702 Blog 1:
What is the role of personalized learning and competency-based learning in education today? The role of the teacher in a personalized learning environment is to be the facilitator to the student driven learning goals and support their action plans. The teacher guides the students towards their strengths and smart goals starting with their personal interests and needs for areas of growth. The teacher creates an autonomous classroom culture with a strong sense of belonging, a very positive growth mindset and a work at your level and pace experience. Students are empowered to meet the goals that they set to move ahead when they are ready and checking in with the teacher when they are ready to move forward in their learning growth goals. Teachers seem to have almost no behavior problems because the interest level is suited to their wants and needs to learn. Autonomy in a classroom has always been one of my goals. It is much easier said than done. I like to give my students as many opportunities as I can to be independent and have choice in their educational experiences. With more and more IEP's and 504's for a more Individualized Education Plan, it is the direction that education is going with the cross-balance between Problem Based Learning (PBL) and leveling curriculum to suit various levels and needs in the classroom at one time. All students have strengths and weaknesses and according to "StrengthsFinder 2.0" by Tom Rath, the business world is also looking to groom the strengths of employees instead of trying to improve the weaker areas of an employee. Individuals are naturally gifted and drawn to some areas of strength and building those strengths builds on positive growth, self-esteem and encourages leadership within and from their special talent and gifts. When students make smart goals that are specific, measurable, attainable and have an action plan this allows the teacher to check in and give feedback instead of lecture and teach whole class. Students are in charge of their learning and this style of learning creates life-long learners that aren't given fish, but are taught to fish for a lifetime to feed their hunger for knowledge. -Varatta, Katie.(2017). “Teaching in a Competency-Based Learning Environment.” KnowledgeWorks.org. 30 May 2017. -“Personalized Learning:What is it?.” (2018). Education Week. 6 November 2018. Video. A short video that attempts to define personalized learning.Herold, -Benjamin.(2018). “What Does Personalized Learning Mean? Whatever People Want it To.” Education Week. 6 November 2018. [Note: You will need to sign up for a free trial of Education Week to access]. -Personalized Learning at Ola Elementary School (video, 2016 Youtube) Given your students’ grade level and the subject matter you teach, consider how and whether you can incorporate competency-based learning and/or personalized learning into your practice. Please provide at least 3 specific examples on how you might use/are using personalized learning/competency based learning in your practice, and discuss what role educational technology might play in these two areas. I am a 3rd-5th grade Reading Specialist. I have many roles, but supporting the Benchmarks curriculum for 4th and 5th grade is one of them. The Benchmark curriculum lends itself well to doing some sort of PBL learning projects where students can work at their own pace and develop projects that correlate to the unit topics. I have developed a Technology Tuesday for my students and have given them projects to work on and experiment at their own pace teaching peers or working by themselves to accomplish their technology skill set and improve by learning from others and asking for help as they need it. I also have two phonics based classes that have set goals and some choice currently and could use more. I would love to set up a reading charts goal sheet to have students set goals around reading books from now until the end of the year. Students read now each night for homework, but having a book goal with many options for styles of reading may encourage students to push their limits and read beyond what they think they are capable of.
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