Denver Public Schools

Earn Semester Hours accelerate your lane change with KDS!

Earn Semester Hours towards Salary Advancement.

Course can be used to earn a BA +30, 60, MA +30, 60 towards Salary Advancement.

View Program Details
For questions or comments, contact KDS at (800) 728-0032 or DPS@kdsi.org.
Credits earned 1 Semester Hour = 1 Graduate Credit 3 Semester Hours = 3 Graduate Credits
Course Length: 15 Contact Hours 45 Contact Hours
Pricing: $205 $370
Time to Complete: 2 months 3 months
Accreditation/Approval: Issued by Adams State College and accredited by TEAC (Teacher Education Accreditation Council) and the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. Issued by Chapman University and accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC)
How to redeem credits
  • You must complete the online lectures, pre- and post-assessments, objectives and write a final paper (approximately 3 pages in length).
  • Once you have completed your course and registered with Adams State College you will recieve your transcript in the mail.
  • YOU MUST DOWNLOAD this registration document, fill it out, and send, or fax it to:
    Address:
    Chapman University
    16355 Laguna Canyon Road
    Irvine, CA 92618
    Fax: (949)754-1337
    Phone: (949)341-9867
  • You must complete all assignments, including the midterm and final projects.
  • Once your course is completed, your grade will be posted at Chapman University and you will receive an official grade report by mail.

  • Teaching, Learning and Leading in the Digital Age

    Meg Ormiston Promo
    By Meg Ormiston
    Meg Ormiston

    Raised on technology, students today thrive on media, both in and outside the classroom. In this course, teachers and administrators learn to engage and educate the millennial learner using still images, video and audio clips, assorted technological soft- and hardware, and Web 2.0 collaborative tools. Aided by energetic panel discussions, interviews, and screen capture sessions, educators will investigate new projects and resources to replace staid textbook-driven instruction and to motivate and edify their "powered up" 21st century students.

  • Charlotte Danielson's A Framework For Teaching

    Charlotte Danielson Promo
    By Charlotte Danielson

    Charlotte Danielson's A Framework for Teaching defines teachers responsibilities, which fall into four domains: planning and preparation, classroom environment, instruction, and professional responsibilities. Through lectures, classroom observations, and vigorous panel discussions, educators work through how to use the Framework to scrutinize and strengthen classroom teaching practices to improve student learning. Punctuated by worksheets and activities, the course prepares educators to use the Framework to become their best professional selves.

  • Setting the Stage for Teaching ELLs Across the Curriculum

    Elizabeth Jimenez Promo
    By Elizabeth Jiménez

    To assist their English language learners across the curriculum, educators learn the foundations of language development and language acquisition, setting the stage for developing instructional strategies for ELLs across all subject areas. Jiménez demonstrates strategies for assessing students knowledge, identifying learning objectives, and developing differentiated instruction for various levels of language proficiency. In addition, she reviews the contextual factors that impact the success of academic pursuits.

  • Teaching English Language Learners Across the Curriculum

    Elizabeth Jimenez Promo
    By Elizabeth Jiménez

    How can academic content be delivered in the classroom so that English language learners succeed in all subjects? Jiménez reviews Cummins theory of task difficulty and then showcases how to enhance comprehension through sheltered instruction. She models other ESL strategies and takes educators on classroom tours and along for interviews with experts. Educators also explore the importance of students' culture, how to organize lessons around meaningful themes, how to communicate effectively with families, and how to engage families and communities in student learning. Educators will learn to affect their students development in all four domains of language: reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

  • Understanding the Digital Generation: Teaching and Learning in the New Digital Landscape

    Ian Jukes Promo
    By Ian Jukes

    Because of digital bombardment and the emergence of the new digital landscape, "digital natives" process information, interact, and communicate in fundamentally different ways than previous generations. Educators will revise their beliefs about what constitutes knowledge, critical thinking, and problem solving as they adapt their instruction and assessment to the requirements of the digitized 21st century, developing constructivist models that enable students to think, explore, and develop their own learning.

  • Digital Learning: Empowering Teachers for the 21st Century

    Ferdi Promo
    By Ferdi Serim

    School leaders face the immediate challenges of raising student achievement while also preparing students for success in a digital age. The Digital Thinking Process provides a practical pathway for developing 21st century skills and simultaneously strengthening student core subject-area learning. It also allows educators to implement research-based, evidence-based practice to strengthen and assess the ISTE NET Standards.

