If you guys are looking for several practical ways to convert proven face to face activities into an online format, please check out our "If this, then that" page.
In the far left column you'll find face to face actives that many teachers use. In the center and right columns you'll see online approximations of those activities and how to make them (in the far right column).
Have fun pursuing through this resource. If you happen to have an online activity you'd like to share, just reach out to us and we'll add it to the growing list!
"Kids were laughing in my classes While I was scheming for the masses Who do you think you are? Dreaming 'bout being a big star"
Goals/dreams are always impossible and nearly invisible things that hang perpetually in our future. They wait. They're silent. They almost seem to run away from us. But goals and dreams, like mile markers on a highway, let us know where we are going and give context to whether we're headed in the "right" direction or not.
Uncertainty is this weird unmeasurable thing. It's empty and intimidating. Risk, however, is quantifying or taking a bite out of uncertainty.
Many of those new to blended learning will count, among the list of struggles, that there is uncertainty in trying out something new in the classroom. It's exciting, but also scary at the same time. But if you take a measurable step toward Blended Learning then you are controlling the risks involved with trying something new. You are giving form to uncertainty and, thereby, controlling it.
Change for the sake of change isn't a good idea most of the time. Change for the sake of benefitting your students? That's admirable. But change reveals new horizons and those new horizons show us potentially newer and better changes for our student's betterment.
Change is going to happen. The sometimes slow but always certain current of change has momentum…tremendous momentum. But it is dumb and unrefined momentum, like an undeniable ocean current. Yes, ocean currents can pull you out to the sea, but they can also be used to navigate that same sea in order to reach incredible destinations.
The calculating acts of shifting your sails or pushing the rudder a certain way are risks that help navigate through uncertainty.
The trick in being a teacher is to see the questions their adult selves will ask & address them in the here and now. I would then base my calculated risks in class based on both my student's real needs and what I imagined their future selves might ask of me.
Change is happening and you can’t stop it…so lean into change by taking a risk. Let calculated risks help you, your students, & America's Future (patriotic music and eagle noise in background)!
Here's a slide I like to use in our Blended Learning Academy. It's one example for how to take baby steps toward blended learning.
Start becoming a Blended Learning teacher by including elements of Blended Learning, even if they are only parts and pieces. If you use a timer, for example, you will be teaching your students time management skills which are crucial in blended learning environments.
Let your students laugh in your classes, let them scheme for the masses... let them dream about being big stars by building lessons for learning instead of lessons for teaching. The choice to be afraid to try new things hurts your special populations and economically disadvantaged more than main streamed students because personalized learning via blended learning is that "rising tide that lifts all boats". Main stream students are more likely to have support at home, have a diverse background of experiences (ie. vacations, exposure to adults with a variety of career paths, etc.). In short, focus on build lessons for learning instead of lessons for teaching via the blended learning lens.
If you can't do it in one lesson then incorporate lesson add-ins like timers, stations, student data folders and so on.
My wonderful wife once got lost in Target. Like... for real for real lost.
She innocently went in to get some gum.
Gum, as most of us know, can be found in the checkout lines at most grocery stores for your convenience. As in, it should have been a quick in-and-out operation.
Because of this fact, I offered to stay in the car and wait for her while I totally dominated level 894 of Candy Crush. After my five lives were up and I asked my FaceBook friends for help I looked up. What seemed to be about 4 hours had passed, but there was no wife. I started wondering if I should call the police and file a missing person's report.
Soon thereafter, my wife came out with half a shopping cart full of "stuff" with a "I dare you to say something" look on her face. I did not say a word.
Because of this event (and many like it), I got curious and searched the Google-inter-webs to see if this occurrence was a nationwide spousal issue, a genius marketing hypnosis ploy, or just my wife's very cute but very real DTMATS (Decreased Time and Money Awareness at Target Syndrome).
You see... Just like how grocery stores place those impulse-buy products near the register in order for you to see them at the last second and think "I need and can afford this $2 (candy, lighter, soda pop, etc)", Target has a hyper-focus on it's adult consumer experience. Their stores are tech centered, bright, clean, organized, and well stocked.
So getting hypnotized and distracted is understandable and almost fated no matter how strong willed you are!
To get through a Target store and reach your GOAL without giving into distractions takes strength of character, skills, and a plan. But fret not, Target is organized in such a way that you can use their subversive powers AGAINST them.
The key to getting into and out of a Target in a timely manner is creating a PATHWAY map, at least mentally.
I know... keep laughing.
Creating a map with a pathway to get you into and out of that place while reaching your purchasing goal helps save time, money, and something I like to call marital energy.
Constructing pathways in a Blended Learning lesson is much like constructing a strategy for a Target "run". In both cases, you must organize experiences so no one gets "LOST" in sections they don't need to be in.
