Archives: Online courses

So you’ve survived the first half of the school year. That doesn’t mean you can’t use more help. LEARN NC’s Virtual Mentoring: Biology experience lets teachers get expert help at any hour, day or night. Best of all, it’s available at no cost to the LEA, school, or teachers.

Virtual Mentoring: Biology covers topics ranging from classroom management to course content. In addition, participants will have access to a fully developed biology curriculum aligned to the North Carolina Standard Course of Study, which they can use for the entire course or just a lesson for an upcoming class.

This Virtual Mentoring experience begins January 21 and will award teachers 3.0 CEUs upon completion.

For more information, please see the description in the course catalog.

LEARN NC, in collaboration with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, and with funding from the North Carolina General Assembly, is proud to offer an online instructor preparation program designed for world language teachers. This program provides free professional development for licensed North Carolina world language teachers to either become or improve their understanding and skills for teaching a world language online.

The program consists of free registration for three online courses that must be taken in the following sequence:

1. Teaching Online Courses — A six-week, online professional development course to introduce the educator to online pedagogy
2. Facilitating Online Collaboration — A three week, online professional development course focused on facilitating student discussion and engagement
3. Teaching World Languages Online — A six-week, online professional development course focused on cultivating a student-centered language learning environment online

Interested applicants should apply as soon as possible to in order to complete the first two courses in the sequence prior to the final course that begins on April 29, 2009. Potential applicants should carefully read the following details of the program prior to submission of the program application. Please submit your completed application before December 31, 2008 January 31, 2009 to Dr. Bobby Hobgood.

Program Goal

Increase student options for studying a world language by preparing world language teachers to teach online.

Program Benefits

• Free registration for all three courses
• Develop an understanding of online pedagogy
• Learn techniques for effective online teaching
• Develop teaching techniques that transfer to the face-to-face classroom
• Introduction to community of online language teachers
• Program stipend upon successful completion of all three courses

Program Requirements

• North Carolina residency status
• Certification in foreign language
• Statement of intent to teach a world language online (see application)
• Completed application

Expectations

Participants are expected to complete all courses in preparation for teaching a world language online through the North Carolina Virtual Public Schools. Failure to complete the program requires participant to pay for all completed prerequisite courses up to the point of withdrawal.

How to apply

Applicants must complete and submit the application prior to admission into the program. Upon acceptance, registration for all three courses will be waived. Participants cannot be reimbursed for any coursework complete prior to acceptance into the program.

If you’ve already competed Blackboard Training with LEARN NC, you still have time to get trained in Moodle for free. We’re offering free “Moodle Transition Training for Blackboard Instructors“ for everyone who has completed LEARN NC Blackboard Training, whether you took it in person or on the Web.

This training program is self-paced to allow you to quickly move through sections you’ve mastered. A LEARN NC facilitator will be available to answer any questions you may have. If you haven’t completed Blackboard Training with LEARN NC, you can sign up for our standard “Moodle Training“ course.

Please remember, Moodle Transition Training for Blackboard Instroctors will not be available after December 31, 2008. For a full course description or to register, please click here.

LimiTV is a North Carolina-based non-profit organization that for the past 12 years has informed teachers, parents, and the community at large about the ways students’ time with TV and video games can hinder learning, adversely affect health, stimulate aggressive behavior, and compromise early childhood brain development. LimiTV has entered into a partnership with LEARN NC to offer an online course that helps teachers:

• Understand how excessive screen time (over 10 hours a week) hinders reading skills, thinking skills, attention span, and speaking skills.
• Motivate students to switch to activities that help, rather than hinder, their learning ability.

The course has three sessions, two weeks apart. Classes that start in September will be at no charge; thereafter, the fee is $100, with group discounts available.

The course applies to the North Carolina Standard Course of Study as follows:

• English Language Development: Grades K-6, Goals 1-4
• English Language Arts: Grades K-6, Goals 1-4
• Healthful Living: Grades K-6, Goals 1-4, 7-10

Please see “New LimiTV Offering” on the LimiTV website for details.

Learn to use Web 2.0 tools in your classroom. Teachers have a lot of interactive web resources at their disposal. But how can they use these tools in the classroom? The North Carolina School of Science and Math will host an online workshop where teachers learn to use computers, phones, and MP3 players to make their teaching lives easier. According to the description on the flyer:

If you have no idea what a tweet, ning, or jott might be—or why you should care—this is the workshop for you! Michelle Brenner, from the humanities department at the North Carolina School of Science and Math, is a self-proclaimed and self-taught computer geek. She has sorted through the amazing amount of new interactive websites out there and developed ways to get your classroom organized and your students engaged.

