Overview

In this course, teachers will explore the role of assessment in instruction. Participants will learn about the formative and summative assessment, the purposes and methods of assessment, assessment instruments and how to develop an assessment plan and timeline for a unit of study. Support will be provided to participants, through facilitation and the discussion forums, as they redefine the role of assessment in their classrooms.

Goals and Products

This online course will enable participants to:

• Identify the characteristics of a 21st century classroom
• Understand the role of formative and summative assessment
• Identify the purposes of assessment and select appropriate methods and instruments to meet those purposes
• Learn to incorporate assessment, including self- and peer assessment, into regular classroom activities
• Plan assessments around standards and 21st century skills
• Create an assessment plan, assessment timeline, and assessment instruments for a unit or project
• Learn methods to schedule, perform, and record assessment
• Practice using assessment data to adjust classroom instruction

Format and Requirements

Prerequisites

This is an introductory course for teachers, technology specialists, curriculum specialists, professional development specialists or other school personnel. Participants are expected to have regular access to computers, and proficiency with e-mail and current web browsers.

What do good classroom managers do? Harry and Rosemary Wong will share the reasons for routines and how to establish them. What does a school-wide behavior management system look like and how will it enhance your classroom management? How do you develop your own comprehensive behavior management plan? How can use of cooperative learning enhance your ability to manage and academically reach your students? Learning how to develop a management plan and develop routines for students will allow you to be proactive in both your classroom management and in improving student achievement.

Goals and Products

This online course will enable participants to understand

• Create a strategy to use during the first days of school to address students’ needs.
• Develop a syllabus & classroom expectations for participant’s curriculum
• Plan team and class-building activities
• Develop an intervention plan to deal with negative behaviors in the classroom.
• Develop a system to encourage positive social interaction and self regulation for each student.
• Develop a proactive approach by teaching behavior procedures throughout the year.
• As a final product, participants will create a multimedia presentation to share procedures and information with students and/or parents at the beginning of school

Format and Requirements

Prerequisites

This is an introductory course for administrators however other participants are welcome as well.

Overview

Through this course, teachers will explore the role of collaboration in instruction. Participants will learn how collaboration benefits students by helping them develop 21st century thinking skills, deepen content understanding, and prepare them for the global world. Course activities focus on planning and managing collaboration activities that integrate online collaborative tools to enhance the learning experience. Support will be provided to participants, through facilitation and the discussion forums, as they plan for collaboration in their classrooms.

This online course will enable participants to:

• Explore examples of collaborative classrooms
• Identify the benefits of collaboration for students
• Use a framework to design and assess collaborative experiences
• Explore 8 categories of online collaborative tools and find strategies for classroom integration
• Support student collaboration while promoting ethical, safe, and legal online communication practices
• Develop resources to manage collaborators and technology effectively

Format and Requirements

Prerequisites

This is an introductory course for teachers, technology specialists, curriculum specialists, professional development specialists or other school personnel. Participants are expected to have regular access to computers, and proficiency with e-mail and current web browsers.

Overview

This course provides teachers a structured framework and strategies from which to teach a diverse group of learners in a single classroom. Implementing Differentiated Instruction transforms a teacher into a facilitator of learning – guiding students as they explore and master the curriculum using their unique learning styles and strengths individually and collaboratively. This course will engage teachers in developing lessons that will embed flexibility for learning styles, involve students at their instructional level, use interest and choice as motivational tools, and utilize ongoing assessment. Participants will learn how to differentiate the content (what to teach), the process (how to teach it), and the product (demonstrating what the learner knows, understands, and is able to do) to meet individual learning styles. And, of course, how to manage this differentiated classroom will be addressed. While this course does not address specific content standards, participants' final lesson project will reference their own content area standards.

Goals and Products

This online course will enable participants to

• Identify benefits and discuss reasons for pursuing differentiated instruction.
• Compare and contrast differentiated instruction with their current teaching style.
• Discuss and select content, process and products that address interests, readiness and learning style/multiple intelligences of a diverse student population.
• Identify and select appropriate instructional strategies that support learner diversity.
• Develop learning units using differentiated instruction including differentiating content, process and product.

Course Expectations

Prerequisites

This is an introductory course for teachers, curriculum specialists, professional development specialists or other school personnel. Participants are expected to have regular access to computers. In addition, participants should be proficient with using e-mail, browsing the Internet and navigating to computer files.

