Course Directory
Explore our short-format courses offered for CTLE hours, Continuing Education Units, or graduate-level credit.
Extend your learning and deepen your impact as an educator in one of our online or short-format continuing education courses and workshops. Designed for working educators and led by experts in the field, these classes are strongly grounded in theory and tailored to meet the needs and interests of educators and practitioners at all levels.
See below for a complete list of courses and discover the right fit for you.
Please note: Courses are offered online and on campus. Check the current course schedule for details.
Courses are offered year-round:
- Fall (October – December)
- Spring (January – May)
- Summer 2 (July – early August)
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American Sign Language: Module One
Course Number: LANG760N
Focus On: Across Ages
Category: Career Development
Term(s) Offered: Summer 2
This course offers an introductory immersion approach to American Sign Language in communication with deaf persons. ASL may also be explored as an alternate means of communication with hearing children with language disorders who may be delayed in acquiring spoken English. Sessions will focus on aspects of deaf culture and the vitality and rich potential of American Sign Language communication. ASL lab practice opportunities will be built into the schedule.
The benefits of learning ASL include:
- Enhances cognition, creativity and abstract thinking;
- Enhances your communication skills through the use of Gesture and signs for working with language barriers;
- Improves your ability to communicate with the approximately 36 million, or 1 out of 10 people with hearing loss in the United States;
- Increases awareness of hand and eye coordination, and the use of spatial relations;
- Opens your eyes to become more aware of your peripheral vision and surroundings; and
- Provides a new skill in communicating visually with diverse populations in different situations.
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American Sign Language: Module Two
Course Number: LANG761N
Focus On: Across Ages
Category: Career Development
Term(s) Offered: Summer 2, Online
This course offers an immersion approach to American Sign Language in communication with deaf persons. The course builds on Module One and is designed to provide students with an essential fundamental knowledge of the language, its culture, and its grammatical principles. Prerequisite: LANG 760N or permission of instructor.
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American Sign Language: Module Three
Course Number: LANG762N
Focus On: Across Ages
Category: Career Development
Term(s) Offered: Summer 2, Online
This course is the third and most advanced module of the American Sign Language series. Sessions led by an educator who is herself deaf continue the immersion approach to American Sign Language. The course builds on the skills and abilities developed in the first two modules, further extending knowledge of the language, its culture, grammatical principles, and skill in communication. Prerequisite: LANG 762N or permission of instructor.
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Experiments in Art: the Artistic Process
Course Number: ARTS500N
Focus On: Across Ages
Category: Career Development
Term(s) Offered: Summer 2
Using different materials, you will experiment with process, color, texture, and light to create books, paintings, and photographs. On day one, we will be use landscapes/mindscapes as inspiration for work in pastels and acrylic. Day two will be spent in a bookmaking workshop. On day three, we will experiment with the camera obscura and take pictures with a camera you contruct. The final day, we will bring all elements together, reflect on your creative process, and help structure your final assignment.
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Picture Book Workshop
Course Number: TEWS830N
Focus On: Across Ages
Category: Career Development, Online
Term(s) Offered: Summer 2, Fall
If you ever thought: I have always wanted to write (or finish!) that picture book, here is a chance to get going. This is a nuts-and-bolts workshop that focuses on making your story better. Rhythm. Pacing. Voice. Dialogue. Universal themes. Choosing just the right words. These are just some of the things we will look at with a view to giving a uniquely picture book shape as well as your own very personal touch to that story. Participants should come to class with at least the beginnings of a story. *Offered in collaboration with Bank Street’s Center for Children’s Literature.
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Starting Your Own Tutoring Practice
Course Number: TEWS652N
Focus On: Across Ages
Category: Career Development
Term(s) Offered: Spring
Want to start a tutoring practice, but don’t know where to begin? This workshop will address how to determine what kind of tutoring makes the most sense for you and how to market yourself and your skills. Discussions will include such topics as: what to charge, tutoring at your home vs. student home vs. school, cancellation practices, becoming a DOE provider, where to get materials, policies, and professional practices.
