North Dakota State University

This course, presented by leaders in the field of brain-based education, addresses the special teaching challenges of students with diverse learning needs including reading disorders, emotional and behavioral disorders, attention disorders and autism. The course emphasizes developing an understanding of the impact of neurobiological differences that present in learning disabled students in a regular classroom.

Instructors will provide teachers with a systems approach with the key components of Multi-Memory system, Self-System, Metacognitive System and Cognitive system to develop declarative and procedural knowledge.
Using innovative, yet practical instructional strategies, teachers will be able to provide tools to students which they can integrate into their daily classroom work and homework, including advanced use of graphic organizers and methods for resolving common problems.
The course is based on an assumption that students can gain knowledge and the skills necessary to perform in today’s world through access to a learning menu of strategies and systems to promote learning in all areas of instruction.

The concept of “automaticity” or the ability to recognize and comprehend written words reflexively is explained and teachers will be exposed to a host of “best practices” tools for a truly inclusive, brain-based learning environment.
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Using a Common Core State standards-based assessment and grading approach Dr. Kay Burke teaches a comprehensive course on the critical role that assessments play in today’s classrooms, both formative and summative. Dr. Burke promotes the use of performance-based tasks that make real-life connections, and explains how to use rubrics to assess the critical skills and understanding that the tasks target. In the course you’ll see Dr. Burke working with teams of teachers to plan instruction and create common assessments and implement them in real classroom settings.Read more...

In this course, Damian Cooper and Ken O’Connor present the need to rethink assessment practices in order to help students learn and become more efficient. Participants analyze their current practice and begin to implement improvements based on newly considered distinctions between assessments "FOR" learning as opposed to assessments "OF" learning.
The course also examines the critical distinctions between formative assessment and summative grades, evaluates whether grades promote learning at all, and what functions they serve in a standards-based system and, most importantly, when, what and how to grade students. Interviews with teachers and in-classroom workshops illustrate the key points throughout the course and provide examples in actual practice.Read more...

Todays global high-tech world requires instruction and assessment that incorporate the latest social, learning, and neuroscience research on critical thinking, multi-tasking, multimodal learning, collaboration, and engagement. Educators will learn from classroom footage and lecture how to use technologically advanced tools that extend students thinking by serving as a means to explore ideas, research questions, test hypotheses, compose thoughts, and come to conclusions. Educators will learn to teach their students to use these tools as vehicles for exploring rigorous academic concepts in authentic environmentsi.e., in the world around them.Read more...

Presenter Robert J. Marzano is one of the nation’s leading education researchers and teacher training instructors and this course is designed to give teachers insight and practical guidance on how to create a structure and mindset that focuses on continually improving their skills.

The course explains the latest research and theory on “reflective practice” meaning improving teacher skills by identifying personal strengths and weaknesses, setting goals and engaging in focused practiced to meet those goals. Teachers will also learn how to examine their practices, set realistic growth goals and use focused practice and feedback for improved performance. Research and theory on reflective practice are then put to the test in applications in real classroom workshops. Teachers will learn how to combine a model of effective instruction with goal setting, focused practice, and focused feedback, observations and discussion to improve their instructional practices.
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A 2010 Schott Foundation for Public Education report showed an alarming downward trend for black male students in American education: the overall graduation rate for black males in the USA was only 47% and in New York City, the district with the highest enrollment of black students, only 28% graduate on time. In this timely and topical course teachers will study the intersection of rigor, relevance and relationships that create a supportive learning environment for African-American boys in the classroom. The presenters focus on effective instructional strategies and how to bridge culture, language, learning styles and perceptions of self-image.
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This invaluable course explains the strategy and methodology of the School-wide Cluster Grouping Model to educators, parents, and administrators. The SCGM identifies gifted students who receive differentiated curriculum and instruction by teachers who understand and can readily respond to their learning needs. SCGM implementation meets the special needs of gifted students without major budget implications and has the potential to raise achievement for students of all ability levels. In this course participants will learn the responsibility of the SCGM model and the training necessary to become at SCGM teacher, administrator, mentor or specialist.

The course features instructional demonstrations from primary, intermediate and middle school classrooms with effective activities in action such as the name card game, various uses of questioning and other differentiated instruction techniques.
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The issue of Character Education has, in many districts, largely shifted from the job of the family and community to a critical component of classroom instruction. To create and maintain a positive and productive learning environment students must develop as moral, civic-minded, well-mannered, non-bullying and, generally well-socialized young people.

