Education & Classes in Oakland Park

Guitars, banjos, and mandolins hang like artwork from Penny Lane’s red walls, immediately capturing the eye with names like Santa Cruz, Eastman, and Gold Star, and indicating the shop’s specialty in repairing, selling, and teaching a range of stringed instruments. Within this musical gallery, a deft staff lends its melodic expertise to fixing broken instruments—from guitar strings to bass necks—and promises to tackle any repair no matter how big or small.

Budding musicians—equipped with their own instrument or one from the emporium’s vast stock—an sit down with a distinguished instructor, who teaches players of all ages and experience levels how to play classical instruments such as the piano and violin, or more obscure music machines, including the banjo and ukulele. The shop also hosts monthly jam sessions, allowing students to gather on the store’s plush red couch and learn first-hand the important factors of group play, from keeping on beat to smashing guitars an arm’s length away from others.

With experience in cosmetology and business management, Octavia McDougle helps aspiring beauticians of all sorts forge new career paths as hairstylists, barbers, cosmetologists, and massage therapists. At Beauty Anatomy Institute of Cosmetology and Wellness, Octavia and her staff guide students in immersive programs that combine preparatory theory with hands-on practical application. Once they've learned the ropes, protégés get to practice services on real-life clients before they earn their licenses and find employment.

Students train on a 4,100-square-foot campus replete with four clinic areas and salon-exclusive products typically found only in premier salons and Walt Whitman’s finely manicured beard. Beauty Anatomy Institute also runs an outreach program to provide disadvantaged teenagers with scholarships, workshops, and grooming services to further boost their self-esteem.

Wading through indoor heated pools, the instructors at British Swim School teach independent swimming skills to learners aged 3 months and older, adhering to a curriculum devised by British national swimmer Rita Goldberg. The 30-minute one-on-one sessions and small-group lessons, containing six or fewer swimmers, elucidate essential techniques for water safety and the importance of speaking fluent manatee. Swimboree (ages 3 months–3 years with parents) and Young Minnows sessions (ages 1–3 years without parents) teach wee swimmers basic water-survival skills, such as the back float. Turtle One and Turtle Two classes focus on freestyle, backstroke, and breaststroke maneuvers, honing more structured swimming skills in older kiddos. British Swim School's Shark courses enhance stamina and speed and teach even more demanding strokes, such as the butterfly and little-known mountain-goat flail. Certain British Swim School classes require parents to participate in the water or to supervise from the pool deck, and adults-only lessons allow grown-ups to refine their own abilities without the supervision of a toddler.

Children in goggles and swim caps emblazoned with United States Swim Academy's patriotic logo kick and glide through an indoor pool heated to a comfortable 91 degrees. Instructors help them practice proper body and head positions, as well as efficient arm strokes and kicks, following a curriculum developed specifically for children by founder Karen King, the former national director of SwimAmerica. Besides these courses for children, the academy's team of competitive swimmers and rescue professionals also leads classes for adults that emphasize safe aquatic habits, such as never swimming alone or chewing on pool noodles 30 minutes before going into the water.

Keep your eye on the ball. Rotate your hips. Swing through the ball. These are just some of the many instructions that run through batters' heads as they stand over home plate. ProSource Baseball Training Center helps players work through their thoughts and calibrate their swings before game day with batting cages that pitch baseballs or softballs. An available ProBatter Professional PX2 baseball simulator features an 8'x10' screen, where a virtual pitcher throws one of nine pitches at up to 100 miles per hour. Players may also enroll in one of many training programs focused on other aspects of the sport, ranging from running biomechanics to throwing footwork.

Along with multiple batting cages and training programs, ProSource Baseball Training Center's 15,000-square-foot indoor facility houses a turf training field and four multi-use tunnels—from 35–70 feet long—that players can use to practice pitching, fielding, and calling for the help of angels in the outfield. The center's lobby entertains waiting and non-participating patrons with WiFi Internet and DirecTV programming.

FLA Aquatics owes its growth from a 65-member operation to the home of multiple state, national, and international champions to 2000 Olympic coach Duffy Dillon, who—as noted in the Sun Sentinel—was recently inducted into the Broward County Sports Hall of Fame. Dillon has amassed an experienced staff of certified instructors who have passed a national level-two background screening, including head coaches with level-five certification from the American Swimming Coaches Association. The company's multiple locations offer programs for all ages, including very young children learning to safely enter the water, competitive high schoolers, and adults seeking to train for a triathlon or start a floatie-based fashion trend.