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Teacher Professional Development - Please note: Registrations during Winter Break (12/23/25-01/05/26) will be processed on 01/05/26.

Continuing & Professional Education

Click here for overview on how to navigate this page and related offerings.

Continuing education helps teachers stay current with new teaching methodologies and strategies, enhances subject knowledge, is a tool for meeting certification requirements, and improves job prospects and salary. 

CONVENIENT OPTIONS TO OBTAIN YOUR CEUs

Attain training and your continuing education units (CEUs) through our partnership with teacher prep experts VESi and Ed2Go.

Please note: Each relevant state agency, including The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction is the ultimate authority regarding CEU guidelines.

 

Ed2Go

Ed2Go offers a variety of online professional development courses each month. Once a session starts, two lessons will be released each week, for the six-week duration of your course. You will have access to all previously released lessons until the course ends.

Courses are 24 contact hours, 2.4 CEUs. Final award of CEUs must be approved by the local education agency (school district or charter school). It is therefore recommended you have each course approved prior to registering.

Please note: The link above will take you to the Ed2Go site where you can view the courses and register. You will then be directed back to the UNCW site to register with UNCW and pay for the courses. Successful completion of these courses qualifies the student for CEUs only. Courses do not qualify for academic credit from UNCW.

Virtual Education Software, Inc. (VESi)

Virtual Education Software, Inc. provides self-paced professional development courses for teachers via online coursework at a pace that fits your schedule. Educators who successfully complete a module will be issued a certificate of completion for their records and to present to the staff development person within their school. Courses are 30 or 45 contact hours, 3.0 or 4.5 CEUs. Final award of CEUs must be approved by the local education agency (school district or charter school). It is therefore recommended you have each course approved prior to registering.

All courses are tablet compatible, making it easy for you to certify anytime, anywhere with reliable, stable online access.

Please note: Once registered, you will receive a password to access the course. You have one year from the date of enrollment to complete your studies. Successful completion of these courses qualifies the student for CEUs only. Courses do not qualify for academic credit from UNCW.

VESi Courses

Advanced Classroom Management: Children as Change Agents

Advanced Classroom Management is primarily for professionals (e.g. regular or special educators, instructional assistants, school psychologist, counselors) serving children and youths presenting behavior problems in the school or in the community. Focuses on cognitive and cognitive-behavioral interventions (often lumped together under the rubric "social skills") with an emphasis on teaching students how to change and manage their own behavior. 

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Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Information & Interventions for Effective Teaching

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder is designed to help you achieve a better understanding of ADHD and intervention strategies to facilitate positive student change. The course provides information on the history of the disorder, accepted methods to assess and identify students with the disorder, and various treatment methods that are currently being used to treat the disorder. The course helps you through the referral process, when you feel a student needs services beyond what you are capable of or comfortable providing in your classroom environment. This course also lists resources for both teachers and parents who would like more help or information about ADHD.

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Autism Spectrum Disorder: Information & Effective Intervention Strategies

Autism and Asperger’s Disorder is designed to help you achieve a better understanding of Autism and Asperger’s Disorder, intervention strategies to enhance communication and learning and to teach more conventional behaviors. The course provides information on the characteristics of the disorder, learning styles associated with the disorder, communication weaknesses and various intervention strategies that have proven to be successful when working with students with Autism spectrum disorders.

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Behavior is Language: Strategies for Managing Disruptive Behaviors

Behavior is Language® is designed to give you a new perspective on student behavior and effective tools for facilitating positive student change. The course provides a developmental framework for understanding what students are trying to tell you through the “language” of their behavior. The course teaches techniques and intervention strategies that remediate disruptive behaviors, reduce power struggles while increasing classroom control, and reduce your workloads and burnout. This program helps you, as well as students, find creative, effective solutions to problems.

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Build School Communities: Brain Smart Classroom Management

This course helps teachers build genuine bonds between themselves and their students and between students and their classmates, to create “kindred classhomes” with a foundation of acceptance, respect, and shared purpose. For many of our students, our classrooms may be a safe, nurturing refuge…the eye of the hurricane they experience as life. This course will help you develop strategies, rituals, and environmental design skills to create these safe havens of learning: kindred classhomes where students and teachers work together in synergistic ways that benefit all members of the school family. Students will learn how to differentiate for classroom management and discipline similarly to differentiating for students’ diverse academic needs. One size does not fit all, but all sizes can fit together.

