Important News
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Instructing and Supporting English Language Learners
In addition to receiving graduate level, non-degree semester credits, students may now earn Professional Development Certificates related to curricula content, classroom management, and teaching strategies. The Professional Development Certificate Program is primarily designed for classroom teachers and school administrators. This is part of the university's continuing effort to provide lifelong learning opportunities for educational professionals throughout the United States. The certificate is an acknowledgment of the extra effort put forth by our students to enhance the classroom learning environment and to improve professional skills and knowledge.
New Courses!
Microsoft PowerPoint 2016
PowerPoint 2016 is a useful presentation tool for communicating information visually to engage an audience. Projects in this course are designed to be applicable and relevant to classroom and professional presentations. By following step-by-step instructions, you will create projects such as, but not limited to, creating a motion path with animations to pan and zoom, inserting a picture in text, adding linking options, inserting and customizing SmartArt and WordArt, modifying a slide master, customizing a background and theme, creating action buttons with hyperlinks, and adding PowerPoint speaker notes and handouts. Microsoft PowerPoint 2016 software is a requirement for this course. All instructions are written for a PC.
English Language Learners' Struggles: Signs of Difficulty--or Disability?
EDUC 718I
Most teachers are now encountering students who are not native-born, are not native English speakers, and are thus learning English in addition to their normally required subjects. Such children are especially challenged as they work to master reading English. The English language is not easy. Consider the difficulty that even native speakers have with speaking, reading, and writing it, the variety of dialects found across English-speaking countries, and the often-wide gap between “street” and “academic” English.
It is thus expected that many English Language Learners (ELLs) will have difficulty. Some students will have more difficulty than others, for a variety of reasons. One reason might be a Learning Disability. Because many of the errors shown while learning English are the same in normal and in Learning Disabled students, teachers often cannot be sure how to help, and there is a risk of miss-assigning students to Special Education. The two books in this course will help teachers approach this dilemma. The books provide evidence-based material that offers practical help to both teachers and ELLs.
Current Topics in Sociology and Society
EDUC 718H
Studying sociology plays a key role in understanding the social influences that make individuals who they are and govern how they function within society. It also gives insight into how people take action and make changes that affect tolerance and acceptance of one another, and how they prepare for the technological, environmental, and societal changes to come.
Through the study of a wide range of current articles on sociological research, students will be provided with information that can be used to develop and refine their sociological perspective to better understand how current events shape the way society is structured. Topics include, but are not limited to, culture, politics, education, economics, gender and societal inequalities, social changes, and the future of our society.
Microsoft Excel 2016
EDUC 718G
Transform your classroom and enhance your skills with Excel 2016! The hands-on projects within this course are easy to understand and designed to be relevant and immediately applicable to the classroom, and they will introduce and reinforce Excel 2016 skills. By following step-by-step instructions, you will create a table of personalized learning profiles, student assessment results, teacher purchases, blended learning interventions, and a student database. You will also create a standards-based rubric, a blended learning lesson plan, address labels, and graphs and charts for data analysis. Excel 2016 might look intimidating at first glance, but once you discover the ease of using Excel to organize data, use formulas to perform calculations, and create charts, it will encourage and excite you to use spreadsheets more and more within your classroom. Excel 2016 is a requirement for this course. All instructions are written for a PC.
Visit a Natural History Museum
EDUC 718F
Students will visit a natural history museum of their choice and explore the significance and history of the exhibits/specimens. A Natural History Museum is a great place to learn about our planet and all the physical and biological wonders that make up our world. Whether it is a small museum focused on the local flora, or a specific museum focused on dinosaurs or minerals, or one of the larger museums that encompasses all the major sciences, you can learn much about the history and evolution of our planet, its inhabitants, and how it all works.
Unlocking the Mysteries of Code
This is an introductory course for teachers who want to learn more about coding. At the end of this course, you will have the tools to guide your students as they learn to code, and you will be able to understand and provide a rationale for why students need to learn to code. This course will provide easy-to-follow instructions for creating projects that will build teacher confidence and expertise that can be passed along to their students. After creating the first project, it will be the start of your enthusiasm for learning to code. Even though students may surpass teachers in their understanding of code, teachers taking this course will unlock the mysteries of code and have more tools to teach students persistence, focus, organization, problem-solving, and computational thinking. As classroom teachers, it is important to help students learn to code because it will help them develop 21st century, academic, and real-life skills. Hands-on learning experiences, with detailed instructions, will make this course fun and practical using Scratch, a free online web-based program.
Cognitive Approaches to Learning and Teaching
Principles of efficient and effective learning and teaching are presented in highly approachable texts based on decades of research in cognitive psychology. Traditional study habits - underline, review, memorize, cram - are ineffective and waste time. Better are questioning, self-quizzing, spaced retrieval and avoiding traps that lead to false confidence. Traditional teaching methods - lecture, homework problems, test - similarly are less fruitful than focusing on what students will think about during lessons, relating current content to already-present knowledge, and encouraging deep understanding. The two books approach the same issues from complementary viewpoints. The course first presents research and practical approaches to making your learning more efficient, and as you experience these methods, you can appreciate how effective they can be for your students. The course then focuses on research and practical approaches to your teaching. While you know your own, adult, ways of learning, your students may approach learning entirely differently. You will learn new ways to keep them focused and from going astray.
Understanding and Teaching the Rewired Brain
EDUC 718C
Frequent use of technology may alter our intelligence, our attention span, our self-esteem, our memory, our critical thinking processes, our empathy, and our social relationship by rewiring our brains. By examining and learning how technology is changing the way students’ brains function, educators can adapt to keep students motivated to learn.
This course includes information relating to how technology is rewiring the brain and strategies for engaging attention, memory, thinking, and social behavior with technology. Additional topics include effects of television on children's thinking, how information overload affects decision making, critical thinking and technology, effects of technology on rewiring social behavior, engaging students with the flipped classroom, improving thinking by integrating the arts into other subject areas, and the benefits of educational video games. Strategies for mentoring students in the responsible use of technology are included, as are teaching examples, k-12 lesson ideas, and a teacher-friendly technology glossary.
The Special Needs Brain: Helping It Learn
EDUC 718B
This course provides knowledge of possible causes of special needs, an understanding of brain systems that have gone awry, diagnostic issues and criteria, research on practical approaches to helping special needs students learn, and a variety of strategies to consider when planning lessons. This course addresses essential background information, ADD/ADHD, autism, disabilities in speech, writing, and mathematics, and emotional and behavioral disorders. Upon completion of this course, the student will demonstrate an understanding that special needs students are in a precarious motivational state and will become familiar with a rich array of strategies the special needs student requires.
How the ELL Brain Learns
EDUC 718A
About 10% of public school students live in households where English is not the primary language. These English Language Learners (ELLs) typically become proficient in “social” English within 2-3 years but require several more years to become proficient in “academic” English. It is largely the latter that determines advancement in American society so bringing ELLs up to grade-level competence in academic English becomes a top priority.
This course provides an understanding of the problems faced by ELLs and offers strategies for addressing them in contexts devoted to teaching English across all required subjects. Brain mechanisms for language learning are presented and referenced throughout the text for a broad understanding of how ELLs acquire language. Methods used for teaching ELLs are identified and highlighted with the educator in mind. Upon completion of this course, students will understand the amount of effort ELLs exert in order to master course content, and which teaching methods should be applied to meet their specific needs.