Wowza!

So it’s the beginning of trimester 2, and I don’t know where to start!  The kids in my class are so amazingly smart at this point, that it’s blowing my mind!  They are meeting end-of-the-year expectations left and right.  The most difficult part, recently, has been trying to keep up with where they are going to be.  For example, when your kiddos are flying through sight words, you have to be prepared for the next level.  So making/preparing things for them to be able to reach their new goals has been time-consuming, but amazing all the same!  Who would have ever thought that by December, I would be needing to work on fluency phrases with my kindergartners?!  I don’t care who you are...that’s exciting!  Here's a super cute video of one of my adorable kiddos teaching a little girl how to count by 5's. I caught the tail end of their "lesson," but it was so stinkin' cute...I just have to share!

What’s even more exciting, is that the kids aren't just making academic gains; they are becoming independent in every aspect.  In kindergarten.  At age 5.  Let that sink in.  All the teachers who may be reading this know of the recess struggle this time of year.  It takes the kiddos 15 minutes to put on their snow gear.  You’re ready to pull your hair out because 20 voices are yelling for you to help with mittens, zippers, and good Lord, those snow pants!!  By the time they go outside, they get about 5 minutes to run around before the recess bell rings to come back in and you’re ready for a tall drink!  Well, I don’t want to brag….but I’m the honest one, so I will :)  The very first day we went to put on all the winter gear, I was prepared for the typical whining….but I did nothing.  Nothing.  I literally stood there and watched as every one of my children put on all their own stuff, got ready, and lined up to go outside.  WHAT?!  Well that either had to be a miracle from the big man himself, or it was a fluke.  The next day….same thing!  And it’s not just my class!  Tiff and Alli were both standing in the hallway with their kiddos and we all looked at each other and though, “What is happening?!”  Our only conclusion we can come to, is that the kids are becoming independent in every aspect of their lives.  They are independent learners, and as a result, it is evident in everything they do.  

I recently had a conversation with one of my favorite moms in my class.  She is going to college, has two kiddos, both of which attend our school.  She said something to me about a month ago that really made me happy/thrilled/amazed.  At conferences, we had talked about personalized learning and how it has changed my instruction.  She was like most parents and listened quietly, nodded her head, then left.  She texted me a few days later and said that she’s been thinking about personalized learning.  She thought about how awesome it is for her boys...but more importantly, it’s made her think about the way she learns.  What?!!?  How amazing!  So, the way we teach kindergarten is causing her to think about the best way to learn for herself...in college...OMG!  That’s amazing!    

I can’t tell you enough times….personalized learning is the BEST way to teach.  I will never, ever, ever go back to the old “sit and get” way of teaching.  It’s a ton of work in the beginning (literally), but sooooooooooooo worth it.  So, my challenge to you is this:  What is one thing that you can change this month?  It doesn’t have to be huge, or life altering.  Just one thing that moves your kids in the direction of taking responsibility for their learning.  I guarantee you will see a change.  In the words of Nike, Just Do It!

October Conferences

We just finished up October conferences at our school and, holy cow, was it awesome!  I finally had time to sit down with each of my students’ parents to discuss this crazy thing called “personalized learning.”  I was super nervous to even bring it up.  I mean, what were the parents going to say?  Would they see the benefit?  Would they understand why I would try something like this?  Would they run screaming to the principal to remove their child from my crazy class?  Of course not.  As a matter of fact, it went super.  Great.  Wonderfully terrific.  

I like to start conferences by having all the items I want to cover with the parents in a folder, easily accessible.  That way, I won’t forget what to say.  So, I wrote up a quick blurb about personalized learning, what it is, and a link to this very blog.  So if you’re checking out the blog, parents, this is all about YOU!  I then explained to them how their child is learning in the class, how it looks differently than when we were in kindergarten, and how their child is improving.  Normally, at this conference in October, I show the assessments from the beginning of the year, talk about some of the gains they may have made, and then explain how I expect them to make much bigger gains by the end of the trimester.  You know, the usual.  The amazing thing about this year, though, is that ALL my kids have made HUGE gains already!  There’s no need to hope for an improvement, because they have already grown significantly!  I mean, kids who came into kindergarten with NO sounds, NO letter recognition, NO number recognition, and couldn’t count past 10, are suddenly able to count to 100, know most letter sounds, and can name all capitals and lowers!!  Let me be honest (since that’s what I do best) not all of my students are there yet, but most of them are.  And even with most of them achieving this much, this soon, it’s enough to make me literally tear up from excitement and joy!  So, with that kind of data to back me up, no parent was going to say they wish I would go back to the old ways of teaching where I stand at the front and they have to sit perfectly to listen in order to learn.  I even had parents ask if their child could be in a class like this next year!  That made me happy to think that they saw the merit in the method this soon in the year and want to see it continue.  

