Season Of Learning

By Lindsay Zilly

Can you feel it? The shift in the air. The changeover of wardrobes. The buzz and excitement is nothing short of….

Summer Pathways Program

The IDEA team has been hard at work throughout this winter and spring season curating some phenomenal content for your summer learning pleasure. We are excited to announce three learning pathways have been added to our summer series. Why now? Well, we have been listening to YOU, the teachers in the classrooms who are shouldering the weight of the world. We have heard you loud and clear. You are looking forward to some R & R and are also searching once again for your why. It is with that in mind that we’ve created three different professional learning options: 

• Micro PD

• Workshops

• Cohorts

 

 

Our Why

These last few years have been tough and the IDEA team would like to honor your feelings by helping reignite your passion for learning. So, we have designed the summer pathways program to help fit whatever learning adventure lies ahead for you. These personalized experiences have been designed with teachers at the heart of it. 

 

Let’s Break It Down

You may be asking yourself, what will I gain from these experiences? I’m so glad you asked. Let’s unpack what each offering has in store for you!

• Micro PD: These sessions are designed to be quick, engaging learning experiences. They are asynchronous and help get learners familiarized with a particular content area. Once participants have established the prerequisite knowledge from the virtual sessions, we invite them to join a full day capstone event. The goal of the capstone is to work with leading experts in a particular area to create a dynamic toolkit, unique to your learners that you can use to help implement a topic of study in your classroom next year. Have a busy summer already? Our Micro PD’s are the perfect way to continue learning without overly committing.

 

• Workshops:  One of the pillars of IDEA is equity. For us this is not only incredibly important but also needs to be consistent. Equity work to us means a great many things but in the case of our workshops it means equitable access to innovative and authentic training no matter where you are located in Illinois. We’ve worked with some powerhouse educators to create full day workshops that will come to YOU! Our traveling workshops will be hosted three times throughout the summer at a location in the Northern part of Illinois as well as Central and Southern Illinois as well. IDEA is committed to removing as many barriers as possible to make learning accessible and equitable for everyone!

 

• Cohorts: Our cohorts are for those educators looking to stay connected and skip the summer slide this year. We have month long, asynchronous cohorts available focusing on various subject matters. The best thing about the cohort options is that it comes with an accountability group. Ideas are great, but they come to life when they are shared. We’ve partnered with some incredible educators to lead a variety of cohorts to help you continue your life long learning journey. 

 

Who is this for?

In case we haven’t gotten you hooked yet, we’ve done even more work to ensure you get the learning experience you deserve. In addition to taking into account time constraints, topics of interest and incredible facilitators, we’ve also aligned our professional learning offerings with the role you play in your school or district. We have specific pathways for teachers, coaches and administrators. You can take one based on your job or take them all! We understand that professional learning is a community effort and for it to work, we have to connect all the pieces together. 

Call To Action

With that being said, take the time for you this summer. That may mean closing your laptop and not opening it again until August (in that case, we will see you at idea U!). But if you are finding yourself in need of a reminder as to why you are a part of the greatest profession in the world, take a peek at some of the options awaiting you within IDEA’s summer pathways program.

Whether it is attending a Wednesday Webinar, registering for a Wellness Event or starting a journey towards once again finding your why, we hope you find something here that feels right for you. As always, thank you for all that you do changemakers!