On-site Courses

CEP 751 Response to Intervention (RtI) for School Personnel

Response to Intervention (RtI) for Educators is a course designed to provide all educators with knowledge of, and experience with, the RtI model. Recent legislative guidance in NYS, "Authorizes the use of RtI in the State's criteria to determine learning disabilities (LD) and requires, effective July 1 2012, that all school districts have an RtI program in place as part of the process to determine if a student in grades K-4 is a student with a learning disability in the areas of reading." This course is designed to provide students preparing to work in the field of education, as well as, current administrators, teachers, and special education personnel the knowledge and skills to implement the RtI model in their school districts. Course content will include, setting up an RtI program in a school and district, resource demands and organizational processes involved in implementing an RtI program, assessment in RtI, and classification issues in RtI. Students and professionals taking this course will also work through authentic RtI data and complete a case study using this data. This will give all - from the administrator to the school psychologist, - data-based experience with the RtI process.

Date/Time: Sept. 24, Oct. 1, 8, 15, 22; Thursdays from 4:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m.
Location: Sweet Home Middle School, 4150 Maple Road, Amherst, NY 14226

About the Instructors:
Robin Raphael is a NYS certified and a nationally certified school psychologist with 30 years of experience. Robin currently works at Sweet Home Middle School and has been integrally involved in the development and implementation of a response to intervention program for reading. She has also been an internal coach for PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports) and believes in the power of this model as an RtI approach for behavior.

Margaret Connolly is Teacher on Special Assignment for Literacy in the Sweet Home Central School District and a certified Reading Recovery teacher. For the past 10 years of her 18 year career, Margaret has worked along side school psychologists and principals to establish a school-wide reading model at each of the four elementary buildings and the middle school. The school wide reading model goes hand in hand with Response to Intervention. Through benchmark screening, progress monitoring, problem solving and intervention with students, the District has become a model for RtI in the area.

ELP 711 Introduction to School Building Leadership

This introductory course is intended to help aspiring school building leaders get a better understanding of the roles and responsibilities of principals and assistant principals. The course will examine the importance of high quality teaching and learning that results in student achievement that meets or exceeds state standards. The course will also examine the development, support and nurturing of students' minds and moral character while being responsive to their cultural, social and linguistic backgrounds. Finally, the course examines efficiency and equity in the use of resources, a strong sense of caring for others and an appreciation of cultural diversity.

To address these issues, the course will be organized around the following major themes: Leadership Styles and Approaches to Shared Decision-making, Managing Human and Fiscal Resources, Managing the Instructional Program, and Parent and Community Relations.

Date/Time: Sept. 15, 29, Oct. 13, 27, Nov. 17, Dec. 1; Tuesdays from 4:00–6:30 p.m.
Location: Amherst High School, 4301 Main Street, Amherst NY, 14226

About the Instructor: James K. Brotz recently retired from the West Seneca Central School District where he worked for 35 years. He became superintendent of schools in 2002, having formerly served as the high school principal for ten years. Mr. Brotz graduated from SUNY Brockport and received his Master's Degree from Canisius College. He currently works as a consultant on several education-related projects and serves as the Assistant Director of the Western New York Service Council.

ELP 712 Introduction to School District Leadership

This introductory course is intended to help aspiring school district leaders get a better understanding of the roles and responsibilities of school superintendents, assistant superintendents, directors and supervisors. The course will examine the importance of high quality teaching and learning that results in student achievement that meets or exceeds state standards. The course will also examine the development, support and nurturing of students' minds and moral character while being responsive to their cultural, social and linguistic backgrounds. Finally, the course examines efficiency and equity in the use of resources, a strong sense of caring for others and an appreciation of cultural diversity.

To address these issues, the course will be organized around the following major themes: Leadership Styles and Approaches to Decision-making, Managing Human Resources, Managing Fiscal Resources, Managing the Instructional Program, and School Board and Community Relations.

Date/Time: Sept. 3 (4:00–7:00 p.m.), 17, Oct. 8, 22, Nov. 5, 19, Dec. 3.; Thursdays from 4:00–6:00 p.m.
Location: Williamsville CSD District Office, 105 Casey Road, E. Amherst, NY, 14051 (Dodge & Casey Roads)

About the Instructor: Dr. Howard Smith has served as a superintendent of schools since 1997, the last five years in the Williamsville Central School District. He received a Doctorate in Educational Administration from the University of Rochester, and is currently an adjunct faculty member at the University at Buffalo. He also serves on the faculty for the Superintendents Academy for the New York State Council of School Superintendents (NYSCOSS).

LAI 751 Teaching/Learning through Popular Media

We live in a society that is saturated with various media images, messages, technologies and delivery systems. How can teachers use film, television, advertising, and the internet to improve student learning and achievement? This workshop will focus on approaches and strategies for incorporating popular media as teaching tools. Participants will explore how to use the media to enhance content in meaningful and engaging ways that also develop media literacy & awareness. By reading relevant research, discussing a variety of instructional practices and working cooperatively on instructional plans, workshop participants will seek ways to help students shift from being passive media consumers to active media viewers and producers.

