Executive function is critical to all students’ academic achievement; and we now know it can be developed and accelerated. Enhance your academic lesson plans by fostering the six key aspects of executive function, intentionally building critical achievement prerequisites in students.

Syllabus

1. Understanding how executive function is inextricably linked to the academic achievement of students at all developmental levels through the lens of six levels of increasingly complex life skills
2. Understanding how executive function develops and how growth can be accelerated
3. Understanding the difference between learning and practice activities, and the importance of purposeful “grappling” with content
4. Developing learning and practice activities aimed at building executive function across the seven key components: working memory, cognitive flexibility, planning, reasoning, problem-solving, and self-regulation
5. Creating a plan to implement structures that build executive function in the learning environment
6. Learning to facilitate instruction by asking questions that lead to the development of greater executive function

Watch Dr. Nancy Sulla’s YouTube videos “Executive Function: The Missing Link to Student Achievement” and “All Students Can Learn with Executive Function“.

This course will use Dr. Nancy Sulla’s book, Building Executive Function: The Missing Link to Student Achievement as a resource. The assigned book must be purchased in advance. Access to MyQPortal is included for all participants while enrolled in the VLC. 25 contact hours.

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic caused educators to be thrown into a situation where they had to attempt to recreate academically rigorous instruction and the social classroom structure through home-based learning. When schools reopen, they may need to introduce staggered schedules. The “classroom” needs to be designed to function effectively and flexibly in physical spaces or remote spaces. What if we could have the best of both worlds in one model? That’s our Hybrid Learning Environment! This course will prepare you to design a Hybrid Learning Environment that will address learning in physical classrooms and online.

Syllabus

1. Explore the unique nature and nuances of both in-person learning and remote learning.
2. Map out plans and begin to design resources for the opening of school that promote the following:
   1. Student engagement
   2. Content delivery
   3. Executive function
   4. Social and emotional learning
   5. Assessment.
3. Gain strategies and structures around 7 Attributes of a Hybrid Learning Environment.
4. Explore strategies and structures for co-teaching and the use of teachers’ aides.
5. Explore strategies and structures for addressing the needs of students with special needs, those who struggle academically, English Language Learners.
6. Develop strategies and structures to support students and parents in remote learning based on 8 Elements of Home-Based Learning.
7. Build knowledge of the capabilities of the district’s remote learning platform.
8. Create purposeful opportunities to incorporate both synchronous and asynchronous instruction in both the physical and virtual learning environment.

Access to MyQPortal is included for all participants while enrolled in the VLC. 25 credit hours.

How can you ensure that each of your students with learning disabilities is able to access learning and succeed in a hybrid learning environment? Explore strategies to help students navigate their physical and remote environment to optimize learning at home and in the classroom, address behavioral challenges, and support executive function and social and emotional learning.

Syllabus

1. Explore the 7 attributes of a Hybrid Learning Environment.
2. Explore and develop strategies to help students manage and self regulate in both the remote and brick-and-mortar classroom (inclusion, self contained, or other).
3. Gain strategies and structures to support classroom management in small and large group settings.
4. Explore graphic organizers and other scaffolding tools to engage students in the learning process and develop executive function.
5. Develop purposeful opportunities for students to self assess and reflect, as well as to support students’ executive function and social and emotional learning.
6. Create structures and protocols to support students during collaborative activities and develop the 5 competencies of SEL.
7. Develop accommodations and modifications for students with learning disabilities appropriate and accessible in both the remote and brick-and-mortar classroom.

Access to MyQPortal is included for all participants while enrolled in the VLC. 25 credit hours.

Equitable and culturally responsive teaching practices raise the level of rigor and maximize potential for all learners. In this course you will explore the role of teacher as curator to reflect on your learning environment that accepts, appreciates, and advocates for cultural differences and social justice. Participants will explore and brainstorm problems focused on instructional and social equity. They will navigate and design culturally responsive resources, structures, and teaching practices to address bias in and beyond the classroom. This course will position participants to leverage students’ culture, language, and life experiences into rigorous academic achievement.

