Public Impact

  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • What We Do
  • Media
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
Innovation. Excellence. Service. Impact.
  • Opportunity Culture
  • Teachers & Principals
    • Teacher Leadership
    • Recruit, Select, and Keep Education Talent
    • Competencies of High Performers
    • Evaluating Teacher and Leader Performance
    • Teacher and Leader Compensation
    • Professional Development for Educators
  • Turnarounds
    • Turnarounds Within Schools
    • Restarts by Charter Operators
    • Innovation Zones
  • Funding
    • School Funding
  • Charters
    • Charter School Authorizing
    • Scaling Up Quality
    • Restarts in Failing Schools
    • High Market Share Cities
    • State and Federal Charter School Policy
    • Help for Charter Schools
    • Serving Students with Highest Needs
  • More Topics
    • Big Ideas for Education
    • Entrepreneurship in K-12
    • Parents and Community
    • Philanthropy in Education
    • Special Populations
    • Technology in Schools
    • Assessment and Data

The Risks and Rewards of Using Bended Learning to Reach More Students

written by Elizabeth Annette Bartlett on August 9, 2018

This column first appeared on EducationNC on August 9, 2018.

If, as a teacher who sees success with one class of students, I could reach twice as many students per class, why shouldn’t I try? That’s the question I asked myself in trying to solve a dilemma my middle school science students faced. In the end, it wasn’t quite that simple — but the lessons we learned will continue to benefit students.

In the 2015–16 school year, Cabarrus County Schools introduced earth and environmental science to advanced middle school students, bringing it down from ninth grade to eighth grade. As a teacher at Harris Road Middle School, I quickly saw that this meant students would have to learn two years of science in one year. Although the curricula were meant to overlap, in reality, they overlapped very little.

As the year progressed, I discovered that students simply did not have time to do hands-on labs while also incorporating the global problem-based learning that we are required to provide — something meant to increase students’ knowledge of the world. I found it unacceptable to teach science without hands-on labs.

Having seen a math teacher use blended learning to reach more students, I was intrigued by the prospect that this could solve the lab time shortage problem.

In math, students were with the teacher on day one, with an assistant monitoring their online learning on day two, back with the teacher on day three, and so on. This allowed the teacher to cover two full sections in one class period.

So I approached my principal with an idea: Use the blended-learning teacher-reach model so that I could teach a group of seventh-grade advanced science in the same class period as my eighth-grade earth and environmental students. Then, I could bring some of the eighth-grade content into seventh grade, lightening the load for the next year. For example, I could add the weather content to the already-scheduled nine weeks on weather in seventh grade, and bring the eighth-grade molecular biology unit in, as the seventh-grade curriculum already incorporated a cells unit, human body unit, and genetics unit.

By adding the time with an assistant, students could now learn some material online, with materials I created, freeing my time with them for more labs.

My principal thought long and hard about it, but in the end, he gave his go-ahead for the following school year. With my additional classes — two each of advanced seventh-grade science and earth and environmental science — I had a total of 250 students.

I spent the summer creating the content for both courses, using planning time paid for by my district. Focusing on pace and standards, I put all the material into Canvas, an online learning management system that would give students access to the content any time, anywhere.

In the beginning, I kept wondering “what have I done to myself?” as I would go home exhausted at night, still needing to prepare for the next day. Since I developed the digital content, I really didn’t expect a lot of prep through the school year. However, a teacher must adjust for each year’s students, and my district did not incorporate extra planning time for blended-learning teachers that year.

I soon discovered my seventh-graders were not ready for independent digital content. Lacking the maturity at first to be successful, they needed to be direct-taught and to slowly incorporate the independent, online learning. For the first half of the year, students found it hard to make the switch between my teaching and their work with the assistant — if we said the same thing in different ways, students believed we were telling them two totally different things. They needed the maturity and many critical thinking activities to grasp this and be able, by the end of the year, to work well using the blended-learning model.

The payoff came the next year, when those students moved up to the eighth-grade earth and environmental science class. They retained much of what they learned in seventh grade, and they had the maturity to start working on day one in the blended model. That showed in student learning growth scores — students in seventh grade met growth expectations, while in eighth grade, they exceeded expected growth for both the eighth-grade information and the earth and environmental instruction. I believe the difference was their maturity level, and the ability of the older students to be ready to work more at their own pace.

I especially saw that maturity change during lab time — in seventh grade, students felt labs were play time instead of a learning opportunity. Throughout the year, I was able to witness changes in their attitudes during labs and in their self-motivation to complete work online.