The point of this post….I’m so excited that my students and their parents are starting to get just as excited as I am about personalized learning!  I hope you’re getting excited too!

Important

When I started thinking about Personalized Learning last year I had no idea how amazing it was going to be.  Everyday I find myself thinking wow, this is incredible. In fact, I found myself with tears in my eyes last Friday afternoon in my classroom.  The tears came after a week where I had multiple kids not only meet their goals, but double their letter goals, Double!  I had kids come up to me asking if they could work on their goals not only during choice time, but also during their snack.  After a week when one child who came into kindergarten knowing just three sounds meet her goal of 12 then reset her goal for 20, because she wanted to work hard to “be advanced.”  She then worked so hard this week she met that goal and reset her goal to learn 30 letter sounds because she didn't want to stop at 26.  After a week when one child saw another child try to meet their goal and miss it by just one letter and the observing child came over, gave him a pat on the back and said, “keep working hard I know you can do it, I’m proud of you.”  The tears came after a Friday afternoon when Carrie excitedly came into my room because she couldn't wait to tell me about a child in her room who made HUGE gains and blew her goals away.  The tears came as I watched a 5-year-old come skipping over to a chair by me because he was so excited, yes excited, to take a test and show me what he could do.  He sat in the chair bouncing and smiling as he said every single lowercase letter and then proceeded to say every single letter sound including sh, ch, and th.  I could not help myself as I watched him because he was so unbelievable confident in himself, he knew the expectations, knew his goals, knew he had been working hard, and knew he could do it.  Then the tears escaped when I asked him to get his iPad so I could see his goal because, I was sure he had just crushed it.  He opened his iPad and I could not find the icon for the Slides App.  He said, “Miss Arnold it is important so I put it down here,” pointing at the tray on the bottom of the iPad screen.  Yup, that statement on top of a week full of affirmations that this is truly what my classroom needs sent a tear down my cheek.  This child’s recognition that his goals are, “important.”

WE ARE DOING MORE THAN JUST SURVIVING!!!

So, we are a month in and OMG we are all still alive! ;)  Just kidding! Seriously though, all drama aside, I was a little nervous...okay, EXTREMELY nervous to go into this school year with no behavior system.  I thought, "There is NO way!".

Alli and Carrie, fellow kindergarten teachers (#BEST-TEAM-EVER), tried to sell me on the idea and sent me blogs and other articles that were in support of eliminating behavior systems similar to the one we have used in the past.  I've been teaching kindergarten for eight years and for all of those eight years we've used a "Beehive" as our behavior system and tweaked it along the way.  For the past two years, our behavior system looked like this, all bees start in the beehive or on green at the beginning of each day and move up the rainbow to blue and purple if the student makes positive choices and down to yellow, orange, and red if making negative choices.  Before that, for the other six years, the rainbow stopped at green and the students making positive choices just stayed on green...day after day after day.  It was extremely difficult for me to redirect the students making negative choices, by only focusing on their negative behavior all day long.  I was giving them the attention they wanted and needed, but for all the wrong reasons.  On the flip side, it was even more difficult keeping the students who were making positive choices engaged and motivated to continue to make those good choices.  But why would they, they saw all of the attention the other students were getting.   That behavior system and philosophy sounds so completely absurd to me now looking back on it.  I can't imagine redirecting and acknowledging only negative behavior all day long... How draining.  So, the addition of the blue and purple seemed like a super fantastic idea.  Little did I know, that I wasn't focusing on the root of the problem.  It wasn't the kids making the positive choices or the kids making the negative choices.  It wasn't even the KIDS!!!!  IT WAS ME!!!!  ME?!  Yeah, I know!!  Shocker, huh?!

