Communication
 | Autism affects 1 in 68 children in the United States. As educators, we are confronted with the challenges of educating students with Autism and social disorders, while managing behaviors within the classroom. This course will explore communicative strategies useful for focusing, learning material, managing behaviors and socializing with peers. Alternative and augmentative means of communication will be discussed. At the conclusion of this class, participants will gain useful tools to maximize communication for all students within the classroom and therapy environments. A must for all Educators!
ON-LINE (3 credits/45 hours) in-service only | |
 | Imagine a classroom that is teaming with engaged learners – students making connections, pulling out textual evidence, fully interested in the “meat” of the lesson. In this classroom, the standards are met insidiously, not overtly; thus making learning more engagin and complete. In this course, you will be provided with the tools that students need to comprehend the entire gamut of informational, persuasive, procedural, and narrative documents that make up our disciplines. Your students will become much better readers and thinkers in your subject field using engaging activities. You will be provided with fantastic short articles, explicit step-by-step lessons that will be aimed at enriching your students learning. Reading, annotating, decoding, collaborating, and utilizing the jigsaw technique will be covered. Perfect for all disciplines and grade levels!
ON-LINE (3 credits/45 hours) in-service credit only | |
 | Course Description:
Conferencing with your students is a way to empower them to improve their skills by setting goals and then achieving them. Conferencing is also a great way to really get to individually know each one of your students. Educators will work on how plan conferencing times with your students in the classroom. Teachers will explore strategies for effective discussion skills, how to work towards educational goals set by each student, and how to plan your students’ success. Conferencing guidelines, techniques and questions will be shared. This course is a must for all educators grades K-12.
ON-LINE (3 credits/45 hours) in-service credit only
Instructor: Kim Kittredge kkittredgeliips@gmail.com
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 | *New Course Instructor: Kim Kittredge kkittredgeliips@gmail.com 3 Credits In Service Course (45 Hours) Dates: Summer 2025 - August 4th-8th Course Description: The learning process takes a village. It’s not just important to have the teachers, guidance and administrators on your side, but you must have a supportive family behind you. This course will work with educators and their families to build important relationships. Educators will work on strategies that connect all students to learning and to the learning process. Teachers will be able to share the importance of learning, mindset, communication and more. Educators will work on daily routines to build support with their students. Practices will also be shared that can be brought home and worked on with your family. By the end of this course, educators and families will realize how important it is to make and keep these positive connections for the sake of the students, the family relationships and the learning process. This course is a must for all educators grades K-12. | |
 | In-Service Course
3 Credits; 45 Hours
Instructor: Valerie Gompers
Instructor Email: VGompersLIIPS@Gmail.com
Course Description:
Teaching high school and middle school students can be difficult when they constantly challenge you. They teeter between being children who still need guidance and young adults who want their independence and freedom. By understanding the unique perspectives, interests, and challenges of today's youth, instructors will learn to foster a supportive and engaging learning environment that promotes student success. This course is a must for all 6-12 educators! | |
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Course Description: Developing a sense of engagement in students is tantamount to learning. Students today need a wide gamut of activities that engage them and foster creativity and connectedness. Developing and possessing common core graphic organizers assists students dramatically. In this course, teachers will learn the ins and outs of cooperative learning, thus promoting socialization, collaboration, and cooperation. Methodologies for extensive learning will be provided.
*A Must for K-12 Educators!!!!!!
ON-LINE (3 credits/45 hours) in-service credit only | |
 | *New Course Instructor: Gayle Meinkes-Lumia – gaylelumia@yahoo.com Summer 2025 Dates – July 7th-11th Course Credits: – 3 credits/45 Hours Course Description: Culturally responsive classroom education is at the forefront of teaching in the 21st Century. Students need to learn how to take educational risks and assume the responsibilities of independent work and collaboration. They need to be able to identify inequities and advocate for diversity within the classroom environment. In this course, participants will be able to learn how to create a classroom environment that represents and values all cultural backgrounds within the confines of their classroom. They will learn how to inculcate various perspectives throughout their respective disciplines and address ways in which empathy, conversations, backgrounds, and perspectives play a part in learning. The class will address the ways that students take ownership in their learning and view mistakes as ways to be constructive. *A Must for K-12 Educators* | |
 | Instructor: Gayle Meinkes-Lumia – gaylelumia@yahoo.com
In-Service Course – 3 Credits – 45 Hours
Course Description: Activating social awareness in students is tantamount. Encouraging exploration of varying perspectives and creating an atmosphere of critical thinking paves the path for student success. This course will instruct participants on the ways in which engagement can enhance their already existing curriculum. The course will focus on student needs, meaningful discussions, exploration of viewpoints, dialectic journals, critical analysis, visionary components, etc..
