500

This course emphasizes the examination of personal identity and personal affective and cognitive attributes and their relationships to effective teacher-leader behaviors.

The candidates will examine inquiry or problem-based learning in the elementary and secondary school environment. Methods of balancing the art and science of teaching content will be integrated with inquiry-based strategies of instruction. The candidate will learn strategies to address the needs of the diverse learner in the context of a safe and inclusive classroom. The national common core standards will be examined, discussed, and aligned to inquiry. Constructivist and problem-based teaching techniques to enhance student engagement with and student ownership of required content will be guiding concepts though out the course.

This course enables candidates as teacher leaders to explore the current trends, issues, and research in collaborative coaching, and the impact on professional learning communities, collegial relationship, and student learning.

This course allows teacher leaders to coordinate curriculum in P-12 schools and school districts, focusing on rigorous and relevant learning grounded in 21st Century knowledge and skills. Topics include research-based foundations for curriculum, professional literature and language of curriculum, and frameworks for curriculum development. Teachers will explore ways in which educators can align local curriculum with Common Core Standards and other applicable sets of content-area standards. Course activities and assessments will model research-based practices and focus on authentic, self-directed learning. The course will culminate in a three-stage Understanding by Design (UbD) unit that is consistent with world-changer ways of thinking.

This course will address the responsibilities of teachers as team leaders, with special emphasis on the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to work in teams to improve student learning. Candidates will analyze and synthesize Biblical and theoretical principles and practical understandings of the complex roles and responsibilities of a team leader in engendering organization commitment, resolving conflict, applying current research as it applies to team leadership, facilitating committee work, building communication skills, planning for student leadership and developing and sustaining professional learning communities.

This course provides teacher leaders opportunities to improve student learning by using research-based instructional strategies that encourage authentic, self-directed learning by P-12 students. Teachers will design instructional units that are aligned with Common Core Standards and other applicable sets of content-area standards, assuring differentiation of content, teaching and learning processes, and student products to support individual learner needs. Instructional strategies will be designed to encourage cooperative and collaborative student learning, project-based learning, and community-based service learning. The course will culminate in instructional practices that differentiate for identified student needs, with specific emphasis on 21st Century college and career readiness.

The Leading Instructional Improvement course provides a comprehensive exploration of instruction-related leadership principles aligning teacher improvement with student improvement through data-driven decision making and focused professional development. Participants not only develop competencies as effective instructional leaders, they also demonstrate both the capacity to collaborate with peers and establish accountability between student learning and the quality of the instructional program.

The course will provide an overview of historical, current, and best practices resulting in effective assessments for diverse learners. It is formatted to assist the teacher assessor in implementing a multi-dimensional, continuum of outcome data that supports the curriculum and instruction. The development, implementation, and evaluation of various assessments will be aligned with state and national standards as well as educational psychology theories. Priority is placed on measuring P-12 student learning through traditional, non-traditional, technology-based, and global assessments that lead to relevant adjustments in instruction based on assessment outcomes.

This course will: address the knowledge, skills and dispositions of the culturally competent teacher leader, evaluate school cultural anthropology and levels of culture as they impact school culture, mission, and vision, consider buy-in to school mission and vision, examine the use of school climate information to improve school climate, align educational practices to impact student achievement and promote a setting that values the diversity of the school setting, examine school climate and culture and their effect on district organizations, and explore the school's effectiveness in communicating with stakeholders and inharmonious parties through commitment to trust and appreciation of shared values.

This course is an introduction to educational research strategies with an emphasis on the practical application of research theories and principles. In this course, candidates analyze and evaluate the role of research in various educational contexts. They use educational research to inform and support their classroom-based research decisions. Candidates also identify an educational problem, select the appropriate research methodology to study the problem, and design and evaluate a classroom-based action research study to address the education problem.

This course is designed to enable candidates to demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and dispositions of an effective leader of change, to apply the components of change leadership and change processes to proposal design considerations, and to develop a proposal for an educational change to be implemented in an educational context.

This course focuses on content specific instructional improvement and on improving teaching effectiveness through the formal and planned improvement of professional relationships. The course will emphasize relationship building strategies that contributes to an effective school culture.

This course focuses on leading positive change in classroom and school-level student achievement results through the close analysis of student achievement data. This data analysis will be guided through very specific and research-based best practices for the correct reading and interpretation of data. This course will emphasize the role of teacher leaders in the use of assessment data to lead others in improving individual student performance.

This course examines the relationship between high-quality professional development, teacher leadership, and student achievement. The course emphasizes National Staff Development Council Standards and requires candidates to demonstrate evidence of successful mastery. Candidates completing this course will identify staff development needs based on analysis of data to plan professional learning for specific groups (and needs) of teachers; and finally, candidates will design and facilitate high-quality professional development for their content area.