All Good Things Come To An End? Not so fast!

Last spring, my colleagues and I received our marching orders - move fully to the "Workshop Model" of teaching and learning within the MPCL framework due to a district/building mandate. That effectively brought my primary focus on Customized Learning to an end despite solid results (both anecdotal and statistical). During this effort, I have received extensive support and encouragement from administration, but it appears the district is largely setting aside customized learning as a priority. The jury is still out about whether I agree with that decision, but I applaud that a decision was actually made, a rarity in the politically safe "Let's do everything!" world of public education.

While I should be upset about this development, and I admit a bit of nostalgic sorrow, I'm excited about the promise the future holds. Much of what I already had in place will fit nicely within the workshop model, and both approaches promote extensive differentiation. For me, the key is to be supported by administrators and instructional coaches who have a deep understanding of both what the workshop model really means in the middle school setting (not just in an overly simplistic "Let's all do it exactly like this" fashion) and the role that customization can play within that model. The message I've been receiving this summer has been just that - the workshop model (within the MPCL framework) can begin with a very simplistic, standardized form, BUT it can become a far more complex approach to teaching and learning, featuring a high level of customization.

Sounds good to me! As always, I remain a bit of a skeptic, but I'm eager to see where this all leads and have spent a busy summer educating myself.

More to come? Let's hope so!

That Time of Year

It's that time of year again, the point where time seems to overlap, and I find myself simultaneously looking back and ahead. Here are some thoughts during this reflective and forward thinking time of year.

• Reading Meeting is a good thing. Tons of learning happens during these regularly scheduled, small group meetings. Most of this year's focus has been on informational text (central idea, facts vs opinions, authors views, evaluating evidence, text features, and text structures). We got off to a clunky start because I made the groups too small. This resulted in limited conversations and (for me) too many meetings. Regrouping into fours from what had been twos and threes was a good move. This will definitely need to be a part of next year's program.

• Writing Workshop is improving. In recent years, I have tried to implement an overly customized writing approach, and it simply hasn't worked. This year, I have taken more of a teacher directed writing workshop approach in conjunction with MPCL formatted lesson structures. The results have been positive, with significant gains being made in student writing. While I have been at odds at times with the MPCL, this is one area where I am joining their ranks wholeheartedly. Over the summer, I'll also need to consider how to best differentiate within this approach, using what I have discovered about learning customization.

• MPCL-style mini lessons are proving more effective than I had expected. I've not been a huge fan of whole class, direct instruction in the middle school classroom as it seems to rail against what we know about the young adolescent population. However, I've been experimenting with targeted poetry as a kick off to our independent study/LT times, and this has been well received by students. By using poetry as a focus, I've been able to keep the lessons concise and focused. We've also developed the routine of "gathering round the smartboard" almost like it's a campfire. The key has been to let the poetry be the medium for delivering content rather than "doing a poetry mini lesson." This will need to be a regular feature of next year's plan.

• The Independent LTs strategy needs tweaking, but it's worth keeping. This has been the hallmark of the customized approach, and students seem to love it. Students each have their own bank of independent tasks that are assigned to them based on their readiness and needs. A bonus of this part of the program is that students are learning to manage their time. Plans for the future, which starts during next month's classes in this case, include more use of novels related to our social studies content. I find it interesting that this approach is very similar to the "stations" approach being used by MMS teachers more directly connected with the MPCL instructional framework. The idea that students learning independently frees the teacher for targeted teaching remains a good one.

Looks like I have even more to think about as I wrap up this year and plan next year's approach. This has been perhaps the busiest year that I have had since my early days of teaching. (Note the decreased number of blog entries this year.) I don't recall ever being so mentally and physically depleted, and I've paid a physical price as well. However, I think I'm finding my way toward the balance between customized learning and the MPCL framework. After a couple more months of putting a bow on this year, I'm eager for a summer of reflection and preparation for what may be the best year yet!

When the Impossible Becomes Automatic

I still remember my first weeks of teaching...with horror. In fact, I've likely never been more exhausted and demoralized in my life than during that stretch of time when, instead of all things being possible, it seemed nothing was possible. It seemed that I had made a terrible career mistake because teaching required too much of any one person to ever have hope of future success. Months passed before I finally began to feel like I wasn't teaching with my hair on fire.

Gradually, the minutia over which I labored each day became more automatic. With each passing day, more processes became routines, more importantly routines that did not require conscious thought. This allowed my conscious mind to focus, first on teaching methods and then my population of students. It was only then that I could delve into the world of integrated and integrative unit development, eventually leading to my current work with customized learning.

I was reminded of those exciting, yet demoralizing days recently at a workshop focused on developing units of study that incorporate three realms of learning - content, complex reasoning, and habits of the mind. As a teacher, I have become quite skilled at the first and dabbled a bit in the second, encouraging my students to think rather than just constantly absorb and spew out facts. However, that last realm, habits of the mind (perseverance, managing impulsivity, using feedback, etc.), has sat on the back burner for most of my career. When I moved it to the front, I once again felt like that new teacher, facing an impossible task.

One teacher at the workshop compared this task to "squeezing playdough through a keyhole," and she was spot on. By the end of the day, I left the session, excited about the possibilities of developing more effective units of study but daunted by the seemingly impossible task of creating them.

Upon reflection, I began to see the similarity between my initial teaching experiences and this bold new addition I'm trying to make to my teaching methods. Hopefully, as in my early years of teaching, the development of these enhanced units of study will become more routine. Though the task seems unrealistic at the moment, I hope that eventually, things will be just fine.