Ignite your practice: SPARK! Leader Edition

An item from the folks at the Digital Learning Collaborative.

The DLC is excited to continue our professional learning resource — SPARK! Leader and Teacher editions. These bi-weekly posts are designed to address a problem of practice and to ”ignite” digital learning through shared experiences and ideas that support our digital leader and teacher members and users. SPARK! is archived in our members-only document library, and written by the DLC team, members, and other contributing DLC community members. Contact CAO Allison Powell with your ideas and to contribute. Click here to join the DLC and access more members-only resources. What is the best way to make connections with our online students? By: Jaime Lopez, Principal for Florence Virtual Academy (AZ) Florence Virtual Academy has set up special meetings called Goal Planning Meetings for each student. These happen once a week and give students the opportunity to talk with their Academic Advisor. During these meetings, they chat about how they’re doing in school, how much progress they’re making, and if they’ve been attending classes regularly. Students also take time to think about their week and write down what went well and what they want to work on for the next week. They make a SMART goal (Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Relevant, and has a Time limit). After the meeting, the advisor documents what they talked about and shares it with the student and their parents. This helps everyone stay on the same page and support the student together. When students finish their meetings with their Academic Advisor at Florence Virtual Academy, their advisor inputs everything they talked about in our Goal Planning document. This document keeps track of how the student is doing, what they’re struggling with, and what they’re aiming for. The document is shared among the student’s academic support team (Advisor, parents, and student). This way, everyone stays connected and knows what’s happening and can help the student do their best in school. These meetings are important because they bring everyone together to talk about the student’s progress and make plans for implementing supports and how to improve on a regular basis. Florence Virtual Academy’s Goal Planning Meetings are really helpful for students as they get to spend time thinking about both how they’re doing and what they want to do better. Talking with their Academic Advisor helps them make realistic goals and plans to reach them. These meetings aren’t just about grades—they’re about making sure students have the tools and encouragement they need to succeed in school and beyond. Trade Secrets Try, tweak and try again.   Implementation or changes should happen at any natural break, for example Winter Break.   Give the process time, use the parts that work for your school and modify and improve the parts that are not successful. Assets Google Drive Folder of Resources Coaching Conversations- Transforming Your School One Conversation at a Time (Gross, L. M., & Reilly, M. F. (2010). Coaching Conversations. Corwin Press.) Jaime Lopez Jaime Lopez has been the Principal for Florence Virtual Academy for the past seven years. She holds a dual Masters in Educational Leadership and Curriculum/Instruction. Jaime is the district’s Imagine Learning Coordinator and supports all schools with the use of their online curriculum and staff training. Download PDF View email in browser Evergreen Education Group · 700 Main Ave Ste E · Durango, CO 81301-5437 · USA