Lessons Learned

Instructional Technology - International Education - Wellness

Category: Information Communication & Literacies (ICL) (page 1 of 11)

Virtual School Pedagogy – Oldies but Goodies

February 12, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Note: My international school is just starting virtual school for the current school year, so we are now just experiencing what many schools have been doing for most of the year. I posted the following to our Wellness blog.

I hung up my instructional technology hat a ways back, so I can’t offer the latest tools, tips, or techniques that many of our staff use in their virtual learning delivery. I can offer pedagogical strategies that have worked in the past and can definitely be supported through technology to enhance learning in virtual schools.

Concept/Mind Maps

Concept/Mind maps help students make their thinking visible, primarily when representing connections between ideas, events, topics, etc. Concept maps also can be used as collaboration tools.

An excellent way to use concept maps for virtual learning is to use an online provider like Mindmeister. Students can share their Mindmeister concept maps with you to access their thinking, especially for formative assessment of their understanding as the unit of study progresses. Virtual collaboration is supported if you partner with students or place them in groups to work together to use mind maps for multiple purposes. Here is a mind map template for essential questions one teacher provided his students. Look at a blog post describing how students used concept maps to answer the essential questions for their units of study at a couple schools.

Learning Activity Types via TPACK

Several American professors came together in 2010-11 to organize learning activity types (LAT) into nine subject areas supported by technology. They published articles about their efforts. Here is one. They provide research-supported pedagogies in their Learning Activity Types website hosted at the College of William & Mary School of Education. They apply the TPACK construct for planning purposes. Look to their website by going to the left side menu to select from the nine learning activity-type disciplines. The supporting technologies are from 2011, so adapt ones that still exist today and/or find the latest iteration or replacement tool that best supports each pedagogy. Image Source

Multimedia Essays (Media Mashups)

Writing essays is one of the most precious skills that we teach our students. But sometimes, our students can benefit from an alternative learning experience and assessment that engages the full range of their ICL skills. We can differentiate and add complexity to the standard writing process by having students create multimedia essays where they “mash up” various sources of media to communicate their thinking. At the time, a William and Mary doctoral student describes her work with multimedia essays in this podcast. Image Source

Personalized Learning System (PLS)

Students (and teachers) use technology to access information, to make meaning, to create and communicate their learning via a personalized set of resources for learning… a “go-to” 24/7 technology and information access toolkit – a Personal Learning System (PLS).

We guide our students to work as architects designing and maximizing their “learning flow” (think of the term workflow) while also engaging in time management techniques to increase efficiency and purposeful productivity. Self-directed and growth-minded students use devices, apps, Web tools, and information sources, putting themselves in charge of their learning. Here is a web resource describing what a Personal Learning System can look like and a planning document for students to work with. Image Source

Sketchnoting (Visual Note-Taking)

Our students live in a media-rich world. They think in images, video, and sound while constantly making neural connections. The creation apps on phones, tablets, and computers offer students pathways to draw, audio record, insert images/video, and embed hyperlinks to information sources, all personalized. This is where visual note-taking comes in. We can expand note-taking choices beyond text recording into multiple modalities by guiding students to use mind maps, colors, shapes, images, and digital grouping by dragging and dropping objects and connecting lines to record their thinking. Image Source

The Six Thinking Hats

Edward de Bono created this approach to decision-making and problem-solving that guides users to think in terms of types of thinking and perspective. We can apply them for individuals and groups of students to use as they process information. Here is a helpful overview and a teacher’s application in her classroom. Image Source

Thinking Routines

In the book Making Thinking Visible, Ron Ritchhart, Mark Church, and Karin Morisson help readers understand the power of thinking routines to help students process big ideas and make their thinking visible. Teachers routinely use the thinking routines in their regular face-to-face classes. One can also choose from a variety of technologies to also use in virtual school. Here is a dated web resource on the supportive tools one can use. However, the application of the routines is sound. If you are new to the routines, you can review an article by Ron Ritchhart and David Perkins entitled Making Thinking Visible. Also, look to go through the Harvard Project Zero Thinking Routine Toolbox. Image Source

