A Day in the Life: Scotti Hagensick

I have been trying so hard to get to school on time lately. Mrs. H, the school counselor, has talked to be a lot about all the tardies I have. I can't believe I started crying in her office this morning. She opened her computer and looked at all the tardies I have. She told me I have 22 tardies to science which is first hour every day. I know Mrs. H has called my mom and dad a few times to try to talk to them about this. They don't really seem to care. I told Mrs. H, "My dad's truck won't start and I have to wake him up myself or I don't get here on time." She seems like she understands and told me I wouldn't be punished because of adult decisions. I just don't get what else I can do. I have been telling my parents every morning that I can't be late anymore or I'll miss out on the ice cream sundae party we are having at the end of the quarter. Every day I'm on time, I earn a punch on my punch card with Mrs. H and after I get 5 punches, we'll have Subway lunch together. I just hope that it happens soon.

After talking to Mrs. H, I went to science with Mr. K. He had a Prezi open on the projector showing on the whiteboard. I didn't know what he was talking about at first because I was 20 minutes late, again. People just kind of looked up at me when I came in but no one said anything. I think people are so used to me being late. Oh I see now! We're talking about the Earth's crust and what the core is inside the Earth at the very center. Wait, did he just say we have a project? And I get to teach to the students? That's new. We've never done that before.

Okay. It sounds like we have 3 weeks to do this project. Mr. K isn't really telling us what to do. Don't we get a list of instructions? Am I supposed to use my Chromebook for this? I don't get it. There are no rules? Well, how am I supposed to stay busy for three whole weeks if I don't know what I'm doing? Now he is saying he is our coach for this project. What the heck does that mean?

Two other kids came up to me and asked if I wanted to work with them. Sure, I guess. They asked what I thought I knew about the Earth already and what I still wanted to learn. Tommy said he feels like he knows a lot about rocks and stuff so he wants to try to find a way to construct a model of the earth so we can see the inside. I really like math so I bet I could help him make everything the right size. We have been learning about radius and diameter in math. I wonder if I could use that to help him out. Samantha said we should try to write a letter to someone who is a science researcher. She said she has a lot of questions and maybe we could all write one paragraph on the letter? I really want to look up some scientists in the area and see who I can find to write to. It sounds like this project could be kind of fun. The only thing we have to start working on today is outlining a plan for our project and what our goals are. Hmm. Okay. I think we have a few ideas to start with!

For my second draft of "A Day in the Life," I have modified my original draft specifically to reflect on what personalized learning would look like.

I have been trying so hard to get to school on time lately. Mrs. H, the school counselor, has talked to be a lot about all the tardies I have. I can't believe I started crying in her office this morning. She opened her computer and looked at all the tardies I have. She told me I have 22 tardies to science which is first hour every day. I know Mrs. H has called my mom and dad a few times to try to talk to them about this. They don't really seem to care. I told Mrs. H, "My dad's truck won't start and I have to wake him up myself or I don't get here on time." She seems like she understands and told me I wouldn't be punished because of adult decisions. I just don't get what else I can do. I have been telling my parents every morning that I can't be late anymore or I'll miss out on the ice cream sundae party we are having at the end of the quarter. Every day I'm on time, I earn a punch on my punch card with Mrs. H and after I get 5 punches, we'll have Subway lunch together. I just hope that it happens soon.

I walked into science class late again. I have that first hour. I wish I could get my mom and dad out of bed so I could make it into class earlier. It's taken some getting used to but I'm really liking the new way science class happens. Mr. K never stands up there and talks the whole time like he used to. I walked into class today and there were some kids at the whiteboard, some students were on their Chromebooks, other students had gone to the library to check out books. At first I really didn't know what to do for this project but I think we're figuring it out. I really like that I get to decide what I'm learning! Mr. K had me take some quiz called an "Interest Inventory" about things we've learned about in science so far. Then he had a "student conference" with me at the back table. He said he wanted to talk about what I liked the most so far in science. He also asked me what was something that was hard for me to learn about. I'm not used to having meetings with teachers where they ask me what I want to learn about! He also said there were opportunities for me to grow. It sounds like he was really okay with me not knowing everything about the Earth's crust right now. I'm really interested in that and can't believe he told me it was okay to make mistakes when I started designing my own learning. Wow. This is weird. But I kind of like it!

