Kareem Farah  0:11  
Hello, everyone and welcome to episode two of the Modern Classrooms Podcast. I'm Kareem Farah, co-founder and executive director of the modern classrooms project. And I'm joined by co-host, Zach Diamond, Modern Classrooms implementer and mentor at DC International School.

Zach Diamond  0:27  
Hey Kareem, how's it going?

Kareem Farah  0:28  
Good. How are you? How are you?

Zach Diamond  0:30  
Doing good just got started in pre service, so pretty busy, but doing good,

Kareem Farah  0:34  
Fantastic. And then we're also joined by our new co host, Monte Woodard, a wonderful middle school science implementer of the model and also mentor, Monte, can you introduce yourself and share a little bit more about yourself your teaching experience, your background, all that good stuff?

Monte Woodard  0:51  
Yeah, of course. Hi, everybody. My name is Monte. And I am entering into my fourth year of teaching. And I was a modern classroom implementer last year. So I did go through the fellowship program. I recently moved from Washington, DC. So I was at DCI with Zach last year. And now I am in Florida, teaching at a really large middle school, it's almost 2000 middle schoolers at this very large middle school in South Florida.

Kareem Farah  1:21  
Fantastic, well, welcome Monte, we're so excited to have you, as a co-host, you're gonna bring such an interesting perspective, it's exciting to have, you know, three former implementers all in different stages in their career, and at different points with the model. And today's discussion is going to really focus on how teachers can actually roll out our blended, self-paced, mastery-based model with students, parents, stakeholders, both in person and remotely, because obviously, we know the challenges of the current moment.

Monte Woodard  1:48  
And I made sure to really use all of the tools that I knew that I will use pretty much throughout the school year, you know, as that first intro, you know, lesson to them on modern classroom. So, you know, pretty much after the relationship building and all that other stuff, I, you know, rolled out the model to them by having them practice and it's took, you know, on average, two to three days, depending on the student. And, you know, it was just a very different experience. Because in the past, you know, after, you know, the one or two days of getting to know the students, I feel like I jumped right into content, and just started trying to teach them the stuff without fully knowing who they were as a learner, just because of pacing, and I really didn't have anything else to do. But I feel like, you know, by rolling out modern classroom and really having them learn the model, it truly gave me additional time to, to really see who works fast and who worked slow and, you know, really see who can read a document and understand and who is going to need more guidance. So I feel like whenever I did start rolling out content, I was a little bit clearer on kind of their learning needs, which was really interesting to see.

Kareem Farah  2:53  
I learned after my first year of implementation, how silly it was that I didn't teach the students the model using the model. And the more importantly, I think Monte and Zach, you both highlighted the importance of using low stakes content initially, so that kids actually get comfortable with the routines, right, because if you launch the model with a challenging content lesson, your kids are actually juggling two different things at the same time. They're juggling, like this new learning environment where they're self directed, where they're no longer sort of kind of taking a sit and listen approach to teaching and learning. And on top of that, they might be learning an actual new content skill. And that's kind of overstimulating for some students, for some students, it may not be but for other students it is. So what I thought was really powerful about starting the first day or the second day of class, within watching an instructional video about the model was I made it a point for myself to just walk around the room and have a one on one conversation about life with every single student. So you know, I use it as an opportunity to get more one on one time with kids to learn about their passions, their likes and dislikes, their goals. You know, if they didn't like math, I wanted to hear them say that if they loved math, I wanted to hear them say that. I wanted to kind of shake up some of those, you know, traditional norms that maybe they thought about teaching and learning and have great discussions with the kids.

Zach Diamond  4:13  
You don't even have to call it the Modern Classrooms model. Although I will, like capital m capital C. I think that kids are expecting videos. And so I'm just going to tell them, here's how the videos are going to be presented to you. This is what you have to do while you're watching. This is what you have to do after you watch the video. And and that's that's my plan. That's the model.

Kareem Farah  4:35  
You know, how long do you think it takes students to adjust this new learning environment?

Zach Diamond  4:40  
Yeah, I think it depends on the kid. It depends on each student. Some of my students got it immediately within a week or a few weeks, and some of them needed to be directed to the pacing tracker until the end of the year. I will say though, that I was surprised by some of the students that got it quickly. who had taught before and I didn't think we're going to be as successful as they were based on my prior experience with them. I think that the model, it's it's not what students expect. And if it's your first time implementing it, it's not what the teacher expects either. And so a lot of kids that I think that we don't give all the kids enough credit, sometimes, like, every single kid is doing their best. Every kid wants to be successful in that classroom. And this model, like if it gets the teacher off their back a little bit, it lets the kids thrive. And so your question is, how long did it take for the majority of students to get comfortable with the model, and I would say it was within a month, but like, I would just emphasize how some of those students were a surprise for me, and I was really happy to see that, right.

Whitnei Moore  5:48  
Hello, my name is Whitnei Moore, I teach in Chicago, Illinois, I work with fifth and sixth graders teaching math and science to diverse learners. The best part of my school year as a modern classrooms educator, was just the pure joy that the data tracker brought to my classroom. At first, I thought the data tracker wouldn't be something that some students would be a little shy about. But the students were all in, they were excited to see their names on the tracker to see their progress being celebrated by their classmates, students were competitive, but encouraging, it was just such an amazing thing to see, I love my data tracker, and I will use it forever.

Kareem Farah  6:28  
You know, when when you have a student is struggling to kind of capture how the model works, it's actually a red flag that that student really needs support with self direction, you know, self motivation, self awareness. So you know, we've had some teachers at times get a little bit frustrated, especially early on, they might have a class period that's uniquely challenging for them to manage. But they say like, I can't stop doing this model, because this is what my students actually need. The fact that they're struggling with this is a greater indication of how important it is that I am putting students at control their own learning doesn't mean that I may not make need to make adjustments, you know, more scaffolds and structure and all that good stuff. But every time I hear a teacher share the challenges with kids adjusting, they also always couple that with sort of this reef reaffirmation that this is actually what they need to be doing with their students.

