PACKAGE: The Everything Package (30 Hours)

“Your courses fit my needs perfectly.
They were ideal for someone who does not
have a great deal of flexibility, and I learned a lot.”

You’ve heard of the everything bagel, Professional Learning Board presents the everything PD course package, The Everything Self-Study Package, which includes the following SIX self-study courses adding up to 30 hours of professional development. Scroll down to see more information on the courses in this package.

Classroom Collaboration

Implement collaborative learning in classrooms and develop successful learners. This framework enables teachers to recognize characteristics of collaborative classrooms, be aware of student and teacher roles, and practice group activities as an essential part of the classroom. Teachers are introduced to school-wide policy reforms in place today that promote collaboration and group activities. Teachers are also provided with ideas and strategies to accommodate learners, including students with special needs. The practical examples, real-life experiences, and templates in this online course provide teachers a structure to use in their own classrooms.

Cognitive Skills – Understanding Learning Challenges

The U.S. Department of Education, and others indicate that weak cognitive skills are the source of over 80% of learning problems.

In this course you’ll come to understand the answer: students approach each task with varying learning tools. These tools are called cognitive skills, and these skills determine the quality, speed, and ease with which individuals learn and perform.

This course provides methods for detecting students with weak cognitive skills and tools to strengthen those skills. Teachers will receive understanding, as well as ways to apply development techniques in the classroom. The online class is fun and interactive and includes information about new brain research and how it can impact today’s classrooms.

Ethics for Education Professionals

With the advent of the internet and smart phones, it’s easy for boundaries to become blurred. In the past it was rare for a student to call a teacher at home. Today, students and teachers are faced with numerous ways to contact one another 24/7. Things that in the past may have been black and white are now grey. Where do we draw the lines?

Even though most people believe that their actions are guided by logic and reason, we all have an innate ethical sense that urges us to make predictable choices. We each find words to create rationales that support our choices or decisions. However, ethics education is about recognizing the real power of our own innate ethical sense and how it influences our behaviors.

We build our ethical sense on beliefs that we already bring with us. This is why ethics is about individual’s personal choices. When we recognize and intuitively understand that ethics must be measured on a case-by-case basis, this type of ethical relationship can become a powerfully positive starting point for both educators and students. We must commit to broadening our understanding of ethical issues while at the same time seek to better understand the ideas of others.

Step inside this course and discover through reflection and introspection, an understanding of one’s innate ethical self. You’ll find tools and tips for bringing high standards of ethics into our schools and a variety of topics to explore practical ways to address ethical decisions in our lives at every stage.

Transformative Classroom Management

What makes a teacher successful in one school is the same thing that makes a teacher successful in the next school. It is true that all students are unique and group dynamics, cultural backgrounds, and experiences vary — sometimes dramatically. But for the most part, sound ideas get positive results and unsound ideas get mixed results at best.

Not all ideas sold in the marketplace of classroom management strategies lead to desirable results. In fact, many of the most popular ideas result in more harm than good. For that reason, parts of this course are devoted to explaining why many of the most popular ideas in use today are flawed, and what to do instead.

This course is a synthesis of what’s effective in the area of classroom management. It builds on extensive time, real experiences of teachers, observations of hundreds of classrooms, research and the best ideas put into successful practice.

Virtual Field Trips

It is the wish of every committed teacher to help his or her students connect knowledge gained in the classroom with real life situations and process information in a way that takes them beyond the books. Teachers are constantly required to grab the attention of their students, keep them motivated and inspire them to own their learning.

A well-planned field trip can serve all of these purposes in a unique way. Despite being known to be of great merit, schools across the country have been cutting short on such expeditions because of limited resources, whether financial constraints, personnel or time. This course offers a great alternative to teachers and encourages them to make the most of one of the most widely-available resources of our times – technology. Given the rapidly developing digital resources, teachers can take a diverse group of students on virtual field trips and offer them near-life-like experiences that will develop their thoughts and provide wholesome educational opportunities.

This course gives teachers a basic understanding of what virtual field trips are, the different types of trips and why they can be considered a valid alternative to actual field trips. It also offers a look at some concerns that surface while planning virtual field trips and how these can be addressed. The course also details the process of planning an effective virtual field trip with emphasis on how teachers can equip themselves technically. Looking at a selection of pre-existing virtual field trips, teachers will be able to understand the elements of a good trip. They will also learn how to create their own custom-made field trips using an array of online resources offered in the course.

Classroom examples will help teachers understand how they can incorporate these virtual trips in their lesson plans and the various roles they will play during these tours. Teachers will also be equipped to evaluate virtual field trips and will know their impact on student learning.