WebQuests

WebQuests are a natural pedagogy for virtual schools because they’re already web-based. They connect inquiry and research skills to students working in teams using their communication skills to present their findings. WebQuests are online research expeditions built by teachers that put the students into roles to find information from selected sites and other resources as they attempt to solve a real problem and/or answer a question. The students in teams analyze, curate, and then use the information to create a learning product to demonstrate their understanding. WebQuests are NOT internet scavenger hunts with students just going through a list of links. True WebQuests have the students performing in the authentic roles of historians, economists, mathematicians, etc. The culminating project is usually a performance task in which the students present their findings while playing their roles or applying the learning to produce a product. Image Source

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A significant wellness connection for these pedagogies is that they engage students in PERMAH while exercising their Character Strengths. Collaboration amplifies Relationships with students using their strengths of kindness, leadership, and teamwork, to name just a few character strength applications. The process of creating definitely has students applying their strength of creativity within the pillars of Engagement and Accomplishment.

So how do we take these oldies but goody strategies and other current innovative and effective practices to spread them throughout our virtual school? One approach would be to form a virtual school design team in each division who become busy bees finding out what’s happening in virtual classrooms elaborating on ideas, and making connections to new approaches. They then cross-pollinate throughout the division and potentially between divisions. 😁

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VS – Calling All Consultants!

June 7, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Where there is a need, there is opportunity. I am Captain Obvious with the idea that educational consultants, whether as individuals or as companies, have a worldwide market of schools who need their services to dial up their virtual school game. I can see a consultancy company offering a full continuum of differentiated “how to do virtual school programs” based on recent experiences and needs of international schools. I am guessing the consultancy would be done virtually, with the potential of in-person follow-up at some point down the road. Even schools like mine that nailed virtual school could benefit from designers coming in to help us go to the next level in our virtual offerings.

Following Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs approach adapted to virtual school, a school like mine is not that far from actualization. In contrast, lower-level schools might need essential foundational work on setting up systems from HOS communication to parent relations to teaching/learning platforms. I can see a consultant offering a range of offerings bringing in the distributed expertise of his/her team’s counselors, instructional technologists, curriculum designers, communications team, etc. As I have written, I would really push the need for wellness and the human touch (i.e., community building) into the consultancy offerings.

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

Guidelines for Developing a Quality Research Question

October 2, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Dr. Dan Keller is our principal at the Saigon South International School elementary school. In preparation for the upcoming Project X weeklong research and design thinking experience, Dan shared his research on how to help our students’ craft inquiry questions. The following are some helpful slides from Dan’s presentation.

 

Self-Directed Learning with Rubrics, Benchmarks and Learning Plans

April 6, 2018 / / 0 Comments

I was thinking about the post I wrote about Student Created ICL Project Plans to connect further to our hope for student ownership and directing of their learning. Project planning gets students to think about how to design their projects, especially when using technology. To make plans even more meaningful, to get further student reflection and eventual deeper understanding, here are a couple more ideas that one could include in the project planning process.

For some time now, teachers have been working with students to help create rubrics. So let’s add rubric creation as another component to the ICL project planning guidelines. Another step could be the addition of student-created benchmarks working from the teacher-provided ones. By having the students unpack the official benchmarks and rephrase them in their own words, they further their understanding of what their projects should demonstrate while helping improve the design of what they plan to do.

One strategy to help expand and define the benchmarks could be to use a mind-mapping tool. Students populate the map with the provided benchmarks while adding their learning goals. As they proceed in the research and learning product creation process, they can return to their mind map to further define and expand the benchmarks as their understanding deepens. Once the projects are completed and shared, the students can use the finalized rubric to assess their work.

Connecting to Personal Learning Systems is having students design and construct their learning plans. American public schools have been doing this for students with special learning needs for a long time. Some schools have taken the idea and expanded it to all of their students. We increase student agency and ownership of their learning by creating a system that puts the student at the center of the design process. A learning plan template with lots of scaffolding and a construct that supports student self-reflection makes this work.

