Blended learning is a beast. There is no way to sugar coat that fact. Anytime you give up control to another, whether human or technology-based you are taking a calculated risk that the other person/tool you are putting in front of your students will do a better (or at least comparable) job to what you do. We also hope that the students will begin to take ownership of their own educational needs and let us know if they need more than what we are offering.

We feel that blended learning has made us better at our jobs and have loved assuming the role of facilitators. While we do not always have the control we would sometimes like, the benefits to our students have been incredible.  One of the greatest assets to us as we navigated the shift from teachers to facilitators was the fact that our district implemented Schoology district wide at the same time we were making the pedagogical shift in our instruction. Schoology has allowed us to share information with our students in ways that give them both structure and independence.  Rather than our previous stagnant websites that just delivered information one way, Schoology allows our students to interact with content through a multitude of methods. In Schoology they can message their teachers 24 hours a day, watch flipped lessons, blog with their peers, complete quizzes and assignments, post to their online portfolios, discuss, and the list goes on. Parents can see grades in real time, stay connected to the daily work of their child, and see events on the class calendar. We would strongly recommend utilizing an LMS if you are taking on blended learning. It has helped us tremendously!