Marissa Brown - Personalized Learning Portfolio - Standard 10: Life-Long Professional Learning

With so much changing in our world and the education field it is important for educators to continuously grow and strengthen their educational practices. As an educator implementing personalized learning, it is important that we stay on top of research and what is going on so that we can strengthen our practices and implement strategies that will allow our students to be successful in and out of the classroom. "Lifelong learners make learning a regular habit to adapt to changes and student actions" (Why Good Educators Are Lifelong Learners - EWU Online, 2021).

According to Jun (2014) "By embracing a student-like mindset and learning to turn self-education into a daily habit, you can hone your current skills and develop new ones while enriching your mind,”. One way teachers can do this is by participating in professional development (PD) or professional learning networks (PLN). Professional development refers to classes, workshops, or seminars which can be hosted by a specialist on the topic, staff in the building, or district. PLNs generally are a group of professionals that talk informally about a specific topic such as classroom management, or a science content PLN. They share their thoughts and ideas on the topics.

Science Department PLC

Another way I participate in professional learning is through my school's Professional Learning Communities (PLC). Every Tuesday and Thursday is set aside for content teams to collaborate with each other. Each week we work together to create an agenda in which we work through curriculum, assessments, and strategies that we are finding success in the classroom. In addition, as the department leads for my grade level content area one of my responsibilities is to attend monthly content lead meetings. This is an opportunity for me to collaborate with other teacher leaders. It gives us an opportunity to share strategies that work in our classroom, give the district feedback on lessons and assessments, and more. Before we work in our content area breakout rooms we go over norms that the group has established at the beginning of the school year to ensure we stay engaged and authentic. The artifact shown above is an agenda used during one of my school PLC meetings. According to Davis (2015), there are several ways to ensure your PLC/PLN is successful; intentionally connect face to face or online, keep it simple, know your purpose, and encourage new habit creation. With creating agendas for each meeting we know the purpose of each meeting and meeting face to face ensures we are all present in the moment and on board.

NSTA Conference in Atlanta

This month I was able to attend the National Science Teacher Association (NSTA) conference March 23 and 24th. One of the sessions focused on personalized learning in the classroom. The speaker spoke about choice boards and how personalized learning worked her their classroom. During the session, I was able to network with both local Georgia teachers and some teachers in other states. I spoke with them about my experience in a public school setting and was able to provide them with my PE portfolio as well as exchanged contact information. I plan on writing a proposal for a presentation on personalized learning at a future NSTA conference providing my experience as a public school teacher. I was surprised they had a personalized learning session but also surprised only one presentation focused on it, which is why I hope to present my view in the future. I learned a lot at this conference about hands-on activities, different strategies to help my students be successful, and more which I will bring back to my PLN at my school site. Other benefits of lifelong learning included "building confidence through mastery, staying intellectually stimulated, and discovering new passions and perhaps your life purpose" (The Importance of Lifelong Learning | Penn LPS Online, 2020). Going to this conference brought about new ideas to implement in my classroom.

Gettin' Techy With Teachers

One way I have promoted professional learning is by creating a Facebook group I started with other members on my KSU ITEC cohort called "Gettin' Techy With Teachers". We have invited teachers we know to the group and shared all our favorite technology tools, and various things and items we've come across during our time in the ITEC program. Most of the items posted related to the use of technology but some were on the group members familiarity of personalized learning as well as articles that I came across during my coursework. Members are invited and encouraged to share anything and everything technology related that may help other teachers promote success in their classroom.

District and School

Another way I've promoted personalized learning is through collaborating with my department colleagues. As science teachers, we are always trying to find new ways to ensure our students are successful. I recently brought on one of my colleagues who is currently pursuing her personalized learning endorsement through KSU's grant opportunity and together we have been collaborating with other teachers. Our focus is to promote it so that our district will look into possibly rolling it out district-wide or even piloting it within a few schools to see if it is something we can do as a whole school. My colleague was so impressed that she began campaigning with me on the spread/awareness of the benefits of PL. As mentioned in the previous section I have shared my portfolio with other science teachers to help give them ideas and strategies to begin to implement PL in their classrooms. My goal is to present this information to our district leaders in the near future with research to support it.

Davis, V. (2015, November 11). Modern Professional Learning: Connecting PLCs With PLNs. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/modern-professional-learning-plc-pln-vicki-davis

Jun, P. (2014, July 28). Behance. https://www.behance.net/blog/never-stop-learning-how-self-education-creates-a-bullet-proof-career

The importance of lifelong learning | Penn LPS Online. (2020, April 8). https://lpsonline.sas.upenn.edu/features/importance-lifelong-learning

Why Good Educators Are Lifelong Learners - EWU Online. (2021, April 23). EWU. https://online.ewu.edu/degrees/education/med/adult-education/good-educators-lifelong-learners/#:~:text=Lifelong%20learners%20make%20learning%20a,mind%2C%E2%80%9D%20says%20Paul%20Jun.