AI for Educators

Instructor - Kim Turri                                         45 CTLE hrs; 3 Ins. Credits K-12

Dates:  January 29 - March 25, 2024             Time: Asynchronous                                                            Fee: $150

This course is designed to introduce educators to the world of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and provide them with practical knowledge and strategies for integrating AI into their teaching practices. Through a combination of readings, discussions, hands-on activities, and assignments, participants will explore the potential of AI to enhance the teaching and learning experience, create engaging lessons, support diverse learners, and design AI-powered assessments. By the end of this course, participants will be well-equipped to leverage AI tools effectively and safely in their educational contexts.

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Understand the fundamentals of AI and its relevance to education.

• Integrate AI tools and technologies into the classroom effectively and safely

• Design engaging lessons using AI-powered resources.

• Utilize AI to support diverse learners and promote inclusivity.

• Develop and implement AI-powered assessments for educational purposes.

• Strategically plan for the future of education in an AI-driven world.

• Identify different types of AI technologies and their practical applications.

• Engage in hands-on activities to gain a practical understanding of AI principles.

Participants meet virtually via online communities to discuss and share lessons and strategies. Personal Google accounts will be required to access the course.

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Navigating Your Position Mid to End of Year

Instructor: Selina Durio                                 30 CTLE hours: 2 in-service credits               K-12 Teachers in Years 1-6  of their Careers

Dates: January 31 - March 26, 2024   Fee:  FREE for Lindenhurst, Wyandanch and N.Babylon teachers.     Fee for all others: $25

Synchronous meeting dates: Thursdays,1/31, 2/15  and Tuesdays, 2/28, 3/13, 3/26 

Time: 6:30 - 8:00 pm

SYNCHRONOUS MEETINGS WILL BE VIA ZOOM, not Google Meet. A link will be provided via a calendar invite for each session.

This course is designed to provide a safe space for educators to examine and evaluate their own performance. We will use the “Ten Rules for the Ride of Your Life” from The Energy Bus by Jon Gordon to point participants toward a direction within their teaching practice. The Energy Bus “introduces us to the power of positive energy to help individuals, teams(classroom) to overcome negativity and bring out the best in themselves and others (students)” We will utilize discussion, case studies, written responses, and a mentorship approach to typical (and atypical) situations in which instructors find themselves. An array of strategies will be provided to help educators embed coping skills and other positive behaviors into their everyday practice. Private one-to-one mentorship and discussion will be made available upon request.

It is recommended, but not required, that you purchase the book: The Energy Bus  by Jon Gordon.

Participants will explore the following topics.

● Everyday school-setting questions

● Current Educational Climate and Issues

● Interpersonal colleague issues

● How perspective/perception influences our behavior

● Additional topics will be added based on participant needs

This course will be conducted in both synchronous and asynchronous formats. Personal Google accounts will be required to access the course.

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*CANCELED* The Writing Revolution in Action:  Elevating Student Writing Skills

Instructor: Jeannette Walsh                                                  3 Inservice credits; 45 CTLE Hours     Grades: 1-12

Dates:   February 4 - March 29, 2024                                      Time: Asynchronous                                                  Fee: $150

                             Required Book:  The Writing Revolution by Judith Hochman & Natalie Wexler (Amazon,$20)                                                                  

                     This asynchronous course introduces participants to the Hochman Method, a set of sequenced strategies specifically designed for teaching writing across various subjects. Participants will learn methods aimed at enhancing students' writing proficiency to improve reading comprehension. With a focus on seamlessly integrating these strategies into students' reading content, the course provides guidance to educators on explicit and effective classroom application. Throughout the course, participants will have access to model videos demonstrating the effective implementation of these methods and receive readily available resources. A copy of 'The Writing Revolution' by Judith Hochman and Natalie Wexler (available for $20 on Amazon) is required, along with a personal Google account for access to the Google Classroom platform.

This course equips you with a deep understanding of the six key principles of The Writing Revolution and shows you how to put these principles into action. Through a combination of in-depth knowledge and practical classroom application, you'll learn to guide your students in cultivating effective writing skills that seamlessly align with the content they are reading.

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

● Understand the six key principles of the Writing Revolution and apply them to teaching

● Teach students to construct complete sentences and avoid fragments

● Explore different sentence types and their uses, applying them in student exercises

● Introduce basic conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions to students

● Enhance student writing through appositives and guide students in practicing these techniques

● Teach note-taking techniques to students for creating outlines

● Guide students in crafting single paragraph outlines based on the principles learned

● Apply the acquired knowledge in classroom environment

● Participate actively in online forum discussions with fellow course participants to engage in meaningful exchanges, share insights, and collaboratively explore diverse perspectives on the application of writing principles in educational contexts

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Music to Your Ears! 

