Online Courses & Training

A team can sit in the same room all day and never actually meet.

Everyone is present and everyone is busy, and the useful things stay unsaid. The idea somebody almost raises. The problem one person can see and nobody thinks to ask about. Not because people do not care, but because there is nowhere in the day where attention is undivided.

Unplug to Reconnect is a short course on building that room back, and then running it yourself.

It is not a lecture about screen time. It is nine hands-on practices for communication, creativity and connection, plus a facilitator page for running your own Unplug Day with your team or your staff.

Who it is for

Team leads, managers, school administrators, and anyone responsible for how a group works together. It doubles as a ready-made professional development session, since the workbook walks you through running it for others.

What is included

One video lesson covering three core lessons and nine hands-on practices. The Reconnect Planner, a companion workbook, with a “Run Your Own Unplug Day” facilitator page. A Certificate of Completion recognizing approximately one hour of professional learning.

Forty-five to sixty minutes in total, video and workbook combined. Self-paced, and yours to keep and come back to.

Court Rustemeyer is an outdoor educator with the Calgary Board of Education, author of Mentorship in the Wild, and a National Geographic Grosvenor Teacher Fellow.

Ask a class a question and count how long you wait before you answer it yourself. Most of us manage about a second.

Everything good in a lesson lives in the few seconds after that, and the urge to fill them is almost impossible to resist. Silence in a room full of students feels like something going wrong, particularly when you are new, or tired, or being observed. So we rescue it. And the room learns to wait for us instead of thinking.

The Power of Pause is about what happens when you stop doing that.

It is a short course on presence and reflection for educators and leaders. Not a teaching philosophy, and not another framework to memorize. Three ideas you can try in your next class.

Who it is for

Teachers at any stage, school and district leaders, mentors, and anyone who runs a room and has caught themselves talking to fill a gap. No outdoor or experiential background needed.

What is included

One video lesson: a welcome, three core lessons and a closing wrap-up. The Pause Practice Guide, a companion workbook built to go straight into the classroom. A Certificate of Completion recognizing approximately one hour of professional learning.

Fifty to sixty minutes in total, video and workbook combined. Self-paced, and yours to keep and come back to.

Court Rustemeyer is an outdoor educator with the Calgary Board of Education, author of Mentorship in the Wild, and a National Geographic Grosvenor Teacher Fellow.

Every teacher has a lesson they would rather not talk about.

The one that fell apart in front of thirty people. The field trip that went sideways. The unit you were certain about until roughly four minutes in.

We tell students that failure is part of learning, and then we go quiet about our own. The flop rarely makes it into the staff room conversation, so everyone assumes theirs are the only ones.

Fail Forward is a short course about what to do with a setback, rather than how to avoid having one. Practical rather than philosophical, and built for people whose work means trying things in front of an audience.

Who it is for

Teachers at any stage, school and district leaders, mentors, and anyone whose job involves taking a risk in front of other people. Useful whether the setback was last week or three years ago and still sitting there.

What is included

One video lesson: a welcome, three core lessons and a closing wrap-up. Fail Forward Field Notes, a companion workbook, with a bonus Challenge & Adaptation Planner. A Certificate of Completion recognizing approximately one hour of professional learning.

Forty-five to sixty minutes in total, video and workbook combined. Self-paced, and yours to keep and come back to.

Court Rustemeyer is an outdoor educator with the Calgary Board of Education, author of Mentorship in the Wild, and a National Geographic Grosvenor Teacher Fellow.