In April of 2016, DES worked with a district that wanted to become more standards-driven. We worked with the administrative team to develop their "We Believe" statements that included students taking more ownership of their learning. We believe… All students can learn to proficiency or above. Learning is...
Read MoreDuring the 2016-17 school year, Copper and Gene are now working in seven schools in some manner or another in our southwest Colorado school district. There has been a leadership change at the district level which DES has supported in creating We Believes, and providing a...
Read MoreTo continue updating you on our work in southwest Colorado, we are observing an interesting phenomenon between schools and classrooms. When we last wrote, schools were innovating their personalized mastery culture inside of their own classrooms and schools. We have been focusing our consulting on...
Read MoreGene and Copper are working with teachers and administrators in Durango 9R School District in tools and processes to implement proficiency ladders in a personalized mastery environment. For his Masters Degree through the Boettcher Teacher Residency Program, Jackson Eubank, a 4th grade teacher, conducted some...
Read MoreWhen last we wrote, we suggested that our work in a SW Colorado elementary school was beginning to gain notice across the district and burst into flame. In the past 6 months, that is indeed what has occurred. DES was invited to present the...
Read MoreBootstrapping means the starting of a self-sustaining process that is supposed to proceed without external input. In December of 2014, Copper, from Don’t Ever Stop! LLC, was honored to be asked to support a Personalized Mastery charter school as an interim principal for the second...
Read MoreThis is part 1 of a series of blogs that demonstrates our work with a school looking to improve the learning of their students. We have just begun working with a PK-5 grade school that is on “Improvement” status with their state department, ranking 618th of...
Read MoreGene and I recently read the current report, Measuring Innovation in Education, from the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 2014). This is the group responsible for conducting the international PISA assessment program. In its executive summary, it has created a metric to measure...
Read MoreBy Copper and Gene In our previous entry, we foreshadowed the need for learner involvement in all aspects of the Learner Improvement Cycle. The Learner Improvement Cycle is our adaptation from the work of Richard C. Owen’s Teaching-Learning Cycle. Our major innovation to Owen’s work is...
Read MoreBy Dr. Copper Stoll and Gene Giddings, Co-founders of Don't Ever Stop! LLC The journey to a personalized learning system is fraught with pitfalls and hurdles. Can you get your Board on board? Will teachers embrace new practice to replace current practice? Can you create a...
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