Mini-Courses

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What:  Mini-Courses are short duration trainings that alone will not qualify for credit. The typical mini course is less than 3 hours in length.

When:  Mini-Courses will be offered every Wednesday night from 7:00-9:00 pm via an online webinar and begin October 2, 2019. Participants register and pay an initial fee for access to the course and then can participate in any session. For credit, participants must participate for at least 3 of 5 live sessions, the remaining can be completed by watching the recordings, which will be made available.

Why:  Customized learning is professional development designed based on the individual’s wants and needs. As North Dakota is primarily a rural state, many of our members and potential members do not have ready or easy access to in-person professional development through NDU. This format will allow for multiple topics/themes for participants to choose from and will allow for an individually tailored plan.

How: 

  • Step 1:  Register through NDU and pay for the course. You only need to register once to participate in all mini-courses.
  • Step 2:  NDU will email you a link for the webinars and a schedule of the topics.
  • Step 3:  Choose the sessions you would like to attend. You can participate in any session that you would like.
  • Step 4:  Test your browser. Make sure that you can access the webinar and your mic, camera and speakers work.
  • Step 5:  Log-in and enjoy!
  • Step 6:  Join the edCommunities page and watch previous webinars, download documents, ask questions and more.
2019-2020 Mini-Courses Schedule:
  • Managing Student Behavior: October 2, 2019: Disruptive or negative behavior can occur in a number of school settings, including the playground, cafeteria, hallways, bus stops and front office. Learn about student misbehavior and the importance of prevention and early intervention strategies. Category: Student Behavioral Health
  • Time Management: October 9, 2019: Finding a time management strategy that works best for you depends on your personality, ability to self-motivate and level of self-discipline. This lesson describes 10 possible strategies for improving your ability to manage the events in your life in relation to time. Category: Personal Wellness
  • What is Trauma?: October 16, 2019: This course will discuss what trauma is and how it affects our students. Category: Child Trauma
  • Creating a Positive Classroom: October 23, 2019: The educator understands the importance of building key relationships for a positive classroom community. Category: Classroom Management
  • The Power of a Positive Team/Leader: October 30, 2019: This session involves a discussion of the book: The Power of a Positive Team.  The Power of a Positive Team, Jon Gordon draws upon his unique team building experience as well as conversations with some of the greatest teams in history in order to provide an essential framework, filled with proven practices, to empower teams to work together more effectively and achieve superior results. Participation in the book study not required. Category: Leadership
  • Paper Tigers: November 6, 2019: “Paper Tigers” captures the pain, the danger, the beauty, and the hopes of struggling teens—and the teachers armed with new science and fresh approaches that are changing their lives for the better. Category: Student Behavioral Health
  • Practicing Presence Discussion: November 13, 2019: This session will involve a discussion of the book: Practicing Presence. Practicing Presence is filled with ideas, exercises, checklists, personal anecdotes, and practices you can use to reframe and establish a mindset that will enhance your focus and engagement in the classroom/life. Participation in the book study not required. Category: Personal Wellness
  • Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs): November 27, 2019: This course discusses what are ACEs and how they affect the lives of our students, children and community. Category: Child Trauma
  • Building Bridges: December 4, 2019: There are sometimes tensions between classroom teachers, specialists and paraeducators. Many of these problems come from not understanding each other’s roles and not knowing how we can best work together for the benefit of students. This class will offer some insight into building a more collaborative education team through respect, communication, making an education team plan and sharing information. Category: Classroom Management
  • What’s Your Why?: December 11, 2019: The idea of “self” as an instrument of change is at the core of our work as organizers. Participants will engage in activities to build self-awareness and develop self-reflection to more effectively impact their organizing work. Category: Leadership
  • Social-Emotional Learning: December 18, 2019: Along with a toolbox of strategies for addressing 33 essential competencies, you’ll find real-life examples highlighting the many opportunities for social and emotional learning within the K–12 academic curriculum. The SEL approach will help your students build essential skills that will serve them in the classroom and throughout their lives. Category: Student Behavioral Health
  • Work Shouldn’t Hurt: January 8, 2020: This workshop looks specifically at staff assaults in schools from an individual, collective and solutions standpoint. Join us for an in-depth look at prevention, intervention, protection and resolutions around workplace assaults. Category: Personal Wellness
  • Resilience: January 15, 2020: The new documentary, Resilience, reveals how toxic stress can trigger hormones that wreak havoc on the brains and bodies of children, putting them at a greater risk for disease, homelessness, prison time, and early death. Resilience, however, also chronicles the dawn of a movement that is determined to fight back. Category: Child Trauma