The plans would need a lot of upfront design work to provide an individualized template for each grade level. They would have common structures such as goal setting, personal mission statements, interests, etc. The school’s core values and other themes (e.g., wellness, community involvement, etc.) could also be woven into the structure of the plans, thus providing another learning mechanism to support the school’s culture and the portrait of a graduate profile.

Connecting the learning plan to the portfolio would build in the action steps and reflection scaffolding to guide students to follow through on their plan. A strong wellness/life skills integrated curriculum would develop the strengths and dispositions needed for students to own and direct their learning.

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Comprehensive Guide to International Counseling (And possibly for other programs)

April 5, 2018 / / 0 Comments

I remember back in 1990, arriving in Israel to start my first job as an international counselor. One of my first tasks was to start building a guidance program while documenting my work so that the new counselor could pick up where I left off when I moved on.

The first Gulf War changed my plans as the school closed in January, and I ended up in Cyprus with many of our students evacuating from my school. Eventually, my wife and I would move to Scotland for a short stay and then to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It was at the Saudi Arabian International School Riyadh (now AIS-R) where I could fully construct a guidance program and implement it.

Now, as I prepare to re-enter the world of international school counseling, I am thankful to have the work of Brooke Fezler and Cheryl Brown to guide me. My soon-to-be co-counselor at my new school shared multiple resources, including The International Model for School Counseling Programs.

Cheryl and Brooke cover the full range of elements one should include in a school guidance program. They offer the structures, role definitions, responsibilities, templates, and more to help create a fully comprehensive program. I am awed by their work!

What also struck me is that the guidelines could be adapted to almost any school program involving leadership and student/staff services. So whether you are an international or home country counselor, instructional technologist, librarian, instructional coach, or another school leader, do look to review this guidebook. I see myself using it to develop an Information and Communication Literacies (ICL) program. There is also the International School Counselor Association which one can connect to for more information.

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GRAPES – ESPRAT+G – Go Even Deeper

October 24, 2017 / / 0 Comments

Whether you use the GRAPES or ESPRAT+G constructs in teaching about culture and civilizations, there are times when you want to go even deeper in providing scaffolding for your students. With this in mind, my wife who led the Future Problem Solvers at her previous school recently shared with me a guide that one of her team members developed.

Here are the terms that Xiaodi (Daniel) Sun put together with his BE BETTER APPLES C-G-D-M acronym.

B = Basic Needs
E = Economics
B = Business/Commerce
E = Education
T = Technology
T = Transportation
E = Environment
R = Recreation
A = Arts/Aesthetics
P = Physical Health
P = Psychological Health
L = Law and Justice
E = Ethics and Religion
S = Social Relationships
C = Communication
G = Government and Politics
D = Defense
M = Misc

 

Guidance Counselor – Instructional Technologist Partnership (Introduction)

October 15, 2017 / / 0 Comments

I participated in and followed early 1:1 initiatives going back to Henrico County in VA and the Maine Learning and Technology Initiative, both taking place in the early 2000s. Henrico did their rollout in high school, while Maine started theirs in middle school. Many lessons from both, with Maine setting the gold standard on deliberately planning and implementing programs to support teachers in adapting their instruction to be enhanced by technology.

In recent years we have had the addition of smartphones into students’ hands, adding even more connectivity into their lives. International schools, especially those in Asia, were also starting 1:1 programs. In time, elementary schools also began the rollout of devices. This trend continues in the US today, with public and independent schools catching the wave.

My blogging and podcasting have been on personal computing devices’ positive collaborative, creative, and connective nature. I offer this simple review of where we were; my concerns about students and their access to devices have been growing, especially with our younger students. While schools develop acceptable use policies, have 1:1 introduction parent nights, and offer digital citizenship lessons, I am concerned that we have much more to do to prepare students to make healthy and responsible technological choices.

What jumps out at me daily is the same picture we see with adults. The picture is of the hunched-over individual viewing a screen, whether sitting alone, walking, or sitting with a group. Much is written about the adverse social and emotional effects upon children and adults regarding technology use, especially around social networks, and what is lost when we are not present in typical social learning situations. Distraction, anxiety, isolation, lack of impulse control, etc., are a few of the byproducts of our digital age.

