Engagement
 | Schools experience a wide variety of crises that have the potential to harm the mental and physical health, learning environment, and safety of students and educators. A school crisis is any traumatic event that seriously disrupts coping and problem-solving abilities of students and school staff. It is typically sudden, unexpected, dramatic and forceful and may even threaten survival. A crisis can cause a drastic and tragic change to the environment. This change is generally overwhelming and uncontrollable as well as unwanted and frightening. It may create a sense of helplessness, hopelessness, and vulnerability combined with a loss of safety.
This course will provide resources, tools, recommendations, and evidence-based practices for incorporating best practices in school mental health into school crisis plans. Different types of crisis will be discussed and strategies will be developed for teachers of all grade levels and subject areas.
ON-LINE (3 credits/45 hours) In-service credit only | |
| Learning is a lot like bike riding. Once you have the knack, you never really forget the skill. Nor do you forget the thrill of learning a new ability or understanding a complex idea. You are a lifelong learner and you love it.
Why have so many students never discovered this thrill? Why are they coasting when they could be racing along in the educational Tour de France with their peers? What can teachers do to engage the disengaged student?
This course will help teachers keep students highly engaged throughout an entire lesson and encourage students to contribute their ideas and insights as a way of enhancing their own and other students’ learning.
Learning Outcomes
At the completion of this course students will be able to:
1. Expect students to help define topics and determine how they can be studied
2. Link content to students’ prior knowledge and experience.
3. Ensure that students are mentally engaged in all activities and assignments
4. Allow students to initiate and adapt learning activities and projects.
5. Form instructional groups that work to achieve learning goals.
6. Choose suitable instructional materials for lessons and encourage students to select resources that will help them learn
7. Teach highly coherent, well-planned, and well-paced lessons that include time for student reflection
ON-LINE (3 credits/45 hours) In-service credit only | |
 | *New Course* Fall 2024
Instructor: Kim Kittredge Kkittredgeliips@gmail.com
3 credits/45 hrs in service
As educators we all know we have a 40 minute show to put on every day. But how do we effectively do it? Since we are basically on stage, we must learn how to commanding the room with power and finesse. This course will focus on all aspects of commanding our classrooms. We will not only discuss knowledge of our content area, but how to continually engage our students in the lessons and keep them connected. Educators will learn strategies and principles for modeling effective leadership and entertaining their students daily with their command of the classroom. This course is a must for educators grades K-12. | |
 | 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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Instructor: Gayle Meinkes-Lumia – gaylelumia@yahoo.com
(3 Credits/45 Hours) – In-Service Credit
Course Description: It is much more difficult for our brains to unlearn something than to learn something new. Having the capacity to train our brains to make deep connections to learning is the purpose of this course. Participants will understand the factors that shape myelination in children and comprehend how it provides the foundation for brain connectivity and support of emergent cognitive and behavioral functioning. Studying the reasoning behind this neurodevelopment will enable teachers to create comprehensive lessons that support and engage learners from all walks of life. *A must for all K-12 educators and disciplines!! | |
 | In this course, teachers will learn how to implement the flipped learning model in their classrooms. Teachers will learn how to create a learner-centered classroom by moving instruction to the home. Teachers are provided with tips and strategies on how to find and create engaging instructional videos and develop interactive, collaborative, and hands-on classroom activities. This course provides information on how to flip each of the four main content areas, plan/organize technology into lessons, and assessment strategies. Suitable for ALL educators K-12
ON-LINE (3 credits/45 hours) in-service only | |
| *New Course* Fall 2024
Instructor: Gayle Meinkes-Lumia – gaylelumia@yahoo.com
In-Service Class – 3 Credits – 45 Hours
Course Description: Since the onset of the pandemic, so many students and families have become disconnected from school and absenteeism has skyrocketed. Re-engaging our students is essential for their success. Teachers have tremendous power to influence student attendance. In this course teachers will learn about the importance of using supportive rather than punitive language surrounding absenteeism, building meaningful relationships with families to support student attendance, engaging learners utilizing curiosity and wonder, and working strategically to bridge the gap between home and school.
*A must for K-12 Educators* | |
 | Course Description:
This course will explore the world of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mechanics) and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, & Mechanics). We will define how you can begin a STEM or STEAM program, and how you could enrich your classroom with activities and hands-on learning. In this course you will create your own lessons as well as discover new ways to add knowledge and fun to your classroom.
ON-LINE (3 credits/45 hours) in-service credit only
Instructor: Kim Kittredge kkittredgeliips@gmail.com
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Initiating an on-line instructional platform can be difficult for teachers and students alike. Assisting our students with achieving their maximum potential, discovering the wonder of learning, and immersing themselves in creative activities will be at the forefront of the course. Strategies for reluctant learners will be focused on as well as lesson creations that are relevant to students’ cultures. A variety of ideas for multiple subject matters will be taught, including award winning books, mathematical strategies, and historical games. Teachers will emerge with lessons that show how to value quality over quantity and teach effectively.. All grade levels and subjects welcome.