The pervasive influence of violence, drugs and gang activity and the shifting role of family structure and parents have contributed to the negative changes in the behavior dynamic among many students that negatively impacts schools, classrooms, teachers and, of course, the ability of everyone to learn.

This course helps educators identify character issues in their own classroom and provides strategies for how to mobilize resources including parents and community members. In addition educators will learn how to create a positive moral community and will explore historical and modern concepts of character and consider how to foreground those concepts for students’ learning sake.

As part of the curriculum, character education through insight, understanding, instruction, problem-solving and conflict-resolution activities will help educators improve relationships in their classroom communities and provide a safer environment for learning and collaboration among their students.
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Educators are powerful role models for students and can impact student behavior, learning and academic success. This course encourages teachers to create an environment conducive to learning by helping students take personal responsibility for their actions and by creating a positive moral climate for solving conflicts. Educators will also explore their own roles as leaders as they pursue the “eight habits of the heart”: a nurturing attitude, responsibility, dependability, friendship, brotherhood, high expectations, courage, and hope. Strategies are also presented to encourage the participation of family and community in the modeling of good character and the creation of a school-wide character education program that leverages involvement from businesses, faith communities, parents, and coaches.Read more...

Charlotte Danielson's A Framework for Teaching defines teachers responsibilities, which fall into four domains: planning and preparation, classroom environment, instruction, and professional responsibilities. Through lectures, classroom observations, and vigorous panel discussions, educators work through how to use the Framework to scrutinize and strengthen classroom teaching practices to improve student learning. Punctuated by worksheets and activities, the course prepares educators to use the Framework to become their best professional selves.

Required Text: Enhancing Professional Practice: A Framework for Teaching (Charlotte Danielson, ASCD, 2007) Click the link on the right to order from Amazon.com.Read more...

This course provides a dynamic series of sessions to develop coaching as a process, a relationship, a specific set of skills, and a powerful strategy for creating change in people and organizations. The role of “coach” is becoming more widely used in our schools. This course clarifies the roles and skills necessary for effective coaching which leads to successful change.

This workshop illustrates techniques of a leader in coaching as teachers, superintendents, and other educators role play and determine effective and appropriate coaching scenarios to improve academic achievement, professional development and organizational change.
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Presenters Tim Kanold and Diane Briars fully explore Common Core State Standards in mathematics in this course. Working with small groups of teachers of grades 3-8, they demonstrate how to create rigorous curriculum units, develop high-impact instructional strategies, create common assessments, as well as build informal progress monitoring checks. The course also features video of real classroom instruction using standards-based lessons and offers a discussion of teacher learning paths to implementation.Read more...

Based on the acclaimed book, Data, Data Everywhere, this course documents the efforts of one school staff to improve student achievement at every grade level, in every subject area, and with every student group. As they trace one school’s progress, participants also engage in the stages of data collection and analysis, self-assessment, identification of specific problems and pathways to solutions, articulation of a vision, and design and implementation of a plan to implement that vision. The course features interviews, workshop footage, and lectures, explaining participants learn how to engage in the Education for the Future Institute’s Continuous School Improvement process.Read more...

This course takes a fresh approach to capturing and analyzing student data, moving away from the conventional Bell Curve which reflects the failures of teachers and students as much as the successes. Instead, this course looks at data-driven decisions which use classroom data well beyond letter grades in the form of graphs, charts and diagrams which inform instructional practice, not just reflect the current status, to improve student achievement.
In this course educators will learn how to choose the right tools to make data-driven decisions and be given examples in workshop settings of the process for charting and reading data that provides insight and helps guide instruction and resource deployment.
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In this course, educators will learn tools to create lesson plans and assessment systems that enable them to prepare students for standard testing and still offer differentiated instruction that respects their different needs and individuality. Quality pre-assessments will help shape the differentiating teacher’s instructional choices and processes while formative assessment takes a primary role in the differentiated classroom providing feedback, documenting progress, and guiding instructional decisions. Assessments will be used to communicate, rather than to compensate or reward, and educators will scrutinize grading systems to identify when they are unfairly “norm-referenced” or biased, and will acquire skills to convert assessments to nonjudgmental, criteria-referenced systems. This course is designed to manage the differentiated classroom by offering students nurturing, rigorous, fair and differentiated instruction that encourages student engagement, leading to improved academic success.Read more...

Two of the most highly regarded names in educational neuroscience and differentiation combine forces to create a new model of effective teaching. In this course Carol Ann Tomlinson and David Sousa explain how discoveries about how the brain learns enhance the basic principles of differentiation. Armed with this knowledge, teachers will be able to make the best curricular, instructional, and assessment choices to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student population.Read more...