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The Writer's Lab for Unpublished Authors
Course Number: TEWS810N
Focus On: Across Ages
Category: Career Development
Term(s) Offered: Fall, Spring, Summer 2
We are offering this lab for a small group of committed writers who enjoy the writing process and want to come together each month to share their works in progress and receive feedback from other committed writers. This is a safe, supportive place to try out what you’ve been working on independently in a facilitated workshop. Occasional guest speakers from the publishing world will join the group to discuss different aspects of writing, such as writing from an illustrator’s perspective or to provide personal viewpoints on the writer’s experience.
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Writing for Children II: Developing Your Manuscript
Course Number: TEWS807N
Focus On: Across Ages
Category: Career Development
Term(s) Offered: Fall, Summer 2
Now that you’ve found your voice and your story, this is the workshop to help serious writers refine your manuscript. We recommend taking WFC I: Writing Your First Children’s Book (offered in January and July) prior to this workshop, but it’s not required.
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Writing for Children: Finding Your Voice
Course Number: TEWS598N
Focus On: Across Ages
Category: Career Development
Term(s) Offered: Spring
So you want to write a children’s book! Here is a workshop to help you get started, once and forall. In this friendly, supportive environment, class discussions will focus on all aspects of good story telling and good writing, including tone of voice, clear dialogue, characters who feel real, and beautiful language. youwill return to your classes with a better understanding of the writing process so that you, in turn, can help each student to find pleasure in crafting a piece of writing in his or her voice.
Childhood/Elementary School
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Apart Together: Strategies to Inspire Connection & Joy in the Age of Covid-19 (Grade 1-8)
Course Number: TEWS832N
Focus On: Grades 1 – 8
Category: Childhood, Elementary School, Middle School, Online
Term(s) Offered: Summer 2, Fall
As remote or socially-distanced teaching (or a hybrid of both) becomes our new normal, how can teachers tailor curriculum to help students make sense of their emotional responses to the pandemic, develop community, and find joy and meaning in their schoolwork? This course outlines how art, creative writing, feedback frameworks, and other techniques can empower students to manage their anxiety and connect with others during this unprecedented time (and have a bit of fun, to boot). The strategies, lessons, and projects introduced in this course can be easily woven into existing curricula and adapted to meet the needs of a wide range of learners.
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Appreciating and Accommodating the Quiet Students
Course Number: TEWS825N
Focus On: Ages 4 – 12 Years
Category: Childhood/ Middle School
Term(s) Offered: Spring
How can we set the stage in classroom and school settings so that all voices can be heard, even the unspoken? A dramatic shift in mindset is needed: one that has at its core an understanding of temperament diversity, with a focus on the needs of the quiet, introverted child. Participants will explore Quiet power with research-based strategies and classroom activities that will enhance the engagement, creativity, and leadership skills for all student personalities, from the introvert to the extrovert. For teachers, administrators, parents, caregivers, child life specialists and museum educators.
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Authentic Arts Integration: Curriculum in Service to Arts
Course Number: TEWS823N
Focus On: Grades 1-5
Category: Childhood
Term(s) Offered: Spring
Working with art materials provides multiple entry points for us to observe the world closely, describe what we see, and reflect on what we create. Through hands-on art-making, this workshop will focus on how to design and implement a process-oriented visual art curriculum that connects to the academic goals you have for your students across subject matter. We will imagine and develop ideas in detail and explore curricular connections to create a multi-step unit plan to be shared and implemented that encourages self-expression. We will also discuss how to support students to build nuanced descriptive vocabulary with advanced literacy protocols. Developing a sketchbook practice in your classroom and using drawing as a thinking tool will also be introduced.
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Building Computational Fluency: Multiplication & Division
Course Number: TEED346N
Focus On: Grades 3 – 6
Category: Childhood / Elementary School
Term(s) Offered: Summer 2
When teachers understand how children make sense of multiplication and division, they are better able to create strategies that support students in developing computational fluency. Using student work samples and video clips, we will explore how children develop meaningful, efficient, and accurate computational strategies for multiplication and division. We’ll examine mathematical ideas central to multiplication and division, thereby deepening mathematical content knowledge. Additionally, we’ll analyze the role of the traditional algorithm in a standards-based elementary mathematics classroom.
