Continuing Education (CTLE) Credits
We have created a new approach to continuing education: by teachers, for teachers.
Absolutely everything can be used in your classroom the next day.
Additionally, we are the only professional development company that is addressing the needs of the students after the pandemic, applying everything we learned during the pandemic.
We have heard all the complaints; we have researched what actually works. And we want to give you that knowledge.
We have five exciting offerings, each priced competitively and can be done online (and there may be in-person offerings as well.)
How the courses are taught:
- Instructor-led or self-paced online course (you choose)
- 7 Weeks or 3 Months access
- 45 course hours/3 continuing education credits
Let’s take a look at our offerings:
You have seen it: a capable student turned off math by a few bad experiences. It is terrible.
A few basic principles of psychology can help you reconnect that student and help them confront the most feared of all subjects.
The psychology of math includes the psychology of skill acquisition, the psychology of performance under pressure, and the psychology of problem solving.
All STEM educators can benefit!
Additionally, you will learn:
- Powerful principles of neuroscience and psychology that will show you the best ways to present the material.
- Engaging exercises, from “do-nows” to longer lessons, that you can insert into your existing curriculum to drive student learning.
- The best ways to assess authentic learning.
- Cognitive habits to cultivate in your students and in yourself that will feed a successful math career.
- Ways to connect math to students’ interests to increase intrinsic motivation.
2. Trauma-Informed College Readiness
Schools are increasingly trauma-informed: they work hard to create a stable environment, with a welcoming, inclusive culture and clear feedback from adults.
The problem: the college process is characterized by rejections and acceptances, a changing environment, and mysterious processes, the precise opposite of the “trauma-informed” environment. This problem ends up hurting the school culture, as the college process begins early.
In this course, you will learn how to create a college process that enhances your school’s culture; a trauma-informed college process is a more inclusive process.
What you will learn:
- A better way for students to conduct research into college and careers.
- How to build a long-term plan so that college serves the goals of the student (rather than college being the goal).
- A clear (and tested), six-step process that will get every student moving towards the future of their choice.
- Research-backed ways to get students writing so that applications become simple.
3. Assessments by Design
Design Thinking + Assessments = Fair, Rigorous, and Fun.
Design thinking, and its simple, powerful principles, provides a practical method for rethinking assessments. This course starts with the core design thinking belief: let’s start where we are, and work with what actually works.
From that fundamental premise, you will learn ways to take your existing assessments and improve them: introducing collaboration, combining self-evaluation with evaluation, aligning assessments with deep goals, re-engineering traditional tests to assess more outcomes, and cheat-proofing assessments (invaluable with distance learning).
What you will learn:
- Quiz and test formats that you can plug into any class and any unit that are simpler, more fun, and provide you with more information about the students than traditional formats.
- Going beyond rubrics to assess projects and writing.
- Helping students cope with test anxiety.
- Simple, fair formative assessments that will drive your instruction.
- Ways to differentiate assessments that are fair and inclusive.
4. Post-Pandemic Classroom Discipline
The informal testimonials from around the city and around the country have been dismal. “OMG!” “This year has been the toughest year in _____ years of teaching.” Teachers have been suffering and administrations have been frustrated.
Student learning (and emotional wellness) is suffering when it was time for healing.
But not all schools are hurting. Some, despite facing the same challenges as others, have helped students thrive and run classes that are safe and fun. These practices are simple, experience-backed, and available nowhere else.
What you will learn:
- The most effective lesson planning activities that create a sense of purpose and community and circumvent behavior issues.
- How to diagnose the root causes of classroom behavior issues.
- How to build classroom discipline in distinct, predictable, and measurable stages, and the tools to move classes from one stage to another.
- Involving the whole school community.
5. Integrating Technology: What Actually Worked, Informed by the Pandemic
The school closures provided a huge experiment of the best uses of technology.
We have conducted extensive research on what actually worked and what actually drove student learning. This course will provide you with a set of tools and practices that will help you integrate technology into any classroom environment, in ways that are not “disruptive” to your style of teaching.
Our philosophy is to enhance your power and reach as a teacher.
We do not believe in wishful thinking when it comes to technology: some of it works well, enhances student learning, and makes teacher’s lives easier. Some technology does not. This course will show you the difference.
What you will learn:
- A model for planning that will show you exactly how to integrate technology in a way that enhances learning.
- Use technology to differentiate learning and make your classroom more inclusive.
- Tools to use technology to enhance creativity in any subject.
- The best ways to conduct research
