McHenry Times

Mark Wetzel, the ADM director, and Ami Engel, the ADM executive director, shared how their blended education program has expanded from the high school into the middle schools at a recent Community Unit School District 300 board meeting.

Wetzel said blended learning is a type of education that helps students learn and understand their individual learning processes and teaches independence and problem solving, along with many other skills that prepare students for the job world. It is partially independent or online learning, but not completely, nor is it self-paced, but rather still guided by the teacher.

"Ultimately, in District 300, we're really proud to provide some innovative opportunities to grow our students with real world skills and their academics, and we do that through our blended program," Engel said. 

At the high school, blended students are in the class with their teacher three days a week, with the other two days being flexible, independent sessions during the regularly scheduled class time, provided that they maintain a C or better. Students with lower grades have five days a week of face-to-face instruction. Students in the middle school in blended classes are still in person five days a week, but have a station rotation model that switches around from teacher instruction to independent work time to small group sessions. 

Any student grades 7-12 is eligible for these blended classes, with social studies and science courses offered at the middle school and art, business, ELA, math, social studies, science and PE offered at the high school. Students opt in during their regular class selection process. Offerings change each year depending on student interest.