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Clarifying Comprehension: Practical Strategies for Educators
Course Number: TEWS671N
Focus On: (Grades 1 – 5)
Category: Childhood / Elementary School
Term(s) Offered: Summer 2
Teaching students to understand what they read is one of the most challenging tasks for teachers; however, there are numerous strategies that offer ways to increase student engagement in the reading process. This workshop covers schema and how to activate it, types of text and how to best teach the differences, ways to instruct with visualization techniques, using Question/Answer/Response (QAR), Think Aloud, Reciprocal Teaching, Retellings (oral and written) for narrative and expository text and how to use it for gleaning information about student process, and ways to teach inferences from text. Please bring some stories or books you are using in your classroom.
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Creating Passionate Readers and Writers: Supporting Boys in Second through Fifth Grade
Course Number: TEWS820N
Focus On: Grades 2 – 5
Category: Childhood / Elementary School
Term(s) Offered: Spring
There is a growing body of research that has raised concerns about boys’ vulnerability in terms of social-emotional development, referral to special education, and academic success in school, particularly in terms of literacy. This workshop focuses on critical issues in the literacy education of boys in second through fifth grade and how to combat stereotypes to better meet all students’ needs, with a particular focus on boys. The workshop will provide specific strategies addressing boys’ social emotional, physical, and academic needs connected to engaging boys in reading and writing that will inform instructional planning. Participants will leave the workshop with multiple strategies to support their male students in becoming passionate readers and writers.
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Early Number, Addition and Subtraction
Course Number: TEED650N
Focus On: Grades K – 4
Category: Childhood / Elementary School
Term(s) Offered: Summer 2
How do children develop computational strategies to help them add and subtract? This course explores how children make sense of these operations. Through video clips and student work samples, we’ll examine effective, efficient, and accurate problem-solving strategies that children can use to master addition and subtraction. We’ll discuss the role of the standard algorithm in a standards-based mathematics classroom and consider the teacher’s role in helping children develop computational fluency. In addition, you will examine mathematical ideas central to addition and subtraction, thereby deepening our own mathematical content knowledge.
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Fractions, Decimals, and Percent Looking at Models, Big Ideas, Strategies & Context
Course Number: TEED652N
Focus On: Grades 2 – 6
Category: Childhood / Elementary School
Term(s) Offered: Summer 2
This course will examine how children construct an understanding of fractions, deceimals, and percents. We will look at various visual models that help make sense of these topics. We’ll examine big ideas and strategies central to fractions, decimals, and percents and look at ways to design a curriculum that elicits these models, big ideas, and strategies. Throughout the entire day’s discussions and activities, we will develop realistic context that allow students to connect fractions, decimals, and percents to the world outside of school.
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Language Matters! Supporting Mathematical Discourse in the Classroom
Course Number: TEWS749N
Focus On: Ages 5 – 13
Category: Childhood / Elementary School
Term(s) Offered: Summer 2
This workshop will explore the role of discourse in the mathematics classroom. How do we support the development of ideas and language in mathematics? All students, including ELLs and those with language-based disabilities, need supported opportunities to communicate their mathematical thinking and develop mathematical language. The workshop will focus on the “why†of mathematics while exploring strategies to support and develop productive discourse for all learners in a classroom.
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Meeting the Diverse Needs of Beginning Readers
Course Number: TEED565N
Focus On: Grades K – 3
Category: Childhood / Elementary School
Term(s) Offered: Spring, Summer 2
In every classroom, some children take longer to master beginning reading skills. Teachers, therefore, need to develop a variety of materials and approaches to help all children, and particularly those having difficulty learning to read. We will discuss and demonstrate strategies you can use to enhance children’s decoding and encoding skills. We will also review methods and engage in activities designed to improve reading comprehension skills. You will have the opportunity to explore how you can use these techniques in your individual school settings. some teaching experience is required.
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Mindfulness in Education
Course Number: TEWS712N
Focus On: Ages 4 – 11 Years
Category: Childhood / Elementary School
Term(s) Offered: Spring, Summer 2
Mindfulness is a particular way of paying attention to internal thoughts, sensations, emotions and external stimuli with kindness. Practicing Mindfulness in educational settings promotes self-regulation and metacognition, while enhancing attention and decreasing stress. In this workshop, you will learn activities to use in your classroom to support classroom instruction, community building, and social-emotional learning. We will also explore the history of Mindfulness, current Mindfulness research, and the impact it has on our minds and bodies. For teachers, administrators, parents, caregivers, child life specialists and museum educators.
