Practitioner Perspective: Weaving Goals, Reflection, and Transferable Skills into the Curriculum

This week's blog post is from regular contributor Lindsey Halman, founder and teacher on the Edge Academy Team in Essex.

Each Monday on the Edge Academy Team at Essex Middle School, we have a full team meeting, called Gathering Meeting.  This meeting serves a number of purposes - it builds community, it provides opportunities for youth leadership, it’s fun, and most importantly it is the opportunity to share the Edge Goals for the week.  These goals guide our work and provide our learners with a clear vision of what they can expect for the week.  

In order to ensure we support our learners in understanding what it means to have self-direction and communicate clearly and effectively, we ask that they share their weekly goals with a parent/guardian or trusted adult on Monday (see Link to Goals Memo Template) and write a reflective email to that same adult(s) on Friday (see Link to Weekly Reflection/Letter Template).  These opportunities allow us to ensure that there is clear communication between home and school and that our students are taking responsibility for their learning.

TEMPLATES:

Link to Goals Memo Template

Link to Weekly Reflection/Letter Template

Examples from Students:

VT Transferrable Skills:

Self Direction: Take initiative in, and responsibility for, learning.

Clear + Effective Communication: Demonstrate Organized and Purposeful Communication.

Weekly Goals	Notes on Goals Deadline	Steps to Completion for the Due Date
Clear and Effective Communication	Share notes about goals with parents by end of Monday. Filling out table. Friday email home due Friday.	Share doc with parents on Monday. Sharing follow up due Friday.
Future Projects	Develop two driving questions that will guide project work and research. Share evidence on Protean Due date: Friday 1/13	Listen in class about driving questions. Develop quality driving questions. Post evidence on Protean. Due FRIDAY!
Civic and Social Responsibility	Field Trip on 1/13  Friday  (Patin Libre) Watch video by 1/10 Tuesday be prepared for Humanities. Flynn Teaching Artist on Thursday Bring layers for Friday	Watch video about Patin Libre on own time before Tuesday afternoon. Bring layers on Friday. Possibly sign up to lead future gathering meetings.
PLP	Post evidence on Protean about one or more goals Post on Protean 2 Humanities Goals. Post 2 Driving Questions Create a reflection DUE FRIDAY.	Post the evidence about the various goals. Write a reflection DUE FRIDAY!
Humanities	Unit planning and Goal Setting Google Form DUE TUESDAY Launch new unit Choose new book groups Flynn teaching artist	Fill out Google Form Submission DUE TUESDAY Prepare for performance on FRIDAY
Science	Windmill packet DUE FRIDAY Detailed response paragraphs typed up on Google Docs	Fill out packet in math class. Type up detailed response paragraphs. DUE FRIDAY

****This week is PROJECT’S WEEK****

In order to meet my goals this week, I will….

Work hard, have perseverance, and  put in 100% effort

I might need support with…

Driving questions

Thanks for looking over my notes and I will inform you of my progress on Friday!

Examples of Friday Reflections - Weekly Letters Home

Dear Mom and Dad,

This week has been a successful week for me because I completed all of my weekly goals. For the Edge weekly goals, I completed everything except the posting of evidence to Protean (Which I am about to do as soon as I finish this letter.) I created my two driving questions for my yearly project this week. My project goal for next week is to really get into the research and take a lot of notes. In Physical Education, we got split into two groups : Basketball and Weightlifting. I, fortunately, got put in the group that starts with weightlifting. One highlight from the week was the fact that we started a new unit in Humanities and we are going to have book groups. I am really excited to know which book I will be reading. One goal for next week is to get a good grade on my algebra midterms.

Sincerely,

Jessy

Dear family,

              

                    This week has been a fun week for me. We finished our windmill task which was great to learn the engineering design process and how to build things on Tuesday we heard a speech from a teacher that went to Cuba she told us about the way they live and how it is very hard to try to make it to america and how different are schools are. In projects we are creating driving questions for our future projects. My highlight of the week was today we went to go see Le Patin Libre, they are a ice dancing group that defies ice dancing stereotype this show was very unique and I'm glad that I got to experience it. My goal for next week is to learn something I never knew before.

 Sincerely, Natasha

Dear Mom and Dad,

This week has been pretty busy, with Paige and I making our flan and going to Micaela's to work on projects. This week we also worked on writing our driving questions to help lead our project research. After finishing those, Micaela and I used a directory of LGBTQ staff at UVM (given to us by someone who visited the Edge team named Erin) to find some possible people to interview for our book. We can hopefully start drafting next week. Something else we'd like to do is meet up after school on as many Wednesdays as possible to get some extra work done.

In DTE, we've finally finished constructing our car and we've timed it on the track. It made it to the other end in about 10 seconds, and we're working to make it go faster.

In Spanish, our flan went great! Some people found it too sweet for their liking, but Senora Psaros said it was perfect. I also feel like the presentation in itself went well.

Ms. Wager (she does lessons for the woodwinds) gathered everyone in districts to practice yesterday.

One highlight from this week was making the flan with Paige. That was fun.

One goal for next week is to set up some meeting dates to interview at least one of the people that responded to the emails Micaela and I set up. We'd have to get some help from Phil and Lindsey to do that, though, and we'd also have to create some questions.

See you later!

M

PLP Pathways Partners with Vermont NEA

In a continuing effort to develop quality professional development to Vermont educators, PLP Pathways recently partnered with the Vermont NEA to deliver a one day workshop on the implementation and use of PLPs in the classroom titled:  Middle School PLPs and ePortfolios

On Monday, June 20th, Don Taylor and Kevin Hunt, PLP Pathways contributors, collaborated with 10 participants from across Vermont to work on PLP development. A huge thank you to Julie Longchamp, Director of Professional Development for the Vermont NEA whose support, guidance, and willingness to explore professional partnerships made this event possible.

Participants will have the opportunity to continue the work started on the 20th with an "Open Classroom" that will occur at the Vermont NEA's Summer Academy on August 3rd at Champlain College. Additionally, pending interest, the workshop may be presented a second time on August 2. Registration for both events can be completed here. Registration is free for Vermont NEA members.

If you are interested in the offerings at the NEA's Summer Academy, please check out the online course catalog.  

PLPs @ Dynamic Landscapes

Williston Swift House facilitators Amy Skapof and Kevin Hunt, a contributor to the PLP Pathways professional development program, had the opportunity of presenting Swift House’s structure and PLP/e-Portfolio process to educators from across the state at the annual VITA-Learns Dynamic Landscapes Conference in Burlington, VT. Participants learned about how Swift has been implementing Personal Learning Plans for over 25 years, while now meeting the critical elements laid out by Act 77.

You can review their presentation here.