Blended Learning and AI for Innovative Math Teaching and Learning

Brenda Dougan, a secondary mathematics coach at Fontana Unified School District, shared her journey from wanting to be a pediatrician to becoming a math teacher. She emphasized the importance of blended learning in math, using tools like Quizizz, EdPuzzle, and Nearpod to engage students. Dougan highlighted the challenges of planning and grouping students heterogeneously but stressed the benefits of active student participation and differentiated instruction. She advocated for using AI tools to streamline lesson planning and enhance student engagement. Dougan's approach aligns with the new math framework's standards for mathematical practice, focusing on collaborative problem-solving and perseverance.

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Music by ItsWatR from Pixabay - Wataboi Flavour

Transcript

SPEAKERS

Brenda Dougan, Jessica Boucher

Sonal Patel  00:03

Welcome to the SBCSS Digital Learning Bits and Bytes Podcast inspired by our dedication for equitable and inclusive educational technology and computer science.

Jessica  00:16

Hello, everyone. I'm Jessica Boucher. I'm a Project Specialist with Digital Learning Services at San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools. We'd like to begin by introducing our special guest, Brenda Dougan. Brenda is currently a secondary mathematics coach at Fontana Unified School District. She was a secondary math and science teacher and then attained her credential in math and taught math the last six years as a classroom teacher. She has been in the field of education for 19 years, and is excited to continue on this journey to positively impact students. Brenda is here to share information about blended learning in math. Welcome Brenda. 

Brenda Dougan  00:58

Thank you so much. Thank you for having me

Jessica  01:01

so happy you're here. Okay, let's start with a bit of fun. Brenda, can you share one bit or bite that people may be intrigued to learn about you? 

Brenda Dougan  01:10

Well one bit that I think is pretty intriguing is I grew up in Germany. Well, that's the intriguing part. However, that is intriguing, but I grew up in Germany, and I attended a British Private International School, and it was the first British school that was built in Cologne. Um So Princess Diana and Prince Charles came to visit the school, and when I was a little girl, I got to meet them, and that was the most amazing experience. And on top of that, I was in a newspaper like clipping, and I'm also in a local German magazine.

Jessica  01:50

 That's incredible. So your, your picture in the newspaper is with Princess Diana , 

Brenda Dougan  01:55

yes, well, she's, she's talking to me, so she's in front of me, and I'm like, looking at her. 

Jessica  02:01

Oh, that's incredible. 

Brenda Dougan  02:04

 Pretty amazing. Do you have that same I so I do. Well, when I we first moved to America, we didn't like bring any of the magazines with us, and went to Germany in 2019 and I went to the school that I attended when I was a little girl, and they were able to find the newspaper, not the magazine, but the newspaper. And I was so excited to after all these years, I finally have evidence that that really happened. So I was excited, but you did them. So yeah, it's great. I'll show it to you after

Jessica  02:35

and then how are the memories of going back to your school?

Brenda Dougan  02:39

It was great. It was great. It was very emotional too, because when I went back, I actually went to my old house that I used to live in. Oh, wow. And just remembering, like the walks I used to take, the parks I used to go to, and we had a nanny growing up, and she's no longer passed away. Sad memories of her. And it was very hard, but going to the school itself, when we first attended the school, there were, I think maybe 13 students in the entire school, because it had just opened. So we're a true family. And now there are over. I believe, gosh, there's first two schools in two different locations, and I believe there's over, I think 5000 it has grown immensely. Well, that is incredible. It was great to go back. And also my German just came back right away. 

Jessica  03:32

You speak German,

Brenda Dougan  03:33

yes, well, I don't speak here a lot because I have no one to really speak with. And that's like, I'm speaking to my mom and gossiping or something. Then I speak German and my sister, but, um, but it just came back, and it was incredible. Yeah, 

Jessica  03:46

wow, Okay, so you are a piece of history, meeting Princess Diana. You've got that evidence. You're multilingual, amazing, and you're a mathematician, so staying on this subject with school and schooling, can you tell us about your decision and journey to be become an educator and to become a math teacher? Specifically, 