  • Mindful You, Mindful Me: January 22, 2020: The purpose of this training is to provide educators K-12 with practical skills for self-care, facilitation, and connecting with youth, providing simple, effective mindfulness practices that can be integrated into the school day and adapted for diverse environments. Category: Classroom Management
  • Communications 101: January 29, 2020: This session provides a comprehensive framework on positive leadership filled with proven principles, compelling stories, practical ideas and practices that will help anyone become a positive leader. Category: Leadership
  • Drug & Alcohol Awareness: February 5, 2020: The changing landscape requires that all educators be informed of current and emerging trends in student drug use. Learn about the drug and alcohol trends that students face today. Category: Student Behavioral Health
  • Workplace Bullying: February 12, 2020: Bullying doesn’t stop when you leave school. Workplace bullying is on the rise, and it is harming our mental and physical health. Workplace bullying is an abuse of power that intimidates, degrades or offends an employee, often in front of others. This session will discuss an approach to addressing the growing epidemic of workplace bullying and provide strategies for building a culture of respect in the workplace. Category: Personal Wellness
  • Broken Places: February 19, 2020: Broken Places poses the complex question of why some children are severely damaged by early adversity while others are able to thrive. Viewers are given a unique time-lapse perspective, witnessing how a few of these troubled children evolved into the adults they are today. Category: Child Trauma
  • I Can Do It Part 1: February 26, 2020: “I Can Do It,” is a classroom management program for new teachers (0-5 years). Depending upon the school, a new teacher may confront an overcrowded classroom, no mentor, and little time to meet with peers or plan courses. “I Can Do It” provides new teachers with strategies to help alleviate some stress associated with these issues. Category: Classroom Management
  • Union Communications: March 4, 2020: This session will evolve around topics submitted by participants previously. Category: Leadership
  • Lost at School Discussion: March 11, 2020: School discipline is broken. Dr. Greene’s Collaborative & Proactive Solutions (CPS) approach helps adults focus on the true factors contributing to challenging classroom behaviors, empowering educators to address these factors and create helping relationships with their most at-risk kids.  Participation in the book study not required. Category: Student Behavioral Health
  • Compassion Fatigue Part 1: March 18, 2020: Typically attributed to the “helping profession”, the implications of Compassion Fatigue, Secondary Trauma Stress and Burnout is becoming more widely recognized. This presentation will explore the definitions of these terms, as well as varied ways in which individuals respond both professionally and personally to each. Category: Personal Wellness
  • Trauma Informed 2.0: March 25, 2020: When people learn about the impact of ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) and trauma on children, they often hear that relationships with caring adults mitigate the impact of trauma. They will apply theory and learn how to identify the intervening variable in human behavior (physiological state), identify the role of the Autonomic Nervous System in human behavior, and apply strategies that regulate the physiological state in adults and in students. Category: Child Trauma
  • The Collapse of Parenting: April 1, 2020: This session will involve a discussion of the book: The Collapse of Parenting. In The Collapse of Parenting, Leonard Sax argues that rising levels of obesity, depression, and anxiety among young people can be traced to parents abdicating their authority. Sax shows how parents must reassert their authority-by limiting time with screens, by encouraging better habits at the dinner table, and by teaching humility and perspective-to help their children thrive in an increasingly complicated world. Participation in the book study not required. Category: Classroom Management
  • Identifying Leaders within Your Association: April 8, 2020: Leader engages in identifying leaders by employing mapping skills and engaging in one-on-one conversations. Category: Leadership
  • Student Mental Health-Open Discussion: April 15, 2020: This session will evolve around topics submitted by participants previously. Category: Student Behavioral Health
  • Compassion Fatigue Part 2: April 22, 2020: Typically attributed to the “helping profession”, the implications of Compassion Fatigue, Secondary Trauma, Stress and Burnout is becoming more widely recognized. Additionally, the implications of these factors on the culture of a building will be identified. Category: Personal Wellness
  • Open Discussion – Child Trauma: April 29, 2020: This session will evolve around topics submitted by participants previously. Category: Child Trauma
  • I Can Do It Part 2: May 6, 2020: “I Can Do It,” is a classroom management program for new teachers (0-5 years). Depending upon the school, a new teacher may confront an overcrowded classroom, no mentor, and little time to meet with peers or plan courses. “I Can Do It” provides new teachers with strategies to help alleviate some stress associated with these issues. Category: Classroom Management
  • Needs of Leaders-Open Discussion: May 13, 2020: This session will evolve around topics submitted by participants previously. Category: Leadership
  • No Such Thing as a Bad Kid: May 20, 2020: This session will involve a discussion of the book: No Such Thing as a Bad Kid. Written specifically for professionals who guide kids with emotional and behavioral challenges, the revised edition of No Such Thing as a Bad Kid is packed with positive, strength-based principles and techniques that help child-guiders to tap the greatness that exists in every young person to promote change.  Participation in the book study not required. Category: Student Behavioral Health