Personalized Learning. Learning Personalized. PL. You´ve likely been hearing this whisper of a buzzword (buzzterm?) crescendo into a full on expectation. The sticky spot for most teachers is that the definitions of Personalized Learning are jargon-charged, vague, and several sentences long.

Personalized Learning is not something necessarily new, but neither is it the case of the ¨pendulum swinging¨. If you have a philosophy that is founded on student-centered, or needs-based learning, then you are aligned with Personalized Learning and going to drill deeper. If you have a different philosophy, cool. Believe it or not, you could still be executing some of the components of Personalized Learning.

I can practically hear you thinking, ¨Really? How?” Let me introduce the ¨Core Four¨. Not the Yankee baseball players of 1995, but Digital Content, Targeted Instruction, Data Driven Instruction, and Student Reflection/Ownership. ALL OF THOSE THINGS??? My goodness, probably not. Because of my teaching philosophy, it already makes sense to me to strive for all of these things. But honestly? It will be a career goal to attain all of them and consistently implement them. But for you…maybe you are going to go gangbusters and implement all four. Or maybe you are only interested in Digital Content. Perhaps you are into Data-Driven Instruction and Targeted Instruction. You could also be a teacher who wants to read intensely about all of them before choosing, and it might be awhile before you even implement. Air high-fives all around.

Because if learning is going to be personalized, so should our teaching.

Whether you personalize or generalize your teaching, don´t forget the most important resource you have at your disposal: you. Do not ever underestimate, even for one moment, what power you hold in front of your students. We are the change makers, the match strikers, voice finders, and if we truly love our content areas then our kids can, too. It is not for the faint of heart. It takes a cocktail of energy, perseverance, time, thought and intention. We are all in different places with it, just as our students often are.

Really, it´s personal for each of us.