Brenda Dougan  04:13

yes, So when I attended college, I honestly did not have desire to be a teacher. That was not in my plan. So my plan was to become a pediatrician like my mom. So my major was biology, but it was very short lived. And then I decided I wanted to attain my degree in psychology, and I pursued that, and I moved to California to attend Claremont Graduate University to attain my I was enrolled in the PhD program in psychology, so I did that. But then while I was in graduate school, I was substitute teaching, and I realized that, wow, I really enjoy teaching, but I still was like, that's not my plan. I'm just doing it for money. And I just continued, you know, attending graduate school for psychology, but one day I was. Walking up the stairways at Claremont Graduate University, and I struck up a conversation with a young lady, and we just started talking about what we're doing. She was also in grad school, and I was telling her how I'm in I'm grad school for psychology, but I am substitute teacher. And I guess she saw my expression when I was talking about teaching. My face just lit up. But yet, when I was talking about my program, my face did not do any kind of lighting up. And she was like, You know what, you're meant to be a teacher, wow, this stranger came up to me, and I don't know why her words were so impacting to me. And so I went home, and I really prayed about it. I prayed about it. I was like, God, if you want me to do this? Like, made it clear, and literally, like, I just applied. I got my master's in psychology, but then I applied for the education program, the School of Education program at Claremont, and I got into it. And I was like, if I get, if I get accepted, that this is met for me. So I got accepted into the program. And, yes, started, you know, got my masters in that the student teaching and became a teacher. Have not looked

Jessica  06:06

back since. So that's a teacher,

Brenda Dougan  06:09

yeah? So sometimes strangers come into your life for a reason, and we don't know, you know, she didn't know what her purpose was, but it literally changed the trajectory of my career, right?

Jessica  06:19

That's pretty incredible. That sounds like a movie. Did you ever see her again?

Brenda Dougan  06:24

I did, actually, and I we were Facebook friends. That's amazing.

Jessica  06:28

Shonda lane, hey, shout out. So she's not an angel. She wasn't just an angel.

Brenda Dougan  06:33

No, she was. She's my angel. Incredible.

Jessica  06:37

And it sounds like you always had a passion for working with kids, because initially you wanted to be a pediatrician, yeah, so you wanted to work with kids.

Brenda Dougan  06:48

Every job I've had has involved children. Like I was, like, the number one babysitter in my neighborhood. I just love working with children. And even when I was in college, I was part of an organization called Sierra, which is sexual assault resource agency which teaches kids to protect themselves and to be aware of, you know, the dangers out there regarding sexual assault. So I've always worked with children, and I really enjoy it. But in terms of becoming a math teacher, well, that came on later, because I was teaching math and science in the beginning of my career, and then during COVID, I decided to get my math credential, and I became a math teacher solely. I taught. I taught math solely. And the reason why I wanted to teach math is because as a young girl, I didn't have confidence in math. So believe it or not, like now I'm a math teacher and a math coach, but I lacked confidence in math, and I had an amazing tutor who took the time to really build my confidence. So a lot of times, it's not you not being able to compute the mathematical problems, it's you not having the confidence, and that confidence can really block you from pursuing anything mathematically. And the math anxiety is a real thing. It really is, and it can hinder you from performing well. So just I wanted to be that person, to build confidence in my students, and to make fun, to make math fun, and make math engaging. And I pray that's what I've done as a math teacher. So that was my goal. 

Jessica  08:14

That is incredible. So your journey of having a heart for working with kids, for working with students, and then also wanting to be able to to build math math confidence for all students, and specifically for for females, knowing your experience with math and needing to have that confidence. And then now you as a math teacher being that role model in the classroom that everyone can do math and make it fun and engaging. And so, you know, we do have some of those biases or societal messaging sometimes that math is more of a subject for boys and that it's not really a space for females, and so I like that you're trying to bring those opportunities to all students.

Brenda Dougan  09:08

Thank you. And not only for boys, but a lot of times people white boys, right? So women of color not seen as people that are mathematicians, even when you go on AI and you type in mathematician, right? Like, what? What pops up, it's a white male. So society has basically, basically perpetuated that narrative, right? And, and my job, and hopefully I am eradicating that.

