Bring out the best in your photos! In this course, you'll learn how to use Adobe Photoshop Elements to do everything from quick fixes to detailed enhancements that will greatly improve the look of your digital images. Even if you don't have any image-editing experience, this class will turn you into an advanced photo editor.

As you explore the program's many tools and features, you'll gain control of Photoshop Elements and create results that you never imagined possible. You'll master techniques for editing images, fixing flaws, enhancing the final product, creating simple art projects, preparing images for online use, and organizing your images.

For more information or to register please click the link.

If you've taken the first Photoshop Elements for the Digital Photographer course, or if you have a basic working knowledge of Photoshop Elements, this course will help you take your skills to the next level. You'll gain ability and confidence as you master the advanced features of this software, specifically designed for photo enthusiasts. Packed with hands-on activities and step-by-step instructions, this course will make you an accomplished editor.

Photoshop Elements gives you room to grow while allowing you to create exciting effects right from the beginning. Because it offers you more features and tools than you'll find in simpler programs, it broadens the options available to you as an amateur photographer. With the techniques you'll learn here, you'll be able to edit and enhance your photos with ease, and you'll have the power to transform any shot from "okay" to "wow!".

For more information or to register please click the links.

Ready, Set, Read!

Take this opportunity to find out how children really learn to read and write. Explore current research that cuts through the media messages about reading wars and the right way to teach children. Learn by reading stories about children, doing interactive assignments, and exploring the latest in parent and childcare information. You will see everyday children's play with a new eye as you understand how play can connect to literacy.

You'll learn how a child becomes literate from the moment of birth. First, you'll investigate the many things a child's growing mind must do to make sense of the written word and create writing. From there, you'll explore the development of reading and writing from infancy to the early school years. You'll know what problems to look for and how to assist a struggling reader. You will see how you can boost literacy growth during daily routines and child's play.

Gain confidence in your ability to guide a child's literacy development, and take pleasure in seeing how even the littlest events can lead to major steps in reading and writing success.

Guided Reading and Writing: Strategies for Maximum Student Achievement

Around 30% of students in sixth grade already have trouble with basic reading and writing. These literacy problems affect performance across subject areas, and they often leave teachers wondering how to help. Get the professional development training you need to improve student literacy as an accomplished teacher shares the secrets of turning guided reading strategies into opportunities for teaching writing. The road to literacy is also the road to ingenuity, invention, and imagination, and you'll soon learn how to take your students from groans to grins with creative lesson plans that really work!

We'll start our journey by talking about the reasons reading and writing are so difficult for students. Then we'll meet the total literacy framework and see how it mitigates literacy problems once and for all. Since this framework is based on guided reading lessons that flow naturally into writing challenges, you'll learn the recipe for a successful guided reading into writing lesson.

Once the framework is in place, we'll investigate a number of ways to modify this basic recipe for a variety of K-12 circumstances, wrapping up with a look at good writing habits and the traits of a productive writing conference. If you're looking for the right way to get students excited about the power of literacy, this is the course for you!

Note: To receive 25 hours of instruction in the State of Oregon, please ensure your school is eligible to issue professional development units, and that the course is approved by your professional learning coordinator.

Guided Reading: Strategies for the Differentiated Classroom

Now more than ever, today's teachers are grappling with the question of how to reach struggling readers. While there are no quick fixes, thousands of teachers are combining the principles of differentiated instruction and guided reading with unparalleled success. Mixed in the right proportion, these popular strategies will help you build a balanced literary framework that gets results with even the most challenged learners.

Differentiated instruction tactics will help you understand how your students learn so that you can teach in a way that makes sense to them. When you apply those tactics within the guided reading framework, which helps you lead students through new ways of approaching text, great things start to happen. The result is a classroom full of students who are able to negotiate increasingly challenging texts with unprecedented fluency.

This course is critical for today's educators, who often have to teach on the run with limited resources and unlimited demands on their time. Get ready to reach your readers with ease in no time flat!

Response to Intervention: Reading Strategies That Work

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could be proactive in helping our struggling readers? Well, we can! In this six-week course, you'll learn response to intervention (RTI) strategies that ensure the struggling readers in your classroom get the help and education they need. RTI is research based and gives us a strategic plan to bring tiered interventions to our students, at their reading level and with their unique challenges in mind. Helping them with phonics, fluency, vocabulary mastery, comprehension, and writing, these intervention strategies tackle the toughest literacy problems with flexibility and creativity.

During our time together, you'll discover tools like Elkonin Boxes, alphabetic arcs, Bloom's Taxonomy, and new and exciting graphic organizers. Whether you're working with struggling readers in kindergarten or 12th grade, you'll find that these strategies work with a full 80% of students, without the need for special pull-outs or extra IEP intervention. Why? Because RTI gets to the root of the problem—quickly!

If you're eager to learn the right ways to help your struggling readers make steady progress throughout the year, you'll find that this course gives you the power to teach flexibly and creatively, without the need for extra training in literacy or fluency. As an added bonus, there's nothing quite like helping students discover the pleasures of reading!

Suite bundles are not eligible for partial drops or refunds. Transfers to other open sessions of the same course are available. Please refer to your school for additional details regarding drops, transfers, and refunds on Suite bundles.

For more information or to register please click the link.

Create an effective resume or improve the one you already have. Transform your resume into a powerful tool that will get you interviews. Learn different resume formats and the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Make the most of your work experience and discover how to use references to your advantage. This course includes the use of online resumes and is invaluable for anyone who wants to create their own resume, or learn how to write resumes and cover letters for profit.

