Goals & Mission
CTA’s professional development program is committed to supporting the professional needs of our members. Through ongoing, research-based, professional development opportunities, our members can become even more successful on the job as they serve their students, families, and communities.
Please click on the course date/name to register. When you register your attendance is confirmed. After you register, submit your TDY. Email us at [email protected] if your request is denied or if you need to cancel. Breakfast and lunch are included at all trainings in the CTA office.
Course Descriptions
Artificial Intelligence in Education
This hands on virtual training equips teachers with practical AI strategies to support students with special education needs and English learners. Participants explore Diffit, Storybook, Gemini, and Copilot to differentiate texts, assignments, and assessments across reading levels and learning needs. They will use these tools to create lesson plans and materials that increase accessibility, learn the GLASSES framework for scaffolding instruction and language support for ESOL students, and be introduced to Colorín Colorado as an ESOL curriculum resource. Educators leave with concrete strategies, ready to use tools, and a framework they can apply to make lessons more inclusive and effective.
Finding Strengths Supporting Students With Disabilities
Using a case study approach, participants develop appropriate accommodations and modifications that support students with disabilities in accessing grade level academic content.
Instructional Strategies that Work for All Disciplines (ISTWAD)
Voyage to Deep Learning: You already have your CRMs but what makes learning stick? Join this interactive journey into evidence-based practices to support students’ thinking, connecting, reflecting, and applying what they know.
All Aboard fellow travelers!
Session Topics: Considerate & Inconsiderate Tools, Background Knowledge, Feedback, Rubrics
Thinking Mathematics Reimagining How Students Learn Understand and Love Math
Hey, Mathers!
Ready for math professional learning you can actually use in your classroom?
In the first session of our math professional development course, we’ll explore the Ten Principles of Thinking Mathematics, practical ways to capture and make sense of student thinking, multiplicative structures, and engaging strategies that help students develop stronger mathematical reasoning.
This isn’t just theory—you’ll experience research-based practices and classroom-ready strategies you can take straight back to your students. You’ll leave with new ideas for supporting student thinking, strengthening math discussions, and helping more students see themselves as capable mathematicians.
Your time matters, so we’re making every session practical, collaborative, and immediately useful.
UDL Universal Design for Learning Framework and Guidelines
Explore how to design lessons that meet students where they are in the learning process, anticipate and reduce barriers to rigorous goals, and use students’ strengths and interests to guide instruction.
2026
September
9/4 Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Education (virtual training)
9/18-9/19 Universal Design for Learning: Everyone Learns Differently (UDL)
9/25-9/26 Finding Strengths: Supporting Students with Disabilities
October
10/23-10/24 Instructional Strategies that Work for All Disciplines (ISTWAD)
10/30-10/31- Universal Design for Learning: Everyone Learns Differently (UDL)
10/30 Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Education (Virtual Training)
November
11/6-11/7 Finding Strengths: Supporting Students with Disabilities
December
12/11 Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Education
2027
January
1/15 Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Education
1/29-1/30 Instructional Strategies that Work for All Disciplines (ISTWAD)
February
2/5-2/6 Universal Design for Learning: Everyone Learns Differently (UDL)
2/12 Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Education (Virtual Training)
2/19-2/20 Instructional Strategies that Work for All Disciplines (ISTWAD)
2/26-2/27 Finding Strengths: Supporting Students with Disabilities
March
April 10-11, 2026 – Register Here
Location: CTA Office
UDL: Universal Design for Learning Framework and Guidelines
April 17-18, 2026 – Register Here
Location: CTA Office
Finding Strengths Facilitator
March 27-28, 2026 – Register Here
Location: CTA Office
UDL: Universal Design for Learning Framework and Guidelines
March 6-7, 2026 – Register Here
Location: CTA Office
Thinking Mathematics: Reimagining How Students Learn, Understand, and Love Math
February 27-28, 2026 – Register Here
Location: CTA Office
UDL: Universal Design for Learning Framework and Guidelines
February 6-7, 2026 – Register Here
Location: CTA Office
Finding Strengths: Supporting Students with Disabilities
January 30-31, 2026 – Register Here
Location: CTA Office
UDL: Universal Design for Learning Framework and Guidelines
October 24-25, 2025 – Register Here
Location: CTA Office
UDL: Universal Design for Learning Framework and Guidelines
September 26-27, 2025 – Register Here
Location: CTA Office
Finding Strengths: Supporting Students with Disabilities
September 19-20, 2025 – Register Here
Location: CTA Office
UDL: Universal Design for Learning Framework & Guidelines
See below for courses that were offered in 2024-2025 and information on the ongoing “Share My Lesson” resource.
