We’re in the evening session of Personalization with Monte Selby and Tony Limoges. The great thing that these guys do is model personalization of instruction in the workshop. For example, Monte is asking the participants what they’re looking for in the next two days. He says to the participants, “we want this to be the conference you want it to be, not necessarily our conference”. I think this is a very powerful model for our own instruction with students. The evening progresses about brain development, differentiated instruction, and multiple intelligences. Teachers are into the learning because it’s about them, their learning and interests. Isn’t that the point? 🙂
I need to go off track for a few moments because I’m reacting to a lot of the learning in Tony and Monte’s session as a parent. When I think of my son who’s about to enter his tenth grade year, I wonder how much the teachers will come to know him. He’s kind of an outgoing kid, so I imagine they’ll get to know him and I think he participates in the classroom. But I wonder how much his LEARNING will connect to his own interests. I wonder how much choice he’ll have and I wonder if he even sees a connection between the content he’s learning in school and his own interests and affinities. I wonder if any of my teachers even think this is an important goal to have with kids or if they will read this and think, “cripe, I can barely get through my curriculum and she wants me to connect it to each kid’s interests?!” But then I wonder how much more content he would retain if they did connect it to his interests instead of progressing from one topic to the next without a lot of connectivity in between.
Most of all I realize how very much I would appreciate the teacher who came to know my son well, to know what a thoughtful kid he is and how much he loves to play the guitar and read (what he chooses, not the school assigned novels) and how much he knows about cars, what a motorhead he is and even more, if they could ignite a PASSION about learning in my son through a connection to his learning. And I want him to be curious and to love learning more than I care if he remembers the facts needed to pass a Regents exam.
This is how I hope teachers will personalize learning for my kid.
Some educators never realize how important it is to make connections to our students. We are driven by state standards, increased technology expectations, and our own daily agenda. In our search for curriculum enhancing lessons it’s easy to lose sight of what our students need the most; they need to be recognized for who they are and the special gifts they bring.
Ron Ritchart wrote, “Students may perform for us out of a sense of duty, respect, fear, or reward, but such performances pale when compared to one that originates from a sense of love, belonging, and acceptance.”