Instructors: John Crisci & Michael Jannace

The course will cover various lesson activities that can be adapted for any content area or grade level. Lesson activities include Smart Board interactive activities that allow for cooperative learning, paired activities, presentations, direct instruction, and vocabulary enhancement.

Course FALL17-016 | 3 Credits/45 Hours

Instructor: Mike O'Flaherty

The implementation of diversity in classrooms not just schools, is critical for teachers as "diverse learning environments promote development of analytical skills, dismantle stereotypes, and prepare students to succeed in an increasingly interconnected world" - United States Attorney General 2011

Education is all about broadening our personal horizons, cultivating new experiences and learning how to see the world from multiple viewpoints. This highlights why diversity in our schools is so critical. Schools today must respond to an ever- increasing diverse student population. Our hallways are places of racial, ethnic, linguistic, economic and academic diversity where it is possible at least to rub shoulders with those who are different from us.

Teachers must create a classroom culture where all students regardless of their cultural background are welcomed and supported, and provided with the best opportunity to learn.

This class will highlight and examine opportunities that exist for educators to create an atmosphere of inclusion and appreciation. We will focus our attention and efforts on the acquisition of sound educational skills and strategies to make culture more explicit, affirm identity, and create a context for understanding.

Diversity is everyone's concern and in everyone's best interest. Respecting diversity is fundamental. Celebrating it takes us all further - together!

Promoting diversity in schools is pivotal to teach "that our strength comes from people of different races, creeds, cultures uniting in commitment to the freedom of all" - United States Department Of Education 2011

Course Number: FALL17-ON-009 | 3 Credits/45 Hours

Instructor: Mike O'Flaherty

Compelled Educator Part II picks up where Compelled Educator Part I left off. Part I took us on a guided tour searching for and learning about what it is that our best teachers DO! It provided practical tips and strategies for teachers to connect with their students in a meaningful and powerful way.

All teachers have high expectations for students. Great teachers also have high expectations for themselves. Part II builds and adds to those skills, tools and insights acquired in the previous class.

The main variable in any classroom is not the students, but the teacher! Productive student behavior and smooth day- to- day operation of the classroom does not happen by accident. Our best teachers help their students meet rigorous course standards by establishing and maintaining a learning environment that supports and motivates students to do their personal best.

Part II will supply simple suggestions that you will be able to integrate into your current daily routines. This class is not about what we know - it is about who we are and what we do! It directs us to accurately self-reflect and truly understand what it is that separates good from great!

Course Number: FALL17-ON-043| 3 Credits/45 Hours

Instructor: Mike O'Flaherty

"The highest result of education is tolerance" - Helen Keller

The differences between each of us make us unique and special. Teaching tolerance fosters school environments that are inclusive and nurturing.

As we educate children, we must teach them how to be kind, compassionate, patient and appreciative of people that may be perceived as different. Our job, as educators, is to guide our students toward a true understanding and appreciation of multiple perspectives.

Our classrooms should be places where equality and justice is not just taught, but lived. Students don't naturally understand how to be tolerant. They will with your supportive lessons and tips contained within this course, be better equipped as a result of your presentation of topics such as race, discrimination, disability and more.

If school programs are instituted and promoted that teach students how to relate to others from different backgrounds and cultures, they will be able to learn early in life how to relate peaceable with others.

This course will explore ideas and strategies on how to integrate acceptance of differences, compassion, respect and cooperation in your classroom to create a positive environment for all students.

Course Number: FALL17-ON-030 | 3 Credits/45 Hours

Instructor: Mike O'Flaherty

You have chosen a profession where you have opportunities to change lives. Our role in assisting student's to discover their talents, interests, resources and opportunities for gaining an education is critical.

More than 15%.....,more than 44 million Americans live in poverty. As poverty continues to increase in our communities, it is important for educators to understand the effects poverty can have on their students, and their student's school success. Poverty damages. It damages childhoods; it damages life chances; and it damages us all in society.

Poverty remains a stubborn fact of life and has serious implications for the nation's educational sector. Many educators are frustrated with the mindset, behavior and learning challenges that students from poverty often bring to school. A deeper understanding of poverty and the barriers it presents is highly needed. Poverty is a complex phenomenon. This class will arm you with relevant facts and enhance your knowledge about the debilitating and cumulative effects poverty has on student's.

You will be introduced to the latest research and how it affects student's cognitive development and academic performance. You will learn how to differentiate among different types of poverty and examine the unique aspects and effects of each. This class will relevantly present classroom level strategies and tools for countering poverty's negative effects and help you to create an educational framework to meet the needs of these students and help them succeed in school.

We must challenge the barriers of poverty and help all of our student's to grow, thrive and achieve academic success!

