Ready to Blend

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Latest Episodes:

31. Short Film: "Reflections" May 26, 2021

Show notes

Patience Nyanway is an aspiring college students in Texas. A few weeks ago Patience used her phone to interview children and parents in her neighborhood. She wanted to give them a voice so that they could share their feelings about this past school year, an unusual one for its widescale cancellation of in-person schooling.

This podcast includes the audio from her short film. You'll hear Patience interviewing several families. To see the video version, go to https://www.readytoblend.com/post/short-film-reflections or subscribe to our YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/readytoblend01.

Mentioned in this Show:

* Short Film: Reflections, by Patience Nyanway

* Foundations for Blended Learning Micro-credentials

Positive reviews of this podcast make Heather ever so happy and motivated. Thank you for taking the time!

30. Online and Blended Learning Fundamentals: Learning from the Pioneers Apr 12, 2021

Show notes

As the pandemic has required schools to innovate, including with online, blended, and hybrid models that are unfamiliar to them, too many educators have suffered from trying to reinvent the wheel. The alternative is to look at pioneering virtual and blended schools that have won hard-fought battles to design learning experiences that are happy and effective. Their successes and failures can lead the way for educators who are new to the online world.

In this class, you’ll look backward at how online and blended learning emerged over the past 20 years. With that context, you’ll look forward to imagine the online and blended solutions for the future. You’ll consider your personal openness to trying new strategies. You’ll analyze your learning design to check for the quality of engagement. And you’ll prioritize how to optimize the teacher’s use of time.

LEARNING TARGETS

Understand online and blended learning and which of their characteristics as disruptive innovations are worth considering as you design the instructional strategy for your school or classroom.
Cultivate a personal openness to trying new strategies with online/blended learning.
Envision the core building blocks of a flexible learning arc to scaffold the student experience.
Analyze options for creating independent online work.
Free up your time to prioritize individual feedback and coaching with each of your students.

HAVE ON HAND

Graphic Organizer: Online and Blended Learning Fundamentals

FEATURED IN THIS CLASS

ENGAGE FURTHER

Complete the six Foundations for Blended Learning Micro-credentials to prove your competency in implementing the concepts discussed in this class. The micro-credentials are brought to you by BloomBoard and Ready to Blend.

29. Helping Children Feel Safe to Share Mar 16, 2021

Show notes

In this class, Heather teaches three ways to build bridges that help learners connect across any divide they might be experiencing so that they feel safe enough to speak up and express themselves, whether at school or home.

You’ll learn to use digital tools to give learners a bridge into conversations where they might initially feel foreign or shy. You’ll discover how transparent norms can serve as a bridge to encourage sharing and participation. And you’ll explore how to tie your group discussions to individual student interests so that learners have an entry point into the group.

No one should go through the day unnoticed. Children and teenagers have ideas that can change the world. Learn how to bring everyone into the conversation.

YOUTUBE VERSION:

https://youtu.be/xbX6H7cbNgw

FEATURED IN THIS CLASS:

Google Slides (software)

Book Creator (software)

Flipgrid (software)

Animoto (software)

How 2020 Shifted Perceptions of Technology in the Classroom (post; MRD Education)

Morning Group Discussion (video; Ready to Blend)

Ms. Kaylie’s slides for her Morning Group Discussion (slides; Ready to Blend)

APPLY YOUR LEARNING:

Make a copy of the Survey of Safety in Sharing. Use it to diagnose how well you’re playing games, creating norms, giving opportunities for people to express themselves digitally, and tying discussions to participants’ interests.

ENGAGE FURTHER:

RSVP for the Rebooting School Seminar

Earn a Bloomboard Micro-endorsement by completing Ready to Blend's Foundations for Blended Learning Micro-credentials

28. Using Games to Support Children Socially and Emotionally Mar 09, 2021

Show notes

I've restructured this podcast as a class, so that each episode going forward will teach a skill to help you blend online learning into school and home in ways that nurture all children.

