You will need to register with and pay fees to ASCD and Chapman University.

1. Go to www.ascd.org and click on "Professional Development" to register and pay the $99 ASCD fee.
2. To register with Chapman University, download the registration form and fax to 949-754-1337, or mail to: Chapman University, Extended Education, 16355 Laguna Canyon Road, Irvine, CA 92618.

Ask Now, Not Later: How to Evaluate Professional Development
To create powerful powerful development (PD) programs, you must plan with results in mind, monitor the programs more closely by using specific evaluation models, and then adjust them as needed to make them as effective as possible. In this 8 lesson course, you will learn how to use formative and summative evaluation data to make PD programs more powerful. Specifically, you will learn how to ensure that your adult learners increase their understanding and skills and can use what they learn in the workplace. Professional development leaders frequently just assume that their adult participants are learning the content. To get results from PD programs, you need to accept that collecting qualitative and quantitative data from your participants is no longer optional — it is required to document immediate participant learning as well as subsequent new skill transfer and implementation.

Becoming an Effective Substitute Teacher
Substitute teachers are critical to the success of our K–12 system. Substitutes are called in for short- and long-term assignments, for emergency absences, and to ensure that students still receive sound educational instruction when their regular teachers are participating in professional development. What does it mean to be effective? It means being prepared, knowledgeable, and professional. It means being able to manage classroom behavior and to provide stimulating instruction. It means communicating students' daily progress to the regular classroom teacher. In this 7 lesson course, the participant will be introduced to proven best practices for becoming an effective substitute teacher — from the use of a sub-pack, to classroom management strategies, to teaching suggestions.

The Brain: Memory and Learning Strategies
This 6 lesson course examines teaching strategies that have been proven to enhance learning, and will explore why these strategies might be effective in terms of how the brain remembers. This course will focus on memory and seek to relate it to classroom practices. Specifically, the course will explain the two memory systems that have been definitively identified by neuroscience — explicit and implicit — and show how certain instructional strategies may promote particular types of memory formation. When you complete Memory and Learning Strategies, you will have become acquainted with the basics of how the brain forms new memories. It is the instructor's intention that this information will combine with your own clinical knowledge and experience to enhance learning opportunities for your students.

The Brain: Understanding the Mind
It's important that teachers understand how their attitudes and presence in the classroom can affect how the brain learns. It's also important that teachers understand that they can help students develop a positive mindset and an enthusiasm for learning.
This seven-lesson course will give teachers and teacher leaders a chance to examine how social-emotional and external factors affect the brain's performance and, as a result, influence learning. Participants will also explore such factors as attitudes toward learning and motivation as well as the importance of proper nutrition and adequate exercise.

The Brain: Understanding the Physical Brain
In this 7 lesson course, participants will explore the physical aspects of the brain and consider its role in emotions, memory, reasoning, planning, and problem solving. Participants will examine the possible implications for classroom practice and hear from prominent educators and scientists who have been studying the brain for many years. Throughout the course, participants will broaden their understanding of how to best use what they know about the brain to guide teachers' practice.

Bridging Learning Theory in the Classroom
Giving the learner more control has been a key goal of education reform in recent years. The modern classroom should reflect a learning environment that is far different than what is now called the traditional model. When we eagerly adopt new learning theories, the implication is that older theories are outmoded, or just plain wrong, and that the newer theories offer a panacea — educate everyone in just the right way, at just the right time. This raises the question: Should older theories be discarded and newer theories be used to the exclusion of others? As we consider this question and related issues in this 6 lesson course, we'll explore several influential teaching models; discuss the role of personalization through the incorporation of learning and teaching styles into the educational paradigm; and preview how those learning theories are bridged in the classroom.

Bullying: Let's Break the Cycle
Bullying is a universal problem — not limited to poorer neighborhoods, urban schools, or crowded classrooms. It is found everywhere. In every class, school, and country. In fact, the world's foremost authority on bullying is a Norwegian, Dan Olweus, who has been providing research and support for more than 20 years. Years ago, the reaction to a report of bullying was to ask the victim, "What did you do to make her angry?" and to say to the bully, "You know you shouldn't do that. Now I want you to shake hands, apologize, and let's forget this happened." But forgetting isn't really an option for either the bully or the victim. A vicious cycle of power imbalance establishes itself and must be broken. As long as the rate of bullying increases, we are not doing enough to create safe school environments. In this seven-lesson course, you will investigate the three components of an effective bullying definition; the effect of bullying on stakeholders; legal perspectives; strategies that support the bully and victim; and identify successful intervention programs.

