PK-12 Best Practices for Remote Teaching and LearningBy Naomi Harm, CEO and Founder of Innovative Educator Consulting Pull up a chair, have a seat at the table, and lean in - and join me as a collaborative team to reimagine K12 education! ~ Naomi Harm Overview It is very apparent since the onset of the COVID-19 and our continued experience of this new normal of remote teaching and learning, that the digital learning divide is alive and real. Prime examples include our k12 students and their families in Wisconsin are lacking the robust access to Internet connectivity, and equity to learning materials, resources and digital tools. During this Spring of 2020, we now have even more evidence to document that many educators are greatly under prepared professionally of how to teach online learning effectively, and how to make the necessary teaching and learning impacts to engage students of every ability. Educators have noted that they are lacking confidence in how to create, design, and to deliver an effective instructional lesson within this new online space. Many are also struggling with the how and why to create collaborative online social learning experiences with their students, to build a stronger community of participatory learners. Lack of Motivation by Students As a result, many students have demonstrated a lack of motivation and engagement during their scheduled live video webinars with their teachers. We have even seen more students choosing not to show up to be active participants in their learning. Teachers are also noting that some students have not attended and not followed through with their completion of their assignments, and of the many assignments that were turned in by students- they were of poor quality. In return, many of the teachers have also reported a major burn out from excessive hours of creating and making new daily lessons, and teaching online all hours of the day and into the evenings. Many are frantically looking for new creative solutions to improve their instructional approaches to start this Fall, yet infused with social emotional learning (SEL) activities to support their students and parents mental well being. Baptism by Technology There are many critical factors that have contributed to these types of not so positive educational experiences for all stakeholders involved. It is very apparent our Spring COVID-19 remote teaching and learning experiences have truly documented that this was actually a huge design thinking experiment for many schools throughout the nation. The new norm ultimately became the new ritual of “baptism by technology” for many educators, students and their parents. It forced K12’s and universities to critically address the immediate problem and the ultimate essential question “How do we redesign and implement meaningful and effective online and blended teaching and learning experiences to increase student achievement amongst every child of every ability?” Design Thinking Experiment Yet I am here today to provide for you and your school district teams just-in-time inspiring and effective blended teaching and learning strategies and solutions, so we do not have to go through another design thinking experiment to close out our 2020-2021 school year. Are you ready to get to work? Pull up a chair, have a seat at the table, and lean in - and join me as a collaborative team to reimagine K12 education! Where Do WE Start - WE Start Investing In Our TALENT! We as administrators need to start now and invest in our TALENT. Our best talent is found all around us, it includes our educators, our students and our parents! We must provide all of these dynamic groups of learners with the necessary access and equity to high quality professional learning experiences. Whether the choice is implemented through an instructional design model of an online, or hybrid blend or face-to-face learning experience, it is imperative that our TALENT is involved from the very beginning and as a collaborative team. Why do we start with our TALENT you may ask? It is all about the Learning Experience Design (LXD) that validates the success or the failure of any well thought out educational plan. Universal Design for Learning and SEL By infusing a systemic approach of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) this can provide for us a universal framework to improve and optimize the teaching and learning experiences based on cognitive science, psychology, and neuroscience for all stakeholders. The UDL instructional framework also helps us prioritize our focus on the learner and learning first. It optimizes individual choice, autonomy, relevance, value, and authenticity to the teaching and learning experience, yet incorporates the critical insights and first hand knowledge of the experiences and creative ideas from our ingenious TALENT. It is also inclusive of providing the necessary social emotional learning (SEL) approaches that are human and learner-centered to support the essential elements of building a collaborative community of compassionate-based learners within k12 classrooms. What Is the Difference of Online, Blended Virtual Learning So let’s start with the basics and gain a stronger foundational skill set and knowledge of what this new online and blended learning is really all about, and what it can truly look like and feel like from our end users perspective - yes our TALENT ...our students, our educators and our parents Online learning is… a teacher-led program in which content and instruction are delivered completely online. Instruction may be synchronous (participants interact in real time) or asynchronous (communication is separated by time, such as e-mail or online discussion forums). Students are enrolled in a school district and may access content from multiple settings—in school and/or out of school buildings. (Edgenuity, 2020) Blended learning is… a formal education program in which a student learns: at least in part through online delivery of content and instruction with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace; at least in part at a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home; and the modalities along each student’s learning path within a course or subject are connected to provide an integrated learning experience. (Edgenuity, 2020)
