Blended Learning

I love integrating technology into the classroom instruction and activities. During my placement last year I was fortunate to have access to a smartboard every day in the music classroom. I loved incorporating Smart technology into my lesson plans and the students' activities but I don't think I truly managed to create blended learning opportunities.

I think most of us aspire to be the teacher that uses technology to enhance our students' learning, but moving beyond technology integration into the blended learning world is intimidating and will require a lot of learning on our parts. The biggest take-away for me this week was the pedagogy wheel. This was the first time I had read about the SAMR model and this infographic lays out the various level of technology integration beautifully! I especially love that it suggests potential apps for different goals.

Retrieved from https://designingoutcomes.com/assets/PadWheelV4/PadWheel_Poster_V4.pdf

In our language arts classrooms we are currently developing a learning object in order to flip the classroom and allow students to fascilitate their own education collaboratively. This is what we want in our Math classrooms too! As much as I am continuing to grow in my confidence with both doing and teaching Math, I still struggle to find the right resources to achieve a truly modern and exciting Math lesson. How often do you head over to google for some lesson plan exemplars or ideas to find the Math of your past!! Quizzes, tests, independent word problems...

via GIPHY

If just looking at those Math ideas makes me anxious and well... makes me gag... then surely I can't put students through the same misery.

Finally, if we how valuable it is for students to collaborate we must realize how important it is for us as teachers to do the same! I have included a link from Pat's slides this week that includes suggested apps to fascilitate excellent Math teaching! Perhaps we can begin developinig our own Math learning objects in the future or atleast begin to explore the SAMR model and strive to create a blended Math classroom. 

Best Websites for Teaching

I read some simple starting steps for creating a blended learning experience in your Math classroom that are worth sharing

• Find ways to make Blended Learning fit your teaching style … unless you want to completely overhaul your methodology. In which case, I say jump in with both feet and go for it!
• In the beginning, stay close to your digital tool comfort zone.
• Not all ideas will work the first time, but try it a few times before moving on to a new idea.
• Adopt the motto: start small … grow big!
• Most importantly, be persistent. If you hit a wall, crawl out through a window and start again!