New! The Art of the Essay: Reading and Writing Essays in the Classroom |
Guided independent study only.
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New! Among the Notables—Sinclair Lewis: America’s First Nobel Laureate for Literature |
Guided independent study only.
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New! The Authentic Voice: The “Writing” Teacher |
Writing teachers may have a powerful influence and an authentic voice when they teach students by their own example. This study reflects on the teacher-as-writer pedagogical model and its impact on student writing. Participants will use Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones, and examine Best Practices for the classroom.
Joseph Eng wrote in The Writing Instructor, August 2002, “Since the 1970s, composition researchers and practitioners have generally agreed that, as effective "facilitators" in the process classroom, writing teachers need to engage themselves in writing activities for two reasons. First, as teachers of writing, they should practice what they preach, among others, the rhetorical, cognitive, and mechanical skills required in different writing situations. Second, if they seek opportunities for writing with their students, they will, logically, develop better insights into the "processes"—including challenges and values—their student-writers find within the context of a particular writing assignment . . .” Joseph Eng’s article will be used as a catalyst to examine the pedagogical implications for the teacher-as-writer.
This Guided Independent Study (GIS) offers K-12 teachers the opportunity to develop their own writing and creativity and to explore the pedagogical model of “the writing teacher.”
Contact the instructor, Stephen York at StpYo@aol.com, for the syllabus.
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Guided independent study only. |
Instructor: Stephen York |
New! "Away From It All"— Writers on the Wilderness of Maine |
For centuries, the wilderness of Maine has captured the minds and imagination of writers—past and present. In 1864, Henry David Thoreau wrote the classic, The Maine Woods. It remains in print and read in the 21st Century. Louise Dickenson Rich wrote a bestseller about her experiences, We Took to the Woods. Aroostock County’s Dorothy Boone Kidney wrote three books specifically about the Allagash: Away From It All, A Home in the Wilderness, and Wilderness Journal. Recently, Baron Wormser, former Poet Laureate wrote about this life Maine in his memoir, The Road Washes Out in Spring: A Poet’s Memoir of Living Off the Grid.
This course invites participants to explore the rich literature about the Maine wilderness, and the writers who have lived in and written about it. Further, we will also examine the thesis of Rick Louv’s seminal work, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, and consider its implications for the present and future generations of Mainers.
Contact the instructor, Stephen York at StpYo@aol.com for the syllabus.
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Guided independent study only.
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New! Beyond "Charlotte’s Web": E.B. White—the Man, the Writer |
Guided independent study only.
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New! Behavior Management (Pre K-12) |
This workshop is designed to offer the classroom teacher support and structure towards resolving disruptive behaviors in the classroom. Deborah focuses on a solid "Classroom Model" that will enhance your own personal style. She will offer tangible techniques to identify and solve (temporarily/permanently) the most disruptive and unproductive behaviors. This approach will afford the teacher the ability to maintain a behaviorally balanced learning environment. Without disruptions, the professional is allowed to place the focus of the classroom on learning, intellectual curiosity, and personal achievement in cognitive, social and emotional levels. This course is designed to foster a learning environment of satisfaction and success that will meet the needs of all students.
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Instructor: Fred Brown |
New! Beyond Words: Teachers as Critical Readers |
Mortimer Adler believed that reading was a life-long art form that required continually practice like any other art forms like playing a musical instrument, painting, cooking, etc. Adler wrote in his classic, HOW TO READ A BOOK (1940), " . . . most of us do not regard reading as a complicated activity, involving many different steps in each of which we can acquire more and more skill through practice, as in the case of any other art. We may not even think that there is an art of reading. We tend to think of reading as if it were something as simple and natural to do as looking or walking. . . . . Knowing how to real well [is] like any other art or skill. There [are] rules to learn and to follow. Through practice good habits must be formed. There [are] no insurmountable difficulties about it. Only willingness to learn and patience in the process required."
This study offers the opportunity for teachers to improve their own skills in the "art of reading." Using Mortimer Adler's classics (1940) and (1972), we will practice our own art of becoming better readers and thereby better teachers of "reading across the curriculum," by examining Adler's work and then taking on the challenging analysis of teaching written by the late, notable Brazilian educator, Paulo Freire. Freire's work on Critical Pedagogy will offer teachers the opportunity to enhance their own practice of reading and to reflect on Freire's critical analysis of post-modern education.