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Minds in Motion:bringing Science to Life Through Creative Movement
Course Number: TEWS707N
Focus On: Grades K – 4
Category: Childhood / Elementary School
Term(s) Offered: Summer 2
Children love to move – and they are curious about the natural world. Through this participatory class you will experience how to teach science concepts through creative movement, kinesthetic activities and dance. Learn how to use tableaux to reveal the sequence of transformation; create a journey to follow a life cycle; enter into a story to become a part of nature; construct bodily-kinesthetic activities to explain physical properties. Movement activities will address sound waves, life cycles, electricity, water, animals, seasons, weather, and more.
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The Essential Orton-Gillingham
Course Number: SPED585N
Focus On: Grades 1 – 6
Category: Childhood / Elementary School
Term(s) Offered: Fall, Spring, Summer 2
The Orton-Gillingham method of teaching decoding, spelling, and handwriting is a mulitsensory approach that hs been used successfully with children who experience difficulty learning these skills. This course trains you in the Orton-Gillingham techniques and translates high-interest comprehension activities into literacy programs. Required text: Preventing Academic Failure, by Phyllis Bertin and Eileen Perlman (Monroe Associates). The course addresses NY State English Language Arts Standards 1 and 4.
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Plant-based Learning: Gardening Projects in Classroom
Course Number: TEED649N
Focus On: Pre-k – 4th Grade
Category: Early Childhood
Term(s) Offered: Spring
A growing body of research indicates that plant-based learning projects, such as indoor gardening and school gardens, are powerful teaching tools inside and outside the classroom. These activities provide an atmosphere that incorporates hands-on learning and strengthens academic, personal and social development while encouraging children to develop critical skills such as healthful living, stewardship, decision-making, and self-sufficiency. This course provides participants with an introduction to botany and applications for plant-based learning inside and outside the classroom, even in limited space. We will move beyond bean investigations by exploring cutting edge methods for growing plants and for learning through plant-based projects. Cross-curricular connections will be made through scientific inquiry and literacy as we explore how to use plants to understand phenomena and the world we inhabit. Participants will receive seeds, plants and materials for continued exploration at their schools.
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Words That Move Us: Teaching Language Arts Kinesthetically
Course Number: TEED593N
Focus On: K – 5th Grade
Category: Childhood
Term(s) Offered: Spring (Postponed until in-person classes are possible again.)
Creative movement can bring literacy to life beyond paper and pencil. This course introduces simple movement-based learning activities for increasing reading comprehension, vocabulary, punctuation, and grammar skills. Classroom management issues and the use of music and props will be addressed. This kinesthetic approach, designed to help children refocus and unlock their natural learning abilities, especially supports children with short attention spans or diverse learning styles. You will receive a bibliography of children’s books that are particularly adaptable to movement activities. Dress comfortably
Early Childhood
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Art With Young Children
Course Number: TEED501N
Focus On: Ages 3 – 8 Years
Category: Early Childhood
Term(s) Offered: Spring
This course shows how to provide rich art experiences for young children in a variety of settings.
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Behavior Management Strategies for the Classroom Teacher
Course Number: SETE508N
Focus On: Pre-k – 8th Grade
Category: Early Childhood
Term(s) Offered: Fall, Summer 2
Good classroom management is at the heart of effective teaching. This course is aimed at teachers in regular and special education settings who want to learn how to organize their classrooms to help students realize their maximum potential while also keeping their classes on track. It includes a step-by-step approach for setting up and carrying out a behavior modification strategy. This course is intended for teachers with less than five years experience, but even more experienced professionals will come away with new techniques to add to their repertoire.
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Bibliotherapy in the Early Childhood Setting
Course Number: SETE513N
Focus On: Preschool – 3rd Grade
Category: Early Childhood
Term(s) Offered: Summer 2
Bibliotherapy is the art of using children’s literature to help children understand difficult experiences, and resolve development issues that may interfere with their growth. You will learn how to choose books that address developmental and experiential difficulties. You also will explore how the use of story can help children better understand their own personal experience and learn how to make books that address children’s individual and group needs.