Content and Technology Standards

This course, will help participants meet the ISTE Educational Technology Standards and Performance Indicators for All Teachers, especially Standards II, III and IV.

For more information about Technology Integration visit: http://www.iste.org

Overview

Digital storytelling is a way to share a story told by using a combination of video, images, voice, and/or music or other sounds. In this course you will learn how to tell a digital story using these elements. You will learn how to identify the software most appropriate for your project and hardware. Scripting and storyboarding will be the process tools you will use to plan your digital story. Additional skills to be learned include setting the timing and transitions for your story and selecting or creating sounds, images, and music.

Goals and Products

This online course will enable participants to understand

• how digital stories may be used as teaching tools and learning products
• how to plan a digital story using scripting and storyboarding techniques
• how to recognize and apply copyright regulations when using images and video resources
• locate, select and obtain digital images and /or video clips for use in digital storytelling
• create a digital story
• evaluate a digital story

As a final product, participants will create a multimedia presentation to share procedures and information with students and/or parents at the beginning of school

Format and Requirements

Prerequisites

This workshop is for teachers, technology specialists, curriculum specialists, professional development specialists, or other school personnel. Participants are expected to have regular access to computers. In addition, participants should be proficient with using email, browsing the Internet, and navigating computer files.

Overview

Book reading in the early childhood classroom is not only one of the most important practices for building later reading success, but it is probably one of the more enjoyable experiences for both teachers and children. In this workshop early childhood educators will explore quality children’s literature and best book reading practices. Participants will learn ways to share various genres of books in the classroom. They will learn the importance of multiple re-readings and strategies to foster children’s vocabulary knowledge, print concepts, phonological awareness, and reading comprehension during large and small group readings. Workshop assignments will invite participants to research quality children’s literature and develop book reading planners with specific goals for children’s learning.

Goals and Products

This course will enable participants to:

• Understand how book reading impacts children’s language and literacy development
• Learn effective strategies for utilizing different book genres in the classroom
• Understand how multiple readings of the same book can enhance children’s cognitive and literacy skills
• Learn how to implement interactive book reading sessions that deepen children’s comprehension
• Learn ways to support vocabulary development through book reading
• Learn ways to integrate books and book reading into classroom curriculum activities

As a final project for this workshop, participants will create a curriculum unit for classroom use that incorporates a topic covered in each session of this workshop.

Format and Requirements

This course is divided into six one-week sessions which each include readings, an activity and an online discussion among course participants. The time for completing each session is estimated to be two to four hours.

The outline for the course is as follows:

Prerequisites

This is an introductory course for teachers, technology specialists, curriculum specialists, professional development specialists, or other school personnel. Participants are expected to have regular access to computers and proficiency with e-mail and current web browsers.

Content and Technology Standards

Alignment with the Standards for English Language Arts from the National Council for Teachers of English (NCTE) and International Reading Association (IRA)

1. Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.

2. Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience.

3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).

Overview

One of the most important tasks for children in the first five years of life is the development of language. Children enter early care settings with vast differences in vocabulary and oral language development, and early educators can meet this challenge by providing language-rich learning environments. This workshop will provide early childhood educators with an understanding of young children's oral language development and appropriate approaches for promoting language and emergent literacy in their classrooms. This workshop will focus on effective methods for developing children’s vocabulary knowledge through book reading and discussions, and advancing children’s language through extended conversations. Additionally, participants will learn to create opportunities for rich discourse and build children’s background knowledge. Workshops assignments will invite participants to apply relevant content and plan meaningful, language-rich curricular activities.

Goals and Products

This course will enable participants to:

• Understand oral language development of young children, ages 3 through age 5
• Develop an understanding of the connection between language and literacy development
• Learn strategies for facilitating conversations that support language development such as eliciting personal narratives
• Learn about ways to support vocabulary development through book reading
• Learn how to facilitate interactive activities that support children’s phonological awareness
• Plan for integrated and meaningful curriculum that supports children’s language and literacy development

As a final project for this workshop, participants will create a curriculum unit for classroom use that incorporates a topic covered in each session of this workshop.

Format and Requirements

This course is divided into six one-week sessions which each include readings, an activity and an online discussion among course participants. The time for completing each session is estimated to be two to four hours.

The outline for the course is as follows:

Prerequisites

This is an introductory course for teachers, technology specialists, curriculum specialists, professional development specialists, or other school personnel. Participants are expected to have regular access to computers and proficiency with e-mail and current web browsers.

