Innovation Project Update

Reflections

When I first began my innovation project, I felt it was a very ambitious goal to bring blended learning to our school. It was difficult to believe that I could initiate such significant change. As I worked on the components of my project and learned more about blended learning, I began to realize that it held more promise for our students than I initially thought, and I became committed to making blended learning a reality.

​

Through my literature review, I discovered that blended learning is the key to the practical application of personalized and competency-based learning in the classroom. Through the strategic use of blended learning, we can create an environment of engagement and achievement through personalized and self-directed learning (Horn, Staker & Christensen, 2017). In my innovation proposal, I argued that perhaps are students are disengaged from school because their learning is passive and irrelevant to their lives. But we have the power to change this narrative with blended learning.

​

I admit that change is not always easy, so I took inspiration from Melinda Mae in Shel Silverstein’s poem and ate the whale one bite at a time. It’s about taking small, but consistent, steps when you feel your task is overwhelming. To make this goal more manageable, and to gain the experience to back-up what I was advocating, I decided to conduct a pilot project in my World History course. I developed a two-year implementation plan that mapped out my pilot project the first year and a school-wide implementation plan the second year.

​

I began in the fall semester with a couple of lessons within a unit (one bite at a time), but it wasn’t fully blended because I was still working on adapting the curriculum, creating online lessons, and mapping out activities. Through those blended learning lessons, I took note of how much more students were engaged in what they were doing and how less frustrated I was. Students had choice, they were in control, and I was able to help guide and support their individual learning needs. The spring semester was fully blended, and it was much easier to manage the variety of learning happening because I changed my mindset from “teacher, deliverer of knowledge” to learning facilitator, coach, and mentor. My project update includes the lessons learned from my pilot project and the next steps forward, including a school-wide implementation project that kicks off with a professional learning initiative.

​

I’ve completed one full semester of blended learning and it went much more smoothly than I anticipated. It took no time for students to adjust to flexible pacing. The challenges lay in helping students adapt to self-directed and collaborative learning. This is where the teacher’s role changes and you partner with students, collaborating in their learning, and making them part of the decision-making process. Blended learning allowed me to truly take on the role of “guide on the side.” Sharing the responsibility of learning with students and serving as a guide, coach, and mentor was a much more enriching experience for both parties. 

​

What I learned from developing my entire innovation project is that you don’t have to become an expert before you initiate changes or try something new in your classroom. Even with the challenges, I witnessed students more engaged with their learning. There was an element of the “unknown” while they were researching and working on their projects. Their choices drove the direction of their learning, which led to more engaging discussions. They had not all learned the same thing in the same way, so there was room for everyone to contribute. To formalize my discoveries and improve my practice, my next steps include an action research project that will begin in Fall 2022. The action research will allow me to conduct a systematic inquiry into the effects of blended learning in my classroom. Additionally, I will continue to develop more authentic learning opportunities through project and problem-based learning.

​

As I continue to work on my innovation project, I continue to learn and grow. It's important to flex our mental muscles to remain receptive to change. When we continually challenge ourselves, change doesn’t seem so daunting; we have mental muscle for it. One of the best concepts I’ve added to my learner's mindset over the course of this project is to embrace being a “now-ist” (Ito, 2014). I like to plan and organize before I do things, but I’ve realized that you can’t plan for everything. Sometimes you have to research, develop and iterate in real time in order to remain responsive to the situation. Even with all the research and planning I did, I didn’t really grasp blended learning until I did it. It’s the same for our students. Unless we put them in the driver’s seat and give them control of their learning, unless they're the ones doing, they’re not really learning.