With an emphasis on real, whole, and negative numbers, presenter Paul Lawrence provides educators with easy-to-implement, well-sequenced activities that promote conceptual understanding and relate concrete understanding to symbolic interpretation. Educators will learn techniques to assess student understanding of skills and concepts so lessons can be adjusted to meet student needs and expand their understanding of mathematical concepts.Read more...

With an emphasis on mastering multiplication and division and on the concepts of fractions and decimals, this course provides educators with easy-to-implement, well-sequenced activities that promote conceptual understanding and relate concrete understanding to symbolic interpretation. Educators will learn techniques to assess student understanding of skills and concepts so that lessons can be adjusted to meet student needs and expand their understanding of mathematical concepts.Read more...

Outbursts of anger among students can be a major distruption in classrooms and have the capacity to escalate out of control and frighten, even harm fellow students and their teachers. Research overwhelmingly shows that a well-managed classroom with discipline and consistent guidelines is the ideal learning environment and this course is designed to help educators gain control over anger issues-their own as well as their students’-to manage classrooms more effectively.

Participants will be introduced to current brain research that will explain neurological and bio-chemical responses in anger-evoking situations. Practical coping strategies will help teachers deal with related emotions such as shame and help students prevent their anger emotions from interfering with learning.
This course can be taken alone or with Effective Classroom Discipline: Anger Management, Part II.
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The expression of anger at school can disrupt instruction, create a hostile environment, and make students and teachers feel unsafe. This course explores the relationship between anger, violence prevention, and effective discipline in schools. Participants study how to better manage and respond to anger-their own and others’-and thereby enrich their classrooms and schools. Participants also learn to support calm brain states for students and to promote emotionally safe climates in which students’ productivity can thrive. Adopting a healthy philosophy of anger will make participants adept managers of that unruly emotion. This course can be taken alone or with Effective Classroom Discipline: Anger Management, Part I.Read more...

Education experts Robert J. Marzano, PhD and Tammy Heflebower explain the research, theory and practice of their widely adopted methodology based on the assumption that to design instruction that advances all their students’ achievement, teachers must be able to design assessments that fully illuminate what their students are learning. Participants will learn how to track student progress through detailed descriptors of the essential skills and knowledge students must learn for meaningful and purposeful learning; the kind of feedback, assessment, and grading students need to help them learn; how to construct those assessments; how to create rubric-based scales to inform both formative and summative assessments; and how to monitor and affect student progress. The course features interviews with teachers and students, classroom footage, workshop activities, presentations, and an accompanying text. Grading criteria can also then be more adequately communicated to parents in measuring student achievement. Read more...

In this expansive course on the topic of reporting and grading, the focus is on the meaning of grades for parents and students. It explores whether teachers are consistent in giving grades and reviews common methods in grading students. Presenters Guskey and Jung challenge traditional practices and propose options that show how grading methods can be modified and combined to benefit students and their parents. Also included is a section on the challenges of grading struggling learners and special needs students. Jung and Guskey lay out a five-step inclusive grading model resulting in a system that showcases best practices for standards-based grading.Read more...

Grading has a profound impact both on students’ futures and on how and what they learn. Yet, traditional grading is marred by undue influences and questionable practices. In this course, participants learn from workshop, classroom, and interview footage to assess their grading and feedback for accuracy, fairness, specificity, and timeliness. They explore ways to improve their feedback to students during the learning process. Finally, they question some customary practices—including not distinguishing academic from behavioral issues, giving mathematically imprecise zeros, and grading the process rather than the product—and consider elegant and efficient alternatives to affect student engagement and achievement.Read more...

Presenter Nica Lalli helps educators discover routes to dedicated art instruction-through Internet research, image study and museum trips-to help students enhance their skills at observation, interpretation and implementation for all curriculum subjects. In this course, teachers will discover how to use art to introduce a broader field of inquiry from studying diverse cultures and points-of-view to creative writing projects and even match curriclula. The course features classroom footage of Lalli asking critical questions of the art object’s origins and meaning, modeling the rewarding tasks of looking at art with students and engaging with them in hands-on projects that reinforce lessons.
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In this course instructional leaders, team leaders, teacher mentors, educational coaches, and administrators will learn a new model of strategic conversations designed to help quickly understand and assess the primary needs of the teaching staff, strategically apply their leadership skills to motivate and support teachers, and help teachers make connections between their instructional techniques and student performance. Four conversational types are modeled by the presenter: reflective, facilitative, coaching, and directive. Modeling shows how to have conversations with teachers about recognizing the impact on their behavior on students and assisting them in making the necessary connections, commitments, corrections, or changes to their teaching practices to keep students motivated, engaged and focused on learning.Read more...

