Courses

Instructor: Gabriel Fara Tolno

Dates: June 8-10

Audience: All levels & types of educators

Cost: Zugelder Discount Price $228; Full Price $380, + $5 Fee (2 credits)

This dynamic course introduces educators to the rich traditions of African rhythm and music as powerful tools for teaching, learning, and community building. Designed for teachers of all grade levels and subject areas, the program provides a practical and culturally grounded approach to integrating rhythm into the classroom. Participants explore foundational African rhythmic structures through hands-on drumming, body percussion, clapping patterns, and call-and-response activities. The course emphasizes listening, coordination, and ensemble playing, helping teachers develop confidence in leading musical experiences even without prior musical training. Through guided practice, participants learn how rhythm supports focus, memory, collaboration, and emotional expression.

The course also highlights the cultural significance of African music as a living tradition rooted in storytelling, celebration, and collective participation. Educators gain insight into how rhythm can foster inclusivity, respect, and cross-cultural understanding among students. By the end of the program, participants are equipped with adaptable lesson ideas, classroom-ready activities, and strategies for using rhythm to enhance academic learning and social connection. This engaging and inspiring course empowers teachers to bring energy, creativity, and cultural depth into their teaching through the universal language of rhythm and music.

Instructor: Cierra Rohrbaugh

Dates: June 8-10

Audience: All levels & types of educators

Cost: Zugelder Discount Price $228; Full Price $380 (2 credits)

What if the most powerful studio tool in your classroom costs almost nothing and fits in a student’s backpack? This course invites educators to design and construct handmade sketchbooks or journals using accessible, everyday materials—paper remnants, recycled board, basic thread—centering creativity over perfection and sustainability over expense. Participants will learn foundational binding techniques, including pamphlet stitch, simple Zines, and flexible soft-cover formats, and explore how these processes can be adapted to different learners, classrooms, and funding contexts.

Sketchbooks and journals are historically rich spaces for inquiry, experimentation, and quick reflection, used by artists, scientists, writers, and thinkers alike. In this course, handmade books become active sites for observation, play, and practice—tools anyone can create and use to capture ideas, explore visual storytelling, and test new approaches. Through brief observational drawing excursions and guided writing prompts, educators will translate lived experience into image and text while modeling the reflective, iterative process for students by the end of the class.

Instructor: Leia Henaghan

Dates: June 8-10

Audience: All levels & types of educators

Cost: Zugelder Discount Price $228; Full Price $380, + $5 Fee (2 credits)

Unlock your classroom’s potential with this HB 20-1128 and HB 20-1312-compliant course, designed for Colorado teachers and administrators. Learn how trauma impacts behavior, learning, and brain development, and gain tools to create inclusive, culturally responsive, and trauma-informed environments that support all students, especially those with disabilities. Explore the basics of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), including reinforcement, punishment, and behavior shaping. Master the four functions of behavior and apply the ABC framework to tailor interventions. Through reflective practices and hands-on strategies, you’ll develop skills to manage sensory triggers, reframe negative thinking, and implement behavior contracts, group contingencies, and response cost systems. With resources like the Teacher Toolbox and ABA Visualized, you’ll leave ready to implement evidence-based strategies for a thriving classroom.

Instructor: Lea Ann Johnson

Dates: June 9-10

Audience: All levels & types of educators

Cost: Zugelder Discount Price $114; Full Price $190, + $10 Fee (1 credit)

Today’s educators are finding themselves in an increasing atmosphere of burnout in their workplace and home life; statistics suggest as many as 70% of America’s workforce experience a high level of burnout. With increasing expectations on teachers, burnout is leading to more and more vacancies in teaching staff and an epidemic of teacher shortages. This course will explore the various contributors to burnout unique to each individual, and practical solutions to embrace new mindsets around healthy work production, family responsibilities, and self-care. Explore how to break the cycle and reclaim your energy and passion.

Instructors: Kimberly Yadon & Jennifer DeBoer

Dates: June 9-10

Audience: All levels & types of educators

Cost: Zugelder Discount Price $114; Full Price $190; + $5 Fee (1 credit)

Generative AI has entered classrooms faster than most educators have had time to reflect, experiment, or agree on what it means for teaching and learning. Public conversations about AI often swing between hype and alarm, leaving educators feeling pressured to react rather than respond with intention.