Classroom Management: A Teacher-Student Collaboration
This 7-lesson course asks you to think about classroom management as a way of interacting with students. It suggests that cooperation and enthusiasm for learning are not things that teachers build in students; rather, they are behaviors and attitudes that teachers help students recognize within themselves. The strategies presented will emphasize helping students discover that they want to be cooperative, active learners. Among other learning goals, this course will allow teachers to explore intent. You will consider what you bring to the student-teacher relationship, and examine how your personality, background, and biases influence how you interact with students. Additionally, you will investigate how an engaging curriculum can help eliminate most classroom management challenges. And you will have a chance to explore why it's important to give students a voice in the classroom, along with the strategies for doing so. You will then explore several classroom management models and determine how those approaches can be adapted for your own context.

Classroom Management: Building Relationships for Better Learning
This 7 lesson course presents a broad conception of classroom management. Participants will explore how interpersonal relationships can provide the key to successful classroom management. In this course, participants will reflect on their relationships with students and develop a plan for enhancing these relationships; practice successful strategies for eliminating inappropriate classroom behavior; learn how to develop students' emotional intelligence as a way to manage classroom behavior; and adopt an approach to classroom management that will not be a constant drain on class time. This course provides reflective activities, opportunities to observe and analyze classroom interactions, and actual skill practice.

Classroom Management: Managing Challenging Behavior
For many teachers, managing student behavior has become a challenge. Behavioral problems such as noncompliance, defiance, inattention, and aggression are an everyday occurrence. These day-to-day challenges steadily wear down the good and positive attitudes present at the beginning of the school year. This 7-lesson course offers strategies to help teachers move beyond judgments of challenging behaviors and look at the behaviors more objectively, allowing the teacher to shift focus from controlling the student to teaching the student personal responsibility — educating the student to become a self-regulated learner. Making this transition from a traditional discipline system to a more contemporary approach to managing challenging behaviors requires an understanding of several issues, including: challenging behavior risk factors; teacher self-monitoring skills; control versus power games; accepting personal responsibility; and family and community involvement.

Conflict Resolution
This 6 lesson course helps educators understand how they can teach conflict resolution skills and empower students to resolve conflicts. Based on the Johnson and Johnson book, Reducing School Violence, this course helps teachers understand how they can — and why they should — address conflict resolution in the classroom and, if feasible, in the school setting. Teachers’ responsibilities include: creating an environment that empowers students to resolve conflicts constructively; teaching students how to negotiate; teaching students how to mediate; knowing how and when to mediate if peer mediation fails; and knowing how and when to arbitrate if peer and teacher mediation fails. This course also features lessons from the Working Together to Resolve Conflict curriculum published by the University of Florida's Conflict Resolution/Peer Mediation Project.

Contemporary School Leadership
Leading today’s complex schools is a challenge. In fact, it's estimated that more than 40 percent of principals have left the profession over the last ten years (Matthews, 2002), quite possibly because of the changed nature of their jobs. Principals report they are frustrated by the lack of time to complete their tasks. In this 6 lesson course, we provide an overview of topics contemporary school leaders need to know as contemporary leaders, including: defining instructional leadership, using data to support continuous progress, dealing with complex change, investigating distributive leadership strategies, supporting learning communities, and redefining professional development as a process, not an event.

Crafting Curriculum
This 6 lesson course focuses primarily on guiding curriculum development questions and examines the way in which instruction and assessment support — and are supported by — the curriculum. It also provides an opportunity for each learner to think about the choices educators make in the process of developing an instructional program. Among other learning goals, the participant will define curriculum and other terms associated with the curriculum development process; explore various types of curriculum; examine approaches educators often take when creating curriculum; determine how to ensure that curriculum is coherent; and explore the links between curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

Creating an Effective Secondary Reading Program
Secondary educators today know that reading instruction and intervention is no longer the work of elementary teachers alone. As a result, secondary educators recognize the importance of implementing a comprehensive literacy program. In this course, author Tracy Wilson shares some of the tools needed for success in this endeavor. This course—a literacy roadmap—presents research and suggestions for implementing and sustaining change in a school's infrastructure and instructional programs. Among other learning goals, participants will learn strategies for effective reading intervention, review model programs that have successfully boosted literacy as well as examine the key components of a successful secondary literacy program.

