Educators Re-Certification Courses

Course Description

Understanding Children in the Current Culture offers a comprehensive, experiential learning approach to understanding the mainstream behavior, attitudes, and beliefs of children at different ages in today’s culture. This course introduces participants to the understanding of how environmental factors impact the developing brain. Participants of this course explore the root causes of common struggles in American children, such as ADD/ADHD, anxiety, depression, dyslexia, processing disorders, lack of focus, sensory integration disorders, lack of self-esteem, and academic, social, and behavioral struggles. Environmental factors that are included are social factors, such as current, common family lifestyles, current common parenting behaviors, media influences, peer behaviors, trends, influences by age category, and statistical differences in all of these factors over the past fifty years. Understanding Children in the Current Culture. This course is appropriate for professionals that work with children ages preschool to adulthood.

Course Justification

Current cultural trends have a direct impact on the behaviors of families and children that are recognized, but often misunderstood, by teachers, childcare providers, and other professionals working with children. Traditional certification courses are long, boring, and mentally exhausting to most professional educators. Consequently, there is limited knowledge that is ascertained by the participants. Experiential learning allows the participants to experience what they are learning and consequently, retain significantly more information than traditional, lectured learning. The activities involved in this experiential learning course are designed to enhance the learning process.

Nature of the Course

This 12 week course curriculum is offered by means of Experiential Education Model and Partial Online Instruction.

Description

Child Abuse Recognition & Response offers a comprehensive understanding the mainstream behavior, attitudes, and beliefs of children at different ages in today’s culture. This course introduces participants to the changing dynamic of family structure, the diversity of the culture in the U.S., the dynamics of child abuse, and the current cultural trends that impact the socialization of children. Participants of this course explore the prevalence of physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, and domestic violence experienced by the school age child, K-12. In addition, social factors, such as current, common family lifestyles, current common parenting behaviors, media influences, peer behaviors, trends, influences by age category, the role of environmental factors on behavior, and statistical differences in all of these factors over the past fifty years are examined. This course is appropriate for professionals that work with children ages preschool to adulthood.

Justification

Current cultural trends and child abuse occurrences have a direct impact on the behaviors of families and children that are recognized, but often misunderstood, by teachers, childcare providers, and other school staff. This course helps participants understand how trauma affects children and the subsequent behaviors that can occur. The course also addresses how to approach children and respond to situations when it is suspected that a child has been abused.

Nature of the Course

This 12 week course curriculum is offered by means of Experiential Education Model and Partial Online Instruction.

Course Decription

Social-Emotional Learning is a course that teaches educators how to integrate social-emotional learning with academics. The participants of the course engage in the learning activities that they will implement with their students.

The individual needs of the learner are met in an experiential environment. Thus, educators who learn in this course can more effectively provide learning environments that accommodate for any learning style. Experiential learning is highly effective for children struggling with social-emotional issues (i.e., ADHD, anxiety, depression, etc.) and it has advantages for all children.

Justification

There are four learning styles of the brain. Traditional learning environments accommodate for one learning style. Hence, the children with the other learning styles increasingly have struggles with learning in traditional environments. The experiential model, and the subsequent activities that can be provided for children, can be implemented in traditional classrooms. Educators can provide experiential learning environments more effectively from the lessons in this course.

Nature of the Course

This 12 week course curriculum is offered by means of Experiential Education Model and Partial Online Instruction.