Era Roberts, the Assistant Principal for Instruction at Batesburg-Leesville High School in Lexington School District Three, explores personalized learning from a school leadership perspective.
Hellen Keller told us, “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight, but no vision.” Thomas Edison cautioned, “Vision without execution is hallucination.” How do we as school leaders balance the vision of personalized learning with the reality of current practice? How do we transform, and what does it mean for those we serve?
Taking a note from Keller, vision is crucial. For me, it came many years ago when I saw an Edutopia story about a school where what began as project-based learning (PBL) was becoming something more. Students who experienced ownership in PBL became empowered learners demanding authentic and diverse experiences, and teachers were shifting to support them. There was joy in the learning, and the feature was a high school biology class.
Fast forward many years after actually teaching science and working in a high school, and this vision of students owning and growing their learning still drives me. In a sea of many, I am just one dreamer. A central vision of our entire professional learning community is the tide that has supported our growth. We are student-centered and we mean it. It is our non-negotiable. The word person is first in the term personalized learning for a reason. At times it can seem hard when years of “the way it's always been” and “it's out of our control” veil unwillingness to change. I am thankful to be part of a team willing to fight for student-centered practices. A policy or system limiting students' access or engagement is always questioned with “Why?” and “What can we do about it?” We certainly don’t know what all the limits are, but as we find them, we work to correct them. Each person deserves the best we can give them, and that is what we mindfully set out to do.
The showcase of student-centeredness at our school is known as Half-Time. Under the concept some call “One Lunch,” all our students share a common lunch. During this approximately one hour of time, half of the teachers are providing office hours or supervision, while the other half have lunch. They swap spots halfway through, mainly because everyone needs to eat lunch, but also everyone provides service to our students. The result is ample opportunities for immediate help, extra time, make up, and additional mastery attempts. In a rural school of about 550 students, we have logged over 5,000 sessions a year, resulting in over 100,000 additional minutes of documented time spent with teachers. In year one, the primary reason listed for attendance was make up work. In year two, it was extra time. In year three, extra help is tied with additional attempts to demonstrate mastery. Many people wondered if students would be willing to give up lunch time to spend time with teachers and focus on learning; it turns out they are. The progression of the mindset shifting from makeup to mastery demonstrates growth in our students towards becoming lifelong learners.
Half-Time is not just about academic learning. Students have built great relationships with teachers finding their just right spot in the building to feel at home. Groups ranging from the gamers club, to the basketball team, to a medical terminology study group can be found in various classrooms on the same day getting what they need to be ready for the next part of their day. When life gets hard, the teacher they laughed with or got help from the day before becomes a person on whom they can lean. They are an entry point to hope, and that’s a critical need in all schools.
Do we have an understanding of what those pathways may look like for emerging, developing, proficient, and advanced mastery? This is our greatest undertaking because a lesson plan for most does not support growth for all.
So where does an emphasis on learning fit in our culture of personalized learning? Similar to how we defined personalized in the most basic terms, learning to us is about growth. We have worked to redefine our understanding of rigor to mean the work and supports required to achieve learning at the next level for the learner. Is every learner engaged, growing, and seeking the next level? Are they empowered to define personal learning goals, and are we helping develop pathways to get there? Do we have an understanding of what those pathways may look like for emerging, developing, proficient, and advanced mastery? This is our greatest undertaking because a lesson plan for most does not support growth for all.
Our work in professional development addresses these issues through learning experiences to spark our thinking, but then turn the action steps over to teachers with short term goal setting, reflection, and follow up. Most of my inspiration for leading these learning experiences comes from professional development through our partnerships with KnowledgeWorks, the Office of Personalized Learning, Twitter, reading, and exploring. Our district supports teacher and administrator personalized learning through long term growth planning during six early release days known as “Panther Promise Hour.” The genius hour approach provides time for developing personalized learning practices, while teaming up administrators as coaches for relationship building and digging deeper. Time, coaching, practice, and reflection allow learning to be realized in the classroom for both teacher and student. Through these steps we hope to avoid Edison’s charge of hallucination, making personalized learning a work-in-progress reality for our learners.
Highlights For Leading From The Personalized Perspective
1. Have a vision that inspires you.
2. Know the why of your vision and communicate it with everyone.
3. Change the system. Create opportunities for the vision to flourish.
4. Your culture is what you promote. Celebrate growth.
5. Your culture is what you allow. Intervene when needed.
6. Make professional development personal. Model goal setting. Allow time for long-range inquiry, and short term, concrete steps for implementation. Follow up with reflection and sharing. Connect the dots. Repeat.
7. Keep learning. Your greatness is growing, too!
About The Author:
Era Roberts is the Assistant Principal for Instruction at Batesburg-Leesville High School in Lexington School District Three. She is a wife, twin mom, and education technology doctoral student. Her research interests include competency progression, student ownership of data, personalized learning, and self-regulation.