Thinks you can THINK

“Oh the Thinks you can Think!” Dr. Suess

In the 1970's Ted Geisel, as Dr. Seuss, brought new ideas to the world of beginning reading. At first few people paid attention to his children's books, they were different. Now, his books are as pervasive and ubiquitous in the introduction of reading to young children as the internet is in our everyday lives.

When I joined the IU8 to support a World of Learning I had previously worked with Blended Schools as the Language Institute Coordinator. The instruction I observed in the live classroom sessions of our Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Latin and Arabic teachers was engaging, lively and connected. It made me think! How can we support and apply this amazing, engaging experience to ALL learning and learners?

Our first opportunity to expand this concept came at Conemaugh Valley, then Windber Area School District supporting French and Spanish instruction. Taking concepts from Blended Schools Learning Institute we partnered with a teacher in the classroom and a virtual instructor. Now students in these districts have a choice - rather than just Spanish or just French they can  choose to not only take the first two levels of a chosen language, they can complete all four levels of the language they choose!

Even with limited resources, it is possible to provide high quality, engaging instruction by thinking differently. Here are some of the ways we worked together to make this possible:

1. We aligned the our scope and sequence to the ACTFL standards and aligned it as best we could to the current district program.
2. We collected resources using Padlet to support instruction.
3. We organized content in Trello Boards to sequence that instruction.
4. We created courses in Canvas for students to practice and reflect on their learning on the days they did not have live or virtual lesson with a teacher.
5. We support collaboration with Google Docs so that the teachers can plan and prepare to coordinate their lessons, together.
6. We hold regular meetings to talk about instructional practices, grading and supporting students in Zoom.
7. We visit the schools to meet with the teacher’s and students when needed to continue to work on and improve the online virtual experience.

Like Dr. Suess, sometimes what is new and novel is not seen as academically sound or rigorous. Sometimes what seems new can be scary. Yet, over time, we have had one small success after another as we are able to support many more students in finding their path to learning. My favorite story is about the student who went off to college and without blinking was able to ‘test out’ of, and receive credit, for the first level of College Spanish! Her effort and tenacity at in diving into virtual instruction, despite some of the initial problems gives us all cause to celebrate!

We are far from perfect, and we must continue to collaborate with teachers and media specialist, students and administrators, parents and course creators, using both virtual resources and face-to-face relationships to support learning and continue to grow and improve learning experiences and outcomes for ALL. Just think about what is possible!