Online Courses for Teachers

Teaching Students with Special Needs Award of Completion

The Professional Development Institute, in association with the prestigious University of California San Diego Division of Extended Studies (UCSD), has established a Teaching Students with Special Needs Competency Program for teachers of grades K-5 (upper grades coming soon). The classrooms of today are filled with diverse groups of students, many of whom have special needs. Through PDI's Teaching Students with Special Needs Competency Program, if you complete any four courses listed below, you will receive a Teaching Students with Special Needs Competency Award of Completion from UCSD. Upon PDI's verification of satisfactory completion of the requirements, UCSD will mail a certificate to you suitable for framing and displaying in your classroom, or it can be used as evidence of excellence as part of your professional portfolio.

Review the details below to find out how to get started in this exciting program.

To obtain the PDI/UCSD Teaching Students with Special Needs Award of Completion, simply follow the steps below.

• Complete four of the following courses. Each flex course including credit fees is only $329 with the discount (regularly $379)! Note that you do not need to register for all courses at one time. You have up to five years to complete the requirements.
• Register for the courses with university credit. Simply select the option that says "course plus credit" when you register for your courses in the shopping cart area. You must receive university credit for every course you wish to use toward the requirements of the Teaching Students with Special Needs Competency Award of Completion. Note that you are required to pay for university credit within 48 hours of your course registration.
• Behavior Interventions for Students with Special Needs (3-6)
• Conquering the Behavioral Challenges of Special Needs Students (K-2)
• Content Area Multi-Sensory Teaching for Students with Special Needs (K-5)
• Educating the Whole Student: Mindfulness and Social-Emotional Learning (K-12)
• Embracing Technology to Empower Students with Special Needs (K-12)
• Focused Interventions to Improve Executive Function Skills (K-12)
• How to Reach and Teach Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (PreK-5)
• Preparing Students with Special Needs to Meet the Standards (K-3)
• Reading and Writing Strategies for Students with Special Needs (K-5)
• Teaching Students with Special Needs in the Mainstream Classroom (K-6)
• You may have already completed one or more of the required courses! If you are not certain if you have completed any of the required courses, you may e-mail PDI Registar, Shannon Philips, for verification. Please note that only courses previously completed with university credit can be applied toward the Award of Completion. You must complete all courses within a five-year period.
• Work on completing the courses you selected. Once you have received your final grade from PDI for all four courses, you may move on to the final PDI audit. Note that credit is only granted upon successful completion of all course requirements including the three-week minimum time requirement per course.**
• Request a PDI audit of course requirements for the Teaching Students with Special Needs Award of Completion. PDI must audit and officially verify that you have met all course requirements and timelines before UCSD will issue your Award of Completion. There is a $25 audit fee, so be certain that you have received your final grades in all required courses prior to requesting the PDI audit.
• Once PDI has audited your student record and verified completion of all course requirements and timelines, you will receive an e-mail notification that PDI has submitted your paperwork to UCSD. Within 10 days, UCSD will issue and mail your official Teaching Students with Special Needs Competency Award of Completion.

If you have questions about this program, please contact the PDI Program Coordinator, Kimya Nabavi, at kimya@webteaching.com.

** UCSD and PDI require that you spend a minimum of three weeks in EACH of your online courses. In other words, if you register for two online courses, you will be expected to spend three weeks in each course for a total of six weeks. The timeline begins from the day you register and runs consecutively, not concurrently, when taking multiple courses. Completion paperwork will not be processed until the minimum timeline requirement has been met. Both PDI and UCSD are intent on ensuring that the participant is able to maximize the knowledge gained by meaningful involvement in the program.