Episodes
-
Patience Nyanway is an aspiring college students in Texas. A few weeks ago Patience used her phone to interview children and parents in her neighborhood. She wanted to give them a voice so that they could share their feelings about this past school year, an unusual one for its widescale cancellation of in-person schooling.
This podcast includes the audio from her short film. You'll hear Patience interviewing several families. To see the video version, go to https://www.readytoblend.com/post/short-film-reflections or subscribe to our YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/readytoblend01.
Mentioned in this Show:
* Short Film: Reflections, by Patience Nyanway
* Foundations for Blended Learning Micro-credentials
Positive reviews of this podcast make Heather ever so happy and motivated. Thank you for taking the time!
-
As the pandemic has required schools to innovate, including with online, blended, and hybrid models that are unfamiliar to them, too many educators have suffered from trying to reinvent the wheel. The alternative is to look at pioneering virtual and blended schools that have won hard-fought battles to design learning experiences that are happy and effective. Their successes and failures can lead the way for educators who are new to the online world.
In this class, youâll look backward at how online and blended learning emerged over the past 20 years. With that context, youâll look forward to imagine the online and blended solutions for the future. Youâll consider your personal openness to trying new strategies. Youâll analyze your learning design to check for the quality of engagement. And youâll prioritize how to optimize the teacherâs use of time.
LEARNING TARGETS Understand online and blended learning and which of their characteristics as disruptive innovations are worth considering as you design the instructional strategy for your school or classroom. Cultivate a personal openness to trying new strategies with online/blended learning. Envision the core building blocks of a flexible learning arc to scaffold the student experience. Analyze options for creating independent online work. Free up your time to prioritize individual feedback and coaching with each of your students. HAVE ON HANDGraphic Organizer: Online and Blended Learning Fundamentals
FEATURED IN THIS CLASS Clayton Christensen explains Disruptive Innovation (Website) Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns (Book) Blended: Using Disruptive Innovation to Improve Schools (Book) Thomas Arnett, âDistance Learning: Letâs Not Reinvent the Wheelâ (blog) How to Create Learning Arcs (Ready to Blend Podcast #25: Hacks for Esteem Gaps) Professor Eric Mazur (Video from SSAT Conference) Relationships of Trust: What Great Coaches Do (Video) ENGAGE FURTHERComplete the six Foundations for Blended Learning Micro-credentials to prove your competency in implementing the concepts discussed in this class. The micro-credentials are brought to you by BloomBoard and Ready to Blend.
-
Missing episodes?
-
In this class, Heather teaches three ways to build bridges that help learners connect across any divide they might be experiencing so that they feel safe enough to speak up and express themselves, whether at school or home.
Youâll learn to use digital tools to give learners a bridge into conversations where they might initially feel foreign or shy. Youâll discover how transparent norms can serve as a bridge to encourage sharing and participation. And youâll explore how to tie your group discussions to individual student interests so that learners have an entry point into the group.
No one should go through the day unnoticed. Children and teenagers have ideas that can change the world. Learn how to bring everyone into the conversation.
YOUTUBE VERSION:
https://youtu.be/xbX6H7cbNgw
FEATURED IN THIS CLASS:Google Slides (software)
Book Creator (software)
Flipgrid (software)
Animoto (software)
How 2020 Shifted Perceptions of Technology in the Classroom (post; MRD Education)
Morning Group Discussion (video; Ready to Blend)
Ms. Kaylieâs slides for her Morning Group Discussion (slides; Ready to Blend)
APPLY YOUR LEARNING:Make a copy of the Survey of Safety in Sharing. Use it to diagnose how well youâre playing games, creating norms, giving opportunities for people to express themselves digitally, and tying discussions to participantsâ interests.
ENGAGE FURTHER:RSVP for the Rebooting School Seminar
Earn a Bloomboard Micro-endorsement by completing Ready to Blend's Foundations for Blended Learning Micro-credentials
-
I've restructured this podcast as a class, so that each episode going forward will teach a skill to help you blend online learning into school and home in ways that nurture all children.
Today's class is on using games to improve children's well-being. You'll hear evidence for why students need social and emotional intensive care right now. Then you'll listen to examples of teachers who are using games to connect together their community. You'll also hear an example of using games to reduce anxiety at home.