Virtual and online school is… a full-time program in which students are enrolled in the virtual, online, or cyber school and receive all content, instruction, and support online. The virtual, online, or cyber school is typically responsible for its students’ scores on state assessments. (Edgenuity, 2020) The Blended Learning Rotation Model One of the best online learning models I have seen so far is is called the blended learning rotation model. It provides an opportunity for students to rotate between differentiated learning modalities, at least one of which is online learning. Other modalities might include small-group or full-class instruction, incorporated with personalized and student-centered group projects, and individual skill building and remediation tutoring. Catlin Tucker from California schools documents an impressive virtual station rotation model of how to infuse online and blended learning lessons, activities and individual student sessions to maximize the personalized learning interest amongst large and small large groups of students. It takes the best of face-to-face collaborative teaching practices and strategies, and now blends this teaching approach with a flair of instructional creativity to focus on a learner-centered innovation approach, which is by far my favorite model. Virtual Station Rations This blended learning rotation model truly provides the how, the why and the flexible structure to personalize the learning experience for students. It also provides the necessary access and equitable learning experiences and resources to reach and meet every student of every ability. It can be infused with SEL check-ins, activities of building a community of compassion-based learners, and differentiated learning instruction amongst whole groups, small groups and individual coaching and mentoring sessions.
The blended learning rotation model has proven benefits:
5 E’s of An On Online Learning Experience 
Tap into Catlin’s Virtual Station Rotation Lesson plan template and tips for designing the 5 E’s of an online learning experience. I encourage you to take a risk and plan for your next staff development online meeting with this blended learning rotation model with an administrator friend or lead teachers as a collaborative team. It will allow you to experience and for you to model first hand what a true blended learning lesson or activity can look and feel like for your staff. It is a proven and engaging practice that does work, as I personally use the research based NGSS 5 E’s of instruction model when I design all my lessons and activities with educators worldwide. It is my go to essential “teaching recipe” to get more educators up to speed with designing learner-centered innovation lessons and activities to meet the differentiated learning needs of today’s students.
Inviting Our Students To Have A Seat At The Table We need to invite our students to have a seat at the table, to have the opportunity to lean in and share their critical insight of what learning opportunities and real-world problems they want to solve from a global solutionist mindset, which can compliment the ISTE STudent Tech Literacy Standards. We need to afford our students these “future proofing” opportunities to be creators of their futures and glean from them their untapped wealth of knowledge of what learning really looks like and feels like from the lens of a student! Once we as administrators and educators discover what truly sparks and ignites our students' interests and learning passions - only then can we truly move forward with designing a UDL roadmap for and with our Gen Z and Gen Alpha students (McCrindle, 2020). (Graphics goes with above paragraph)
What this means for us as administrators and educators is reimagining the endless possibilities of what K12 education can become! Now is our time to invest in our TALENT and be the change! The pandemic has actually opened up the doorway as an opportunity to reimagine what this new educational teaching and learning space and system can look like for “School X.” The visionary leadership and choices that we invest in today includes our TALENT as a collaborative design team, which will transform our future school experiences for ALL students, teachers and parents and us as administrators. 15 Essential Future Proofing Strategies and “Do Now” Activities So let’s get started, and put on our new designer hats, to experience 15 essential “future proofing” and “do now” activities and strategies to inspire new critical thinking and reflection, to prepare you and your TALENT for the upcoming 2020-2021 school year.
Naomi Harm is the CEO and founder of Innovative Educator Consulting, a national professional learning technology corporation. Naomi is a women in leadership strategist and edtech influencer, with a passion for instigating STEM innovation into all of her professional learning offerings. She welcomes every opportunity to share her expertise of brain-based instructional approaches, blended teaching and learning strategies, supported with technology literacy effective practices with k12 students and educational leaders worldwide. Naomi and her women in leadership team work collaboratively with national and international K12 schools, educational organizations, and HigherEd Institutions. Feel free to continue the learning conversation with Naomi by reaching out to her through the following correspondence. Email: [email protected] |