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Constructing a Democratic Classroom: Focus On Routines, Rules and Transitions
Course Number: TEED656N
Focus On: Ages 3 – 9 Years
Category: Early Childhood
Term(s) Offered: Fall, Summer 2
Routines, rules, and transitions may be thought of as providing the framework for the daily life of the classroom. The way in which they are constructed and carried out strongly affects the social, moral, and academic atmosphere in the setting. What does democracy mean in relation to routines, rules, and transitions? How can children have a voice in determining them? The ultimate goal is not simply to create order but also to encourage the development of both autonomy and a caring community. Topics to be considered are views of the nature of the child, developmental appropriateness, flexibility, the meaning of resistance, and how routines and transitions relate to academic learning and the various curriculum areas, particularly social studies. Teachers will examine and analyze the structures in their own and each others’ classrooms.
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Designing Interdisciplinary, Play-based Activities for the Pre-K – First Grade Classroom
Course Number: TEWS666N
Focus On: Grades Pre-k and K
Category: Early Childhood
Term(s) Offered: Summer 2
This workshop will focus broadly on how to design and set up activities to support curriculum in an integrated classroom based upon Bank Street model, with social studies as the core curriculum. We will discuss literacy, math, science, and art activities that incorporate work with materials and play. The workshop will include ways of making these activities more inclusive to address the needs of diverse student population. The unique and specific contexts of your settings will be taken into account and discussed.
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Creative Movement in the Early Childhood Curriculum
Course Number: TEED561N
Focus On: Preschool – 3rd Grade
Category: Early Childhood
Term(s) Offered: Spring
Using scarves, songs, music and children’s literature, we will explore how kinesthetic teaching techniques provide a springboard for the development of body and group awareness, spatial and numerical concepts, language and prereading skills.
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Early Childhood Assessment
Course Number: SETE517N
Focus On: Ages Birth – 6 Years
Category: Early Childhood
Term(s) Offered: Spring, Summer 2
This workshop is designed to promote fluency in your early childhood assessment skills across all domains of development. We will review standardized tests such as the DAYC (Developmental Assessment of Young Children) and the Beery VMI (Visual Motor Integration) and help you polish your clinical observation skills. This course includes an overview of sensory integration processing and developmental domain integration. You will learn how one area of development influences others, and how a delay or disorder in one domain can impact on others.
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Language Difference Versus Disoder in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students
Course Number: TEWS750N
Focus On: Ages 4 Years – 1st Grade
Category: Early Childhood
Term(s) Offered: Summer 2
The goal of this workshop is to enable teachers to differentiate instruction to support the language and literacy development of ELLs/dual language learners in their classroom. Topics include: clinical clues for differentiating language difference and language disorders, instructional strategies to support ELLs/dual language learners, and literacy development for ELLs/dual language learners. Participants will also review the stages of second language acquisition, especially as it relates to culturally and linguistically diverse students in mono and dual language settings. We will also provide strategies for working effectively with diverse families and students and explore best practice in establishing and increasing cross cultural competence in educational settings.
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Motor Play to Enhance Growth in the Classroom
Course Number: TEWS715N
Focus On: Ages 1 – 6
Category: Early Childhood
Term(s) Offered: Fall
This course will demystify concepts such as Sensory Processing, Regulation and Sensory Integration. Participants learn how motor play can impact energy level, attention, and a child’s ability to improve organizational skills. Participants complete the course with a toolbox of activities to enhance fine and gross motor development along with strategies to keep children alert, energized, and in control in the classroom setting. Discussion will include how to collaborate with families and caretakers in using motor play to extend skill building to the home environment along with new neuroscience research underscoring the importance of sensory motor play for brain organization and building the foundation for lifelong learning.
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Plant-based Learning: Gardening Projects in Classroom
Course Number: TEED649N
Focus On: Pre-k – 4th Grade
Category: Early Childhood
Term(s) Offered: Spring
A growing body of research indicates that plant-based learning projects, such as indoor gardening and school gardens, are powerful teaching tools inside and outside the classroom. These activities provide an atmosphere that incorporates hands-on learning and strengthens academic, personal and social development while encouraging children to develop critical skills such as healthful living, stewardship, decision-making, and self-sufficiency. This course provides participants with an introduction to botany and applications for plant-based learning inside and outside the classroom, even in limited space. We will move beyond bean investigations by exploring cutting edge methods for growing plants and for learning through plant-based projects. Cross-curricular connections will be made through scientific inquiry and literacy as we explore how to use plants to understand phenomena and the world we inhabit. Participants will receive seeds, plants and materials for continued exploration at their schools.
