Why Are You Blending?

Today I attended the On the Rise K-12: Enhancing Digital Learning Conference.  It was a great experience, and I met some really passionate people that I was truly inspired by.  One such person was Anthony Perrotta.  He led a session on Student Voices.

This year, some of our Secondary teachers were provided a new digital resource to support learning for an Applied-level course. The resource is really a digital text, with animations, applets, videos, bookmarking features, note-taking features, a calendar, quiz tools, etc.  Basically, it is essentially a Learning Management System, not just the e-text teachers were expecting to get.

The feedback on this resource has been pretty mixed.  While the teachers are seeing some merits to having this e-resource, they are also finding that perhaps we targeted the wrong students.  It has been suggested that students in an Academic course, who are perhaps more self-motivated might benefit more from this resource.  Overall, some of the teachers felt that the students in the Applied stream work better with a traditional text and traditional handouts.

I was surprised by this feedback. I believed that students who often struggle with dense text and who lack organizational skills would benefit from a blended learning environment.  But after today, I realized that not all blended learning environments are created equally.  Just because we provide teachers with digital tools does not mean that they will change their teaching practice.  The tools are only helpful if we choose to use them to teach differently.

A blended learning environment is not beneficial to all students all of the time.  Anthony Parrotta reminded me that it's not the Learning Management System or the technology or even the "blending" that makes school engaging and motivates students.  It's about using the technology and digital tools to permit our students to be the drivers of their own education.  When we provide teachers with new technology, we have an obligation to provide them with support that will help them consider how they can use those tools to teach differently.  There is no point in using a 21st century tool in a 20th century way.

For blended learning to positively impact our students, both teachers and students need to take on new roles in education.  The teacher needs to become a co-learner in the classroom.  Teachers and students need to be jointly responsible for the knowledge building that happens in the classroom.  This is a huge shift in paradigm for many of our teachers and our students; they need time and opportunities to discuss what this means and what it would look like in their classrooms.

Anthony said "Student voice is grounded in ownership".  I firmly believe, I in fact KNOW from experience, that ALL students can take ownership for their learning when explicitly taught how to do so and given the tools they need to be successful.  Digital technology can not only engage our students, it can empower them to be active participants in their learning rather than passive recipients of information.

Teachers need support to know how to teach this to their students.  It is not enough to teach our students content knowledge.  We have to teach them how to be learners.  The power of a Learning Management System is not in its ability to provide students with online content and its not in its ability to grade students or even for them to easily submit their assignments to a dropbox.  The power of a blended learning environment is in its ability to put students in the driver's seat, to empower them to become collaborators in their own learning, and to choose who they would like to connect with to share that learning and how they would like to share it.

How are you using a blended learning format to ignite a passion for learning in your students?

Making Shift Happen - A Time For Reflection

It is July once again; a time for reflection.

This past year has been the best year I have ever experienced in my teaching career. This is due in large part to the learning that I have experienced this year and the teaching networks I have been a part of. I am more aware than ever that while we are often the only adult in our classroom, teaching is not by any means a solo pursuit, it is meant to be something that is done in community.

The entire paradigm of teaching has shifted. No longer is a teacher the impart-er of knowledge and information; a teacher is now a role model for learning. More than ever this year, I developed a learning stance, and became the chief learner in my classroom, and that made the year fun and exciting for me, and learning a contagion for my students.

Creating strong learning networks that I could go to for advice and ideas was really important to me this year. I am so grateful to all of the very excellent Grade Six teachers in our board that lent me their ears!  I am also grateful to my friends in other boards who acted as objective listeners to my sometimes fantastical ideas. And lastly, I'm extremely grateful to all of the incredible educators I have met in my virtual network via Twitter, Google+ and ETMOOC.

Today I started tutoring a 12 year old boy in Math.  I asked first to look at his report card, and saw that he averaged about a 67% in most subjects. In the Learning Skills section, I noticed that it was stated he needed improvement in "Self-regulation" and "Independent work". I pointed this out to him and asked if he has trouble focusing and paying attention.  He said "Not really". I said "is your class rowdy and do the students fool around a lot?" He said "Pretty much". I asked him to describe a typical Math lesson. He described a class where the teacher taught the lesson at the front of the room for the first half hour, then assigned the questions in the text book for the second half of the period. He mostly ignored the lesson and the questions while he socialized with his friends.

I asked what part of Math he found most difficult, he didn't even hesitate before answering "percentages". I asked him to complete a Proportional Reasoning Diagnostic from our Ministry's Closing the Gap on the Math Gains website. It was apparent he didn't understand the relationship between fractions, decimals, percentages, rates and ratios. We started with factors and multiples, quickly moved to numerators and denominators, then equivalent fractions. I was amazed at how quickly he caught on.  Within one hour he was solving rate problems by converting to a unit rate.  So why didn't he learn all of this in school?

It is no longer okay to teach the way we were taught!  For so many of our students, (I would argue especially our boys), it just DOESN'T WORK!

Although I've had an excellent year in the classroom, and am well aware that I still have so much more to learn, I am leaving the classroom for a temporary hiatus to go back to the Curriculum Department. Hence the name change of my blog! I am going to attempt to Make Shift Happen! We classroom teachers need to change the way we are teaching so that we reach the students most at risk in our classrooms. Every child has a right to succeed and it is our duty to make sure that that happens. I'm hoping that I can support teachers in making that shift happen in their classrooms.

I'm scared though, scared because I know how teachers feel about enforced PD and enforced "Professional Learning Communities". My blog post and the comments that ensued on the PLC vs the PLN (Professional Learning Network) were an eye-opener for me. My challenge this year will be to find a way to be a co-learner with my fellow teachers and support them in making shift happen. I am really hopeful that I can inspire and motivate my colleagues the way I have been inspired and motivated by my PLN. I think the key elements are voice and choice, I just don't know yet how to ensure those elements are embedded in my work with teachers.

I will once again welcome your ideas and opinions. Your comments and emails will be more important than ever to me on this portion of my learning journey.