This course is also offered as an independent study. Please contact Stephen York, Instructor, for information at StpYo@aol.com
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Bangor |
September 26/27 & October 31, November 1 |
Instructor: Stephen York |
New! Coaching the New MEA/SAT |
Coach test taking using Princeton Review strategies that improve SAT scores dramatically. Use research-based, brain-based methods to increase reading and writing fluency and make sure that improved fluency shows up on MEA Day.
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Request this class for your school or district by contacting us. |
Instructor: TBA |
Creating Peaceful Schools: Awareness, Prevention and Intervention of Bullying and Social Aggression |
Creating Peaceful Schools is a unique and refreshing hands-on course. When children feel good about themselves and who they are, they are less apt to turn to bullying or fall into the trap of being bullied. While addressing the problems of social aggression and bullying in our schools, participants explore the underlying causes of bullying and learn proactive prevention methods to create peacefulness in children from the inside out. Participants also develop a working definition of bullying behavior and gain skills, materials, practical applications and resources to design school-wide strategies to effectively reduce bullying and social aggression problems in their schools.
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Instructor: Donna Packard |
Collaborative Peer Coaching in a Professional Learning Community |
You will learn a peer coaching model where the coach – who can be a new teacher, experienced, or in-between - supports best teaching practices and encourages self-direction for the inviting teacher. During class sessions the model will be presented and you will practice it. Between sessions, back in your school, you will have meetings with the “inviting teacher” (the teacher you are coaching). The first meeting will be to get to better know the teacher and help the teacher choose a narrowed-down topic as the focus of the coaching. The inviting teacher makes the final decision as to the topic of the coaching and the strategies to be used. You are there as a sounding board and resource person. The goal is to empower the inviting teacher as a life-long learner. You will observe in the teacher’s room and help the teacher find resources to enhance the area of focus. Both you and the inviting teacher will grow professionally as a result of the process.
Field work in a school is required .
Prerequisite: Current teaching, ed technicians with permission of instructor,
or administrative work in a K-12 school.
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Brunswick |
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Instructor: TBA |
Digital Video for the Classroom (K-12) |
Learn the skills needed to incorporate video into your classroom. Learn camcorder and editing techniques using the latest digital camcorders and mac computers. Actual award winning student projects will be presented and modeled. This is the perfect course for all those involved in the Maine Learning Technology Initiative. This class will be a hands-on experience. All equipment is provided, but students are encouraged to bring their own equipment to use. No previous experience is necessary. Maximum number of registrants: 12
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Request this class for your school or district by contacting us. |
Instructor: TBA |
Diversity and Multiculturalism (K-12) |
Your classroom is full of diversity whether or not it is apparent. In addition, your students are going out into a world with even greater diversity - in workplaces, communities and families. Values, ethics, life goals, interests, temperament, styles, strengths, beliefs, age, work, gender, ethnic heritage(s), family, racial group(s), spiritual path, religion, experiences, sexual orientation, economic resources, and pastimes are examples of infinite, possible categories that combine to make each of us unique. With film, readings, activities, music and presentations you will reflect and analyze to expand your awareness of diversity issues and use of related curriculum.
Note: While course content is relevant to teaching any subject it directly relates to Maine Learning Results in the areas of Health, Career Preparation, Language Arts, Foreign Languages, Visual and Performing Arts, and Social Studies, in addition to Character Education, Anti-Bullying and Tolerance programs.
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Brunswick |
November 7, 8 and 14, 15. |
Instructor: TBA |
New! For the Love of Reading: On Engaging Students with the Printed Page |
Guided independent study only.
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New! Give Them Roots and Wings: The Power of Story for Teaching and Learning |
Stories are powerful tools for teaching children important Life lessons. Indeed, storytelling provides an enriching experience for students: to learn about the past, to affirm important values for today and to explore their future ambitions. The sharing of stories ignites the imagination and increases the appreciation for learning about the people and places in the world around us. And, most importantly, it provides young students with a unique opportunity to travel within themselves on a wonderful journey of self-discovery.
This Independent Study will help educators:
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develop new, creative ways to present stories to young people
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build skills in reading and telling stories
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identify several, great story and storytelling resources
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deepen their own understanding and appreciation for the “Power of Story”
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Guided independent study only.
