Category: Teaching

A Framework for Empathy: 3 steps leaders can follow to center educators’ Needs and Wants

Anne Perez

Part 1 of this blog series digs into the results of a survey on what educators need and want from their professional learning experiences. Here in Part 2, we show you the framework we used to create and conduct the survey as well as provide you with ideas for implementing this framework in your own context. Special thanks to my colleague, Danielle Peck, who contributed significantly to this study and the writing of these blogs.

Street Data and Empathy: Revealing What Educators Truly Want from Professional Learning

Anne Perez

Mastering the email game: Three hacks for getting students to ACTUALLY read & reply to your emails

Jonelle Barker

Discover the art of successful email communication with students. By following these three proven email hacks, you’ll stop sending emails that result in crickets and instead create authentic, engaging digital communications that foster rapport between you and your students.

The Power of the 5:1 Ratio: How Fostering Positive Interactions Can Transform Student Learning

Danielle Peck

The 5:1 ratio has completely changed my thinking about interactions in the classroom. It all started with a question about grading. After all, part of our jobs as teachers is to provide corrective feedback to help students grow. The 5:1 ratio helps to ensure that students can receive this feedback effectively. More importantly, however, it can help us be intentional about creating a classroom environment that centers our humanity.

Time for Teachers: Self-Assessment with Community Support as Individual Solutions

Ed Timke

Educators often cite a lack of time as one of their most significant stressors. How can we help teachers find the balance necessary to feel satisfied in their jobs and meet their social and emotional needs? This third post in the Time for Teachers blog series will discuss the importance of a self-assessment in addressing individual problems and solutions teachers face. This is not to say the onus of addressing challenges should fall squarely on the shoulders of individual teachers. Teachers need a community of practice and support to help them identify problems they might face individually that could benefit from solutions that come from consulting with colleagues.

Time for Teachers: Agile Meetings and Short Pulse Surveys as Systemic Solutions

Ed Timke

Educators often cite a lack of time as one of their most significant stressors. How can we help teachers find the balance necessary to feel satisfied in their jobs and meet their social and emotional needs? This second post in the Time for Teachers blog series will discuss two possible solutions that can help all educators save time while addressing needs to serve students and communities: agile meetings and short pulse surveys.

37 Black History Month resources for teachers

Sarah Hill

Time for Teachers: Importance of Distinguishing Systemic from Individual Barriers and Solutions

Michigan Virtual Learning Research Institute

Educators often cite a lack of time as one of their most significant stressors. How can we help teachers find the balance necessary to feel satisfied in their jobs and meet their social and emotional needs? This first post in the Time for Teachers blog series will distinguish systemic from individual barriers, which is essential to ensure that finding time for themselves is not an undue burden on individual teachers. Some challenges require state-, district-, and school-wide solutions.

10 New Year’s Resolutions for Teachers in 2022

Michigan Virtual

From filling your bucket to creating boundaries, we created these resolutions to guide you during this irregular year.

Connecting Teachers: A Community of Practice

Michigan Virtual Learning Research Institute

True collegial groups among teachers, in any context, still remain the exception and not the norm in many schools — especially for online teachers.

Podcast: Student Agency and Google Classroom

The Digital Backpack

An Open Letter to the Teachers Who Changed Our Lives

Michigan Virtual

We asked our staff to tell us about a teacher who changed their lives for the better. The patterns that arise in their responses are cause for inspiration. They reveal that one amazing teacher can change the course of a student’s life forever. We are all the living legacies of this truth.

How Does Online Learning Really Work?: A Conversation with Mitch Albom

Michigan Virtual

In celebration of our 20th anniversary, we hosted four panel discussions on Mitch Albom's radio show on WJR 760. In this segment, Mitch Albom explores the day-to-day realities of virtual education in depth with a panel of our online teachers and students.

The Students of Today & Tomorrow: A Conversation with Mitch Albom

Michigan Virtual

What does the future of learning look like? In this segment of his radio show on WJR 760, Mitch Albom explores this issue in depth with a panel of the leaders of several current and former superintendents of Michigan schools.

What's Getting in the Way of Progress in Michigan's Education System?: A Conversation with Mitch Albom

Michigan Virtual

In celebration of our 20th anniversary, we hosted four panel discussions on Mitch Albom's radio show on WJR 760. In this segment, Mitch Albom explores barriers to progress in Michigan's educational system with a panel of the leaders of several of Michigan's educational organizations.

Why Are Michigan's Literacy Rates So Low?: A Conversation with Mitch Albom

Michigan Virtual

In celebration of our 20th anniversary, we hosted four panel discussions on Mitch Albom's radio show on WJR 760. In this segment, Mitch Albom explores Michigan's literacy crisis in depth with a panel of the educational leaders in Michigan's early literacy movement.

Michigan's Literacy Crisis is a Public Health Crisis

Michigan Virtual

Who suffers when our literacy rates are low? In this blog post by Tamara Bashore-Berg, we dive into the startling reality of Michigan’s literacy crisis and explore Dr. Nell Duke's argument that this issue is, at its heart, a public health crisis.

Turning Digital Natives into Digital Citizens

Michigan Virtual

Innovation in Education

Andrea McKay

Students have access to more information in their pockets than ever before, yet they are often told to leave their phones in their lockers.

Should Teachers Connect with Students on Social Media?

Jeff Gerlach

Being thoughtful about the barrier between our personal and professional lives.