I’m trying to think through some ideas from blog posts I’ve read and online courses I’ve been taking and conversations with people. I’ve got questions because I need to talk with others before I can fully figure things out. I’m a social learner after all.
Not sure if this can work for grades 7-12, because kids will have too many teachers but maybe it can and this idea also will require every student not just to have a laptop but Wifi at home (especially homes with multiple kids) – One form of the hybrid model is that you see half your kids (or less) one day, the other half the next day for face-to-face learning/working. So what if the teacher is conducting class while the kids at home watch via a Google Meet, Zoom, or even Skype? I read that somewhere and thought it would save time if the teacher is doing something that can benefit everyone and everyone can join in even from home. I mean, we could even have class meetings this way and kids could connect with those not in their cohort.
Could this kids-Zooming-in-from-home-while-some-are-in-class work?? What would we need to overcome to make it work??
I thought that idea of having kids Zoom in was interesting because what teachers CANNOT do is BOTH teach face-to-face AND remotely at the same time. When would we do it? At the end of the day when we got home? I mean, we could have something like ALL kids stay home on Fridays and that’s when teachers “teach”/support kids remotely/online.
Anyone doing that, face-to-face Monday through Thursday with half the kids one day and half the other day, then Friday all distance learning from home?
Whether the above scenarios can happen or not we should agree that Blended Learning must be the new norm, right? Our curricula needs to be online in one form or another so that we can guide kids through when face-to-face and then it’ll be ready for those who are home. And what we kids get the virus and schools have to close again? If your class was already blended, then going back to learning from will run more smoothly. The more I read the more I’m convinced that Blended Learning must be combined with the Flipped Classroom model. No longer can the teacher afford to spend the little valuable time with students talking at them (I read somewhere that teachers should at most be talking 40% of the time), so in order for students to get the most of their time in school, which requires that THEY do most of the talking (the one who talks the most, learns the most), lessons, lectures, direct instruction, content consumption should happen at home (with support for SpEd kids). That way the time in class can be spent discussing and doing instead of sitting and getting. Teachers will be freed to wander the room and help kids (I’m not seeing how we can keep six feet away from our students).
What will help Flipped Learning, as well as Blended Learning, is finding resources like Khan Academy for example, and/or what we’ve been doing this spring, recording our own videos of us teaching for kids to consume at home.
Who’s already planning something like this? What do you think?