Syllabus

1. Establish working definitions of equity, bias, and social justice in the classroom
2. Develop strategies and structures for prioritizing a culturally responsive classroom through needs-identification, resource-access, and tuned-facilitation
3. Develop learning activities through a culturally relevant lens to meet cognitive levels and learning styles
4. Design opportunities for students to learn in an environment that promotes executive function through structures and facilitation
5. Explore facilitation strategies to build and maintain relationships and trust with students
6. Brainstorm problems to address social justice and equitable access and opportunity issues within the students’ neighborhood

Access to MyQPortal is included for all participants while enrolled in the VLC. 25 contact hours.

In this course, participants will leverage choice and technology to provide students with the ultimate differentiated learning environment. They will develop differentiated digital activity lists rooted in rigorous instruction that offer multiple ways to learn and apply content. Participants will explore autonomy, purpose, and mastery as motivators in all learning environments. They will design differentiated activity lists to put students in charge of their own learning, creating a structure that allows students to make decisions within a structured framework. Making informed decisions is an essential life skill that teachers can support with intentional classroom practices.

Syllabus

1. Exploring ends-based teaching as a foundation for differentiation.
2. Understanding the difference between learning and practice activities.
3. Connecting student choice and voice to empowerment and academic achievement.
4. Exploring UDL strategies to consider cognitive levels and learning styles when developing learning and practice activities for anywhere, anytime.
5. Building a differentiated digital activity list to provide students choice in how and when they engage in learning and practice activities.
6. Exploring the role of the teacher in an environment that empowers students to take more responsibility for their learning.
7. Exploring the role of technology to leverage opportunities for differentiation in differentiated digital activity lists.
8. Developing instructional videos and activities to support differentiation in digital activity lists.

Participants in this course will use It’s Not What You Teach But How by Dr. Nancy Sulla as a resource. The assigned book must be purchased in advance. Access to MyQPortal is included for all participants while enrolled in the VLC. 25 credit hours.

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic caused educators to be thrown into a situation where they had to attempt to recreate academically rigorous instruction and the social classroom structure through home-based learning. When schools reopen, they may need to introduce staggered schedules. The “classroom” needs to be designed to function effectively and flexibly in physical spaces or remote spaces. What if we could have the best of both worlds in one model? That’s our Hybrid Learning Environment! This course will prepare you to design a Hybrid Learning Environment that will address learning in physical classrooms and online.

Syllabus

1. Explore the unique nature and nuances of both in-person learning and remote learning.
2. Map out plans and begin to design resources for the opening of school that promote the following:
   1. Student engagement
   2. Content delivery
   3. Executive function
   4. Social and emotional learning
   5. Assessment.
3. Gain strategies and structures around 7 Attributes of a Hybrid Learning Environment.
4. Explore strategies and structures for co-teaching and the use of teachers’ aides.
5. Explore strategies and structures for addressing the needs of students with special needs, those who struggle academically, English Language Learners.
6. Develop strategies and structures to support students and parents in remote learning based on 8 Elements of Home-Based Learning.
7. Build knowledge of the capabilities of the district’s remote learning platform.
8. Create purposeful opportunities to incorporate both synchronous and asynchronous instruction in both the physical and virtual learning environment.

Access to MyQPortal is included for all participants while enrolled in the VLC. 25 credit hours.

Social and emotional learning (SEL) plays a major role in one’s success in life and career. Being in touch with emotions, controlling them, setting and achieving goals, engaging with others in socially appropriate ways, demonstrating empathy toward others, establishing positive relationships, and taking responsibility in life are critical skills that are not necessarily included in school curricula. How can these critical skills be developed while students are not physically in school every day? In the hybrid learning model, synchronous instruction is redesigned to allow for, and in many cases, prioritize, Social and Emotional Learning. In this course, participants will explore a hybrid learning model, and develop strategies to prioritize collaboration, self-awareness, and responsible decision making skills. They are skills that are fostered every day in student-driven learning environments like the Learner-Active, Technology-Infused Classroom. Develop structures and strategies you can employ to build SEL in your classroom or school.

