After reading, Blended, by Michael Horn and Heather Staker, and taking a closer look at the school I teach at, I can see areas of strengths and weaknesses when it comes to predicting if our classrooms will have the ability to blend. The four focus areas to determine this include: deeper learning, safe care, wraparound services, and fun with friends and extracurricular activities. Upon reflection, the most important area that our school needs to improve would be deeper learning.
Fortunately, being at a suburban school in a well-to-do community means the basic elements of a quality home life and school environment are being met. If a student is coming from a home that requires additional resources, our school is ready to meet the need: food, clothing, glasses, and other avenues to get support. Not only is this provided from the school level, but from the district level. Many organizations and groups donate money or provide services to families within our community. With this being said, wraparound services should not be hindering the process of applying blended learning in our classrooms.
Just as easily seen in our building, safe care is established and thriving. The school is clean, well-functioning, and up to code. Safe care is held to a high standard which meets the custodial needs that parents would expect out of their child’s school. As well, general safety is covered with the security measures taken in order to protect our students. All of the exterior doors are locked and secured and we have a school resources officer on campus. Due to these reasons, I can justify that blended learning should be able to take place since safe care is thoroughly met.
Focusing on the area of fun with friends and extracurricular activities, it is necessary for blended learning to include enrichment activities that support the whole student. It is easy for schools to focus strictly on core academics when implementing blended learning because, typically, these classes are where more enhanced learning needs to occur. However, creating a good balance between core academics and extension courses must remain. We cannot simply take away time from the arts, foreign language, or physical education to increase the amount of time for core instruction. Teachers and administration will have to adapt blended learning into their current time allotted for class. My school fosters and encourages students to get involved in enrichment courses and will do their best to work core schedules around in order to make sure students are able to take the music or art class of their choosing. Just as important, students have the opportunity to join multiple clubs during and after school, and can participate in a multitude of sports sponsored by the school. However, I have already seen the impacts on students by taking away portions of their physical education time. Students are more rambunctious in school without their time in P.E. Over time, unfortunately, I could see this area of focus being the first one to get cut in order to make room for blended learning. The impacts could be detrimental if these courses or activities are taken away because we would then lose sight on developing the whole child.
At my school, I can see deeper learning as an area of growth needed in order to apply blended learning. With the recent iPad initiative at the middle school level across the district, many teachers desire to implement the use of the iPads, but are still figuring out the best way to do so. Many teachers are using multiple apps for different forms of assessment and Google Classroom is a new standard to post class work and assignments. However, taking the learning a step deeper with technology is being encouraged across the district; this is referred to as depth of knowledge. Taking the knowledge gained in class, students need to apply what they have learned into something they can do with it.
I am grateful to be at a school where most of the elements necessary to incorporate blended learning are already occurring. However, taking a step back and looking at the bigger picture, I can foresee that deeper learning is an area of growth needed in order to fully support blended learning in my classroom.
Fortunately, being at a suburban school in a well-to-do community means the basic elements of a quality home life and school environment are being met. If a student is coming from a home that requires additional resources, our school is ready to meet the need: food, clothing, glasses, and other avenues to get support. Not only is this provided from the school level, but from the district level. Many organizations and groups donate money or provide services to families within our community. With this being said, wraparound services should not be hindering the process of applying blended learning in our classrooms.
Just as easily seen in our building, safe care is established and thriving. The school is clean, well-functioning, and up to code. Safe care is held to a high standard which meets the custodial needs that parents would expect out of their child’s school. As well, general safety is covered with the security measures taken in order to protect our students. All of the exterior doors are locked and secured and we have a school resources officer on campus. Due to these reasons, I can justify that blended learning should be able to take place since safe care is thoroughly met.
Focusing on the area of fun with friends and extracurricular activities, it is necessary for blended learning to include enrichment activities that support the whole student. It is easy for schools to focus strictly on core academics when implementing blended learning because, typically, these classes are where more enhanced learning needs to occur. However, creating a good balance between core academics and extension courses must remain. We cannot simply take away time from the arts, foreign language, or physical education to increase the amount of time for core instruction. Teachers and administration will have to adapt blended learning into their current time allotted for class. My school fosters and encourages students to get involved in enrichment courses and will do their best to work core schedules around in order to make sure students are able to take the music or art class of their choosing. Just as important, students have the opportunity to join multiple clubs during and after school, and can participate in a multitude of sports sponsored by the school. However, I have already seen the impacts on students by taking away portions of their physical education time. Students are more rambunctious in school without their time in P.E. Over time, unfortunately, I could see this area of focus being the first one to get cut in order to make room for blended learning. The impacts could be detrimental if these courses or activities are taken away because we would then lose sight on developing the whole child.
At my school, I can see deeper learning as an area of growth needed in order to apply blended learning. With the recent iPad initiative at the middle school level across the district, many teachers desire to implement the use of the iPads, but are still figuring out the best way to do so. Many teachers are using multiple apps for different forms of assessment and Google Classroom is a new standard to post class work and assignments. However, taking the learning a step deeper with technology is being encouraged across the district; this is referred to as depth of knowledge. Taking the knowledge gained in class, students need to apply what they have learned into something they can do with it.
I am grateful to be at a school where most of the elements necessary to incorporate blended learning are already occurring. However, taking a step back and looking at the bigger picture, I can foresee that deeper learning is an area of growth needed in order to fully support blended learning in my classroom.