Content and Technology Standards

This workshop meets the standards for Content, Instructional Design, and Technology as defined in the National Standards of Quality for Online Courses, published by the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL).

This workshop provides teachers with an opportunity to meet the Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership standard as defined in the National Educational Technology Standards and Performance Indicators for Teachers, published by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE).

Alignment with the Standards for English Language Arts from the National Council for Teachers of English (NCTE) and International Reading Association (IRA):

3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).

4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.

9. Students develop an understanding of and respect for diversity in language use, patterns, and dialects across cultures, ethnic groups, geographic regions, and social roles.

11. Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.

12. Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).

Overview

This course prepares teachers to facilitate virtual school courses for K-12 students. The teacher/facilitator plays a critical role in assisting students to achieve academic goals and expectations. This 7-week online course allows the virtual school teacher to have valuable, hands-on experience as a learner in the online environment as well as develop skills specific for facilitating an online course. The course sessions include an introduction to the virtual course environment, an overview to the diverse learning needs of the online student, and specific training in the skills and techniques needed to effectively support students participating in online courses.

Goals and Products

This course will enable participants to:

• Develop strategies and techniques for building an online learning community
• Understand appropriate netiquette used for communications online
• Understand confidentiality issues unique to online courses
• Build an awareness of effective communication techniques used in sharing information with both students and parents
• Learn strategies for communicating effectively with students online
• Examine ways to effectively communicate with parents
• Develop strategies and activities for use on the discussion board
• Learn how to write higher order thinking questions to engage students in synthesis, problem solving, and evaluation of concepts on the discussion board
• Explore the scope of tools available for differentiating instruction in the virtual classroom
• Understand how to use group activities effectively in the virtual classroom while using higher order thinking skills
• Identify various methods for assessing students in the online environment
• Identify which methods would be formative and which would be summative

Format and Requirements

Prerequisites

Participants are expected to have regular access to computers. In addition, participants should be proficient with using email, browsing the Internet, and navigating to computer files.

Content and Technology Standards

This course meets the standards for Content, Instructional Design, and Technology as defined in the National Standards of Quality for Online Courses, published by the North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL). This workshop provides teachers with an opportunity to meet the Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership standard as defined in the National Educational Technology Standards and Performance Indicators for Teachers, published by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE).

Through this course, the new LMS will explore the many, varied facets of school librarianship. Participants will learn about the role he or she should play in information literacy, technology support, and the everyday administration of the school library media center. Participants will also learn about the various opportunities for support that exist throughout the state.

Goals and Products

This workshop will enable participants to:

• Become knowledgeable about the foundations of librarianship
• Understand the basic roles and responsibilities of a school library media specialist
• Become familiar with the basics for administering the library media program
• Become knowledgeable about the current trends in education as they relate to library services in schools

Format and Requirements

Prerequisites

none

Overview

Mobile Learning is a course designed to introduce you to the concept of mobile learning. You will learn the what, why, where, when and how of implementing mobile learning in a classroom. The approach of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) will be examined. The advantages of using smart phones and tablets in the classroom will be discussed along with web tools and apps. You will also look at what revisions need to be made to your Acceptable Use Policy (QUP) to accommodate your mobile learning practices.

This online course will enable participants to:

• Define mobile learning
• Understand how mobile learning can enhance the learning process in the classroom
• Formulate an opinion of the value of a BYOD/BYOT initiative
• Discover Frequently Asked Questions about BYOD/BYOT
• Discover strategies to successfully use cell phones in the classroom
• View educators that are implementing cell phones in the classroom
• Develop an understanding of how tablets can be implemented in the classroom
• Determine the “right” mobile learning device for your classroom
• Select and evaluate 10 apps that will benefit your classroom
• Create a functional Acceptable Use Policy
• Understand key concepts to creating an Acceptable Use Policy
• Define what makes a good Acceptable Use Policy

Format and Requirements

Prerequisites

This is an introductory course for teachers, technology specialists, curriculum specialists, professional development specialists or other school personnel. Participants are expected to have regular access to computers, and proficiency with e-mail and current web browsers.

Overview

It is important for teachers to utilize free tools on the internet to enhance the way they teach to meet the needs of 21st century learners. This course focuses on the implementation of Google Tools to support learning and teaching in the classroom. Many of the Google Tools will be useful in the implementation of 21st Century Skills such as collaboration, communication, critical thinking and problem solving. Teachers who have access to technology with their students will benefit from learning about how Google Tools can enhance teaching and learning in the classroom.

