Dr. Michael Salvatore is Superintendent of Long Branch Public Schools in New Jersey. Mike firmly believes affording children access to modern technology and high-quality content creates learning opportunities far beyond the school walls. In 2014, the Long Branch Public Schools were recognized as the first cohort of innovative schools by the New Jersey Office of Innovation. Mike was selected as New Jersey’s 2019 Superintendent of the Year by the New Jersey Association of School Administrators.

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Your background and where you grew up 

I grew up in New Jersey, one of those Jersey shore kids growing up in a small urban community in an underprivileged area. I went onto to college not too far from my home at Monmouth University. It was quite the culture shock from where I grew up to a private school setting with an affluent student body. I did a lot of reflection on why I was there and what I was set out to do. I also work there as a Teaching Fellow on Saturdays working with their doctoral program for Ed Leaders teaching a course called: “Contemporary Issues in Education.”

Here’s a picture of Mike having this conversation with me over Zoom.

What it was like for you as a student

I was an average student through middle grades. I look at my twin boys who are 13 and realize now why I acted as I did as a student in middle school. It is because your body is going through so many different changes, and you’re trying to figure yourself out. The interesting thing for me as a student is that I enjoyed school, but I liked to have a lot of fun, too. That doesn’t always mix well when your mother is the secretary of the school. I had plenty of visits to the principal’s office, and there was my mom sitting right there at the front desk. As a student, I tried to be on my best behavior, but enjoying myself was paramount in middle school. 

High school was a great experience as a student-athlete. I went onto Monmouth and played football there for four years as a wide receiver. Most people don’t know that about me because when they look at me now they don’t see me as a football player. That was an interesting journey in itself because I set out as a math major. 

2019 New Jersey Superintendent of the Year Dr. Michael Salvatore

Why you went into education

I loved math in high school so I went to college with the idea is that I would be an actuary. Being from a humble background, I was looking for a pathway where I could make a decent living. My pathway changed midway through college. I was working on campus as a student helper at a school for children with special needs for very little money. I didn’t know that at the time that would change my entire life. I started having those moments when you realize that you were meant to do something different than play with numbers. There was something about the spark when a child understood a concept and that you helped guide them there. Especially when a child who was nonverbal suddenly learn how to communicate with you or a child who was physically disabled learn to courageously overcome their fear of stepping out of a chair or walking. It was moments like those that changed the course of my college career. Changing my major to special education meant that it would add a full year to my studies, and I would have to pay for it. I realized that I wouldn’t make the same amount of money but it was more important that I was working in a profession where I was making a difference. 

It led to me where I am today. I taught in my city of Long Branch. I wanted to be a high school special ed teacher maybe teach some math. I ended up student teaching in pre-school special ed and, even though I had kids hug me and drool on me, they eventually loved me. That made me want to stay there. I got offered to work as a pre-school teacher in the morning for disabled children who were bilingual and then in the afternoon, to work with children who had mild to moderate disabilities. That was my journey into teaching. 

The most effective educators and leaders we have throughout the world are those who are deeply connected and care about the well-being and the education of the children and their families. Education has to change and I look forward to it. Our social system is too complex to think that technology can replace teachers or that robots can teach children. We are always going to need people.   

Your family

When I was a senior at Monmouth University, at the school I was working at that I mentioned, I met someone who changed my life forever: my future wife, Christine. She was teaching in a class for children with autism. Our first year together, when I was teaching at Long Branch and she was at a private school, we would talk late into the night about lesson plans, nursery rhymes, and more. Today with have an awesome family with twin 13-year-old boys, Carmen and Luciana, and my 11-year-old daughter, Rosabella.

Why you went into administration

I had a lot of positions in between. I always wanted to be a principal and loved the influence the principal had. The people around me are the ones who pushed me into that pathway. It was in my third year of teaching, senior staff members came up to me to tell me about a job posting for a vice-principal at this school next year. I was aware of what I didn’t know as a third-year teacher and was in line for this interview along with another position for principal at an elementary school among many educators with much more experience in teaching and in leadership. I did get the job, not the vice-principal for the preschool. I got the position of principal for Gregory Elementary School that I didn’t even consider. I started a week later as principal at 26-years-old. 

I really learned a tremendous amount about leadership but it was also like a baptism by fire. Anything that could happen that year happened. There were construction flaws to the building, a 24% literacy rate, among other issues. What I learned about the staff is that they really wanted the best for the children and were ready for someone to lead them.

Virtual Rounds (https://www.openmiconeducation.org/virtual-rounds) 

Three years later, our literacy rates were over 90%. It was all about creating a culture of people who believed in what we were trying to do there. We tried creative ways like double-time for literacy and comprehension skills starting in kindergarten. We brought parents in to support reading as in the hall tutors. The teachers were so proud because we put the attention where it was needed and it worked. I got a call from the superintendent to apply for the supervisor of the elementary principals. So I did. 

[This is Barbara: Listen to Mike share an important message on changing the culture from 23:00 to 27:00]

In 2004, I worked with elementary principals for 2 years. Then I was asked to oversee middle and high school principals. The idea was to weave in collaborative learning communities. Deep down I’m an artist and love the blank canvas. I loved the idea of being on the ground floor of this and to see where it goes. I became District Administrator from grades 6t through 12 and created small learning communities with great teachers who made this happen. We went to full block scheduling in both environments. 

Innovative teaching and learning [from AASA:http://aasacentral.org/2019/07/08/nj/ ]

To this day when I walk into a high school class and it looks like preschool, I know we’ve all done our job. When kids are exploring and discovering and understand what they are there for, that’s always been my purpose. 

Long Branch Public Schools Superintendent and Innovation

In 2010, I was appointed Assistant Superintendent for a year and a half. Then in April 2011, I became Superintendent of Long Branch Public Schools. The innovative things we are doing here is taking that model of early learning philosophy and spreading it throughout the district. In order for a classroom to meet the needs of children on where they are at, what they want to learn and how they learn it, it has to offer opportunities to discover, explore, and be engaged. If you want children to learn, then we’ve got to go back to some basic principles of engagement. A framework for engagement lends itself to some of the initiatives we have in Long Branch that can be perceived as innovative. Sustainable Living, Future Ready initiatives, and Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) are the innovations we have been recognized for.

If you look at Sustainable Living embedded throughout school, then you have to have passionate people who understand sustainability. Then you have to have your framework allow for that to be explored and discovered. A Language Arts lesson can easily incorporate sustainable practices and keep learning personalized so kids love about being healthy and well-being. 

The same thing goes for the Future Ready initiatives to make sure that kids have access not to just shiny new devices but how you are using those tools to leverage the things you want to learn and to enhance the skills you need to learn. 

We used to focus on Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) and now it’s back. I love hearing board members and superintendents talk about SEL. Everybody is realizing the impact SEL has not just on children but on the adults that are implementing those practices.  

We have two recognized Green Ribbon Schools. One school includes sustainable living in everything they do. We are partners with many districts and higher ed. Monmouth University is on our border so we are fortunate to have a wonderful partnership with them and Brookdale Community College. We also have a new school of Social Justice where kids are putting research into practice. 

