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Andelee Espinosa is a special education teacher and has been supporting students in high school regular education classrooms for 20 years. She has a passion for personalized learning and teaching students to use their voice. She currently supports in Physics and Biology classrooms at Brookfield Central High School in Brookfield, WI.

Your background 

I have lived in Wisconsin my entire life. We can have extreme weather with 100-degree weather in the summer and 50 below in the winter. My family is mostly here in Wisconsin. I grew up in Menomonee Falls outside of Milwaukee and now live in Wauwatosa that is close to where I teach in Brookfield.

Your family

Both my parents were teachers. My dad was a Science teacher and my mom was an English teacher. They started in middle school but finished their careers teaching at the high school level. I would see my mom sitting at the kitchen table before any of us got up in the morning grading English papers, and my dad spending weekends reviewing lab reports. They were both active in different aspects at their school either the theater program, yearbook, or my dad was involved in the teacher’s union. From my perspective, being a teacher means you are doing a lot of service for others.

My husband, Brian, and I have two sons, Ethan and Logan, who are freshmen in high school, the same age as the students I teach in my school. Logan is on the left in this picture – fun fact, he’s always on the left in any posed picture. That’s how we’ve kept them straight throughout the years. My dog’s name is Arthur, a rescue from Alabama, so we don’t really know much about his make-up.

What it was like for you as a student

I was pretty good at playing school. I played it safe and knew what the teachers wanted. I was far more passionate about everything that I was involved with outside of school especially the kids I was learning about on the weekends and nights. I was really active in 4H for eleven years doing a lot of service work. The part of 4H that I loved was the service aspect. I was planning community service in 4H and what that looks like for a teenager or an elementary student. Then I was involved in student council in high school through my passion for a community service component. Going into education was a natural progression for me regarding the things I really enjoyed, learning about myself and learning about different disabilities along with the challenges they faced in school and combining those with community service.

Did you always want to be a Special Ed teacher?

I always wanted to be a Special Ed teacher. I got involved in this field at a pretty young age. I was eleven and was the babysitter for a family down the street from me that had twins where one of them had cerebral palsy. Throughout middle and high school, I understood what a family who has a child with significant needs goes through. I think that some of those fears and apprehensions that people have — that was my babysitting gig. I was their go-to person. The mother had started some support groups for families in the community with children with special needs. The word got out about me as a babysitter so I had a little monopoly going on.

Your journey to become a Special Ed teacher

When I was in my freshman year in college, I had an inspiring Biology professor. I was really considering switching majors and going into regular ed focusing on life or earth science. Then I went back to my roots and thought that this wasn’t exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to be involved in the curriculum but science wasn’t the direction I wanted to go. So I became a Special Ed major with a Biology minor. That can be helpful because I wanted to work in a regular classroom beside the teacher supporting the students and working on curriculum figuring out ways that all students can be successful. Having that background knowledge of the science curriculum definitely has been helpful. In 2004, I earned my National Board Certification in the area of Exceptional Needs Specialist and successfully re-certified in 2012.

I currently case manage approximately 15 students with disabilities including specific learning disabilities, emotional behavioral disabilities, other health impairments, and autism. In addition to case managing, I support Biology teachers one semester and co-teach Physics with Mike Mohammad in a 1:1 technology environment the other semester. One of my missions over the years to really make sure that we protect our Special Ed teachers because there are only so many directions we can be pulled at during the day. Between case managing students and being available at any moment during the day, don’t put us in three different classrooms. Let’s spend time getting good at one area where we can make a difference and develop relationships with our fellow co-workers in one content area instead of being pulled in too many directions. 

Moving to Personalized Learning

In our district, Personalized Learning rolled out slowly. For a while, special ed was not part of the cohorts that were being trained with it. Mike and I have grown together developing our vision of personalized learning together. When I work with other teachers or present at conferences, I mention that what Mike and I built did not happen overnight. This was eleven years in the making. When we talk about Personalized Learning, we often tell teachers that you pick one thing that you are going to work on or one way to change your way of thinking in this unit. Then next unit, you may add a second thing. Then the next time, you may go back and revise. You’re constantly making things better and you’re going to reflect that you can’t change everything in one fell swoop.  

There is a misperception about Personalized Learning that kids have full freedom and that’s not it at all. It is meaning that all kids have access to whatever it is that they need. We are all working toward the same endpoint but how we get there is different.

Student-Led IEPs

Below is a link to a Google Slide deck that provides the structure for my student-led IEPs. This is where we start and I add or delete slides to personalize it for the student’s need. The student and I work on it together so by the time we go into the meeting, they are comfortable with the conversation. 

 https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1y78q5-aUuEAXZitrYDCkRzqBKK2zfGKgi5JGK_Etw54/edit?usp=sharing

Inclusive Practices 

Below is a link to a blog post and a video about a really cool project Mike and I did in conjunction with our school’s FabLab. http://arespinosa.blogspot.com/2018/12/and-its-inclusive-practices-for-win-or.html

https://youtu.be/dcAQf33PgvE

[This is Barbara – Make sure you listen when Andelee explains in the podcast how she encouraged student voice and developed relationships with students from what they shared about themselves in their Learner Profiles.]

