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Using Design Thinking to Develop Personalized Learning Pilots
May, 2014 – Program Day Five
Since January, the 19 D.C. public and public charter school teachers of the Education Innovation Fellowship (EIF) have explored the expansive field of blended and personalized learning in search of promising practices to implement in their classrooms. Drawing from visits to over a dozen schools in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Detroit and D.C, as well as…
Device Management 101
Some teachers see laptops or the iPad cart as the Holy Grail, a silver bullet that will somehow magically solve their differentiation, efficiency, and engagement problems in one fell swoop. There are others who see technology integration as the bane of their existence, either because it distracts from learning or is another item on their To-Do List to address and master to be deemed competent….
Education Innovation Fellowship: Key Learnings from Some of Detroit’s Competency-Based Learning Models
April, 2014 – Program Day Four
For the past four months, the 19 public and public charter school teachers in the CityBridge-NewSchools Education Innovation Fellowship have engaged in an in-depth study of the most promising practices in blended and personalized learning, traveling the country and hearing from the leaders in the field., Recently, the Fellows spent part of their…
Iteration is Key: Cautionary Tales on Innovative Classroom Models
March, 2014 – Program Day Three
In February, I joined 19 Washington, D.C. PreK-12 public and charter school teachers on a trip to California for the first of our “travel and learn” experiences as part of CityBridge Foundation’s Education Innovation Fellowship (EIF). In my Blend My Learning blog last month, I wrote about this trip and the nine schools we visited at the forefront…
Education Innovation Fellow Profile: How blended learning has changed the classroom for Angel Cintron
For nearly three years, Angel Cintron, Jr., a social studies teacher at Charles Hart Middle School in Southeast Washington, D.C., had been the “sage on the stage” in his classroom—using the traditional teaching method where one teacher spends most of his time lecturing to 30 students. Angel worked tirelessly to support the needs of all his students in a school known to be one of the most…
2014 Education Innovation Fellowship: Key Learnings from the Golden State
The CityBridge Foundation’s 2014 Education Innovation Fellowship (EIF) kicked off last month with its second cohort of fellows who will spend the year together learning about the most promising practices in blended learning. Last week, we began the “travel and learn” portion of the Fellowship with a week-long trip to the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas. We visited nine public schools on…
Blended Learning Is Not Just a Charter School Phenomenon: Lessons Learned at the 2014 Education Innovation Fellowship
Program Day One
Nineteen of D.C.’s strongest public and public charter school teachers gathered in a small conference room at the Microsoft Policy Center in downtown Washington, D.C. to kick off the second year of the Education Innovation Fellowship (EIF)-a program designed to introduce D.C. teachers “to the most promising innovations in blended learning.” I’m joining the…
Promising Practices in Blended Learning and Innovation in School Design
For the past 12 months, the Education Innovation Fellowship staff at CityBridge Foundation has had an extraordinary opportunity to work with a group of highly talented D.C. public and public charter school teachers committed to rethinking and redesigning how students learn. They immersed themselves in the most promising practices in blended and personalized learning and then designed pilot…
Let the Cat (and All of Your Students’ Papers) Out of the Bag
For years I have had the same afterschool routine: power down my computer, turn off the lights and stuff essays, assignments and tests into my teacher bag – the bag of magnificent intentions. The name came about because no matter how well intentioned I was about grading and returning papers with thoughtful feedback, my molehill of papers grew exponentially into a mountain. Even more, with…
Reluctant Truth From a Blended Learning Enthusiast
The first time I used an immersion blender, I accidentally covered the walls of my kitchen with chunky carrot soup; It was a mess. I’d like to say that my implementation of blended learning has gone more smoothly, but that would be a lie.
However, despite the mess, I remain a dedicated implementer of personalized learning. I can no longer teach whole group lessons to my 24 first grade…