Future Proud Michigan Educators is a course designed to raise student awareness of educational strategies, systems, and professions. This course engages learners in a study of student identity and the ways in which those identities are developed in learning communities. The lessons and activities provide a telescopic perspective while supporting individual learners to consider their personal microscopic perspectives. Students will examine issues that affect their education, including personal and systemic influences. Through classroom assignments and clinical experiences, students will analyze teaching and learning practices as they experience mentorship and participatory learning. Students will use the course content and experiences to reflect on and prepare for their own educational pathways.
Prerequisites: None
Course Objectives: Upon completion of this course, students will be able to...
- Identify elements of a healthy, inclusive, and equitable learning community.
- Build a reflective practice that includes observing, connecting, interpreting and applying concepts to personal experiences and clinical experiences.
- Analyze core teaching practices in effective classrooms and how those practices can contribute to equitable student learning.
- Apply concepts of culture to better explain the relationship between identity and learning in themselves, their peers, and their future students.
- Describe and build relationships that are positive, affirming and empowering, with an understanding of how relationships impact student learning.
- Investigate an educator’s role as an agent of change, advocate for justice or designer of opportunity.
- Explain varied aspects of learner differences and development to understand an individual’s strengths, challenges and possible ways of supporting their learning and development.
- Assess multiple instructional strategies to address individual student needs and differentiate instruction for a variety of learners.
- Examine the roles and responsibilities of school systems and professionals in supporting the academic and social emotional needs of all learners.
- Describe the preparation and development of educators in Michigan, including ethical expectations and key learning experiences before and after certification.
- Recognize the role of goal setting, self-advocacy, and intrinsic motivation in the teaching and learning process.
Course Outline:
Unit 1: Cultivating Healthy Learning Communities
Unit 2: Exploring Culture & Identity
Unit 3: Striving for Equitable Educational Systems
Unit 4: Developing Inclusive Teaching Practices
Unit 5: Understanding College Access
Unit 6: Reflecting on Clinical Experiences
Resources Included: Online lesson instruction and activities, opportunities to engage with a certified, online instructor and classmates, when appropriate, and online assessments to measure student performance of course objectives and readiness for subsequent academic pursuits.
Additional Costs: None
Scoring System: Michigan Virtual does not assign letter grades, grant credit for courses, nor issue diplomas. A final score out of total points earned will be submitted to your school mentor for conversion to their own letter grading system.
Time Commitment: Semester sessions are 18-weeks long: Students must be able to spend 1 or more hours per day in the course to be successful. Summer sessions are 10 weeks long: Students must be able to spend a minimum of 2 or more hours per day, or about 90 hours during the summer, for the student to be successful in any course. Trimester sessions are 12-weeks long: Students must be able to spend 1.5 or more hours per day in the course to be successful.
Technology Requirements: Students will require a computer device with headphones, a microphone, webcam, up-to-date Chrome Web Browser, and access to YouTube.
Please review the Michigan Virtual Technology Requirements: https://michiganvirtual.org/about/support/knowledge-base/technical-requirements/
Instructor Support System: For technical issues within your course, contact the Customer Care Center by email at [email protected] or by phone at (888) 889-2840.
Instructor Contact Expectations: Students can use email or the private message system within the Student Learning Portal to access highly qualified teachers when they need instructor assistance. Students will also receive feedback on their work inside the learning management system. The Instructor Info area of their course may describe additional communication options.
Academic Support Available: In addition to access to a highly qualified, Michigan certified teacher, students have access to academic videos and outside resources verified by Michigan Virtual. For technical issues within the course, students can contact the Michigan Virtual Customer Care by email at [email protected] or by phone at (888) 889-2840.
Required Assessment: Online assessments consist of formative and summative assessments represented by computer-graded multiple choice, instructor-graded writing assignments including hands-on projects, model building and other forms of authentic assessments.
Technical Skills Needed: Basic technology skills necessary to locate and share information and files as well as interact with others in a Learning Management System (LMS), include the ability to:
- Download, edit, save, convert, and upload files
- Download and install software
- Use a messaging service similar to email
- Communicate with others in online discussion or message boards, following basic rules of netiquette
- Open attachments shared in messages
- Create, save, and submit files in commonly used word processing program formats and as a PDF
- Edit file share settings in cloud-based applications, such as Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides
- Save a file as a .pdf
- Copy and paste and format text using your mouse, keyboard, or an html editor’s toolbar menu
- Insert images or links into a file or html editor
- Search for information within a document using Ctrl+F or Command+F keyboard shortcuts
- Work in multiple browser windows and tabs simultaneously
- Activate a microphone or webcam on your device, and record and upload or link audio and/or video files
- Use presentation and graphics programs
- Follow an online pacing guide or calendar of due dates
- Use spell-check, citation editors, and tools commonly provided in word processing tool menus
- Create and maintain usernames and passwords
Additional Information: None