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Play-based Curriculum in the Early Childhood Classroom (Preschool - 1st Grade)
Course Number: TEWS826N
Focus On: Preschool- 1st Grade
Category: Early Childhood, Online
Term(s) Offered: Summer 2, Fall
Participants will explore the role of play in a content rich and developmentally appropriate classroom. We will discuss the theory and application of play as a medium for learning in young children; the assessment of behavior and content through play; and the creation of play/learning environments in a variety of educational settings. In addition, participants will learn how to communicate with families to calm their fears and clarify the educational value of play. Participants will leave with strategies and techniques to expand their current play-based curriculum or introduce play-based activities to their traditional setting.
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Play as the Tool of Early Intervention
Course Number: SPED550N
Focus On: Ages Birth – 8 Years
Category: Early Childhood
Term(s) Offered: Summer 2
Young children play to express feelings, gain mastery over materials, and find meaning in complex experiences. When an emotional crisis interferes, with a yound child’s development, play becomes an essential therapeutic tool as well as a diagnostic indicator. This course will utilize current theoretical perspectives to gain insight into children’s play. You will work with these theories to develop play techniques to use in early childhood classrooms and in individual theraphy sessions. A basic understanding of early childhood development is required.
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Reggio-Emilia Approach:interpret Theory & Practice for Schools in Us
Course Number: TEED654N
Focus On: Ages Infant – 5 Years
Category: Early Childhood
Term(s) Offered: Fall, Spring, Summer 2
The early childhood program found in Reggio-Emilia, Italy, incorporates an emphasis on the learning environment, proces vs. product, developmentally appropriate practice, and the importance of the community learners. Much of this philosophy reflects the culture of the Italians and is difficult to re-create in the United States. This workshop is meant to provide an introduction to the approach and will attempt to bridge The Reggio-Emilia theory with American culture. We will view the Reggio-Emilia approach as a means to combat the push-down curriculum, competition, product over process, and the jumping/skipping of learning stages we are now experiencing in this country.
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Sounds in Motion: Development of Auditory Perception & Early Lit Skills Thru Use of Body Movement
Course Number: TEWS693N
Focus On: Pre-k – 1st Grade
Category: Early Childhood
Term(s) Offered: Spring, Summer 2
This workshop is designed to teach educators a unique, engaging, and effective program that helps early learners in both regular and special education classes acquire phonemic awareness, listening, early literacy, vocabulary, and articulation skills through the use of body movements. The program has been shown to be beneficial to children who are English Language Learners, and student who qualify for Title 1 schools. Attendees will learn body movements for 40 phonemes, along with techniques for teaching developmental listening and language skills.
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Supporting Boy's Learning: Strategies for Working in Pre-k Through Grades 3
Course Number: TEWS733N
Focus On: Pre-k – 3rd Grade
Category: Early Childhood
Term(s) Offered: Spring
There is a growing body of research that has raised concerns about boys’ vulnerability in terms of social-emotional development, referral to special education, and academic success in school, particularly in terms of literacy. Long-held stereotypes about how boys and girls are supposed to be limits the potential of both genders. This workshop focuses on critical issues in the education of young boys and how to combat stereotypes to better meet boys needs. The workshop will address specific strategies and resources for:
- Addressing boys’ social emotional and academic needs
- Engaging boys in literacy activities
- Active learning through play
- Observing and recording as a way to inform curriculum planning
This blended workshop format includes a 4-hour in-person synchronous followed by asynchronous online activities and a one-hour synchronous closing session.
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Supporting Emergent Literacy in the Classroom
Course Number: TEED630N
Focus On: Pre-School
Category: Early Childhood
Term(s) Offered: Spring, Summer 2
This course will help the literacy standards for Pre-K programs in a developmentally appropriate fashion. We will explore:
- The role of classroom routines and environment;
- Children’s expressive and receptive language skills and the components of literacy development;
- Center-based, large and small group instruction;
- Ways to read aloud effectively;
- Supporting English language learners;
- Methods of supporting children’s emerging phonemic, phonological, and print awareness;
- How to create meaningful writing experiences.
