What if we trained teachers to use technology to facilitate learning, keep students engaged, remediate, and allow more time for meaningful lessons? What if we used technology to put the power of learning in the hands of our students, making the learning more student-centered? If you knew that technology could provide that, would this be something you would embrace for your students? I would love to introduce this concept to you through Blended Learning using the Station Rotation Model.
This model is something already familiar to elementary teachers. They use it daily when teaching guided reading and math. Students adapt easily to rotating through stations, so incorporating a blended learning station would be a seamless way to further their exposure to using technology to facilitate the learning. Through the use of stations and choice boards, we could not only reach those students who are on grade-level, but we could differentiate lessons using the students’ Individual Learning Plans, as well as for those who are English Language Learners.
My Innovation Plan Outline implements a way to do this within 18 months. Imagine how exciting it would be to see students showing ownership over their learning through choices they make, using their own voice to demonstrate what they have learned authentically. This COVA approach is just the beginning in changing the mindset of students who believe they “can’t” to believing that they “can”. My innovation plan would give students the power of learning individualized to suit them through the use of technology.
I believe every teacher saw a need for this during the recent pandemic. Educators who were unfamiliar with blended learning found themselves thrust into an unknown dimension of teaching, making it frustrating for not only teachers, but students and parents as well. As show in my Literature review, research shows that technology in education is here to stay. How we embrace it, grow with it and facilitate it as teachers is something we owe to our students. Having a growth mindset to new and innovative ideas as teachers will allow us to empower or students with an excitement for learning. We owe it to our students to prepare them for the technology-rich world they are growing up in. What better way to start than in an elementary classroom? I invite you to search through my site to learn more about my vision and my innovative plan for Blended Learning in the elementary classroom. I hope you will become as excited about the use of technology in the classroom as I am.
Blended Elementary 