Professional Development Courses: Schedule
All three credit courses require 42 hours of instructional work throughout the duration of the course. Whether it is in-person class time or online alternative instruction, it is your opportunity to put your new knowledge into immediate practice. The frequency of online discussion/interaction with instructor and classmates is throughout the course. It is available 24 hours a day. For course descriptions simply click on the course name or visit our course catalog. 10 days prior to the course you will receive a Welcome email with directions and any other instructions for the course. If you have any questions about our scheduling please feel free to contact us at info@thomstecher.com.
Registration for courses closes 5 days before the first day of class or if the course is filled.
An official Grade Receipt Letter will be mailed by Neumann University at the conclusion of the course.
Fall 2023
EDU 526 - Stress Management: Specific Solutions for Educators (Online)
- Price: $900.00
- Dates: August 28 - October 22, 2023
- Professors: Jessie McFarland
- Location: Online- Canvas online platform
Registration period has ended.
The course is designed to help teachers, administrators, and support staff assess their stress levels, identify primary causes of excess stress in both their professional and personal lives, and learn specific, realistic stress reduction strategies. Participants will learn how and why stress levels, burnout, and job dissatisfaction are disproportionately high in the educational field. Educators will explore the most appropriate and necessary choices facing anyone in high-stress occupations: change your skills, change your position, change your attitude, or change jobs. Participants will learn and practice relaxation and visualization techniques, safe and simple exercise options. and other strategies that are under their control.
EDU 526 - Sonic SEL: Classroom Connection Through Sound
- Price: $900.00
- Dates: September 11 - November 5 with the One Mandatory In-person date of September 17th
- Professors: Ed Luckey
- Location: Online via Canvas and One Mandatory In-Person session at Franklin Commons, Phoenixville, PA
Registration period has ended.
Sonic SEL is an exciting new course designed for educators of all grade levels, emphasizing student engagement and connection through sound. This course is one that is experiential as educators will be exposed to various modes of engagement that invite both teacher and students to interact, create, reflect, and respond to sound. We will also discuss how sound and the other senses are intimately and innately connected to memories; educators will discuss research that highlights the potential of student engagement utilizing both sound and SEL that can complement and enrich the classroom community.
EDU 526 - Safe Schools: Conflict Management, Anger Control, and Violence Prevention (Online)
- Price: $900.00
- Dates: October 9 - December 3, 2023
- Professors: Larry Newman
- Location: Online- Canvas online platform
This course is designed to provide concrete, immediate, experiential, prevention/intervention skills to deal with the issues of conflict, anger, and violence. Conflict is constant in the lives of ever-changing human beings, but conflict, left unchecked, becomes unhealthy. Anger and subsequent violence have brought fear into our schools, classrooms, and our children’s daily experience. No one is perfect. It is unrealistic to think we can avoid conflict and anger completely. Furthermore, it is unrealistic to think these emotions cannot be harnessed in a safe, healthy manner. In this course, we will cognitively and experientially understand the “seeds” of violence and develop healthy individual and school system responses.
EDU 526 - The Gender Question (Online)
- Price: $900.00
- Dates: October 23 - December 10, 2023
- Professors: Scott Burden and Megan Hauser
- Location: Online- Canvas online platform
As an educator, it can be hard to know how to navigate the changing landscape of gender. At times it may seem like your students know more than you do, with different acronyms and terms being used every day. This course will help educators at all grade levels grapple with the gender question by reflecting on their own socialization, analyzing the cultural norms surrounding their students, and exploring age-appropriate ways for bridging their lived experiences with their classroom communities. This course will also explore the current political climate regarding LGBTQIA+ students and educators. Educators will leave the course with terms, tools, and training for how to best support all students.