Freedom Learning

To be honest, was a little bit nervous when I was first reading over the independent learner project. I was nervous because I was not sure what I was going to choose to do. I like my freedom but sometimes I also like to just be told what to do and I will do it. However, after doing a little more thinking and talking it out with my mom, I became really excited for the ILP. There were so many ideas and recipes running through my head and so many other little things I wanted to do with this project. For example I started a family/friend recipe book, got myself a cute little homemade apron from a family friend, and started buying cook books. Doing these things got me even more excited about the actual baking part.

During this project, I tried to do things that I have done in the past with projects and start there. For instance, I wanted to get organized and know what my first couple steps or activities were going to be. I basically wrote down brainstorming ideas and then made myself a time line/outline. By doing this it helped me organize my thoughts and priorities. This was interesting to me because even though these things were not required of me, I found myself doing them because it was what I had learned in the past. To be honest, I find myself doing these things at work and in my personal life when I need to organize my thoughts.

I think that the great thing about the individual learning project is that students pick what they do and how they do it. They are essentially learning and doing what they know how to do best and what works for them. Whether it may be just winging it or organizing their ideas it shows them what they gravitate towards. As a future educator one of the best ways to teach your students is by modeling the concepts you teach. If they see me naturally use graphic organizers or outlines then they might realize that is what helps them as well. Freedom learning helps them stay creative, motivated, and lets them go at their own pace. With freedom learning projects you can always give them some guidelines or just let them go one hundred percent on their own. ILP’s should be implemented throughout your teaching but not done all of the time.

https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2012/jun/14/freedom-teaching-learning