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Instructor: Stephen York |
New! Great American Writers: A Self-directed Study |
Guided independent study only.
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Helping You Help the Young Learner (Pre K-2) Independent Study |
Here is the opportunity to learn several new games and easy-to-do learning activities for the young child. Increase your classroom repertoire with creative play and imaginative routines that are designed for the young learner. This course will also motivate you for your day in the early childhood classroom! A great amount of emphasis will be placed on practical ways to help you continue to be a successful teacher. When you feel comfortable and are enjoying your day in the classroom, so are your young students. This class will be a fun and lively way for you to work with your peers on teaching skills that help you help the young learner!
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Guided independent study only.
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Instructor: Melody Christensen |
New! How Did We Get Here From There?—Historical Perspectives on Contemporary Issues in Schools |
Guided independent study only.
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iLife for the Classroom |
iLife '05 is Apple's suite of integrated media design applications. iMovie for editing digital video, iPhoto for digital photography, iTunes for managing digital music, and iDVD for creating your own DVDs and GarageBand which lets you easily perform, record and create your own music. This session will introduce participants to the basic features and components of each application and also how all the applications work together seamlessly to create multimedia that enhances curriculum and underpins powerful learning models. Curriculum integration strategies and ideas will be discussed.
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Request this class for your school or district by contacting us. |
Instructor: TBA |
Keeping on Track: Morale and Effectiveness (K-12) |
With guidance, you will design an individual action plan that will support your staying motivated, energized and effective in your work as an educator. With increased morale and positive energy you will be more effective in all aspects of your job and a better role model of positive interpersonal, problem solving and work related behaviors. Our course topics include:
. Identifying and using your unique strengths and characteristics
. Growth and balance in your work and life
. On-the-job and other networks for collegial learning and support
. Describing your best vision of yourself as an educator; making time for activities
that will forward your vision
. Problem solving
. Interpersonal Communication
. Arts, nature and fun
The class includes partner and small group work, individual reflections, and a presentation of your action plan. Articles, web sites and enrichment materials are included in our course booklet and hand-outs. (Available for graduate credit with the addition of in-depth research and report.)
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Instructor: TBA |
New! "The Life You Save May Be Your Own": The Imaginative Literature of Flannery O’Connor |
Flannery O’Connor was one of the most important writers from the Deep South in the mid-twentieth century. Though she had a short life (1925-1964), O’Connor’s influence is long-reaching. Several of her books were published after her death. In 1971, for example, O’Connor was posthumously awarded the National Book Award for Fiction for The Complete Stories. She was only the second twentieth-century writer (after William Faulkner) to have her work collected for the Library of America, the definitive edition of American authors.
Alfred Kazin wrote in The New York Times Book Review, “She was not just the best ‘woman writer’ of this time and place; she expressed something secret about America, called ‘the South’ with that transcendent gift for expressing the real spirit of a culture that is conveyed by those writers . . . who become nothing but what they see. Completeness is one word for it: relentlessness, unsparingness would be others. She was a genius.” In 1979, John Huston directed the film, Wise Blood, based on the Flannery O’Connor’s novel.
This Guided Independent Study (GIS) offers students the possibility to delve deeply in Flannery O’Connor’s “Deep South” and her perspective of the human experience. Students will read O’Connor’s novels, short stories, essays, and book of letters. Consideration will also be given to the rich biographical and literary resources regarding this seminal writer.
Teachers, and lovers of literature, will find rich resources for their students and for themselves.
Contact the instructor, Stephen York at StpYo@aol.com, for the syllabus.
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Guided independent study only. |
Instructor: Stephen York |
A Literacy Circles Classroom |
This course shows what goes on inside the "black box," your classroom. Although all topics are grounded in student-centered literacy research and formative assessment theory, you’ll hear little about theory and research. Donald Graves said, "The tone for a writing classroom is set by what the teacher does, not by what the teacher says." This course was designed for teachers who want to know more about how to teach and model interaction, how to provide formative response and how to create a warm, accepting classroom community. Topics include: Writing that Matters, Building Topics from Within the Student, How Choice Brings About Voice, Writing to Learn Content, Building a Safe Literacy Classroom Community, Writing to Initiate Thinking, portfolios that document growth and at the same time make your classroom a more rewarding place for both you and your students, Literature Circles from start to finish is a complete literacy workshop classroom management system.