*A must for K-12 educators* | |
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Gayle Meinkes-Lumia – (gaylelumia@yahoo.com)
Having the responsibility of being a role-model in one’s classroom is not for the faint of heart. Students today arrive with confused notions and beliefs that are anything but neutralized. Acknowledging differences in viewpoints and establishing a classroom procedure and repertoire helps students make sense of democratic values and focus on civic responsibility and critical thinking skills. In this course, teachers will learn to address and navigate students’ relationship with the world. They will develop lessons that engage their learners and direct them with critical thinking skills and help them to make sense of the world we live in. A social justice perspective will be covered as well as societal misinformation, animosity, and racism.
A Must for all K-12 educators!!!! | |
 | Instructor: Gayle Meinkes-Lumia – gaylelumia@yahoo.com
In-Service Course – 3 Credits – 45 Hours
Course Description: Classroom dialogue provides a unique opportunity for students to verbalize their understanding, bring their thoughts to the surface and examine mindsets. By engaging in dialogue, students can identify knowledge gaps, challenge assumptions, and solidify their comprehension, all with the assistance of their peers. Participants in this course will learn how to engage their students in effective dialogue through an open exchange of perspectives, all of which deepen students' understanding of topics and encourage reflection. Reflective journals, democratic dialogue, and Socratic seminars will all be included in the course!
*A must for K-12 educators!* | |
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Instructor: Gayle Meinkes-Lumia – gaylelumia@yahoo.com
In-Service Course – 3 Credits – 45 Hours
Course Description: Creating a classroom in which collaboration and cooperation is at the forefront is no easy feat. This course will explore all differentiated strategies and enable participants to investigate and fine tune their students’ groupwork. Rigorous assignments will be addressed including critical thinking activities, best practices in one’s discipline, and positive affirmations.
*A Must for K-12 Educators* | |
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Instructor: Gayle Meinkes-Lumia – gaylelumia@yahoo.com
In-Service Course – 3 Credits – 45 Hours
Course Description: Oftentimes as educators, we find ourselves searching for innovative modalities of learning for our students, ones that fully suit our learners’ needs, ones that promote comprehensive improvements and drive our students toward success. This course speaks to educators who desire these interventions, using practical approaches and ways to engage all types of individuals in our sphere. Evidence based methods that promote phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension in all subjects will be discussed as well as a myriad of tools that command student achievement, all of which have immediate classroom implementation.
*A must for K-12 educators* | |
 | Teachers typically spend anywhere from 35 – 50 percent of their instructional time asking questions. But are these questions effective in raising student achievement? In this course, participants will learn how to improve their questioning techniques utilizing current educational research informative practices. Types of questions will be discussed, wait time, engagement of students, essential questions, etc. Participants will be able to walk away with a multitude of inquiry based learning that will enhance their classroom environment. A must for all K-12 teachers.
ON-LINE (3 credits/45 hours) in-service credit only | |
 | Instructor: Christina Palmenteri
In service only. 3 credits/45 hours
Course Description:
A comprehensive online course designed to equip educators and coaches with the tools to create positive, inclusive, and skill-building sports environments for young athletes. Participants will explore key strategies in developing age-appropriate training, fostering teamwork, enhancing communication, and addressing the unique needs of youth players. This course provides practical insights and strategies to promote physical, social, and emotional growth in young athletes while meeting educational standards for continued professional development.
* Suitable for all Educators K-12 | |
 | Every teacher has become a teacher of literacy. Impacting students’ abilities via journal usage creates learners with exceptional style and fortitude. Journal writing in all subject matters enriches the student and creates a sense of accomplishment and aptitude. In this course, teachers will utilize dialectical journals, reader’s journals, reader’s responses, written conversations. They will integrate aspects of their lives that promote advanced analysis, communication skills, descriptive, narrative, and persuasive writing techniques.
*A must for K-12 Educators!!!!
ON-LINE (3 credits/45 hours) In-service credit only | |
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Course Description: Global competence is the skills, values, and behaviors that prepare young people to thrive in a more diverse, interconnected world. Embracing a mind-set that translates personal global competence into professional classroom practice is crucial for teachers today. This course will enable participants to engage learners globally via transformative lessons that are relevant to every aspect of the world today – politics, science, culture, cross-cultural communication. Teachers will become familiar with the characteristics of globally competent students, be able to transcend that knowledge into their classrooms via language instruction, best practices of the world, and sensitivity to a wide gamut of issues on a global scale. A must for K-12 educators!!!!
(3 credits/45 hours) – In-Service Credit | |
 | This course will provide teachers with an array of activities that connect students intimately with the material at hand. Any subject can be transformed into an intimate connection between learners. Teachers will explore literacy, history, science, mathematics, and culture via deep connections in the classroom setting. A must for K-12 educators!!!!