Creating an Effective Substitute Teacher Program
The words, "Substitute! Substitute! Yeah!" ringing down school corridors bring to mind images of kids running wild. But it doesn't have to be that way. This 6 lesson course is designed for anyone tasked with setting up substitute training programs who wants to go beyond the traditional bodily fluid and hazardous material type workshop. Successful programs are comprehensive and provide the following: clear expectations, professional development opportunities, subsequent training sessions, and supervision and feedback procedures. In short, our goal is to provide examples of exemplary programs, discuss why they are exemplary, and to provide the participant with the tools to create or improve your substitute training program so that it addresses specific district needs and gives substitute teachers an informed voice.

Creating and Sustaining Professional Learning Communities
In an effort to address the question, How can we improve student learning, contemporary school leaders can create and sustain professional learning communities (PLCs), which provide support systems to accurately identify and meet the ever changing needs of each student. Schools that operate as professional learning communities enable their members to discuss problems and to develop strategies for dealing with those problems. In this 7-lesson course, we have three objectives. The first is to investigate how contemporary school leaders communicate and collaborate with all stakeholders, including parents, teachers, administrators, community members, and district personnel, to promote the vision of improved student learning. The second objective is to discuss the roles of student improvement plans (SIPs), issues of change, and professional development in building the spiral of reform that facilitates successful learning communities. Finally, our third objective is to offer several strategies for instantiating and sustaining the learning community process.

Creating Standards-Based Curricula
The standards movement has brought sweeping changes to states, districts, and schools across the U.S. While the goals of standards are clear, the process involved in achieving those goals can be quite overwhelming. This 6 lesson course will introduce and help clarify the processes required to successfully implement standards into the curriculum. Participants of this course will learn what the standards movement is; understand the impact the standards movement has on teachers, administrators, students, and parents; review how national and state standards are influencing how teachers teach today and what steps need to be taken to ensure that all children are reaching the goals of those standards; understand the basic steps needed to implement standards; understand how to continue using various teaching strategies in the standards-based classroom; and understand the challenges involved in implementing standards.

Designing Performance Assessments
This 6 lesson course focuses on the purpose of performance assessments and shows participants how to develop performance assessment tasks. In addition to explaining what performance assessment is, this course provides a model to guide educators in developing performance assessments that provide meaningful feedback concerning student learning to students, teachers, and parents.

Differentiating Instruction
This 5 lesson course is designed to enhance participants' understanding of how to better meet the needs of different learners. Participants will examine the characteristics of a differentiated classroom; learn how to frame instruction around concepts and essential understandings; identify techniques for differentiating content, process, and product; and explore how to differentiate on the basis of students' readiness, interest, and learning profile. Participants will also reflect on their beliefs and practices relative to differentiation, read and analyze examples of differentiated learning activities, and design a differentiated activity.

Effective Leadership
This 8 lesson course introduces participants to a variety of tools and techniques designed to enhance leadership skills. However, knowing one's own leadership talents is only part of becoming a more effective leader. Other topics include how to improve the team-building process, how to resolve conflict, and how to become more effective decision makers. Extensive interactive exercises provide participants with ample opportunity to extend their understanding of effective leadership issues.

Embracing Diversity, Respecting Others
This 7 lesson course is designed to give teachers the tools they need to create environments of acceptance and harmony in today's schools. Participants will first explore the diverse landscape that is the United States and its schools today. Participants will then be asked to look inward and reflect on their own beliefs and biases. Lastly, participants will be asked to set tolerance goals for their schools and to create an action plan that will help them accomplish their goals. This course will also give participants an opportunity to explore curricula and lessons that focus on tolerance and diversity. Additionally, participants will learn about instructional approaches that have been recommended by tolerance professionals and used by teachers.

