Blended Learning.

"Blended Learning" is one of those catch-phrases that ed. techies like me throw around. (BTW, ever wonder why we have buzz-words but have catch-phrases? Why not buzz-phrases and catch-words?) What do we actually mean when we say blended learning? 

It means that we blend online and face to face learning experiences for students. It's a broad umbrella.

A flipped classroom is one of several types of blended learning, but the terms are not synonymous.
I blend. To me, it is important for students have some control (agency) over time, place, path and pace of their learning. As often as possible, I give my students a range of choices in assignment and in readings. I also blend by making sure that students publish for an audience bigger than just me, their teacher.

Some helpful resources.

Tips for a long-time humanities teacher:
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar13/vol70/num06/The-Basics-of-Blended-Instruction.aspx

Getting started with Blended learning:
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/getting-to-know-blended-learning-victor-small

For a longer, thoughtful read check out this article in the Atlantic.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/09/new-data-backs-blended-learning/432894/

Teaching with 20% Time

I'm an avid follower of +AJJuliani. I've followed him for about a year. Based largely on his writings, I'm going to try 20% Time in my elective International Relations course. This is my first time teaching this course. Readers of this blog may know a little of my story. After teaching Middle School for 22 years, I then left to teach upper elementary school- 5th grade to be exact. After doing that for two years, I shifted to teaching high school last year. Though an experienced pro, I have had my fair share of new these past four years.

This year, I will be teaching 12th graders for the first time. Nothing is more real in traditional schooling and grading than the upcoming marking period for my students and they know it. They know the game of school and they are close to the final inning. They are going to resent these changes if not handled carefully and they may resent them anyway. I dream that they'll feel relieved and unburdened as I present them the freedom to learn about whatever they want. In actuality, I know that for some this may feel like a chore and burden.

It's a hard thing at times this teaching business, especially hard if you want to do a bit differently. I've read widely about education and pedagogy. Though firmly in the constructivist camp, I've always taught in a traditional school that has a slightly progressive flavor around the edges. (forgive me as I know I'm mixing metaphors all over the place and then whatever that last sentence was) Basically, what I'm getting at is that I've taught enough in the traditional method to know it and at times I've been told I did it well. I once prided on being a very good lecturer. At least that's what my students told me. My point is that when teaching differently from the traditional sage on the stage method that we sometimes feel that we are not teaching.  At least I know I have and that's with a firm philosophy and years of teaching experience behind me.

Good teaching is Mr. Chips. It is Robin WIlliams in Dead Poet's Society. It is Edward James Olmos in Stand and Deliver and Michelle Pfeiffer in Dangerous Minds. These dynamic teachers are the show! The movie and the class narrative is always about them! I reject this while being seduced by it at the same time.

Today, a brand new teacher at my school with years of experience in the Maker Movement came to me worried about not being seen as a teacher if he didn't teach via direct instruction from the front of the class in a computer science class he will be teaching. I have no easy answers to combatting these feelings. I urged my colleague to continue to do what his Maker training has taught him. I hope he does.

Also, it is worth noting that progressive pedagogy is an easy target for parents. They were raised with grades and homework and standards and RIGOR and they equate all of that stuff with learning and they want it for their kids. Years ago, one boy's parents blamed my lack of giving grades for their son's refusal to do any schoolwork. Of course, this boy wasn't doing any schoolwork in any other teachers' classes either and these teachers all graded him. My teaching was singled out.

I'm not going to cave on 20% time. Juliani tells us to celebrate our failures. I perhaps will be doing just that 5 months from now. To anyone thinking about trying to do this teaching thing a little bit differently, hang in there. I know it isn't easy.

Student Choice

Learner Agency

One can wind me up and provoke me with a few prompts and I can go on for a long time. One such "rant" is about teaching responsibility. If we really wanted to teach responsibility wouldn't we sometimes give students choice if they need extra math practice or not? Instead of telling a student, "Answer 1-31 odd." Maybe we could say, "Try 3 or 4 problems, make sure to try harder ones and if you understand how to do it, stop." Which better teaches responsibility for learning? The first instruction or the second? How would you, my reader, prefer to be treated? Giving a student some choice promotes responsibility.

Let me tell you about Kevin, one of my advisees. He's an upperclassman. Kevin is so excited about school. He likes some of his classes; others do not excite him. He's intellectually very bright and does very well while putting forth only a middling effort. What excites him? Where does he put his effort and energy? In his clubs. Kevin does two moot courts, debate, model UN, and another half dozen clubs. Kevin spends hours upon hours a week preparing for club meetings and going to club meetings.

Why is he so excited about what "doesn't count"?  Competition excites him, yes. The ability to take a leadership role likely does as well. I'd argue that what really excites him is the fact that he chooses these clubs and that he has a real voice in determining what the group is going to do.

My school's teachers aren't authoritarian in style or personality. But the 19th century school model that we have inherited is. Students are asked to complete the same tasks in the same time frames and have very little say in what they will do next.

In this one size fits all approach, we threaten the students with poor grades and reward them with high grades to motivate them to do the work. Yet, Kevin works far less on his schoolwork on which he is graded than he does on his club work in which he is interested.

I taught for 22 years without giving grades. This is my 25th year teaching. I have to grade students this year because I teach High School. "It counts", I'm told.  (I'll spare you my grades rant.)  I can tell you with certainty that my 9th grade students who I grade work no harder than my 8th grade students who I didn't grade. Grades don't seem to be the tool to generate student's excitement. A professor of mine argued that students want to learn until they go to school and we start grading them!  hat tip +Russ Walsh .

One anecdote doesn't prove a point. But I've seen many Kevins in my years teaching. Here's one other story. My school started a STEM club about 6 years ago and the club leapt to national prominence. People asked one of the teachers who founded it, "Why not make it a class?" I remember my colleague's answer clearly, "That would kill it."

The system far too big to overthrow. Still, we can make significant changes within the system and it starts with giving students real choice. Give them choices in what they might wish to study in greater detail. Let them decide if they want to write a paper, take a test, or make some sort of project demonstrating learning. Gasp, let them choose some of the books they get to read.

Schools are schools and business is business. We never should conflate the two. I don't even like the terms "homework" or "schoolwork" because that mindset makes LEARNING tedious. Yet, giving students choice better prepares them for what businesses say they want. Here's a 2015 Bloomberg survey of the top companies in the country. It looks like what Kevin gets out of his clubs is at least as important as what he learns in his classes.