I would have never come to that conclusion if I wouldn't have read the blogs and articles that were shared with me.  After reading them, I was totally and completely SOLD on the idea...well, in theory.  It took 27 very long school days to re-program my brain and shift the way I think as a teacher.  Yes, a teacher and not just a teacher, but a good teacher.  Looking back, as it related to behavior, I don't think I was even being a teacher as much as I was just an OBSERVER.  Think about it.  I observed the behavior and then I moved a bee.  It didn't matter if it was positive or negative.  I provided them feedback with the bee being moved either in one direction or the other just by seeing or hearing about the behavior from other teachers and sometimes even from..."GASP"...their tattle tailing classmates!  No discussion really, just seeing and doing.  It was a crutch.  You get busy with the tasks at hand and the hustle and bustle of the day and it just becomes a reaction.  Move the bee and move on to the next thing.  The saddest part is, that at the end of the day when a child's bee was on orange or red or even blue or purple, not only could the student not remember why their bee was on that color, but neither could I.  How was I going to provide feedback to the parents?  How were the students going to learn from their mistakes or behavior to not continue to make those poor choices?  How and why would the good behavior continue and the poor behavior stop if I continued with this behavior system that provided extrinsic, meaningless recognition and feedback and most importantly, for those students who were consistently on orange and red, a public display of humiliation?

So with all of that being said, what am I doing now?  Well, I am explaining to them what the expectations are and what they look like, sound like, and feel like.  If I see positive behavior, I acknowledge it and provide immediate praise and feedback and discuss and describe it to the whole group.  I praise students individually with a hug, a high five, and/or use kind, caring, encouraging words to thank them for making such a good choice.  I use words like "Respectful", "Responsible", and "Safe".  I am trying to TEACH them that making good choices feels good and that feeling good about your choices is the best reward.  Better than any extrinsic reward that they could possibly get from me or anyone else.  I have also tried to shift away from redirecting behavior that is not impeding the learning of others.  I am more of a distraction to the other 21 students, who are engaged and listening, than that of the 1 students' behavior, if I continuously interrupt my own lesson to ask a student to sit on their pockets criss-cross-applesauce.  This is working for approximately 80% of the students in my classroom and supports the tiered Response to Intervention Model.

The other 15% of my class is responding to the 1-2-3 Magic Strategy in addition to the previously mentioned strategies.  In my classroom, this strategy sounds like, "(Student's name), the expectation is (what I would like them to do, but are currently not)." [Brief pause to see if they comply.] "That's 1."  [Brief pause to see if they comply.]  "That's 2."  [Brief pause to see if they comply.]  "(Student's name), if I say three (realistic immediate consequence)."  [Brief pause to see if they comply.]  "That's 3."  [Immediately enforce the consequence.]

For the other 5%, which is 1 student, I met with a team of teachers, students services staff, and the child's parent(s) to create a more individualized behavior plan for that student to be and feel successful in the classroom.

Now, after only 27 very short days of school and shifting my old way of thinking for the last eight years, I look ahead at the way I am currently addressing student behaviors and I can't imagine doing it any other way.  I refuse to be an "Observer".  I choose to be a TEACHER!!

Classroom Environment

On the journey to personalizing our classrooms a major change was our classroom environments.  I got a text from Carrie one day while she was attending a conference with Tiff.  She said they had heard a speaker talk about getting rid of desks and setting up a comfortable learning environment and both she and Tiff had been contemplating the same thing.  Well unbeknownst to her, I had just left IKEA with a rather large purchase of new items specifically for redesigning my classroom space.  That is one of the many amazing things about our Kindergarten team, we may go about things in a different way, but for the most part we are all on the same page.  Sometimes it is hard to jump on board with something new, i.e. personalized learning, but we all support each other and are always willing to try whatever it takes to meet the needs of our children.

One of the main reasons to change our classroom environments was to foster collaboration and creativity.  Our goal is for the children to take responsibility and ownership of their learning.  How can they do that confined to space that does not belong to them?  We designed our classrooms to feel more like a living room than a classroom.  I don't know about you, but at home I am rarely sitting up straight at the table not looking at anyone.  On the rare occasion that I am sitting at the table there is typically someone sitting across from me that I can talk to.  More often I am sitting on the couch, or laying on the floor while doing my work.  In order to create that same environment at school we first got rid of our seating arrangements with labeled spots and all of the children facing one direction.  The children have control over where they sit and when they sit there.  The tables are now a place for collaboration, the chairs face each other instead of all pointing at the teacher.  We brought in green plants and lamps to brighten the spaces.  Here are some images of each classroom space:

