As we approach the holidays, I am reminded of this quote from Lao Tzu. “The wise do not lay up their own treasures. The more they give to others, the more they have for themselves.” I sincerely thank you for all that you give every day on behalf of all of us at Michigan Virtual.
Please take a look at the content we’ve gathered to share with your members. We also ask that you reshare our social media posts when you see content relevant to your members. You might find it helpful to set up alerts if you haven’t already done so.
Thank you for your partnership. Because of you, we can share our resources more widely and significantly impact student success in Michigan. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to follow up with me at
Sincerely,
Anne Craft
Executive Director of Outreach
Michigan Virtual
Learning Matters is a program on WJR Radio (760 AM). Hosts Ann Thomas of WJR and Anne Craft of Michigan Virtual chat with some of Michigan’s educational leaders about innovation and the future of learning. The most recent episode on September 19 highlights how tools and resources already available to Michigan schools can be leveraged to better serve our communities.
And that’s a wrap! Listen to the entire second season of the BRIGHT podcast anywhere you get your podcasts. Michigan is home to so many outstanding educators. In this podcast, powered by Michigan Virtual, we talk to inspirational Michigan educators known for their innovative approach to learning and hear first-hand what their classrooms look like, how these changes impact students, and what advice they have for fellow teachers looking to try something new.
In partnership with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and MEMSPA, two free SCECH-bearing courses are now open for registration. Developed with subject matter experts from the Yale School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry, this series aims to address the rising concern of adolescent suicide. Learn to recognize the symptoms, identify school-based strategies, and know what to do in the aftermath of a suicidal event.
Educators can earn 13 SCECHs through a facilitated book study hosted by Professional Learning Services. Dive into The Impact Cycle by Jim Knight and identify ways in which you can apply the teachings. Since this is a synchronous PD course, participants will have opportunities to collaborate with peers as well.
With support from the state of Michigan, the most comprehensive mental health and prevention education program and social emotional learning (SEL) programming is now available to schools and districts at no cost! This highly customizable, scaffolded curriculum contains more than 1,000 lessons that address real issues that K-12 students encounter every day. Administrators can utilize free data reporting to see the real-time effectiveness of the SEL and mental health lessons.
See the data-reporting features available for the free program Michigan Cares. Administrators can assess student progress and see real-time data. Reporting features include student and teacher usage/engagement, as well as the impact on class or school climate.
This recent blog post shares how cyberbullying can affect nearly all students and how educators can teach and address concerns of cyberbullying in their classrooms.
More than 20 tools and resources for teachers and students are compiled to help strengthen approaches in competency-based education.
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.
