• Camp CSTP, July 29-31: Registration is Open!

Camp CSTP 2026: Registration is Open Now!

Spend a night or two with us during the week of July 29-31! This summer, CSTP is hosting two sessions in-person at the Rainbow Lodge Retreat Center in North Bend, WA, including “Culturally Responsive Pedagogy in Practice” and "Teacher Leadership: Leading from Within."

Our intimate sessions are limited to 22 attendees and focus on connecting educators while diving into important topics. These sessions are an excellent opportunity for educators to retreat and recharge in community while getting ready for the new school year, with options to register for one or both learning sessions.

Claim your spot here!

If you are a National Board Certified Teacher, enter code "NBCT" (or, if this is your first year, "NewNBCT") at checkout for an additional discount!

Culturally Responsive Pedagogy in Practice

• Dates: 12:00 PM on July 29, 2026 - 11:30 AM on July 30, 2026
• Registration Price June 1-July 16: $220.00 (or combine with another session for $400)
• Clock Hours: 6
• About: This professional development will empower educators to shape their culturally responsive pedagogical practices through intentional planning, reflection, and anticipation of student needs rooted in cultural awareness.

Teacher Leadership: Leading from Within

• Dates: 12:00 PM on July 30, 2026 - 11:30 AM on July 31, 2026
• Registration Price June 1-July 16: $220.00 (or combine with another session for $400)
• Clock Hours: 6
• About: This professional development session is designed for teacher leaders at any stage, whether you hold a formal role, aspire to lead, or lead from within your classroom, school or district. Using CSTP’s Teacher Leadership Framework, participants will explore the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to strengthen their leadership practice while reflecting on their own strengths and areas for growth.

Read more and register here!

Bring CSTP Expertise to Your School or District's Professional Learning

As the school year continues on and you are considering what professional learning you may need in preparation for, or during the coming year, CSTP is ready to collaborate with you! We provide consultation, facilitation, and coaching to support teacher leadership, teamwork, and customized professional learning in your school or district. 

We bring expertise in:

• Teacher Leadership Development, helping educators step into influential roles and contribute meaningfully at the school and district level. 
• Supporting Teacher Teams, offering structures and strategies that enhance team communication and empower collaborative, equity-focused reflective practice 
• Culturally Responsive Pedagogy, equipping educators with tools and mindsets that support all students to access rigorous, engaging work while honoring all students’ identities 

Let CSTP help you design meaningful learning experiences, launch leadership frameworks, or amplify teacher-led initiatives—whether virtual or in-person. Interested in exploring how CSTP can support your school or district? Reach out to Linsdey@cstp-wa.org. We’re ready to collaborate with you!

Partner with CSTP to Offer Clock Hours at Your Next Training

Are you running a course, professional development or book study and want to offer Washington State clock hours? CSTP is an approved Washington State clock hour provider and can approve your courses for clock hours. It is free for the instructor to apply for the course with participants paying a nominal fee.

Learn More and Apply for Clock Hours

OSPI 2026-27 National Board Supports: Save the Date

OSPI will be hosting several online National Board support webinars in the 2026-27 school year beginning in the fall.

Registration links will be finalized soon. Save the dates now!

National Board Writing Webinars

These one-hour webinars are designed to support writing for the National Board portfolio. Any candidate working towards certification can join. Candidates should expect to examine their own writing and work with peers on the selected topic. These sessions DO NOT replace cohorts nor conditional loan requirements.

Choose series A, B or both. All sessions are hosted on Tuesday from 4:30-5:30 pm. One clock hour available per session.

Series A (Fall-Winter)

• Sept 15: Writing about Contextual Information
• Sept 29: Writing about Instructional Context
• Oct 6: Forms & Written Commentary
• Oct 20: Identifying and Writing about Goals
• Oct 27: Using Evidence in Written Commentary
• Nov 3: Integrating National Board Standards
• Nov 17: Writing Tips: Convincing, Clear, Consistent

Series B (Winter-Spring)

• Jan 5: Writing about Contextual Information
• Jan 19: Writing about Instructional Context
• Feb 2: Forms & Written Commentary
• Feb 23: Identifying and Writing about Goals
• March 9: Using Evidence in Written Commentary
• March 16: Integrating National Board Standards
• April 6: Writing Tips: Convincing, Clear, Consistent

National Board MOC Information Webinars

Join OSPI in a webinar series designed for MOC-eligible NBCTs, facilitated by OSPI National Board Regional Coordinators. Participants will learn about the MOC process and understand next steps in maintaining their certificate.

NBCTs will have five opportunities to gain valuable information about completing MOC and join a space to ask pertinent questions related to the assessment process. NBCTs are welcome to attend all or any individual session. Two clock hours are available per session.

