Professional and Continuing Education

Led by a consortium of Boston College faculty and students who actively work with teachers and administrators in dual language schools in Massachusetts, this program prepares student teachers and practicing teachers to work in bilingual settings using innovative dual language practices. The certificate is aligned with Massachusetts subject matter knowledge requirements for state bilingual endorsement.

A series of one-credit courses prepare educators to teach language development and writing to students in grades K–8. The curriculum leverages an approach that Professor Maria Brisk has developed and tested for over 10 years in multiple schools. Courses focus on narrative writing, report and explanation writing, and argument and procedure writing.
 

Join speaker Derek Hook (Duquesne University) and respondent Sheldon George (Simmons University) on Thursday, April 30 for a talk titled On the ‘Pleasure of Hating’: A Critical Introduction to the Idea of Racism as “Enjoyment”. This talk introduces the notion that racism entails a type of “enjoyment” (that is, a type of affective arousal) which is present both in the ‘pleasure of hating’ and in attributions of others as somehow excessive, as contravening cultural norms of enjoyment (by virtue of “their” music, food, religion, dress-sense and culture, etc.).

Engaging, practice-oriented summer short courses are geared towards higher education professionals and graduate students seeking professional renewal, new skills, knowledge, and career advancement. Courses may be taken individually or as a set, and are taught by experienced, dynamic senior administrators and faculty from Boston College and other regional institutions.

A series of after school meetings between the teacher leaders and Boston College facilitators is designed to help teachers learn the basic tenets of why and how to develop Professional Learning Communities within their school in order to address problems of practice in a school community. During this module, teachers draw upon extant school-based data to formulate school-specific problems of practice that participants will unpack in order to formulate action steps.

Working with our design team, school leaders can create a customized professional development experience for the teachers within their school or district. These experiences can be held on site or online, with or without a university credits component.