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Supporting Language Development in the Classroom
Course Number: SEWS554N
Focus On: Ages 2 – 6 Years
Category: Early Childhood
Term(s) Offered: Spring, Summer 2
This workshop is based on the premise that with increased opportunities to practice language in the classroom, young children will become more efficient communicators. Participants will be provided with a variety of classroom techniques that will engage children with a wide range of language abilities and will help them to listen, learn and communicate most effectively. You will learn to analyze teacher communication styles and how to best match them to the language
learning styles of your students. Using a timeline for development as a foundation, we will review the course of typical language acquisition and contrast it with language delay, differences and disorders. We will use multi-sensory materials to practice how to incorporate language- stimulation techniques into daily lessons so as to seize all interactions as language learning opportunities.
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The Youngest Scientists: Hands- On Adventures
Course Number: TEED531N
Focus On: Ages 3 – 8 Years
Category: Early Childhood
Term(s) Offered: Fall, Spring
Bring out the inner scientist in your students and yourself with this course, which includes a wide range of easy-to-do scientific experiments and activities. Using familiar, easily obtainable materials and simple hands-on exercises that illustrate scientific principles, you can learn to make science both accessible and intriguing to children of any age. Some areas covered include: using your senses and scientific tools, science in the air, approaching art and cooking as science, studying living things, and additional adventures in chemistry, physics, electricity, and magnets.
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Using Blocks to Build Creative Inclusive Ec Environments
Course Number: TEWS509N
Focus On: Pre-k – 2nd Grade
Category: Early Childhood
Term(s) Offered: Summer 2
This workshop will introduce setting up and using a block-building area in the classroom. You will be encourage to reimagine the benefits of blocks, link and integrate blockbuilding to the early childhood curriculum, and consider re-organizing the blockbuilding area mid-year in dynamic ways designed to accommodate children’s changing development.
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Using Blocks to Build Creative, Inclusive Early Childhood Environment
Course Number: TEWS709N
Focus On: Pre-k – 2nd Grade
Category: Early Childhood
Term(s) Offered: Summer 2
Blocks, and the dramatic play that accompanies block building, offer children multiple and diverse opportunities to express their understanding of the social and physical world in which they live. From the early efforts of three-and four-year-olds to stack and balance blocks to the dynamic communities of stores, services, and homes built six-and seven-year-olds, children can experience a growing and vital sense of community. Working collaboratively to design block buildings, children learn to articulate and solve problems, to negotiate, and to to cooperate. In this workshop, you will learn how to organize block-building areas in the classroom and get all the children involved–both boys and girls. We will also examine how math, reading, writing, art, science, and woodworking can be incorporated in natural and meaningful ways. Field trips, and the opportunities for first-hand research that they provide, are an essential component of a block program and will also be discussed.
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Using the Supportive Play Model: Individual Intervention in EC Settings
Course Number: SETE511N
Focus On: Ages Birth – 6 Years
Category: Early Childhood
Term(s) Offered: Spring, Summer 2
This model offers a systematic process for observing children with special needs, analyzing their play, and preparing developmentally appropriate play and learning environments which draw from practices in early intervention, the nursery school, and mental healtih. Some experience working with young children is required. Recommended text: Using the Supportive Play Model, Teachers College Press, 1995.
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Working Effectively with your Teaching Team
Course Number: TEWS672N
Focus On: Grades Pre-k and K
Category: Early Childhood
Term(s) Offered: Summer 2
This workshop will explore the complex dynamics of working as a team in an early childhood classroom. here you will learn techniques for building a strong, dynamic teaching team, how to be an effective mentor; how to work collaboratively; and how to delegate responsibilities. We will discuss techniques that create the successful teamwork that benefits both children and teachers.
