2.+Embracing+Personalized+Learning

=** Embracing Personalized Learning **=

=Our wordle below shows some of the different words & phrases associated with personalized learning. When we first asked you what you knew about personalized learning, did any of these come to mind? Do they now?=



=Personalized Learning in Action= ====High Tech High began ([]) in 2000 as a single charter high school launched by a coalition of San Diego business leaders and educators. It has evolved into an integrated network of schools spanning grades K-12, housing a comprehensive teacher certification program and a new, innovative Graduate School of Education.====

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 * Canadian schools are making the shift towards personalized learning for each individual student. Integrating personalized learning throughout the curriculum is not an easy task but the video above, and links below show examples of schools that are leading the way in personalized education. **

====Thomas Haney Secondary ([|http://www.thss.ca/page/1/)] in Maple Ridge, B.C. opened in September, 1992 and is a member of the Canadian Coalition for Self Directed Learning. The school design and the instructional model anticipates the needs of future students and the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed by future citizens. A set of principles was identified and used to shape the personalized instructional model and the design of the building. The principles that shaped the redesign of curriculum delivery were that:====
 * ====all students learn at different rates and in different ways====
 * ====students will learn better if they take some responsibility for their own learning====
 * ====current learning should support students' life-long learning====
 * ====all students can learn and want to learn====
 * ====schools must be safe and orderly====
 * ====the building should support, not hinder, innovation====

Darren Manweiler's sister graduated from Thomas Haney Secondary, and he asked her if she would submit a snapshot of her experience at the school. You can read what she wrote HERE.

Frances Kelsey Secondary School - B.C.
====In 1990, the //Summary Report of the South Cowichan Consultative Committee// was published. This document represented a distillation of the ideas gained by the committee during fact finding tours to other districts and schools in BC and Alberta, professional reading and research, numerous parent and community meetings and the advice and recommendations sought from parents, students, educators and other professionals for the design of the new south-end secondary school.==== ====The document reflected the need to construct a school which not only incorporated local community desires for unique features that would support programs geared for the hospitality tourism industry such as a teaching kitchen and an auditorium which would lend support to a performing arts program and also serve as a large group teaching area. In addition, there was a strong desire to seek the most effective ways to incorporate the new “principles of learning” emerging from the Ministry of Education that stated:====
 * ====learning requires the active participation of the student====
 * ====people learn in a variety of ways and at different rates====
 * ====learning is both an individual and group process====

====In carefully examining how these principles might be addressed, the committee recommended that the “self-paced, continuous progress” model similar to Calgary’s Bishop Carroll Secondary School could be successfully implemented at the new south end high school. Construction began in 1994 and the building was substantially completed by February 1995.====

= ** Feel free to leave a comment on the discussion page or continue to our next page, "Strengths & Weaknesses," to examine personalized learning in more detail. ** =