First off, we want to say, we are so lucky to have the amazing group of classmates that we do. The feedback we received from our peers was was so meaningful and constructive. In my group the feedback pieces came from Dylan, Daniel and Riley. I am grateful for their knowledge, compliments and suggestions they had for us on how we could make our course more enticing. Moving forward, Tessa and I plan to take the suggestions and ideas from each of our groups and implement them into our course.
We often hear the sayings “there is no ‘i’ in teamwork” and “we are better together” both of these have proven to aid in our professional development and practice throughout this course. We truly have a fantastic group in #eci834 and we have enjoyed each and every class learning alongside each of you!
HATS OFF TO YOU ALL IN #ECI834 – YOU ARE THE DREAMTEAM!
For our online course we are following a Gradual Release Model for teaching called I Do, WE Do and YOU Do. Our biggest challenge with our online course this far has been the “I DO” lessons (teacher led). The simple reason for this is we are both new to the programs we have been learning to navigate and time management has been something we have been toiling with. For our course profile our original goal was to create a “blended learning” course. As we began creating our content we struggled with the “I Do” lessons. We started shifting and found ourselves creating more online teaching content, rather than a blended model to learning. We questioned if we should have recorded lessons? Or if we should include a teacher lesson plan so that the “I Do” portion of our course would fit the blended model of being delivered in the classroom and the rest of the content could take place online. After having conversations with our classmates, we now have more clarity of how to move forward with our course. We also got feedback in areas that we had not thought of before. Overall, our peers in both Tessa and Jillian’s groups were thrilled with the activities and lessons that the course currently offers and we are excited to add some of the suggested ideas.
Takeaways
Blended, Online and Hybrid- We discussed the differences between the three models. Hybrid is a mix of both, however it replaces the face to face all together, whereas blended, the learning initially happens in person and the online component allows students to go deeper. After having this conversation with our peers we decided to go back to our original course profile plan of a blended learning course. This meaning, that we will create lesson plans for the “I Do” portions of the lessons and plan for them to be in person. The “WE Do” and “YOU Do” will give students the opportunities to go deeper into the content. In addition, some of our peers in Jillian’s group thought it would be beneficial for the students and their parents to do a video going through how to navigate the course and each module. This piece of feedback is important and we will ensure this addition is made. Tessa’s group also discussed doing a quick 5 minute engagement video that could be shown in the classroom or online. They suggested checking out Amanda’s content to get more ideas!
Student Engagement Opportunities- Right now for our course the student engagement happens mostly on a Jamboard or Flipgrid. In our conversations Curtis, Jackie, and Curtis recommended other student engagement opportunities such as Seesaw Blog,and Forums/ Discussion Groups on Google Classroom.
Parent Engagement- Our peers suggested creating a section for parent information. In this section we could include content informing parents of the Gradual Release Mode for our lessons. We could also answer parent questions and give parents updates on daily learning. This is an excellent idea as it shows our parents we value them. Afterall, parents are their child’s first teacher and we need to support them in any way we can.
Finally, we are excited about the feedback we have received and it is our hope that once we implement the ideas into our course, it will:
- be more user-friendly, especially for the parents of our students.
- optimize student engagement
- stretch our horizons with different resources and methods for teaching
- go back to our original plan of our course being a blended approach
I could not finish this blog post without a little appreciation to Tessa. You have been an incredible partner throughout this project and I have enjoyed collaborating together! Thank you for your wealth of knowledge to come up with great ideas and for also making sure we were both on the same page. Your leadership is greatly appreciated!
Now to end this post, If anyone reading has additional feedback for our course, please comment!
Tess and Jill
JILLIAN WARD 
Jillian, I appreciate reading your blog post as Tessa was in the same group that I was in, and it is interesting to see what the other group had to say when you presented to them. I think everyone really enjoyed using the gradual release method–I Do, We Do, You do. I think that this helps with confidence and feeling prepared to be individually completing their work.
As Tessa discussed, I think it would be a good idea to have a parent/guardian section, or notes for whoever is helping them outside of the classroom.
I can’t wait to see where you two take this course! Keep up the great work!
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Good post Jillian. I see you are well on your way to taking an already great product and making it even better. One thing that jumped out to me was your comment on sticking to your original plan of developing a blending learning course. I too found myself straying from my initial plan of a blended learning course to more of a hybrid. I think it is okay to stray from the profile, but it sounds like sticking to the original plan to help facilitate a better “I do” component is a great plan.
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