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Child Abuse: Working with Abused & Neglected Children

This course is designed to help you identify and effectively teach students affected by child abuse and/or neglect. This course teaches you to recognize the signs of physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, physical neglect, and emotional neglect in students. It also discusses the specific factors that exist in families who abuse or neglect their children. A major emphasis in this course is on helping the participant understand the special learning needs of the abused or neglected child and how to meet those needs in the regular classroom. Working with parents and community agencies is also emphasized.

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Drugs & Alcohol in Schools: Understanding Substance Use & Abuse

Drugs & Alcohol in Schools is designed to give you a more comprehensive understanding of alcohol, drugs, and their influences in your classroom. This course provides a contextual framework for understanding what students may be experiencing through their own substance use or the impact of substance use around them. The course provides a basic historical perspective of substance use along with descriptions of biological, psychological, and social factors that comprise the disease of addiction. This program will help you better understand a multitude of complex dynamics that contribute to this biological and social phenomenon.

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Early Childhood: Family-Centered Services

Family-Centered Services is an interactive computer-based instruction (CBI) course designed to give you a new perspective on serving the needs of young children and their families. In this course you will learn what is meant by family-centered services as it applies to diverse systems of care, gain an understanding of family diversity, and explore the major stress factors facing families today. We will discuss the theoretical basis for family-centered services, as well as reflect on current research and best practices. Family-Centered Services will also examine the role of early childhood educators and explore ways to build partnerships with parents and create communities of care—for the benefit of our children, and ultimately society as a whole.

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Early Childhood: Observation & Assessment

Early Childhood: Observation & Assessment is an interactive distance learning course which explores observation and assessment instruments, as well as recommended practices and available resources for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. Content includes an emphasis on observing young children and assessing their early childhood learning environments. This distance learning course is a self-supporting program that provides instruction and evaluation all on your home or business computer. Information on installation and technical support can be found, and will be covered in detail, in the User Guide section of your computer software.

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Early Childhood: Program Planning

Early Childhood: Program Planning is an interactive distance learning course designed to give you a new perspective on planning and implementing developmentally appropriate programs for young children from birth through age eight. In this course, you will learn what is meant by curriculum, assessment, evaluation, and program planning as these terms apply to early childhood education. We will discuss several historical perspectives and theories of child development, and examine best practice for early childhood education. We will also examine key concepts and specific activities for teaching various curricular content areas including language and literacy, mathematics and science, and the expressive arts.

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Early Childhood: Typical & Atypical Development

Early Childhood: Typical and Atypical Development is an interactive distance learning course which explores contemporary best practice and perspectives on early childhood development. Content includes patterns and sequences of typical development for children from birth to six years. Emphasis is on individual differences, cultural influences, and the impact of developmental delay and disability during infancy, toddlerhood, and the preschool years. Discussion will also include instructional technology (IT) and assistive technology (AT) applications for this population.

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Educational Assessment: Assessing Student Learning in the Classroom

This course is designed to further develop the conceptual and technical skills required by teachers to help them identify their educational goals, and implement meaningful instructional strategies for effective learning by students with special needs. The focus of the course is on assessment for instructional programming and outlines procedures for designing or selecting, administering and interpreting, a variety of informal assessment measures typically used in schools. The presentation of assessment information in an acceptable format to parents and teachers is also be addressed.

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Educational Technology: Effective Use of Technology in the Classroom

Regardless of your skill level, this course will walk you through innovative technology that will inspire your creativity and elevate the way you share information and ideas. Students will learn how to select and evaluate technology tools to align to current curriculum. You will gain knowledge and skill to effectively pursue professional growth in educational technology. Through discovery, reflection, and analysis you will realize practical applications of interactive digital tools. You will have the opportunity to explore easy to learn internet-based multimedia that can be integrated inside and outside of the classroom.

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English Language Learner: Evaluation & Assessment

Language Acquisition for ESL Students was written to help teachers understand concepts and terms related to educating students whose first language is not English. This course discusses developmental theories and how they apply to English language learners. The focus of this course is on the process of second language acquisition and the role of the classroom teacher. Included in this course is information about the legal obligations of schools and teachers to provide services and about the types of programs schools might provide. Included is information on communicating with parents/guardians.

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English Language Learner: Language Acquisition

Language Acquisition for ESL Students was written to help teachers understand concepts and terms related to educating students whose first language is not English. This course discusses developmental theories and how they apply to English language learners. The focus of this course is on the process of second language acquisition and the role of the classroom teacher. Included in this course is information about the legal obligations of schools and teachers to provide services and about the types of programs schools might provide. Included is information on communicating with parents/guardians.

