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Professional Development and Presentations
Professional Development and Speaker Series
The Orchid Life is available for your next professional development or speaker series. The Orchid Life is available for in-person or virtual speaking engagements on a variety of topics, as well as custom professional development. We support the diverse learning needs of administrative teams, teachers, para professionals, and parents.
Coaching for Equity in Advanced Learning
Supporting instructional coaches and teacher leaders in leading DEI-focused growth cycles.
Leading Change in Schools
For administrators ready to audit, reimagine, or expand equitable educational services.
Teacher Wellness & Emotional Resilience
Protecting the passion: tools to reduce burnout while leading inclusive, high-rigor or high needs classrooms.
Gifted Education 101
This foundational session introduces the core principles of gifted education. Participants will explore definitions, identification processes, instructional needs, and common misconceptions. Educators will walk away with a deeper understanding of how to recognize and nurture giftedness across diverse populations.
Twice-Exceptional Students
Twice-exceptional (2e) learners have both advanced abilities and learning challenges. This session equips educators with strategies to support the academic and emotional needs of 2e students, helping them thrive by embracing both their gifts and their growth areas.
How to Support the Social and Emotional Needs of Learners
Academic achievement is inseparable from emotional well-being. This session explores the vital role of social-emotional learning (SEL) in student success. Participants will gain tools to foster resilience, empathy, and emotional regulation in classrooms of all grade levels.
Moving Students from Dependent to Independent Learners
Students need more than content knowledge—they need learning agency. This workshop focuses on developing executive functioning, metacognition, and self-directed learning. Educators will leave with techniques to shift students from passive participation to active ownership of their learning journey.
Creating Safe, Inclusive Learning Environments
Belonging is the foundation of engagement. In this session, participants will learn how to build emotionally safe and identity-affirming classrooms. Topics include inclusive language, culturally responsive practices, and proactive classroom management techniques that nurture all learners.
Biases Known and Unknown: Understanding Conscious and Unconscious Bias
This reflective session helps educators uncover and address personal and systemic biases that may affect teaching and learning. Through scenarios and discussion, participants explore how implicit bias influences expectations, interactions, and access—and what to do about it.
Creating Teacher-Student Partnerships for Learning
Education is most powerful when it’s relational. This session explores ways to develop meaningful teacher-student partnerships rooted in trust, respect, and shared goals. Learn strategies to co-create classroom norms, integrate student voice, and personalize instruction.
The Brain & Learning: Leveraging How Students Process Information
How does the brain learn best? This session introduces the basics of cognitive science and neuroscience as applied to education. Topics include memory, attention, executive function, and the role of emotions in learning, with practical strategies for immediate classroom use.
Developing a Growth Mindset with Your Students
Mindsets matter. This workshop introduces the theory of growth mindset and explores its classroom applications. Educators will learn how to foster persistence, normalize productive struggle, and model lifelong learning—all while helping students shift from “I can’t” to “I can.”
Bring on the Rigor: Building Effective Learning Communities
Rigor and support can coexist. In this session, educators learn how to design high-challenge, high-support learning environments where students are stretched intellectually while feeling empowered and capable. Practical strategies for scaffolding, inquiry, and collaboration are emphasized.
Building Teacher Leadership Capacity
Teachers are leaders—whether they hold a title or not. This session supports educators in developing leadership skills such as facilitation, mentoring, data-driven decision-making, and coaching. Ideal for teacher-leaders, department heads, and emerging instructional coaches.
Creating a Positive Culture to Enhance Achievement
Culture shapes outcomes. This session explores how school and classroom culture impact student engagement, behavior, and performance. Participants will learn how to build a positive, affirming culture rooted in relationships, high expectations, and shared accountability.
Looking at Curriculum Through a DEI Lens
Curriculum choices shape student identity, access, and belonging. This session guides educators through examining curriculum materials and instruction through a lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Learn how to recognize gaps, avoid tokenism, and build rich, representative content.
Engaging Families of Gifted Learners of Color
Strategies to build trust, partnership, and shared ownership of learning.
Rethinking Homework, Grades, and Motivation
Family-educator alignment on what meaningful academic expectations look like for gifted students.