Sarah Pazur

Strong Start for Michigan’s Future of Learning Council

By: David M. Richards and Sarah Pazur The future of education is now. The Future of Learning Council (FLC), a cohort of 40 unique school districts and learning organizations, has banded together around a single mission: to shape the future of…

Viewpoint: October 2021

Many school districts have continued to provide virtual learning options for students even as the pandemic continues to affect our communities. Some have launched fully remote schools and are recruiting virtual principals to lead them. Others are…

Sarah Pazur recommends “The Manifesto for Teaching Online”

The Manifesto for Teaching Online by Sian Bayne, Peter Evans, Rory Ewins, Jeremy Knox, James Lamb, Hamish Macleod, Clara O’Shea, Jen Ross, Philippa Sheail, & Christina Sinclair (MIT Press, 2020) The abrupt shift to virtual teaching during the…

The principal’s dream work

During some of my most grueling days as a school principal — which sometimes started at 5 a.m. and didn’t end until after 9 p.m. — I would come home bone-tired from meetings, overwhelmed with student, staff, and parent concerns, drowning in…

No Longer Left Out in Cyberspace: How to Empower Virtual School Leaders

Traditional principals have suddenly become "virtual principals" who need support navigating this new landscape of online learning. The brick-and-mortar school archetype is fading as the pandemic persists. Traditional principals have suddenly become…

Why the Feel-Good ‘Kid Superintendent’ Video Might Let White Educators Off the Hook

In times of racial unrest white educators have historically turned to aspirational tropes in place of revolutionary ones. From white saviors in urban districts to zero-tolerance principals who successfully corral unruly students, there are many…

16 Holiday Gift Ideas for the Online Teachers in Your Life

When autocomplete results are available use up and down arrows to review and enter to go to the desired page. Touch device users, explore by touch or with swipe gestures. Home / Online Teaching / 16 Holiday Gift Ideas for the Online Teachers in Your…

From Crisis to Continuity: The Role of the LMS in the Future of Learning

The Case for ContinuityI was a senior in highschool in the late '90s when I gave birth to my son. Adults in my Catholic high school questioned whether or not I could continue my education from a distance, and, quite frankly, whether they felt I…

Myth of the Ideal Classroom

By: Sarah Pazur Before the pandemic, online learning was a solution for some of the most vulnerable student populations in our country—credit deficient students, expelled students, incarcerated students, and pregnant teen students. Learners, in other…

Guest Perspective: The Menagerie, Myths, and Merits of the Bitmoji Classroom | Michigan Virtual

“The scene is memory and therefore nonrealistic. Memory takes a lot of poetic license. It omits some details; others are exaggerated according to the emotional value of the articles it touches, for memory is seated predominantly in the…

The Menagerie, Myths and Merits of the Bitmoji Classroom

The scene is memory and therefore nonrealistic. Memory takes a lot of poetic license. It omits some details; others are exaggerated according to the emotional value of the articles it touches, for memory is seated predominantly in the heart. The…

In the Face of the COVID Crisis, Michigan Districts and Charters Came Together to Innovate

Eighteen years ago, right before Michigan’s charter school boom began, I accepted my first teaching job at a Detroit based Big Picture Learning school. Built on student-centered principles, this school represented the promise of charter schools at…

Feeling Nostalgic for In-Person Schooling? That May Hurt Our Chance to Rethink It.

Around the world, people are mourning. For loved ones, principally. But also for the rituals and rites of passage from our former lives. Students and parents grieve for lost promotion ceremonies, prom and high school graduations. Yet, in the midst of…

How COVID-19 Feels to Those in Schools: An Education Roundup

Administrators, educators, and students weigh in Brenna Bushweller, student: When all of this coronavirus talk started happening, I wasn't really concerned until everything started shutting down. Today, my school in Vermont and schools across the…

Student Self-Assessment Boosts Learner Agency at FlexTech

Guest post by Sarah Pazur, who is the director of school leadership at FlexTech High School in Michigan, a public charter school whose three campuses serve more than 500 students. FlexTech High Schools, a network of three project- and…

We shouldn’t mock students for seeking purpose; we should encourage them

I cringe when I hear most descriptions of millennials today. They’re often described as lazy, narcissistic, selfie-lovers who seem to be more interested in their phones than real human connections. Snowflakes. Trophy kids. Entitled. But even worse…