ON-LINE (3 credits/45 hours) In-service credit only | |
 | The ability to engage our learners is a technique all educators must possess. Formulating ideas and strategies to springboard discussions are tantamount for students today. Recognizing the need to enhance the learning environment will lead students towards success. In this course, participants will explore a myriad of strategies to assist them in the questioning process. Text dependent questions will be at the forefront as well as strategies from Fountas & Pinnell, differentiation techniques, student centered lessons, technological ideas, web components, and so much more. Teachers will completely enhance their students’ thinking. A must for all educators in the K-12 Classroom!!!
ON-LINE (3 credits/45 hours) in service credit only | |
 | Instructor: Gayle Meinkes-Lumia – gaylelumia@yahoo.com
In-service Course – 3 Credits / 45 Hours
Course Description: Creating a positive school environment begins with developing and implementing stellar character education, beginning with lessons on morality, responsibility, respect, peer to peer interactions. This course will enable teachers to glean the ways in which to infuse the ideas of moral understanding, psychological literature, and scientific methodology into their everyday encounters with students. Modeling and community outreach suggestions will intertwine with the course material to create a superb character education program for our students.
*A must for K-12 educators* | |
 | Course Description:
Participants in the course will learn how to implement all facets of effective verbal and nonverbal communication techniques to help your students create an environment of trust and responsibility. Educators will learn how to encourage, redirect, engage, and challenge students in successful discussions that will enhance student learning. Educators will be able to apply these strategies to all grade levels and content areas. Participants will gain a clear understanding of where to begin with discussions in your classroom, and see where it will lead you. This course is designed to enable educators K-12 to understand the relationship that discussion plays in our Next Generation Standards and effectively help your students meet them. Great for all educators K-12!
ON-LINE (3 credits/45 hours) in-service credit only
Instructor: Kim Kittredge kkittredgeliips@gmail.com
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 | Giving Students More Authority – Facilitating Meaningful Classroom Discussions in the K-12 Classroom PDLI 9130 (45 HOURS/3 GRADUATE CREDITS) Instructor: Gayle Meinkes-Lumia – gaylelumia@yahoo.comCourse Description: Providing students with high quality discussions that promote learning and engagement is tantamount to teaching. High quality discussions include content-specific ideas that spark students to express different points of view, reflect on their own opinions, varying perspectives, and engage in democratic dialogues. Education that develops deep reasoning, critical thinking, and conceptual and practical tools for inculcating knowledge is tantamount for students today. Teaching in this modality empowers our learners and enables them to recognize that proactive engagement is the key to their success. In this course, participants will be instructed on the pedagogical principles that promote student learning and democratic engagement. They will learn the ways in which students themselves facilitate learning and streamline their own thinking. Teachers will be instructed on ways in which to act as mediators and not sages, including the ins and outs of effective questioning. Rich discussion tactics will be integrated as fishbowl techniques, Socratic Seminars, Jigsaws, formative assessments, graphic organizers, gallery walks – all of which engage the learner and provide for optimum efficacy. Goals and Objectives: Upon completion of the course, participants will be better prepared to: • Understand the impact of effective classroom discussions
• Comprehend the respective ways in which teachers can transform their classrooms via classroom dialogues
• Generate meaningful strategies that challenge students
• Develop deep learning outcomes for their classrooms
• Integrate a myriad of learning activities that challenge their learners
• Engage their learners with 21st century tools of instruction | |
| Giving Students Voice: Teaching them to Debate, Discuss and Argue with Authority and Power *New Course* Dates: Spring 2025 – March 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, 12, 13, 18, 19.In our society today student need to be taught how to use their voice more than ever. This course will provide educators with ways to add more discussion and debating in the classroom. Teachers will also work on creating better opportunities for students to converse and discuss. Students will also be exposed to written arguments, as well as evaluating the debate skills of others. Students will eventually learn how to teach debate, discussion, and argumentative skills. Educators will emerge from this course with a plethora of skills on all aspects of voice, debate and discussion in their classrooms. Once students feel the power of their voice, they will realize the authority it gives them. This course is a must for educators K-12. Instructor: Kim Kittredge kkittredgeliips@gmail.com 3 Credits In Service Course (45 Hours) | |
 | How often do we have unruly children in our classrooms who defy the rules, resist authority, and cause a general disruption? While it is easy to dismiss these students, perhaps there is a way to get through to them. That process begins by understanding them. Who/What are they going home to? What is going on in their lives outside of their academic responsibilities? Teachers enrolled in this course will explore practical methods of breaking down walls and communicating with those tough students as a means of facilitating a more comfortable, productive classroom.
