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:
-
Interdisciplinary Teaching
and Learning Teams
-
Rigorous, Relevant
Curriculum and Instruction
-
Inclusive Programs and
Practices
-
Continuous Program
Improvement
-
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?"
This is an in-depth
learning experience, not just a series of mini-lessons and worksheets.
Because the workshop is self-paced, you have ample opportunity to study at
your leisure.
