Masters Degree Courses: Schedule

Education continues to face significant change. The challenges and complexity we face in education ranges from high-tech to high-touch (relationship) responsibilities. We seek to make our classrooms and curriculum relevant and effective. Being effective is no longer optional it is mandatory. The need to thrive, innovate, excel, and lead calls for greatness. We must transform education and tap into new dimensions of human genius and motivation. In this inspiring course, you will be given the tools to explore your voice, your creativity, new mindsets, new skills, and new habits. You will find your voice and inspire your students to find theirs.

Harvard Medical School research has told us for over 20 years that the neo-cortex (the adult, highly evolved thinking brain) needs to engage in problem solving, creativity and play, in order to grow and develop.  The same part of the brain that we need to pass the PSSA will only be at its best when engaged in regular problem solving, creativity, and play.  Play lies at the core of creativity and innovation.  We are built to play and we develop through play. Through problem-solving and play we learn how the world works and how people interact. This class will be highly experiential with significant time spent fully engaged in problem solving, creativity, and play activities for the benefit of all in class.

Students examine the theoretical application of curriculum design within the context of contemporary American classrooms. Relationships among subject matter, teaching, learning, and assessments are viewed from an interdisciplinary perspective.

We teach who we are. This course is for teachers who have both good and bad days. We will explore the research that cites vulnerability as one of our greatest strengths. This course is for teachers who refuse to harden their hearts because we love our work so much. Our primary intervention tool will be to dig deeper into self-awareness. Teaching, like all human activity, comes from our inwardness. As we teach, we project our inward condition onto our students, our subject and our relationships together. Good teaching cannot be reduced to techniques and test scores. Good teaching comes from integrity, authenticity, and vulnerability. In every interaction, our ability to connect with our students depends less on methods and curriculum and more on our depth of self-awareness. Are we willing to be available and open in the service of learning?

This course focuses on the development of theoretical-pragmatic foundations for reflective teaching and educational leadership in collaborative school environments. Philosophical systems are examined as they relate to the realities of classroom instructional leadership.

This course will examine the most significant at-risk issues impacting the lives of PreK through 12th Grade students today. The physical, psychological, social, emotional, and academic implications of these issues will be explored in depth. The indicators, signs, and symptoms of each issue will be shared through a culturally relevant lens that reflects the experience of students. Learners will engage and explore the systems and supports that do and can exist in a school environment and a community to support all students through authentic collaboration with family, school, and community partners.