1. Ignite
@NROC 2014
By Ryan Schrenk
Schools and Higher Education
Advancing Public Education
Across the P-20 Spectrum
1
2. Missoula County Public Schools (MCPS)
• International Baccalaureate
• Thematic Academies
• Language Immersion
• Professional Learning Communities
• Principal Leadership
• Graduation Matters
2
8. Research
• Examine current data concerning student
success
• Examine other models of credit recovery
• Examine vendor products and resources
from other schools
Custom Credit
Recovery Project
8
9. Develop
• Utilize resources from other successful
programs (NCVPS) to create a core curriculum
• Develop student-centered course model utilize
lately LMS technologies from MoodleRooms
• Utilize MTDA teacher experts (initially in Earth
Science, Algebra I and English I)
Custom Credit
Recovery Project
9
10. Test
• Release prototypes to schools and test with
select sites
• Get student and local site feedback
• Ready for wide deployment during Fall 2015
Custom Credit
Recovery Project
10
11. Educator Familiarity, Value and Involvement
Survey Results PD on Blended Learning
211Total Participants from 19 Schools 11
12. Our Plan…
Get to the top of the “Blended Learning” Mountain
• Montana Online Blended Learning for
K-12 Educators (MOBL K-12)
• Masters-Level Course
• PD Opportunity for
Teacher/AdministratorTeams
• Develop Unique Blended Learning
Opportunities for Students
12
13. Starting Down the Road
• F2F Meeting 1
• Week 1/2 – tiptoeing in
• Define Blended Learning, Disruptive
Innovations and Introductions
• Discussed Hopes and Fears
• Is BL a Disruptive Innovation?
• What BL Model will you use?
13
14. Laying Down the Miles
• Week 3 and 4 –Wading a bit deeper
• 3 to 5 difficult aspects of implementation
• Engaging students and stepping up our game
• Questioning
•Divergent, constructivist approaches,
• Rapid Rewards
• Flipping
• Student Reviewers and Assigning Roles
• Simulations
14
15. Crossing the BridgeToward the Mountains
• Week 5 - 7 – F2F Meeting 2
• Project Outlines
• Team Meetings
• Planning
• Case Studies of Blended Learning
15
16. Getting Closer
• Week 8-11
• OER and BlendedTechnology
• Blended Assessment/Feedback
• Blended Learning Activities
16
17. Within Sight
• Final F2F Meeting
• Celebrate and Share Success
• Reception
• Final Presentations
• What Makes Each Unique
• Implement Next Fall
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18. Making Our Way Into the Mountains
• Elementary
• 4th Grade Math
• 4th Grade
Science/Math/Measurement
• Spanish Immersion Cross-Grade
(8th/1st)
18
19. Exploring
• Middle School
• 2 (or 3) EdReady Groups
• 7th Grade Health
• English/Language Arts
• 7th Grade Enrichment on MT History
19
20. Reaching theTop
• High School
• Financial Literacy
• Wilderness Music Composition
• Alternative School-Wide Program
• 150 Students
• High School Cross Curricular
• English/Math/Social Studies
20
My ignite session is about our collaborative P-20 effort between the University of Montana, Missoula County Public Schools and funded by the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation. The project is titled Shape P20.
MCPS is overseeing funding and coordination on about 1/3 of the project budget and implementing the IB program start up, thematic academies, language immersion, PLC, Principal Leadership projects and their Graduation Matters efforts.
The next several slides will describe this overall picture of the project that outlines the “shapes” from Pre-K to College and with the points on the shapes being the projects coordinated at each level.
First (watch the red checks at each level), at the Pre-K and Elementary level are the Academic Family supports, Immersion, PLC, IB, Active Schools, Universal Design and blended learning. The projects are truly addressing everything from family support to the physical health of students to every type of student content or special need through Universal Design!
A primary goal of the project is to utilize our expertise and capacity at UM, MTDA and in MCPS to pull off a project of this magnitude. The secondary level also focuses on IB, Missoula Active Schools, Universal Design and Blended Learning then add Digital Credit Recovery and Thematic Academies.
Our College shape contains it all because our faculty and staff at UM have worked to design, research, deliver, organize, collaborate and roll out solutions during the grant to “Create Unique and Engaging Educational Experiences from Birth to Career”.
For the rest of my slides today I will cover the 2 programs that our team has designed, is managing and/or delivering over the 3 years of the grant. Blended Learning and Credit Recovery…and how we are making some new tracks.
At MTDA, we’ve learned over the past 4 years that we need to always remain on top of the game for credit recovery and saw a need to examine our current data, look at other models of CR and examine possible vendor products and resources being used by other schools and state virtual schools who we work with nationally.
My colleague, Jason Neiffer, is leading our CR program re-development using our SVS partners and working with North Carolina Virtual curriculum using MoodleRooms (our current LMS) and utilizing our MTDA teachers and subject matter experts to package it and try it out with our students in Earth Science, Algebra 1 and English 1 initially.
In the coming months, Jason will lead our efforts to release and try out prototypes of the new classes with select sites, start collecting feedback and ready a new system for deployment next Fall!
The second project is one that I’m managing related the “Blended Learning”. A tip off for the need of BL professional development came during the survey at the roll out of the Shape project, 211 participants from 19 MCPS schools gave us some feedback and data showing that only 20% “thought” they knew what Blended Learning was while over ½ thought it might be important and only 7% would want to be involved…however…
After 2 informational/recruiting sessions and several discussions with MCPS administration, the Montana Online Blended Learning for K12 Educators (or MOBL K12) class was launched this Spring with 36 students making up 13 teams in a grad-level class teaming teachers and administrators to develop unique BL opportunities for students at MCPS from elementary to high school.
The class was also blended so we met or will meet 3 times f2f and the rest is online. Before our first meeting, students were overheard outside class asking “what is this blended learning about?” And many didn’t even realize I would actually be teaching the class while I mingled. So, we started by tiptoeing in. Defining and laying the groundwork for hopes and fears.
The next steps of the class, we made more progress down the road toward the mountains and started honing in on their major challenges and addressing them. Poor connectivity, access to technology and just being overwhelmed by the project were the 3 initially largest fears. However, the tone changed as they looked at and discussed the weekly topics.
During the middle part of the class, we met again. Teams brought roughed in outlines to class, had team meetings and met individually with me to review the pieces of the project after looking into and discussing case studies and examples of blended learning that currently exist.
Following up to the meetings, we are currently looking at OER/Blended Technology, successful assessment strategies and activities to use in their classes leading to our final meeting in May.
In early May, we will have our final face to face meeting to celebrate and share our success at a reception and final presentation session. Stakeholders from the Washington foundation, MCPS and UM will be invited to see the unique projects that will be shared in the Spring and implemented in the coming Fall term.
The projects in Elementary are in Math, a cross-curricular project combining math, science and measurement and a Spanish Immersion (also a Shape project) to team 8th and 1st graders together.
The Middle School teams will use EdReady for math assessment and content delivery in a station rotation model and we’ll have a Health team, English team and another enrichment project that will incorporate Montana current events and history to engage after-school program students.
In our High School teams, there will be financial literacy teaming with local bankers and loan officers, a wilderness music composition project, a whole alternative school launching a program that will engage students between Thanksgiving and Christmas Break for all 150 students and a high school team working across English/Math/and Social Studies.