  • Authentic Innovation in the 21st Century

    Cheryl Lemke Promo
    By Cheryl Lemke

    Todays global high-tech world requires instruction and assessment that incorporate the latest social, learning, and neuroscience research on critical thinking, multi-tasking, multimodal learning, collaboration, and engagement. Educators will learn from classroom footage and lecture how to use technologically advanced tools that extend students thinking by serving as a means to explore ideas, research questions, test hypotheses, compose thoughts, and come to conclusions. Educators will learn to teach their students to use these tools as vehicles for exploring rigorous academic concepts in authentic environmentsi.e., in the world around them.

  • Technology Applications for Teaching & Supporting the Struggling Reader

    By Ted Hasselbring & margaret Bausch

    Too many students are entering middle and high schools with deficits in literacy skills that prevent them from participating in grade-level learning. Drs. Hasselbring and Bausch discuss how to leverage knowledge of how the brain learns to read to facilitate the use of technology to enhance literacy instruction for all readers, and especially struggling readers. They provide specific examples of technology that teaches and supports literacy skills.

  • Data-Driven Decision Making: Implementing Strategies for Student Achievement

    Lee Jenkins Promo
    By Lee Jenkins

    Educators learn how to make data-driven decisions using classroom data to inform their instructional practice. By capturing and analyzing student data in the form of graphs, charts, and diagrams, educators learn to adapt and focus their instructional strategies to achieve greater student academic achievement. Educators also learn how students can achieve more success in less time.

  • Improving Instruction through Strategic Conversations with Teachers

    Robyn Jackson Promo
    By Robyn Jackson

    In this course, instructional leaders will learn the delicate art of conversing about teaching to improve instruction. Leaders learn to use strategic conversations to collaborate and communicate with teachers to improve teaching practices and to increase student achievement. Strategic conversations help leaders quickly assess the needs of the teaching staff, strategically apply their leadership skills to motivate and support teachers, and help teachers make connections between their instructional techniques and student performance. .

  • Visual Literacy: Art in the General Classroom

    By Nica Lalli

    Bringing art into the general education classroom can make students better observers, thinkers, and doers in all their subjects. Nica Lalli helps educators access art to serve various purposes: to introduce diverse cultures and points-of-view; to enhance language arts, social studies, and math curricula; to animate the past and present; to improve their observation, inference, and interpretation skills; and to prompt other creative tasks.

  • Motivating Underachievers using Response to Intervention and Differentiated Instruction

    Carolyn Coil Promo
    By Carolyn Coil

    Stepping in to assist underachievers early can lead to student success. Educators will identify prototypical causes of underachievement, who their underachievers are, and what research-based interventions will help to reverse patterns of underachievement. Through RTI and differentiated instruction, educators will become flexible planners who supply their students with choices and frequently monitor their students progress. Compacting, scaffolding, and tiering strategies will help educators accommodate a range of learning needs.

  • Manage It All: Students, Curriculum, and Time

    Debbie Silver Promo
    By Debbie Silver

    Effective teachers navigate their students often-unpredictable classroom behavior; they establish a classroom environment that facilitates learning; they differentiate instruction and assessment; they assist learning through cooperative groups; and they find time to meet their personal goals. How do they do it all? The presenter covers that and more in this illuminating course that prepares educators to engage students in high quality curricula where the rewards are intrinsic. This course provides timesaving strategies, practical tips, and great ideas to help teachers create effective learning environments.

  • Differentiation Using 21st Century Technology

    By Stephanie Throne and Grace E. Smith

    Today, most students are technology-savvy having grown up in the computer age surfing the Internet, social networking, tweeting, playing electronic games, downloading music, and viewing or posting videos on YouTube. Incorporating traditional and Web 2.0 technology tools and resources is a way to connect with students across all subject areas through differentiated instruction that addresses students learning styles and multiple intelligences.

  • Differentiation and Assessment for Middle School

    By Rick Wormeli and Marilee Sprenger

    How can educators meet standards, prepare students for high-stakes testing, and still offer students differentiated instruction that respects their individuality? Educators learn to create instruction and assessment to discover and meet their students different needs. They will use assessments to communicate rather than to compensate or reward; they will scrutinize grading systems to identify unfairly norm-referenced or biased ones; and they will convert assessments to nonjudgmental, criteria-referenced systems instead. This course prepares educators to manage the differentiated classroom by offering their students nurturing, rigorous, fair, and differentiated instruction that promotes student engagement and academic success.

