Heritage Instructor

Writing is an invaluable skill for our students. Literacy directly correlates with better student outcomes, including higher wages and more formal education (AAFP). Unfortunately, educators are rarely taught how to make writing engaging for their diverse classrooms. As a result, teachers struggle to motivate students who have internalized failure at writing.

Improving students’ syntactic maturity is an elusive goal for most middle and high school language arts teachers because it involves more than merely getting students to write complex sentences: syntactic maturity requires students to deliberately manipulate sentence structures (independent clauses, phrases, introductory elements, parentheticals, etc.) to improve reader comprehension. This course focuses on the knowledge teachers need to effectively improve students’ syntactic maturity during revision. 

This course is designed for educators who want to explore various grading policies, approaches, and strategies that align with principles of equity and support student growth. Participants will critically evaluate their current grading policies, reflect on their impact, and explore alternatives. They will examine the role of communication, feedback, and transparency in promoting equitable grading practices. By the end of the course, participants will have developed a deeper understanding of equitable grading, identified biases in their own practices, and created an action plan to create grading policies that support student success.

This course is fast-paced and fun-filled and will tap into the limitless creativity of Adobe Express for BEGINNING users. Adobe Express is a "Free Forever" program for educators and students. Participants will develop classroom S.T.E.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) lessons by delving into Adobe Express's features. You will create professional-looking graphics, slideshows, presentations, infographics, and thematic S.T.E.M. (Spark) video stories exploring S.T.E.M. careers and professionals who have shaped, changed, and inspired worldwide change.

Are you wondering how to generate a STEM buzz in your classroom? Tinkercad is an amazingly easy-to-use, powerful program for creating 3D digital designs that are ready to be 3D printed. This 3D modeling program empowers students to design all kinds of things, from custom homes to Mayan statue replicas, to cell models and engineered 3D-printed fidget spinners. 

In this practical, hands-on course, I’ll show you how to harness the power of AI to engage your students and transform their learning experience. I’ll introduce you to AI tools and techniques that help you teach everything from math to rap battles (yes, you read that right).

This course meets OSPI's STEM requirements.

Design Thinking is a critical skill needed for our students to be prepared to solve life skills they will encounter throughout life in any circumstances. Design Thinking is the non-linear iterative process in which to solve problems. The engineering design process includes the following:

1) Define the Problem
2) Research
3) Plan
4) Create
5) Test and
6) Improve.

Code.org and Scratch are two free online programs that teach students basic coding skills and allow them to create various projects of their choice, including games, animations, stories, and art.

Students see right through us when we are not being ourselves. Standing in our authentic self is the personal foundation of good K-12 teaching, no matter what grade level, subject or personality type. In this course, you will draw upon the work of noted educator and writer, Parker Palmer, and researcher-author, Brene Brown, to help explore what may be getting in the way of being fully yourself. You will learn the steps you can take to reclaim your personal power.

Children accomplish at a higher rate and with greater effectiveness when they are excited about learning. This course will investigate strategies to increase enthusiasm in students.  Each educator will read and view inspiring stories of success within the classroom and community. 

Enhance your K-12 cultural competence in this course exploring White Privilege and its impact. After choosing a text, such as How to Teach Students who Don’t Look Like You or Every Day Anti-Racism, you will learn to mitigate the negative effects of race and cultural bias.

Examine the exciting idea of extending learning for your students beyond those classroom walls! In this fun, informative and multi-faceted course, you will discover dozens of ways to use your school building, school grounds, local neighborhood and local community to enhance learning for your students in the areas of math, art, science, language arts, history and geography.