We now have a generation in their 20s whose experience is of always being connected. Jean Twenge covers this topic in-depth with her book iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy–and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood–And What That Means for the Rest of Us. I can see parents and educators reading this book to understand better how technology influences our younger generations. The next step for families and educators is to develop family and school technology and life plans that start with the family’s and school’s mission and values. Action plans can then be created and implemented.

There is also the discussion of how smartphones are diminishing our mental capacities. On his On Point radio show, Tom Ashbrook discussed this topic in a recent episode. We know that personal learning devices can do so much to assist us as learners. How do we help students see the devices as tools they effectively use without the technology controlling the user? One approach is to help students develop their learning system to empower and skill them to use technology positively and positively.

Helping students learn the skills to work with information, create and communicate is at the core of what we instructional technologists and librarians do. Hopefully, this blog and the Ed Tech Co-Op podcast have provided educators with ideas, especially in helping students with what we call Information and Communication Literacies (ICL). What I still need to cover, though, is how to help students in their social and emotional development, especially as we put devices in their hands.

As I am also a guidance counselor, though it has been many years since I wore that hat, I have a few ideas that are probably already in the blogosphere. But as I am considering returning to counseling, my instructional technology skills overlap significantly with what I am guessing counselors are teaching and providing support in their schools. Thus, I will write a series of posts to help me construct a plan for approaching the possibility of a return to guidance counseling.

I have been thinking a great deal about how we are preparing students and helping their parents handle our connected and digital world. I will research what elementary and middle school guidance counselors in my local public school district do in their teaching of students and outreach to parents.

I suspect one big topic centers around social networking as well as cyberbullying. While we instructional technologists develop and teach digital citizenship skills, what does the guidance curriculum look like in elementary and middle school? It is a mistake to think that the technology coach/teacher needs the training, time, or responsibility to be the only leader in developing and teaching curricula to assist students as they learn to make technological decisions. This is especially the case in their social and emotional growth and development. With this point in mind, as I have written before, we might look to drop the digital from “digital citizenship” or go further with the broader term of “life skills” development. Citizenship today incorporates blended face-to-face and virtual connections, but it only covers some aspects of how technology affects our students.

Teaching life skills is an integral part of a guidance counselor’s mission. Now with technology so intertwined into students’ lives, counselors and instructional technologists are partnering to create a shared life skills curriculum for themselves and the teaching staff to teach. Advisory time can provide the structure for teachers, counselors, and instructional technologists to teach a life skills curriculum.

Being overly connected to one’s phone and computer affects the amount of time for exercise, getting outdoors, and sometimes making smart eating and sleeping choices. And if we are genuinely looking at the whole child and their physical, intellectual, emotional, and social growth and development (PIES), we need to expand our instructional team. In that case, we should consider expanding the collaboration to include the PE and Health teachers.

So be on the lookout for posts as I start a new series designated as “Counseling-IT Partnership.”

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Student Learning Support Structures and Strategies

August 10, 2017 / / 0 Comments

I recently spoke with a psychologist who works with students with ADHD to help them implement various learning strategies in their lives. She shared a couple of books by Dr. Ari Tuckman, a leader in the field of ADHD. I reviewed his strategies designed to help students be proactive, organized, focused, and better short and long-term planners. And as so often is the case, the strategies for students with special needs benefit all students.

As an instructional technologist, I work with teachers with the guiding principle of finding ways to meet our students’ full spectrum of learning needs. Technology supports this effort in so many ways, mainly when we help students find ways that technology can help improve sound learning strategies. A big part of this process is developing their Personal Learning System.

A case in point came up with the psychologist. She spoke about helping students at the outset of a new topic of study or a project assignment to have them sit down to get all their prior knowledge, current ideas, and possible ways to move forward on paper. They then move into planning mode, working backward from the completed project to line up the steps needed to get them to the finish line.

My mind immediately connected to my writings on ICL project management and using digital mind maps to do exactly what she explained. Giving students the 24/7 ability to pull up their project mind map to revise, add information, and with a click of a button, turn it into a linear listing is so helpful when compared to doing a paper version.

