STUDENTS TAKE ACTION: Making the World a Better Place

Are you looking for a course that will inspire you with powerful scientific proof that gratefulness can change your life? Groundbreaking research on gratefulness has shown that people are better able to deal with everyday stress while building their resilience and satisfaction with life, improving relationships, and creating more powerful connections. This course is a perfect choice for all teachers experiencing stress while working to balance career and family life and for struggling students experiencing loneliness, social anxiety, and lack of motivation.  

This course is for educators seeking a deeper understanding of students with autism. It is specially tailored for educators who teach in the general education setting and want to understand and add to their toolbox so they can provide for the needs of their neurodiverse students. Special education teachers and support staff will also benefit from this course due to the significant growth in the field of autism, including changes in the diagnosis, interventions, inclusion, and acceptance. 

This course is fast-paced and fun-filled and will tap into the limitless creativity of Adobe Express for BEGINNING users. Adobe Express is a "Free Forever" program for educators and students. Participants will develop classroom S.T.E.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) lessons by delving into Adobe Express's features. You will create professional-looking graphics, slideshows, presentations, infographics, and thematic S.T.E.M. (Spark) video stories exploring S.T.E.M. careers and professionals who have shaped, changed, and inspired worldwide change.

Are you wondering how to generate a STEM buzz in your classroom? Tinkercad is an amazingly easy-to-use, powerful program for creating 3D digital designs that are ready to be 3D printed. This 3D modeling program empowers students to design all kinds of things, from custom homes to Mayan statue replicas, to cell models and engineered 3D-printed fidget spinners. 

Learning through play is a developmentally appropriate and essential activity for young learners. Opportunities for play and choice in elementary classrooms are dwindling, yet there are enormous benefits of utilizing structured play. While it is especially important in preschool and Kindergarten settings, research shows that students up to fifth grade benefit from regular play in their schedules. And best of all: children enjoy and engage easily in it!

Classroom Management is essential to the creation of a productive, creative and brave community. It is the bedrock to all the potential learnings that can be. However, it is one of the most nuanced and most difficult things an educator is called to do every single day. Our relationships with our students are the foundation for everything that happens throughout the day. Yet, it is incredibly challenging having to balance the many pieces of our job. Using the Responsive Classroom’s The Morning Meeting Book as our guide, we will dig into the purpose and execution of daily morning meetings in classrooms from grades K-8. 

How can we best prepare our students emerging from the pandemic to meet the challenges of our times? Social and emotional learning is finally entering the spotlight around the country. But where should students' social and emotional unfolding begin? Of the dimensions of SEL -- building awareness of themselves and others, and developing the skills of relationship, decision-making, and self-management -- the first foundation stone is their discovery of themselves. Designing ongoing strands of curriculum and instructional methods to help students develop self-knowledge is the focus of this course.

The focus on standards and tests crowds out students' self-discovery at a time when young people more than ever need to know what they stand for and be ready to act for the greater good. This course prepares intrepid elementary, intermediate and secondary language arts teachers to design learning experiences to help their students understand themselves by reflecting on their lives to date, discovering what they value, and deciding how they wish to make a difference in the world. 

Building on research into the developmental needs of young people, and my own classroom research on deepening the experience of learning, you'll learn ways to design your students' self-discovery into the reading, writing and conversation strands of your courses. For many students, this self-discovery culminates in a life-changing classroom community rite-of-passage called the Personal Creed Project.

Student anxiety is rising at an alarming rate. Starting in kindergarten it continues to rise and progresses through elementary, middle, and the high school years. You can help. Learn to identify the key forms of anxiety: excessive anxiety; occasional anxiety; chronic anxiety disorder. Apply tools and strategies from this course to help K-12 students learn to manage their anxiety and succeed in school. Gain strategies for talking with parents about your concerns. Text is about $32 at Amazon.

This course meets OSPI's STEM requirements

When mathematics is taught with real-world lessons, students develop long-term conceptual understanding. The challenge for K-8 teachers is where and how to integrate these lessons. The three pedagogical practices of Problem-based learning, Project-based learning and Inquiry around five foundational skills for mathematics are key concepts. You will learn to create tasks rooted in a real-life connection to these concepts. Research suggests that a strong foundation in these areas is key for math success. $5 material fee due to instructor after registration

This class will help K-12 educators develop proactive strategies to minimize and prevent bullying and teasing behaviors. We will discuss victims, rescuers, bystanders, and bullies and how they are intertwined in life.