BetterLesson, a leading provider of high-quality virtual and in-person K–12 professional learning, announces BL Connect, an on-demand library of self-directed courses designed to bring actionable professional education to every teacher. The BL Connect platform centers evidence-based adult learning practices while honoring professionals’ time, offering courses that are responsive to their daily instructional practices. The BL Connect platform will be available for implementation in the 2022–23 school year.
BetterLesson moves beyond single-day seminars and a one-size-fits-all model, making available a professional learning system that addresses the individual challenges educators encounter within their own learning environments. BL Connect courses build upon educators’ past successes, connecting the dots between professional learning and everyday practice. Courses range from 20 minute bite-size primers to 60-minute interactive sessions.
“The responsibilities of K–12 educators have expanded significantly over the past decade. The supports we provide educators must meet them where they are across multiple learning modalities and high-demand K–12 content areas,” said Matthew Kennard, CEO of BetterLesson. “Since its founding in 2008, BetterLesson has grown an online library of lesson plans into one-on-one coaching and job-embedded supports for customized instructional design. Self-directed learning with BL Connect is a natural progression of our mission to better professional learning so that all students have access to a world-class education.”
Through BL Connect, educators will have access to an online, ever-expanding library of courses to support them on their professional learning path. Through BL Connect, teachers can explore a wide array of critical teaching concepts to access what they need to know when they need to know it. With topics like student-centered math and literacy programs, core curriculum support, and critical skills like social-emotional learning and trauma-informed teaching, teachers can use online interactive learning experiences to grow awareness of new concepts and take ownership of their own learning.
BL Connect is currently being piloted by nearly 100 U.S. educators in preparation for its availability in July 2022. Kathy Meitl, an Instructional Coach at Saydel High School in Des Moines, Iowa, commented on her experience with BL Connect. “This course provides many practical strategies and explains each in enough detail and with clear examples that I would feel confident trying it in my classroom,” she said.
BL Connect provides an added layer of support for K–12 school districts that pairs with BetterLesson’s deep-dive Workshops, job-embedded 1:1 Coaching, and supportive Learning Walks, all aimed at improving teacher practice and ultimately student outcomes. These multidimensional, research-based supports scale professional learning into a year-long—or career-long—purposeful journey.
To learn more about BetterLesson, please visit BetterLesson.com.
About BetterLesson BetterLesson connects K–12 educators with comprehensive professional learning solutions that help them thrive in an increasingly complex world. Through research-based professional development centered on student outcomes, educators gain the necessary skills to create meaningful student-centered learning experiences that meet all students’ needs. We provide intentionally defined learning pathways and self-directed courses supported by deep-dive Workshops, job-embedded 1:1 Coaching, and supportive Learning Walks that guide strategic learning across a district to achieve outcomes for all students in and beyond the classroom.
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