• MOC Overview & Getting Started - Tuesday, October 13 @ 4:30 PM
• MOC Overview & Getting Started - Tuesday, January 12 @ 4:30 PM
• MOC Getting Started & Q&A - Tuesday, February 9 @ 4:30 PM
• MOC Getting Started & Q&A - Tuesday, March 2 @ 4:30 PM
• MOC Q&A - Tuesday, March 23 @ 4:30 PM

WEA National Board Information and Support

All WEA sessions are available for WEA members only. Visit the WEA National Board Certification webpage for more information and more course availability.

 WEA National Board Jump Start

WEA's National Board Jump Start is a comprehensive, multi-day seminar designed to provide National Board candidates with important information about the certification process, time to examine component and Assessment Center requirements, the opportunity to plan how to meet requirements, and time to collaborate, gather resources and information needed to pursue certification. All this happens in a supportive, constructive and collegial environment.

There are a total of six (6) training modules that will be offered each training week. Registration fee is $125 and open to WEA members only.  Up to 30 WEA Clock Hours can be earned for attending all 6 modules.

The Summer 2026 Course Offerings will be held Monday August 10th - Friday August 14th 2026.

June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month

From the Library of Congress: "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) Pride Month is currently celebrated each year in the month of June to honor the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan. The Stonewall Uprising was a tipping point for the Gay Liberation Movement in the United States. In the United States the last Sunday in June was initially celebrated as "Gay Pride Day," but the actual day was flexible. In major cities across the nation the "day" soon grew to encompass a month-long series of events. Today, celebrations include pride parades, picnics, parties, workshops, symposia and concerts, and LGBTQ Pride Month events attract millions of participants around the world. Memorials are held during this month for those members of the community who have been lost to hate crimes or HIV/AIDS. The purpose of the commemorative month is to recognize the impact that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals have had on history locally, nationally, and internationally.

In 1994, a coalition of education-based organizations in the United States designated October as LGBT History Month. In 1995, a resolution passed by the General Assembly of the National Education Association included LGBT History Month within a list of commemorative months. National Coming Out Day (October 11), as well as the first "March on Washington" in 1979, are commemorated in the LGBTQ community during LGBT History Month."

Read more and find more resources here.

Join us for fun facts, obscure knowledge, and exploration of physics, genetics, etymology, art, and more!

Twelve Slices of a Sphere

From the surface of our planet, you can never see all of the sky at once. You can see different slices of the stars depending on time of day, geography, and where we are in our journey around the sun. As the earth revolves, the sun occupies different parts of the sky during the day, which hides certain stars at different times of the year.

Space is three dimensional. Arrangements of stars that we see clearly here are actually lightyears apart and would look entirely different from other points in space. Because these distances are so vast, however, we can’t perceive the difference in depth with our eyes. We perceive stars visible around us as the curved plane of what we call the celestial sphere.

The sun, from our perspective, moves in a circular path around the inside surface of that sphere. Astronomers often use these periodic placements of the sun to define the locations of stars. Using the sun as a point of reference is the basis of the solar coordinate system which maps all visible objects in space.

There is some drift to this coordinate system. As we move around the sun, the sun and our solar system also move through space relative to those other stars. The bodies contained within certain slices of the sky are constantly shifting as the sun’s relative position changes. These shifts are only noticeable across millennia as the relative change is so slow.

We often divide this full 360 degrees of the sun’s path into twelve 30 degree segments. Twelve is a recurring number in culture, numerology, and timekeeping, as it is the smallest number that can be split evenly into halves, fourths, and thirds. The twelve slices of the sky line up roughly with the twelve calendar months. We also find twelves in our 24-hour days (two twelves) and our 60-second minutes and 60-minute hours (five twelves each).

The Chinese calendar increases the time scale by describing a 12-year cycle of Earthly Branches. Each year is ascribed a certain animal and corresponding attributes. For example, the current year of the Chinese calendar (beginning February 16, 2026, in the Gregorian calendar) is the year of the horse. 

The twelve segments of space as delineated by the sun’s visible path are used for more than making star maps. They were originally centered around the constellations of Western astrology. The sun’s path around the celestial sphere is known even to scientists as the sun’s zodiac.

With the coordinate drift and the galactic path of the sun, these constellations are slightly offset from where they were hundreds and thousands of years ago, but that hasn’t stopped people from reading their horoscopes and making their birth charts. Astrologers want to know what the stars tell us, while astronomers want to map the scientific motion and change of all bodies in space. But they are united in one way: Everyone wants a neat map of the unknowable vastness of space above us. It keeps us centered.