Welcome Back!
Your EEP Peeps are tremendously excited to start the new school year. We have been hard at work creating new partnerships to ensure #allkidsthrive in school and beyond. Today we are introducing two of our newest partners – the Ohio Afterschool Network and Inventionland. So, here is the scoop….
Don’t Just Take Another Training: Join the Afterschool Professional Learning Community
EnvisionEdPlus is thrilled to announce the first in a series of collaborative professional development opportunities for Afterschool and Summer Learning professionals in partnership with Ohio Afterschool Network (OAN) and McWatters Consulting, LLC. In direct response to OAN member feedback, this new collaboration creates a huge shift in how afterschool and summer learning professionals experience professional learning. At the request of the field, none of our PD will be ‘make it – take it’ or even ‘sit and get’. Instead, EnvisionEdPlus is combining the best of face-to-face learning from experts in your field with our exclusive PDPlus digital learning system to personalize the PD for every learner. Each series begins with a Face-to-Face workshop where you learn together with experts in the field. Before leaving the workshop, you will learn how to use the PDPlus system and feel ready to collaborate online. Back in your programs, you will try out what you learned in workshops and then use PDPlus to share your learning, successes and challenges with experts in the field as well as with other professionals in your cohort. Feedback from experts and your colleagues will help you learn and grow as a professional and most importantly, build your confidence to keep trying new strategies to make your programs even more successful. The first three trainings in the series are:
Weaving the Web: Aligning Your Afterschool Program to the School Day
- October 2 and 3 – Delaware OH
- November 7 and 8 – Youngstown OH
- December 5 and 6 – Dayton OH
Rockets Rock: Intro to Making and Design through NASA Out of School Learning Curriculum
- October 2 and 3 – Delaware OH
- November 7 and 8 – Youngstown OH
- December 5 and 6 – Dayton OH
Sustainability Design Lab – Creating and Implementing Comprehensive Sustainability Plans
- Dates TBD – late fall/early winter
Note: OAN members will receive discounted rates for all events.
All trainings will be aligned to Ohio’s Core Competencies and Knowledge for Afterschool Professionals. Also, please note that many sessions are in the process of being ‘Ohio Approved’, which we recognize will be critical for Ohio’s Step Up To Quality star rated programs. Keep watching for more as information becomes available.
Want to hear more? Attend the webinar, hosted by OAN Director Nichelle Harris, Craig Lautenschlager of EnvisonEd Plus and Kathy McWatters of McWatters Consulting on Friday, September 14th at 4:00PM. Complete this form and we’ll send you the link to join!
Inventionland Institute Partnership 
If you have never heard of Inventionland, you have got to check them out. This place is the Disneyland of Industrial Design. Inventionland, headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA, is one of the world’s largest invention factories and their designers, called ‘Creationeers,’ work in the most creative space I’ve ever seen. EnvisionEdPlus is now the primary training provider in Ohio, Michigan and Kentucky for Inventionland Institute’s inventing coursework (K-12). Students learn Inventionland’s 9-Step Inventing Method as they identify real world problems based on personal passions and create their own inventions to address their problems. What we love best is that the process doesn’t end with their invention. Students practice ELA communication skills as they prepare for ‘Shark Tank’ style exhibitions with experts from your own community. There are even regional competitions students can enter. Our role is to connect interested schools, communities and beyond-the-school-day programs to Inventionland and then personalize the training to your local needs. Inventionland also hosts free tours of their facility for schools and groups.
To learn more about Inventionland Institute, check out these great videos and blogs.
- 21st Century Schools eNews Special on Inventionland
- Denise’s Story Transforming Lives
- Course Overview
- Career Outcomes
- 9 Reasons Students Love Innovation Courses (blog written by an Asstistant Superintendent in a PA district that uses the Inventionland Innovation Course)
If you want to learn more about our new partners, or how these supports can be made available in your community, give me a call or email (michele@envisionedplus.com or 614.893.7341).
Have a great back to school experience.
~Michele Timmons, President