Wayne State College
Menu

Teaching Channel with Learners Edge Courses

Learners Edge Courses (N-Z)

Self-paced courses for educators were developed by Teaching Channel with Learners Edge and contain a wealth of practical, proven strategies to improve teaching and student learning by creating relevant activities to be used in the classroom. These courses are offered in an online format. A syllabus is available by contacting the Distance and Continuing Education Office.

Note: These courses are intended for certificate renewal or personal enrichment and are not applicable to a degree program.

Neurodiversity: A New Approach for Students with Special Needs (3)

Neurodiversity – a concept whose time has come – challenges educators to shift from a disability perspective to a diversity perspective, and to use strength-based strategies designed to help students with special needs be successful in life and in school. For regular and special educators, this course encourages educators to focus on the positive assets of students who are neurodiverse and neurotypical, and to understand how to support and provide the instruction they need. (EDU 565-00PL, 5855)

One-Stop Shop: Online Docs, Spreadsheets, Slides, and Forms for your Classroom (3)

This online course will prepare you to take your classroom to the next level using a host of Google tools. You'll learn how to create and share Google documents and spreadsheets online, access your documents from anywhere on any computer, import your existing documents, and organize your work into folders. You'll also be guided through publishing your documents, and you'll learn how to collaborate online with other users in real time. Using Google Earth you’ll fly anywhere on Earth to view satellite imagery, maps, terrain and 3D buildings, from galaxies in outer space to the canyons of the ocean. You can explore rich geographical content, save your toured places, and share with others. Finally, using Google SketchUp, you'll quickly learn that there's no limit to what you can create. (EDU 565-00SZ, 5833)

Parent Trap: Achieving Success with Difficult Parents and Difficult Situations (3)

Explore ways to establish positive, constructive relationships with parents of your students. Learn how to work with the most challenging parents in the most challenging situations, learn strategies to help deliver “less than positive” news, and build your credibility in the process. (EDU 565-00EQ, 859)

PBIS 101: Positive Behavior Intervention Systems (3)

Positive Behavior Intervention Systems (PBIS) has taken hold in many schools throughout the nation, and implementation has led to positive changes in the way schools address behavior concerns.  This course introduces the concept of PBIS, and leads educators through the processes of setting up and implementing the school-wide framework through Tier 1, with action steps to determine readiness for the next two Tiers. We highly recommend this course to groups of education professionals who are interested in beginning the PBIS framework in their school or district. (EDU 565-00EC, 5850)

Planning for Engagement and Rigor in the Online Classroom (3)

You have worked hard to create the best online classroom you could, and now, you are looking for strategic ways to make it even better. This course can get you there! You will discover an effective, efficient way to plan for online teaching. You’ll understand and internalize the importance of rigor in remote learning. You will learn, try and apply strategies for increasing engagement. Filled with resources, ideas and videos demonstrating examples of high-impact teaching, this course will give you what you need to improve your online classroom and student learning, even from a distance! (EDU 565-00EH, 5130)

Priceless, Proactive Classroom Management Practices (3)

Classroom management can be a challenge for educators, and there are as many schools of thought as there are behaviors! This course will introduce you to some of the main frameworks and philosophies of classroom management, and you’ll learn how they work with one another to increase success for students. You’ll explore fundamental strategies to proactively set the stage for learning and learn new-to-you strategies to help your students thrive in your classroom. Positive behavior is a learned skill, and you will leave this course with tools and frameworks to support student learning in your classroom the very next day. This course includes two modules culminating in multiple choice progress checks and one module with a larger application project and reflection requirement. (EDU 565-00PS, 5127)

Project-Based Learning for the Digital Age (3)

Are you looking for ways to bring innovative, engaging, and authentic projects into your classroom? This course introduces you to the key elements of designing, implementing, and managing project based learning experiences in the online and face-to-face classroom. Using best-practice frameworks, you will learn strategies to empower your students as they explore their passions, collaborate with others, and create projects that answer challenging real-world problems. Get ready to design your own project and see why so many educators think project based learning is key to the future of innovative learning! (EDU 565-00EJ, 5133)

Raise the Bar: Positive Interventions for Students Who Challenge Us (3)

