Checkthis First Step

Yesterday, teachers from Bulkeley High School and Journalism & Media Academy Magnet School came together for a Blended Learning Institute. The morning began with the group reflecting on the ed tech they currently use in the classroom. Many of the teachers shared that they already use web tools like Google Apps for Ed for student production of work and Edmodo as a learning management system. Other teachers use hardware technologies for video production and audio recording. Tim Ketterer, music teacher, uses audio recording to allow students to listen to and reflect on their own performances. At a systems level, Shayna Chomko, theme coach at JMA, reported using Google drive to organize and share information for staff.

After reflecting on current practices, teachers had the opportunity to explore new ed tech tools. Maria Blake, art teacher, discovered Khan Academy art history lessons that she hopes will supplement her art history course. Susan Johnston, English teacher, found NoRedInk as a practice tool to help students improve their writing skills. Several teachers showed interest in the web tool Checkthis.com after creating their reflections on that site. Their Checkthis reflections are shared below:

http://checkthis.com/nmvv, http://checkthis.com/2l2x, http://checkthis.com/orb4, http://checkthis.com/rkc6,
http://checkthis.com/ieye, http://checkthis.com/70t, http://checkthis.com/fqd6, http://checkthis.com/y6da,
http://checkthis.com/hiu6, http://checkthis.com/f171, http://checkthis.com/midgetteblended,
http://checkthis.com/hx5w, http://checkthis.com/edtechtaylor, https://checkthis.com/7z9n,
http://checkthis.com/6ivt, http://checkthis.com/paratech, http://checkthis.com/8306,
https://checkthis.com/f2s2, http://checkthis.com/xiiw, http://checkthis.com/hodgysan

During the middle of the day, Anthony Kim, the founder and CEO of Education Elements, presented to the team about the mindsets of blended learning. Anthony set the tone for our work by discussing that traditional school models are no longer effective for many reasons. He pointed out many factors of our changing world including hyper-personalization (think Netflix), the democratization of information (think Wikipedia), and technology leading to efficiency (think self-driving cars). Anthony demonstrated how blended learning more accurately fits the needs of the modern workplace.

Anthony then led the group through a station rotation simulation. While one group took a deeper diver into blended learning with Anthony, the other group read an article on personalization and feedback. Anthony discussed how important it is to consider the "core four" of personalized learning and blended learning.

The team ended the day by looking at planning for blended learning. After experienced teachers shared their planning processes and considerations, content-area groups worked collaboratively to start lesson and unit planning. English teacher Chandler Paradis is excited about enhancing his unit on Tim O'Brien's novel The Things They Carried by using recorded interviews with the author in a station rotation. English teacher Danielle Knobloch feels confident because her summer curriculum already features a multi-modality and content area station rotation.

Teachers left the Institute feeling excited and ready to explore the world of blended learning. I am excited to work with the team on implementation plans and to read about their summer research and planning!

Great job
I am looking forward to us working together.

A Finals Thought

Last week, I made my senior Literature & Composition II classes suffer through an essay test as their final assessment. For our last unit of the year, these classes read Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart.

For the final, they were asked to write an essay in response to the following prompt:

Identify two central ideas in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. How do these ideas build on one another over the course of the novel? In your response, identify and discuss how Achebe’s choices to structure the novel contribute to the development of these central ideas.

During the unit, I implemented a station rotation model. In one station students worked with me to perform a close reading task about central ideas or the structure of the text in the chapter(s) they read for homework. In the other station, students used Chromebooks to complete independently paced tasks like researching modern Nigeria, listening to Achebe interviews, and reading Achebe's short stories and African fables. All of these tasks were structured to help students demonstrate their proficiency in standards RL.11-12.2 and RL.11-12.5, and be able to effectively answer the final prompt. What I hoped for was for students to be able to reference the novel and the texts from the computer station in order to form a comprehensive response.

After grading the finals, I was encouraged by the number of students who were able to blend their independent learning and their guided learning. For instance, one student seamlessly referenced key parts of the novel in discussing the central idea of a father's legacy while weaving in references to an Achebe interview where the author talked about his father's influence on his own life. The ability to synthesize resources into an effective argument is a 21st century skill. Without the station rotation model in my classroom, I would not have had the time or structure to allow my students to access the materials that helped them to achieve as much as they did.

For an example of a computer station task, click here.

Excited Moving Forward

While I realize that I have had the benefit of exposure over the past two years to blended learning and its transformational potential, we have yet to personally experience it in a sustained fashion.  Diving into this new frontier of education may seem daunting, but leveraging technology to fit the needs of our extremely needy population seems like a no brainer.  In the short term that we had the ability to pilot blended learning, student ownership took hold and soft skills improved markedly.  I am optimistic that students will be able to make substantial gains once we are able to leverage technology in a way that makes sense.  While there were and will be hiccups, stay the course.  We will learn together to create new student experiences that personalizes learning and impacts student achievement.

To see a series of blogs and videos on the topic of blended learning, visit:
http://www.edutopia.org/blogs/tag/blended-learning