2nd Annual Executive Function Conference: Friday, August 7 & Saturday, August 8, 2025 at The Skola, Whitefish, Montana In Person or Online (with replay) 13 PDUs!
How EF, Oral Language & Schema Weave Through math, Writing & Social-Emotional Learning
A Two-Day Hybrid Learning Experience with Four Nationally Recognized Faculty
In-Person: The Skola, 1840 E Edgewood Drive, Whitefish, MT 59937
Online: Zoom-Includes full day access to the seminar (with replay)
Two Audiences. One Through-Line.
If you're a teacher, you've heard it before: "Here is the new reading curriculum. And a new math curriculum. And an SEL program. And now an EF program." You can't do it all — and you shouldn't have to. The truth is, executive function is already living inside the lessons you teach every day. You just need to see it, name it, and use the right language to make it visible to your students. That's the next level.
If you're an SLP, OT, counselor, or clinician, you spend each day strengthening foundational skills with the hope that those gains translate into stronger academic and social outcomes. But how do we intentionally build that bridge? Here's the answer: every time you strengthen oral language, schema, and executive function, you are also strengthening math, writing, and social learning — even if you never open a math book or a writing assignment. The cognitive scaffolding is the same. The next level is understanding why and showing your team.
The Through-Line
Math. Writing. Social-emotional learning. They all rest on the same hidden foundation: the ability to build a mental picture, hold it in mind, talk yourself through it, and act on it. That foundation is built from three interwoven strands — executive function, oral language, and schema.
Executive function is what lets students plan, sustain attention, shift flexibly, and follow through.
Oral language — including self-talk and the precise vocabulary we give students — is how EF and schema get built and applied.
Schema is how students organize what they know — the mental model that lets them recognize a math problem type, anticipate where a story is going, or read a social situation.
Pull any one of these threads, and the other two come with it. That's why a clinician working on mental state verbs is also strengthening writing. That's why a teacher reframing math vocabulary is also building EF. That's the next level-- and it's where this conference lives.
The Format That Makes It Stick
Day 1 — Learn the Through-Line. Four nationally recognized clinician-educators present their frameworks. You'll leave Friday with the research, the language, and the lens.
Day 2 — Apply & Practice. The same four faculty return for hands-on practice labs. You'll work with real materials, see real classroom and therapy examples, troubleshoot with the experts, and build the bridge between understanding and doing.
Day 2 - Take it Outside. To close the conference, participants will experience a 1-hour immersive session led by Brooke Ober, M.S. SLP, and Patty Johnson, M.S., CCC/SLP, founders of The Skola — a nature-based elementary school built around one big idea: when students move, wonder, talk, build, map, notice, and tell stories about the world around them, executive function, oral language, schema, literacy, math, and social learning all grow together.
This session will bring the conference’s through-line to life through:
Simple interdisciplinary routines any elementary teacher can bring outside — no forest campus required
A fresh lens for seeing outdoor learning not as an “extra,” but as a powerful way to make learning stick, spark engagement, and help students truly experience the concepts they are learning throughout the school day
No more flying home inspired but unsure where to start. By Saturday afternoon, you'll have practiced what you learned with the people who designed it — and you'll see exactly how your work connects to every other discipline in your students' day.
Your Faculty
Sarah Ward, M.S., CCC/SLP — Executive Function as the Through-Line. Co-Director of Cognitive Connections at the Executive Function Practice. Internationally recognized for the 360 Thinking™ Method, Get Ready•Do•Done, and the STOP framework, Sarah has trained 2,200+ schools and organizations on translating EF research into everyday classroom and clinical practice.
Karen Tzanetopoulos, M.S., CCC-SLP — The Language and Schema of Math. Speech-language therapist, math learning specialist, and co-author of How Children Learn Math: The Science of Math Learning in Research and Practice. Karen reveals the hidden language and cognitive demands behind math — and how SLPs and teachers alike can make them transparent for every learner. Karen is a nationally recognized math learning expert and provides professional development to schools across the country.
Jess Curtin, M.Ed. — Visual Thinking & the Language of Writing. Special educator and senior consultant with Vivido (now part of Wilson Language Training). For 25+ years, Jess has taught educators how to use Brain Frames®, EmPOWER™, and Unlocking Sentences™ — visual tools that make the invisible patterns of language visible so students can get ideas out of their heads and onto paper. She is a co-author of EmPOWER: Classroom Materials and EmPOWER: Tools for Teaching Expository Writing. Currently, Jess makes up 1/2 of the new Writing Science and Instruction department at Wilson Language Training.
Anna Vagin, Ph.D., CCC-SLP — Making the Invisible Visible: Schema, Language & the Developing Social Self. Licensed speech-language pathologist with 30+ years of experience, author of Movie Time Social Learning and YouCue Feelings. Anna brings the social side of schema to life — mental state verbs, inferential thinking, emotional vocabulary, and the inner dialogue that drives social understanding.
What You'll Walk Away With
✓ A unified lens for seeing EF, oral language, and schema as the through-line of math, writing, and SEL ✓ Concrete tools — already practiced — to use Monday morning in your classroom, therapy room, or coaching session ✓ A new way to explain your work to colleagues, parents, and administrators across disciplines ✓ A community of teachers, SLPs, OTs, counselors, ed therapists, and parents asking the same big questions you are ✓ Continuing education credits
This conference has been approved by the Montana Office of Public Instruction (OPI) for 13 Professional Development Units (PDUs), available equally to attendees joining in-person, live via Zoom, or via the full recorded replay.
We are also pursuing ASHA CEU approval and additional continuing education credit for other eligible disciplines (SLPs, OTs, school psychologists, and counselors). Final approvals, credit hours, and eligible disciplines will be confirmed and shared in the registration packet and conference updates as they become available.
Who This Is For:
Classroom teachers • Special educators • SLPs • OTs • School psychologists • Counselors • Administrators • Educational therapists • Tutors • Homeschool educators • Parents of complex learners
Whitefish in August is breathtaking. Glacier National Park is an hour away. Bring a colleague, bring a notebook, bring your hardest cases — and leave with a way of seeing your students' learning that you'll use for the rest of your career.