Practical Graduate Courses for Teachers
Experience the many benefits of our graduate courses, which are backed by impeccable research in the science of learning. Venture into a new world of ideas, open your mind to new possibilities, and change the lives of children. You will stay current in education trends and learn how to enhance the classroom experience for both you and your students.
PLS site-based classes are conveniently scheduled and strategically located to meet the needs of teachers. Earn three-hour graduate credit with site-based and online classes for teacher recertification or apply to master's degree requirements.
All Courses | On-site Courses | Online Courses
Achieving Student Outcomes Through Cooperative Learning®
Become proficient in setting up, monitoring, and debriefing group learning while teaching interpersonal skills. Discover how quick cooperative learning starters immediately involve students in specific learning tasks.
Action Research for the Classroom™ Online
Explore your instructional practices then develop, conduct, and analyze the results of a data collection plan. As a culminating activity, write an action research report showcasing your findings and how you plan to improve your current practices.
Action Research in the E-Learning Environment™ Online
In the e-learning environment, action research takes on a new dimension as educators integrate technology into traditional research methodologies. Discover online data collection techniques, interpret the data to affect change in the online classroom, and develop a research plan that integrates and makes effective use of e-learning technology.
Behavioral, Academic, and Social Interventions for the Classroom™
Implement the Solution Seeking Cycle and the Intervention Pyramid to design effective universal and targeted interventions for the classroom. Learn how to foster a climate of respect and responsibility that supports student resiliency with an emphasis on strengths-based learning, creating learning alliances, and designing REACH lessons. The strategies offered in this course will help you meet the expectations of a Response to Intervention (RTI) classroom.
Blended and Synchronous Learning Design™ Online
This course focuses on two different formats for online learning environments: blended and synchronous. In this course, you will define these environments, understand the development process each one requires, and conclude with considerations for implementing each.
Brain-Based Ways We Think and Learn®
Explore the four basic thinking skills of induction, deduction, analysis, and synthesis. brain-based teaching and learning strategies. Integrate thinking processes into real-life applications.
Building Communication and Teamwork in the Classroom®
Reach a new level of positive communication with strategies necessary to foster an emotionally-engaging classroom where students are connected to school, learning, and one another.
Building Online Collaborative Environments™ Online
Experience the Web as a means of constructing new knowledge through conversation, networking, and collaboration. Harness the power of online technologies like blogs, podcasts, and wikis for student engagement and learning. Focus on currently-available tools and effectively utilizing them for student research, writing, and learning.
Building Your Technology Education and Skills®
Learn how to use basic computer and related technology in the classroom. Create motivational materials, manage classroom chores, use the Internet, and identify quality teacher and student software. (Additional fees may apply for this course.)
Classroom Management: Orchestrating a Community of Learners®
When students are empowered to take responsibility for their own learning experiences, you are freed from constantly dealing with behavioral and organizational issues. Discover and practice skills for orchestrating classroom life and learning so that instruction flows smoothly, student misbehavior is minimized, and learning potential is maximized.
Classroom Management: Orchestrating a Community of Learners® Online
When students are empowered to take responsibility for their own learning experiences, you are freed from constantly dealing with behavioral and organizational issues. Discover and practice skills for orchestrating classroom life and learning so that instruction flows smoothly, student misbehavior is minimized, and learning potential is maximized.
Collaborative Inquiry for Students: Preparing Minds for the Future™ **NEW COURSE**
| Design collaborative inquiry experiences for students that encourage depth of knowledge, promote critical thinking, and incorporate the skills students need now and in the future. |
Cultural Competence: A Transformative Journey™ Online
Discover how your cultural lens influences your relationship with students and families. Explore the framework“know yourself, your students, and your practice”to understand your role in student achievement and as an agent of change for social justice.
Designing Motivation for All Learners®
Design learning experiences that successfully build motivation by reinforcing student effort and reducing student risk. The leadership and effective communication strategies taught in this course support confident, self-directed, and engaged learners, especially those of Generation Me.
Developing 21st Century Literacy Skills™ Online
Examine 21st century frameworks and why information literacy is a critical skill in today’s classroom. Explore multimedia skills, digital storytelling, the read/writeWeb, metrics and assessment, and the need for organizational and social change as agents for integrating 21st century skills into today’s curriculum.
