REGIONAL VIEW
Education service center programs & practices
Implementing blended learning: tips from Temple ISD by Lisa Adams and Christine Parks
▲ Temple ISD hosts a learning series of professional development opportunities for its staff.
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lended learning, when it’s implemented well, can be a game-changer for schools and students. In a blended learning model, students learn via traditional face-to-face teaching and learning as well as online curricula and resources. The model can have many benefits, such as improving engagement and allowing students to work at their own pace; moreover, it better aligns with how many generally work and learn today. As with any initiative, however, a blended learning model must be implemented strategically to be effective. And our school district, Temple ISD, is a great example of a district that has done this well.
About Temple ISD Located 30 minutes north of Austin, Temple ISD is comprised of 15 schools serving 8,800 students. More than 70% of our
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Texas School Business MARCH / APRIL 2020
students qualify for free or reduced-priced lunch. For the past several years, Temple ISD has been focused on how to best transform and enhance instruction, improve relationships, and help all students take more ownership of their learning. Blended learning is at the forefront of this effort.
A blended learning philosophy Like many districts, we started our journey by adding technology. In 2015, we issued Google Chromebooks on a one-to-one basis at the high school level and a two-to-one basis at the middle and elementary levels. Once the technology was in place, however, district leaders noticed the technology wasn’t being used in a transformative way. Instead of using paper worksheets, students were simply doing the worksheets on their
Chromebooks. The tech was merely acting as a substitute. This insight led to us looking for instructional models that would allow teachers to better leverage the technology in the classroom to improve student success. That’s when we decided blended learning would be a good fit for our community. We agreed that our blended learning initiative couldn’t be all about the technology. Rather, we felt that it must center on creating the right policies and practices to ensure the technology supports instruction and helps students collaborate. This philosophical stand, we believe, has driven the success of this initiative.
The implementation process Successful implementation of a blended learning initiative requires close attention