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End of the Year Reflection

Thank you, teachers for looking at ME

For opening doors to all I can be

Thank you, teachers for leading the way

The strategies you teach I can use every day

Thank you, teachers

You notice my strengths

You give me hope and go to great lengths

Thank you, teachers for your motivation

Your time, your energy, and inspiration

Thank you, teachers

I just want to say

These are the words

YOU should hear every day.

Adapted from the work of Shelly Bucci

By The Institute for Personalized Learning / September 14, 2015

A collaborative blog series by the Institute for Personalized Learning and Personalize Learning LLC

Defining Learner Agency Learner agency often gets missed in conversations on transforming the educational system. We have a sense of ‘agency’ when we feel in control of things that happen around us; when we feel that we can influence events. This is an important sense for learners to develop. Learners must understand:

• when they need new learning and how to learn what they need
• when they need to unlearn what will no longer serve them
• when they need to relearn what they need to be successful

They must develop the capacity to engage strategically in their learning without waiting to be directed. They must take ownership of and responsibility for their learning. And, they must possess the skills to learn independently, without heavy dependence on external structures and direction.

Why Learner Agency is Needed There is a significant and growing demand for learners to be able to do more than receive instruction, follow a learning path designed by educators and complete problems and assignments presented to them by an adult. Learners need to develop the capacity to shape and manage their learning without over-reliance on the direction and control of others. Too often adults treat children as though they are incapable of making decisions or holding valid opinions. As children advance through the system, they develop a form of “learned helplessness” that keeps them from advocating for themselves. The process for learning and the role learners play must be different than most adults experienced.

Harvard professor Roland Barth has observed that in the 1950’s when young people left high school they typically knew about 75% of what they would need to know to be successful in life. Today, he predicts that young people know about 2% of what they will need to know. (Barth, R.S. (1997, March 5). The leader as learner. Education Week, 16(23). 56.) This shift is not because young people are learning less than previous generations. In fact, there is good evidence that they know much more. The force behind this change is the rapid and ever-increasing pace of change, the complexity of the world in which we live and the unpredictability of what people will need to know in the coming decades – the future for which we are preparing today’s learners.

Implications of Greater Learner Agency The current educational system was designed for teachers to control and manage the learning. This continues today because teachers are the ones held accountable and responsible for the learning instead of the learners. As educators, we must nurture, coach and build in learners more capacity to initiate, manage, and maintain their own learning. Learning will be a constant and high-priority activity throughout their lives and they will need the skills and tools to manage this process.

Adults need to shift their thinking — away from youth as student to youth as learner and partner and resource for their own learning and others. We must make the crucial shift from preparing proficient students to developing skilled learners. The result will be learners who are capable of playing an active role in personalizing their learning and building their capacity to be successful productive citizens regardless of what their futures hold.

In a series of upcoming blogs we will examine a number of key shifts and strategies necessary to transform the educational experiences we have presented to learners in the past and align the focus, strategies and approaches we employ to build the capacity of learners to be continuous, life-long, successful leaders of their learning. We will present shifts and strategies on:

• understanding the connection between good strategy, effort and use of resources to develop learner efficacy
• helping learners understand how they learn best and how they can support their learning
• the role and importance of learner voice and choice
• building learner ownership of their learning

See this blog post on the CESA1 Institute page at:https://cesa1transformation.wordpress.com/2015/09/14/learner-agency-the-missing-link/ ;

End of the Year .......are you getting frustrated? Take a quick look.

           Click here to take the educator's three-step journey to reflect and refocus on student behavior.

IS IT.............

WhatsApp

Two of my Edgewood co-hort colleagues, Alfredo and Allaweed, shared an app for easy communication with their home families in Mexico and Saudi Arabia called WhatsApp. 

I am excited to try this new app out to more easily communicate with my international friends. Check it out with me.

(I already use Facebook messenger and Text messaging also.  Google phone too - but I am also interested in seeking this out also.)

Tech Tools - reminding myself today

Today during my Law, Media and Marketing I am reminded of the great tool - Symbaloo.
If you haven't used Symbaloo EDU, you may want to review it!  It is a quick way for students to get to connect students with new websites, new content, etc.  I see teachers use this tool for differentiating and/or personalizing learning.  Check it out - SYMBALOOEDU.com

Teachers love this Facebook Group

I haven't really used my Facebook for connecting with learning.  I have used it more to connect with family and friends.  A colleague in my Edgewood co-hort just loves this Facebook community and the teachers she works with enjoys the dialogue also. 

Cultural Humility

I saw a post with this video link.  I believe the key is to take a moment at this time of year and celebrate the traditions you are familiar with and learn of the traditions of others.  Please take 30 minutes of your time and watch a video related to CULTURAL HUMILITY.  The medical community is using this term to better relate to patients, yet there is much that we as public school employees may also utilize as we interact with our various publics.  The people I admire most practice cultural humility naturally. 

This is powerful in my mind.  Kathy 

Interesting Article - no clear answers on educators 1st Amendment rights

CLICK HERE to read more about