This is professional learning, and we have the luxury to focus on learning.

The activities in this course are designed to support your knowledge building and also to provide models and practice for activities you design and facilitate with your students. Everyone’s context, goals, and needs are unique. Our role as facilitators is to support you to make progress towards your goals and to prepare you to be successful.

We will read and respond to all of your written contributions to the course. The emphasis is on formative feedback, not evaluation.

Please never hesitate to let us know if you need to speak one-on-one, if you need to explore new partnerships within our course community, or if you need to connect with a different coach. Your goals should drive your experience!

The STEM Learning Community should be a "busywork"-free zone!

Being fully online gives us the opportunity to thinking very carefully about how to use synchronous and asynchronous time strategically to support learning. Asynchronous assignments allow more time to think and process, but lack the dynamism of interacting in real time. Both modes of interacting with the course are important and we have done our best to structure them wisely.

The "Institute" experiences in summer, winter, and spring are set up intentionally to mimic the intensity of face-to-face, in person professional learning experiences. These days will work best for you as a learner and a human if you are able to reserve them for the learning community, as you would if you were actually traveling to an event away from campus.

Over the course of the year, most likely you will not be able to complete every single asynchronous assignment. You are very busy! There are many and competing demands on your time. You should feel free to make decisions about assignments to focus on and assignments to let go. Don't hesitate to reach out if you need guidance in making these decisions, keeping your learning goals at the center. The assignments that are most important are designated as "Making it Real."

Optional Units through CSUDH

You have the option to sign up for 5 post-baccalaureate credits from CSU, Dominguez Hills, for your work in this course. These units can be used in many colleges to advance on the pay scale. Every college has its own policies, so check with yours if you aren't sure if these units will work in your context.

Registration for these units will be available in Spring, 2022. The cost is $500 for 5 post-BA units. If you elect to take this course for credit, the Canvas Grading scheme is organized so that your work is weighted by Zoom Attendance (40%), "Making it Real" Assignments (40%) and other discussion posts (20%).