Personalized Professional Development

Here is another post on a question we get a lot in ISD 192.  Personalized PD has now moved to 8-hours of flexible PD for teachers.  Staff get to choose what, where, when, and how to grow professionally.

One of my favorite books is Drive by Daniel Pink.  For me, this was a game changer in our approach to personalized learning at FHS.  Pink spelled out what really motivates people - autonomy, purpose, and mastery.  If you think about our current education system we do not provide our students, or staff, opportunities to leverage any of three drivers in their own learning.  Instead our current system is based on control and compliance which has lead to disengaged students and staff.

So, the question is "how do you incorporate autonomy, purpose, and mastery into the classroom?"  In my mind, teachers have to experience it first hand before they see how these can increase student motivation.  They have to feel these in action.  The only way to do that is to give up some control - something administrators are not always good at.

Over the past three years at Farmington High School we have experimented with various forms of personalized professional development.  We started by flipping some PD sessions and then moved to an EdCamp style format.  The flipping was a good way to introduce staff to autonomy.  They had some control over when and where they watched the video.  The EdCamp model introduced purpose and mastery to autonomy.  Sessions were created based on what staff wanted to learn more.  Each session was tailored to the specific needs and interests of those taking part discussion.

This progression laid the groundwork for our approach to professional development at FHS.  Today is a professional development day at FHS, but you would never know it by being in the building.  You do not see the traditional large group instruction that is associated with professional development.  Instead we set up a framework and turned over the 8 hours of professional development that would have been "given" to them today and teachers were allowed to set their goals for those hours, determine how they would meet the goals and decide how they would share their their learning.  This is exactly what we want our students to be able to do!!!

The results and feedback have been amazing.  Staff love the freedom to determine what they want to learn or improve.  My role has changed from a deliverer of content to a support.  I have more conversations with staff about their learning and how I can support them than ever before - the best part is it is something they are excited about.  My goal in this process is to model this process so they can apply it in their classrooms.  Teachers get to feel how autonomy, purpose, and mastery make their learning more valuable and to be honest more enjoyable.

How can we expect our approach to classroom instruction to change if we do not approach teacher learning differently?

What if the glass wasn't half-full or half-empty?

Some of you may know that I have transitioned to a new role in our district.  I have moved from a principal role to a central administration role.  As I have begun this new adventure I have been doing a lot of reflecting of our district's journey along our strategic path.   I think this post from January of 2017 really illustrates how thinking differently and not being afraid to succeed can lead to great things.



The one nice thing about break is that it gives us time to think and reflect.  My goal is to do a better job of writing my thoughts down in this Blog.  I had a chance to run every day over break . . . I have a lot of thoughts 😃!!

What do you think when you see this?

Most people either see this as half-full (optimistic/positive) or half-empty (pessimistic/negative).  The metaphor of the glass being half-full or half-empty is used all of the time, but what if we approached the glass differently?  What if we didn't worry about how much water was in the glass or even if there was any water in the glass?  How would this transform your thinking?

Over the last five years our district has been on a journey to transform the learning experience of our students.  The one thing I have learned is that the current way of thinking about learning (no matter how you see the glass - half-empty or half-full) gets in the way of true transformation.  We need to look at situations/opportunities differently and develop alternative methods of assessing.  In other words we need to look at the glass differently.

What if we look at the glass like this?

What if we looked at the glass as refillable?  How would this change your approach?  I love this since no matter how much water is in the glass if we do something different we may spill some or all of the water.  This fear of having only a finite amount paralyzes us and prevents us from doing something different - something that may be better than what we are currently doing.

To transform we must think and do differently.  We must not let the fear of failure (or mistakes) prevent us from engaging all students in learning activities that are meaningful to them.  Trying to do this within the current system is difficult, but it can be done!!  We will spill some water, but that's ok . . . we have more!!  I challenge you to look at all situations through a different frame of reference.  An easy place to start is with a glass of water.

Here is the picture that got me thinking about this on a run earlier this week - saw it on Facebook

New PLC Questions for Personalized Learning

As we have continued the journey of personalized learning for our students, I continue to wonder if the 4 PLC questions are still as relevant as they once were or do we need to start asking different questions?