This course explores our reactions through the lens of moral panic, providing a framework for reflection and action. Through guided discussion, participants will examine common fears and claims about AI in education, consider how similar situations have played out in the past, and evaluate what is genuinely new, what is overstated, and what deserves careful attention. Each class session pairs conceptual discussion with practical strategies, focusing on both pedagogical adjustments and mindset shifts that support thoughtful, ethical, and student-centered teaching in an AI-rich world.  *This description was developed in collaboration with ChatGPT.

Instructor: Maria Struble, Ph.D.

Dates: June 8-10

Audience: Secondary social studies educators

Cost: Zugelder Discount Price $228; Full Price $380 (2 credits)

Writing is hard. Writing in the social sciences is especially hard – it is often inconclusive, can be biased, and often relies on historical evidence informed by trauma, violence and oppression. Yet we ask our students to make their writing clear, concise, evidence-based, and conclusive. We insist, as teachers, that writing is “good” and “a skill” that will help students succeed at university and in life. Writing is also fun. This course will share many styles and formats of writing with the teachers so they can, in turn, use them in the middle and high school classrooms. Some of the writing examples include position papers, policy memos, op eds, creative writing, book reviews, ads, and legal writing. In engaging in these writing styles, we remain committed to learning and an interdisciplinary approach to education. Answering the question: “Can a poem tell us something different about the Vietnam War than a history book can?” involves more than knowing about the Vietnam War, it involves struggling through the meaning of someone’s fear, hunger, pain. Other questions we will talk about involve: When we write a policy memo for a lawmaker, is our voice lost? Is a book review just a summary? These different types of writing share a commitment to an engagement with a story. The same kind of commitment is at the heart of education and learning. This course is an exciting opportunity to share details and rubrics for a variety of writing assignments and have FUN writing ourselves. This course supports educator participants in a growing area of need: meeting the content, language, and socioemotional needs of migrant youth, including newcomers and other special populations in K-12 settings. Educators of any grade who enroll in this course will advance their understanding of migration factors, local community resources, trauma-informed strategies, as well as culturally, linguistically, and identity-affirming pedagogical practices.

Instructor: Gabriel Fara Tolno

Dates: June 11-13

Audience: All levels & types of educators

Cost: Zugelder Discount Price $228; Full Price $380, + $5 Fee (2 credits)

African Movement and Dance is an engaging and culturally rich professional development course designed to inspire teachers through embodied learning and creative expression. This course introduces participants to traditional and contemporary African dance forms while exploring their historical, social, and educational significance. Through guided movement, rhythmic exploration, and reflective practice, educators develop confidence in using dance as a powerful teaching tool across disciplines.

Participants learn foundational techniques, body awareness, and culturally grounded movement patterns that emphasize coordination, balance, and expressive storytelling. The course highlights the connection between movement, music, community, and identity, helping educators understand dance as both an art form and a means of communication. Emphasis is placed on inclusivity, adaptability, and student-centered instruction, making the material accessible for diverse classroom settings. In addition to physical practice, participants explore strategies for integrating African movement into lesson planning, social-emotional learning, and multicultural education. Collaborative activities encourage creativity, teamwork, and cultural appreciation. By the end of the course, educators gain practical skills, cultural knowledge, and instructional resources to confidently incorporate African dance into their teaching practice. This dynamic experience empowers teachers to energize their classrooms, foster student engagement, and celebrate global traditions through movement and rhythm.

Instructor: Karen Immerso

Dates: June 11-13

Audience: All levels & types of educators

Cost: Zugelder Discount Price $228; Full Price $380 (2 credits)

American Sign Language (ASL), is considered a foreign language, a community language or a language of instruction. It is being offered for teachers who have both a personal and professional interest in pursuing new communication skills. This American Sign Language class will take you well beyond general body language awareness in order to become a more widely versed communicator. Lessons and practice sessions during this 3-day class will cover the basics of ASL. We will learn basic signs, sentence structure, and fingerspelling. You will begin to build your receptive skills. We will explore some cultural aspects of working with a Deaf and Hard of Hearing population. We will also consider the adaptations for ASL with special needs students. Participants may come to a new level of expression and have fun within this truly “hands-on” learning experience.

Instructor: Cierra Rohrbaugh

Dates: June 11-13

Audience: All levels & types of educators

Cost: Zugelder Discount Price $228; Full Price $380 (2 credits)

How can small images spark big conversations and build classroom communities? This course invites educators to collaboratively design and print a series of art trading cards (ATCs) exploring universal themes such as resilience, empathy, growth, identity, and belonging. Each card combines individual creativity with shared thematic direction, modeling a classroom structure that fosters collaboration, literacy, and social-emotional learning.