ON-LINE (3 credits/45 hours) in-service credit only | |
 | 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 | |
 | 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 | |
 | Each and every day in the teaching profession, we are knee deep in adolescence. Teachers wear a multitude of hats as they are faced with creating an atmosphere of challenges, choices, and meaningful experiences for students. The very vulnerability of adolescence makes it a time of tremendous opportunity for emotional, intellectual, and social growth. We can either make or break situations as they arise.
Within this course, participants will complete a myriad of tasks:
• Complete an introspection of themselves and their teaching styles
• Complete research on adolescent growth (social and emotional)
• Share relevant teaching stories that assist everyone in the teaching process
• Cultivate student interest by creating exciting opportunities for growth
• Master different approaches to prepare students for higher thinking
• Execute lessons that enrich student learning
• Walk in someone else’s shoes in terms of learning and comprehending.
Overall, participants will be refreshed as they enhance their classrooms by learning more about themselves!
*A must for all educators!
ON-LINE (3 credits/45 hours) in-service credit only | |
| *New Course Instructor: Gayle Meinkes-Lumia- gaylelumia@yahoo.com Summer 2025 Dates – July 14th-July 18th Course Credits- 3 Credits/45 Hours Course Description: The hallmark of high achieving students is the power of grit. Possessing this ability to persevere despite any adversity is something that needs to be instructed to our learners. Participants will learn how to recharge their students through commitment, long-term goal reaching, cultivation of ideas, passion for the disciplines they study, and inner dedication to themselves. A myriad of strategies will be discussed to unlock the mindset of their students, including small passages from historical freedom fighters, analysis of the grit characteristics, and remedies for facing challenges and obstacles. *A Must for K-12 Educators* | |
 | *New Course Instructor: Gayle Meinkes-Lumia- gaylelumia@yahoo.com Summer 2025 Dates – August 4th-August 8th Course Credits- 3 Credits/45 Hours Course Description: High academic achievement can create more opportunities for students indefinitely. The study skills, social skills, knowledge, and problem-solving abilities that students learn at school will support them throughout their entire lives. This course will cover the practical and effective ways to boost students’ academic achievement, as well as the ways in which to develop students’ missions, goals, and core strategies of learning. Participants will delve into the most efficacious ways to instruct their students, including problem-based instruction, differentiated modalities, technological sources, as well as many other creative modalities. *A Must for K-12 Educators* | |
 | Course Description:
Writing can be complex and difficult activity for students of all ages. Writing is more than just a skill or taleant, it is a means of investigation and expression for learning. This course explores writing for learning in all grades and disciplines. In this course we will expose educators to effective approaches and best practices for helping students learn to write. Educators will discuss how ideas about how and wh to teach writing have progressed dramatically in recent years. Then teachers can work towads providiing the appropriate writiing activities for their students. 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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 | Course Description:
Educators will learn through this course effective teaching methods, Next Generation teaching strategies, and much more. Teachers will examine best practices for instruction to hone your skills on highly effective teaching. Participants will see how to transform your students into becoming more college and career ready individuals. Teachers will study methods on how to create high performing classrooms. In this course educators will “learn from doing” in the same manner to be expected of your own students. This course shows educators how to create innovative but easy to implement, project-based learning units that work. This course is a must for teachers of grades K-12.
*Also offered as an online class.
ON-LINE (3 credits/45 hours) in-service credit only
Instructor: Kim Kittredge kkittredgeliips@gmail.com
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 | Homework plays a major role in the learning process. Often enough, if homework is not complete, classroom objectives cannot be met. What is the role of homework in the learning process? How do economic diversity and parenting style affect homework? What does the research on homework reveal? Let’s explore these questions and get specific strategies for customizing homework tasks, enhancing student ownership, and providing feedback about homework. Effects of social class differences and school-family relationships. Suitable for all educators K – 12.
