A Blended Learning Journey

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#26. Designing Effective Online Discussions

- May 25, 2020

Like many educators around the world, I have no clue what the next school year will look like. I am preparing for the possibility of teaching classes in the physical classroom, online or some sort of hybrid. I'll be honest, the last two months were really difficult. I struggled with keeping students engaged, implementing effective instructional strategies online and maintaining any semblance of balance between my personal and professional lives. As I reflect upon the last two months and prepare for whatever next year might bring, I want to focus on 1) Identifying best practices in my traditional instruction that can make my online instruction more effective AND 2) Identifying best practices in online instruction that can make my traditional/blended instruction more effective. PsychSessions: Ask016 The inspiration for this post came from a Podcast that I listen to called "PsychSessions." PsychSessions launched in 2017. It is moderated by two college pr...

#25. Increasing Student Agency through Design-Based Thinking

- March 01, 2020

I am frequently asked, "Can I use the principles of blended learning if I am not in a "blended class?" My answer is always "Yes, absolutely!" I have asked Eric Chandler, an English teacher at Cary-Grove High School, to share a project that he developed this year to increase student agency in his classroom. Student agency is one of the key components of blended learning; it allows for students have some control of the time, place and path of their learning. As a district, we are moving towards a more personalized model of instruction. As part of our professional development, we were trained in Design-Based Thinking by Future Design Schools . The design thinking process is a highly structured framework by which the students identify problems, develop prototypes to solve the problem, refine their ideas, and test out their solutions. Over the last few years, in our district and across the educational stratosphere, a need for experiential and problem-ba...

#24. Let's Focus on Flexing Out

- January 14, 2020

One of the most common questions that I am asked about blended learning is, "What are flex days are how do you use them?" Flex days are a defining feature of blended learning at my school. A flex day is a period in which the student has an assignment to be completed, but they can work on it at home or elsewhere in the building. I use flex days to provide the students the opportunity to develop their executive functioning skills, provide them with flexibility within their school day, and increase student agency. It also provides me with time to provide individualized support to students. I am always in the classroom and available to my students during this time. Flex day assignments are designed to build on previously acquired knowledge, are self-paced and provide the students choice about when, where and how they will complete the assignment. I use the following assignment as a flex day assignment in AP Psychology when we learn about Erik Erikson's theory of P...

#23. Tackling Testing and Individual Differences Using Station-Rotation

- December 11, 2019

This past November, I had the honor of presenting about blended learning at the National Council for the Social Studies Conference in Austin, Texas. I was happy to see that there was a great deal of interest in this model of teaching! In my presentation, I differentiated between different models of blended learning and shared how I use the Station-Rotation model in my own classroom. I have found the Station-Rotation model to be my "go-to" model for blended lesson design. The essence of the Station-Rotation model is that students rotate between different stations within the classroom walls. However, as you will see in my example, they can also use flex time to complete some of their learning tasks. The key to a well-designed, station-rotation lesson is balance. One of the most helpful resources that I have found in my blended learning journey are a book and blog by Catlin Tucker. According to Tucker, a strong lesson balances teacher-led stations...

#22. Gender, Uber and Research Methods

- September 16, 2019

I am always looking for creative, engaging and meaningful ways to introduce my students to psychological research. To be honest, I spend a lot of time on social media, but most of that time is following other teachers and discussion boards on the teaching of psychology. A few weeks ago, Ellen Carpenter shared a great idea on the Society for the Teaching of Psychology page. She was using an episode from the podcast Freakonomics to introduce research. I was instantly intrigued. I LOVE the book Freakonomics and I am always looking for ways to improve my unit. The episode that I used for this lesson was "What Can Uber Teach Us About the Gender Pay Gap ?" It asks the question, "Does a gender pay gap exist in the gig economy?" Lesson Overview As a class, we listened to the first 12 minutes of the episode. The students then identified the research question being studied, the initial hypothesis, the null hy...

#21. A Meeting of Minds - Student-Teacher Conferences

- August 12, 2019

There are a number of reasons to implement blended learning. It helps the students develop executive functioning skills, can provide a more "college-like" experience, allows for flexibility in scheduling and can lead to increases in student satisfaction levels. When I first sought to pilot a blended learning class, my primary goal was to provide my students with more flexibility in their schedules. Many of my students take a rigorous course load and sacrifice study halls and lunch hours to fit in all of their coursework. This can create a logistical nightmare when the students are absent. When they return, they are n ot only stressed about all of the work that they need to make up; but they don't have time built in their day to see their teachers, makeup quizzes and tests, or even take a deep breath! With this is mind, I designed my flex days to include activities that the students could complete in or out of the classroom. I utilized videos, online discus...

#20. Utilizing the Station Rotation Model for the 1st Day of Class

- August 06, 2019

I cannot wait to welcome my new students to class next week! The beginning of each year is filled with excitement, promise, and a wee bit of awkwardness. For me, the first day of school is typically filled with class policies and procedures. By the end of the first day, I can practically see my students' eyes roll back in their heads the moment they hear the word "syllabus." Not exactly the most auspicious of starts, right? This year I am flipping my 1st day lesson on it's head and implementing the Station-Rotation model of blended learning to present my course policies, procedures and student introductions. The practice of stations, as an instructional tool, has been around a long time. The Station-Rotation model operates on the same general principles; the students rotate between different activities in a set period of time. The Station-Rotation model differs from traditional stations in that at least one of the stations is an online learnin...

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