Online Professional Development Opportunites

  ??? Questions about any of the online workshops should be sent to amhiggin@ednet10.net.

                           Content Areas
English/Language Arts:

Engaging With Literature: A Workshop for Teachers, Grades 3-5 - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
This is a video workshop for grades 3-5 language arts teachers, consisting of nine video programs, a print guide, and this Web site. Use these components for professional development in two-hour weekly group sessions, or on your own.

Making Meaning in Literature:  A workshop for Teachers, Grades 6-8 - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
Combining the best of literature with the best of teaching to create communities of learners where literature is the path to growth.

Inside Writing Communities, Grades 3-5 - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
This workshop explores the essential characteristics of a successful writing community and shows examples of teachers who build community in their classrooms through a variety of ways.

In Search of the Novel - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
A series of eight free professional development workshops designed for middle and high school teachers illustrating innovative tools and strategies employed in the study of the novel.

Monitoring Comprehension - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
You will be required to take a test at the end of the workshop in order to receive your certificate.  The entire program will take you about 3 hours to complete. 

The Expanding Canon:  Teaching Multicultural Literature in High School - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
Explores Native American, African American, Asian American and Latino works through four pedagogical approaches.

Reading in the Content Areas - It's Just Different! - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
You will be required to take a test at the end of the workshop in order to receive your certificate.  The entire program will take you about 3 hours to complete. 

Looking at Vocabulary - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
You will be required to take a test at the end of the workshop in order to receive your certificate.  The entire program will take you about 3 hours to complete. 

Examining Student Work:  Protocol for Improving Reading Instruction - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
You will be required to take a test at the end of the workshop in order to receive your certificate.  The entire program will take you about 2 hours to complete.

Emblematic Illustrations - (Self-paced)
Course Overview- Strive to understand some of the ways that African Americans were portrayed in popular culture, some of the ways that they portrayed themselves, and the ways these portrayals reflect larger historical developments at the turn of the century by analyzing objects in American Memory.   Appropriate for middle school and high school educators.

Squeezing Documents - (Self-paced)
Course Overview-Tour the collections and different media formats as you learn strategies and tips for successful searching.Use an inquiry approach to analyze and critically understand document based primary sources.    The workshop serves as a model and is intended to be replicated in classrooms.

The Great Depression - (Self-paced)
Course Overview- Complete and discuss inquiry-based lessons related to the Depression Era novel, The Grapes of Wrath, using three different American Memory collections.

Building Fluency:  Do It Well & Do It Right - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
You will be required to take a test at the end of the workshop in order to receive your certificate.  The entire program will take you about 2 hours to complete. 

Feedback: A Powerful tool for Raising Student Acheivement in Language Arts - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
You will be required to take a test at the end of the workshop in order to receive your certificate.  The entire program will take you about 1 hour to complete. 

Phonics:  The Building Blocks of Early Reading - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
You will be required to take a test at the end of the workshop in order to receive your certificate.  The entire program will take you about 2 hours to complete. 

Beginning to Write - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
You will be required to take a test at the end of the workshop in order to receive your certificate.  The entire program will take you about 2 hours to complete. 

Teaching Reading K-2 Workshop - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
Introduces innovative research-based principles, teaching practices, and classroom activities designed to stimulate your teaching.

Teaching Reading 3-5 Workshop - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
Designed to give teachers the strategies they need to help all students become better readers and writers in the intermediate grades.

Phonemic Awareness - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
You will be required to take a test at the end of the workshop in order to receive your certificate.  The entire program will take you about 2 hours to complete. 

Writing in Content Areas:  Understanding Content - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
You will be required to take a test at the end of the workshop in order to receive your certificate.  The entire program will take you about 2 hours to complete. 

Write in the Middle:  A Workshop for Middle School Teachers - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
Helping Middle School Students become better writers.

Writing at High Levels in the Intermediate Grades - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
You will be required to take a test at the end of the workshop in order to receive your certificate.  The entire program will take you about 2 hours to complete.