WATCH THE VIDEO:
on YouTube
or on the Ready to Blend website
FEATURED IN THIS CLASS:
The Impact of Social Isolation and Loneliness on the Mental Health of Children and Adolescents in the Context of COVID-19 (Publication: Rapid Systemic Review)
How to create higher performing, happier classrooms in seven moves: A playbook for teachers (Publication: Christensen Institute)
Leadership Lesson â With People Slow is Fast and Fast is Slow (Video: FranklinCovey)
Morning Meetings: Building Community in the Classroom (Video: Edutopia/Highlander Charter School)
Acton Academy Albuquerque Lip Dub 2020 (Video: Acton Academy Albuquerque)
Our New Student Experience, Fun with Friends (Video: Ready to Blend)
APPLY YOUR LEARNING:
Make a copy of the Team-building Activities Plan. Use it to select and schedule games for your own class or home.
ENGAGE FURTHER:
RSVP for the Rebooting School Seminar
Earn a Bloomboard Micro-endorsement by completing Ready to Blend's Foundations for Blended Learning Micro-credentials
-
We are alive right at the moment when there's an opening of opportunity to retool the classroom for the end user. We have the will plus the disruptive innovations to do it.
School leaders and entrepreneurs can make it happen.
Today's show features the main excerpt from an interview Heather Clayton Staker did with Simon Hennessy for the Atomi podcast in which they discuss principles of disruptive innovation that will bring about the transformation.
What You Will Discover
- How nonconsumption opens a one-of-a-kind opportunity for our generation
- Why disruptive innovation can happen without any policy changes
- The value of mindsets, learner-driven content, and learner-centered coaches
- Why and how to get started with disrupting standard schooling processes
Featured on This Show
- Foundations for Blended Learning Micro-endorsement, a set of six essential micro-credentials for teachers
- Atomi, an online teaching and learning platform based in Sydney, Australia with courses in over 190 subjects
-
What's the best way for school leaders to equip teachers with the skills they urgently need to transform their instructional model?
For years many educators have longed for a more personalized, competency-based, student-driven learning model to replace the traditional classroom. This year, remote/hybrid learning has created unprecedented demand for finally taking that call seriously.
In the ideal, educators would have a modular solution for PD--one that lets them order up the specific skills they need, in a simple way, at an affordable price. In this show, Heather Clayton Staker shares her latest research from the Christensen Institute that proposes a way forward for making that vision for PD possible.
What You Will Discover
- Why modularity is the aim for the next generation of PD
- The 3 requirements for true modularity
- How micro-credentials could provide modularity
- 66 competencies for student-centered teaching
Featured on This Show
- Developing a student-centered workforce through micro-credentials (Christensen Institute)
- Stitchfix
- BloomBoard
- Digital Promise
- Ready to Blend's Foundations for Blended Learning Micro-credentials
Subscribe
This podcast is available on iTunes, Google Play, TuneIn, and Stitcher. Its success depends on positive reviews, particularly on iTunes. Please leave a review, if you would!
-
Children want to make progress. They crave achievementâeven if they do not appear to be motivatedâprovided that the basic levels of Maslowâs Hierarchy of Needs are satisfied. The inequities in society grow worse for each day that children lack âflexâ environments that are blended (online and face-to-face) that help them make progress seamlessly, whether they are in in-person or remote setups.
Unlike ever before, it is becoming surprisingly simple to set up a Flex blended-learning model. In a Flex model, caring teachers lead discussions, provide individual coaching, and oversee the online instruction.
Expect to see thousands of schools, micro-schools, and homeschool co-ops offering Flex schooling this year. In this show, weâll discuss how the four building blocks of a blended learning arc provide the backbone for a Flex classroom and are increasingly within the grasp of schools and parents.
What you will discover
How to use whole group Socratic discussion to launch and close a learning arc The value of online learning for independent work sprints The critical, all-important, 1-on-1 structure that teachers consider the âkiller appâ of blended learning Ideas for collaborative work sprintsFeatured on this show
Diagram of a Blended Learning Arc, readytoblend.com/tuesdays Sign up to receive free materials related to this podcast: https://bit.ly/3dFNYXd -
Feeling somewhat lonely and depressed? Small wonder . . . the world is locked in social distancing, and humans brains are wired to suffer as a result. We canât fully solve for social isolation right now. But we can avoid pitfalls that make loneliness worse.
