Saturday, April 3, 2010

I Didn't Do Any of My Homework. I'll Pay on Monday.

This has been a fabulous spring break in Vail with our kids and Dan's parents. Sadly, like all fabulous things, this too must wane. Goodbye, Vail! Goodbye, Ryan Sutter! I'll miss you, Lindsey Vonn!

In 48 hours I'll be back in Room 262 prepping a new unit on American Drama, and also standing on the edge of the precipice which is my blended English 10 class. This course is a mix of online and face-to-face instruction, and I'm using all kind of tech tools to try to get the kids to do new things and think in new ways about literature and literacy. It's a pilot, and I'm the teacher.

When I explained some of the details to my fifth hour class, one of the smarties raised his hand to ask, "And what if this totally fails?"

I was conveniently prepared to answer him, as I'd recently reconceptualized failure with the help of Gretchen Rubin, who encouraged me to enjoy the fun of it, rather than to avoid it by not being innovative.

Also, a great colleague keeps sending me helpful resources like this one about increasing engagement on a Ning.

I hope I can do a good enough job at being a blended teacher. I'm pretty sure I can.

1 comment:

LH said...

I like your hybrid ning. V. neat.