2026 Regional Professional Development Day

Jessica Minahan, PhD, BCBA, is a licensed and board-certified behavior analyst, special educator, as well as a consultant to schools internationally (www.jessicaminahan.com). Jessica has over seventeen years of experience supporting students who exhibit challenging behavior in urban public school systems. 

She is the co-author of The Behavior Code: A Practical Guide to Understanding and Teaching the Most Challenging Students (Harvard Education Press, 2012) and author of The Behavior Code Companion: Strategies, Tools, and Interventions for Supporting Students with Anxiety-Related or Oppositional Behaviors (Harvard Education Press, 2014).

Practical Strategies for Reducing Anxiety and Challenging Behavior in the Elementary Classroom
With one in four children struggling with anxiety in this country, overwhelmed adults are in need of a new approach as well as an effective and easy-to-implement toolkit of strategies that work. Through the use of case studies, humorous stories, and examples of common challenging situations, participants will learn easy to implement preventive tools, strategies, and interventions for reducing anxiety, increasing self-regulation, accurate thinking, and self-monitoring in students.

Kids Who Challenge Us: Increasing Work Engagement and Reducing Oppositional Behavior in Secondary Students
Among the many reasons new teachers leave the field within their first five years, disruptive students are at the top of the list. Without intervention, these children are at risk for poor performance, diminished learning, and social/behavior problems in school. Overwhelming, negative, and inaccurate thoughts can contribute to student disengagement. When this is the case, traditional suggestions such as incentives, offering breaks, graphic organizers, or even checklists will not help the student initiate an activity. As a result of this workshop, participants will be able to easily implement preventive tools, strategies, and interventions for reducing oppositional behavior, increasing work engagement, initiation, persistence, and self-monitoring.

We will also have breakout sessions with topics that include:

MTSS

Mindfulness

Disciplinary Literacy

Effective Behavior Supports

Specially Designed Instruction

Using Data in the Classroom

Brining the Joy & Why It Matters

Classroom Resources and Strategies

K-12 Literacy and Dyslexia Law (PA 146)