This episode addresses level three in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs: the level of social belonging. We chat about how not to exacerbate children's (and our own) loneliness.
For families, some types of screen time will increase heartbreak and despair, whereas others increase social belonging. For teachers and schools, let's talk about best practices for how to build community in online and distance education.
Sign up for the graphic organizer:
Go to www.readytoblend.com/tuesdays to get the graphic organizers or worksheets that go along with each Ready to Blend podcast.
What you will discover:
* Stay away completely from the "U-N-H-A-P-P-Y" web.
* Go light on four other types of content.
* Consume abundantly the full Recommended Daily Allowance of the Digital Media Diet.
* Teachers, use Zoom either to take center stage or for Socratic discussion.
* Use one-on-ones for check-ins, feedback, and building relationships.
* Now's a great time to experiment with peer coaching.
Featured on this show:
* U-N-H-A-P-P-Y Digital Use Graphic
* Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for a Balanced Digital Diet Graphic
* Wangari's Trees of Peace: A True Story from Africa
* How to create higher performing, happier classrooms in seven moves: A playbook for teachers
* Adolescents and young adults are paying a high price for COVID-19 prevention
Give us a rating & review
If you are on an iOS device, simply press on the cover art image and click the "Give us a Rating and Review" link inside the Podcasts App. Thank you!
-
The shifting pandemic and school closures are opening safety gaps for many families and children, including personal, financial, and emotional insecurities.
This episode offers a few hacks, in the sense of scrappy efficient shortcuts, for governments, schools, and families who are working to close safety gaps.
Sometimes becoming resourceful in the face of adversity creates more strength and safety than before the adversity hit.
What you will discover:
* Why scoring high on the "Do You Know" scale correlates with psychological well-being
* How to tell stories to children and adolescents in ways that improve their resiliency and sense of identity
* It could be time for schools to organize Family Circles
Featured on this show:
* Sue Shellenbarger, The secret benefits of retelling family stories, Wall Street Journal
* Emory University, Children benefit if they know their family history, study finds
* David Brooks, The Nuclear Family Was a Mistake, Atlantic Magazine
* Ancestry, www.ancestry.com
* Family Search, www.familysearch.org
-
School closures and lockdowns are causing major physiological gaps for some children in the form of food, exercise, and sleep shortages, while other children are benefiting physiologically. Caregivers and educators want to help solve for physiological gaps, but it's not always obvious how to do that.
This episode offers a few hacks, or scrappy efficient shortcuts, for governments, schools, and families who are contending with physiological gaps.
We are more powerful than we think when it comes to meeting children's needs, as well as meeting our own needs. But it will require using existing resources in new and creative ways.
What you will discover:
* Why movable outdoor gear is better than play structures
* The value of acorns, pebbles, and boulders
* How to repurpose school buses and cafeterias
* Simple, low-cost meals hacks
* Why nature trails should be broadly reopened
* The value of device & screen curfews
Featured on this show:
* John J. Ratey, MD, Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain
* Maslow, Abraham, The Hierarchy of Needs
* NRP, School Bus Drivers Deliver Meals Instead of Children
-
It might take a village to raise a child, but with school closures from coronavirus, parents/caregivers shoulder 99 percent of the work. It's on them for meals, schooling, recreation, church, and socializingâoften while trying to work, deal with sickness, or solve for unemployment.
Given these challenges, this show focuses on how to support parents. Until we're through with the virus, children's well-being is dependent almost exclusively on the strength of their immediate family units.
You'll hear from three people who represent solutions for how we will #MindTheGap, meaning the space between where millions of children find themselves today and the entrance to the online-learning, distance education train. Children face five gaps, represented by Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.
Speaking to #gap1âthe Physiological GapâRuth Iaela-Pukahi tells us what it's like to walk to the local elementary school to pick up breakfast and lunch for the seven children, including two foster children, she is parenting as a single mother.