Educators will gain hands-on experience with accessible printmaking processes—including mono-relief and introductory linocut— and mixed media techniques using low-cost, classroom-friendly materials and safe studio practices. Each educator creates 3–5 original cards that contribute to a cohesive, collectively produced trading set. Writing prompts to help translate visual ideas into short narratives, artist statements, poems, or reflection prompts.

Instructor: Amanda Martinez

Dates: June 11-13

Audience: All levels & types of educators

Cost: Zugelder Discount Price $228; Full Price $380 (2 credits)

This course is designed to equip educators with essential knowledge and practical strategies for addressing the diverse language needs of multilingual learners (MLLs). Throughout the course, participants will delve into the fundamental characteristics of MLLs, exploring their varied backgrounds and experiences in educational settings. The curriculum emphasizes a foundational understanding of language development stages.

Participants will be introduced to strategies for creating culturally responsive instructional materials, incorporating diverse cultural perspectives to enhance content comprehensibility. The course explores differentiated instruction methods, guiding educators in adapting materials for various language proficiency levels. Reflective practices are woven into the curriculum, encouraging educators to evaluate and enhance their teaching methods for multilingual learners. The course also touches on strategies for fostering inclusive and supportive classroom environments, addressing challenges related to language diversity.

In this condensed, yet comprehensive, 2-credit course, participants will gain valuable insights and skills to immediately apply in their classrooms. Additionally, teachers will earn 30 hours toward the required 45 hours of PD in CLDE for recertification. The curriculum strikes a balance between theoretical foundations and practical strategies, ensuring that educators leave with a solid understanding of how to make content comprehensible for multilingual learners in diverse educational settings. As a participant of this course, you will engage in the Language Experience Approach (Klingner) through a short hike in beautiful Gunnison, and learn how to leverage community partnerships by engaging in a community scavenger hunt. Additionally, teachers will develop a mini unit filled with culturally and linguistically responsive teaching practices.

Instructor: Lea Ann Johnson

Dates: June 11-13

Audience: All levels & types of educators

Cost: Zugelder Discount Price $228; Full Price $380, + $25 Fee (2 credits)

Many teachers and administrators experience high levels of stress in their personal lives and the ongoing demands of their jobs. This course is designed to unshackle some of that stress and offer a multitude of “daily practices” to take home to sustain their well-being. Participants will spend two days devoted to brain research and hands-on experiences to help untangle and let go. Each student will experiment with a variety of meditations, restorative yoga, and journaling exercises to take home and make a part of their daily lives. The directive for the two credits will be to implement and establish a routine of wellness that can carry over to the classroom and school environments. User friendly for beginner or novice.

Instructors: Jenny Hart & Allison Gomez

Dates: June 11-13

Audience: Elementary & middle school educators

Cost: Zugelder Discount Price $228; Full Price $380, + $15 Fee (2 credits)

Turn reluctant Mathematicians into wizards! Daily math routines can be powerful! This routine supports all math curricula with hands-on, creative, and collaborative experiences. In this class, instructors will review a Daily Number Line Routine used in the upper elementary classroom to build fluency and community. This approach achieves student growth that is off the charts with supplies as simple as Post-it notes. We will inspire you to help kids work deeply with numbers: fractions, decimals, percents, money, patterns, multiplication practice, angle measurement, hundreds grids, factoring, arrays, area, perimeter, and decomposing numbers. This daily routine starts simply with repeated skills practice and builds towards more complex concepts. These procedures lay a strong foundation for many math skills that will be needed going forward. This number line routine is kid-tested, creative, and able to meet the needs of diverse learners in any upper elementary math classroom. Elementary students leave our classes with life-long Math confidence and skills. We have had so much fun teaching kids this number line routine. Our students have helped us to modify and adapt this routine over the years. Teachers who enroll in the class will create a daily math routine for their 2nd through 8th-grade classrooms that will achieve growth in their students’ math skills!