Challenging behavior can certainly get in the way of academic progress, but there is hope! This course gives plenty of techniques and strategies for K-8 teachers to proactively assist students in achieving target behaviors through positive behavior intervention. By deconstructing the functions of the problem behaviors, educational professionals can address the root of a child’s issue instead of simply addressing the behavior. This course gives a solid road map for the philosophy behind positive behavior intervention systems (PBIS) while offering several different ways to get you (and your students) to your destination: appropriate behavior that is conducive to a positive learning environment. (EDU 565-00EA, 5849)

Refocus and Recharge: Strategies for Finding Balance in Teaching (3)

With the ever-increasing demands on teachers, the subject of teacher wellness is a timely and important one. This course explores a wealth of strategies teachers can enlist to attain professional and personal balance,k avoid teacher burn-out, and recharge. Explore such strategies as: how to manage stress, ways to be a part of the larger community, teaching with a sense of purpose, the importance of self-efficacy, positive engagement, and planning of one's time and energy. (EDU 565-00SY, 5792)

Re-Imagining Assessment for the Whole Child (3)

Need some new methods to measure student learning beyond test scores and report cards? This course will encourage participants to align their teaching and assessment practices through the development of a learning continuum, pre-assessments, formative assessments and learning stories. Additionally, participants will reflect on the impact of current assessment practices and determine necessary changes while considering and honoring the whole child. The text and course are filled with assessment strategies to engage students and families in the learning process while providing teachers with the information needed to plan their instruction. (EDU 565-00P2, 5117)

Social Comprehension for a Compassionate Classroom

Our social and political climate is thoroughly integrated in our personal and professional lives - now more than ever. When students ask about current events, race, religion, or politics, negotiating an appropriate response might feel daunting and uncomfortable. This course will give you and your students the confidence, skills, and tools to embrace and honor questions and discussions, seamlessly and courageously within your curriculum. Participation in this course does not require a specific political or social stance, but you must have an open mind and heart, and the desire to deepen skills in the areas of empathy, listening, awareness, and identity. The goal is to create a space where students can honestly and respectfully ask questions and have discussions about meaningful topics that affect all of us. Our students need us to hold that space for them; this course will empower you to do just that. (EDU 565-00SG, 5107)

Social Emotional Learning: Strengthening Hearts and Minds (3)

Social emotional learning has been called the “missing piece” of education, and this encouraging, relevant course will allow you to complete the puzzle. Filled with resources and applicable activities, the course takes the learner on a journey from the basics of social emotional learning to teaching strategies for each competency. Applications are designed for exploration and reflection and allow participants to develop future plans to implement social emotional learning and increase these necessary skills in their learners. (EDU 565-00FE, 5031)

Solving the Reading Puzzle: Using Assessment to Drive Intervention (3)

Learning to read is a challenge, and teaching reading is too! This course will help you boost student achievement in reading especially with those students struggling to learn to read and read to learn. Participants will learn about reading assessment including screening, diagnostic assessment and progress monitoring. Additionally, they will connect assessment data to differentiating instruction and intervention in the five areas of reading. Course participants will come away with a better understanding of how reading assessment drives remediation and instructional planning, as well as many resources to help students solve the puzzle of reading! Available beginning Fall 2019. (EDU 565-00FQ, 5078)

Succeeding with the Struggling Student (3)

All teachers have students who struggle to learn. Many of these students have never been taught strategies that are compatible with the way they think and learn. Once we teach them the appropriate techniques, their learning problems diminish significantly. (EDU 565-00E4, 753)

Supporting Struggling Students Through High Impact Practices (3)

Teaching students who struggle (with or without disabilities) is challenging albeit rewarding work. Their needs are as varied and complex as the research on how to best help them. To assist educators with this ongoing challenge, Learners Edge has developed this course to provide an overarching view of research-based high-leverage practices (HLPs) for use with these students. Focused on collaboration, assessment, social-emotional-behavioral strategies and instruction, this course will prove helpful and applicable for both special education and general education teachers whose mission is to support struggling learners. This course includes two modules culminating in multiple choice progress checks and one module with a larger application project and reflection requirement. (EDU 565-00PQ, 5125)

Teach Like a Champ: Effective Strategies for an Engaged Classroom (3)