Speaking to #gap3âthe Social Belonging GapâMatt Clayton shares how his guides at Slope School connect one-one-one with their students three times a week using Zoom videoconferencing. They've also organized squads of four students who check in on each other through a structured process of peer support.
Speaking to #gap5âthe Self-actualization GapâThomas Collette shares how his company Agilix has organized a coalition of content companies to deliver a catalog of online courses for free until June 2020 so that students can work toward their goals while schools are closed. The courses load easily onto all major learning management systems.
What other solutions have you found to #MindTheGap? Share them on Twitter and tag them with #gap1, #gap2, #gap3, etc.
Then visit www.readytoblend.com/mindthegap to see what others have shared.
To support Ruth Iaela-Pukahi, consider purchasing your next Amare wellness and mental health supplements from her beautiful collection at www.amareglobal.com/11150.
Explore Matt Clayton's Slope School at www.slope.school. It's part of the Acton Academy network: www.actonacademy.org
To partake in Thomas Collette's offer for free online courses, go to https://agilix.com/freecontent/
-
Schools throughout the world are closing because of COVID-19. Millions of schools are rushing to post their lessons and assignments online.
But there's a better way to go about it. Abraham Maslow's famous "Hierarchy of Needs" points to the way.
Maslow said that people are motivated to meet their physiological needs (food, shelter, exercise, shelter) first, before they can attend to higher needs. Then they want safety (personal, emotional, financial). Then comes belonging (family, friends, connection). Only after these basic and psychological needs are met can people concern themselves with achievement and goal setting.
Schools, are you putting school lunch delivery to children in need before online learning?
Teachers, are you placing social connection and belonging before online achievement?
This podcast kicks off the #MindTheGap campaign. Schools are rushing to build the online learning train. But there's too big a gap for most kids between where they're standing and the entrance to the train. They're going to fall. How can we #MindTheGap? Let's start as the bottom of Maslow's Hierarchy and then move up.
Find solutions at https://www.readytoblend.com/MindTheGap
Tweet ideas with hashtag #MindTheGap as well as the Maslow level you're solving for: #gap1 is for solutions to Physiological gaps, #gap2 is for solutions to Safety gaps, #gap3 is for solutions to Social Belonging gaps, #gap4 is for solutions to Esteem gaps, and #gap5 is for solutions to Self-actualization gaps.
The great news is that there are pockets of innovation where some amazing solutions are springing up. Let's make more!
-
Great leaders help their organizations adjust. That's true for big events that require big adjustments, as well as for lesser events that still benefit from flexibility.
Episode 19 features Roy Moore, principal of Notthingham Elementary in Texas. He adapted with ninja-like agility to succor his community in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. And his staff are learning to do the same thing in their learning design.
Principal Moore goes into detail about Pathway Time, a 40-minute block set aside a few times per week for learners to get individual support based on their immediate academic needs.
This Tuesday, we'll post a beautiful diagram to help you replicate the Pathway Time idea. Look for it at https://www.readytoblend.com/tuesdays or in your inbox if you sign up for Tuesday Share deliveries at http://eepurl.com/geaExT.
One secret to getting Pathway Time right is nurturing mindsets. Not only do learners need to develop a mindset of "I set my own goals," but staff need mindsets like "I view ALL of the students in this school as MY students" and "I am powerful to overcome unexpected challenges."
As mindsets develop, the community is ready for the next step: setting goals and developing a routine of frequent one-on-one check-ins with mentors.
During Pathway Time itself, all hands are on deck to meet with students, provide coaching and support, and ensure positive, productive work spaces for individual progress.
After that, learners reflect on their results and set new goals and plans for their next Pathway Time opportunity.
Don't miss the diagram: http://eepurl.com/geaExT and thanks again to Principal Moore for his innovative leadership!
-
You may have heard of Data-Driven Instruction (DDI). But what is Data-Driven Learning?
Data-Driven Learning will replace DDI, I predict. Why? Because today's youth need to respond entrepreneurially to the abundance of data that surrounds them. To thrive in the Information Age, they must learn to cut through the noise, discern what data matters, and respond accurately.
