Teachers, students, and district officials gave the District 203 board their feedback on how blended classes are doing at the high school level.
The courses, which combine both online and traditional in-classroom work, were highly praised by both students and teachers.
“I went and told a lot of people about what my blended class was and the most interesting response I got was from a sophomore in college friend who said ‘wow that sounds a lot like my math class’ and at that point I realized ‘hmm maybe blended is more than something that entertains me more in school,” explained Ben, a sophmore at Naperville Central.
“This method of instruction allows so many more possibilities for the students to develop not only content knowledge but life skills such as time management and self advocacy,” said Melissa Oskroba, a blended consumer economics teacher at Naperville North. “I was also excited to have the opportunity to have more personalize learning opportunity for my students due to the way the blended class is designed.”
The group also discussed a few challenges that blended courses present.
“This is so new and different that it’s a daily challenge to think about how I approach the curriculum from a digital point of view on a week to week basis,” said Rob Porter, a blended Geometry teacher at Naperville Central. “So for me I still really enjoy the traditional classroom setting but for me the challenge of meeting the needs of the students in a blended learning environment has been rewarding.”
There are 37 blended course offerings for the 2018-2019 school year.
District officials anticipate increases in enrollment for blended courses in the future.
Naperville News 17’s Christine Lena reports.
