Classroom Design for BLENDED LEARNING

Before

This looks like a traditional 3rd Grade Classroom.  Students sitting at desk in group formations.  The teacher can quickly move around the classroom and work with the students in small groups.  All of the students can see the SmartBoard.  The teacher would stand in the front of the room and give direct instruction to the whole group.  Then the students would work independently at their table.  

Create a Vision 

During the first workshop the teacher and talk about the vision for the classroom.  We focus in  on the following questions: 

• Where would the students work on the technology?  
• Where would the teacher meet with the students one on one or in small groups?  
• Where would the students work independently?  
  

The teachers quickly drew out their vision for the classroom, designing  the layout for the blended learning classroom.

Move

Now it is time to move the furniture to fit the vision of the classroom.  The teachers in this session spent time moving the chairs, desk, and reading area around to make way for the blended learning environment.  It was a group effort that took just a few minutes to transform a traditional classroom into a blended learning classroom. 

Implement 

This is the third grade classroom in action.  The teacher and the assistant have worked their magic on the space to create learning rounds during blended learning lessons.  The learning rounds are all based off of the data collected from the online digital content and teacher observations.  


The picture on the top right show the technology round or technology station.  The row of iPads are always charged and ready to go for the students.  The teacher brought in bar stools that are moveable and easy stowed away when not in use at the technology station.  Pay attention to how the teacher hangs her headphones.   She used a curtain rod and suspended the rod across the window for easy clean up and access to the headphones. No more worries about untangling the headphone cords.    


The teacher and the assistant meet either in small groups or one on one with the students during the different rounds in the blended learning classroom.  Again, based on the data collected from online reports the teacher can group the students by ability for the next day and teach them skills that he/she need to know for that unit/lesson.  


The other rounds that comprise this classroom are independent and silent reading rounds.  The way that this classroom is a true example of what blended learning should look like in a third grade classroom.   


The classroom environment started out with answering a few questions and now has transformed from a traditional classroom to  an innovative 21st century blended learning environment.  


To learn more about how we transformed this third grade classroom, fill out the form to the right.  We are offering free blended learning webinars throughout the months of January and February.  Sign up to talk with this third grade teacher and the blended learning coach.