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Classic Cars and Blended/Hybrid Teaching

There are three things that I love in this world just slightly less than my wife and kiddos.
  1. Music - which I have chosen as my career.
  2. Fly-fishing - which may have been an easier choice as a career but harder to make money... plus, I'm not a huge fan of boats or swimming.
  3. Classic cars.  This doesn't make money, it eats money.  But man, they are sure fun.
A 1963 Chevrolet Bel Air and a 1953 Chevrolet 210.Evidence of a very patient wife.

The phrase "they don't make them like they used to" is most definitely applicable to cars.  There is just something about all that steel, chrome and - I swear to you - a smell to them that just can't be replicated.  There's only one problem with classic cars...  in original condition, many are not safe to drive on today's roads.  They have suspension parts that are outdated or unsafe, brakes that are insufficient and unsafe for modern freeway speeds, and outdated electrical systems.  However, there is a solution.

In recent decades many classic cars undergo what is called a "resto-mod."  A resto-mod is the process of RESTOring a car and MODifying it to include many modern safety features.  It is the best of both worlds combined into one super cool ride!


At this point, you may be thinking, "what does this have to do with education?"  Let me explain.


Traditional Teaching


Traditional teaching models were designed even before those classic cars.  They continue to be a staple of modern education even though more effective options exist.  According to Drew Schrader, "Traditional teaching is the expectation that students will learn because we tell them to... Whenever I assume that the person I am working with will learn because I am telling them, the more traditional I am being." (Schrader)  Lecture, notes, homework out of the textbook or a worksheet to fill out.  Traditional can work - just like a classic car can still drive - but that doesn't mean that it is the very best it could be.  Instead of kicking the educational "tires," we should take one off and see how we can make it better.  This is done with blended teaching.  
A 1965 Ford Thunderbird Special Landau I owned that got about 8 mpg.A perfect candidate for a resto-mod.

Blended Teaching


Here is a crash course in what blended learning is:



"Moving away from traditional educational practices has less to do with technology (1:1, iPads, etc) or technique (PBL, PrBL, Challenge based, etc) and more to do with context and motivation." (Schrader)  As modern teachers, we need to take a look at our methods and see what we can do to install some "modern safety features" into our approach.  We need to ask ourselves some important questions:
  • How can I incorporate technology in a meaningful way?
  • How will this help my students that need differentiation?
  • What will make my teaching more relevant to what my students are living right now?

April Giarla states in her article "The Benefits of Blended Learning" (Giarla) that students in blended classrooms have many of the following benefits: 

  • Promotes student ownership, autonomy, and self-advocacy.
  • Students can learn at their own pace.
  • Prepares students for the future.

Giarla also shares some benefits to the teachers as well.  They include
  • Better information and feedback on student's work.
  • A focus on deeper learning.
  • Being able to motivate hard to reach students
  • More earning power.  (What teacher doesn't want THAT!)

My Classroom

There are SO many musical things that can be taught in a blended teaching environment.  I see rhythm exercises, intervallic relationships and ear training, rehearsal notation, and a whole host of things that I will teach in a blended method.  My goal with blended teaching is to have one of those shy, seldom-heard-from students find their voice in a blended lesson.  Or maybe an autistic student begin to hyper-focus and really excel in, let's say, jazz composition because it was introduced in a blended lesson.  Or, maybe that you, the humble reader, will go find a really cool classic in a barn and update it with disc brakes and fuel injection in your very own resto-mod... either which way... I'm easy to please. 


(For a really cool article on what Jay Leno is doing to upgrade his cars resto-mod style, check THIS out.)  

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