During the six weeks of this course, you will learn about a selection of Google Tools as you blog, edit photos, create websites, and use Google Earth. You will concentrate on the use of a different tool during each week of the course. Each tool will be investigated for what it does and how it works. You will share ideas for classroom use and how these tools might be embedded into lessons. You will also examine how the tools will support learning and enhance teaching practices. The culminating project for the course will be to design a lesson that incorporates the use of two of these tools.

Goals and Products

This online course will enable participants to:

• Use Google Docs to enhance student communication and collaboration
• Create a blog to use with students using Blogger and discover blogs that can be utilized for professional growth
• Learn how to use Picasa to edit photos and Sketch-up to create models, then determine how they each might support a lesson
• Create a website using Google Sites
• Use Google Earth to extend learning beyond the classroom walls by taking virtual field trips to destinations worldwide and discovering classroom applications
• Plan a lesson or unit that incorporates at least two Google Tools

Format and Requirements

Prerequisites

This is an introductory course for teachers, technology specialists, curriculum specialists, professional development specialists or other school personnel. Participants are expected to have regular access to computers, and proficiency with e-mail and current web browsers.

Overview

Through this course, teachers will explore the principles of project-based learning. Participants will learn how projects can transform teaching and learning in the classroom. Support will be provided to participants, through facilitation and the discussion forums, as they redefine the role of assessment in their classrooms.

Goals and Products

This online course will enable participants to

• Identify the benefits offered by a project-based approach as compared with conventional classroom teaching.
• Explore the characteristics of successful projects.
• Follow the steps for project design while maintaining a focus on learning goals.
• Plan for assessment of content knowledge, and process skills with-in the context of project-based learning.
• Plan student-centered learning activities and appropriate supports for the project.
• Guide student learning during a project through appropriate use of questioning, collaboration, information literacy, and reflection.

Course Expectations

Prerequisites

This is an introductory course for teachers, curriculum specialists, professional development specialists or other school personnel. Participants are expected to have regular access to computers. In addition, participants should be proficient with using e-mail, browsing the Internet and navigating to computer files.

Overview

Research on reading comprehension has demonstrated that readers differ in how they approach reading and the meaning they construct from text. Researchers have found that good readers use specific strategies to comprehend text, and those instructional programs that explicitly teach these strategies have been successful in improving students’ comprehension. In this course, participants will examine teaching practices that help students in grades three through five develop concrete strategies for constructing meaning from both narrative and expository text. The goal for strategy instruction is to prepare students to become active and purposeful readers who think about their text before, during and after reading. Participants will also explore instructional procedures that help students learn how to coordinate key comprehension strategies.

Goals and Products

This online course will enable participants to

• Identify comprehension strategies that are important to teach
• Explore how to explicitly teach comprehension strategies and guide students’ practice in applying them
• Help students build story schema (background knowledge about stories) by showing how narrative text has recurring elements (story grammar): characters, settings, conflicts, major events, resolutions, and themes
• Help students draw on their story schema to make predictions about events, and consequences
• Help students distinguish common text structures in informational text in order to better understand and recall the main ideas of the text
• Help students understand how analyzing question-answer relationships (QAR) can be a useful strategy for approaching comprehension questions

Format and Requirements

This course is divided into six one-week sessions which each include readings, an activity and an online discussion among course participants. The time for completing each session is estimated to be two to four hours.

The outline for the course is as follows:

Throughout the course, participants will complete activities that they will add to a portfolio of their ideas from this course. Participants will leave the course with a toolkit of strategies and ideas to use in their own classrooms. As a final product, participants will evaluate their own comprehension instruction program and develop an action plan for making changes to better support reading comprehension in the classroom.

Prerequisites

This is an introductory course for teachers, technology specialists, curriculum specialists, professional development specialists, or other school personnel. Participants are expected to have regular access to computers. In addition, participants should be proficient with using email, browsing the Internet, and navigating to computer files.

Content and Technology Standards

This course, Promoting Reading Comprehension in the Elementary Classroom, will help participants support their students in meeting the following NCTE standards:

Standard 1: Students read a wide range of print and non-print texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.

Standard 2: Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience.

Standard 3: Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).

Standard 12:  Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).

