Integrating the Curricula

Every student can help students integrate learning. In this course, curricular integration is explored through current research on experiential learning and higher-level thinking processes. Students learn best when associations and connections are provided in our lessons. Integration structures include applications within a traditional instructional approach, as well as those which require teachers to collaborate in their planning. In this course, structures are demonstrated, practiced and applied at elementary, middle, and high school levels.
Education  A5228       
3 credits (G)

 

Increasing Student Responsibility and Self-Discipline in Learning Communities

(Formerly known as Encouraging Student Responsibility and Self-Discipline.) Fostering student responsibility and developing patterns of student cooperation and on-task behavior in the classroom are the objectives of this course. Participants will learn skills and strategies for increasing student responsibility that can be integrated into the teaching of every lesson. An additional goal of the course is to teach specific communication structures that will allow for an increase in positive student response and motivation.
Education  A5226      
3 credits (G)

Teaching Writing and Thinking Across the Curriculum

Based on the theme, Writing to Learn and Learning to Write, participants will learn to effectively integrate cooperative learning with the teaching of writing as a thinking skill. Hands-on experience that encourage students to be active learners through strategies which foster intelligent behaviors. This course will offer its participants a systematic, developmental approach to the teaching of writing in support of thematic, interdisciplinary, or subject specific instruction. It will draw upon a whole language approach to the integration of writing in all curriculum areas.
Education  A5409      
3 credits (G)

Dimensions of Learning

Learn how to connect several major instructional modes to curriculum, assessment, instruction, and to the student learning and thinking process. Learn to develop interactive student-centered learning experiences that give students a reason to learn, and allow you to facilitate the learning.
Education  A5290      
3 credits (G)

Brain-Based Teaching and Learning

(Formerly known as Using Brain-Compatible Methods in the Classroom.) This course provides classroom application strategies and techniques for translating the current research in cognitive science on teaching and learning. Beginning with how the brain processes information, the course includes the function of the senses, working memory, long-term memory, storage and retrieval, and the development of the self concept.
Education  A5726      
3 credits (G)

Teaching for Success in the Multicultural Classroom

(Formerly known as Instructional Strategies for a Multicultural Society.) Participants will examine curriculum, understand and develop a sensitivity toward the cultural perils and pitfalls in teaching different ethnic groups, and work to develop a variety of instructional techniques.
Education  A5229      
3 credits (G)

Expanding Student Thinking in the Classroom

Integrate higher-order thinking throughout the curriculum. The course synthesizes the best basic instructional practices with cooperative learning, graphic organizers, thinking skills, and metacognition into a powerful, instructional approach.
Education  A5220   
3 credits (G)

The Cooperative Classroom: Kagan’s Instructional Practices

Learn the theory and research of cooperative learning and the approach developed by Dr. Spencer Kagan. The course guides participants in the acquisition of a wide range of practical instructional methods called Co-op Structures, and provides them with a theoretical framework which helps teachers decide which structures to use at different points in the instructional cycle. If instructional strategies are thought of as tools in the toolbox of a teacher, this course is designed to put more tools in each teachers’ toolbox, and to instruct them on the best instructional practices with each tool.
Education A5291      
3 credits (G)

Assessment Techniques: Assessing for Student Learning

(Formerly known as Classroom Assessment Techniques.) The main focus of this course is on using assessment to support teachers in examining the effectiveness of their own practices, to improve student learning and to help students become effective self-assessors. Have opportunities to use a wide range of assessment tools; develop skills that reflect a personal philosophy. Key ideas are addressed; the emphasis is on performance assessment. Key ideas are discovered experientially through a hands–on approach.
Education  A5225       
3 credits (G)

Cooperative Discipline

This classroom management program shifts the discipline paradigm from controlling student behavior through rewards and punishment to managing and motivating students by building self-esteem and helping all students make better choices. The goal is student growth — academically, socially and psychologically.
Education  A5296      
3 credits (G)