English Language Learners in the Mainstream: Strategies That Work
English Language Learners (ELLs) make up the fastest-growing segment of the population in many schools across the United States. As a result, many general education teachers find they are in the position, with limited preparation and training, to teach these learners. In order to do this most effectively, teachers must learn about second language acquisition and find ways to meet the unique needs of their ELL students. This seven-lesson course aims to prepare teachers to work more effectively with English language learners in mainstream classes. Providing English language learners with appropriate instruction and support in the mainstream classroom takes extra time and effort, but the payoff is worth it. Not only do ELL students benefit, so does the rest of the class.

Exemplary Assessment: Measurement That's Useful
One-shot, fill-in-the-blank testing is no longer an adequate measure of performance in the 21st century. Paper-and-pencil assessments are not entirely obsolete — they can provide information about a student's performance — but their ability to do so is necessarily limited. In this 6 lesson course, participants will have the opportunity to think about current assessment practices and learn the key ingredients to any effective assessment, including why assessment reform is necessary, examine reform challenges, learn about effective assessment measures, and explore ways to move your school toward using more effective assessment. This course is designed for educators interested in learning about exemplary assessment or improving assessment practices.

Global Education
This 7 lesson course provides an introduction to teaching using a global perspective. Merry Merryfield, Professor of Social Studies and Global Education at Ohio State University, and Tim Dove, Social Studies teacher at McCord Middle School in Worthington, Ohio, offer their perspectives throughout the course. Participants will explore elements of global education; observe how others have incorporated global education into their classrooms or schools; critique classroom-tested lesson plans and units; infuse global education into a lesson, unit, or theme you already teach; explore teaching strategies; locate national and state standards and frameworks that address global education; and find networking opportunities with others interested in global education through the ASCD Global Education Network. The Nuts and Bolts segments will help participants explore some practical questions and concerns about global education.

Helping Struggling Readers
The importance of knowing how to read can be summed up very simply: We must know how to read if we want to succeed in school and in life. In this seven-lesson course, we present strategies that teachers can use to help struggling readers. Among other course goals, participants will learn how to help students develop phonemic awareness and phonics knowledge, ways to teach vocabulary, and how to help students make meaning from text. Participants will also consider why sustained silent reading should be incorporated at all grade levels (K-12). Finally, after reviewing model reading improvement programs, participants will create an action plan that they can use with their own struggling readers.

Improving Student Achievement with Dimensions of Learning
In this 7-lesson course, you will look at what is known about the learning process and then investigate and apply research-based instructional strategies that will help your students become productive members of exciting and creative communities of learning. This course is ideal for instructors and central office curriculum specialists interested in creating and sustaining classrooms that promote the principles of equity and excellence. As you focus on the five Dimensions of Learning that reflect these principles, you will investigate strategies for creating a classroom climate that helps even resistant or underachieving students blossom by making them feel safe and accepted; learn how Dimensions of Learning can promote true standards-based instruction and learning; examine what is known about teaching thinking skills directly, including promoting students' ability to respond to open-ended and interpretive questions; look at ways for students to use complex reasoning processes within meaningful, real-world tasks and independent projects; and consider how educators can become catalysts for promoting students' commitment to lifelong learning.

The Inclusive Classroom
In 1975, the U.S. government declared that all disabled children have the right to a free education. The law Congress passed also stipulated that students with disabilities must be educated with children who are not handicapped to the maximum extent possible. According to the lawmakers, the general education classroom was the least restrictive environment for learning and development to take place for a disabled person. Teachers who already have students with mild to moderate learning disabilities, or who teach (or will be teaching) severely disabled students, will find this seven-lesson course helpful. Each lesson addresses some of the most common concerns that educators have about teaching students with disabilities — concerns about the effectiveness of inclusion, anxiety about not having enough time or enough training, fear about the potential disruption to their class, and uncertainty about the most effective teaching strategies and assessment measures for disabled students.

Mathematics for Grades 3-5
As mathematics professionals, it is our obligation to support effective teaching practices — to use the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) process and content standards as our benchmarks and to encourage and promote an integrated mathematics curriculum that introduces algebraic and geometric concepts early in our students' education careers. In this 7-lesson course, we'll investigate what makes a good mathematics program by examining the six fundamental principles that promote student understanding and learning; exploring the connections among NCTM's five process standards; identifying how teachers implement instructional practices that promote learning; examining effective assessment practices; reviewing grade-level expectations; analyzing the effects of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) on educators in the United States; and considering the future changes that technology might bring about.