Syllabus

1. Developing an understanding of the core competencies of SEL as defined by CASEL.
2. Developing an understanding of the interplay among problem-based learning, structures, and teacher facilitation in a Hybrid Learning Environment.
3. Exploring how each of the core competencies of SEL are addressed through the goals of engagement, empowerment, and efficacy in a student-driven classroom.
4. Developing a set of structures for building SEL in a Hybrid Learning Environment.
5. Developing a repertoire of teacher facilitation strategies for building SEL in a Hybrid Learning Environment.
6. Developing learning activities that promote SEL in a Hybrid Learning Environment.

This course will use your choice of Dr. Nancy Sulla’s books, Students Taking Charge In Grades K-5 or Students Taking Charge In Grades 6-12 as a resource. Only one is required. The assigned book must be purchased in advance. Access to MyQPortal is included for all participants while enrolled in the VLC. 25 contact hours.

Explore the power of problem-based learning in the classroom. Design a problem-based task, a rubric to drive instruction, and a scaffold of rich and diverse learning activities to implement with your students

Syllabus

1. Understanding how “Raising Academic Rigor,” “Engaging Students in Learning,” and “Building Student Responsibility for Learning” go hand-in-hand
2. Developing authentic, open-ended, problem-based tasks that create a felt-need to learn (expectations adjusted if the participant has taken the introductory course)
3. Designing analytic rubrics to offer clearly articulated expectations, a roadmap for all learners, and challenges for gifted learners
4. Designing a scaffold for learning to develop differentiated learning and practice activities
5. Developing one or more other structures to support the unit, e.g.:
   • Formative Assessments to drive instructional planning
   • Facilitation Questions to probe students’ thinking at higher cognitive levels
   • Facilitation Grid to manage your ongoing student facilitation

Watch IDE Corp.’s YouTube video “What’s the difference between project-based learning and problem-based learning?“.

This course will use your choice of Dr. Nancy Sulla’s books, Students Taking Charge In Grades K-5 or Students Taking Charge In Grades 6-12 as a resource. Only one is required. The assigned book must be purchased in advance. Access to MyQPortal is included for all participants while enrolled in the VLC. 25 contact hours.

Executive function is critical to all students’ academic achievement; and we now know it can be developed and accelerated. Enhance your academic lesson plans by fostering the six key aspects of executive function, intentionally building critical achievement prerequisites in students.

Syllabus

1. Understanding how executive function is inextricably linked to the academic achievement of students at all developmental levels through the lens of six levels of increasingly complex life skills
2. Understanding how executive function develops and how growth can be accelerated
3. Understanding the difference between learning and practice activities, and the importance of purposeful “grappling” with content
4. Developing learning and practice activities aimed at building executive function across the seven key components: working memory, cognitive flexibility, planning, reasoning, problem-solving, and self-regulation
5. Creating a plan to implement structures that build executive function in the learning environment
6. Learning to facilitate instruction by asking questions that lead to the development of greater executive function

Watch Dr. Nancy Sulla’s YouTube videos “Executive Function: The Missing Link to Student Achievement” and “All Students Can Learn with Executive Function“.

This course will use Dr. Nancy Sulla’s book, Building Executive Function: The Missing Link to Student Achievement as a resource. The assigned book must be purchased in advance. Access to MyQPortal is included for all participants while enrolled in the VLC. 25 contact hours.

Co-teaching classrooms can be powerful learning environments that maximize the effectiveness of two teachers to ensure that each and every student advances academically at accelerated levels. In a student-focused co-teaching classroom, both teachers have the flexibility to intensively help struggling students and see them make significant strides, while challenging advanced students to new heights, bridging the achievement gap. This workshop is great for either teacher or both teachers in a partnership to attend.

Syllabus

1. Build a stronger communication/collaboration partnership by understanding individual preferences for engagement in a partnership
2. Explore the four core modalities of co-teaching; group & guide, dual-focus facilitation, balanced benchmark, and individualized inspiration
3. Design co-teaching lessons that maximize the effectiveness of both teachers
4. Learn to leverage formative assessment grids and questions so that both teachers work seamlessly with students
5. Develop guidelines for students to participate successfully in a co-teaching classroom

Participants in this course will use It’s Not What You Teach But How by Dr. Nancy Sulla as a resource. The assigned book must be purchased in advance. Access to MyQPortal is included for all participants while enrolled in the VLC. 25 credit hours.