Important: All course activities include the reality of State Assessment. This course will show how to use literacy methods that matter with our students every day and at the same time insure that our students will care enough to send the very best during assessment week.
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Request this class for your school or district by contacting us. |
Instructor: TBA |
New! The Long and the Short of It: Teaching—through the Short Story |
“Stories have the power to direct and change our lives.” --Nel Noddings, Stories lives tell: Narrative and dialogue in education, (p.157) New York: Teachers College Press. (1991)
The short story as a literary genre and pedagogical methodology is considered through the lens of three classic 20th Century American writers: Flannery O’Connor, Jesse Stuart, and Eudora Welty. Participants will read and reflect on the short story in theory and practice, as well as read about the lives of these three acclaimed storytellers. Teacher reflection, with an eye toward using the short story effectively in the classroom, is a critical component of the study.
This is a limited enrollment course and may be taken at the locations below in weekend or summer sessions, or as a Guided Independent Study (GIS). Acceptance into the course is by consent of the instructor. This is a rigorous, graduate level course and may be taken for either 3 semester hours of graduate credit or for 4.5 or CEUs. Graduate credits are issued through Plymouth State University, Plymouth, New Hampshire. CEUs issued by AICE are recognized for teacher recertification purposes by the Maine Department of Education, as stated on the DOE website.Participants must possess an undergraduate degree.
For a syllabus, contact the instructor, Stephen York at StpYo@aol.com
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Bangor |
September 14, October 19, November 16, and December 14.
The four-part, Sunday sessions will be held from 9 AM to 5 PM. |
Lewiston/Auburn |
January 11, January 18, February 13-14, 2009
The first two meetings are Sunday-only sessions, 9 AM to 5 PM. The course will conclude with a weekend session on February 13-14, Friday, 4 PM to 9 PM and Saturday, 9 AM to 5PM. |
Instructor: Stephen York |
New! Looking at Ourselves in the Mirror: Teachers as Reflective Practitioners |
This graduate-level seminar provides teachers and administrators a rich, transformative learning opportunity to look at themselves, their teaching practice, and culture of schools in the mirror of self-reflection. With a collegial, supportive cohort of peers, participants examine the philosophy, learning theories, and best practices of teaching and learning. The goal is to move teaching beyond "transmititive" to "transformative." Using the model of "learning by doing," participants will actively challenge themselves with critical and reflective reading, writing, and dialogue in small and larger group settings and online. Educators will be able to apply this "critical way of being" not only for themselves, but for their students. The seminal work of Parker Palmer, Anne Brockbank, and Ian McGill informs this study.
This is a limited enrollment course and acceptance into it is by consent of the instructor. This is a rigorous, graduate level course and may be taken for either 3 or 6 semester hours of credit. It may also be taken for 4.5 or 9.0 CEUs. Graduate credits are issued through Plymouth State University, Plymouth, New Hampshire. CEUs issued by AICE are recognized for teacher recertification purposes by the Maine Department of Education, as stated on the DOE website.
Participants must possess an undergraduate degree. Preference is given to experienced teachers. New teachers are accepted on a case-by-case basis, with permission of the instructor.
For more information contact the instructor, Stephen York at StpYo@aol.com
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Instructor: Stephen York |
Maine History Highlights (K-12) |
Participants will learn more about Maine's history including the men and women who shaped Maine and the state's social, economic, political and cultural background from historic times to the present. This interactive course focuses on creative approaches to teaching Maine History: how to relate Maine History to individual communities; how to obtain primary/elementary/secondary resource materials; and how to adapt resource materials to meet local needs. Field trips to local historical places of interest will be included.
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Guided Independent Study |
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Instructor: TBA |
Making Writers out of "Kids Who Hate to Write" |
Teaching kids to write -- and to like writing -- has never been easy. And now Learning Results and No Child Left Behind are putting more pressure on the classroom teacher as well as ed techs who work one-on-one with so many students. It's even tougher when you're trying to bring along students in the regular classroom who lack basic skills or have trouble expressing themselves. This course will help you modify your classroom instruction with graphic aids or templates that get your learners over the organizational hurdles that discourage so many new writers before they even put pen to paper. Keyed to practical exercises that you can try out in our AICE setting, this course will also offer a host of content ideas to help you answer the eternal complaint: "But I don't know what to write about!"
