My Experiences with Blended Learning
As someone who has always preferred reading articles from paper copies and writing notes with pen and paper, I have learned to appreciate using technology in the education field. Don’t get me wrong, looking at a screen for a long period of time is not my favorite. In fact, I find myself experiencing headaches if I am staring at my computer and/or phone for too long. I understand that online learning has many benefits, however, I still enjoy face-to-face traditional classroom teaching without the use of technology. I believe a good balance of online learning and traditional classroom teaching resembles my current teaching-style.
After reading Chapter 10 in our required readings and discussing this topic online, I have learned there are many variations of blended learning that I am currently using in my classroom. Since COVID changed the world of teaching, I continue to use online platforms to share lessons and other educational resources with my students and their families. This has allowed me to stay connected with my students at home if they are away for a period of time, and help keep them on track with daily activities. Educational technology has allowed me to keep my lessons and assignments organized, and provides tools to aid student learning. Technology gives me the opportunity to work from home or other places at my own convenience, share information effortlessly, and provides fun and engaging activities to my lessons. Online platforms such as Google Drive and Google Classroom have been my “go-to” choices allowing me to create, edit, and post classroom resources with ease.
My experience using blended learning as a high school math teacher, involves preparing all my lesson plans using google slides. When I teach, I upload my presentation on my TV and use my iPad and apple pencil to work through practice problems one-by-one with my students. I can also add additional links with instructional videos and/or webpages to my lesson plans. Lately, I have been pre-recording my lessons and uploading these videos via YouTube so I can share the link quickly with my students. This has helped my students review important concepts taught in class and provides an opportunity to re-watch the lessons from home. I have also been using various online platforms for quick formative check-ins and summative assessments. A few of these platforms I use include: FlipGrid, Quizizz, google forms, and ZipGrade. These platforms have SAVED ME SO MUCH TIME with marking and photocopying, and have been very user-friendly. Teaching math can get very repetitive so I have been incorporating math games into my unit plans. Some online math games that my students enjoy are jeopardy, escape rooms, and kahoots. I am able to reuse these platforms every semester and can quickly add/edit questions that are suitable for my students and the different classes I teach.
As a newer teacher in mathematics, I am still in the process of developing unit and lesson plans. This has taken a lot of time and effort on my end to ensure my resources are in the correct files and my content is ready to use. Even though the preparation time has been extensive, I feel that once my files are completed, I can continue editing and updating them each semester to improve the quality of my content, and better meet the needs of my students. Along with online platforms, I feel face-to-face instructional strategies are appropriate to use in mathematics. It is necessary for students to work through practice questions on paper or whiteboards. It allows them to work through problems step-by-step and correct their mistakes in the learning process. This is SO IMPORTANT in math!
Using technology in an education setting also comes with some challenges. In the school I work at, we do not have enough computers/chromebooks for each student to use. Therefore, we are limited to using specific pieces of equipment supplied by the school. Some teachers may choose for students to use their personal cell phones; however, that comes with additional challenges. From my own personal experience, I have witnessed many students getting off-task and browsing the web, or sending snapchat messages to their friends. This makes it difficult for teachers to monitor student behavior during class time. Ensuring that the internet, apps and/or websites will work can be another challenge teachers and students face. I can probably speak for most of us when I say technology can be frustrating when it doesn’t work!
Hi Sarah,
I really enjoyed reading about your experiences with blended learning. It sounds like you have really embraced it and learned where and when it works for your class. Thank you for the links, I found them useful!
You are welcome! Thanks for the reply.
From one math teacher to another I can say that I too have experienced the doldrum of repetition (how many times have I explained trigonometry over the last 20 or so years?). It is heartening to hear that you are leveraging technology to keep instruction fresh. Cynicism and boredom can easily creep into our daily practices if we let it. I want to throw out a word of caution though. When I first started utilizing technology the “go anywhere” and “work from anywhere” novelty made me available 24/7 for work – which wasn’t always a good thing. Although cloud based and web based tools allow incredible access they also can lead to poor work/life balance. The first few years are always the toughest – make sure that you are disconnecting from the job on a regular basis.
I agree with you when it comes to shutting the computer off and disengaging from the work email. It is so important to give yourself those boundaries.
I agree, it sounds like you have embraced the technology, well done! It certainly does seem to be a lot of work up front, but has so many advantages. Limited access to technology would certainly be a struggle though, albeit a common one based on blogs I’m reading.
I’m curious about the online platforms and games you mentioned (thank you for pointing those out). Would any of them be useful for asynchronous teaching? I’m struggling a bit, figuring out how to engage adult learners without using games that might seem ‘too juvenile’ (some of my ‘students’ are actually professors).
Yes!! All of these games could be created for adults. You may just want to edit the themes, but adults need to have some fun too! Escape rooms are always fun to make. And once you have designed the platform, it is easy to change up your questions to suit your learners.
Yes!! All of these games could be created for adults. You may just want to edit the themes, but adults need to have some fun too! Escape rooms are always fun to make. And once you have designed the platform, it is easy to change up your questions to suit your learners.
Escape rooms sounds interesting – I will look into this. Thank you!
Your experience with blended learning is a wonderful representation of how education is changing. Seeing how you’ve skillfully used technology in your classroom to improve learning outcomes and student engagement is encouraging. Your commitment to identifying answers and adopting innovative teaching techniques is admirable, even in the face of obstacles like restricted technological access. Continue your fantastic effort!
Hi Sarah
I agree with your thoughts. You have demonstrated your dedication to meaningfully engaging students in math lessons while also improving administrative processes like grading and evaluation by utilizing interactive tools and platforms such as FlipGrid, Quizizz, and Kahoot. It’s admirable that you have acknowledged the significance of offering a variety of learning opportunities to accommodate the requirements and interests of different kinds of students.