This last week I attended the New Hampshire Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference (CMTC) for the first time.
The biggest highlight of the conference was the opportunity to attend Kathleen McClaskey’s session on personalizing learning. But before recapping what was so spectacular about that presentation, here were some other highlights:
- 11-year old Olivia Van Ledtje’s keynote on what today’s kids expect from school, and how we can apply that to teaching.
- Pernille Ripp’s keynote, making points like:
- How is it that we educators turn off so many students?
- If you can predict who will do well in your class by their race of financial situation, something has to change
- When we take away the ability to make choices from students, we are teaching them to be helpless
- Standing room only for Digital Storytelling Throughout the Curriculum
- Apple Education's Session on Engaged Instruction using Augmented Reality that featured 3DBear
- Great ideas from the roundtable discussion on Promoting Student Civic Engagement that tie activities to learning goals.
What made Kathleen’s session stand out from all that?
In less than an hour, Kathleen gave us all a clear, easy to follow roadmap, on how to reach EVERY SINGLE STUDENT. I can’t fully do her presentation justice, but…
It all boils down to
- helping every student create their learner profile on how they access information, what engages them, and how they express themself. For each, where are they strong, what are their challenges, and what are their preferences and needs.
- Guiding students through creating a personal learning backpack and then a personal learning plan based on their profile
- Revisiting the plan with the students to monitor process and commitment and to continue to allow the students agency
Here is an example Kathleen used based on what a student might complete for how they express themself:
You can see how a student can take ownership of their learning, and how that would motivate them to progress.
Kathleen’s presentation made the process crystal clear, and it is also explained on the Make Learning Personal website. I highly recommend getting hold of the book.