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Course Descriptions
Sample Video Clips from each course now available in Windows Media or Quicktime below each Course Description.
| All courses are for three semester hours of graduate credit unless otherwise noted. Seattle Pacific University courses are 5 quarter hours. Course credit may be transferable with prior approval from the university providing your degree program. Please check with your advisor before registering. Credit may be applicable for re certification and salary advancement. Refer to your state and local guidelines. |
 Course descriptions and syllabi are in Portable Document Format (PDF). You can obtain an Adobe Acrobat Reader at no charge by clicking on the adjacent icon. |
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New Courses for Teachers in Grades K-12
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Differentiated Assessment Strategies: Identifying Learners' Strengths and Needs – 3 Semester Hours (not offered by Andrews University)
This new course will teach you how to gather information through ongoing assessment that will help you plan instruction more effectively. This course will give you tools, surveys, checklists, and guidelines to accurately asses your students' progress and plan for their continued success.
In this course, you will learn how to:
• Identify learning styles and preferences.
• Use authentic and performance-based assessment.
• Learn techniques for ongoing, concurrent assessment.
• Discover the value of teaching students to self-evaluate.
• Improve student comprehension and retention.
• Obtain feedback to make your differentiated instruction more effective.
Whether taken alone or with the instructional strategies course, "Differentiated Assessment Strategies" is a must-take course for anyone anxious to find new ways to enhance their instruction and improve student achievement.
Differentiated Instructional Strategies: Meeting the Diverse Needs of Students – 3 Semester Hours (not offered by Andrews University)
This new course is designed to give you the knowledge and skills to implement differentiated instruction successfully in your own classroom. You will learn strategies for meeting the needs of an increasingly diverse student population within the context of today's challenging standards-based curriculum. Real-life video demonstrations will illustrate how to adapt curriculum content, processes, and products to match students' readiness, interests, and learning profiles.
In this course, you will learn how to:
• Recognize and teach to different kinds of intelligences.
• Understand and accommodate various learning styles.
• Effectively implement multi-option and tiered assignments.
• Utilize ongoing, authentic assessment techniques.
• Design more dynamic and engaging lessons and units.
In addition, you will learn how to further differentiate your instruction through the use of learning centers, portfolios, graphic organizers, group investigation, and varied homework assignments. With this thorough introduction to differentiated instruction, you will be prepared to meet the learning needs of all students no matter how diverse their learning styles or preferences.
Teaching in the Inclusive Classroom: Instructional Strategies for All Students – 3 Semester Hours (not offered by Andrews University)
(This all-new course that replaces “Inclusion Strategies for the Classroom Teacher.” If you took that course, you can enroll in this new course as well.)
In this course, you will learn practical strategies to maximize learning for all students, including those with special needs. You will learn inclusive teaching techniques first hand with video visits to classrooms where teachers are successfully educating both general and special education students. Course learning activities will teach you how to design and implement curriculum modifications and activity adaptations based on the strengths and needs of your students.
In this course, you will learn how to:
• utilize differentiated instruction to benefit both general and special education students.
• select, implement, and evaluate lesson modifications to accommodate the needs of
students with physical, emotional, or intellectual disabilities.
• offer choices to help students develop self-management skills.
• implement assessment strategies appropriate to your students individual abilities.
In addition to providing ways in which you can individualize your instruction, this course will also cover remedial methods, instructional techniques, and assistive technology that can be used to more effectively address the diverse learning levels of both your special and general education students.
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A Course On Instruction
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Making Learning Meaningful: Every Student Can Succeed – 3 Semester Hours (not offered by Andrews University)
In this new course, Dr. Glasser presents his new ideas about competency-based education, assessment, and teaching strategies that help to ensure the success of every student. Featured in the videos are actual lessons taught in Glasser quality schools. The lessons are presented with little or no editing to show from start to finish how you can create and conduct lessons in which every student can succeed.
In this course, you will:
• Learn to build competency and eliminate both failure and discipline problems.
• Create and teach lessons that produce competency-based learning.
• Learn to deal with the major cause of student under achievement.
• Use choice theory to help students become more responsible learners.
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Courses on Responsibility and Discipline
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Introduction to Choice Theory: Teaching Students Responsible Behavior – 3 Semester Hours
This course will give you the theory and skills to teach students how to take responsibility for their own behavior in school. It will lead you through a series of learning activities designed to instruct you in how to teach your students the concepts of Choice Theory and to plan and implement a program of Responsibility Training in your classrooms.
In this course, you will learn how to:
• determine why some students choose to misbehave.
