Course Description
Designed for the educator who wants to help their students achieve greater academic success, this course affords the opportunity to enhance curriculum with the enthusiasm and information only a firsthand experience can provide. Motivated by a contagious enthusiasm for learning about new and different countries, cultures, ethnic groups, traditions, and more, the development of experience-based curriculum resources will serve as a catalyst to drive more students to succeed in mastering their learning objectives. Drawing from information and experiences gleaned throughout your travels, you will develop exciting and relevant curriculum materials and strategies to increase student engagement and learning, bringing their textbook information to life and their instructional videos into sharper focus. Once you have targeted the learning goals and objectives you want to support with new or enriched curriculum, you will develop materials and activities designed to ensure student learning success. After implementing them in your classroom, you can earn credit by submitting your travel journal, a write-up describing either the professional application of the materials or how they were used in the classroom, and a slide presentation demonstrating the professional outcomes of your travel experience for evaluation.
About University of the Pacific
University of the Pacific, established in 1851, is California’s oldest private chartered university and is fully accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC).
The credits offered are post-baccalaureate, graded, graduate-level semester units of credit, provided directly through University of the Pacific, Benerd College. They are specifically designed to meet the needs of educators for Salary Advancement and Recertification. The credits/units are acceptable where local districts approve and applicable to state licensing where authorized. We always encourage you to check with your employer for acceptability of these credits/units. Course participants are responsible to determine acceptability of these credits for their intended use. Each graduate-level semester credit is equivalent to 15 hours of academic involvement.
Course Objectives
Upon successful mastery of this course, you will be able to:
- Ideate how your travel experiences can translate into new materials and activities to support your curriculum.
- Review your curriculum to identify specific areas you can enhance with materials or activities based on learnings from your travel experiences.
- Select specific learning objectives to support with materials and activities developed from your travel experiences.
- Develop motivational and engaging activities, specific to the support of selected objectives, to integrate into your lesson plans and/or presentations.
- Create interesting materials, specific to the support of your selected objectives, to integrate into your lesson plans and/or presentations.
- Engage students in meaningful activities, based on your travel experiences, that will result in successful student learning.
- Create a 25-30 slide PowerPoint or Google Slides presentation to demonstrate the professional outcomes of your travel experiences.
- Consider the effectiveness of the created materials and activities in (a) broadening or improving your curriculum and (b) helping students meet targeted learning goals.
- Reflect on how the created materials and activities serve to further develop your curriculum.
- Reflect on the professional development experiences, specific to your future growth.