The Explorer Course – Educator Professional Development
This course is a prerequisite to being able to lead The Journey to the Summit trek for incoming freshmen. This course will not only prepare you to meet and exceed the State of Oklahoma Department of Education’s requirements to be eligible for the Highly Qualified Teachers designation, but it also will prepare you for the changing climate in today’s educational system.
Among the topics that we discuss and prepare you for are:
Mental Health Needs of Students
Alcohol and Drug Awareness
Bullying Prevention
Human Trafficking
Suicide Awareness Training
Family & Community Engagement
Racial & Ethnic Education
Workplace Safety Training in Schools
Many students are anxious. In fact, a report from the annual Healthy Minds Study is based on web surveys taken by 96,000 U.S. students across 133 campuses in the 2021-22 academic year. It found that 44% of students reported symptoms of depression, 37% reported anxiety disorders and 15% reported having seriously considered suicide in the past year—the highest recorded rates in the history of the 15-year-old survey.
This course gives them the confidence they need to believe they can succeed in the real world.
A Teacher’s Point of View
Tifani Hoover Tells Her Experience with Education Alive
Angie Kelley describes the uniqueness of each student.
About the Explorer Course
The Lesson Plans and Activities have been carefully prepared to be easy to use and follow as they guide students along a gradual path of growth. Our studies have shown that the maximum results come from fully utilizing the tools that are presented in the order and format provided.
Each unit includes a parent newsletter and “reflection tickets” (click here for an example) that empower parents to discuss career options with their child and aids the parents in monitoring their child’s interests. This system increases communication between the parents, students and school.
Education Alive has worked with various educators, and individual educators to discover and organize the information and steps required in various fields of study. This creates relevancy in the educational course work.
The curriculum is focused on the growth of the individual student and giving them hope for their future. This includes exploring careers that students have expressed interest in learning more about. A broad range of career paths have been chosen to give students a 30,000 foot view of a variety of career possibilities. This is to open their mind to options they may not yet have considered. Being based in Oklahoma, we have naturally focused on events, careers and interest to the regional job market. However, we are expanding our career paths to include other fields as interest is expressed. We are also expanding our curriculum to include requirements from other states. More on that will be developed in 2023 and 2024.
Every career path, every story and every child is unique and requires different understandings and skill sets. Knowledge and skills to be acquired are explored, documented and verified for each career path/industry that is explored throughout the process. That documentation is provided for the teacher in each applicable unit.
The students are inspired, guided and given the support they need to take the next steps in exploring and following their interests.
The teacher training (learning the system and understanding the curriculum) is required to allow the teacher to present the material. Once the teacher has been certified in the Education Alive process, additional help will be delivered as new fields of interest are developed.
By following the curriculum and participating in the activities, teachers have expressed that their classroom time has been more productive and enjoyable. They have expressed the observation that lives have been positively changed and the Education Alive system has helped to cultivate a more positive school culture.
