Category Archives: blended learning

Blended Strategies

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I have a problem and would like to know if anyone can help. I have a love/hate relationship with blended classes. I love the quality student to teacher and student to student contact time afforded by blended classes. I hate how many students do not make good use of their out of class blended time. I hate how it seems there must be a trade-off between quality class time and hit and miss out of class time. There must be a better way.

Just to add another layer, I would like my student teams to work together on some of their out of class blended days. Students see the benefits of teaming. When I have teams sit on the patio or in the hall, they can complete much work in their teams. Just having that extra space that allows them to not be sitting back to back in a crowded classroom really helps, but they still need supervision. Instead of monitoring a group discussion, I must patrol the teams to answer questions and to insure students are staying on task. There must be a better way. There is too much good about blended classes to give them up just because there are some problems.

One other great attribute of blended classes is that they prepare students for college. I still vividly remember when the president of San Jose State back in 1965 addressed my freshman class. He said he really appreciated the opportunity to meet all of us this one time because only half of us would make it to graduation. Wow, a fifty percent dropout rate! That really shocked me until I learned how many distractions there are in college. The current average college dropout rate seems to be about thirty percent. That’s still a lot of students who never learn how to discipline themselves to study independently. What better place to learn independent study habits than in high school? In college there are not helicopter parents and no incentive for teachers to be helicopter teachers. Blended classes can provide that transition students need to be successful in college.

So, here is the question. How do we wean students from depending on a closed and structured classroom environment without losing them to the myriad of distractions right outside the classroom door?

This second semester I am going to try some “in house” blended teaching. Students will have time on their own outside the classroom, but must stay on campus. Since I will be in the gigantic I-Center, there should be plenty of quiet spaces for students to work. But I need ways to insure they are really working. One idea is to have team members spend the last few minutes of the class time summarizing what they have learned is a short discussion. They will record the discussion and turn in the recording as an assignment. Another is exit tickets. These can be done as a team or individually at the end of the class. The students would not be in class, but it is the same idea. I thought of journals, but so far I have found that students tire of them and I don’t have time to look at them. Maybe I am doing it wrong. This is not a long list of ideas. I would like to have a few more, especially ones that work.

I don’t want to go into this cold turkey. I will have had enough of that after Thanksgiving. Please let me know if you have tried anything to monitor blended independent time work. What has worked for you? What has not worked for you? Am I the only one who thinks about this?

Make Thanksgiving casseroles, or blog? (aka Newbie to blended learning tries it out)

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The last few days have been bizarre and tragic for so many Californians, but other than having to stay inside more than usual, I didn’t suffer. They have been interesting ones for me, though, primarily because I got a chance to experience blended teaching for the first time. I was just at iNACOL (International Association for K-12 Online Learning–yes, I realize the acronym doesn’t really match up) and spent a lot of time thinking about how blended learning could improve my classes. Luckily, when the fire started last week, Jenny and Kate and I were able to come up with some pretty darn -tootin’ solid lessons on the fly. The bad news? Only about half of my students did those excellent lessons. So now, those who didn’t get to experience the amazing photos of Depression-era Americans, or who didn’t analyze character quotes from Of Mice and Men, are not understanding what Dust Bowl migrants might have looked like or thought much about Steinbeck’s descriptions in his portrayal of character. And since I won’t see my people for days now, I can’t encourage them to do it. I spent a lot more time on the computer answering emails about questions and grading schoology assignments than I ever do, but without the personal interaction in class, I’m not having nearly as much fun and it is harder to prod certain students to get important material. Some students don’t have the material I want them to.


Now, the flip side to all of this is that if students were accustomed to this scenario, they might be expecting to have to do this work online. Usually, they hear me remind them verbally, see it on the board, and have schoology. This situation eliminated most of those reminders and explanations.


I will be curious to hear what the students thought of the experience of working online. Without talking to them and finding out in real time what is and isn’t working, I’m still on the fence. 


Now, green bean casserole is waiting…

Lisa Xavier and Kate Cutright @ iNacol, Nashville

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What an eye opening experience this event was for us. 3000 innovative educators (mostly administrators and CEOs) gathered in Nashville to discuss best practices for school change. Prior to this conference, we had heard words buzzing all around Carondelet and to be honest, we had vague notions of their meanings. 
iNACOL cleared up a lot of ideas, reinforced best practices we already use and changed our minds on some of our more stubborn notions. Here is a quick list of highlights:
  1. There are different definitions for buzz words like “student-centered,” “project-based,” “student agency,” “PBL,” etc. It is really important that everyone in the community has a shared definition for these terms.
  2. Early, focused success, when transitioning from old to new, breeds more success and buy-in from all stakeholders. 
  3. Various spaces for students to work in different configurations are required and should be available.
  4.  A ton of adults need to be accessible to students working as “learning experience designers” (LED), mentors, coaches, advisors, and supervisors.
  5. Students must learn procedures on how to behave, transition, and work both collaboratively and independently.
  6. Students must be allowed to make several choices regarding what/how they study. 
  7. Traditional classroom setting where there are 30+ kids and one teacher is antiquated and ineffective for too many kids.

Also, we got to meet up with two De La Salle teachers, Alex Stevenson and Donald Van Bromel. Being able to collaborate and laugh with teachers from across the street was definitely a refreshing perk!

The next iNACOL symposium is set for October 2019 in Palm Springs. We highly recommend attendees from CHS be members of Carondelet’s leadership team. Also, enthusiastic teachers who are interested in learning (or revisiting) these educational approaches should attend this symposium in 2019.  
If you would like to hear more or you’re interested in attending next year, please stop by for a chat. Both Lisa and I can tell you more about our experiences.