Styles of Teaching: Personality Types in the Classroom

Style of teaching, based on Jung’s four basic personality types, will be explored and compared. Delve into an understanding of your  own style and organizational preferences, while simultaneously building a clearer understanding of the needs of others. Issues pertaining to teaching, learning, classroom management, communicating,conflict resolution, esteem-building, and problem-solving will be examined and applied to classroom situations.
Education  A5289        
3 credits (G)

Teaching and Learning Through Multiple Intelligences  

Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences provides an innovative perspective on creating effective teaching/learning environments. Traditional K-12 curricula have focused disproportionately on utilizing skills related to verbal and mathematical intelligence and have neglected many of the other ways students learn. Participants will be involved in experiential activities which will broaden their understanding.
Education  A5221      
3 credits (G)

Skills and Strategies for Inclusion and disAbility Awareness

(Formerly known as Disability Awareness.) This course deepens the knowledge and understanding of disabilities, and examines the social, academic, and physical considerations in school, community and home environments. Special emphasis is made on the ways that teachers can integrate information about disabilities into the teaching of their curriculum and in managing their specific classroom environments.    
Education  A5727      
3 credits (G)

Teaching Readers to Think

The course explores the concept of balanced literacy and how to create a literate community within every classroom. Participants will learn how to create individualized reading timelines for students, building home and school connections. The techniques unlocking the written word and strategies to read reflectively both as part of class activities and independently will be developed. Ways to assess the success of the balanced literacy program will be discussed.
Education  A5117      
3 credits (G)

Using Portfolios for Instruction and Assessment  

Student portfolios have become an important and popular component of authentic assessment because they can reveal a great deal about each student while also affording students ownership and responsibility for their learning. This course will assist participants in answering the important questions they must ask when planning to implement portfolio systems and authentic assessment.
Education A5279      
1 credit (G)

Stress and the Teaching and Learning Process

This two-day, interactive workshop is designed to give participants the information, skills, and strategies necessary for effective stress management. Topics include: the dynamics of stress, the role of perception and other psychological issues, physiological considerations and impact, stages of stress, the role of coping energy, and a comprehensive review of numerous “Stress Busters” and strategies that make the management of stress both practical and possible.
Education  A5145      
1 credit (G)

Multiple Intelligences Strategies: Kagan’s Structures

This course provides an overview of multiple intelligences theory and teaches ways to implement it using a variety of multiple intelligences strategies.  Students will know and understand the eight intelligences and develop the ability to implement curriculum and instruction to: 1) provide access to curriculum through each intelligence; 2) develop or stretch each intelligence; 3) further the understanding and acceptance among students of each intelligence in themselves and others.

• Understand MI definitions of intelligence
• Identify the skills and stimuli with each of the eight intelligences
• Learn to use a range of instructional strategies to engage each intelligence
• Learn MI lesson planning
• Learn the principles of authentic MI assessment

Education  A5719      

3 credits (G)

Differentiated Instruction

The focus of this course is to provide a framework to design effective instruction for all students using differentiated instruction (DI). Participants will investigate the theoretical background, rationale, and principles of differentiated instruction and translate them to their classroom setting. Course instruction will include modeling of DI principles and strategies: Describe, discuss, and analyze the characteristics of a differentiated classroom (1) Identify, design, and implement teaching practices that can be used to differentiate instruction including: tiered assignments, flexible grouping, compacting, complex thinking, problem solving, individual contracts, and interest groups. (2) Design differentiated learning activities based on the learning needs of students. (3) Know and understand the characteristics of a positive classroom learning environment.
Education  A5146        
3 Credits (G)

Dealing With ADHD-type Behavior in the Classroom

Regular classroom teachers must deal every day with students who are inattentive, impulsive, disorganized and/or distracted. This is AD/HD-type behavior, whether or not the students are so classified. The course provides teachers with comprehensive brain researched understanding of these behaviors, and provides ideas and strategies to stop these behaviors from interfering with school achievement.
Education  A5728   
3 Credits (G)