I cannot believe Passover is over and tomorrow we will be back at school for the final months of the year. It feels like just yesterday I was sitting in Dr. Mitzmacher’s office, discussing my Professional Growth Plan for the year. Boy has it evolved!

I knew this year would bring it’s challenges, and I knew I needed to try as many things as I could to find the formula that would work for my students. Personalized Learning became the guiding term for what I wanted to do. In one of my earlier posts I talked about personalizing the math classroom. This was, and continues to be, the subject I have the hardest time personalizing. How do you make it authentic, personal, and engaging for all students? How do you truly make it personalized, where students are in charge and have choice and voice, without spending HOURS creating games and tasks? Especially when you have a prescribed curriculum to teach and report on. As I said, I’m still figuring this out.

I had the honour of Skyping with Allison Zmuda from Learning Personalized a few months ago. She had a wealth of information to share, specifically this graphic, which I intend to share with my students. Allison and I have discussed Skyping again with my class for them to share with her their thoughts and ideas of how to get through their learning pits!

I have also been working with my students on documenting their learning, more recently by creating student blogfolios. I believe that through the process of reflecting on their learning, and knowing they will be sharing their work with others, students will take more ownership over their learning, will interpret the tasks in their own unique ways, and will develop their own personal strategies of getting themselves out of their learning pit for the sake of learning!

Through the work I have done with Silvia this year I have grown my professional learning network on Twitter and am extremely motivated to learn and share with those “around” me. Every time I write a post, save a tweet, or connect with someone new, I share it with my students to help them see the power of a global network. I feel more comfortable reaching out to others for help, knowing that I am contributing as well.

There is still so much on my “To-Do” list:

  • Firstly, this blog in and of itself was new and is an ever-evolving skill.
  • Stay tuned (coming VERY soon) for my post on my Blogging Bingo board
  • Continue creating authentic learning experiences in math that naturally reach students where they are and allow for growth at many levels
  • Invite parents in for a pilot of “Student led conferences” with the blog posts they will have done by the end of the school year.

Next year’s “To-Do” list:

  • Start blogging with my students right off the bat next school year
  • Start a “Student Directed” Hadashot blog

I have no doubt even more will be added, slowly but surely.

1 Comment on It’s Gonna Be May – PGP Reflections

  1. @Melissa
    Thrilled that you PGP plan has evolved AND that you have artifacts and evidence of your professional growth readily available to make your learning journey visible!

    As always, you are just sharing wisdom from your own reflections, linking to examples and making your thinking and future plans visible (ready to be connected at a future time in a future post).

    This time the following quote stood out for me and validates the importance of network literacy (also critical to develop for our students).

    “I feel more comfortable reaching out to others for help, knowing that I am contributing as well.”

    You have made your growth and evidence of HOW you contribute VISIBLE to yourself and to others.

    contribution

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