amanda is a certified district coach in CW-FIT. Training is a mandatory 3 hours and includes access to resources for implementation, video exemplars, and role-play. Training must occur in groups of 10 or fewer.

Tier 2 Behavior Supports

Teaching Students to Self-Monitor Behavior
Self-monitoring is research-supported Tier 2 behavior intervention to support students who struggle with remaining on-task during instruction. Self-monitoring involves teaching students to identify their own behavior and self-record their performance. First, students are taught to record accurately, then teacher co-monitoring is slowly faded until the student is recording their behavior independently. A review of available self-monitoring applications will also be provided. 2-3 hours based on preference

Making the Most Out of Check-In Check-Out (CICO)
Check-In Check-Out is a common Tier 2 intervention used in schools, but is it being used effectively? This PD will cover what research says about how to implement CICO to fidelity to create real change in students' behavior. We will cover what behaviors CICO is appropriate for, and how to structure CICO so that it is objective and meaningful. 1-2 hours based on preference.

Incorporating Tier 2 into CW-FIT
While CW-FIT is primarily a Tier I intervention, it does include two options for Tier 2 components as needed. This session will describe how to use self-management and help cards within CW-FIT. 1-2 hours based on preference

NOTE: Tier I CW-FIT training is a mandatory pre-requisite

Tier 3 Behavior Supports

Functional Behavior Assessment-informed Behavior Intervention Plans
Students with persistent and/or dangerous challenging behavior that have not been responsive to Tiers I and 2 supports may benefit from function-based individualized Tier 3 behavior interventions. These sessions are a deep-dive into conducting functional assessment, developing behavior intervention plans, and training, implementing, progress monitoring, and maintaining fidelity of the plans.

This can be offered as a series covering all 7 topics or some topics can be chosen as stand-alone trainings, however all sessions have a prerequisite of Session 2, Defining Behavior & Identifying the Purpose (Function).

Overview of FBAs and BIPs: Introduces learners to functional behavior assessment (FBA) and development of function-based, evidence-based behavior intervention plans (BIPs). We will cover optional and mandatory components of FBAs and will review the basic components of function-based BIPs. 1.5 hours
Defining Behavior & Identifying the Purpose (Function): This session describes how to operationally define behavior and collect antecedent-behavior-consequence data to hypothesize the purpose (function) of challenging behavior. 2 hours
Quantitative Data Collection & Graphing: This session reviews different types of quantitative data collection (frequency, duration, interval recording) and how to use and graph these data to make decisions. 2 hours
Function-based Preventative Strategies: Using information from ABC data, learners will identify and describe preventative strategies to decrease the likelihood of the challenging behavior occurring. 1.5 hours
Function-based Replacement Behaviors: This session will describe how to identify and teach function-based replacement behaviors for challenging behavior. 2 hours
Function-based Responses/Consequences to Behavior: This session will put it all together and describe how to develop effective reinforcement systems to improve desired and replacement behaviors, and how to respond to challenging behavior to help reduce the likelihood of reoccurrence in the future. NOTE: It is highly recommended that sessions 4 & 5 also be presented prior to this session (in addition to the required pre-requisite of session 2). 2 hours
Teaching Others to Implement BIPs and Monitoring Fidelity: Whether you are a consultant supporting teachers, or a teacher supporting a paraeducator, this session will teach you how to support others to implement BIPs to fidelity, and methods for monitoring fidelity of implementation. 2 hours

Special Education Focused

Collaborating, Supervising, and Coaching Paraeducators
Overseeing paraeducators is an important and challenging role for special educators. This session covers up-to-date research and best practices for special education teachers in their collaboration, supervising, and coaching of paraeducators to support students with disabilities. 1-3 hours based on preference

Supporting Autistic Students
This training will describe common characteristics of autism and review frequent misconceptions and non-evidence-based fads. We will then cover what research actually says about autism and evidence-based practices to support students with ASD. Using videos and blogs from autistic adults, we will briefly cover the neurodiversity movement and how to approach supporting students with ASD from a disability-justice lens. 1-3 hours based on preference

Teaching Social Skills to Students with Disabilities
This session will cover evidence-based strategies for assessing and teaching social skills to students with autism and other developmental disabilities. Video modeling, behavioral skills training, and other teaching strategies will be discussed. This session is geared toward those supporting students who use fluent vocal or AAC-supported communication. 1.5- 3 hours based on preference

Functional Communication Training for Students with Extensive Support Needs
This training will teach learners how to use functional communication training (FCT) to support students with significant disabilities who engage in challenging behavior in the classroom. This session is specifically geared towards supporting students who have limited communication abilities. 2-3 hours based on preference

Services and Pricing

All sessions include:

A complimentary 30-minute consultation to learn about your school or district’s context and priorities
A set of guided notes to support participant engagement
A Google folder of one-page handouts and related resources to reinforce key content and support implementation

Professional development packages start at $175 and vary depending on:

Length of session (e.g., 60 minutes, 90 minutes, half-day)
Degree of customization
Additional services such as:
- Review of school or district documents prior to the session
- Follow-up coaching and feedback sessions
- Access to a recorded version of the session (30, 60, 90-day licenses)
- Supplemental resources (e.g., planning tools, templates, visuals)

Here’s a quick peek into one of my PD sessions on class-wide behavior strategies. My sessions help educators understand why evidence-based strategies work to support positive student behavior.

Want to learn more?

BOOK FREE 15-MIN CUSTOM QUOTE CALL

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