Amanda Arana

Excellence in Teaching
CHEP Status: Active
CHEP Awarded: 04/29/2020

Badge Evidence | Completed Courses (4 Hours Each)

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA or the Buckley Amendment) is a federal law in the United States designed to provide students with access to, and the privacy of, their educational records. The law applies to students in higher education and educational institutions that receive funding under a program administered by the U.S. Department of Education. This course is designed to provide participants with a working knowledge of FERPA guidelines to ensure proper handling of educational records and other institutional requirements.
This course provides faculty, staff, and administrators with an understanding of the legal mandates regarding equal access for students with disability. More importantly, it provides a practical framework to help institutional personnel know what to say and do in the context of their defined role and interactions with students with disabilities. Topics include the civil rights nature of applicable Federal law, definitional issues, the impact of disability on traditional education activities and pursuits, reasonable accommodations, and the unique responsibilities of faculty, staff, and administrators as prescribed by their position.
Positive psychology is the science of human flourishing and is leveraged to cultivate well-being for students, teachers, and staff in schools around the world. You'll be introduced to the tools of positive psychology to help you and your students thrive in the classroom and in life. This course is designed to help you understand the science of well-being and how to employ it for yourself and in educational settings to support well-being and academic achievement. The modules cover positive psychology's origins, and the research and application of the PERMA model, Character Strengths, and positive education.
This introductory course covers the essential roles of a teacher and the competencies required to be a successful instructor in an educational institution. Proven techniques and strategies for planning and preparation are presented and discussed. In addition, the course offers effective methods for conducting the first class meeting and delivering course content. This course provides a solid foundation for new instructors and serves as an excellent refresher for more experienced instructors.
Educators work with students who want to learn specific skills that will lead to fulfilling careers. As educational instructors it is our job to help each student to achieve this goal. Just as you may have a particular style of teaching that you prefer, your students have preferred ways of learning. This course will help you to identify the different learning styles of your students so that you can adjust your instruction to better accommodate them. Good teachers also regularly monitor the effectiveness of their instruction by assessing their students’ learning. This course will examine several aspects of assessment including how to create good tests, how to ask effective questions and how to get your students to actively participate in their learning by asking questions themselves.
This course provides methods and techniques for managing students and class activities. We start by reviewing the steps instructors need to follow as they introduce a class to new students. We then discuss strategies to effectively deal with unfocused and challenging students. The course ends by describing common mistakes made by instructors and ways to avoid them.
This course shows instructors how to develop a comprehensive approach to effective and efficient instruction. From preparation for the classroom to selection of instructional delivery methods, the course provides effective ways of planning instruction to help instructors keep the content focused and the students engaged. We also cover the steps to set up a complete evaluation system that will work in all settings.
This course will inform you of how careful lesson planning can help to ensure increased student engagement. Proper lesson planning will enable you to teach effectively and efficiently, and ultimately help students meet learning objectives. The information in this course will provide the framework for instructional development enabling you to properly structure a detailed, well thought-out lesson plan.
This course compares and contrasts four styles of classroom management. The course includes "virtual visits" to animated classrooms where participants observe four instructors who exhibit different management styles. The style that is preferred by most students is identified and described, and suggestions are offered on how instructors can modify their personal style to increase their effectiveness. A four-step model for developing successful classroom management strategies is presented and is followed by a discussion of a practical, behavioral approach to classroom management. Characteristics that foster good discipline in the educational institution and in the classroom are listed and explained, and tips are offered that can improve both institution-wide and classroom discipline. Finally, a number of scenarios involving common discipline problems are described.
This course is an overview of a variety of ways in which educators can integrate technology and web resources into instructional courses, in order to engage learners and promote collaborative learning. A variety of strategies are included in this course to enhance the use of technology so it becomes an integral part of ongoing instructional practice. In addition, numerous links are provided to enable participants to gain more insight into how technology can be explored, secured and utilized in their courses.