Alli's Classroom:
     I changed the paper on my bulletin boards to be a calmer color and left them blank, for the most part.  I want the children to feel the classroom is not my classroom, but our classroom.  The boards in my kitchen area will feature pictures of our class, their families, and their buddies.  This is where I also put my calendar.  I like the idea of having the calendar visible in the classroom but did not want to use that in addition to my SmartBoard calendar.  I created QR codes with links to our calendar songs such as days of the week, and months of the year in both English and Spanish.  One of the boards will be our word wall.  This year I used AR Flashcards as the letters.  Using this app the children can hover over a letter and an animal will pop up telling the letter and the animal with the same beginning sound.  I wanted to create numerous spaces for collaboration and also cozy reading areas.  Instead of my usual large bookshelf with numerous boxes full of books I added short bookshelves with fewer books.  Already in this first week I have had more children looking at books and I believe it is because they are easier to find and look more appealing presented this way.  One small change that has made a large impact is the blue basket of clipboards.  The children have the option of working wherever they would like and many times that means they need a clipboard to write on.  The blue basket has been a huge hit!  In the science center I used chalkboard contact paper on the table.  To begin the year I have just a few science materials out but even with few materials the center is always full of students exploring with what they have.

Carrie's Classroom:
I really wanted the kids to feel at home, feel happy, and feel motivated.  I decided to have my super crafty sister-in-law make some awesome posters of inspirational quotes...not because the kids can read them yet, but because I read them everyday to myself and the kids.  Who wouldn't be motivated and inspired after hearing how awesome you are everyday?

Tiff's Classroom:
Creating a calm and cozy atmosphere has been a gradual process for me.  I tried to get a little bit at a time due to cost, but ended up getting most of the lamps and the couches from family and friends that were just going to get rid of them or were just sitting in a basement being unused.  I also purchased the plants on sale at the end of the season which helped to keep the cost down as well.  We are very fortunate to have very large windows in our kindergarten classrooms which brings in a lot of natural light.  Each of rectangular tables in the room has a potted plant in the center.  I was originally very hesitant to do this because of the possibility of the them being a distraction and the potential mess if they were to get tipped over or the students digging in the dirt, but this has yet to be an issue.  When I brought the couches into the classroom, it was a very exciting day.  The students all sat and squeezed onto them and made comments like, "I feel like I'm at home!" and "It's like we are a big family!"  I was so excited to hear that they were feeling that way.  In that moment, it totally validated my reasons for changing the environment and made the time and money spent to change it so completely worth it!

O.M.G! Every student on task?!

Today was the first day that I let my kids "loose" with their PLP's (Personalized Learning Plans).  I had previously met with each child, individually, to set their goals.  I assessed them on counting, number recognition, shapes, alphabet recognition, letter sounds, and sight words.  From there, I helped them devise an appropriate goal for them to work on independently.  Since they are 5, it was more like me guiding (telling) them what their goal should be.  Then I put together their PLP's.  The kids know that these folders are for them.  They are their goals for learning.  In it, there are worksheets, word lists, letter recognition sheets, and QR codes.  I'm sure I will add to it as the year progresses :)
So today, I gave them their PLP's and told them to look through them and see what they noticed...well of course, they ALL noticed the QR codes, so I went with it.  I told them they could spend some time working on their goals and use the QR codes if they wanted to.  They all grabbed their iPads and this is what happened:  They worked hard, got excited, shared their goals with neighbors, and practiced skills THEY wanted to practice!  It didn't last too long, probably only 20 minutes or so, but I was thrilled!  Every child was on task and so interested in what they were doing!  It was a lot of work to get to this point, and I'm sure there will be many more struggles, let me be honest, but look at these pictures! 

 

Crate Seats

Using one of our favorite tools, Pinterest, Carrie found instructions on how to make crate seats for each child.  We made crates for each child and they will be able to use the crates anywhere in the room.  The crates also create a storage space for all of their individual Personalized Learning materials.  We were able to make 72 crates in one fun-filled Friday.  I think after hearing our plans to use power tools our principal was a little concerned for our safety and let us borrow a staple gun which made the process much faster.  The above link was what we based our idea on, but the following is how we made our seats.