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English Language Learner: Linguistics

Language Acquisition for ESL Students was written to help teachers understand concepts and terms related to educating students whose first language is not English. This course discusses developmental theories and how they apply to English language learners. The focus of this course is on the process of second language acquisition and the role of the classroom teacher. Included in this course is information about the legal obligations of schools and teachers to provide services and about the types of programs schools might provide. Included is information on communicating with parents/guardians.

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English Language Learner: Methods & Materials

English Language Learner: Methods & Materials was written to help teachers understand concepts and terms related to educating students whose first language is not English. This course discusses how to apply instructional methods in creating lessons; how to create a motivating and caring learning environment; how to integrate teaching reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills; how to differentiate instruction for English language learners; and how to identify culturally appropriate curriculum and instructional resources.

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Ethical Leadership & Leading Teams in Schools

This course will include the theories of teams and ethical leadership in schools. This course will provide knowledge and application for individuals to function as ethical leaders and tools for developing teams and operating within ethical leadership principles. In this course we will discuss how to create high performing teams and how teams progress through stages of development into high performing teams. As a school leader, understanding these concepts will help you create teams that function well.

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Harassment, Bullying & Cyber-Intimidation in Schools

Harassment, Bullying & Cyber-Intimidation in Schools will discuss definitions and the personal, social, and legal ramifications associated with sexual harassment, bullying, and cyber-intimidation. The course will address what we know about these troubling areas. We will then explore preventive strategies as well as how school staff can address these issues when they occur. A clear understanding of what constitutes harassment and the harmful effects of harassment on people and institutions is essential to providing a safe and inclusive school environment for all.

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Inclusion: Working with Students with Special Needs in General Education Classrooms

This course was written to help teachers understand concepts and terms related to educating students in inclusive classrooms. The course also helps teachers learn about the continuum of placements school systems can use in providing special education services to students with disabilities. The course helps you understand the federal definition of students entitled to special education services, as well as procedures you can use in determining whether these students can be educated in the regular classroom. The course also identifies and describes the roles and responsibilities of special and general educators in providing special education services to students educated in inclusive classrooms.

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Infant & Toddler Mental Health: Issues & Information for Educators

This is an interactive computer-based instruction (CBI) course designed to help you achieve a better understanding of infant and toddler mental health and child development as well as strategies you can use to promote positive relationships with children and their families. Included will be research-based information on attachment, temperament and the importance of play.

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Learning Disabilities: Practical Information for the Classroom Teacher

This course is designed to provide an introduction to the field of Learning Disabilities for special teachers, general classroom teachers, integration teachers and related professionals, especially those working in the areas of language, psychology and counseling. This course will cover diverse theoretical approaches, lay the foundations for sensitive and appropriate assessment and evaluation of students, provide directions for program planning and implementation, indicate the importance of and the need for a close and positive partnership with parents (or alternative caregivers) and consider ways for ensuring that the home-school axis is effective and meaningful. This program will also consider some major trends and unresolved issues in the field of Learning Disabilities.

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Reading & Writing in Content Area

This course offers instruction in teaching reading and writing in various subject matter fields at the secondary level. The material stresses the skills of vocabulary building, comprehension, and writing, as well as methods for motivating adolescents to read and write. 

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Reading Fundamentals #1: An Introduction to Scientifically-Based Research

An Introduction to Scientifically-Based Research, the first in a three-course series on effective reading instruction, was designed to give background on Reading First as it applies to the No Child Left Behind federal legislation. The course discusses the research that supports scientifically-based research as it applies to phonetically-based instruction, assessment, and evaluation. The course explores myths and misconceptions concerning reading instruction and remediation. It also presents an evaluation checklist designed to assess the effectiveness of your current reading program. The goal of the course is to present you with research, trustworthy evidence, and background information that support the need for a reading program that is based on scientific research and proven methods.

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Reading Fundamentals #2: Laying the Foundation for Effective Reading

The purpose of this second course in this three-course series is to lay the foundation for effective reading instruction. As part of this course, you will learn about the elements of effective instruction. It is important that all teachers have a firm understanding of effective instructional procedures. Teachers benefit, and more importantly, students benefit, both in terms of their behavior and their academic performance. Further, you will learn about the importance of reading instruction and read some sobering statistics on reading performance in this country and what happens when individuals are not proficient in reading.

