This online course is designed to deliver our regional workshop, Smaller Learning Communities - an Introduction, a one-day (7-hour) workshop, via distance learning.  Rather than physically traveling to a site and participating in face-to-face discussions and activities with fellow attendees, you will gain your knowledge via a variety of approaches:

• Online lessons delivered via text, video and audio formats

• Conducting your case study analyses online rather than in small discussion groups

• Presenting your findings and demonstrating your learning online rather than in person

• If enrolled with a team, you will be able to share your ideas in a Collaboration web page set up for your team

• You will receive individualized support via email from the facilitator.

Upon the conclusion of this workshop/course, and the presentation of your product, you will receive the same certificate of completion as participants who have attended this workshop on-site in various cities.  This may be presented to your school district for credit toward professional development hours.  Certificates are for 7 hours of professional development.

The pluses are that you will be able to conduct your studies on your own schedule and hours, and you will save money on air fare, hotels and meals.

The minuses are that you will not have the face-to-face interaction with other educators as they study, discuss, plan and share.

About the Workshop:

The term Smaller Learning Community refers to houses and schools-within-schools, magnet programs, career academies, charter schools, and small learning communities.  Research and experience have led advocates of small learning communities and small schools to a shared, basic understanding of small unit schooling:

An interdisciplinary team of teachers shares a few hundred or fewer students in common for instruction, assumes responsibility for their educational progress across years of school, and exercises maximum flexibility to act on knowledge of students' needs.  (Oxley, Dec. 2005)

This workshop will draw on research and practice accrued to date to identify strategies that support key elements of smaller learning communities.

We will examine best practices in five interdependent areas:

1. Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning Teams

2. Rigorous, Relevant Curriculum and Instruction

3. Inclusive Programs and Practices

4. Continuous Program Improvement

5. Building/District-level Support for SLCs

You will:

• Learn a seven-step cycle of continuous program improvement

• Identify more specific best practices.  These are supported by research which identifies these practices as having positive effects on student achievement.

In short, we will examine the question, "What constitutes optimal small learning community practice?"

Register

Course fee is $179, $116 less than those who travel to the workshop, PLUS you don't have travel expenses!  This is an in-depth learning experience, not just a series of mini-lessons and worksheets.