Teaching for a Positive Future
A six-week online course for educators who want to inspire their students to become leaders and changemakers for a healthy, peaceful, and sustainable world.
Help prepare your students for their futures!
Today's youth are hungry for learning that is meaningful, empowering and relevant to their daily lives. They're concerned about the future and are passionate about cultivating a meaningful life and exploring solutions to our global challenges.
Learn skills, tools and insights for teaching students critical and creative thinking about social justice, environmental ethics, and animal protection, and enhance their understanding of the power they have to nurture a just, compassionate, sustainable world for themselves, other people, other animals, and the earth.
“Excellent course! The activities and resources were appropriate and useful for a broad range of educators including K-12, college and home-school instructors. It was easy to personalize each activity, making it directly relevant to specific topics and courses. I enjoyed being part of the warm and supportive online community that developed throughout the course.”
~Stacy Hoult-Saros, Assoc. Professor of Spanish, Valparaiso University, IN
Course Dates:
February 6-March 16, 2012
July 9 - August 3, 2012 (special 4-week summer intensive!)
October 8-November 16, 2012
Register for the February 2012 session of Teaching for a Positive Future.
Register for the July 2012 special 4-week session of Teaching for a Positive Future.
Register for the October 2012 session of Teaching for a Positive Future.
Are you a teacher or community educator who wants to:
- build increased relevance into your curriculum across disciplines?
- gain more knowledge about comprehensive humane education issues & learn how to better explore them with your students?
- empower your students to think critically and creatively so they can become changemakers and solutionaries for a better world?
- improve your facility in communicating positively and compassionately around challenging global issues?
- learn how to bring compassion and other humane principles into the school environment?
- develop a network of people passionate about creating a better world through education?
Now you can develop new techniques and ideas to revolutionize and revitalize your students’ education and to make your teaching even more rewarding, interesting, and meaningful.
How It Works:
During this six-week online course, you'll examine important questions, such as:- What is education for?
- Is my teaching as relevant as I want it to be to the world my students are inheriting?
- How can I help my students connect the dots between their learning in class and the larger world?
- How can I integrate the 4 elements of Humane Education into my teaching?
“I really enjoyed the course, and think that it would be valuable for any teacher to take it.”
~ Mark Messer
What the Course Includes:
√A Course Book - Each participant will receive a copy of The Power and Promise of Humane Education by IHE President, Zoe Weil. We'll mail this book to you as soon as you register.
√A Downloadable Course Curriculum - Your course curriculum provides you with thought-provoking exercises to help you develop practical and meaningful ideas and strategies for your teaching.
√Online Commons - Your learning continues in the discussion forum, which you can visit at your convenience to engage with fellow participants and your course instructor, Marsha Rakestraw, IHE's Director of Online Communications and Education Resources. Participants use the Online Commons to compare experiences, share insights and resources, and connect with classmates and the instructor to get help, create solutions, and build momentum.
√Bonus Exercises & Resources - As part of the course, you'll get bonus content to extend your learning and help you plan forward after the course ends.
√Phone Mentoring - Your course instructor, Marsha Rakestraw, is available by phone to answer questions, provide guidance, and discuss issues that arise during the course.
√Continuing Education Credits (CEUs) - You can earn a certificate of completion and 4.5 CEUs through the University of Maine by submitting your responses to the exercises within a week of the end of the course and by being an active participant in the Online Commons (the course discussion forum) throughout the course. Teachers in other states may be able to utilize these for continuing education requirements in their state. Applications for other state CEUs are in progress; please inquire.
"This course is so insightful and interesting – I’m really enjoying it! I’m so excited to begin thinking about what I can implement in my classes next semester." ~ Brooke Lopez, Freshmen composition instructor, University of Texas - San Antonio
Planning Your Time:
This course is 6 weeks long. Exercises are scheduled for every other day of the course. There are no scheduled sessions, but the Online Commons is available to you at any time during the course.
This course will be as meaningful as you make it. We estimate that the course will take an average of 5-8 hours per week. The more time you have to devote to the exercises and the online discussions, the more transformative the course will be for you.
"I love, love, love the course! I love everything about it - the topics, the reading, the videos links, the on-line commons!" ~ Debbie Blais, teacher, British Columbia, Canada
Register for the February 2012 session of Teaching for a Positive Future.
Register for the July 2012 special 4-week session of Teaching for a Positive Future.
Register for the October 2012 session of Teaching for a Positive Future.
Cancellation Policy:
We will refund your registration, minus a $25 administration fee, if you cancel more than 7 days before the course session begins. IHE is unable to grant refunds for cancellations after that date.
Transfer Policy:
If you find that you cannot participate in the session of the course for which you have registered, you have until the Friday of the first week of the course session to let us know and transfer to another scheduled session of the course or to one of IHE’s other online courses. After that time, we cannot offer you a transfer. The transfer must be made to a course that is scheduled within nine months of the current course session, and there is a limit of one transfer per course. There is an additional $20 course book fee if you transfer to a different online course.
Course Faculty: Marsha Rakestraw
Marsha Rakestraw is the Director of Online Communications and Education Resources at IHE and comes from a family of teachers. She has taught at the PreK-graduate levels and her experience includes teaching high school language arts, working as a school media specialist and more than a decade as a children's/young adult librarian. She has taught several sessions of IHE's online course, A Better World, A Meaningful Life, and she also regularly leads humane education workshops.
Marsha has a BFA in Dance, a BA in English, and an MLS from Emporia State University. She received her certificate in Humane Education from IHE in 2005 and has been on IHE's staff since 2007.
“Class has only been on for three days and I am already tweaking what I do in the classroom!”
~ Christy Lochary
Still Undecided?
Download a couple sample exercises. (pdf)
For more information, email us at info@HumaneEducation.org.
Help Us Spread the Word About Teaching for a Positive Future
Download a copy of our flyer to share. (pdf)
Other Online Courses:
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del.icio.usWatch and share IHE President, Zoe Weil's TEDx talk -- an inspiring vision of how to create a just, compassionate, healthy world for all through solutionary education.
April 28, 2012 - 8:30 am to April 28, 2012 - 5:00 pm | Location: Nightingale-Bamford School
How can we best prepare our students for the important roles they must play in meeting the challenges of today's world? How can we help youth to become creative and critical thinkers who embody the qualities of wisdom, compassion, and integrity and who focus their grea...
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