  • Challenging Gifted Students Using the SCG Model, Part I (Materials Fee Included)

    By Susan Winebrenner and Dina Brulles

    The School-wide Cluster Gifted Model provides full-time gifted services without major budget implications, and implementing these strategies has the potential to raise achievement for all students. With the SCGM, all students are purposely placed into classrooms based on their abilities and potential. Educators will learn to identify gifted students, how to implement the SCGM in the classroom, and the training necessary to become an SCGM teacher. Classroom footage concretizes a range of exciting and productive strategies.

  • Challenging Gifted Students Using the SCG Model, Part II (Requires SCGM Book)

    By Susan Winebrenner and Dina Brulles

    This second course in the School-wide Cluster Grouping Model covers additional teaching strategies as well as training tips for specialists and mentors, how to conduct relevant meetings for teachers, and how to monitor progress in the SCGM. Educators will learn to create a database to track gifted students growth, and will learn routes to professional development and curriculum differentiation to address the needs of special population students.

  • Introduction to Response to Intervention (RTI) and the 3-Tiered Approach that Accelerates Learning

    By Concetta Russo and Joyce Whitby

    Why wait for students to fail before applying solutions that will help them succeed? Response to Intervention (RTI) identifies early on those academic or behavioral needs that adversely affect achievement and intervenes at increasing levels of intensity. RTI employs a universal screening and progress monitoring system that can affect student success across subject areas. This course focuses particularly on administrators roles in assisting at-risk students.

  • Response to Intervention (RTI) Model: Roles and Responsibilities of Educators and Specialists

    By Concetta Russo

    Students should not have to "wait to fail" to get support. The Response to Intervention (RTI) model integrates screening, progress monitoring, and intervention within a 3-tiered approach designed to reduce classroom behavior problems and maximize student achievement. This course focuses on the roles and responsibilities of general educators, special educators, speech and occupational therapists, and psychologists in assisting at-risk students.

  • Character Education, Part 1: Community and Cultural Change

    By Clifton Taulbert

    Cultural changes in family structure, parents shifting role, and the glorification of violence, drugs, and gang activity in popular culture have all contributed to changes in behavior dynamics that impact students ability to learn. Educators will discover avenues to create a moral community in the classroom and identify their roles in the process of fostering students positive character traits. They will focus on building adult teams to implement and sustain a character focus. This course can be taken alone or with Character Education, Part 2 for additional course credits.

  • Character Education, Part 2: Positive Role Models and Proactive Educators

    By Clifton Taulbert

    This course assists educators in creating an environment conducive to learning by encouraging students to take personal responsibility for their actions and by creating a positive climate for resolving conflicts. Educators will develop a school-wide character education program that leverages community involvement from businesses, faith communities, parents, and coaches. They will explore their roles as leaders and "ignite" leadership at all levels to create positive and productive relationships. This course can be taken alone or with Character Education, Part 1 for additional course credits.

  • Effective Classroom Discipline: Anger Management, Part I

    By Diane Wagenhals

    Educators study the fundamental principles, properties, and characteristics of anger. The speaker and her panel present current brain research that clarifies neurological and bio-chemical responses to anger-evoking experiences. Educators will challenge common myths and untruths about anger and explore connections among anger, hostility, aggression and violence, with an emphasis on the nature of shame. The course provides an array of effective anger management and discipline tools that can contribute to an environment of emotional safety.

  • Effective Classroom Discipline: Anger Management, Part II

    By Diane Wagenhals and Karla Reiss

    Educators study the relationships between anger, effective discipline in schools, and violence prevention. Their increased awareness and understanding of brain functioning will render them more likely to respond to children in brain-sensitive ways. The presenter reviews the impact superior attitudes have on anger and aggression and how important it is for adults to appreciate that students need respect, guidance, and care.

  • Creating and Managing a Successful Classroom

    By Todd Whitaker, Rick Wormeli, Doug Fiore, Eileen Griffin, Don Deshler and Keith Lenz

    This multi-faceted course prepares educators to manage the classroom through improving their own teaching practice, holding themselves and students accountable, developing constructive relationships with parents and administrators, and engaging students fully in their learning. The course focuses in part on the use of data and technology to further educators efforts.