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic caused educators to be thrown into a situation where they had to attempt to recreate academically rigorous instruction and the social classroom structure through home-based learning. When schools reopen, they may need to introduce staggered schedules. The “classroom” needs to be designed to function effectively and flexibly in physical spaces or remote spaces. What if we could have the best of both worlds in one model? That’s our Hybrid Learning Environment! This course will prepare you to design a Hybrid Learning Environment that will address learning in physical classrooms and online.

Syllabus

1. Explore the unique nature and nuances of both in-person learning and remote learning.
2. Map out plans and begin to design resources for the opening of school that promote the following:
   1. Student engagement
   2. Content delivery
   3. Executive function
   4. Social and emotional learning
   5. Assessment.
3. Gain strategies and structures around 7 Attributes of a Hybrid Learning Environment.
4. Explore strategies and structures for co-teaching and the use of teachers’ aides.
5. Explore strategies and structures for addressing the needs of students with special needs, those who struggle academically, English Language Learners.
6. Develop strategies and structures to support students and parents in remote learning based on 8 Elements of Home-Based Learning.
7. Build knowledge of the capabilities of the district’s remote learning platform.
8. Create purposeful opportunities to incorporate both synchronous and asynchronous instruction in both the physical and virtual learning environment.

Access to MyQPortal is included for all participants while enrolled in the VLC. 25 credit hours.

Equitable and culturally responsive teaching practices raise the level of rigor and maximize potential for all learners. In this course you will explore the role of teacher as curator to reflect on your learning environment that accepts, appreciates, and advocates for cultural differences and social justice. Participants will explore and brainstorm problems focused on instructional and social equity. They will navigate and design culturally responsive resources, structures, and teaching practices to address bias in and beyond the classroom. This course will position participants to leverage students’ culture, language, and life experiences into rigorous academic achievement.

Syllabus

1. Establish working definitions of equity, bias, and social justice in the classroom
2. Develop strategies and structures for prioritizing a culturally responsive classroom through needs-identification, resource-access, and tuned-facilitation
3. Develop learning activities through a culturally relevant lens to meet cognitive levels and learning styles
4. Design opportunities for students to learn in an environment that promotes executive function through structures and facilitation
5. Explore facilitation strategies to build and maintain relationships and trust with students
6. Brainstorm problems to address social justice and equitable access and opportunity issues within the students’ neighborhood

Access to MyQPortal is included for all participants while enrolled in the VLC. 25 contact hours.

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic caused educators to be thrown into a situation where they had to attempt to recreate academically rigorous instruction and the social classroom structure through home-based learning. When schools reopen, they may need to introduce staggered schedules. The “classroom” needs to be designed to function effectively and flexibly in physical spaces or remote spaces. What if we could have the best of both worlds in one model? That’s our Hybrid Learning Environment! This course will prepare you to design a Hybrid Learning Environment that will address learning in physical classrooms and online.

Syllabus

1. Explore the unique nature and nuances of both in-person learning and remote learning.
2. Map out plans and begin to design resources for the opening of school that promote the following:
   1. Student engagement
   2. Content delivery
   3. Executive function
   4. Social and emotional learning
   5. Assessment.
3. Gain strategies and structures around 7 Attributes of a Hybrid Learning Environment.
4. Explore strategies and structures for co-teaching and the use of teachers’ aides.
5. Explore strategies and structures for addressing the needs of students with special needs, those who struggle academically, English Language Learners.
6. Develop strategies and structures to support students and parents in remote learning based on 8 Elements of Home-Based Learning.
7. Build knowledge of the capabilities of the district’s remote learning platform.
8. Create purposeful opportunities to incorporate both synchronous and asynchronous instruction in both the physical and virtual learning environment.

