BRIGHT: Stories of Hope & Innovation in Michigan Classrooms

What does it mean to provide a culturally responsive education to Native American students? As a teacher, where should you begin? In this episode of BRIGHT, we chat with Tan-A Hoffman — a second-grade teacher at JKL Bahweting Anishnabe School and a 2020-21 regional teacher of the year, representing her geographic area in Michigan’s upper peninsula. Tan-A shares some incredible stories, a brief bit of history, and three strategies for providing culturally responsive education to Native American students.

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be an online teacher? In this episode of BRIGHT, we chat with Amy Smith, a French and health instructor for Michigan Virtual, who was recognized as their 2020 Online Teacher of the Year. Amy shares her honest insights into a day-in-the-life of an online teacher, how it compares to face-to-face teaching, and what advice she has for those who are new to teaching in an online environment.

Many leaders in education believe there are better ways to represent a student’s journey through their K-12 education than letter grades. But what might a richer representation of a student’s learning look like and what would it take for us to get there? In this episode of BRIGHT, we chat with Bruce Umpstead, director of statewide programs for IMS Global Learning Consortium, who explains what comprehensive learner records are and why these digital transcripts will be a crucial step toward building a competency-based future.

Some students with IEP and 504 plans thrive in flexible, self-paced online classrooms. In this episode of BRIGHT, we chat with Lisa Rohde, special education and instructional support manager at Michigan Virtual, who shares some of the pros and cons of online learning for students requiring accommodations.

With so many new apps and programs out there, it’s easy for even experienced teachers to feel dazzled and overwhelmed by all of the cool things you can do with technology in the classroom today. In this episode of BRIGHT, we chat with Natalie Anderson, a fifth-grade teacher from Saline Area Schools and MACUL’s 2021 Innovative Teacher of the Year, who shares her personal philosophy for using technology with students, her go-to favorite tech tools, and her experience bringing hackathons, virtual museum visits, and Genius Hour into her fifth-grade classroom.

Kindergarten is such a special time in a child's education. It's a time when the world is still rife with discovery, when dinosaurs are unbelievably cool, and when a magnifying glass can bring out new dimensions in the seemingly ordinary. In this episode of BRIGHT, we chat with Barb Ozminkowski, a kindergarten teacher from Walled Lake who was an early adopter of technology in her classroom and has been blogging with her young students for years.

It’s no secret to say that online learning has changed a lot in the past couple of decades. After all, at the turn of the century, online courses were still being distributed on CD-ROMs. In this episode of BRIGHT, we chat with Kristi Peacock, a course development manager for Michigan Virtual, who shares what it means to be an instructional designer, what advice she has for educators designing their own online learning experiences for students, and what she hopes the future will hold for this ever-evolving sector of education.

“Computational thinking” is a concept that has been making waves in K-12 education since 2006. In this episode of BRIGHT, we chat with Dr. Aman Yadav, a professor of educational psychology and educational technology at Michigan State University, who shares his insights on the rich applications of both "plugged" and "unplugged" computational thinking for the K-12 classroom and sheds light on the biased algorithms that govern our everyday lives.

For many of us adults, emotional awareness and mental health were not topics that were discussed either at school or at home while we were growing up. In this episode of BRIGHT, we chat with Lauren Kazee, one of Michigan’s leading experts on social emotional learning or “SEL,” who shares her personal definition of SEL, dives into the history of this concept, and offers advice for educators looking to prioritize their own social and emotional wellness and model this behavior for their students.

There’s a strange — and somewhat uncomfortable — beauty to the fact that it’s difficult, if not impossible to predict how technology will shape the way we teach, learn, live, love, work, and play in the future. In this episode of BRIGHT, Sarah Wood, an educational technology consultant for Kent Intermediate School District, shares her reflections on the recent history, current state, and beautifully unclear future of technology in the classroom.