Nondegree 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/admission/professional-and-non-degree/coursework-fees

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

Tag	Course Focus
	Diverse Learners
	General Education
	Leadership
	Mathematics Education

May – June 2023

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: Live online via Zoom.
Meeting dates: 6/11/23 - 6/29/23 (no classes June 19).
Meeting times: Mondays and Thursdays, 6:30 - 9:00pm ET.
Noncredit cost: $795.
Credit cost: $1604. Scholarships available.

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 course will offer coaches opportunities to explore, through the coaching perspective, ideas of number and geometry in the elementary grades.
Format: Live online via Zoom.
Meeting dates: 6/26/23 - 6/30/23.
Meeting times: Monday - Thursday, 8:30am - 4:30pm; Friday, 8:30am - 12pm.
Noncredit cost: $795.
Credit cost: $1604. Scholarships available.

July – August 2023

Coaching, Mentoring, and Facilitating Instructional Improvements
Description: Design, develop, critique, implement, give, and receive feedback on professional development experiences that align with the Common Core standards and the particular needs of the school/district's participating staff. Modules include staying focused on content while developing collaborative relationships, engaging in reflective dialogue with teachers and administrators, developing leadership skills, professional growth, and technology for collaborative learning. Individualize your learning experience based on an area of choice for personal and professional growth: instructional coaching, mentoring, or peer coaching.
Format: Online and Hybrid.
Meeting dates: 7/6/23 - 7/27/23.
Meeting times:

Thursday, July 6, 6:00pm - 9:00pm. Online.
Wednesday, July 19, 1:00pm - 04:30pm. Hybrid.
Thursday and Friday, July 20 - 21, 8:30am - 4:30pm. Hybrid.
Tuesday and Thursday, July 25 - 27. 6:00pm - 9:00pm. Online.

Noncredit cost: $795.
Credit cost: $1760. Scholarships available.

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: Live online via Zoom.
Meeting dates: 7/10/23 - 7/14/23.
Meeting times: Monday - Thursday, 8:30am - 4:30pm ET; Friday, 8:30am - 12:00pm ET.
Noncredit cost: $795.
Credit cost: $1760. Scholarships available.

Patterns, Functions, and Change
Description: Discover how the study of repeating patterns and number sequences can lead to ideas of functions, learn how to read tables and graphs to interpret phenomena of change, and use algebraic notation to write function rules. With a particular emphasis on linear functions, participants also explore quadratic and exponential functions and examine how various features of a function are seen in graphs, tables, or rules. Examine how students develop these concepts through analyzing print and video cases as well as reading and discussing research articles.
Format: Live online via Zoom.
Meeting dates: 7/10/23 - 7/14/23.
Meeting times: Monday - Thursday, 8:30am - 4:30pm ET; Friday, 8:30am - 12:00pm ET.
Noncredit cost: $795.
Credit cost: $1760. Scholarships available.

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: Live online via Zoom.
Meeting dates: 7/17/23 - 7/21/23.
Meeting times: Monday - Thursday, 8:30am - 4:30pm ET; Friday, 8:30am - 12:00pm ET.
Noncredit cost: $795.
Credit cost: $1760. Scholarships available.

Educational Leadership I: Exploring the Roles of Math Teacher Leadership
Description: Explore the roles of teacher leadership in math education at the local, state, and national level. Topics will include: coaching; mentoring; writing (blogs, journals, op-eds, articles); professional learning communities (virtual and face- to-face); and advocacy. Consider current issues and challenges facing students and teachers with regard to math education and work to develop an action plan to address these issues in the coming school year.
Format: Hybrid.
Meeting dates: 7/17/23 - 7/21/23.
Meeting times: Monday - Thursday, 8:30am - 4:30pm ET; Friday, 8:30am - 12:00pm ET.
Noncredit cost: $795.
Credit cost: $1760. Scholarships available.

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: Live online via Zoom.
Meeting dates: 7/24/23 - 7/28/23.
Meeting times: Monday – Thursday: 8:30am - 4:30pm ET. Friday: 8:30am - 12:00pm ET.
Cost: $795.
Credit cost: $1760. Scholarships available.

Examining Features of Shape
Description: Examine aspects of two-dimensional and three-dimensional shapes, develop geometric vocabulary, and explore both definitions and properties of geometric objects. The seminar includes a study of angle, similarity, congruence, and the relationships between three-dimensional objects and their two-dimensional representations. Examine how students develop these concepts through analyzing print and video cases as well as reading and discussing research articles.
Format: Live online via Zoom.
Meeting dates:7/24/23 - 7/28/23.
Meeting times: Monday - Thursday, 8:30am - 4:30pm ET; Friday, 8:30am - 12:00pm ET.
Noncredit cost:$795.
Credit cost:$1760. Scholarships available.

Developing Mathematics Ideas Facilitation Course
Description: Developing Mathematical Ideas (DMI) Facilitation courses offer opportunities for participants to develop skills and knowledge to enable them to lead DMI at their own sites. The DMI-F courses are led by the authors of and/or contributors to the DMI materials in collaboration with educational leaders who have integrated DMI Seminars into the professional development work of their own systems.
Format: Live online via Zoom.
Meeting dates: August 7 - 11, 2023.
Meeting times: Monday - Thursday, 8:30am - 4:30pm ET; Friday, 8:30am - 12:00pm ET.
Noncredit cost:$795.
Credit cost:$1760. Scholarships available.

