This course is designed to enhance a participant’s knowledge of assessment and grading practices. The following themes will be investigated: formative assessment, summative assessment, learning targets and outcomes, methods of assessing, types of assessment protocols, grading practices, providing feedback, and defining mastery. This course prepares teachers by providing them with the essential elements needed to translate assessment of learning to assessment for learning. 

Categories:

Instructional Strategies Positive Classroom Management

Formats:

Online Self-Paced Site Based

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Participants in this course will examine collaborative, engaged, cooperative learning—a significant shift away from the typical teacher-centered classroom. Participants will learn how developing a classroom culture of trust, safety, challenge, and joy can foster engaged and effective learning. Research suggests that effective communication and collaboration are essential to becoming a successful learner. Participants will learn how to develop classroom learning experiences around students’ constructing knowledge and engaging in action together. Techniques to develop intrinsic motivation that leads to student engagement and achievement will be researched. Foundational work in this course will include the research and use of collaborative learning, engaged learning, and cooperative learning models. Participants will synthesize these paradigms and create applications for implementation into their own classrooms.

Categories:

Instructional Strategies Positive Classroom Management

Formats:

Online Self-Paced Online Structured Site Based

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Differentiated assessment is the key to helping every student have success within their own learning style. This course is designed to help educators discover new ways to assess students from a variety of different learning styles. A focus on strategies for performing pre-assessments, formative assessments, and summative assessments as well as alternative assessments such as performance-based assessments, portfolios, presentations and more to give options for students to have success other than the traditional pen-and-paper assessment. Classroom examples will be reviewed to help see how differentiated assessment can provide direction for improvement, promote confidence, and motivate students to do their best. Participants will leave the course with a better understanding of assessment practices and a wealth of resources to effectively differentiate assessments in their classroom.

Categories:

Instructional Strategies Positive Classroom Management

Formats:

Online Self-Paced Online Structured Site Based

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This course is designed to teach participants the importance of metacognition, provide background knowledge of the core executive function processes, and help apply their knowledge of executive function processes to help students better understand themselves as learners. Participants will learn how executive functioning skills are the cognitive powers that help develop good habits which leads to effective school and life management. The course will also look at the process of how to create effective assessments. Assessments are essential to the learning process, as evidenced in that assessments inform the instructor on the effectiveness of their instruction, as well as they provide a way to measure students' mastery of the course's educational learning targets. The course will explore how to identify course goals for assessment, determine test structure and design, write effective questions, and apply a variety of testing methods to differentiate testing methods.

Categories:

Positive Classroom Management 21st-Century Teaching Instructional Strategies

Formats:

Online Self-Paced Online Structured Site Based

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This course is designed to help K–12 teachers navigate the ever-growing complexities of the education profession while simultaneously helping them to balance their lives and careers. Teachers will learn the tenets of Positive Psychology (Seligman) and related theories and strategies. These, in turn, will provide the foundation for increasing personal and professional resilience, maintaining flexibility, and tending to physical and mental health as a basis to improve classroom experiences for all. Teachers will also survey current initiatives, standards, and skills, such as the Common Core State Standards, RtI, the Danielson Evaluation model, the Flipped Class model, and 21st century skills. 

Categories:

Instructional Strategies Content-Area Teaching

Formats:

Online Self-Paced Site Based

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This course is designed to give educators at all levels an overview of recent research on mindfulness practices and to provide step by step guidance on how to integrate these practices into the classroom. Participants in this course will learn what mindfulness is, why it is important, and how to creatively apply research-based mindfulness techniques in meeting the diverse learning needs of students. Attention will also be given to ways educators can use mindfulness to enhance their own professional and personal experience as teachers.

Categories:

Positive Classroom Management 21st-Century Teaching

Formats:

Online Self-Paced Online Structured Site Based

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This course is designed to enhance a participant’s knowledge of brain research. The following themes will be explored throughout the course: brain development, information processing, memory and retention, transferring learning, and critical thinking. Participants in this course will explore ways to design brain-friendly and effective lesson plans using the latest scientific findings and discoveries. This course prepares teachers by providing them with the essential elements needed to translate the biology of brain-based learning from theory into classroom practice.

Categories:

Instructional Strategies 21st-Century Teaching

Formats:

Online Self-Paced Site Based

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This course is designed to help teachers understand school law as it pertains to the rights of students, the rights of teachers, and the legal expectations of today’s public schools; thereby improving their effectiveness.  Participants in this course will develop an overall sense of the spirit of school law so that they may not only teach students to become good citizens, but also to ensure that their rights are protected in the educational process.  In addition, participants will learn about their rights as government employees regarding Freedom of Speech and employment issues.

Categories:

Instructional Strategies

Formats:

Online Self-Paced Site Based

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With the soaring concerns of mental health issues, students need to be supported more than ever with their social and emotional development. Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) involves teaching and modeling five lifelong skills: self-awareness, self-management, responsible decision-making, social awareness, and relationship skills. In this course, participants will learn how to weave SEL into the curriculum, which has been shown to increase academic outcomes and promote overall positive mental health among students. Participants will also explore strategies to support and enhance their own mental health and well-being.

Categories:

Positive Classroom Management Instructional Strategies 21st-Century Teaching

Formats:

Online Self-Paced Online Structured Site Based

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Participants in this course will examine student-centered classrooms with a constructivist approach - a significant shift away from the typical teacher-centered classroom. In a student-centered classroom, much of the direction and leadership is passed onto the students and the teacher becomes the classroom facilitator. This course provides participants with an in-depth exploration of how student-centered classrooms can engage and enhance the learning of all students. Effective student-centered teaching strategies, lesson planning, classroom management methods, and differentiated assessments will be explored. Participants will learn how having a constructivist approach to the student-centered classroom can have students take charge of their learning at any grade level and become independent learners who can create, discover, and problem solve on their own.

Categories:

Instructional Strategies 21st-Century Teaching

Formats:

Online Self-Paced Online Structured Site Based

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Educators will become skilled on how to use digital resources to collaborate, create, communicate, and assess students.  Participants will gain an understanding of internet resources to create an online classroom (using a web-based learning management system), flipped classroom and screen-casting, formative assessments, eBooks, videos, communication options for students and parents, and more to maximize the learning environment and reach students through different learning mediums.

Categories:

Technology Tools for the Classroom

Formats:

Online Self-Paced Online Structured Site Based

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This course will educate participants on the difference of a fixed or growth mindset, and how Appreciative Inquiry (AI) can cultivate the classroom environment into a place of risk taking and success. Participants will learn about their own mindset and how it impacts students, as well as techniques for evaluating the growth mindset, strategies for reframing failures to successes, and devising lesson plans with the growth mindset in mind. Participants will also learn about Appreciative Inquiry and how it is among the growing trend of approaches to human development and organizational change. Focus on the power of positive question and imagery, sharing stories, and implementation of Dr. David Cooperrider’s 4-D cycle will be reviewed, along with implementation strategies. Participants will leave the course understanding how to create a dynamic classroom that fosters growth and compassion; that will create bonds with students to push them further and increase test scores.

Categories:

Positive Classroom Management Instructional Strategies

Formats:

Online Self-Paced Online Structured Site Based

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