18 May
Thanks to our friends at the Fusion Academy blog who posted this great video: “Animal School” from RaisingSmallSouls.com. This video reminds us that every child is different, and so of course learns differently. It is up to the parents, teachers, and schools to recognize those differences and use them to help the child learn, rather than expecting them to fit into a specific “mold.”
4 Mar
More than “customized learning” or “individualized learning”, “personalized learning” puts the student at the center. This is the view from the District Administration: Solutions for School District Management in the article Learning Gets Personal. In fact:
Education leaders and experts agree the current model of education in the country is incapable of meeting the personalized needs of students and that a systemic redesign—not just a tweaking—is needed.
We agree. With specialization so prominent in most other facets of our lives in this country, why does education continue to take a one-size-fits-all approach?
At AEG, we are committed to specialized education through personalized learning. This is the future of education. And we are proud of our schools, who are already taking this approach to personalized learning. We expect to see great waves of change happening in the future, as more schools move in this direction.
25 Feb
We are proud of our schools’ continuing efforts to transform education. At our Fusion schools, all classes are taught one-to-one. This allows each class to be tailored to the student’s learning style and to ensure that mastery is achieved. Each child has a unique schedule, developed to accommodate the individual’s needs.
Check out our original Solana Beach location in the video below. And be sure to visit us at www.FusionAcademy.com to learn more.
18 Feb
The Open High School of Utah is charting new territory as a completely virtual charter school using a huge range of open education resources. The school follows the same principles as our Fusion schools in California – offering one-to-one education, so that each child can move at his or her own pace, with flexible scheduling – but lacks the physical presence and therefore the in-person social aspects of a school. How does it work? Check out these Classroom Overviews to experience an online lesson; English 9 and Earth Systems together give a nice example of the different types of technology utilized for varying subjects.
You can also learn more about the instructional tools and culture of this online-only school in EdReformer’s Open High Blazing New Path.
This raises the question, does school “socialization” require a physical presence? Or are people living so online now that a virtual school for 14-18 year-olds can successfully prepare them for life?
9 Feb
Innovation in education is encouraging when it happens within one stand-alone school. But systemic innovation, particularly in the enormous public school system? That is truly inspirational.
New York City faced the task head-on in 2010, when the Department of Education (NYCDOE) launched the Innovation Zone, or iZone for short. As we read in the Center on Reinventing Public Education’s (CRPE) website:
NYC is one of the first districts in the country to try to scale up broad innovation. As they move to take the iZone to scale, district officials face daunting challenges in promoting true innovation within the massive bureaucracy of New York City public schools. Some of the problems are evident now; others are likely to emerge in the future. Over the next few years, how the district copes with challenges like the inertia of the status quo, risk management and accountability, and paying for scale will offer lessons for other districts who follow suit.
Schools in the iZone will formulate new models, based on student-centered mastery learning, with the support of network leaders and innovation partners. As pilot schools develop models that work for them, they will then help other schools transform. By Year 4, the goal is to have 181 schools and approximately 29,000 students benefiting from the iZone innovation. Learn more about this ambitious plan in the CRPE’s Working Paper.
13 Oct
Now here’s someone who will ignite your passion: Sir Ken Robinson. A creativity guru and defender of childhood, Sir Ken believes that every person has a talent, it’s just that some are not recognized or encouraged within our current education system which is a holdover from the industrial revolution. We must move to a system where different types of intelligence are recognized and where education is personalized for individual needs. It is not enough that we simply reform education, in which we end up with another version of the same broken system. Instead we must think of a new system which may not really be a system at all. We agree – we must rethink education.
This may be the most inspirational 40 minutes you’ll spend this week (or this month):
TED Talks: Ken Robinson Says Schools Kill Creativity
TED Talks: Sir Ken Robinson: Bring on the Learning Revolution!
4 Oct
Understanding that age is not always the best predictor of ability, a new classroom “grading” is being implemented in some schools across the country. This methodology groups students by ability in a subject; they move “up” to the next level within that subject once they’ve mastered the level they are currently on. Teachers continue to provide group instruction, if needed, but most work is done individually or in small groups. Mostly the teacher is serving as a mentor and guide – working with the student to determine which part of the curriculum he or she should be working on.
This method, called the RISC Approach to Schooling, is a comprehensive, performance-based schooling system developed by the Re-Inventing Schools Coalition. As stated on the RISC website:
At the core of the RISC approach is a deep commitment to children—that every child will learn, that every child can meet high standards, and that every child can succeed in life. This learner-centered approach, driven by moral purpose and a system that unleashes students’ potential, gives every child, in any community, in any part of the globe, the best opportunity for success in life.
Utilizing a shared community vision, a standards-based design, effective leadership, and continuous improvement, the RISC approach engages children fully in the learning process, while teachers become mentors and partners in learning, similar to the Reggio Emilia approach. Children also must achieve a mastery level in each subject, similar to the approach taken by Fusion Academy and Learning Center, a group of AEG partner schools.
The RISC Approach to Schooling has so far been implemented in the Kansas City, Missouri school district; in the Denver, Colorado school district; in the Bering Strait School District in Alaska; and across six school districts in Maine. According to the article Some Schools Grouping Students by Skill, Not Grade Level in USAToday, all participants have found this to be an overwhelming success.
