I'm starting off in the Georgia TOOL training as a registered (but not "verified") learner. This means that I will have all the course content, but will not receive a validation/certificate at the end of the course. This is the best level for any online teacher unless they need the certification, which is moderately priced at $49.00.
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| Scott waving to the folks at TOOL |
I met these folks back in 2013 at the ISTE conference in I think San Antonio, and came upon the program again in search of some training materials. If this goes well, we may be recommending (at least) this program to our new or potential teachers at MNPS Virtual School in Nashville, Tennessee. It's my understanding that Georgia Virtual requires certified completion of all teachers before they even are interviewed to teach online. That sounds like a pretty interesting possibility.
Anyway, this first step was not difficult at all for me, since I'm a long-time blogger at scottmerrickdotnet and pretty much all over the place, and for decades. I have completed the first assignment by setting up this blog with a page for each of the "five requisite skills" an online teacher must cultivate and develop, then exercise and improve.
Let's move ahead apace. This will give me something to do in my "spare time" over the next week or two. BTW, see my main blog for info about this coming week, when I'll be in Philadelphia, PA for ISTE2015!
To repeat, I'm working through the Georgia "TOOL" curricula toward determining if it is something my own online school can leverage to help teachers both new to and experienced in online teaching. So far I'm liking it. I'll use this "blog-proper" to reflect on my progress and report out on the course itself.
My school is MNPS Virtual School, the first public virtual school in the state of Tennessee, and I've been with it since before it was an "it." In 2010, when I was hired to help conceptualize, research, and implement a public school online, it was, in fact, illegal to run on of those. We participated in delivering courses online as a Program until a consortium of district Superintendents from the 8 largest counties in Tennessee helped push through the Tennessee Virtual School Act. We were the first online school to be recognized as such, and after 3 years of working with full-time students in grades 9-12 we offered courses to grades 7 and 8 as well last year, 2014-15. In the coming school year we will add in grades 5 and 6 to become a 5-12 school, and if all goes well in year 2016-17? MNPS Virtual School, grades K-12.
Much more at our website, linked above. Please see each page on this blog (tabs, above) for work resulting in my test-drive. Cool.
And see scottmerrickdotnet for my personal/professional blog.
Thanks!
Scott
