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Expand your expertise and ignite your students’ potential.

Let’s demystify the strategies AND science of Executive Functions.

Choose your path

You’re ready to empower your students, BUT you’re missing the critical info and tools you need to expand your expertise.

Connected Pathways Academy was designed to equip you to…

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Expert Knowledge

Acquire specialized knowledge and techniques in executive function that go beyond traditional teaching and coaching methods. This allows you to offer more comprehensive support to your students.

  • But you can set yourself apart with our specialized training in Executive Function that only a select few possess. You will possess the proper training and proficiency to feel self-assured in comprehending executive function and supporting your students with effective tools and strategies.

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Expand Student Base

Equip yourself to work with a diverse array of students, including those with ADHD, learning disabilities, or other executive function challenges. This diversification can increase your client base and income potential.

  • By developing expertise in these areas, you can tailor your support to meet the specific needs of each student, offering targeted strategies and interventions that address their unique difficulties. This specialization not only broadens your ability to assist various student populations but also enhances your appeal to a wider client base. As a result, you can attract more clients seeking expert guidance, leading to increased opportunities and potentially higher income in your practice.

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Career Advantage

Stand out in the competitive field of education and coaching with a specialized credential. This distinction can lead to more referrals, higher rates, and greater professional recognition.

  • This advanced qualification sets you apart from others in the industry, showcasing your expertise and commitment to addressing complex student needs. As a result, you will be more likely to receive referrals from clients, peers, and educational institutions who recognize your advanced skills. This distinction also allows you to justify higher service rates due to your specialized knowledge and enhances your professional reputation, leading to greater recognition and opportunities for career advancement.

Choose Your Path:

EF Essentials | Mastering EF

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EF Essentials

Gain an overview of Executive Function (EF) and receive comprehensive training on three of the most in-demand executive functions: Planning, Organization, and Time Management.

Additionally, delve into essential foundational EFs, including Working Memory, Cognitive Flexibility, and Emotional Regulation. This training will equip you with the skills and strategies needed to support your students effectively in developing these crucial cognitive abilities.

EF Essentials includes:

  • 5+ hours of video training and accompanying activities to deepen your understanding of executive functions and enhance your ability to apply these concepts in practical settings

  • Ask your biggest questions and share your ideas and pain points around student resistance, parent engagement, and application of techniques across different settings. Just to name a few.

  • Reinforce your learning and make EF tangible using our accompanying course workbook and exercises.

Tuition: $395

Join EF Essentials
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Mastering EF

Become a certified Executive Function Specialist through our Mastering EF course as you explore ALL key executive functions.

This comprehensive program covers a wide range of executive function skills. You will engage in advanced training that not only delves deeply into each of these executive functions but also offers practical strategies for application.

Mastering EF includes:

  • 20 hours of video training and accompanying activities, featuring detailed modules including interactive activities, videos, and case studies to deepen your understanding and practical application of executive functions.

  • There will be three bonus modules in the Mastering EF Course. Two of them: Shift Cost (Multitasking) and our Half Way point will only be available in this program. The third bonus module will be Processing Speed

  • Ask your biggest questions and share your ideas and pain points around student resistance, parent engagement, and application of techniques across different settings. Just to name a few.

  • Reinforce your learning and make EF tangible using our accompanying course workbook, exercises, and case studies.

  • Receive one year of access to the course and to our community of educators, new content modules, and additional monthly Community Calls to casually chat all things EF.


    *$395 Value

Tuition: $1295

Join Mastering EF

Here are some of the things holding you back (from becoming the expert educator you want to be):

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  • Our course is delivered through concise videos, presenting information in a clear and easily comprehensible manner.

  • Becoming proficient in the content doesn’t necessarily translate to knowing how to APPLY it effectively with students. With our course, you not only gain valuable learning content, but also access activities that you can readily apply with your students, ensuring that the knowledge is put to immediate use.

  • We understand your time is valuable. Our course has been created so that you have lifetime access so if you cannot finish the course with your cohort, you can work at your own pace.

  • In addition to video content, you’ll engage in hands-on activities and live sessions that feature team breakout sessions for practical application, all while having access to a supportive community.

  • EF is not only important to academics but also in other life areas. Did you know that “EF is an individual’s most valuable asset”? Read it here And don’t be afraid to forward it to your supervisor ; ). Promote the significance of executive function (EF) training within educational and coaching organizations. Share the advantages and advocate for institutional recognition and support of this professional development.

Here’s what other pros have to say about how Connected Pathways Academy has impacted their work:

  • “Crista Hopp’s Executive Function Specialist class has so many strategies and tools to enable coaches, teachers, and parents to more effectively empower students. I was a teacher for 31 years and wish I had taken her course much sooner.”

