Our first foray into some personalized learning has started with blogs.
Students were told to pick whatever topic they loved, and with a little broadening or narrowing of the topics, have started their own blogs. The main assignment is to find an article and respond to it.
The first ones were due today, and while many are just summarizing/paraphrasing the article with little personal response or analysis, there are some real standouts already.
Consider visiting the following:
Circle of Fashion
The Book Nook
Brenna's Blog
Human Rights
Arman's Blog
Sunday, September 28, 2014
Saturday, September 27, 2014
What is going on here?
The challenge was big: Get bright freshmen to be brave enough to take more honors and AP classes. Only about 10 freshmen per year took all four upper level classes. Year after year, we'd hear from students who wished they had pushed themselves harder. They felt their time had been wasted in on-level courses just because they thought high school would be too hard.
The idea was simple: Coordinate our classes (AP & Honors Geography, Advanced Math I & II, Honors English I, and Honors Biology). Work together. Plan together. Become a team. We already like and respect each other. Why not?
The environment was perfect: Our school is outstanding, with a strong reputation, great community support, and solid test scores. The four of us have years of experience and proven results with gifted and talented students. We have a passion for what we do, and an administrative team that trusts us.
The time was right: Our district has begun implementing a multi-year vision of ensuring that all students are college and career ready via personalized learning initiatives across the district. Our idea fit right in with this vision and was supported at the highest levels.
But would we have interest from students and parents? The pitch was simple. We thought their kids could do more and be better than ever before. If they'd enroll in four upper level classes, we'd figure out a way to get them organized in a team where we could share them, help them, and ensure they had all the support they needed - all in a rigorous educational environment.
We had no idea if they'd buy in.
But, boy, did they ever. At our first informational meeting, more than 90 families expressed an interest. By the time registration was over, we had 75 families committed to taking this ride with us.
That's when the hard part began: Schedules had to be created. Our plan shook up the master schedule and took creative thinkin. Our school is on a 7 period day, but we had to figure out how to get 4 classes into 3 class periods. We were given latitude to create a block within 3+ periods (shaving a little off the lunch period), and the bells just don't matter to us. Our classrooms were rearranged so that we're as close to each other as possible and the kids have freedom of movement between us. We even managed to get all of them an extra study hall to help them have time to manage the demands of rigorous classes.
The beginning was fun: Day 1 opened with a huge breakfast. We created our team name (Minds of the Mustangs) and a logo. We practiced the schedule (it's hard to understand at first) and the first week was spent on tours of the school, orienting them to the new layout of their lives like the Learning Center, counseling department, and graduation coach.
And now we're settling in: The work has been going on for several weeks now.
We've worked hardest on coordinating our curricula. English vocabulary is rooted in the other disciplines. Geography concepts will be evident in the literature. Math problems are reflecting cross-curricular ideas. Projects like their blogs (check out the links on the left) will incorporate all four disciplines. They'll soon be working on a multi-curricular project where they will start addressing the needs of their community and the core standards at the same time.
It's not perfect yet: As freshmen, they're figuring out how to study for hard classes (they're pretty smart and school has traditionally been pretty easy). Not all grades are where we want them to be. But they're working. They're happy. They tell us they hope we can figure out how to do this for them in 10th grade. We're meeting with them individually and trying to put systems in place to help them. We've polled them, met with their parents to address concerns, and keep trying to figure out how to be flexible in their actual schedules but ensure they get what they need. The dream is to allow them to choose where to be and when...
We're excited and see new possibilities every day. Of course, the kids' passion helps fuel it. Give them a nugget of an idea and they take it places we'd never even imagine. They're taking ownership of their research and writing skills in their blogs. They have big ideas for raising money for technology, supplies, and field trips (They want to go on college visits and on educational trips. They also want to go to Disney and Vegas..but, ummm...no. But maybe Greece or England could be possible. Why not dream big?) They're really incredible students with incredible potential, and we can't wait to see how the year ends up!
The idea was simple: Coordinate our classes (AP & Honors Geography, Advanced Math I & II, Honors English I, and Honors Biology). Work together. Plan together. Become a team. We already like and respect each other. Why not?
The environment was perfect: Our school is outstanding, with a strong reputation, great community support, and solid test scores. The four of us have years of experience and proven results with gifted and talented students. We have a passion for what we do, and an administrative team that trusts us.
The time was right: Our district has begun implementing a multi-year vision of ensuring that all students are college and career ready via personalized learning initiatives across the district. Our idea fit right in with this vision and was supported at the highest levels.
But would we have interest from students and parents? The pitch was simple. We thought their kids could do more and be better than ever before. If they'd enroll in four upper level classes, we'd figure out a way to get them organized in a team where we could share them, help them, and ensure they had all the support they needed - all in a rigorous educational environment.
We had no idea if they'd buy in.
But, boy, did they ever. At our first informational meeting, more than 90 families expressed an interest. By the time registration was over, we had 75 families committed to taking this ride with us.
That's when the hard part began: Schedules had to be created. Our plan shook up the master schedule and took creative thinkin. Our school is on a 7 period day, but we had to figure out how to get 4 classes into 3 class periods. We were given latitude to create a block within 3+ periods (shaving a little off the lunch period), and the bells just don't matter to us. Our classrooms were rearranged so that we're as close to each other as possible and the kids have freedom of movement between us. We even managed to get all of them an extra study hall to help them have time to manage the demands of rigorous classes.
The beginning was fun: Day 1 opened with a huge breakfast. We created our team name (Minds of the Mustangs) and a logo. We practiced the schedule (it's hard to understand at first) and the first week was spent on tours of the school, orienting them to the new layout of their lives like the Learning Center, counseling department, and graduation coach.
And now we're settling in: The work has been going on for several weeks now.
We've worked hardest on coordinating our curricula. English vocabulary is rooted in the other disciplines. Geography concepts will be evident in the literature. Math problems are reflecting cross-curricular ideas. Projects like their blogs (check out the links on the left) will incorporate all four disciplines. They'll soon be working on a multi-curricular project where they will start addressing the needs of their community and the core standards at the same time.
It's not perfect yet: As freshmen, they're figuring out how to study for hard classes (they're pretty smart and school has traditionally been pretty easy). Not all grades are where we want them to be. But they're working. They're happy. They tell us they hope we can figure out how to do this for them in 10th grade. We're meeting with them individually and trying to put systems in place to help them. We've polled them, met with their parents to address concerns, and keep trying to figure out how to be flexible in their actual schedules but ensure they get what they need. The dream is to allow them to choose where to be and when...
We're excited and see new possibilities every day. Of course, the kids' passion helps fuel it. Give them a nugget of an idea and they take it places we'd never even imagine. They're taking ownership of their research and writing skills in their blogs. They have big ideas for raising money for technology, supplies, and field trips (They want to go on college visits and on educational trips. They also want to go to Disney and Vegas..but, ummm...no. But maybe Greece or England could be possible. Why not dream big?) They're really incredible students with incredible potential, and we can't wait to see how the year ends up!
Monday, September 22, 2014
Welcome!
Welcome to The Minds of the Mustangs' teacher blog. Join us on our journey to educate the best and brightest stars in the Olaverse!
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