Unit 10: Customized Learning

When looking at the TIE website, there was a lot of information on there.  When asked the question on what did I learn, the answer is a lot.  Some of the key things that I learned from the website is how important it is to put together customized learning in schools.  This makes so much sense to me.  I have always had the concern as an educator about the idea of some kids being left behind in education and other kids being held back because students are always at different learning level.  Customized learning helps with this concept because the student who is in theory behind has the opportunity to master the concept before moving on while the student who excels can go as fast as they want.  I have always wondered how far certain students could go if they were not held back by the restrains of the classes they were in.  Also, I really enjoyed listening and watching the video that talked about grading.  Since I have been in education, I have always had a difficult time understanding why students are punished for late work if the quality of work they are doing is good.  I understand the idea of preparing someone for the real world and if it is late they won't keep a job, but I wholeheartedly agree that if we are assessing their academic skills, we cannot incorporate their behavior into that assessment.  I have often times mentioned this to people in my school before I was an administrator and I always received the "you're crazy" look.  I just feel like there are so many benefits to implementing customized learning that we really need to consider this and figure out how we can start this process in my school district.

Some of the pitfalls of customized learning is the amount of work that is needed to start this learning.  In situations where staff members already feel like they are doing too much work to what they are getting paid, it is a difficult conversation to have with them that you want them to have to do way more work.  I think if a school wanted to start customized learning, they really need to commit to it and pay for the teachers to work throughout the entire summer.  Another pitfall is this is not the "traditional" learning that parents are accustomed too so they will have a difficult time understanding why the 3irrd grade child is learning with 1st grade children for example.  The last pitfall I think would be getting staff on board with this.  In a school the size of Eureka, it is almost impossible to think of getting all the staff on board with this.  A fear is that if staff is not board with this they might leave, which it is very difficult to hire staff members out here.  

Some questions I still have about customized learning is what do you do with children who do not master subjects?  For example, if someone should be moving onto middle school but they are way behind on mastering learning goals, what do you do with that student?  Another question is how?  How do you start this process.  How do you get through everything that you need to get through?  How long does this take?  I think this is a very exciting idea, I just know I would need lots and lots of help along the way trying to figure out the process and how to implement it.