Creating Classroom Centers

Creating Classroom Centers

Discover how easy and effective classroom centers can really be. This course introduces a simple system for creating a center schedule and shepherding students through the process. You will see what makes a truly successful center, what pitfalls to avoid, and gain tips for keeping your planning to a minimum. You will also learn strategies for managing students who finish early and discover how a regular center routine can increase your small-group instruction opportunities each day.

6 Weeks Access / 24 Course Hrs
  • Details
  • Syllabus
  • Requirements
  • Instructor
  • Reviews
$206.00
$206.00
Self-Guided

Details

In this course, you will learn how to create and implement center activities that boost independent learning in the classroom. You will start out by learning what a center is, what benefits it offers, and how to make the most of it. Next, you will explore some very common mistakes teachers make with centers and gain tips for keeping your planning time to a minimum. You will receive step-by-step instructions for creating a center schedule that students at every reading level can use independently.

Short on classroom space? You will get great ideas for storing your center and explore some alternatives to having a permanent spot for every center. You will master an easy, effective process for introducing centers and their materials to your students and develop strategies for what to do when things don't go quite as planned. The insights you will gain will show you how to adjust your centers routine for both your fastest learners and those who need more time.

Think centers can only be used for reading and language arts? Think again. You will discover effective ways to use centers to support math, science, and social studies instruction. You will also see how you can use technology - such as virtual bulletin boards, apps, and interactive white boards - in your center activities to help keep your students engaged. By the time you finish, you will have a wealth of resources and center ideas you can try out in your classroom immediately.

Syllabus

In your first lesson, you will gain a clear understanding of what centers are by looking into three components that will make your centers effective and beneficial for you and your students. You will discover the reasons center activities are a valuable part of your daily routine—from increased success with core concepts for your students to additional small group instruction time for you.

In this lesson, you will learn about some of the common mistakes that teachers make when creating centers and discover some ideas for centers that will help you avoid these pitfalls. You will also examine the importance of consistency and some benefits of creating durable and open-ended centers.

This lesson teaches you how to pare down your center planning and keep it that way, even as you add more centers for your students to complete each week. You will examine your daily schedule to determine the number of centers you will need and how long your centers session should last each day.

Wouldn't it be great to have a simple way to set up a center's schedule that all of your students could follow independently? That's what you will gain in this lesson. You will discover center grouping strategy and how to rotate your students to ensure that every child visits every center every week.

When you're planning your centers, you can save time storing the materials you will need as you go. In this lesson, you will learn a great method for doing this. You will also discover an effective way to track student progress, give feedback, and put students in charge of their work for the week.

This lesson navigates the ins and outs of center introductions. You will learn the different parts of an introduction. You will also learn how strategies for achieving great results when helping your students use the schedule board and centers materials independently.

There are always last-minute, not-to-be-forgotten details that you need to have in place when you're getting ready to have your students start center activities. In this lesson, you will learn about your role in the first week of centers: watching and adjusting.

This lesson will walk through the simple but purposeful process of changing centers each week. You will examine how "every-weekers" are important for keeping planning under control. Finally, you will see how you can use the data about your students' progress to create new centers.

One of the biggest benefits of doing centers is that it buys you time for small-group instruction. In this lesson, you will explore different grouping strategies for three types of small-group instruction using data. You will also see examples of questions, conversations, and activities from each type.

Did you know that you can use the choice activities introduced as part of the centers' routine? In this lesson, you will learn how choice activities in other subject areas are the same and different from those used at center time.

In this lesson, you will branch out from more traditional literacy and math centers to include centers that revolve around different subject areas. You will explore center possibilities in science and social studies that include art, literature, and vocabulary practice.

Do you feel like you need some more center ideas to get your brain started? Well, this is the lesson for you. You will explore center ideas for literacy and math centers that will boost your students' bottom line and discover some new ideas and activities to supplement your "every-weekers".

Requirements

Prerequisites:

There are no prerequisites to take this course.


Requirements:

Hardware Requirements:

  • This course can be taken on either a PC, Mac, or Chromebook.

Software Requirements:

  • PC: Windows 8 or later.
  • Mac: macOS 10.6 or later.
  • Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
  • Adobe Acrobat Reader.
  • Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

Other:

  • Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.

Instructional Material Requirements:

The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.

Instructor

Cheryl Dick

Cheryl Dick has more than 25 years of teaching experience and is currently a classroom teacher. She's taught 2nd, 4th, and 5th grade and has previously worked as an instructional coach. She graduated from Missouri State University with a Bachelor of Science in elementary education, with a focus on early childhood education. Cheryl also holds a master's degree in elementary education from Texas-Wesleyan University and a second master's degree in educational administration from Lindenwood University.

Reviews

I enjoyed this course IMMENSELY! I found the instructor's writing style extremely easy to follow and full of ideas to use in my classroom! I would definitely recommend this course to my fellow teachers! GREAT Course!!!!

Great class jammed with useful ideas that I could implement in my classroom, almost immediately!!! Loved it.

I really enjoyed this class! It gave me tons of ideas for centers to implement in the classroom. I loved all the tips and hints on how to plan centers, set them up, introduce them to the class, etc. I would definitely recommend this class to others!

The instructor provided a wealth of information and resources. Thank you!

This was a great class!!!! I learned so much. I can't wait to implement the ideas I have learned from this class. I would recommend this to teachers especially first year teachers. Thank you for offering this great class.

I am very glad that I took this course. I believe the things that I learned will be especially helpful to me this school year because I have a large class with wide differences in abilities. This is a great course and I would recommend it to others who are interested in using centers and differentiation in instruction. The instructor was wonderful... very knowledgeable in her subject area and she uses humor very effectively!

Self-Guided Course Code: T9297
Instructor-Moderated Course Code: 4cc