Tag Archives: differentiation

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Professional Learning – Personalized/Individualized – just like students need and deserve

“If you don’t take chances, you’ll never make advances. ”
– Unknown

Your Philosophy of professional learning
What is the philosophy or foundation of your professional development?/learning If you have not considered this – now is a great time to do so. Connect your values and beliefs and philosophies with all that you do – lead authentically. Have you led a values exercise recently – or ever – with your leaders? Get a stack of index cards, list common values (integrity, honesty, achievement, etc.) work with yourself and your leadership team to identify your top three to five values – are you leading according to these values? Have you shared your top values with your team? Connect with others is authentic when you know yourself and you are true to yourself. Over the past two years our leaders have gone through various iterations of values exercises. When you know your values you lead based upon your values – share them out and be authentic!

Over the years I have discovered that the superintendent who is connected with her/his stakeholders demonstrates how to meet the needs of the adult learners in the organization so that they may be supported in meeting the needs of the children. For schools to change – for school systems to change – for INSTRUCTION to change – so must our concept of training. Training is any type of adult learning situation that the superintendent and her/his team establish and create for those in the organization. To steal a catchy phrase from a big company … we simply need to “just do it” and the “training” might just become a learning experience! When using a committee or using survey data and sharing the data in a feedback loop to show what people said and identify how that feedback was used to design the learning opportunities it is essential to communicate.

Training needs to match the needs of the stakeholders, just like students should be in classrooms where their individual needs should be met, the superintendent must champion a professional environment where the individual needs of teachers must also be met. To change the concept of training requires courage, support, assistance and collaboration. Asking teachers to help lead courses, workshops, etc. is an actionable first step in the quest for a redesigned professional development concept.

Superintendents should be present and participate in training and development alongside teachers and others so that they may lead and learn and live via the lenses of those with whom they seek to impact. Varied professional learning options must be considered, from after school, to rotations based upon planning periods, to release time, to summer/weekend work – the learning must be “just in time” and convenient for those who need the learning. The concepts of “flipped” learning are taking hold and getting more popular – these are evolving times and many modes of training are changing and evolving. Leaders must be open to new ways.

Professional learning is changing. In our District, @DPS109, we have had two annual Teaching and Learning conferences where teachers were able to select the learning they needed, at their level of engagement and skill and depth of knowledge, from among a robust menu of learning sessions. These sessions were related to District initiatives in standards based grades, integrated technology, digital learning, and other “best practices” and District guided options.

Our teachers deserve personalized learning pathways just like our students deserve individualized learning options. Our professional learning is geared toward multiple levels of development, skills, etc. We must model professional learning so that we can expect personalized student learning.

Leading in a culture of connectivity means getting involved in the profession, like #suptchat on Twitter …

It’s good to reflect professionally to ensure your actions and plans are aligned with your values – from time to time I suggest we all stop and consider who we are!

whoareyou

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Modern world is technology infused – Meet the needs of all learners

“The best kids are going to become the best. But the best thing about it is that you’re going to learn lessons in playing those sports about winning and losing and teamwork and teammates and arguments and everything else that are going to affect you positively for the rest of your life.”
-Carl Lewis

From time to time people ask “why did you go 1:1?”, or “what are the students getting out of all of this technology?”, or “what is our return on investment (ROI)?”. For me and educational leaders all over the world there are many reasons. I have been a champion of and for individualized expression and differentiated learning since I set foot in my first 8th grade social studies classroom in 1993. With the U.S. History Workshop instructional model students had guided practice, options in assessment, consistent expectations – high expectations for all – and we brought history alive so to speak. An amplifier for student learning was is and continues to be technology tools. Do you remember Netscape? I do – Do you remember HyperStudio>? – I do – Do you remember music/video clips to aid instruction (we still do with Discovery Education for example).

I’m proud to lead the 1:1 transformative learning movement in Deerfield with the outstanding leaders and teachers with whom I work every day because our students – like all students – deserve a world class education and learning environment.