Artifacts & Fiction - (Self-paced Video Workshop)
Course Overview-This video workshop for high school American literature teachers introduces techniques for reading cultural, political, and religious artifacts and connecting them to the literature they teach.

Conversations in Literature - (Self-paced Video Workshop)
Course Overview-Teachers, academics, and authors gather as a “community of readers,” immersing themselves in classic and contemporary literature from Hamlet to works by Langston Hughes, James Dickey, and Alice Walker. These participants, led by Dr. Judith Langer, model the habits of effective readers in an approach known as “envisionment building.”

Developing Writers (for High School Teachers) - (Self-paced Video Workshop)
Course Overview-Practical and philosophical advice for teaching writing, while examining issues every teacher faces—such as high-stakes assessments and dealing with differently abled students.

Teaching Multicultural Literature:  A Workshop for the Middle Grades - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
In eight one-hour videos, teachers from across the country model approaches that make multicultural literature meaningful for students in grades five to eight.

 Math/Science:

Teaching Math, Grades K-2 - (Video Workshop)
This course shows teachers how to develop effective ways to use the five National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Process Standards to teach mathematics to all students at the K-2 level.

Teaching Math, Grades 3-5 - (Video Workshop)
This course shows teachers how to develop effective ways to use the five National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Process Standards to teach mathematics to all students at the grades 3-5 level.

Teaching Math, Grades 6-8 - (Video Workshop)
This course shows teachers how to develop effective ways to use the five National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Process Standards to teach mathematics to all students at the 6-8 level.

Teaching Math, Grades 9-12 - (Video Workshop)
This course shows teachers how to develop effective ways to use the five National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Process Standards to teach mathematics to all students at the 9-12 level.

Insights into Algebra 1:  Teaching for Learning - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
Explore strategies to improve the way you teach 16 topics found in most Algebra 1 programs.

Assessments in Math and Science:  What's the Point? - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
Participants will examine current assessment issues and explore strategies for assessment reform in their classrooms.

Standards-Based Differentiated Math - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
You will be required to take a test at the end of the workshop in order to receive your certificate.  The entire program will take you about 2 hours to complete.

Learning Math:  Number and Operations - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
Examines numerous topics that encompass the three main categories in the Number and Operations strand of Principles and Standards of School Mathematics (NCTM).

Taking the "Dense" out of Density - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
You will be required to take a test at the end of the workshop in order to receive your certificate.  The entire program will take you about 2 hours to complete.

Learning Math:  Patterns, Functions, and Algebra - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
The course consists of 10 two-and-a-half hour sessions that each include video programming and activities, provided online and in a print guide.

Mathematics:  What's the Big Idea? - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
Supports your efforts to change in three ways: (1) by helping you learn some mathematics yourself in new and exciting ways; (2) by suggesting how you might teach mathematics in new and exciting ways; and (3) by showing you some classrooms that are changing, and letting you watch and talk to the teachers who work in these classrooms.

Mathematics Illuminated - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
This is a 13 part course for high school and college teachers.

  Feedback: A Powerful Tool for Raising Student Achievement in Math/Science - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
You will be required to take a test at the end of the workshop in order to receive your certificate.  The entire program will take you about 1 hour to complete.

Patterns to Symbols:  Algebra - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
You will be required to take a test at the end of the workshop in order to receive your certificate.  The entire program will take you about 2 hours to complete.

Learning Math:  Geometry - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
Explore the properties of geometric figures such as triangles, quadrilaterals, and other polygons.

Learning Math:  Measurement - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
Explore procedures for measuring and learn about standard units in the metric and customary systems, the relationships among units, and the approximate nature of measurement.

Developing Computational Fluency in Addition & Subtraction - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
You will be required to take a test at the end of the workshop in order to receive your certificate.  The entire program will take you about 2 hours to complete.

The Missing Link - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
Geared for 5th-8th grade math teachers.  You will investigate a series of "hands-on" problems.