Our discussion also reminded me of the learning strategies list I put together during our time at the Saudi Arabian International School – in Riyadh back in the 90s. I was a counselor then, and head of our Students Support Services program. We were a dynamic middle school with collaborative teams focused on providing a united effort to help our students learn.

Now, as I am thinking more and more about returning to counseling, especially with our students needing so much support in effectively using technology and information while learning to be good citizens, it is making a lot of sense for me to think about merging my instructional tech background with guidance counseling. Can TPACK be applied to become a “GCKITK” Venn diagram acronym (Guidance Counseling Knowledge Instructional Technology Knowledge)? 🙂

As this blog is about hopefully providing classroom-tested ideas, here is the original learning strategies listing written in 1994. Many of the strategies still make a lot of sense today. They are more practices, structures, and systems than individual strategies students would use.

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Learning Support Structures and Strategies

Currently Used By SAIS-R Middle School As Part Of Student Services Support System:

Teaming: Core teachers meet weekly to discuss the needs of their students. The grade-level team comprises an administrator, a learning strategies teacher, a counselor, and the teachers. The teams meet to discuss students in need of support and to construct learning strategies that might assist students in need. Timelines are arranged, and bi-monthly check-ups on students follow the Learning Strategy session. The teams work to answer the following questions about students in need:

  • What are the struggles?
  • What are the strengths and weaknesses of the student?
  • What are the exceptions to the problem (What works for who and why?)
  • What is each of us doing individually to meet the needs of this student? What is the student’s learning style?
  • What are the learning strategies that we are going to use?
  • When will we check up on the outcomes of these strategies?

The administrators, learning strategy teachers, and counselors are assigned to specific grade levels. They follow their respective students from one-grade level to the next. This builds a great deal of continuity and sharing of information for students as they go through middle school.

Documentation: Team meetings, student conferences, parent contacts, etc., are recorded in the Student Information System.

Mentoring: The teacher advocate works as the liaison between the teaching team and the student’s parents, checks in with the student weekly, and monitors the student’s progress and applied learning strategies. The mentor works with the counselor to review the student’s cumulative file and to contact previous teachers for historical information.

Bimonthly Check-ins with the team by mentors for respective students.

The language used to discuss students is constructive and based on empirical data instead of emotional responses.

Monthly meetings with elective teachers by teams to gather and share student information.

Quarterly Reflection and Celebration: Each team sets aside a meeting period to review each Red Flag student’s progress. This is a time for only positive comments. The team should reflect upon their goals and how they work to reach them. This is also an excellent time to review how the team works together and the procedures they follow to support students in need. Also, is the team working to reach a broader base of students than just the Red Flag students? How are other students being supported and celebrated?

Student-led Conferencing: The counselor sets up appointments with a student’s teacher so the student, counselor, and teacher can meet. The student uses this time to see what they need to do to improve to reach their goals in each teacher’s class. Students lead out as a part of the ongoing effort to empower them to be in charge of their learning. Possible questions for the teachers to ask the students now are: What are you doing to be an active participant in my class? What are the aspects of my class that help you learn in the best manner? What are the activities/assignments you need to be learning at your optimal level?, What can I do to make a difference for you in my class? What can you do to make a difference for yourself in my class?

Goal Setting: Whether with the learning strategies teacher or the counselor, arrange a conferencing time for the student to construct their goals, whether short- or long-term. Students journal to process and record their thinking and progress toward reaching their goals.

The learning strategy teacher pulls students out of a few classes to review their organizational and study skills. This is a short-term strategy.

Team Designate To Encore (Elective) Teachers: Designate a team member to check in with encore teachers concerning team news and student services. It is essential to contact encore teachers when a parent conference is scheduled.

Individualization to Differentiation: The team works to find the student’s strengths and weaknesses, building out a learner profile. The team works to develop modifications from the profile. Examples: photocopy of notes, the student using a tape recorder for notes, extended time and alternative test taking, assignments constructed on worksheets with outlines and metacognitive notes included, the student using a word processor for all work, use of a calculator, breaking down of assignments and questions into smaller pieces, using concept maps to get ideas from mind to paper to then put in outline form, concept maps at times in place of paragraph writing, nightly review of class notes to write up summaries of understanding, use of outlines to structure understanding, etc.

