Blended and Personalized Learning

I recently returned from iNACOL 2015, an international annual conference that specifically looks at best practices for blended learning and digitizing classrooms.  I was privileged to present on a session about Shelby's multi-year technology integration plan, along with John Leeper (our Director of Innovation in College and Career Readiness), Maddie Meyer (teacher at Southside Elementary), and KDE's David Cook (Director of Innovation and Partner Engagement). We also attended some intriguing sessions with valuable information, but I was particularly taken by a pair of keynote addresses.  The first was a highly engaging, motivating, and moving presentation by Buddy Berry, the superintendent of Eminence (Shelby's district neighbor).  Mr. Berry challenged us to stop doing school the way it's always been --  because we can show how much we care about students and truly meet their needs by evolutionizing education with digital tools and old-fashioned compassion.  The second was by Craig Kielburger (one of the founders of We.org), who talked about becoming a social activist at the age of 12.  Years later in Ecuador, he shared his story of a village chief who called a "minga" in order to finish building a school:

Had a wonderful #inacol15. I hope we can bring @craigkielburger's "minga" to Shelby County! pic.twitter.com/zmf933MwsE

— Adam Watson (@watsonedtech) November 12, 2015

Isn't it time in education for us to call a minga?

An entire conference about blended learning made me reflect on what is happening here in Shelby County.   But first, some definitions.  I find the articulation of blended learning in Straker and Horn's Blended to be the most useful: "Blended learning is any formal education program in which a student learns at least in part through online learning, with some element of student control over time, place, path and/or pace.”  This focus on the student is what makes blended go hand in hand with personalized learning; although you could personalize without technology, it would be difficult to facilitate. (It should be noted that simply using or integrating technology does not guarantee a personalized experience.)  So how does one define personalized learning?  In short, unlike differentiation or individualization which is managed by the teacher, personalization is unique because it is truly driven by the student; the student has "voice and choice" what will be learned, and when.  (For a comprehensive chart comparing personalization, differentiation, and individualization, click here.)

Thanks in large part to Chromebooks, personalized and blended learning are proliferating side by side.  One example is at Martha Layne Collins High School.  Madelyn Sterrett is a math teacher who uses Blendspace as a way of digitally organizing unit materials and resources for her students.  As students combine analog and digital materials to track their progress, they take ownership of their own learning:

Mrs. Sterrett has students using Blendspace with their Chromebooks to help self-pace math learning. pic.twitter.com/w2DgpnMxdY

— Adam Watson (@watsonedtech) October 6, 2015

Another math example is at the other end of the age spectrum, in third grade at Heritage Elementary.  Julia Lyles had confidence that her students needed only a few days with their Chromebooks before they would get past "how to use the device" and get down to the business at hand: a personalized learning environment managed by Google Classroom.  Now the students' math learning is self-paced.  With daily exit slips and a large chart on the back wall, Ms. Lyles can see when skills are mastered and track their current stage of progress.

Julia Lyles in front of her students' exit slip packets and class progress chart.

In the past, these model examples of student personalized learning may have been silo'd or overlooked. Now, however, social media has amplified teacher voice and given instructors unprecedented access into each other's classrooms.  That's exactly what Shelby County High School math teacher Bart Roettger shared in a recent meeting of Shelby's "Guiding Coalition" (a group of educators and community partners willing to share our district's vision and successes outside of a school building's four walls).  Mr. Roettger explained that, thanks to Twitter, he heard about and was inspired by the personalization of learning occurring in Mrs. Sterrett's classroom.  Now that he knows a high school resource who is a click/tweet/email away, Bart will begin his own transformation of his classroom.  How powerful that we can find inspiration not only from outside our district, but also from within!

Blended learning takes a willingness to fail forward, a strong infrastructure, and patience.  Personalized learning takes teacher time for all the required front-loading of lessons and units in preparation for students that pre-assess themselves ahead of others, and the teacher's courage to loop back to more traditional structures if the class is not progressing as they should.  And yet, even though the moon has only grown full twice since our Chromebooks have been deployed, the future of education is already becoming the present for Shelby County.

