Archive for the ‘blended learning’ Category
Goshen/Lempster and Mistacres Schools Working Together
posted by admin @ 8:00 AM
Monday, September 13, 2010
Mistacres School is located about 14 miles from the Goshen/Lempster School in South Acworth. It is a K-8 school, just as Goshen/Lempster. The difference is that it delivers the curriculum through the technology of the Internet – virtually.
These two schools are joining together to form a blended approach to learning.
The International North America Council for Online Learning (iNACOL) defines blended learning as one that “combines online delivery of educational content with the best features of classroom interaction and live instruction to personalize learning, allow thoughtful reflection, and differentiate instruction from student to student across a diverse group of learners.”
This means that Mistacres School will be delivering specially targeted instruction to students who either need to increase their reading and math skills to be more successful at grade level or to those students that have mastered grade content and need enrichment.
The staff at Goshen/Lempster and Mistacres School are reviewing recent testing, report cards, and observations to determine which students will be receiving supplemental education from Mistacres and in what areas. These students will then have numerous times throughout the week to work within Mistacres School as well as having the school available to them at home 24/7.
If you would like to find out more about Mistacres School and what Blended Learning is, click on Educational Resources.
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Part 4
Studies have shown that if you give a child rewards for behaviors they were doing spontaneously, and then withdraw the rewards, the child will stop doing what they had done before they were getting rewards. So, if the child is already capable of getting good grades and now is getting rewarded, what happens when the child stops getting the rewards? And, if they haven’t got the capability to achieve the goals the school has set for them, what will rewards held out of their reach do? Teach by using the learning style of the student produces superior results in a blended learning environment, without confusing the joy of learning with extrinsic rewards.
Children are no different from you or me. If I have poor self-esteem and believe I can’t do something, chances are that I probably won’t even try the task. But if I’m taught the skills in a way I understand, I am much more likely to succeed in accomplishing the task. I will develop confidence in myself to try other tasks that might be a bit harder. My previous success becomes the motivation to do well on the next goal. Individualized learning where the students learning style is taken into account makes all the difference.
Allow children to succeed in their learning by adapting to their learning style. Paying students isn’t going to motivate them to become learners. This is what we as teachers should be doing, hopefully public schools will one day change their one size fits all mentality. The responsibility is not just to motivate our children to learn now, but to instill in them the desire and confidence to become life-long learners.
Paying Students Disregards A Quality Education
posted by admin @ 8:00 AM
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Part2
As a teacher of over 30 years, I have seen all kinds of fads used to modify students behaviors none
that were overly successful. If we were to give children checks, what do we cut so there is money to do that? Should it by Gym, Art, and Music? Those programs have already been hacked just as Languages have. Most after-school sports programs have to be self-supporting as well. That leaves just the basics: Reading and Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies. The big push by the federal government to improve STEM education (science, technology, engineering, and math), means paring down childrens education elsewhere. When there is a bloated bureaucracy within school administration, less and less is available for teaching.
Such a proposal to pay students assumes that the students have the capability to do the activity in question for the rewards to be influential. Monetary rewards to students do not address the fact that most students do not choose to do poorly in school. I believe that once schools learn to teach to the student, students will learn. For students that attend classes at Mistacres, each child receives an individualized learning plan that takes into account the different ways children learn. A blended learning environment gives students the best of in-class learning along with virtual learning. Parents who want the best education for their kids have turned to our homeschooling programs, and use our virtual classrooms and curriculum to successfully home school their children.
For years it’s been conventional wisdom that the traditional classroom setting was the most conducive learning environment. With the proliferation of technology and an increasing understanding of how our brains work, many people are beginning to question this centuries-old model. Since each child learns in a different manner, new methods are being developed to cater the curriculum and teaching methods to the individual.
One of these new-age teaching techniques is the K-8 virtual learning academy. These schools combine traditional teaching in a brick-and-mortar location with the individualization and specialized methods available through online learning. This allows children to get the irreplaceable peer interaction they need while receiving a catered learning experience.
Virtual Learning is not a one-size-fits-all method of education, any more then the brick-and-mortar school fits all. However, there is a natural resistance to change in education which is slowly but surely changing. According to a recent report by the U.S.Department of Education, more then 1 million K-12 students took online courses during the 2007-2008 school year. And that number is growing at a rate of 20 to 45% each year.
This report also found that students that took course online either part time or entirely out-performed students taking the same courses in a brick-and-mortar class with only face-to-face instruction. In fact, it was found that the most effective approach to teaching today’s students is through a combination of both online and face-to-face instruction.
This type of instruction is called “hybrid” or “blended” and is one of three alternatives that has become increasingly popular with schools and their students and parents. This model allows students who do not wish to be full-time virtual learners to have their education supplemented with online courses that may fill gaps in the traditional school curriculum or offer a more individualized approach to students having a difficult time with traditional approaches. Technology allows these courses to be delivered in traditional school settings.
Offering options to how our children are taught is more likely to meet the multitude of needs and styles that schools face today. These options also feed into how our students want to learn.