Day 5 Agenda

DAY 5: Friday, June 26th:

8:45-9:15   Finish PLP Template w/ Blogger (involves some whole group decision-making)  

Decide whether to use Montpelier’s Learning Expectations OR AOE Transferable Skills that will be tabs on our PLP template/tags on blogger

          9:15-9:50   Revisit Scope and Sequence to identify priorities for individual tasks

10:00-11:00: In pairs/small group draft a few lessons and develop supporting materials based on scope and sequence --ready to go

          11:00-11:45 (Jean, Carol, Cristal) develop sample PLPs to share with staff at 

in-service Action Research--Time for Jason, Allison and Amy to meet to work

on AR project, submit google form with title & abstract to MGI

      Afternoon:

• Schedule anomalies to resolve  
• Future task delegation

Teacher Advisory to support PLPs

Here are some take-aways from the choice break out session: Dynamic Advisories for Enhancing Personalized Learning as we think about the possibility of using a TA format to complement the roll out of PLPs.

• TA as an essential component for adolescent development
• As a school come up with a guiding philosophy for the vision/purpose of TA so it is clearly communicated and shared with students
• TA has the power to be a culture changer- start with common belief, engaging in purposeful activities that are interactive and personalized can move toward a common goal (Not homeroom, not a time for passing out papers, going through checklists etc.)
• Characteristics for Effective TA’s
• addresses issues of community
• promotes open communication
• strong advisors know and care about their students
• supervises academic progress
• support problem solving skills through guidance and advice
• Elements that can be included in Teacher Advisory
• academic check-ins
• team-building activities (build relationships) and/or movement activities
• service- design activities that have a cause (e.g., writing letters to veterans); importance in adolescent development to feel part of something greater than themselves
• personalization (recognition of achievements in and out of school, birthdays)

Lots of great ideas from the Goal-Setting presentation with Don and Laura.
My take-away:

• Encourage quick, "in the moment" self-reflections of performance and projects that are not assessed.  Could be written or audio/video/image reflections.  
• Couple that with forma self-reflection document for PLP conferencing, assessed for written or oral expressive proficiency.

They talked about linking and labeling blogs and self-reflections to goals, but was kind of lost on me logistically, but it makes sense to do.

Kids required to set one academic goal and one personal goal ----> both end up incorporating transferrable skills (by default).

Examples of personal goals:  become ambidextrous, be a better beat boxer

Goals

I am looking forward to helping students create wellness/social/emotional goals and meeting with them regularly (i.e., during advisory meetings) to reflect on their progress towards reaching their goals.

Setting Meaningful Goals- Linking goal setting to Transferrable Skills

Reflection: Informal vs. Formal

Formal vs. informal reflection-  What is the goal of reflection?  To reflect informally can lead to more periodic formal reflections.

Goal Setting

We're Famous!

Today we came full circle and tied the beginning to the end. I love the goal setting - reflection - revision process and am incredibly eager to continue to work on our PLP project.

Creating Space for Personalized Learning

Today I attended a choice session on creating space for personalize learning.

Here are some questions that were posed and links to resources shared during this session:

What does it mean to have a learner centered environment?

How is space used?

What choices do students have about how/where they learn?

tinyurl.com/classroomrealestate

classroom.4teachers.org

Scope and Sequence for PLPs at FES

Today we worked on mapping our our scope and sequence for roll out of our PLP plans.
Here is a table that we created that highlights our progress thus far.

Fayston School - Personalized Learning Plans - Scope and Sequence

Personalized Learning Plans: Critical Elements

Introduction
Date	Goals	Student	Staff	Resources
Aug-Sept	Introduce PLPS and roll out to 5th/6th grade		Follow up with Doug to discuss work during MGI	PLP Resources
Aug In-Service	Model goal setting via PLP template Develop survey PLP Understanding & Engagement		Inservice: Share sample PLP template Test Survey and receive feedback from staff (Reflection of understanding & measuring student engagement) for AR project	See if someone has a survey and/or use climate survey questions from last year.
	Communicate with broader FES audience		FES News article introducing Act 77 and MGI team work on PLPs
			Parent information night - 1:1 rollout and PLP/ePortfolios
Oct 6th		Students share progress on ePortfolio and goals.	Open House
Sept/Oct			School board presentation
		Bootcamp
1st week of school		Students take survey	Obtain baseline data on engagement & understanding for AR
		Introduce Google Sites ePortfolio. Students create ePortfolio from template.		ePortfolio creation instructions PLP video
Identity and Citizenship
Dates	Goals	Student	Staff	Resources
Sept-October	About me	Students create About Me page on ePortfolio. Students write PLP biography and upload self portrait. Students create 30 second introductory video - Three Things You Need to Know About Me -or- I Am Poem Optional: Personal timeline - past Genealogy project	Staff would share their About Me page with students.	PLP biography instructions PLP biography graphic organizer Compass points Interest surveys
		Principles and values		Principles and values (Slides) Principles and values reflection
	Goal setting	Setting goals - short-term, long-term Personal timeline - future Bumper stickers - students create stickers reminding you of your goals	Pre-Teaching -What is a good goal FES team needs to create a goal setting protocol that is engaging Asking the right questions to self-reflect	PLP setting goals Creating a goals page (Screencast) Goal reflection/Growth Mindset (Slides) Reflection strategies (Jean to link resources) Trimester 1 goals reflection Strategies for teaching about goals (SMART?)
	Relationships	Relationship web - Google drawing, ePortfolio post Characteristics of positive relationships Review relationship web - post on community page		Community page criteria (v.1) Community page criteria (v.2) Relationship web analysis Characteristics of positive relationships PLP Quickwrite #1
	Career exploration	Career exploration		Career planning checklist: middle school My Next Move Career Explorer Start Where You Are
November		Student-led conferences Student and parent input survey	Review student and parent survey results
		Passion projects		Passion Project Resource

MGI Tuesday 6/23 Reflection

Due to multiple factors that were not within our control we had a slow and challenging start to the day. However, after consultation with Pete, we were able to define a clear agenda for the afternoon.  As a group we inventoried and provided ratings for the degree of readiness for personalized learning in key areas of our school. This revealed to us that while we were ready to move on to our next action step of drafting our school PLP, we would need to consider the elements of TA and parent involvement as we move forward in this process. We utilized a current WWSU PLP template available as a starting point for our own.  We found that we were also drawn to Don Taylor’s Montpelier Middle School PLP and hope to use their learning expectations and resources, as they apply to our core values and vision. Our next steps will be to follow up with Don Taylor and complete our PLP platform. Our next step will be to draft a date and task timeline for roll out of PLPs.

Vision Statement

In year #1 of our partnership with the Tarrant Institute for Innovative Education, Fayston staff will analyze and re-design the Fayston learning environment, with the goal of supporting an increase in personalized learning and meaningful pursuits for our students.  We will be aiming to create a learning environment which allows our students to engage in goal-setting and learning that is reflective and incorporates interests, questions, and concerns about issues of personal and social significance in a democratic society.

Utilization of Time:

• How can the FES schedule change better allow students to meet this goal?
• How will we utilize our time as a professional team to work towards this goal?

Explore Personalized Learning Plans:

• Establish a shared definition of “Personalized Learning Plans”
• Identify elements/components for strong personalized learning plans (i.e., goal setting, reflection techniques, analysis, mindset, brain development)

Develop a PLP platform for use at Fayston School in the fall.