Leadership
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Dynamic Leadership: Inspiring & Supporting Your Teaching Faculty
Course Number: LEAD528N
Focus On: Ages 3 – 10 Years
Category: Leadership
Term(s) Offered: Summer 2
This course is designed for administrators, program directors and emerging leaders working in early childhood and elementary school settings. Participants will identify opportunities and challenges inherent in the leadership role and examine ways to build engaging teaching and learning communities. Discussion will emphasize concrete ways to motivate, support, inspire and cultivate teacher leaders. Topics will include: creating positive school culture, building teams using assessment instruments, exploring effective ways to use meeting and professional development time, self as leaders, and maximizing on the potential of physical space in an educational setting.
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Leadership in the Time of Covid-19: Staying Afloat, Staying Inspired
Course Number: LEWS575N
Focus On: Across Ages
Category: Leadership, Online
Term(s) Offered: Fall
We are all facing extraordinary challenges that impact the way we convey reassurance and transparency. Join a cohort of leaders who are interested in learning from and with one another. Topics include how to anticipate, clarify, reassure, and lead in this uncertain and ambiguous time, as well as how to build a community that is responsive to current challenges. This discussion-based three-part session will provide time to process, reflect, iterate, and advance your work as a leader.
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Leading Through the Lens of Equity: Incorporating Diverse Literature
Course Number: LEWS574N
Focus On: Grades K-8
Category: Leadership, Online
Term(s) Offered: Fall
Participants will build their leadership capacity to engage in critical conversations through the lens of equity with regards to the inherent challenges faced by students with disabilities, children of color, LGBTQ, English language learners, socioeconomically disadvantaged, as well as unaccompanied youth. Taking into consideration the importance of representation within all facets of education, participants will work together to examine the importance of diverse literature and its incorporation into traditional unit plans and curriculum maps. Participants will further examine practical ways to embed diverse literature into everyday instruction and utilize such literature to engage learners and educators in critical conversations about social justice and racism. This class is designed for school and program administrators, teachers and emerging leaders.
Online
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Dynamic Leadership: Everyone’s a Leader - Building Capacity
Course Number: LEWS571N
Focus On: Across Ages
Category: Leadership
Term(s) Offered: Spring
This synchronous workshop will provide a facilitated discussion on a different leadership topic each week. The focus this spring is on supporting leaders to build the capacity of each staff member. Topics will include: identifying individual strengths, building collective strengths, empowerment and advancement/moving ideas forward. The format will consist of robust and participatory conversation, so you can learn from and with each other. Over the course of this three-part weekly series, leaders will discuss shared experiences in synchronous 1.5 hour sessions and develop ways to put ideas into action specific to their needs. This workshop is designed for administrators, program directors, and emerging leaders interested in developing their own professional growth.
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Introduction to Illustration
Course Number: TEWS809N
Focus On: Across Ages
Category: Career Development
Term(s) Offered: Spring
Sure, you need drawing skills to illustrate a children’s book, but it’s the ability to tell a story visually that makes a children’s book illustrator. In this course, you will learn some of the basic tools including pacing, page-turns, character development and secondary storytelling. We will meet online for 1-hour synchronous sessions to introduce and explore the process and key concepts around illustration for children’s literature. Asynchronous work between sessions, such as illustrating a moment of a well-known fable, will give you the opportunity to apply the concepts introduced in the synchronous sessions. The goal is to better understand the illustration process and how to develop basic strategies to set you on the road to illustrating your own projects.
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Leadership Learning Series: Building Optimal Teams
Course Number: LEWS573N
Focus On: Across Ages
Category: Leadership
Term(s) Offered: Fall
The focus of this 3-part weekly series is to discuss shared experiences and develop ways to put ideas into action specific to your needs. During each session, the instructor will provide an in-depth look at a specific topic, followed by a robust and participatory conversation for the cohort to learn from and with each other. This workshop is designed for administrators, program directors and emerging leaders working in early childhood and elementary school settings. Fall topics include:
- Defining Purpose
- Why Collaborate
- Taking Risks
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Writing for Children III: Publishing 101
Course Number: TEWS808N
Focus On: Across Ages
Category: Online
Term(s) Offered: Spring
So you’ve got a manuscript you’re happy with – now what? This online class will take you through the whole process from creation to post-publication. You’ll learn the basics about queries, agents, and the editorial process as well as how to find like minded writers and promote yourself and your work. Most importantly: you’ll learn what to and what not to do!