Instructor: Mandi Leigh, Ph.D

Dates: June 11-13

Audience: All levels & types of educators

Cost: Zugelder Discount Price $228; Full Price $380 (2 credits)

Learn and develop effective strategies to mentor new teachers, acclimate them to the school environment within a community context, and the rigors of the teaching profession. Participants will gather tools to identify the unique assets of beginning teachers and use a mentoring cycle that provides continuous coaching for mentees. Participants will develop a plan to introduce mentees to their school traditions, procedures, and policies, to establish strong community relationships. Through the celebration of mentor teachers, course participants will reflect on their professional teaching, how they foster a supportive and respectful learning environment with children to role-model for their mentee. Participants will curate a personal list of leadership assets and mentorship competencies. They will leave the course with renewed enthusiasm for their professional practice and will serve as role models for new and novice teachers.

Instructor: Angela Caroll

Dates: June 15-17

Audience: All levels & types of educators

Cost: Zugelder Discount Price $228; Full Price $380, +$30 fee (2 credits)

This course will offer a much-needed reset for teachers and provide multiple opportunities to plan for positive, individualized, routines to be implemented into daily lifestyles for overall wellness improvement. Each day of the course will be enveloped in curriculum to actively improve wellbeing with various activities, outdoor emersion, nervous system reset tools, and a day at the hot springs. Each participant will be pushed to analyze multiple areas of their personal wellbeing and to recognize the areas that need to be strengthened and addressed. A plan will be formulated to do this. Discussions on barriers to wellness and solutions to overcome these barriers, as well as accessibility, willingness, readiness, and accountability for furthering wellbeing for individuals, classroom communities, and work environments, will be prominent subject matter within the course. Participants of the course will actively explore their journey of wellness and the impact of teaching on wellbeing. Challenges of working within the school system and in a classroom and the impact on the wellbeing of students and faculty will be addressed. Tools, exercises, and solutions to counter these challenges will be offered. The course will culminate with the production of an individual and classroom plan to foster the wellbeing of the teacher and the students of the classroom.

Instructor: Jennie DeMarco, Ph.D.

Dates: June 15-17

Audience: Secondary (middle and high school) educators

Cost: Zugelder Discount Price $228; Full Price $380, +$5 fee (2 credits)

Get your students off their phones and interacting with each other while also learning important science concepts! This course will use tabletop games to teach key concepts in chemistry, botany, wildlife ecology, resource management, plant biology, and disease ecology. Game-Based Learning uses games in educational contexts to achieve defined learning outcomes. It highlights gameplay that is tied to instructional content, allowing for a fun and interactive educational experience. In this three-day, in-person course, each day will be divided into two learning modules, with each module focusing on a specific scientific topic. Each module will include a short activity and lecture on the science concept, followed by a learning and playing experience related to the science concept through a tabletop game. After completing the game, students will complete a formative assessment on the science concepts. The module will end with a class discussion on the applicability of implementing this game in the classroom. Participants will be provided with lesson plans that can be readily adapted to their classroom.

Instructor: Stacie Johnson

Dates: June 15-17

Audience: All levels & types of educators

Cost: Zugelder Discount Price $228; Full Price $380, + $20 Fee (2 credits)

This course prepares K-12 educators to design and implement high-quality outdoor learning experiences grounded in current cognitive science. Drawing on research in attention, memory, feedback practices, and transfer of learning, participants explore how natural environments enhance student engagement, deepen understanding, and improve retention. Educators examine evidence-informed strategies aligned with findings from various research articles to translate learning science into practical outdoor instruction.

This course blends concise lectures with hand-on field experiences, collaborative lesson design, peer teaching and structured discussion, Participants engage in model outdoor lessons across subject areas and adapt standard-based curriculum for outdoor settings. Interactive workshops focus on routines, transitions and instructional strategies that maximize cognitive load, retrieval practice and meaningful application in real-world contexts. A core component addresses safety, logistics, and behavior systems. Teachers develop site assessments, risk-management plans, and clear behavioral expectations that support outdoor learning. Emphasis is placed on establishing routines that make learning outside reliable and sustainable – not an occasional enrichment, but a regular instructional practice.

By the end of the course, participants leave with a personalized outdoor implementation plan, ready-to-use lessons, and practical systems for safety and management. Participants should feel confident creating structured, research-informed outdoor environments where students think deeply, collaborate effectively, and thrive.

Instructor: Melanie Reaves, Ph.D.

