Deeper Learning Through Personalized Learning Plans Transcript
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DEEPER LEARNING Elevating Student Thinking and Student Voice
Card:
DEEPER LEARNING COMPETENCIES
Master core academic content
Think critically and solve complex problems
Work collaboratively
Communicate effectively
Learn how to learn
Develop academic mindsets
Student: Anyone building duck houses, please come to the conference room.
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Nicole Kotasek: You're feeling like this is moving along.
Keven Kroehler: The personal learning plan is really, it's to guide the learning, and the deeper learning just automatically happens as the students work through their personal learning plan.
Sam: I am on the right track.
Sam: In here, you can explore as much as you want, and really expand upon your likes and dislikes.
Andrew: You can explore certain areas, like, I know I want to be an engineer. I enjoy working with machines and everything. Being able to actually do it at school makes school more enjoyable.
Andrew: It's 4 gigahertz.
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Dee Thomas: The plan really has to be the student's plan, or they're not going to follow it.
Ben: I kind of just got the bug to build one of these, to see if it would work.
Keven Kroehler: The idea of going beyond the tests, going beyond just learning it and forgetting it, it's hugely important, because that's what we need. You know, deeper levels of thinking.
Card:
Deeper Learning through Personal Learning Plans
Featured organization: EdVisions Schools
Lower Third:
Minnesota New Country School Henderson, Minnesota
Lower Third:
Keven Kroehler Executive Director EdVisions Schools
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Keven Kroehler: Deeper Learning is when students are able to really take that learning and make it mean something to them.
Andrew: It was at, like, 1.5 before.
Student: Oh wow.
Student: It went all the way to the mat.
Keven Kroehler: It has to touch their emotions, it has to be relevant to them, it has to mean something to them, and once it does, they actually remember it, they start making connections with it, they learn tons of content with it, because they're curious about it, they remember that content.
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Student: You've got to have, what, two or three rows of male plants, too.
Keven Kroehler: And then they'll ask the next question.
Student: You think the overall substance is acceptable for this paper?
Dee Thomas: I do.
Student: All right.
Keven Kroehler: The New Country School is an environment where students have the opportunity to not only build their reading and math and writing skills, but really work on some of those internal skills that are really-- research shows makes students successful.
Lower Third:
Student Advisory.
Sam: I thought I had, like two credits to get in that.
Dee Thomas: No, and--
Sam: So then my science fair project should cover that.
Dee Thomas: Science fair should get that done.
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Dee Thomas: The Personal Learning Plan is developed by sitting down with the student and talking to the student, figuring out, what are your goals, what are your aspirations.
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Dee Thomas Advisor / Teacher Minnesota New Country School Henderson, MN
Dee Thomas: And it's a plan that lays out what they think is important for them to pick up and learn, as well as, parents have input on that, and a staff member has input on that also. But the plan really has to be the student's plan or they're not going to follow it.
Sam: I am on the right track.
Dee Thomas: You are on the right track, and you have a year left.
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Keven Kroehler: Personal Learning Plan, it's really focusing on the student, who the student is, where they're at, where they want to be, how am I going to get there?
Dee Thomas: I think this would be a phenomenal trip, but would you open that up for other students to go along or would it just be you and your mom?
Sam: No, I think I would want to open it up.
Dee Thomas: When we have a new student come in here, we look at them and we say, What's your passion? If you could spend the next five weeks studying anything that turns you on, what might that be?
Dee Thomas: It tells me how you've grown as a person, not necessarily--
Sam: Deeply changed.
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Dee Thomas: I would hope so.
Lower Third:
Sam 11th Grade Student Minnesota New Country School Henderson, MN
Sam: In here you can explore as much as you want, and really expand upon your likes and dislikes and find out if that's actually something that you're interested in.
Nicole Kotasek: We shoot for Tuesday next week.
Nicole Kotasek: It's a very open space. Each student has their own work station, each staff member has their own group of students that they work with on a day-to-day basis.
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Nicole Kotasek Teacher / Advisor Minnesota New Country School Henderson, MN
Nicole Kotasek: So the kids aren't jumping from class to class, there's not a bell ringing, there's not that disruption throughout the day.