Maximizing Assistance: Supervising Paraeducators in Your Classroom
More than 930,000 paraeducators were employed in the United States in 1995—a number the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts will increase by 38 percent by 2005. As the number of paraeducators has increased, so has the complexity in the tasks assigned to them. Recent No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation provides specific requirements as to the role paraeducators will have in the classroom. So, the need to train teachers on how to supervise paraeducators is critical, especially as many teachers—in both general and special education settings—have not been prepared for this role. In this five-lesson PD Online course, teachers will have a chance to consider their ideas about supervision and explore the contributions paraeducators and other adults can make to our children's educations. Those taking this course will also have an opportunity to create a plan for training and working effectively with the paraeducators in the classroom.

Middle School Mathematics
In late 2003, Johnny Lott, president of National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), hosted an online chat session where he asserted, in effect, that students are being trained to believe they cannot excel in mathematics. In fact, he even went so far as to term this "mathematical abuse" (Lott, 2003, para. 3). Although some participants thought his claim resembled tabloid hyperbole, others agreed with his ideas. Of course, we don't presume that this six-lesson course will address everyone's concerns about mathematics teaching and learning, but we do believe that it continues the tradition started with an earlier PD Online course, Early Childhood Mathematics, of aligning standards with solid teaching strategies. In particular, we address the role of NCTM in promoting best practices, and we underscore our belief that mathematics teaching can improve if we emphasis understanding rather than simply processes, support relevant activities and lessons, use brain-based strategies to facilitate learning, and combine the use of standards with a sense of mathematical wonder.

Observing for Dimensions of Learning in Schools
Dimensions of Learning was one of the first comprehensive instructional improvement models to be based on the learning process itself. We know that learning improves when the learner's self-knowledge is taken into account and a variety of techniques are used within the learning environment to enhance the learning experience. Dimensions of Learning reflects these understandings. The central goal of this course is to further delve into Dimensions of Learning by exploring the process of observing for Dimensions of Learning. This 7-lesson course is ideal for administrators and central office curriculum specialists interested in sustaining classrooms and schools that promote effective learning principles — principles reflected in the five Dimensions of Learning. We believe that by exploring this acclaimed instructional improvement model, you and your colleagues will discover a range of strategies for using Dimensions of Learning principles to promote substantial school improvement.

Our Multiple Intelligences
In this online course, we'll introduce you to the theory of multiple intelligences. You'll have an opportunity to explore each intelligence area and create your own intellectual profile. You'll also be asked to consider how your understanding of the multiple intelligences theory can guide your instruction so that student learning is enhanced. Psychologist Howard Gardner, who identified the eight distinct types of intelligence that comprise the theory of multiple intelligences, has said that the theory is like an ink blot test. Those who read about it often have very different ideas about how to apply it to curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Nonetheless, when educators believe that all students are unique and learn in different ways, they seek to personalize the educational experience and, through varied instructional approaches, try to make learning more meaningful for all students.

Our Multiple Intelligences: Implications for Leadership
"When a school becomes a true MI school, every aspect of its program and curriculum changes," writes New City School principal Thomas R. Hoerr in his ASCD book Becoming a Multiple Intelligences School (2000). Managing such sweeping change obviously requires effective leadership. In this course, you'll explore which of the multiple intelligences, when honed, can enhance a leader's competence. You'll also consider how other intelligences not included in MI theory are key to effective leadership. And you'll explore Douglas Reeves's research on leadership characteristics that contribute to improved student achievement. This six-lesson course does not attempt to be a how-to guide for leaders. Instead, the ideas presented will allow course participants to explore various perspectives on effective leadership. We believe that if school leaders better understand how people learn, they can make better decisions about curriculum, instruction, assessment, and professional development. Moreover, if school leaders deepen their understanding of how to develop leadership traits that have been shown to be effective, student learning will be enhanced.

Our Multiple Intelligences: Translating Theory into Practice
It's hard to believe that the theory of multiple intelligences (MI) has been around for three decades. In that time, it has received national and international acclaim, and teachers around the world have been guided by what it suggests about learning and teaching. Even today, it is still relevant to classroom instruction. Our Multiple Intelligences: Translating Theory into Practice is a practical, 7-lesson, online course that provides updated information and ideas for using the theory to help students learn and understand. From an overview of the theory itself to practical and proven ways to use it with students, this course will help you use the theory of multiple intelligences to make learning come alive.