Two other kids came up to me and asked if I wanted to work with them. Sure, I guess. I didn't think we could work with someone else so I'm pretty excited! They asked what I thought I knew about the Earth already and what I still wanted to learn. Tommy said he feels like he knows a lot about rocks and stuff so he wants to try to find a way to construct a model of the earth so we can see the inside. I really like math so I bet I could help him make everything the right size. We have been learning about radius and diameter in math. I wonder if I could use that to help him out. Samantha said we should try to write a letter to someone who is a science researcher. She said she has a lot of questions and maybe we could all write one paragraph on the letter? I really want to look up some scientists in the area and see who I can find to write to. It sounds like this project could be kind of fun. The only thing we have to start working on today is outlining a plan for our project and what our goals are. Hmm. Okay. I think we have a few ideas to start with!

For my third draft of "A Day in the Life," I have modified my original first and second draft specifically to reflect on what personalized learning would look like.

I have been trying so hard to get to school on time lately. Mrs. H, the school counselor, has talked to be a lot about all the tardies I have. I can't believe I started crying in her office this morning. She opened her computer and looked at all the tardies I have. She told me I have 22 tardies to science which is first hour every day. I know Mrs. H has called my mom and dad a few times to try to talk to them about this. They don't really seem to care. I told Mrs. H, "My dad's truck won't start and I have to wake him up myself or I don't get here on time." She seems like she understands and told me I wouldn't be punished because of adult decisions. I just don't get what else I can do. I have been telling my parents every morning that I can't be late anymore or I'll miss out on the ice cream sundae party we are having at the end of the quarter. Every day I'm on time, I earn a punch on my punch card with Mrs. H and after I get 5 punches, we'll have Subway lunch together. I just hope that it happens soon.

I walked into science class late again. I have that first hour. I wish I could get my mom and dad out of bed so I could make it into class earlier. It's taken some getting used to but I'm really liking the new way science class happens. Mr. K never stands up there and talks the whole time like he used to. I walked into class today and there were some kids at the whiteboard, some students were on their Chromebooks, other students had gone to the library to check out books. At first I really didn't know what to do for this project but I think we're figuring it out. I really like that I get to decide what I'm learning! Mr. K had me take some quiz called an "Interest Inventory" about things we've learned about in science so far. Then he had a "student conference" with me at the back table. He said he wanted to talk about what I liked the most so far in science. He also asked me what was something that was hard for me to learn about. I'm not used to having meetings with teachers where they ask me what I want to learn about! He also said there were opportunities for me to grow. It sounds like he was really okay with me not knowing everything about the Earth's crust right now. I'm really interested in that and can't believe he told me it was okay to make mistakes when I started designing my own learning. Wow. This is weird. But I kind of like it!

Two other kids came up to me and asked if I wanted to work with them. Sure, I guess. I didn't think we could work with someone else so I'm pretty excited! They asked what I thought I knew about the Earth already and what I still wanted to learn. Tommy said he feels like he knows a lot about rocks and stuff so he wants to try to find a way to construct a model of the earth so we can see the inside. I really like math so I bet I could help him make everything the right size. We have been learning about radius and diameter in math. I wonder if I could use that to help him out. Samantha said we should try to write a letter to someone who is a science researcher. She said she has a lot of questions and maybe we could all write one paragraph on the letter? I really want to look up some scientists in the area and see who I can find to write to. It sounds like this project could be kind of fun. The only thing we have to start working on today is outlining a plan for our project and what our goals are. Hmm. Okay. I think we have a few ideas to start with!

It's been two weeks since we started our project. Mr. K. told us that our project could "evolve" over time. I think he means it's okay for it to grow and change. We are now moving through the project online. I can choose the order in which I want to do the units, present my project, take quizzes, and I can even choose other activities. I really like that I don't have to do everything in the same order as everyone else. Mr. K told us this online learning is called our Personal Learning System. He said we can continue to be creative in our work. I actually think I want to write up some of my ideas for how to improve the online learning system. I might add to into my presentation!