Today's class is on using games to improve children's well-being. You'll hear evidence for why students need social and emotional intensive care right now. Then you'll listen to examples of teachers who are using games to connect together their community. You'll also hear an example of using games to reduce anxiety at home.

WATCH THE VIDEO:

on YouTube

or on the Ready to Blend website

FEATURED IN THIS CLASS:

The Impact of Social Isolation and Loneliness on the Mental Health of Children and Adolescents in the Context of COVID-19 (Publication: Rapid Systemic Review)

How to create higher performing, happier classrooms in seven moves: A playbook for teachers (Publication: Christensen Institute)

Leadership Lesson – With People Slow is Fast and Fast is Slow (Video: FranklinCovey)

Morning Meetings: Building Community in the Classroom (Video: Edutopia/Highlander Charter School)

Acton Academy Albuquerque Lip Dub 2020 (Video: Acton Academy Albuquerque)

Our New Student Experience, Fun with Friends (Video: Ready to Blend)

APPLY YOUR LEARNING:

Make a copy of the Team-building Activities Plan. Use it to select and schedule games for your own class or home.

ENGAGE FURTHER:

RSVP for the Rebooting School Seminar

Earn a Bloomboard Micro-endorsement by completing Ready to Blend's Foundations for Blended Learning Micro-credentials

27. Where Do We Go from Here? with Atomi's Simon Hennessy Nov 10, 2020

Show notes

We are alive right at the moment when there's an opening of opportunity to retool the classroom for the end user. We have the will plus the disruptive innovations to do it.

School leaders and entrepreneurs can make it happen.

Today's show features the main excerpt from an interview Heather Clayton Staker did with Simon Hennessy for the Atomi podcast in which they discuss principles of disruptive innovation that will bring about the transformation.

What You Will Discover

- How nonconsumption opens a one-of-a-kind opportunity for our generation

- Why disruptive innovation can happen without any policy changes

- The value of mindsets, learner-driven content, and learner-centered coaches

- Why and how to get started with disrupting standard schooling processes

Featured on This Show

- Foundations for Blended Learning Micro-endorsement, a set of six essential micro-credentials for teachers

- Atomi, an online teaching and learning platform based in Sydney, Australia with courses in over 190 subjects

26. Developing Student-centered Teachers Oct 27, 2020

Show notes

What's the best way for school leaders to equip teachers with the skills they urgently need to transform their instructional model?

For years many educators have longed for a more personalized, competency-based, student-driven learning model to replace the traditional classroom. This year, remote/hybrid learning has created unprecedented demand for finally taking that call seriously.

In the ideal, educators would have a modular solution for PD--one that lets them order up the specific skills they need, in a simple way, at an affordable price. In this show, Heather Clayton Staker shares her latest research from the Christensen Institute that proposes a way forward for making that vision for PD possible.

What You Will Discover

- Why modularity is the aim for the next generation of PD

- The 3 requirements for true modularity

- How micro-credentials could provide modularity

- 66 competencies for student-centered teaching

Featured on This Show

- Developing a student-centered workforce through micro-credentials (Christensen Institute)

- Stitchfix

- BloomBoard

- Digital Promise

- Ready to Blend's Foundations for Blended Learning Micro-credentials

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25. Hacks for Solving Esteem Gaps Jun 05, 2020

Show notes

Children want to make progress. They crave achievement—even if they do not appear to be motivated—provided that the basic levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs are satisfied. The inequities in society grow worse for each day that children lack “flex” environments that are blended (online and face-to-face) that help them make progress seamlessly, whether they are in in-person or remote setups.

Unlike ever before, it is becoming surprisingly simple to set up a Flex blended-learning model. In a Flex model, caring teachers lead discussions, provide individual coaching, and oversee the online instruction.

