Difficult students It means that in every class of 25, we have 3-4 problem students. Children are their parents’ mirrors, as well as our own; students often copy their teachers’ behaviour. J.K. Rowling brilliantly showed it with Harry Potter and Dumbledore on the one hand, and Draco Malfoy and Severus Snape on the other hand. What can be done if we encounter an adult student who is clearly disruptive, or maybe even psychotic? Getting Better At Personalized Learning Here’s a startling statistic: 40% of high school students are chronically disengaged in school. There are enough reasons to go around, and I’d agree that many of them are outside of a teacher’s direct control. But some of them aren’t. How can student-interest and inquiry drive the learning? Out of these questions came my Getting Better Together project focused on pursuing personalized learning and customized instruction. These are big questions. The following videos capture our efforts toward a more personal learning experience: Structuring Personal Learning: A Day in the Workshop One of the first days of our workshop model is captured in Making Learning Personalized and Customized. Grades 9-12 / ELA / Workshop Please enable Javascript to watch this video Customizing Feedback and Instruction Helping students become better writers can feel like a Herculean task. Courageous Conversations to Improve Instruction Your Turn: Analyze and Apply Lessons Learned
Updated Personalization vs. Differentiation vs. Individualization Chart Version 3 Personalization v Differentiation v Individualization (PDI) Chart (Version 3) The PDI chart was created for a reason: to clarify the differences in these terms. In 2010, the National Ed Tech Plan defined all three of these terms as they are related to instruction. We needed to emphasize the differences: Personalization is learner-centered. It has been some time since we initially published the PDI Chart in January 2012. We updated the chart again to version 3 from your feedback. Individualization involves assessment OF learning.
Myths in Education, or How Bad Teaching Is Encouraged | Moments, Snippets, Spirals “Opinions don’t affect facts. But facts should affect opinions, and do, if you are rational.” (Ricky Gervais) I thought I would not have to blog about these fads again but it seems they have the strange ability to be reborn every single year and surface in professional development courses as well as in tweets, blog posts, and conversations within the education community. The reasons are different, ranging from ignorance to vested interests, but the effect is the same: poorer teaching. And no, you are not a bad teacher because you used them but you are a less effective one. Let’s see these monsters in their entire splendor: The Cone of Learning / The Learning PyramidLearning StylesRight-Left BrainBrain GymBrain-Based LearningMultiple Intelligences The Learning Pyramid – a complete bogus Where does it originate? Where did the percentages come from? References: The Learning Pyramid Deception, Institute for Learning Professionals Will Talheimer, PhD – People Remember 10%, 20%…Oh, Really? I know.
Personalized Learning: What It Really Is and Why It Really Matters The authors offer a framework—based on three years of campus visits—for thinking about (1) the circumstances under which personalized learning can help students and (2) the best way to evaluate the real educational value for products that are marketed under the personalized learning banner. Let's be honest: as an academic term of art, personalized learning is horrible. It has almost no descriptive value. What does it mean to "personalize" learning? Isn't learning, which is done by individual learners, inherently personal? What would it mean to personalize learning? Let's just skip to the end this time, shall we? The two of us spent the past three years visiting colleges and universities that have undertaken so-called personalized learning projects, and we talked to the students, teachers, and administrators about what they are actually doing and why they are doing it. e-Literate TV and the e-Literate Blog Personalized Learning as Practice Note the role of the software in this design. Notes
Moving Towards Next Gen Learning *Reposted with permission from GettingSmart.com Raise your hand if you have uttered any of the following phrases in the past week: Blended learning Competency-based learning Personalized learning Digital learning Online learning Connected learning Deeper learning Project-based learning Student-centered learning Optimized learning Hybrid learning Next generation learning Now raise your hand if you can define them so that the neighbor you barbecued with last weekend could remember and articulate the distinctions. An extra hot dog – with relish! We are, let’s face it, a Tower of Babel when it comes to defining what we’re all doing here. We can make the accomplishment of positive change a few degrees easier, though, by continuously striving to introduce bits of clarity amidst the messiness. The graphic you see here builds (with Michael Horn’s and Heather Staker’s blessing) on the taxonomy of blended learning developed by the Christensen Institute.
Control Alt Achieve: What Netflix Taught me about Professional Development Professional Development is my thing. As a Technology Integrationist, I provide training to about 30 school districts in northeast Ohio. As a Google for Education Certified Trainer, I conduct Google professional development sessions all around Ohio and across the country. So it is safe to say I think quite a lot about training and what makes it good, what makes it bad, and what can make it better. In addition to being a Google trainer, I am also a “Cord Cutter”. Recently I was considering this and began to see a connection between my changing viewing habits and professional development. Netflix has a unique way of releasing television shows. When Netflix is ready to release a new season of a show they simply release the entire season all at one time. This has lead to what many people call “binge watching”. (search frequency for “binge” in the United States “Arts and Entertainment” category) And I love the binge option. However, sometimes I feel like something is missing. Conclusion
Continuum of Voice: What it Means for the Learner Voice gives learners a chance to share their opinions about something they believe in. We adapted the Continuum of Voice chart we used from research from Toshalis and Nakkula at the Students at the Center in our post Learner Voice Demonstrates Commitment to Building Agency. We added examples that illustrate each level to support implementation using a design by Sylvia Duckworth. Personalize Learning, LLC designed Continuum of Voice adapted from "Motivation, Engagement, & Student Voice" by Toshalis & Nakkula from Students at the Center @StudentcCntrHub - Visual designed by Sylvia Duckworth @sylviaduckworth The learning environment changes as you encourage voice and can see learners taking more control of their learning. This occurs across the Stages of Personalized Learning Environments (PLE) v4. Stage One: Teacher- Centered Environment Stage Two: Learner-Centered Environments Stage Three: Learner-Driven Environments "Young people want to be heard. Toshalis, E. and Nakkula, M."
The Next Generation of (Personalized) Learning We all want our children to receive the best education possible. One of the key questions we’re interested in answering, as a foundation, is “what does high-quality instruction look like in U.S. schools?” And one way we’re looking at answering that question is by looking at the potential of what the foundation calls personalized learning for students. Before we delve into what this looks like for our students, we’ve got to provide some basis for why it’s so critical. Did you know that less than half of the 2012 graduating class that took the ACT college entrance exam scored at the level that predicts earning a “C” or better in math as freshman in college? Sixty years is too long. For more than 150 years, the system has been organized around the idea that students of similar ages should move along together, through the same material, at roughly the same pace. We can all agree that students are individuals with different interests and learning needs.
Classroom Activities for 1:1 & BYOT | Talk Tech With Me In February, our district will begin state testing. Once testing begins, there will be at least one grade level in at least one school in our district testing every single school day until May. This big span of time marks the third round of testing this year. We are not alone. Toss that around in your head for a minute or two. I’ll spare you my soap box about too much testing and where the focus has gone in education; you likely feel the same way (if you’ve got some time, or you’re just as passionate as I am about these issues, I do suggest you head on over to Nancy Chewning’s blog response to TIME Magazine’s Rotten Apples article that was featured in the Washington Post). Teachers are working so hard not to teach to the test, while at the same time making sure students are as prepared as possible for the tests- the scores of which will directly impact their own livelihoods. Take the following example. We learn through experience. So what do you think? Tech To You Later! Like this: