We are experiencing a mindfulness revolution as we become aware of the benefits of being mindful in our self-care, intimate relationships, and communication processes. We are also increasingly aware of how the practice of mindfulness can effect climate change, nature, our health, the health of our communities, and the health of the planet. When we cultivate a sense of connectedness to everything in nature and realize we all share only one Earth, we gain an immeasurable gift in return. As we cultivate mindfulness and self-compassion for ourselves, it ripples outward to others and transforms our relationship with our partners, families, communities, and the world.

The outcome of this certificate is for the learner to describe the characteristics of mindful self-care, intimate relationships, communication processes, and how mindfulness impacts climate change and human health.

Mindfulness is a state of active, open attention on the present moment and is a key component in a wide variety of current, widely-recognized healing interventions. Neuroscientists are mapping how mindfulness training can change and improve brain health, and scholars are taking a fresh look at the nature of "self," emotion regulation, compassion, wisdom, and the far reaches of human potential.

Mindfulness reduces stress and anxiety and improves health, improves personal and professional relationships, contributes to improved productivity in the workplace, leads to long-term health changes that result in fewer chronic illnesses, reduces demand on the health care system, and improves the quality of life. This certificate addresses how to support mindfulness in all areas of life. It provides a solid foundation of knowledge and information to support individuals who wish to enhance their own well-being as well as health care professionals who wish to evolve in their profession, create new job opportunities for themselves in the exploding field of mindfulness, health promotion, lifestyle coaching, etc.

For more information or to register please click the link.

At a time when people are increasingly turning to holistic methods of healing, music therapy has developed into a powerful and nonthreatening method that can be used successfully with individuals of all ages and disabilities. Sound healing uses vibrational and sound frequencies to promote healing and bring the individual into a state of harmony and health. Music therapy influences an individual's physical, emotional, cognitive, and social well-being and is especially exciting as a modality that can improve the quality of life for individuals with Alzheimer's disease. Music therapy for end-of-life care involves playing music on a variety of instruments, singing, listening to music, and performing music based on the patient's preferences.

This certificate provides you with knowledge about music therapy and sound healing and their ability to help individuals of all ages to address their physical, emotional, cognitive, and social needs during healing. This is not designed to allow you to practice music therapy without further education and experience.

For more information or to register please click the link.

Nutrition is a major determinant of health as well as many common chronic diseases. Understanding the role of food and water, and making appropriate changes in one's diet can have powerful effects, both positive and negative, on health throughout life, influencing current health and whether or not an individual develops diseases as cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes. The burden of chronic diseases is rapidly increasing worldwide as traditional, largely plant- based diets are quickly being replaced by high-fat, energy-dense diets with a substantial content of animal-based foods. Hunger and malnutrition also remain devastating problems facing the majority of the world's poor and needy people. The relationship between nutrition and disease is irrefutable. This certificate addresses these issues and more and provides a solid foundation of knowledge and information to support individuals who wish to enhance their own well-being as well as health care professionals who wish to evolve in their profession, create new job opportunities for themselves in the exploding field of nutrition, health promotion, lifestyle coaching, etc.

The outcome of this certificate program is for the learner to describe the relationship between nutrition, chronic disease, and health promotion.

Homeschooling can be a bit of a mystery if you're new to the topic. In this course, you'll start at the beginning, delving into the history of homeschooling and examining its status today in all 50 states. You'll see how to find the laws and regulations that govern your community and you might be surprised to learn that homeschooling is legal and growing all around you. As you discover what you need to know to homeschool your children, you'll also become familiar with the terminology the homeschool community uses.

You'll see how homeschooling gives you the opportunity to socialize your children as well as build long-lasting and productive relationships with peers and adults. You'll also find out how homeschooling gives you unique opportunities to teach valuable life skills. From manners to money management, you can be sure your children master subjects that don't make it into most textbooks. You'll also learn about full-time homeschooling for travelers and how it can fit into their adventurous lives. When you finish this course, you'll have lots of information and guidance to plot your homeschooling course for years to come!

For more information or to register please click the link.

Are you struggling to keep up with a flood of email, articles, reports, and books? Save yourself hours of time and increase your productivity by learning to read faster and with better comprehension. This course is a complete speed-reading experience. Topics are presented in a logical progression with plenty of time to help you master the skills and techniques you will need for lasting proficiency as a speed-reader.

For more information or to register please click the link.

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.

Tracing your family's history is a fascinating journey. Genealogy Basics will help you understand the genealogy research process and how to interpret the information you find. This course guides you through the search process for family names using several subscription-based websites, which you can access while enrolled in this class.

You will learn through hands-on examples that help you dig deeper into your family's past. You will develop a strategy to accomplish your objectives, evaluate the results, and share that information with others. You will discover where to look, who to contact, and how to make your family history come alive!

For more information or to register please click the link.