Problem and Solutions

                  After looking at many of the areas of concern I have for my own classroom, I came to the conclusion I wanted to focus on improving student buy in as it pertains to the use of new technology.  Over the course of my career I seem to have struggled at times implementing new ideas to my students and getting them to jump in and participate the way I want them too.  The problem is a relatively big one in my room, as it has a tendency to hamper what I want to accomplish during a given lesson.  I have thought of several reason why I continuously run into the same issue when it comes to student buy in.  The first and most obvious is the fact I don’t really put in the leg work sometimes prior to bringing a new element to the lesson.  The second reason is the idea of students having so much technology in front of them, they don’t really have time to add more if it isn’t convenient for them.  I firmly believe a combination of the two issues is the source of my issues. 

               Thinking about possible ways to tackle the issue, brought me to look at how I may put together a team of people to help.  The first step would be to try and identify other teachers in the building who may feel the same way.  I would like to get a group of like-minded teachers together to come up with solutions and hold each other accountable for sticking to our plan.  I think having colleagues who understand and struggle working together would produce a solid plan to effectively introduce new ideas in the classroom.  As far a leadership roles in the group, I am not really sure who would lead it.  I would assume I would play a large role in leading the group based on the fact I would be the one starting it.  In reality though my idea would be more of a functional group of teachers working together to make sure students are getting the best chance to succeed.

               One of the ways I thought about introducing some blended learning would be to use a flipped classroom style.  Having the students watch lesson discussions on their own time and using class time to help with questions and complete assignments.  The flipped model would be great because it gives the students a chance to watch lessons on any platform they have.  They are always using their phones for different reasons anyway and I have found if students can easily access the information on devices they are already using seems to increase their buy in. Flipped classrooms also give the students a level of control over their own education and allows there to be more student engagement in the classroom as well.  One of the goals of my room in the past few years is to increase student engagement overall and I feel introducing a flipped style class would be beneficial not only for my problem listed above, but for increasing overall achievement in my classes.