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Andelee Espinosa, a National Board Certified Teacher, is passionate about meaningful inclusive practices, Universal Design for Learning, Personalized Learning, strengthening co-teaching teams, utilizing Learner Profiles to help students better advocate for themselves in the classroom and conducting student-led IEP meetings. She enjoys integrating activities that promote collaboration, critical thinking and communication such as BreakoutEDU and Project-Based Learning in her classes. In addition to case managing, she co-teaches Biology and Physics. Outside of school, Andelee is actively involved in Destination Imagination and enjoys spending time getting dirty in her butterfly garden or cooking with local and seasonal ingredients.

• Website: http://arespinosa.blogspot.com/
• Email: andelee.espinosa@gmail.com
• Twitter: @AndeleeEspinosa
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andelee-espinosa

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

I’ve spent most of my life as a teacher, a coach, and a mentor supporting teachers and administrators. Something is different now. I feel there is a sense of urgency to rethink the idea of “school” and what it means to be a teacher, a principal, and a student. I have also heard from people in and outside of education who felt lost and didn’t know their WHY. They said they accepted that they went down the wrong path and felt they were living someone else’s story. This made me stop and rethink my WHY. I became aware that that had happened to me. I thought I had no other choice to keep doing what I was doing, but I did. I thought of Churchill’s quote and that all of us need to live for something. 

“It’s not enough to have lived. We should be determined to live for something.” ―Winston S. Churchill

Through these conversations, I realized how challenging it was to teach, how difficult it was to be a student, and how many educators had gotten lost in the WHAT and HOW that they’ve forgotten or maybe never knew their WHY. 

In 2017, I started the Rethinking Learning podcast to share stories about people who inspired me. It wasn’t long before I got it. It was all about the stories. I needed to learn more. In the process, I found out that most everyone I talked with had struggled or had made choices that didn’t always work. In fact, those struggles made them stronger. At this same time, I was searching for my WHY and considered the different struggles I had and other events in my life. I had changed careers, had taken projects that were only for the money, and went in a direction that was more about the WHAT and HOW instead of the WHY. 

I needed to search for my WHY. I adapted the strategies that I used during my coaching sessions and workshops to learn more about me. What did I love? What am I good at? It all came back to the stories and my love of writing. You see, I used to write poetry and short stories years before. I did co-author two books on personalized learning which I enjoyed, but that was not the kind of writing I wanted to do. I wanted to write about the stories and the WHY. To get me in the mood to write, I decided to blog, journal daily, and write a post for each podcast. The posts changed me. I realized that when I listened to the podcast I wasn’t connecting to the person as much as I wanted.

I asked my guests to share information about themselves in a Google doc so I could do research about them before our conversations. I also decided to listen closer by transcribing some of the conversations for the post. If I wanted to learn more, I reached out to the person after the podcast for more information. I know I was spending way too much time on each post, but I loved it. I loved learning about each person and collaborating with them to find pictures, links, and other resources about their lives. The stories motivated me to want to write more.

I asked different people who were on my podcast if they would like to collaborate with me by sharing some of their stories about their WHY in a book I wanted to write. 26 people said yes. I found My WHY: to write my new book, Define Your WHY. I’m really excited to share the stories and the strategies I used to define the WHY. I’ll be sharing more soon because my book is launching on Monday, February 17th and the link is up on Amazon for pre-order. http://bit.ly/defineyourwhybook

“Believe in yourself, your abilities and your own potential. Never let self-doubt hold you captive. You are worthy of all that you dream of and hope for.”     

––Roy Bennett

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Aidyn Grice is a 6th-grade doing 9th-grade math and is a student at Norris Academy in Mukwonago, Wisconsin. I met Aidyn and his mom, Nicole, at the Aurora Institute (past was iNACOL) conference in October 2019 in Palm Springs where Aidyn who was an amazing speaker on the student panel. After talking to Aidyn, his mom, and Johnna Noll, Executive Director of Norris Academy, we decided it was time for a conversation with Aidyn on my podcast.

Where did you grow up

I was born and raised in a small city outside of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. About two years ago, we moved to Mukwonago when my mom got a job at Norris Academy.

Aidyn eating pancakes with maple syrup he made at Norris Academy.
They tapped maple trees and boiled the sap down to make the syrup.

Let’s talk about school 

I thought school was normal until I went to Norris Academy and I saw how big a change it was and how the communities are different than my other school. Kindergarten was fun at West Allis with a good environment and nice people. Then starting in first grade, we were sitting at desks doing your work all day through session after session. We did math in the morning and then reading in the afternoon every day for the entire year. It kind of got boring after a while. I thought that’s what school was going to be like for the rest of my life. This is what I would have to do: suck it up and deal with school so I could go on with my life.  