I definitely will keep following Mike. He will be at the AASA National Conference on Education in San Diego, CA February 13-15, 2020 http://nce.aasa.org/

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Michael Salvatore, superintendent of Long Branch Public Schools, was selected as New Jersey’s 2019 Superintendent of the Year by the New Jersey Association of School Administrators (https://www.longbranch.k12.nj.us/domain/28). 

Mike was appointed the superintendent of schools in the city of Long Branch on April 2011 and later expanded his leadership role through an intergovernmental agreement with neighboring Deal Borough School District (2014-2017). Over the course of leading widely varying districts, he has developed a reputation as a personable, forward-thinking instructional leader whose purpose is to ensure children matter most!

Website: https://www.longbranch.k12.nj.us/

Twitter: @msalvatore2012

LinkedIn: michael-salvatore

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For all of the Conversations on Learning podcasts with Barbara Bray, click on the podcast tab at the top, the logo below, or go to https://barbarabray.net/podcasts/

After designing my Learner Profile based on Universal Design for Learning (UDL), I learned things about me that surprised me. I also knew from the skills and dispositions we will need for the future, I got it that I wasn’t prepared. How could I support teachers if I wasn’t sure about me? Especially if I was not keeping up with the emerging tools and apps that teachers and kids will need to support and enhance learning.

I decided to create my own Personal Learning Backpack. I needed to add the skills, competencies, tools, apps, resources, and strategies I will need to succeed and become future-ready. I’m using the term #futureready for me and any learner because I believe learning is about preparing ourselves for whatever is ahead for us. 

I love technology and have always experimented with tools and apps. However, I find that there are way too many apps to know and to determine which ones are appropriate for me. So I reached out to others in my Personal Learning Network (PLN) for help and about ideas on different apps to include in any backpack. First, I needed to spend some time experiencing some of the apps and see how they enhance and support what I do. Here is a screen capture of only four of the apps I wanted to learn more about and use. 

Links to apps: PearDeck,  Flipgrid, Wakelet, Buncee, and Trello

After I pulled together different apps, strategies, skills, and competencies, I aligned those with what I came up for my Learner Profile. I ended up adding more apps, tools, conferences, and other resources I realized I might need and included those in my Personal Learning Backpack. Here is an example of different apps, tools, and other resources with strategies, skills, and competencies that I included in my Personal Learning Backpack to guide me so I can learn on purpose.

This is just a beginning for me. This process helped me discover more about me. I figured when I start using these apps and learn how they can support me and others, I’ll be sharing more in other posts.

I found out the first thing I needed to do was to build my self-confidence around defining my purpose, my WHY. I wanted to go through the process of developing agency so I could help teachers. I wonder what my backpack will look like in a year.

I used this process in several workshops with teachers. So far, the feedback was great and helpful. I’ve been working with teachers who have adapted the “Me as a Learner” form and had their students create their Learner Profiles, capture evidence of learning as they learn in their portfolio, and are excited about the Personal Learning Backpack. I plan to share examples in future posts.

As I said before, I am still learning so I probably will make some changes with what I will need for my future. I am curious to see the backpacks learners create and the conversations they have about their learning.

Who knows what the future will hold for us?

How will you become future-ready?

What will you need to have agency?

After working with teachers and different schools for the past few years, I received feedback that kids and teachers need more information to figure out who they are as learners using Universal Design for Learning (UDL). As a co-author on our book, How to Personalize Learning, Kathleen McClaskey and I created a checklist for teachers to use with their students called “Who I am as a Learner” that was based on starting with the WHAT. Now that I have redesigned the materials around UDL to start with the WHY, it changed my thinking. I formed a focus group to come up with new and revised statements for Strengths, Competencies, Challenges, and Obstacles that start with Multiple Means of Engagement.

I need to give thanks to the many teachers who have piloted the “Me as a Learner” document to help learners understand how they learn best. Part One invites learners to write what they love to do and learn, what is fun for them, what they love in school, and more.  Below are short samples from Part Two of the document.

Several of the teachers who used the “Me as a Learner” form adapted it for their learners of different ages and skill levels. After learners checked and circled the statements that applied to them, they created summaries of what they found out about themselves. I filled out the form and created a summary for me. Below is a sample from my summary:

I feel confident and motivated to want to learn but at times have this need to be perfect. I’m realizing I don’t know as much as I thought I did and don’t like being called an “expert.” I do like collaborating with others who want to become better learners and learn from others. I realized I was not focusing on what I’m passionate about and now wish to define my WHY so I can inspire others to define theirs.

 Learner Profile

From what I chose, I could see why it is important to start with the WHY of learning. We need a voice and choice so we own our learning and the development of agency. It is important to focus on our strengths to maximize our learning and to find strategies to reduce any barriers that keep us from learning. We may all process that information differently so this is why we need to know how we learn best. UDL helps us do that. I figured if I’m going to share UDL and the Learner Profile, I needed to see how it worked for me as a learner first. Below is a short sample of what I came up with about me.

I noticed that when I started writing about my strengths and interests for engagement, it was all about purpose. Yet, I wasn’t sure of my purpose. This was big for me. I’ve been focusing on making learning personal for years and now I wasn’t sure if that was my WHY.

When I added the information about me, I saw me. I shared this idea with some educators and asked them how they would use this. So they filled it out and then shared what they found out about themselves with peers. I’m going big by sharing mine with you. When I asked someone what they thought about what I wrote, they asked me questions that led to some very interesting conversations. One teacher said that when I wrote I wished to define my WHY, it helped her feel okay about not knowing her WHY and being vulnerable in front of others. She thought I knew everything. No one knows everything. I definitely do not feel like an expert. Every day I learn something new and am humbled by how much I don’t know. 

“It’s amazing how much we don’t know what we don’t know.”

Read the post on Universal Design for Learning to start with the WHY for background information.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL), developed by David Rose and Anne Meyer from CAST (Center for Applied Special Technology), provides suggestions on how learners can reduce barriers and maximize their learning. When I first learned about UDL, the principles started with the WHAT. After 2014, Rose, Meyer, and David Gordon co-authored “Universal Design for Learning: Theory and Practice,” demonstrating why UDL starts with engagement. This made so much sense to me, so I updated my materials to represent the changes. I believe UDL can support learners of all ages who want a framework for learning and who want to define their WHY for learning.

The three UDL principles:

• Multiple Means of Engagement = The WHY of Learning
• Multiple Means of Representation = The WHAT of Learning
• Multiple Means of Action and Expression = The HOW of Learning

I love that UDL starts with the WHY especially when learners are motivated to want to learn. The WHY is about what learners are interested in and passionate about. I like the idea of being curious about who we are as learners. Why not ask ourselves WHY we would want to learn in the first place?

Why are we engaged or not engaged in learning?
Why do we need to be motivated to want to learn?
Why would we want to become independent and self-directed?

