BLTs Continue To Up Their Game To Meet The Needs Of Students

Rolling stones gather no moss so the saying goes and the blended learning cohort teachers don’t stop trying new things. Here is an overview of some of the ways Hays BLTs are embracing professional learning and improving instruction for their students:

Carpenter Hill 3rd Grade- Since implementing their blended model, these 3rd grade teachers have committed to trying new things to increase differentiation for their students. Recently, teachers moved to a new adaptive math program and are able to assign students to curriculum aligned activities that will give them real-time data on student progress. They are able to respond to the data by pulling small groups to provide more targeted instruction. This week, teachers have added additional stations in the rotation to decrease the size of their small groups and provide students with relevant hands-on and collaborative learning interactions. The goal for the next several weeks is to use online learning data to identify opportunities to challenge students who have mastered concepts while at the same time identifying those who need more practice and direct instruction to demonstrate understanding.

4th grade- Michelle Zuniga at Kyle Elementary is testing out a new tool to create learning paths for students. Deck Toys allows her to build a visual, game-like dashboard which provides kids choices and independence in learning. As students travel through their learning path, Michelle can ask students to complete specific tasks they may need as well as opportunities that allow the students to choose. She says the students are loving it!

Emily Hawk has recently introduced Dreambox Math which was purchased by her campus. Although her students still love Prodigy, Dreambox is providing her students a learning path that automatically adapts to their learning needs while allowing her to assign specific content based on her scope and sequence. 4th grade math teachers met this week after school to learn more about how to view data in Dreambox to inform their instruction. We will continue to learn about effective use of online data with next week’s Dreambox data webinar. When I asked students which program they preferred there was a definite difference of opinion. Some prefer Dreambox and while others look forward to learning math in the Prodigy environment.