Being the Parent

Here are two of the four pages of standards.

I have a 3.5 year old and an 8-month year old and we just got back from their fall  parent-teacher conferences.  I was impressed that my son’s teacher presented me with somewhat of a learner profile and an amazing portfolio of his work.  He learns best when the teacher uses games and when activities are done outside.  He doesn’t like a ton of praise and sometimes says he can’t do things that he can because he is afraid that he won’t do them correctly and doesn’t want to disappoint.  He has a crush on an older girl named Skylar and he gets really nervous around her (I witnessed this and it was adorable). His favorite subject is math.  When given a choice of stations, he usually goes to blocks.  While I know a lot about my son, this knowledge helps me tremendously as I do see some similarities at home and many differences.  For example, his teacher states he is a leader yet really listens to others and helps them plan.  He is empathetic and worries about others.  At home it is usually his way or a tantrum.    

Each week his teacher sets a personalized goal for him and works to show progress of his goal.  Even my 8-month-old daughter has a personalized goal each week.  This week she is working on “developing a 4-point stance” so that she can crawl.  I know that this is feasible for their teachers because they are given planning time to do their goals and they have 4-12 kids in a class. It makes me wonder if we changed the traditional classroom model how we could do this for mass amounts of students at the high school level. 

I was also impressed that the center has “learning targets” and uses a beginning, progressing, and successful system to report out where students are.  I’m embarrassed to admit I’ve never seen an elementary report card but am thinking it probably looks a lot like this. 

So now that I’ve rambled about this, what does this mean?  To me it reinforces that we must communicate more to our parents.  A grade does not tell a story.   I want to know a lot about my child to help him/her develop.  All of this information helps me to know what I need to focus on at home.  It also makes me think about what type of school will be best for him, traditional learning or something like STEM.  I wish we were able to report out like this at the high school level but really wonder how possible this is what the amount of students we work with. 

STEM Visit

I had the opportunity to visit STEM two weeks ago.  I was really impressed by the amount of personalized learning I saw.   STEM INC was probably my favorite to experience as the students were developing a toy and were very passionate about what they were doing.  I also loved how the STEM teachers did their agendas having a “Must Do” section and then offering a “Can Do” for students who finished early or were ready to progress. 

I got to talk to a teacher who does proficiency based grading.  He stated that all kids must have a 3 or better on all assessments in order to advance.   I like this high standard that he has set for students. 

The learning spaces at STEM help to promote personalized learning.  Students have choices from what they sit on (balls, chairs, standing, and even rocking chairs) to where they learn (hallway spaces, classrooms, etc.). 

STEAM is another way of giving students some choice.  During this time students can get help in their subject areas and if they are all caught up they can have some choice in how they extend their learning.  To me, this is what I always envisioned AO looking like.  I wish AO was offered in the middle of the day so that students could use it to access their teachers and extend learning. 

It was a great visit full of amazing educators who are innovative and have inspired the South crew that visited to keep making small changes toward a more personalized path for students. 

The Start... 

During the past few weeks when I have been in classrooms I have been focused on looking at how personalized learning is happening in our building.  I’ve been seeing some good things, but know there is a ton of room for growth. 

I was very excited to see that one of our Spanish teacher is creating a true digital portfolio with his students.  Right now he’s focused on a portfolio system that will show how the student is able to use the language.  This portfolio can then be used for job interviews and possibly even college admissions or placement.  I talked to him a little about expanding this portfolio to include a focus on learner profiles and he thought this was a great addition.  I plan to keep working with him to hopefully develop something powerful.

Proficiency-based progress is starting to happen at a very basic level  in some of our classrooms.   I recently visited a classroom where kids are working at their own pace and moving through the class based on proficiencies.  It was interesting talking with the students because many of them were frustrated with the ownership that they had to take in the class.  They didn’t like that the teacher wasn’t telling them specifics and wasn’t doing much direct instruction.  I think this class will be a great learning opportunity for the students taking it. 

I spent some time in a classroom where students were truly engaged in a customized learning path for the unit.  Each was involved in some heavy research that he/she picked and was going to report out any way he/she wanted to.  I am also seeing this in our Land and Water class as students are customizing what they study and how they do so. 

Again, there is some personalized learning happening in our building and I will continue to work with teachers to see it grow.