Fall 2023

Topics in Social-Emotional Learning and Development: 'Advising and Counseling Students Beyond the Classroom'

Description: This course will provide an overview of the following: school counseling principles, widely adopted models of comprehensive developmental counseling curricula, social-emotional learning, approaches in multicultural counseling, and mentoring students on academic and professional issues. We will also address identification, prevention, intervention, and crisis management strategies for topics including: relationships, mental health, trauma, and substance use/abuse.
Format: Online.
Meeting dates: 9/6 - 12/19/23.
Meeting times: Thursdays, 6:00 - 8:00pm ET.
Noncredit cost: $795.
Credit cost: $1760. Scholarships available.

Institutes / certificate programs

Social Justice and Advocacy Institute
Two courses; 5/31/23 - 7/21/23
Equity & Social Justice: A Teacher's Role
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.
Meetings:
Biweekly: 5/31/23 - 6/30/23, Mondays and Wednesdays, 5:00pm - 9:00pm ET
Biweekly: 6/16/23 - 6/30/23, Fridays, 5:00pm - 9:00pm ET.

Outreach and Advocacy for Educational Change
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.
Meetings:
7/10/23, Monday, 6:00pm - 9:00pm (Online)
7/17/23 - 7/21/23, Monday - Friday, 8:30am - 4:30pm (Hybrid)
7/24/23 - 8/2/23, Mondays and Wednesdays, 6:00 - 9:00pm (Online).

Format: Online/Hybrid.
Noncredit cost: $1590.
Credit cost: $5124. Scholarships available.

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.
Schedule:

Course	Description	Timeframe	Schedule
Fostering a Collaborative Culture (2 credits)	Develop positive professional relationships, improve school culture, lead for change	5/30/23 - 6/29/23	Tues. & Thurs., 6:00 - 9:00pm ET.
Coaching, Mentoring, and Facilitating Instructional Improvements (2 credits)	Best practices in observation, feedback, and consultation for mentors	7/6/23 - 7/27/23	Thurs., 7/6/23: 6:00pm - 9:00pm ET Wed., 7/19/23: 1:00pm - 4:30pm ET Thurs. & Fri.,7/20 & 7/21: 8:30am - 4:30pm ET Tues., & Thurs., 7/25 & 7/27: 6:00pm - 9:00pm ET
Owning Assessments and Data for Student Learning (2 credits)	Facilitate and support colleagues in using assessment tools to inform decisions to improve practice and student learning	7/5/23 - 7/19/23	7/5 - 7/13: Mon. & Wed., 6:00pm - 9:00pm ET 7/17 - 7/18: Mon. & Tues., 8:30am - 4:30pm ET 7/19: Wed., 8:30am - 12:00pm ET
Practicum I: Professional Development and Mentoring (3 credits)	Cultivate facilitation skills, professional development design, implementation, and assessment, hone coaching and mentoring skills	9/6/23 - 12/12/23	Mondays, 6:00 - 9:15pm ET
Personal and Professional Leadership (1 credit)	Elevate teacher leadership through storytelling personal leadership development	January	Two, 2 hour workshops Dates & times TBD.
Advanced Practicum: Professional Development and Mentoring (2 credits)	Create systematic improvements in professional learning and mentoring in independent schools	January- April	Weekly 2 hour workshops Dates & Times TBD

More Information:https://www.mtholyoke.edu/academics/find-your-program/independent-schools-mentoring-institute
Noncredit cost of foundation level (summer only): $2385.
Noncredit cost of full certificate program (full year): $4770.
Credit cost of foundation level (summer only): $5124. Scholarships available.
Credit cost of full certificate program (full year): $10,040. Scholarships available.

Register for noncredit
Apply for credit

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.

Course	Description	Timeframe	Schedule
Fostering a Collaborative Culture (2 credits)	Develop positive professional relationships, improve school culture, lead for change	5/30/23 - 6/29/23	Tues. & Thurs., 6:00 - 9:00pm ET.
Coaching, Mentoring, and Facilitating Instructional Improvements (2 credits)	Best practices in observation, feedback, and consultation for mentors	7/6/23 - 7/27/23	Thurs., 7/6/23: 6:00pm - 9:00pm ET Wed., 7/19/23: 1:00pm - 4:30pm ET Thurs. & Fri.,7/20 & 7/21: 8:30am - 4:30pm ET Tues., & Thurs., 7/25 & 7/27: 6:00pm - 9:00pm ET
Promoting Professional Learning (2 credits)	Design and implement professional learning opportunities for adults	9/6/23 - 12/12/23	Wednesdays, 6:00pm - 8:15pm ET
Practicum I: Professional Development and Mentoring (3 credits)	Cultivate facilitation skills, professional development design, implementation, and assessment, hone coaching and mentoring skills	9/6/23 - 12/12/23	Mondays, 6:00 - 9:15pm ET
Personal and Professional Leadership (1 credit)	Elevate teacher leadership through storytelling personal leadership development	January	Two, 2 hour workshops Dates & times TBD.
Advanced Practicum: Professional Development and Mentoring (2 credits)	Create systematic improvements in professional learning and mentoring in independent schools	January- April	Weekly 2 hour workshops Dates & Times TBD

More Information: https://www.mtholyoke.edu/academics/find-your-program/instructional-coaching-leadership-institute
Noncredit cost: $4770.
Credit cost: $10,404. Scholarships available.
Register for noncredit
Apply for credit

Nondegree Course Descriptions

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