Have Comments about blended and/or personalized learning?  Please share below.

TUIT: Yasmine Fleming, Collins HS

Just a few short years ago, Yasmine Fleming and I were teaching colleagues at South Oldham High School.  She was there for a short time, but I remember being impressed by her ability to not only teach content but develop an instant rapport with students.  I was sad to see her take a position in Shelby County.

And now, the wheel turns. Knowing that Ms. Fleming was teaching at Collins, I couldn't wait to observe her classroom.  Boy, she did not disappoint.  Yasmine has a class set of MacBook Airs embedded all year long that she is using with multiple classes.  If you have any doubt how transformative teaching will be next year as our 1:1 initiative begins, watching her for an hour will convince you.

Ms. Fleming pauses a Kahoot for a mini-lesson, while students bask in the glow of MacBook Airs.

Ms. Fleming was kind enough to accept my offer of an interview.  So without further ado, here's our Q & A.

Yasmine, introduce yourself to our readers!  

This school year began my third year as a teacher and my second at Collins. I teach 8th and 9th grade math, specifically 8th Grade Math, Algebra I and Geometry. Teaching is a second career for me; I spent five years in telecommunications prior to pursuing a career in education. My first interaction with edtech was while working on my BS at UofL, I was taking a Criminology course online over the summer. I loved the freedom. Around this time LMS’s [Learning Management Systems] became very popular, specifically Blackboard and what I most liked about Blackboard was having everything all in one place, assignments, teacher contact and grades. While working on my MAT I had the privilege of having an amazing technology professor who challenged me and allowed me to try new things as a student. My passion for edtech integration as a teacher actually stemmed coming from my prior life in telecommunications where we were always connected and ever changing, to the somewhat archaic traditional methods of education. I am constantly asking questions, researching and trying out new things. Once I find a tool or resource I look for similar tools, comparison reviews and how they are currently being used in other classrooms. I also pester my peers about the awesome tech they are including in their classrooms. Twitter is my new friend for all things #edtech although I still have yet to participate in any chats. I faithfully follow Kathy Schrock and Adam Watson (of course). Kathy was the keynote speaker at my first edtech conference.

How have you used your MacBook Airs to create a blended learning environment in your classroom?

Last Spring when I began thinking about what I would want my blended learning classroom to look, feel, sound like I had one primary goal I wanted to accomplish, to give all my students exactly what they needed when they needed it. So I set out to design a structure that would allow students to move at their own pace all while having a hand in how they demonstrated understanding of the content. I came across the Concept Checklists from Brian Hill and I loved how it allowed me to meet the students where they were and gave them options for which tasks they completed. I decided to design my Algebra I classes with these ideas in mind. Currently my students go through self-paced lessons with differentiated tasks. They watch a video or participate in a mini lesson with me, take notes, complete a basic practice activity and then choose from other tasks (sometimes optional, sometimes mandatory) that may have to be completed with a partner, group or alone. Once they have completed these “prerequisite” activities they can take their concept quiz. Once mastered, they move on to the next concept. If they do not master the quiz they must have a consultation with me and complete at least one remediation activity. Then once they are confident in the concept they reassess to show mastery on the quiz. The MacBook Airs allow the daily differentiation of lesson delivery, tasks and assessments at the pace my students are most comfortable at with structure and guidance from me. Students have time if they need it but those students who are ready to move can do that as well.

One of the ways you manage those self-paced lessons and differentiated tasks is your use of Canvas by Instructure, a LMS (Learning Management System).  How has it impacted your students' learning?  

Canvas currently houses our concept/Learning Target quizzes, common used website links, announcements/notifications, and shared discussions/surveys for my Algebra I class. In the beginning it was the hub for ALL of our materials, documents, videos, practice, quizzes, everything. I have since moved the day-to-day materials into Trello in an effort to track the daily completion/in progress tasks of my students, but the questions banks in Canvas are a huge time-saver for my transitional Standards Based Grading classroom. I am able to create a bank of questions that their quizzes pull from and when they go to reassess (if necessary) they receive a different set of similar questions.