Getting Started With Pathways:
A great first step is to pull out a trusted and loved lesson plan and actually make a physical flowchart. What happens first? What is the teacher doing? What are the standards? Which question stems are being used? But most importantly, is every student doing the same thing at the same time?
If your lesson is too linear (ie. only a single pathway for your students to follow & they're all doing the same thing at the same time), try to find a spot in your lesson where you can offer students a choice in how they do the work, learn the content, or express their learning. Voila! Just with these additions you have created three different pathways! Next, add those different paths to your drawn out flow chart. If need be, use a game like Chutes and Ladders or Life as your mental (or actual) template. Whatever you do, create multiple paths for your students as they make their way through the content. Don't let them suffer from the Target Effect. Don't let them get distracted by unnecessary facts, activities, lectures, etc. if they don't actually NEED them.
How?
Consider the following:
Your higher level kids may already know much of the information in a lesson so don't let them get lost in a pointless lecture... give them something else to build upon. Challenge them either with differentiation in CONTENT, PRODUCT, or PROCESS. Not all three, necessarily. Heck, let them choose which one to differentiate!
Your low or ESL students may need more videos and images to more easily fill in their gaps in knowledge. So give them teacher made or Khan Academy made videos. Expose these students to images or visuals. Maybe even have these students express themselves in a medium that speaks to them.
Your GT kids may need and want more challenging tasks or more open ended tasks. They'll certainly get distracted by low level expectations, so don't be afraid to raise the bar using tools like Sandra Kaplan's Depth and Complexity sheet.
Construct the learning experiences for each of the groups in a way that they won't want to wonder away from their sections. You could begin constructing pathways by surveying your students past experiences with that particular content. Make those gaps visible somehow and then build around them. Further, get to know their learning styles, not just their favorite summer memory. Get to know them as learners and you will, in fact, get to know them in a deep way.
Your role, after your pathways are constructed, will be to facilitate the learning instead of pushing the kids to learn.
If your students only need to get "gum" in an upcoming lesson, don't make them go through the clothing and house keeping sections. They'll get bored, pull out their phones, and become discipline issues.
Fight the Target Effect in the classroom.
And pray for me and my wife the next time we go to Target. We usually go in for one thing and end up in a situation that looks a lot like the following video...
Don't let your lessons be like this... add pathways!
🎶 The problem's plain to see Too much technology Machines to save our lives Machines, de-humanize 🎶
Many of us, including myself, once derided cold data's "over use" because it seemed to dehumanize the student. My son, Charlie, for example, is more than his STAAR score or IQ or whatever... Grades are incredibly subjective by nature, especially if you consider what gets weighted more and what gets weighted less.
Which is a TRUER indicator of student learning: homework grades, test grades, standardized tests, conversations, exit tickets??? Further, how do we weigh those assessments so that the final number is a true indicator of the student's actual understanding??? UGH!!!
But... the aforementioned data CAN help refine a process to help scaffold learning to push my son to achievement more than he is currently. Data can help teachers create personalized learning experiences that create greater engagement and frame the learning.
Data is a tool for learning, not the goal of learning.
As you've read through these blog posts, we certainly hope that you've picked up on a concept that some supporters of blended learning under emphasize. Namely, at the core of the personalized learning experience that blended learning affords is the duality that data tracking and conversations can inform and build relationships and relationships help guide student achievement via data analysis.
The benefits to implementing blended learning lessons, those that incorporate student/teacher analysis of data in order to personalize the learning experience via flexibility in pace, place, path, time are aplenty. Did I just use the 1930's farmer term "aplenty" in a blended learning blog? You betcha buttons I did!
Those benefits, which include higher student engagement on tasks, higher student achievement, further development of future ready skills, and so on, are rooted in how teachers prepare for student learning via breakdown of data. The data, formative or summative, can take on the guise of exit tickets, quizzes, exams, discussions, and other assessments. In our Blended Learning Academy, we work with teachers on the idea that none of their old quizzes or exams need to be thrown out when blended. They simply need to be re-purposed. The exam, for example, can now be used as both a pre-assessment and post-assessment to gauge growth in a blended lesson.
In one of our recent Blended Learning Academies for administrators, Shelly and I did an immersive activity. Our participants were immersed in a blended lesson that focused on federalism. We gave them a pre-test on the topic with 5 fairly basic questions. Used the responses to group our participants. Each group was then put at one of three stations. Station 1 was with me, the government teacher where I would walk them through the concept of federalism, introduce relevant topics, and assess via high level questions all the way through. Station 2 had participants researching five Supreme Court cases that dealt with federalism disputes between the state and national governments. They were asked on an instruction card to look for patterns and talk about those patterns. Station 3 had students discussing in small groups what a future federalism court case or issue might be. They had to talk about the future possibilities and come to a consensus on the topic and how the Supreme Court might rule.
