Innovative Education in Vermont
Exploring innovative, personalized, student-centered school change
The recent issue of the research journal Middle Grades Review was extraordinary for two reasons. First, it focused on the intersection of personalized learning and social justice education. And second, Vermont educators authored all but one of the articles. I encourage folks to peruse the entire issue, but this may not be realistic in the …
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“Be yourself; everyone else is taken.” That. Quote. Drives. Me. Nuts. I mean, duh! And of course! And who else am I gonna be?! [Also it makes the librarian in me nuts because it is often attributed to Oscar Wilde, but there is no evidence he ever said it. Additionally, he doesn’t seem to have …
Continue reading “Student-centered personalized learning starts with identity”
Signs of spring surround us: snow is melting, the days are lengthening, and the mud has returned. So it must be time to think about school gardens! School gardens have become increasingly popular over the past few years, and for good reasons. They’re highly engaging, and ripe with educational opportunities, ha ha. But did you …
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Will schools really re-open this fall? And what will they look like? Most of all: how will we ensure that our teachers and students are safe? Even though I usually do my best to think about anything but school during summer vacation, this year I’ve been tuning into the conversation on reopening. Why? For one …
Continue reading “Measuring the value of a personalized learning coordinator”
Seeing back-to-school activities & personalized learning through the lens of trauma-informed classroom practices I had a eureka! moment this summer. We are so lucky when our critical thinking converges ideas in ways previously unrealized. It transformationally reframes our thinking. Those moments enrich ourselves and arrive with the promise that our private learning should have public …
Climb every pillar… The “three pillars” are a helpful way to envision the three components of personalized learning. They’re interdependent, working best when implemented together. Together they can help us create improve learning for young adolescents. Green Mountain Union High School provides students with a program known as Wilderness Semester. Students learn outdoors skills …
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Just what is Personalized Learning? Personalized learning is a partnership between students and teachers in the design of learning that emerges from students’ interests, questions, needs, and preferences, towards an aim of self-directed learning (Bray & McClaskey, 2014). The best personalization is both personal and social, filled with purpose, and rooted in community. It’s a …
HELLO! I’m Jeanie Phillips and welcome back to vted Reads! We’re kicking off our second season of the podcast with none other than author, professor, associate dean and Vermont education LEGEND, Dr. Penny Bishop. We’ll talk VT PLPs, the power of a compelling school example in changing classrooms practices, and how to steal all the …
Continue reading “#vted Reads: Personalized Learning in the Middle Grades, with Penny Bishop”
The essentials: All the planning in the world won’t be enough to create personalized learning environments if you don’t have some support systems in place! Common planning time Teachers need time to work with each other– the research is clear on the WHY here. Planning integrated, dynamic, and rich learning experiences takes time for collaboration …
Continue reading “3.2 Structures to Support Personalized Learning”
Knowing each student well is essential to a year of flourishing for students and educators. It’s a prerequisite to ensuring equitable access to belonging and wellbeing, a culturally-responsive learning environment, and deep learning. And it enriches the relationships so central to thriving among youth and adults alike. Personal learning plans (PLPs) can drive a rich …
The Tarrant Institute for Innovative Education’s recent book, Personalized Learning in the Middle Grades, published by Harvard Education Press, places Vermont in the national conversation about deeper learning, personalized learning policy, and postsecondary access and success. The book is a synthesis of the institute’s research into school change and education for young adolescents. In addition, …
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Foundations & Connections The Learning Edge: Supporting Student Success in a Competency-Based Learning Environment, Laura Shubilla and Chris Sturgis, iNACOL, 2012 What is SEL? The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning Gold Standard Project Based Learning, Buck Institute for Education Transferable Skills: Sample Graduation Proficiencies and Performance Indicators, Vermont Agency of Education Examples and …
Continue reading “Chapter 3: Laying the Groundwork for Personalized Learning”
Foundations & Connections Personalized Learning and Personal Learning Plan,The Glossary of Education Reform, New England Secondary Schools Consortium How Personal Learning is Working in Vermont, Penny Bishop, John Downes, and James Nagle, Educational Leadership, 2017 Promising State Policies for Personalized Learning, Susan Patrick et al., iNACOL, 2016
How do educators personalize learning to engage, inspire & motivate students? We’re pleased to share that our new book, Personalized Learning in the Middle Grades: A Guide for Teachers and School Leaders, will be available beginning May 7th. It’s available now for preorder. Teachers in grades five through eight can use personalized learning plans …
Continue reading “Personalized Learning in the Middle Grades”
Foundations & Connections Sustainable Development Goals, United Nations Motivation, Engagement, and Student Voice, Eric Toshalis and Michael J. Nakkula, Jobs for the Future, 2012 The Future of Jobs: Employment, Skills and Workforce Strategy for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, World Economic Forum, 2016 Proficiency, Personalization, and a Cocktail Napkin: Or, How PBL Became PPBL, Emily Rinkema, …
How do educators personalize learning to engage, inspire & motivate students? Access the online Educator’s Guide for media-rich activities and interactive challenges for you or a team. We’re pleased to share that our new book, Personalized Learning in the Middle Grades: A Guide for Teachers and School Leaders, will be published on May 7th …
Continue reading “Personalized Learning in the Middle Grades”
One way to make sure PLPs are student-driven: hand them the keys At the end of last school year, the PLP Student Leadership Team at Crossett Brook Middle School presented to staff their recommendations for the future of PLPs at the school. And the staff unanimously supported all of the recommendations. But it’s one thing …
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“Do you know where you are?” An exercise for taking stock of Act 77 implementation. PLPs Flexible Pathways Proficiency-Based Learning SaveSave SaveSave
What is curiosity? Is curiosity important? What does it mean to be a curious learner? What am I curious about? These are some of the questions Cornwall, VT students considered this winter as they embarked on inquiry-based, personalized, research projects. For six weeks, we turned learning over to our students for the (first annual!) Curiosity …
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Flexible classroom spaces encourage flexible learning My principal in Baltimore came into my classroom one day and saw one of my students, Bree, standing next to a bookshelf in the back of my room with her laptop open and her things strewn about the surface. He approached her and asked, “Why aren’t you in your seat?” …
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How are educators and students tackling PLPs around the state? Vermont’s Act 77, the Flexible Pathways Act, mandates that every student in grades 7-12 statewide have a Personal Learning Plan or PLP. And that’s about the extent of the instructions. As to how this can be accomplished? The field is wide open.
Setting goals for summer learning and beyond It’s Day 3 of the 2015 Middle Grades Institute, a gathering of more than 200 Vermont educators all passionately invested in technology-rich, student-centered educational change. And with the Act 77 deadline requiring a Personal Learning Plan for every student in Vermont grades 7-12 coming up in November, talk …
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Implementation of personal learning plans (PLPs) around Vermont As Vermont works through the first year of implementing personalized learning and Act 77, Flexible pathways to secondary education completion (pdf) there ‘s a lot of discussion on the best way to implement personalized learning in Vermont. PLPs are non-traditional pathways by which students can navigate from entrance …
Give your students ownership over their learning through goal-setting activities Happy New Year! With school back in session and a new year upon us, why not use this time as an excuse to take a deep breath, reassess your goals, and refocus on what you and your students are striving to achieve? As your students …
Continue reading “Links Round Up: Goal-Setting for Personalized Learning”
Educators are embracing digital tools for planning and sharing Personalized learning plans, or PLPs, are non-traditional pathways by which students can navigate from entrance to graduation in a way that’s personally meaningful. By studying topics they’re passionate about, students continue to stay engaged; by collaborating on the plans with educators and family, students’ passions can …
Continue reading “4 ways personalized learning plans are taking off in Vermont”
New podcast episode: Essex STEM Academy In this episode, we talk with math educator and STEM Academy leader Lea Ann Smith about Essex High School’s STEM Academy and take a look inside a program that lets students pursue projects in medicine, engineering, computer science, mathematics or biology — by working with community partners during the school …
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Dillin, a seventh grade student at Newark Street School (NSS), had this to say about starting school with 30 minutes of daily movement: “So my perspective is, I really like it. It gets you healthy. Your heart beats, and then you get ready for the day you have after you’re done doing it. Like you …
Continue reading “Prioritizing daily movement and experiential learning in Newark”
Introducing our updated PLP Toolkit Knowing each student well is essential to a year of flourishing for students and educators. It’s a prerequisite to ensuring equitable access to belonging and wellbeing, a culturally-responsive learning environment, and deep learning. And it enriches the relationships so central to a thriving school. Personal learning plans (PLPs) can …
Continue reading “PLPs to Know Students Well: Introducing the Personal Learning Plan Toolkit”
This year, I am hearing that many teachers feel they aren’t practicing the kind of teaching they believe in as much as they are used to and want to. They are stretched thin with all of the protocols and decisions and shifting situations the pandemic brings. That personalized learning, and service learning, feel further away …
It all started with a pandemic Dear reader, as you are well aware, back in March a global pandemic struck and in-person schooling was suspended for the remainder of the school year. Quite suddenly, my family, like many, found ourselves home together all day, every day. My kids, also like many, thrive on routine. When …
As we consider widespread school closures and how we might adapt, it’s important that our aim isn’t to recreate a typical school day, but instead, leverage strong teacher and student relationships and available technology to prioritize connection and support each other, and to create and document learning experiences and activities. We are in uncharted waters. …
Learning Lab VT is a year-long practicum that networks Vermont educators and students, who conduct classroom research related to the questions: What, exactly, are teachers and students doing in settings that are becoming increasingly personalized, and to what end? How might our findings be helpful to each other, our students, and our colleagues? Below are …
Now that you understand the why of proficiency-based and personalized learning, are you ready to see the how? Learning Lab VT throws open the doors of classrooms around Vermont, so you and other educators like you can see personalized learning in action, up close and personal. Your hosts are educators just like you, who, along …
How can we shape Opportunity Time to introduce the power of personalization to young adolescents?
