Educators everywhere have felt tremendous pressure and stress over the 2 years as we all navigated the murky waters of teaching & learning during a pandemic. Pressing the reset button on our profession is essential to saving education and Blended Learning strategies will play a huge role in the process.
The profession of teaching has transformed greatly as educators have taken more and more responsibility for the various students, learning outcomes, and outside responsibilities we face in helping create successful learning environments in our classrooms. And while the challenges and obstacles have increased, it seems there has been little to no extra allowance or consideration for thus added workload, either financial or otherwise. Without significant changes to the core of our profession, we will see an even greater exodus from teachers across the country than we have already seen in the last several months.
One immediate solution is to give teachers the tools they need to create blended learning environments where students and teachers can more freely and efficiently move through the curriculum and engage in the kinds of activities and dialogue that make learning fun, long lasting, and meaningful for all parties. Based on research shared by the Christensen Institute and other sources, this presentation addresses the key factors to be addressed in moving toward this type of learning environment, while also identifying key obstacles in the way at this moment.
Among those challenges are: teacher preparation and credentialing programs, absence of time for teachers to reflect and collaborate on their teaching practices, lack of parent education, and school leadership who lack the connection with their faculty to effectively implement these types of strategies. We will discuss these issues and more as we work through this session.
Together, equipped with a solid foundation in these blended learning principles, we can all work together to reenergize a profession and save this amazing profession...changing the lives of students and teachers everywhere, for years to come.