We planned to make enough crates in case of high classroom numbers and it ended up being a good plan because we have a lot more children this year.  If following the link above, she made 8 crates for her classroom.  I am not going to lie, we did not take the cheap route in redesigning our classrooms!  So we each planned to make 24 crates, here are the supplies we needed:

-24 crates
-6 yards of fabric
-15-30 yards of ribbon, depending on different ways to make the handle
-5 foam mattress toppers (we used 5 altogether, so that was for 72 crates)
-Wood cut into pieces based on the measurements of your crates
-Staple Gun

If you are the type of person that likes precise directions and measurements, this is not the how-to for you :)  We measured the top of the crates and used that measurement to cut the wood boards.  Once that was done we then used the wood boards to measure our foam pieces.  We used a marker to trace the wood boards and were able to get 15 foam squares out of each mattress topper.  For the fabric we laid it on the floor, then put the foam and wood on top of it.  That's how we measured how much fabric was needed.  Tiff went above and beyond and also bought plastic shower curtains as a protective cover over her seats.  Once we had all of our pieces we put our handy-woman skills to the test and used a staple gun to secure the fabric and foam to the boards.  We finished each seat by adding a piece of ribbon either across the top, or as a loop on the sides so the children could lift the seat off of their crate.

  I know this how-to will not will any awards and my grandma, who taught me how to quilt, would be appalled at my measuring techniques.  However, it got the job done and our crates look fantastic!  To see more pictures of our finished crates check our our classroom environments post.

Whoops! Learn from our mistakes!!

So, everything didn't go exactly as we had imagined!  Who knew?!  But we've made some changes since then.  Here is a list of things thus far that have gone wrong, and what we did to change them!  Always good to learn from others’ mistakes, right?  Well here’s a long list of lessons for you!

1. QR Codes for behavior

We thought we would be super amazing and make some QR Codes for our kiddos who needed reminders for behaviors.  Sounds smart right?  Well, what we failed to think of was this...when a child scans a QR Code that send them to YouTube, they are now able to click on a thousand other videos from there.  As you can imagine, some of these should never be ventured while at school...so we had to intervene.  We quickly changed all the QR Codes to links that were “quiet” instead of straight to YouTube.  If you don’t know about this trick, all you do is go to a YouTube video you want to show, then type in the word “quiet” right in front of the word “YouTube” in the address.  For instance, if the URL you want to use is this:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UU4FKj0OmWs, and you want it to be shown without all the comments, videos on the side, and advertisements, you type “quiet” in front of “YouTube” making the new URL this:  https://www.quietyoutube.com/watch?v=UU4FKj0OmWs.  Now the video can be viewed without distractions!  If you would like a copy of our behavior QR Codes to use in your own classroom, they can be found here!

  2.   Telling the kids, “You can sit anywhere you want!”

While this sounds like a GREAT idea, we found that some kindergartners are incapable of being able to handle this kind of freedom right away.  It would be silly to make every child have to go to a “table spot” or have a certain spot on the carpet for just a few kiddos who need those parameters, so we decided to give only the kiddos who needed some structure the structure they needed for now.  It doesn't mean they will always have a spot on the carpet, but it does mean that until they can learn and abide by the expectations, they will have a spot just for them!

On a side note, a really simple way to lay out expectations about the physical environment of the classroom was to actually walk through the classroom with the students and model what learning would look like in each area.  For example, asking and role playing what learning would look like on the carpet if they wanted to sit on their crates, lay on the floor, or sit on the floor.  Then  I had the kiddos show me what it would look like and I took their picture following that expectation.  Now a picture is hanging from the smartboard to remind them what we learned.  HUGE difference...and DUH!  That should have been discussed the first day of school.

3. I absolutely love that my kiddos feel so comfortable and cozy in the new classroom environment that they always want to take their shoes off, because that IS what I was going for, but unfortunately because they are kindergartners and about 80% of them still can not tie, untie, or put on their shoes, I have decided that they need to keep their shoes on until they learn to put on their own shoes and tie them.  There have been multiple occasions where we are needing to leave the room in a timely manner to get to a special or heaven forbid get outside quickly due to an unexpected fire drill….Thank goodness the latter has not occurred YET, but it will; it is only a matter of time.  Due to the time it takes to help them untie the double, sometimes triple knots, that their parent or I have tied in their shoes to prevent them from coming untied repeatedly throughout the day because they just yank their feet out quickly, then help them to loosen the laces so that they can put their shoes on, only to then tighten up the laces to tie them back into double, sometime triple knots, I have just decided for the time being, until there are more classmate “experts” to help with this process, to not allow them to take their shoes off in class.  They now know though, that in order to be able to take their shoes off they must know how to put them on and tie them themselves.  It’s a GOAL and they are excited to accomplish it to earn that privilege back.

