Student Driven Learning

Via this presentation with the innovation team alongside the Voices of VaLIN podcast with Superintendent Dr. Rob Arnold, Amherst County shares the story from moments of a year of innovation. This past summer, their partnership with WSET enabled student production teams to develop and manage a televised series of engaging lessons aligned to universal themes. Later in the year, a focus on PBL led to development of a website that showcases selected student artifacts from each of the division's schools for public viewing.

Presentation and Voices of VaLIN Podcast

New Kent County is leveraging a 5Es approach to build commitment as they reinvent the summer learning experience to reactivate the joy for learning. The Summer of MORE (Meaningful Opportunities for Real World Engagement) is a multifaceted experience for both learners and teachers, with thematic units that activate the 5Cs and PLC structures that foster risk-taking and leadership opportunities.

Summer of MORE presentation deck and video

During a review of their efforts from the 2020-21 school year, Chesapeake City's innovation team brought to light a theme of empowering educators to provide a greater level of real-life application to student learning experiences. In this Voices of VaLIN podcast episode, Dr. Sheli Porter discusses some of the realizations gleaned from their leadership efforts.

Voices of VaLIN Podcast

The Nelson team worked collaboratively to reimagine approaches to professional learning via empowering our educators in Lead Innovation Teams. The initiative included a rebranding of our division-wide focus within pathways of learning, ensuring relevant learning experiences that will engage students and help them develop a passion for learning. Our goal of these Lead Innovation Teams is to transform student learning from abstract to a meaningful learning experience.

Voices of VaLIN Podcast

Norfolk Public Schools, like so many, has shifted their innovation during the year to meet both present and the future learning. The innovation is focused on the return to school that provides an optimal experience for all learners whether in person and virtual but also is shaping instruction to be more aligned to best practice around engagement and empowerment of students.

Establishing a Community of Practice for Concurrent Instruction overview and Voices of VaLIN podcast

Continuous learning is an embedded process in any innovation! Staunton City Schools developed and upscaled SCS University, a collaborative peer-to-peer training that allows for personalized learning around an identified focus and need. This same concept could be applied across divisions and across innovative practices.

SCS University Overview and Video

Despite the changes students were to experience in the fall of 2020, the Hanover team was able to fold the thinking of multiple elective choices within a new middle school schedule. The team created a new component in the schedule called Academic Curriculum Enrichment Block (ACE). Eventually, ACE attempted to realize what the team had initially set out to do in March 2020: to give students a chance to explore multiple elective choices.

Electives Pathway Exploration

Henrico’s story centers how the pandemic super-charged their advance towards a deeper learning focused Teaching and Learning Framework through rapid prototyping, testing, failure, and survival.

The key innovation is the Practitioner's Guide for Design and Delivery that was designed to support teachers in our virtual OR in-person environment. Essentially, this resource is the guide to HCPS best practices expectations for Life Ready instruction.

The driving question of Radford City's Innovation Team: Can we create a schedule that allows teachers to collaborate, plan, and prepare for the integration of problem/project based learning? Review the slide deck that chronicles the team's journey in order to understand their path as well as to access resources associated with their implementation.

Reimagining School Scheduling