Beginning Teacher Success: Online course syllabus
Syllabus for the online course Beginning Teacher Success designed to support beginning teachers with assignments and reading materials to guide and scaffold learning the best teaching practices.
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- Beginning teacher success: Online course An professional development course for beginning teachers designed to guide and scaffold learning best teaching practices.
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Course description
This course is designed to support you as a beginning teacher. Assignments and reading materials will guide and scaffold learning in best teaching practices. You will be expected to reflect on your current practice, explore and learn what research and experienced teachers say about specific topics, refine your practice to best meet the needs of your students and develop effective ways to incorporate what you have learned into your individual style of teaching and learning environment.
The activities and assignments in this course are designed so that what you are producing in this course each week can be used in your classrooms the next week.
Course goals
The goal of this course is for beginning teachers to explore what current educational research says, learn about best practices, implement effective strategies and tips, and become the best they can be in the educational world, impacting the lives of students. Topics to be discussed are: classroom environment, community of learners, planning, assessments, communicating with parents, and time management.
Course objectives
There will be a variety of activities and readings designed to help you improve your teaching skills. The six areas we will explore in this course are:
- Creating an effective learning environment
- Creating a community of learners
- Planning
- Assessments
- Communicating with parents
- Balancing your life: time management tips
Required material
A willingness to learn, reflect, refine, and participate in group discussions.
Course requirements
This course takes place over six weeks. Each week you will be required to complete a set of assignments. All assignments are listed in the Course Schedule and details and due dates are provided in each week’s section.
You are expected to:
- Complete all assignments by the due date, and participate in all class discussions.
- Check into the online course at least three days a week to see new announcements, check messages and view discussion postings.
Readings
Each week you will be responsible for reading and reviewing writings in the course, and online material or articles that may be provided. At the bottom of each week’s section you will find a Resources section that contains readings and worksheets for each week.
Discussions
There will be a general discussion forum set up for you to meet and talk with your classmates. Participation in this forum is voluntary and is not graded. This forum is called the Coffee Shop.
In most weeks there will be at least one required discussion question which you must respond to. All students are expected to post in a responsible and courteous fashion.
If you have specific questions about assignments, you may use the Ask The Instructor Assignment Questions discussion forum.
Plans
You will be required to develop long range plans, weekly and daily plans that will be applicable to your current teaching assignment. We will also look at behavior management plans and creating a plan for implementing organization and time management strategies. Details will be provided in the weekly assignment area of the course. Many of these plans will be shared with your classmates in the discussion area, though some will be sent directly to your instructor.
Final project
In week six you will be given details on a final project to summarize what you have learned in this course. This project is due in week six.
Evaluation
This course is centered on your participation. The assignments are designed to guide you to success as well as support your learning processes as a beginning teacher. You will be evaluated on thoughtful completion of these assignments as well as participation and responses in the discussion forum. Grades will not be given although participation will be directly tied to the amount of credits earned for this course. Successful completion will earn 3 CEUs.
Professional development offerings through LEARN NC do not carry graduate credit and do not issue grades. Participants are awarded Continuing Education Units (CEUs) based on successful completion of the course. The course instructor determines to what extent participants have completed all required course activities and have participated in the learning community.
