Noncredit Course Descriptions

Mount Holyoke College Graduate Programs offers intensive credit and non-credit options for many of our courses. While both options provide you with valuable skills for career advancement and the opportunity to network with other professionals, they are geared towards learners with different goals and needs.

Read more about the differences here: https://www.mtholyoke.edu/professional-graduate/credit-vs-noncredit-options 

There is not a formal application process to take the non-credit option, rather students register for available courses via this form.

Important Note: After a class begins, it is not possible to switch between the non-credit and credit options. If you need additional guidance, please call 413-538-3478 or email graduateadmissions@mtholyoke.edu.

Key
TagCourse Focus

Diverse Learners

General Education

Leadership

Mathematics Education

Virtual Classrooms and Online Teaching



May – June 2021
Equity and Social Justice: A Teacher's Role 
Description: In this course, participants will learn to address issues of social justice seamlessly and incorporate social justice into the design of their learning environments. This will be accomplished in three steps: First, participants will be assigned a self-awareness partner to process socialization around social issues. Second, participants will produce narratives about their social justice development. Finally, participants will create action plans that will create learning environments that don't shut down dialogues about difference, but open them up. Participants will then take this new learning and self-awareness and apply it to education systems outside of their classroom.
Format: online via videoconferencing
Meeting dates: May 21 - June 29, 2021
Meeting times: TBD

 

Introduction to Teaching English Language Learners: an ESL MTEL Prep course 
Description: This introductory course examines theories and issues related to multilingual education and teaching English language learners in the United States today. Specifically, students will be introduced to approaches and pedagogies that support teaching linguistically and culturally diverse learners in the PK-12 setting and the places where second language acquisition theory and practice intersect. In addition, this course will prepare participants to sit for the Massachusetts ESL Test for Educator Licensure (MTEL).
Format: Synchronous online.
Meeting dates & times: TBD

Modeling with Data 
Description: Participants will work with the collection, representation, description, and interpretation of data. They will learn what various graphs and statistical measures show about features of the data, study how to summarize data when comparing groups, and consider whether the data provides insight into the questions that led to data collection.
Format: Online.
Meeting dates: May 21 - June 29, 2021.
Meeting times: Mondays and Thursdays: 6:30 - 8:30pm ET.

 

Teaching English Language Learners: Sheltered English Immersion Endorsement Standalone 
Description: This course is offered for teachers seeking SEI endorsement. It serves as the ReTELL course that provides an overview of pragmatic pedagogical strategies for including English Language Learners in content area classroom instruction. Readings in language acquisition theory, language learning and teaching, effective lesson design and assessment, Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol and knowledge of intercultural learners are covered. Students will have experience developing and adapting lessons and curriculum to address the needs of students in their pre-practicum settings.
Format: Synchronous online.
Meeting dates: May 21 - June 29, 2021
Meeting times: TBD



July – August 2021
Building a System of Tens 
Description: Participants will explore the base-ten structure of the number system, consider how that structure is exploited in multi-digit computational procedures, and examine how basic concepts of whole numbers reappear when working with decimals. They will study the various ways children naturally tend to think about separating and combining numbers and what children must understand in order to work with numbers in these ways.
Format: Online or on campus.
Meeting dates: Monday – Friday, July 5 – 9, 2021.
Meeting times: Monday – Thursday: 8:30am - 4:30pm ET. Friday: 8:30am - 12:00pm ET.
Making Meaning for Operations 
Description: This course provides opportunities for participants to examine the actions and situations modeled by the four basic operations. The course will begin with a view of young children's counting strategies as they encounter word problems, moves to an examination of the four basic operations on whole numbers, and revisits the operations in the context of rational numbers.
Format: Online or on campus.
Meeting dates: Monday – Friday, July 12 – 16, 2021.
Meeting times: Monday – Thursday: 8:30am - 4:30pm ET. Friday: 8:30am – 12:00pm ET.
Professional Development for Coaching Mathematics 
Description: This course is designed for elementary math specialists with responsibilities for supporting teachers in the development of strong mathematics education programs. Participants explore issues related to: learning mathematics while in the context of teaching; facilitating the professional development of colleagues; teachers' and students' ideas about mathematics and learning; and fostering a stance of collaborative investigation. By way of a central theme of mathematics learning, the institute will offer coaches opportunities to explore, through the coaching perspective, ideas of number and geometry in the elementary grades.
Format: Online or on campus.
Meeting dates: Monday – Friday, July 12 – 16, 2021.
Meeting times: Monday – Thursday: 8:30am - 4:30pm ET. Friday: 8:30am - 12:00pm ET.
 
