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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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Q & A with Dr. James Rickabaugh

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We had our last book club PLC meeting of the school year.  Now, we only made it through chapter 2 of the book.  But, we had some very good discussions and I think everyone in the group has a better grasp on what it means to personalize learning.

Today, we were lucky enough to have the author of the book Dr. James Rickabaugh in for a Q & A session.  I used Periscope for the session.  Because of using Periscope, the quality of the videos I have added below is less that great.  But the message is not.  Regardless of where you are on the continuum of understanding the "why", "what", and "how" of personalized learning, these are must see! (or listen - I posted a SoundCloud link at the bottom of the post)

Question:  What is the history of personalized learning and the honeycomb model?



Question:  How do we know personalized learning strategies work?  What research guides it?





Question:  How can teachers is traditional models with large class sizes hope to manage and scale personalized learning?



Question: How can we make sense of the personalized learning model as it relates to the Danielson Framework and Common Core Standards?




Here is an audio version of the chat you can listen to instead of watching.  Great for those of us who like the idea of listening while our eyes and hands are occupied with other things.




I look forward to continuing with this book club trend over the summer with our district digital corps and maybe another book club PLC next year.  Maybe one that could last longer than one term.  A deep thank you to Dr. Rickabaugh for coming in and for the administration for their support in building this PLC.
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