24th Annual Arts In Your Classroom

Overview

Arts In Your Classroom—Neurodiversity: Broadening Borders and Belonging

Saturday, March 7, 2026 • 8:30am-4pm

Join us for our 24th annual Arts in Your Classroom, an arts-integration conference for educators and academic professionals.

This year’s conference deepens our ongoing exploration of neurodiversity by centering the theme of belonging—and examining how artmaking, teaching practices, and community partnerships can foster learning environments where every student’s voice, needs, and identity are honored.

Inspiration, community, and lunch will be provided, including an end-of-day networking wine reception.

Registration Opens February 4, 2026

2026 Conference Theme

The day opens with a performance that foregrounds artistic expression as a powerful tool for connection, followed by a keynote address that invites educators to reflect on what it truly means to create inclusive, student-centered classrooms. A late-morning panel amplifies lived experiences and practical insights, highlighting how belonging moves from theory into action through adaptive arts, collaboration, and intentional design.

In the afternoon, educators will engage in hands-on, choice-based workshops that offer concrete strategies for integrating Universal Design for Learning (UDL), social-emotional learning, history, technology, and the arts. Sessions emphasize practical tools, flexible mindsets, and creative approaches that empower neurodiverse learners and deepen engagement for all students.

Throughout the day, AIYC creates space for reflection, dialogue, and inspiration—inviting participants to connect with peers, explore art across the site, and leave with renewed purpose. Together, we will imagine and build classrooms where students feel seen, valued, and supported, and where belonging is not an ideal, but a lived practice.

This conference builds on topics covered in 2025—explore last year’s program here.

2026 Conference Timeline

8:30-9:00 am | Registration

9:00-9:15 am | Welcome Remarks Executive Director Angela McConnell and Director of Outreach and Education Cynthia Taylor

9:15-9:30 am | Opening Performance by College of Adaptive Arts

9:30-10:30 am | Keynote Address Chiara Williams Perry

10:30-10:45 am | Bathroom + Coffee Break

10:45-11:45 am | Panel Discussion: Belonging in Action: Voices from the College of Adaptive Arts

11:45 am -12:30 pm | Free Lunch – provided by Montalvo Arts Center

12:45-2:00 pm | Workshops Session 1

History in Fragments: Creating Found Poems from Primary Sources, led by Linda Anderson
Unlocking the Magic: Breaking the Sluggish Spell with Neurodiversity, led by Julie Kwok
AI and UDL, led by Sarah Ridenour

2:15-3:30 pm | Workshops Session 2 (Same choices as above)

3:30-4:00 pm | Closing Reception: The event concludes with a networking wine reception and raffle.

Performance

Image from Collage of Adaptive Arts website

College of Adaptive Arts

CAA’s mission is to provide an equitable and lifelong collegiate experience to adults with disabilities who historically have not had access to higher education. CAA’s vision is to empower the student body to creatively transform perception of individuals with disabilities. Eager learners ages 18+ are welcome to enroll in this unique, lifelong learning model without any minimum or maximum age or participation limits.

Keynote Speaker

Rightful Presence: Arts Empowerment to Create Belonging for Every Learner with Chiara Williams

Rightful Presence: Arts Empowerment to Create Belonging for Every Learner explores how arts education can move beyond access toward true belonging and equity in our schools. Grounded in the concept of rightful presence, this keynote invites educators, artists, administrators, families, and students to consider how creative spaces can honor every learner as essential contributors to the learning community—particularly students with disabilities. The talk highlights how arts education fosters collaboration, self-expression, empathy, and agency through flexible, multimodal approaches that value diverse ways of sensing, moving, and communicating. Through research-informed insights and illustrative stories, attendees will examine the profound impact of the arts on communication, identity development, emotional growth, and community connection. This session makes a compelling case for the arts as essential—not supplemental—learning pathways and concludes with a call to action to design schools where every student’s voice, creativity, and presence are recognized as vital.

Panel

Belonging in Action: Voices from the College of Adaptive Arts

A panel of graduates from the College of Adaptive Arts will share their experiences with arts education—highlighting the teachers, programs, and emotional supports that shaped their learning journeys. Their stories will illuminate what belonging truly requires in a classroom and why inclusive strategies matter.

Workshops

Linda Anderson

History in Fragments: Creating A Mosaic of Found Poems from Primary Sources:

This hands-on session shows teachers how to use primary sources to create found poems that bring history to life. Teachers will learn how this method supports critical thinking, historical inquiry, SEL, and student voice, while also integrating visual art.

Participants will experience the process themselves, walk away with ready-to-use classroom strategies, and explore how found poetry helps students uncover the human stories behind historical documents.

Sarah Ridenour

AI + UDL

Explore how AI can support Universal Design for Learning by meeting diverse learning needs, including neurodiverse learners, through personalized, accessible, and student-centered strategies.

