Giving Compass' Take:

• Some school districts are making pre-service learning programs for educators widely available online and are seeing high participation from educators in preparation for the school year. 

• To fully engage children this coming school year, educators must prepare by taking into account the challenges of delivering social-emotional and project-based learning online. How can virtual professional development sessions help fill these gaps? How can donors help schools with re-engaging students? 

• Read more about school considerations for preparing SEL needs amid re-openings. 

Some schools and districts didn’t wait until the standard pre-service before school, but rather created unique summer offerings for their teachers in preparation for a virtual fall start. Val Verde Unified School District in Southern California made that bold move. They launched a 64-hour professional learning series that teachers could opt to participate in from July 27 – August 5. According to Val Verde Superintendent Michael McCormick, the district’s board of education stepped up and allocated funding in order to get teachers really ready to launch virtually in the fall. Teachers—who could work either from home or at school—were paid a summer contract.

McCormick and his team were excited about their 78% teacher participation rate. “This was really unprecedented in every way,” said McCormick. “We are in unusually challenging times so it’s great to see our board and teachers respond in unusually exceptional ways.”

This is all part of the district’s new Val Verde TREK (Teaching Reaching Engaging Kids) Professional Learning Initiative, which is competency-based and rooted in adult learning theory, according to McCormick.

A long-held tradition for iLEAD Schools and the Maker Learning Network has been Camp Make—intended to be a year-long learning journey. This includes a pre-service learning experience for all facilitators and staff for five days in August, as well as two additional days for all new instructional staff. It continues throughout the school year with one week in October, one day in January, two days in March, and one day in April.

Just like all their school sites and programs, the August portions of Camp Make are 100% virtual this year. Participants are offered a wide spectrum of differentiated and scaffolded sessions based on the organization’s core mission for all learners: social-emotional wellbeing and project-based learning, according to Director of Academic Innovation Angie Nastovska.

Read the full article about virtual pre-service learning in education by Michael Niehoff at Getting Smart.