  • Differentiated Instruction

    By Bruce Campbell, Rick Wormeli, Marilee Sprenger, Debbie Silver and Carol Ann Tomlinson

    This course in differentiated instruction prepares educators to pre-assess their students for readiness, interest, and learning profile; design appropriate differentiated instruction that appeals to various intelligences; meet academic standards; and manage the differentiated classroom. Educators will engage in quality differentiation of quality curriculum. Educators also explore emerging brain research on the neurobiology of emotions and its links to learning, as well as applications of classroom strategies designed to foster emotional health and enhance students ability to learn.

  • Aiding Students with Learning Disabilities

    By Marilee Sprenger, Carol Mowen and Donna Walker Tileston

    This course distills best practices for an authentically diverse, brain-based learning environment. Educators will learn to access such systems as the metacognitive and self-systems to help students toward automaticity. Educators will discover methods to assist their students with reading disorders, emotional and behavior disorders, attention disorders, and autism.

  • Teaching Students from Poverty

    By Donna Walker Tileston

    This course explores diversity in the classroom as constituted by urban learners, students from generational poverty, and English language learners. Educators will study the effects of bias on students learning processes and methods to overcome that bias. They will learn strategies that emphasize declarative and procedural knowledge, that modify for diverse students particular needs, and that exploit the functions of memory.

  • Teaching Diverse Learners

    By Donna Walker Tileston

    A truly diverse classroom presents unique, even invigorating, challenges to educators. This course provides an overview of the issues relevant to teaching diverse learners and students from poverty. Educators will foster resiliency, build a sense of community within the classroom, teach to student modalities, and mediate the effects of poverty on student learning. Particular emphasis falls on working with generational poverty, different modalities of learning, and process skills. The lecturer promotes a collaborative approach through building relationships, understanding bias, setting goals, and following through with established objectives.

  • Teaching in a Mixed Ability Classroom

    By Susan Winebrenner and Jay McTighe

    Educators learn strategies for compacting the regular curriculum and providing consistent opportunities for gifted students to be fully engaged and challenged. Educators will study why some students do not achieve at a satisfactory level, and they will learn specific strategies to remedy this situation. They will also learn how to pre-assess advanced students, accelerate learning when appropriate, and differentiate by student interest.

  • Inclusive Teaching for Aiding Students with Disabilities

    By Donna Walker Tileston and Rosemary Planz

    This course emphasizes effective instructional strategies and interventions for students with disabilities. An introduction to characteristics of various learning disorders precedes coverage of effective models of service delivery. The course emphasis is on inclusive teaching in the regular classroom with effective strategies for improved social skills, communication skills, motivational skills, and academic performance. Educators will also consider the issues of unbiased testing, culturally sensitive behavioral expectations, and pre-referral intervention strategies that may prevent over-referrals to special education for culturally diverse and linguistically diverse students.

  • Coaching: What Every Educator Needs to Know

    By Karla Reiss

    This course explores coaching as a process, a relationship, a specific set of skills, and a powerful strategy for creating change in people and organizations. The role of "coach" is becoming more evident in our schools, and it is essential that educators understand the skills necessary for successful coaching that promotes change. This course clarifies the coachs roles and responsibilities in facilitating personal and organizational change. Participants witness teachers, superintendents, and other educators role-play a range of model coaching scenarios.

  • Mentoring to Improve Student Learning

    By Johnnie Roebuck and Carole Helstrom

    This course provides a roadmap for the implementation of an effective coaching and mentoring program to improve student learning by exploring the foundational theories of adult learning, leadership development, and the role of mentoring to increase leadership effectiveness. Educators will understand and practice essential mentoring skills to create continuous improvement in their classrooms. The course also demonstrates the roles and guidelines necessary to support relationships with colleagues, coaches, and mentors that improve student learning.

  • Legal Issues in Education: A Free and Appropriate Education

    By Rosemary Planz, Terri Peckham, Donna Walker Tileston and Carol Mowen

    Begun with an overview of the history and impact of current legislation and policies that affect the education of students with special needs, this course focuses on the notion of a free and appropriate education and least restrictive environment. Educators study practical classroom suggestions and resources that will assist them in preparing students for high-stakes testing even while they promote an inclusive environment in any classroom.