UDL Guidelines

The UDL Guidelines at http://udlguidelines.cast.org/ based on scientific insights into how humans learn provides a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people. Learn more about the Universal Design for Learning framework from CAST. Below is a shortened version of the structure from CAST’s website organized both horizontally and vertically. Vertically, the Guidelines are organized according to the three UDL principles starting with Multiple Means of Engagement.

Horizontally, the options scaffold from “Access” to “Build” and then to “Internalize” to develop “Expert Learners” who are resourceful and knowledgeable, strategic and goal-directed, purposeful and motivated. The table below provides only a few examples of the checkpoints.

The UDL Guidelines at http://udlguidelines.cast.org/ provide opportunities for you to learn more about how the principles are detailed under the Guidelines. The bulleted lists below each Guideline are the corresponding checkpoints that go deeper. by linking to strategies and research that can provide you detailed suggestions for teaching and learning.

During workshops, participants explore the checkpoints to discover learning strategies and research. Here is an example:

____

    UDL Principle: Multiple Means of Engagement

• Guideline: Provide options for self-regulation
  
  • Checkpoint: Promote expectations and beliefs that optimize motivation.
    • Strategy: Model high expectations and self-reflection.

____

I decided to explore the UDL Guidelines and checkpoints from my perspective as a learner. I know that I need to be motivated first about something new that I want or need to learn. There has to be a reason or purpose for my learning. When I thought about this, I got it why UDL starts with Multiple Means of Engagement. This is what makes learning personal for me. It is not about what someone else teaches me unless that is what I prefer or wish to learn specific information that I cannot find on my own. I first have to be interested in what I want to learn. I believe that most people need to be motivated to want to learn before they are engaged in the process.

Refer to my post Levels of Engagement: Balancing Challenges and Skills that brings in research on flow and moving from compliance.

Next post I write on UDL is on how to create a Learner Profile.

Paul Emerich France teaches third grade and is a National Board Certified Teacher (#NBCT) who contributes to the education conversation regarding personalized learning and social justice education. 

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Paul helps debunk many of the myths of personalized learning and helps paint a picture of what personalized learning ideally looks like in the classroom. Paul shared about his new book “Reclaiming Personalized Learning: A Pedagogy for Restoring Equity and Humanity in our Classrooms” and provided some tips and strategies. I learned some great ideas from him. Hope you enjoy our conversation!

Where you grew up

I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago in a little town called Mount Prospect where friendliness is a way of life. My parents still live in the same house. I have two sisters and an older brother and everyone lives close.  I had a wonderful upbringing, great teachers and great schools where I had the privilege of going to. Then I went to the University of Illinois and did my undergrad in elementary education and my masters at Roosevelt University in reading. I’m nationally board certified. I owe it all to a great family and a great place where I was able to grow up.  

BPLC19 – Keynote: Paul Emerich France

What it was like for you as a student

I was like your rule follower typically on the higher achieving side student. The education system worked well for me, but it wasn’t when I became a teacher. I saw that everyone is not like me and not everyone was like me when I was growing up. It definitely shapes the way I see the classroom now. Education was really built for people who were like me growing up and that was not fair or inclusive. It has heavily impacted how I see my kids and my classroom now, and I try to build an environment that helps kids like me be successful but also helps all kids regardless of their learning preferences are needs so all kids are successful. When I was in college and realized how many life experiences I didn’t have, I learned how to think on my own for the first time. I wish that I would have had what my kids have now. 

“We want our kids to leave school being autonomous, thinking critically, finding things they like to do and that they are interested in, and discovering a purpose in the classroom.”

Your journey as a writer

I first started writing on my own blog. I wanted to write a children’s book and was googling about how to become an author. That’s where I found that I needed a blog to build a following to get an agent so I started a blog about 6 and 1/2 years ago called “The Thinking Specialist.” I called it that because of the way I viewed the classroom. I’m not necessarily an expert in one content area but I feel I’m a thinking expert. My job is to teach my kids how to be critical thinkers so I need to know about metacognition and how thinking works. That’s why I called it that and then I didn’t like that name anymore. Now it is at https://paulemerich.com and call it “InspirED: Restoring Equity and Humanity.” 

I was writing about how kids see themselves in the curriculum. The essence of personalization is that it is meaningful and relevant to all individuals because they can see themselves and find a purpose in it. I literally just started writing. I think that’s what anybody who wants to write just needs to start doing. You’re going to have posts that are awful and look back not believing what you wrote. Then you’re going to write things that are timeless and that you are so proud of that they are up for everyone to read. But you have to have both. This is where vulnerability comes in. You have to have the good and the bad in order to write. 

Importance of Being Vulnerable

Being vulnerable is essential to learning. I have an article coming out in Educational Leadership on the Value of Vulnerability in September 2019. This is kind of the glue in our classroom. If our kids don’t feel comfortable in our classroom opening up and letting them be seen and that means the good, the bad, and the ugly, then we cannot actually reach them in a meaningful way. In order for learning to be relevant, meaningful, and personal, we need to be able to meet kids where they are and help them overcome their obstacles. We also need to find time and ways to validate and appreciate their assets as well. If we are not able to see those obstacles, then we cannot help them. I tell my kids that if they don’t know what to do, write me a note and tell me what you don’t know or need help with. 

Teaching With Jillian Starr Podcast

The purpose of assessment in my classroom is that I want to know what to teach you next. I need to know what you don’t know and that’s a vulnerable position to be in to say I don’t know. Lots of kids think they should already know this stuff. I tell them “If I thought you already knew this then I would be trying to teach you about it. I’m teaching you because I think you don’t know it.” I think you can find vulnerability everywhere not just in schools but everywhere in the world. It is essential to learning. We all have obstacles and challenges that are not supposed to be a place or source of shame, it’s supposed to be where we’re all in a community where we have these things. If we know each other’s obstacles, we can actually help each other to overcome our obstacles. We also want to be vulnerable with our colleagues and even say “I don’t know” something and ask for help. What an awesome thing to be able to do!

Flexible Content & Tools: Part 3 – An Interview With an Elementary Educator
By Noah Dougherty for Education Elements

Your book “Reclaiming Personalized Learning: A Pedagogy for Restoring Equity and Humanity in Our Classrooms”

Reclaiming Personalized Learning, available October 2019 from Corwin Press, unpacks personalization in three main sections. The first section, Foundations, conceptualizes humanized personalization in three dimensions: the collective conscious, small group interactions, and the inner dialogue. In the second section, Pedagogy identifies the components of humanized personalization, which includes cultivating awareness, building learner agency, and mindfully designing instruction for personalization. In the final section, Equity, discussions about the importance of identity and justice in the process of personalizing learning in our classrooms.

My WHY to write this book was that I was getting the idea of personalization wrong. I feel lucky that I entered the personalized learning (PL) realm when I did. A lot of us were learning about PL and making mistakes with it. I was a believer of the myths around personalized learning. That’s good to look back on something you wrote and see how much you’ve grown and learned so many new things. 

