Professional Learning

Formative Assessment is an essential part of the learning process leading to student success. Using Formative Assessment, teachers involve students in ongoing self-assessment so they are aware of expectations, gauge where they are in their learning, and then adjust to close the gap between them. Learn about digital tools to support this process. Explore and use quiz and polling tools, interactive and video assessments, portfolios, interactive lessons, and online bulletin boards. Leave with new tools to engage and assist your students in taking responsibility for their learning and achievement.

Energize students to level up their writing across all styles and content? Explore author’s craft through the writing process structure. Help writers improve their craft through immersive experiences where they explore and sculpt ideas into meaningful drafts to share with various audiences. Join us on this writing journey.

Address diverse student learning needs with technology integration. Identify basic principles of universal design, differentiated instruction and best practice teaching strategies to enhance existing or new lessons or classroom activities. Apply these strategies using technology integration to improve learning. Learn to find and use interactive learning activities to address a variety of learning styles. Address learning barriers and support learners using technology tools.

Student engagement is a key element for learning and academic achievement. Gamification is a system of tools such as badges, achievements, levels, and leaderboards to engage participants. Explore how to combine strategies to inspire students to practice, study, and learn more academic content. These gamification strategies result in increased student-led learning, critical thinking, creativity, and collaborative problem-solving.

Students who ask questions engage themselves in learning to find answers. It is the simplest and most effective way of learning. Learn the importance of asking questions. Explore how to nurture a culture of curiosity in the classroom by helping students formulate great questions in their learning. Integrate technology to ignite and sustain critical thinking. Leave with a toolbox and lesson plans focused on inquiry and technology integration.

Explore the essential needs of Leadership and Culture. This course is designed for school, district, and teacher leaders who wish to implement a change effort in their school or schools. Leaders is a broad category, and can include coaches, teachers, technology specialists, aspiring leaders, or other interested in supporting school change.  This course will focus on technology initiatives and other ideas that incorporate change.

Which media sites are reporting the truth? How to discern the difference between real and “fake” or false information? More importantly, can students differentiate between real and fake news? Most children have a difficult time discerning between what is real or fake, how to differentiate between an advertisement and a news article, and identifying where they got their news. We need to stop the cycle of passing forward news and information that has not been substantiated. This course will help educators and their students become smarter consumers and producers of information.

Explore the instructional strategies that support diverse learners. Learn the six elements of differentiation. Understand common language for implementing practical differentiation. Impact success through thoughtful and intentional planning and implementation.

Open Educational Resources (OER) are free, high quality, openly licensed educational tools that can be retained, reused, revised, remixed, and redistributed. It’s easy to find multiple OER for your lessons or curriculum by using the comprehensive search tools on the #Go Open Michigan website. Now learn to customize any lesson, presentation, activity or other OER from #GoOpen Michigan to help students achieve learning goals and standards. Remixing and revising OER provides endless opportunities to create fresh approaches to content and learning.

SeeSaw creates a powerful learning loop between students, teachers, and families and can support remote learning, too. Students use built-in annotation tools (like draw+record, collage, video, and more) to capture what they know in the way that works best for them within Seesaw’s digital portfolio. Teachers gain insights and understand student thinking and progress — enabling them to teach better. Families connect by gaining a window into their student’s learning and engage with school happenings.

Virtual Reality (VR) brings learning to life! Using VR, students can explore natural habitats, experience a beating human heart, or visit other planets. Explore the what, why, and how of integrating VR into classroom instruction. Discover how VR is changing classrooms and engaging students. Learn how virtual reality can unlock potential, personalize learning, and allow students to become content producers rather than just content consumers. Create a VR experience to support teaching or professional development.

Collaboration and communication are critical life skills used at home, school, and work. Teach students how to use these skills to succeed at home and in school. Improve classroom management as students take ownership of learning in partnership with teachers. The course is designed to promote positive change in instructional practice and support teamwork.

Google Apps for Education provides an expansive repertoire of tools for empowering students and managing instruction. Master the basics: how to create documents and share them with students, colleagues or parents. (1) Understand sharing options. (2) Navigate the Chrome Web Store to find and install apps targeted for student learning. (3) Install, explore and utilize new Google Apps and/or Chrome extensions that leverage the impact of technology integration and using Chromebooks. (4) Appreciate the transformation these tools have on teaching and learning by providing seamless access to information, not confined to the school day or classroom.

How do you take the best of the new tools and skills you used during virtual learning, and make them work in your face-to-face classroom? What new strategies does this open up for better connection with your students in all circumstances? 
This course will provide you with resources to support learning and increase efficiency when teaching. You will leave this course with tools and strategies that will minimize and often prevent disruption in student learning.

In a digitally connected world, students need guidance to navigate the world safely and professionally. Learn the ISTE indicators for Digital Citizenship to build a knowledge foundation. Present practical applications for students. Guide students in developing plans to navigate high speed communication, job opportunities, social media, personal security and more.

