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This year my school has fully implemented Personalized Learning. One component of our Personalized Learning plan is Advisory. Advisory is designed to create a smaller community within our larger community. There is one teacher to approximately 16 students and teachers will loop with their students. This gives students a chance to have a “champion” and someone who they feel comfortable going to with anything they might need help or advice with. It will also give students a chance to bond with their peers. All certified personnel in the school participate in Advisory. Since my school is a Title One school, we are able to provide laptops for most students. While we are not 1 to 1, we are very close and students are allowed to bring their own devices.
As project manager, one of my jobs is to coordinate the implementation of Advisory. For uniformity, I have been tasked with creating all the lessons. I work closely with our graduation coach, instructional coaches, teachers, professional learning coach, and students. We have Advisory Monday-Thursday from 8:50 to 9:20. During this time, students learn Character Education every Monday, Class Meetings every Tuesday, Data Analysis/Goal Setting on Wednesday, and College, Career, and Life Readiness on Thursday. Students take surveys to learn their learning styles, their interests, goal setting, and general interests. These are all used to help both students and teachers become successful.
We have been doing this since August and the staff, students, and parents are loving it. The students love the fact they get to facilitate the class meetings and talk about whatever is on their minds. Students and teachers have come up to me and stated the data analysis has made them realize where they need help.
Next semester we will be introducing Brainology to help students change their mindset. We will also be implementing more lessons getting students ready for high school and college.
I believe Advisory is a key component for both students and teachers to create a bond that will help students throughout their school years. It allows THEM to take control of their learning and see how they best learn.

 Traci Williams

Comments

  1. Jenae PairNovember 2, 2015 at 7:30 PM

    I love student Advisory. Last year we researched many models and programs, but there wasn't any buy in from the faculty. It was such a shame because, as you state there are so many positive outcomes to such a program. Every middle school would benefit. I would love to know where you plan to pull your brainology lessons from.

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    Replies
    1. TraciNovember 6, 2015 at 5:21 AM

      My principal (and I agree) decided our teachers were already overloaded with our new PL plan, so I create all the lessons except one. I have found I really love this, most of the teachers love it, and the students LOVE it. We purchased Brainology with a portion of the GATES grant we received; however this is only for 1 year. I am looking into other grants to create sustainability for this. We start Brainology in the next few weeks. I will let you know how it goes.

      Delete
  2. UnknownNovember 3, 2015 at 5:28 AM

    We are going to Personalized Learning next year and looking to do it 1-to-1. We are not a Title I school. I value the Advisory portion of your program and I think we should look into implementing this aspect in our school. Our issue is a simple one: we keep hearing we are going to Personalized Learning but there has been no training. I do believe that if we wait until pre-planning to get training and buy-in this will fail.

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    Replies
    1. TraciNovember 6, 2015 at 5:24 AM

      I would recommend starting with a group of teachers to pilot PL. Also, make sure you are not overloading your teachers with a bunch of new things they need to implement. We have found slow and steady is the BEST way to go. Plus, if you do this, you have a group of teachers to pull from that can help with training. I would really talk to your principal about beginning training NOW. Teachers have a hard time letting go of the "control". It is foreign to us. Please don't hesitate to email me with any questions. You can also email me to schedule a tour of my school. We found this helps with PL implementation.

      Delete
  3. HollyEliseNovember 4, 2015 at 6:56 AM

    I love the idea of advisory! This allows the student(s) to truly build relationships with their teacher. Often an aspect of teaching and learning that gets lost in the shuffle due to large class sizes, demands of testing, and just the every day life of a student and a teacher. I went through the planning and design of PL last year and loved it. Best of luck!

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