I realized this when I was working in Silicon Valley for three years for an educational technology startup and teaching the whole time. We were opening schools and building technology. At the end of the three years, I believe we were trying to monetize tools that were digitizing curriculum. I didn’t see how that was making learning more meaningful or relevant. Programming kids with content is not what personalized learning is. You can reach a group of human beings without individualizing the curriculum by actualizing autonomy and agency. That was a big WOW moment for me.

Changing my Thinking

First, I wouldn’t be where I am without the books on personalized learning that you and Kathleen wrote. I felt it was necessary to talk about your PDI chart because both of you are the thought leaders in personalized learning. I would be remiss to write a book about personalization and not include what’s already out there. Second, the way I say it is that Personalization, Differentiation, and Individualization are all connected to one another. The way I see it is that Personalization is the way to make learning meaningful and relevant to the individual. Individualization is embedded in that. Yet, we assume the teacher is individualizing the teaching for the learner. I believe that Individualization in a Personalized Learning model that is achieved through a child’s autonomy. This is about creating a curriculum where there are different points of entry for the diverse learners in your class. Differentiation works to encompass our instruction to have differentiated instruction that you are intentionally engineering for a diverse group of learners to integrate or converge with one another. There is this idea about partnerships where we connect with others who are learning together just like you and I are having through this conversation. 

One of my Go-To strategies is “Turn and Talk.” It is so easy. After sharing an idea, I have the kids turn and talk about what they just heard. I ask them things like “do you agree or disagree?” That’s personalized learning right there. 

5 Myths of Personalization

I think the myths are really big. I feel I could do an entire talk just on these myths. As a teacher, it is easy to do what is done. There is also a push back when questioning the status quo. One big issue for teachers is about their concerns on time but I want to talk about sustainability. Let’s consider humanization vs dehumanization for teachers like the chart above. If teachers are burnt out and exhausted every day, that’s dehumanizing. They leave work feeling undervalued or devalued, that’s dehumanizing. We have to talk about sustainability in personalized learning because it is not just another thing teachers are doing. 

When we bring in project-based learning activities, we can make the content we are “covering” a little more sustainable. Yes, it is our duty to teach them content and skills but we can that in a more creative way. For instance, I do a project where they create a neighborhood based on the needs of the residents. They built scale models of the buildings where they are calculating area and perimeter, collaborating with their peers, and a whole logical thinking component to this. It is this really rich day where I am collecting data if they can calculate area and perimeter, multiply, and add, but it’s in this relevant, human, meaningful experience. It is about the process, not the product. 

[This is Barbara: Please listen to the entire podcast and his examples and tips. A great conversation with more information than I could include in this post. Make sure you check out Paul’s new book that is coming out in October 2019 and follow his work. I learned so much about Paul just from this conversation. Enjoy!]

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Paul Emerich France is a National Board Certified Teacher, dedicated to helping all learners feel seen, heard, and valued in the classroom. Paul writes for a number of prominent education publications, such as Educational Leadership, Edutopia, EdSurge, and the International Literacy Association’s Literacy Today.

Paul has taught in multiple settings, ranging from transitional kindergarten to fifth grade. He has taught in both public and independent schools, even spending a bit of time in Silicon Valley, working for an education technology company, founding three micro-schools and building personalized learning software for the classroom. It was this experience that secured Paul’s understanding of human-centered pedagogy that prioritizes humanity over technology.

Now, Paul is a sought-after writer and speaker, having presented at SXSW EDU and serving as a keynote speaker at regional and national conferences. His teaching and thought leadership have been featured in the Atlantic, WIRED, and the New Yorker. Above all else, he enjoys connecting with his students and fellow teachers, encouraging all to have courageous conversations about identity to make learning personal for adults and children alike.

• Website: https://paulemerich.com
• Twitter: @paul_emerich
• Instagram: @paul_emerich

Writer for…

• EdSurge: https://www.edsurge.com/writers/paul-france
• Edutopia: https://www.edutopia.org/profile/paul-france
• Huffington Post: https://www.huffpost.com/author/paul-emerich-france-275
• Sage Publications: https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/author/paul-e-france

Articles:

• Personalized Learning is a Problem of Privilege | EdSurge, January 2018
• Personalized Learning Isn’t About Tech | Edutopia, March 2018
• Why are we still personalizing learning if it’s not personal? | EdSurge, July 2018
• What the SAMR Model May Be Missing | EdSurge, October 2018
• It’s Time Teachers Reclaimed ‘Personalized Learning’ in the Name of Equity | EdSurge, February 2019
• Supporting LGBTQ Students in Elementary School | Edutopia, June 2019

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For all of the Conversations on Learning podcasts with Barbara Bray, click on the podcast tab at the top, the logo below or go to https://barbarabray.net/podcasts/

Dr. Marialice B.F.X. Curran has served as an associate professor, middle school teacher, principal and library media specialist. She is a researcher, keynote, international speaker and TEDxYouth speaker. Marialice is a pioneer in digital citizenship and is Founder and Executive Director of the Digital Citizenship Institute.

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Marialice’s mission is to turn negatives into positives and help to transform participants into designers, creative thinkers, global collaborators, problem solvers, and justice-oriented digital citizens. Enjoy her story and podcast!

Your background and passions

I’m really proud I’m from Boston. My story starts outside of Boston in a town called Winchester. That community has been instilled in me and impacted the choices I’ve made. I moved to Connecticut when I got married and have lived there for the past 14 years. I miss seeing people as I saw in Boston. There are rolling hills, and homes with garages. They click a button and go in their garage and then we never see people as I used to see in Boston.

My dad was a professor at Boston College, and I grew up going to the Campus School with my dad. This is where I truly believe the leading by hand, heart, and mind was modeled for me as a young child. Think you’ll like this influence in my life: http://cs.bc.edu/~gips/EENewsS03.pdf and https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/schools/carroll-school/sites/eagle-eyes.html/

Your Family

My husband, Sean Dee, is also an untraditional learner. He is Deaf and always said that it is not a disability but a serious inconvenience. Our son, Curran Dee, has parents who are role models that are very unique with different gifts and talents. Sean grew up lip reading and on our first blind date, he held onto my every word. I thought this guy really digs me, but I didn’t realize that he has to look at everyone that way. He didn’t learn Sign Language until he was in college and has often commented that sometimes he feels like he doesn’t belong in either the hearing world or the Deaf world.

Curran is the true introvert in our family. He is a fabulous traditional learner who does really well in school. I wish he broke the rules a little bit more, but he does not struggle academically. My husband and I are happy about it but also a little sad because all of our struggles have defined us. I know he’ll have his own struggles different than what we had.

What it was like for you as a student

I went to Winchester Public Schools K-12 and I was a failure as a student. I had parents who believed in me and told me how smart I was and that I could do anything. When you are young, you believe anything your parents said. Yet, I bought into the teachers and high school counselor who told me I was not college material. In first grade, I was diagnosed and that is the worst word in the world. For me, it is like a four letter word. They used the “R” word when I was in the first grade.