Data-Driven Learning is like teaching a teenager how to read the gauges on the car dashboard herself, without the adult saying one word from the shotgun seat. And thatâs what parents want. We want our teens to learn how to drive that car and read the dials independently.
In this show, Michael Norton, manager of blended learning and academics at KIPP Texas, explains why Data-Driven Learning is the "handshake" to Data-Driven Instruction at his schools. He views both strategies as important.
This Tuesday we're publishing a free âProgress Power Tracker.â You can use it with your students to help them look at their data for the week, graph their results, and then analyze their results.
The tool will help you equip your learners to read and respond to their OWN data. You can use it at the elementary, middle, or high school level. Youâll find the Progress Power Tracker next Tuesday on the Tuesday Share page:
https://www.readytoblend.com/tuesdays
or in your inbox if you subscribe to Tuesday Share deliveries:
http://eepurl.com/geaExT
-
On Saturday I attended the funeral in Cambridge, Massachusetts of Clayton M. Christensen, a professor at Harvard Business School who died on January 23, 2020 at the age of 67.
Clayton Christensen is regarded as the father of innovation theory. His academic work shaped the principles of business strategy. I'm one of countless people Clay's work impacted.
Clayton Christensenâs theories, and his life itself, shaped my life profoundly and for the better.
Ahead for you on this podcast:
* Working with Clayton Christensen on the Boston temple project
* Trying to tell Clay's famous milkshake story to explain the Jobs to Be Done Theory
* How adults face something akin to the innovator's dilemma in navigating personal resource allocation decisions
* The value of the theory of language dancing with infants and children
* Engineering the culture of an organization, including in one's personal life
This upcoming Tuesday as part of the Tuesday Share service, Iâll publish printable Clayton Christensen quotes for you to keep handy, if they are helpful to you. Youâll find them at https://www.readytoblend.com/tuesdays, or in your inbox if you subscribe to Tuesday Share deliveries here: http://eepurl.com/geaExT
Professor Christensen, thank you for giving me the call to adventure and for being a wise mentor. You gave me the tools to use, you modeled how to stand on a stage and use them, and you helped me create a life that aligns more closely to the metrics that matter most.
-
Our guest today is Michael Norton, manager of blended learning and academics at KIPP Texas, a network of 55 charter schools in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, and Austin. Michael helped these classrooms transform into flexible learning environments where students have multiple options for how to make progress and teachers have several new ways of reaching and engaging each learner.
The initial goal for KIPP Texas was for students to be ready for Algebra I by 8th grade. But the success of the project has led to its expansion to other core subjects and beyond the near-term goal of Algebra I. KIPP Texas has found that the new model is helping its students develop skills that will help them through life. The saying before was âKIPP to college;â now itâs "KIPP through college."
For a free resource on how KIPP Texas structures flexible learning environments, download the Tuesday Share that accompanies this episode 16. It will be available next Tuesday at https://www.readytoblend.com/tuesdays
-
Caution: If your school has embarked on âtech integration,â thatâs a red flag. Often that phrase is code for cramming devices on top of the traditional instructional model. Multiple studies show that approach to be a waste of effort.
In this podcast episode, Heather talks to Lisa Adams, assistant superintendent at Temple Independent School District in Texas. Lisa says that for years, Temple ISD was great at giving each student access to a device and giving teachers Google Classroom training. But results were only marginally better, and the devices likely had nothing to do with the improvements.
It wasnât until 2015 that student performance started to climb. That was the year Lisaâs district switched from âtech integrationâ to a deep transformation of the fundamental learning design. Leaders and teachers worked together to envision four pillars of a new student experience. They visited exemplars to see model schools in action. They defined a âLearning Progressionâ for teachers, which articulated what the pillars of the student experience looked like in classrooms that were just getting started with the new design, in classrooms that were advancing, and in those that were going deep.
The results have been dramatic, but Lisa cautions that the effort takes patience on the districtâs part. Veteran teachers can feel uncomfortable as they are asked to evolve. But today, 90 percent of Templeâs teachers say they would not return to traditional instruction.
For a free resource on how to use Learning Progressions to help your schools move beyond tech integration, download the Tuesday Share that accompanies this episode 15. It will be available next week at https://www.readytoblend.com/tuesdays
-
Bringing about a major shift in teaching and learning might seem impossible in a large, urban school district. Processes tend to hold firm. But Ysleta Independent School District in southern Texas is bucking that pattern.
