Laser Transitions

I teach students how to read by focusing on the use of phonics rules to decode words of all types. Phonics Word-Coaching is a strategy where students refer back to the various strategies they've learned. Through the use of diacritical marks to label specific sounds in words, students take apart words and reblend them in order to read the words. The idea behind it is that eventually students will recognize these strategies without having to actually write the diacritical marks and are able to do it by sight. It's fact fluency for the reader. 

Communicating and collaborating with both colleagues and students' families is crucial in a blended environment. This is especially true if a teacher is doing something that looks very different from other teachers at his school. Check out how Raul communicates and collaborates with both his colleagues at school and his students' families and how his methods of communication and collaboration have evolved over time.

This is an excel document that is projected during shared inquiry. Each time that a student shares a comment, question, or any other type of substantial response in the group's conversation, a cell is filled to create a bar graph that is easily identifiable by students. It informs them and myself about the participation levels and motivates students to give more to a conversation.