Learning Lab VT Hosts, 2019-2020 Learning Lab VT hosts are educators at six schools in Vermont opening their classrooms to share their practice with visitors. To discover each of their driving research questions about personalized learning, and to find out more about them, visit them at the links below. Or, hover over the stars on …
How do we know what our students know and can do? What, when, and how are we asking them to show us? In recent conversations with my colleagues, we’ve been considering shifts in assessment required of us in proficiency-based education. Now, let’s explore how to put those shifts into practice. When we consider those …
Continue reading “The powerful practice of documenting learning”
My twelve-year-old son is becoming a hunter. Myself, I’ve never even fired a gun, but Henry has been interested in learning how to hunt for several years. Given that he was born in Vermont and has a doting outdoorsman grandpa, his lifetime Vermont fishing and hunting license was purchased when he was 6 months old …
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Students are an integral part of Learning Lab VT. They have to be. When educators sign up to host Learning Lab visits, this necessarily involves and impacts their students. We all want Vermont’s students to have and use their voices, and we hope that open classrooms give students more audience for those voices. You well …
Welcome to Learning Lab VT Ever wonder whether you’re really up to the task of meeting your learners’ needs? We have. Our learners — Vermont middle and high school educators — are in the midst of a monumental transition that, done well, will ensure that Vermont’s public schools deliver on their mission of excellence and …
What is Learning Lab VT? Learning Lab VT is a network of Vermont educators who are implementing personalized learning strategies with their students. This year-long experience provides a cohort of educators the networked support they need to partner with their students and each other to explore strategies that answers the questions: Why personalization? What, …
Curious about how educators in the Learning Lab VT approach personalized learning? Participants in Learning Lab VT commit to reflecting on how their action research is progressing throughout the year. These reflections can be written or video in form. They often feature collaboration with students. A huge part of the Learning Lab VT commitment is …
with Katy Farber From real and relevant to what to do in the event of a mountain bike accident, the last predators in Middlesex, and the all-important question of who is responsible for the pizza at your exhibition of learning. That’s right: librarian Jeanie Phillips talks all about service learning with author and educator Katy …
Adding playlists into the mix We often hear about the need to move from the sage on the stage to the guide on the side in student-centered classrooms, so much so that if feels cliche. But how does one go about making that shift in a proficiency-based and personalized learning environment?
Welcome to Learning Lab VT Vermont’s schools are home to some of the most innovative, passionate and skilled educators in the nation. And they’re opening up their classrooms to the world. Welcome to Learning Lab VT. We’re all in this together. You ever wonder whether you’re really up to the task of meeting your learners’ …
Personalizing PE In this era of personalized learning, it’s not just the jocks that find P.E. enjoyable. At Crossett Brook Middle School and Shelburne Community School, students employ cool technology, develop creative projects, and pursue personal interests and goals while developing autonomy, healthy habits, and deep understandings.
How do you maximize student learning? What are the ways we can do this, and how might our roles and labels get in the way of helping all students? Words matter. Job titles, given labels, justly or not, can affect how we feel about ourselves and our jobs. They can affect our we are perceived …
VR’s real world impact on students Virtual reality is exciting and many of our students are already using this technology in gaming (as some were quick to tell me). So why aren’t we using it more in education? Why aren’t we using it in project-based learning? Maybe we just need some ideas on how to use VR in …
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Outcomes, process and automaticity I worked with a group of teachers this summer to re-think goal-setting with their students. We know it’s a key component to developing Personalized Learning Plans (PLP), but students reported little engagement in following through on and reflecting about their goals. In our attempts to think differently about goal-setting and reflection, …
Continue reading “3 visualization exercises for proficiency-based learning”
Building a democratic classroom at The Edge Part of the power of implementing a negotiated curriculum is that it doesn’t just center student voice, it actually moves the learning space towards a democratic classroom, a place where students can advocate for themselves and their learning interests, goals and styles. It’s an important piece of the …
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4 lessons from a recent gathering On Friday, March 11, more than 50 participants from public and private schools, community education partners, and higher education from Vermont and the surrounding region gathered for a Community Based Learning workday, put on by Big Picture Learning, Eagle Rock School, Big Picture South Burlington, and Partnership for Change. …
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A teacher-authored case study Today we hear from a grade 5-6 team venturing into the world of personal learning plans (PLPs) using Google Tools. Jared Bailey, math teacher, and Joy Peterson, English Language Arts teacher, provide concrete details on how they rolled out PLPs this year, including links to such resources as graphic organizers that they used for …
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Curating lists of online resources for deep dives into content research We have been spending much of our time here at the Tarrant Institute exploring the idea of what engagement looks like in a learning environment where access to resources is ubiquitous, where learning can and does take place anytime, anywhere. That is why when Lisa …
What they are and how to use them In a recent blog post, I suggested access to technology can empower teachers to be responsive to students’ needs in a blended learning environment. I want to expand upon that notion and explore further how Open Educational Resources play an important role in how we teachers facilitate more …
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What can you do with an LMS? LMS stands for Learning Management System. An LMS is an application for planning, delivering, managing, and assessing a learning process. Likely, your school or district will choose which commercial LMS package to deploy (Canvas, Haiku, Schoology and Google Classroom are a few), but how you use it is entirely up to you.
Just-in-time learning in its best form is “Just for me” learning. When you learn something because you yearn to understand it, precisely when you need to apply it, you will learn it deeply and joyfully. Your brain will soak it up because your heart is in it. Now, how does that translate to providing just-in-time-teaching?