Date/Time: Sept. 5, 12, 19; Saturdays from 9:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m.
Location: 108 Baldy Hall, UB North Campus

About the Instructor: Jonathan Federick has an extensive background in media production, criticism and theory. A former professional filmmaker, Mr. Federick holds an M.A. in Communication Arts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he taught film and video production courses for several years. He currently teaches English at Cheektowaga Central High School where he regularly incorporates media literacy instruction into his curriculum and also teaches a Cultural & Media Studies elective. Mr. Federick has also provided staff development through City Voices, City Visions and currently serves as the technology facilitator for the Western New York Writing Project's Summer Institute.

LAI 754 Engaging 21st Century Students with Digital Technologies in Social Studies

Today's generation of students come to our classrooms with a wide variety of experiences and backgrounds which provide us with a unique opportunity to energize the way we teach. Recognizing that the era of history worksheets and overheads are relics of the past, today's Social Studies teachers must find new avenues to reach today's students. The focus of this workshop will be in harnessing the power of the internet and digital technologies in order to create meaningful experiences of learning in the Social Studies. With an emphasis on pragmatic techniques which can be modified for each teacher's classroom, we will spend two days producing, creating and discussing Social Studies methodologies.

On our first day of development we will concentrate on teacher production. Using Google Docs, teachers will create interactive, multimodal notes for lecturing facilitation as well as a web based platform for delivering their presentations online. The second half of the day will focus on creating audio and video podcasts in correlation with their web platform to create an online resource of lectures and curriculum review for students. The second day of development will focus on creating workable activities and methodologies which will allow for students to create expressions of curriculum meaning using technology. Teachers will plan and participate in the production of a short digital film which will serve as a model for their own social studies classroom. Other methodologies which use technology will be examined such as webquests, student podcasting and digital composing.

Date/Time: Aug. 29 & Sept. 5; Saturdays from 9:00 a.m.–4:50 p.m.
Location: 14 Baldy Hall, UB North Campus

About the Instructor: Keith Hughes has ten years of experience successfully teaching Social Studies at the secondary level at McKinley High School in Buffalo, NY. Over the past six years Keith has served as the lead instructor for the UB/BPS Professional Development program, City Voices, City Visions (CVCV), helping to train over a 150 Buffalo Public School teachers in the art of digital composing and curriculum integration. In addition to his work with Buffalo Public Schools and CVCV, Keith has also taught three adjunct courses for the Dept. of Learning and Instruction, in the Graduate School of Education, including Literacy and Technology, Digital Literacy, and Advanced Methodologies in the Social Studies.

LAI 755 Creating Dynamic Online Spaces for Teaching and Learning

Keeping apace with the meaningful opportunities that Web 2.0 can provide can be difficult to do, especially when immersed in the day to day activities of the school year. This workshop seeks to assist teachers in developing robust academic communities for their students on the participatory web. The purpose of this class is to help teachers set up classroom web spaces and demonstrate how combining online tools like Blogger, Ning, Google Docs., Chatterous and Wikispaces can help create authentic connective and collaborative writing and discussion spaces online.

Date/Time: Sept. 12, 19, 26, Oct. 10, 17; Saturdays from 9:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m.
Location: 14 Baldy Hall, UB North Campus

About the Instructor: Joel Malley is the technology liaison for the Western New York Writing Project and a lead instructor in the City Voices, City Visions Digital Composing project. In his 8 years of teaching in urban and suburban schools, instructor he has utilized online communities and Web 2.0 tools in a myriad of high school English classes, ranging from Advanced Placement Literature to Creative Writing to film production.

LAI 757 Working With Students on the Autism Spectrum: What Every Teacher Needs to Know

This course will briefly discuss the five types of autism spectrum disorders, including characteristics and diagnostic criterion of each. We will then discuss unique learning characteristics often demonstrated by children with autism. Specific strategies for teaching academics, social-emotional skills and self help skills (activities of daily living) will also be discussed, including a review of the evidence-based interventions currently used by educators for children with autism. We will discuss what constitutes evidence-based interventions for children with autism and how an educator can discriminate between best practice and "intervention of the week" type approaches. The course will examine the latest research in autism and how it impacts educational considerations for practicing teachers. A brief discussion of federal and NYS special education regulations will be included, providing teachers with information regarding educational mandates and protections for children with autism under the law.

Date/Time: Aug. 26, 27, 31; 9:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m.
Location: 103 Talbert Hall, UB North Campus

About the Instructor: Kathy Doody has several years of experience working with children with autism spectrum disorder in Western New York. Mrs. Doody is an autism specialist through NYS Education (VESID), and provides expert behavioral consultation for students with autism in public schools in Erie and Niagara counties, as well as providing staff development and in-service presentations for elementary and secondary teachers. Mrs. Doody is an area expert in working with children with autism and is an instructor in the teacher preparation program at Buffalo State College, working with undergraduate and graduate teacher candidates. She is also parent to an adolescent son with autism spectrum disorder.