Blended Bulletin, Issue 23

Blended Brags

Last week, Mario Sousa-Pena, Wendy Turek, and Kaitlin Sullivan visited Platt High School in Meriden to look at blended learning using station rotations. They took away some important lessons and spent the afternoon revisiting their classroom designs. One important note to share was that students will not use their devices unless we give them a reason to do so!

Cool Tools

As you may know by now, one of the tools we will be using systematically is ThinkCERCA. Research from a rather extensive pilot in Chicago suggests that ThinkCERCA is one of two literacy tools that has a statistically significant impact on learning. We will soon be having training with this platform, but if you are interested in getting a head start, here are some online training modules.

As an update Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides have all new templates that you can choose from. To find the templates, go straight to docs.google.com. The templates will appear at the top of the page.

PBS has created Election Central as a teaching tool for what promises to be an historical 2016 in politics.

Professional Learning

No matter how many articles I read about technology programs, growth mindset's place in the change process remains crucial. Check out an interesting way to chart growth mindset in Does your school have a growth mindset when it comes to change?

As we move to student-centered approaches, the answers we should use to answer the question, "Did that lesson go well?" need to change. Find out how in How to Move from First-Person to Learner-Centered Teaching.

In a follow up to the WALL-E article from last week, Interaction With Digital Content: 5 Actions to Look For In Your Students’ Online Experience offers ideas about what to look for to ensure students are actively using digital content.

What would happen if we asked our students to design their school experience? How high school would be different if students could design it offers some ideas. My favorite line: "I was passionate about it...You could think and use your ideas, and be creative."

Webinar: Register for Engaging Struggling Learners in Online and/or Blended Environments which will be shown on Tuesday, March 15 at 6:00 PM. Remember, even if you can't tune in then, you will be sent a link for a recording.