Take time to stop, reflect, and analyze why you run your classroom the way that you do. Are you spending too much time managing, and not enough time teaching? Are your students getting the most out of your instruction? This course will renew educators in the quest for efficient, effective and engaging teaching that demands the best of all students. Realign the focus to a flow of content and learning instead of housekeeping and maintaining order by utilizing techniques that speak to all aspects of instructional framework. Whether this is your first or your fifteenth year in the classroom, you will be enlightened and reminded why you are good at what you do, and how students can thrive in your space. (EDU 565-00P8, 5683)

Teaching Media Literacy in a Fake News World (3)

Filled with resources, videos, strategies, and more, Teaching Media Literacy in a Fake News World, will have you digging deep into this timely topic. Investigate media literacy, fake news basics, and effective and engaging teaching strategies. Discover the five components of media literacy education, and uncover reliable methods for educating students about fake news. Reflect on current practices and develop opportunities to apply new learning to your classroom or school for a real, relevant impact on 21st Century students. (EDU 565-00E6, 5122)

Teaching Online with Equity in Mind (3)

Looking for guidance as you bring your classroom online? This course provides a solid foundation for any educator making the shift from traditional face-to-face instruction to online teaching. You’ll learn about best practices for developing high-quality tech-based lessons, facilitating online discussions and incorporating a host of digital tools to support learning goals. To reach and teach all learners, participants will investigate challenges and solutions surrounding digital equity, that affect English Learners, students receiving special education, and students without internet at home. Additionally, they will review and reflect on methods for connecting with students, parents and other educators, and using culturally responsive strategies to ensure equity when teaching online. This course includes two modules culminating in multiple choice progress checks and one module with a larger application project and reflection requirement. (EDU 565-00P6, 5123)

Teaching with Video to Support Digital Classroom Success (3)

Bring your lessons to life with video that engages students and supports your curricular goals. Whether you’re planning for your flipped or blended classroom, taking a dive into personalized learning, or just looking to add more digital content to your lessons, this course is for you. Participants will learn to filter through the myriad of online content to curate high quality, relevant videos to support classroom curriculum. We’ll show you some free web tools to record video for instruction, feedback, and differentiated student support. Participants will develop lessons that include both curated and created video content that build higher-order thinking skills and help tap into students’ creative brains. (EDU 565-00S6, 5095)

The Challenging Student: Strategies for Early Childhood Classroom (3)

Created for early childhood education professionals, this course is filled with strategies designed to assess challenging behaviors, as well as ways to address those behaviors, and to plan appropriate interventions, curriculum and teaching practices. (EDU 565-00EE, 5838)

The Keys to a Connected Google Classroom (3)

Learning the ins and outs of Google Classroom is no small feat! In this course, educators will learn the basics of creating your first class to more intermediate level techniques for building and managing a streamlined Google Classroom. With helpful video tutorials from Google certified trainers and educators, you will explore various ways to post assignments, collect and grade student work, and learn about time-saving strategies to provide feedback. With your new digital skill set, you’ll have what you need to keep your Google Classroom running smoothly and efficiently all year long! (EDU 565-00EF, 5118)

The Practice and Power of Vulnerability in the Classroom (3)

Whether you are a teacher, leader, or learner, the revolutionary research by Dr. Brene Brown has transformed the way we view vulnerability in our relationships at home, at work, and at school. Learn how to nurture healthy emotions like trust and courage while combating shame and fear. Discover fresh ideas for cultivating a classroom community that supports all students and expand your understanding about how trauma impacts learning. Consider your process for providing feedback and gain new practices for growing gratitude for a greater sense of well-being. Teach your students that “vulnerability is not always comfortable, but it is never weakness,” as you explore how vulnerability empowers the way we teach, lead, and learn. (EDU 565-00FU, 5101)

The Reading Fluency Toolbox (1)

Calling all teachers who want to upgrade their teacher toolbox with more strategies for supporting readers who struggle! Research shows increases in overall comprehension outcomes with improved reading fluency, which validates the need for direct fluency instruction. This course will guide teachers through all fluency components to incorporate new routines into daily literacy practices. By creating specific applications for fluency-building, teachers support individual students and can engage the whole class in fun fluency practice with games and activities. (EDU 565-00F3, 5042)

The Stress Effect (3)