Dates: June 15-17

Audience: All levels & types of educators

Cost: Zugelder Discount Price $228; Full Price $380, + $35 Fee (2 credits)

Reflection is essential to learning. This course covers theory, research, and evidence-based methods for learning by reflecting on experiences. Reflective practices, such as journaling, thinking through metaphors, and collaboration, will serve as pathways for learning techniques involving multi-genre writing, conversation, and arts-based meaning-making (no previous art experience necessary). Teachers will leave having had time to synthesize theory and research in connection with their practice (retreat), create a collection of insights into their own teaching and learning (reflect), and develop a set of techniques to use with their students to teach them how to engage in reflective learning (renew).

Instructor: Karen Immerso

Dates: June 15-17

Audience: All levels & types of educators

Cost: Zugelder Discount Price $228; Full Price $380 (2 credits)

Using activities and conversation, we will study and speak the Spanish language at a beginner/advanced beginner level. This is an active approach for those wanting enough Spanish-speaking skills to interact with students and parents within their school in basic conversations. We will introduce vocabulary, the use of verbs and verb tenses, enhance listening and comprehension skills, and practice communicating within this very interactive learning environment. This offering can also model the curricular use of experiential learning activities for classroom situations. This is intended for never-ever Spanish language learners or those who want a basic review of the language.

Instructor: Jennie DeMarco, Ph.D.

Dates: June 18-20

Audience: Secondary (middle and high school) educators

Cost: Zugelder Discount Price $228; Full Price $380, + $5 Fee (2 credits)

This course will dig up knowledge to understand how what lies beneath our feet supports life. It will focus on different aspects of soil structure and how that structure influences soil function and overall health. Participants will learn how to measure basic soil health properties and compare and contrast different soil types found in Colorado. Using a combination of short lectures, participant presentations, hands-on learning activities, and class discussions, participants will gain a knowledge base for the functioning of soil as an integrated system. An introduction to soil conservation policies will be incorporated into the course. This course will take a unique interdisciplinary approach to teaching soil science and conservation topics by integrating art and literature with science to explore important soil topics. Participants will be provided with lesson plans than can be readily adapted to their classrooms.

Instructor: Jay Whitacre, Ph.D.

Dates: June 18-20

Audience: All levels & types of educators

Cost: Zugelder Discount Price $228; Full Price $380, + $25 Fee (2 credits)

This graduate-level course equips K–12 educators with research-informed, practical strategies for using nature-based learning to increase student engagement, attention, motivation, and well-being. As students spend more time indoors and on screens, teachers are seeking realistic ways to reintroduce curiosity, movement, and meaningful connection into the learning experience. This course explores why natural environments support learning and how outdoor experiences—ranging from schoolyard observation to field-based instruction—can be intentionally integrated into traditional classroom teaching.

Participants will explore foundational concepts such as attention restoration, connectedness to nature, and the role of play and leisure in healthy development. The course balances discussion and applied learning through guided time outdoors and teacher-designed lesson planning. Educators will work in small groups to create and facilitate a nature-based lesson using sensory awareness, place-based observation, and inquiry-driven activities that can be adapted across grade levels and teaching contexts. By the end of the course, teachers will leave with a deeper understanding of the benefits of outdoor learning and a clear implementation plan for their own students. Enrollment is capped at nine participants to align with public lands group-size expectations and support a high-quality, field-based learning experience.

Instructor: Michael King, Ph.D.

Dates: June 18-20

Audience: All levels & types of educators

Cost: Zugelder Discount Price $228; Full Price $380, + $5 fee (2 credits)

This is a class where educator students will explore the basic techniques of writing and drawing graphic narratives (comics, political cartoons, video games, etc.) with the goal of producing works of their own. Participants will gain literacy in the field and the forms and develop and practice the skills necessary to create graphic narratives that tell
stories and convey complex ideas.

Graphic narrative is not just for comics. Studies show that information literacy is greatly enhanced by the combined use of visual and written commun. This class is designed to give educator students the opportunity to build the background, skills and confidence necessary to generate multi-form educational materials to use across subjects and education levels.

Instructor: Leia Henaghan

Dates: June 22-August 7

Audience: Audience: All levels & types of educators

Cost: Full Price $380 (2 credits)

Unlock your classroom’s potential with this HB 20-1128 and HB 20-1312-compliant course, designed for Colorado teachers and administrators. Learn how trauma impacts behavior, learning, and brain development, and gain tools to create inclusive, culturally responsive, and trauma-informed environments that support all students, especially those with disabilities. Explore the basics of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), including reinforcement, punishment, and behavior shaping. Master the four functions of behavior and apply the ABC framework to tailor interventions. Through reflective practices and hands-on strategies, you’ll develop skills to manage sensory triggers, reframe negative thinking, and implement behavior contracts, group contingencies, and response cost systems. With resources like the Teacher Toolbox and ABA Visualized, you’ll leave ready to implement evidence-based strategies for a thriving classroom.