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Lewiston/Auburn |
October 3/4 & November 7/8 |
Portland |
October 24/25 & November 21/22 |
Bangor |
February 20/21 & March 6/7 |
Brunswick |
February 27/28 & March 27/28 |
Instructor: David Griffiths |
Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction and the Relaxation Process |
This course will introduce how stress affects a child’s ability to learn and techniques designed to help students with stress management. Emphasis will be placed on a teacher’s ability to focus and calm a class by using concentration exercises, imagery scripts, relaxation techniques, music, and movement. Participants will discover the value of creating a centered and focused classroom by introducing periods of short daily stress management to the students. Maximum number of registrants: 16
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Request this class for your school or district by contacting us. |
Instructor: TBA |
Methods for Teaching Civics and Government (4-12) |
Many schools have begun to add Civics courses to their required curriculum for all students. Since the events of 9/11, there has been a resurgence of interest in patriotism. This course will look at the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, the individual's opportunity for involvement with state and local government, and how we balance our freedoms and our need for safety. We will examine how the constitution has evolved through history to reflect our changing society. Eduators will have an opportunity to look at materials dealing with such issues as diversity, discrimination, and prejudice. Lewiston, Brunswick
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Instructor: TBA |
Nature in the Classroom (K-6) |
Discover and develop ways to successfully incorporate nature education and appreciation into your everyday curriculum. You will learn how to teach about nature, how environmental education can foster scientific thinking, and how to use the woods, gardens, fields, and wetlands around your school as outdoor classrooms. You will participate in many hands-on activities to get a feel of nature activities in action and gain the confidence needed to feel comfortable in teaching this often unfamiliar topic. You will receive resource materials, information sheets, and compiled lists of activities/ideas to do all year long. No natural history background is needed, just enthusiasm and interest to inspire your students to become better stewards of their environment! (Wear clothes appropriate for outdoor exploration).
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Request this class for your school or district by contacting us. |
Instructor: TBA |
New! On Resistance to Reading & Democracy: Literary Perspectives |
The vital relationship of literacy, the freedom of the press, and democratic participation is considered through the lens of four classic novels: Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, George Orwell’s 1984, Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake, and Sinclair Lewis’s It Can’t Happen Here. Participants will reflect on the implications of these perspectives on their teaching practice in a media-driven culture that is growing in its resistance to reading.
This is a limited enrollment course and may be taken as a Guided Independent Study (GIS) or in weekend and summer sessions. Acceptance into the course is by consent of the instructor. This is a rigorous, graduate level course and may be taken for either 3 semester hours of graduate credit or for 4.5 CEUs. Graduate credits are issued through Plymouth State University, Plymouth, New Hampshire. CEUs issued by AICE are recognized for teacher recertification purposes by the Maine Department of Education, as stated on the DOE website.
Participants must possess an undergraduate degree. Preference is given to experienced teachers. New teachers are accepted on a case-by-case basis, with permission of the instructor.
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Bangor |
June 29, July 20, August 17, and September 21. These sessions will be held from 9 AM to 5 PM. |
Portland |
July 27, August 24, September 28, and October 26. These sessions will be held from 9 AM to 5 PM. |
Lewiston-Auburn |
October 5, November 9, December 7, and in the new year, January 11 |
Instructor: Stephen York |
New! On Maine and the World: May Sarton—Her Work, Her Life |
Guided independent study only.
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A Passion for Teaching: A Retreat for Educators |
This retreat is an opportunity for teachers, administrators, and educational technicians to reflect on their hopes and dreams for the new school year. Parker Palmer's book THE COURAGE TO TEACH will be the basis of our discussions. Come and join other educators from around the State of Maine for this new opportunity to begin the 2008-2009 school year with a time of reflect on the courageous work of teaching in a highly stress-filled school culture.
The retreat will also offer an opportunity for AICE participants from around the State of Maine to meet veteran and new instructors and to learn about our exciting professional development course work.