ON-LINE (3 credits/45 hours) in-service credit only | |
| Course Description:
With all the virtual learning going on, how do we as educators help students learn independently? This course will focus on how to facilitate lessons instead of teaching them as we have always done in the past. With the world changing, we must too. Students must independently create their own learning experiences, and become more active learners. It is our responsibility to teach them the skills to guide them through it. Educators will learn how to encourage students to think creatively and take an independent and active role in their own learning. Teachers will discuss how to first identify what it is to be an active learner, and then how to go beyond that. Teachers will learn how to work with students to stretch their minds to the limits, help students manage time constraints, take effective notes and annotate, and be creative and organize their roles as learners on a daily basis. This is a must for all educators of all disciplines K-12.
ON-LINE (3 credits/45 hours) in-service credit only
Instructor: Kim Kittredge kkittredgeliips@gmail.com
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 | Course Description:
Do your students feel or become disconnected? Do they often lose the purpose of your lessons due to distractions? Have they zoned out? With all the time and effort you put into your lessons, it often seems that there are so many days we look out at our students’ faces only to see that they are somewhere else. The connection has been lost. This course offers ideas on how to reconnect your disconnected students and bring them back again. Educators will learn a variety of exciting strategies that will “connect” your students to your classroom lessons. These strategies will not only activate engagement, but improve student learning all together. This course is for educators levels K-12 of all subjects.
ON-LINE (3 credits/45 hours) in-service credit only
Instructor: Kim Kittredge kkittredgeliips@gmail.com
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 | Course Description: Implicit bias refers to unconscious attitudes, reactions, stereotypes, and categories that affect behavior and understanding. In education, implicit bias often refers to unconscious racial and socioeconomic bias toward students. This course will explore what implicit bias is, and how we as educators can reduce the effects of it in our schools. We will discuss the consequences of implicit bias and how it affects individuals in different ways. Educators will discover the roots of implicit bias and participants will discuss how to move away from theses attitudes and stereotypes. Teachers will also discuss that with understanding and attitude change comes improved behaviors. Implicit bias scenarios will be posed for deep discussion. This course is a must for all educators levels K-12. Instructor: Kim Kittredge kkittredgeliips@gmail.com 3 credits – In service Course (45 Hours); online or in-person | |
 | Students will learn various methods to increase and improve communication with families and students by multiple means of technology. These methods will increase communication and decrease the stressors related to the lack of time and resources to always make phone calls. Improving communication is not only necessary but required as a part of teachers’ annual performance reviews which culminate each year. The applications and websites we will explore and implement will increase communication as well as improve student productivity with a strong student-parent-teacher connection. Recommended for all Educators K – 12.
ON-LINE (3credits/45hours) In-service credit only | |
 | Setting up a classroom that has an atmosphere of cooperation and consideration is crucial for students today. Effective communication is necessary for both teachers and students to be successful. In this course, teachers will:
• Study effective test-taking strategies
• Comprehend the ways to improve standardized test scores
• Learn the ways to creatively implement activities into the classroom
• Understand how to motivate students intrinsically
• Help students recognize their inner potential
• Address a myriad of student needs and perspectives
• Connect the impact of reading and writing across the content areas
• Complete research on academic success in the classroom
• Envision alternatives for their students
Overall, teachers will emerge with a plethora of insight and information that will increase their students’ love of the subject matter!
***A must for all K-12 teachers!
ON-LINE (3 credits/45 hours) In-Service Credit only | |
 | Janna Florio Online Course - 3 credits / 45 hours - In-Service Credit Only Applicable to High School Teachers & Department Coordinators/Chairs Description: Being a student in high school is tough; being a teacher of high school students is tough; however, surviving high school as a newcomer to the country could feel almost impossible. Combined with the harrowing experiences they suffer during their immigration journeys, adolescent ELLs are also faced with the stresses that plague the majority of all other high-schoolers. From high-stakes testing to mental health concerns, students within this age bracket hold a lot of weight on their shoulders. Past trauma, feelings of isolation, displacement from family, and the challenges of learning a new culture and language only exacerbate these issues for immigrant and migrant students. In this course, you will learn about the struggles these students face, the challenges they must overcome, and what schools might be able to do to support them. | |
 | (3 credits/45 hours) In-service credits Instructor: Gayle Meinkes-Lumia – gaylelumia@yahoo.com Course Description: This course analyzes the everyday domains of language and literacy. Understanding how language and literacy are intertwined and developing the skills necessary for students is crucial for everyday communication. Providing this connection for our learners in all disciplines enhances their success and guides them in their achievement. Participants will be provided with a medley of activities and strategies that strengthen students’ cognitive learning including read-alouds, vocabulary acquisition, word games, and manipulatives. A Must for K-12 educators!!!! |