Instructor: Andie Speed, Ph.D.

Dates: June 22-August 7

Audience: Secondary educators

Cost: Full Price $570 (3 credits)

Maps play a prominent role as didactic tools in most history courses. They help orient students to the spatial contours of course content, assist in understanding migration patterns or the progress of military conflict, and give students a sense for the relationship between historical geography and the world they live in today. Often, however, maps tend to be mechanisms for passive instruction. This course explores methods for integrating maps as active, participatory instructional tools. First, it provides instructors with the strategies for contextualizing and analyzing cartographical texts – and the sorts of exercises instructors might use to engage students. As part of this, we will interrogate the power dynamics embedded in cartographical representations; the ways in which state legibility and various identities have been and continue to be impacted by maps. Second, by way of an introductory tutorial in QGIS, a free GIS mapping software, the course will give instructors the tools necessary to both construct their own maps for use in the classroom and for giving students the tools for beginning their own journeys into GIS. Note: the materials and exercises for this course are based on in-class experience at a college preparatory school in the DC Metro Area, where they were utilized for students ranging from the eighth to twelfth-grade levels.

Instructor: Maria Struble, Ph.D.

Dates: June 22-August 7

Audience: All levels & types of educators

Cost: Full Price $190 (1 credit)

The course has two aims: first, to give teachers an opportunity to engage in conflict resolution with each other and second, to provide teachers with specific tools, exercises, and activities they can use directly in the classroom when appropriate. Those activities and exercises will include short-form (SF): ice breaker and quick feedback exercises and long-form (LF): to be applied during class discussions, creative work, research projects, and debates. A historical case study lays the foundation for teachers to explore their own bias, followed by a teacher-created case addressing existing and pertinent concerns of theirs. Lastly, we engage with several interdisciplinary examples bridging history, politics, culture, and science together in an effort to develop an ethic of care and hospitality in the face of disagreement and conflict. The Kairo Blanket Exercise will serve as a guidepost for our early discussions on fostering an ethic of care, followed by several historical examples involving both resolved and unresolved conflict experiences. Teachers leave with multiple exercises they can immediately apply to any classroom curriculum. This is not a course on how to avoid conflict, but how to navigate it when it arises as part of curriculum, classroom interactions, and the world around us.

Instructor: Jennifer Whitacre

Dates: June 22-August 7

Audience: All levels & types of educators

Cost: Choose 1, 2, or 3 credits; Full Price $190/credit

This course allows the participant to earn credits for professional development experiences they either attended/completed or will attend/complete within an academic term. Have you attended a conference, and would like to earn credit for it? Are you adopting a new curriculum and need to spend some time preparing to teach it? Has there been an education-focused pedagogy book that you would like to read and apply within your own classroom? This online course opportunity is meant for any educator to earn credits applying what they learn through professional development (PD) into their K-12 classroom.

To earn credit, the participant will identify the number of credits for the PD based on how many hours they will need to attend, learn, process, and apply based on the opportunity chosen. A proposal for approval for the PD opportunity will be approved by Teacher Institute faculty, and then the participant will work with faculty to ensure hours are being met, and they are properly providing evidence showcasing how those hours are met.

Assignments and experiences built within the course will provide each participant with 25 hours of engagement.  Participants should choose how many more hours they need to complete for their PD:

• 1 credit – 20 additional
• 2 credit – 65 additional
• 3 credit – 110 additional

(**These numbers are determined based on the minimum hours of engagement required by the Higher Learning Commission for a graduate level credit. All hours and subsequent course assignments need be completed within the parts of term for Summer 2026, by August 7^th)

Instructor: Mandi Leigh, Ph.D.

Dates: June 22-August 7

Audience: All levels & types of educators

Cost: Full Price $380 (2 credits)

Learn and develop effective strategies to mentor new teachers, acclimate them to the school environment within a community context, and the rigors of the teaching profession. Participants will gather tools to identify the unique assets of beginning teachers and use a mentoring cycle that provides continuous coaching for mentees. Participants will develop a plan to introduce mentees to their school traditions, procedures, and policies, to establish strong community relationships. Through the celebration of mentor teachers, course participants will reflect on their professional teaching, how they foster a supportive and respectful learning environment with children to role-model for their mentee. Participants will curate a personal list of leadership assets and mentorship competencies. They will leave the course with renewed enthusiasm for their professional practice and will serve as role models for new and novice teachers.