In addition, this course will help participants meet the following title="http://cnets.iste.org/teachers/t_stands.html"
href="http://cnets.iste.org/teachers/t_stands.html" target="_blank">ISTE Educational Technology Standards and Performance Indicators for All Teachers:

Standard V. Productivity and Professional Practice
Teachers use technology to enhance their productivity and professional practice

Reproduced with permission from Education Development Center, Inc.,
Copyright (c), 2000-2006, all rights reserved (http://www.edtechleaders.org)

Overview

This course will help middle school teachers learn about comprehension strategies that students need to apply in order to comprehend a variety of text types. Participants will explore the challenges students commonly experience with different types of text, strategies employed by successful readers, and instructional approaches to support students in developing reading comprehension strategies. Throughout the course, participants will gather ideas about designing a lesson plan that focuses on developing students’ use of comprehension strategies. Participants will leave this course with many new strategies and resources for fostering the reading comprehension of their students.

Goals and Products

This online course will enable participants to

• Deepen their understanding of the middle school students’ reading development and effective literacy instruction in grades 6-8
• Deepen their understanding of strategies students use to comprehend text
• Identify students’ use of specific comprehension strategies
• Identify effective methods for teaching students comprehension strategies
• Deepen their understanding of the demands of diverse genres
• Develop lesson plans for teaching strategies for strategies-based instruction and for comprehending expository text
• Deepen their understanding of the demands of online text
• Analyze the ways in which technology can be used to foster students’ reading comprehension

Format and Requirements

This course is divided into six one-week sessions, each of which includes readings, an activity, and an online discussion among course participants. The time for completing each session is estimated to be four to six hours.

The outline for the course is as follows:

As a final project, participants will consider the many concepts and strategies covered in this course—direct instruction of strategies, teaching with diverse text types, and using technology to support instruction—and develop a lesson plan that will best address their students’ reading comprehension needs.

Prerequisites

This is an introductory course for teachers, technology specialists, curriculum specialists, professional development specialists, or other school personnel. Participants are expected to have regular access to computers. In addition, participants should be proficient with using email, browsing the Internet, and navigating to computer files.

Content and Technology Standards

This course will help participants meet the following NCTE standards:

Standard 1: Students read a wide range of print and non-print texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.

Standard 2: Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience.

Standard 3: Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).

Standard 11: Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.

Standard 12: Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).

In addition, this course will help participants meet the following title="http://cnets.iste.org/teachers/t_stands.html"
href="http://cnets.iste.org/teachers/t_stands.html">ISTE Educational Technology Standards and Performance Indicators for All Teachers:

• II. PLANNING AND DESIGNING LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS AND EXPERIENCES.
  - Teachers plan and design effective learning environments and experiences supported by technology.
• - Identify and locate technology resources and evaluate them for accuracy and suitability.

• V. PRODUCTIVITY AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE.
  - Teachers use technology to enhance their productivity and professional practice.
• - Use technology resources to engage in ongoing professional development and lifelong learning.

Reproduced with permission from Education Development Center, Inc.,
Copyright (c), 2000-2006, all rights reserved (http://www.edtechleaders.org)

By examining the desired results first (goals), then determining acceptable evidence (informal and formal assessment), and finally planning appropriate learning experiences and instruction to meet those goals,teachers can effectively plan and deliver instruction. In this online course teachers will use the Backward Design process to plan an instructional unit, and then share it on the SuccessLink website.

SuccessLink’s Great Teaching Ideas Program offers teachers the opportunity to share their developed units with other educators. The SuccessLink database contains units written by Missouri teachers for Missouri teachers.

Goals and Products

This online course will enable participants to

• Reflect on perspectives about backward design
• Consider a rationale for using backward design
• Use deconstructed GLEs/standards
• Identify and create essential questions
• Create a unit using backward design

Format and requirements

Prerequisites

This is an introductory course for teachers, curriculum specialists, professional development specialists or other school personnel. Participants are expected to have regular access to computers. In addition, participants should be proficient with using e-mail, browsing the Internet and navigating to computer files.

Content and Technology Standards

This course, will help participants meet the ISTE Educational Technology Standards and Performance Indicators for All Teachers, especially Standards II, III and IV.

For more information about Technology Integration visit: http://www.iste.org

Overview

All students have the capacity to be good writers and writers learn to write by writing. These are basic tenets of this course during which participants will learn instructional strategies to teach students in the upper elementary grades how to write narrative and informational text. Participants will explore how to teach their students about the traits of good writing through mini-lessons and writing conferences and how to use established criteria to evaluate writing. They will recognize that writing is a process and consider how to organize instruction to guide students through the stages. Participants will go through the instructional cycle from writing prompt to revision as they create their final projects.

