“Managing Your Classroom Effectively” - New Three-Part Series Available Online in March

by Suzanne Wayne (February 2010)

The EdLion Program of the Penn State College of Education will be offering in March 2010 a new three-part series of online presentations titled "Managing Your Classroom Effectively." The free sessions are offered primarily to College alumni who are elementary and secondary teachers seeking professional development and Act 48 credit hours. The sessions are also open to anyone else, including current students, faculty, and staff of the College.

The first session, titled “Using The Responsive Classroom Approach as a Framework for Thinking about Classroom Learning Environments,” will focus on the use of the responsive classroom approach as a way to think about creating and sustaining classroom communities at the elementary and middle school levels. This interactive session will be offered March 4.

Jim Nolan, Hermanowicz professor of education in the Penn State College of Education, will be one of four presenters. Three teachers from the State College Area School District will also present in this session: Jodi Kamin, elementary teacher and Professional Development School (PDS) co-coordinator; Mardi McDonough, middle school teacher and former PDS co-coordinator; and Deana Washell, elementary teacher and PDS co-coordinator.

The second session, titled “Universal Design in Learning,” will feature Shirley Woika, assistant professor of school psychology. Traditionally a term used by architects and industrial designers, “universal design” focuses on removing barriers and allowing access to buildings and products to as many individuals as possible, including those with disabilities. Examples of such design features include access ramps, automatic doors, and video captioning.

As applied to education, the term “universal design” refers to a framework for designing educational environments that will benefit diverse learners. Diverse learners include students with emotional/behavioral difficulties, attention problems, learning disabilities, limited English proficiency, and others. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is not a program or a product. It is a research-based framework and a set of principles to provide all students equal opportunities to learn.

This session will be offered March 18.

The third session, titled “Classroom Management,” will be offered by James Levin, affiliate associate professor of education and senior Division of Undergraduate Studies programs coordinator. Levin is also co-author with Nolan of the book Principles of Classroom Management: A Hierarchical Approach. This third session will be offered on March 25.

All sessions will take place from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. (Eastern Time). Individuals who participate in all three live online sessions will qualify for Act 48 credit hours. For more information, please visit www.ed.psu.edu/educ/edlion.