Student: Okay, I'll look through that paragraph.
Dee Thomas: Okay, and then I shorten this right here. You've answered your question here.
Student: The thesis statement.
Dee Thomas: Yeah, and I think you've gone through and absolutely done a beautiful job.
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Dee Thomas: The advisor also puts in, these are the standards that you have to meet, so let's think about some things that we can put standards into, and I don't want standards to lead projects, but we have to think about that all the time, or we can't graduate these children.
Lower Third:
Group Advisory
Aaron Grimm: Hey, we're going to head into advisory in the conference room, okay?
Dee Thomas: Okay, announcements real quick. Jim's group cleans this week.
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Dee Thomas: One thing that we do here, if I have a student in my advisory group who selects me as an advisor for seven years in a row, that's a whole different relationship that you have with a student, and with their parents, than you would ever have in a traditional school.
Sam: My advisory is my family. I've been with a lot of these guys for three years, and I've really connected with them. And I feel like we're all just a really big family.
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Aaron Grimm: These personality surveys, it's a good way to give your advisor and yourself an idea about the kinds of projects you should be working on.
Lower Third:
Aaron Grimm Advisor / Teacher Minnesota New Country School Henderson, MN
Aaron Grimm: Guiding principles that we use here for every student are, building autonomy, sense of belongingness, working on them creating their own goals and then lastly, academic press, pushing them to actually care about what they learn about.
Lower Third:
Project Proposal
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Aaron Grimm: What else do we got to do with this, on your proposal?
Student: I would say, I do a PowerPoint on it just because it's kind of a lot of information and that would be a good way to do it.
Dee Thomas: When a student proposes a project, we go through a project proposal, which is pretty scripted. It's not just, oh, I get to do anything I want here. It's a pretty scripted detailed plan.
Aaron Grimm: Let's put it down as a task. Because then we can-- it can be a goal when you look back.
Aaron Grimm: We're really pushing for adults and students to have this interpersonal connection with each other, so knowing them academically, knowing them personally, knowing them as a whole student really knowing what makes them tick.
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Nicole Kotasek: So you're feeling like this is moving along.
Andrew: Yeah. I took apart the computer fan, I have that running through a refractor that then can generate, like three point volts?
Nicole Kotasek: I wonder if you would be able to increase the amount you're getting out of the system?
Andrew: Well you'd have to have a head flow system, and then-- but it's so small. Basically, you have to dam it up and have your water drop--
Dee Thomas: They sit down and defend why it's a quality enough project to get started. We look at standards, we look at dates of completion, and then we give the student the go ahead to go ahead and do those.
Lower Third:
Projects
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Andrew 11th Grade Student Minnesota New Country School Henderson, MN
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Project: 3D Printer
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Andrew: I chose this project, because I saw an article in Popular Science some years ago, when I was younger, about a 3D printer. I think I was like, ten or something. It was awesome, so I decided I would build one. Think of an Etch-A-Sketch, that's kind of how it works. You have your one rail that moves left to right, and your other that moves right to left, left to right, X and Y. You can explore certain areas. Like, I know I want to be an engineer, because I've worked in the areas and I keep finding I enjoy working in that area. I enjoy working with machines and everything. I mean,
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being able to actually do it at school, makes school more enjoyable.
Lower Third:
Project Baird Televisor
Ben: It's called the Baird Televisor.
Lower Third:
Ben 10th Grade Student Minnesota New Country School Henderson, MN
Ben: I was looking at some plans from 1928 from a magazine, and I kind of just got the bug to build one of these to see if it would work.
Lower Third:
Project Tintype Camera
Teacher: So explain this thing to me, by the way.
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Ben: This is a fume box. You have your iodine crystals and there's-- there would be a thing of glass down there, so you would put that, and then the fume up inside.
Teacher: Have you solved the silver plate problem yet?
Ben: Yeah.
Teacher: What's-- what are you going to do?
Ben: Probably a silver dish, you know.
Teacher: It's funny, you're at a school that's all about new school technology, and you're going back to the old school, which is-- that's cool. What I really want to come across is your passion for these things, because you just do them.
