A Learning Tale

A Learning Tale, in Celebration of Learning Everywhere (including traditional school)

From her first day, Maggie had a learning plan. One of the first meetings after Maggie was born included Maggie’s mom, her pediatrician, and a coach from the local learning center. As part of her birthing classes, Maggie’s mom received training to ready herself to be her little girl’s learning advocate. The training included how Maggie’s mom, and eventually Maggie herself, would be able to answer three important questions to everyone’s learning journey:

What do we want Maggie to learn?

How do we know Maggie has learned it?

What do we do when Maggie doesn’t learn it?

During that first meeting with Maggie’s pediatrician and the learning center representative, Maggie’s mom learned that she would receive an $8,000 learning grant each year to support Maggie’s learning, whether that learning happened in or out of school.

In addition to the learning grant, Maggie’s mom and the learning coach put together a learning plan for Maggie – beginning day one. Maggie’s learning plan included definitions and goals of what Maggie was going to learn over the next 3 to 4 weeks, a detailed plan about the activities, materials, and support (including monetary assistance) needed to reach the stated goals, daily check-ins to make sure Maggie’s plan was being executed in the right fashion, and an evaluation to make sure, before moving on to new goals, Maggie had accomplished her original ones.

Jumping to today, five years since she was born, Maggie and her mom, along with their learning coach, are fully invested in Maggie’s learning plan. And, even though Maggie is only five, she has started to provide input to that learning plan. Every learning plan Maggie’s team puts together includes a personal activity Maggie feels passionate about. Right now, she wanted to learn more about Barbie since Maggie just saw the new Greta Gerwig movie. Maggie’s learning plan always includes reading, writing, problem-solving (including math, science, and social science), and character development goals.

And today is a special day for Maggie. While other five-year-olds are heading to traditional school, Maggie is headed to the local library to meet her new learning cohort, a group of 16 young learners near Maggie’s age, led by the learning coach Maggie has had since her birth. The learning coach is assisted by a learning coach-in-training, along with a few volunteer parents and retirees. Today they are meeting some of the day in the neighborhood library, tomorrow they visit a local coffee shop for group time, and later in the week they visit a museum, a small business, and the city hall.

Every day Maggie meets with other members of her learning cohort, focusing on common interests that group of learners want to focus on. Every day Maggie has one-on-one time with a young learner, who has earned a “captain” designation because of their expertise in a subject or activity. Maggie is very good at math, so “Captain Maggie” works with other members of her learning cohort – one-on-one – on a weekly basis. Of course, Maggie gets time with her learning coach, whether that time is in-person or online, to receive feedback on how she is doing compared to what her learning plan expects. Once Maggie completes her goals on her most current learning plan, new goals, plans, execution strategies, and evaluation activities are drafted for the next 3 to 4 weeks.

Maggie’s learning coach is careful to make sure Maggie spends enough time on her learning plan to work on her reading skills. Although Maggie is a strong math learner, she struggles a bit with reading – but she’s getting better. Maggie learned a few years ago that most learners have strengths and areas of struggle. That’s part of the learning journey.

Very soon, Maggie and her mom will make a trip to the learning center, where Maggie’s learning coach and their team spend some of her time. The learning center is a place where adult learning leaders meet to compare case studies on their learners and where they can receive on-going professional training. Young learners who are older than Maggie use the learning center as a production space for their learning projects. Maggie’s first trip to the learning center is scheduled to allow Maggie’s learning cohort and their parents to see the production space so that Maggie can start building that resource into her learning plan.

Maggie is very excited about her next learning plan. That plan includes Maggie spending one hour a day at her neighborhood school. There is an excellent reading teacher who works at that school and Maggie’s learning coach has reserved an hour each day for Maggie to work with them. Maggie’s mom works during the day, and her learning coach is busy with other young learners, so Maggie will get a ride to the traditional school from volunteer parents or community retirees who run “The Learning Bus,” a transportation system created by the learning center to get young learners to and from their destinations. It’s sort of like a “Meals on Wheels” for young learners.

Maggie sees some of her friends getting on a district school bus at the beginning of the day. Their family has chosen to send their kids to traditional school. But Maggie is happy with what her mom chose for her, and now she chooses for herself – a personalized, learner-empowered, competency-based, open-walled, socially embedded way of learning.

Happy first day of learning wherever you choose that to be.

Til tomorrow. SVB