Mary Wolf | Online Learning for Teachers pursuing Continuing Education and Professional Development | The Connecting Link

 

Mary Wolf

Instructor photo

Mary Wolf has been working for The Connecting Link for eight years. She is a 5th grade math teacher in suburban Chicago, where she has been teaching for thirteen years. She began her association with TCL as a student and was intrigued by the varied course offerings and the multiple instructional delivery methods (in person, online, structured). Over the years she has met many outstanding educators through Connecting Link classes and looks forward to enhancing those and forging new ones!

To leverage our world’s ever-changing and developing depth of online resources, educators will learn how to use a variety of online websites, applications, and various other digital resources to enhance classroom instruction and support the needs of all learners through multiple learning mediums. Educators will become exposed to a variety of digital resources to foster collaboration between students, stimulate creativity, create differentiated assessments easily, and strengthen the communication pathways home to parents. Participants will gain an understanding of internet resources that can aid in audio/video recording, interactive whiteboards, brainstorming, mind-mapping, project management, portfolios, creation of quizzes-polls-surveys, study-guides/flashcards, flipped classroom tools and screencasting, online formative assessments, eBooks, and social media as a vehicle for communication with students and parents, as well as other communication applications. Participants will leave the course with tools to maximize the learning environment through technology engagement and inspire creativity in their students.
Course #: IMS23518
Dates: 07/10/23 - 07/23/23
Categories:

Technology Tools for the Classroom Content-Area Teaching

Format:

Interactive

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This course provides participants with a deep understanding of the value and benefits involved with incorporating a comprehensive approach to school health and wellness. With an emphasis on physical health, physical activity, nutrition, mental health, and social/emotional learning, this course is designed to help educators implement wellness practices and policies to make schools healthier places where both students and staff thrive. Participants in this course will also focus on the value of partnerships with fellow educators, school leaders, families/caregivers, and community leaders to provide consistent messaging and meaningful learning experiences intended to build a foundation for lifelong health and wellness.
Course #: IMS23522
Dates: 07/24/23 - 08/06/23
Categories:

Social & Emotional Learning Positive Classroom Management Teacher Health

Format:

Interactive

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This course is designed to give educators at all levels (K-12) an overview of the complexities of bullying that include the bully, victim, and bystander. Bullying occurs in a variety of forms in every school and not only does it impact students, but parents and teachers as well. In this course, participants will explore current research and learn how to effectively combat a variety of bullying (physical, verbal, social, and cyberbullying), and construct a classroom culture of growth and mutual respect. Educators will develop effective tools for the identification and prevention of bullying behaviors, as well as tools to deal with the bully, victim, and bystanders to create opportunities for change which can positively influence student relationships and achievement.
Course #: IMS23523
Dates: 08/07/23 - 08/20/23
Categories:

Equity & Diversity 21st-Century Teaching

Format:

Interactive

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Educators today are tasked with improving student learning. This course equips educators in K-12 classrooms to do so. Participants in this course will examine many methodologies of different brain researched-based frameworks to help educators improve student learning and educate parents on their child’s learning strengths and weaknesses. Participants will gain knowledge of how the brain works and how educators can use brain-based strategies to improve memory and retrieval of information. The course will center around the research of Dr. Judy Willis, Dr. Eric Jensen, and others on understanding brain processes that can help educators rethink how they engage students in their own learning. Additional topics include developing lesson plans and activities with brain-based research in mind, critical thinking methodologies, teaching students to self-reflect on their own learning process and how they learn, looking at how social and emotional learning impacts learning, the impact learning styles have on thinking strategies, developing assessments built around brain-based learning principles, and connecting parents/home to brain-based learning to aid in their child’s cognitive development at home.
Course #: IMS23513
Dates: 06/26/23 - 07/09/23
Categories:

21st-Century Teaching Instructional Strategies

Format:

Interactive

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Participants in this course will learn how to build academic success by exploring and developing tools for cultivating their students’ attention and designing active learning experiences for all learners. Participants will explore creative strategies for reaching students from distractions to regaining and focusing their attention for learning. Research is based on Caitrin Blake, Neil Bradbury and Jaren Cooney Horvath, among others. Foundational work in this course will include the research on understanding distraction, strategies to decrease distractions, bringing students' attention within the classroom, and the different types of attention: curious, divided, structured, sustaining, mindful. Participants will synthesize these paradigms and develop a new understanding of the role that attention can play in student learning along with new tools, strategies and techniques for cultivating students’ attention along with a state-of-the-art approach in learning to meet their educational goals.
Course #: IMS23524
Dates: 05/08/23 - 06/04/23
Categories:

Positive Classroom Management Social & Emotional Learning

Format:

Interactive

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Participants in this course will learn how to build academic success by exploring and developing tools to increase K-12 students’ soft skills (communication, work ethic, leadership, personal responsibility, and listening.) They will recognize and prioritize their students’ soft skills that will be valuable in reaching future goals, remaining optimistic, and dealing with conflict in their schooling. Participants will explore a series of strategies for reaching and helping students learn appropriate behaviors, strategies for the future, and ways to help prepare them for college and career readiness. Research is based on the works of Robert W. Gaines, II, Ph.D., Meca B. Mohammed, Ph.D., Cheryl Talley, Ph.D., and Marcheta Evans, Ph.D., among others. Foundational work in this course will include the research on understanding soft skills, strategies to develop soft skills, bringing students' soft skills to reach within the classroom, and the different types of soft skills: communication, work ethic, leadership, personal responsibility, and listening. Participants will synthesize these paradigms and develop a new understanding of the role that soft skills can play in student learning, along with new tools and techniques for cultivating students’ soft skills.
Course #: IMW23015
Dates: 04/10/23 - 05/07/23
Categories:

Positive Classroom Management Content-Area Teaching

Format:

Interactive

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Participants in this course will examine methodologies to facilitate the development of a mathematical mindset centered around the research of Dr. Carol Dweck’s mindset theory, Dr. Jo Boaler’s classroom approach, and Dr. Susan Johnston-Wilder’s international research in math anxiety components. Participants will reflect on their own teaching practices and explore strategies and frameworks that incorporate a student’s mathematical experience and evolution. The foundations of developing a mathematical mindset will be researched. Strategies for helping students, teachers, and parents understand what a mathematical mindset is and how it is effectively implemented by reducing math anxiety will be explored. Participants will learn how to create a welcoming, yet challenging mathematic classroom experience, implement strategies/best-practices to foster a mathematical mindset for their students. Participants will learn that math stress/anxiety reducing strategies in one’s classroom and helping students understand their anxieties can improve their internal motivation. Additional topics in the course are effective lesson planning to combat math anxiety to grow mathematical mindsets, explore online/digital resources to support mathematic classroom needs, including students with special needs, and making meaningful connections with parents to strength and preserve the mathematical mindset at home.
Course #: IMS23506
Dates: 06/12/23 - 06/25/23
Categories:

Instructional Strategies Content-Area Teaching Mathematics

Format:

Interactive

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