Monte Woodard  7:19  
It's funny, because at my new school now, I tell people all the time, you know, when they're getting to know you, and they ask about like my classroom management style, and I told him, I was like, Yo, I used to be this very intense like micromanager of a teacher everything like ducks in a row. I like the kids to do what I asked when I asked. And you know, last year, it took me a really long time, Kareem will tell you every time him or Rob came to my class, I was freaking out about how everything's seen and organized. And no one was doing what they were supposed to. And they were just waking, wasting so much time and cream was I was like, Yo, it looks really good. What are you talking about? So I think it took me longer than it took the kids to like fully be comfortable. I think it was like, November, before I felt fully comfortable. Just letting everything be how it was. And, you know, deal with the control chaos of my class. Yeah, you know, thinking about it. Now, I don't actually think that I even did that much work of around introducing the pacing tracker, I had one because when I went through the fellowship, you were like, You need a pacing tracker. And I was like, Alright, I'm gonna have a pacing tracker. And so I remember, you know, showing it to kids and just telling them like, Hey, this is just going to be the way that we keep track of where we are. And I really kept it as simple as that. And for the most part, I actually never had any issues with students, you know, coming to me saying like, Oh, I don't like you know, I don't like this or I don't like that, um, you know, I use first initial last name last year, which I know you know, also freaks a lot of people out, you know, this year being in a new district, a new school, I actually probably will make it anonymous just because I don't know the rules around names and other stuff but I think we freak out more than the kids will they actually don't care that much like as long as you are framing and framing it in a way of like it's not like competition is not to say that you're behind is really just to show you know what you've mastered and what you need to revise and you know, maybe where you need to pick up the patients a little bit I did not give them the opportunity to like not do the thing. So they would come to me and just you know have all these excuses. I can't do this or, or really it was more vocally I don't want to do this really, if I'm being honest. And it was just one of those things because I feel like everything was very good. And I was like okay, you know, you're great you know kind of thing you you don't have to do it. But I feel like they were just very frustrated with that response because I feel like old me before modern classroom I would have very much entered into this banter with them back and forth of like, No, you need to do your work because your grade is going to suffer and I feel like I would have went back and forth with him. But last year I was just very adamant of being like Nope, okay. All right. Great. You You are in control. So You can see here the whole period and stare at your Chromebook and not do your work. And that's it.

Kareem Farah  10:06  
Right. And you know what that what that does. And I think, you know, in the end, whether you're a student or an adult, you learn best from your mistakes. So I think sometimes we as educators, particularly when we teach traditionally stop kids from making the mistake, which means we stopped them from learning from the mistake. So if every single time a kid is disengaged, we say reengage, re, engage, re engage, then we're not even letting the kid realize what happens when they disengage. I have a lot of kids in the first couple of weeks of class, throw the you're not teaching me lying to me, right? And I always thought it was super interesting. Because it was really wild to me. I was like, What do you mean, I'm not teaching you like I built this video for like, an hour last night, stop telling me I'm not teaching you. And you know, what I realized at the time was the reason they're saying that was because they're actually anxious, that they're not going to get to hear my actual voice in person. Like they were worried that somehow they were just going to learn on a computer. And the way that I combated that was that I showed them that by running this model, I could actually spend more time with them. Like, you want to know why I'm actually teaching you because after you watch this instructional video, if you're still struggling, you're gonna do a one on one or small group instruction with me. And it was my way of saying, Look, I'm actually more available now that I'm doing this, not less.

Zach Diamond  11:30  
I think that the most positive feedback that came from parents in terms of the model wasn't about the model, specifically, but about the data that the model gave me to give to the parents, it made communicating with parents, really simple and clear. And I would always feel a little bit like nervous when I wouldn't sit down to write an email to a parent whose kid was doing poorly. But this just made it in the same way that the pacing tracker makes the data objective, I felt like I was just communicating an objective fact, like, I would say, okay, the student is three lessons behind and the due date is, is next week, right? But what I'm trying to say is that we can help the student we can support the student to catch up. And so communicating data in that way, really, I think that it put me on the parents good side and a lot of ways.

Monte Woodard  12:21  
You know, and so I feel like I did have some that were skeptical in the beginning, not necessarily pushback, they were just kind of like, I know, my child, and my child can't do this. It's really what a parent actually said to me. And, you know, my response was, like, we'll see. Yeah, you know, and I feel like I did, you know, the model forced me to communicate a little bit more frequently. Um, you know, and I definitely did do that. I like Zach, I sent a biweekly email to them with the I sent out the pacing tracker, I sent out the current hyper doc that we were working on, you know, I love hyper docs. And because everything was laid out was so easy to just give parents access to that as well. And I just told them, kind of like what we were doing. And, you know, I had some parents that will email me and say, Well, I noticed my kid, you know, with their kids CC, and they'd be like, Why are you two lessons behind? You know, and it was just, it was really great, because there was a handful of parents that helped me, help the child stay accountable. And it was just like a really, really great thing to see.

Kareem Farah  13:22  
And that just about covers it, folks. We'll be trying to generate our podcasts every two weeks. So thank you for listening. Look out for episode three. That will be coming out in a few weeks, and have a wonderful rest of your week. Bye everyone.

Zach Diamond  13:36  
Bye, Kareem. Bye Monte.

Monte Woodard  13:37  
Bye! Thanks for having me.