My parents did some outside testing and finally found out that I was dyslexic. I feel like there was a lot of education that my parents did for the school system because nobody in the system knew about dyslexia in the early 70s. I never fit in in elementary school. Every Friday there was a test in math and we need to transcribe the problems on the board. Every Monday you would check the board to see if your test was on the bulletin board. I never transcribed the question right. Those examples of not fitting in and always failing and feeling like a failure definitely defined me for the majority of my life. I didn’t want anyone to know because it was embarrassing and you feel like you are that diagnosis.

I remember in junior high, hiding in the bathroom so people didn’t have to see me go down that corridor for “those” kids. I was always putting on comedy routines in class so I was always late to class. And every single day in 7th grade, I had to go to detention. I look back now and ask “where were all the adults in that school in my life? Couldn’t they see the patterns and that I wasn’t doing this on purpose?”

As I struggled as an untraditional learner, this saved me! I had one thing that I was good at!  It was my mom who saved me in the most awkward stage of my life. We had all kinds of puppets from all over the world, I became a puppeteer at 11. My mom gave me business cards when I was 13 and we put an ad in the newspaper so I could put on puppet shows. In 1979, I started my own business in a time in my life that was horrible in school. I performed puppet shows for children’s parties on weekends. It made me unique, brought out my gifts and talents and was it was like a life raft. I continued to do puppet shows all through college and still have my puppets today.

It was the reason why I’ve always wanted to bring out the gifts and talents of each and every student. Not until I became a connected educator and I was teaching teachers that we need to be role models and take risks and that’s when I shared my journey and started belonging as the Dyslexic Professor. Since then, I can’t tell you how proud I am that I am an untraditional learner.

HackAccess Conference video

 Your journey as an educator 

I looked at the most awkward time of my life and that’s where I became a teacher. When I took my first job in 1983, I didn’t tell anybody that I was dyslexic. But I wanted to make sure no other student felt the way I felt. When you think about our kids, each child is unique and comes to our classrooms with gifts and talents. It’s up to us to bring out those out in every single student. That brings me back to my passion for personalized learning.

Digcitsummites MARIALICE CURRAN from Planner Media on Vimeo

I could be resentful about what happened to me in the lost opportunities. But I’ve always looked at that glass not as half empty but completely full. Some people would make the assumption I’m an extrovert since I was the class clown, but I’m actually not. I really am an ambivert. I can rise to the occasion but it zaps my energy. I learned how to put on this persona as a mechanism to protect myself. You’ll never see me read from a script, ever. I learned things early on for survival. I’m very comfortable with not knowing. When you don’t know what someone is going to say, you are completely present with that person.

ISTE Member Profile:

https://www.mbfxc.com/uploads/4/1/8/4/4184069/mbfxc_iste_member_profile_2018.pdf

I went to the University of Arizona in Tucson because I wanted to do something different. I joined a program called S.A.L.T. (Strategic Alternative Learning Techniques program) and that is where I honed in my skills and how to bring out the best in all of my gifts and qualities.  I never mentioned that I was dyslexic. When I first started graduate school, I was put in probation because of my transcripts. From graduate school on, I never looked back. I took that first teaching job in 1993 and still didn’t say anything about dyslexia. There were times at parent-teacher conferences where I could see myself struggling. When the parents wanted to hope for their child, I would reveal to them and their child my story. I never revealed that when I became a principal. I believe I did my doctorate at Boston College because someone said I couldn’t. I love to learn even though it wasn’t easy for me. When I graduated, I wanted to wear my dad’s doctoral robes so I did. When I took the job in higher ed, I didn’t tell them I was dyslexic.

Doctor of Philosophy and Associate Professor

I had a graduate student, Tracy Mercier, who invited me to her classroom. I remember the first time I ever got googled was from her 3rd graders who were checking if I was making responsible decisions. I had never googled myself and had no idea what was going to show up. I thought that I needed to take some risks and walk the walk. That’s when I decided to come out and never be ashamed of being dyslexic again. People’s words really do matter. If I had ever listened to my guidance counselor, I would have believed it. I shared my transcripts all through college and graduate school with her to demonstrate that I could learn. My journey to learn beyond dyslexia began with the support of my parents. All each child needs is at least one person to believe in them.

[Make sure you listen to Marialice’s story about her name Marialice B.F.X. Curran starting at 21:35]

DigCitKids: Lessons learning side-by-side, to empower others around the world

I never consciously involved Curran in my work or thought he would want to be involved in my work. It happened very naturally. When I was on the tenure track, he would come to class with me. He loved being on the college campus. All the students really took to him. The first time I put on a DigCit Summit on campus, I got up to do the closing remarks and he followed me up on stage. I was so surprised and asked him if he had something he wanted to say. He nodded “Yes!” He wanted to tell his blogging story so he did. When he was done, he leaned into the microphone and said: “Thank you very much!” We were publically known as a mother and son team.

[Listen to the rest of Marialice’s story about starting the Digital Citizenship Institute (DCI) from 30:00 on the message from InkGetsBetter and enjoy the videos below.]

Educator Insights | Taking Digital Citizenship Beyond Monitoring to Mentoring

Tech4Good Panel

I’m always hoping that I can inspire other untraditional learners! I haven’t blogged on this site for a long time, but it chronicles my early years as a connected educator in higher ed: https://mbfxc.wordpress.com/

Below is a more recent video from DigCitSummitEDU at Lake Shore Recap Short

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Dr. Marialice B.F.X. Curran is the Founder and Executive Director of the Digital Citizenship Institute. Her advanced graduate and doctoral studies on adolescent development at Boston College reinforced her commitment to service learning as Dr. Curran leads by hand, heart, and mind. As a mother and a connected educator, she has served as an associate professor, middle school teacher, principal and library media specialist.

As a pioneer in digital citizenship, she developed and created the first 3-credit digital citizenship course for teachers in the United States. She co-founded the digital citizenship chat on Twitter (2011) and the Digital Citizenship Summit (2015). She serves on the international advisory board for GlobalMindED and is a researcher, keynote, international speaker and TEDxYouth speaker.

An entrepreneur and puppeteer at the age of 11, Dr. Curran’s experiences include world travel with a particular interest in the creative arts, middle-level education, special education, teacher education, and educational technology. Dr. Curran is committed to promoting social good using social media and technology. She believes in a community-driven approach to educating and empowering digital citizens to create solutions in local, global and digital communities. Her mission is to turn negatives into positives and help to transform participants into designers, creative thinkers, global collaborators, problem solvers, and justice-oriented digital citizens.

She has partnered with her twelve-year-old son, Curran, and the two are recognized professionally as a mother/son digital citizenship team. The dynamic duo model best practices while working with parents, educators, students and community organizations. They recently told their mother/son story, DigCitKids: Lessons Learning Side-by-Side, to Empower Others Around the World.