Getting educators to a place of power with a powerful method When I think about educational technology, it has never for me been divorced from pedagogy. As soon as I encounter a new digital tool, although it might attract me at first based on its novelty, my mind immediately jumps to the connection of how …
Flexible learning environments have a physical component — and effect Do you recognize the object at left? Does it look like a comfortable learning environment for a student? Does it look like the type of learning environment a student would choose for themselves? OF COURSE NOT, and because you are all such passionate and committed educators, you started …
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Addressing student mastery and learning targets in an LMS Kristi McKnight, a 9th grade teacher at Harwood Union High School in Moretown, Vermont, shares how she and her teaching partner, Mike Coyle, use the Schoology learning management system (LMS) for differentiated learning with her students. With Schoology, McKnight is able to describe how she’s giving her …
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Music City learns a thing or two about Vermont ed tech Half of the Tarrant Institute staff and a special guest headed to Nashville last week to present at the Association for Middle Level Education Annual Conference. We set out to share with middle grades educators from around the world the incredible, tech-rich teaching happening in Vermont schools. As we always …
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Why get started? I can’t deny it – I’m a big fan of robotics in education. When I was still teaching, I helped start a robotics team at my high school, which participated in regional and national competitions. The student learning and engagement that took place in this extra curricular activity was absolutely amazing – …
Presentations Local Presentations Grow Community Through Service Learning and Leadership. Katy Farber & Peter Stratman. Presented at Vermont Fest, November 2018. Conversations About Micro-Credentialing. Susan Hennessey & Tim O’Leary. Presented at Vermont Fest, November 2018. Ideas Into Action Through School-Driven Change. Penny Bishop, John, Downes, Scott Thompson, and Life LeGeros. Presented at Rowland Conference at …
Equity is the moral imperative behind all of the work we do here at the Tarrant Institute for Innovative Education. In this new toolkit, we have collected many of our favorite posts about equity, including analyses and syntheses about equity in general, how to support equity in professional learning and in classrooms, and examples of …
The moral imperative behind our work at TIIE has always been equity. It is also the basis of the middle school movement that we hold dear, which originated as a challenge to the status quo of junior high schools. As progressive educators, we promote shifts in education to bring more equitable outcomes, more humane learning …
The beginning of a school year is a great time to explore and reflect on identity. For teachers who are working with students for the first time, exploring identity is a great way to get to know them and to build relationships. For teachers working with returning students, well, they may have changed a lot …
#vted Reads is a podcast by, for and with Vermont educators, discussing books for professional development and use in the classroom. Host Jeanie Phillips sits down with an educator, student or author each episode and together, they look at a book they feel is relevant for Vermont learners. Whether it’s YA, popular press or professional …
In this episode, we welcome author, educator, and Vermont transplant Kathleen Kesson who talks about Community Schools Blueprint: Transforming Our School Community Partnership. Kathleen and I talk about the possibilities we see for widening the cracks in traditional schooling by building opportunities for students and communities to support one another in authentic, real-world ways.
Many of the routines of the school day have been frayed by the pandemic. From kids unable to engage in work to walking out of class altogether, we are seeing norms and relationships stretched and tested like never before. This might even be described as “normal” right now — as in that it’s the norm, it’s …
Lovely listeners: today is a work day. Now, we all know that talking about anti-bias work is a vital component of the kind of school change that makes our classrooms safer and more engaging for students of color. Doubly so when we are white educators, and when we teach in predominantly white spaces, in predominantly …
What we can learn from Kingdom East School District’s summer camp? The 2020-2021 pandemic school year was uniquely challenging and extraordinarily exhausting. As the summer of 2021 got underway, the typical summer break excitement was tempered for many families due to tapped out energy sources and monetary resources. Vaccine rates were climbing and some aspects …
Back on the show: it’s Bill Rich! But first: Lovely listeners, a few episodes ago, we turned fifty. Fifty! Can you imagine? It took us a hot minute (and um, more math than we’d care to discuss) to figure that out but this is the season that took us to FIFTY EPISODES. And we are …
How can a school community emerge from isolation to reflect on individual and collective experiences from this uniquely challenging and transformative year? This spring, Hazen Union Middle/High School came back together around a creative engagement installation: the Sounding Board. Part of a broader Hazen Youth Voices Project — a collaborative initiative launched by the school’s …
Continue reading “Fostering a Sound Culture at Hazen: Youth Voices and the Sounding Board Project”
Middle school students are ever-changing, curious, socially and globally aware, and incredibly capable. Their energy and urge to explore can be channeled into rich and fertile learning territory. It’s such a privilege to walk alongside them as they grow during these often tumultuous years. Folks often say it takes a special kind of person to …
Continue reading “The successful, sustainable middle school”
At their heart, Culturally Responsive Practices (CRP) are about teaching the way students learn. It is an unfortunate truth of being human that we are biased by our own experiences. As Mahzarin Banaji, a professor of social ethics at Harvard University says, “The quickest way to define what implicit bias is [is] to say it …
Continue reading “Culturally Responsive Instruction and Assessment”
We’re here to talk books for educators, by educators and with educators. Today I’m with Dr. Penny Bishop and we’ll be talking about The Successful Middle School: This We Believe, by Penny and her co-author Dr. Lisa Harrison. Thanks so much for joining me, Penny. Tell us a little bit about who you are and …
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We talk a lot, as professional development coordinators and as educators, about self-direction. We think a lot about ways to support self-directed learners, offering them “choice and voice” while trying to make sure we support them in their learning. (And hey, educators, you’re learners too. I’m a learner. We are all, to some degree, self-directed …
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Who’s Outside? How to Build An Anti-Racist Bookshelf is an interactive online workshop for educators we offered in January 2021. We offered it in collaboration with Shelburne Farms. Additionally, educators Jeanie Phillips and Aimee Arandia Østensen courageously co-facilitated this workshop. Below you’ll find a recording of the workshop, optimized for solo or team playback. The …
Walking through what it looks like to take commercial curriculum and develop a vibrant, personalized integrated unit. One thing we hear all the time in our work as professional development coordinators is: “How do you both personalize learning for students AND use the curriculum materials adopted by the district or school? Aren’t these things in …
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The fifteen year old boy slowly hobbled from the parking lot to the school’s main office, stopping to adjust his crutches. He was welcomed by the school’s Flexible Pathway Coordinator, Ian Dinzeo for their 10 o’clock appointment. They both sat down, masked, at opposite ends of a table in the school cafeteria – which offered …
Editorial Note: This post was scheduled for publication prior to the events in Washington, DC on January 6, 2021. As ever-increasing cracks in the foundation of our democracy reveal weakness and corruption, so too do these revelations allow the light of justice and truth to penetrate. As educators, our work to help young people learn …
Listener, how do you feel about positive interventions, behaviors and supports? I don’t mean in general — in general those all sound fine and dandy — but when they come within 100 yards of a school, they turn into PBIS. And that’s another ball of wax entirely. Today author Thomas Knestrict joins me on the …
228 days home with my 3 children. 88 days of remote learning, spanning 2 school years and 5 different grade levels. 10 different teachers. 34 Zoom meetings per week (not counting mine). Engagement level: 27%. This is parenting pandemic math. But who’s counting, right? At home, my kids are missing school. Or, more specifically, they …
In this episode, we get real about what educators can do in their classrooms to make a more equitable playing field, how to walk that fine line between supporting student activism and co-opting it, and how to juggle the competing demands of educational and intersectional change. Also, we talk local soccer. It’s a full workout …
Continue reading “#vted Reads: So You Want to Talk About Race”
How can educators manage PLPs in remote learning? What goes into a Learning Management System? And what does it look like to effectively tie the two together in a smooth workflow? Seesaw + Google Classroom is one increasingly popular combination. SeeSaw is in heavy rotation as a platform for Personalized Learning Plans (PLPs) and portfolios. …
Continue reading “Using Seesaw with Google Classroom for PLPs”
“What is the implication for how we understand ourselves and each other in reference to our racial identities? And if we are dissatisfied with the way things are, what can we do to change it?” –Beverly Tatum, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? This is not the post we originally …
How do we help students connect to their communities, and consider how to enrich community life? That’s the question Chrissy Park and her 3rd through 5th grade students at Burke Town School, in West Burke VT, have spent their year exploring. Together and in-person, they considered ways they could all take part in their community. …
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I’m Jeanie Phillips and welcome back to #vted Reads: books by, for and with Vermont educators. Today is a little of all three, as we welcome instructional coaches Emily Rinkema and Stan Williams to the show. They’re the authors of The Standards-Based Classroom: Make Learning the Goal, and have been working on implementing and assessing …
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The middle school movement has been a powerful force for positive change. It’s rooted in progressive education, with special attention to the developmental needs of young adolescents. In Vermont, we are ahead of most other states in implementing middle school systems and associated student-centered practices. That’s a good thing. Relative newcomers to this place, like …
