The research is clear that what teachers do at the beginning of the school year to organize and establish an effective classroom management system influences what students accomplish throughout the rest of the year. Key practices include arranging the physical environment to support instruction, introducing rules and procedures, monitoring student behavior and applying consequences consistently, and planning a successful first day of school.

Managing student behavior throughout the year relies on establishing conditions that prevent or discourage behavior problems before they occur. By designing instruction that actively involves all students, holds students accountable for their work, and provides for variety and a sense of progress, teachers maximize student work involvement. While delivering instruction, teachers who demonstrate an awareness of student actions, manage smooth transitions between activities, and maintain a sense of momentum are able to minimize student misbehavior.

Course: Interactive Direct Instruction (4 points) – 3 hour course

Research findings on the effects of teacher praise are counterintuitive: While feedback and positive reinforcement are essential to student learning, teacher praise is not. Furthermore, when praise is used ineffectively, results can actually be detrimental. This unit distinguishes between praise and feedback and defines how praise can be used effectively.

Participants learn how educators can use homework to extend learning time, foster family involvement, and contribute to student achievement. They examine the relationship between homework and student learning, the various purposes of homework and the outcomes for students, types of assignments, characteristics of effective homework, and the importance of providing timely feedback.

The use of time in schools is examined from three perspectives—allocated time, engaged time, and academic learning time. While increasing the amount of time students are on task is important, the more significant issue may be the quality of the time spent in the classroom. This unit provides strategies teachers use to maximize both the quantity of time for learning—through effective classroom management strategies, and the quality of learning time—by designing tasks at the appropriate level of difficulty and scaffolding students’ learning as needed.

Course: Your Class: Making Physical Space Conducive to Learning (4 points) – 3 hour

Effective classroom managers arrange classrooms to support the lesson and to eliminate potential distractions and opportunities for inappropriate behavior by allowing for easy monitoring of students at all times. Participants will reflect on ways to improve the arrangement of their own classrooms.

"Effective teachers establish and enforce instructional and social behavioral expectations…by monitoring student behavior and applying reasonable and appropriate consequences. They understand the difference between rules, procedures and consequences. In this session participants will leave with a clear understanding of how these three concepts promote a classroom environment conducive to learning.

Teachers give constant feedback to students. What teachers say to students, however, can also do more harm than good. This session raises awareness to unacceptable praise and provides guidelines for acceptable forms of praise that support student learning.

Students learn about the Ten Principles of Thinking Mathematics, which are drawn from research on how children learn mathematics. They discuss the implications for practice and focus particularly on the teaching of counting, addition and subtraction. They also learn about underlying patterns and relationships in mathematics. The course examines the stages of counting, various types of additive problems, and the use of situational stories and manipulative as tools to help develop understanding. Participants develop a repertoire of techniques for helping students develop conceptual understanding. During the course, participants learn to recognize and construct problems representing the full range of problem situations, work with a variety of representations, and understand how to connect early concrete experiences to symbolic mathematics.

This course focuses on how children learn to read and the best ways to teach beginning reading from kindergarten to the end of second grade. Because the course contains considerable information on how students develop basic decoding skills, it is also useful for teachers and paraprofessionals working with older students who are still having difficulty with decoding and fluency.

The antisocial actions of a small but powerful number of students in school not only put their own academic success at risk but threaten the learning environment for everyone. This course presents research on emotional and behavioral problems of students who consistently act out. Participants will learn strategies to reduce and/or prevent the occurrence of disruptive or dangerous outbreaks.