[1] Accessing the General
Education Curriculum
Participants discover strategies for facilitating access to
the core curriculum, and examine access issues related to assessment,
curriculum development, and the process of learning.
Length: 3 to 6 hours
[2] Exchanging Dissonance
for Harmony: Creative Responses to Students Experiencing Behavioral
and Emotional Challenges
Participants explore the relationships
between theories of motivation, communication, and student
behavior. They learn to distinguish between punishment and discipline,
and examine assumptions underlying discipline systems. The workshop
highlights a constellation of supports and services for meeting
the needs of learners who experience behavioral and emotional
challenges.
Length: 2 to 6 hours
*A two-day guided practice workshop is
available to school teams.
[3] The Possible
Futures of Education
Participants travel across time to explore the Possible Futures
of Education and emerging roles and responsibilities of students
and school personnel. A synthesis of what is known to date about
transferring school systems to be more responsive to student diversity
will be provided. Length: 1-1/2 to 3 hours
[4] Restructuring for Caring
& Effective Education: The Inclusive School
Participants become familiar with the characteristics
of inclusionary schools, rationales for change, organizational,
and instructional strategies to support inclusionary schooling,
and successful examples from elementary, middle and high school.
Length: 1-1/2 to 6 hours
*Longer sessions allow for more active audience
involvement, additional student examples, and time for questions
and answers.
[5] Co-Teaching
Participants become familiar with 4 approaches to co-teaching.
In addition, scheduling, role clarification, administrative support,
lesson planning, and other logistical issues will be explored.
Length: 1-1/2 hours to 2 days
[6]
Collaborative Teaming
Participants become familiar with the five critical
elements of an effective collaborative team, as well as stages
of group development and a recommended agenda format for team
meetings.
Length: 1-1/2 to 3 hours
*Collaborative team training can be extended
for an additional 15 to 20 hours. The additional time allows team
members to establish goals, set norms, analyze team functioning,
develop agendas, run meetings, and receive feedback. Team members
are trained in select social skills such as trust building, communication,
distributed leadership, creativity, and conflict resolution.
[7]
Student Empowerment
Participants explore ways in which students can collaborate
with adults to meet the needs of a heterogeneous student body.
Topics include the student's role in instruction (e.g., cooperative
group learning, partner learning, and team teaching), student
involvement in advocacy for self and others (e.g., peer advocates
on IEP and transition planning meetings, peer mediators, peer
buddy systems, and Circles of Friends), and student-centered decision
making (e.g., having students set classroom and school rules,
provide feedback to teachers and administrators and join school
committees such as the school board).
Length: 1-1/2 to 3 hours
[8]
Diversified Instruction
Topics include approaches to differentiating the
content students learn, the process through which they learn it,
and how they demonstrate what they have learned. Participants
also explore whole class, group, and individualized instructional
strategies designed to meet the needs of a diverse student body.
Length: 1-1/2 to 3 hours
[9] Accommodations &
Modifications
Participants acquire skills in developing accommodations
and modifications to curriculum, instruction, and assessment for
learners who experience mild, moderate, and severe challenges.
Length: 1-1/2 to 6 hours
[10] Cooperative Group Learning
Participants experience the three learning/goal structures-competitive,
individualistic, and cooperative-that teachers can use to facilitate
student learning. They also learn the critical elements of the
model of cooperative group learning developed by David and Roger
Johnson, and explore the role of the teacher in establishing cooperative
groups.
Length: 3 to 5 days
*In 6-hour sessions, participants also develop lesson
plans that include accommodations for learners of differing abilities.
This training may be extended to five days, so that participants
have multiple opportunities to design, deliver, and evaluate cooperative
lessons, and to receive direct observational feedback and coaching
from the instructor
[11] Partner Learning System
Participants develop an understanding of the benefits
of partner learning systems for tutors, tutees, and instructional
managements personnel. Successful examples of partner learning
systems will be shared. In addition, the participants develop
a plan to recruiting, training, and supervising peer tutors.
Length: 1-1/2 to 3 hours
[12]
Guided Practice in Creative Solution Finding
Participants become familiar with the barriers to creativity,
strategies for enhancing creativity, and creative solutions-finding
formats that can be applied to solve individual or systems-level
challenges.
Length: 2 to 6 hours
[13]
Effective Instruction
In this intensive training program, participants
develop skills in effective instruction. These include selecting
an objective, teaching to an objective, focusing a learner’s attention
on the objective, monitoring and adjusting instruction based upon
students progress, and reinforcing and motivating learners.
Length: 15 to 30 hours
[14]
Changing Organizational Cultures
Participants in this workshop explore models for
systems change, and work out strategies for implementing change
in their own organizations.
Length: 3 to 6 hours
Other
We will work with organizations and individuals to
design training consultation, technical assistance, or program
evaluations to meet their unique needs.
