Մաս II. Խորհուրդներ խառը ուսուցման մեթոդը կիրառող ուսուցիչներից մեթոդի աշխատունակությունն ապահովող կառույցների և համակարգերի վերաբերյալ

all teachers know that you need great systems in your classroom even the little things it's as if if there's any one problem create a system for it I remember one of my teachers was frustrated by her bookshelf at the end of free reading time because the books were a mess so after lots of lecturing she finally decided to take a picture of what she wanted it to look like and post the picture on top of the bookshelf and it essentially solved her problem it's so simple but if you find a structural systematic approach you can solve a lot of problems so blended learning teachers are coming up with great systems to make their classrooms run smoothly um so the first two weeks are procedures and that includes when they go to the computer labs so mrs. Sarah who's my paraprofessional she's going to show the kids how to walk into the lab if they do not walk in quietly with their hands behind their back and sit down at their computer she takes them out blinds them up and they do it again if they don't enter quietly take them back out lines it back up we can do this seven eight nine times if that's how long it's going to take most the time it doesn't and then as they know as soon as they get into the lab and this is Sarah tells them she models what she wants them to do she says headphones on they'll put their headphones on watch how smoothly it works when you have good systems for a student to know exactly what to turn in and then easily transition to working on a tablet organized in a consistent and predictable way so I have stations in each of my classroom where the technology is set up where students are completely self-sufficient in getting an iPad moving to the spot on the carpet where they work on the iPads getting a Chromebook carrying it over to their seat working on it there the systems have to be predictable have to be consistent there's a clear theme that emerges from all these structures and systems and it's that the teachers are creative the teachers find solutions to the problems and they're getting ahead of the problems and mapping out where we need to go and we know that the things we've raised are just the tip of the iceberg I'm sure at home there's a lot of you've already had a really great system or a structure that you've been thinking about that works really well in the blended learning setting now there's one other idea that Brian and I have been toying with which is that as we move to these blended learning environments what are the right signs that we should be looking at to see if students are truly engaged in learning I think about this as stop measuring proxies of learning and start trying to actually measure learning and I remember when I was running a summer pilot we've talked about with blended learning this there was a student who wasn't there the first day so I came back the third day and I saw this kid he was standing in the doorway eating an apple and I kind of I was an old school like Law & Order kind of principal I went up to this kid I was like what are you doing in the hallway why are you eating an apple where were you day 1 and he just looked at me and said hey slow down I'm the top-scoring kid in the class right now and I took a breath and I said come show me and we walked in and he opened his laptop and he had made more progress in his one day than everybody else had into so I said go finish your Apple right it's like he had proven to me that he knew this material and I could finally get inside the black box and see some indications of learning versus whether he his headphones were in or whether his eyes were on the teacher of the whole time so kids get off task and it allows in any classroom when I notice the kids on clap off when I have noticed a kid is off task I usually go over and ask them what they're doing that might mean as I'm walking over they've just closed down the tab on what they were just doing and we might check the browser history or whatever it depends on how much you actually care about that nonsense but kids if I generally find that kids who are off task are not engaged or motivated or understand why that task is the right one for them at that moment to help them in their learning so if you're convinced that it is the right task for them that is the right module on Khan Academy or whatever it may be then that's a conversation I think is worth having with the kid and in a blended classroom you often have the minute 2-3 minutes it takes to have that conversation because other students are generally working hard and on task and you you can you can you can get that done it could be that that kid particularly as you get into middle grades and high school grades really disagrees with the task they've been assigned with them and I try and respect that as much as possible if that kid can articulate to me that they actually should be working something else at that time I generally say sure that works for me and what's your plan for coming back to this and like put it in put it back in their hands to take responsibility for coming back to that original learning so one of the things that most schools fail to do in a blended learning model is really look at the data that the software programs are providing almost all the programs can tell you these are the five kids that are in trouble right now on the software program and I've seen in cases where sometimes a teacher will let a student go three weeks with absolutely no growth and the information was there every single day on that report that was never looked at so we have our each of our teachers or Paras print out that report daily and know exactly who are the five kids I need to talk to tomorrow when they come in the lab about their performance from yesterday that's become part of our staff culture and it's been extremely successful at driving our achievement in blended learning and software programs one of the most of using a lab or a Chromebook lab effectively is that the teachers up and monitoring students at all time we ask the teachers every two to three minutes to step back scan the room and look for behaviors that are not acceptable you know typically you'll find students that may not have their headphones on when they need to have their headphones on it's really about having your head on a swivel when you're in the computer lab because kids will occasionally drift off and get off task so just like in a traditional classroom you want to be tracking the classroom at all times another technique that's really critical to have in your blended learning program is a way to reward student performance so we have several different awards that students can win in a week who grew the most which are the students that had the greatest improvement one week to the next before students go on technology we map out what it should look like what it should sound like what it should feel like what it should look like is you are on your technology your eyes are on your iPad your eyes are on your Chromebook your hands are moving you're interacting with the program what it sounds like is it's quiet in the classroom so the students on the carpet can work what it feels like is it feels purposeful it feels intentional it feels like you are showing honor to the people who are learning like you are showing love and respect you feel happy so mapping out the purpose and mapping out exactly what those clear expectations are is essential it's really important to help students understand that you're going to be honest with them it takes a long time as a teacher to come to a place where you feel comfortable being honest with your students about what they know and what they don't know because you're really worried that you're going to break their morale but you have to do it if you want to move the needle and you want to help students change the trajectory of their lives you need to empower them with information and so a lot about the next generation model is taking what students know what they don't know I'm putting it in their hands and say you have you have the power you have the power to decide what to do next this is where you're at what do you want to do but we're going to be here with you and have that conversation along side and we're going to be here and these are the tools and these are the structures that are in place so that we can support you but I need you to understand that like we see what you see and your parents see what you see and you need to see what you see so that we can make movements throughout the course of a day found myself starting to just ask kids a lot more questions to help them come up with their own answers to things whether that is to understand content whether that is to understand instructions or whether that's to like you know resolve conflicts with their friends or you know problems they feel like they have with a teacher or another adult I think it's we've really tried to create this culture as much as a faculty that our job is to help kids learn how to solve their own problems and I've I think it's been a great thing as I think instead of me just giving his answers it's really helping me push kids to come up with their own answers