11 Teaching Skills Improvement Online Courses for Connected Educators Month

By Lesley Vos
A teacher is a compass that activates the magnets of curiosity, knowledge, and wisdom in the pupils. -Ever Garrison
October is a month when all connected educators celebrate their professional holiday. Are you a connected educator? If “No” is your answer, it’s high time to change this misunderstanding because teaching in a digital age is impossible when you are not relevant to your students.
Who is a connected educator actually?
A connected educator is a teacher who enlarges their knowledge base constantly, grows professionally, and connects with students, school staff and fellow teachers from other regions, using modern technologies for sharing their experience and learning new things.
Connected educators always keep their eye on the ball, agree with the fact that it’s never late to learn and there is not a limit to perfection. They build networks, find new ways to connect with colleagues from all over the world, take part in educational discussions, find new opportunities to develop their professional skills… To make a long story short, being a connected educator means being part of a big universal community of teachers who are ready to help you and learn from you.
A connected educator can’t live without networking and learning new things to grow professionally. Thanks to the Internet, teachers have many opportunities to sharpen the saw.
These useful resources might help if you look for enlarging your knowledge base as a teacher. Check them out, and… Happy Connected Educator Month! Also, join Getting Smart in celebrating Connected Educator Month with three Twitter Chats on professional development for educators.
IH Certificates | ihworld.com/online-training
This is an innovative learning platform that provides different courses for teachers development. Here you can get certificates in Online Tutoring, Teaching 1-2-1, Advanced Methodology, Director of Studies Course and others. Check the structure, prices, time commitment, application dates and conditions here.
Annenburg Learner | learner.org
Annenburg Learner is a free online resource for teachers. Educators examine different learning theories, ways people perceive and process information, and methods to organize this information in a right way. Checkt his link to get access to all support materials; they will include meta cognition, cognitive processing and multiple intelligence.
Teaching Evolution | pbslearningmedia.org
Developed by PBS (the Public Broadcasting Service), Teaching Evolution offers a professional course for educators who want to learn how to teach evolution in modern society – here. Four themes are discussed there: rise if evolution, reconciliation, evolution challenges and battle in schools. Print and video resources are available.
The Open University | open.ac.uk
Two courses for educators: Careers Education — teachers learn ways to guide students in exploring and finding career information. Using Film Music in Classrooms — educators learn how to teach the structure of composition, while explaining the connection between music and image.
OpenCourseWare at UMass Boston | ocw.umb.edu
This is a non-credit course to help educators learn the ways to grade themselves. Eight different areas are discussed here, including child guidance and interaction, knowing how children grow and develop, displaying leadership, and others. This course will be useful for teachers who work with toddlers, preschool and out-of-school children.
Teaching Students with Special Needs | ocw.usq.edu.au
This course is offered by University of Southern Queensland (Australia), and it gives educators methods and strategies for teaching problematic students of all ages. You will learn different models of behavior management and know how corrective management works. No credits are given for this class.
How to Be a Together Teacher | class-central.com/mooc
This course from Relay Graduate School of Education will help busy teachers organize their time: you will know how to develop your personal organization system, what tools to use for tracking time commitments, how to deal with all tasks and deadlines, and much more. You can check more information and get answers to all frequently asked questions about this course here.
Commonwealth Education Trust Courses | class-central.com/university
All courses from Commonwealth Education Trust is a part of the Foundations of Teaching for Learning program, that will enhance educators knowledge and help them understand more facts about what makes teachers professionals. Both theoretical and practical parts of every course let you improve teaching practice and find answers to many questions every educator may have about their profession.
Alison’s Diploma in Teaching Skills | alison.com
This is a free online course for educators that will help you explore the importance of all teaching skills and learn how they impact on each student in your classroom. You will learn theories on motivation, elements of communication, instructional planning, and more. To check the detailed information and join the course, click here.
British Council Teacher Training | teachingenglish.org.uk
Three categories of courses for teachers are available here. You can get a chance to learn with teachers from all over the world if you take this online course from the British Council. They provide free samples of all their courses for teachers to understand what exactly they will learn there; all courses have been developed by the team of experienced trainers.
Bonus. And this is the link where you will find the information about free online courses for teachers from top universities from all over the world. And if some of them have not been mentioned in our above list, this resource might be quite helpful for teachers who want to get new knowledge, develop new skills, and become really professional connected educators as a result.
Remember. Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself. -John Dewey
For more on Connected Educator Month, see:

• Crowdsourcing Hashtags for Connected Educators Month
• 3 Smart Twitter Chats for Connected Educators Month

Written and submitted by Lesley J. Vos, a private educator of French language and a writer. Find Lesley on Google+ and read articles she writes for this blog.