Private Universe Project in Mathematics - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
Explores how mathematics teaching can be structured to resonate with children's sophisticated thinking.

Using Technology to Enhance Algebra Instruction - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview 
You will be required to take a test at the end of the workshop in order to receive your certificate.  The entire program will take you about 2 hours to complete.

Early Steps Count: Teaching Arithmetic to Prepare Students for Algebra - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
You will be required to take a test at the end of the workshop in order to receive your certificate.  The entire program will take you about 1 hour to complete.

Measurement & Geometry: Building Conceptual Understanding in Young Children - (Video Workshop) 
Course Overview
You will be required to take a test at the end of the workshop in order to receive your certificate.  The entire program will take you about 2 hours to complete.

Science & CSI: Weaving Science & Math Into Lessons That Teach Kids to Think - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
You will be required to take a test at the end of the workshop in order to receive your certificate.  The entire program will take you about 2 hours to complete.

Essential Science for Teachers:  Earth and Space Science - (Video Workshop)
Exploring topics that range from soil to the solar system, Essential Science for Teachers: Earth and Space Science provides participants the opportunity to increase their science content knowledge and develop new understandings of how this content connects to K - 6 classrooms.

Essential Science for Teachers:  Life Science  - (Video Workshop)
This course focuses on helping teachers build understandings of fundamental science concepts.

Essential Science for Teachers:  Physical Science - (Video Workshop)
This course provides participants with enhanced understanding of content and how it connects to the elementary school classroom.

Linear Equations: Hands-on Method for Teaching Connections Among Equations, Tables, & Graphs -
(Video Workshop)  Course Overview
You will be required to take a test at the end of the workshop in order to receive your certificate.  The entire program will take you about 1 hour to complete.

Science in Focus:  Energy - (Video Workshop)
This course is for elementary school teachers to provide a solid foundation, enabling you to distinguish between the way "energy" is commonly understood and its meaning in science.

Science in Focus:  Force and Motion - (Video Workshop)
For K-8 teachers presenting science concepts in force and motion.

Science in Focus:  Shedding Light on Science - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
This series uses light as a theme through which to explore topics in physics, chemistry, biology, and Earth and space science.

The Science of Teaching Science - (Video Workshop)
The goal of this series is to provide motivation, encouragement, a variety of models, and support for K-12 teachers who want to explore ways of changing how they teach science.

Got the "H.O.T.S." for Inquiry? - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
You will be required to take a test at the end of the workshop in order to receive your certificate.  The entire program will take you about 2 hours to complete.

Learning Math:  Data Analysis, Statistics, and Probability - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
Build your skills through investigations of different ways to collect and represent data and to analyze and interpret variation in data.

Learning Science Through Inquiry - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
This workshop consists of eight sessions.

Private Universe Project in Science - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
Demonstrates how a student's preconceived ideas and beliefs can pose critical barriers to learning science, whether the learning environment is a public school or a prestigious private college.

Reactions in Chemistry - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
The workshop focuses on the "four elements" of chemistry teaching:  Chemistry as a scientific discipline, the art of educational pedagogy, the historical development of chemistry, and up-to-date technological applications.

Rediscovering Biology:  Molecular to Globa Perspectives - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
Teachers will gain a heightened appreciation of ideas they already teach, as well as an increased ability to incorporate new topics into their curriculum.

Social Studies/History/Economics:

Got History?  Effective Practices - (Video Workshop)
Course Overview
You will be required to take a test at the end of the workshop in order to receive your certificate.  The entire program will take you about 2 hours to complete.

Creative Portraits-Using Art & Artifacts to Deepen Historical Understanding - (Self-paced)
Course Overview-Learn “Object Observation”, a method by which art and artifacts can deepen students’ historical understanding.  Strategies learned in the workshops can be shared with students of all ages.

Discovering American Memory - (Self-paced)
Course Overview- Learn about the American Memory collections through a series of engaging activities. Use the provided tools as a basis for introducing important literacy skills needed when using primary sources.  It provides activities that could be used by teachers of students in grades 2-12.