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Portland |
August 29/30 and December 12/13 |
Instructor: Stephen York |
Podcasting in Education (K-12) |
The benefits of podcasting are limitless! Learn how it can become an integral form of communication between all stakeholders in the education process, including students, administration, your professional development team, and parents! This podcast course features educators at all levels showcasing how they are using podcasting in their educational niche. You will learn from an Apple Distinguished Educator how to download podcasts for enjoyment as well as produce a podcast of your own. Max 12
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Instructor: TBA |
New! Remembering Our Writers: Utilizing Maine Writers in the Classroom (K-12) |
Maine has been and continues to be home to notable writers in every genre for all age groups including E.B. White, Sarah Orne Jewett, Longfellow, Doris Grumbach, May Sarton, Robert McCloskey to name a very few. In this study, participants will self-design a study of a writer(s) who lived in Maine for all or part of their writing life and how to utilize their study within their respective classrooms. This course will be a collaborative learning process using Best Practices in adult learning. Contact Stephen York, Instructor, ASAP for course syllabus information upon registration at: StpYo@aol.com.
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Portland |
August 1/2 & September 5/6 |
December 5-6 and January 16-17 |
Instructor: Stephen York |
New! So All May Learn: Behavior Management Strategies for Educational Technicians and Teachers (K-12) |
We will look at challenging behaviors in schools (K-12) and ways that teachers and educational technicians may work in the classroom to maximize learning and to minimize disruptive behavior. This course will be a collaborative learning process using Best Practices in adult learning. Contact the instructor for course syllabus information upon registration at: StpYo@aol.com.
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Caribou |
October 3/4 and November 7/8 |
Lewiston/Auburn |
November 21/22 and January 9/10 |
Also available online and as an independent study. |
Instructor: Stephen York |
Styles and Intelligences |
How can you most effectively teach, realizing your class is comprised of individuals with diverse learning styles, abilities, and interests? A Jungian derived model describes four interrelated learning and teaching styles: Collaboration/Experiential, Self-Expression, Understanding, and Mastery. The Theory of Multiple Intelligences lists eight distinct ways of being smart. Based on these two frameworks and othersñworking individually and in groupsñyou will receive, create, and share activities that address your students' diverse learning styles, abilities, and learning environment preferences. With knowledge of various frameworks for looking at strengths and abilities you can teach around the wheel, assuring that each of your students is both affirmed in preferred learning modes and stretched to develop underutilized capacities. If you are on a journey toward creating a learning environment where all your students succeed, this course will move you closer to your destination.
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Request this class for your school or district by contacting us. |
Instructor: TBA |
Successful Strategies in Today's Classroom for Education Technicians |
This course includes a comprehensive study of the vital role and responsibilities of Educational Technicians in the classroom. It includes behavior management, classroom organization, ethics, developing instructional skills, effective communication, and much more. A great opportunity for new and continuing Educational Technicians to develop professionally. This course will be a collaborative learning process using Best Practices in adult learning. Contact Stephen York, Instructor, ASAP for course syllabus information upon registration at: StpYo@aol.com.
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Ellsworth |
August 25 - Aug. 29 |
Also available online and as an independent study. |
Instructor: Stephen York |
New! Supervising, Evaluating, and Training Educational Technicians |
Educational Technicians play significant roles in supporting instruction and services in public schools. Their effectiveness is to a large part influenced by the quality of the training and supervision they receive. These duties are often largely the reponsibility of the teachers who work with these Educational Technicians. This training program helps prepare special educators, classroom teachers and school administrators to assign, train, supervise and evaluate these vital members of the classroom team.
The training program features five units of web-based independent study with various activities and on-line resources. Activities integrate the content of the self-study lessons with application to actual or simulated situations. The five units include the Role of Educational Technicians in the Classroom, along with a look at Training, Supervision, Evaluation, and Programs. The study includes a survey of the Professional and Ethical Issues in the Utilization of Educational Technicians. It will include reading and reviewing materials around
best practices.
This course will also be offered in a regular AICE weekend setting in Bangor and Portland. Please contact Stephen York, Instructor, for information at StpYo@aol.com
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Instructor: Stephen York |
Teacher As a Life Coach: Motivating Students from Inside Out |
The value of coaching is now recognized for its positive and lasting effects in the lives of individuals, as well as for improving productivity and performance in organizations and businesses. As a teacher, you are a life coach to every student in your classroom.
In this hands-on course, develop practical coaching skills designed empower and inspire your students from the inside out. Through interactive activities, learn to coach students to move beyond self imposed limitations and implement proven action steps to soar to new levels of success. Learn to balance mind, body and spirit within the classroom and nurture your students’ unique and inherent gifts.
