ESE 502: Syllabus

The mission of the Center for Excellence in Education at Northern Arizona University is to prepare education professionals to create the schools of tomorrow.

NORTHERN ARIZONA UNIVERSITY

ESE 502 Classroom Management of Exceptional Children
Foundations of Discipline Web Course

GENERAL INFORMATION

Instructor: J'Anne Ellsworth, Ph.D.in Psychology

Associate Professor in Educational Specialties

Course Credit: 1-6 hours

Address: Northern Arizona University, Box 5774, Flagstaff, Arizona 86011

Office: (Bldg 27), CEE Room 144,

Phone: (520)523-2951 (NAU)

(928)567-0899(home)

Janne.Ellsworth@nau.edu

jet@sedona.net

COURSE PREREQUISITES: None

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Educators who take this class have the opportunity to deepen understanding of discipline and enhance skills and abilities in classroom management. The series of modules focuses on preparing teachers to enhance the teacher as facilitator role and understand the critical components for assisting students in the quest to gain control of self and to optimize structured learning behaviors. The course provides a broad overview of interventions and procedures for utilization with youngsters and facilitates development of discipline expertise tailored to each teacher's personality.

This course may be taken for up to six hours of credit. The components in the initial 3 hours of foundation include:

Foundations of Discipline

Self Assessment and Paradigms	Basics of discipline - self understanding and overview of philosophies of discipline - essential to the course	1-2 hours
Balance	Blending student, teacher and content / balancing needs of the individual with safety and productivity of the learning community	1 hour
Structure	Constructing and maintaining a learning atmosphere, including rules, procedures, transitions that facilitate learning	1-2 hours

The components in the more advanced behavior management class, ESE502a include:

Behavior Management	Focuses on the dominant behaviorist paradigm, behavior management.	1-2 hours
Pro-active Management	Current practices in classroom management, focusing on proactive and child focused classroom management.	1 hour
Developmental Discipline	A personal management model based on humanisitic principles that models building self responsibility for learning, enhancing civility, and utilizing individual development to facilitate individual and classroom growth.	1-2 hours

Upon completion of the hours of foundations courses, a wide range of one hour modules are under construction.

ADHD - Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
FAS - Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
EBD - Emotional and behavioral disorders
LD - Learning Disabilities

The Content options include deeper involvement and practice of management styles based on a wide array of student management designs. In addition, legal and ethical issues will be addressed and students have the opportunity to explore current, data-based information about student and classroom management.

COURSE OBJECTIVES: Upon completion of the 502 Foundations course the student will be able to:

COURSE STRUCTURE:

The format of the course will be web based, with a text and course packet. Students will choose to be a part of a group through the university conference center, by initiating and participating in a course based chat room or by joining the dialogue on one of the education based chat rooms already on the Internet. Members of schools or graduate classes may also meet in real time to develop strategies and competencies. Students may work together to learn and perform activities and are expected to communicate and network at least once each week. In addition, students will converse with the instructor through web based communication. Tests and assignments will be conducted on-line.

COMPUTER SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:

Success in a web course depends, in part, on the hard ware and software that is available to the participant. To make the process pleasurable, it is critical to take the course on a system that is reliable -- that has sufficient speed to load materials quickly, that does not "crash" or freeze intermittently, and through a net provider that is consistently accessible. Optimizing your system is crucial to a feeling of success. The computer system will enhance the web course experience if it includes multimedia capability, a 28.8 baud modem, 16 megs of RAM (minimum), Netscape 3 or above or Internet Explorer 4 or above.

REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS / READING MATERIALS:

Hyman, I. A. (1997). School discipline and school violence: The teacher variance approach . Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. ISBN number 0205158129. To order this book on the web, you can click on bigword and use the Bcode B WA7E. You can also go to amazon.com , Barnes and Noble or varsitybooks.com

All necessary course material is available on the web or in the text.

EVALUATION AND GRADING:

Exams will be available on the web from the beginning of the course and will be open note and open book.

There are various projects assigned, based on the individual modules. Each module will provide a list of competencies, assignments, readings and evaluations. These exercises will provide practice in target skills of this class. The material offers participants the opportunity to sculpt the class to individual needs and taste. The foundations area can be taken for 1- 6hours of credit. A personalized syllabus can be developed that tailors the class to personal interest and need. Once the student has settled on the learning contract and it is accepted by the instructor, each assignment agreed upon will be required for completion of the class. All assignments will be graded on a mastery basis.

Final grades will be assigned based on completed assignments. Letter grades will be assigned, however, ALL contractual assignments must be completed to receive a passing grade. A missed contractual assignment means an "F". In addition to the required percentage points, students who receive an A must accomplish some extra credit project (of their choice). This is one way the student shows s/he has accepted personal responsibility for the course.

