Course Description:
Today’s students are entering classrooms with gaps in social, emotional, and self-regulation skills that directly affect learning, behavior, and engagement. These gaps reflect broader shifts in childhood environments, including increased device exposure, reduced unstructured time, and shifting family dynamics. This course helps teachers examine classroom challenges through a skill-development lens and provides practical, teacher-controlled strategies for designing learning environments and implementing instructional practices to reduce student behaviors and increase academic engagement.
What you will learn: First, participants will learn to distinguish between developmental skill deficits and behavioral choices by exploring how modern childhood experiences shape learning readiness. Second, educators will learn to identify specific social and emotional gaps—such as attention and resilience—and design classroom environments that proactively reduce triggers. Third, the course will introduce practical classroom routines, environmental design strategies, and instructional approaches that build student stamina, focus, and independence. Finally, participants will synthesize their learning into a comprehensive classroom action plan designed to close skill gaps and reduce disruptive behaviors.
This 4-week course is conducted online and requires weekly asynchronous engagement with recorded lectures, readings, and one-page reflections. Graduate credit seekers must also submit a 5-6 page final paper by no later than August 16.
Audience
K-12 Teachers
About the Instructor
Ryan Sherman, DBH, is a behavioral health clinician and central office district administrator with more than 15 years of experience supporting educators, children, adolescents, and families. He serves as the Director of Wellness for Medway Public Schools in Massachusetts, where he leads district-wide initiatives in student mental health, social-emotional learning, and family engagement. Dr. Sherman is also a Senior Professor in the School of Education at Bay Path University. He is the co-author of The Fourth Tier: Modernizing MTSS for Student Mental Health, and his current work examines how modern childhood environments are shaping student development and learning readiness.