    Gena

  • “The Executive Function Course from Connected Pathways Coaching has more than met my needs. Each module includes information about a particular executive function, including the brain science piece in a way that can be understood by a layman, as well as strategies and techniques that can be used to support clients who have executive function deficits. Additionally, each module has at least one activity to demonstrate how that particular executive function works. I have already used some of these activities with my clients to gain more insight into their challenges.”

    Annette

  • “This course has been an invaluable resource to me as a coach working with students, adults, and even with family, to include a post-stroke senior. It’s an abundance of researched-based information. The course breaks down executive functions in great detail, encompassing expected development and how deficits manifest. It includes strategies and tools to help assess and build skills. It has given me and my clients knowledge and insight to help move them forward”

    Maria

  • I am just finding more and more applications of what I’ve learned as I am working with kids on academic support. For example, I was tutoring a girl in Math, either her working memory or struggle to focus make it hard for her to work through multi step problems. So we did up a little check list to follow for the types of problems we were working on. I have another student who will benefit from some metacognitive questioning on his writing assignments for English, as well as chunking the assignments. Being able to sneak in some executive function strategies while tutoring, has been fantastic and makes the tutoring more effective.

    Natalia

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Meet your Instructor 

Graphic reading “Crista A. Hopp, MA, Founder” on a soft pink abstract background with light blue looping lines.

I have had the good fortune to work with children and adults of all backgrounds throughout my career. My experience includes both children and adults with and without disabilities. Many years ago, I was you! I was working with students and didn’t understand executive function and how it was impacting students.

Even holding a Bachelor’s degree from Rowan University and a Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology from Bowie University; I still didn’t know. It wasn’t until I began working as a Research Coordinator for the Prematurity’s Effects on Toddlers, Infants, and Teens Study, known as PETIT, that I began to understand executive function.

This was a longitudinal study being conducted in Northern Virginia through Inova Children’s Hospital and Fairfax Neonatal Associates. I worked with this study from 2008-2014 under the direction of Ida Sue Baron, PhD.

Among many roles, I administered neuropsychological tests to children ages three, six, and nine and also supervised students from local universities in their administration of neuro-psychological assessments to children that participated in the study. I also trained our interns.

I quickly realized that there were other professionals and parents who had students with Executive Function challenges, and didn’t quite understand them.

​I’m a Graduate of JST Coaching in Coaching Children with ADHD and Coaching Teens and College Students with ADHD.  I’m also a graduate of the Anti-boring Approach to Powerful Studying, Academic Coaching. With a diverse background in counseling, individuals with and without disabilities, neuropsychological assessment, and coaching; I bring a variety of experience to my work.

I understand the time it takes, the multitude of sources to sift through, and the frustration of lacking practical tools. That’s why I established The Executive Function Specialist Community to support coaches like yourself.

It’s been my vision for several years to create a comprehensive course that included a community for teachers, academic coaches, ADHD coaches, tutors, and other professionals. I want to make sure to provide useful information like brain science, research, and an easy way to understand Executive Functions, with techniques that can be used at home and at school.

“I’ll never forget one day when an intern told me about a paper she had written about executive function for her secondary education class. Her professor was amazed on the topic, and had NEVER heard of executive function. This was who was teaching our future teachers.”
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IF YOU’RE READY

To learn everything you need for becoming an Executive Function Specialist through:

  • An EF Community that participates in live sessions

  • Ready-made practical activities that you can immediately implement with your students

  • Effective approachies and methods

  • Web Portal with concise videos that are research-based, and a workbook

  • Exercises to help you experience executive function.

Apply for the next cohort

FAQs

  • You will be walking away with a unique specialization that you will be able to market in your practice. If you are a teacher, you can utilize it to expand your portfolio or utilize it when tutoring, or even become a coach! Opportunities for promotion, higher fees, and expanding your clientele. The content is immediately practical and can be put to use right away.

  • Yes, but other programs will not offer you the comprehensive program our course will. They will not have practical activities that you can use with your students that are already created! And I’m willing to wager that most of them don’t offer you a collaborative community experience with fellow educators who are also on a learning journey while actively working with students.

  • Yes, if you plan on marketing yourself as an Executive Function Specialist, you need our annual review. Brain science is constantly changing, and we want to make sure you are using up to date strategies and techniques.

  • There will be updated content on specific topics, additional activities, and a new badge for your website, resume, linkedin profile, etc..

  • You are eligible for 30 CCEU hours with ICF and PAAC. Need CEUs from another organization? We can explore that option for you.

Join us and expand  your expertise, learn tangible ways to share critical executive function knowledge and strategies with your students while igniting  your students’ potential!