Masters Degree Courses: Schedule

This course is designed to have participants experience and develop strategies for improving student engagement in their classrooms. Particular emphasis will be placed on activities and strategies for developing, maintaining and increasing student engagement and ultimately student achievement. We will examine and adopt a set of total participation techniques and movement activities for the classroom. We will share our individual expertise, explore current research and draw upon our collective experiences and talents to build a collection of strategies that will ensure increased student engagement in your classroom. You will leave this class with a repertoire of strategies that can be used in your classroom at 7:30 AM on Monday morning. 

This course will include providing students with a framework for becoming culturally responsive teachers.  An assortment of topics that reflects cultural diversity in education, including a historical overview of programs for students from linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds, contemporary multicultural and bilingual education, and education for social justice and equity are addressed. This course, through the use of varied literature, relating to issues of diversity will focus on strategies that will ensure all students are achieving their fullest potential. Gaining insights into the interconnection between the diversity of students and the process of teaching will be critical to your continued success as a teacher in the 21st-century classroom.

This course is designed to help teachers develop students of character using classic pieces of literature, research in social and emotional learning, and character education. Through in-depth mental, emotional, physical, social and spiritual study, we will examine the pillars of character education and the great teachers of human history. We will practice and discuss the lessons the wisest of our ancestral scholars have to teach us today. We will read, experience and reflect on the writings (prose, poetry, plays) of some of the greatest hearts and minds of the past centuries. Participants will be asked to be self reflective and involved in all experiential learning.

In this course, the philosophical bases and legal structures of educational policymaking are studied. Students, as educators, develop their own philosophies of education and examine the underlying philosophical assumptions of major educational policies and practices. The course also prepares teachers to understand the legal structures that determine educational policies and how issues of equity affect the implementation of those policies. This level of understanding is necessary in order for teachers to be knowledgeable and active decision-makers in their own classrooms, schools, and communities.

The purpose of this course is to enhance the behavioral and mental health literacy of those who support Pre-K through 12th Grade students. Focus will be placed upon common mental health disorders affecting school-age children, such as: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), oppositional defiance disorder (ODD), anxiety disorders, substance use disorders, eating disorders, depression, and other mood disorders. Learners will take a deep look at the needs of the abused child, the grieving child, suicidal students, and those who engage in non-suicidal self-injurious behaviors from the perspective of prevention, intervention, and ongoing support. Learners will closely examine their views and experiences regarding behavioral and mental health, define strategies, and develop tools to create a climate of acceptance, understanding, and change for our youth who are dealing with behavioral and mental health concerns.