- July 27, 2021
- Ed Timke
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As we soak up these last delicious days of summer, I hope you are looking toward Fall with the anticipation a new school year usually brings. As a teacher, for me, it was always exciting — a fresh start, full of promise. While we certainly have new challenges, I know that educators are some of the most resourceful people on earth and will rise to meet those challenges.
Please take a look at the content we’ve gathered for your members and promote them. 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 [email protected].
Sincerely,
Anne Craft
Executive Director of Outreach
Michigan Virtual
Listen to the second season of the BRIGHT podcast now! 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 the modern educational marketplace, there are so many learning management system (LMS) providers that it can be difficult to sift through sales pitches and figure out which will be best for your school community. In the webinar “How do you choose?” representatives from three Michigan school districts (Dexter Community Schools, Fraser Public Schools, and Dearborn Public Schools) share their journeys to LMS selection (feat. Summit Learning, Blackboard, itslearning, and Moodle).
Last spring, the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) launched the Children matter. You matter. Learn SEL! campaign. MDE is asking leaders and educators to complete the Introduction to SEL online module hosted through Michigan Virtual. The goal is that as many educators as possible (a minimum of one school leader and two to four teachers per building) across the state complete the module before Labor Day. The course is free and offers SCECHs.
So far over 600 educators have completed the course since the campaign began. Check out where they are on the map.
David Byron from Sunberg-Ferar shares his thoughts on human-centered design and how its tenets are similar to what it takes to be a good educator.
Nikolas McGehee from MVLRI continues the blog series about competency-based education (CBE). He shares the benefits and explains why many schools making the switch to CBE.
Christa Green from MVLRI launches a new blog series all about the student-centered approach to teaching and learning. She explains that by tapping into students’ curiosities, relevance is created which results not only in deeper learning but in higher levels of student engagement.
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.
