Today I re-introduced something I trialled last year to record personal learning to the 4/5/6 students at my school. It was the forms we used as our "Personal Learning Diary" or PLD.
It was so rewarding to see their eyes light up when I put up the templates and actually approach using them again with enthusiasm, rather than the groans I got when I introduced it last year. After being without this format for recording goals and auditing their learning time, they saw a need to use some form of recording to keep them on track. The importance of tracking their learning and setting goals for themselves has finally sunk in without me needing to nag them about it.
Best of all, I didn't have to do much talking because the children who trialled the templates last year explained how they used them and where they fitted in to preparing for Learning Conferences and reflecting on Learning.
They also brought up the topic of needing to re-define our work standards (last year we used medals as an analogy for indicating the standard of work), so already we have a focus for our first day back after the holidays.
I am pleased now - I felt that there were times when the conferencing sparks were lost and not being followed up and when I pulled last years PLD templates out, I remembered how we structured our conference preparation time. However, I think that if I forced this upon them on Day 1 this year, that it would not have been received as well as it was today.
I have learned that sometimes we don't always have to invent a new way of doing things and that children are really good at articulating expectations and structures and routines that shape the culture of a Learning Community - well done kids!
