Shaun's Final Reflection

1. Which of these descriptions best conveys the degree to which you met your goals?

    I exceeded my goals.          I met my goals. I met part(s) of my goals.          I whiffed. 

2. Please describe / share evidence that shows the degree to which you met your goals. 
Bill Fishell, Stephanie Zuccarello and I have put in a lot of time researching, discussing and 
implementing strategies to make personalized learning more accessible to students in the lower 
house and, beginning next year, in the upper house. Video evidence is raw, and it will be packaged soon. 
We're working on ways to make Opportunity Time more engaging for students. From my perspective, 
bringing new blood up to the Upper House will serve to infuse quality work habits into our culture. 
Our research has already lead to Bill and Stephanie working consistently with lower-house students. 
I will begin my real work next school year.

I began working with Susan Hennessy from Tarrant Institute of Innovative Education on designing a blended 
learning system that could be managed in Schoology (or it could be constructed and managed in many systems). 
Ideally, it would likely start out small as a pilot program, or it could possibly become a small committee duty option 
for open-minded Highly Qualified Teachers to operate as content advisors (teachers of record) in addition to 
their regular core classes. These content advisors would periodically meet with a caseload of individual students 
to help them structure their personalized learning plans. These plans would ultimately lead students down flexible, 
alternative pathways, culminating with students creatively demonstrating proficiency in their content advisors' areas 
of expertise.

If this reflection were a research paper, I would go into intricate detail about how I think a system like this could benefit students 
who fall under any of the three areas of MTSS. This year there have been a number of students who struggle to 
learn in the traditional classroom setting. Whereas there have been a number of students who feel only moderately 
challenged with our current offerings, even when those offerings are modified to add engaging rigor. Students in a program like 
this would periodically meet with their content advisors to check-in and enhance their levels of understanding beyond what a teacher 
can do in the classroom.

I have not had the bandwidth necessary to go all-in on this personalization class. The reason I believe I've whiffed is 
because I wasn't able to compel some of my students and some of my colleagues to embrace new ways to run Opportunity Time.

Here are a few examples of students' work:

 Chris began designing a game board for his Winter WOOP.

Future baker Ashley was the talk of the town with her delicious brownies.

 

3. What are some bright spots (“small successes worth emulating”) that came from pursuing 

your goals? Although PBIS interventions don't perfectly jive with building students' engagement in 
Opportunity Time, I have been using positive interventions to recognize students when they are 
doing the right things. By publicly recognizing students at our Friday Town Meetings, we've been able to 
put positive behaviors, not necessarily the students, on a pedestal.

I enjoy it when students are able to accomplish something that they've wanted to get done.

4. If you could set next year’s goals now, what would they be?
For next year, I would like to continue working on personalization. I want to work with other like-minded
individuals who would like to make learning content something that can take place inside or outside the classroom.

5. Any other insights worth sharing as we gear up for Curriculum Camp and next year?