Welcome to another episode of #vted Reads! We’re so glad you could make it. In this episode, we talk with librarian Margi Putney, from the Burr & Burton Academy, down in Manchester Vermont. She and I read Dive Into Inquiry: Amplify Learning & Empower Student Voice, by Trevor MacKenzie. Don’t those two things sound amazing? …
Today on the 21st Century Classroom: Beckett: When the school systems were created was to produce factory workers, to have good workers for their assembly lines and could make cars and they all knew basic information and could all say the same facts. It was a standardized person pretty much, being produced into the workforce. …
Continue reading “What CVU students want you to know about education”
Teacher Leaders are agents of innovative school change Situated in the heart center of education, teacher leaders are the true heroes of the education system. Your vision and passion lead the quest for deeper learning and transformation. Your intuition and experience guide your path. But what happens when you see the way to bring more …
…in a middle level math classroom Deirdre Beaupre, a 7th grade math teacher at Lamoille Union Middle School took a deep dive into proficiency work. And she invited her students to join her along the journey. Deirdre participated in Learning Lab VT last year to explore how best to change her practice in a proficiency-based …
Continue reading “How to change assessment & grading practices”
On this episode of the 21st Century Classroom: Veronica: My name is Veronica, I’m 13, and I’m in eighth grade. Emily: And why are you here, Veronica? Veronica: I’m here because every morning I wake up afraid. And so knowing that so many other people feel the same thing? It makes me hopeful, for the …
Continue reading “What I Learned at the Youth Climate Strike”
#1. Making lists As a fan of lists, I went to bed Monday night mulling over my top 10 list of why snow days and school closings are a miraculous gift (to most of us)! High on the list is negotiating with my 17-year-old daughters on times to wake them. Glad to say option three …
Chapter 1: Personalized Learning for Young Adolescents Foundations and Connections Personalized Learning and Personal Learning Plan,The Glossary of Education Reform, New England Secondary Schools Consortium How Personal Learning is Working in Vermont, Penny Bishop, John Downes, and James Nagle, Educational Leadership, 2017 Promising State Policies for Personalized Learning, Susan Patrick et al., iNACOL, 2016 Chapter …
Today on the show, we’re going to talk about The End of Average: How to Succeed in a World That Values Sameness, by Todd Rose. We’ll be joined by Emily Gilmore, who teaches world history at South Burlington High School, in South Burlington Vermont. But first, a few words of background for today’s show. In …
On this episode of The 21st Century Classroom: It makes me happy to come to school every day, because I show up and I’m like, I know I’m able to do this because I changed the way it was. Like I’m happy that I feel like I’m being heard, like appreciated. Today we’re going to …
Continue reading “What Orleans students want you to know about student voice”
Part of shifting to personalized learning is centering students in the traditional parent-teacher conference. They need to lead the conversation with families and caregivers. And this shift can be hard for folks, because, you know, change is hard! So let’s look at how you can prep families for student-led conferences. It’s all in how …
Continue reading “How to design pre-conference conversations with families”
What would you do if you were given the time and space to create a school where students could tell you exactly what and how they wanted to learn? Where they arrived cheerful and excited with boundless energy for the school day… And what if I told you it was grounded in the most powerful …
Continue reading “On the cutting Edge of student-centered education”
*Why* do you want to personalize learning? What’s your purpose for using PLPs? Teachers typically have a range of priorities. Two common ones are to increase equity and to foster social emotional learning (SEL), both of which are rooted in knowing students well. Increasing equity PLPs provide a powerful way to address inequity in schooling. …
Continue reading “3.1 What Are Your Pedagogical Priorities?”
What is a Personalized Learning Plan (PLP)? Ultimately, a PLP is a tool. It can help us get to know our students better and teach us how to support each student’s learning. PLPs can also be: A creative way for students to show their identities, hopes, and interests A portfolio documenting students’ learning journeys. Demonstrations …
VTDigger reports that Vermont Secretary of Education Dan French said “From our standpoint, we portray districts being on a journey. Just like everyone in the world is on a journey. And we don’t see 2020 as some sort of hard and fast date.” However, regardless of a deadline, we should remain focused on centering equity …
Continue reading “3 ways to ensure equity is at the heart of your work”
Phew! How can you sustain all of this great work? That’s a perennial question. Continuing to push forward can sometimes feel isolating, interrupted, or disjointed. Here are just a few ideas to help you feel connected, supported and inspired instead! Expand your digital learning networks Think about how social media helps us connect with others. …
Ah, that second pillar. Flexible pathways are key to engaging learning. They’re all those great ways we engage students actively and meaningfully. According to the Vermont Agency of Education: Flexible Pathways are any combination of high-quality expanded learning opportunities, including academic and experiential components, which build and assess attainment of identified proficiencies and lead to …
Creating a personalized learning environment requires time and effort, for sure. It takes team building, as well as collaboratively setting expectations and procedures for how your group will learn together. The good news is that PLPs can actually help create this strong learning climate. At The Ottauquechee School, in Quechee VT, educator Kim Dumont conducted …
We’ve seen educators launch PLPs in many different ways. And we’ve learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t. Students, of course, have helped show us the way. Here are two ways to avoid common pitfalls. Check out the book to see more of these! DO: Start with engaging learning Often, teachers start with …
In a personalized learning environment, students and teachers take on new roles. Teachers are still essential, but in different ways. They’re empowerers, scouts, scaffolders, assessors, and community builders. Teachers are: empowerers. scouts. assessors. scaffolders. community builders. This is personal, close-in work. And often it better meets students’ needs, improves relationships, and deepens learning. By adopting …
Why? Because we believe: All students can learn. The purpose of assessment is to determine the next steps for learning. The goal of education is not to sort and rank learners, rather to help ALL learners grow towards their potential. Students are partners in creating meaningful and relevant learning experiences and environments; their voice and …
What is meaningful instruction? Meaningful instruction is the heart of the proficiency based education model. Educators know that good teaching is personal, relevant, engaging, responsive, dynamic, and rooted in strong student relationships. Meaningful instruction includes plans for how instructors will provide multiple ways for students to learn, engage, and practice what they need to know, …
So, maybe you’ve been using protocols at faculty meetings or professional learning community sessions. Perhaps you’ve found that they make space for all voices in conversations about proficiency-based education. Or you like how they foster collaboration as you work together to structure personalized learning plans. Know what else they can do? Support us as we …
Cornelius Minor likes to ask himself three key questions. One: what are his students trying to tell him? Two: What are they *really* trying to tell him, through their actions, and their silences? And three, what do these students — who he worries he might not be reaching — all have in common? I’m Jeanie …
Continue reading “#vted Reads: We Got This, with Kathleen Brinegar”
Think Global Goals, make local change The UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals are ambitious goals that countries, organizations, and institutions are committed to. They provide a framework that inspires students to connect local issues with global movements, to care deeply, and to make their own a plans for positive change. They include things such …
Continue reading “How to make real, sustainable change in the Northeast Kingdom”
The why and how of personalization An inquiry question forms the backbone of action research in the classroom. It guides the full shape of the research to come, and forms a foundation for the educator and students to build ongoing research. Learning Lab VT is a program with action research at its heart — action …
Foundations & Connections Learner Profiles, The Institute for Personalized Learning Vermont Personalized Learning Plan: Conceptual Framework Narrative for Students, Vermont Agency of Education Examples & Tools Identity Project: Who am I now? Lindsey Halman, Essex Middle School Personal Learning Plan Community Page, Team Summit, Montpelier Main Street Middle School, Vermont How Can Students Teach Educators …
Continue reading “Chapter 4: Launching PLPs with the Learner Profile”
When I travel to schools around Vermont, I hear many versions of the same concerns: Going anywhere from our school costs hundreds of dollars. We want to take students into the community, but we burn through our budget by October. Transportation funds are running low (or are gone). We know it is so important to …
Continue reading “Vermont schools have a transportation equity problem.”
Rural life and project-based learning You might find students on the skating rink in front of the school, helping out on a goat farm, dirt bike racing, heading to dance class, or fixing broken snowmobiles. All of these life experiences are important to students — and are valid learning experiences in and of themselves! We …
Thank you for joining us for another episode of #vted Reads. This time we will be discussing The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact. We’ll look for ways to make classroom moments more powerful, explore opportunities to raise the stakes for your students, and visit the popsicle hotline. Oh, and we’ll talk …
Continue reading “#vted Reads: The Power of Moments, with Rachel Mark”
Allan Miller Allan Miller is an innovation coach and Digital Learning Leader at Charlotte Central School, in Charlotte VT. akmiller@cvsdvt.org Inquiry question: “What systems and processes can be implemented at Charlotte to sustainably engage students and teachers in personalized learning that is aligned around our [district’s] core transferable skills? How can we encourage students to …
Lori Lisai Lori Lisai is an innovation coach at Lamoille Union Middle School, in Hyde Park, VT. llisai@luhs18.org Inquiry question: “How can we make reflection an integral part of the personalized learning process?”