Increase Student Engagement by Incorporating Music into the Classroom

Instructor:  Melissa Levy                                               15  hrs / 1 inservice credit                                           Grades K-12

Dates:  January 29 - March 4, 2024 for 13.5 hours of asynchronous learning.             Fee:  $50

Mandatory Synchronous Meeting: Monday, March 4th from 7:00-8:30 pm or 1.5 hrs. (Note, this live meeting is the end of the course)

 This course is designed for educators who are passionate about transforming their teaching approach through the unique power of music. Participants will delve into the ways in which music can enhance the learning experience, from personal development to its impact on social-emotional learning. Let’s go on a musical journey where you'll not only explore your own connection with music, but understand how it can benefit your students!

Participants will:

• Explore personal relationships with music

• Understand the benefits of music for student learning

• Effectively integrate music instruction into other content areas

• Examine influence of music social-emotional learning

• Create a classroom-friendly playlist 

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Building Thinking Classrooms

Instructor:  Beth Read                              3 Inservice credits; 45 CTLE Hours             Grades: K-12 Mathematics Teachers

Dates:  February 1 - March 20, 2024                        Time: Asynchronous                                                                                              Fee: $150

This course is based on the book Building Thinking Classrooms by Peter Liljedahl. 

It is designed to allow teachers and staff the opportunity to study in depth the Mathematical Teaching Practices (MTP) that inform instruction. The course supports all math teachers in implementing and sustaining the MTP Framework to strengthen standards based instruction and promote student growth through activities that strengthen modeling and reasoning skills. “Educators will use research based practices to create the optimal conditions for learner centered, student-owned deep mathematical thinking and learning, and have the power to transform mathematics classrooms”. (Liljedahl, 2021).

Participants will:

• Learn about 14 specific teaching practices described in the book to enhance mathematics learning

• Plan and implement teaching practices discussed, reflect on their effectiveness on student engagement and learning of mathematics, and get feedback from course participants to improve instructional practices

• Create a classroom environment conducive to the Building Thinking Classrooms structure to enhance student discourse, reasoning, and problem solving

• Strategically select tasks that align with lesson goals and course outcomes

• Apply learning to their focused collaboration sessions to share successful strategies and activities.

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Redefining Your Classroom With SAMR

(Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition)

Instructor: Jennifer Kelly                                 45 CTLE hrs./ 3 inservice credits.                                                                        Grades K-12

Dates: February 8 - March 21, 2024                                         Time: Asynchronous                                                 Fee$150                                                                                                                                                                

This course will focus on understanding the SAMR model.  Through exploration of different technology tools, teachers will learn how to elevate their use of technology in the classroom and develop lessons and projects for each domain.  Participants will explore creative options for projects for students to showcase what they have learned, embracing the option of student choice.

Participants will:

• enhance/transform your content and teaching.  The SAMR model helps you transform your teaching and student assessments resulting in higher levels of achievement. 

• master new forms of technology to utilize in your classroom.

• develop a collection of lessons and assessments that incorporate technology in new and engaging ways.

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*CANCELED*A 10-Step Recipe for Creating an Inclusive Classroom

Instructor: Debbie Salitsky, LCSW           15 CTLE hrs./ 1 inservice credit.                                      Grades K-12

Dates: February 12 - March 11, 2024                                                                             Fee: $50

Mandatory synchronous meeting: February 5 2024                                                 Time: 7-8:30 p.m.

                                                        Plus 13.5 hours of asynchronous learning.

Students come to our classrooms or counseling office with unique sets of experiences, backgrounds, challenges, and strengths. It’s our responsibility as educators to provide them with effective learning and social emotional experiences. . This course will review 10 steps, not exclusive, to create an inclusive classroom and counseling office. Participants, through collaboration and discussion will share their experiences of providing an inclusive classroom/counseling office therefore offering participants with many inclusive ingredients. Ultimately this course will inspire educators to design inclusive opportunities for students. 

Participants will:

• Develop greater awareness for the need to provide inclusive experiences 

• Learn about the need for inclusive experiences for ELLs and SWDs.