Each group's size was determined by the participants performance on the pre-assessment (the session average was a 65). The participants who scored higher on the assessment were given more autonomy, the middle group had a scaffolded exercise to guide them, and the lower group was with me, the teacher. We also rotated. The first rotation was longer since I wanted to the lower scorers to stay with me a bit longer. The second rotation was a little shorter. The third rotation was about as long as the second.
We then pulled the group back together after the rotations and had them take the post test. The session average at that point was a 95 with the lowest grade being a 60 and the next lowest being an 80 and every else scoring a 100.
We then all debriefed, first, about federalism and the lessons we had learned. Second, we talked about the station rotation model that we used and how it could be co-opted into a variety of classes and resource rich or poor circumstances.
All of these conversations were centered around the particular types of data we had collected. Pre quiz, post quiz, conversations, peer to peer reflections, and even body language.
At the end of the day, participants stayed behind to talk and the conversations tended to gravitate to that lesson and how the data drove the experience and the experience was a social one where learning occurred at high level. The participants were very friendly with me, the teacher, and we all felt social connections, but to be honest I didn't ask them at any point about their favorite color or food or where they grew up. Our social bond presented itself as a tangent to the data break down and my scaffolding of their learning experience. They learned something new and seemed exhilarated by the experience and felt a social connection to me... but that social connection was steeped in the content and data. I hope that makes sense.
The data in essence gave the context to a rich learning experience that allowed us to bond over the discovery of surprising facts about federalism.
So in the blended learning environment, data is not an end in and of itself. The data is used to personalize the learning experience for each student so that they can achieve greater heights in F2F and online modalities. The two worlds blend better together when data informs what needs to be online and what needs to be face to face. Relationships grow because student's dendrites are being excited by experiencing success that is hand crafted (by their own hands hopefully) especially for them. The analysis of data answers the question how should I teach, what should I teach, what should go online, what should be small group, what should be whole group, and so on.
The online pieces to your Blended Learning lessons should cary all the personality and excitement that your face to face pieces have. Online learning portions shouldn't simply be another brick in the wall of a boring virtual structure (see what I did there?!).
One of the difficulties in designing blended learning experiences has to do with your attitude.
Maybe I should say, it has to do more with your personality and how you project that personality into a virtual or online environment.
Since helping to develop Region 11's Blended Learning Academy with Shelly Shaw and teaching some hybrid college government courses on the side, I have wrestled with the concept of portraying my dry, but lovable, personality online.
In a face to face environment, it's easy. I just tell all of my old jokes always careful to keep timing in mind. I read my audience to see how far I can take my sarcasm. I insert analogies or metaphors for the concepts that need scaffolding. I make sure my body language is supporting the atmosphere, whether it be serious or joking. Etc, etc, etc.
In blended learning, however, you're not always there when the student is working on your assignment. If you drop in a joke or sarcastic remark in an assignment like a discussion post, students will not hear your tone or see the body language that you might have been attempting to deliver. Misunderstandings or, worse, missed punch lines may occur.
So we have a choice, either have a robotic online environment and risk disengaging students at home OR find a way to convey our classroom culture and our personalities in a way that translates effectively online.
If you simply want to have a robotic online environment, stop here. You have no need for the rest of this post.
Ok, glad they're gone.
Robotic online environments can be said to be 2D. Flat might be another word.
In our efforts to create a deeper online experience, a 3D one, we have to really dig into our emotive experiences in the classroom and try to find ways to replicate those experiences online. That is not to say that telling the same joke in the same way will suffice.
It means we have to find ways to design learning in a way that our personality traits might be felt or duplicated online to keep those emotional classroom connections alive.
For example, in my online discussion posts I want students to think deeply but not be threatened by the possibility of getting a "wrong" answer when they spend their time and energy on a discussion prompt. To alleviate the tension, I look for meme's or videos that accentuate the questions prompt and ADD to the content as opposed to simply being static. unproductive, or passive side items. I also ask opinion and value questions, but ask them to support their thinking with citations or other people who think the way they do. There is NO right answer, but there is a right process.
When discussing federalism in my hybrid college course I ask students to dive into Federalist 51, the Federalism chapter in their textbook and answer the question "Is federalism still relevant in today's world? Please support your opinion.".
In order to answer this question, students have to a) understand the concept of federalism b) understand what the Founders wrote about it in Federalist 51 c) understand how it works in today's world d) judge whether it is still a viable system.
That's pretty dry.
To import my personality, I don't tell a joke or a funny story. I find a video that IMPLIES my sense of humor but also adds depth to the discussion post and the content. In the following clip, I also ask students to explain what the clip has to do with the federalism prompt (answer: Mr. Burns is the US government and the bugs are the states... they are both selfish and interdependent which allows for a stable environment to exist, for the most part. The door frame can be seen the US Constitution or Congress).