Website: https://www.mbfxc.com/ and http://www.digcitinstitute.com/

Blog: http://www.digcitinstitute.com/blog Contributor to http://www.jrney.org

Twitter: @mbfxc

@digcitinstitute

@digcitsummit

@digcitkids

#DigCitKidsBook

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For all of the Conversations on Learning podcasts with Barbara Bray, click on the podcast tab at the top, the logo below or go to https://barbarabray.net/podcasts/

Guest post by Jackie Gerstein, Ed.D is adapted from her post on usergenerated education

One of the greatest gifts an educator can give to their learners is to see each one; really seeing each and every one of them. . . . seeing each learner’s uniqueness and interacting with each one based on that uniqueness. 

Listen More Than Talk

If educators talk to their learners more than listen to them, then this is a problem. Traditional education models have focused on the teacher being the content area expert – disseminator of information. But we are living in an age where traditional education should no longer be the norm; where the educator should be doing a lot more listening to their learners.

Give Learners Choice

Be Present

In order to be aware of and make the most of the interactions you have with your learners, you have to be able to be to be “in the moment” with them in the classroom. In order for teachers to extend learner’s learning, we must first “be present” with them. This means being aware enough of our own thoughts and emotions that we are able to adjust them and tune into the learner’s immediate thoughts, needs, and emotions. This is no easy task, especially during busy classroom activities. In order to stay in the moment, teachers have to purposefully set aside thoughts about a) what just happened; b) what happened yesterday or this morning; c) what we have to do next; d) how we need to prepare for later; and e) we then feel about XYZ. Specific suggestions for staying present in the classroom can be found at Teacher Tips: Being “In the Moment” with Children.

Put the Learners at the Center

In these days of accountability and high stakes testing, too often the lessons, the curriculum, the standards, and the tests are put at the center of teaching rather than the learners. The term student-centered or learner-centered learning refers to a wide variety of educational programs, learning experiences, instructional approaches, and academic support strategies that are intended to address the distinct learning needs, interests, aspirations, or cultural backgrounds of individual learners and groups of learners. The term learner-centered learning most likely arose in response to educational decisions that did not fully consider what learners needed to know or what methods would be most effective in facilitating learning for individual learners or groups of learners. (Student-Centered Learning)

Putting learners at the center of learning translates into in honoring and leveraging their strengths and interests, grasping onto those teachable moments based on learner inquiry, and having the learners develop and explore their own essential questions. Most of all, putting learners at the center of learning translates into assisting them in internalizing that their own unique selves are of utmost importance in the learning setting.

Acknowledge “Blend in the Woodwork” and Disengaged Learners

The idiom “to blend into the woodwork” means “to behave in a way that does not attract any attention; to disappear or hide.” These are the learners who aren’t the best students nor are they the worse. They do what is told without making any noise or a big deal about it. They are the learners who when asked years later about them, the educator has trouble remembering them.

Seeing each and every learner means that the educator also looks for and acknowledges the achievements of “blend in the woodwork” and disengaged learners. This acknowledgment comes in the form that works best for these learners – a note or quiet comment showing that the educator sees them; that s/he recognizes that they are an important part of the learning environment.

Develop Strategies for Dealing With Annoying Learners

Educators are humans first and there are going to be learners who get on an educator’s nerves. An effective educator acknowledges that s/he might not like all learners the same but works hard to treat them all fairly. To do so, though, educators need to first identify when a learner is touching upon a nerve, and second, to develop strategies for dealing with that learner.

By developing some personal intervention strategies, the educator is actually owning the problem with a self-acknowledgment that: “This is my problem not that learner’s problem. I need to develop strategies to help me cope with his or her annoying behaviors.” Although that learner doesn’t know it, the educator, in this case, is showing the utmost respect as s/he attempts to develop effective and unique ways of building an authentic relationship with that learner.

Overtly Show Learners That You Care

Many, too many in my opinion, teacher education programs instruct teachers to not get emotionally involved with their learners. I believe the opposite. Effective and caring teachers do get emotionally involved with their learners to the point that they actually love them. This is actually congruent with research that indicates that relationships are key to learner achievement. The teacher-learner relationship needs to remain at a professional level but teachers can use their own individual style and techniques to show that they care for each and every learner. It can be as simple as giving a handshake or high five with eye contact and a smile to each learner as she or he enters and leaves the classroom.

Perhaps you’ve heard the statement, “They won’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” When learners are asked about the qualities of good teachers, they confirm the truth of that statement—caring is always at or near the top of the list. Caring is evident when you recognize learners as unique human beings with different learning needs and preferences, and when you “check-in” with learners through actions such as walking around the classroom, talking to everybody to see how they are doing, answering their questions, and expressing confidence in their ability to improve. (6 Ways to Let Students Know You Care)

Dr. Jackie Gerstein’s byline is, “I don’t do teaching for a living. I live teaching as my doing . . . and technology has amplified my passion for doing so.” Gerstein has been teaching in-person and online for several decades. Currently, she teaches masters-level online courses in educational technology for Boise State, American Intercontinental, and Western Governors’ Universities.

She believes that one of the roles and responsibilities of the 21st-century educator is to share resources, ideas, and instructional strategies with other educators.

Jackie actively blogs at https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/ and tweets at https://twitter.com/jackiegerstein

Additional Resources referenced from Jackie’s blog:
Student Voice Comes With Teachers as Listeners
Giving Students a Voice Models High-Quality Learning Processes
Today’s Education Should Be About Giving Learners Voice and Choice.
Show Learners The Possibilities and Get out of the Way

Cary Harrod started as an elementary teacher, was a gifted specialist for 19 years and spent 10 years as the instructional technology specialist for Forest Hills School District, Ohio. In 2016, she decided to re-enter the classroom, where it all began and is celebrating her 30th year in education.

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I worked with Forest Hills School District with Cary Harrod as the lead around 2006 and knew right away that she was a great person to know. We have kept in touch ever since. I definitely had to have a conversation with Cary. Hope you enjoy our conversation!

Where you grew up

I grew up in Bowling Green, OH. A beautiful place to grow up…a small town but made bigger due to the university. My childhood was idyllic; I spent loads of time riding my horse and wandering all over town with friends. My dad was a teacher, my mother a stay-at-home mom. Around my Junior year, our family imploded when my father lost his teaching job. The only thing my father loved more than teaching was his family; unable to secure another teaching job, he spent the rest of his life in a dark cloud, leaving us shattered and lost.

Your family and where you live now

I have been married to Bill for almost 23 years. We have a 21-year-old son, Liam. We live in Cincinnati, OH but recently built a home in Traverse City, MI. We plan to retire there. Friends think we’re crazy for going north, where it’s cold but we love everything about Traverse City…the weather, our view of the deep, blue waters of Lake Michigan and the rich cultural life. Here is a timeline of my life:

Born in Bowling Green, OH.

• Moved to Cincinnati in 1988. Began job at Forest Hills School District in 1988.
• 1988- 1997 3rd and 4th grade
• 1997 – 2007 Gifted Specialist
• 2006 – 2016 District Instructional Technology Specialist
• 2016 – Present 5th Grade ELA/Social Studies teacher

What it was like for you as a student/learner

I loved elementary school. To this day, I can name all seven of my elementary teachers; I carry a piece of each one of them with me and hope to bring those pieces with me when I enter my classroom each day. I was a good student, up until 8th grade where I struggled to understand algebra. I received my first “D” and something was extinguished inside me. I became completely detached from school and learning; it would be years later that I rediscovered a love for learning.

