• Convenient, flexible, easy-to-use

  • Online learning that fits
    your schedule
  • Learn wherever and whenever you want
  • Easy-to-use learning platform guides you through the course



• We've helped educators at more than 15,000 schools

  • "This is how I'm going to get my continuing education credits from now on."

    - Wendy J. Cope, French Teacher, Lancaster Catholic High School, Lancaster, PA

  • "This course lives up to its promise. It is real and easy to implement. It's made a big difference in my teaching!"

    - Frank Martin, Principal, The Stevens School

  • "I absolutely love the class I am taking. I am taking it to improve my leadership skills. It's been great!"

    - Connie Cullip, Special Education Supervisor, Rudyard, MI EUPISD




• • "The Coursework is convenient and interesting! I definitely recommend the program."

    - Jennifer Desloges, 7th Grade English Teacher Plymouth Elementary, Plymouth, NH

  • "I am through about 4 lectures and am loving the ease and simplicity of how it all works! Everything is so easy to navigate."

    - LuAnn Funk, 2nd Grade Teacher, Case Avenue Elementary

• • "I took this course with some reservation, but it proved to be very helpful. Some of the simple things that I learned made a huge impact on the amount of energy my students put into learning"

    
    

    "It was easy to do. I got to work at my own pace, explore all the websites and absorb the materials As a 28 year veteran I do believe you can teach old dogs new tricks."

    - Joseph Fusco, Physics Teacher Lodi High School, NJ

Course 1047

Leadership Excellence: Planning for Your School

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Apply this towards your professional development requirements

Tuition: $575 for all 3 modules complete

If you are an Administrator looking for a development course that looks at the big picture, this is the one. Covering three important strategic plans for any school, this convenient, online course shows you the best of what’s working around the country to help you guide your school through change, prepare for potential disaster, and partner with your parents and community.

Led by three of the nation’s foremost experts and Administrators, this new course lets you earn Professional Development credits, hours or certificates of completion whenever and where ever you like. It combines the following three learning modules, to give you practical understanding of these complex issues and takeaways that you can put in place immediately:

• (1016) Guiding Your School through Change: Gaining Buy-in through Staff Involvement
• (1005) Disaster Preparedness: Supporting Students, Parents and Staff in a Crisis
• (1014) Parents, Communities and Schools: Partnering for Student Success

What You'll Learn

Like employees at any organization, many teachers and staff members fear, hate or just generally resist change. Instead of embracing the opportunities brought about by it, they focus on its negatives. Strong administrators understand this and it helps shape the way they introduce and manage change in their schools and districts. This module is designed to help you lead your school through change - big and small - and gain buy-in and support from some of the toughest resistors: You'll learn the best ways to:

• Gain cooperation and motivate the "foot draggers"
• Avoid the 8 most common reasons change fails
• Overcome the psychological barriers that crush the process of change
• Use the pain caused by change to your advantage

Highlights

Reducing the Drama and Trauma of Change

• Why do people resist change? How can you overcome this?
• Keys to building their trust - even in tough or uncertain times
• Finding key allies to help you with your change efforts

Increase Productivity through Effective Change Management

• Strategies for creating a sense of urgency to change
• How to overcome the most common obstacles to change
• The personalities that will always undermine change

Leading Change: What You Can Do Today

• How do you increase a resistor's enthusiasm and level of commitment?
• How can you anticipate and respond to the inevitable emotional responses?
• Creating short-term wins to get everyone on board for the long term

What You'll Learn

Violence, accidents, disaster or crisis can strike any school at any moment. It's critical to have a proven preparedness plan in place that not only addresses the chaos, but effectively communicates important information outward. Does everyone know their roles? Cwill the right people got the right information at the right time? This module will show you:

• The keys to creating a plan that's focused on your school's needs Proven ways to assess, identify and defuse threatening situations How to best communicate with your faculty, staff, students and parents Important elements every plan should include - and those it shouldn't
• What to look for when designing a plan that fits your school
• How and when to work with federal and local officials
• Specific dos and don'ts for a practical, effective disaster plan

Highlights

Critical Elements of an Effective Disaster Plan

• What you should do - IMMEDIATELY - when told of a dangerous situation
• How best to anticipate and prevent incidents from occurring in your school
• The importance of using documentation to track "precursor" incidents
• How to get buy-in for a school-wide safety/security program

What's Working to Prevent School Violence

• Training students, parents, faculty and staff in school safety
• How can you anticipate unique disasters that are hard to predict?
• Who should be involved in the planning process and how much "say" should they have?

Keys for Creating the Safest School Environment

• Training students, parents, faculty and staff in school safety
• How can you anticipate unique disasters that are hard to predict?
• Who should be involved in the planning process and how much "say" should they have?

What You'll Learn

Partnering with parents and your community isn't about good PR. It's necessary for solid district leadership, whole-school change, strong school organization, improvement plans, learning goals and more. What's the best way to create and get buy-in for your involvement programs? This module will show you:

• The key components for getting enthusiastic family and community involvement
• School-centered programs that everyone wants to get behind
• Six types of involvement that support student achievement, attendance, and behavior
• Research-proven tools and materials for more effective involvement programs
• How NCLB requirements for family involvement can work at any school

Highlights

Important New Definitions of Partnerships

• Straightforward ways to help parents redefine the meaning of parent involvement
• What you should expect (and get) from parents and community
• Why shared leadership is important - and what you should be doing to foster it

Keys for Effective Program Design

• Six types of family and community involvement that you can get today
• Proven ways to meet the challenge of reaching and motivating all your families
• How to write functional plans that everyone can get behind

Ensuring Your School Achieves Results

• How can you link partnerships/involvement to school goals and classroom learning?
• How do you address equity issues so every student can benefit?
• Was it worth it? How do you track the effectiveness of your partnerships?

The Virtual Teachers Lounge™

Check in with your peers and get answers to your questions – any time, 24/7. Taking this course will give you exclusive access to the thoughts, insights and experience of other educators and K-12 experts discussing your topics and giving you solutions and ideas for whatever is on your mind. In the Teachers' lounge, you can:

• Learn new, working strategies and solutions from other educators – live!
• Get answers to your toughest questions from top K-12 experts
• Discuss course topics with your peers and benefit from their experiences
• Share your success stories and best practices to benefit other teachers and administrators
• Get new perspectives, fresh ideas and guidance – whenever you need it.
• You can log whenever is most convenient for you, 24/7

All you have to do is sign up for this course, and you're in!

Connect with, hear from and get help from you peers.

Materials & Assessment

Lectures	Your lectures, delivered by one of the nation's leading, recognized experts on this topic, are presented in multiple parts to make listening and tracking your progress easier. You can listen to each as often as you like by playing it on your computer, downloading it to your iPod or other MP3 player, even burning it to CD. Listen wherever it is most convenient for you: at home, in your car; at the park; and whenever you like: before or after work, at night or on weekends. Many educators can complete a module in only a week.
Text Resources	Virtual text resources are downloadable and expand on the material covered in your lectures. They may include articles, web links to related materials and web sites, definitions of important terms and concepts, and a bibliography. All materials can be viewed on your computer or downloaded and printed.
Assessment	To receive your Certificate of Completion or Certificate of Attendance and earn Professional Development/Continuing Education units/credits/hours, you will need to complete all assessments and submit all final projects.
Virtual Teachers Lounge	To gain Professional Development credits or hours for any of these three modules, you must participate in the Virtual teachers Lounge discussion for that module. If you are not seeking credits or hours, participation in the Lounge is not mandatory, but you are still welcome to connect with and share your thoughts, questions, insights and experience with your peers at any time.