Goals and Products

This online course will enable participants to

• Teach students about the traits of good writing
• Use consistent criteria to evaluate student’s writing and provide feedback
• Learn teaching strategies to help students write narrative and informational text
• Understand stages of the writing process and organize instruction to guide students through the stages
• Confer with students and guide the revision of their writing
• Write prompts relevant to their students for narrative or informational writing

As a final project, participants will plan a mini-lesson for pre-writing and a student conference around revision. They will use Six +1 Traits® of good writing for instruction and criteria for evaluation.

Format and Requirements

This course is divided into six one-week sessions which each include readings, an activity and an online discussion among course participants. The time for completing each session is estimated to be two to four hours. The outline for the course is as follows:

Session One: What Is Good Writing?
Session Two: Telling a Story with Narrative Writing
Session Three: Informing or Explaining with Informational Writing
Session Four: Writing is a Process
Session Five: Evaluating Writing
Session Six: Conferring with Students about Writing and Revision

Prerequisites

This is an introductory course for teachers, technology specialists, curriculum specialists, professional development specialists or other school personnel. Participants are expected to have regular access to computers and proficiency with e-mail and current web browsers.

Content and Technology Standards

This course, Teaching Writing in the Elementary Classroom , will help participants to support their students in meeting the following NCTE standards:

• Standard 5: Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
• Standard 6: Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and non-print texts.
• Standard 7: Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and non-print texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.
• Standard 12: Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).

This course will also help participants meet the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Standards for the English Language Arts, especially Standards IV, V, VI, VII, VIII and XII.

In addition, this course will help participants meet the following ISTE Educational Technology Standards and Performance Indicators for All Teachers:

Standard V. PRODUCTIVITY AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE.
Teachers use technology to enhance their productivity and professional practice.

Reproduced with permission from Education Development Center, Inc.,
Copyright (c), 2000-2006, all rights reserved (http://www.edtechleaders.org)

Overview

In this course, participants will explore new technologies that can be used in elementary math instruction in kindergarten through sixth grade. Participants will review NCTM and state standards and examine the ways in which tools like virtual manipulatives, calculators, spreadsheet programs, online data sources, and applets can support these goals. In particular, the course will address ways in which technology can support elementary algebra, geometry, number and operation, and data analysis standards. Participants will leave the course with a lesson plan that integrates new technologies into instruction in their own classrooms.

Goals and Products

This course will enable participants to:

• Understand which technologies are appropriate for teaching math in the elementary classroom
• Learn how to use a variety of online tools to enhance math instruction
• Identify the NCTM standards that are met through online activities
• Locate valuable math resources on the Internet

Format and Requirements

This course is divided into six one-week sessions which each include readings, an activity and an online discussion among course participants. The time for completing each session is estimated to be two to four hours.

The outline for the course is as follows:

In the first session, participants will examine several resources available on the web to support math instruction in the elementary classroom. In Session Two, participants will learn how to use virtual manipulatives to teach mathematical concepts appropriate for elementary students. In Session Three, participants will explore ways in which they can use technology to find and analyze real world data. They will also begin to plan their technology-enhanced lesson. Session Four highlights the ways in which calculators can enhance math instruction and Session Five teaches participants how they can use spreadsheets to help students analyze mathematical data. Finally, in Session Six, participants will apply their knowledge of math technologies and finalize their lesson plans that incorporates one or more of the tools in the course.

Prerequisites

This is an introductory course for teachers, technology specialists, curriculum specialists, professional development specialists, or other school personnel. Participants are expected to have regular access to computers and proficiency with e-mail and current web browsers.

Content and Technology Standards

This course, Using Technology in the Elementary Math Classroom, will help participants meet the following ISTE Educational Technology Standards and Performance Indicators for All Teachers, especially Standards I, II and III.

In addition, this will help the teachers to enable their students to meet the following NCTM standards:
Grades K-2
Number and Operations Standard: Reasoning and Proof Standards
http://standards.nctm.org/document/chapter4/reas.htm http://standards.nctm.org/document/chapter4/numb.htm
Data Analysis and Probability Standard
Communication Standard

Grades 3-5
Number and Operations Standards
Data Analysis and Probability Standard
Reasoning and Proof Standard
Communication Standard