• Learn a variety of examples of how to provide inclusive experiences 

• Collaborate on ideas and lessons for K-12 educators 

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Filling the Gap: Bringing ELLs Up to Grade Level

Instructor: Denise Baldini                                                 15 CTLE Hours; 1 in-service credit                                           Grades K-8 

Dates: January 29 - February 29, 2024         Time: 6:00 -7:30 p.m.                                Fee:  $50

2 Mandatory Synchronous Meetings: Mondays, Jan. 29 and  Feb. 5, 2024

12 hours of Asynchronous Learning via Google Classroom    

           This course will provide practical teaching strategies to accelerate your ELLs’ progress and help them catch up to their grade level peers. You will learn engaging ways to scaffold and differentiate instruction,  and to motivate your students to improve dramatically in English and across all content areas.  You will learn practical, hands-on activities and ideas for developing the following skills: phonics, sight words, vocabulary, fluency, reading comprehension, and writing.

This course is designed for Grades K-8 Classroom teachers, ENL Teachers, Bilingual Teachers, Interventionists, and Support Staff.

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Empowering Students to Ask the Questions & Seek the Answers

Instructor: Christine Sanfratello                        15 CTLE Hours; 1 in-service credit                                               Grades K-12 

Dates : January 29 - March 8, 2024                                   Fee:  $50

Fully online and asynchronous.

Questioning is a fundamental skill essential to communicating and gaining information. Do you want to “sharpen” your questioning skills to elicit more from your students? Do you ever wish that your students would ask the questions instead of you? The seemingly "simple” skill of asking questions is seldom taught but always expected, until now. This course will explore the simple strategies of asking questions using the Question Formulation Technique (QFT). This technique empowers students to ask important questions and seek answers while respecting each other's voices. QFT promotes inquiry, is easy to implement, adaptable to any classroom, and will transform the student-centered learning experience. This course will examine the questioning strategies that will help you to “sharpen” your questioning skills and promote student inquiry. 

Participants will learn to:

• Examine various questioning strategies to promote higher order thinking and responses

• Design Question-Focus prompts to initiate the Question Formulation Technique process

• Facilitate student inquiry through student-driven questioning 

• Incorporate the QFT (Question Formulation Process) in to any unit of instruction

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*NEW DATE* Supporting the Individual Learning Styles of SWDS

Instructor: Allison Biancamano                             15 CTLE Hours/ 1 in-service credit Grades K-12

Dates: THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 2024- TUESDAY , APRIL 30, 2024                                                                           Fee:  $50

Mandatory Synchronous meeting - MARCH 21 from 6pm-8pm via Google Meet 

Plus 13 online asynchronous hours of learning.   

This course is designed for general educators, special educators, teacher assistants and support staff who wish to develop a better understanding of how to support the various learning styles of students with disabilities. Educators will be able to identify and differentiate between modifications and accommodations, decide the right accommodations, management needs, and supplementary aids and services, to facilitate academic success. Please note that while this course is geared toward students with disabilities, this information can also be applied to general education students and ELLs.

Participants will learn: 

• the difference between a modification and accommodation

• how and why to choose appropriate supports for students

• where/how to list these supports when writing a student’s IEP

• simple instructional strategies and materials to use in the classroom on a daily basis

13 hours of this course will be conducted in an asynchronous, online setting utilizing Google Meet and Google Classroom as the delivery platforms. Participants meet virtually for direct, live instruction, and then complete the remainder of the course independently via posted material and assignments.         

*Personal Google accounts will be required to access this course.*

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Unlocking English Learners' Potential

 Online Book Study 

Instructors: Jennifer Cavallaro & Kim Turri                               45 CTLE Hours/ 3 inservice credits Grades K-12

  Dates: January 29, 2024 - March 25, 2024                             Online and Asynchronous                                                               Fee: $150        

Required Materials: Unlocking English Learners′ Potential: Strategies for Making Content Accessible 

by Sydney Cail Snyder & Diane Staehr Fenner 

If you work with English Language Learners or teach students from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds, this course will support you. This in-depth book study will assist teachers in connecting concepts and engaging learners to promote effective and stimulating learning experiences. The course will help teachers acquire knowledge about their students to enhance learning and remain current in content knowledge and pedagogy to provide accurate and relevant information to students. Various approaches and teaching strategies will be explored to cater to the needs of diverse learners! 

In this book study, we will… 

● Effectively scaffold instruction for English Language Learners of varying proficiency levels. 

● Utilize academic language to support understanding and mastery of content for diverse learners. 

● Foster the oral language development of students by incorporating academic conversations into lessons. 

● Build the background knowledge of ELLs to support their comprehension and engagement with content. 

● Use formative assessments to evaluate ELLs' language and content learning and tailor instruction to meet their specific academic needs. 

Along the way, you’ll build the collaboration, advocacy, and leadership skills needed to fully support our English language learners. After all, any one of us with at least one student acquiring English is now a teacher of ELLs.