Skip to main content

Midterm Report: All C's

With my blended learning classroom truly coming into its own, me finally feeling as if I am no longer treading water, and all of my students engaged and energized, I am now starting to see how the puzzle pieces fit together. It has taken a long time to get to this point, 15 weeks to be exact, but it has been worth it. Not only do I feel confident and comfortable with the blended learning approach, but I also feel relevant again in the true world of education and what it should be.
Creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration. Commonly referred to as the 4 C's in education and I have wanted to incorporate these since I read about them years ago. Finally, now I am with the blended learning classroom. Utilizing online learning forums like Khan Academy and Study Island have allowed me to personalize student learning and make my class student-centered. However those were just part of the puzzle. Now I am piecing the puzzle together using Google Classroom and code.org to really bring out all of the 4 C's. Students can't get their hands on this fast enough. They are feeling empowered and taking charge of their learning.

I also cannot stress enough the importance of connecting with other professionals. I have gained so much insight and so many fantastic ideas from my colleagues. I was recently at a workshop and someone shared a brilliant idea for collaboration. Funny thing was, no technology was needed for this to work. Students simply evaluate themselves on a lesson and they group themselves accordingly into three groups. One group is independent, another group is collaborative, and the last group is teacher directed. Students have the option of moving to other groups as they see fit. Very simple but very effective.  
So my midterm for the second marking period is out, and it has all C's. I couldn't be happier. I am so thankful for this opportunity and so excited for each and every new school day. Hopefully I keep getting those C's.  

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

When is Work, Not Work?

When I first started thinking about running a blended learning classroom last year, I envisioned three stations running efficiently and effectively, while at the same time bringing in the 4C's (collaboration, creativity, communication, and critical thinking) daily. For the most part, I finally feel like I am seeing what I envisioned a year ago. But I am also seeing things now that I never envisioned, and I don't think they would have been possible without me trying something new. Probably the best thing that has come from running a blended learning classroom, that I did not envision, has been the relationships I have been able to build with my students. With having stations, and one being direct instruction, I have been able to meet with no more than nine students at a time. This small group setting allows us to cover the lesson effectively but also more informally, which allows for a more relaxed and social atmosphere. In this small, relaxed, and social atmosphere I have h...
Post a Comment
Read more

Never Say Never

Quick rundown of new ideas I have implemented in my teaching and shared with my colleagues after attending PETE&C 2016: Kahoot, Classcraft, Aurasma, Google Chrome, and Chromebooks. Plus, a more refined focus on blended learning, Google Classroom, Google Docs, Google Slides, and not to mention building my PLN more. I'd say PETE&C was worth it. Kahoot, the engaging formative assessment tool that students and teachers love, went over extremely well with my students as they used their Chromebooks to answer. Every day since using it, at least one student has asked me about when the next time we will be using it. Classcraft, the classroom-based role-playing game, took off among the students, too. They were extremely excited to setup their avatars and start playing. They also showed me they knew a lot more than I did on the subject matter of XP (experience points), HP (health points), and AP (action points). I think I might have them design a Kahoot formative assessment on ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Screencasts in Google Classroom

This year I have been creating my own screencasts using Screencastify, the free Chrome extension available on the Chrome Web Store. Unfortunately, my screencasts would not play for me or my students in Google Classroom, until today.  How to Have a Screencast Play in Google Classroom: 1. Record and name your screencast 2. Create a new Google Doc 3. Insert an image in your Google Doc 4. Locate your screencast in your Google Drive 5. Get a shareable link for your screencast (make sure link sharing is on) 6. Go back to the Google Doc you created that you inserted an image in 7. Click on image 8. Hit Control + K to create a hyperlink 9. Hit Control + V to paste your link 10. Insert your Google Doc into your Google Classroom Screencasts can be used to flip a lesson, become part of your blended learning classroom, have students share their thinking, or anything else you can think of. And now they can be viewed in Google Classroom. This year I have been creating ...
Post a Comment
Read more