Gale Courses for lifelong learning, personal growth & creative pursuits
Posted on February 9, 2021 at 6:00 am
By Alison Johnson
As many of us are settling into our new normal, you may find that there are still many new things to learn and explore. Many households with children are schooling from home. Everyone I know is still figuring out their busy virtual lives.
Finding an enjoyable focus and taking a time-out from our daily responsibilities can be a challenge. So I’m sharing a digital resource that we offer in our Digital Library to help you do just that.
Gale Courses has a plethora of virtual classes to explore. You may be thinking: “Isn’t Gale Courses the one that offers classes for professional development?”
Yes, it is. And it offers many other classes for lifelong learning, such as artistic and creative pursuits, personal interests and development, and classes for parents with students at home.
Want to learn sign language? Interested in genealogy? Or want to learn how to play the guitar? Gale Courses can help you learn how to do all of those things!
I am very intrigued by the class Get Funny! Will I learn how to create humor in a variety of situations? Can it be done? I might be your future classmate if you enroll in that class!
Here are just a few classes with corresponding descriptions you can explore. To find more, head on over to Gale Courses today.
ARTISTIC & CREATIVE PURSUITS
Learn to play guitar, building basic guitar skills step-by-step with the help of hands-on exercises, audio and video recordings, and detailed illustrations.
The classical guitar skills you’ll master in this course will allow you to play any style of music, from hard rock to country-and-western. And that’s not all! Good guitar players know that the secret to making beautiful music is to practice, practice, practice—so that’s what you’ll do. Make rapid progress as you follow a carefully planned practice schedule that reinforces each new skill you learn. Whether you’re a beginner or an intermediate student, this course will take your musical talent to the next level.
Introduction to Interior Design
Are you a creative person with an eye for design? If so, this course will show you how to transform plain living spaces into beautiful and functional rooms. These lessons will give you the know-how you need to design a room from floor to ceiling. We’ll delve into color theory, industry trends, spatial arrangements, floor plans, traditional and modern interior design ideas, and other basics. Investigate sustainable “green” design and how to modify your designs for people with special needs. In addition, you’ll explore a range of careers in interior design and get insider tips for entering this exciting field.
As you master design skills step-by-step, you’ll complete your first project: a fully developed room design, complete with spatial layout, lighting, and finish selections. Your new knowledge and hands-on practice will give you the confidence you need to start creating beautiful residential interiors for yourself and others.
Drawing for the Absolute Beginner
If you’ve always been interested in drawing but don’t really know how to get started, then this is the course for you. Gain a solid foundation and understanding of the basics of drawing. Become intimately familiar with paper types, drawing styles, rendering techniques, and the basic principles of perspective, layout, design, lighting, volume, and space.
If you have an interest in learning what it’s like to draw or would love to increase your current knowledge in the field of art and illustrating, then this course aims to fulfill all of your needs.
PERSONAL INTERESTS
Learn how to sign basic phrases and complete sentences and how to put it all together, allowing you to introduce yourself and start a conversation. Along the way, you will learn signs for colors, numbers, locations, family, and the activities you like to do.
Throughout the course, view videos that demonstrate how to make the signs and how to incorporate facial expressions to communicate in this beautiful language. This course is taught using the best practices of the industry with a minimum of audio support. Throughout it, you will be immersed in silence, which will help you gain an understanding of the perspective of Deaf people and sign language.
Tracing your family’s history is a fascinating journey. Gain understanding of the genealogy research process and how to interpret the information you find. This course guides you through the search process for family names using several subscription-based websites, which you can access while enrolled in this class.
Learn through hands-on examples that help you dig deeper into your family’s past. Develop a strategy to accomplish your objectives, evaluate the results, and share that information with others. You will discover where to look, who to contact, and how to make your family history come alive!
Discover the different types of journaling and many journaling techniques, exercises, tools and resources. You will explore a seven-step process that will ease you into writing a journal. Get detailed instructions on developing, decorating, and customizing your journal, and learn exciting new ways to express yourself and develop your creativity. Learn how you can use your journal to explore your thoughts, feelings, and values, and how to use your journal to support your emotional well-being.
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
Are you tired of being intimidated and treated badly by others? Learn specific techniques to become more assertive in all parts of your life. Do you think you speak non-assertively? If so, master the skills that will empower you to talk in an assertive manner, including specific verbal techniques and phrases for a variety of situations.
Get the assertiveness training you need in order to be more confident and powerful with family members, friends, bosses, co-workers, professionals, service people, and even total strangers. It’s your turn to speak up!
Achieving Success with Difficult People
Learn how to see things from others’ viewpoints based on their needs, values, beliefs, experiences, skills, knowledge, and self-interests. Approach difficult situations by answering the questions: who? what? where? when? how? and why? By answering these questions, you will understand who your difficult people are, what they’re like, how you react to them, and what their response to your actions will likely be.
You will also practice analyzing your interactions with those with whom you share space. By observing others closely, you will learn to read their identifying characteristics. Once you can identify which type of person you’re dealing with, you will be able to choose appropriate reactions to their behaviors.
Introduction to Natural Health and Healing
Learn about the various stages of health and illness, and discover that true health means wholeness of the mind, body, and spirit. Using a variety of methods including diet, hydrotherapy, positive attitude, relaxation, yoga, chiropractic, natural remedies, and more, you’ll explore ways to achieve total health in mind, body, and spirit. By the end of this course, you’ll have begun taking charge of your own health and healing!
FOR PARENTS OF STUDENTS
Homeschooling can be a bit of a mystery if you’re new to the topic. In this course, we’ll start at the beginning, delving into the history of homeschooling and examining its status today in all 50 states. You’ll see how to find the laws and regulations that govern your community—and you might be surprised to learn that homeschooling is legal and growing all around you. As you discover what you need to know to homeschool your children, you’ll also become familiar with the terminology the homeschool community uses.
Find out how children really learn to read and write. Explore current research that cuts through the media messages about reading wars and the right way to teach children. Learn by reading stories about children, doing interactive assignments, and exploring the latest in parent and childcare information.
Learn how a child becomes literate from the moment of birth by investigating the many things a child’s growing mind must do to make sense of the written word and create writing. Explore the development of reading and writing from infancy to the early school years. Know what problems to look for and how to assist a struggling reader. And see how you can boost literacy growth during daily routines and child’s play.
Many will benefit from the information shared in this course—parents, family members, teachers and education support staff, child and youth workers, counselors, nurses, and anyone regularly interacting with adolescents.
Learn about the many physical, emotional, and cognitive changes that affect the teens in your life, and understand the significance of these changes, both for you and the adolescent. Take a look at relationships inside and outside the home and how they shape the development of a teen’s identity. You will explore personality, moral development, and the role of faith. After this course, you will be well-prepared to understand, appreciate, and meet the needs of the teens in your life.
All Gale Courses classes are instructor led and taught by experienced educators and professionals with a background in the subject they are teaching. That means you can have confidence in what you are learning. Each class also offers the opportunity to discuss what you are learning or exploring with other classmates who are just as interested in the subject as you are.
Gale Courses has a lot of interesting and fun options for those who are looking to learn and those who just need something interesting or fun in their lives. I hope you choose to explore something new this year and find something you enjoy!
Alison Johnson is an Education and Enrichment Librarian who creates programming and events for ages 8–18. This means she gets to play with everything, including paint messes and mini robots. When she has free time she enjoys watching anything science fiction, hiking trails, and reading with a cup of tea.
Tags: adults, art, create, creative, Gale, gale courses, homeschooling, lifelong learning, parents, personal development, personal growth
