Relevant Courses to reach pay bump

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Hello! It has been a while since I have posted. I am a Masters prepared School Nurse and am eligible for a pay increase (same as teachers) if I acquire 15 more credit hours. Our school gives us $1,000 each year to go towards furthering our education so I want to start taking advantage of this and earn my +15. Do any of you have any ideas on types of classes to take or where to look? I have 3 credit hours from a conference I once attended and did an assignment for, but they do not offer this any longer. Thanks for your help!

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Some colleges/universities offer online courses, or maybe your local community college. If you stop by there one day and pick up a catalog, you can look through and see what best applies to your practice.

I've always wanted to take spanish classes, or a spanish for healthcare workers course. Maybe that would be applicable to you if you work in a community with spanish speakers.

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Laverne University has online graduate level courses that are pretty much tailor made for advancing on the pay scale. Courses average 3 graduate hours but some have 1-2. Not sure if there are courses that have more but you can browse.

https://www.pdcourses.net/courses-pdc.php

I am currently working on one of their certificates for Health and Human Development. Each course is 3 credits and 15 credits= certificate.

https://www.pdcourses.net/certificate.php?cert_id=16

I am currently on the Masters +0 level, I have enough credits to move to Masters +15 next year and I'm on course to move up to Masters +32 the following year. There are 2 more levels on our contract currently that I'm sure I'll probably eventually move towards. Each advancement is about a $4,000-5,000 pay bump.

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Specializes in School Nursing.
18 hours ago, kidzcare said:

Laverne University has online graduate level courses that are pretty much tailor made for advancing on the pay scale. Courses average 3 graduate hours but some have 1-2. Not sure if there are courses that have more but you can browse.

https://www.pdcourses.net/courses-pdc.php

I am currently working on one of their certificates for Health and Human Development. Each course is 3 credits and 15 credits= certificate.

https://www.pdcourses.net/certificate.php?cert_id=16

I am currently on the Masters +0 level, I have enough credits to move to Masters +15 next year and I'm on course to move up to Masters +32 the following year. There are 2 more levels on our contract currently that I'm sure I'll probably eventually move towards. Each advancement is about a $4,000-5,000 pay bump.

My contract just nix'd these types of graduate credits. :(
I have a pre-approved list of universities to pick from. Too many people using these cheap/quick classes to accelerate the pay scale.

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16 minutes ago, LikeTheDeadSea said:

My contract just nix'd these types of graduate credits. :(
I have a pre-approved list of universities to pick from. Too many people using these cheap/quick classes to accelerate the pay scale.

We are in a contract year and I am hoping that our board does not do the same. I put in for approval for a bunch so that if they did, the courses should be "grandfathered" in.

How large is your district? How many teachers? I'm curious to see if it is a smaller or larger district that nix'd the classes.

Our district is pretty big. 18,000+ students in 23 schools. Over 1,000 teachers.

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Specializes in School Nursing.
1 hour ago, kidzcare said:

How large is your district? How many teachers? I'm curious to see if it is a smaller or larger district that nix'd the classes.

Our district is pretty big. 18,000+ students in 23 schools. Over 1,000 teachers.

We're in the "big" category, 15 schools, elementary schools holding about 1k kids each. I got hired a year too late to cash in on the previous way of doing things. You could hit the M+45 in 1-2 years with the Laverne classes. Now it'll take me 3-4 years and LOTS more money. Still worth it though.

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3 hours ago, LikeTheDeadSea said:

We're in the "big" category, 15 schools, elementary schools holding about 1k kids each. I got hired a year too late to cash in on the previous way of doing things. You could hit the M+45 in 1-2 years with the Laverne classes. Now it'll take me 3-4 years and LOTS more money. Still worth it though.

I have a few more questions but I'm gonna PM you

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On ‎3‎/‎13‎/‎2019 at 2:48 PM, kidzcare said:

Laverne University has online graduate level courses that are pretty much tailor made for advancing on the pay scale. Courses average 3 graduate hours but some have 1-2. Not sure if there are courses that have more but you can browse.

https://www.pdcourses.net/courses-pdc.php

I am currently working on one of their certificates for Health and Human Development. Each course is 3 credits and 15 credits= certificate.

https://www.pdcourses.net/certificate.php?cert_id=16

I am currently on the Masters +0 level, I have enough credits to move to Masters +15 next year and I'm on course to move up to Masters +32 the following year. There are 2 more levels on our contract currently that I'm sure I'll probably eventually move towards. Each advancement is about a $4,000-5,000 pay bump.

Thank you! This is exactly what I was looking for and have just been approved by my district to start. Can you tell me about how long it takes to complete a 3 credit hour class? I read about 45 hours...Just wondering if it is unrealistic to think I might be able to do all 12 credit hours this summer?

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7 minutes ago, BuckeyeRNMomma said:

Thank you! This is exactly what I was looking for and have just been approved by my district to start. Can you tell me about how long it takes to complete a 3 credit hour class? I read about 45 hours...Just wondering if it is unrealistic to think I might be able to do all 12 credit hours this summer?

This really varies between the courses and since they are self-paced, it depends on how a person is with that kind of work. I'd say with time dedicated to classwork each day it wouldn't be unheard of but some include writing lesson plans and presenting them to students which would not be feasible over the summer. I was able to do a couple of the classes in a couple months each but they were not specifically geared towards teaching.

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