Parents and Student Reading Time: Parents and student set aside specific time for the family to be together to read for pleasure.

Weekly Study Guides: All teachers prepare written study guides that contain daily assignments, in-class work, and long-term projects. Give to each student at the beginning of each week.

Student Work Binders: Give all new students a binder to hold their Study Guides and homework.

Student Self-Progress Reports: Students keep charts and reflections for each class to record all graded material.

Parent Strategies: 1) Meet as a family at the beginning of each school week to review the Study Guides and construct a plan for the week. 2) Work to find where and when your child studies the best. Then set that specific time and place for daily study. 3) Follow through on assignments and record the progress of your child. Keep up-to-date on grades by working with your child to keep the binder organized and to hold on to graded materials. 4) Review student self-progress reflection and grades from the previous week.

The counselor adds an assessment of the student’s developmental status, including affective and social domains, to their profile document.

Individual Counseling: The counselor meets weekly with students with academic, emotional, or social difficulties. If the problems are beyond the scope of counseling offered through the school, refer to therapists in the greater community.

Group Counseling: Students with leadership potential can take part in the Peer Leader training program. Students with social difficulties or challenging times adjusting to SAIS-R can participate in the New Student group.

Tutoring: The counselors keep an updated list of tutors from the community who can provide additional support outside of SAIS-R. The list includes tutors who offer support in several areas, including core classes and foreign languages. The list also includes specialists who can provide learning support for students with learning difficulties. The tutors should contact the teams and possibly meet with them to gain background information.

Tutor as Structure Provider: It is often not a good idea for the parent to act as a tutor or taskmaster. A hired tutor can fill this role. The role is to prepare the student organizationally for the week and check their mastery of skills. Also, time to plan the work schedule for the completion of projects and test preparation which is incorporated into the weekly study plan. The student then writes up a checklist of daily HW with an explanation of what parents should be looking for to support long-term project status. This is a time for the student to demonstrate their mastery of skills learned during the preceding days of the week. Parent responsibility will be to enforce daily structured study time and to go through completed HW using the checklist that the student has constructed.

Parent Assessment of Student: Parents are requested to write up a summary of the student’s educational history, the strengths and weaknesses of the student, the student’s learning style, and their educational goals for the child. Parents are to send in these reports before they meet with the teams. The team reviews a copy of this report.

Weekly Self-Progress Reports: The parents and students construct a weekly progress report template containing questions they would like teachers to answer. The family is to make plentiful copies, and the student is to meet with each teacher to ask that they fill out the form and has it ready for the student to take home at the end of the week.

Slow Start Phone Calls: Teachers or educational aides make short phone calls to parents two weeks into the quarter to communicate when the student is off to a slow start.

Peer Partner: The student works with a fellow student in each class to ensure they understand all directions. The Peer Partner is also a resource to ask questions and compare notebooks to the quality of note-taking.

Study Lab: After-school study hall where the student works to complete work. It is also time to seek out teachers for additional assistance.

Behavior Modification Program: The teaching team meets with the administrators to follow through on a stated course of working with the parents and the student. The modification program clearly defines expected behavior. Give the student time to write out the sequence of events leading to their behavior infraction. The student will then write down other choices for handling the situation. 

Breakfast Club Tutoring: Some teachers have organized weekly schedules where students can make appointments to meet them before school to discuss difficulties the student may be having with course content.

Classroom Strategy: The learning strategies teachers produced a listing of Learning Strategies to assist our students in the following areas: Class Environment, Texts and Assignments, and Differentiation Techniques.

Student Preparation For Class Checklist: The teacher’s conference with students to guide them to create a checklist of prompts and guides to help them in the classroom. Ask the student to list the main preparation steps that they should take at the beginning of each class. With this information, the student creates the final list with checkboxes. The teacher then covers the list with plastic and assists the student in attaching the list to the binder. The student must have the binder on his desk after the bell rings to begin each of their classes. Before the teacher walks by, they must review the list, follow the directions, and check each as they complete them. The teacher quickly reviews the list and offers feedback if needed.