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Student: I forget to run that hydroponics, everything is dead in hours.
Dee Thomas: Yeah. And I think, effectiveness, I think you want effectively in different environments, just--
Dee Thomas: As a student gets started, you know, my job is to make sure that they're actually moving along, that their documenting their time and learning.
Keven Kroehler: I think an advisor also needs to be there to push.
Daniesha: The project that I'm working on is explaining how a mortician job works. What they do, the education, how much they get paid, and different tasks.
Aaron Grimm: I'm just kind of guiding her along a roadmap, but she's the one driving it.
Lower Third:
Daniesha 11th Grade Student Minnesota New Country School Henderson, MN
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Daniesha: Every time I see him I ask questions, if I need to know them, or need help.
Aaron Grimm: Think about, like, science and all the things that you could explore through this project.
Keven Kroehler: Some students don't need a lot of help from an advisor, other students, the advisor is going to have to swing past their desk every 15 minutes and be able to look at each student, and say, here's where you're at, here's where you want to be, how can I help you get there?
Lower Third:
Presentation Check-In
Teacher: Tell us about your presentation.
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Cyle: What I'm thinking about doing is going and telling about the Ford Ranger and stuff like that, how it was about, why they made it and where they made it all at, and then I'll go into my Ford Ranger, like, what it first looked like, and what it looks like now, and then I'll show the before and after pictures and then I'll go into what I all did to it.
Teacher: So what you're attempting to do is earn history and some science standards.
Cyle: Yes.
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Teacher: I mean, you're so knowledgeable about everything, I think you won't have any problem. But you understand that, on the 27th you need to have your presentation ready for rough draft.
Cyle: I know.
Teacher: You'll have to be either in here or in the atrium and get up and give your presentation.
Lower Third: Finalization
Teacher: All right, you ready?
Dee Thomas: And then we do finalization, so the students actually sit down and they have to defend their learning.
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Keven Kroehler: So once they're done with a project, we'll get together with at least two teachers and go through the project. The teachers will look at it, they'll evaluate it, they'll determine whether it's the quality enough to say that it's done.
Lower Third:
Project: What Makes Neon Glow
Student: The thing that makes neon glow, is when electricity is applied to neon, it actually makes the atoms vibrate and pick up speed, which creates the light.
Nicole Kotasek: What element out of those, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, that you have darkened there, is probably the greatest cause of concern for humans?
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Student: Actually, there's two, mercury, and then radon gas.
Nicole Kotasek: Okay, good. Okay.
Keven Kroehler: The other part of a learning plan is goals, what are you going to do with your life after high school? And as a seventh and eighth grader, they probably don't know. Sometimes they have ideas, sometimes not, but you want to put it into a learning plan, because all of your learning in high school should get you to the next step.
Card:
Personal Learning Plan: Tracking Student Progress
Aaron Grimm: Hey, time logs, let's go.
Aaron Grimm: At the end of the day, students have to get back to their desk and they have to account for their day, and log what, you know, what they did.
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Aaron Grimm: How long did you guys work on your World War I project.
Student: Three hours and ten minutes.
Keven Kroehler: How do we know it works? Students here are scoring at or above average on ACT scores, we're at or above average, usually, on state tests. We also see it in our graduates. Really seeing students go off to college and jump in. They'll talk to their professors right away, they'll ask questions, they'll take on the ownership of learning.
Student: How much heat is it throwing out?
Student: We're overclocking it.
Andrew: I wonder how long it's going to last this time? It's at 4 gigahertz.
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Student: With my hands right here, that's a great idea.
Keven Kroehler: The idea of going beyond the tests, going beyond just learning it and forgetting it, it's hugely important, because that's really what we need, you know, deeper levels of thinking.
Dee Thomas: Learning happens every day all day. It makes your heart feel wonderful when you see what these kids can do.
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32 Comments
Jim Weir Sep 29, 2019 3:31pm
This document will not open https://dqam6mam97sh3.cloudfront.net/resources/document/resource/13014/HewlettGuideInstructionsfinal.PDF
could you please fix this error, thank you
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