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Like many, this teacher felt intense pressure to teach the standards and wasn’t sure how to embrace Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and blendedlearning. This is where the combination of UDL and blendedlearning has the potential to be so powerful. This is not unusual.
I like to compare the teacher’s work designing learning experiences to the work of an architect. In my new book with Dr. Katie Novak, UDL and BlendedLearning , I share a story about working with an architect to design a new home after my family lost our house in the Tubbs Fire in 2017.
Katie Novak to explore the complementary nature of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and blendedlearning. UDL is a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn.”
Today is the official launch of my newest book UDL and BlendedLearning: Thriving in Flexible Learning Landscapes ! Explore how you can universally design blendedlearning to remove barriers, provide firm goals with flexible pathways, and cultivate expert learners who are motivated, resourceful, and strategic!
A book club may present a more manageable, self-paced approach to professional learning. Dr. Katie Novak and I are excited to share a complete book club guide for UDL and BlendedLearning: Thriving in Flexible Learning Landscapes to support teachers interested in starting the new year with a book club!
August 18-20, 2020 -a Free PD Experience for BlendedLearning From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter This school year is dependent more than ever upon our ability to blend face to face (hopefully) and online learning. BlendedLearning. Helping Struggling Writers.
When I work with teachers shifting to blendedlearning, I strive to establish the WHY driving our work together. I want teachers to understand the purpose and value of the shift to blendedlearning. Blendedlearning is not a reaction to a moment. BlendedLearning Benefit #1: Student Agency.
I host a podcast called The Balance and wrote a book titled Balance with BlendedLearning because I see teachers struggling with balance in every coaching and training session I facilitate. The person doing the work in a classroom is the person doing the learning. That belief has informed the way I define blendedlearning.
In my last blog, I focused on the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principle of engagement. I highlighted how blendedlearning can help educators more effectively provide multiple means of engagement to increase student motivation and ensure all students can successfully engage with learning experiences.
Katie Novak and I wrote UDL and BlendedLearning: Thriving in Flexible Learning Landscapes to support teachers in developing a mindset, skill set, and toolset nimble enough to traverse any teaching and learning landscape with confidence. It will take time and a willingness to pursue our own learning.
Universally designing blendedlearning presents educators with the opportunity to transition from designing a single experience that is teacher-paced and teacher-led to a more flexible experience that gives the students more control over the pace and path. 3 Choose Your Learning Path Adventure.
What causes teachers to invest their mental energy and time resources in a task? Teachers Find their Role as Designer of Learning Experiences Cognitively Engaging. Teachers as Architects of Learning Experiences. I often compare a teacher’s design work for a blendedlearning environment to the work of an architect.
When I facilitate blendedlearning workshops, I ask participants to think about these three roles and identify the role they spend the most time and energy in. Blendedlearning can help! So how do we leverage blendedlearning to be more strategic about the form instruction takes in classrooms?
These traditional workflows do not position the students to be active agents or help them to develop into expert learners, who are resourceful, strategic, motivated, and self-aware. Katie Novak to write a follow-up to our book UDL and BlendedLearning. Want to learn more about blendedlearning and UDL?
Through our online series, we explored the power of universally designed blendedlearning models to achieve deeper learning outcomes. Our discussions culminated in selecting specific challenges to explore in-depth, with the goal of prototyping solutions at the Learning Leaders Summit in Dubai.
In this post, I’ll share some strategies and resources I found useful when preparing to use the station rotation model at the beginning of the school year. Create an overview of the rotations with links to resources and documents. The first few weeks of the year can be anxiety-inducing. Courses on Sale for Back-to-School!
In our book UDL and BlendedLearning , Dr. Katie Novak and I encourage teachers to work toward firm, often standards-aligned, goals. You can learn more about universally designing blendedlearning to give students more agency in my book UDL and BlendedLearning or by taking my online, self-paced courses.
As I’ve embraced blendedlearning, I have transformed many of my whole group, teacher-led lessons into student-centered, student-paced learning experiences using different blendedlearning models. The playlist model presents students with a sequence of learning activities that they self-pace through.
You can learn more about universally designing blendedlearning to give students more agency in my book UDL and BlendedLearning or by taking my online, self-paced courses.
However, a one-size-fits-all approach to designing lessons does not result in an equitable learning experience. When every student gets the same experience and teacher time and energy resources, that falls under the umbrella of equality. Students are different from each other in terms of how they learn. ” — Dr. .
In the early days of my transition to blendedlearning, I had one Chromebook, which I received after writing a Donor’s Choose project. They conducted research, investigated topics, and accessed online texts, resources, and tools. It is a series of stations, or learning activities, that students rotate through.
The playlist, or individual rotation model, is a blendedlearning model that strives to give students more control over the pace and path of their learning. When I facilitate workshops on this model, I describe it as a sequence of learning activities designed to move students toward a specific learning goal or objective.
