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Category: Teaching

Teaching
Danielle Peck

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

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.

Research
Ed Timke

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

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.

Research
Ed Timke

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

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.

Teaching
Sarah Hill

37 Black History Month resources for teachers

Did you know a teacher started Black History Month? It’s only appropriate, then, that we compile a list of unique Black History Month resources for

alarm clock in front of calender with circled deadline
Research
Michigan Virtual Learning Research Institute

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

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.

Online Teaching
Michigan Virtual Learning Research Institute

Connecting Teachers: A Community of Practice

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

Podcasts
The Digital Backpack

Podcast: Student Agency and Google Classroom

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

Thank you letters
Teaching
Nikki Herta

An Open Letter to the Teachers Who Changed Our Lives

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.

Online learning graphic representation
Teaching
Nikki Herta

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

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.

A money tree coming out of a book in a library
Teaching
Michigan Virtual

Michigan’s Literacy Crisis is a Public Health Crisis

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.

Silhouette of kids playing with technology
Teaching
Nikki Herta

Turning Digital Natives into Digital Citizens

Two educators share their experiences teaching digital literacy Last week, I had the great pleasure of speaking to two educators about their experiences teaching digital

Child staring out a window in a classroom
Teaching
Andrea McKay

Innovation in Education

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

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