On March 2, 2020, over 180 Virginia education leaders began their journey as the cohort convened in Chesterfield. Led by author and producer Ted Dintersmith, High Tech High GSE Creative Director Kaleb Rashad, and Virginia State Superintendent James Lane, teams unpacked a vision for and identified opportunities surrounding the urgency for purposeful learning.

The second session of the 2-day launch saw teams continuing their design in regional groups facilitated by coaches from Advanced Learning Partnerships. By day’s end, each team had generated personalized plans for realizing the Profile of a Virginia Graduate via change catalysts aligned to the Innovation Playlist.

No fewer than ten days later, all K-12 schools in Virginia were mandated to close to in-person learning in response to the continued spread of novel coronavirus, or COVID-19. The echoes of this shift permeate throughout each and every team's engagement as a member of VaLIN Cohort 2, with the pandemic response becoming a catalyst for change in its own right.

Throughout the spring, school teams partnered with their ALP Innovation Coaches for support with their most urgent needs, utilizing the weekly #VaLINchat on twitter throughout the spring as a means of staying connected to each other and the goals of the cohort.

Newsletters: February 2020 | March 2020 | April 2020

In accordance with local, state, and national guidelines, the VaLIN Steering Team collaborated to reconceptualize the Summer Institute previously planned for July 23.

This calendar frames the myriad virtual learning experiences offered throughout June and July in support of Innovation Team efforts to activate the Profile of a Virginia Graduate through project focus on equity, deeper learning, and active engagement. These opportunities address focus areas essential to innovation and are relevant to educators planning equitable, engaging deeper learning experiences by design, no matter the learning location.

This Summer Learning Series (lovingly described at the time as Virtual VaLIN) set the stage for the 'Birds of a Feather' opportunities that would follow in Fall 2020, culminating in a network-wide virtual experience that offered each team the opportunity to share their design's current state as they learned from each other's process.

Newsletters: May 2020 | June 2020 | July 2020

Throughout August and September, teams continued to collaborate with their Innovation Coach in support of transitioning their innovative ideas into innovative action. The desire to unite around shared themes of practice contributed to the design of the October 7th virtual convening, during which team members joined one of six Birds of a Feather sessions to further expand their network in their chosen arena.

These virtual Birds of a Feather connections launched a winter learning series of their own, building on the areas of focus from the summer’s learning by activating micro-networks / action teams that were thematically aligned to shared goals. These micro-networks / action teams were invited to work together around design, implementation, and reflection in support of one another's approaches to innovation.

Newsletters: August 2020 | September 2020 | October 2020 | November 2020 | December 2020 | January 2021

Spring 2021 found each team on a continuum of phases of implementation of their innovation, which could essentially be categorized into three different states. Teams were either a) on the precipice of implementation, b) in the midst of initial implementation, or c) engaged in one or more iteration cycles of their innovation.

As a means of inviting the Network to reinforce each other's efforts, the March convening event invited teams to serve as panelists to share both the process and outcomes of their approach with other interested peers. Voices of VaLIN podcasts served as an analogous approach within an asynchronous format. These sessions were intended to catalyze each team's movement in adherence with the VaLIN Network's mantra: Small Steps. Big Change. Deeper Learning, Together.

Throughout the spring, teams channeled their efforts toward realizing their implementation goals and capturing the story of those innovations in a variety of formats.

This website serves as the 'culminating artifact' of Cohort 2's journey, organizing these stories of innovation around their shared catalysts of change such that future cohorts can learn from these innovations in support of their own local efforts.

Newsletters: February 2021 | March 2021 | April 2021 | May 2021 | June 2021 | July 2021