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Syllabus
Goal
To explore various methods of communications, both
technological and traditional, analyze how to work with parents
and community partners, examine rapport and constructive criticism
issues, and address issues of ethics.
Content
This course consists of eight modules of varying
length.
- Parent Learning Partners
We begin Partners in Education: School/Home/Community by
looking at the importance of parental involvement in a child's
education. We will also examine how to get parents involved
and what parents can do with and for their children. Additionally,
we will also visit resources available from several national
organizations dedicated to parental involvement in education.
- Communication: Email Groups
You will learn about email groups like the one we use for
our class discussions. You will be reading about how to
set those groups up, you will look at a few that already
exist for some elementary schools, and then you will create
and maintain your group.
- Communication: Web Pages
We will create a Web page based around an activity of your
choice. That Web page will be accessible to anyone with
Internet access.
- Communication: Traditional
We'll utilize some tried and true methods of communicating
with parents. We'll examine how to use the old standbys
effectively: parent/teacher conferences, telephone conferences,
back-to-school night, classroom newsletters.
- Community Partnerships
We will examine models of how school districts and classes
have successfully included surrounding communities into
their network of partnering to educate their children.
- Relationships & Rapport
We will examine why rapport is important and ideas to establish
rapport with both parents and students. You will then engage
in an activity to build rapport with parents of your students.
- Constructive Criticism
We will look at techniques to foster constructive criticism,
and you will get to put that new knowledge right to work.
- Ethical Conduct
In our activities, we will answer questions that will deepen
your understanding of the myriad issues and topics that
make up this so critical, but so ignored issue in teacher
education.
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Participation
Participants will:
- exchange email with other participants and participate
in a workshop Discussion list.
- review and discuss online background reading materials.
- conduct peer reviews of projects with classmates.
- create a Unit of Instruction to use in their classrooms.
You will be able to customize activities to your specific
teaching or training responsibilities and needs.
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Collaboration
During each activity, you are encouraged to share your discoveries
and successes with other workshop participants and collaborate
during team problem-solving. Participants will share drafts
of works-in-progress for peer feedback and discuss ideas and
suggestions before submitting the final copy of each project.
This may be your favorite part of the workshop. You will
find creative ways to develop lively and fun group process
skills as well as outstanding teaching projects.
Since our diverse groups are usually in many different time
zones, feel free to use the following aids to determine what
time it is in your classmates' countries and/or cities. This
will help when communicating with your learning partner during
collaborative projects.
WORLDTIME
The Time Zone
Page (lists almost 600 cities)
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Discussion
List
The Discussion list is the heart of the class. All of our
class interactions will happen on that email list. It is critical
that you check mail as often as possible, no less than four
days a week, preferably five.
You will receive a list of participants' email addresses
at the beginning of the workshop. You are encouraged to communicate
with each other frequently and freely.
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Evaluation
Your grade will be based on:
50% - Development of Communication materials
25% - Online Discussion (postings to Discussion list)
15% - Collaborative participation
10% - Reflections, journals, and feedback forms
Your final project will be evaluated on your demonstration
of standards listed on the provided rubric or checklist.
A -- Exceeds standards
B -- Proficient demonstration of standards
C -- Weak demonstration of standards
D -- Insufficient demonstration of standards
F -- Did not demonstrate standards
I -- Incomplete demonstration of standards (Work must be
resubmitted; highest grade upon resubmission is B.)
Any time that you want to ask about your progress, send a
message directly to your instructor.
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