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 Writing Teacher K-12 |
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! 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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Biddeford |
October 14, 16, 21, 23 4:30-9 |
Instructor: Fred Brown |
New! Bringing the Best Out of Your Students: A Workshop for Teachers and Educational Technicians K-12 |
“What does it take to bring the best out of our students, academically and behaviorally, in K-12 classrooms?” This seminar will consider the question in the context of what many believe is an “educational crisis,” along with the impact of unhealthy anxiety on the learning process. We will also reflect on how to have “high expectations” without “high anxiety.” This workshop is offered for one weekend only. Participants will earn 1.0 CEU for the seminar. There are no presession or post-session requirements. We will eat dinner together on Friday evening and lunch together on Saturday. Participants are responsible for cost of meals.
Workshop Tuition: $200.00 (includes registration fee)
Extended Learning Option: 4.5 CEU or 3 graduate credits are available for participants who wish to extend their learning. Regular tuition costs apply. Please contact the instructor for more information.
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Bangor |
December 5-6, 2008 (The Hampton Inn—Bangor Mall) |
Portland |
October 31—November 1, 2008 (Howard Johnson’s – 155 Riverside Street) |
Instructor: Dean Stephen York at StpYo@aol.com |
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 |
TBA |
Instructor: Stephen York |
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. Contact DonnaPackard@aol.com for course syllabus.
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Instructor: Donna Packard |
New! The First “Mainers”—Teaching K-12 Students about Maine’s Native Americans |
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This course will examine the history of Native Americans in the State of Maine and consider how to effectively teach this history in the K-12 classrooms.
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Teachers and educational technicians, as reflective practitioners, will consider the history and significance of Native Americans in the rich tapestry of Maine history.
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Consideration will be given to developing pedagogical strategies to teach this history and to instill an appreciation for this rich heritage in students in K-12 classrooms.
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Attention will be given to the State of Maine standards and learning results, as applicable.
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Teachers will also reflect upon their own understanding and appreciation for Native American history in Maine and develop resources for teaching about this important and often neglected part of the State’s history.
For course information: Email Stephen York, AICE Dean, StpYo@aol.com |
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Instructor: Stephen York |
New! Give Them "Roots and Wings"-the Power of Story in Teaching and Learning for Teachers and Educational Technicians K-12 |
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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Presque Isle |
July 6 through 10 |
Naples |
July 13 through 17 |
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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Integrating Technology and Teaching: K-12 |
Machias |
February 13/14 and April 10/11 |
New! Encountering Children’s Literature through the Arts: PreK-8 |
Unique in its Arts approach, this course unlocks the potential of the arts for learning in the children's literature classroom. This study provides a new perspective on how integrating the fine arts and literature fosters the active participation and in-depth understanding that is as important for future and practicing teachers as it is to children. We will use Jane Gangi's book, Encountering Children's Literature combines emphasis on multicultural and international literature with a focus on the aesthetic and artistic aspects of literature, music, the visual arts, and drama in order to promote culturally responsive and research-based teaching. The text caters to those who are interested in making reading more inviting to diverse groups with varied learning styles. Multiple points of entry open up new dimensions in literature, helping readers develop their unique talents and abilities.
This will be include experiential, project-based learning, with immediate applications to the Pre-K to 8 classrooms.
