Personalized Learning in Action: Q&A with Wyoming Teacher Karla Luderman (Weston 7)

Full Conversation between Wyoming Teacher Karla Luderman of Weston 7 District

This is the scripted transcript of the conversation between Karla Luderman and Iris of 2Revolutions. There are also some videos included of some pretty powerful parts of the discussion.

2REV  

How did this personalized learning curriculum come about?

Karla

We went to Salt Lake City and it was one of our ag (Agriculture) teachers and myself and Nick and the English teacher and we went up there to look at personalized learning. Then we also went to some different schools, and we met in the hotel room that night. I'll never forget it's kind of like one of those AHA! moments where the four of us just said, let's do this.

And over the course of time, I would say we have lost some teachers because they weren't interested in this type of teaching. They liked the traditional teaching but then that allowed us to interview teachers that were open to this idea. Now, we have a whole staff of teachers that are on board.

We get that question a lot- how do you get your staff on board? Because staff is usually, some are,  they like to do what they've already done. For me and for the ag teacher,  it really wasn't a change because in my classes, we always did project-based learning, we always picked a project. You're an advanced computer science, you want to do a website for a business in town, you want to make videos, you want, you know, there's so many different projects that they could pick. Oh, you like the drones, you want to go work with the Century 21 and help them film, you know, video for their selling their houses, those types of things where we were just always open and the kids are smarter than we are. So they would have these ideas. Yep. Let's do it. Let's film this for the city to put on their webpage or something.

But, I would say like the transition from when we started, we went totally away from books. So we just had books. And here's accounting, here's the book, here's intro to business, here's the book and you just go through the book. It's not like that anymore. It's a project. And then, oh, you want to do, you know, we'll go back to the idea of, uh, well, right now I have a group of kids working with the economic development board and they're starting helping start the visitor center. So they're designing shirts, hats, tumblers, they're creating logos, and projects like that are just real life. So that's fun. And you know, your stuff's going to be sold. So for me to transition wasn't hard at all, because I always had done that. So, for me, the biggest change for me was just that schedule.

2REV

What resistance from students have you faced and then like how you've overcome that? Because I'm imagining that it is a change just as much for teachers as for students where they're used to just reading a textbook and answering questions. So how do you face that? And then how have you overcome that? 

Karla

Well, a really good example of that is when we get new students, because we just got a new boy, and he's a freshman and of course, for him to come into this situation he's used to the traditional and it takes them a while, because in this system you have to be a self-starter. You have to do it on your own. We're just not spoon-feeding you. I'm teaching you and I'm explaining to you what needs to be done and now you can go get that step and work on it on your own. So then those are the times where you're just coming in here and working on your own. So traditional kids that come in, those new students, they don't get that at first.

It takes them a while to say, Oh, I'm just going to meet with this teacher twice a week, and now when I come in and sit down, I've got to get started. We always notice that because we have to go to those new students more frequently just to say, okay, now this is what you have to do and you'll do it. Here's how you get on your canvas. And, so that's what we noticed too. It takes them a while to get going and to learn it. 

But when we first started it, they thought and even all the schools and around our community thought we were just having kids sit in front of a computer and stare at a computer, and we just didn't do anything as teachers. And I'll be honest with you, this is harder than it is to traditional teach because it's like every kid has an IDP has their own lesson plan, and you're going around doing something different for every kid.

2REV

I know that you are working on rubrics and focusing in on creativity.  Have there been moments this year where you've been able to infuse more creativity with your students? 

Karla

We have creativity, but we weren't scoring that. And for instance, when you make a webpage, well, there's lots of creativity in that. When you design a robot, There's a lot of creativity in that. As for accounting, you know, doing basic forms, not a lot of creativity there. But in certain projects there's creativity, but we weren't using them.  To have a common formative assessment for a whole district would be nice for that creative part.  Another example was a shark tank I did the other day. So I had kids trying to sell. I had one little boy that was doing a cardboard toy. So he had made toys out of cardboard. And of course, if we wanted to buy into his business.  So, the rubric that I had was an FBLA sales rubric, and it talked about the introduction, and all the parts of the shark tank, but it did not talk about the creativity. So with that, and even the communication rubric that we have been given Katie gave us, you know, two communication rubrics, and then she gave us two creativity rubrics.

Well, I gave the rubrics, both rubrics for both areas to the students that were watching, and we graded them. And then we had that talk, even as students to teachers, which one did you like and why because sometimes it's nice to have the kids’ ownership, instead of me just thinking what was the best. And so then in our little presentation that we do in February to the whole staff. They pick this one as the best communication they pick this one as the best creativity, and then we still have the FBLA.  We can put all three of those together and then get a better score out of it.  

2REV

I love what you mentioned about getting feedback from the students. That might make me feel better as a teacher. I don't have to make all these decisions by myself. I can just allow the students to help me make decisions. 

Karla

And when the students have ownership, that's when they dig it. It's like, let's do it. I want to be part of this. Yeah, you're not just saying you have to. You have to. You have to. Who wants that? Right? 

2REV

None of us wants that.  What would you say to a teacher who maybe they're in a school that still operates traditionally, but they want to make learning more personalized in their classroom? What are some small steps a teacher could take to start making changes just within their control in their classroom?

Karla

We have learned over these seven, eight years. Math is going back to traditional because math needs that.  And you know, in every school it might be different. So that's where you just feel out what your kids need.  I think people get confused when you say project-based or online that kids are just sitting at a computer. They're not working together. I would say if a school just started, come see another school and get those ideas, whether your core or whether you're elective in those special areas.

You know, people can talk, talk, talk, but until you really see it...  we made an attempt that we made sure every teacher could get somewhere to see it.  You probably noticed we have a lot of younger teachers. I'm the oldest one. And, I think young teachers, it's easier for them to move into that too. I think us older traditional teachers were kind of stuck in our way. This is what we want to do. And they don't.  At least that's what I've seen from the teachers we had. They left, the older teachers. 

2REV

One thing we've talked about at 2Revolutions is the question of what teacher training needs to look like? On the front end, teacher prep programs, I think many of them still are training teachers traditionally. So are colleges. 

Karla

You are so right, it's so new, and I don't see colleges doing much of that. I guess what I would try to do is get student teachers to come to schools that do personalized learning and to add that piece to their lives so then they can make a choice as a teacher, which way they want to teach, which kind of school do you want to be in.

2REV

The last question I'll leave you with is just -  what dreams do you have for our education system? 

Karla

The first thing that came to my mind was more collaboration and we do some of that.  You know, when we do logos.  In some projects, we work with different teachers. I'd like to see more of that and community work. We do a lot of community work. A lot of our projects are done. Oh, and the town knows I've done so many community projects that they come to me, you know, they come to me so much. I have to turn them down. They'll say, can you do this? Can you make this logo?  I guess I would like to see more of that. I would like to see more of Nick, Darian and I doing a drone project history of Upton type of thing, you know because that's fun for kids.