Summer of Powerful Learning

Teachers and students have integrated many different technology tools into their learning environments. Now that the tools are in place, it’s time to leverage their transformative potential for instruction. The VILS Summer of Powerful Learning series will provide educators and coaches an opportunity to enhance their technology practices using research-based instructional strategies. The series will highlight the four principles of Powerful Learning: 1) personal and accessible; 2) authentic and challenging; 3) collaborative and connected; 4) inquisitive and reflective. Each principle will be addressed individually through an instructional lens for teachers and through a coaching lens for coaches. Starting June 7, join us on Tuesdays at 1 p.m. ET throughout the summer to take your technology integration to the next level with these strategies:

• June 7: Developing Personal and Accessible Instruction: Teachers will explore ways to teach students about learner variability. This session will focus on exploring sample activities and strategies from the Learner Variability Navigator that support self-directed learning. When students understand themselves as learners, they have more agency over their learning. WATCH NOW | SLIDE DECK
• June 14: Coaching Toward Personal and Accessible Instruction: Coaches will understand the connections between culturally responsive practice and learner variability. This session will focus on reflective practices that can be replicated with educators and ways to use the Learner Variability Navigator, a free online tool that translates the science of learner variability into strategies to improve classroom practice. In order to design to reach each learner, educators and coaches must first understand their own learner variability and how it intersects with their practice. WATCH NOW | SLIDE DECK
• June 21: Developing Authentic and Challenging Instruction: Teachers will learn about classroom resources and activities that integrate authentic computational thinking experiences into core subjects such as math, science, social studies, and English/language arts. This session will focus on an interdisciplinary curriculum unit about urban water runoff and engage participants in using a computational simulation to develop and iteratively refine a design solution. WATCH NOW | SLIDE DECK
• June 28: Coaching Toward Authentic and Challenging Instruction: Coaches will explore strategies and resources for coaching teachers toward powerful learning with authentic and challenging instruction. This session will focus on coaches collaborating to create their own real-world experience and share strategies of coaching teachers to integrate authentic and challenging design within their content using the Digital Promise Real World Learning Roadmap. WATCH NOW | SLIDE DECK
• July 12: Developing Collaborative and Connected Instruction: Teachers will explore strategies to use before and after a collaborative learning experience that support students’ collaboration skills. This session will focus on creating a template that can be used for every collaborative experience and will allow teachers to use their creativity in Google Slides, Microsoft PowerPoint, or Canva. WATCH NOW | SLIDE DECK
• July 19: Coaching Toward Collaborative and Connected Instruction: Coaches will discover the benefits of a strengths-based approach. This session will focus on why it is important to view learner variability through a strength-based lens and use resources from the Learner Variability Project that feature the Learner Variability Navigator. This is a free online tool that translates the science of learner variability into strategies to improve classroom practice. WATCH NOW | SLIDE DECK
• July 26: Developing Inquisitive and Reflective Instruction: Teachers will take a look at different kinds of question types and how to coach students to improve their questioning. This session will also focus on ways to engage students in reflection and how to use tools such as Flipgrid, Teams, or PearDeck to facilitate meaningful reflection. WATCH NOW | SLIDE DECK
• August 2: Coaching Toward Inquisitive and Reflective Instruction: Coaches will explore strategies and resources for coaching teachers toward powerful learning with inquisitive and reflective instruction. This session will focus on coaching strategies and questioning techniques that can be used in a blended learning classroom. WATCH NOW | SLIDE DECK

These sessions are free and open to all teachers. Note that there will be no session on July 5.

2021 Webinars

• June 8: Designing for Voice and Choice: Learners will integrate digital tools into a preexisting lesson plan to incorporate voice and choice in a manner that honors diverse learner interests and ability levels. This session will focus on creating opportunities for students to demonstrate mastery of voice (choosing a topic of interest) and choice (choosing different artifacts of learning). WATCH NOW | SLIDE DECK 
• June 15: How to Engage Students Through Powerful Questioning: Learners will explore the use of questioning, which has always been a powerful tool in the teacher’s toolbox. This session will focus on how students can drive the questions to recall, reflect, and synthesize learning. WATCH NOW | SLIDE DECK
• June 22: Designing for Mastery: Learners will integrate digital tools into a preexisting lesson plan to engage students in rigorous learning. This session will focus on using formative feedback and self-assessment for student growth and progress. WATCH NOW | SLIDE DECK
• June 29: Designing Learning to Connect: Learners will integrate digital tools into a preexisting lesson plan to include opportunities for increased connection between learners and their community. This session will focus on peer learning strategies and sharing learning with authentic audiences. WATCH NOW | SLIDE DECK
• July 13: Designing for Collaboration: Learners will integrate digital tools into a preexisting lesson plan to offer students meaningful opportunities to connect and learn from one another. This session will focus on protocols that promote collaboration and peer feedback. WATCH NOW | SLIDE DECK
• July 20: Designing Learning for Metacognitive Reflection: Learners will identify strategies to have students reflect on how they learn best through roleplay. This session will focus on having students self-regulate and monitor their learning process in order to build self-confidence. WATCH NOW | SLIDE DECK
• July 27: Empowering Students to Use Video and Audio for Learning: Learners will identify best practices for teaching students how to use quality audio and video to demonstrate their learning. This session will focus on how to provide students with authentic opportunities to create video and audio to deepen their learning. WATCH NOW | SLIDE DECK
• August 3: Adapting SEL for Multicultural Contexts: Learners will practice relationship-building activities to solicit information about their students and their communities. This session will focus on digital protocols that will assist in collecting data that can be used to personalize instruction and build rapport. WATCH NOW | SLIDE DECK
• August 10: Creating Rubrics that Promote Mastery and Choice: Learners will design a rubric to offer students meaningful opportunities to demonstrate their learning. This session will focus on having students develop mastery through a variety of learning products that can be assessed with a single rubric. WATCH NOW | SLIDE DECK
• August 17: Evaluating Your Tech Tools for Student-Centered Use: Learners will evaluate a tool they are already using or have access to. This session will focus on revisiting the functionality of the tool using research-based design to ensure that the tool is used effectively to center student learning. WATCH NOW | SLIDE DECK
• August 24: How to Use New York Times’ The Learning Network Activities: The Learning Network publishes about 1,000 teaching resources each school year, all based on using New York Times content—articles, essays, images, videos, graphics, and podcasts—as teaching tools across subject areas. In this webinar, we will share tools and strategies that can be immediately implemented. You will discover what The Learning Network is all about; learn how to use our popular student activities; walk through account creation and commenting; and learn how to share resources for online learning. This session will take place at 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT. WATCH NOW | RESOURCE LIST