Thankful for Personalized Learning

Thankful for these learners!

All my friends are posting on social media about things they are thankful for, and if you’re like me, then you are probably scrolling through the images reflecting on the way your life has been blessed. Of course I’m thankful for the obvious things such as family and friends...but I started thinking about what makes me feel overwhelmed with thankfulness. You see, usually that word, “overwhelmed,” is used in a way to express the massive amounts of stress we may be feeling due to deadlines, grading, administering assessments, juggling work with a personal life, etc. Well, while that may be true, (and trust, I feel this way A LOT!) I thought maybe it was time to use the word in a positive way. I am overwhelmed with thankfulness.

I am overwhelmed that I get to work in a district that supports innovation. I am overwhelmed that my principal is as passionate as I am about personalized learning. I am overwhelmed that I get to work alongside the best teachers in the field who will stop at nothing to do what’s best for kids.

You see, I’ve talked with a lot of educators from all over the country over the past few years about personalized learning, innovation, and the support they dream of having. I know how blessed we are at Lincoln to be able to do push beyond our limits to see what’s possible.

Finally, I’m thankful to all of you that take your time to read this blog. It’s been awhile since our last post. A ton has changed in the past few months, but I promise we are still doing incredible things, and I will post about all of that after the holiday. I just thought maybe we could reflect on what makes us “overwhelmed” this season. Please leave your comments below! We would love to know what you are thankful for!

The Top 5 End-of-the-School-Year Realizations of a Personalized Learning Classroom

It's been awhile since our last post, and we wanted everyone to know how truly wonderful this year has been!  I've been awake many nights thinking how I could convey the amazingness of this past year, and it hit me...I'll share the top 5 things we've noticed this past few weeks:

We took learning outside the last week of school.  Learners chose reading and math activities all on their own and worked toward their goals independently.  

1. Learners are blowing their goals out of the water!
• I can't express it enough...when kids have choice in their learning, when they are invested in their goals, you CANNOT hold them back.  They are cheering each other on, learning from each other, and pushing themselves to "challenge their brains" as we call it in Team RISE.
2. You are never done creating, tweaking, and changing to make instruction better.
• Wow!  Did my co-teacher and I ever become reflective practitioners this year!  It felt as if every minute of every day was spent discussing how well, or how poorly something went and what we could do in that moment to change it.  A lot of work?  Yup!  Worth it?  You betcha!
3. Teaching is that same at the end of the year as it was 3 months ago.
• What we mean is this:  We are still pushing our learners to do more than they thought possible.  Do we have assessments to give?  Of course we do!  Do the teachers feel overwhelmed by all the deadlines?  You know it!  But the awesome thing that we have noticed, is that the students don't feel that stress.  They are excited to show us what they have learned.  If anything, they beg us to test them next!  Cross my heart, that happens All. The. Time.
4. Learning still happens on the last day of school!
   
• Right now, you're probably thinking that we are crazy.  Kids don't learn on the last day of school!!  Well, in a PL class, they sure do!  Our routine has been the same all year.  We do math in the morning and reading after recess.  Even on the last day of school.  No students even questioned it.  In fact, we had an assembly in the morning, and we had so many kiddos asking us if they could please do an extra reading time after lunch!  OK!  If that's what you want to do on our last day, I'm down with that! :)
5. We can't wait to come back in the fall and do it all again!  Of course there will be improvements, and of course we will share those ideas with you as they come up.  So, stay tuned!

Have a wonderful, restful summer, everyone!

PL Night for Parents

Lincoln recently hosted a Personalized Learning night for parents, and it turned out awesome!  Parents were invited to school for an ice cream sundae bar, as well as a chance experience school through their child's eyes.  
In team RISE, we wanted the learners to take the driving seat and show their parents how they learn, but since they are still so young, we came up with a neat way to guide them by giving the parents a "must do/may do" very similar to the one our learners complete each day.  As soon as a family walked in, we told the learners that their parents needed to complete the "must do/may do" and the kids' jumped right into teaching their parents all about their iPads, their PLP goals, how they use the resources in the room, etc.  It was awesome!  
One of the "must do's" we included was a form to fill out which included questions about their feelings thus far regarding PL, how they feel their child is learning, what they like, what they need more information on...and the feedback we got was overwhelmingly positive!  Here's a few comments to share:
In regards to the question: "What do you like about PL?"
~"I like that Pl teaches him to set goals to obtain success.  It also teaches him independence.  I also like the use of his successes to help other students, this creates pride in the student."
~"(He) has the chance to learn at his pace."
~"My child has the opportunity to make choices and show her learning in a way that is at her pace and based on her own interests and creativity."
~"They set their own goals!"
~"More 1 on 1 time."
~"I like that he is so excited about passing goals."
~"(He) doesn't have to sit still to learn."
~"Learning is catered to each child."
In regards to the question: "What do you like most about the multi-age classroom?"
~"She is helping other kids."
~"Opportunity to teach others."
~"Diversity"
~"How the kids learn from each other."
~"The way the kids all work together as a team."
~"I like that not a single child will be singled out due to excelled or slowed progression in the classroom."
~"My child has the ability to work with and learn from students of varying abilities regardless of their age and grade level."
~"Having 2 teachers."

We also made a video starring our very own learners to give a little insight into how the students are learning.  When we started the video process, we wanted to interview some learners who have had experience in a traditional classroom so they could compare the 2 differing experiences, but we only have 2 kiddos in our entire class of 46 who have experienced a traditional classroom!  What a unique and fun "problem" to have!  When I asked one of the kiddos to tell me about his old school, he said, "You mean WAY back in Kindergarten?"  Haha!  Yeah, WAY back then :)  So, here's what we were able to capture...welcome to a day in the eyes of Team RISE :)

What is Personalized Learning Anyway?

If you're looking for more info on PL for yourself, your colleagues, or for parents, please check out our school's January Lincoln Link which gives a terrific synapsis of PL, what it is, why we do it, how we are implementing it, and what's to come!  There's some great stuff in there :)