• implement a proven approach to improving student behavior.
• effectively use “Time Outs” to improve behavior.
Creating a Professional Portfolio: A Portfolio Project for Teaching Students Responsible Behavior – 2 Semester Hours
This course is designed to help you extend the application of what you learned in “Teaching Students Responsible Behavior” and in the process gain experience in the creation of a portfolio. The portfolio development guidelines are aligned with the standards set by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.
In this course, you will learn how to:
• create an impressive portfolio that celebrates your learning strengths.
• take an important first step toward national certification.
• use professional portfolios as a vehicle for career-long professional development.
Responsibility, Respect, and Relationships: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms – 3 Semester Hours
This course will give you the knowledge and skills to deal with students’ apprehensions and fears and at the same time create an emotionally safe classroom atmosphere that promotes learning. Topics covered include teaching to various learning styles and preferences, setting attainable goals for improving student achievement, and helping students in crisis situations.
In this course, you will learn how to:
• create an emotional safety net to support troubled students before they become dangerous students.
• recognize and respond effectively to students who are experiencing an emotional crisis.
• identify and capitalize on students learning strengths and preferences.
Classroom Management: Dealing with Discipline Problems – 3 Semester Hours
This course will give you the knowledge and skills to apply previously learned choice theory concepts to commonly occurring classroom discipline problems. As a course outcome, you will develop a personalized plan designed not only to solve discipline problems but also to help students take responsibility for their own behavior.
In this course, you will learn to:
• solve commonly occurring discipline problems that keep you from teaching and other students from learning.
• deal with recurring discipline problems and help troubled students plan for improved behavior.
• create and use a classroom discipline plan designed to prevent problems from occurring.
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Courses on Quality Teaching
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Motivation and Learning: Co-Operation and the Quality Classroom – 3 Semester Hours
This course will give you the theory and skills to create lesson plans that meet the basic psychological needs of students and gain their cooperation in the learning process. Based on the works of Drs. William Glasser, David Johnson and Roger Johnson, you will gain the knowledge and skills to guide your students to become active, enthusiastic partners in the learning process.
In this course, you will learn to:
• create lessons that involve students.
• use cooperative learning strategies to encourage quality work.
• help students solve classroom problems affecting learning.
Enhancing Instruction: Teaching in the Quality Classroom – 3 Semester Hours
This course will give you the theory to enhance your instructional skills and develop strategies that will raise your students’ achievement to a new level of quality. Course assignments and activities introduce you to Dr. Glasser’s Quality Schools concepts and practices and demonstrate how they can be combined in a comprehensive program of instruction and behavior management.
In this course, you will learn how to:
• teach your students problem-solving skills that lead to improved achievement.
• help your students become better listeners and stay on task.
• manage your classroom in a manner that promotes quality work.
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Courses on Improved Learning
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Teaching, Learning and Assessment: Improving Student Achievement – 3 Semester Hours
This course will give you the psychological foundation to understand how learning, motivation, and individual differences relate to improving student achievement. In the videos, you will see demonstrated dozens of strategies that are being successful used to enhance student achievement at all grade levels.
In this course you will learn how to:
• create effective lessons and units that engage students in the learning process.
• increase your students’ comprehension and retention levels.
• connect with students who are resisting your best efforts to help them succeed.
Teaching in the 21st Century: New Solutions to New Problems – 3 Semester Hours (Not offered by Andrews University)
This course will explore five areas that are critical to effective teaching in the 21st century. These areas are the vital connection between student-teacher relationships and academic achievement, teaching strategies that take advantage of multiple-intelligences theory, approaches to character education, strategies to deal with increased student hyperactivity, and learning projects that develop self-management skills.
In this course, you will learn how to:
• successfully teach those students who have previously been labeled as “unreachable.”
• gain valuable new skills that will help you build positive relationships with your students.
• create classroom activities that will help students who are continually hyperactive in your classroom.
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Course on Gaining Parental Support
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Gaining Parental Support: Building Home-School Relationships – 3 Semester Hours (Not offered by Andrews University)
With this course, you will acquire the theory and skills to improve communication with parents, hold more effective parent conferences, and implement strategies that build a collaborative partnership between school and home. You will be presented with the theoretical foundation and implementation designs that will prepare you to work more effectively with parents to improve student achievement.
In this course, you will learn how to:
• diffuse emotional confrontations with parents.
• better prepare for and conduct parent conferences.
• implement communication strategies that will build a positive, productive partnership with all of your students’ parents.
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Copyright © 2005 Quality Education Programs, Inc.
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