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Let Flexibility Lead To Alignment

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  In my previous school district, I was the only teacher teaching a physics course with set, district-wide learning outcomes. These same outcomes were also taught in physics classrooms at the other high school in our district. But at our school, I was one of the 2 physics teachers. The other teacher taught the AP-level physics courses. So, in many ways, I had opportunities to incorporate strategies I believed were best for learners and that I found worked best for them without being seen as out of alignment with anyone in our building. My amazing friend and one of my teaching philosophy goddesses, Katie Novak, stated the following misconception about alignment: All teachers must deliver instruction in the exact same way. True alignment, she says, is about shared goals, rigor, and outcomes. Thank you, Katie! Katie has taught me to truly believe that learner variability is the rule, not the exception. I encourage you to take 10 minutes to listen to Katie Novak explain it in the ...
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Your Personal Canvas

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As a part of a recent professional development day at Brookfield Central, I gave a presentation covering how I have used the learning management system Canvas to add personalization to my assessments.  Even more than what I currently do, I higlighted how Canvas can be used to align formative and summative assessments to the same learning outcomes.  Once this is done, students and teachers can track progress towards mastery of learning outcomes.  
The personalized learning model our district is guided by was designed by Cooperative Educational Service Agency 1 http://www.cesa1.k12.wi.us.  The image below is a guide to the essentials of personalized learning. 



For more information about CESA 1 and their model of personalized learning, follow this link http://www.cesa1.k12.wi.us/programs/pers_learning_pd.cfm.

This presentation was not designed as a stand alone. So forgive me if there seems to be any gaps. 





I would love to discuss this further with any interested parties.

Comments

  1. AnonymousMay 6, 2015 at 7:00 AM

    Would you be willing to give a live presentation of this via Canvas conferences or Google Hangouts on Air to teachers in Oshkosh?

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    1. AnonymousMay 6, 2015 at 7:08 AM

      More context: We have just inked a contract with Canvas for our high school teachers. We are very new to personalized learning (at least in acknowledging it as a pedagogical phenomenon, many teachers have been doing some great things for a long time that weren't labeled such). I am a technology integration coach, and I'm teaching a course for UW-Oshkosh this summer on using technology to personalize learning. I would love to show some secondary teachers who other secondary teachers are not only using Canvas but rather focusing on instruction first (that's why you've chosen Canvas as your tool) and using technology to help gain greater choices, work towards mastery, and provide more specific, immediate feedback. We'd love to have you as a very informal guest speaker.

      If you don't mind, I'd also like to use your blog post "You Got Your Personalization in my PBL" with our course participants to help them reflect on assessment and personalization practices. I'm having particular difficulty with instructors who perceive their content to be so esoteric that students can't possibly have choices in the way they demonstrate understanding. It shouldn't matter, but what you teach will have particular weight with this demographic of instructor. Thanks for writing and posting!

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  2. Angela PattersonMay 7, 2015 at 4:14 AM

    Hi Mike! We'd love to pick your brain, too. You've seen how we use our own tech in our elementary world...canvas is required of us in the fall, as well. Scared, but eager to see the possibilities for our "littles" and how they are similar/different to your "bigs". Let's chat:)
    PS...we have a "Genius Hour" project on Newton right now! She asked to interview you!:)
    Team Togetherness

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