The First Days...

Over the summer, we started reading some very interesting blogs that talked about behavior management in the classroom.  We previously used a “bee chart” in our classes, and I’m sure you have seen, or you may have seen something similar.  Each child had a bee and when they made a choice that was respectful, responsible, or safe, we would move their bee up to blue and then to purple.  End their day on purple, and they would get to pick a prize from the prize box.  On the other hand, make poor choices that were not respectful, responsible, or safe, and their bee would move down the rainbow to yellow, orange, and eventually red.  End their day on red, and they would have to take a note home to be signed.  We had been using this system for quite some time now and really knew something needed to change.  You typically have the same kiddos always getting their bee moved down, and the same kids always getting their bee moved up in a public display.  While we had hoped that adding the colors blue and purple we would focus more on the positives, we still found the negatives were getting more attention.  I won’t really go into too much more detail about the systems we used, but I do encourage you to take a look at the blogs referenced in the beginning of this paragraph.  I will tell you it was amazingly eye opening.  With that said, here’s what happened on the first days of school.

I don't know about y'all, but the first few days of the school year are always crazy in our world!  You never know what's going to happen.  Especially in Kindergarten!  Some of the kiddos have never been in school, some are leaving their parents for the first time, and some are so ready for school that they blow you away with their maturity at five years old.  Well, this year was no exception.  We invited our kindergarten families in for a "Brave-On-My-First-Day" breakfast, followed by a story and lots of hugs, kisses, and tears.  This initial portion of our day was pretty much the same way it has been for the past 10 years. . . and then EVERYTHING changed.

I can't even begin to tell you how difficult it was the first day to bite my tongue when those typical "annoying" behaviors started to come out.  Yelling out, wanting to play instead of listen, wandering the classroom.... So here's what was the most difficult thing of the whole day:  Letting go of those behaviors and letting the students take control of their learning environment.  I cannot stress to you how mentally draining the day was!  Every few minutes, I would catch myself about to redirect a child for lying on the carpet rather than sitting up, or wanting to sit at the back of the classroom while I was giving instructions by the SmartBoard.  I had to constantly remind myself that just because they weren't physically where most of their peers were didn't mean that they weren't listening!  One adorable child was lying on the floor with a pillow over his head for most of the morning and was still able to complete all of his tasks for the day without any struggle from me or from him!  He ended his day feeling great, not beaten down, so I say that’s a SUCCESS!!  It’s just the beginning, and yes, it is difficult to retrain our brains, but it’s easier for the kids.  And after all, isn’t that what our focus should be?  Lifting them up, not tearing them down.  Alright Monday...bring it on!

Why the Change?

In order to answer why, according to Ken Robinson, I have joined the learning revolution I have to look back to January of last year when I considered taking a break from teaching.  It has always been a dream of mine to move somewhere far from Wisconsin, just for a little while.  Well last year was not the easiest and I was questioning if kindergarten was where I really belonged.  That being said, when I got the opportunity to move to Australia to be an au pair(nanny), I accepted with open arms.  That is a long story however, it ended up falling through and to my surprise I felt relieved.  As I reflected on my feelings to decide if I would look for other opportunities in Australia or stay at the school I loved, I really had to figure out what was causing my anxiety with kindergarten.  I absolutely love, love, love my school!!!  I have a fantastic kindergarten team, amazing teachers all around me, support staff who keep me sane, and an administration that truly supports, challenges, and advocates for me.  Why then did I want to leave?! That's what I realized, I do not want to leave but, I do want to make a change.