Students as Historians - (Self-paced)
Course Overview-Use photograph collections focused on the Civil War and African Americans to identify ways students can use American Memory collections as a basis for historical investigation.  The workshop serves as a model and is intended to be replicated in classrooms.

What Can We Learn from Yesterday's Stuff? - (Self-paced)
Course Overview- Delve into advertisements, broadsides, leaflets, proclamations, and programs. Learn from these sources that speak to us of concerns and conditions of the everyday life of people like us who lived in the past.

The American West - (Self-paced)
Course Overview-Use prints, photos, text, sound, and film from American Memory to examine and compare how the environment, natural resources, and migration of diverse peoples have influenced the development of the cultural identity of the West.  It models use of inquiry and develops critical literacy skills for using primary sources.  It could also be used as an inquiry lesson for students of middle school through high school.

Finding the Invisible - (Self-paced)
Course Overview-Define folklore and its potential in the classroom. Explore sense of place through the folklife and traditions of your own life and region using materials from American Memory.  Activities from the workshop could be applied, with appropriate modification to a K-12 classroom setting.

The Second Wave-European Immigration from 1850 to 1920 - (Self-paced)
Course Overview- Follow a set of Web links to documents, images, and more to uncover what America was like for immigrants arriving at the turn of the century. Working with primary sources in small groups, create a firsthand account of a fictional family from one culture chronicling their experiences as immigrants.  This activity models a highly effective yearlong study of American history for middle school students. Workshop participants take the part of students who are learning about 19th and 20th century European immigration.

America's History in the Making - (Self-paced Video Workshop)
Course Overview-Explore American history from the Pre-Columbian era through Reconstruction.

Bridging World History - (Self-paced Video Workshop)
Course Overview-A course for secondary school and college teachers that looks at global patterns through time.  Topics are studied in a general chronological order, but each is examined through a thematic lens, showing how people and societies experience both integration and differences.

The Economics Classroom (for High School teachers) - (Self-paced Video Workshop)
Course Overview-Provides a solid foundation for teaching the concepts covered in high school economics courses.

Making Civics Real - (Self-paced Video Workshop)
Course Overview-This workshop illustrates a constructivist approach to the teaching of civics.

Primary Sources:  Workshops in American History - (Self-paced Video Workshop)
Course Overview-In this workshop, 12 high school history teachers explore the use of primary-source documents in the research and interpretation of American history. The programs feature informal lectures by prominent historians on pivotal events from the settlement of Jamestown to the Korean conflict and the Cold War.

Social Studies in Action:  A Methodology Workshop K-5 - (Self-paced Video Workshop)
Course Overview-Provides a methodology framework for teaching social studies, with a focus on creating effective citizens.

Teaching Geography - (Self-paced Video Workshop)
Course Overview-Why do people migrate? What factors determine city location, growth, and development? How does place influence the spread of disease? These questions form the basis of inquiry for geographers, teachers, and students. In exploring such questions, this video workshop for seventh- through twelfth-grade teachers provides a strong foundation in geography content and inquiry teaching skills, as outlined in the National Geography Standards.

Fine Arts:

Principals of Artful Teaching (for High School Teachers) - (Self-paced Video Workshop)
Course Overview-In this program you will see teachers applying the principles of artful teaching in dance, music, theatre, and visual art classes.

Developing Students as Artists (for High School Teachers) - (Self-paced Video Workshop)
Course Overview-Arts teachers help students develop knowledge and fundamental skills while weaving in opportunities for creativity and independence.

The Arts in Every Classroom (for Elementary School Teachers) - (Self-paced Video Workshop)
Course Overview-Provides new ideas about working with the arts for K-5 classroom and arts specialist teachers.

Connecting With the Arts:  (for Middle School Teachers) - (Self-paced Video Workshop)
Course Overview-The workshop shows middle school teachers why and how to integrate the arts (dance, music, theatre, and visual art) with other subjects (language arts, social studies, science, and math).

Teaching Strategies