My work focuses on supporting leaders, coaches, and teachers in transitioning from traditional teaching practices to blendedlearning. Blendedlearning is the combination of active, engaged learning online and offline. Teacher-centered instruction vs. Student-centered blendedlearning.
Given that my focus is on designing and facilitating student-centered learning experiences utilizing blendedlearning, I suggest that teachers rethink their traditional approaches to helping students prepare for assessments. The person generating the study guide and review game is the one doing the critical thinking.
All classes follow an easy-to-use course design: establish goals–what students will learn by the end of the class. provide a clear module-based learning path culminating in a ready to use action plan. include resources for both teachers and students in a variety of modalities–text, video, and downloadable resources.
Utilizing blendedlearning models to give real-time feedback: We demonstrate how teachers can use blendedlearning models, specifically the station rotation and playlist models, to create the time and space needed to provide focused, process-based feedback in the classroom.
Elaborate: Apply Your Learning. During the elaborate stage, the members of a PLC take what they learned and design a learning experience, implement a specific strategy, or employ a specific blendedlearning model. Check out my newest book UDL and BlendedLearning: Thriving in Flexible Learning Landscapes !
Below are strategies and resources I’ve used to cultivate a reading culture in my classroom. It asks them to list 4-5 books they would like to read using various resources such as Goodreads book lists, Scholastic lists, local libraries, classroom libraries, or online book sources, like Epic Books or Lexia. Booklist Assignment.
Student agency, or a students’ ability to make key decisions about their learning experience, is an essential aspect of blendedlearning. Choice boards fall within the umbrella of blendedlearning when we combine active, engaged learning online with active, engaged learning offline.
In our newest book, Shift Writing into the Classroom with UDL and BlendedLearning , Dr. Katie Novak and I guide teachers in creating the time and space to support all parts of the writing process in the classroom.
In our book, The Shift to Student-led , Dr. Katie Novak and I demonstrate how teachers can use Universal Design and blendedlearning to create the time and space needed to give students opportunities to work with their formative assessment data in class.
In my last blog post titled “ Part I: Maximize the Impact of Explicit Teaching with BlendedLearning ,” I explored the benefits of shifting from explicit teaching as a whole class experience to a differentiated small group experience. For teachers, AI can create custom lesson plans, visual aids, or assessment tools.
” I have the privilege of working with thousands of educators every year who are expanding their teaching toolboxes to include blendedlearning models , UDL , and student-led instructional strategies. Having a reliable resource to ask questions and receive timely, practical responses when trying something new is crucial.
What an amazing testament to the power of technology and customized learning for students. Inspiring stories are most effective when paired with practical resources. The toolkit below is jam packed with new ideas and best practices to help educators everywhere personalize learning for their students. Our scores turned around.”
Propping up her vigorous routine are the poles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and the perfect blend of education technology, ensuring that everything keeps spinning along at the right pace and momentum. EdSurge: How do you bring the principles of UDL into your classroom—with or without the help of technology?
As someone who regularly works with teachers on topics like blendedlearning, Universal Design for Learning (UDL), and student-led learning, one recurring theme I encounter is control. Educators can access a free resource below to guide them in reflecting on their current practice and plan for the year ahead!
We teach beautifully diverse groups of students with various skill levels, needs, language proficiencies, and learning preferences. I remember facilitating workshops on blendedlearning models and universally designed learning to provide students with flexible pathways.
This twist on the station rotation model combines the strategic collection and use of data with student agency to create a more personalized and student-centered approach to this blendedlearning model. In a traditional station rotation, all students rotate through the same sequence of learning activities or stations.
Skillset Shift To achieve this shift from whole group to small group, teachers need flexible instructional models that position students at the center of the learning experience. Blendedlearning provides educators with technology-enhanced instructional models that strive to shift the focus from the teacher to the students.
The Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) is a leading proponent of the Universal Design for Learning (UDL). “Universal design for learning (UDL) is a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn. Want to learn more?
However, the goal of the station rotation model, specifically and blendedlearning more generally, is to provide students with opportunities for agency , including selecting the questions they choose to answer and working at their own pace.
With over 300 different performance tasks (and over 1200 products students could create), in my review of this site, I found Defined Learning easy to use. Defined Learning sponsored this blog post. Go to [link] to receive free 60-day access to all of Defined Learning’s PBL resources. All opinions are my own.
As students rotate to this station, they receive focused attention and resources that address their unique learning challenges or advanced needs, ensuring that each student is supported where they are in their learning journey.
When I began my doctoral program, one of my first assignments was to create a vision board. I was instructed to imagine my life in the future and create a visual to represent what I wanted that reality to look like. What did I want to be doing personally or professionally in five years? What was I hoping to accomplish or achieve?
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