Parents as Partners in Schooling
In this 10 lesson course, teachers, administrators, and others explore issues related to parental involvement in school. Participants will explore how to build a better partnership between schools, families, and community members. The six standards for parent involvement published by the National Parent Teacher Association provide a framework for considering how to best involve parents and community members in school life.

The Reflective Educator
In this 9 lesson course, participants will consider the need to be reflective about their practice. Participants will learn about themselves as educators and will determine how they can build and maintain a reflective practice. In addition, participants hear other educators talk about their experiences as reflective practitioners through the video/audio selections. During the course, participants will give thoughtful consideration to the ways in which they now engage in professional work, and they will identify personal priorities and resources for making a credible difference in education through their practice.

Six Research-Based Literacy Approaches for the Elementary Classroom
This 7-lesson course provides participants with the reasons and research behind six components of a balanced literacy program for elementary students. You will explore the following reading instruction practices:

• Reading Aloud
• Shared Reading
• Guided Reading
• Independent Reading
• Words and Sounds
• Writing

The course also provides practical strategies on how to integrate these components into curriculum and instruction.

Student Portfolios: Getting Started in Your Classroom
This 7 lesson course helps teachers understand the benefits of using student portfolios as an assessment tool. The course will give teachers strategies and suggestions that will help them implement the use of portfolios in their classroom. Specifically, participants will define "portfolio" and determine the role of the portfolio in their classroom. Participants will learn how to help students reflect on their own work, and will explore ways to review and evaluate their students’ portfolios.

Success with Differentiated Instruction
Differentiated instruction is responsive instruction — that is, instruction that responds to students' needs. In this seven-lesson course, we'll examine the characteristics of high-quality differentiation. By the end of the course, you will be able to articulate a rationale for differentiation; identify ways to introduce differentiation to students, parents, and your extended learning community; explain the roles of quality curriculum, respectful activities, and flexible grouping in quality differentiation; identify ways to assess for readiness, interest, and learning profile; describe and apply a range of instructional strategies that support differentiation for readiness, interest, and learning profile; reflect on your own classroom practices that fit in with the philosophy of differentiation; and devise a plan for continued professional growth in differentiation. Our goal for this course is to facilitate learning for each student of differentiation's journey as we collectively strive to rise to the challenge of providing the best learning opportunities for all of our children.

Successful Strategies for Literacy and Learning
Many content area teachers balk at the idea of having to teach "reading" to their students, especially when their class curriculum is already so full. Still, several simple strategies that assist students in comprehending subject matter can be easily implemented into any lesson plan. These strategies not only help students connect with the ideas being presented to them in the text, but also give them a purpose for reading. This 8 lesson course will help participants understand why it's important for every teacher, in all subject areas, to become involved in teaching his or her students how to read, write, and comprehend the subject matter being presented to them. In addition, a Web-based bulletin board will give participants the opportunity to discuss their reactions to course content with colleagues also enrolled in the course. Using the simple strategies presented in this course will enable participants to take one step toward helping all students acquire the skills needed to excel not only in school, but also later in life.

Supporting Student Health and Achievement
While health is not the primary mission of education, educators cannot ignore the many health-related factors that interfere with effective teaching and learning. Health barriers, such as school safety, asthma, obesity, and stress, reduce students' and teachers' ability to focus on the daily tasks of education and reduce the likelihood that students will become healthy, productive adults. This 7 lesson course introduces a coordinated approach to addressing school health issues that is useful for school administrators, teachers, and anyone concerned about promoting the well-being of students and staff. In this course, you will learn how to develop the case for a coordinated approach to school health; identify the health-related activities in your school or district that lay the foundation for a coordinated approach; structure a coordinated approach; and find resources to support school health efforts. While a coordinated approach to school health is not a panacea for removing the barriers to learning, it can, however, help to initiate a change process that enhances students' odds for success.

Surviving and Thriving in Your First Year of Teaching
Research reveals that up to one-third of new U.S. teachers leave the profession within the first few years. New teachers often feel overwhelmed by the challenges they face in their first year of teaching. This 7 lesson course is designed to give new teachers strategies for dealing with the realities and responsibilities of the classroom. Specifically, participants will identify expectations and set realistic goals; review strategies for starting the school year right; learn how to work with parents and the community; learn how to develop a relationship with a mentor; consider various classroom management strategies; explore ideas for lesson planning and assessment; and reflect on their first year of teaching.

