The Caribbean Classroom Capacity Initiative is a series of practical, online training courses designed to strengthen local educator capacity across Caribbean school systems. The initiative focuses on sustainable, classroom-ready strategies that help teachers, support staff, school administrators, and related professionals better serve students with diverse learning, communication, sensory, behavioral, motor, and social-emotional needs.

Each course is designed as a six-week learning experience that combines self-paced instruction with live online integration sessions. The goal is not simply to provide information, but to help educators apply strategies directly within their classrooms, schools, and communities. Course topics include augmentative and alternative communication, fine motor and pre-writing development, handwriting instruction, social-emotional learning, ADHD and executive functioning, specific learning disorders, and sensory processing differences.

Across the initiative, participants will build practical skills, strengthen student participation, support independence, and develop sustainable approaches that can be carried forward beyond the course experience.

AAC for Special Education Teachers

This six-week course provides educators with practical strategies for supporting students with limited or no functional speech through augmentative and alternative communication, also known as AAC. Participants will learn how to create and implement AAC supports, use Boardmaker and low-tech communication tools, model language during everyday classroom routines, embed AAC into literacy instruction, and collaborate with families and school teams to increase communication access and classroom participation. The course also includes a bonus independent module on hybrid visual scene displays for children who benefit from photographic context connected to grid-based language supports.

Instructor: Kris L. Brock, PhD, CCC-SLP, is an Associate Professor of speech-language pathology and Academic Director of Therapy Abroad. His teaching, clinical work, and research focus on augmentative and alternative communication, interprofessional practice, cultural humility, and supporting children with complex communication needs. Through Therapy Abroad, he develops international clinical education programs and professional training opportunities for students, educators, caregivers, and allied health professionals.

How to Teach Handwriting

This six-week course provides focused training in systematic and direct instruction for manual print handwriting. Based on the Handwriting Without Tears approach, participants will learn practical strategies for teaching letter formation, instructional sequencing, sizing, spacing, alignment, legibility, and functional written work. The course also addresses common handwriting challenges and gives educators intervention and remediation strategies they can apply in classroom and small group settings.

Instructor: Adrienne Scott, MS, OTR/L, is an occupational therapist, educator, program and course creator, Certified Handwriting Specialist, and founder of The Living W.E.L.L. Group. Her professional courses emphasize practical skills training, functional participation, routines, classroom tools, and everyday application.

Social-Emotional Learning

This six-week course provides teachers with a practical toolkit for integrating social-emotional learning into daily classroom practice. Based on the CASEL framework, the course moves beyond theory to help educators teach and support self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. Participants will learn strategies such as emotional vocabulary building, emotion wheels, regulation supports, structured check-ins, conflict resolution protocols, perspective-taking exercises, teacher self-care, and sustainable classroom implementation.

Instructor: Erin Fontaine, MS, is a Licensed School Psychologist. The uploaded materials identify her as the instructor for this course, which is designed to support K–12 educators in creating emotionally safe classrooms and embedding social-emotional learning into existing instruction.

ADHD and Executive Functioning

This six-week course helps teachers recognize how ADHD and executive functioning differences affect learning, attention, academic performance, skill development, and student independence. Participants will learn about core executive functioning skills, how ADHD can appear in school settings, how executive functioning impacts learning, and how to use evidence-based classroom strategies to support attention, academic success, confidence, and independence.

Instructor: Shelley Mikszan, M.A.Ed., is an Educational Specialist, owner of RJD Learning, and co-founder of The Center for Aligned Psychoeducational Services, PLLC. A former Director of Student Services, school administrator, and regular and special education teacher, she brings more than 25 years of experience supporting students, faculty, and parents. She specializes in psychoeducational assessment, executive functioning, and helping educators translate research into practical, evidence-based strategies.

Specific Learning Disorders

This six-week course helps teachers recognize the impact of specific learning disorders on academic performance and classroom participation. Participants will learn about learning needs related to reading, writing, and mathematics, as well as evidence-based instructional strategies, accommodations, supportive technology, and approaches that build student confidence, independence, and self-advocacy. The course is designed for general education teachers, special education teachers, school administrators, and counselors.

Instructor: Shelley Mikszan, M.A.Ed., is an Educational Specialist, owner of RJD Learning, and co-founder of The Center for Aligned Psychoeducational Services, PLLC. Her background includes work as a Director of Student Services, school administrator, and regular and special education teacher. She brings more than 25 years of experience supporting students, faculty, and parents, with expertise in psychoeducational assessment, executive functioning, and evidence-based educator training.

Understanding and Supporting Sensory Processing Differences

This six-week course provides educators with a practical understanding of sensory processing differences and how they may affect behavior, emotional regulation, attention, transitions, participation, and learning in students with special educational needs. Participants will learn how to recognize sensory needs, understand the relationship between sensory processing and classroom behavior, use evidence-informed strategies to support regulation and participation, and create supportive learning environments that promote student success.

Instructor: Tori Lehr, OTD, OTR/L, is an Occupational Therapist specilizing in sensory processing disorders, and she has over 10 years of professional experience. She has spent time working in TCI as a clinical supervisor with Therapy Abroad, and that experience has directly informed the development of this course. Drawing on her work with educators, students, and school-based needs in TCI, she has developed a practical training for educators supporting students with special educational needs, with an emphasis on sensory processing, regulation, classroom participation, and supportive learning environments.

When applying, click the green button "See Availability" then select the course you are enrolling in. You'll complete a form and pay the $200 course fee.

Mondays — Asynchronous video tutorial

Wednesdays — Live session via Zoom

Desktop or laptop computer required.

For the AAC course, Chromebooks and tablets are not supported.