Charlotte Danielson’s acclaimed A Framework for Teaching provides administrators and educators with a research-based, proven evaluation system to promote professional standards for quality and professional development. In this course teachers will learn a range of functions for the Framework, from supporting self-assessment and reflection, to providing formative assessment of teachers’ practice, to providing support for improving their practice. A panel of administrators with experience implementing the Framework in their schools and districts detail necessary steps to implementation and guidelines to facilitate the process. Educators will come away prepared to instigate and utilize this evaluation system that has been adopted and touted by so many—teachers and administrators alike.Read more...

To be effective teachers must essentially find strategies to “manage it all”: establish a classroom environment that facilitates learning, differentiate instruction and assessment, facilitate learning through cooperative groups and, meet their own professional goals. In this course presenter Debbie Silver shares veteran classroom management techniques and strategies to maintain a well-run classroom.
Among the topics covered are: heading off discipline problems using student-centered techniques; using “discrepant events” to challenge students’ prior assumptions; using zone of proximal development strategies to develop activities that are attainable but just beyond student reach; using cooperative learning as a teaching strategy, where the teacher’s role shifts from direct instruction to facilitation of group interactions; using intrinsic rewards to motivate students for lifelong learning, not extrinsic rewards for short term gain; designing high-quality curriculum integrating standards using backwards design principles, and developing activities suited to different learning styles. Finally teachers will learn how to evaluate and prioritize their own activities, delegate, and make time to reach their personal and professional goals with timesaving strategies, practical tips, and great ideas to create an effective learning environment.
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Meaningful learning achievement requires a high level of student engagement. This course teaches educators how to foster and encourage engagement through a variety of techniques and strategies including crafting the classroom environment, structuring lesson plans and using innovative teaching techniques. The course features interviews with teachers and students, classroom footage, workshop activities, lectures and an accompanying eBook.Read more...

Assisting underachievers before a pattern of failure becomes engrained can lead to improved student success in school. In this course educators learn to identify the prototypical causes of underachievement such as low self-esteem and peer pressure, identify underachievers in the classroom, including gifted students, and select specific research-based interventions to target those students, using the three-tier Response to Intervention (RTI) system to reverse a pattern of underachievement. Through the combined efforts of differentiated instruction (DI) and RTI, educators become flexible planners providing viable choices and monitor progress to identify academic strengths to motivate progress. The course also includes the crucial role of flexible groupings as an essential strategy and studies compacting, scaffolding, and tiering strategies. For classrooms with a range of learning preferences, educators learn techniques to accommodate them and then how to monitor students’ progress within and beyond those preferences.Read more...

To assist their English language learners across the curriculum, educators learn the foundations of language development and language acquisition, setting the stage for developing instructional strategies for ELLs across all subject areas. Jiménez demonstrates strategies for assessing students knowledge, identifying learning objectives, and developing differentiated instruction for various levels of language proficiency. In addition, she reviews the contextual factors that impact the success of academic pursuits.Read more...

Presenter Robyn R. Jackson’s course teaches educators specific strategies for supporting struggling students without lowering standards. Beginning with an explanation of why students typically struggle in school, the course explores acceleration strategies designed to actually prevent problems with progressive intervention strategies that directly address common issues and how to quickly get students back on track plus remediation techniques to target specific areas and prepare students for summative assessments.

The course covers four stages of rigorous learning: acquisition, application, assimilation, and adaptation. Teachers will learn how to support students through each stage, learn specific instructional and support strategies for increasing students’ capacity to engage in rigorous learning experiences, explore ways to increase the rigor of their own courses, and assessment strategies that extend students’ rigorous learning throughout the unit. Finally, participants will develop a proactive intervention plan that supports students’ rigorous learning before the lesson, during learning, and through the summative assessment.
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For ELL students the foundation of language acquisition and development are essential for setting the stage for developing instructional strategies that are comprehensible across the curriculum. In this course presenter Elizabeth Jiménez demonstrates a comprehensive strategy for ELL educators including: assessing student knowledge, identifying language learning objectives, and developing differentiated instructional practices. The course also features research-based pedagogical tactics that promote comprehension such as background building, frontloading vocabulary, using graphic organizers to enhance higher order thinking, leveraging the primary language to facilitate learning, using culturally responsive materials, and employing media, technology and other visual supports to enhance learning. Participants will also learn how to preview textbooks for idiomatic expressions and multiple meaning words, to plan lessons that incorporate academic language development, and to utilize primary language cognates. In addition, Jiménez reviews contextual factors such as motivation, peer pressure, family values, and L-1 proficiency that impact the success of academic pursuits. An interview with a student about the influence of gangs in his community provides perspective and insight for teachers about reaching disaffected students.Read more...