This course has a required Zoom session 2-5 p.m. June 8. Envision reacting to the world of unknowns and “new normals” with a connected-and-calm response, even when circumstances are beyond your control. Picture the transformative power of understanding and managing your innate stress response by focusing on gratitude, empathy, compassion, and hope. We will help you break free from the bonds of stress in our Zoom sessions which will focus on practical ideas, applications, and a commitment to learning ways to manage life’s daily stressors. (EDU 565-00EX, 5201)

Trauma-Sensitive Teaching! Helping Students Overcome Adverse Experience (3)

For students who have experienced trauma at home, including divorce, loss, or abuse, success in school can feel out of reach. In this course, you will learn how to help your students overcome adverse experiences as you develop trauma-sensitive strategies for your classroom. Beginning with brain research, discover the impact trauma has on students’ emotional and academic development. Explore the foundations of trauma-informed teaching, including an emphasis on relationship-building, student choice, safely, and resiliency. This course will also present a thought provoking look at the importance of self-care for educators working with students impacted by trauma and provide teachers with the tools they need to build their own wellness plan. By changing the way we view and react to children’s academic and social problems, we can help all of our students build the strength they need to find success. (EDU 565-00S7, 5007)

Using Universal Design for Learning in Lesson Planning: Reaching Every Kid (3)

This course combines the powerful processes and strategies of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) with lesson planning to ensure educators are meeting the needs of EACH learner. Using an extremely applicable text, videos and relevant applications, the course provides an overview of UDL guidelines. Additionally, teachers will learn new stretegies for goal setting and assessment. Educators will be able to increase engagement, infuse lessons with multiple means of content representation, and choose materials and media to enhance their teaching. Teachers will reflect on strategies to ensure professional growth and an increase in student achievement. This course will provide the tools needed to meet the ever-changing variability of learners in our classrooms and schools beyond differentiation. (EDU 565-00ST, 5035)

Victorious Vocabulary Instruction for Remarkable Reading (3)

Vocabulary development is an essential skill for reading and overall academic achievement, yet it’s a commonly neglected area of instruction. This course provides a review of research that supports daily vocabulary instruction using words selected from existing curriculum or any content area. Explicit, consistent instruction leads students to vocabulary growth and a greater love of language. Word mastery and confidence are achieved from daily routines that engage students with new words in the classroom community that promotes academic risk-taking. Planning, teaching and assessing components are covered for teachers who want to inspire their instruction with a love of words their students need to know. (EDU 565-00F2, 5038)

Vocabulary Instruction and Word Learning for Secondary Content Areas (3)

Vocabulary development is a critical skill for all academic achievement, yet it’s an often-overlooked part of instruction, especially in the content areas. This course offers a review of research to support vocabulary instruction using words carefully selected from existing curriculum and standards in any content area. Direct instruction leads students to vocabulary growth, improved comprehension of challenging texts, and word learning skills that will extend beyond high school. Word mastery and confidence is built from daily routines that engage students with new words in a classroom environment that promotes and practices word learning skills. (EDU 565-00FF, 5065)

What Great Teachers Do (3)

Discover the specific things that great teachers do that others do not. This course explores the beliefs, behaviors, attitudes, and interactions that form the fabric of life in the best classrooms and schools. Explore such issues as classroom management, testing, decision making, classroom relationships, and much more. (EDU 565-00EP, 855)

Wholehearted Teaching: Reigniting Your Passion for the Teaching Profession (3)

In this inspiring course, teachers will learn ways to positively impact their students’ and colleagues’ lives. Educators will grow in their understanding of how to create a classroom and school community that focuses on HEART: happiness, engagement, alliances, risk, thought – and the necessity of connection. Through personal stories, activities, and reflection teachers will explore their personal and professional “heartprint” – and leave the course feeling empowered, energized and influential. (EDU 565-00F7, 5021)

Writer's Workshop: Engaging Students Using Menor Text and Writer's Notebooks (3)

What’s up with writer’s workshop? Even though it’s a proven framework for writing instruction, successful implementation remains a mystery and challenge for language arts teachers at all grade levels. This course will help teachers renew their intentions to make writer’s workshop a classroom reality. Focus on background and strategies for implementing writer’s workshop, then connect the writing process with two powerful tools: the writer’s notebook and mentor texts. Explore options and applications to create a workshop model based on current classroom structure and needs. How do I create and maintain an effective writer’s workshop to support students’ development? This course will spark energized answers and opportunities for improved teaching and learning of writing! (EDU 565-00SR, 5015)