Access to MyQPortal is included for all participants while enrolled in the VLC. 25 credit hours.

Deepen your knowledge of the power of problem-based learning in the classroom with a focus on implementation strategies. Design differentiated activity lists with multiple ways for students to learn, develop content facilitation grids and questions to support student-driven learning, and implement four types of formative assessments throughout the PBL unit. Note: Participants will apply course content to a previously created Problem-Based task and rubric.

Syllabus

1. Designing activity lists that offer students required activities, choice activities (offering more than one way to build a concept or skill), and optional activities (offering extension opportunities to those who are advanced) from a brainstormed scaffold for learning
2. Developing facilitation grids, laying out skills and concepts to assess student learning as the teacher facilitates instruction.
3. Designing facilitation questions to move students to higher-order thinking.
4. Understanding the role of the Four Types of Formative Assessment to support progress monitoring and growth.
5. Creating a transfer task as a venue for students to apply, or “transfer,” their learning from an authentic PBL unit to a new real-world context

Watch IDE Corp.’s YouTube video “What’s the difference between project-based learning and problem-based learning?“.

This course will use your choice of Dr. Nancy Sulla’s books, Students Taking Charge In Grades K-5 or Students Taking Charge In Grades 6-12 as a resource. Only one is required. The assigned book must be purchased in advance. Access to MyQPortal is included for all participants while enrolled in the VLC. 25 contact hours.

Social and emotional learning (SEL) plays a major role in one’s success in life and career. Being in touch with emotions, controlling them, setting and achieving goals, engaging with others in socially appropriate ways, demonstrating empathy toward others, establishing positive relationships, and taking responsibility in life are critical skills that are not necessarily included in school curricula. How can these critical skills be developed while students are not physically in school every day? In the hybrid learning model, synchronous instruction is redesigned to allow for, and in many cases, prioritize, Social and Emotional Learning. In this course, participants will explore a hybrid learning model, and develop strategies to prioritize collaboration, self-awareness, and responsible decision making skills. They are skills that are fostered every day in student-driven learning environments like the Learner-Active, Technology-Infused Classroom. Develop structures and strategies you can employ to build SEL in your classroom or school.

Syllabus

1. Developing an understanding of the core competencies of SEL as defined by CASEL.
2. Developing an understanding of the interplay among problem-based learning, structures, and teacher facilitation in a Hybrid Learning Environment.
3. Exploring how each of the core competencies of SEL are addressed through the goals of engagement, empowerment, and efficacy in a student-driven classroom.
4. Developing a set of structures for building SEL in a Hybrid Learning Environment.
5. Developing a repertoire of teacher facilitation strategies for building SEL in a Hybrid Learning Environment.
6. Developing learning activities that promote SEL in a Hybrid Learning Environment.

This course will use your choice of Dr. Nancy Sulla’s books, Students Taking Charge In Grades K-5 or Students Taking Charge In Grades 6-12 as a resource. Only one is required. The assigned book must be purchased in advance. Access to MyQPortal is included for all participants while enrolled in the VLC. 25 contact hours.

How can you ensure that each of your students with learning disabilities is able to access learning and succeed in a hybrid learning environment? Explore strategies to help students navigate their physical and remote environment to optimize learning at home and in the classroom, address behavioral challenges, and support executive function and social and emotional learning.

Syllabus

1. Explore the 7 attributes of a Hybrid Learning Environment.
2. Explore and develop strategies to help students manage and self regulate in both the remote and brick-and-mortar classroom (inclusion, self contained, or other).
3. Gain strategies and structures to support classroom management in small and large group settings.
4. Explore graphic organizers and other scaffolding tools to engage students in the learning process and develop executive function.
5. Develop purposeful opportunities for students to self assess and reflect, as well as to support students’ executive function and social and emotional learning.
6. Create structures and protocols to support students during collaborative activities and develop the 5 competencies of SEL.
7. Develop accommodations and modifications for students with learning disabilities appropriate and accessible in both the remote and brick-and-mortar classroom.

Access to MyQPortal is included for all participants while enrolled in the VLC. 25 credit hours.