Keri Fersner, a math, science, and Project Lead the Way teacher at Elloree Elementary Middle School and 2017-2018 Orangeburg Consolidated School District Three teacher of the Year, reflects on her beginning exploration of personalized learning.
As a young and intentional educator, it is my goal every year to learn more and evolve in the craft of teaching for the benefit of my students. When I was given the opportunity in 2015 to become a certified Project Lead the Way (PLTW) teacher, I shifted my mindset on the role of an educator (which is extremely important to this work). PLTW is structured in a way that allows teachers to facilitate learning and experiences instead of being the head director or dictator of learning. After seeing the success of this “teacher as the facilitator” model, I really wanted to infuse this method into the core content math and science classes that I teach, but I didn’t really know where to start.
This method of teaching put learning in the hands of the child and allowed them to move flexibly at their own pace with greater access to the teacher and resources.
Over the summer, I attended and presented at the High Schools That Work Conference in Nashville, TN and noticed that many of the sessions dealt with Personalized Learning and Blended Instruction. After my session on classroom environment and flexible seating, one of the attendees came up to me and invited me to come to his session, which was focused on how he facilitated instruction in his personalized learning classroom. Needless to say, by the end of his session, I was convinced that this was something that I wanted to try in the upcoming school year. The main things about personalized learning that captured my attention was the fact that this method of teaching put learning in the hands of the child and allowed them to move flexibly at their own pace with greater access to the teacher and resources.
Finding Resources to Support My Transition to Personalized Learning
Once I made up my mind that I would attempt this with my 7th grade math class, I began to research and reach out to anyone I knew who had the slightest idea about where to begin with this endeavor. I admit that this was a little daunting at first, seeing as I was the only person that I knew of in my area who was trying personalized learning for the first time and support within the vicinity was very limited. In addition, my school isn’t currently one-to-one with technology devices and I recognized that I could possibly face challenges with acquiring the technology I needed on a daily basis. However, I persisted and am thankful for the online community that has helped me to officially get my personalized classroom off the ground.
In addition to the many resources and tips I received from educators statewide, I also contacted the State Department’s Personalized Learning Office, who gave me some valuable insight on the importance of establishing student buy-in and a vision for what we would be doing. The very next day, I sat with my students and we crafted a class vision, detailing what we wanted to accomplish this year in math through personalized learning. This step was profound because it constantly gives us something to reference throughout the year and a “why” behind what we do daily.
The Beginnings of Personalized Learning
In setting up how my classroom would operate, I created a set of standard operating procedures for what students should do if they feel stuck on a problem. I am sure I will create more as the need arises this year. Regarding the content flow of the class, I am taking the SC Math Standards and dividing them into topics (or competencies) to create modules for my students. For each topic, students are given a task sheet that includes the things that they need to accomplish by the deadline. These tasks include watching the provided video lectures I have created, taking notes, and completing practice and enrichment activities. Students can move at their own pace using laptops in class and can access all videos and sites on our current learning management system, Edmodo.
The Results
My personalized learning classroom is a work in progress, but I am happy that I took the plunge and tried something new. Based on survey and verbal feedback that I have gotten from my students, they are loving and benefiting significantly. They look forward to coming to math class and their work ethic shows their commitment to taking their learning into their own hands. Some have even stated that they have greater access to peer and teacher assistance and are experiencing higher levels of success in math than they ever have. This alone has been the most rewarding part of this journey.
Next Steps
Eventually I would like to move towards offering more student choice in the activities that we do, as well as the incorporation of more project based learning because I want students to be able to apply what they learn to real world situations. I will continue my hunt for more knowledge regarding these areas and I will not stop until I have been able to successfully reach every child, help them to take learning into their own hands, and gain confidence in order to reach their full potentials through personalized learning.
My advice for any educator who is hesitant about the shift to personalized learning is to simply try it! Now that I have, the way that I teach will never be the same again.
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