Teachers learn to customize

MVHS moving closer to mass customized learning

Donna Peare

RUMFORD -- During a late arrival Wednesday at Mountain Valley High School, staff watched a brief video called Lori’s Day.

Lori is a 14-year-old student at a school that does mass customized learning (MCL).

Principal Matt Gilbert challenged staff members to look for “What do we currently do at MVHS that resembles Lori's day? What could we do before the end of the year that would make MVHS more like Lori's high school?”

Lori is interested in pop music, math and technology. She attends Lincoln Unlimited Learning Center and creates her own schedule of gymnastic practice, seminars, and independent learning. But the first step to get to customized learning was the community did a future-focused planning session.

“About three years ago, RSU 10 did a future search planning session,” Gilbert reminded teachers. “Members of the community, business leaders, parents, teachers and students were involved in looking at our communities and our future.”

According to Lori, “MCL works well for my friends and me. We go through the learner outcomes at our own pace and most of the graduates of LULC are well ahead of those who graduated from the old program that moved everyone along at the same pace.”

MVHS graduates one or two students each year who complete their high school requirements in less than four years. Additional students take college courses while still in high school. For example, Jeremie DeTellis completed two courses at Harvard over the summer.

“Learner outcomes are similar to the Maine Learning Results or the Common Core standards,” Gilbert said. “While we’ve used Maine Learning Results for years, it is time to refine what we do.”

So, a 14-year-old selects whatever she wants to do for her education? Not quite.

Lori explains, “I talk with my Mom and Dad [both are teachers] about my schedule all the time and they make suggestions as to what I should do . . . actually, they probably have veto power but it never seems to come to that. Ms. Trezona is my learning coach and she definitely has veto power over my schedule. Ms. Trezona knows me well. She has coached me for the past two years and I actually got to pick her to be my coach. She is a tough cookie with high expectations and I actually like her for that!”

Gilbert translated, “We have learning coaches only we call them homeroom teachers.”

“We have online registration for classes,” Gilbert continued. “Each spring during student-led conferences, the student, parents and homeroom teacher work together to plan the next year’s courses.”

Like most teenagers, Lori likes to be with friends.

She describes, “Doing online learning by yourself makes it easy to schedule . . . I am the only one I need to be concerned about, but it can be a bit boring after awhile. I have three good friends . . . all girls with whom I do my online math.”

MVHS students already have access to some online courses through Plato for credit recovery, Khan Academy for improving math skills and Virtual High School or AP for All for enrichment.

Access to technology is key to Lori’s success, “Everyone at LULC has a laptop and access to the Internet of course.”

“We’ve had one-to-one laptops at MVHS for many years,” Gilbert said. “Students use their laptops in school for a wide range of activities and most take them home.”

Gilbert continued, “In addition to the laptops, we have an electronic student information system, known as PowerSchool. Students, parents, teachers and administrators can access student schedules, grades and other information easily.”

Not all of Lori’s learning opportunities happen within the walls of LULC.

She explains, “One of our learner outcomes from the Economic Sphere of Living is about business plans. Although the LULC has a seminar on that outcome I am allowed to do a personal project in place of that seminar as long as I can demonstrate the learner outcomes. Ms. Trezona has the authority to OK that project for me and she has agreed to facilitate a planning meeting between my mentor and me.”

Lori’s mentor is a local banker who worked as a professional entertainer in pop music.

“We have a lot of people in the area who have a lot of expertise to offer,” Gilbert said. “People in the River Valley have always been generous in helping our kids. I’m sure that we can find mentors for students who want to learn more than we currently offer.”

In addition to working with her mentor, Lori can learn online 24 hours per day, 365 days per year.

She explained, “I can also work on the online outcomes from anywhere, which helps a lot with my schedule. My preference is to work on them at home but I find that many times I have gaps in my schedule when it would be difficult and time consuming to get home and then back to another activity. So most of the time I just try to find a quiet place, open my Netbook, call up my learner portfolio and go for it.”

Gilbert added, “What educator wouldn’t be excited about a student who wants to learn anywhere and anytime!”

At the conclusion of the video, MVHS staff agreed the next step is to clarify learner outcomes that fit the needs of students and the future of the communities where they live.

Gilbert concluded, “Some of that work has been done by the Maine Cohort for Customized Learning (MCCL). But we have to made sure the learner outcomes are right for us and our future.”

To watch Lori’s Schedule, go to YouTube and search for Lori’s Schedule. The url is

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdCHvLSR_Iw.

RUMFORD -- Order a book from any electronic bookstore and up pops a list of suggestions for “readers like you.” Similarly select a tune for an ipod and find out about other music by the same artist or in that same genre. Both industries have used technology to customize their marketing approach to individual customers.

That’s what teachers in RSU 10 have been learning about during their professional development time on Wednesday mornings.

Through the use of technology, education can become customized to the student’s needs and interests.

MVHS Principal Matt Gilbert explained, “As educators, we’ve always known that students learn in different ways and over different time intervals. Yet, we’ve grouped students together by age and asked them to learn the same things at the same rates.”

According to Charles Schwahn and Beatrice McGarvey, the industrial age school structure worked when factories needed workers who could read and write. Factories used assembly lines and so did schools.

Schwahn and McGarvey wrote Inevitable: Mass Customized Learning, Learning in the Age of Empowerment. The book outlines the need for radical change to the school systems. The change would mean that individual learning needs and interests of all learners would be met every day.

“The traditional approach to education does not meet the needs of all learners,” Gilbert said. “Through reading and analyzing Inevitable, the MVHS staff and I hope to change what we do so that all learners have an opportunity to learn in their own way and their own time frame.”

RSU 10 administrators have attended workshops led by McGarvey and recently visited RSU 4 (Litchfield, Sabattus and Wales) to see customized learning in action.

During McGarvey's presentation to the RSU 4 staff, she challenged them to meet the needs of all students. She pushed them to not accept failure as an option for any kid. In today's society, there is a growing need for a more highly skilled workforce. The only way to develop that skilled workforce is to focus on every student being successful.

After his trip to RSU 4, Gilbert said, “We (RSU #10) need to hear this message. I'm looking forward to the time that we'll get to work with her as part of the Western Maine Education Collaborative and at our March workshop.”

Technology Teacher Jeff Bailey echoed McGarvey’s challenge, “The point of mass customized learning is we need to put the student at the center of what we do. We’ve had systems in schools that take precedent over putting students first.”

“I think that the goal of Inevitable is not to give us the solutions but to challenge us to think about creating new structures that allow us to meet individual student needs,” Bailey continued.

Gilbert concluded, “As we continue this journey toward customized learning, there will be plenty of opportunity for parent and community input. Unlike our current systems, customized learning recognizes that students learn outside of the school walls. For example, a student may work with a community mentor to fulfill some standards.”

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Teachers learn to customize