The One Thing Conference Workshops: Strategies for Teaching Students with Disabilities

Building Inclusive Classrooms: A Support Plan Grounded in Relational, Instructional, and Responsive Strategies

Date and Time

This is a one-day, four-hour, in-person workshop on Saturday April 18, 2026 from 9am-1pm. 

Location

This workshop will be held in-person at the Edward St. John Building (4131 Campus Dr, College Park, MD 20742) on the University of Maryland College Park Campus. Room details will be provided following registration. 

Description

Building a genuinely inclusive classroom requires practice and intentional strategy. In this workshop, you’ll observe live models of inclusive classrooms and explore relational, instructional, and responsive strategies that benefit every learner in your room. You’ll leave with a personalized, inclusive classroom support plan and the step-by-step resources to put it into action.

Audience

This workshop is open to ALL Early Childhood, Elementary, Middle, and Secondary Educators and is designed specifically to help MSDE-licensed educators earn Professional Development Points (PDPs) toward recertification hours. If you are not currently affiliated with the University of Maryland (welcome!), you will be prompted to create an affiliate account upon registration. Simply follow the prompts to create an affiliate account, then you will be able to register. 

 Faciliators

Dr. Shanna Hirsch and Dr. Jennifer McCatharn

PDP Alignment

Strategies for teaching students with disabilities or differentiated instruction for diverse learning needs

The One Thing Conference workshops provide eligibility for 4 MSDE Professional Development Points (PDPs). You can learn more about PDPs at the MSDE website. Following each workshop or conference,  attendees will be provided with the following completed documentation via email. Attendees will be responsible for submitting the documentation to the appropriate entity to ensure points are counted toward their recertification. Learn more on our website.

Parking and Transportation

Parking and public transit instructions can be found on our website

Registration Tips

If you are not currently affiliated with the University of Maryland (welcome!), you will be prompted to create an affiliate account upon registration. Please do this first by simply following the prompts to create an affiliate account, then you will be able to register. Note: Some users have reported difficulties creating an affiliate account on a Safari Browser. If you encounter issues with this process on a Safari Browser, we apologize; please switch to a Chrome, Firefox, or alternate browser of your choice. We apologize for the inconvenience. 

If you are entering a promotion code during registration, please make sure you are logged in to your UMD or UMD affiliate account before entering the code. When you are logged in, your screen will read: "Logged in as [Name]" above the promotion code box.

Bulk Registration

Interested in registering a group of educators from your school or district? This can be done in one of two ways. 

(1) If you would like to pay by Credit Card, simply select "Bulk Purchase" on this page; you will select the number of educators you want to register for this workshop. After you pay via credit card, you will be prompted to invite the individual educators to register via email. 

(2) If you would like to pay by invoice, please contact Elizabeth Gotwalt egotwalt@umd.edu for assistance. 

Questions?

Please contact Elizabeth Gotwalt, egotwalt@umd.edu