So the video conveys my humor, the content, and furthers the question prompt.
In many cases, asking students to make connections between their experiences and your content is good enough to carry your personality and make an assignment 3D. Using analogies, metaphors, memes, jokes that lie within the scope of your content is the best place to start. You can also use lensing activities in this same way. For example, you can ask students "What would George Washington say if he were a part of this book... or listening to this conversation... or in charge of so and so?"
Creating opportunities for students to demonstrate understanding of content via interactions or reflections with you or peers is also useful. For example, you can post a question in a Padlet and have students reply with images or videos that you leave comments on would be a great way to carry that classroom culture into the outside world.
Creating a hashtag for students to post Instagram images to would be a similar 3D experience as long as you are actively engaging with their artifacts at some point.
Even though it isn't directly your personality that is being projected, the above examples project THROUGH your personality and help develop a better online environment.
Sometimes small and innocuous changes in the way we do things leads to revolutions that aren't seen until they are directly on top of us.
Case in point... Go ahead, hit play and listen. :)
Especially the line "and now I understand the problems, you can see. I met your children, what did you tell them?"
When the Buggles, a name derivative from mixing the words bugs and The Beatles, released this video and MTv played it as their first ever video, the world was in the throws of change. During the radio age, all that mattered was the voice and the music. The Buggles, as implied in the album's name, "Age of Plastic," predicted that the advent of video and VCRs effectively killed the older radio stars. Now, because of the advent of new technologies, a new generation of artists would synthesize music, technology, and aesthetics (note the oversized sunglasses are meant to portray a "bug's" eyes) to produce the NEW stars. Stars like Madonna and Prince and stations like MTv and VH1 were now not only possible, but fated.
Video allowed the artist to fully flesh out their vision and music beyond lyrics and sounds. Their thinking became visible.
Sure... Radio continued, but radio as the main and only medium through which music was sold and consumed was over. Eventually, MTv gave way to CDs, MP3s, and finally Spotify and Pandora. The consumer's need for personalized access to music, when and where and how they wanted it, could not be ignored or denied.
Video killed the radio star and we ALL celebrated it.
In a very similar fashion, a better understanding of the brain, technology leaps, and the push for equity for ALL students has placed an unyielding amount of pressure on the old "sit and git" and "sage on the stage" way to teach. I might argue that YouTube killed the old way to teach.
Notice, I did not use the word learn. Students are learning under the old regime, but in a way that can be characterized as the "soft bigotry of low expectations" kind of way. In "sit and git" classrooms, when students ARE inspired and excited to learn something new, unfortunately, they are likely self-medicating by turning to an instructor who personalizes their learning: YouTube.
There is a tension in many classrooms between the advancement of the personalization of learning happening all around us and the master of the content who still wants to lecture or show off what they learned about Texas History fro their 1980's college days. In so many cases, Google and YouTube are better teachers in a fact based, low Bloom's environment.
Blended learning with its emphasis on flexibility, student empowerment, and a nod toward the outside-the-classroom world is the Buggles of today. "Teaching" is now more about guiding students to not need us (empowerment), because in many cases they really don't need us.
In previous posts we talked about the umbrella visual's portrayal of flexibility in place, pace, path, and time as it is driven by data to create personalized learning experiences for students. So what are the benefits?
Student Benefits:
Ownership over their own learning goals
Learning that happens inside and outside the classroom
A greater reliance on peer to peer feedback and refinement practices
An end to the view that the teacher is the "master" of the student's learning and success
A stronger community fabric with peers and the teacher
Greater ability to express their knowledge in a variety of ways to authentic audiences
More retention because the learning is personally authentic
Teacher Benefits:
Students are better engaged and less discipline issues
Students are afforded more leadership opportunities and are less of a discipline issue
After the front loading of planning, more T.I.M.E.
more time to guide
more time to reflect
more time to build relationships
more time to become better at letting go
more time seeing that investing trust in students pays off
more time to evaluate because students are helping in the grading/evaluating
Pride in helping to create independent learners
Inspiration brought on by students who creatively display their knowledge
Getting help from students in planning lessons and/or integrating technology
A new way to breath life into old lessons
Contributing to a skill set that will help small human beings grow up to be successful larger human beings
Parents will see at home what you are doing in class and they will be thankful for the view
Like all things worth while, becoming a Blended Learning teacher takes time and effort. Start off small, find what works for you and your students, and build around successes.
The difference between the song and the video Video Killed the Radio Star is a small tweak in delivery and an acknowledgment and incorporation of the new ways. The Buggles became both radios stars and the harbingers of the demise of radio stars by moving in a new-ish direction. They carried what worked in the old system and married it to the new system. You can do the same and your students will thank you for it.
