In my district, we continue to work on preparing our students for a changing world. Maintaining positive relationships is always important, but we need to
Welcome to Digital Backpack! In our first Digital Backpack cast, we chat with Traci Smith, a high school English teacher at De La Salle. She
In this episode, Jeff and Erin chat with Emily Sicilia about engagement in the classroom. They explore how to define classroom engagement, and chat about Hoopla, an app Emily shares that has changed their reading lives!
Welcome to The Blended Files, our super-secret project (shhhhhhh) where we visit the classrooms of Michigan teachers and share the strategic and thoughtful ways they’re incorporating technology into their lesson plans. In our first case, we explore Mrs. M’s 7th-grade social studies classroom.
My old friend — When I first started teaching, it was always you holding my hand. You were there for my first conference. Since the beginning, you’ve set my expectations for what professional development should be like. This may be difficult to hear, but it’s time for our relationship to end.
In this episode, Jeff and Erin chat about the concept of “power with vs. power over” — inspired by a recent book study of Jim Knight’s High-Impact Instruction — and host a great interview with the always amazing Val Capel.
In this episode, Jeff shares some audio from a recent teacher professional development session on podcasts, then Jeff and Erin chat about using classroom experience to shape professional learning.
In this episode a podcast about … podcasts! Jeff and Erin discuss a cool tool for recording podcasts and how teachers might think about using podcasts in the classroom.
Jeff and Erin share about Flipgrid and how they dig using it with students and teachers alike, then ask: what comes first, the technology tool or the learning?
After a summer hiatus (or a summer full of professional learning opportunities with teachers), we’re back! In this episode, we chat with Sharon Murchie, a
The first rule of blended learning is: you do not talk about blended learning.
SHOW #6! We have had a great time chatting with teachers, administrators, and technology integration specialists and this episode was no different. We had on
Designing the physical classroom to accommodate modern learning
Thanks so much for tuning into the show and checking out the show notes! We appreciate YOU! In our 5th episode, we got into some
As we get deeper into our podcast adventure, we are feeling fortunate to have the opportunity to converse with fantastic educators and get a glimpse
Show notes from this week’s campfire: We got off to a good start by revisiting the hot dog/sandwich conundrum. We shared how we are majorly
The weather outside is feeling especially blustery, so come on over to our campfire for some great conversation. This week we launched our second episode
The weather may be snowy and cold, but our campfire’s keeping us warm! This week we launched our first “official” episode of Campfire with special
Bust out the s’mores, it’s time for a CAMPFIRE! It might be a little chilly to gather around a campfire this time of year, but
My colleagues, Kelli Hixon and Stacey Schuh, regularly facilitate blended learning regional events across the state. In most cases, they’ve partnered up with intermediate school
We’re sorry to inform you that we have reached capacity for several of our Semester 1 and Trimester 1 courses. You’ll notice when attempting to enroll students in our Student Learning Portal that some courses are unavailable. While we are no longer accepting new enrollments for these courses at this time, many courses continue to remain open for enrollment.
With many students across the state 100% remote, demand for our online courses is greater than ever before. Because every course we offer is taught by a Michigan-certified teacher, this high volume of enrollments has created capacity issues for our teachers who provide each and every student with individual feedback.
While the Michigan Virtual team anticipated and planned for significant increases in student enrollments this Fall, the increased demand we’ve experienced has been unprecedented. As a result, we are taking steps to hire even more part-and full-time teachers to support larger numbers of student enrollments for Semester 2 as well as for Trimester 2 and 3.
For schools that still need online learning options this year, please fill out the form at the bottom of our virtual pathways page to meet with someone to discuss other solutions. While some of our teacher-led courses are full, we may still have the capacity to help you in upcoming terms or can discuss timing to implement a whole-school or collaborative program in which local teachers from your school/district use our online course content to teach students. We also have free course content and resources available for you to use.
We know this is an incredibly stressful time for all, and we’re sorry if the courses you’re looking for are unavailable. We never want to turn away a student who wants to learn from us. Our top concern, however, is student success, and we have a policy to not take on additional enrollments if we cannot guarantee that all students will have a quality online learning experience.
We appreciate your patience and understanding as we navigate the unusually high volume of enrollments we are receiving.