Developing Awareness: The family is to use the weekly meeting time to develop the child’s awareness. The parents ask open-ended questions about how the students see their involvement in the learning process of each class, etc. One of our main tasks is to develop active learners who feel they have the power to affect their development and growth and deal with difficulties when they arise. A primary developmental task for MS students is to become aware of their environment and place. More awareness leads to more active learning, responsibility, ownership, and maturation. 

Some possible questions are: What are you doing to participate actively in your classes, sports teams, social groups, etc.? What aspects of each class help you learn best? What are the activities/assignments where you need to be learning at your optimal level? What is important to you? What do you value? What has meaning for you? What gets you fired up? What happens when you are an active participant (learner) in and out of school? What are the short-term and long-term effects of being involved or not involved? 

Word Processor: Stress to parents the importance of supporting their children in learning keyboarding skills and using the computer to write and edit their written work for school.

Metacognition: The student is requested to either verbally or in written form explain the thinking process that they used in academic, social, or other problem-solving situations. Use a log to record this metacognition.

Myers-Briggs: When parents have difficulty understanding the differences between their personalities and their child’s, the counselor can have the entire family take the Myers-Briggs. The follow-up session should explain the codes/personality traits and how different personalities interrelate.

The parent and student construct a daily checklist of tasks that the student must complete at school and at home regarding school work. The student reviews the task list with the parents each night to verbalize how they were able or not able to check specific tasks as completed. The student checks completed tasks as they go through the day.

Each team prepares letters to parents concerning Red Flag students needing additional help during the summer and the following school year.

Parent/Teacher/Student Conference Model: Before arranging a parent conference, be sure you have a clear purpose for having the meeting, especially if all the teachers need to be present. Note that purely parent education meetings function better when one teacher and the counselor meet with the parents. Parents and teachers arrive, and the team leader outlines how the meeting will run. A team member is assigned to record the information from the meeting to go into the Student Information System eventually. The parents return the completed student profile forms before the meeting.

The meeting begins with the parents outlining the main points of the student profile they completed, which should include expectations and strategies used at home. A copy of this list of information will go to the parents. If the student is attending, request the same information from the student. The team members then share the information from the Student Profiles that they have completed. The recorder summarizes the learning strategies developed during the meeting. Set timelines for each strategy. Communicate that the mentor is the contact person for the parents. Set a date for the parents to contact the mentor to arrange for a follow-up meeting either with the team or mentor to review their efforts.

Parent Conferences: Some helpful hints-

  • Put yourself in the position of the parents, especially when the entire team meets with them.
  • Gather background information: how is the student dealing with life in SA? what has the student’s pattern of achievement, etc., been in previous schools?
  • What concerns are the parents bringing to the table? What are their academic, social, and behavioral expectations for their child?
  • What strategies have they used to assist in the growth of their child?
  • What strategies were used at the previous school?
  • What goals do they have for their child?
  • Build consensus; what goals will come from the conference? What are the tasks assigned to the student, parents, and educators? When will there be a check-up on progress?
  • Students attending the conference must be well thought out beforehand. If the student can handle the situation and does attend, look to see what they see as their goals, expectations, and strategies needed to improve.

The teams spend minimally one meeting quarterly to review the names of all the students who have yet to be discussed in the quarter. Look to document how to support these students in their personal growth. 

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Preparing Students for Personalized Learning, Effective Technology Use and Advisory

June 11, 2017 / / 0 Comments

Personalized learning is the current buzzword for self-directed learning. I am using it to title this post asking how we are preparing students to have more control over their learning time, place, content, creation, and communication, especially when using technology.

Jeff and I spoke many times on the Shifting Our Schools (SOS) podcast about the process of “schooling” that can, on occasion, lessen the curiosity, joy, and natural inclination to learn from our students, especially as they move from elementary through middle school. The elementary model of learning stations and teachers facilitating small table groups sometimes morphs into rows of passive receivers of information as students move on from ES. Passivity grows, and less personalization occurs as the attitude of “just tell me what is on the test” is sometimes the norm for the full range of students, including those in the high-pressure pathway to IB and AP courses.