Marley Evans Marley Evans teaches 7th & 8th grade Humanities at The Charlotte School, in Charlotte VT mevans@cvsdvt.org Inquiry question: “How can I give students a completely independent learning experience through PIP’s and then have students use those same skills to give them personalized learning in the humanities classroom?” Learning Lab Reflections: The Year of …
Welcome back to #vted Reads! In this episode, we’re talking about the comic memoir Hey, Kiddo. As we discuss Jarrett Krosoczka’s real-life story, we find empathy for young people living with the impacts of addiction and mental illness. And we explore other themes: how to really see kids, the importance of representation in books, and …
It’s about providing choice in reflection tools Personalized Learning Plans (PLPs) across the state have taken many different forms and serve a few different purposes. One common thread among educators is a wondering of how to increase student engagement in the PLP process. How to make it more meaningful and relevant. Michael Willis, Jared Bailey, …
Continue reading “Increasing student engagement in PLPs at Williston Central”
The Year of Yes Or, Why My Kids Have Their Phones Out… I am a stickler for a plan. Type A. Enneagram Type 3. Call it what you will. My closet is color-coded and sleeve-organized. I leave the house every morning with beds made and dishes washed. I never get behind on laundry. My son …
With or without the book Our new book, Personalized Learning in the Middle Grades: A Guide for Classroom Teachers and School Leaders, draws on 10 years of case studies from Vermont schools and educators. And we’ve crafted an Educator’s Guide intended to present a deeper dive into their work and challenge you to think more …
Students in Courtney Elliott’s class work on a Mystery Skype with a class in Wisconsin to demonstrate communication skills and content knowledge of the U.S regions. Inquiry question about personalized learning: How might personalization through self-reflection, self-assessment, and flexible grouping and scheduling across grades 3 and 4 at Proctor Elementary School positively impact student …
Continue reading “Courtney Elliott’s Bright Spots and Belly Flops”
Welcome back to #vted Reads! Now, I recorded this episode back in September out in San Antonio, at the School Reform Initiative’s Fall 2018 meeting. Author Terra Lynch was kind enough to chat with me about her book for the podcast between sessions. Recording spaces were kind of hard to come by at the conference, …
Continue reading “#vted Reads: Protocols in the Classroom, with Terra Lynch”
To be honest, there has been an even split of successes and failures to date. Let’s take a look shall we? So, reflection time. Trying to avoid the TLDR (too long, didn’t read) moment, sooooo, to change it up a little, I’ll let the images set the stage. Bright spots: I tend to be pretty …
There is very little learning without reflection. John Dewey himself noted: “We do not learn from experience… we learn from reflecting on experience.” So how do we get students reflecting in a way that is creative, dynamic, has choice, and doesn’t promote groans and sighs? We move away from “Please write 7 sentences about your …
Steven Netcoh served as Postdoctoral Associate with the Tarrant Institute for Innovative Education 2018-2019. He received his Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from the University of Vermont (UVM) where he studied personalized learning and flexible pathways in Vermont secondary schools. He has also focused on supporting students’ transitions to college academics through his …
When asked “what is your working definition of personalized learning?” Charlie Herzog, an educator at Flood Brook replied: “Relevancy is the essence of personalized learning. It’s about giving students voice & choice regarding content, and offering multiple pathways to explore/learn the chosen content. It’s about students reflecting on their learning journeys; considering where they’ve come …
Continue reading “This Is Really Scary (And I’ve Never Been More Excited)”
Start by listening to students Elizabeth Tarno asked her students for feedback about their math class at the end of 5th grade. Then she did something incredible: she completely redesigned her classroom to address what students asked for. Elizabeth teaches both 5th and 6th grade math (and science) at the Warren Elementary School. She spent …
When asked “what is your working definition of personalized learning?” Charlie Herzog, an educator at Flood Brook replied: “Relevancy is the essence of personalized learning. It’s about giving students voice & choice regarding content, and offering multiple pathways to explore/learn the chosen content. It’s about students reflecting on their learning journeys; considering where they’ve come …
Continue reading “This Is Really Scary (And I’ve Never Been More Excited)”
Flexible pathways in digital music We had a chance to hear from student digital audio producers at Randolph Union High School, in Randolph VT. They, along with innovative educator Raymond Cole, shared what makes this project-based learning class such a hit. A full transcript follows below. In this episode of The 21st …
Continue reading “Randolph students turn digital audio producers with PBL”
Genius Hour Genius Hour refers to open-ended, student-driven projects during a pre-deterrmined time. Students pick a topic and decide how they will exhibit their learning. During the research phase students often connect with mentors within the school or in the community. (Genius Hour is also called Passion Projects or 20% time.) Check out : This …
Why do certain groups add up to be greater than the sum of their parts? In this episode of our podcast, we kick off our fourth season with legendary librarian Jeanie Phillips. She’ll be sitting down with a series of guests from around the #vted ecosphere and …reviewing books. Not just any books, but books …
Welcome to the 21st Century Classroom Full list of episode descriptions here. Episode 41: What Orleans students want you to know about student voice Episode 40: On the cutting Edge of student-centered learning Episode 39: What students want you to know about school Episode 38: #vted Reads: Check Please, with Peter Langella Episode 37: All …
with the Tarrant Institute for Innovative Education The Tarrant Institute for Innovative Education at the University of Vermont was active from 2010-2022, partnering with middle schools around Vermont. We provided professional development rooted in best middle grades practice, innovative technology funding, and storytelling support to educators. Our educational materials are comprised of six main categories: …
Get your red hot summer reads right here! Or your chilling-in-the-AC-far-away-from-sunlight summer reads. We don’t judge. For educators, summer is a time to relax, recharge and maybe fit some professional development in, but honestly, not til like, August, easily*.
Students test drive tools to enhance & amplify project work When Stowe Middle Level educators met to plan for the upcoming student exhibitions of learning, they agreed on two critical ideas. One, that their learners benefit from multiple ways to tell the story of their learning. And two, students are in the best position to …
The transformation of Team Quest Educators never feel like they have enough time to do all the things they want to do with students. But for Team Quest at Crossett Brook Middle School in Duxbury, Vermont, the constraints of traditional subject area, schedule and process had become unbearable. So this two-person grade 5-6 team decided …
The power of metaphorical thinking A picture can speak a thousand words and convey a complex concept that text on its own can’t quite manage. And the act of crafting them is a powerful way to synthesize understanding. How would you create a visual whose goal is to capture the complexities of personalized learning?
Virtual bulletin boards to go! Staying organized as a teacher can be a major challenge. Between student work, teacher plans, sticky notes, school supplies it’s easy to get buried and overwhelmed! This can especially be hard in a personalized learning environment, where students are often working at different paces, with different resources. But whether you’re …
The power of the student consult If you’re wondering what engages, excites and motivates students, the answer is easy: ask them. Creating opportunities for students to give feedback on plans, projects, assessments and activities builds a collaborative learning community, and creates leadership and student voice opportunities. Here’s how one school gave student consultants a shot.