Expect to see thousands of schools, micro-schools, and homeschool co-ops offering Flex schooling this year. In this show, we’ll discuss how the four building blocks of a blended learning arc provide the backbone for a Flex classroom and are increasingly within the grasp of schools and parents.

What you will discover

How to use whole group Socratic discussion to launch and close a learning arc
The value of online learning for independent work sprints
The critical, all-important, 1-on-1 structure that teachers consider the “killer app” of blended learning
Ideas for collaborative work sprints

Featured on this show

Diagram of a Blended Learning Arc, readytoblend.com/tuesdays
Sign up to receive free materials related to this podcast: https://bit.ly/3dFNYXd

24. Hacks for Solving Social Belonging Gaps Apr 29, 2020

Show notes

Feeling somewhat lonely and depressed? Small wonder . . . the world is locked in social distancing, and humans brains are wired to suffer as a result. We can’t fully solve for social isolation right now. But we can avoid pitfalls that make loneliness worse.

This episode addresses level three in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs: the level of social belonging. We chat about how not to exacerbate children's (and our own) loneliness.

For families, some types of screen time will increase heartbreak and despair, whereas others increase social belonging. For teachers and schools, let's talk about best practices for how to build community in online and distance education.

Go to www.readytoblend.com/tuesdays to get the graphic organizers or worksheets that go along with each Ready to Blend podcast.

What you will discover:

* Stay away completely from the "U-N-H-A-P-P-Y" web.

* Go light on four other types of content.

* Consume abundantly the full Recommended Daily Allowance of the Digital Media Diet.

* Teachers, use Zoom either to take center stage or for Socratic discussion.

* Use one-on-ones for check-ins, feedback, and building relationships.

* Now's a great time to experiment with peer coaching.

Featured on this show:

* U-N-H-A-P-P-Y Digital Use Graphic

* Wangari's Trees of Peace: A True Story from Africa

* How to create higher performing, happier classrooms in seven moves: A playbook for teachers

* Adolescents and young adults are paying a high price for COVID-19 prevention

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23. Hacks for Solving Safety Gaps Apr 21, 2020

Show notes

The shifting pandemic and school closures are opening safety gaps for many families and children, including personal, financial, and emotional insecurities.

This episode offers a few hacks, in the sense of scrappy efficient shortcuts, for governments, schools, and families who are working to close safety gaps.

Sometimes becoming resourceful in the face of adversity creates more strength and safety than before the adversity hit.

What you will discover:

* Why scoring high on the "Do You Know" scale correlates with psychological well-being

* How to tell stories to children and adolescents in ways that improve their resiliency and sense of identity

* It could be time for schools to organize Family Circles

Featured on this show:

* Sue Shellenbarger, The secret benefits of retelling family stories, Wall Street Journal

* Emory University, Children benefit if they know their family history, study finds

* David Brooks, The Nuclear Family Was a Mistake, Atlantic Magazine

* Ancestry, www.ancestry.com

* Family Search, www.familysearch.org

22. Hacks for Solving Physiological Gaps Apr 21, 2020

Show notes

School closures and lockdowns are causing major physiological gaps for some children in the form of food, exercise, and sleep shortages, while other children are benefiting physiologically. Caregivers and educators want to help solve for physiological gaps, but it's not always obvious how to do that.

This episode offers a few hacks, or scrappy efficient shortcuts, for governments, schools, and families who are contending with physiological gaps.

We are more powerful than we think when it comes to meeting children's needs, as well as meeting our own needs. But it will require using existing resources in new and creative ways.

What you will discover:

* Why movable outdoor gear is better than play structures

* The value of acorns, pebbles, and boulders

* How to repurpose school buses and cafeterias

* Simple, low-cost meals hacks

* Why nature trails should be broadly reopened

* The value of device & screen curfews

Featured on this show:

* John J. Ratey, MD, Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain

* Maslow, Abraham, The Hierarchy of Needs

* NRP, School Bus Drivers Deliver Meals Instead of Children