Despite the still-dominant view that ELs are a homogeneous group whose needs can be addressed in a one-size-fits-all solution, this course focuses on a differentiated instruction approach based on research-based, constructive and personalized learning in reading and comprehension. Presenter Margarita Calderón provides an invaluable set of resources and practical tools which teachers can implement immediately in the classroom and in promoting strong collaboration among teachers and administrators.Read more...

Using media selectively in the classroom can greatly enhance instruction, assessment and student engagement. In this course, teachers will learn the best practices for using images, video, audio and selective hardware, software and web-based collaborative tools. Panel discussions, interviews and practice sessions will also help educators sort through projects and resources to replace textbook-driven instruction with media-based tools and tips are provided for digital interventions for students with learning differences and/or struggling students.Read more...

In this course, teachers and administrators learn to engage and educate the millennial learner using still images, video and audio clips, assorted technological soft- and hardware, and Web 2.0 collaborative tools to augment instruction and assessment. Aided by energetic panel discussions, interviews, and screen capture sessions, educators will investigate new projects and resources to replace textbook-driven instruction and to motivate and edify their "powered up" 21st century students.Read more...

Presenter Anthony Muhammad sheds new light on understanding the complicated and dynamic relationships among school professionals in order to create a cohesive and positive culture. In this course he identifies four general archetypes: The Believers, The Tweeners, The Survivors and The Fundamentals. If not working harmoniously these types taken as a group on your staff can be highly resistant to change and prone to interpersonal discord. This course will provide insight coupled with practical strategies for understanding and working with each type to dramatically improve school culture.Read more...

As the nation’s population shifts toward a strongly multiracial and multicultural composition, teacher effectiveness can gain significantly from gaining insight and staying up-to-date on the latest research on “best practices” in teaching in a culturally diverse environment. This course explores how culture shapes both students and educators and gives expert guidance on learning how to interpret, understand and incorporate insight into cultural diversity in the classroom. Teachers will learn how to best navigate through and even avoid misunderstandings and misinterpretations that can easily happen in a culturally diverse environment and will gain greater awareness about how cultural differences can affect their own behavior, discipline decisions and assessments of student ability and potential.Read more...

This course focuses on eight learning attributes and the core teaching and assessment strategies that connect with today’s students, born in the age of the Internet and whose learning habits have been heavily influenced by their digital world. Teachers will learn to develop research-based constructivist models to help students think, explore, and develop their own learning process which will help them with classroom testing and lifelong learning expectations beyond. Information bombardment, interactivity and general communication is fundamentally different for digital natives than previous generations and presenter Ian Jukes introduces neuroscientific and psychological research explaining how the use of technology, including frequent interruptions and shifts in attention, impacts the functions of the brain. Jukes explains how a shift in teaching is required to prepare teachers and students for the Information Age. After identifying and challenging unconscious and outdated assumptions about schools and learning, educators will analyze and update their criteria about what constitutes knowledge, critical thinking, and problem solving to better adapt their instructional practices and assessment strategies to the requirements of the digitized 21st century.Read more...

Presenter Rushton Hurley’s course is an engaging guide to learning why and how to use a range of tools and strategies to empower students to express themselves through digital media and to develop learning curriculum through projects such as creating slideshows, screen casts, audio, and video projects. The course features step-by-step instruction through the essential stages of projects, models of good practice, and interviews with teachers who have incorporated these projects along with discussions of the benefits for students and the teachers themselves. Research on digital media in instruction confirms that incorporating multimedia in to curriculum expands students’ critical and creative thinking skills, increases their motivation and self-esteem, and helps them develop the skills essential to the 21st century, including technological expertise and productive collaboration.Read more...

In this course, teachers will learn how to integrate proven instructional strategies with 21st century tools to make learning more accessible to today's technology-savvy students. Teachers will recongnize the traditional skills that students need to acquire -- information fluency, persuasion, communication, collaboration, and problem solving -- and discover a digital solution to enhance, rather than replace, familiar practices to each that skill.Read more...