This class will underscore personal responsibility for education. It will also work on Bloom's Mastery Learning model, by which it will be expected that all students will provide evidence of sufficient mastery of the material. If it were not important for students to thoroughly understand the information it would not be a required course. Students who do poorly on assignments will be expected to redo assignments and relearn materials until a satisfactory grasp of the materials exists. Thus, it follows, that a student with the capability to become or continue as an educator will finish the course with at least a B.

To receive an A, a student must do all contractual class assignments and, in addition, accomplish a personal project or service activity. Only one extra assignment is needed per class, not per module. This project is negotiable, but might be something like:
Read an additional text or materials
Volunteer and work with a school-age children on behavior management
Work as a big brother or sister with a youth who is at-risk
Help with service organizations, such as Special Olympics, Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts
Write and publish insights from the class - for example an "in house" news letter
Attend educational forums or programs
View media specials on discipline and management
Read and report on management in education issues, discipline plans, etc.

In order to receive an A, students must contract to become personally involved in the educational process, "going the second mile" so to speak, in showing motivation and interest in being a self-sustained learner. Only one extra assignment is needed, regardless of the credit hours taken.

Attendance:

Additional Information:

Plagiarism or any other form of cheating cannot be tolerated. Any student participating in such activities may expect to receive an F.

Assignments submitted to fulfill requirements in another class may not be submitted to fulfill the requirements of this class without prior instructor approval. Group participation is also required since collaboration and community building are an integral part of success classroom management. Plan to visit the WebCT early in the class

Assignment failure = Class Failure

Be an Honor Student -- Reward Yourself!

Self Assessment

Grading: Self assessment contributes to your first credit in this course. When completed correctly, it provides approximately 700 points toward the first credit hour.

Paradigms

You have a choice in the grade you will receive. As outlined in the syllabus, there are three grades possible for completion of the material. The grade of B is given if all assignments are completed satisfactorily. To receive this grade, please contact the professor upon completion of assignments totaling 1000 points.

To receive an A , you will want to find a way to extend your learning . Once you have decided on a project that is appealing to you, send a brief summary of the activity. Upon completion of the "A" project, please send documentation of the project to the professor and request a final grade. Plan to do one "A" project per course, regardless of the number of credit hours.

Extending Learning : In education, we strive for the ideal of a life long learner. At the same time, it is easy to comply with the minimum requirements of a course, and lose sight of ownership of learning. To facilitate student ownership of courses, an ancillary or capstone experience is left to you. I have provided some examples of things I would find interesting. These may serve to define your project, or may suggest something that caught your interest and you wish to pursue further.

a) Read a book by one of the proponents of educational philosophy
i.e. William James, John Dewey, Martin Buber, Abraham Maslow.

b) Read a journal article by a more recent educational philosopher
i.e. Theodore Sizer, Paulo Freire, Alfie Kohn, Maxine Greene.

c) Build a model philosophy that is consistent with a school of thought, including the plant, the teaching role, what kind of school board, funding sources, discipline techniques, student roles, types of assessment and evaluation of teacher, school success.

d) Start a personal journal on practices at school and review periodically to determine if your personal philosophy and actions are synchronous.

Extending Learning : These are examples of things I would find interesting that extend the ideas in this module.
* Add to your own web page, show casing your education ideas. Choose from the following topics:
*Balance in the classroom
*The connection between teacher and student behavior
*Bridging content and evaluation
*A master plan for enhancing discipline through teacher change
*Student Perspectives on Behavior
* Construct one of the following:
*A report card that mirrors a larger range of student behaviors
*A teacher observation sheet that is a true indicator of balance in the classroom
*An observation tool for enhancing understanding of misbehavior

Structure

Grading: You have a choice in the grade you will receive. As outlined in the syllabus, there are three grades possible for completion of the material. One credit hour is earned, once you have earned 1000 points. The grade of B is given if all assignments are completed satisfactorily. To receive this grade, please contact the professor upon completion of all assignments.

To receive an A, you will want to find a way to extend your learning. Once you have decided on a project that is appealing to you, send a brief summary of the activity. Upon completion of the "A" project, please send documentation of the project to the professor and request a final grade.

Extending Learning : Insights or reading on structure, ritual, power, or responsibility could be a meaningful way to add a personal touch to this module. Here are two more ideas:
* Clip out cartoons. Look at how many of them use power, control, having one's own way as worthy of comment, and also laughable
* Watch an afternoon of TV. Tally the times power, control, conflict over structure come up and reflect on how these factors impinge on the human condition. Does this transfer into the classroom setting as well? Is it truly human to want and work to get one's own way? Is confrontation better than manipulation? Is it healthier? Is there a more masculine and more feminine way to work for personal power?
* Read about narcissism or conduct disorders in children/adults.

Final: At the completion of the course, please submit one of the three options for a final.