It’s easy to communicate and collaborate with almost anyone anywhere, anytime just by clicking a button. Educators can use the same collaborative tools in the classroom to engage students in learning, collaboration, and critical thinking. Learn to use collaborative tools for projects. Teach students to give and receive constructive feedback from fellow classmates to students around the world. Explore tools for note-taking, multimedia bulletin boards, and more.

Learn best practices for using a variety of presentation applications. Gain dynamic performance insights.  Build your presentation confidence! Learn about the different presentation programs available for FREE to educators and students. By the time the course is done the participant will have either enhanced a presentation created beforehand or create a new presentation to share with students or colleagues. Learn how to connect with your audience by using polling, interactives, video and images from the public domain.

This class focuses on personalizing content delivery to support student achievement by giving students control over their own learning environment. Participants will learn about student voice and choice, using tools that customize student’s strengths and needs. The course offers fun and engaging interactive resources for educators to use with their students. Classroom structure and flexible seating options are also shared, these strategies impact student behavior and learning outcomes. This is an independent learning unit.

Learn the foundational elements of literacy development from kindergarten through high school, combined with the importance of teaching critical thinking skills. Elementary educators will gain an understanding of the developmental stages of reading and writing. Secondary educators will uncover why some students struggle with reading content. Experience differentiated technology integration. Discover new technology tools and resources to aid teaching.

Games have been used as a learning tool for centuries. Chess was used to teach strategic thinking as far back as the Middle Ages. The genesis of Kindergarten in the mid-1800s was Friedrich Fröbel’s ideas of learning through play. Game-Based Learning (GBL) can help students learn content by reviewing content and practicing assessments. Explore the power of GBL beyond content reviews and board game creations. Design powerful GBL experiences to increase student engagement and understanding.

Participants will learn about technology tools that help students communicate their ideas creatively and clearly, and that demonstrates their knowledge and competency skills. Experience how the application of digital animation and video tools can enhance your lessons and engage your students. Expand the opportunities for creative communication, collaboration, and expression while meeting Michigan Technology Competencies for Students (MITECS). Experience and try-out free multimedia resources that present opportunities for building digital portfolios and as an assessment that demonstrates learning. Explore free media creation options that students can use to create digital artifacts.

Open Educational Resources (OER) are free, openly licensed, high-quality tools that allow users to retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute them for educational purposes. In this course, participants will:

• Build an understanding of OERs.   

• Discover ways to use OER to differentiate instruction.

• Learn where to find free image and audio resources, online books, videos, audiobooks, interactive simulations, game-based learning, lesson plans, textbooks, online courses, and much more.

• Explore how to use OER to develop or enhance a unit, lesson, or project to meet the diverse needs of learners.

• Share resources and collaborate across geographic boundaries to ensure learners have equitable access to up-to-date and innovative materials.

Participants create an authentic lesson, unit, or project that uses an OER to enhance student learning. Participants also develop a plan for creating an OER that fills an unmet need in their professional practice.

The Esport Institute provides facilitation and consultation to participating schools and districts seeking to establish an Esports plan that includes two or more programs for students to participate (eg. casual clubs, competitive clubs, teams, intramural sports, content creation and production, courses). Building or district teams will build a 3 year implementation plan, creating a clear and concrete pathway for successful communication to their stakeholders and steps for providing all interested students inclusion into esports and school culture.

The Esport Institute provides facilitation and consultation to participating schools and districts seeking to establish an Esports plan that includes two or more programs for students to participate (eg. casual clubs, competitive clubs, teams, intramural sports, content creation and production, courses). Building or district teams will build a 3 year implementation plan, creating a clear and concrete pathway for successful communication to their stakeholders and steps for providing all interested students inclusion into esports and school culture.

The Esport Institute provides facilitation and consultation to participating schools and districts seeking to establish an Esports plan that includes two or more programs for students to participate (eg. casual clubs, competitive clubs, teams, intramural sports, content creation and production, courses). Building or district teams will build a 3 year implementation plan, creating a clear and concrete pathway for successful communication to their stakeholders and steps for providing all interested students inclusion into esports and school culture.

The Esport Institute provides facilitation and consultation to participating schools and districts seeking to establish an Esports plan that includes two or more programs for students to participate (eg. casual clubs, competitive clubs, teams, intramural sports, content creation and production, courses). Building or district teams will build a 3 year implementation plan, creating a clear and concrete pathway for successful communication to their stakeholders and steps for providing all interested students inclusion into esports and school culture.

The Esport Institute provides facilitation and consultation to participating schools and districts seeking to establish an Esports plan that includes two or more programs for students to participate (eg. casual clubs, competitive clubs, teams, intramural sports, content creation and production, courses). Building or district teams will build a 3 year implementation plan, creating a clear and concrete pathway for successful communication to their stakeholders and steps for providing all interested students inclusion into esports and school culture.

The Esport Institute provides facilitation and consultation to participating schools and districts seeking to establish an Esports plan that includes two or more programs for students to participate (eg. casual clubs, competitive clubs, teams, intramural sports, content creation and production, courses). Building or district teams will build a 3 year implementation plan, creating a clear and concrete pathway for successful communication to their stakeholders and steps for providing all interested students inclusion into esports and school culture.