“You have been accepted…”

Those four life-changing words have been showing up in the inboxes and mailboxes of high school seniors all across the city over the past several weeks. It’s both the payoff of the past four years of hard work in school and the ticket to a bright future.

Read an interview with an Ednovate senior.

When I first found out about personalized learning, I was intimidated. After all, I’m a teacher, not a techie. Personalized learning relies heavily on technology; students use a Chromebook that is assigned to them for the majority of their coursework. This was not my forte! However, once I saw it in action, I knew this was the type of teacher I wanted to become. 

Three years in, and I continue to be a believer in the power of personalizing the learning experience. After 10+ years working in traditional environments, I would never go back. However, not all things are sticking; in fact, some things aren’t, but that is for another blog post.

We are honored to have won a Digital Innovation in Learning Award from EdSurge and Digital Promise for our Open Door Policy.

As USC Hybrid High wraps up its first quarter this year, we want to give you a peek under the hood of our personalized learning model. Check out this infographic for a glimpse into USC HHS by the numbers, and add to the conversation by sharing some stats from your school.

As the leader of various instructional and non-instructional teams for the past eight years, I thought I had things figured out when it came to onboarding PD. People generally had a good time getting to know one another, my PD laid the foundation for healthy, high-functioning teams, and we saw strong results at the end of each year. I was also conscious to ensure that my PD modeled strong instructional practices, doing my best to complete the traditional lesson cycle for each topic and modeling what I expected from teachers.

With the third quarter of the school year wrapping up here at Ednovate – USC Hybrid High School, we have made great strides down the path of personalizing the learning experience for each of our students.

Less than six months ago, I was given an opportunity to take the torch at USC Hybrid High to refine the current model and expand our schools in Los Angeles and across the country.  I started as a founding principal at Chicago’s Noble Street in 2006 and over five years, helped Noble Street expand to 10 campuses and started one as a founding principal, UIC College Prep, which continues to be the #1 non-selective school in Chicago.