• What do we want our students to know?
• How will we know if they have learned it?
• What will we do if they don't?
• What will we do if they already know it?

I am convinced the work our staff has done in the area of personalizing would not be possible had it not been for the work around these 4 questions.  That being said, these questions are all from the teacher point of view - personalization must be from the student's perspective.

While Caleb Drexler-Booth (Director of Teaching and Learning for ISD 192) and I were at Personalized Learning Action Network meeting (great group organized through Metro ECSU) we began to "adjust" the 4 PLC questions to give the learner ownership.  He even suggested PLC stand for Personalized Learning Community (I love it!!).  Here is our attempt at modifying the original 4 PLC questions:

• What do students want to know and be able to do?
• How will students know when they have learned it?  What will they produce, perform, and demonstrate?
• What are the learner paths students will create to master the learning?
• What guidance and support along the way do students need from teachers?

I do recognize that the last 4 questions cannot be answered unless staff have answered the first 4 questions, but by using the last 4 with students they begin to take ownership for their own learning.

Flipped to Self-Paced

The flipped delivery model is a great way for teachers to look at using their time differently in the classroom.  Being able to support students when they need it most is one of the most important jobs of any teacher.  The idea of watching the direct instruction outside of class and using classroom time to meet with groups/individuals is a powerful one.  But the truth is that if the class continues at the same pace for all students, the daily video has very little meaning to most of the students watching it.  Some may beyond that topic and others may not be ready for it.  As our teachers reflected on our flipped delivery they kept asking the same questions:

• Why do all students have to watch the same video on the same day?
• Why do students have to watch the video at home?
• Do students have to be in the classroom to learn?
• Does direct instruction still have a place in the classroom?

These questions ultimately lead us to changing our thinking around time and learning.  The current model in schools is that time is the constant (teachers follow a prescribed pace for any given class) and learning is the variable (at any given time student may or may not have learned the given topic, regardless the class is moving on).  We decided to flip (pun intended) this thinking to learning should be the constant (don't move on until proficient) and time should be the variable (each student may need a different amount of time to reach proficiency).  

We now have self-paced classes in Intermediate Algebra, Chemistry, Earth Science, and US History.  Students are given a general course calendar to give them an idea of about where they should be, but ultimately students decide what they will do when.  Our classes start by giving student freedom, but we do become more directive in what they do when if they begin to fall farther behind.

The two questions we get the most are:  What happens if they don't finish before the end of the trimester and what happens if they finish early?  Well if a student does not finish then the teacher and the student make a plan to complete the missing learning targets.  This may include time before or after school or work during our 25 minute advisory period.  These students have not failed the class, they are just not done . . . yet.  Night school or summer school takes on a different look for these students - instead of retaking the entire class they finish the learning targets they need to complete.

What about the students who finish early?  Well, we talk to these students and see how they would like to use their time.  Maybe they do more math or science (depending on spark), maybe they spend the time preparing for another class, maybe they spend the time working on a different area of interest - whatever it is the student has voice in how they will use their time.

Teachers who have moved from flipped to self-paced have reported an increase in student engagement and persistence.  Students have choice in how they use their time and know that one way or another they will need to be proficient in all the learning targets to complete the class.  They can do their work early or late - it just needs to be completed!!

ISD 192 Digital Learning Event Reflection

As I am at home reflecting on the digital learning event our district facilitated today, I am struck by how much our thinking, or better stated change in thinking, has impacted our ability to better support all students in learning.  It is true that we are a 1:1 iPad district, but what we are doing is about much more than the technology.  I believe this picture says it all:

Our staff at FHS (along the entire district) has done wonderful work around customization since we rolled-out iPads to almost 1900 students last Dec.  Without the technology it would be more difficult for teachers to alter and move away from traditional delivery models, but the real difference has been the change in our thinking.  Thanks to our strategic plan and support from our superintendent we have looked for reasons to do things differently and not worried about the "what ifs."  Teachers have been empowered to take risks and use time and space differently to support students in their learning.  Farmington has transformed into a culture of "letting"!!