2026 Utah Rural Schools Conference

Unlock the potential of AI to transform how your students create, narrate, and publish their ideas. This session focuses on two powerful tools: Google Vids, which streamlines video creation, and Adobe Podcast for professional-grade audio and video enhancements and editing. You'll learn how these tools can rapidly accelerate the process of turning a simple idea into a fully-produced piece of digital media.

Participants MUST HAVE one of the following platforms/devices in order to participate in this session: None

Participants MAY FIND IT USEFUL to have one or more of the following platforms/devices during this session: Mac Laptop; Windows Laptop; Chromebook

As AI tools become more common in schools, there is a risk that students will offload their critical thinking to technology. This session focuses on how to maintain the productive struggle that is necessary for deep learning. We will explore practical ways to design lessons that require active effort, ensuring students build real skills and understanding rather than just finding quick answers. Participants in this session will gain a clear understanding of how to identify cognitive offloading, helping them recognize when students use technology to bypass critical thinking rather than to support it. By exploring strategies for designing resilient assignments, educators will learn to create lesson plans that prioritize active student effort and are less susceptible to simple AI shortcuts. Ultimately, attendees will walk away with a balanced framework for maintaining productive struggle in the classroom, ensuring that technology remains a tool for insight rather than a replacement for the thinking process.

Participants MUST HAVE one of the following platforms/devices in order to participate in this session: Not Applicable

Participants MAY FIND IT USEFUL to have one or more of the following platforms/devices during this session: Not Applicable

Think there isn't anything that translates from the hardwood to the hallways? Think again. This session breaks down the leadership strategies used by basketball's greatest minds and applies them to the educational setting. You will leave with a concrete set of principles to foster safety & purpose, and transform even the most challenging classes or faculties into a cohesive, championship-level team.

Participants MUST HAVE one of the following platforms/devices in order to participate in this session: None

Participants MAY FIND IT USEFUL to have one or more of the following platforms/devices during this session: None

Learn how to use board games, card games, and pony beads to teach Computational Thinking skills and add some (more) fun back into your classroom. During this session, you will learn how to use games to teach and reinforce Computational Thinking skills. Worried you don't teach Computational Thinking? You do! Computational Thinking (CT) is taught and used in almost every subject. By the end of this session, you will know what CT is, how to use it, and you will have got to play a game or two. So, win-win all around.

Participants MUST HAVE one of the following platforms/devices in order to participate in this session: None

Participants MAY FIND IT USEFUL to have one or more of the following platforms/devices during this session: None

🧠 Format Alert: This is an immersive, 2-hour deep-dive workshop designed for intensive, uninterrupted coverage of this topic.

With lessons that support SEEd standard 3.2.1, Grow Lab evolved from an award-winning classroom program Red Butte offered for over two decades. In addition to engaging with the curriculum, this workshop provides you with your own grow frame and supplies to grow plants in your classroom at no cost to you. The seeds you receive are Wisconsin Fast Plants® (Brassica rapa); these plants complete their life cycle, from planting seeds to harvesting the seeds, in 40 days. This allows you and your 3rd graders to develop and refine models of changes that happen throughout the life cycle of Fast Plants® in real time. 

Participants MUST HAVE one of the following platforms/devices in order to participate in this session: None

Participants MAY FIND IT USEFUL to have one or more of the following platforms/devices during this session: None

In a digital landscape filled with "fake news," deepfakes, and algorithmic bias, how do we teach students to verify instead of just vilify? Enter Checkology, a powerful, browser-based platform that brings real-world journalists into the classroom to teach the core skills of news literacy.This session will guide educators through the platform’s interactive modules, which challenge students to distinguish between news, opinion, and propaganda. We will explore how to use the "Check Center" to verify viral claims and how to integrate these lessons into ELA, Social Studies, and Library Media curricula. Participants will leave with a ready-to-implement strategy for building a more skeptical, informed, and civically engaged student body.
Link to presentation.

Participants MUST HAVE one of the following platforms/devices in order to participate in this session: None

Participants MAY FIND IT USEFUL to have one or more of the following platforms/devices during this session: Any of these

Discover the magic of Adobe Character Animator as you step into the future of storytelling. Learn how to create engaging, animated characters that can lip-sync in real-time with your own voice (or your students' voices), bringing lessons to life in an interactive and fun way. You'll learn how to make characters sync to your face, shoulders, and hands so you can both speak and act in character. Adobe Character Animator is provided free of charge to Utah public school teachers in grades K-12, and to public school students in grades 7-12. Join us and transform the way you connect with your students through the power of animation!

Participants MUST HAVE one of the following platforms/devices in order to participate in this session: None

Participants MAY FIND IT USEFUL to have one or more of the following platforms/devices during this session: Mac Laptop; Windows Laptop

What if stories did more than get read aloud? What if they moved, sang, and invited every learner into the experience? In this hands-on session led by an elementary school librarian, participants will experience how picture books, music, movement, puppetry, and visual storytelling can be used to help K-5 students explore big ideas such as identity, diversity, courage, and belonging. Educators will step into the role of students as they participate in immersive storytelling experiences designed to build empathy, deepen thinking, and amplify student voices. This workshop begins with action and teaches through experience. Participants will leave with practical strategies that help classrooms and libraries become places where stories spark joy, deepen understanding, and bring students together through shared experiences.

Participants MUST HAVE one of the following platforms/devices in order to participate in this session: None

Participants MAY FIND IT USEFUL to have one or more of the following platforms/devices during this session: None