Your journey as a teacher and gifted educator

I love my story. Each step of my journey has led me to this moment in time; the steps, a rich tapestry of experiences, today guide me as I venture through the landscape of personalized learning. With only two years left before I can retire, I often think about how I could simply be coasting to the finish line but instead, I’m working harder than ever. If there is one thing I know for sure, it’s that there is more to learn that we have envisioned for the past 100 years…and it is beautiful.

Our classroom is featured in the newly released book, “Welcome to Writing Workshop: Engaging Today’s Students with a Model That Works.” Excerpt HERE.

Instructional Technology Specialist

In 2004, I was a technophobe; in 2006, I was asked to lead a district-wide five-year project that would support over 400 staff members, as they learned how to use technology to support learning. I inherently understood that technology was a game changer; it would level the playing field. Then, in 2011, I led a district effort to bring a BYOD program to our middle school.

Personalized Learning: Back in the classroom – I had been studying personalized learning for about two years. (2014-2016) when I took Barbara’s personalized learning course. In 2016, I decided to return to the classroom to see firsthand what personalized learning looks like.

Key Points we discussed:

• The world has changed; therefore, reading and writing should change.
• Use five elements to support the work I’m doing around personalized learning: VOICE, CHOICE, PACE, PLACE, AND PATH steeped in student-directed learning.
• Our literacy classroom is built on the idea of volume–authentic reading and writing all the time. We are laser focused on becoming better readers and writers through real reading and writing experiences. Busy work in the form of worksheets and projects have been removed. We call our literacy time “STUDIO”, where students work to hone their craft.
  
• No longer plan “lessons” but rather design experiences that are open-ended, allow for individual pathways and reflect real life. (Edublog Student challenge, Slice of Life Blogging Challenge, Mock Newberry, March Book Madness and Connections.)
• First 6 weeks is setting the foundation for the personalized classroom: Knowing and Understanding Ourselves; School Routines; Student agency; Relationships/Culture/Community building; Learning? What is It?; Content related; Skills and habits needed to support deeper learning; Connected learning.

Hope you listen to the whole conversation so you get to the part when we talked about education today and in the future.

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Cary Harrod

  Twitter: @charrod

  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cary.harrod

  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caryharrod/

  Blog: Like Never Before

Website: Like Never Before

What I have come to understand, however, is that we will not achieve better education systems or outcomes without stepping back from the constraints of “school thinking.” I need to let go of what I know and think about school–its structures, history, and influence–in order to be able to think more openly about education and its possibilities. And in order to do that, it feels necessary to break some rules, to upset some conventions, to seize authority rather than wait for it to be granted.                                                                                                                                                                ~Sherri Spelic

I always believed project-based learning (PBL) could be personal by encouraging students to collaborate with others and be responsible for their own learning. However, there was confusion around the differences between projects and project-based learning.

I saw this when my children were in fourth grade and brought home directions to make replicas of California missions. As a family project, we went to visit their assigned missions, took pictures, and learned about the mission. We worked together to make little replicas that looked just like the missions they were assigned.

Now I look back and ask, “what were our children learning?” The teachers were teaching the same project every year with the same directions to every child in the fourth grade. On top of that, one teacher called these projects a PBL. Instead of objecting, I shared a chart with the teacher similar to this one. In many California schools, teachers are still mandated to do this project.

New Social Studies Framework

There has been a push by the California Department of Education to scrap the Mission project according to the article by Diana Lambert in The Sacramento Bee:

Put away the Popsicle sticks, glue and sugar cubes. The fourth-grade mission project, a rite of passage for elementary students for decades, may be on its way out. California’s new history and social science framework, passed by the state Board of Education last year, recommends against the longtime tradition of building miniature replicas of the state’s Spanish colonial missions, calling it insensitive. Thousands of Native Americans died from introduced diseases and were forced to labor at the missions, it notes.

The new framework increases the emphasis on inquiry and literacy in history and social science classrooms and teaching students about the impact of the missions on the state’s people and its natural environment. Teaching and learning about the missions can change through a PBL that is more personal and using the standards:

California HSS Content Standards

4.2 Students describe the social, political, cultural, and economic life and interactions among people of California from the pre-Columbian societies to the Spanish mission and Mexican rancho periods.

4.2.5 Describe the daily lives of the people, native and nonnative, who occupied the presidios, missions, ranchos, and pueblos.

Instead of the traditional mission project, the new framework suggests alternative lessons for fourth-graders. [Source: UC Davis 2017] They include inquiry-based activities that are designed to help students investigate the past by examining primary sources — documents and other artifacts from the period itself. To make this unit personal and relevant for students, we can have students consider different perspectives using the driving question:

“What was the impact that mission life had on Native Americans?”

Unfortunately, there are very few sources from the Native American perspective to corroborate or contradict European accounts. Have students review the primary sources included in this document [Source: UC Davis pdf, 2017]. Each student in the group can refer to different perspectives in different roles as native Californians, missionaries, or settlers using the questions.  

• What was life like for native Californians before other settlers arrived?
• What was the purpose of the Spanish Missions?
• What might Native Californians have liked or not liked about living in the Missions?

Multiple formats and Learning Strategies to Personalize PBL

Project-based learning engages learners in authentic learning activities around real-world problems. Having students take on different perspectives through historical roles empowers voice and choice and builds empathy and curiosity about the people of that time. To make this project more relevant for today’s students, you can ask them to follow up this activity by putting themselves in the future 100 years from now. They can look back and create a project about what they saw as school then from different perspectives (i.e. teacher, student, parent).

A possible question for students imagining the future 100 years from now could be “How did school 100 years ago prepare me for today and my future?”

When students are encouraged to ask questions and have a voice about something they are interested in, then that is more personal for them than traditional direct instruction. When they can choose the best person for a role as part of the PBL based on their strengths, they build skills and competencies that help them grow. When kids have a chance to play, experiment, tinker, create and do meaningful tasks, they are more motivated to want to learn. If the students have voice and choice about the topic, roles, and direction of a project, you will see more ownership of the process and project-based learning that is more personal.

Want to learn more about ownership, go to the post on the Development of Ownership: From Compliance to Autonomy.

Nancy Weinstein, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Mindprint Learning, has an MBA from Harvard Business School with an extensive background in business, including work at Goldman Sachs, The Walt Disney Company Corporate Strategic Planning, Bristol Myers Squibb, and several smaller Internet companies.

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Nancy recognizes the challenges students face today, from succeeding at school to managing hectic after-school schedules, to dealing with social media. While we can’t put the genie back in the bottle, she knows that teachers and parents can (must!) help students learn to manage these complex demands. She co-authored a new book, The Empowered Student that we talk about in the podcast. So honored to have a conversation with Nancy. Enjoy!