The live workshop is free of charge, and runs September 16, 18, 23, 25, 30 and October 30 from 3:30 - 5:30 each day. Participants will earn 1.5 CEUs for completing 12 hours of in-class time plus 6 hours of homework. To register, email Peg Kirk or call 919-416-2632.

For more information, download this flyer.

New teachers often get stuck with the toughest teaching assignments. Even experienced instructors can get thrown for a loop if they’re tasked with teaching an unfamiliar subject. If you’re an inexperienced biology or civics and economics teacher who’s worried about how you’ll fare in the classroom, turn to LEARN NC’s Virtual Mentoring program for guidance. You’ll get expert help. Your time commitment will be minimal. It’s available at any hour, day or night. You progress on your own schedule and at your own pace. And best of all, it’s yours at no cost to you, your school, or your LEA.

Experience and expertise

You’ll work with an expert mentor who has successfully mentored teachers both online and face-to-face. In addition, you’ll join a statewide Professional Learning Community (PLC) of instructors teaching the same subject as you, each sharing his or her successes, challenges, and unique perspective on how to confront instructional issues.

Full curriculum access

Participants in LEARN NC’s Virtual Mentoring program receive access to a fully developed, online curriculum plan aligned to the North Carolina Standard Course of Study to use as a year-long course template or a reference for individual lessons.

Enroll now

Register for Virtual Mentoring: Biology

Register for Virtual Mentoring: Civics

It’s not too early to think about earning your renewal credits this fall. Due to high demand, we’re busily scheduling our professional development offerings for the coming school year. Be sure to see which of our online courses are open for enrollment.

If you plan to teach online, don’t forget about courses in the Carolina Online Teacher Program. Our courses deal with adapting to online teaching, creating engaging activities and assignments for the virtual classroom, as well as developing an online course of your own.

To browse our courses or to register, please click here to visit our online courses page.

Reminder: LEARN NC will officially change its learning management system from Blackboard to Moodle on Monday, June 23. If you taught a LEARN NC course on Blackboard this year and want to teach it again in 2008-2009, you must complete a Moodle training course first.

Free Training
If you’ve already competed Blackboard Training with LEARN NC, you can get trained in Moodle for free. We’re offering free “Moodle Transition Training for Blackboard Instructors “ for everyone who has completed LEARN NC Blackboard Training, whether you took it in-person or on the Web. This training program is self-paced to allow you to quickly move through sections you’ve mastered. However, a LEARN NC facilitator will be available to answer any questions you may have. If you haven’t completed Blackboard Training with LEARN NC, you can sign up for our standard “Moodle Training“ course.

To sign up for “Moodle Tranisition Training for Blackboard Instructors,” please register here.

If you wish to teach courses in Moodle, you must complete the course before December 31, 2008 to take the course for free. After December 31, you must pay the full fee ($150) for “Moodle Training.”

High school science teachers can now earn CEU credit for free. Adolescent Literacy: Science Comprehension Strategies will provide teachers with language literacy strategies to strengthen students’ achievement in science as well as reading. Teachers will learn to infuse literacy strategies into their instruction to energize and accelerate the learning in their science classrooms, enabling students to better understand the material and perform better on tests.

Thanks to a generous grant of public funds, Adolescent Literacy: Science Comprehension Strategies is free of charge to high school science teachers in North Carolina public schools. However, due to a limited number of seats available, please be advised of LEARN NC’s drop/add policy for online professional development courses.

This course takes place online, so teachers can participate at a time most convenient for them, whether that’s during their planning period, or at 11 p.m. in their pajamas.

Class begins April 9. Space is limited to the first fifteen applicants, so sign up today.

For a full course description or to register, please visit http://www.learnnc.org/courses/current/adolitscience_04_01_08

About the Instructor
As well as teaching chemistry, biology and AVID classes over the years, course instructor Judy Jones has been very involved in curriculum development for the state of North Carolina. Judy greatly enjoys her role as an active mentor to new teachers, student teachers and teachers online through eMSS. She has served as chair of the North Carolina Professional Teaching Standards Commission and chaired the subcommittee that developed the state teacher’s working condition standards (the basis for the working conditions survey distributed to school personnel every 18 months). She has written many articles and lesson ideas for The Teachers Network in New York City.

Now you can earn a LEARN NC Certificate in Online Instruction through the Carolina Online Teacher program (COLT). In five core courses and two electives, totaling a minimum of 17 CEUs, you’ll master the component skills of online teaching: effective collaboration and facilitation, creating learning communities, navigating the virtual classroom, and developing student-centered instruction.

Take the courses in this program of study at your convenience and build the knowledge to create a dynamic learning community, one where learners separated by a few feet or many miles can collaborate and share ideas. With the possibilities for using web-based content and multimedia, online courses can be exciting and inspiring for teachers and students alike.

For more information and descriptions of COLT courses, click here.