Reasoning Algebraically About Operations 
Description: Participants examine generalizations at the heart of the study of operations in the elementary grades. They express these generalizations in common language and in algebraic notation, develop arguments based on representations of the operations, study what it means to prove a generalization, and extend their generalizations and arguments when the domain under consideration expands from whole numbers to integers.
Format: Online or on campus.
Meeting dates: Monday – Friday, July 19 – 23, 2021.
Meeting times: Monday – Thursday: 8:30am - 4:30pm ET. Friday: 8:30am - 12:00pm ET.
Developing Mathematical Ideas Facilitator Training 
Description:This course focuses on understanding the process of facilitating Developing Mathematical Ideas seminars. Students will analyze key mathematical and pedagogical ideas, examine the affordances of various instructional formats, learn how to respond in writing to the ideas of their seminar students, discuss issues of engaging adult learners, become familiar with the links between Developing Mathematical ideas and the Common Core content and practice standards as well as the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) teaching practices, and explore how to situate Developing Mathematical Ideas seminars in their own systems. Students will be actively engaged in every session, working in small group and whole group formats.
Format:Online or on campus.
Meeting dates:Monday – Friday, July 19 – 23, 2021.
Meeting times:Monday – Thursday: 8:30am – 4:30pm ET. Friday: 8:30am – 12:00pm ET.
Outreach and Advocacy for Educational Change 
Description: This course integrates Teacher Leader Model Standards for Domains VI and VII: assessing community needs and values, engaging families and colleagues in partnerships, and advocating for students and for the teaching profession. Participants will explore culturally responsive teaching approaches and strategies for collaborating with families to support meaningful and relevant student learning and development. Participants will also learn how to use research, policies, and persuasive communications to help build appropriate programs, interventions, and advocacy efforts that promote positive outcomes for both students and teachers.
Format: online via videoconference
Meeting dates: July 6 - August 9, 2021
Meeting times: TBD
Institutes / certificate programs
Instructional Coaching & Leadership program 

Description: Instructional coaches and mentors play a vital role in improving academic outcomes for students, fostering a positive school climate, and enhancing a school’s professional culture. The best coaches possess practical skills that drive instructional improvements AND leadership dispositions to foster educator resilience. If you are a skilled educator who wants to take on a leadership role during this time, our one-year, cohort-based, Instructional Coaching and Leadership program will equip you with the skills and dispositions you need. Join colleagues from across the globe who share your passion and are facing similar challenges.
Format: online.
Detailed Schedule: Instructional Coaching & Leadership Schedule.
More Information: https://www.mtholyoke.edu/professional-graduate/instructional-coaching-leadership-institute

Independent Schools Mentoring program 
Description: Working at an independent school requires a unique set of skills and dispositions. Mentors play a critical role in supporting teacher retention in the “triple threat” (teaching, advising, coaching) challenges facing independent school faculty. The best mentors foster practical skills that drive instructional innovation and possess the leadership dispositions to foster educator resilience. Our one-year, cohort-based certificate program supports educators in becoming effective and emotionally intelligent mentors for the next generation of independent school educators. Join a network of colleagues from across the globe who share your passion for quality, equity, and longevity in the independent school workforce!
Format: online.
Detailed Schedule: Independent Schools Mentoring Schedule.
More Information: https://www.mtholyoke.edu/professional-graduate/independent-schools-mentoring-institute

Equity & Social Justice Institute 
Description: Sign up for both Equity and Social Justice: A Teacher's Role and Outreach and Advocacy for Educational Change and receive a special discount. 
Format: Online via videoconferencing.
More Information: https://gradadmission.mtholyoke.edu/register/EquitySocialJustice
 

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