I have mentioned how excited I am to be teaching this year, and that I am doing something new, and I love to talk about it, however, it is super hard to put into words what I am doing! Ultimately I have a group of 31 grade 9, 10, and 11 students in a classroom working on a variety of courses! If you would have told me I was going to teach a multi-grade classroom three years ago I would have said no chance in hell! Now I don't understand why we don't all look at this for our future classrooms! How did I get here....
When we returned to school in Sept 2020, our school's pandemic response was, in my opinion, strong. I was very nervous to return as there was such an unknown about COVID. I am in an older age category and didn't know how it might affect me. Our school moved to half capacity every second day and a 5 block system instead of 2 semesters. We also then got hit just before Christmas, with an outbreak in our city, and were moved to online learning. All of these things pushed teachers to "do" different and "be" different. I get that everyone is at a different place in their learning and that it was a very stressful time for many, however, I described my experience as a "fun busy." I always said I wanted to find ways to incorporate tech into the classroom, but then never found time to do it. Now I didn't have a choice. It had to be done. Our math department was very fortunate, as we had created a bank of video lessons over the past number of years, so we were already ahead of the game and ready to move online a little easier than some. Our school staff was also very fortunate to have a forward-thinking Admin team, who managed to find time to free up some staff to set up courses online so that they could be easily shared with other teachers.
How does any of this lead to my blended learning experience? Well, having obstacles in front of us, with some students afraid to come into the school, some in isolation, some sick, etc. opened the door for teachers to think outside of the box. I am so incredibly fortunate to work with some outstanding colleagues! A couple of these amazing human beings had a brainwave of setting up their math and science classes as self-directed/self-paced classrooms. You would have to ask them how it came to be, I can't answer for them, but they inspired me to seek out different ways of teaching! Ultimately their students worked at their own pace, using the teacher-designed videos. The teacher simply monitored and assisted as necessary, working one on one with students. This allowed students to be absent and not feel that they were missing out on anything. It was really a brilliant concept! Over the past year a few more teachers have jumped on board to try this in a variety of courses.
So how did this lead me to a multi-grade, multi-course classroom? In the 2020 - 2021 school year our school had the opportunity to partner with Global Sports Academy to create a hockey training program. This was a year-long program where elite-level student-athletes were offered sport-specific training and mentorship as part of their school experience. However, with a block system, this was hard for scheduling purposes. With the every second day attendance, they figured out a system where these students did their sport-specific training on their off-school days, and were pulled out of their classes for the classroom portion. This worked for that year, but with a full-time return to classes in 2021 2022, it wouldn't work there. One day, while in conversation about the self-directed classes, all of a sudden it was, "wait, why can't we do something similar for the Global Sports Academy program?" What if we put these students into one classroom in the morning, for the entire year, and they simply work on the courses they need to when they don't have their "Global" time? Hmmmm.... ding ding ding!!!!
The conversation continued, ideas were tossed around, planning was looked at, and a name was given to the idea... Blended Learning. I jumped in with two feet. I begged for the opportunity to be this teacher! I put a proposal together with what I envisioned it could look like! The admin team, myself, and a couple other colleagues brainstormed this idea. In the end, I was given the opportunity to teach this class for this school year. It was also broadened to include our band program, which also doesn't fit well into a block system! Another teacher ended up assigned to that group of students.
So back to my class of 31. I have students in grades 9, 10, and 11. They are working on a variety of curriculums - ELA 9, Arts 9, PAA 9, ELA A10, ELA B10, Math 10W, PAA Survey A10, Social 10, ELA 20, Psych 20, PAA Survey 20, Math 20F, Math 20W, and Math 20PC. Our French Immersion students have an opportunity to work with a French Immersion teacher during this time to earn the credits they need there. I do not explicitly teach content in a traditional way. I provide an opportunity for students to learn the elements in a variety of ways. As we continue to reflect and adjust what this looks like, we have come to learn that a better name for the class/program may have been Personalized Learning. Really, that is what it is. Personalized. In many cases, I try to provide choices for the students. I have told them if an assignment doesn't engage them and they would like to suggest an alternative to please let me know. If they do something in another class that they feel meets an outcome in ours, they are to inform me and we can look at how it can be incorporated. I had a student early on this year, open up an assignment and say to me "I did something similar to this in grade 9 and I really don't think it would benefit me to do it again." Instead of saying "too bad, it's what needs to be done" I said "Okay, but we still need to do something from this curriculum, so here are the outcomes and indicators, which one sticks out to you as interesting and how would you like to show me you learned it?" She came back with an amazing product! The learning was more meaningful for her in this aspect! This is just one story that excites me about what I'm doing! For the ELA novel study, I provided students with an opportunity to choose their own book! At the end of the day, what is the purpose of a novel study? To all read the same book, answer a bunch of common questions, analyze it to death, and then what? NO!!!!! My WOW for this came this past summer when I thought I should do some reading of typical novels that are used in the ELA classes so that I would have an idea of what some of them were about. Another teacher recommended one book, said it was their go-to and that students loved it. They said it was an easy read. I started to read it multiple times and could never get past chapter 2! I love to read! However, that story did not engage me at all! It made me wonder how many students suffer through this year after year! No wonder many hate to read! We give them a story that speaks to us without asking if it speaks to them! In a class of 30 students, you aren't likely to hit one that fits all! So I let them pick. I had a few students tell me this was the first book they had read, or that it was the first book in a while that they had read. I asked why. They said it was because it interested them. Let students have the choice and they will engage!
Another wonderful piece of this classroom is that we look to cross over between curriculums. Do you remember when elementary schools taught subjects together? Many do not anymore and I now question why? Why do we have to chunk everything? Why does a student have to do resumes in three different courses? Why do students write fictionalized journal entries in social 10 and in ELA B10? No wonder many kids hate school! Are they really learning anything besides compliance? Why not streamline what they are doing and go deeper into learning? Let them find their passion! For the research essay, I provided numerous options and told them if none of the options were of interest to them to provide me with an alternative. The quality of the essays have been strong in my opinion. You need to make the assignment meaningful and purposeful! Times have changed. Kids have access 24/7 to google so we need to work with this as opposed to fighting it.
Do I have this perfect? Heck no! It is messy and I am learning on the fly! Some days it is a struggle to stay ahead of the fast-paced student! As we go I find new curriculums that could have been worked in. I can't wait to do it again as I want to make it better! I keep saying "next year I will be able to do this, or next year I will be more organized for the students!" I am so thankful to our administration for allowing me the opportunity to try this outside-the-box opportunity. I am so thankful that my administration recognizes I won't have it perfect the first time and that I will make mistakes. I am thankful to my students for allowing me to learn alongside them! One day another staff member jokingly asked if the student was teaching me and the student said "Mrs. Lehner learns with us every day." It is true!
This has been so positive that we are now looking at expanding it so that students who aren't in Global or band have an opportunity to learn in this aspect. I have no idea where this will end up, but I am super excited to be a part of this process! The pandemic has not been great in many ways, however, I know we would not be where we are today if it weren't for the pandemic. This is definitely one positive that has come from it.
There are so many more stories to share and pieces to talk about, but I will leave them for another time!