Jessica  09:39

That is a noble pursuit, and that's great that you're bringing in AI as well, how we're seeing, how technology is also showing some of those biases. And we have to be really mindful of what we're the information that we're getting from technology and AI specifically, yes, and it's great that you're in a role now as a math Coach at a district to be able to make that impact on the educators who are then going into the math classroom. So it's like your reach has multiplied.

Brenda Dougan  10:09

Thank you. Thank you for saying that. Because when I left the classroom, it was a bittersweet moment, because I felt as if, oh my gosh, I'm not going to impact my students directly, but I'm indirectly, right, affecting or positively impacting my students, the students at the school, and it's at a higher level, because I'm reaching more students, and I get to go in the classrooms and do demo lessons. And you know, if I'm positively impacting the teachers, that will trickle down to their students, and I'm working with many teachers, so many students will be impacted. So I'm very grateful for this position.

Jessica  10:42

Well we're very grateful for the work that you do. So talking about the work in the classroom, you had brought blended learning into your math class. So blended learning is blending in online and offline teaching and access to the content for students. So how did you adopt that blended learning approach?

Brenda Dougan  11:07

Okay well I attended training when I was teaching at Southridge Tech Middle school that was facilitated by you. And so now, and I've always wanted to find ways to make math, mathematics were engaging. And when you ladies talked about bridging digital learning and traditional learning to make math engaging, I was like, This is what I'm looking for. And it's just been it's been lovely because it allows me to tap into different modalities of learning, not just the traditional way in which whole group instruction is done, which the teacher is doing all the talking, and the students just passively retaining the information and half the time than even retaining it, because if you're not actively involved, you're not going to retain it. So I love blend learning, because the students are the ones that are working. They're doing the work. When I was first teaching, I'd go, I'm so tired. I'm like, why am I so tired? Because I'm doing all the work. That's not what I should be doing. The kids should be going home tired, because their work in the productive struggle is so essential in all subjects, especially mathematics. So blended learning allowed the students to do that, and specifically I worked with station rotations. I implemented that in my classroom, and I'll talk more about that later on. But station rotations allowed students to use both offline and online work, and also allowed them to use like kind of static bait, or they could do like if they're more visual, focus on that or auditory. So it tapped into different learning modalities, and I specifically chose activities that did tap into those so differentiated instruction could take place as well. That's

Jessica  12:44

That's excellent, especially that part of having your students be active participants in their learning. I feel that as educators, we sometimes will teach the way we've been taught, and especially when it comes to mathematics. So getting out of your comfort zone of being up in the front modeling the problems as the students are taking notes and following along, that can be kind of scary for teachers at first, because they're not sure how the students are going to be able to engage in that productive struggle without them leading them whole group. So the fact that you were able to attend a training and then say, You know what, I'm going to give this a try, that was very courageous of you and our students nowadays. They they have technology available to them. They're engaging in technology at their own time, and so trying to teach them something where they need to focus and pay attention and just listen might not be the best approach right now, since they're they're used to technology, and so now that you're bringing that into the classroom with those station rotations, I wanted to ask you a follow up question, what types of technology or digital tools did you use in those station rotations that you found were most effective for teaching math in that blended learning environment?

Brenda Dougan  14:14

Well, I use, well, we are the laptop, so obviously we were using that as a technological device, and I used a digital tool that was online called quizizz. And I left quizizz because you can either create your own questions, or you can choose questions that you want to use, that are based on the standard that you're teaching. And it's also allowing promoting competitiveness, because there's a scoreboard and kids get to see how they're doing in comparison to their classmates. And I would give all my students, all my classes, the same link. So they're not only competing against students in their class, but they're also competing competing against students in other in my other classes. So say your best friend is in third period. Like, oh man, you know. My third period best friend is feeding me. I need to make sure I do well. So it's it's given them more of an excitement to do well and to really and they're having fun while they're grasping the concepts. And sometimes I'd see my students do quizzes again to get a better score. So here they are. That's reflection, right? And that's them like doing their own kind of intervention. They're going back, and they're checking their work. And it was just lovely. So I loved using quizzes. Another digital tool that I used was Edpuzzle, and EdPuzzle was great as well, because it's interactive. They're watching a video, so those who are visual learners get to see that and also the video is speaking to them. So those who auditory get to benefit from that as well, and those who are tactile as a mouse, you click on clicking on the mouse, you're using the keyboards. It's tapping into all different modalities of learning. And at puzzle also incorporates checking for understanding, because throughout the video, there are questions that are being asked. So the students are there's, you know, watching them video segments, and then it'll pause ask you a question, make sure the kids get it. So that's why I love EdPuzzle. And I also use Nearpod. I didn't use it as much, but I did like using it because it had great little mini lessons that I thought were essential, and I Okay, this is what I have not used, but if I were still in the classroom, I would totally use it. Is AI when I attended training again, facilitated by you and so now, but they're just great facilitators. I'm always motivated to use Thank you. You're welcome.

