Available Now
Overview
BetterLesson believes that school and district leaders are first and foremost instructional leaders, investing in people and systems to improve learning opportunities and outcomes for students. Our goal is to provide leaders with processes, tools, and support for making organizational change and improving learning for students. We can help build leaders’ capacity in instructional leadership through a Learning Walk, a non-evaluative process used by leaders to assess the quality of student learning and effectiveness of instruction in their buildings, focusing on how leaders can support improvements to the learning experience. Learning Walks will consist of two workshop types, a Launch and a Cycle.
In this Blended Learning Learning Walk, leaders will learn about the best practices of technology integration including how to use flexible time and space, personalize tasks for learners, strategically plan for technology use, and support teachers to be responsive to their students’ needs. We will do a deep dive into the evidence and look-fors of technology use in the classroom and the available supports and resources for technology integration.
Audience
This Learning Walk is designed for school and district leaders, instructional coaches, and teacher leaders who are implementing Blended Learning in their schools or districts and would like to take a student-centered approach to their role by developing their craft in coaching, observation, and feedback.
Specifications
- The Learning Walk launch can be experienced as a 1-day in person workshop with an onsite BetterLesson coach guiding classroom walk-throughs, or as a 2-hour virtual workshop facilitated by a BetterLesson coach, followed by independent classroom walk-throughs
- After participating in a Learning Walk Launch, which can be virtual or in person, participants will engage in collaborative cycles focusing on a specific topic. The Learning Walk Cycle can be experienced as a 1-day in person workshop with an onsite BetterLesson coach guiding classroom walk-throughs, or as two 2-hour virtual workshops, facilitated online by a BetterLesson coach, with independent classroom walk-throughs
Outcomes
These Blended Learning targets can be selected for the Learning Walk Cycle sessions to take a deeper dive into evidence of these outcomes in the classroom and student learning.
- Active Engagement: I actively engage students in learning tasks through intentional and meaningful integration of technology.
- Digital Collaboration: I design learning experiences that leverage technology to drive student collaboration.
- Visible Thinking: I consistently use technology to support my students in making their thinking visible to construct and share knowledge.
- Building an Efficient Classroom: I consistently implement technology to increase my efficiency as a classroom teacher.Organizing
- Organizing Learning with Blended Models: I implement blended learning models within my classroom to organize synchronous and asynchronous instruction and drive personalized learning.
- Developing Digital Citizens: I build digital citizenship skills with my students in order to promote positive and responsible engagement with technology.
Learning Experience
Launch
This workshop type can be experienced as a 1-day in person workshop with an onsite BetterLesson coach guiding classroom walk-throughs, or as a 2-hour virtual workshop facilitated by a BetterLesson coach, followed by independent classroom walk-throughs.
In the Learning Walk Launch, participants will:
Define
- Explore the benefits of a Learning Walk: to build capacity of school leadership, to identify “look-fors” in Blended Learning, and to effectively support change
- Build understanding around the grain size and key components of Blended Learning, such as flexible time and space, personalized learning tasks, blended classroom models, and responsive teaching practices
- Be oriented to a tool to facilitate the Learning Walk process for the Blended Learning Focus Area
- Prioritize the target areas for Blended Learning in their own school building
Explore
- Practice using the Learning Walk tool by participating in short group classroom walk-throughs (in-person) or by evaluating curated artifacts and resources (virtual)
- Collaboratively reflect on the Learning Walk process and tool
Build
- Synthesize data from the Learning Walk using a digital tool to identify trends with the evidence they collected
- Build a plan for implementing Learning Walks in their school building
Cycle
After participating in a Learning Walk Launch, participants will engage in Cycles focusing on one target area within Blended Learning. This workshop type can be experienced as a 1-day in person workshop with an onsite BetterLesson coach guiding classroom walk-throughs, or as two 2-hour virtual workshops, facilitated online by a BetterLesson coach, with independent classroom walk-throughs.
In the Learning Walk Cycle, leaders will…
Define
- Build understanding around the key components of the Blended Learning target area
- Take a deep dive into the “look-fors” and evidence of this target within the classroom using curated artifacts to identify exemplary examples
- Prioritize look-fors within a target area to develop a focus for the Learning Walk
Explore
- Collect data and evidence for the Blended Learning target area through participating in independent classroom walk-throughs and evaluating curated artifacts
- Collaboratively experience a protocol to reflect on the effectiveness of using a narrow lens when observing student learning
Build
- Synthesize data from the Learning Walk using a digital tool to identify trends with the evidence they collected
- Align on the evidence for a particular look-for in a target area and evaluate the effectiveness of the tool for the selected target in their context
- Analyze their learning around the Learning Walk process to help build a plan for continued implementation