Awareness about autism and the impact it has on the lives of those that have been diagnosed with it has grown greatly in the past few years. There has been an increase in enrollment of students who are on the autism spectrum in career education. This course will provide you with the characteristics of autism so that you will have an understanding of what autism is and how it impacts the learning of these students. Specific strategies for working with students who have been diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum will be provided, to enhance the engagement and learning success of students with autism.
Students with learning disabilities are enrolling in career education at increasing rates as a result of successful interventions and supports provided during their elementary and secondary schooling. This course describes the characteristics of students with learning disabilities and how having a learning disability impacts their learning process. As reading and comprehension is the essence of learning, it is important that instructors be knowledgeable in ways to support students with these learning challenges. Specific strategies for working with these students will be offered, to enhance the engagement and learning success of students with learning disabilities.
This course examines the various challenges veterans face when attempting to pursue courses of study following military engagements and service. While no instructor can possibly identify with every aspect of a veteran's experience, it is possible to become more aware of some of the challenges facing veterans as they reintegrate into civilian life. This course also examines effective instructional strategies in design and delivery to facilitate the success of veterans in a post-secondary environment.
This course introduces the participant to teaching students with disabilities in the environment of an educational institution. It provides descriptions of the physical, sensory, mental, psychological, and learning disabilities most likely to be encountered, as well as the effects these disabilities have on students and their learning. The course also introduces participants to accommodations and strategies that may help to support students with disabilities and foster their academic success.
The classroom in an educational institution is often more than just chairs, books, and a white board. Frequently the learning takes place in a lab or shop environment, where the traditional rules of classroom management and teaching may not always apply. This course covers the instructional techniques necessary for the non-traditional classroom, including strategies for teaching to each student's individual learning style. In addition, this course describes strategies for assessing student progress. Safety guidelines and considerations for specific lab and shop environments are identified.
Crisis management begins with creating and implementing a plan of action that can be executed efficiently and quickly. As an educator, it will be important to recognize signs of crisis in yourself, fellow coworkers, and even students on campus. If you are an administrator, it not only takes a keen eye to recognize signs of crisis in yourself, but this also applies to recognizing crisis in others around you. In this course, you will explore the various aspects of a crisis, how to identify individuals in crisis, and how to appropriately respond to those individuals to improve the overall situation.
This class will review communication, collaboration, and time management soft skills that can be instilled to help a student excel not only in the classroom, but also on the job. A variety of ideas and methods to implement the growth of those soft skills will also be shared in the course. Learning content is only part of the goal to empower students and graduates to be attractive to potential employers. The human side of the business world - the people - is what makes a company great, so it is imperative to foster the learning of both content and soft skills as students travel on their educational path to a job and career.
This course emphasizes teaching strategies that can be implemented within different types of lessons to promote teacher proficiency, student motivation, and achievable outcomes. Topics relating to teaching methods include direct, indirect, interactive, and independent instruction. By utilizing various teaching strategies and methods, an instructor can approach teaching topics in a variety of ways. The goal of this course is to help develop a better understanding of essential teaching strategies, and produce tangible resources to help implement plans, strategies, and ideas at your institution. In addition to lecture videos, resource links, and assessments, you will be able to utilize Journal and Learning Activities, which will continue to be useful after successful completion of the course.
This course emphasizes providing meaningful accommodations to students with disabilities in an education setting including: legal mandates and regulations, characteristics and educational needs of students with disabilities, and instructional techniques that can be used with these students. The goal of this course is to help develop a better understanding of the topic and produce tangible resources to help implement plans, strategies, and ideas at your school. In addition to lecture videos, possible resource links, and assessments, you will be able to utilize the Journal and Learning Activities. Take advantage of a method that best works for you.
In this course, you will learn how to establish a team with the right mix of skills and personalities and create a culture that promotes collaborative work. The course covers steps to leading an effective team and includes innovative, easy-to-implement self-evaluation tools.
This course will show you how to discuss and resolve difficult interactions in the workplace - whether with employees, peers, bosses, or even suppliers and customers.