Jessica  16:38

That's a good plug for our PDs. Appreciate that, Brenda,

Brenda Dougan  16:44

but um, so I would have used AI, especially school AI, and I was playing around with it. I would want my students to create lyrics to a song that tap into the standard that they're focused on, and know exactly what the standards are covering, and that's going to allow them to really have a better and a comprehension, better and comprehensive understanding of the material. So in directing AI to do something, you need to be knowledgeable of what you want it to do, and that will be the challenge. So I would have loved to have the students do that, but now I get to encourage my teachers that I support to do it, because I'm not in the classroom, but they are, and I'm definitely going to be doing that. 

Jessica  17:27

Those are some excellent tools. And you were bringing up the different modalities, and that's very much in line with the universal design for learning, so students are able to receive the content and the information with the multiple means of representation. And you mentioned even the tactile of clicking the mouse or touching the keys, and then you get that audio, the visual, even the gamification and that healthy competition. So those are really great ways to engage your students. And you had mentioned before that you wanted to make math fun and engaging. And so as you were telling us those examples, that's what I was seeing in action, I was like, Yeah, that does sound really fun. That is really engaging. So those were some great tips. And then also bringing in AI and school AI in particular, some teachers are a little bit nervous about allowing their students to maybe explore AI in the classroom. So that's that's nice that you're thinking about how to expose students to it in a way that helps them learn. Like you said, they have to know what's their learning objective, what is the standard that they're working on, and then they're creating a very fun product, like you mentioned, the music lyrics. So I really enjoyed some of those tips that you were talking about, as far as what technology you can use with blended learning and that you have used with blended learning. So with that, you've used several tools. You've done the blended learning, the online, offline. What are some common challenges you face with blended learning and math, and how have you addressed those?

Brenda Dougan  19:18

Well, the challenge that I can think of is just the amount of time it takes to plan. It takes a lot of planning, but that is so essential for everything to go smoothly. So you cannot just wake up in the morning and say, Oh, I'm going to incorporate blended learning. I'm going to do station rotations. It's not going to work out. You need to do an immense amount of planning. I also spent a lot of time grouping my students heterogeneously, and I based my groupings on their Iready. Well, we do a diagnostic call. I ready. So Iready diagnostic scores, and I purposely had those who were above or at grade level working with those who are mid grade level working with those who are below grade level. So. So it's heterogeneously grouped. So there's peer tutoring. Peer tutoring. Sorry, taking place. And so that was really important to do, but it's challenging. It takes a lot of time. You have to look at their data, but you need to take the time as a teacher to know your students. If you don't know their student, your students, where they're at, you don't know where to take them. So it's so important to know who you are teaching another challenging part, again, it's with time, but it's also selecting the appropriate activities. You want to make sure the activities you're choosing, especially if I'm choosing something that involves paper and pencil the traditional way, I want to make sure that the questions match the rigor that you're going to see during aspect testing, I want to make sure that the assets engaging, but I don't want them to be fluff questions. I want to make sure they're really rigorous so the students can really am promoting literacy and mathematics, which is also really important, so the students can be exposed to that. So the planning aspect can be extremely challenging. You have patience in doing that, but it's so, so important. And also, when you do in station rotations, I like to have everything visually displayed. So when I'm creating the matrix with child picks where to go, I have to create that as well. That takes time. I like to project the icons that go online if we're doing something from big ideas. I like to have a book projected if we're doing something from quizzes. I like the logo to be projected so kids know exactly where they're going, because if they don't, they'll be like, miss, miss, miss, what are you doing? And even with that, they still say, what are we doing? But those are kids. But that would be the challenge. I would say, when that happens, honestly, it goes really well classroom management. When you have the more instructions you have, that diminishes the chances of behavioral issues to occur. So classroom management will be on spot if those can take place. So