Differentiated Instruction for Today’s Classroom®
All students can thrive in today’s standards-based learning environment when you know how to apply the practical and effective skills of differentiated instruction. Learn key knowledge and skills to implement differentiated instruction successfully in your own classroom.
Differentiated Instruction for Today’s Classroom® Online
All students can thrive in today’s standards-based learning environment when their teachers know how to apply the practical and effective skills of differentiated instruction. Learn key knowledge and skills to implement differentiated instruction successfully in your own classroom.
Discovering the Power of Live-Event Learning®
Support and enhance student achievement by creating real-life classroom experiences—Live-Event Learning™—that actively immerse students in the learning process, stimulate the brain’s natural learning systems, and teach lifelong learning skills.
Educating the Net-Generation™ Online
Explore the learning styles, expectations, and technical acumen of the Net-Generation. Identify this generation’s key educational and cultural influences then create pedagogy which meets their needs.
Facilitating Online Learning Communities™ Online
Discover the strategies and best practices of successful online facilitation in order to engage diverse learners, support various learning styles, and handle conflict constructively. Learn how to manage assessments and feedback, analyze and solve problems, and create a plan of action for teaching in an online learning environment.
Foundations of Literacy: Beginning Reading™ Online
Examine the National Reading Panel and International Reading Association’s components of reading. Create reading lesson plans and hands-on activities which include the reading components and that increase reading fluency and motivation.
Geometry for Middle School Educators™ Online
Apply research-based teaching strategies designed to develop mathematical literacy and foster logical thinking. Build upon and expand your current understanding of geometry by exploring how lateral thinking, vocabulary, a knowledge of learning styles, an understanding of your state standards, and technology enhance student learning.
Infusing Arts into the Curriculum™ Online
Discover the power of an arts-infused lesson plan. Appeal to diverse learning styles with an arts-infused unit of study which you can use in your own classroom.
Instructional Design for Online Educators™ Online
Instructional design is the process of analyzing learners’needs and developing instruction that answers those needs. Understand the basics of instructional design, explore philosophies of e-learning, and receive hands-on experience with online delivery and interaction techniques and tools.
Meaningful Activities to Generate Interesting Classrooms®
The first step to designing interactive and engaging learning activities within existing curriculum is to unlock creativity. Establish clear and meaningful criteria when preparing activities and actively engage students in learning.
Merging Educational Goals and Interactive Multimedia Projects®
Explore ways to incorporate multimedia projects into your classroom. Find out how to empower students to move beyond rote learning into problem solving, collaboration, researching, designing, testing, and communicating. You must have a working knowledge of PowerPoint before enrolling in this course. (Additional fees may apply for this course.)
Merging Educational Goals and Interactive Multimedia Projects® Online
Learn how to combine project-based learning with multimedia to meet state and national standards. Interactive multimedia projects can motivate and engage students, empowering them to solve real-world problems, collaborate with others, and communicate effectively.
Purposeful Learning Through Multiple Intelligences®
Acquire an understanding of Howard Gardner’s intelligences and how to apply them in the classroom. Experience the intelligences personally and create lesson plans that you can use immediately.
Purposeful Learning Through Multiple Intelligences® Online
Acquire an understanding of Howard Gardner’s intelligences and how to apply them in the classroom. View a multitude of Web sites, experience the intelligences personally, and create lesson plans that can be used immediately.
Reading Across the Curriculum™
Discover research-based active reading comprehension strategies which you can apply to your grade level or content area. This course emphasizes learning styles, types of text, notation systems, content-area reading, assessments, fluency, motivation, and grade-level vocabulary.
Reading Across the Curriculum™ Online
Discover research-based active reading comprehension strategies which you can apply to your grade level or content area. This course emphasizes learning styles, types of text, notation systems, content-area reading, assessments, fluency, motivation, and grade-level vocabulary.
Secondary Content Methods™ Online
Examine the content in the secondary school content curriculum standards and help students make connections among the higher level courses they have taken in college and the material taught in secondary schools.
