The Personalized Learning Environment at RSS - So what will it look like?

With the following model, Rossland 6-12 School will have the ability to offer more course offerings than we have in the past and, in future years, the possibility of more than most schools in BC - more courses and more options within courses resulting in a better personalized learning environment. Grades 6 through 9 will generally operate as they have in the past at the same time as providing a smooth and logical transition to the Graduation (10 - 12) Program. Grades 10 - 12 will look different! Grades 10-12 RSS will provide personalised and inquiry based learning in a blended learning environment, incorporating the best of online tools and face to face contact, offering students a variety of courses while meeting the needs of all learners. The learning experience at RSS will enable students to have choice, voice and learn at their own pace. Learning outcomes are constant but everything else is variable. Teachers collaborate on planning, facilitating and assessing student work while working with students individually, in small and large group sessions, as well as providing seminars and guest speakers. Working outside a traditional timetable allows teachers and students to work together in resource areas and in the community. Students learn the skills to create long and short term goals; organise their schedules to meet their learning needs; reach out beyond the school walls into the community; collaborate with peers, teachers, parents and community members; take on leadership roles; and share their learning with others, locally and globally. This educational model aligns with the goals of the BC Education Plan and is based on current research in the field of education. Our student course offering for 2012/2013 will remain the same as this past year and will add some new courses such as Social Justice 12, English Lit 12, Law 12 and Leadership Rec 12. The new model allows us more flexibility to offer a broad range of courses. Students will decide, in most cases, when they will take their courses - 1st or 2nd semester or in a linear format. RSS will put some start and finish dates on a few courses. This will happen in the first week of school as part of a start up course all grade 10-12s will take. This course will orient them to the new delivery system and students will get course credit toward Planning 10 or Graduation Transitions 12 for completion of this introductory course. Courses will be run all day every day with teachers rotating through resource areas and running seminars. Students will be expected to be in resource areas and seminars all day until all of their courses are completed. There are no spares - only study blocks, where kids are working with teachers, individually, or in groups. Students will find their courses on a computer platform called Moodle. Though there are online components, this is not online learning, this is a platform where students and parents can see what the course looks like. There will be components of online, inquiry based, face to face, small group, self paced, choice, large group, seminars . Overall Structure:

No set (ie traditional) timetable Structure of open resource areas and structured seminar times Diversity - of experiences, interactions, of experts... Increase in experiential learning opportunities Students assigned to a course, but not always to individual teachers Less learning outcomes - means deeper learning Integrated learning experiences across curriculum and across grades Flexible Scheduling - individual students AND staff... Therefore time management emphasized. Teacher Advisor program is key Courses organized around: Key learning outcomes and competencies Modules to best achieve these String of modules constitutes a Learning Path

What it is not: This model does not look like anything most people are familiar with on a large class scale. It is, however, being successfully implemented in other public high schools. First, you need to lose the notion of class, teacher, timetable and courses taught in isolation. There are not regular scheduled classes where a teacher works with the same group of students from start of a course to the end. It is also not a structureless environment. It is just a different (and a more real) structure. Not all learning is online but is blended. Experience Classrooms are not the only form of learning space. While the classroom is assumed to be a primary location of learning, data suggests that a majority of effective student learning activity takes place outside the classroom. Social interaction is a growing part of learning. Evaluation methods and performance metrics emphasize individual effort and achievement, but students increasingly are motivated by social interaction with their peers. Pedagogy is shifting to emphasize team activities and collaborative learning. Technology is natural. Computer and networking technologies that once might have appeared exotic (pervasive wireless networking, iPods, smart phones) or transformative are now considered mainstream. While "digital immigrant" faculty may perceive these technologies as a new part of the educational landscape, "digital native" students see them as a natural component of their lives. Internet resources can bypass peer review. Traditional publication processes involved vetting and validating information, but the Web enables near-instantaneous distribution of information without formal review. It becomes increasingly important, then, for students to interact with one another and with faculty to analyze and critique online resources. Learning can occur out of sequence. Although lectures, books, articles, and other traditional tools present information in a deliberate, sequential manner, today's students are comfortable with overlapping discussion threads and parallel activities that may span different types of media, devices, and communities. Students construct content rather than just consuming it. Students are active authors of content, including video documents, online blogs, and other forms of digital expression. Whether delivering a final report or going online to converse with members of an online community, today's students have a range of digital devices and software tools that allow them to create and shape content.

Useful links: BC Education Plan www.bcedplan.ca/ The Rise of K-12 Blended Learning | Innosight Institute www.innosightinstitute.org/.../the-rise-of-k-12-blended-learning/ Prezi from June 26, 2012 at RSS http://prezi.com/crjnvz43hqnf/personalized-learning-at-rss-ablended-approach/