How it started:

It all started with that question. I was tired of students being pacified with technology. I was tired of technology being seen as a distraction within my new school. I had just spent hours during the summer leading up to the 2020-2021 school year working to support my students through a GSuite for Education Virtual Orientation to help middle school students become acquainted with their new Chromebooks and a Virtual Orientation for 3rd-5th graders who were new to GSuite for Education on their iPads.

I wanted technology to finally be used for purposeful, meaningful projects and work.

Unfortunately since we were deep in the trenches due to COVID during August 2020, teachers at my school did not receive much Professional Development regarding best practices for implementing technology in the classroom. My innovation is thankfully part of the solution.

On this page, I have included details of my innovation plan I have developed in the Applied Digital Learning (formerly the Digital Leading and Learning) M.Ed. program at Lamar University. I began my plan in December of 2020 when I returned to the program after taking a brief break to get married and move to the DFW area. I am now officially bringing together all of the components to reflect on my progress as an innovator.

In the past year, I have worked to implement blended learning in the middle school mathematics classroom. The blended learning model I wanted to use was the station rotation model, however, I ended up using the individual rotation model. Throughout the program, I have done research on the topic and how to best support students in a blended learning environment. I find the collaborative aspects of the station rotation model to put the station rotation model above the individual rotation model. I firmly believe that live collaboration allows for mathematical connections with deep understanding to be made.

I wrote a literature review on blended learning in general. I also wrote a literature review regarding blended learning, the station rotation model, and action research that would support the middle school mathematics classroom specifically.

Are you interested in learning more about what research supports blended learning in the mathematics classroom? Click below to find out more.

After I initially started the research, we then worked to determine how to gain the interest of stakeholders. Before implementing anything “revolutionary” in my classroom, I wrote a proposal letter to the president at our school. Following the proposal letter, I defined my “Why?” behind educating. I also began creating resources to encourage stakeholders to support me in my innovation.

I successfully presented my innovation plan to my administration and received support. I also found myself extremely interested in combating many new issues that were arising from the pandemic. I had to spend time articulating why a change is necessary and, thankfully, my knowledge of having crucial conversations with those stakeholders and other educators supported me in implementing real change.

How it’s Currently Going:

From the start, I created my first implementation plan. In all honesty, when I look back, I think to myself “Wow!! What lofty goals you had, Meredith!” I had specific dates listed, but unfortunately COVID protocol and my life plans got in the way of staying on-target.

If I have learned anything in the past year of learning through the Applied Digital Learning course, it’s that flexibility is key. This past year has been riddled with setbacks and opportunities to reevaluate and reflect on my innovation plan. When I wrote my innovation plan of station rotation blended learning in the math classroom, I expected that I would eventually be able to have students rotate and work together in various stations. However, that still has not yet happened. At the beginning of the school year, it looked like we would not be wearing masks and able to be within 6 feet of each other, but then Dallas county had COVID concerns and the ability to rotate and have changing seating charts went away. 

Prepping lesson plans the way I intended proved to be more time consuming than I initially had hoped. I also had students who were both virtual and in person simultaneously until the last 9 weeks of the 2020-2021 school year. I thought I’d get the planning done during the summer and then we had a 6-week-summer to move to a new apartment, a week of going to a destination wedding, a week of visiting family in Wisconsin and grad school on top of everything else.

Hopefully, soon we will be able to rotate seats and have changing seating charts. Within my timeline I wanted students to be able to make choices. While the scale in which I wanted to allow that had to be minimized, I still allowed for students to make choices in projects and extension activities. 

While I wanted to implement a modified version of the station rotation model, we were hybrid teaching both virtually and in- person students simultaneously until the very last 9 weeks. Doing both virtual and in-person teaching required a lot of coordinating, reaching out to parents and supporting students in actually passing their courses. 

Since I was surprised by the switch from teaching Middle School Digital Skills to 6th and 7th grade math during the middle of the 2nd 9 weeks after starting the DLL/ ADL program, I determined that my time would be best spent making it through the math curriculum with individual rotation rather than restructuring content for the station rotation model. So my students basically were doing blended learning in the individual rotation model based on my students’ needs and COVID protocol setbacks.

As a result, my lofty goals of having teachers join me in fully adopting a blended learning model was pushed back. I have recognized that in order for teachers to feel safe “failing forward with a growth mindset and learning, developing teachers’ PLNs, collaborating and trying new things”, they cannot be burned out. We had about a 6 week summer and hopped back into the new school year.

Many people are still mourning loved ones and a lot of people experienced grief in the past year. Overall my administration has done their best to support the grieving process and everyone is struggling with “post-pandemic” teaching. The relationships within my organization need improvement and we need trust to be built. 

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I am now at a place where I have received IOWA/CoGat data and can work to improve my lessons from the year before to see what works and what could be improved within the blended learning innovation project.

Good news! My students scores went up! Blended learning is awesome at helping to fill the gaps! My students are catching up with the 2017 IOWA testing results that were used as a baseline the past few years since so much data recent has been skewed from the pandemic.

I can see that my students need more work on volume, area and perimeter and could benefit from trying to find ways to really support their conceptual understanding while involved in blended learning. I will continue with the individual rotation model until we can have varying seating charts. But I have planned to try out some action research to determine the best way to support conceptual understanding in the blended format. However, that will likely be put on hold since our mask restrictions are being lifted upon returning from Thanksgiving break. Strict social-distancing guidelines will have to be followed for awhile.

Moving Forward:

I need to continue to grow as an educator within my classroom for my plan to be successful. Once I can finally allow station rotation blended learning, I believe I will be able to convince some teachers to join me in trying it out. In order to do so, using my knowledge obtained through the ADL program with Influencer and 4 Disciplines of Execution will be necessary.

My students in math had the opportunity to develop a growth mindset because I planned an online course through the ADL program. The school and parents responded wonderfully and I actually am August 2021 Teacher of the Month due to the positive response. Students were learning to self-monitor their emotions toward challenges and are now on track for being ready for a station-rotation model and possibly a self-paced blended learning model in the future. I additionally saw a ton of growth in myself from my own growth mindset plan. I will need to support teachers in developing growth mindsets as we work to implement this innovation and change.

I hope that once other teachers see the benefits to the use of technology for purposeful, meaningful projects and work, they will want to try it out!

Furthermore..

I have learned so much about how to properly use technology in the classroom. I also have LOVED learning more about CSLE+COVA and the benefits of choice in the classroom. In my undergraduate courses, I learned most about pedagogy and lesson planning but through these courses I learned how to implement change and organize a unit for wholistic learning experiences for my students. I have learned immense amounts about myself as an educator, human, and collaborator.

I aspire to organize my 6th and 7th grade courses well enough to support me in teaching math through the blended learning station rotation model once COVID restrictions ease up. I would really love to be able to implement the blended learning change and get through my innovation plan. I would like to continue growing as an educator (this is only year 4 of teaching!) and campus influencer. In about 5 or so years, I would eventually enjoy moving to a leadership / coaching role to help teachers implement change. However, for now, I want to spend time refining my craft and practicing what I preach. I also hope to submit my article on blended learning and reflection for publication once I gain more confidence in the “world” of blended learning.

I have learned so much and now I am dying to have some time on my hands to implement change, do some action research, and implement change even more! My innovation plan has basically turned into preparing my students for the station rotation model of blended learning. I feel as if my “new” innovation project is really my “old” station rotation model blended learning project (minus the COVID protocol setbacks).

In the event that corporate education opportunities arise, I may be interested in working in innovating within that sector.