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The Personal Learning Opportunity category is a wide collection of diverse ideas. It's an important category because it becomes the method by which students can use life experiences and independent activities to demonstrate and earn credit. Basically, anything a student does independent of the scheduled offerings or timing of MC2 can be recognized as a learning opportunity. Students have used personal dance and music classes, driver's ed lessons, part-time jobs, summer camps, participation in district and intramural sports, and many other activities as personal learning opportunities. The key is identifying which checklist items, habits, and/or Essential Knowledge these activities are naturally demonstrating.
Personal learning opportunities can overlap with treks, they can spin off from studios, and they can also encompass additional career exploration work outside of the internship. It is less important to distinguish personal learning opportunities from other types than it is to use the personal learning opportunity framework when others don't fit. Like all other types of learning opportunities, personal learning needs to have a driving Essential Question, a timeline of tasks, a clear project or product, and guidelines for reflection and assessment.
How does a personal learning opportunity work?
How does a personal learning opportunity work?
Any student can design personal learning opportunities in any subject at any time. Because personal learning opportunities very so much, there are quite a few ways they can originate. Personal learning opportunities often come from experiences the student is already engaged in independent from their school day. Students should bring a clear description of their activity (a syllabus, schedule, website description, etc) to a planning meeting with their advisors. From there, staff can help students identify what checklist connections are most likely, and design the project (see design tool below). Sometimes a project in a studio evolves into a personal project, or a teacher might have a project ready to go, and a student elects to do it for additional credit.
Examples of Personal Learning Opportunities and Projects
MOLO project about the state of homelessness in Keene
Participation in the ASVAB test and JROTC classes
Completion of the Hannah Grimes Start Up Lab course
Bridge 2 College courses at River Valley Community College
Driver's Ed classes
Camp Takodah summer camps and leadership weeks
MoCo dance/music/theater classes and performances
Regular Tae Kwan Do/Yoga/Square Dancing classes
Volunteering for local religious or service groups
Scout activities
ANY checklist item can include personal learning, but some common checklist items that use personal opportunities are:
Wellness Portfolio activities
Research Projects and Graduation Research Projects
College/Career Bound Reading Projects
Post Secondary checklist items
World Language electives
How to set up a personal learning opportunity
How to set up a personal learning opportunity
An MC2 student's first project, the MOLO, is the archetype for personal learning project design. As such, all personal learning opportunities should go through a planning process similar to the MOLO. The tool on the right is a clear process that students can use with their advisors to help design their own personal learning projects.
It is ideal to have the project planned as early as possible. Before the activity is ideal, but if the student has already begun it, they can still document from there. The further into the activity a student is, the harder it is to be flexible about what credit it earns.
SARAH STOUT: Please move the personal planning folder with the outline tool into Staff Stuff so it can be reconnected here (right)
Personal Learning Opportunity deadlines
Personal Learning Opportunity deadlines
Depending on the origin of the personal learning op, the timelines will vary. Some helpful guidelines for if the personal project
was tied to a studio, it most likely will expire the same time as the studio work. See the MC2 Project Expiration Policy for guidelines
was tied to trek work, it will expire at the end of term, unless otherwise designed or negotiated.
has authentic, independent deadlines, like campaigning for a local political candidate, the end of that event (election) will naturally determine the deadline for the work
has clear deadlines already, like for college classes, then those remain the final deadlines
is completely independent and student-driven, then the deadlines for the project need to be clearly discussed and detailed in the project plan. Any variation is negotiated with the approving staff.
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