Castleton Center for Learning Class starts February 2022 and is three Graduate Credits

Online live Zoom class.

This professional development course is offered as ‘Experiential Learning/Creating Engaging Lessons Using Design Activities’ for K-8 educators in schools, to individual teachers, and to parents of home-schooled children online via Zoom or in-person; and it can be adapted to one-day, one-credit workshops. Please enquire at [email protected].

Experiential Learning using Design Activities

This course teaches teachers to use techniques of design to apply Common Core concepts to solve lesson-specific requirements. After practicing five grades K–8-appropriate design activities that teach Common Core Frameworks, participants will identify two lessons they usually teach, and they will develop and present these two lessons, using design activities, for the grade level they teach. Participants will perform two of their peers’ activities, to test and evaluate them. After feedback from fellow participants and instructor, participants will teach the two lessons, giving the respective activities to their students to perform. Through this process, participants will increase and share their knowledge of experiential lesson design as they observe firsthand the benefits of hands-on/experiential activities to increase students’ content knowledge. Class readings, discussions, and their own research will strengthen participants’ understanding of the pedagogical benefits of using design activities in their standards-based classroom. For complete information visit https://www.castleton.edu/academics/professional-development-continuing-education/the-castleton-center-for-schools/continuing-education-workshops-contract-courses/creating-engaging-lessons-using-design-activities-stepien-spring-2022/

Purchase order or payment of $975, payable to CASTLETON UNIVERSITY, is due at the time of registration. Please mail the check to: Financial & Registration Services, Castleton University, 62 Alumni Drive, Castleton, VT 05735. To help us ensure that your payment is applied to the correct course, PLEASE WRITE “CFS” IN THE CHECK MEMO LINE. Thank you.

23 July 2021
2–5pm

Online live Zoom class. Can also be in-person, please enquire at [email protected]

Make a Book using the Golden Ratio

This class teaches teachers a hands-on way to teach the Common Core requirement of learning ratio and proportion (here, the Golden Ratio). You will receive a teachers worksheet to guide you during the class and to help you to generate ideas for your students, and a worksheet for your students to use as they make a book for themselves. This class also covers ideas for you to guide students to write and illustrate in their books examples of the Golden Ratio in mathematical formulas and in natural and human-made artifacts. All supplies and materials are intentionally inexpensive and easy-to-find (most are already in your classroom) so you can easily replicate this project with minimal cost. Supplies and materials for you to complete this class will be mailed to you upon registration. Please register no later than one week before class date to ensure receipt of supplies and materials. After successfully making your book, and after this live class, you will be sent via email a certificate of completion. Confirm with your school for Professional Development/course credit eligibility. $60 (includes postage).

31 July, 2021
2–5pm EST

Online live Zoom class. Can also be in-person, please enquire at [email protected]

Make an Icosahedron!

This class teaches teachers a hands-on way to teach the Common Core requirement of learning about polyhedra. You will receive a teachers worksheet to guide you during the class and to help you to generate ideas for your students, and a worksheet for your students to use as they learn about polyhedra and they make their own icosahedron with mat board and rubber bands. This class also covers ideas for you to guide students to learn about and explore seven natural and human-made polyhedra. All supplies and materials are intentionally inexpensive and easy-to-find so you can easily replicate this project with minimal cost. Supplies and materials for you to complete this class will be mailed to you upon registration. Please register no later than one week before class date to ensure receipt of supplies and materials. After successfully making your icosahedron, and after this live class, you will be sent via email a certificate of completion. Confirm with your school for Professional Development/course credit. $60 (includes postage).

5 August, 2021
2–5pm EST

Online live Zoom class. Can also be in-person, please enquire at [email protected]

Tilings and Tesselations!

This class teaches teachers a hands-on way to teach the Common Core, covering tilings and tesselations. You will receive a teachers worksheet to guide you during the class and to help you to generate ideas for your students, and a worksheet for your students to use as they learn about symmetry. You will practice using rotational symmetry with either one or two polygon shapes to tile a plane, making a design for a tee shirt or wrapping paper*. This class also covers ideas how to extend the mathematics lesson to other subjects such as science and art as we explore examples of natural and human-made symmetrical designs. Supplies and materials can be inexpensive and easy-to-find so you can easily replicate this project with minimal cost. Supplies and materials for you to complete this class will be mailed to you upon registration (*all supplies for wrapping paper are included, with an  instruction sheet for tee-shirt). Please register no later than one week before class date to ensure receipt of supplies and materials. After successfully making your tiled design, and after this live class, you will be sent via email a certificate of completion. Confirm with your school for Professional Development/course credit. $60 (includes postage).

Ratio & Proportion: Make a Book!

This pamphlet-style book can be made with easy-to-find materials—you have most of them in your classroom! Students begin with standard letter-size paper, as they learn to measure width-to-height ratios based on the Golden Proportion. The book is easily made, nesting folded sheets into each other, wrapping a heavier-weight paper around the nested sheets, and sewing a simple stitch at the fold. Suggestions for exploring the Golden Ratio in human-made and natural artifacts, and teacher and student worksheets are included.

$30.

Ratio & Proportion: Measuring Data & Making Graphs

This Professional Learning activity provides an activity for teachers to give their students real-world ways to experience ratios and proportions. A worksheet is provided for students to organize the data that they collect—by measuring objects in the classroom—and that they will use to make graphs. Suggestions for ‘what to measure,’ discussion topics, and student and teacher worksheets are included. 

$30.