One of the district’s most significant investments is in professional development through Universal Design for Learning (UDL). “We have 11 teachers that have gone through a two year training session through Indiana University, and now they’re training cohorts throughout the district. They take two or three colleagues and work with them throughout the year to implement Universal Design for Learning,” elaborates Smedley. “It just speaks volumes that we have internal coaches that are willing to teach their peers and colleagues. The fact that we can do that internally and learn from each other, it just snowballs into better collaboration and better teaching and learning for our students.” INNOVATIONS IN VIRTUAL AND BLENDED LEARNING Even before the pandemic, the district noticed the growing demand for virtual learning options. “We were losing Frankton-Lapel students to some big box school districts, who have partnered with some out of state companies to provide virtual learning,” expands Boles. 5 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 06, ISSUE 03 FRANKTON-LAPEL COMMUNITY SCHOOLS
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