I don’t know how many blogs or articles you have read in
your time, but I am pretty sure this one will be significant for you. Why you ask?
This blog has quotes from two female singers named Lordes and Dolly
Parton. Yes, you read that correctly. What
blog could possibly contain quotes from Lordes and Dolly? What else, a blog about personalized
learning.
Personalized learning is all the rage right now. All schools are scrambling to offer a
personalized environment to their students.
For those of you who don’t know what personalized learning is, it is
“instruction paced to learning needs, tailored to learning preferences, and
tailored to specific interests of individual learners.” (National Education
Technology Plan). Giving our students
options and different ways to learn should be the new driving force in
education. The traditional educational
structure that we as adults know is being turned upside down.
-
Give our
students the opportunity to learn what they want, when they want it.
We need to be more flexible with our students and their schedules. Schools need to release the strangle hold on
traditional educational structure. Give
students the responsibility to schedule courses and create their schedules
based on their interests & everyday lives.
If a high school student gets a job that starts at 1:30 pm each day,
wouldn’t it be nice to offer them a list of dual enrollment college courses
that they can take and still get to their job by 1:30 pm each day? You have a student earning college credit, learning
how to manage their time effectively, and working at a job preparing them with
life skills outside of school.
-
Take
advantage of technological resources
Technology, if used correctly, will transform personalized
learning. What are some ways technology
can stretch personalized learning? The
gold standards are devices for students, distance learning equipment,
high-speed bandwidth, and having teachers equipped with the proper
resources. We as educators need to
create more blended learning opportunities for our students. Let’s not focus so much on the distance
learning aspect as much as giving our students the responsibility to complete
their coursework and have an educator facilitate their learning. Aren’t we preparing these students for
college and life? If so, we need to
expect our students to use technology to their benefit so they can grow for
their next phase in life.
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Equality
of student learning
Personalized learning gives all of our students the same
opportunity. If you truly open up the
traditional educational framework and allow our students the opportunity to
take classes from other schools and at different times, all students will have
more opportunities. Students will have more
opportunities to take college classes, to take AP courses, to meet new people
& build personal learning networks, and opportunities to grow as students
and life learners. These additional
opportunities mean our students, as Lordes says, have ”no postcode envy.” Students in Appalachia will have the same
opportunities as students in other districts around the country.
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Troubleshoot,
document, and learn
When you embark on something new, there are always going to
be bumps in the road. We can’t let set
backs limit the opportunities we offer our students. I have to give credit to Dolly Parton, I
think she states it best, “The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta
put up with the rain.” When you use more
technology and increase rigor in the classroom, you will inevitably encounter
issues. We need to move past these and
create opportunities for our students.
-
Transform
learning and teaching and reach out
We all need to develop PLNs and utilize our PLNs. You colleagues will help you grow as an
educator. And I don’t mean the people in
your building, I mean your colleagues from around the world. Ask questions, try new things in the
classroom, go out on a limb: Take Risks!
Use a learning management software tool such as Edmodo to give your
students more responsibility. Transform
your teaching and start using more blended methods. Allow your students to work through problems
and collaborate to get the result.
We need to change our educational philosophy as a
whole. To really make personalized
learning work, we as educators need to increase rigor and increase the
responsibility placed on students. Let’s
get more dual enrollment courses offered for students using innovative
instructional practices. Let’s increase
our collaborating efforts as educators modeling this approach for our
students. Will we have difficult
stretches in the process? Yes, but
always remember what Lordes & Dolly said.
Your students deserve the same opportunities as others. Use the bumps in the road to your advantage
to help students.
