Courses

This course examines bullying and other forms of harassment and the social, emotional, and physical impact it has on P-12 students. Development of strategies and interventions that decrease bias and prejudice in school settings will be explored. The course will also refine teachers’ core beliefs related to human rights for all children by exploring bias/prejudice issues, legal perspectives, and school violence.

This course examines the potential impact of contemporary culture and the environment on the emotional development of boys. The course will facilitate student exploration of the societal factors that can lead some boys to lives of isolation, anger, shame, and helplessness.

This course examines issues facing educators and parents raising and educating children in a fast-paced and performance-oriented culture and society which rarely allows for mistakes or failure. The course will facilitate student exploration of the societal factors that impact student achievement in a world that often overlooks the process rather than the product.

The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s altered our nation. However, racism continues to weave itself into the fabric of every facet of American life. Through stories and texts, participants will examine stories and lives of individuals from the 1960’s to the present who helped pave the way for inclusion and those still trying today to better the lives of minorities. Course participants will explore how the work and courage of civil rights leaders and social activists can help young people grasp the concept of inclusion as well as determine individual moral and emotional/ethical development.

In teenagers, powerful emotions come with the territory. And with so many of today’s teens contending with academic pressure, social media stress, worries about the future, and concerns about their own mental health, it’s easy for their parents and teachers to feel anxious and overwhelmed. Course participants will research and discuss adolescent emotional development as well as develop and share strategies to support teens who feel at the mercy of their emotions.

Teachers examine and evaluate Howard Gardner’s five kinds of minds: the disciplined mind, the synthesizing mind, the creating mind, the respectful mind, and the ethical mind. Strategies to develop each of the five minds in order to prepare teachers and students for the opportunities and challenges they are likely to face in the future will be a focus.

This course’s main theme and objective is to investigate and discuss strategies to honor each learner as a distinctive and irreplaceable student and HUMAN BEING.  Such topics discussed include building a community rather than just a classroom, cultural humility, habits of mind and developing joy in learning. Course participants will research such ideas through readings, stories and participant dialogue.

Course participants will examine the life and work of seven historical figures and how they utilized social and emotional intelligence to make a difference in their world and the lives of millions. These seven individuals exhibited such traits as empathy, listening, persuasiveness, self-expression, motivation, and self-awareness. Participants will explain educational implications from the lives and stories of these individuals as well as develop teaching strategies to enhance social and emotional intelligence with their students. This course will examine the lives and work, in the realm of social/emotional intelligence, of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, John Lewis, Fred Rogers, John McCain, Josse Antonio Abreu, Robert Kennedy and Malala Yousafazi (subject to change).

The Civil Rights Movement dramatically altered the nation’s culturally entrenched footholds and anchors dictating the treatment of minorities. Through stories, participants examine the lives of many people and the events that helped transition the United States from a society of exclusion to one of greater inclusion. Participants will explore how issues brought to the attention of not only Americans, but the entire world, can and will help young people point their compass in a positive direction in their own moral, emotional, and ethical development.

This course examines challenges faced by educators in today’s post pandemic and often divided world. Today more than ever student well-being is moving to the forefront of education as social and emotional learning becomes paramount. Well-being and social and emotional learning are becoming more important as post-pandemic students often struggle with anxiety, depression, lack of learning preparedness, anti-social behaviors and attention deficits. Course participants will research and discuss such learning barriers and challenges as well as develop and share strategies to meet the well-being and SEL needs of their students and children.

Challenging student behavior is one of the most significant and difficult issues educators face. This course will allow participants the opportunity to learn to utilize the ideas of love, inclusion, acceptance, creativeness, and heart in the areas of student behavior and discipline. This course will examine the paradigm shift from a punitive mindset to a strength-based, loving approach and encourages the radical act of creating more inclusive and caring schools.

This course examines issues facing educators and parents during the “Me, Me, Me Epidemic.” Topics such as entitlement, student empathy, humility, humbleness, expectations, and reasonable praise, needs of others and developing moral compasses will be researched and discussed. Course participants will discuss and develop strategies for use in their own classrooms and schools.

Teacher and student leadership roles are explored through identification and analysis of the social norms, values and practices that currently shape the educational system. Course explores how teacher-leaders can more effectively facilitate student learning and help create and promote social change.

Educators examine the sensory and symbolic knowledge development of children and the body of research that suggest that schooling has little impact on young children’s intuitive and common sense understanding of their worlds. The structure of schools and its impact on achievement development is also investigated.

This course views the importance of children’s social lives, the tendency of children to torment their peers, the redemptive power of friendship, and the personal effect teachers have on the classroom environment. Participants study the importance of secure attachments of first friendships, the necessity of best friends, and the power of group involvement.