Unfortunately, after a lot of discussion and debate, the school administration decided to end the blended model for the advanced seventh-graders, instead having all students take the same regular science class. I agreed with the decision; seventh grade for most students is all about change, and another advanced class was adding a lot of stress to most students’ already-packed schedule.

But we’ll take the lessons we learned further into eighth grade, where I will be extending my reach to six blended earth and environmental classes — exposing many students to the increasingly needed experience of online learning. And I will continue to extend my reach by acting as a mentor to our new seventh-grade science teacher, using the insights gained in my years with both grades.

Elizabeth Annette Bartlett is a blended-learning science teacher at Harris Road Middle School in Concord, N.C., where she was the school’s teacher of the year in 2017. She was named the outstanding earth science teacher for North Carolina in 2017, and went on to be named the eight-state Southeastern region winner.

Finding Inspiration Again Through Teacher Leadership

written by Candace Butler on March 5, 2018

This column first appeared on EducationNC on February 23, 2018.

As a young child I was always taught the famous proverb: If you love your job, you will never work a day in your life. I discovered my passion in education—my love for learning and teaching. So I have truly never “worked” since I was 21 years old. As I matured, though, I realized that we all need continued inspiration to keep pushing toward the goal of creating successful students.

After 11 years of teaching, I began to feel complacent. I knew the lessons. I knew the students. I knew the building. I knew the staff. My passion was dwindling. I needed to reach out and change lives in a different way.

[Read more…]

Days in the Life: Video, Vignette Show the Work of a Successful Multi-Classroom Leader

written by Sharon Kebschull Barrett on November 30, 2017

When Opportunity Culture multi-classroom leaders describe their jobs—providing intensive, on-the-job coaching, support for planning, and data analysis leadership to a team of teachers while continuing to teach students, too—they hear the same question: How do you fit all that in?

See the answer in a new video and vignette from Public Impact: Days in the Life: The Work of a Successful Multi-Classroom Leader. These publications are useful for principals in Opportunity Culture schools, current multi-classroom leaders (MCLs), other instructional teacher-leaders, and anyone applying to become an MCL.

[Read more…]

Opportunity Culture Voices: How My West Texas School Elevated Struggling Young Readers (and Their Teachers)

written by Sharon Kebschull Barrett on June 21, 2017

For years, my school, Washington Elementary in Big Spring, Texas, struggled to meet all our students’ literacy needs. We group students in tiers, as in the “Response to Intervention” model, but each year we were still left with extremely large groups in Tier II and Tier III — struggling students and chronically struggling students. Each year, we tried to reinvent the wheel to increase our student success, but to no avail — until last year.

Most of Washington’s students come from low socioeconomic status households. Several have grandparents or someone other than parents raising them, several come to school hungry and dirty, many have parents who work multiple jobs and cannot help with homework, and quite a few have at least one parent in prison. When small children are forced to deal with situations like these, school often takes a back seat. Nevertheless, my coworkers and I must make sure they receive a quality education.

[Read more…]

Opportunity Culture Voices: When Students Own Their Academic Results, They Transform Their Schools

written by Sharon Kebschull Barrett on May 16, 2017

When you’re not sure where to start, ask your students! Well, not always, but when I came to Charlotte, North Carolina’s James Martin Middle School as a multi-classroom leader in 2014, I felt overwhelmed.

I started as the MCL for sixth grade, where for the previous three years the students had been experiencing negative learning growth — falling further and further behind. By my second year, my teaching team’s students exceeded the state’s expected growth targets in literacy and achieved double-digit growth in overall proficiency.

How did we accomplish this? We began by surveying our students about their interests, trying to learn what motivates them and how to better serve their needs.

[Read more…]

Opportunity Culture Voices: Extending Great Teachers’ Reach in Turnaround (or Any) Schools

written by Sharon Kebschull Barrett on April 25, 2017

What does the start of a school turnaround look like? When Mark Johnson left West Charlotte High School as his Teach for America stint ended, he likely could not have imagined a bright future for the school. I arrived a year later, in 2009. The high-poverty, highly segregated school was struggling, and I stayed only one year.

But my heart didn’t leave West Charlotte. When I had the chance to return in 2014 and make a difference as a teacher-leader, I jumped on it — I wanted to help spark a turnaround. This year, when Johnson, now North Carolina’s new state superintendent, visited, he said he saw “a different world over here.”

