Learning Personalized

The Habits of Mind and the Four Attributes of Personalized Learning were vital for weathering the disruption of the school year during the pandemic– and improving as a school district as a result of it– as Debbie Perez outlined in this interview with Bena Kallick.

Debbie is the Director of Professional Learning and Contemporary Instruction for Humble ISD, a sprawling school district with over 45,000 students on 45 campuses near downtown Houston.

Find out more about what she shared with us.

Falling Back on the Habits of Mind: Interview with Debbie Perez - Habits Personalized Debbie Perez discusses the disruption of the school year during the pandemic, and improving as a school district as a result of it.

Let’s just assume that making mistakes and failing to do what we are trying to do is a signal for reflection and self-discovery. How can teachers encourage students do that in the most effective way?

To answer that question, we need to look at the type of work students are engaged in and then the clarity of roles for both student and teacher.

How Should Students "Celebrate" Mistakes and Failures? Students do not celebrate mistakes or see failure as an opportunity to return to work and improve it. Instead, they see it as a final judgment and move on.

As we settle into our “new normal,” returning to in-person instruction, there is some lingering anxiety over what it will take to recover from the past school year and what disruptions might await us in the year ahead.

Kim Morton is an elementary school principal at the Leadership Academy in Vista Unified School District, in California. In an interview with Allison Zmuda, she shares some silver linings she has uncovered, as well as how positivity is the throughline that informs how she views the “lost year” of education and its impact on the year ahead.

Given the space to reflect on the past year, she says, “I think the biggest takeaway is that we are all stronger than we think and we can do hard things.”

Positivity and the "Lost Year" of Education: Interview with Kim Morton - Habits Personalized For Kim Morton, elementary school principal at Leadership Academy, positivity is essential when viewing the “lost year” of education.