Though I’m somewhat conservative in many ways, as a leader my record shows that more often than not I challenge the norm. I read a lot as most educational leaders do, and I aim to engage, inspire, and empower each and every person with whom I work and interact. Thankfully the Board of Education at DPS109 “gets it” and supports that our change and transformation is part of the new normal that we are creating and more importantly we are allowing our students to create.

At a conference recently I was reminded of some deeply relevant and comprehensive studies conducted by Apple including their 1985-1997 longitudinal study of the “why” in terms of using technology tools to amplify and expand student learning opportunities and teacher pedagogical opportunities. In brief, as the speaker shared, the study found that engaged learners supported by great teachers learn more than disengaged learners with not so great teachers. A great deal of engagement is shown to take place when technology and personalization are infused in the learning environment. That is the environment I want in every classroom every day – ENGAGE, Inspire and Empower is our mission/vision/tag line. Engagement is key – excellence is key as well.

The speaker went on to share the key findings from their follow up study from Apple’s Classroom of Tomorrow Today – 2008-2010. Not surprisingly, findings included that student growth and learning is most impacted when the learning environment is: creative, relevant, collaborative, and challenging. High expectations and challenging learning exercises support learning and growth.

Especially in our new leadership experience in DPS109 we review, consider, analyze and refresh the dialogue about our Vision -Why does our institution exist?

Our institution (Public school district) exists so that teachers may teach and students may learn. In addition we exist to allow teachers to provide excellent personalized learning with the best and most effective and impactful methods, resources, plans, and partners. I want our teachers and students to stretch their abilities and growth beyond where they are – technology amplifies – technology tools transform – technology tools open doors that exist all around us and infuse our lives. The partnership of teachers, students, community in support of relevant, challenging and modern learning environments – these are cornerstones of our educational mission, vision, values and goals.

A hot topic is how to meet the needs of different learners in the same classroom. There are volumes of literature and research about this topic, for the purpose of the blog and for this post in particular, I share a term I learned at the leadership institute:

Targeted Pedagogy – (instead of personalized learning or differentiated instruction)

We contemplated a very realistic Personalized Learning Challenge – We consider a typical 5th grade classroom in “anytown” USA (or Canada, Australia, the UK, etc.). This is a classroom where one child is reading at 1st gr and one at 8th grade level, one is reading at the 12+ grade level. With 23 learners, in my opinion, teachers need technology tools to transform the learning experience so the “normal” class can target pedagogy to challenge and meet the needs to close gaps for all children regardless of their individual reading level and remediate 1st grade level. I’ve written about the vast resources our Board provides for our teachers in that we are starting to learn how to leverage individual learning paths based upon valid and reliable metrics so that students are reinforced and challenged for growth and new learning each and every day.

A challenge shared with us at the conference was to ask teachers to shed their rooms of their file cabinets … reach out into the future – not the past – to curate, create, collaborate, and construct learning environments where each and every child is taken from their point to points far beyond any limits.

Engage, Inspire, Empower

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Journey toward meeting the needs of all learners

In this blog post my aim is to share a personal journey and the relationship of video and technology in meeting the needs of all learners. The overall purpose of this blog post is related in part to my participation in the Blogamonth Challenge, #Blogamonth on Twitter, and http://blogamonth.weebly.com/ on the web.

I’m participating in the Blogamonth Challenge, and this month’s optional topic is: “Great movies challenge our thinking, speak to our emotions, and take us to distant worlds both historical and fantastic.  Integrating the power of videos into your classroom, professional development, and/or school culture offers even greater potential impact as there is the opportunity to reflect, discuss, and critique the quality and message of the video.

Suggest one – two of your favorite videos (Ted Talks, YouTube Clips, Vimeos, Movie Clips…etc) that you have used in your school setting, and share how you used it. Explain how incorporating this visual into your presentation or lesson has helped you to achieve your goals.”