Course Number: FALL17-ON-040 | 3 Credits/45 Hours

Instructor: Mike O'Flaherty

What works for students? What works against them? There is little doubt that no two people study the same way. Everyone is different, and for some students, studying and being motivated to learn comes naturally. It is a near certainty that what works for one person may not work for another.

Study skills are the “tools” you need to enable you to study and learn effectively. Study skills are learning strategies that facilitate the processing of information. They help us remember what we have learned. Study skills encompass a wide range of behaviors that students can perform before, during, and after learning to help them retain and apply information presented in the classroom or at home.

Developing core skills essential for academic success is unquestionably a goal shared by parents, students and teachers alike. Presented will be different research-based learning strategies. Time management, note taking, test taking & preparation, and goal setting are only some of the topics addressed in this class. “Smarter Learning” – A Practical Guide For Teaching & Improving Study Skills has been designed for the express purpose of helping you better assist your students in improving their learning, understanding, and ultimately, their grades. Students who use study skills effectively are more likely to believe they can learn. Therefore they are more likely to be successful.

Course Number: FALL17-ON-070 | 3 Credits/45 Hours

Instructor: Mike O'Flaherty

The role of sport in society has been debated for many decades. Sport is a part of society as both an educational fixture and an entertainment enterprise. Sport represents a unique slice of life, providing us with a distinctive lens through which we can observe and analyze various aspects of our larger society.

We will approach this study of sport from a multi-disciplinary perspective. Our study of sport will promote a wider understanding of social structure, power and inequality. This class will give us the opportunity to gain vital insight into sensitive issues of racism, sexism, classism and commercialization. These are some of the issues we will investigate, research and address.

Sport will be the powerful agent encouraging us to ask questions and think critically. As a universal language, sport will help educate us in ways that few activities can.

Course Number: FALL17-ON-008 | 3 Credits/45 Hours

Instructor: Evan Moston

We are at a time in education where the classroom teacher must wear "every hat". Only a few years ago districts could afford to employ from every discipline, including those to help with our emotionally troubled, that is not the case anymore. The classroom teacher needs to have empathy for and learn how to effectively teach these students as they are integrated in our own classes. Figure what makes your students tick and what makes them work. Every student is reachable and understanding them is the key to taking our classrooms back!

Please Note! ACTUAL DATES & TIMES TBD - All participants please contact instructor at emoston@optonline.net in order to discuss specific grade level/special area you teach as my courses are individualized, (for ex: kindergarten is very different than 12th grade phys. ed. resulting in differentiated coursework) and designed to meet specific needs. I would also like to to speak prior to start date as times/location can be adjusted in order to better meet individual needs. Thank you!!
(Grade Level K-12)
Course Number: FALL17-031-031 | 3 Credits/45 Hours

Instructor: Evan Moston

“So much to do, so little time to do it in”. How do we teach ELA (+ writing), Math, Science and Social-Studies effectively ALL in one day? We can’t. Often Science and Social-Studies take a back seat because in reality, many of us have long ELA blocks (which does not include writing) and certain Math lessons can go well passed the allotted time period, so what gets left out? Science/S.S. are important subjects too, so teach during your ELA period. This course will offer several strategies (Guided Reading for example) to make it simple to incorporate Science and Social-Studies into our everyday teaching.

Please Note! ACTUAL DATES & TIMES TBD - All participants please contact instructor at emoston@optonline.net in order to discuss specific grade level/special area you teach as my courses are individualized, (for ex: kindergarten is very different than 12th grade phys. ed. resulting in differentiated coursework) and designed to meet specific needs. I would also like to to speak prior to start date as times/location can be adjusted in order to better meet individual needs. Thank you!!

(Grade Level K-12)
Course Number: FALL17-051 | 3 Credits/45 Hours

Instructor: Mary Caffrey, L.M.S.W.
This course will focus on understanding the culture of boys and how it can negatively impact on their abilities to learn, socialize and reach out for help. We will explore issues that affect boys from the struggle to adjust in the primary grades to bullying in the middle school years, to conduct disorders that present themselves in high school. Statistically, boys are overwhelmingly diagnosed and medicated for A.D.H.D., behavior problems, and are at risk for school failure . They make up the majority of students in special education classes. Minority youth interface with the juvenile justice system at alarming rates. Boys face unique challenges and this class will explore ways for teachers to develop what author Dan Kindlon coined "emotional literacy" so they can find productive places in school and in the community.
(Grade Level K-12)

Course Number: FALL17-ON-038 | 3 Credits/45 Hours

Instructor: Michael Jannace

The course will cover various lesson activities that can be adapted for any content area or grade level. Lesson activities include pod-casting, simulations, carousels, cooperate learning, Smart Board interactive activities, paired activities, jigsaws, project-based learning, presentations, direct instruction, individual learning, reading comprehension, vocabulary enhancement, debates, fish-bowls, essay grading, group testing and literature/film analysis.

Course Number: FALL17-015 | 3 Credits/45 Hours