For more information or to register please click the link.

Romance is the #1 selling genre in mass-market fiction with readers clamoring for more! To pen a novel romance readers' love, you'll need to understand how to meet and exceed their expectations. Whether you're a new or experienced writer, this course will help you broaden your skills and understand exactly what makes a romance reader finish a book with that "Ahh" of satisfaction. You will start by learning about the genre of romance and exploring why you fell in love with your favorite romance novels. You will explore how to craft three-dimensional characters your readers will love and how to weave a plot so your story grabs the reader's interest from page one. You will gain valuable techniques—your "romance writer's toolbox"—to apply to your own manuscript.

You will also spend a couple lessons looking at and practicing elements important for any writer to master: setting, pacing, point of view, dialogue, research, mood, and tone. You will take on fun assignments that will help you hone your craft. By the time you finish, you'll be able to pick up a book and figure out what makes it a best seller, or why it's been called a classic, or why it appealed to you as a reader. Even better, you'll have mastered tools and techniques so you can add those same elements to your own writing.

Instructor-Led dates are as follows May 17, Jun 14, July 12 and Aug 16.

For more information or to register please click the link.

SAT/ACT Prep – Part 1

Both the ACT and the SAT contain verbal and math question types. SAT/ACT Preparation Part I will give you all the information you need to do well on the verbal questions of the ACT and the new SAT. The ACT verbal sections are called the Reading Test, the English Test, and the Science Test. The Reading Test and the English Test assess your knowledge of English usage, grammar, and reading comprehension. This course will provide you with a grammar and usage review specifically geared to the rules that you'll be tested on in the ACT. You'll also learn how to maximize your time on reading comprehension passages and the passages in the science test.

Beginning March 2016, the SAT verbal questions changed. The lessons in this course will prepare you for those changes. You'll learn how to answer the questions types in the most time-efficient manner.

SAT/ACT Prep – Part 2

Both the ACT and the SAT contain verbal and math question types. SAT/ACT Preparation Part 2 will give you all the information you need to do well on the math questions of the ACT and the new SAT. The ACT math tests your knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and basic statistics. This course provides you with a complete math review of all these subjects. We'll also show you how to use your time wisely so that you finish as many math questions as possible in the 60 minutes the ACT gives you for the math test.

Beginning with the March 2016 exam, the SAT math questions have changed a bit. The lessons in this course are designed to prepare you for those changes.

Series bundles are not eligible for partial drops or refunds. Transfers to other open sessions of the same course are available. Please refer to your school for additional details regarding drops, transfers, and refunds on Series bundles.

Instructor led course only. Dates available are April 12, May 17, Jun 14 and July 12.

For more information or to register please click the link.

Secrets of Better Photography will teach you how to take outstanding photos. Whether you use a DSLR, a point-and-shoot camera, or your phone for your photography, you will learn how to get the best results from your camera.

This hands-on course will teach you how to choose the right photographic equipment to compose images with style. You can take your camera out of auto mode after learning about lighting, motion, aperture, shutter speed, and ISO settings. You will also explore common photography topics, including portraiture, children's photography, pet photography, and digital editing.

Each lesson includes exercises and assignments, so you can apply what you learned to your own camera. By the time you finish, you will see a difference in both your photographer's eye and your photos.

For more information or to register please click the link.

Individual Excellence

Develop career-enhancing skills in a single course that covers twelve popular one-day seminar topics, including goal setting, time management, and personal organization. You'll learn how to improve your creative abilities, gain confidence with financial matters, and how to minimize conflict in your life. Develop a fulfilling career plan and improve relationships with co-workers, friends, and family.

Introduction to Journaling

If you've ever wanted to try journaling, this course will provide answers to your every question. You'll discover the different types of journaling (including dream journaling), and sample a buffet of journaling techniques, exercises, tools, and resources.

We'll cover everything you need to know about journaling, including a seven-step process that will ease you into writing a journal, even if you've never journaled before. You'll get detailed instructions on developing, decorating, and customizing your journal, and you'll learn exciting new ways to express yourself and develop your creativity.

You'll find out how you can use your journal to explore your thoughts, feelings, and values, and you'll learn how to use your journal to support you as you develop true emotional well-being. You'll also understand how journaling can ease the stress of unwanted change throughout the course of your life. You'll even discover how journaling can help you choose the best career for you or advance in your current career.

Interpersonal Communication

Communicating successfully depends on effective use of communication strategies and behaviors. Words, facial and body movements, tone of voice, even clothing and situation, all form an intricate symbol system that must be quickly translated by those who want to communicate.

It has been said that there is no communication unless a mutual sharing of meaning takes place. It has also been said that one cannot NOT communicate. These two ideas seem to oppose one another, but they are two sides of the same coin. A smile can have many meanings. And so can silence.

This course will show you how to manage the conscious and unconscious codes of meaning we send to each other and to respond with appropriate codes in turn.

This course explains and explores concepts of verbal and nonverbal expression including personal style, listening, relationship dynamics, self-esteem, conflict management, and cultural and gender communication differences.

Examples, graphics, and theoretical models help clarify communication topics and simplify the process for effective communication in family, personal, and professional situations.

Communicating is necessary. Knowing how to do it well is personally satisfying and professionally wise.

Suite bundles are not eligible for partial drops or refunds. Transfers to other open sessions of the same course are available. Please refer to your school for additional details regarding drops, transfers, and refunds on Suite bundles.

For more information or to register please click the link.