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Reading Fundamentals #3: The Elements of Effective Reading Instruction

This course will focus on learning to read, reading to learn, and an introduction to reading assessment. As part of these two key areas of reading instruction, the five elements of effective reading instruction will be highlighted, including definitions, implications for instruction, and future directions. These five elements include instruction in: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension. Further, we discuss information on teacher preparation in learning about comprehension strategy instruction and reading instruction, as well as how to integrate computer technology into the classroom. Additionally, the course will provide information on important assessment terms and definitions and will explore how reading assessment fits within the Reading First Program. This analysis includes specific recommendations on 29 reading assessments. Finally, the course describes how teachers can conduct pivotal curriculum-based measurement procedures in their classrooms.

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Response to Intervention: Practical Information for the Classroom Teacher

RTI is a process schools can and should use to help students who are struggling with academics or behavior. Even though RTI is primarily linked to special education and the early identification of learning problems, RTI is not just for students in special education. RTI is for all students and is based on the premise that a student might be struggling due to instruction or the curriculum the past, or in the current classroom. Every teacher will have students who are struggling and whether it is short term or long term, RTI is a valuable tool.

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Six Traits of Writing Model: Teaching & Assessing

Six Traits of Writing Model: Teaching & Assessing is a course geared primarily for professionals (e.g., regular or special educators, instructional assistants, school psychologists, counselors) working with children and youth in any academic area. This course focuses on why teaching writing is an essential skill for life, and gives theory and practical steps to implement the six traits of writing in any classroom. This computer-based instruction course is a self-supporting program that provides instruction, structured practice, and evaluation all on your home or school computer. Technical support information can be found in the Help section of your course.

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Social & Emotional Learning: Optimizing Learning Environments with Life Skills

Social-emotional learning (SEL) is teaching life skills that are foundational to motivation in the classroom and classroom management. Students who have strong social and emotional skillsets will be more successful in the classroom and in life in general. In this course, students will first examine what social-emotional learning is, including the research foundational to SEL. Then students will examine the five SEL competencies—self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making—and explore how each of these can be developed first in the classrooms and then in the schools to create optimal learning environments.

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Supporting At-Risk Young Learners & Their Families

This course is designed to help Early Childhood Educators gain strategies to reach and teach young children who are at risk of not meeting their potential. Participants will learn the internal and external factors that place a child at risk, how heredity and environment affect a child’s development, the characteristics of various risk factors, and interventions for each risk factor. A major emphasis will be on the family’s influence on the child’s development and how Early Childhood Educators can work with families to support their child’s growth in all areas of development.

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Talented and Gifted: Working with High Achievers

Talented and Gifted is designed to help you achieve a better understanding of the talented and gifted student, methods used in identification, and strategies for instruction of these students in an inclusive classroom. The course provides information on the history of the exceptional in relation to education, current law, and accepted methods for referral, assessment, and identification of these students. The course also covers major program models and methods of differentiating instruction to meet the rate and level of learning of those students identified. The course gives you an understanding of ways to meet the affective needs of the gifted and talented student in the regular classroom. This course also lists resources for teachers and parents who would like more information about the talented and gifted.

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Teaching Diversity: Influences and Issues in the Classroom

Designed to give the learner the knowledge, tools and dispositions to effectively facilitate a diverse classroom, this course teaches how to understand and identify differences in approaches to learning and performance, including different learning styles and ways in which students demonstrate learning. An emphasis in this course is on understanding how students' learning is influenced by individual experiences, talents, disabilities, gender, language, culture, family and community values. The learner is challenged to apply knowledge of the richness of contributions from our diverse society to the teaching field.

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Teaching Elementary Math Conceptually: A New Paradigm

Welcome to Teaching Math Conceptually, an interactive computer-based instruction (CBI) course designed to expand your methodology for teaching Mathematics. The course will explore an innovative teaching model that incorporates strategies for teaching concepts, constructively and contextually. The goal is for you to gain a deeper understanding of the underlying concepts of various math topics and explore the principles of teaching those concepts to learners. This course will focus on the topics of number sense, basic operations, and fractions.

