<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=191589654984215&amp;ev=PageView&amp;noscript=1">

Personalized Learning Blog

B.Y.O.T Bring Your Own Thoughts

K-12 Education Resources

The latest on all student-centered models, leadership development, strategic planning, teacher retention, and all things innovation in K-12 education. We answer questions before you think to ask them.

Noah Dougherty - Guest Author

Noah Dougherty is the CEO and Co-Founder of Relevant Learner. He taught secondary ELA and social studies for eight years before becoming an instructional coach and school leader. Noah has written curriculum for public districts, charter organizations, and for-profit companies. He also worked as a consultant, partnering with districts across the country on personalized learning; strategic planning; and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Noah grew up in Syracuse, NY and now lives in Washington, DC.

Blog Feature

Instructional Coaching  |  Personalized Learning  |  Teachers

How Student Choice Helped Me Grow Out of My Perfectionism

I am a recovering perfectionist. As a kid, I always colored within the lines of my coloring book; not because I wanted to follow the rules, but because I enjoyed precision. As a teacher, I bought a laser level tool so that my posters would all be hung at the exact same height. Perfectionism can bring a sense of pride, especially when applied to a tangible outcome. I admired my coloring book pages in the same way I did my classroom walls.

Read More

Blog Feature

Curriculum Strategy & Adoption  |  Personalized Learning

Relevant content makes personalizing learning easier

When I was a teacher in Washington, D.C. I taught a class on local history. Students got to learn about places they had visited and people they had heard about. I’ve never taught a class where students were more deeply engaged in the actual content of the class.

Read More
subscribe to the blog

Interested in the latest news and updates.

Get free weekly tips and advice designed for leaders like you.

Blog Feature

Personalized Learning  |  School Leadership  |  Teachers

Core Four of Personalizing Learning

In 2014 Education Elements first introduced the Core Four, later publishing the “Core Four of Personalized Learning: The Elements You Need to Succeed” in 2016. Since its publication, this white paper has been downloaded over 3,000 times by educators across the world. The Core Four is our team’s most widely-recognized collateral. It is often the first resource we share with educators, it has been cited in research and position papers, and it has been adopted and customized by school districts.

Read More

Blog Feature

Personalized Learning

Personalizing Learning: The Goal is Student Ownership

Think back to when you had a deep sense of ownership in your learning; a time when you went above and beyond the expectations because of your own curiosity or passion. For me, this was in seventh grade during a career exploration project. I wanted to be an architect, and I not only wrote a report about the profession, but I created an entire imagined autobiography of myself as an accomplished architect, complete with sketches of a model home. The flexibility of the project made it meaningful in a way worksheets and textbooks never could. I was able to explore a passion and, in the process, better understand myself.

Read More

Blog Feature

Personalized Learning  |  School Districts  |  Schooling Loss  |  Virtual Learning

3 Ways to Incorporate Flexibility into Planning for School Next Year

This school year made clear the need to redesign our existing systems to ensure that meaningful learning can continue even when our brick and mortar school buildings close. Most schools and districts had only days to prepare to close school buildings and move learning to students’ homes. Fast forward 12 months and remote learning has had time to grow from an emergency measure to a format of learning that invites growth and innovation in new ways. So how can you ensure that meaningful learning can happen anywhere?

Read More

Blog Feature

School Leadership  |  Teachers  |  Virtual Learning

Making the Case for Transforming Summer School

For most of us, summer school was a punishment for not passing a class. Sure, plenty of teachers (including myself) framed it as a second opportunity or a chance for more individual support. But at the end of the day, the hours spent in summer school are hours not spent working, looking after siblings, or just socializing. Especially in secondary grades, the primary – if not exclusive – purpose of summer school is credit recovery. Amidst increasing calls not to fail students during a pandemic, an opportunity arises: what could the purpose of summer school be if it wasn’t about credit recovery? This question becomes even more salient as educators consider how to address the time students have lost with teachers and classmates because of COVID closures and challenges with distance learning.

Read More
Public Relations Today