This year, I’ve been working with an amazing team of sixth grade ELA teachers at Bryant Middle School to make the transition to implementing My Learning Plan on a digital platform using Mahara. Previously, the team was introduced to Mahara and some of the possibilities. Today, we met to discuss the required elements of student pages and a plan for moving forward. Teachers explored ways to create and edit pages, and established the format for a few required artifacts. The team is working to create a template to help students understand how to create their own pages which will include personal and academic goals, as well as plans for how they will accomplish the goals. They’ll tie in their NWEA scores to help them gauge their progress in the next two years.
Previously, students kept physical records of their My Learning Plan using several pages at the front of their student planners. Going digital with MLP allows students to avoid the possibility of losing their records if their planner is lost, as well as to begin adding artifacts to showcase the progress they’ve made toward their goals. Their Mahara pages will also follow them through the rest of their time here in the Dearborn Schools, giving them the opportunity to look back and see their growth as a student in the next 6 years.
On Wednesday, students will move forward with the process and begin creating their pages, setting their goals for the rest of this school year and summer, adding their test data, and getting started adding writing samples to their pages.
Bryant will be joining several other secondary buildings who have also started going in this direction, including Smith Middle School, Fordson High School, and Unis Middle School. 