Wonder and Whimsy

About Two Summer Online Classes I am Teaching on Writing and Play

Are you a little bored this summer? Do you need something interesting to learn about for the next month? Would you like to improve your basic essay writing ability or your ability to have a resilient and playful approach to life? (Eutrapelia is the virtue of play). Or would you like your children or teens to improve their writing or play and resilience capacities?
If so, you might be interested in two classes I am teaching. One is on basic essay writing….
and one is on Play and Resilience. The classes are starting this coming Monday, June 29, and I am really looking forward to them. You can read the details of each class below.

 

 

Summer Writing Class: Mastering the Art of Basic Essay Writing

 

Do you or your child struggle with organizing and developing basic essays? If so, “Mastering the Art of Basic Essay Writing” is a course especially designed for your child. It is a six-week writing course, which empowers students to master basic essay writing skills such as the following:

 

· Mastering the basic format of the essay
· Overcoming writing anxiety by using effective essay-writing formulas.
· Crafting effective introductions and conclusion paragraphs
· Developing robust paragraphs through techniques like the SEE Sandwich technique.
· Proofreading and editing essays
· Formatting essays professionally

This writing course is a six-lesson course. Students will receive six PowerPoint lessons at the beginning of the course, along with a syllabus and example essays. Each week students work through a detailed PowerPoint lesson and read an example essay that incorporates the lessons learned that week. Students will complete the essay assignment explained in the PowerPoints and email the essay to Dr. Johnson. Within a few days, she will provide encouraging and detailed feedback on the structure, style, grammar and mechanics of the essays. At the end of the course, students will receive a certificate of completion.

This class runs for six weeks, June 29-August 3. Since this is a correspondence course, it is possible to make the dates more flexible to fit family schedules. (For instance, students can begin the course earlier or complete it later.) Parents can contact Dr. Johnson with any scheduling concerns.

Course Cost:
$150 (This class has a 12 student cap)

Developing a Playful Mindset to Build Resilience and Confidence (for Women of All Ages)

Children spend a great deal of their time playing, and psychologists and educators have long noted the importance of play for our development when we are young. Despite this, most of us play less and less as we age and adopt an increasingly closed mindset towards life. This mindset is characterized by traits such as over-seriousness, competition, perfectionism, pessimism, and cynicism.

 

A closed mindset is often lauded as a more realistic and mature way of being in the world. On the contrary, this mindset makes it harder to thrive as an adult because it encourages unnecessary anxiety, decreased confidence, and increased difficultly in bouncing back from adversity. The good news is that we can recover a playful attitude towards the world that we can take into all areas of our life. As we do so, we strengthen both our resilience and confidence.

 

This course is a five-week course that runs from June 29 to July 27. It helps women of all ages (teen and up) recover a playful attitude towards the world. We explore the characteristics of a playful attitude vs. a closed attitude; the factors that lead us to develop a closed attitude; and research connected with a playful attitude, confidence, and resilience. Of course, we also explore physical, emotional, and mental practices we can use to develop a playful attitude.

This is an online course. Students will receive a video, written reflection and activities, and a PowerPoint each week to guide them through key concepts. There will also be an optional online discussion group (time to be determined) and a Facebook group for class members to interact on a weekly basis.

 

Course Cost: $75—I am offering this class at a discount because it is a part of my ongoing research on play and resilience, and this is the first time I am testing this class with this specific format and audience. If you sign up for the course, I will ask you to fill out a questionnaire at the end to help me with future iterations of the class. (This class has a 12 student cap).

For either course, contact me on Facebook or at shellypruittjohnson@gmail.com

The registration deadline is Friday, June 26.

Instructor Bio: I’m Dr. Shelly Johnson, and I teach ethics and a variety of other philosophy classes at Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky. I also do research on building resilience in students and adults. Before my college teaching career, I was a secondary humanities teacher for sixteen years and successfully taught hundreds of middle and high school students to write well during that time. I have written three books with Classical Academic Press: Argument Builder, Discovery of Deduction (co-author) and Everyday Debate. I enjoy hula-hooping, watercolor painting, and writing.

 

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