It's that time of year again, when Twitter Chats help to connect educators from across the country as we all learn how to implement new teaching stratagies, concepts, and technology tools.  Join us on Tuesday, September 18th at 9:00 EST for our first Twitter Chat of the 2018/19 school year as we explore new technology tools for the classroom, future-ready skills activities, and how to get started with blended learning.  We will be giving away giftcards for flexible seating throughout the Twitter Chat.  

Are you looking for educators that are on Twitter that are implementing Blended Learning?  Take a look a the list below and start to follow some of these amazing blended learning educators.  

How to transform the traditional classroom environment into a Phase Two blended learning classroom in 60 days. 
​By: Marcia Kish 

What is a Sprint?  A sprint is an interval of time that focuses on three to four critical areas of change.  A sprint can last for one week, two weeks, or three weeks.  In the videos and photos, I will showcase a three-week sprint.  Note: This is a suggested timeframe.  A teacher must move through the sprints at his or her own pace and take into account how the students are reacting to the transformation process.  Classroom management and organization is vital for the transformation to be successful.  

How to get started​

1. Prepare the students.  Explain to the students that you are going to be breaking the lesson up into learning studios.  Start with only two learning studios and gradually add in three and four learning studios before the first sprint starts. 
2. Start the first sprint! 
3. Change your space!  "If you change your space, you change your mindset" M. Kish Set up the classroom into four learning studios.  A mini-lesson studio, independent learning studio, digital content studio, and future-ready skills studio. 
4. Break apart a lesson into the four learning studios.  Take a traditional lesson and break it into a mini-lesson, independent practice (this could be the homework), digital content (a video, a video you created, or an adaptive technology tool), and finally a future-ready skill (a hands-on activity that the students can complete in ten minutes)
5. Set the timer!  Have the students rotate to each learning studio every ten-minutes

Recently, I was asked by a school district to showcase how to engage students from bell to bell in a blended learning environment.  I generated a quick presentation of what a 50 minute class period would look like from the viewpoint of the students and the viewpoint of the teacher.  The five-minute video will quickly explain entrance tickets, learning studios, and exit tickets that can be used in any classroom setting.  

Entrance Ticket Ideas: 

• Post a selfie to the group Padlet, Seesaw, or LMS and share out one thing that they are looking forward to today. 
• Post a problem of the day
• Post a quote of the day and have the students write, talk, or create something that represents how the quote inspires them. 
• Create a quick FlipGrid post about their passion project

Mini Lessons

• Mini-lessons are key!  Being able to teach the students in small groups will improve student engagement, student relationships, keep track of data, and it will allow for quick checkpoints.  
• Tips for Mini-Lessons: if you are going to repeat yourself to each group, videotape the essential aspects of your mini-lesson, have the students watch the video in the digital content.  During your mini-lesson, enrich the content that you shared with the students, ask in-depth questions, or break down the material to help the students understand the learning target
• Here are a few quick tips on how to keep mini-lessons mini from Thing Grow Giggle​

Independent Learning Studio

• Think of the Independent Learning Studio as a time where students can process the information or where they can challenge themselves to figure it out.  
• Since a group of students will have to start at the independent learning studio implement the 4-2-2 rule.

Digital Content Learning Studio

• The digital content learning studio is a time where the students can learn or relearn the learning targets.  
• Students can also practice the learning targets through adaptive technology programs
• Digital Content is not a place to create.  The creation aspect will appear in the Future Ready Skills
• Be careful to make sure that the digital content is not confused with independent practice.  

Future Ready Learning Studio

• Students should be creating, collaborating, communicating, connecting, and using critical thinking skills in the Future Ready Learning Studio
• Explore our blog post about the Evolution of Future Ready Skills to learn more.

Learn more about Blended Learning, Personalized Learning, & Future Ready Skills

Often times, we forget that when the classroom teacher makes changes to the classroom pedagogy or environment that it is essential to share the "Why" with the students.  

Over the last couple of months, I have been asked by a couple of school districts to generate a video about blended learning that can be shared with the students.  The video below will walk the students through seven commonly asked questions that relate to blended learning.  

