Two Steps Forward

I've been thinking a lot about how I want to continue to transform my classroom this year based upon the learning I'm doing this summer. After hearing Bob Dillon speak at our closing session of the school year, I was motivated to change my classroom space, something that I had been pondering for a few months. The book, Blended, has helped me set a goal, which I'm still refining, and determine that a combination of the station rotation model and the flex model would be the best blended learning styles to help me and my students reach our goal.

Now I'm on the to the book The Eduprotocol Field Guide by Marlena Hebern and Jon Corippo. This book describes various lesson frames that you can use to teach kids content and skills throughout the year. While I'm not anywhere near finishing the book, I especially appreciate their chapters on Smart Starts: using the first few weeks of school to establish culture and routines as opposed to jumping right into the curriculum. While some of my colleagues disagree with me, this idea of starting smart is something that I have been doing for a while now, and it was a nice affirmation to see it discussed in an in depth manner in this book.

In addition to the affirmation, I've already learned something that I can use to help me transform my classroom, and I feel should have been a no brainer. In addition to the Smart Starts they also recommend using that time at the beginning of the year to do a Tech Boot camp. Front load the year with an introduction to all of the technology you'll be using in your classroom so that they kids have the background they need to explore, be creative, and be successful throughout the year. Seriously. Why did I not think of this?

Finally, like any good book, it's also making me question things. The first quote that caught my eye was, "Parallel learning is no longer the appropriate model for classrooms." And then a little while later I read, "... this natural creativity has been steadily decreasing since 1990, with the most significant losses by third grade despite increases in IQ." Those two quotes made me think back to a school visit our group did to the Lampeter Strasburg School District. This visit was the key to help me change the instruction in my classroom this year, and something one of our hosts said really stuck with me. As we were touring the middle school our one host said something along the lines of, "We don't want the kids to take a step backwards with their learning experiences; we want them to keep moving forward." Now, our guide was speaking in terms of 1:1 opportunities and explaining when they went up from middle school and then back down to the elementary school. They didn't want the kids to have the opportunities for a blended learning experiences but then go back to a traditional learning experience. But really, this statement could apply to anything from changing your classroom space, offering students more choice, giving them opportunities to fix mistakes, and giving students flexibility in how they move through the content.

As I read the quotes in the book, I thought about the kids who were in my class last year, the upcoming school year, and my new students. Last year's kids had the opportunity for a second take on their assessments because we were learning the value of mistakes. What if they don't have that same opportunity this year? This year's students will have the opportunity to learn in a blended classroom when they are with me, but they will be in a mostly traditional setting in their other class. They will likely also be in a traditional setting in 5th grade. How will that impact their learning? I am spending a lot of time focusing on the 4Cs and having a growth mindset rather than test taking skills and passing the PSSAs. Will this carry over as successful experiences for my students, or will the skills not transfer and put them behind the learning curve?

While I am excited to transform my classroom, and while I have much respect for all of my coworkers as caring professionals, I can't help but wonder if the haphazard way we are implementing things at our school will cause our students to move two steps forward and then one step back with every transition they make.