SEC 507: Advanced Theory and Practice in Secondary Education

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Welcome to SEC 507


Welcome video coming soon

Dr. Gill is still recording. The video runs about three minutes, walks through the rhythm of the semester, and ends with his standing advice for teachers who are trying to take a graduate methods course while running a full classroom.

If the video does not load, refresh the page or try a different browser. Captions are on by default.

Four Steps to Get Going


Work through these in order, and budget about an hour for the whole sequence.

1
Watch the welcome video at the top of this page.
2
Read the Syllabus and the Visual Syllabus. The visual version fits on a single page, and the full syllabus carries the legal language for the semester. Pay attention to the grading scale, the late work policy, and the AI use policy.
3
Set up your Canvas profile and notifications using the links in the Canvas Resources section below. Add a photo for the gradebook, update your contact details so I can reach you, and switch on email plus push notifications so you get announcements in both places.
4
Record Discussion 1 (Introductions) inside Module 1. Give us two to three minutes about your name, your school, what you teach, and one thing you learned in your first week of teaching that no textbook had covered. Set one professional goal for the semester, since you will revisit it at the mid-course checkpoint and report back on what changed.

Tips for Surviving a Methods Course While Teaching


Block calendar time in ink

Put two hours on your calendar at the same time twice a week and treat them like a class period you would not skip on your students. Online graduate courses tend to fail in the cracks between teaching and grading and parenting, so the only defense is a recurring block other obligations have to schedule around.

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Your classroom as the lab

In most of the assignments in this course, you apply theory to the students in your classroom, and you get more credit for specificity than for invention. The work goes faster with a lesson you already taught, a student who already exists in your roster (with the name changed at submission), and an assessment already in your gradebook. Examples in front of you beat examples imagined every time.

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Turn on Canvas notifications

When you set up your Canvas profile, turn on email and push notifications, because announcements, grade postings, and assignment changes flow through the channel and an unread notification often becomes a missed deadline. The Canvas mobile app catches notifications the desktop browser misses after you have closed the tab and walked away.

Start the assignment early

Read every assignment prompt on the first day of the module. Close the tab afterward, and keep the question in the back of your mind for two days while you teach. By the second drive home you will already have half an answer in your head, and the first draft becomes a matter of getting it onto the page.

Canvas Resources


How to set up your Canvas profile How to manage notification settings Canvas Student Guide How to submit an online assignment Canvas Mobile App

Contact Your Instructor


Dr. Gill

Email: gilld@uncw.edu

Put "SEC 507" in the subject line. I try to return emails within 24 hours on weekdays. If you haven't heard back by then, send a follow-up.

Canvas Inbox: I do not use Canvas email.

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