Virtual Learning Excursions

NGLC designed Virtual Learning Excursions in the wake of the pandemic, one of the most challenging and isolating periods in education history. With funding from the Barr Foundation, we invited New England high school teams to remotely connect with students, teachers, and leaders at Mission Vista High School and Vista Unified School District in San Diego County, California, and Blackstone Academy Charter School in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

Although we have returned to in-person Learning Excursions, we invite you to explore the learning models of these two innovative high schools at any time by visiting the Vista Stories and Blackstone Stories sections of this microsite. These story pages are filled with vibrant multimedia visual and audio resources that provide you with the first-hand behind-the-scenes accounts you would get if you visited them in person.

Find out below what makes these sites "must see" locations and how they can spark your own high school learning redesign. You can also learn more about the interactive virtual experience we provided for selected high school teams in 2021 and 2022.

Multimedia Stories The freely available Innovative Schools Multimedia Stories are built for educators who are ready to explore other schools’ and districts’ learning models. In their own words, students, teachers, school leaders, and others share how their innovative schools' learning design, practices, and culture create student success. Educators can use these first-person stories and real artifacts—tools, student work, and more—to spark, inspire, and inform their self-directed approach to refine or define next gen, personalized learning for their own students.		Virtual Sessions Teams from New England with a high school focus were invited to apply for an interactive learning experience combining Multimedia Stories + Deeper Engagement Sessions + Support from NGLC. The Innovative Schools Virtual Learning Excursion is built for New England-based teams that are ready to learn from and with host-schools and districts and ready to develop and implement a plan for redesigning one or more aspects of their own learning model.

The Opportunity

Innovative Schools Virtual Learning Excursions give high school educators and partners the opportunity to directly engage in reimagining how education happens. Guided by adult learning facilitators at NGLC, participating teams learn with and from innovative, next gen school and district communities.

• Examine practice
• Connect with innovative peers
• Explore bold learning models tied to 21st-century success

With virtual learning excursions, our school and district partners provide rich examples and first-hand accounts of what makes their learning designs so effective and so special—through multimedia stories, school materials, and interactive virtual sessions with students, teachers, and school leaders at each site. LEARN MORE (Note: we are no longer accepting applications for this experience.)

Choose the Destination That Works Best for You

Mission Vista High School and Vista Unified School District

• Learning at the high school is student-centered and focused on strengths. They use a variety of strategies to personalize their teaching for each student. To make these changes, they support teachers to use their "agency"—to set their own goals aligned to the goals of the school (and district) and take action to achieve them.
• The district creates the conditions for innovative teaching and learning to occur. They use strategies like invitation instead of mandates, personalizing professional development for staff, and designing innovations collaboratively with stakeholders and industry partners.
• Following a kick-off on September 28, 2022, selected teams participated in five interactive sessions with Mission Vista and Vista Unified representatives.

Blackstone Academy Charter School

• This mission-driven charter high school community feels like a family. Their key to success is supporting each learner as a whole person. College and career readiness is a strength.
• The interactive session with the Blackstone community occurred between November 2021 and January 2022.
• Learn more about BACS with our multimedia stories!

Funding for the Virtual Learning Excursion Stories and Sessions was provided by the Barr Foundation. Photo at top courtesy of Ola Elementary School, Henry County Schools, Georgia.