This company will offer professional learning opportunities to K-12 educators online and in person. The idea is framed around the need to bolster hardiness amongst educators. Hardiness is defined by Maddi and colleagues (1982) as subjects who approach stressful situations and change with a genuine interest in the moment feeling they can influence the outcome and see these moments as opportunities to learn and develop. Kouzes and Posner (1987) say that hardiness "contributes to a person’s ability to cope with stress by transforming stressful events into manageable or desirable situations rather than regressing and avoiding the issue” (p. 67). For those who tend to be less hardy, these characteristics can develop in time through simulated conditions of stress or difficulty where one learns to cope assertively.
With this in mind, this venture would provide professional learning opportunities for educators that qualify for their annual professional development hours requirement. These professional learning opportunities will come via online "group" sessions framed around fostering hardiness spaced out in regular intervals (3-4 weeks) throughout a school year. The protocol for group sessions will follow a format used in my prior research. I have published research on this element and its effectiveness for novice teachers' stamina and abilities to navigate difficulty and change. This would be something that I'm hoping to scale up to multiple groups across the region meeting on a schedule that works best for those participants. Maybe Monday groups, Tuesday groups, etc. Group sessions over the school year will cost approximately $1000 or $99 per 90-minute session and will count for up to 20 hours of professional development credit. I think school districts would be willing to fund this for new teachers. Forming groups of 5-7 based on experience, background, and teaching discipline is preferable.
In addition to the availability of group sessions, there will be a menu of one-off professional learning courses that qualify for 1-10 hours of professional development credits. These courses will be approximately $99 per hour and will be delivered asynchronously and self-paced. The initial offerings will be themed around hardiness and fostering a hardy disposition as an educator. This passive income opportunity is designed to be the primary driver of revenue given that it can provide services to an unlimited number of customers. There are numerous platforms in existence to host this element of the business at a relatively low cost.
Finally, the last element will be consulting work with districts, schools, and teachers to design and deliver professional learning opportunities for their educators. This element would recruit a line-up of professionals and scholars who would be booked for various in-person and live online professional learning sessions.
This "limited" scope is just the initial idea to get a foot in the door. I desire to see the one-off professional learning courses expand to school and district leadership and discipline-specific, equity-focused pedagogical offerings.
Email: timothy.jansky@eku.edu
Project Owner
Timothy Jansky