For my other classes, I’m beginning to use Canvas to house materials for students who are absent and additional resource/practice materials for students who may need the extra assistance.

Ms. Fleming's students use old tech (mini-whiteboards) and new tech (Canvas on Macbook Airs).

What other edtech tools are some of your favorites?

I am currently loving Trello, TenMarks, and Kahoot!.

Trello is currently my best friend and the main reason is my students like it and it became a huge solution to my progress monitoring problem. I use Trello (which is not marketed as an educational resource at all) to layout the materials for each concept/level in my self-paced Algebra I class. Each student has their own board which has a list for each Concept which includes cards with each video, practice file, task, and quiz link attached. There is also an in progress list titled “What I’m doing for Classwork/Homework” and a completed list titled “FINISHED”. What I love most about Trello is there is a time/date stamp for every action. So when my students move a card to the Homework/Classwork list and then to the Finished list, I can see if they are on track to hit, exceed or miss a concept deadline. My students love it because it is very intuitive, easy to use and visually appealing. They like the act of “moving” a task to the “Finished” list. They said they feel a sense of accomplishment.

This is my second year using TenMarks and what I love the most are the hints and videos offered with each problem. I understand the importance of practicing a math concept for homework but what makes me most apprehensive is the reality that one of my students could get home and not know how to complete a problem and become frustrated with the process, the content and even the class. TenMarks helps to alleviate some of my anxiety and theirs. It also helps that TenMarks is successfully aligned to the CCSS.

Kahoot! is a favorite in my classroom for the same reasons it is in everyone else’s classroom… The kids LOVE IT!! It is also very easy to setup for quick assessments and reviews. In the near future I hope to have them create their own Kahoot! to demonstrate what’s important from a unit and then play against other classes.

What tools have you heard about recently that you are wanting to try out for the first time? 

I’m looking forward to designing and implementing content using Geogebra. It’s free, which is always a plus and I’m very intrigued by some of the lessons that are already created so I can’t wait to create my own. I also would like to try Explore Learning’s Gizmos. It’s not a free resource which limits my investigations but I think it has so much potential in the blended classroom. Lastly, Flipgrid is currently on my radar. Teaching math usually results in written responses to demonstrate understanding but the verbal response is invaluable and requires a different level of understanding to demonstrate mastery. I’m hoping to implement this resource regularly later this school year.

Any advice you would like to share with other teachers wanting to integrate edtech?

First I would say, research, research, research. When I come across a neat tool, resource, etc. I immediately google it and check out their website but what I’m really looking for are reviews and other similar/comparable resources. That allows me to decide if I like it, love it or want to try another one. Next, try it out for yourself. I always create a teacher account and a student account (usually multiple) to test out the features. It doesn’t eliminate all of the hiccups you may come across once you implement in your classroom but it will eliminate some and also allow you to anticipate some other unpredictable events. Next, begin with the end in mind. I’m not really one for tossing around buzz phrases but it’s true. I always start with a main goal or problem and then look for a tech tool to assist. If I want a fun way to review or formatively assess then my main goal is FUN, which is how I stumbled upon Kahoot. I have other mediums to practice content but they are often not as engaging and fun as Kahoot!. Simply put, my students like it so I use it because it's FUN and I’m ok with that! If I want my students to demonstrate knowledge of the content in a non-traditional way then I research with that main goal, insert FlipGrid or Blendspace. There are times that I am introduced to a tool and I look for ways to integrate it in my classroom but, more often than not, I am simply in search of a solution or alternate to what I’ve been doing. Finally, flip the switch to “work in progress” and enjoy the ride. Be unafraid and unashamed to try whatever has been occupying your dreams. Not everything will play out the way you planned but the successes you’ll experience will make every fall worth it! 

Yasmine Fleming, thank you again for your time, and you absolutely deserve a #ShelbyTUITshoutout!