Communications Seminar

Course Instructor: Louise M. Jacobs M.A.

Catalog Description

Aurora University

Course Number OEDW 6414

3 sh graduate credits

9 continuing education credits

(equivalent to 45 CPDUs)

Pre-requisites

Intending participants must have completed either OED W5610 Time-Out to Tune Up or OED W5009 Social and Emotional Learning or receive the permission of the instructor. This course may not be completed within the same term as the pre-requisite.

This follow-up, which replaces Wellness Practicum, is directly facilitated by Louise Jacobs. Because the content is substantively distinct, those who completed Wellness Practicum are eligible to enroll. Contact Louise with any questions.

Educators examine the holographic connection between the physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual systems of human beings and integrate their learning to strengthen their support of their students' learning experiences as well as to undergird their professional practice with improved understandings of communication.

Course Overview

This course supports educators to strengthen their understanding of themselves and others and thus to build additional understandings about self-awareness and interpersonal dynamics so they can use this knowledge and practice more effectively in their professional practice. The intent is to become more competent, more experienced, and more confident in personal and interpersonal understandings so as to be able more effectively to engage in effective professional communications and support the academic performance of their students. When one better understands one's self, one better understands others. When one practices effective communication, one teaches effective communication. When one practices healthy choices, one teaches healthy choices. When one acts responsibly, one teaches responsibility.

These efforts build on the understandings and skills of the prerequisite course in providing a broader and deeper experience in relation to the mandated State of Illinois Social-Emotional Standards as well as to the Illinois Professional Teaching Standards. The participants were exposed to the basics of social-emotional learning through the prerequisite course and spent some time seeking to strengthen professional practices as a result of that prerequisite experience. This next step spirals from that experience so that the skill-set can more substantively be theoretically and experientially anchored and expanded, with discernible impact on professional practice and on student learning. Professionals must continually utilize these skills throughout their professional careers. That being said, by nature and definition, these skills can never be fully mastered. Challenges continue to provide professionals with opportunities to grow in their communication understandings and expertise so they can support their students to do likewise. This seminar affords them the opportunity to develop infrastructures for continuing to grow in these critical dispositions.

Learner Outcomes

As a result of this course, participants will be able to:

• Design a plan that illustrates how to make responsible choices that support holographic integration

• Develop a proactive plan for supporting students to make healthy and responsible holographic choices

• Inventory strengths and needs for expressing emotions effectively

• Engage productively in difficult conversations, therein resolving conflicts responsibly

• Develop a proactive plan for supporting students to express and resolve conflicts responsibly

• Clarify one's values, assumptions, purpose as a result of engaging in critical reflection

State of Illinois Standards

The described intended learner outcomes conform to established State of Illinois Standards. The relevant standards for this course are: Illinois Social-emotional Standards 1,2,3. Illinois Professional Teaching Standards 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.

Pathways to Learning, 414 Grouse Lane South, Deerfield, Il. 60015

Telephone (847) 459-3315 Fax (815) 642-0076