Jessica  22:01

you really overcame a lot of challenges super easily. It seemed, it seems like you You were ready for those, and looking at again how you're saying, I want my students engaged, so you're laying the groundwork of doing that data driven instruction. You're really using that time with the blended learning to give them what they need and also grouping them heterogeneously. That it was a great explanation of why you did those types of groupings. Typically, we get asked, what's the correct way to group your students? And I just answer for blended learning, intentionally, intentionally. If you need to group for if you need to group for behavior, if you need to group for diagnostic outcome, if you need to group for leadership, if you need to group for whatever the reason. Maybe, as long as you can explain why your students are grouped this way and how it's working and benefiting the students, then that's the correct way to group it. So it's not a one size fits all. It could be homogeneous, heterogeneous. It just depends on what your students need. So I really appreciate, appreciated that explanation. And as you were talking, you were hitting a lot of the promising practices of blended learning that is in our blended learning framework. So I'll kind of read those off really quickly, and then I'll show you how I saw some of the connections. So some of the promising practices of blended learning are student engagement, building, community, digital citizenship, data and assessment, personalized learning and instructional design. So of course, we've talked about your student engagement with making math fun, bringing in the technology, even gamifying lessons, and then you're doing that community building with how you're putting your groups together, and you're having that heterogeneous mix of students so that way, they're interacting with each other, getting to know each other, and being able to appreciate the assets that each of them are bringing to the group. Obviously, the data and assessment you said that you use your i Ready scores from the diagnostic to be able to group the students and look at their needs and get that differentiation. And then that goes into personalized learning as well. And then instructional design, you're being very intentional with, like using the icons and the logos to give visual cues making the matrix so students know where to rotate and how to get there and which station they're going to be at and when. And then also, you had mentioned how you're doing those like Universal Design for Learning multiple modalities as well, to engage all the different learning styles of your students. Been so, so far, you've really been showing us those promising practices in these examples that you've been giving. So I just wanted to  make a note of that. Thank you. So kudos to you. Brenda. 

Brenda Dougan  25:13

You also wanted to mention how blended learning definitely addresses the standard of mathematical practice and the new framework that was, you know, adopted in 2023 talks about the eight sense of standards of mathematically practice, and specifically smp1 which is making sense of a problem and persevering and solving it. That's blended learning. They're making sense of problems collaboratively, and they are doing that protective struggle. They persevering and solving it. So that's another reason why blended learning is just so incredible. I'm

Jessica  25:45

so happy you brought up the Standards for Mathematical Practice absolutely and with this new math framework, with that big focus on  being equitable with our students, blended learning is a really great fit for some of the things that this new framework has highlighted, even the like reasoning abstractly and quantitatively, constructing viable arguments and critiquing the reasoning of others. So if you have your students working with a partner or being in collaborative groups, they're going to be able to work on multiple or multiple forms of those standards for mathematical practice. So thank you for bringing those up as well. So we've talked about Universal Design for Learning and multiple modalities. Could you share any specific examples of how you tailor math activities or assignments to meet diverse learning. Means,

Brenda Dougan  26:42

I think I kind of mentioned that, but I will elaborate more on that. Definitely. As far as making sure I tailor the needs to my students. Well, again, I make sure those multiple modalities of learning take place. And you need to know your students. You need to know what works best for students. So that's why I like to have all different approaches available. But also I have certain students who have IEPs that cannot do 10 problems, so I make sure I shorten it. For those students, they're still going to be actively engaged. They're still going to be involved in Cooper cooperative learning, but they won't have to do as many questions. So again, knowing your students, knowing their academic history, and being able to tailor that to best fit those students. Also making sure, if I have a student has like visual processing disorder or auditory processing disorder, I want to make sure that I will give them activities and different tools that will best fit their learning style.

