A blended teacherâs personal mindsets shape her decisions as an educator. These mindsets influence general pedagogies, instructional approaches, and short-term decision making, alike. Check out how Jessiâs mindsets have helped to shape her blended instruction.
Music is used to transition students at the beginning and end of the class period. Students spend the first four minutes of class logging into their learning management system Haiku and Classcraft account (gamification platform). We have established as a class that all iPads (we are 1:1) should be charged and open during this period of time. This length of time is indicated by a 4:34 minute clip of music. During this time, I take attendance, fill out advanced make-ups, and talk to students who have been absent or have questions.The last three minutes in our class are indicated by transition music. This music lasts 2 minutes. It indicates that students can log out of Haiku, close their apps and their iPads. If students are in the middle of an activity, they wrap-up what they are working on either by saving it as a draft or submitting their assignment. If students close their iPads before the music sounds and have stopped working, they are deducted health points (HP) on Classcraft. I do this because I want students to use every minute for learning as I would if I was using direct instruction in my class.
Battling the Boss is a formative assessment strategy I use at the end of almost every level in our academic game. It's a process that allows students to prove that they understand the material covered in each level. Battling the Boss usually consists of me asking the student who has indicated that s/he is ready to "battle" one or two questions that require the student to demonstrate the skills I'm looking for them to develop in the level. If students prove that they understand the material, I let them move onto the next level. The students then put their names on the next level's poster, which is a public demonstration of each student's progress in the course. If students are not successful, they have the opportunity to do additional preparation and Battle the Boss when they have mastered the content.
It is my goal to help parents and students feel like they are a connected entity in our classroom. To help parents feel connected, I have created a series of videos on our classroom YouTube channel to help parents understand our classroom. The videos describe the procedures in our classroom, what blended learning is, and how we gamify our classroom. Parents also have their own parent portal in Haiku where they can access this information, as well as their students' online course material.