When he taught at the school, he explained as I showed him around, the “team” of instructors teaching earth sciences had exactly one meeting during two years. I remembered the mindset then: in my first year at West Charlotte, a co-worker threw a box at me for asking if I could have access to the supply closet to look for lab materials. And my mentor teacher’s best — only — advice for classroom management? Yell louder.

But now, three years after I returned, the school’s science wing is calm, students are learning and showing growth, and teachers collaborate daily.

Here’s how it happened…

[Read more…]

Opportunity Culture Voices: New Series in The 74

written by Sharon Kebschull Barrett on March 15, 2017

A decade ago, inspired by the best teachers we’ve known, we formed the seed of an idea — the notion that great teachers, those who induce high-growth learning and strong student thinking skills, could and should have far more power to lead instruction, help colleagues succeed, and innovate to reach more students. For a lot more pay.

Why? Because without high-growth learning consistently, students who start behind stay behind. Yet far too few teachers teach at that level consistently. And without pay to match more demanding expectations, these great teachers will keep leaving classrooms for administration and other professions.

When we finally published the idea in 2009, with more details in 2010, education leaders’ responses ranged from a head-scratching “What is this?” to “Here are the reasons this can’t work….” Only a few got it right away.

But when our team began working with schools in 2012, the odds flipped: Nearly every teacher understood immediately. Pioneering teachers in what became the “Opportunity Culture” initiative took these seeds and grew them into results.

–Emily Ayscue Hassel and Bryan C. Hassel, in Teachers in an Opportunity Culture: Well-Paid, Powerful, and Accountable

Jimmel Williams, a master reach teacher in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, teaches at one of the more than 100 Opportunity Culture schools currently in the U.S.

Jimmel Williams, a math master reach teacher in Charlotte, teaches at one of the 100+ Opportunity Culture schools currently in the U.S.

Today, Public Impact Co-Directors Emily Ayscue Hassel and Bryan C. Hassel bring the Opportunity Culture series to The 74, whose motto is  74 Million Kids. 74 Million Reasons to Talk Education. Columns for The 74 will come from Opportunity Culture educators eager to share what their jobs are like, the differences they make for students, and the lessons they’ve learned as they extend the reach of their great teaching to many more students.

“We and these great teachers are grateful for the chance to share — because we’re all tired of reading columns about what should be done in education, when we know that something amazing is already happening. In the columns to follow, teachers will tell you how they’re getting to “amazing” in this financially sustainable, scalable, teacher-loving initiative designed to help all students excel,” the Hassels write. Read the full column at The 74.

Next Page »

Public Impact®

Public Impact, LLC
Chapel Hill, NC
919-240-7955

Public Impact encourages the free use, reproduction, and distribution of our materials, but we require attribution. If you adapt the materials, you must include on every page “Adapted from PublicImpact.com; Copyright Public Impact” in the font size specified here.

Materials may not be sold, leased, licensed, or otherwise distributed for compensation. See our Terms of Use page or contact us for more information.

Public Impact is certified as a living wage employer by Orange County Living Wage.

Search

Subscribe

Sign Up for E-News!
 


 
Read Back Issues of our
E-Newsletter

 
Subscribe to our blog with RSS

Follow

New from Public Impact

Employment Opportunities—Coordinators and Interns
Public Impact is seeking candidates for coordinators and interns.

Learning in Real Time—How Charter Schools Served Students During Covid-19 Closures
Profiles highlight how charter schools were able to respond quickly to school closures during the pandemic and continue to serve their students well.

Building an Effective Staff—Profiles of Leaders of Color
Three-part series looks at how being a person of color affected the ways in which successful charter school leaders built schools where students, families, and staff learn, grow, and thrive.

Engaging Families—Profiles of Leaders of Color
Three-part series looks at how being a person of color affected the ways in which successful charter school leaders built schools where students, families, and staff learn, grow, and thrive.

Building a Strong School Culture—Profiles of Leaders of Color
Three-part series looks at how being a person of color affected the ways in which successful charter school leaders built schools where students, families, and staff learn, grow, and thrive.

The Impact of School Restarts—Lessons from Four Indianapolis Schools
Report analyzes how enrollment, demographic, and student performance data changed following the restarts of four charter schools in Indianapolis, IN.

Learning from Project L.I.F.T.—Legacy of a Public-Private School Turnaround Initiative
Report examines successes, challenges, and lessons from a private-public district turnaround initiative.

Public Impact, LLC | 919-240-7955 | Terms of Use | © Public Impact 2000-2021 | Wordpress website design by LeGa Design Group