Jessica  27:37

Wow that's a great strategy, and that goes into, you know, that personalized learning and getting them engaged, like working in their zone of proximal development, and helping them to persevere, my my own daughter, gets them overwhelmed when it comes to math and so back in elementary where she'd kind of get those full worksheet, pages of timed math facts that was that was a lot, and I knew she could do it, but it was the overwhelm of having to do so many in such a short amount of time. And I appreciate you know that you're taking into consideration what is on the student's IEP, or how are we meeting them with their assets that they've come in with and what they are trying to do to get to their next goal when it comes to mathematics? So I really appreciate that you're bringing up some of those topics as well. I also wanted to bring up with the planning piece. Because some people will say, Wow, blended learning, you know, it's a lot of planning, it's a lot of differentiation, it's a lot of looking at data. Now that we have these AI tools, like you brought up school AI, there's magic school AI, and then just your good old like generative AIS, like co pilot and chat GPT, a lot of that heavy lift can be put into a generative AI with just some  good prompting and magic school. AI has a choice board feature. I really like to put in my standard into that one, and the choice board comes up with like, nine different activities. And so from there, I could say, oh, my three stations. I could pull from this list of nine, and then I could customize it based on, okay, this one is offline. This one's online. Oh, this one can be teacher led. This is one where I can do small group and do checks for understanding. So that has really helped, especially with the creative fatigue. Sometimes it's like, wow, how am I going to teach this particular skill or standard? And you're planning it, you know, online, offline and small group with you. But I actually find that using AI is really. Sparking creativity, because I'm getting so many more ideas. So when I put in that choice board on magic school, AI, I'm seeing all these different ideas. And then it can also be filed away for a next standard, or a dip, like, Oh, that would be really good with, you know, division, or, Oh, I could use that with X, Y and Z. So it's very nice to have that thought partner with some type of AI to help you out with all of that planning that might need to take place. And it actually starts making it really fun, and then you're doing these exciting things that get the students excited, and you're right back at that student engagement. 

Brenda Dougan  27:49

Thank you for pointing that out. That's so true, because we can use AI to help us create amazing lessons, and that will hopefully assuage the anxiety of teachers who don't want to even tackle better learning because they're afraid of just how much time it will take, but utilizing AI will help them out. So thank you for definitely putting that out.

Jessica  31:02

And what's nice about it also is that in your prompt, you can specify, don't give too much identifying information about your students, but you can specify like, I have three students who are identified gifted and talented. I have four students who are multilingual learners. I have a student that has dyslexia. So then when you're getting your responses for lesson plans, it's building in differentiation for the specific needs of your students as well

Brenda Dougan  31:02

. Saves a lot of time. Yes, thank you. 

Jessica  31:04

So I appreciate how you've been proactive with blended learning, and that you had that courage and you were brave to start something just being sparked by going to a training and think, you know what, I'm going to put this into action. So what advice would you give to other math teachers looking to start with or improve their blended learning approach?

Brenda Dougan  32:00

My advice is like, oh, at Nike said, Just do it. Just do it. I mean, literally, it might be scary the first time, but take you out of the equation. Just think of the benefit it's going to have new students, how engaging it's going to be. It also makes class go by so much quickly. It's much more quicker than normal, because the students, whenever I did station rotations, my students were like, Wait, it's time to leave already. Or as if I was doing whole group instruction, they're like, is it time to go? Yeah. So they're just really engaged. So teachers, I encourage you to do that. Yes, it's going to take planning, but the more you do it, the easier it's going to take, and you will have just like what Jessica mentioned earlier. You can use AI as a thought partner, and you can also say certain activities, so you can recycle it, and that also can shorten your time and planning. So just think of a benefit. The benefit is just it outweighs any kind of apprehension that you might have just be brave if it doesn't work out great the first time, make some tweaks, make some changes, make some modifications, and try it again. But keep on trying it, because I'm telling you, it's going to help the students. It's going to reach their students who the one that does not want to answer questions because they're afraid to be judged. However, if it's in a small group, they'll have more of a likelihood to want to talk, to appear their peers and have that peer tutoring take place, or the student who needs that one on one attention. When you circulate in the classroom, you can go to that student and help them out. The student that is more visual, it taps into all different modalities of learning, and it helps the students immensely. And when they are ready to take the s back test, it will they'll be more prepared because they have literacy in math, they're going to be engaged in SMP's, they're going to be familiar with the standards. They're going to know how to justify the reasoning, because they will be engaged in activities that promote that. So please, I just urge you, encourage you to try it, because you're not going to regret it. 

