Day 156: Close the factory, Sink the battleship!

Day 156: We had some visitors on our campus today to see our Blended Learning Implementation and during one of the debrief sessions they were able to talk to and discuss with our teachers their experiences with Blended Learning. It is so good to hear the teachers report out on their experiences. I am blown away every time they share out! Blended learning is so much more that just stations, rotations, and/or technology. It is a culture of transformational change and advancement! It will make you consider some massive overhauls and reinventions to very traditional and trusted programs that have become very common in schools. These ares are either outdated or need major reform:Our thought is to close these factory type models that are teacher centered and replace them with student centered pieces.

Close Down:
PLC's--Blended Learning exposes their lack of efficacy.
Staff Meetings: Blended Learning exposes the need for staff meetings that are differentiated.
Parental Involvement: The way parents are included in their child's education needs drastically improved.
Lesson Plans--Weekly plans are irrelevant after one block or lesson or day.
Summative Assessments--Why are we having our students still take 3-4 hour reading tests with 6 passages at one time in a multiple choice format. If we think about this for one second we will realize this is ridiculous as a way to assess.
Homeroom--batching students by their birthdays and zip code.
Classroom Space--Time to break down the wall and create learning spaces.

Open:
BLC's- Blended learning Communities that empower teachers and examine every detail of your school.
Staff Meetings: Teachers receive PD by choice at their own time, place, pace, and path.
Parental Involvement: Student led conferences instead of teacher led conferences.
Lesson Plans: replaced by Data Plans!
Assessments: Daily Assessment and competency based learning.
Homeroom-Students go to the where they need help.
Classroom Space-Create space where students can thrive and collaborate with peers.

Close your factory model and shift to blended learning!

Mrs. Craven(left) and Mrs. Bates discuss their BL experiences. So powerful!