Now in its fifth year of implementing a system-wide blended learning project, Ysleta ISD has transformed 10 campuses.
Part of Ysleta's success stems from bold school principals, such as David Medina, the guest of our previous podcast (episode 13). But there's a second essential piece: support from the school district.
In this episode, Heather Clayton Staker talks with Micha Villarreal, who served as David's district counterpart to support his efforts as he changed his school.
Micha shares the view that "in education, we've not been doing what's right for kids for many, many years. Kids are all different. To grow our kids and allow them to be successful as adults, we have to change the work that we do."
Micha explains how her district runs discovery sessions to help campus teams get unstuck as they innovate. Next week, Ready to Blend will post a resource to help you run your own discovery session with your team. You can find it, as well as all the other Tuesday Share resources that accompany each Ready to Blend podcast, at https://www.readytoblend.com/tuesdays.
-
If you walk into a Pasodale Elementary School classroom, youâll see students scattered everywhere, each working on an independent or group objective. To someone unfamiliar with the model, it might look chaotic. But each student can explain what sheâs working on and why.
A growing number of teachers and principals want to make this shift. But how can they build it? How do they find the time? It takes considerable time to convert a traditional, teacher-led unit plan to a series of student-driven stations, tutorials, on-demand resources, projects, and assessments.
Teachers are willing to do the work, but they simply need time.
Our guest today is David Medina. For nine years, David has been the principal of Pasodale Elementary School in the Ysleta Independent School District located in El Paso, Texas, less than a mile from the border of Juarez, Mexico. Roughly 98 percent of his students are Hispanic, and 50 percent are English language learners.
For years his school was mostly teacher centered, meaning that teachers led. He thought that blended learning meant giving children access to technology.
âLittle did I know that it really has zero to do with technology and more to do with having students be active learners,â David says. He realized four years ago that technology was not the answer; the answer was to shift from teacher-led to student-centered learning.
In todayâs interview, Heather Clayton Staker talks to David about how he freed up teachersâ time to allow them to build the new model. Of all the things he tried, David found that canceling after-school tutoring was the most successful. Instituting âBlended Roundsâ every 90 days and weekly 90-minute planning meetings were crucial enablers as well.
It takes time to build a student-centered model. But then, once in place, the new model gives back time because students are less dependent on their teachers. In other words, giving teachers time to build is an investment that more than breaks even.
For a one-page visual about this podcast, go to www.readytoblend.com/blog. It will be available on 11/12/2019 as part of the regularly scheduled Tuesday Share program.
Thanks Principal Medina for your stirring words!
If you enjoyed this podcast, please leave a review. We'd be much obliged.
-
Do you know how to get good grades? Did you know that it's possible to get good grades even if you don't feel smart in some of your classes?
This podcast episode is talking to studentsâto high school, middle school and even elementary school students who might be worried about how to get good grades. We'll talk about four basic strategies that will set you up for success, and then five power behaviors that will help you take your grades to the next level.
One of the challenges that might be affecting you is the invention of "data dashboards" that give your parents a website where they can constantly see your grades. Help them understand that they can reduce the anxiety and tension, and increase the support, by setting a climate of unconditional positive regard when talking to you about your grades. From there, invite them to use the four basic strategies and five power behaviors to ask you Socratic questions, such as:
Which of the four basics is the biggest challenge for you? Which do you find the easiest? Why? What could you do to turn the basics into habits? Which of the five power behaviors would help you most in each class or subject? Why? What can I do to support you better?Those honest and open conversations, in a climate of unconditional positive regard, will help you vent anxious emotions and convert them into successful action steps for improving your grades. It really is possible to become a great student! And it's not too late.
School leaders, while students, parents, and teachers are working to improve grades, you can lead the way toward a better system overall by replacing the traditional grading system with one in which each student truly masters the content, even if they do so at varying paces. The old system is premised on sorting students into As, Bs, and Cs. A newer, better system would focus on each student reaching A-level mastery and then designing each lever in the system to support that ideal.
- Show more