Your background

I grew up in New Jersey and lived in the same house for 18 years before I went to college in Philadelphia. I started dating my husband in college. We went to the same high school but did not date in high school. He is my co-founder of Mindprint Learning and also the co-founder of my two children. After college, I worked on Wall Street in NY for a couple of years. Then I always wanted to live in California, so I took a job at Disney in their corporate strategic planning group in Burbank, CA. I did that for some time and then because my whole family was back east, I moved back. My family lives in New Jersey outside of Princeton.

What was it like for you as a student?

I was a good student and followed the line. Even though I understood things, I was always stressed. I know now working on Mindprint why. I had a good ability to reason but I didn’t have a very good memory. Studying always took me longer than it felt like it should. I believed that if I didn’t study harder than I would forget on the test. It was so stressful. It didn’t need to be that way.

The reason I became an engineer instead of going to medical school is that I didn’t need to memorize anything. In engineering, every test was open book, open note. It was all about problem-solving. Everything in pre-med was about memorizing (or at least that is how I perceived it). So even though I would have loved medicine, I became an engineer instead because it felt less stressful. In hindsight, if someone had just shown me HOW to study better, I would have done what I really wanted to do — not just what I thought was more achievable.

Retention is all about how we make those connections to things that we know so that we can make what we are learning stick.

Consider students studying history. If we begin by discussing what’s going on today in the world, we make it relevant. We show them why they should care. Then we can compare the similarities or differences to events in history. Students will be more engaged and they will remember more because it’s relevant and it has context.

You and your family

You might say we are all in this together. My experiences with my daughters’ schooling inspired the idea for Mindprint and my husband helped me start the company. He was my #1 supporter getting this company going as a mom with two school-aged kids, and he continues to help me with everything from finance to strategy to legal.

My daughters also play key roles for me. If they weren’t so supportive of my doing this, I really wouldn’t be here. And they also help with the company on a regular basis. A lot of the images you see on our site, my older daughter created. She did almost all the images for our book at age 12. Her strengths are so opposite of mine. She is an amazing designer and I have a terrible time with it. My younger daughter is my “go to person”. If I want to figure out if we should try something new for students, I ask her first. She has this great self-awareness of what will and won’t work for her. She also has great empathy so she senses what will resonate for peers and what won’t. She’s prevented me from making a lot of mistakes.

How did being a parent encourage you to become involved in education?

I came to education technology as a parent. My daughters are two years, two weeks, two days apart. They are also so different. And so different from my husband and I. It was clear to me After a few attempts at helping with homework that they were not going to adapt to who I was. I needed to adapt to them. And if I didn’t understand them there was no way I could help or be the parent I wanted to be.

I was intent on what I could do differently and started to learn about the brain. Back then I would laugh and say that it was genetically impossible that two people who think so similarly could have two kids two years apart who inherently think so differently. Let’s just say, it’s definitely possible. And common, ask your listeners how many of them have had trouble helping their own kids with homework. And they’re teachers!

Co-Founder of Mindprint Learning, LLC

https://mindprintlearning.com

I started reading and learning about educational evaluations that identify how students learn. One of the things I discovered was that these tests were really expensive, time intensive, and only available from a child psychologist. It made me question why in this age of the Internet that this was the only way we could understand how our kids learn. I decided that we could do this testing for each child and it wouldn’t need to be that expensive or time-consuming.

I found this amazing team at the University of Pennsylvania Brain Behavior Lab that developed this short test that could do what we wanted. Fun fact is that NASA uses the same test with the astronauts if you’ve read about the Kelly twins.. https://mindprintlearning.com/blog/nasa-twins-study/

So we are now in schools helping educators understand how each student learns best. If I had known that my reasoning skills are good but my memory is not as good, I could have learned strategies so I could memorize more easily. I probably would have become a doctor. Imagine how less stressful that school would have been for me and how much more I could have enjoyed it. We want to do that for every kid.

Dr. Paul Yellen runs The Yellin Center for Mind, Brain and Education at NYU. He uses the greatest analogy of a tennis player. With enough practice, anyone can be good at tennis. No matter how great a player you are. Everybody has their strong shot and everyone has a weaker shot. You’re constantly strategizing  to use your stronger shot and to compensate for your weaker shot. But you know you need to practice both because you’re going to need both shots in a match. his is similar to how we learn. We all have our strongest skills. We all have something we’re not as good at. How do we make sure that we use our strengths to help us succeed without letting our weaker shot get in the way? I love that analogy.

When kids see their learner profile, they feel that finally they are understood. We will hear students say “this is me. Nobody understood me before.” Everybody needs to be understood at the most fundamental level. We use that understanding to create self-awareness. When students are self-aware, then they can really learn. We can’t expect students to regulate and be in control of their learning if they don’t know how–what strengths can they use and where they might need to compensate. Just like tennis players.

Mindprint Profile learning strengths and needs

Action (Personalized Toolbox) that includes Individual Learning Plans and aggregated data for whole class instruction

Nancy shared all of the amazing resources on MindPrint Learning. Make sure you check out this page to find strategies and tools to support every student’s academic, cognitive, and social-emotional strengths and needs.

The Empowered Student: A Guide to Self-Regulated Learning by Nancy Weinstein and Mary-Vicki Algeri (Book) published by CAST

http://castpublishing.org/books-media/empowered-student/

In The Empowered Student: A Guide to Self-Regulated Learning, authors Nancy Weinstein and Mary-Vicki Algeri provide teachers with a practical workbook so they can help students develop the skills they need to take charge of their own learning.

Part 1 is dedicated to getting students on board, laying the foundation for self-regulated learning with the basic neuroscience on how learning happens and what that means in practical terms for effort and motivation.

Part 2 gets specific, delving into exactly what self-regulation looks like in the classroom, relying on the Universal Design for Learning curriculum development framework developed by the researchers at CAST.

This book is packed with tips, strategies and student activities, The Empowered Student is light on words and heavy on examples. The authors assert that self-regulation is not just a set of skills but a way of being, and students who learn it need the guidance of patient, caring adults who embrace the trial and error of ongoing personal growth.

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Nancy Weinstein is the co-founder and CEO of Princeton, NJ-based Mindprint Learning. She founded Mindprint Learning with the perspectives of both a parent and an innovator. Realizing a need to address a common challenge for parents and educators, she drew upon her background in science and business to create Mindprint.

Nancy has an extensive background in business, including work at Goldman Sachs, The Walt Disney Company Corporate Strategic Planning, Bristol Myers Squibb, and several smaller Internet companies. Nancy has an MBA from Harvard Business School with first-year honors and a BS/BSE summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania and Wharton School of Management and Technology Program, Bioengineering and Finance.

Contact Information

• Email: nancy@mindprintlearning.com
• Website: https://mindprintlearning.com
• Twitter: @MindprintLearn

The only universal characteristic of successful students is that they have an adult in their life who is committed to helping them succeed. Each of us has the opportunity to be that adult in a child’s life.