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Portland |
July 20 through 24 |
Bangor |
May 15/16 & TBA |
Belfast |
TBA |
Brunswick |
TBA |
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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 |
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 |
Contact Dean Stephen York, StpYo@aol.com |
Lewiston/Auburn |
Contact Dean Stephen York, StpYo@aol.com |
Instructor: Stephen York |
New! Looking at Ourselves in the Mirror: Teachers as Reflective Practitioners |
This seminar provides teachers, educational technicians, and administrators an opportunity for self-reflection on:
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The nature of learning: doing, thinking, feeling
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Learning as a Social Activity
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Power and Passivity in Learning
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Levels of Learning
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Single-loop and Double-loop learning
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Applications for subject-learning, self-learning, and social learning in the classroom
For more information contact the instructor, Stephen York at StpYo@aol.com
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Bangor |
February 5, March 12, April 2, May 7, and June 4. 4-7 PM |
Instructor: Stephen York |
Maine Writers for the K-12 Classroom |
Portland |
May 15/16 (with Guided Independent Study component) |
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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Portland |
October 24/25 & November 21/22 |
Bangor |
February 6/7 & March 13/14 |
Brunswick |
February 27/28 & March 27/28 |
Instructor: David Griffiths or Melody Christensen |
New! Math Instruction for Students with Learning Disabilities K-12 |
This course will be using a field-tested and research-based approach to mathematics instruction for students with learning problems designed to build the confidence and competence of teachers and educational technicians (Pre-K-12)
Course goals include: significantly improved teacher and student attitudes about mathematics, increased mathematics content understanding, and professional-level skills in mathematics assessment and instruction. Also addressed are other student learning issues such as language, specific mathematics disabilities, prior experiences, and cognitive and metacognitive factors.
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Bangor |
January 9/10 & March 13/14 |
Instructor: TBA |
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 |
New! Brave New World: Literary Perspectives on Reading and Democracy |
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.
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Portland |
January 29, March 5, April 9, May 14, and June 11
4-7 pm |
Lewiston-Auburn |
Contact Dean Stephen York, StpYo@aol.com |
Instructor: Stephen York |
New! On Maine and the World: May Sarton—Her Work, Her Life |
Guided independent study only.
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Response to Intervention: Principles and Strategies |
Caribou |
August 3 through 7 |
Brunswick |
April 17/18 & May 23/23 |
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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Instructor: Stephen York |
Secondary Methods: Curriculum and Instruction 7-12 |
Bangor |
April 20 through 24, 2009 (9 AM to 4 PM) (school vacation week) |
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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Ellsworth |
August 10 through 14, 2009 |
Gardiner |
August 17 through 21 |
Bangor |
February 6/7 & March 13/14 |
Naples |
May 1/2 and June 19/20 |
Portland |
January 30/31 & March 6/7 |
Machias |
February 13/14 and April 10/11 |
Belfast |
September 26/27 & October 17/18 |
Also available as an independent study. |
Instructor: Stephen York |
Successful Strategies in Today's Classroom for Education Technicians |
This study begins with a one-day workshop and is completed by web-based distance learning for full course credit. Stephen York, AICE Dean, will be the instructor.
Some of the topics covered include:
• Roles and Responsibilities of Educational Technicians
• Organization and Management of the Classroom
• Developing Instructional Skills
• Effective Communication with Students, Teachers, and Other Professionals
• Ethical Issues for Educational Technicians
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Bangor |
Thursday, December 4th 9 AM - 4 PM |
Portland |
Thursday, December 11th 9 AM - 4 PM |
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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Bangor |
November 14/15 and December 19/20 |
Teaching in the Block: Strategies for Engaging Learners |
Machias |
TBA |
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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Augusta |
July 27 through July 31 |
Bangor |
September 19/20 & October 24/25 |
Belfast |
January 16/17 and March 27/28 |
Lewiston/Auburn |
January 23/24 & February 27/28 |
Instructors: Fred Brown and Stephen York |
New! Teaching Maine History to K-12 Students |
This course will examine the history of the State of Maine and consider how to effectively teach this history in the K-12 classrooms.
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Teachers, as reflective practitioners, will consider the history and the rich tapestry of Maine history.
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Consideration will be given to developing pedagogical strategies to teach this history and to instill an appreciation for this rich heritage in students in K-12 classrooms.
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Attention will be given to the State of Maine standards and learning results, as applicable.
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Teachers will also reflect upon their own understanding and appreciation for Maine’s history and develop resources for teaching it in the K-12 classrooms.
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Bangor |
TBA |
Instructor: Betty Duff, Ph.D. |
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: 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 books into your curriculum. Also included will be ways to present a successful story time, how to actively teach the reading/writing connection and samples of multi-level skill-based activities.
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Bangor |
December 5/6 and January 9/10 |
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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