Response to Preparing Students to Learn Without Us

More than ever students are struggling to excel.  Each individual student has a unique learning style and preference.  The Common Core Standards are strict guidelines and highly set goals our students must reach.  Our jobs as teachers, is to create lesson plans that meet the Common Core, while effectively reaching every student.  Implementing “personalized” instruction in every classroom, for every student, can do this.  It has been proven that “personalized” instruction is highly effective towards students’ learning.  This article has evidence of students personalizing their own learning within a classroom; students are setting their own pace and “aligning activities and assessment to their own interests and passions”.  I think this is amazing that teachers are providing students with “personalized” instruction plans and they are interested and exceling in.  However, I do not think it is ideal in our education system today.  It is a great challenge for a teacher to personalize the education of 32 students with the lack of support, time and funding provided by the DOE.  I believe New York City has one of the worst education systems. There is a lack of funding going into the education system and a lack of support services provided.  NYC teachers are stressed about meeting standards with the little time given and the lost interests’ of students.  If teachers were to be given more support, better training, and smaller class sizes, I think this “personalized” education plan would be able to be implemented in the NYC education system while succeeding.  I strongly believe the NYC education system needs to be revamped.  A question I have about the “personalized” education plan, is how are students assessed? Are students’ assessments “personalized” as well? And, is this fair? I feel as though standardized tests are not a good measure of a student’s knowledge.  If assessments are personalized as well, students can work to their own set goals; this will motivate students.  In order to improvement to happen, students need to be more involved in their educational instruction.