two years have really made a difference,

because my kids have scored the highest in the State

on the standardized tests.

So what we're doing here is working,

and it's helping them be successful.

>>Julie: We define Blended Learning as the combination

of digital content and activity

with face-to-face content and activity.

It sounds easy to Blend, but it really,

it looks very different in every classroom.

So if a teacher is using something that works really well

in a face-to-face situation, they should continue to do

that because it works well.

If they can find something else that works better,

is more efficient or more effective that's digital,

then that would be implemented.

>>Kristin: What I have online could be completely different

than what the biology teacher has online,

or what the physical education teacher has online.

It just depends on what you need those kids to have in order

to understand what they need to learn.

>>Mickey: Okay, go ahead get the laptops.

And actually anybody that's in a small group come over here,

I need you to get a iPad.

>>Why I wanted to go to a more Blended environment was

so that I could figure out a way to differentiate instruction

within the biology classroom, and I wanted a way to be able

to work with students in small groups,

while other students are still engaged in content learning.

>>There are three activities.

One's assorted sentence activity,

one is an online interactivity

and one is small group that's going to be working with me.

>>Okay, slide to the apps, and open up Educreations,

because we're going to fill in this chart,

because this is going to get us practicing base pairing

between DNA and RNA and reading our photon chart.

Okay, so what goes G?

>>Student: C.

>>Mickey: C. So I'm going to put G

and C together like this, right?

>>Shelton: I've like probably learned more today just

by doing this than I have the whole week

that we've been doing this.

>>Kristin: And we looked at the research about Blended Learning.

We've defined it, and then we had to figure

out what would it look like in my class.

And so that's when I went, "Well, I actually want

to use it more as a tool for the kids

for like supplemental materials."

There's always practice problems.

Or you can go listen to somebody talk about the topic.

But the kids started to say that, "We don't want to listen

to somebody else; we want to listen to you.

And we need your help, and we want to hear your voice."

So I started to go, "Okay, well, how can I do that?"

And so our technology person said,

"Have you seen this app on the iPad?"

And me, not knowing anything about technology, went,

"I have no idea what you're talking about.

Teach me."

So we went through a process of me learning how

to use the ShowMe app, and then I started making podcasts

and it gives me a chance to be in their homes,

wherever they are 24/7.

It's Virtual Weller, is what we call it.

>>"That will correspond to six to nine,

like it has in the rest of the problems."

>>Luis: The podcast like helps so much.

It's like as if she's actually there, and she just go

through it again, and you can like finally understand it.

>>Kristin: I see them, they'll plug in, I look over

and they have it on their phones.

They have it on their tablets, they have it on computers.

They do podcasts for me during class time.

I will have specific problems I want to see,

just like do they understand the basics

of what we talked about today?

>>Student: Forty, all right, 60 plus 60.

Divide 40 to get C by itself.

And C...

>> ...equals to 45.

>>Class: Yay!

[applause] Oh, yeah!

>>Kristin: All right.

>>For me classroom time, direct instruction, investigations,

discovery, that's all still part of teaching.

It's not all online.

A lot of the face-to-face stuff is still the most important

thing to me.

The online tools are there

to help make understanding even better, even more rich

of an experienced for the kids.

>>Julie: We really wanted the focus to be on the teaching

and learning part, and on the digital tool

as a secondary thing.

>>Mickey: Kids don't always get it the first time,

or the second time, or the third time.

And this allows different ways for those kids to get it.

The pass rate for my kids the first year was 75 percent;

and the second year was 93 percent.

The state average is somewhere around 60 percent.

So something's working for these kids.