Jessica  34:04

That is some good advice from Brenda and Nike. Just do it. I love some of the things you said about it not working perfectly the first time. And this is so true. You are teaching in a different way. The students are learning in a different way. So not only does it feel uncomfortable to the teacher to be teaching differently and giving up some of that control of being at the front of the room, it's different for the students who have been coming in and saying, Okay, I'm going to take out my notebook and I'm going to just, you know, take some notes as my teachers doing the work on the board my follow along. We're probably going to do a bell ringer and an exit ticket, and then we're going to go to our next period, and you're changing it up on them, saying, Okay, you have to be actively participating. You're  Going to be the one engaging in dialog with a small group. You're going to be the one that's going to be taking some ownership of your own learning. And so it's a it's a shock to them as well, where it's like, oh, I don't just sit in my seat and like, consume what you're giving me. I have to be out there being engaged and producing some of the work as well. So us as teachers, we're trying to teach differently. The students are learning differently, and so you will need to make some changes and try it a couple of times. You're going to probably have to change your groupings one or two times, especially when you find out, Oh, I didn't even know that those kids were best friends. Exactly, you know, they just, they're just talking, oops. I shouldn't have put them in a group together. So it is a trial and error, and then it starts all over again the next year. So you'll get so confident at the end of the year and say, Oh, I got this down. And then you'll get a new group of students, and you're going to do the trial and error all over again. But like Brenda said, it's so worth it. Like your student engagement, the classroom management, because the students have things that they're working on, and then they're changing through the stations that it doesn't give them that much time to really get disengaged, because they're moving to a next station before they know it, and then also with the stations. If there's something similar that they're expecting, they're able to know what to anticipate in a good way, because they're getting their structure. So if they know, like, okay, my offline is going to be that me and my partner, or my small group, we are going to come up with our own word problems for this particular standard. And then when we go to online, we're going to be working on EdPuzzle. And then when we do small group, we're going to meet with Miss Dougan, and we're going to go over clarifying some concepts. And if you do that same structure, like you're going to do, okay, partner work, where they're creating some type of real world application with the standard, then they're doing an ED puzzle, then they're working with the teacher. You can do that for like, six weeks or a quarter, and then they'll catch on and say, Okay, I know what we're doing. And even if you have a substitute, they can run the class, they would say, Oh no, this is what we're doing. This is what we do in Miss Dougan's Here. This is what we're doing our teachers through. And then next quarter, right when they're trying to, like, really catch on and get a little bored. Then you mix it up a little bit, and you maybe throw a Near Pod at them for the online so initially that planning is going to be somewhat strange and new, and so it does take some creative processes to get that planning, but it will pay off after you get those processes put in place, and then your subsequent planning for those lessons, you're just going to be plugging things in, go to your generative AI, get some fresh ideas, plug them in online, offline, and teacher led. And so it does start to become a routine, but that initial shift is something that you just you got to get over that initial shift, and I promise it will get easier.

Brenda Dougan  38:23

 But teachers, we're superheroes, you can do it, yes, 

Jessica  38:28

especially those of you teachers that survive COVID,

Brenda Dougan  38:30

 yeah, definitely.

Jessica  38:34

Brenda, thank you again for all this wonderful information. If our audience wants to follow up with you. Where can they find you? Like Twitter, email, anything like that? Yes. Well, my

Brenda Dougan  38:45

email is dougbt@fusd.net, and my Instagram is salon, which is, I'm from Sierra Leone, West Africa. So salon, it'ssalonegirl23 so salonegirl23 so it's my Instagram.

Jessica  39:07

I love how that came back to the beginning of the interesting fact about you and where you're from, and we get to close it up with that wonderful your tag on IG, so, Brenda. It's been a pleasure having this conversation with you. The work that you're doing is inspirational, and being that math coach with Fontana USD, we appreciate the reach and the impact that you're having, and so thankful to have you today as our featured guest. 

Brenda Dougan  39:37

Thank you so much. It's been lovely

Jessica  39:39

It's been really fun. Thank you. Thank you. Bye, bye.

Sonal Patel  39:43

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