What is blended learning?
Why does my classroom look different?
What are the learning studios?
How can I get all of the learning studios completed in a class period?
Why only ten minutes?
When can I work at my own pace?
​
When can we get started?  Feel free to share the video with your students and parents.  If you would like to learn more about blended learning, check out our other blog post, follow us on Twitter, or contact us at dsdpd@dsdpdcoaching.com

In addition to providing a quiz or an exit ticket, could the teachers allow for time to input one of the key ingredients to a future-ready classroom?   Is there a way for the future ready skills of creativity, collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and connectedness to become a part of the everyday lesson?   Below I have generated few ideas of how to add in future ready skills to the lessons.  Feel free at that end of this blog to add in your future-ready skills or ask for help on generating ideas for an upcoming unit, lesson, or theme. ​

Dice as Variables:  Use dice to have the student graph different outcomes

Technology tools are a dime a dozen, and there are a lot of websites that showcase technology tools that fit the SAMR model.  However, "it's not about the technology tool that defines the SAMR model, but rather it's how the teacher uses the technology tool in a lesson to promote student ownership" For example watch the iPad commercial where the teacher assigns gravity for homework.  The students are at the modification level of the SAMR model.  By allowing them to take ownership of how they would like to present the content, the students were able to use technology to redesign the homework task. 

Another point that I like to share out with the teachers is the fact the SAMR model does not have to be a ladder that you climb but instead think of the SAMR model as a swimming pool.  Depending on the task, the amount of time, and the technology tool that the learner picks might move the technology integration from the shallow end to the deep end of the SAMR model.  

Let's start by talking about Substitution.  Using technology at the substitution stage is better than the devices staying in the cart or never leaving the student's backpack.  Yes, it is true, I have been in schools that have gone 1 to 1 Mac Books or iPads and within a 45 minute class period, the students never touched their devices.  For the following examples, I am going to talk about how to use the devices for taking notes.  

How does substitution look in a blended learning classroom?  Let's take a view of J. Moran's sixth-grade science classroom.  The blended learning lesson has four main activities that the students have to travel through during the class period.  

• Mini Lesson with the teacher on the circulatory system
• Independent practice where the students are reading about the circulatory system and answering questions
• Digital content where the students are writing a short paragraph on what they know about the circulatory system in Pages.
• Future Ready Skills- students are designing a Valentine's Day card with a picture of a human heart instead of the heart-shaped icon that we all know so well. 

More and more teachers are moving or starting at the Augmentation stage of the SAMR model because that most schools are either using Google Suite or OneNote .  Now instead of the students just typing a paper in Pages or Word, the students can type the document in Google Doc or OneNote and receive instant feedback on the paper from their peers and teachers.  

What does augmentation look like in a blended learning classroom?  The video below showcases two social studies classrooms working together on generating a paper that relates to a given topic along with working on projects that relate to the given theme.  H. Grunenberg eighth grade social studies from Kirtland Middle School class joined up with the seventh-grade social studies classroom to complete a common themed unit.  

Mini Lesson - with one of the teachers
Indepdent practice  - the students are collaborating on writing a paper on a given topic
Digital Content - researching, watching, and learning more about the topic
Future Ready Skills - developing project that goes along with the given topic
Mini Lesson - with the other teacher on where they are and where they need to go next

Now we are moving above the line in the SAMR model or like what I like to talk about moving towards the deep end of the swimming pool.  Modification, now allows the learner to redesign the task by using the technology in a new form.  The tech tools listed below are sample note taking tools that move the outcome of a project to the modification stage.  

The blended learning lesson below is an example from a ninth grade ELA classroom where I was a co-teacher.  Together the teacher and I were having the students generate their own website that will turn into a portfolio of artifacts from class projects throughout the four years of high school.  The students had a checklist of different learning activities that they need to complete at their own pace, place, and path that all relate to the building of the portfolio website. (The 10 minutes listed on the checklist is a suggested time frame) 

According to the Eduction Technology and Mobile Learning blog post, the redefinition stage of the SAMR model the technology is transformed in a way to create new learning task otherwise not previously established.  When explaining this level to educators, I often talk about breaking down the walls of the classroom through MysterySkype, Zoom, Blogs, YouTube, and even Podcast.  

The blended learning example of technology being used in the redefinition level is being showcased below from the Mentor High School Fine Arts classroom by H. Ambrus.  H. Ambrus is using Seesaw as a portoflio tool to show progress of artwork and then invites outside professional artist, other students, and teachers to comment on the progress of the artwork.  The feedback provides students with a guide to improve upon the artwork before the final piece is posted.  

I love searching and finding new technology tools that can be implemented into the future ready classroom.  I am always looking for tools that promote creativity, collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and connected that students and teachers can use to showcase knowledge.  The following list of technology tools are just a few of my new and old favorites tech tools for 2018.  

Newsela has been one of my favorite tech tools for the last couple of years.  I love the ability to change lexile level, the text sets, and the quick formative assessments.  

Pear Deck is another one of my favorite tech tools that I have used for the last couple of years.  I love the ability to share the slides and notes to the Google Drive, grade the assessments through Flubaroo, and allow the students to work through the slides at their own pace.  

Classhub is a new tech tool that I have just started using as a classroom management tool.  I like using the program while working with students in a mini-lesson.  I can quickly see what the other students are doing while working on digital content, lock the screens when a student is taking a test, and send messages to the students to help them keep on task.  

