{"id":5230,"date":"2020-04-15T09:12:32","date_gmt":"2020-04-15T16:12:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogschapman.wpenginepowered.com\/education\/2020\/04\/15\/thompson-policy-institute-develops-active-education-webinars-to-support-california-teacher-candidates\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T06:36:47","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T06:36:47","slug":"thompson-policy-institute-develops-active-education-webinars-to-support-california-teacher-candidates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/education\/2020\/04\/15\/thompson-policy-institute-develops-active-education-webinars-to-support-california-teacher-candidates\/","title":{"rendered":"Thompson Policy Institute Develops Active Education Webinars to Support California Teacher Candidates"},"content":{"rendered":"

School closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic have brought about virtual classrooms throughout California for both K-12 and higher education. This has created a challenge for teachers-in-training (teacher candidates) trying to complete the necessary clinical practice hours and observations to meet the requirements for both student teaching and residency models.<\/p>\n

The current pandemic is compounded by a statewide teacher shortage<\/a>. Thus, it is more important than ever to support public education and ensure an uninterrupted pipeline of future educators.<\/p>\n

In collaboration with state and national partners, including the Orange County Department of Education, Chapman University\u2019s Thompson Policy Institute on Disability<\/a> (TPI) has rapidly responded to the ongoing crisis by helping to meet this essential need. With financial support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation<\/a>, and as part of the California Alliance for Inclusive Schooling (CAIS), TPI has helped develop the CAIS Active Education Webinars Series for teacher candidates.<\/p>\n

Thanks to financial support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Thompson Family Foundation<\/a>, TPI is able to offer these webinars at no cost to the webinar participants.<\/p>\n

Active Webinars<\/h3>\n

The CAIS webinars are designed for candidates in all preliminary teacher preparation programs\u2014Multiple Subject (elementary), Single Subject (secondary), and Education Specialist (special education) candidates. The goal is to help teacher candidates continue to gather required observation or clinical hours, despite widespread school closures.<\/p>\n

The webinars are also open to anyone interested in the topics, at no cost. Additional participants might include mentor teachers, coaches, and university supervisors.<\/p>\n

The webinar content will be delivered by an established expert in the field. Following a live 60-minute webinar with a moderator, experienced content coaches will facilitate discussions in 60-minute breakout rooms to create virtual professional learning communities. The breakout rooms will be interactive to accommodate the varying levels of participants.<\/p>\n

The virtual professional learning communities will offer suggestions and guidance for extension activities for those who wish additional supervised hours in collaboration with their respective teacher preparation program university supervisor, faculty, and mentor teacher.<\/p>\n

Each live Active Webinar can accommodate up to 100 participants, but recordings of each session will also be available on-demand following the live event.<\/p>\n

Current Webinar Topics<\/h3>\n

The initial set of scheduled, live Active Webinars include:<\/p>\n