The journey began in 1993 when I first stepped into the classroom at Blackhawk Middle School in Bensenville, Illinois. We’ll fast forward to an experience from 1995 which was pivotal in my journey toward meeting the diverse learning needs of all learners with whom I had the honor of teaching.

In 1995 I attended a professional development 5-day workshop led by Dr. T. Roger Taylor (link to his website). The point of this workshop was for me, then a middle school social studies teacher and district K-8 social studies coordinator, to learn how to integrate video clips, audio clips and H.O.T.S. (higher order thinking skills) into all units and lessons of study. This was in the early days of the “standards movement” and the change in Illinois from IGAP to ISAT (we’re now watching the ISAT go the way of the IGAP in favor of the PARCC) … but I digress … The Roger Taylor unit/lesson planning was also a way to get “general education teachers” like me to DIFFERENTIATE instruction. Differentiation is a “buzz word” and an oft misunderstood concept in education. Meeting the needs of ALL learners is a goal of instruction and an often elusive goal for many teachers.

Using video clips (1995) to You Tube (2014) in and of themselves will not be sufficient to reach and motivate and challenge each and every learner. But the use of multiple modes of content delivery and use of multiple ways for children to show learning WILL lead to meeting the different needs of all learners. In my classrooms where I taught, in social studies, I always had multiple levels of ability. As a recipient of an Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA) Caring Enough To Challenge Award early in my career I realized the value of meeting the needs of the highly gifted in a differentiated classroom. As a teacher of children with special needs, regular needs, and every need in between, I learned the value of lessons learned from Roger Taylor and others of differentiated learning.

One of the major “disruptors”, or “game changers” in education, and in my experiences as a teacher and as an educational administrator is TECHNOLOGY. Flash forward to 2011, as seen and read in the linked video I made regarding district/school technology integration: VIDEO LINK. The power of Technology to motivate learners is easier to see and feel and study and observe than the power of technology (and the tools related to technology) to meet the needs of all learners.  Returning to this month’s Blogamonth Challenge, I’m sharing the reasoning behind the linked video above from 2011. I share this video here – not for shameless self-promotion – but instead to show how a teacher who learns, grows, and becomes a school district superintendent (me) continues the journey to share with broader audiences tools, strategies, methods, ideas, values, goals, and aspirations all centered around the eye on the prize – the prize is learning for ALL students. The most effective way to get there is through carefully and thoughtfully planned out lessons and units and assessments designed to meet the varied learning needs and ability levels of all students!

An additional use of video is linked here to a ROUGH Udemy course I created – emphasis on ROUGH … The point of sharing this set of videos and embryonic entry into online learning with Udemy is an effort to show a unit planning process that like the Roger Taylor work, was instrumental in supporting and sustaining a rigorous course that was designed with multiple student ability levels at the beginning, middle, and end. I used the workshop in 6th grade world history as well as in 8th grade U.S. history (the 8th grade Workshop is described in the Udemy course). Teachers in districts where I have served currently use the Workshop model in an effort to meet the learning needs of all students in their classrooms.

My professional career is based upon the foundation that our society is complex enough to present many challenges to people as they pass from childhood to adulthood. It is my firm belief that a strong foundation in educational preparation will support a person’s quest for success and prosperity. My philosophical foundation holds that young people are our windows to the future; working with them has given me a unique vantage point to assess their goals, needs and abilities. I have been, and I remain committed to preparing our young citizens, and those who teach and support them, for their futures – and ours.

So … as a recap … I’m motivated to Blog as part of professional growth, learning and reflection. I’m participating in the Blogamonth challenge with other educators around the country and world (via the best personal learning network – PLN – Twitter), and I am committed to helping principals help teachers meet the needs of ALL learners. I am also a firm believer that technology and the related tools are and will continue to be the “game changers” in terms of seeing a world where all classrooms differentiate for all learners. And, finally, I am proud to share works in progress of my own tinkering with video, communication, leadership, and growth as I continue in service above self to the various stakeholders whom I serve and with whom I am inexorably linked in a journey to support continued growth and learning for ALL.