ON-LINE (3 Credits / 45 hours) in-service credit only
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 | 3 Credits – In service Course (45 Hours)
Instructor: Kim Kittredge kkittredgeliips@gmail.com
Course Description: As educators, joy is something we strive to have in our classrooms daily. When we feel happiness, we must embrace it and welcome it. When we lose that feeling we yearn to have it back. This course will help educators grasp on to those joyful moments with students and continue to keep our classroom positive all year long. Teachers will delve into joyful lessons, fun-filled activities and hands-on experiences that will keep that feeling of comfort in our classroom positive and satisfying. This course will delve deep into how to rebuild relationships with students, brush off unhelpful criticism, and how to recharge for health and wellness. Educators will build lessons on how to get your students outside more in nature and for daily exercise boosts. Participants will also learn techniques for incorporating art, music, and journaling in creative and positive ways. All with the common goal of resetting and reigniting joy and happiness and bringing it back to your classroom. This course is a must for all educators of all grade levels and subjects K-12. | |
 | 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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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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 | 3 Credits – In service Course (45 Hours)
Instructor: Kim Kittredge kkittredgeliips@gmail.com
Course Description: Icebreakers, Do-Now and Wrap Ups are the heart of a great lesson. As educators, we strive to bring the lesson in with a bang, get the kids thinking and focusing, and then, if successful, wrap it all up. Participants in this course will explore strategies and techniques for fabulous brain games and icebreakers that can be used for any subject and grade level. Educators will work on building do nows with purpose and power to get lessons going. Teachers will also learn the art of wrapping up any lesson with such strategies as creative closures, exit tickets, summaries and reflections. As teachers we are always trying to find the best way to get our students in and out of lessons with ease, and this course will be a toolbox of activities to guide you along the way. This course is a must for all educators of all grade levels and subjects K-12. | |
| “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire” – William Butler Yeats
A teacher that ignites the fire in his/her students and fuels their thirst for knowledge and curiosity is the key to success. In this course, teachers will learn to inspire students, motivate them, impact their learning. They will be able to fuel the passion and engage their students through creative activities and ideas. A myriad of techniques and strategies will be explored as well as collaborative means and activities to fully engage learners. A conflagration of ideas shall ignite within all! A must for K-12 Educators!!!!!
ON-LINE (3 credits/45 hours) in-service credit only | |
| Forty (or so) minutes go by quite quickly. By the time we get our students seated, take attendance, check homework, explain the objective, and start the lesson, our allotment of time has dwindled considerably. Also considering how often our students are taken out of our classes because of field trips, visits to the nurse, or other various reasons, the clock often seems to be on fast forward. Essentially, we want to get the most out of our class periods. Teachers enrolled in this course will explore the possibilities, variations, and applications of the infamous “Do Now” as a means of engaging students immediately and getting the most out our (and their) time.
ON-LINE (3 credits/45 hours) 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 | |
| Kim Kittredge Kkittredgeliips@gmail.com How can teachers increase rigor and productivity in the classroom? This course is designed to arm educators with a multitude of skills to increase rigor and make your students become the motivated individuals you wish them to be. Participants in the course will be given a multitude of materials and strategies to help their students become more productive. Through hands-on activities, group work, SEL learning, computer-based games and technology and differentiated instruction to name a few, your students will thrive. Students who didn't think they had it in them will break the barriers and understand that rigor is not “hard” it’s just a tiny bit uncomfortable; but the benefits are powerful! This course is a must for all educators of all grades K-12. | |
| Achieving the optimum level of student productivity is at the core of one’s teaching. Providing students with assessments, choices in their curriculum, and differentiation is the key to their success. Adding rigor to students’ curriculum is essential in the common core era. In this course, participants will learn how to develop target -centered homework, prepare students for the mandates of the standards, advance students’ vocabularies, produce lessons and implement strategies for our learners. The rigor will be increased dramatically! 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 28th-August 1st Course Credits- 3 Credits/45 Hours Course Description: Instructing all students to lead others, become independent thinkers, and take ownership in their learning is key to their success. This course will provide participants with the practices it takes to train their students to be at the top of their game including being proactive in their learning, finding their inner voice, and creating opportunities for themselves. Many tools will be provided that enable them to engage their students and direct them towards creating alternatives and goals in their lives, ones that cause them to be highly effective in all they do. *A Must for all K-12 Educators* | |
| Course Description – Revitalizing our classrooms is the ticket to students’ success. Having the skills necessary to invigorate our learners and capture their learning styles is tantamount. In this course, teachers will have the opportunity to glean a depth of understanding regarding the nature of the adolescent and the ways in which their learning is impacted by many factors. Teachers will be instructed on a plethora of learning styles and models that gear instruction to individuals perfectly. A must for all K-12 educators!!!! (3 credits/45 hours) – In-Service Credit | |
 | 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. | |
| Instructor: Gayle Meinkes-Lumia - gaylelumia@yahoo.com
In-service Course - 3 Credits / 45 Hours
Course Description: Educating today's students in a tactile, active fashion improves a wealth of critical and analytical thinking skills. Kinesthetic learners retain information more effectively, become active rather than passive participants in learning, and are able to acquire a wealth of information more expeditiously than their peers. This course will train teachers to find ways to assist students in their work ethic and their problem-solving techniques. Topics being addressed include hands-on simulations, animations, role-playing exercises, micro-learning lessons. A multitude of benefits arise when kinesthetic learning is at the forefront!
*A must for K-12 educators!!!! |