PD vs PLN

New info-graphic on professional development and personalized learning networks

Help! My file cabinet is empty - Looking at the first year

My first year of teaching was...a trip. I was hired two days before the school year started (and had to move to a new state). The department chair handed me keys, teacher's edition books for both physical science and biology, and a cart - since I would have no room of my own. Then she showed me a walk-in closet with a few desks - one of them was mine.

That was the last time I ever met with my department chair. I did see her a few times throughout that year, and perhaps she asked how I was doing. I probably lied. All I really remember was feeling completely lost.

Back when I began teaching, the internet was still in diapers, so we couldn't just "Google it." I'm not sure how many boring worksheets my students endured as I struggled to make lessons exciting and meaningful - and often failed. How would it have been different if I had been handed the whole curriculum - lesson plans, activities, guiding questions, all of it?

Sure, that might have been overwhelming, but so are the 274,500 results from a Google search. We've been teaching the same basic content for decades (Yes, of course there have been changes, but...), and yet new teachers still often enter the classroom with an empty file cabinet. Luckily, for many new teacher, and for their students, collaborative efforts within departments and teams are creating digital file cabinets with easy access for all. But we still need more teacher-leaders willing to step up and fill those empty file drawers.

How about you, did you have the support you needed that first year you taught? Have you been involved in helping a new teacher? Give us an idea of what you did.

What We Teach

Part of the impetus for teachers becoming facilitators, is a shift in what is important. While content will always be important (and will most likely always come from the top down), there are other factors which are even more important if we want students to be global citizens. 

Teaching students to take responsibility for their own educations is huge, but not something we cover if we only look to our standards. The ability to communicate with peers may not be found in the state's guidelines, but to succeed in the world, students must gain mastery of this skill. If students learn to reflect on their learning and their work, if they are able to revise, and speak out for their decisions, we will have taught them valuable skills that cannot be easily learned in the traditional classroom.

Students who can evaluate what they need to complete a project do not need to have as tight a grasp on the content. These students will be able to research any content they need. On the flip-side, those students who have been taught only content, have very few skills they can take with them to a project about different content.

Education became too short-sighted, only looking ahead to the next testing session. We must begin to look at our students, and see what will help them long-term. In the end, we might just find out they perform better on the required state tests as well.

What is the Difference between Personalized and Differentiated?

What's the Difference between Personalized and Differentiated?

These two words get thrown around quite a bit these days, but do you really know the difference? It helps if you think about the words they are most often associated with. Personalized is commonly attached to “Learning,” while differentiated is associated with “instruction.”

The focus of personalized is the learner, and the focus of differentiation is the instructor. For many of us, the move from whole-class instruction to differentiation was a stretch. Instead of thinking about one lesson for the class, we were thinking about different activities for different groups. The amount of work to make it work seemed staggering at times.

Personalized learning is an even bigger shift, for both teachers and students. In successful personalized learning, the student is in control of his or her own learning. They actively participate in planning what will be learned, where they will find the needed information, determining the skills necessary to learn what’s needed, and accepting the responsibility for making it all happen.

Sounds great for teachers. We can just put our feet up on the desk and snooze while the students handle things. Wait! Wake up, you are only dreaming.

Teachers have different roles, for sure. For one, the list above is what happens in “successful” personalized learning, but most students don't come to us with the skills to take on their own education. We have to help them get there. We have to motivate them to want to.

But why should we want to? That sounds like a lot of work. My students' test scores are pretty good. If I just keep doing what I'm doing everything will be okay.

However, did you become a teacher to make sure kids got good test scores? I know I didn't. I wanted to change the world.

With personalized learning, you might just do that. It's great if a student has good test scores, but that won't change his or her life. But, if that same young lady learns to take control of her own education, if she can determine what she needs to know to complete a task or design a project, she is now a more capable person. Now she has the ability to establish herself in the world.

For quite some time, education has been about teaching kids “A is the best answer.” And then, giving them a test question: What is the best answer? A  B  C  D

What happens when their employer gives them a test: What’s the best health insurance policy for your family? A   B   C   D

It seems almost the same, except no one is teaching them the right answer before the test. They have to figure it out for themselves. That's what personalized learning is all about, helping kids learn to figure “it” out for themselves. And if they can do that, then you may have just changed the world.

Q What do you think are some other benefits of personalized learning?

Changing Teaching Methods for Teacher-Facilitators

• Differentiated instruction 
• Personalized learning
• Content mastery
• Technology-enabled

If you're a teacher, you probably hear about these concepts and teaching methods regularly. You may also hear about teachers becoming facilitators. If you are like me, you usually hear these phrases couched somewhere between "where we are heading" and "you have to."

Wait! You didn't go to school to become a "facilitator." You wanted to become a teacher (and some days you still feel that way). But, if it IS "where we are heading" and you really do "have to," then why not let me help you move there somewhat painlessly.

In this first post, I merely want to give you something to think about. It might change how you imagine teaching. Think of four or five teaching methods you use regularly in your classroom. Got them?

Okay, now I want you to teach me how to tie my shoes (What can I say? I'm a slow learner.).

Wait, again! Tying shoes is a skill, not "content." True, but content and skills go hand in hand. We could talk about shoe-tying content:

• The Why - If you don't tie your shoes, you'll trip over them and skin your knees.

• The Vocab - This is the tongue. These are the laces. Sometimes laces are called shoestrings or shoelaces.

• The History - Here's how my mom taught me. She said, "The rabbit goes around the tree and into the hole."

The content is all tied to the skill, but isn't that how teaching should always be?

Let's look at a seventh-grade social studies standard from Georgia:

• SS7G3 The student will explain the impact of location, climate, and physical characteristics on population distribution in Africa.

Being able to explain something is a skill. Granted, you have to know quite a bit of content to perform that skill, but it is a skill nonetheless. If we look at teaching that way, it's no longer about a grade. It's about learning the skill.

We don't look at our kids and say, "Wow, you got a 56 on shoe-tying today. You're going to have to go to remediation."

Shoe tying is not for a grade.

Instead, we help them until they get it. "You did it! You tied your own shoes!" Then we all do the happy dance (okay, maybe that was just at my house). Same in the classroom. We help (or facilitate - see how I slipped that in)students, until they can explain the impact of location, climate, and physical characteristics on population distribution in Africa. Then we do the happy dance.

I know this doesn't give you any hands-on methods. Be patient - I can only write so fast. While you wait, think about shoe tying and teaching.

Q Where are you at with this whole "teachers to facilitators" thing?