A new recipe for Personalized Learning Plans Rather than trying to get students to care about existing PLPs, some schools are revamping their PLP process to start with what students care about. They are asking students to pursue their passions by crafting projects based on their personal interests and deepest curiosities. The new recipe that …
How did an 8th grader turn his passion project into a summer job? I found Connor in the tech ed room during the first session of Brainado, a school-wide Genius Hour at Crossett Brook Middle School in Duxbury, Vermont. He was taking apart a lawn mower. When asked why, he shrugged and mumbled something about …
Displayed. Featured Articles (168) #everydaycourage (16) #readytolaunch (16) ABCs of edtech (26) Curation Station (33) Guest Post (19) Science Saturdays (26) Flexible Pathways (6) Ideas for Administrators (25) Faith-based education (1) Ideas for Educators (212) Android Tutorials (5) Augmented Reality (19) Chromebook Tutorials (13) Edugaming (14) ePortfolios (5) Flipped Classrooms (7) Grow your PLN (5) iPad Tutorials (29) Make mobile apps (2) Place-Based Learning (3) Project-Based Learning (30) Getting On The PBL Highway (6) Real World PBL (6) Teaming (2) …
Why structure? One of the most intimidating things about starting to do service and project based learning in the classroom is how to structure the time. One thing I have learned from direct experience in the classroom and from working with teachers is that this is structuring the time a key part of developing your …
Continue reading “3 strategies to create supportive structures during project time”
Realizing the promise of micro-credentialing As teachers and students grapple with how to implement proficiency-based assessment, flexible pathways and personalized learning, what can we learn from digital badge eco-systems? What’s been tried? What’s worked? And what do we need to think about as we implement micro-credentialing to help us grapple, not just with the requirements …
Continue reading “Digital badges as evidence of flexible pathways”
What proficiency-based learning looks like Winooski Middle and High School, in bustling Winooski, VT, has been quietly making the journey to proficiency-based learning and proficiency-based graduation requirements for the past six years. And the resources they’ve constructed along the way — to support students, teachers and families — celebrate cultural and ethnic diversity and challenge …
Continue reading “Winooski’s Graduate Proficiencies & Graduate Expectations”
Jessica DeMink-Carthew is an Assistant Professor in Middle Grades and Elementary Education at the University of Vermont. She is also a Senior Research Associate with the Tarrant Institute for Innovative Education. Her research centers on supporting student teachers and practicing teachers in experimenting with innovative teaching practices such as personalized learning, proficiency-based learning, and social …
The #everydaycourage of being seen Take the iconic back-to-school prompt for students — what I did on my summer vacation — and give it a twist. Imagine how students might respond to the prompt What I think my teacher did on summer vacation. A lot of us wish other folks knew how hard we work during summer: the …
Continue reading “4 ways Vermont educators are sharing their practice”
When last we left the students of these two plucky Vermont middle schools, they had managed to connect students and educators via Google Hangout. They’d gotten together to make pizzas and plot the future of personalized learning plans (PLPs). And they’d paired up students as PLP peer collaborators and spent some time reviewing PLPs in …
Continue reading “Checking in with Stowe & PAML’s peer PLP collaboration”
Personalized, proficiency-based PBL or bust During a faculty meeting in late December of 2016, educators and staff talked about the need to provide personalized learning options for students at their small, rural Vermont school. They wanted do so in a way that honored the students’ need for passion-based, independent projects, as well as the desire …
Young adolescents are compelled to explore various aspects of their identities, including values, beliefs, social identities, learning profiles, interests, cultures, and aspirations. When teachers provide opportunities for exploring and expressing identities, they will be able to strengthen relationships and provide personalized support to students’ academic and social emotional learning. As students seek to understand the …
Guiding Crossett Brook PLPs with student voice The Crossett Brook PLP student leadership group presented their recommendations on PLPs to the teaching staff at the end of the school year. The educators received the students’ ideas well. It was pretty cool to see a roomful of teachers rapt on a hot afternoon during the last …
Continue reading “Use a student leadership team for feedback on PLPs”
Every May for the past 10 years, Lamoille Union Middle School’s Team Extreme launches an integrated unit. This year found them shifting and building upon past successes to include the goal of giving students access to their growth and skills progression in a brand new way.
Let students help you transform your school Creating sustainable systemic change is hard work. Yet there are readily available, free, renewable resources right in your classroom. Students are embedded experts, creative geniuses, ruthless truthtellers, and intrinsic futurists. Here are four examples of students as partners in school change: partners in building a makerspace, redesigning PLPs, serving …
Continue reading “4 examples of students as partners in school change”
Taking stock on implementing Vermont’s Act 77 “Do you know where you are?” Usually it’s a question medical professionals ask in emergency situations. It’s not as dramatic in the context of education, but it can be just as useful as a diagnostic criteria. We’re going to ask you to take stock of where you are …
Standard 3-part story-driven post: 1) what it is, 2) what it looks like in a school, 3) how to do it in your school
Deliver the goods! Rather than creating a unit on the Civil War, imagine working with an individual student or small group on a topic that fully engages them, but might be something you know little about. First we looked at how to find resources in multiple formats, to meet students’ different learning needs and preferences. Now, how …
Continue reading “4 ways students can control the pace of content delivery”
Standard 3-part story-driven post: 1) what it is, 2) what it looks like in a school, 3) how to do it in your school
A flexible pathway for religious choice In a time when combining 21st century skills with personalized learning is in the thoughts of educators, students, and parents, I see the choice of a faith-based education as a very specific personal pathway. But how does a faith-based education work in the context of 21st century learning?
Vermont’s new leading role online In today’s podcast, Mark Olofson talks with Joshua Rosenberg and Spencer Greenhalgh, education researchers from Michigan State University. Their research focuses on the state-level twitter conversations among educators: who is doing it, and what they’re getting out of it. And, spoiler alert, when they looked around the country, Vermont emerged …
Continue reading “Data shows #vted leads nation in educators on Twitter”
Community conversations about education What would you tell your neighbors about your school? What do you think they’d say in return? The Washington West Supervisory Union has set out to find out, by hosting a series of community conversations. Life LeGeros, a Tarrant Institute professional development coordinator and WWSU community member, is taking part in …
Staying grounded in best practices Research in the middle grades shares a common goal of understanding and improving teaching and learning. Best practices in middle grades education underpins everything we do here at the Tarrant Institute: the professional development we provide partner educators, the action research projects we help those educators undertake in their classrooms, …
It’s about time I am fascinated with master schedules! This is certainly a massive understatement. I love the challenge of putting all the pieces together, showing how everything is connected. My mind is wired to think through a systems lens. I am always asking myself, if I change this thing over here what happens over …
Getting started assessing proficiency School systems in Vermont and elsewhere are in the midst of a shift to proficiency-based learning. At the early stages, this transformation can feel overwhelming even for educators, even if they’re excited by the idea. Where to start? Start with scales for assessment.
“I don’t believe you can be an educator committed to student voice and not be a powerful advocate for equity.” This past August, the University of Vermont played host to an international conference focused on ways to amplify student voice and increase student partnership in the classroom. Attendees were lucky enough to hear an address …
Continue reading “VT Secretary of Education speaks on equity in Vermont”
What Vermont students really think about personal learning plans Put 47 middle-level students together, challenge them to think differently about ways to create effective, relevant and meaningful Personalized Learning Plans, and watch the magic happen. This past summer, we did exactly that.
Get ready for a new vision of innovative education With the advent of personalized learning, many schools and educators are finding the freedom to launch their teaching in a whole new direction. They’re getting #ready2launch into a vision of personalized learning with students as partners, students as leaders, and schools as places where learning is …
1% teacher inspiration & 99% student-led Genius Hour is a leap of faith in which educators set aside their most precious resource, time, for students to pursue their passions. It doesn’t get much more student-centered than that. But there are actually several aspects of Genius Hour where students can be involved as partners to amp up …
Continue reading “4 ways to partner with students around Genius Hour”
I’ve just returned from the Middle Grades Institute, and honestly, I am still reeling. My brain is finally slowing down and trying to process all that happened there. The short of it: teachers, professors, Tarrant Institute staff, and students from across Vermont gathered to learn how to better personalize learning, engage early adolescent students, create …
Farber joined the Tarrant Institute for Innovative Education after 17 years as a classroom teacher in central Vermont. She has written three books about education, Why Great Teachers Quit and how we might stop the exodus (Corwin Press, 2010); Change the World with Service Learning (Rowman Littlefield) and its new edition, Real and Relevant: a …
Continue reading “Katy Farber, Professional Development Coordinator”
An experiment in student-directed, open-ended project-based learning What if an entire school set out to maximize student engagement? What if there were a school-wide commitment to loosening control and trusting students to do great things? What if students were told that they could work for an hour a week on whatever they want with one …
Scaffolding PLPs so students understand them 5th and 6th graders from Fayston Elementary School took their personal learning plans (PLP) in extraordinary and unexpected directions this year. All because of trust, dedication, and team work by their teachers. This livecast of a presentation at the Dynamic Landscapes conference exemplifies the approach. You will hear students …
Care about equity in education? Start with engagement Educators care about equity. We all want to bring out excellence in our students, but the thing that keeps us up at night is our constant striving to do that for ALL of our students. There are many systemic barriers to equity. Our students and schools mirror …
Why the 2016 Middle Grades Institute may be the most important one yet New podcast ep: We visit with educators at last summer’s Middle Grades Institute to look at how this unique professional development opportunity is helping Vermont’s middle grades educators deal with the challenges posed by legislative Act 77, the Flexible Pathways Initiative. Also, …
Continue reading “How Vermont middle grades educators are powering up PLPs this summer”
4 lessons learned A few months back, I wrote about how the Washington West Supervisory Union (WWSU) here in Vermont had initiated a series of conversations with the community with a kick-off film screening and discussion. I noted that “the most exciting thing about the conversation was the feeling in the room that we, as …
Continue reading “Facilitating community conversations about education”
Shifting the way we manage time to personalize learning in a blended space In my former professional life, I had the pleasure and the challenge of managing a large high school library media center. An irony of the job, one that made me smile and cringe, was the volume of the bell which rang every …
Goal-setting as a process This presentation, delivered by Harwood Union High School teacher Lissa Fox at the 2016 Middle Grades Conference, describes an Action Research project that looked at the implementation of a one-semester 9th grade course focused on goal setting within Personal Learning Plans (PLPs).