Sugarcane.com is a new tech tool for 2018 for me.  Sugarcane is an educational game system that has preloaded games for all subject areas and the teacher can quickly create games that match a specific content subject.  This is free, fun, and easy to for all grade levels. 

Quickdraw is a fun vocabulary builder that is a lot like the game win, lose, or draw.  The player will get a word to draw and the computer will start to guess the drawing.  This is free online game that does not require any login.  

Classroomscreen.com is one of my new favorite tools to share out with teachers that have a smartboard or projector in the classroom.  Classroomscreen puts all of your favorite times, noise levels, directions, and whiteboard into one location.  It is free, no log in, and even has an exit ticket feature that is very easy to use.  

I love frontrowed.com for grades K-9.   Frontrowed provides adaptive practices for ELA, Math, Social Studies, and Science.  All math questions can be read outloud to the students, if a student misses a question, it will redirect them to find someone in the classroom that just got it right or will provide them with a video from learnzillion.com.  The data reports provide quick differentiated groups for the future ready classroom environment. 

Mysimpleshow.com is a great way to get the students to start writing out the content for a presentation before designing the backgrounds and photos.  The way mysimpleshow.com works is that after the script is written, the program will find photos that match the concepts.  It is that easy.  I would use this program during my future ready learning activity once my students are ready to showcase what they have learned.  

Classhook takes video clips from the student's favorite TV shows and creates teachable moments that are tied back to the content standards.  This free program provides quick video segments that will hook the students into wanting to learn more about the content.  I would use this program during part of the digital content area during my blended learning lesson plan then I would talk about the hook during the mini-lesson with the students.  

Baamboozle is an educational game program that allows students to answer questions in teams to earn varied point values.  This free and easy to use program would be placed in the future ready skills area as a preview to the content or as a group study session that relates to the classroom content. 

listenwise.com is a great independent activity to use within the blended and future ready classroom.  The students can listen and read the text, answer questions, learn key vocabulary words, and explore graphic organizers that go along with the content.  This free program would work great for grades 4-12 in ELA, Science, and Social Studies.  I love the current event section and tie into google classroom. 

Padlet has made a come back in my book of tech tools to recommend to teachers.  The voting feature, layouts, and the ability to embed the ballet into a website are just few of my favorite characteristics of the program. I would use this in my mini-lesson, independent practice reflection, during digital content as quick reflection and next step tool, and also during future ready activities as a group brain storming activity. 

Autodraw.com is a free drawing tool that can be used while students are sketch noting, creating posters, need a little help with drawing figures that represent the content.  I would use this during the mini lessons when the students need to take notes, during independent practice to showcase what they have learned, and even during the future ready skills as a away to build and create projects.  

Build your wild self is a free creative avatar generator that allows students to create themselves with wings, horns, and other fun features that then can be used for a creative writing project.  The students love all of the fun features of this easy to use program.  

Ideas on how to use Avatar Maker

• Build an avatar for a character in a book
• Build an avatar for fake news
• Create an avatar for classroom progression boards

Geo Greeting brings google maps, shapes of buildings, and global connectedness together for a fun project that students can make to share out messages with each other.  For example, click on this link to see mygeogreeting to you.  I would use this tool during my future ready activity by allowing students to type a message, then pick a building to research.  Where is the building located?  What is the city demographics?  How far away is that building to you?   What is one new fact that you learned about that city?  

Classroomq.com is a free classroom management tool that allows students to place them in the Q when they have a question or when they are ready for a checkpoint mini-lesson with the teacher.  Think of this like taking a number a the deli counter. 

Seesaw.me is one of the first tools that I recommend to any teacher from grades K-12+ that is planning on implementing blended learning into the classroom setting.  This free tech tool will help to manage the paper work, help to keep students on task, and provides a learning portfolio that can be shared with the parents.  This is on of my must haves for anyone who wants to cut down on the amount of paperwork and grading within any classroom setting.  

Mentimeter.com is a free tech tool that can be used as a quick exit ticket, a vocabulary builder, a summary tool, and a brainstorming activity for group activities.  I use the word cloud feature as an exit ticket out of mini-lesson and also a reflection tool once the students have finished reading a Newsela.com article. 

Take your students on virtual field trips with learnaroundtheworld.com A free online program that will allow students to explore other parts of the world during the future ready activity or in mini lessons.  Participate in planned events or watch virtual trips.  

  Rewordify, takes any article picks out the main ideas and summaries the content.  I showcase this program to teachers with high ELL students or as a differentiation tools for the independent practice area.  The program also provides key vocabulary words, a dictionary, and many other features for free. 