AI Literacy and Digital Citizenship
ESE Professional
Development
UDL-Universal Design for Learning Framework and Guidelines
Feb 9-10, 2024 8am-3pm, in person at the CTA office
Are you looking for ways to: design lessons that meet students where they are in the learning process?
Anticipate and reduce barriers for students to achieve rigorous goals?
Use students’ strengths and interests to drive instruction?
This interactive module is based on the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) Universal Design for Learning Framework and Guidelines. Participants will build an understanding of neuroscience as a foundation for educating the whole child and designing instruction to best meet the needs of diverse learners.
Participants will:
- Use learner variability as a way to understand and address individual students’ learning needs.
- Apply principles of Universal Design to reduce barriers for students in the school environment, assessments, methods, and materials.
- Create student-centered lesson plans and learning experiences using the Universal Design Framework and Guidelines.
- Audience: All PreK-12 educators
- The TDY is for members and non-members alike. The Saturday class will be free for members but will cost $60 for non members. We hope to see you there! The limit is 35 people and you all get first dibs. We will not offer this to other members until tomorrow.
Cultivating Student-Centered Classrooms:
Join Orange County Classroom Teachers Association in partnership with the American Federation of Teachers for a professional learning day filled with opportunities to explore and reflect upon who you are as an educator and engage in evidence-based approaches to deepening connections with students and families. This interactive session will draw upon your existing practices to facilitate reflection and professional growth in designing equitable learning communities. Participants will leave with readily applicable strategies for co-creating student-centered classroom communities, fostering a sense of belonging and structuring responsive management systems to support student agency and self-regulation.
Engaging Every Learner:
For students to thrive and achieve at high levels, they must believe they can succeed, be interested and emotionally invested in their learning, and see the value and relevancy of the learning task in their lived experiences. To shape these beliefs and attitudes, efficacious educators intentionally plan for and utilize a variety of proactive teacher moves, grouping strategies and discussion protocols to elevate student voice, spark interest and promote agency. The learning environment is co-created to support student focus, pacing and momentum throughout the day and transition students smoothly between activities. This session unpacks the managerial and instructional considerations needed to engage every learner in student-centered classrooms.
Principles of Instruction:
Learning is social, emotional, and academic, some would even say spiritual. As we continuously interact with the world around us, new neurological pathways develop, our identities evolve and emerge, and we begin to take ownership over our own learning. Principles of Instruction is designed to walk educators through the learning process from each learner’s unique perspective. It offers multiple approaches to instructional design and models ways in which cognitive and metacognitive strategies scaffold learning and develop executive functions. This module honors seminal educational research and neuroscience as the drivers for equity and prepares educators to support the next generation of learners.
These classes are offered free of charge to CTA members. They are also worth points toward recertification.
Share my lesson page for teachers (elementary, middle, high and also topics and special months)
Sharemylesson.com– AFT’s Share My Lesson is an innovative, free website that provides anyone who works with students a place to collaborate on new ideas and best practices to enhance the profession and the larger education community. With more than 1 million members and 400,000 free preK-12 resources covering all subjects, members of Share My Lesson can share their own resources and download resources from colleagues in their own school, state or from across the country. These resources also include live and recorded webinars. There is also a growing collection of resources aligned to state standards. The site is a great tool for engaging educators, connecting teachers and parents, and providing support for new teachers.
The resources on ShareMyLesson are vast. Here are some general links to get you started.
Elementary:
https://www.orangecta.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/searchgradeelementary-grades-k-2.pdf
https://www.orangecta.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/searchgradeelementary-grades-3-5.pdf
Middle:
https://www.orangecta.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/searchgrademiddle-school.pdf
High:
https://www.orangecta.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/searchgradehigh-school.pdf
CTA also has its own page dedicated to the needs of our local’s members
https://www.orangecta.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/orangecounty.pdf
Online
AFT offers live and recorded webinars on various topics.
https://www.orangecta.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/searchsearch_api_views_fulltextwebinars.pdf