Now with a shift towards “student-centered learning” and advances in web-based instructional tools and modular learning along with inquiry and project-based learning being more prevalent, what are ways schools starting in elementary expand on their life skills curriculum to help students learn the Habits of Mind and gain the needed dispositions so that they can direct their learning, especially when using technology and multiple information sources? The shift is wonderful. Let’s make sure our students are in the groove to handle it. 🙂

And as we see more and more high school hybrid programs of students designing some of their classes (see podcast interviews 1 and 2 with Sophia Pink) to include taking classes online and at the community college. In that case, students need the personal responsibility, know-how, drive, and skill set to manage their learning experiences.

So thinking with the end in mind, I am guessing that there are elementary and middle schools where instructional technologists, librarians, classroom teachers, and other interested educators are partnering with the guidance counselor to construct and teach a curriculum that incorporates ICL, citizenship, life skills and various dispositions that help grow our students into being further self-directed and skilled in managing their learning especially when it comes to interacting with technology and digital information sources. 

Growth in self-management (regulation) is central to students’ natural development. Technology used effectively can enhance learning and become a tool for distraction while also becoming a barrier to students interacting face to face. Giving them a device without helping them understand and learn how it can affect their lives negatively and positively is unacceptable. And I am talking much more than digital citizenship here.

I see many students before school, at lunch, and during breaks with their faces glued to devices instead of being present with one another. An additional thought for this program development is that some schools are bringing parents into the development process and offering parenting classes in the digital age to carry the curriculum into home life.

I see the counselor leading out in the development of this curriculum. We must remember that instructional technologists and librarians help students learn how to use technology and information sources. The counselor partners with teachers to provide learning opportunities for social, emotional, and general life skills growth.

Besides a robust guidance program of counselors as teachers in the classroom, another avenue to structure and implement this curriculum is through advisory/morning meetings. Advisory from ES through HS can be an excellent home base for students and a learning place with carefully articulated lessons guiding students to command their learning journey.

I won’t go further here, but a lot comes to mind regarding components in what might be called a “personalized life learning curriculum” or some variation. Just as teachers start the year with discussions around expectations, rules, and goals, this curriculum should incorporate lessons on class and whole school culture wrapped around core beliefs laid out in a mission statement. This process of pulling from the Habits of Mind, various dispositions, mindsets, character strengths, and other life skill collections is a part of my belief that we should help students construct their personal learning system by the time they leave elementary school. And the more that the personalized life learning curriculum is entirely constructed and on the “digital shelf” for teachers to pull from, the better.

One last thought. If schools are looking at historical personalized learning models, read Audrey Watter’s post on The Histories of Personalized Learning. Seeing her point out that Montessori has always been about personalized learning is nice. It definitely can be a model to apply. I plan to write a few posts about one local Middle School Montessori team of teachers using an Information and Communication Literacies (ICL)approach to support their program.

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Habits

Personal Teaching System (PTS)

March 13, 2017 / / 0 Comments

Students and teachers naturally develop their personalized collection of apps, websites, and browser extensions. In our podcasts and written here and on the Web Resources for Learning site, I have spoken about developing one’s Personal Learning System (PLS) that supports this process. It is time for me to focus on how teachers develop and curate their favorite instructional tools and systems. 🙂

I plan to develop a new page in the Web Resources for Learning site that lists several categories of ways teachers interact with students and specific instructional techniques from the WR site. The next step will be to list a few tools that support each category, just as on the Personal Learning System page. The Information and Communication Literacies (ICL) approach to instruction will be a guiding theme.

And as personalization is the driver for much of our instruction, there will be a handful of apps, websites, and extensions that teachers can draw from to give their students choice and, yes, personalization in which ones they choose to use. This needs-based approach is at the center of what we do in instructional technology. Many teachers use different tools for different needs. They might use their school system Learning Management System (LMS) for specific communication, collaboration, instructional, etc. needs, while turning to Google Classroom for others. This hybrid approach comes naturally but might need to be formalized as some might not realize other areas of digital instruction can also be constructed and implemented, especially in support of blended learning.

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