What will you be doing this summer for professional development? Join middle school educators from around Vermont for a week of intensive PD specific to the challenges and triumphs of educating young adolescents. The 2016 Middle Grades Institute will run Monday, June 27 through 5pm Friday, July 1 at Castleton University in Castleton Vermont. Accommodations are …
Incorporating student choice into reading This screencast, from Crossett Brook Middle School, in Waterbury, Vermont, describes an action research project based on the premise that students would benefit if day-to-day classroom instruction reflected the choice and self-direction at the heart of Personalized Learning Plans (PLPs). In addition to the positive response of students, one of the …
A case study in engaging your community I attended an event last week that was of huge personal and professional importance: a screening of the film Most Likely to Succeed followed by a facilitated conversation. As a new community member, it was inspiring to see a transformative vision of schooling put forth by education leadership. As …
Continue reading “How schools can conduct a community conversation”
Grappling with implementation In my current work with a number of Vermont middle schools, we have been trying to grapple with ways to tell the story of, or create a better understanding of, what our state’s Act 77 Flexible Pathways legislation looks like in action.
What do we mean when we talk about innovation in Vermont education? Recently, the #vted Twitter chat focused on innovation, and the conversation brought a mix of practical tips, brilliant insight, and positive sentiment. The take-home message for me was that innovation thrives in an environment with a balance of risk-taking, moral support, and professional learning.
Life’s four guidelines for goal-setting In my experience as a teacher and administrator, I noticed a pattern to goal-setting in my school and classroom. We would do some good goal-setting at the beginning of the year and then at some point during the dark depths of winter I would realize that I was too overwhelmed or …
Continue reading “What makes for good goal-setting in a PLP?”
Emergent Project approach works wonders in middle school An unexpected highlight of my days at the 2015 AMLE Conference in Columbus, Ohio was hearing from young Ohio teacher Noah Waspe. He and his advisors, Sue Griebling and Patti Bills at Northern Kentucky University presented their preliminary research findings about the use of a project approach investigation in …
Continue reading “Tailoring the Emergent Project approach for middle school”
What does “quality” mean in assessing statewide digital efforts? The Foundation for Excellence in Education recently released its 2014 Digital Learning Report Card. According to this report, Vermont does not support digital learning. In fact, all of New England is a digital wasteland. But what does the data really say? How are these researchers quantifying “digital learning”? And how …
Continue reading “What goes into measuring the success of edtech?”
Ubiquitous learning is not the same as ubiquitous computing We hear a lot of hype about e-learning, blended learning, MOOCS, and mobile learning. But even a quick investigation of these trends reveals that effective teaching and learning are as elusive as ever. Yet ubiquitous computing — that is, anytime, anywhere access — is only a stepping …
Getting real about student reflection Ah, reflection. It may bring to mind an introspective moment, perhaps gazing into the still waters of a mountain lake and seeing a slightly puzzled person staring back. That’s not the kind of reflection we are talking about here. Reflection in a 21st Century learning sense is a key component …
As I look at what I am reading and want to read this summer, it’s kind of all over the place. I’ll be reading about Vermont education, racial justice, and some fiction in the fantasy genre.
What are some mechanisms for keeping track of digital credentials? As we work with schools who are piloting digital badge programs on the BadgeOS platform, we need to start thinking through what some options are for students to store, keep track of, and display the digital credentials they earn. What does it look like to …
Here at the Tarrant Institute, we have spent years focusing on the unique characteristics of young adolescent learners. Many of our values and practices are aligned with or adopted from the essential attributes and characteristics of effective middle grades education as outlined by the Association for Middle Level Education. Here in Vermont, we see many of …
Move to implement PLPs reflected at two local conferences for educators Fall in Vermont features two amazing local conferences for educators: VT Fest and the Rowland Foundation Conference. And at both these events, one of the hottest topics was personalized learning. As Vermont moves to implement Act 77, Flexible pathways to secondary education completion (pdf) …
STEM endorsement for students features personalized learning, community partners Last week, Essex High School threw a community launch party to celebrate the start of their STEM Academy‘s second year. But what does a STEM Academy look like on the inside? What does taking part in this program look like for students? We were on hand for …
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New cool tool for flipped classrooms and personalized learning Check out this great resource for differentiation and the flipped classroom: EdPuzzle. It lets you mark up videos with commentary, crop them for time and embed quizzes. And as an educator, you can see behind-the-scenes exactly how students are engaging with your content, so you can …
Here’s a great way to dip your toes in the digital credentialing waters: DIY.org. What Is It? Geared for kids 8 and up, DIY.org features dozens of digital badges heavily geared towards doing and making. To earn a badge, students choose to complete 2 or 3 challenges from an array of 7 or 8, and …
The Why We teach a precious and somewhat precarious age group. Our middle grades students are in the throes of one of life’s most pivotal and seminal periods in human development. They are growing faster than at almost any other time in life, and are grappling with some of life’s most significant milestones which will …
Need more student engagement and wellbeing? Join the club! Educators are always looking for ways to get students more engaged with school. In this third school year impacted by the pandemic, engagement and wellbeing are more important than ever. Ample research links extracurricular opportunities to student engagement and to social emotional learning. We also know …
Continue reading “Student clubs for engagement and wellbeing”
Even in the best of times, October can be a tough month for teachers. And it’s hard to call covid times the best. In the latest issue of Educational Leadership, noted teaching coach Elena Aguilar suggests several ways to boost teacher resilience. Paired with understanding what personal efficacy looks like for young adolescents, teachers and …
Continue reading “Building resilience (for all) through personal efficacy”
Digital peer mentoring at Lamoille South Unified Union School District As the coordinator for my school district’s full-time virtual option this school year, I knew that I’d be spending much of the year in problem-solving mode, likely for problems I couldn’t even imagine yet. While not every problem has an immediate solution, we have found …
My mom is into homeopathy and I am part Japanese. So for Christmas she gave me a book by Japanese scientist and holistic thinker Masaru Emoto called The Secret Life of Water. This guy has been taking photographs of ice crystals for decades. The photos reveal how different things impact the formation of these crystals …
JOY + CARE + RESILIENCE Co-written by Audrey Homan and Katy Farber Lots of educators, students and families are telling us that we can’t simply replicate in-classroom learning via video conferencing and assignments. It is *too* much for teachers and students and families. It doesn’t offer the kind of hands-on learning we know students enjoy, …
What happens when your work and home ecospheres become one and the same? For many of us this is part of the new normal. As we are responding to a global pandemic, the need to redefine space, roles and schedules has presented itself. Educators are amongst the many feeling disrupted and experiencing the growing pains …
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How PAML scaffolds screencasts for students Students and their families at Peoples Academy Middle Level have participated in student led conferences for a number of years now. What’s new this year? The opportunity for each 5th and 6th grader to tell the story of their learning through video evidence and reflection. It’s these “Learner Story” …
Continue reading “Video evidence & reflection for student-led conferences”
We’re not talking enough with students about climate change At least, many of us are not. At the Global Youth Climate Strike last fall, I spoke with a lot of students who are really concerned about the future. Like, really concerned. Topping their list of worries is that not only are adults not doing enough …
Continue reading “Confronting climate change in the classroom”
Connecting deeply with students matters. Research tell us this. So does teacher experience. Educators spend a lot of time learning about student interests, their families and cultures, their identities and dreams. This is important work, and is often based on what they show us, or tell us. But what if students are in the drivers …
Hoo boy, we have a CORKER of an episode for you today, with On The Come Up, by Angie Thomas. We’re going to be talking about some of the continual and heartbreaking trauma students of color face in our schools, as well as the incredible resilience of mothers. I’m joined today by Marley Evans, a …
“I think every school should do it!” Soup to nuts, curiosity projects — Genius Hour, 20% time or passion projects by any other name — work for students. At Frederick H. Tuttle Middle School, in South Burlington VT, this year’s Curiosity Projects ran the gamut from robots to cooking shows, electromagnetic studies to YouTube economics. …
What’s the plan? Here’s a quick reminder of my focus question for this year’s Learning Lab: How can social justice be a lens for personalized, student-designed curriculum? Here’s how — at this moment anyway — I would adjust the wording of my focus question: How can students use social justice as a lens for designing …
Sam Nelson Sam Nelson teaches 7th & 8th grade social studies at Shelburne Community School, in Shelburne VT. He is returning to the Learning Lab for his second year as host and participant. snelson@cvsdvt.org Inquiry question: “How can social justice be a lens for personalized, student-designed learning?”
