Graduate Courses

Most professional development we offer can be targeted for either an onsite or an online graduate course, tailored to your particular needs.  For example, one school district contracted an onsite 1-credit course on enhancing implementation of Everyday Math.  For the entire staff of another school, we provided a 3-credit graduate course entitled Enhancing Mathematical Understanding: Mathematics Through Problem Solving and Social Justice.

Increasingly, schools are offering staff development through the use of online discussions, workshops, and courses. This medium, with its ongoing training, personalized support, and structured conversations around successes and challenges of reform initiatives, allows for greater flexibility and for more immediate classroom application and feedback than scheduled in-service can provide.   We offer custom online courses in either a stand-alone format or in conjunction with onsite trainings. For example, following a year-long onsite contract, one district requested an online graduate course to further support all their instructional specialists.  Through asynchronous threaded discussions participants are able to work when it is most convenient to them – an important option for busy teachers.

An alternative to a graduate course is an institute, a useful tool for staff development in a more comprehensive format.  Spending 3, 5, or 10 days of concentrated time working with team members can give you the drive to begin or fine-tune a reform initiative.

What might this look like?  Prior to CCSSM one school district contracted for an institute on the five NCTM content standards.  Each day was devoted to a different strand, with team members first learning more about the strand and then working together to plan lessons, to create problem solving tasks, and to develop assessments.  Another school district contracted for a week-long institute designed to help classroom teachers implement changes in their state’s algebra standards.  Yet another spent 2 full weeks immersed in problem solving, social justice, assessment, literacy, math content, and manipulatives, simultaneously engaging in action research with summer school students and culminating in a showcase of lesson plans and products.  Whether you have adopted the CCSSM or not, whatever your need we will work with you to create a staff development plan that’s right for you.

In addition, we periodically hold pre-registered institutes in various locations throughout the country, such as our 2-day Math Matters!  The Math/Literacy Connection explores the impact that literacy issues have on the learning of math, and includes the following:  math content, the importance of vocabulary, effective use of journaling, children’s literature as springboards for math/science lessons, how storytelling/oral traditions can inform and shape problem solving tasks, and incorporating social justice themes into all areas of math.  Our newest institutes include Mathematics Across The Curriculum, for schools interested in embedding math and social justice into other disciplines, and The Growing Peace Institute, a teacher partnership addressing peacemaking, social justice, and youth activism.

See Institutes to learn upcoming locations and topics.