Simulations and Gaming Technologies for the Classroom™ Online
Critically evaluate learning games to determine how they relate to academic content and standards. Identify how particular game mechanics appeal to diverse learners.
Strategies for Middle School Science Teachers™ Online
Design effective lesson plans, integrate technology, manage the classroom, develop assessments, and meet the needs of diverse learners while connecting the science classroom to the real world.
Structured English Immersion Training (Augmented)
This course equips PreK-12 educators with the essential knowledge and skills to design standards-based objectives, monitor and assess student progress and achievement, and design and deliver research-based instruction that meets the academic and social needs of English Language Learners (ELL).
Structured English Immersion Training (Augmented) PD
This course equips PreK-12 educators with the essential knowledge and skills to design standards-based objectives, monitor and assess student progress and achievement, and design and deliver research-based instruction that meets the academic and social needs of English Language Learners.
Structured English Immersion Training for Educators
Gain the essential knowledge and skills required to implement differentiated instruction that meets the individual needs of English Language Learners. Discover effective, manageable strategies for satisfying an increasingly diverse student population and explore cultural and social aspects of the English Language Learner.
Structured English Immersion Training for Educators PD
Gain the essential knowledge and skills required to implement differentiated instruction that meets the individual needs of English Language Learners. Discover effective, manageable strategies for satisfying an increasingly diverse student population and explore cultural and social aspects of the English Language Learner.
Student Engagement and Standards-Based Learning™ **NEW COURSE**
Optimize student engagement and achievement by developing high-yield learning activities aligned to standards and process skills. Align standards, assessments, and scoring guides for essential activities and curriculum requirements. Design standards-based activities that foster 21st century skills, differentiate instruction, and engage all learners. Experience a variety of standards-based activities for use in your classroom.
Successful Teaching for Acceptance of Responsibility®
Gain new techniques to model, teach, and support responsible student behavior while creating a classroom that fosters personal power and self-responsible behaviors. Explore how you can expand your own personal power by encouraging appropriate behavior and empowering students to make good decisions.
Successful Teaching for Acceptance of Responsibility® Online
Gain new techniques to model, teach, and support responsible student behavior while creating a classroom that fosters personal power and self-responsible behaviors. Examine how you can expand your own personal power by encouraging appropriate behavior and empowering students to make good decisions.
Teaching Algebra to Middle School Students™ Online
Explore and evaluate the major concepts fundamental to teaching algebra to middle school students.Topics include algebraic number sense, order of operations, linear functions, properties of slope, and an introduction to quadratic equations.
Teaching and Learning Through the Standards Aligned System™ Online
Discover the benefits of the Pennsylvania Standards Aligned System (SAS) approach to teaching and learning. Improve student learning and achievement. Engage in comprehensive and collaborative planning and discussion related to curriculum and instruction. Utilize the SAS portal and related technologies to develop lesson plans based on curriculum frameworks that integrate best instructional strategies, resources, and sound assessment approaches and techniques.
Teaching the English Language Learner™ Online
Identify the academic content which English language learners need to compete with native speakers in a consistently competitive global and information society. Design and deliver appropriate language and content instruction for these students.
Teaching Through Learning Channels®
Learn how to match brain-compatible teaching strategies with learning style preferences while addressing the basic motivational needs of students.
Teaching Through Learning Channels® Online
Learn how to match brain-compatible teaching strategies with learning style preferences while addressing the basic motivational needs of students.
Thinking Mathematically: Elementary Edition® Online
This course is designed for elementary school teachers to deepen their knowledge, appreciation, and understanding of K-4 mathematics. Participants will use the NCTM Content and Process Strands as a vehicle for understanding what students need to know and be able to do in math. They will also investigate strategies for developing mathematical literacy and fostering logical thinking.
Using Online Resources to Bring Primary Sources to the Classroom™ Online
Discover how digital primary source archives can enhance and improve student learning. Use online resources to access and analyze primary sources, think critically about classroom applications, and develop authentic, engaging learning experiences for students.
Writing Across the Curriculum™ Online
Learn to implement the Writing Workshop process as a way to encourage student writing independence. Explore writing strategies, cross-content applications, informal and formal writing for comprehension, and writing assessments.