From Vermont to Mexico and back, via Smart Board As the world becomes increasingly more connected, so should our schools. For Vermont, many schools existing in rural isolation can take advantage of these connections to bring their students the world. Connecting classrooms globally is not new, but videoconferencing tools have made the experience easier, more …
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Equity in education has — and needs — many lenses. The work is hard, the work is myriad, the work is vital. While listening to VPR’s Vermont edition the other day, a friend and fellow author, Ann Braden came on the air, and was reading from her new middle grade novel called The Benefits …
Continue reading “Unpacking equity in Passion Projects and Genius Hours”
Reading and discussing graphic novels OMG Check Please! Librarian Jeanie Phillips talks graphic novels with Peter Langella, Vermont librarian, educator and former minor league hockey player and coach. First off the bench: “Check Please!” by Ngozi Ukazu, and how a good coming out story still needs all the other bits. Come for the comics, stay …
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Who am I and who do I want to be in the world? What do I stand for? What is the good life and how can I live it? These are questions that most middle schoolers (and adults)-hopefully- grapple with at some point. And this philosophizing usually begins in middle school. Which means that middle school …
Continue reading “3 tools for exploring character with middle schoolers”
What work looks like at St. Albans City School Students at St Albans City School, in St. Albans VT, have the ability to apply for in-school intern positions such as Financial Officer, Chief Executive Officer, Director of Communication and a whole lot more. What would it look like if your students could do an internship right …
Public displays of learning are not always the end. How do you know when meaningful, relevant, personalized and authentic learning has really occurred? Is the charge and scaffolding strong enough to continue the learning after the in-school time has expired? One measure is looking at what happens after the project ends.
Launching a new project cycle with inspiration from the last one Organizing your realia — testimonials, storytelling and artifacts — from a round of projects can feel overwhelming. So much footage! So many interviews! ALL THE IDEAS! Resist the freakout: here’s a recipe for pulling your footage together to inspire a new cycle of learning …
Making as evidence of transferable skills around Vermont During the past year, EMMA has visited schools around Vermont to fuel the conversation about maker-centered learning. As we reflected on each of EMMA’s visits, we continually noticed that maker centered learning provided evidence of students applying cross-disciplinary transferable skills.
The #everydaycourage of doing nothing As we cultivate more self-direction in students, their lives get more complicated. They have a greater responsibility to themselves and their success. How can we nurture the whole student as they grapple with becoming agents of their own education?
Or, What to Bring to the First Staff Potluck Opening up to fellow educators can be hard. We all know we’re doing the best we can, but many of us also feel like we could be doing better for our students. We want to do the best we can and sometimes we get terrified that …
Continue reading “Laying the groundwork for effective teaching teams”
Negotiated curriculum Negotiated Curriculum is the process of intentionally inviting students to be co-constructors of the curriculum and co-designers of the learning opportunities. This process, based on James Beane’s questions of self and world, yields a curriculum of greater relevance and invites students to take responsibility for the outcomes. Most importantly, this democratic process changes …
Keys to innovative school change We all want students to engage more fully with school by experiencing it as a place that facilitates relevant, meaningful experiences that encourage growth. But what does that mean for educators and administrators? We’ve gathered resources, definitions and tech-rich, student-centered examples from Vermont schools to help educators and school leaders …
Students themselves tell the best stories of their learning We wish we could hand you the one right way for students to reflect on their personal learning, on a silver platter. It sure would make the rest of the year a lot easier, right? But there are as many ways for students to reflect on …
Student-led conferences are for students Student-led conferences are a key strategy in personalized, student-centered educational practices. And they’re even more important and potentially powerful in a proficiency-based system.
Achieving escape velocity with students as partners Congratulations for making it through the first month of school! Whether it’s your first year as an educator or your thirty-first, the launch of the school year is a special — and especially challenging — time. It’s worth taking a moment to reflect and imagine how to build …
Starting up with our students Another exciting year is upon us. It may be difficult to wrest our attention from these glorious days of Vermont summer but never have the opportunities for good teaching been more open to us. As one teacher noted upon leaving this summer’s Middle Grades Institute, “I can bring about positive change in …
Measuring how students approach goal-setting in the 5th and 6th grades Educators at Wallingford Elementary School and Shrewsbury Mountain School, in central Vermont, undertook an action research project measuring how their use of digital tools — specifically Google Docs, Forms and Sites — changed how middle grades students approached setting goals and reflecting on their …
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In her excellent memoir Rethinking Normal, Katie Rain Hill describes her experience with online learning: I’d click on one tab, and a bunch of modules for that subject would pop up. I’d click on ‘Section One,’ and there would be a recorded lecture or PBS documentary or article to read with some notes on the …
Continue reading “How online education can find a path forward”
3 strategies shared by local educators At Manchester Elementary Middle School, sixth grade students speak fluently about their Personal Learning Plans (PLPs). They’ve been working on setting goals in a PLP for years; some students in this school have been doing so since third grade. Manchester educators Seth Bonnett and Melissa Rice, share what they’ve learned about …
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Heading to the slopes for Vermont Fest The lifts are open, but the lure of first tracks is not what is prompting educators from across the state to head to Killington this week. Vermont Fest will be in full effect on Thursday and Friday and educators will be eagerly awaiting the opportunity to exchange ideas and …
Online collaboration extends student learning networks Online collaboration takes on new significance as students extend their learning network in conjunction with more personalized and meaningful learning: they can use online networks to learn with mentors, with community partners, remote collaborators and with asynchronous and synchronous group work.
What can educators do with Google Hangout? Much like being friends on social media, physical proximity has little to do connecting people with other people. Google Hangouts has successfully made communication between individuals or groups and accessing information a bit easier and some may save they even have shrunk the world.
Digital workflow: What is it good for? In its simplest form, digital workflow exchanges the paper and pencil transfer of information for a centralized digital system where information is pushed out, synthesized, analyzed, or created and returned to the teacher. With the increasing popularity of 1:1 programs, or readily available access to technology, the form in …
Bring on the dancing tigers Last week my two-year old daughter suddenly developed an aversion to dancing tigers. This wouldn’t be such a big deal if all of her diapers didn’t have dancing tigers on them.
Turn formative testing into a learning opportunity Wonder what words, when using free association, are conjured from folks when they hear the word TEST? Pulled quickly from my psyche are: anxiety, study, judgment, memorize, prep, control My guess is these are some common possibilities, but the word LEARN probably wouldn’t make most peoples’ list.