After you started Norris Academy, what was different about school for you?

It was really different, actually. There is a big difference between this school and the local school in how the school is structured and the environment. This school is way more about you and not always thinking it’s the kids, sometimes it may be the teacher. Sometimes you might like a teacher but sometimes you may need a different teacher. In my other school, if there was a problem, it was the kids problem. But at Norris, we look at both sides of it so we can work it out. 

Johnna Noll, Executive Director of Norris Academy, jumped in. “As the staff here at Norris, we focus on a learner-centered environment. What Aidyn was explaining is that at some schools, people tend to look at the learner and what they are doing wrong and why they aren’t improving. For us, we look at the lack of growth and improvement of any of our learners as our failure of what we’re doing and what can do to better support that learner. When I heard Aidyn say it is sometimes the teacher or its other people, I think that is indicative of when we see a learner has not had much success, we wrap a team around that and try to offer supports that will be more helpful to Aidyn.”

Aidyn and his Learner Profile

At first, when I worked on my Learner Profile, I thought it was a little weird. Then I got used to it and I realized what they were doing.  It felt good to write about me. You always learn stuff about yourself and then the teacher knows about you and how you learn best. The questions they asked like “what are your triggers?” and “what do you like doing?” and “what do you want to do on a break?” and “what’s your favorite subject?” helped them to get to know me. They’re not trying to figure it out on their own. 

What is it like for you at Norris Academy?

I can read articles to get science and math competencies together instead of separate like at my other school. Each grade level has its own amount of competencies within the subjects. If you get all of those competencies, basically, you keep going up in your subjects. My cousin is in a local school and has all straight As and cannot go up and beyond what she is doing higher than her grade level. 

When I confer with my learning specialist three times a week or more, I share the evidence of my learning and how much I’ve grown in my pathways. We usually talk about how we’re going to the next step forward and maybe beyond. We talk about new pathways that she can make for me. Our profile is on Google and we link everything we do onto our profile there. The specialist can get to my profile to learn all the things they need to know about me right from the first day of school. Everything can be accessed from my profile. The video from the student panel at the conference will go there. I also created a resumé for things I’ve done and put that in there and a few other things I do. I help around the school and clean the floors. I sold eggs for a while. 

Aidyn and the chickens with the Farm Fresh egg Division of Norris

One year, someone had a pathway where he wanted to build a chicken coop with chickens. Now we clean the eggs and sell them. I made a pathway a little while ago to be a pilot and used VR to make a plane and fix it. I did research on all the different planes. I talked to the employability specialist and we found a pilot who taught me all about the plane. He took me in the cockpit up into the sky and told me what to look for when flying. 

I also have other things I’m interested in learning more about like being a police officer and playing football. 

Do you have any advice for teachers on what they can do to change their teaching?

Don’t control me and treat me like a robot. In my other school, you are the robot and the teachers control you. You do what you are told to do and there are consequences. At Norris, you have your controller. If you don’t necessarily do what they want or expected, teachers can work around that instead of just sending you to the office. Your teachers can still have you in class and work around what your needs are right now. You can be the controller of your own learning.

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About Norris Academy from Johnna Noll

Johnna shared: Norris Academy is part of the Norris School District and has been here for 100 years. About five years ago, our board of education made a commitment to transform the Norris School District to a learner-centered environment. That is when Norris Academy emerged. We are the smallest public school district in the state of Wisconsin. We serve not only residents in our school district, but we also have a large population are joining us through tuition payments from other districts as well as open enrollment learners. We’ve really diversified our learners as we made a shift to learner-centered environments that is competency-based. 

All of our learners have a profile across four dimensions: Academic, Citizenship, Employability, and Wellness and do self-reflections among those dimensions. Learners then meet with a learning specialist to develop personalized plans and pathways that are unique to their interests and needs across those dimensions. They work on their competencies at their level such as Aidyn as a 6th grader is doing math at a 9th-grade level. 

• The Power of Profiles:  Developing a Sense of Urgency on Leaders and Learners at All Levels. Voyager Weekly, Insights.  November 21, 2019
• Designing a Framework of Innovation.  Wisconsin School News. March 2019, p 30-31.
• This is What Learner Agency Looks Like, Pioneering, May 2018
• Education Reimagined: Academy Profile, November 2017
• Ed Surge,  Rewriting the Game of School, August 2017
• Norris Macrocosm Overview 
• Norris Profile of a Learner
• Norris Learner Outcomes
• www.norrisacademuywi.org

Contact Information

Johnna Noll, Executive Director
jnoll@norrisacademywi.org
Norris School District | Norris Academy
Website:http://norrisacademywi.org

Nicole Grice, Aidyn’s mom
Chief Operating Officer
Norris, Inc. www.norriscenter.org
ngrice@norriscenter.org

Here’s the picture I took of Aidyn on the stage at the Aurora Institute in front of 3,000 educators.

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

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