Personalised Learning – getting my plan into action!

At the last face2face, I wrote down this quotation, “Done is better than perfect” ~ S Sandberg. I am hoping that ‘Work in Progress is better than perfect too!’ ~ L Miller .

Back in December, my plan was to determine the best way I could actively incorporate observations & conversations in my math class. I began the conversation on Google+ (thanks to all who participated) and generated a couple of ideas, but sadly the end of term came along with crazy number of assignments all due of the same time (learned a valuable lesson on taking time to look at the big picture when planning assessments 🙂 – do not have 5 writing assignments all due within a week of each other – oops!), and I lost my momentum a wee bit.
Happily I feel that I am back on track, but my idea has adjusted somewhat based on what I saw at the ISOMA conference last week (CIS math conference). One of the workshops I attended was all about personalising the learning experience for the students (K McGowan and C Lovrics from HTS were the presenters). The first thing that they showed us was a really interesting chart showcasing the difference between personalised, differentiated and individualised learning by Barbara Bray and Kathleen McClaskey (http://www.personalizelearning.com/p/toolkit.html). There were a lot of great points, but the key was that everything was from the learner’s perspective whereas the other two were from the perspective of the teacher. One statement I liked the best that the presenters also pointed out was, that through personalised learning, “the learner becomes a self-directed, expert learner who monitors progress and reflects on learning based on mastery of content and skills”.

Thus, my focus of Cohort21 shifted a little. I want to create a unit in Grade 9 mathematics that allows students to experience learning in a personlised way such that the learner “owns and is responsible for their learning that includes …choice on how and what they learn”. Observations and conversations will still play a role in this unit because as students choose their own paths, I will be there to see how they reached mastery and/or offer guidance when needed if they go off course.

So what is the next step? Well there are some practical items:

• choosing what will be the best way to disseminate the information for the students (lesson, practice, assessments, etc.) – Blackboard, Google Sites, etc.? – how to ensure flow of learning?
• best way to monitor the students’ progress of mastery (leaning towards google sheets, but wonder if we can do ‘if…then’ to change colours when certain steps are completed – I have seen it in Excel…)
• flipped lessons are part of this process – so videos will need to be made – use powerpoint, explain everything, any suggestions?
• create the assessments as learning and determine what way students should do them (both paper and electronically)
• keep thinking of ways to monitor observations and conversations

I will certainly be busy this Friday! I look forward to reconnecting and sharing ideas and thoughts.

PS. I did an amazing course at FDS and I still plan to do a long term project with my Grade 9 Advisory group based on the process I went through during the course – the focus has changed, but I think there is great value for my students to go through this process. So @lmcbeth I cannot wait for the app :)!