Personalized Learning to Build

Leadership Capacity

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Dr. Anna Nolin

Assistant Superintendent

Teaching, Learning & Innovation

Natick Public Schools

@annapnolin

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Jed Stefanowicz

Teacher on Special Assignment

Grade 3 Master Teacher Fellow

Natick Public Schools

@stefanowicz135

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https://goo.gl/jPJNh5

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Discuss: What made you interested in joining this session today?

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Recall: one time in your life

where you lost yourself in

your work/learning/hobby,

time flew and you felt

productive, energized

and peaceful…..

This session is not about technology use…

It is about:

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• personalized learning
• developing leadership capacity
• building relationships
• teaching academic and personal resiliency

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Natick’s

Approach to

Personalized

Learning

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Key district goals

• Strategic use of technology experiences
• Setting goals / frequent formative feedback
• Writing intensive district
• Competency based and project-based learning
• Moving from technology use to personalized learning
• New grading scenarios and training on that so students could accept differing goals for each student
• Reduce elevated student stress and anxiety levels

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The plate…

The delicious, nutritious, well-balanced meal we expect all teachers to serve to our students--the NPS experience.

….is FULL!

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So how can we really mean it?

Personalized learning is tailoring learning for each student’s strengths, needs and interests — including enabling student voice and choice in what, how, when and where they learn — to provide flexibility and supports to ensure mastery of the highest standards possible.

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iNACOL: Mean What You Say: Defining and Integrating Personalized, Blended and Competency Education Susan Patrick, Kathryn Kennedy and Allison Powell

Turn and Talk:

What are your biggest obstacles with Personalized Learning?

Personalized learning is tailoring learning for each student’s strengths, needs and interests — including enabling student voice and choice in what, how, when and where they learn — to provide flexibility and supports to ensure mastery of the highest standards possible.

Natick’s Obstacles

• Rising class sizes in NHS English = less air time to talk and think�
• Overcrowded buildings = double sessions of high school�
• Students opting for online courses as “break” or customized learning option�
• Hey NHS, How Are You? reveals rising # of anxious/depressed students

What our students said...

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Quotes from kids:

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• 28 people in class is like giving a speech, 16 people is class discussion�
• I feel I have to “get it right” in front of all the people in classes�
• Class is a place to get my “data”/grade and move on�
• rise in students reporting stress and anxiety due to workload and homework/digital practices recently implemented “I listen to lecture in school and home.” (flipped classroom = double the work)

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Breaking our Assumptions...

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• Students know how to work independently with technology
• Technology means we can push more work to the home
• Inquiry-driven mastery-based grading is at odds with in the college/GPA-driven culture of high school
• Parents and students will not accept this model
• High school needs to be “rigorous” and “rigor = homework”
• Technology use, especially 1:1 = less relational work
• Technology doesn’t help build social and emotional relations
• innovation in learning : disruptive or “paradigm changing”

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From Collective Genius: The Art & Practice of Leading Innovation,

Hill, Brandeau, Truelove, Lineback, 2014

So What?

Now what?

• PLC elements most often present where motivational framing was present

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• PLCs present more often with resonance, less often with constraints

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• PLCs engaged in research, risk-taking, support, and choice allow for more resonance within initiative

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Study Findings (Nolin et al., 2014):

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Technology PLC + Motivational Framing =

Increased Resonance + Acceptance

Framing Innovation: Do PLCs Influence Acceptance of Large-Scale Technology Initiatives? �

Flow:

Nourish Your Teachers First

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What does personalized teacher support look like in the blended learning environment?

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What does effective use of technology look like?

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Feeding a culture to facilitate flow

PLCs/Collaboration Allow Us to do the Hard Work of Innovation!

Flow

In Digital Districts, Teachers Matter More

• Technology helps to take the busy work away from students and teachers�
• Technology extends the relational capabilities of teachers
• Technology allows teachers to curate resources for individual students.
• Technology allows teachers to coach and be coached.
• Technology enhances human connections

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• Combats rising anxiety and depression among school-aged students by ensuring personal connections to adults at school.

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How: What is the Natick Innovation & Learning Summit?

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The Natick Innovation and Learning Summit (NILS) will host over 100 sessions facilitated by expert practitioners on the tools, resources and instructional practices that Natick educators have requested.

All sessions are tagged by level and target audience to help educators choose the best sessions for their interest and level in order to deepen their professional practice and personalize learning for students.

Boundary Spanners

Honig,2006

PLCs and Collaborators Buffer the Hard Work of Technology Implementation/Innovations

PLC (Dufour et al., 2010)

Collaborative Constructs

• Shared Mission, Vision, Values
• Collective Inquiry
• Collaborative Teams
• Action/Orientation and Experimentation
• Results Orientation
• Shared Time

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Study of 1:1 in MA: Framing Innovation: Do PLCs Influence Acceptance of Large-Scale Technology Initiatives? (Nolin et. al, 2014)

Acceptance in Tech Use

Developing Teacher Leadership, Specialization

& Personalized Learning Options-- TOSA

Digital Learning

Coach

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•Drive innovation, integrate technology, and build capacity to transform classrooms.

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•Ignite teaching and learning through partnership, coaching, and mentoring

•Instruction

•Integration

•Innovation

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Personalized

PD

Adapted from Suzanne Felch ITS

Attending or presenting at a conference or meeting can be professional tune-up .

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Visit/observe across district

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Peer Observation

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Co-teach, buddy lessons

Step out of the classroom...

Share practices

Social Media

Develop PLN

Find/Provide inspiration

Host tours/guests

Peer Observation

Share best practices

Twitter/Seesaw

Walk Throughs

Pineapple Charts

Expand the classroom...

