Back to School & Blended Learning!

I seriously cannot contain my excitement about being back at school.  My co-teacher and I are continuing with our blended learning, station/rotation model.  There will be three groups that students rotate through:  Teacher Group, Online Group, and Activity Group.  We started this last year and for the most part it went very well, we just had to tweak a few things in an effort to make it better.

The first few weeks of school we plan to build our community of learners, practice routines and expectations, and pre-test our students so we know where they are.  I created the  pre-assessment using ClassFlow's assessment builder since their are a variety of question types.  I didn't want to just give a multiple choice pre-test because I didn't think it would give me the information that I wanted.

After my co-teacher and I analyze the results of the pre-assessment, we group the students  based on the data.  These groups are not final, as students are regrouped frequently based on formative assessments.

The teacher group allows for personalized small group instruction.  This year I will have a horseshoe table, a carpet and two camping chairs (which will be replaced soon with a loveseat) available for the teacher group station.   I will be using ClassFlow this year for creating and delivering lessons, sharing activities and assessing my students at this group.  The first "content" lesson I will be delivering to my students is available in the Class Flow Marketplace for free.  If you happen to download and/or use the lesson, I would love feedback for improvement!   I'm excited for all of the possibilities that come with this website!

 The online group is where students will be either working on assignments in ClassFlow, watching videos for enrichment or re-instruction, and/or games such as dreambox or reflex math.  Thankfully, this year, our classroom will house 10 desktop computers, 10 chromebooks, and 10 iPads.  The chromebooks and ipads will move flexibly between the activity and teacher groups while the desktops will specifically be for the online group.

The activity group will be dynamic.  I like to think of this as the station where students will process information and make it their own.  Some of the time students will be doing project based learning.  Other times they may be working with manipulatives, playing games, etc.

If you have any experiences with blended learning and/or the station/rotation model, please share how things work in your classroom.  I am always looking to connect with other educators to improve my practice and build my PLN.