Summers ON

One of the greatest gifts given to teachers is the gift of a summer on. Nope. That wasn't a typo. Most teachers I know relish the time granted each summer not just to recharge but also to reflect on school years past and consider plans for the future. It does seem a bit odd to think of such free time (and to be clear, it is for the most part unpaid time) spent working as a gift, but that's what it can be like working in a service profession. This year's gift arrives in just a few days.

This summer should be particularly busy as I prepare for the next evolution of customized learning for my students. I've been working on next year's approach for some time now, but there's still plenty to do.

Here are a few customized learning items on my gift list:

• Solve the problems of video lesson file sizes. One of the challenges of on demand video lessons is the need for storage and easy retrieval. In the past year, I have primarily used the district server as I added video lessons to my team webpage within the district website. While I haven't been told directly, I get the impression that this is not going to be a realistic long term solution. One alternative is to store the video lessons directly in Moodle. This doesn't really solve any problems the district might have with my mammoth file storage needs, but at least Moodle is likely to be around for a few more years unlike the district's First Class generated website that may soon be heading in a different direction. If youtube access is granted to students (it is currently blocked on student machines at school), I can easily make my video lessons available that way. Even better, I would no doubt be able to find excellent videos produced by others that meet or even exceed my needs. Still, I can't rely on youtube access being granted, and access would always be just one student scandal away from being shut down. Google docs would be an option, but there are storage limits for non Google files that can only be exceeded at a cost. My last option (so far) is to use one of the free apps available on the iPad that record simultaneous drawing and speech. The resulting video is available by simply visiting a URL. This may be the answer. I'll find out this summer.

• Prepare new and revised content for student access. One of the keys to customized learning is making content available to students on an independent basis. This involves some serious developing, formatting, organizing, and uploading of content into Moodle, my district's management software of choice. There's even more to do this year than last due to content revisions (with the adoption of the Common Core) and my school's movement to dual grade teams. Instead of leaving most of the Level 7 content for next summer, I now have to be ready for students who will begin by accessing either Level 7 or Level 8 content, and in some cases, both.

• Add to my pool of rubrics and anchors. Rubrics are a critical part of a customized learning approach, but they only represent half the rigor equation. As a rule, any rubric tends to be too general to stand alone as an assessment tool. Rubrics are populated with terms like moderate, little, adequate, more, and extensive. Hence, most rubrics require anchor support to prevent variations of subjective assessment. This presents an even greater challenge in a customized learning environment because there can be so much variation in learning evidence. In short, I need to spend some significant time locating and developing rubrics and anchors this summer.

With all of this to do (plus a lot more work and battery recharging camping, hiking, and fishing), I may have a hard time getting to sleep on Summer Vacation Eve! Perhaps that's why I couldn't wait to open some of my summer gifts and have already begun tearing away more wrapping paper.