17 Sep
At the conclusion of ADHD Awareness Week, it seems appropriate to talk more about the different educational requirements of children with ADD/ADHD. In this article by Thomas E. Brown, Ph.D., taken from his book Attention Deficit Disorder: The Unfocused Mind in Children and Adults (Yale University Press, 2005), we learn that there are six cognitive executive functions: activation, focus, effort, emotion, memory, and action. Together they comprise that most complex function of the mind: attention. Many of the “symptoms” of ADHD seem to actually be an impairment of one or more executive functions of the brain.
Dr. Brown states that:
Most persons diagnosed with ADHD report significant chronic difficulties in at least some aspect of each of these six clusters. Impairments in these clusters of cognitive functions tend to show up together; they appear clinically to be related.
Executive function impairment chart shown in the article "Executive: Describing Six Aspects of a Complex Syndrome", by Thomas E. Brown, Ph.D.
Armed with the understanding of cognitive executive functions, and how they can break down, we can easily see how a traditional school environment would not be able to hold the attention of children with ADHD. Furthermore, it is unlikely that children with ADHD would be able to successfully learn and achieve in this environment, which does not generally provide assistance and support in overcoming difficulties with these cognitive processes. Clearly other solutions are needed for these children, ones that help them understand why their brain works a little differently, and gives them tools to succeed.
14 Aug
Written by Sallie Borrink.
Tamara Fisher, a gifted and talented specialist, describes her job in this way:
(I)t’s my goal (among others) to help them understand, accept, and learn how to manage the advantages and disadvantages that can come with their high intelligence and high creativity. We have conversations about effective ways to respond to (or not respond to) teasing, we discuss friendship issues and strategies for finding and making quality (vs. quantity) friends, we talk about what giftedness is (a learning difference) and what it is not (specialness), we celebrate challenge and the hard work it takes to learn when challenged, and we foster an attitude that it’s okay to be who you are… our world needs all sorts. Generally speaking, these conversations, over time, do help them to understand, accept, and manage the advantages and disadvantages that come with their giftedness.
Fisher recently shared her students’ perspectives on the downsides of being gifted. She then later asked them what they appreciated about being gifted. Here is a sampling of their responses as to the upside of being gifted:
“Having a great ability at something gives me the joy of immersing myself in working on that area.” Michelle, 7th grade
“Being gifted is great when the school meets me where I’m at academically. I love being challenged in my advanced classes.” Wendy, 7th grade
“I just learn differently, and I’m okay with that.” Cural, 5th grade
“I think I have found a lot of less-known things interesting, causing me to have a very diverse set of life experiences. Because of that, I have a very different thought process than most people.” Scribblenaut, 12th grade
“I sometimes enjoy feeling smarter than the others and I feel like all that I have worked for in the past has paid off. And I’m thankful that there is a class where I can (humbly) exercise my abilities and be surrounded by others who have the same talents, a class where I won’t feel different from other kids.” Olive, 9th grade
“I like that I can ‘see through’ the motives of the so-called cool crowd.” Puff the Magic Dragon, 5th grade
Helping students who learn differently to embrace and even enjoy their differences is a large part of helping them become successful students and, eventually, successful adults. Celebrating their strengths and individuality on a regular basis will contribute greatly to their own acceptance of their unique approach to life.
2 Jul
Written by Sallie Borrink.
Children with learning differences can fall into many broad categories. One of those is gifted. Adults often look at a gifted child and see the vast array of possibilities and abilities not available to other children. But the gifted children themselves often struggle with the consequences of being “different”.
Tamara Fisher, a K-12 gifted education specialist, asked her students to respond to the topic “Sometimes I wish I wasn’t so smart because…” In I Don’t Want To Be A Smarty Anymore at EdWeek, Fisher shares the anonymous responses of her students. Here is just a sampling:
“I feel like I am different from other kids and sometimes I feel that they think I should be treated specially. Sometimes people point out my intelligence and make a big deal of it. I try to be humble about it because I don’t like the idea of being different from others.” Olive, 9th grade
“Ignorance is bliss. Being smart has allowed me the ability to watch the world. This isn’t a horrible situation. My regret arises whenever I want to experience the world without watching, to have flares of emotion without questioning ‘why’ or ‘how’, to experience life to the ‘fullest’ without asking why the rain makes people sad or happy.” Zim, 12th grade
“Because I focus more on school than my social life, I am an outcast. I rarely go over to my ‘friends” houses, or go anywhere for that matter. Sometimes I have to ask myself if I really even have any friends. I never talk to any of these people except for the somewhat off-topic comments exchanged in class or a light conversation at lunch, and nearly all of that ‘conversation’ I am the listener not the talker. Sometimes I wish I wasn’t so smart because I want to be included, accepted by a group of people who I can call friends not ‘friends’.” Jane, 12th grade
“The teachers stop calling on me because they know that I know all the answers.” Chang, 7th grade
“Sometimes it’s hard to talk to people. My vocabulary is a bit bigger than others. I get the ‘what?’ look all the time. I also get teased and questioned and poked and picked by teachers and kids!” Lillian, 5th grade
“I get scared for the world. Being smart allows me to see the world and what trouble we’re really in.” Alexander, 8th grade
Fisher also writes about the many myths associated with gifted children. In Dispelling Myths about Gifted Students and Gifted Education, Fisher lists several myths with links to research about each one.
Being a gifted child comes with its own unique rewards and struggles. Listening to gifted children to hear how they are experiencing their giftedness is an important part of providing them with the personal and emotional support they need.
