Does the idea of hybrid teaching make you hyperventilate? How can I meet the needs of students online and in the classroom, while staying safe and sane myself? 

You’re not alone!

 Teachers across the country are currently tackling the challenges and opportunities of hybrid teaching models. A flipped classroom may be the key you’re looking for – without flipping out yourself.

 Since you spent the last year learning how to implement distanced learning, the easiest way to pivot to a blended model is to keep doing what you’re already doing. Retain your digital LMS. Post all assignments digitally. Then get ready to FLIP!

 What is a flipped classroom?

 The flipped classroom is a “pedagogical approach in which direct instruction moves from the group learning space to the individual learning space, and the resulting group space is transformed into a dynamic, interactive learning environment where the educator guides students as...

Let’s face it! The quarantine 15 is a real thing! It’s because we’re sitting on our backsides in front of the computer all day long. Students and teachers are used to getting up and moving around the classroom. We need that oxygen moving through our brains to think clearly and stay engaged. 

 How can we incorporate movement during online learning? 

 It’s going to benefit our waistlines and chins, as well as our brains if we can think of ways to get moving during online instruction. In a GLAD classroom, there are multiple times throughout the day where we move students from their seats.  We move to the carpet.  Students stand when reporting an answer. We all move during chants and other strategies. We encourage you to continue those practices online. 

When students are reporting an answer during synchronous learning, have them stand. Teach them to back up a little bit so they’re still in the camera view. 

Continue...

Online 10/2 Lectures

Going asynchronous with Pictorials, Graphic Organizers or Comparative Input Charts? Keep engagement high with short video chunks and interactive engagement.   

Spoiler alert - today's online tip is based on a FREE app and works with any video lesson! Quick and easy! 

Acceleration - A Language Rich Jumpstart for the New Year

Are you as eager to start the New Year as we are? This year, consider giving yourself, your team, staff or district a jumpstart with ACCELERATION.

Acceleration is language rich PD that answers the questions and provides the support teachers need now to meet the needs of their language learners (and the rest of their class) whether you're online, onsite or going hybrid.

Your 6 week session provides weekly strategy support, community encouragement and online tips.

Acceleration BEGINS JANUARY 19th, so spread the word and get ready for a refreshing and energizing launch to a NEW YEAR! 

We can't wait...

There's so much to learn from each other this year! This certainly includes how to adapt GLAD® strategies for online applications. We have had so much fun creating mini tutorials featuring one or more GLAD strategies! Check it out! 

You can see this and many others in the Community feature of the year-long Path to Proficiency. We post new App tutorials monthly and sometimes twice monthly. We also post weekly within the 6-week Acceleration online PD.  

 Time is running out to join us for these timely and valuable online PD opportunities. The registration deadline for the 2020-2021 school year is Monday, November 9th!  

Your biggest fans! 

Jody & Sara 

nextstepsprojectglad.com 

[email protected] 

Asset-based instruction and ensuring equal access for all students are cornerstones of the OCDE Project GLAD® model.  

In order to create an inclusive environment with equal access, the teacher has to consider: 

• Logistics - where students are seated and who they're grouped with
• Relationship building - student to student, teacher to student, and with families
• Pedagogical considerations - using best practices to make content accessible for your grade level. 

During online learning, technological access creates an added challenge to equity.  

Districts are already struggling with hardware and internet access for all students and staff. But that's not all. The very practice of a video conference in a synchronous digital classroom is creating issues of inequity. Now that the classroom is being brought into the home, our homes and the homes of our students are front and center and all of the inequalities can be visually witnessed by all.  

The Project GLAD® model embeds classroom, team, and individual management strategies that create interaction in the classroom. Students practice language with teams and partners. They move around the classroom to bring oxygen and glucose to the brain that stimulates thinking. Students are provided daily opportunities for decision making and problem solving. Respectful, interactive, language-rich classrooms are the result.

 How can teachers move interactive management practices to an online setting?

 In our GLAD® classrooms we create heterogenous mixed ability groupings of 3 or 4 students. These teams allow students to put heads together and share their thinking, listen to others’ thinking, reading, and problem solving, as well as come up with team responses for reporting out an answer.

When teaching in an online setting, the teacher would create a list of heterogenous grouped students, but instead of seating students together in a classroom setting, these...

Preparing for the new school year means paying more attention to your physical space and structures for student interaction than ever before. Each school has chosen a plan for physical distancing and now it’s your job to make that happen. All those great cooperative learning strategies you’ve been using will need some rethinking, too.

Can you do GLAD® in a physically distanced classroom?

There are many options for schools to bring students back safely. The CDC’s recommendation is a plan called the Bubble Strategy. This strategy limits exposure to an isolated population reducing the risk of transmission to the rest of the school.

The same group of students would stay together all day in the same classroom with the same teacher(s). They would eat lunch in the classroom and would forgo specials, like library and PE. One iteration of the Bubble Strategy even calls for students to isolate with this group for recess.

We have an idea to take...

The creativity and accessibility of online tools and apps is stimulating, invigorating and downright addictive. The choices can sometimes be overwhelming! 

During the past couple of  months, we've been working with teachers in our online Next Steps with Project GLAD® Acceleration Community to brainstorm simple ways of connecting the apps you're already using for distance learning with the Project GLAD® strategies you know and love.  

We’d like to share some of the ideas for apps other teachers use.  

Have fun with this!

Perhaps you have other ideas and suggestions - let us know! We love to grow with you!   

App / Features / Strategy 

QR codes -  Use phone camera to scan and open a website 

• Observation Charts
• Chants
• Any strategy for processing and extensions

Padlet - Embed, Post, Link, Collaborate

• Inquiry Chart
• Team Tasks

Kahoot, Poll Everywhere - Polls, Quizzes

• Prediction/Reaction Guide
• Graffiti...

In our March Monthly Tips we talked about using the Interactive Journal as a way to connect with students and build relationships even when we’re apart. This month we’re focusing on connecting remotely with our ELs to integrate SEL into our language development lessons. 

 During the past several months, social emotional learning (SEL) has taken on greater importance. For some, interacting with our students and creating a feeling of safety and security has been the primary focus of our online interactions, before we can dive back into academic content.  

 Use this as an opportunity to put aside your regular curriculum and find out what your students are interested in knowing more about. Are they interested in sports, music, current events, fashion, or animals? This connection of relevance is a great launching pad for language lessons.  

The Project GLAD® model advocates for a focus on strong oral language development to build...

 April 2020

During trainings when teachers ask about our stance on using GLAD® strategies electronically, we always reply that the sky is the limit.  Use your imagination, current apps and available hardware when transitioning to electronic use of the strategies.  

The caveat would be to make sure a language functional environment is intact. When the computer is turned off, where is the content and language scaffolding coming from if not on the walls? 

In today’s world of virtual classrooms, we advocate for the use of recorded input charts for direct instruction of content and language.  

Consider recording yourself doing a pictorial on an 81/2 x 11 paper. Include all the key steps in delivery that you would normally do in person: 

• Say it with me 
• Gestures 
• Paraphrase and define vocabulary 
• Color coding 
• Say what you are writing and drawing, and  
• Add in 10/2s - direct students to turn to...