ForAllRubrics provides easy to use rubrics for students and teachers along with badges that show mastery of content.  I showcase forallrubrics as a classroom management tool for grading future ready skills.   The program is very easy to use, and it has already broken down all common core standards from grade K-12 into rubric form.  

Provide options for the students for when they build a poster to showcase their understanding of the content.  I love using Smore.com as a poster generator because the student can publish the content and watch to see who visited the poster, what links they clicked on, and how long the visitor stayed on the poster.  Fantastic tool for global connectedness in the future ready skills area.  

Are you looking for specific tech tools by content area?  Are you looking for a place to keep track of all of these tools for students?  I would recommend edshelf.com. Edshelf is like a tech Pinterest board for technology tools.  I like it because I can embed the tools right into Schoology, Weebly, and link them into Google Classroom.  Follow my boards at www.edshelf.com/profile/blcb and see example boards below. 

Quizizz.com is one of my favorite formative assessment tools because of the gamification aspect.  The students can answer the questions at their pace but still compete with each other while reviewing the content.  In a blended learning lesson, I would placeQuizizz.com in the independent practice section of the phase 2 checklist. 

Blabberize.com is a quick and easy way for students to make something talk.  That's right, turn any image into a talking avatar with the student's voice explaining the concept.  In my blended learning lessons, I would place this activity in the future ready skills area.  The students would create a talking blabberize that would summarize the main idea of the concept that they learned that day.  The students would then place the blabberize character into Seesaw.me or a group padlet.  

Toontastic can be used in grades K-12 for showcasing the understanding of any concept through the creation of a cartoon.  The students can retell a story, create a story, reenact a part of history, demonstrate foundamental science concepts, and much more through this free online application.  I would place Toontastic in the future ready skills area as a group project at the end or middle of a unit. 

Videonot.es provides the students with the opportunity to watch a video and take notes on the concepts that are covered during the video.  The notes will then be added directly to their own Google Drive as well as shared out the teacher.  One of my favorite aspects of Videonot.es is the fact that all of the notes are timed stamped.  The time stamp feature comes in handy when the students are studying for a test.  I would use videonot.es during the digital content area of the blended learning lesson plan.  

Dollar Street places families from across the country on one street.  The poorest at one end and the richest at the other end.  The global connected website then allows the students to explore the houses, types of toys, types of food, jobs, and much more within each household.   I would use this website as a future ready activity where the students would pick one family, explore their current resources, and create something from the 3D printer to send to that family.  I would then tie in economics, global locations, politics, health and wellness, and much more into my mini lessons that would relate back to the family that the students picked.

It is hard to believe that schools are officially half way through the school year.  With standardized test on the horizon and preparing for the last half of the school, one of the best ways to get rejuvenated is attending a great educational conference.  State, national, and world conferences provide a variety of new technology tools that will promote future ready environments, blended learning tips and tricks for the classroom, personalized learning strategies that will showcase how to allow for student ownership,  voice, and choice. They also provide a time to network.  Developing a personal learning network is just another way to one to generate ideas and goals for the classroom. 
This year, the DSD Professional Development team plans to attend an assortment of educational conferences.  At each conference we will be presenting on blended learning, personalized learning, future ready skills, and/or how to develop a balanced classroom.  Below is a list a of our sessions at each conference.  Please feel free to join us.  If you would like to meet up, feel free to send us a message.  We would love to get together and share out more tips and tricks. 

Written by: Charity Dodd
​charity@dsdpdcoaching.com 

Today’s global economy and the changing demands on the workforce require workers to be analytical, solve problems, creative and highly adaptable to change.  Educators cannot prepare students effectively for their futures through the ‘traditional” teaching model.  Schools and educators must change the way they instruct to prepare learners the changing landscape. ​

Blended learning strategies provides opportunities for educators to respond to the needs of our students and our society. For example, here are five reasons why we should implement blended learning in our schools. ​

Written by: Charity Dodd
charity@dsdpdcoaching.com 

3.  Develop a routine for transitions and PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!  
Let students know how much time they have at each station and allow them to be aware of remaining time so they can monitor themselves. Turn on and off lights when it is time to transition.  

​​One method I’ve seen is a teacher uses a 1-2-3 method

• 3 - On 3, students walk to their station
  
• 2 - On 2, students point to the station they are to go to next
  
• 1 - On 1, students stand up where they are
  

​Another method for the really young learners:

• Students stop, put their hands on their head and wait for instructions on where to move.

5.  Implement digital tools for classroom management.  ​

7.  Assign Roles to students in the classroom such as a Lab Manager who can help students with minor technology issues for example. ​

Practice classroom procedures in the blended learning classroom.  Remember that a loud classroom doesn’t mean loss of control. ​