Julie Kwok

Unlocking the Magic: Breaking the Sluggish Spell with Neurodiversity

In this high-energy workshop, we stop viewing “sluggish” behavior as a lack of motivation and start seeing it as a neurological “standby mode” common in neurodivergent learners. Unlocking the Magic moves beyond standard UDL to provide K–5 educators with a clinical toolkit of arts-integrated strategies—leveraging Project-Based Learning (PBL), Visual Design, and Performing Arts—to explicitly strengthen Executive Functioning skills like task initiation and cognitive flexibility.

The “Engagement Bridge” Methodology: By building “Engagement Bridges” and rebranding traditional curriculum as high-stakes “Secret Missions,” participants will learn how to bypass cognitive resistance and wake up the prefrontal cortex. These strategies are specifically designed to stimulate the brain’s reward system, providing the necessary dopamine “spark” to move students from a state of low-arousal into active learning.

Workshop Takeaways: You will leave with practical, low-prep tools to break the “Sluggish Spell,” ensuring that every student moves from the gray mist of disengagement into functional mastery.

Biography of Presenters

Chiara Williams-Perry

Keynote Speaker

Chiara Williams-Perry | Assistant Director of California Collaborative for Inclusive Practices

Chiara W. Perry, Ed.S., is an experienced educator and administrator with over 25 years in special education, focusing on inclusive program development in PK-12 schools. Her work in Georgia and California has included co-teaching, growth mindset, and roles as a teacher, department chair, instructional coach, director of special education, and County Office Coordinator. Currently, Chiara is the Assistant Director of the California Collaborative for Impactful Pathways. She is also a professor with the Santa Clara County Office of Education’s Educator Preparation Program and a Lecturer with San Jose State University. A Georgia Southern University alumna, she brings expertise in inclusive practices, co-teaching, Universal Design for Learning, Multi-Tiered Systems of Support-MTSS, culturally relevant pedagogy, Social Emotional Learning, behavior support, and equity-focused education. Committed to “All Means All,” Chiara is dedicated to advancing equitable, inclusive educational systems and using improvement science to help districts evaluate their practices.

Julie Kwok

Workshop Presenter

Julie Kwok | Teacher on Special Assignment – Saratoga Union School District

Julie Kwok is a dedicated educator with 28 years of experience as a classroom teacher and SEL Teacher on Special Assignment in the Saratoga Union School District. She specializes in social-emotional learning, differentiated instruction, and supporting diverse learners, including students with learning disabilities and those on the Autism spectrum. A certified RYT 500 yoga instructor, she integrates mindfulness, movement, UDL, arts integration, and educational technology to promote equity and belonging. Julie holds master’s degrees from San Jose State University and Santa Clara University, a Reading Specialist Credential, MTSS certification, and was honored as the 2018 Teacher of the Year for both Saratoga Union and Santa Clara County.

Sarah Ridenour

Workshop Presenter

Sarah Ridenour | Director of Learning and Strategic Outreach at Sterne School

Sarah Ridenour is the Director of Learning and Strategic Outreach at Sterne School, where she leads initiatives supporting innovative, inclusive, and learner-centered education. With more than two decades of experience across independent and K–8 schools, she has served as a vice principal, classroom teacher, and program coordinator dedicated to supporting diverse learners. Sarah’s work focuses on Universal Design for Learning, differentiated instruction, and the thoughtful integration of emerging tools—including AI—to expand access and engagement for all students. She holds a Master of Arts in Education from the University of San Francisco and a B.A. from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Sara recently presented at the AIED summit hosted by Khan Lab School when her workshop focused on the use of AI to support UDL in classrooms.

Linda Anderson

Workshop Presenter

Linda Anderson | Former Principal Fremont Unified School District | “Moving Forward: Conversations on Culture, Identity, Healing and Hope” Podcast

After more than three decades in education, Linda Anderson recently retired as Principal of Oliveira Elementary School in the Fremont Unified School District, where she served from 2008–2014 and 2018–2025. She previously led districtwide instructional initiatives as Director of Curriculum and Instruction and has also worked as a classroom teacher, K–8 Math Coach, and Service-Learning Coordinator. Her expertise includes curriculum development, character education, and mentoring educators through the PAR program. Recognized as ACSA Region 6 Principal of the Year, she helped guide Oliveira to multiple state honors. She now serves on the Advisory Board for Kodely, an AI education platform and hosts her passion project, the podcast “Moving Forward: Conversations on Culture, Identity, Healing and Hope.”

Conference Support

The conference is generously made possible by The Berk Family Fund, SVCreates, and the members and donors of Montalvo Arts Center. We are grateful to be able to provide this opportunity free of charge to educators.