Teacher Behaviors That Promote Assessment for Learning
In this seven lesson course, participants will be introduced to the concept of assessment for learning. They'll learn the seven teacher behaviors that promote student learning and support sound assessment. Participants will also explore the standards for quality assessment. In addition, this course will give participants a chance to explore ideas about the purposes of assessment, fairness, standards-based planning for assessment, involving students in assessment, motivation and learning, and communicating student learning to other stakeholders.

Teaching Mathematics Effectively: Grades K-2
All children must be successful in mathematics because math achievement is the key to school and career opportunities, according to the National Research Council. Effective mathematics instruction

• Teaches students the mathematical concepts underlying these procedures.
• Facilitates their ability to reason and build on their conceptual knowledge.
• Gives them many opportunities to work on challenging and personally meaningful problems that encourage them to make connections within math. (Allen, 2003, p. 3)

This seven-lesson course addresses teaching mathematics to young children effectively in ways that build a child's level of confidence so that he or she can be successful. The first lesson briefly touches on what children need to learn. The other lessons focus on how to effectively teach mathematics. Each lesson includes course readings as well as links to appropriate Internet sites so that participants can explore topics in more detail. The Learner Forum provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on course content with colleagues.

Technology in Schools: It's Not Just About Word Processing
For more than 20 years, educators have extolled the virtues of using technology to promote student success. Why, then, do arguments persist as to the viability of computers in the classroom? One side says too much money has been spent at the expense of continued student achievement. The other side disagrees and presents specialized programs demonstrating improved student achievement rates. The pertinent question seems to be not how many computers are in the classroom but, rather, how those computers are being used. This seven-lesson course is designed for the educator who is familiar with and uses technology but who appreciates that our use of technology in the classroom will need to change if we are to help all students become technologically literate. Specifically, this course addresses changing technologies, understanding the challenges of integrating technology, and reviewing how technology is currently used versus how it might be used in the future to promote deep understanding.

Technology in Schools: Planning with the LOCATE Model
Technology changes the way people live, learn, and work in today's world. Schools have little choice about incorporating technology into learning activities; their choice lies in how they do it and how well. Unfortunately, many efforts to introduce technology into classroom lessons fall well short of teacher and student expectations and are not used consistently to produce lasting effects on learning. Components of planning most frequently identified as lacking include poorly defined instructional goals, mismatches between technology resources and learner needs, and a lack of connection between technology resources and content materials. This set of seven lessons will introduce you to an easy-to-remember set of guidelines for choosing and using effective technology resources that will enhance the content you teach. With the combination of your content expertise and thoughtful selection and use of a variety of technology resources supporting curriculum goals, students can look forward to an engaging and satisfying learning experience.

Technology in Schools: Teaching Better
The title of this course — Technology in Schools: Teaching Better — says it all. Modern technology, for all of its bells and whistles, can never replace a good teacher. But, a good teacher, armed with effective tools and strategies to utilize technology, can become an even better teacher. I frequently hear technology defined as any sort of tool — from a piece of chalk to ultrafast parallel processing computers — that makes your life more productive and easier. It's your responsibility to take time to learn how to integrate these tools into your teaching. You may be concerned about the time required to become proficient at using some of those tools, but think of the time as an investment. Once you've mastered the tools, you'll save time and effort in the future. Technology in Schools: Teaching Better introduces you to a variety of technological tools and strategies that you can adapt to your teaching style and use in your classrooms. At the heart of the course are four "virtual computer labs" in which you will be asked to experiment with a piece of software or teaching tool tailored to your specific grade level and content area.

Toward Equity in Achievement
Perhaps no issue in education today causes more distress, yet simultaneously inspires more determination, than what has been called “the achievement gap.” In the face of troubling statistics that reveal the deepest divisions in our society as a whole, schools are challenged with bringing underachieving students up to satisfactory levels of performance while continuing to provide enriching instruction for students who are in the ideal spot on the achievement continuum. This seven-lesson course will help district and school-level leaders explore what it means to strive for equity in achievement and provide insight about education policies that support their earnest efforts to attain equity in achievement.

