If the first step towards recovery is acknowledging you have a problem, I believe that the first step towards transformation is recognizing that there is a path. Our path doesn't need to be 100% clear, but we have to be able to see a small trial big enough to take our first few steps.
As a teacher, it is easy to become comfortable with what we teach, particularly if we have the same courses year after year. During my eight years teaching, I have made a few radical changes towards different aspects of my practice like classroom management, class composition or content delivery but I still have a long way to go in terms of personalized learning.
During the past few months I have been learning about online teaching and learning with particular interest on blended learning. For anyone who knows my "professional persona" is not a big surprise to know that above anything I value the connections between teacher & students and student to student. Rita Pearson's TED Talk "Every Child Needs a Champion" is at the core of my teaching philosophy and a blended learning environment offers the perfect framework to provide individual support while still providing multiple opportunities to connect as a group.
Despite my interest on blended learning, I always felt that in order to transform my classroom into a blended learning environment it was imperative to make changes beyond my reach. During the past few weeks while reading Michael H. Horn & Heather Stalker book "Bended. Using Disruptive Innovation to Improve Schools" (2014) I find myself hopeful and inspired enough to consider a few changes within my reach to begin the journey of transforming my classroom into a blended learning environment.
Stalker and Horn (2014) suggest to start the process by asking ourselves the level of change needed to accomplish our goal. In the case of my Spanish courses the level of change requires what the authors call a functional team, since the changes will only impact the Spanish department. Our small district only has one high school with about 700 students; I am the only one on my department. Although technically it would be a team of one, I would still connect with other teachers and someone on the admin team to bounce ideas.
I am starting to explore the possibility of creating a station rotation model using the 6 computers available in my room and the devices that the students bring to class. My Spanish classes already function on a rudimentary rotation model as each block has students at the beginner (Intro Sp11) , intermediate (Sp11) and advanced level (Sp12). The key would be to develop enough online materials for each course to support student's individual needs and subdivide the existing groups as follows:
At this point the biggest challenge is to develop and gather materials to support each student individual needs. I am sure this will be a process with many steps and will required several revisions as we move along our journey, but this week I took a giant leap towards my goal by recognizing that it is a real possibility.
Horn, M. B., & Staker, H. (2014). Blended: Using disruptive innovation to improve schools. JohnWiley & Sons. Retrieved from http://www.amazon.ca/
As a teacher, it is easy to become comfortable with what we teach, particularly if we have the same courses year after year. During my eight years teaching, I have made a few radical changes towards different aspects of my practice like classroom management, class composition or content delivery but I still have a long way to go in terms of personalized learning.
During the past few months I have been learning about online teaching and learning with particular interest on blended learning. For anyone who knows my "professional persona" is not a big surprise to know that above anything I value the connections between teacher & students and student to student. Rita Pearson's TED Talk "Every Child Needs a Champion" is at the core of my teaching philosophy and a blended learning environment offers the perfect framework to provide individual support while still providing multiple opportunities to connect as a group.
Despite my interest on blended learning, I always felt that in order to transform my classroom into a blended learning environment it was imperative to make changes beyond my reach. During the past few weeks while reading Michael H. Horn & Heather Stalker book "Bended. Using Disruptive Innovation to Improve Schools" (2014) I find myself hopeful and inspired enough to consider a few changes within my reach to begin the journey of transforming my classroom into a blended learning environment.
Stalker and Horn (2014) suggest to start the process by asking ourselves the level of change needed to accomplish our goal. In the case of my Spanish courses the level of change requires what the authors call a functional team, since the changes will only impact the Spanish department. Our small district only has one high school with about 700 students; I am the only one on my department. Although technically it would be a team of one, I would still connect with other teachers and someone on the admin team to bounce ideas.
I am starting to explore the possibility of creating a station rotation model using the 6 computers available in my room and the devices that the students bring to class. My Spanish classes already function on a rudimentary rotation model as each block has students at the beginner (Intro Sp11) , intermediate (Sp11) and advanced level (Sp12). The key would be to develop enough online materials for each course to support student's individual needs and subdivide the existing groups as follows:
- Small groups for traditional/direct instruction and targeted intervention
- Group work (project based learning, group projects, oral practice, peer tutoring, etc)
- Individual work (project based learning / research projects, vocabulary acquisition, etc)
- Computer assisted practice tailored to each student's comfort level
At this point the biggest challenge is to develop and gather materials to support each student individual needs. I am sure this will be a process with many steps and will required several revisions as we move along our journey, but this week I took a giant leap towards my goal by recognizing that it is a real possibility.
Horn, M. B., & Staker, H. (2014). Blended: Using disruptive innovation to improve schools. JohnWiley & Sons. Retrieved from http://www.amazon.ca/