Open the classroom...

Emerging Lanes...

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Additional Workplace &

Effort Research

• Pink (Drive, 2011)
• Csikszentmihalyi (Flow, 2008) (Video)
• Dweck (Mindset, 2007)
• Goleman & Senge, (Triple Focus, 2014)
• Hill et al. Collective Genius: The Art and Practice of Leading Innovation, 2015)
• Inspires how Natick supports teachers and reflective teaching practice

Achieving Flow/Engagement

in Your Workplace

(for Students and Teachers)

• Autonomy, Mastery Purpose (Drive/Flow)
• Clear set of goals and progress markers
• Clear and immediate feedback
• Balance between perceived challenge and perceived skills
• Confidence to do the task
• Connection to the people in the workplace

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Teaching & Learning Leadership Tasks

Purpose

• Targeted assessments drive curriculum and intervention (GPS)
• Assessments for the “big ideas” and “core skills” that are deeper learning
• Employ research-based practice, data tracking, not habit

Autonomy

• Restore instructional decision-making to teachers
• Wherever possible: let student-centered inquiry, voice and choice create projects, pathways and papers
• Use technology to personalize and to allow teachers to connect/coach with children in more meaningful and varied ways (teachers are more important than ever)

Mastery

• Support professional time with resources and training
• Creative continuous learning environment through year-round and all the time PD (Moodle and live!)
• PLC culture of data examination, collection and curriculum revision
• Clear parent and kid-friendly resources

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H0w do you identify and encourage teacher leaders, change-agents,

boundary-spanners?

Developing Teacher Leadership, Specialization

& Personalized Learning Options

Inquiry-Based learning through Genius Hour & Passion Projects

Effective Technology Integration

Project-Based Learning in STEM Education

Student-Centered Learning

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Play in Pre-K through language and literacy skills.

Differentiating Instruction in Math

Empowering teachers to support mental health issues.

Global Connections: Engaging in Authentic Literacy Experiences

Ecosystem

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• Drive Innovation
• Integrate EdTech
• Build Capacity

General Ed. • Administration • SPED • Specialists • ELE

• Library Lending Kits
• Classroom STEM Kits
• District edtech PLN
• Partner Pathway Teams to identify and support district teacher-leaders

Program Components

- Become building edtech leader/resource

- Promote Lending Library for PLC, staff

- Peer PD offered as staff/curr. meeting, NILS, workshops

- Share evidence and best practices (pictures, videos, case studies, Twitter/Blog posts) showcasing engagement/integration

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-Personalized PD, training

-PDPs available

-MassCUE Fall Conference

-Embedded PD, PLC,PLN

-Become edtech leader at your building

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WHAT

YOU

GIVE:

WHAT

YOU

GET:

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STATION STEM Kit for classroom use:

Flow:

Next, feed the students

What does personalized student support look like in blended learning environment?

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What does effective use of technology look like?

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Guiding Ideas

New technology on old practices isn’t innovation.

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Information isn’t knowledge

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Engagement: Why a Kitchen Motif?

Daily Lesson “Menu”

• Aperitif: Meditation
• Amuse Bouche: talk very quickly about a quote
• Group instruction/1/2 of class: Chef’s table, and Camille chooses the menu
• Independent work or online: Dim Sum or a la carte
• Potluck: workshop time--they bring things in for others to taste/workshop
• Cookbook: private journal writing
• Then you bring the private writing to the test kitchen and chef’s table.

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Roles

Teacher

identify issues aggregate resources

titrate standards personal coach

resource director become the “sous” chef

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Student

become the chef monitor progress

take risks experiment/fail/rise

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Online

offloads the computation and skill-building

universal screenings to direct assigned units

aid in personalized learning

“They all have to learn that they can’t all open the same restaurant ...expectations, instruction, coaching and grades will vary for each according to their journey to mastery.”

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Camille Napier Bernstein

Moments, Flow, Engagement

Passion Projects

Genius Hour

STEAM Challenges

Script Flips

PBL

Flexible Environments

Blended Learning

Flipped Classrooms

Consumers to Creators

Makerspaces

Design-Thinking

Hour of Code

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Student 4 Cs

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Communication

Collaboration

Creativity

Critical Thinking

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School 4 Cs

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Culture

Compassion

Connection

Climate

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Agency

Empowerment

Empathy

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Student-Owned Thinking and Learning

Building Relationships

• Conferencing is personal,
• Everyone is coached
• Kids are accountable to feedback discussion and have to take notes on what teacher is guiding,
• Small bites of feedback,
• Kids give reciprocal feedback to teacher and others
• No hiding, must connect about online work in person

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Allowed me to personalize my own PD and developed my PLN.

Administrative support critical to risk-taking and empowerment to take shared leadership role in district

Students showcase/archive learning, as well as "show what they know" in new and engaging ways

Empowering students as "co-teachers," developing confidence and competence in a model and share with others students or classes.

Personalized software that are adaptive to level and incorporates individualized reporting and assignments

Reframed learning environment (both physical and pedagogically) allowing for Deeper Learning Competencies

Traditional homework shifted toward extension-based projects

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What The Master Teachers say:

Inspired me to pursue developing a graduate level course for teachers in my district.

Gave the license to delve deeply into the the world of project-based learning

My 3rd graders are coding, designing and in printing in 3D, programing droids, and collaborating to solve design and engineering challenges on a daily basis.

The learning lens shifted from the project driving the student to the student driving the project.

Our classroom community transformed into a innovative, working hive of activity when working on a digital project.

More personal conversations about a student's interpretation of the project and where they wanted to go