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Teaching Secondary Math Conceptually: Meeting Mathematics Standards

Teaching Secondary Math Conceptually: Meeting Mathematics Standards is an interactive computer-based instruction course designed to expand your methodology for teaching Mathematics. The course will explore an instructional methodology that incorporates strategies for teaching concepts, constructively, and contextually. The goal is for you to gain a deeper understanding of the underlying concepts of various math topics and explore the principles of teaching those concepts to learners. The course will also explore teaching methodologies that support many federal and state standards. This course will focus on the topics of integers, fractions, factoring, and functions.

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Traumatized Child: The Effects of Stress, Trauma & Violence on Student Learning

Traumatized Child is designed to help you identify and effectively teach students affected by stress, trauma, and/or violence. The course teaches you to recognize the signs of stress, trauma, or violence in students. It also discusses the specific factors that exist in families and communities where stress and violence are common. A major emphasis in this course is on helping the participant understand the special learning needs of the student experiencing stress, trauma, or violence in his/her life and how to meet his/her needs in the regular classroom. Working with parents and community agencies is also emphasized.

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Try DI!: Planning & Preparing a Differentiated Instruction Program

Welcome to Try DI!: Planning & Preparing a Differentiated Instruction Program, an interactive computer-based instruction course. This course is designed to provide you an opportunity to learn about an instructional framework, Differentiated Instruction (DI), aimed at creating supportive learning environments for diverse learning populations. Students will be presented a method for self-assessment of the extent to which their current instructional approach reflects the perspective, principles, and practices of the DI approach.

The course reflects an approach that aligns the principles of DI with the practices of DI. The concept of a “theory of action” will also be provided within a DI context. The course has also been designed to introduce students to a range of strategies associated with a DI approach. Strategies included in this course have been selected on the basis that they are effective in the widest possible range of educational K-12 settings.

This course follows Why DI?: An Introduction to Differentiated Instruction, which addressed the What, Why, and Who of a classroom that reflects a DI approach. The focus of Try DI!: Planning & Preparing a Differentiated Instruction Program is on the When, Where, and How of the DI approach.

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Understanding Aggression: Coping with Aggressive Behavior in the Classroom

Understanding Aggression is about violence in America. This course is about the aggression in our schools, classrooms, streets, homes, and elsewhere. The course speaks to the hate, the fights, the anger, the crimes committed and the victims in our schools and society. It is a course about students, children, teenagers, adults, and neighbors, all of us. The course will consider the many forms of aggression, both criminal and otherwise; its costs and motivation; its perpetrators and targets; its likely and unlikely locations; its impact on our schools, the children; and, most especially, its several causes and promising solutions.

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Understanding & Implementing Common Core Standards

In this course you will learn a number of factors that contributed to the overall design of the Common Core Standards as well as practical pedagogical approaches that will support practitioners working toward deeper implementation. We will reflect on the instructional “shifts” emphasized throughout the Common Core Standards and contextualize the shifts based on the diverse population of students course participants serve. Understanding & Implementing Common Core Standards will also provide connections to a variety of instructional considerations that will support implementation regardless of educational context. Practitioners will be provided opportunities to reflect on current practice and the degree to which they align with the Common Core Standards as well as with colleagues across a wide range of settings implementing these standards.

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Violence in Schools: Identification, Prevention & Intervention Strategies

Violence in the Schools is designed to give you a better understanding of school violence and increase your intervention strategies. The course provides a foundational understanding of violence and motivational purposes behind aggression. The correlation and impact of the media, community and family upon violence will be investigated. The course teaches identification and intervention approaches to working with out-of-control behaviors. In addition, each student will receive information on national resources available for both parents and teachers. This course will help each person to increase his or her understanding of violence, the motivations behind the use of violence and specific strategies to minimize the occurrence of violence in a school and community.

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Why DI?: An Introduction to Differentiated Instruction

An Introduction to Differentiated Instruction, an interactive computer-based instruction course, designed to give you an understanding of the framework of and need for creating supportive learning environments for diverse learning populations. In this course you will learn what is meant by Differentiated Instruction (DI) and the common myths associated with creating the differentiated classroom. We will discuss the legal, theoretical, and pedagogical foundations in the field of education that support the utilization of differentiated instructional practices and principles.

We will reflect on best practices and national trends in the design of the educational setting to meet the needs of a diverse learning population. Why DI?: An Introduction to Differentiated Instruction will also provide connections to a variety of concepts, variables, and resources that will assist practitioners in aligning their own professional practices with those found in the differentiated classroom.

This computer-based instruction course is a self-supporting program that provides instruction, structured practice, and evaluation all on your home or school computer. Technical support information can be found in the Help section of your course.

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