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Portland |
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Instructor: Donna Packard |
New! Teaching: A Novel Approach |
In a culture of unprecedented demands on teachers from federal and state mandates, systems issues and challenging pressures from a variety of stakeholders in schools, teachers need time to pause and reflect on their vocation. This course offers a "novel" opportunity for teachers to do so and to remember all of the good reasons why they entered the teaching profession in the first place.
Participants will select, read, and reflect on teaching through the lens of literature: the novel, memoir, biography. Throughout this venue, teachers will have the opportunity to explore the vast numbers of stories about teaching and to reflect on their own practice. This course is also offered as an independent study. Please contact Stephen York, Instructor, for information at StpYo@aol.com
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Ellsworth |
October 17/18 & November 14/15 |
Teaching the Exceptional Child in the Regular Classroom (K-12) |
This course is acceptable for initial certification as well as re-certification and this course also meets the Maine State Guidelines for the mandated course, Teaching the Exceptional Child in the Regular Classroom. Emphasis will be placed on the education of exceptional students in regular classroom programs. Your seminar leaders will include the following information: characterization of exceptional students, assessing the curriculum and the student, learning styles /instructional styles, measuring outcomes, immediate feedback through self-correction, test construction, classroom management, effective use of support systems, working with parents, and an overview of the current state and federal laws.
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Bangor |
September 19/20 & October 24/25 |
Ellsworth |
August 11-15 |
Instructors: Fred Brown and Stephen York |
Teaching Stress Management Skills to Children |
This course will introduce how stress effects a child’s ability to learn and techniques designed to help students with stress management. Emphasis will be placed on a teacher’s ability to focus and calm a class by using concentration exercises, imagery scripts, relaxation techniques, music, and movement. Participants will discover the value of creating a centered and focused classroom by introducing periods of short daily stress management to the students.
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Instructor: TBA |
New! Their Voices Were Not Silent—Women Writers from Maine |
Guided independent study only.
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What's New in Children's Literature: A Writer’s Workshop |
What's new in children's literature?-- A LOT! Explore the following genres with Pat Davidson Reef: fantasy, realistic fiction, folk tales, fables, animal stories, mythology, historical fiction, biography and more. Learn how to identify and select quality literature and how to integrate these books into your curriculum. Also included will be ways to present a successful story time, how to actively teach the reading/writing connection, samples of multi-level skill-based activities, and ways to include The Maine State Learning Results in your reading program.
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Instructor: Melody Christensen |
New! Whatever Happened to Childhood?—On Growing Up in Today’s World |
“Children are the messages that we send out to a time that we will never see.” --Neil Postman, The Disappearance of Childhood
In this course, postmodern childhood and adolescence will be considered in their historical, psychological, cultural, and developmental contexts. Throughout this study, students will read and reflect in a process journal on the writing and research of seminal thinkers such as: Neil Postman (The Disappearance of Childhood), David Elkind (The Hurried Child; All Grown Up and Nowhere to Go; Reinventing Childhood), Robert Coles (Children of Crisis—a 1971 Pulitzer Prize winning book), Carol Gilligan (In a Different Voice), and Lawrence Kohlberg (Approach to Moral Education), among others. Students will use an Individualized Learning Plan applying Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development, to consider the complex challenges that children face, as they develop in a global village. The study concludes with a project-based learning experience and action/reflection paper.
This course may be taken for 4.5 CEU credit (acceptable to the Maine Department of Education for teacher recertification) or for 3 graduate credits (through arrangement between The American Institute for Creative Education (AICE) and Plymouth State University in New Hampshire.) An undergraduate degree is a prerequisite for graduate credit. It is offered as a Guided Independent Study (GIS) and will be offered in 2009 in weekend and summer intensive sessions.
Contact the instructor, Stephen York at StpYo@aol.com <mailto:StpYo@aol.com> for a copy of the syllabus. Mr. York also serves as the Dean for AICE.
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Guided independent study only.
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A Writer’s Workshop |
This course guides teachers through a sequence of rituals for the first six weeks of Writers Workshop in your classroom. Teachers will learn how to set in place specific research-based practices that will nudge young writers along toward choice, voice and fluency. The key strategies are interaction, response, audience awareness and reward. It is never too late to have a happy childhood, and literacy learning must be rewarding. This course details how to provide the response that will make each child’s journey toward fluency a rewarding experience.
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Request this class for your school or district by contacting us. |
Instructor: Melody Christensen |
