Standard Celeration Society 39th Annual Conference
Come to learn, network, celebrate, and explore! The SCS Annual Conference features workshops, posters, chart shares, knowledgable speakers, and many CEU credit oppotunities. The conference provides the oppotunity to build relationships with current practitioners, educators, and mentors.
Conference Speakers
2026 Conference Speakers and Workshops
Movie Premier
With Ryan O’Donnell
Thursday, November 7th,
7:30pm-9:00pm
The Morningside Academy (2024) delves into the transformative journey of a unique educational model pioneered by Dr. Kent Johnson and his colleagues in Seattle, Washington, USA. This independent film takes viewers through the 2023-2024 school year, providing an intimate look at the groundbreaking methods and impactful stories within Morningside Academy. Through interviews with Dr. Johnson, his colleagues, teachers, parents, and students, the film explores the academy’s core programs occurring in the Seattle laboratory school and the Morningside Teacher’s Academy outreach program.”
Non Member Tickets
39th Annual Standard Celeration Society Conference Non-member Tickets
Hotel Information
Whitney Peak Hotel Reno,
Hotel Registration
The registration room block will expire on Wednesday, October 15th, 2026. Please book well in advance!
2026 Conference Workshops
PORTL Workshop Part II
Presenters: Dr. Jesus Rosales-Ruiz and Mary Hunter
This is a 4-hour workshop with a 1-hour lunch break (10 am – 3 pm). The continuation session is in the afternoon
PORTL, the Portable Operant Research and Teaching Lab, offers a convenient and fun way to experience the principles of behavior and practice shaping skills. This tabletop game is essentially a portable Skinner box for humans. However, unlike the Skinner box, participants get to experience what it is like to be both the teacher and the learner.
Learning Objective
In this workshop, you will get to practice the PORTL reinforcement system and several PORTL shaping lessons. These exercises will illustrate the fundamentals of PORTL and teach you the basics for using PORTL as a teaching tool. In addition, you’ll learn how to shape behaviors more efficiently by finding better starting points and by making revisions based on your learner’s behavior. Throughout the workshop, video examples and discussions will give you practical ideas for applying these concepts in real-life teaching situations.
FIT Learning Tour – An Immersion Experience (Transportation Provided)
Presenter: Donny Newsome
This is a 2-hour experience (10:30-12:30 PM) with transportation to the Fit location and back to the hotel provided
Experience Precision Teaching from the learner’s seat! Take an interactive tour of Fit Learning Reno and see our data-driven approach in real time. Live the data through assessment, timings, charting, and reinforcement.
Story Champs® Curriculum in Practice: Where DI and VB Meet Adduction
Presenters: Dr. Trina Spencer; Ana King
This is a 3 hour workshop.
Time: 1:30-4:30
Story Champs® Curriculum is a whole-group oral language program designed to engineer the conditions under which complex verbal repertoires emerge. Rather than teaching comprehension directly, Story Champs® Curriculum builds fluent component skills (vocabulary, sentence structures, discourse elements, and inferential strategies) within a carefully constructed oral text called the Comprehendible. When the components are fluent and the Comprehendible demands their integration, complex language emerges.
This hands-on workshop is built for practitioners who want to walk away ready to use Story Champs® Curriculum on Monday morning. Participants will work through cycles of new material, video models, guided practice, and structured self-reflection and discussion. The session focuses exclusively on large-group implementation (4+ students), although Story Champs® Curriculum is a multitiered program.
The goal is not just exposure but confidence. Participants will leave able to deliver a Story Champs® Curriculum lesson, recognize what each instructional move is engineered to produce, and troubleshoot common implementation challenges.
When you register for the workshop, you will receive a discount code to order Story Champs® Curriculum at a heavily discounted price until December 11, 2026. Purchase of the curriculum is not required to attend this workshop; however, it is highly recommended.
Conflict of Interest Statement: Dr. Trina Spencer is one of the authors of the Story Champs® instructional system and is entitled to financial benefits related to its sale.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
- Describe the core features of the Story Champs® instructional system.
- Explain the behavior change mechanisms that make Story Champs® effective in producing flexible, generative academic repertoires.
- Deliver a Story Champs® Curriculum lesson with appropriate pacing, modeling, and student response opportunities.
- Identify acceptable and unacceptable modifications for diverse learners.
Call For Posters for 2026 Conference
Call For Proposals
Poster Submission
Posters are physical displays of information, usually reporting empirical research. Submissions open April 1 – June 26th 2026.
Call For Proposals
Individual Presenter Submission
Paper submissions are individual presentations, usually concerned with conceptual, historical, or methodological issues.
Call For Proposals
Symposia Submissions
Symposia are organized by a chair who also moderates the session. Symposia focus on empirical, conceptual, historical, or methodological research.
Call For Proposals
Panel Submission
Panels have an audience-driven question and answer format following a short abstract presentation by the chair.