I love technology and experimenting with new ideas.  When I heard about personalized learning during a professional development I knew this was the direction I wanted to head.  My nights and weekends turned into time for research and I found myself lost in blog after blog about integrating technology, differentiation, and personalized learning.  I have listened to so many Ted talks I started dreaming about them.  Through all of this I decided personalized learning truly is best for each child and for me.  I believe differentiation is a best practice and should be in every classroom.  At first I thought of personalized learning as differentiation however, I now realize differentiation is still more of a whole group approach whereas personalized learning truly meets the needs of each individual.  While listening to Ken Robinson’s Ted talks, and reading about education in Finland everything I was hearing made sense.  I found myself asking why wasn't I doing this already?  A  teaching strategy that engages each child, fosters creativity and independence, and reduces negative behaviors.  Yes please, sign me up.  So that is one of my goals this year, to implement personalized learning, and it has been a lot of work but I believe it will be worth it in the end.  

Carrie's Brutally Honest Thoughts About Personalized Learning in the Kindergarten Classroom ;)

Someone recently asked me, “Why personalized learning in kindergarten?”  Well, my response is a lengthy one, so grab a cup of coffee and relax as you read the longest response ever written!

It all started about a year ago.  Our principal, innovation specialist, and academic learning coach all went to visit a school in West Allis, WI and came back over ecstatic about something called “personalized learning.”  I’m not going to lie to you, the first time I heard about it, I wanted to scream!  No way was I going to make individual goals for every child in my class!  I have 24 kids, how on earth would anyone find enough time in the day to do such a crazy thing?  Right?  I’m sure most of you are feeling the very same way that I was.  Why fix what wasn't broken?  Exactly how I felt. Until I reflected on this past school year…

Ever have those days when you feel like all you do is get frustrated, raise your voice, and are so emotionally drained you can’t even function when you get home?  Well I sure did.  And it felt like it was the majority of the year.  I didn't relish those feelings so I wanted to do something about them.  Just like any other teacher would do, I sat down and thought about the common denominators.  For the most part, it was the behavior in the class.  When I thought about behaviors, I started to wonder what I could do differently.  I realized that I couldn't change the environment my kids were coming from, but I could change the environment they were coming to.  So I brainstormed some ideas, read some articles, stalked some amazing blogs, and created the “perfect classroom” in my head.  And guess what?  The perfect classroom meant that all my kids would be learning as much as they could, would be challenged, and be comfortable while doing it.  And Lord help me if that didn't mean I was going to be implementing personalized learning.  Ugh!  I know!  It shocked me too...and I’m not going to lie, it has been a ton of work...but it’s what’s best for kids.  And isn't that what we are all here for anyway?  If we keep on doing the same things we have always done, we will never see growth.  The old ways may not be broken, but they sure can be improved upon.  Horses weren't broken but Karl Benz invented the automobile.  

I encourage you to read up on personalized learning, challenge yourself to try small aspects of it.  If you’re skeptic, you’re not alone.  Read our blog and laugh along with us as we experiment.  I’m sure there will be plenty of failures along the way.  But then again, to fail greatly is to achieve greatly.  Those aren't my words.  They are probably Abraham Lincoln’s…or Kid President’s.  Either way, here’s to a great school year!

About Us/Contact Info

We started our journey as a team of kindergarten teachers teaching at Lincoln Elementary School in Janesville, WI.  2 years ago, we started our technology journey with 5 iPads in each classroom.  Last year we jumped into a one-to-one technology pilot for our district.  Also, a few years ago, we really challenged our 5 and 6 year-olds and were amazed at the things we could do together, so last year, we decided to really challenge ourselves by implementing Personalized Learning, and a new science curriculum along with our technology.  It turned out to be even more amazing than we could have ever thought possible!  Now we are on to a new, even bigger challenge...each of us are taking on a new adventure in the School District of Janesville.  Alli will be teaching in a 4/5 Personalized Learning, multi-age classroom at Lincoln Elementary.  Carrie will be teaching K/1 in a Personalized Learning, multi-age classroom at Lincoln, and Tiffany will be teaching 6th grade Comm. Arts in a Personalized Learning classroom at Franklin Middle School in Janesville.  We can't wait to share all the awesomeness that is going to unfold this year as we continue to tell you the honest and dirty truth about Personalized Learning!  Follow along with us on our "Journey to Greatness!"

Alli, Tiffany, and Carrie

To contact us:
Carrie Mergen
cmergen@janesville.k12.wi.us
Twitter: @Carriemergen

Alli Arnold
aarnold@janesville.k12.wi.us
Twitter: @AlliArnold1

Tiffany Redieske
tredieske@janesville.k12.wi.us
Twitter: @Tiff_Redieske