  • NCLB High-Stakes Test Preparation, Part I

    By Donna Walker Tileston

    Approximately 85% of all state assessments are based on one competency: a comprehensive understanding of the critical vocabulary that is embedded within state standards and benchmarks. Educators need a working knowledge of how to identify and use the language of state standards to prepare their students. They need to know which instructional strategies will be the most effective in teaching the vocabulary and processes that underpin success on high stakes tests. By this courses end, educators will have plenty of tools to help their students succeed in this demanding context.

  • NCLB High-Stakes Test Preparation, Part II

    By Donna Walker Tileston

    Approximately 85% of all state assessments are based on one competency: a comprehensive understanding of the critical vocabulary that is embedded within state standards and benchmarks. Educators need a working knowledge of how to identify and use the language of state standards to prepare their students. They need to know which instructional strategies will be the most effective in teaching the vocabulary and processes that underpin success on high stakes tests. By this courses end, educators will have plenty of tools to help their students succeed in this demanding context.

  • Improving Literacy in Secondary Schools, Part I

    By Carol Mowen

    First providing a definition and history of literacy, this course prepares educators to improve their students literacy throughout the curriculum through research-based instructional techniques. The presenter addresses methods for identifying struggling readers at the secondary level and overcoming obstacles to improve fluency and language acquisition skills. This course can be taken alone or with Improving Literacy in Secondary Schools, Part II, which highlights lesson design, media, technology, and literacy with a special emphasis on the reading and writing connection.

  • Improving Literacy in Secondary Schools, Part II

    By Carol Mowen

    This course provides practical and effective strategies for getting secondary students to read through the engagement of adult role models, choice theory, and incentives, among other techniques and strategies. Educators will also consider the importance of media literacy and the use of technology to promote it. This course may be taken alone or with Improving Literacy in the Secondary Schools, Part I that highlights the changing definition and multicultural traditions and history of literacy.

  • Math Classifying, Ordering and Exploring Real, Negative, and Whole Numbers (Materials Fee Included)

    By Paul Lawrence

    In Part 1 of this course, educators will learn easy-to-implement, sequenced activities that promote conceptual understanding and relate concrete understanding to symbolic interpretation. They will learn techniques to assess students understanding of skills and concepts so that lessons can be appropriately adjusted. Educators will embrace activities that promote pattern recognition and descriptions with respect to operational procedures including real, negative, and whole numbers. Educators students will improve their number sense, estimation strategies, and foundational understanding so that they can chose appropriate and efficient strategies to determine solutions.

  • Math: Mastering Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction (Requires Math Kit Purchase)

    By Paul Lawrence

    Games and manipulatives can invigorate math instruction. Educators will learn easy-to-implement, sequenced activities that promote conceptual understanding and relate concrete understanding to symbolic interpretation. They will learn techniques to assess students understanding of skills and concepts so that lessons can be appropriately adjusted. Educators will embrace learning activities that promote pattern recognition and descriptions with respect to operational procedures involving multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction. Educators students will improve their number sense, estimation strategies, and foundational understanding so that they can chose appropriate and efficient strategies to determine solutions.

  • Teaching Elementary and Middle Level Math (Requires Math Kit Purchase)

    By Paul Lawrence, Angie Su and Michelle Flaming

    Project MIND workshops introduce educators to problem-solving strategies that utilize both the decimal and binary systems. Educators learn the building blocks necessary for a child to develop true number sense and engage in authentic math projects. Educators will learn easy-to-implement, sequenced activities that promote conceptual understanding and that relate concrete understanding to symbolic interpretation. They will learn techniques to assess students understanding of skills and concepts so that lessons can be appropriately adjusted. Educators will use game-based activities to enable students creative practice with operational skills.

  • English Language Learners: Strategies for Elementary Teachers

    By Hope Blecher-Sass, Sharon Russell-Fowler and Donna Walker Tileston

    This course for educators with English language learners in their classrooms, presented by a team of experts, covers the stages of language acquisition, consideration of strategies that leverage brain functioning, instructional suggestions for facilitating English language learners learning processes, and the broader issue of ELLs literacy throughout the curriculum.

  • Interactive Learning for English Language Learners

    By David Noyes

    Beginning with an overview of the stages of language acquisitions impact on content learning, this course offers educators a variety of methods to meet English language learners needs. They will learn to address such issues as the public and private voice and discourse patterns, as well as the impact of cultural patterns on both language acquisition and broader learning goals. Educators will be prepared to create interactive environments that allow ELLs equal access to the curriculum.

Additional Salary Advancement Options include:
Online Master's Degree from Touro University Nevada
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