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The Digital Backpack
Your resource for online learning
Your trusted source for K-12 online learning insights, teaching strategies, and success stories from Michigan’s leading virtual education provider. Join us as we explore innovative approaches to help students thrive in the digital age.
Step-by-step guide to setting up a successful online summer learning program
Michigan Virtual
If you’re looking to provide students at your school or district with more summer learning options, this step-by-step guide will help you think through the process of building a highly successful online summer learning program.
Podcast: Student Agency and Google Classroom
The Digital Backpack
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 shares some gems about connecting with students, creating a
Using PowToon to explain challenging concepts to students
Jaclyn Tyler
One of my challenges as an online teacher is this: I teach in an asynchronous program, so my students are not necessarily online at the same time as I am. One tech tool that has helped me to bridge this divide is PowToon, the video-making software that allows teachers to create engaging, animated clips to help explain challenging content to students.
Using Calendly for scheduling student meetings
Kim Garvison & Alanna Prieditis
One of the biggest challenges as online Spanish teachers? Regularly scheduling time to connect with each student in our course to listen to and assess their language development. We needed to find a tool that would eliminate the need for several back-and-forth communications to simply set up an appointment for each short assessment. We not only wanted a tool to help share available time slots for appointments, but also one that would sync with our calendar. That’s when we discovered Calendly.
Using choice boards to promote student agency
Sarah Bedford
Choice boards have helped improve student learning in my class by empowering students to develop confidence based on their individual needs and choices. I also believe when they are engaged in the learning and know the expected outcomes, they are more reflective and able to self-assess their own learning.
How online learning helps schools stand out in the competitive landscape of school choice
Michigan Virtual
If you’re looking to find ways to innovate your curriculum — and, yes, to compete with other schools in our current era of school choice — then providing your students with online learning options is one way you can stand out in the educational marketplace. Why? Because you’ll be providing your students with more course options, more flexibility in how and when they learn, and more opportunities to gain 21st-century learning skills.
New year's resolution? Earn SCECHs for reading blogs, listening to podcasts, and participating in Twitter chats
Ken Dirkin
Teachers, I’d like to introduce you to my new friend, 2019.We’ve just met, but I have the feeling we’re going to get along splendidly.Here’s one way you and 2019 can do the same:By tackling your new y
Micro-credentialing & the dawn of competency-based professional development
Ken Dirkin
When it comes to our students, we strive to foster growth mindsets and implement competency-based learning in our classrooms.But when it comes to our own professional development, we so often accept “
Restorative Justice 101 — A Paradigm Shift in Education [with infographics]
Michigan Virtual
Your Guide to Restorative Justice in Michigan Schools: This blog is the third in our series on Restorative Justice in Michigan Schools. We have already released articles on Michigan's new restorative justice law and the dangers of zero-tolerance policies and will continue to release articles on strategies for implementation in schools and classrooms.
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.
7 reasons why your high-achieving students deserve online summer learning options
Michigan Virtual
For self-motivated learners, taking online summer school courses can be liberating because it allows them to make progress toward their goals while studying at their own pace in time blocks that fit their busy schedules. In some cases, online programs offer students more learning options with more flexibility than their face-to-face counterparts.
Podcast: Engagement Hoopla
The Digital Backpack
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!
4 ways that zero-tolerance policies affect Michigan students [with infographics]
Michigan Virtual
This blog is the second in our series on Restorative Justice in Michigan Schools. In this article, we explore four ways that Michigan students are negatively impacted by zero-tolerance policies. Infographics included!
What you need to know about Michigan’s new restorative justice law [with infographics]
Michigan Virtual
This blog is the first in our upcoming series on Restorative Justice in Michigan Schools. The other articles in this series features information on the dangers of zero-tolerance policies, restorative justice 101, and strategies for implementation in schools and classrooms.
Relationship Before Rules Equals Rejoicing
Michigan Virtual Learning Research Institute
This is the eighth in a series of blog posts written by Michigan Virtual’s Regional Mentor Leaders to bring to life what mentors do to build and maintain a supportive online learner environment to help students be successful. If you are a mentor and would like to share a strategy, a success story, or another topic that illustrates how you support students, please email mvlri@michiganvirtual.org.
Michigan Virtual Teacher Professional Learning Community Design Research Blog, Part 2
Michigan Virtual Learning Research Institute
In the second part of this two-part blog series (part one can be viewed here), we continue sharing the action research carried out by Michigan Virtual teachers as part of their involvement in the teac
Michigan Virtual Teacher Professional Learning Community Design Research Blog, Part 1
Michigan Virtual Learning Research Institute
IntroductionThroughout the 2016-2017 academic year, the instructional design and Michigan Virtual Learning Research Institute (MVLRI) staff at Michigan Virtual recorded in-depth analytics data to moni
Building Relationships
Michigan Virtual Learning Research Institute
This is the seventh in a series of blog posts written by Michigan Virtual’s Regional Mentor Leaders to bring to life what mentors do to build and maintain a supportive online learner environment to help students be successful. If you are a mentor and would like to share a strategy, a success story, or another topic that illustrates how you support students, please email mvlri@michiganvirtual.org.
Design Learning for Visually Impaired Students with NVDA
Jeff Gerlach
Jeff reviews Non-Visual Desktop Access (NVDA), an open source screen reader for Windows. Screen readers help those with vision impairments to access digital content. Teachers can use screen readers to check that web content for lessons is accessible to students with visual impairments.
The Accessible Classroom: Online Learning and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
Jeff Gerlach
The Accessible Classroom is a video series exploring web accessibility for K-12 education. In this first video, Jeff takes a look at the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) from the perspective of schools.
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