About Mary Wolf
Mary Wolf has been working for The Connecting Link for eight years. She is a 5th-grade math teacher in suburban Chicago, where she has been teaching for thirteen years. She began her association with TCL as a student and was intrigued by the varied course offerings and the multiple instructional delivery methods (in person, online, structured). Over the years, she has met many outstanding educators through Connecting Link classes and looks forward to enhancing those and forging new ones!
Teaching Tolerance and Thoughtfulness Through Self-Reflection and Acknowledging Differences
Participants in this course will learn how to build a learning environment that embodies the goals necessary for teaching social tolerance and thoughtfulness. This course is intended to help navigate areas of social comprehension that are critical to the growth of today’s students and school communities. Participants will learn to design opportunities that will assist their students in recognizing and appreciating both their own identities and the identities of their peers. Self-reflection is a crucial step in realizing the need for anti-bias education, and it will inspire participants to take innovative steps toward doing so. Participants will also analyze how they and their school community can create inclusive and respectful learning environments.
Participants will learn to create a classroom that is free of prejudice and teaches children to celebrate the diversity of those around them. Participants will leave the course having learned to use teaching tolerance and thoughtfulness goals to build and solidify a socially responsive culture within their school community. Participants will develop a new understanding of educators’ role in the classroom, along with the latest tools, strategies, and techniques for cultivating students’ learning and a state-of-the-art teaching approach to meet their educational goals. Educational research in the course is based on renown psychologists, inclusive specialists, and educational leadership experts such as Julie Cuaston PhD., Joseph A. Durlak PhD., Allison B. Dyminicki PhD., Nancy Frey PhD., Ross W. Greene PhD., Paula Kluth PhD., Rebecca D. Taylor PhD., and Roger P. Weissberg, PhD.
Throughout the course, participants will engage in interactive dialogue through a variety of mediums to receive valuable feedback to reflect on from their instructor. All formative and summative projects are reviewed and graded, and feedback from the instructor will be provided allowing the participant to enhance their portfolio of educational tools/resources to impact their classroom or school community.
Course #: IMW25017
Dates: 03/31/25 - 04/27/25
Categories:
Dates: 03/31/25 - 04/27/25
Categories:
Equity & Diversity Social & Emotional Learning Positive Classroom Management Diverse Learners
Format:Interactive
View CourseAnxiety Awareness: Strategies to Improve Student Well-being and Performance
Participants in this course will examine foundational elements that make up student anxiety. Participants will learn about the signs and symptoms of anxiety in students at various grade levels, maturities, and cultures. Anxiety-reducing strategies and frameworks will be centered around the research of Edmund J. Bourne, Ph.D., and Tom Thelen (founder of Resetschools.org). Participants will explore research studies on the causes of anxiety, learn how it impacts students’ learning and classroom interactions, and how teaching style and classroom structures can increase or decrease anxiety. This knowledge will aid in applying strategies and practices/frameworks to identify, minimize, and address a variety of anxiety factors and disorders. Additional topics include effective lesson planning to combat anxiety, explore online/digital resources to support classroom needs, including students with special needs, and connecting parents/homes to strengthening the support system to reduce anxiety. The course will conclude with participants developing an implementation plan or presentation to demonstrate knowledge and application of how anxiety impacts their classroom so they can improve student well-being and performance.
Throughout the course, participants will engage in interactive dialogue through a variety of mediums to receive valuable feedback to reflect on from their instructor. All formative and summative projects are reviewed and graded, and feedback from the instructor will be provided allowing the participant to enhance their portfolio of educational tools/resources to impact their classroom or school community.
Course #: IMS25506
Dates: 06/09/25 - 06/22/25
Categories:
Dates: 06/09/25 - 06/22/25
Categories:
Equity & Diversity Social & Emotional Learning Positive Classroom Management
Format:Interactive
View CourseResponse to Intervention (RTI): A Roadmap for Successful Classroom Implementation
Participants in this course will learn about the multi-tiered Response to Intervention (RTI) model and how it can assist in increasing student achievement, foster classroom engagement, be an alternative avenue for student identification of special services, and learn practical strategies and tools to implement essential components of Response to Intervention (RTI) in a variety of classroom and school settings. The course will expose participants to needed skills and techniques to develop a partnership to use RTI strategies and explore researched-based methodologies to remediate students. A comprehensive roadmap will be followed to learn how to implement RTI, assess students in a variety of mediums, and differentiate instruction using a plethora of RTI interventions.
Course #: IMS25515
Dates: 06/23/25 - 07/06/25
Categories:
Dates: 06/23/25 - 07/06/25
Categories: