An Overdue Update

I just tweeted my link, and it's inspired me to put in some latest reflections on my first full year of blended.

Here are the highlights as we move into the last part of the semester:

1. Leaders from the National Urban Alliance Came to Visit

I was thrilled to have a chance to talk with Yvette Jackson, Luverne Flowers, and Mary Oberg about blended learning and the implications for black and brown students. I have noticed that my work as an anti-racist teacher has progressed along with my work as a blended teacher. My hypothesis about why this has happened has to do with the fact that blended teaching means working with individuals, rather than planning for the whole group.

The NUA visitors thought that blended learning was a great model for fostering high intellectual performance (HIP) for students of color because teachers show they trust kids, kids make meaningful decisions, instruction is tailored to individuals, and kids can mediate. I'm not sure what they meant by mediate, now that I'm trying to explain it here. I'll have to ask my NUA coach, Jackie Roehl, to explain that to me next week.

2. Most parents at conferences were happy and curious about blended pedagogy

It was hard to explain the what and why of blended learning for each set of parents in 90 seconds or less. I ended up wishing that I had thought in advance to ask an administrator to come and hang out by my line from time to time to handle some of those basic questions while people were waiting to talk to me.

Only two parents had serious concerns about blended, and most parents were very happy with how things are going.

3. Mass Media kids continue to make media

Mass Media class is an interesting situation and probably deserves its own post. It's a new population for me (seniors in an elective), a totally new curriculum, and all new projects.

The one thing I'm happy about in Mass Media is that the kids make media. I learned at this year's NCTE conference that scholars believe that the heart of any critical media class has to be production. This makes a lot of sense, and playing with a new tool to produce something meaningful... that's what I think it's all about.

So far, Mass Media kids have made Prezis, Xtranormals, Vokis, Aviary podcasts, and VuVoxes. Next week, they'll work on Weebly sites with some of the above tools embedded.

Still, the class needs a lot of work, and I'm very pleased that I'll be repeating it come Feburary.