Understanding by Design: An Introduction
This 7 lesson course introduces teachers in all grades and subjects to ASCD's Understanding by Design (UbD) program for curriculum, instruction, and assessment. This course offers insights into the research, learning theory, and design elements of UbD, and shows how educators can improve student achievement by teaching for understanding. Participants will explore curriculum design, assessment tasks, and instructional strategies that promote student understanding in the context of standards and high-stakes tests.

Understanding by Design: The Backward Design Process
This 6 lesson course is the third in a series designed to help practitioners understand and apply various aspects of Understanding by Design (UbD). It begins with an overview of the principles of unit design presented in the UbD framework. During the course, the learner will develop a unit based upon content standards, create appropriate assessments, and design instructional activities that ensure all students will be able to demonstrate genuine understanding. By the end of the course, the learner will be able to describe, explain, and apply the design principles and strategies associated with the UbD framework. This course is appropriate for individuals, school-based study groups, individual trainers, staff developers, instructional leaders, and administrators who have a role in bringing coherence to their school-based curriculum and assessment process.

Understanding by Design: The Six Facets of Understanding
This 7 lesson course is the second in a series designed to help practitioners understand and apply various aspects of Understanding by Design. It explores what Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, the framework authors, call the "six facets of understanding". These six interrelated behaviors provide avenues through which educators can observe and evaluate students' growing understanding of the curriculum they are studying. Beginning with an overview of why teaching for and assessing understanding can be both challenging and critically important, this course then addresses each of the six facets in greater detail. Subsequent lessons explore students' abilities to interpret what they learn, to apply it in new and unpredictable situations, to analyze different perspectives, to express empathy, and to exhibit self-knowledge. Each lesson emphasizes the relationship of the six facets to the backward-design process, including how the facets can be used to identify desired results and to improve assessment tasks and activities.

Understanding Student Motivation
Nearly every teacher has faced students, or even a room full of students, who don't want to learn. For children to be successful learners, they must be motivated. Every child is inherently motivated, yet some children are not motivated by what is taught in school or by how it is taught. In order to find out what motivates children, teachers must get to know their students on a personal basis in order to understand their interests and needs. When teachers organize lesson plans and activities around the natural interests and needs of children, their students become motivated to learn. This seven-lesson course will help teachers learn about the conditions that foster student motivation. Among other goals, you will learn what the data say about unmotivated students, the importance of intrinsic motivation, how to meet children's needs to enhance motivation in the classroom, and strategies to cope with challenges.

Using Assessment in the Differentiated Classroom
In a differentiated classroom, assessment is ongoing and diagnostic. Its purpose is to help students learn rather than to simply catalog their mistakes. Differentiating instruction requires that teachers respond to variations in students' readiness, interest, and learning profiles, information best gathered through appropriate use of assessment. In this professional development online course, we will identify uses of assessment to pinpoint students' learning needs, reflect on some principles of differentiated instruction, and analyze uses of continual assessment that inform instruction.

What Works in Schools: An Introduction
This 7 lesson course will introduce you to the research conclusions presented by Robert J. Marzano in his best-selling ASCD publication What Works in Schools: Translating Research into Action. Based upon his analysis of 35 years of educational research, Marzano presents five school-based factors, three teacher-based factors, and three student-based factors that can make a major difference in student achievement and organizational performance. By the end of this course, the participant will develop a complete professional portfolio about these important ideas through interactive exercises, reflection activities, audio-visual excerpts, and readings from the work of both Marzano and other experts in educational reform.

What Works in Schools: School-Level Factors
In this course, we will investigate the five school-level factors identified by Robert J. Marzano as making a statistically significant difference in student achievement. These factors — involving a combination of policy, procedure, and practice — have been proven highly effective in helping to make schools genuine communities of learning. This course begins with an overview of the eleven factors Marzano summarizes in his ground-breaking work, What Works in Schools: Translating Research into Action. We will revisit Marzano's general recommendations for improving student performance and school productivity, derived from his meta-analysis of 35 years of educational research. By the end of this course, you will be able to

• Describe and analyze five research-based school-level factors identified by Robert J. Marzano as making a statistically-significant difference in student achievement and organizational productivity.
• Develop and implement action steps and strategic plans for using Marzano’s research-based school-level strategies and recommendations within learning organizations.