Sunday, June 26, 2011

Our Blended (Hybrid) Classroom and FCAT Reading Results??

Sometimes there are surprises (or at least things you don't expect) and I have experienced such a surprise over the last couple of years. At the beginning of the 2009-10 I started blending the delivery model of my classroom and began using the Moodle . Since then we have had several Moodle units and most of the time we have a bit of a Blended (or Hybrid) Classroom going on. Now there are the obvious reasons why this model is effective for us, such as; more time on task, working at your own pace and that different groups can work in the same course at the same time. However, unless I am looking at the data wrong we have also been experiencing some atypical improvements on our FCAT Reading Scores. I have looked at the data for the last two years and it seems that our reading growth or Development Scale Score change from year to year has had some major spikes. I first noticed this last year when I had several students' DSS change jumped over six hundred points. Then when the scores arrived this year, I noticed that again most of the Gifted students had significant growth from 2010 to 2011 and not one Oneco student who fully attended gifted failed to make gains. Also, there is one 5th grade student who stopped attending Oneco's Gifted Program at the end of 4th grade. His DSS change in 4th grade jumped over seven hundred points, but his DSS change in 5th dropped over three hundred points. Along with that, here is a bit of our rough data for this year:

Grade 4 Developmental Scale Score change from 2010
-Gifted Population Average- 374.6 points
-Rest of the Population Average-175.5 points

Grade 5 Developmental Scale Score change from 2010
-Gifted Population Average- 244.42 points
-Rest of the Population Average- 67.26 points

Truth is, I am become convinced that our blend model (the Moodle) has been playing a role in these students' growth. Which is something I will need to continue to watch.

Friday, June 3, 2011

A Hobby

For several years now, I have been dabbling in the hobby of photography. Today, as I was cleaning out the files on my computer I found some of my favorite shots of friends and family I have taken during this past school year.


September 2010- Maternity Session























October 2011-Happy Halloween











May 2011-Maternity Session













  May 2011- New Arrival


To see more please check out  my photography blog