Instructor: Katie Main

Dates: June 22-August 7

Audience: All levels & types of educators

Cost: Full Price $570 (3 credits)

In this course, teachers will read the text The Writing Revolution 2.0 by Judith C. Hochman and Natalie Wexler and learn about the evidence-based Hochman Method of writing. The mission of this text is “to enable all students, especially those from historically marginalized communities, to become proficient writers, readers, and critical thinkers.” Participants will develop strategies and activities to incorporate into any curriculum, grade level, and content instruction to strengthen students’ expository writing. Throughout the course, participants will learn how to build students’ writing skills at the sentence and paragraph levels, develop note-taking strategies, and support students in the planning, revising, and summarizing processes. For the final assignment, teachers will analyze students’ writing work and create a lesson unit plan using the Writing Revolution strategies to meet student needs.

Instructor: Steve Foster

Dates: June 6-20

Audience: All levels & types of educators

Cost: Full Price $570 (3 credits)

This travel course will help educators (as learners) develop a deeper understanding of the foundations of language and culture as part of a 2-week immersion program in Guatemala – exclusively for educators.  The cultural immersion component will focus on language and culture – specifically for the purpose of enhancing classroom instruction.  This learning opportunity will provide the student with hands on learning experiences and activities that cannot be easily duplicated in the traditional classroom. Students will engage in conversations related to the places they visit and apply learning through various activities based exclusively on the sites visited.

The dates of this trip are June 6-20, 2026. The cost of the course (including travel, etc) is $2,599 and includes everything except international travel expenses and spending money. Please register for the trip separately at spanish4educators.org by May 10. Registration through Western is for credit only.

Instructor: Katya Schloesser

Dates: June 23-25

Audience: Secondary science teachers

Cost: Zugelder Discount Price $228; Full Price $280 (2 credits)

This three-day workshop is designed primarily for teachers in Gunnison County, but educators from other areas are welcome to join. This course focuses on helping teachers develop project-based learning units centered on wildfire resilience within their communities.

Participants will engage in field trips, presentations, and discussions with local emergency managers, fire mitigation specialists, scientists, and community partners to explore wildfire resilience planning in Gunnison County. The institute also includes a refresher on the HEART Force wildfire curriculum, featuring updated scenario-based role-play activities and supplemental lessons on the ecological benefits of fire.

• Zugelder Discount Price: Applies a 40% discounted tuition rate for all on-campus courses, thanks to the Ann Zugelder Endowment
  • Zugelder Discount Price is subject to scholarship fund availability; register early to guarantee a discount
• The Deadline for Changes (No Fee) is May 15. After this date, changes may incur a $50 fee.
• Last Date for Refunds: May 15

• Invoices for courses will be sent in May to the email used during registration by the Center for Learning & Innovation.
• The Deadline for Changes (No Fee) is May 15. After this date, changes may incur a $50 fee.
• Last Date for Refunds: May 15.
• Cancellation Fee: Once registered, to drop/cancel a course, the Center for Learning & Innovation will assess a $50 fee.

For billing questions, contact the Center for Learning & Innovation at 970.943.2885 or center@western.edu.

The Teacher Institute reserves the right to cancel classes and make changes when warranted. If a class is canceled, participants will be notified via email and receive a full refund.

Refunds will be provided if a course is canceled prior to the drop deadline.

Non-attendance or non-payment does not constitute a drop. Full refunds are not given after the last day to drop. All drop requests must be in writing to the Center for Learning and Innovation at center@western.edu.

Transcripts for credit courses can be obtained by visiting www.parchment.com

Request a Transcript from Western

At the conclusion of the class, students have an opportunity to evaluate the content and their instructor. Student input is important, as it helps improve future classes. Evaluations are anonymous.

Photos of students and instructors in various classes are often taken to promote the Western Colorado University Center for Learning and Innovation. Such photos are used in class schedules, flyers, and other marketing pieces.

The Teacher Institute at Western monitors CDE’s requirements for educators in license renewal.  We have courses that meet both the EL PD Requirement and the PD of training in SpEd and behavioral health. Please note that we provide these courses with CDE’s requirements in mind. Still, the participant must complete the required matrix and/or paperwork to show they have met the requirements for renewing a professional license.