Participant #1:
Welcome to the Modern Classrooms Project podcast. Each week, we bring you discussions with educators on how they use blended, self paced, and mastery based learning to better serve their students. We believe teachers learn best from each other, so this is our way of lifting up the voices of leaders and innovators in our community. This is the Modern Classrooms Project podcast. 


Hello, and welcome to episode 121 of the Modern Classrooms Project podcast. My name is Toni Rose Deanon, she/they pronouns, a community engagement manager at Modern Classroom, and I am joined today by the principal of Grace James Academy of Excellence in Kentucky, as well as five of her gems. So welcome, Miss Cosby, Anasia, Monica, Hailey, Natalie, and Nicole. Hello. Hi. It is so exciting to be in this space with you, and thank you so much for saying yes to the podcast. So, before we get started, what's bringing you joy lately? Any of you can answer. Dancing. My birthday, my friends, my family and friends. The last day before the break. Yes. Happy birthday, by the way, for the students that it was their birthday, and I'm so glad that something is bringing you joy lately. This all makes my heart so happy. And yes to the last day before winter break. How exciting. 


So, Ms. Cosby, tell us more about who you are and how you started your Modern Classroom journey. This is my 30th year in education. I've been in leadership probably 23 of the 30 years that I've been in education, and I have always had the mindset of what we need to do in the next five years to prepare our students. So my professional social network includes many progressive thinkers. The books that I read are forward thinking, and they do school differently. And I'm very passionate about disrupting and dismantling the status quo and how school is done to students versus truly educating students to think critically and be problem solvers and to advocate for a better citizenry as well as a better humanity. So that's a long answer to how did I stumble upon Modern Classroom Project. I'm often on Edutopia, and the video popped up, and I just decided to watch the video, and I about Lost My Mind because I thought, this is a game changer. This will transform those classrooms from lecture, traditional, boring, slow paced, rigid, not kid friendly type of environment to student led, student centered, fluid movement, really personalized. It's freedom for the students in those particular spaces because they get to own their learning and the teacher truly gets to be the facilitator and instigator and inspiration behind the learning versus a one size fits all model. Kind of like our education system still is K through twelve. We're put in boxes like manufacturing, but this gives us a little wiggle room in how we deliver instructions so that students can maximize their learning based on where they are and not on some arbitrary cut off. 


Yes and yes. I love hearing you say this, and thank you for acknowledging the fact that, like, yo, the way we've been doing education has been boring, has been slow pace, and definitely not kid friendly. 


So it's great for us to just acknowledge that because it's a fact, and a lot of the times people avoid that, right, and say, well, this is how it's always been done, and it's working. And it's actually not who is it working for? That's the question you have to ask, is it working for the people who dropped out and opted out of school because their needs weren't being met or they weren't engaged, drawn in? You want them to love to learn, not dread getting up and having to come to school every day because it's just some kind of compliance thing to do. You don't create critical thinkers that way. Yes, and that's the thing, too, that I've been saying a lot of the times, right? Education shouldn't be a passive thing that we do. It should be an active thing. So we want our learners to be actively engaged in everything that they're learning about. So, again, thank you for naming that. So I had the pleasure of being able to pop in and experience this magical learning environment that you've created when I was in Louisville, and I'd love for listeners to have a better understanding of the space that you were able to create. And I just felt so inspired the entire time I was there, and it's been a couple of weeks now, and I'm still feeling so inspired. So tell us a little bit more about your school. Starting off with it being student centered, we had an opportunity just to create a school from the ground up. It is an all girls Steam academy with an emphasis on gender specific and Afrocentric perspectives in learning Steam. So it's almost like if you think of a Spanish immersion school where kids go to school and they learn the culture, they learn the geography, they learn the history, they learn the language, the food, everything that makes that culture what it is. That's what we are here at Grace James. If you want to learn about the African American culture, the history, the joy, the pain, Grace James is where you come. And can anyone attend Grace James Academy? Yes, because we want all people to know about all cultures in order to have a better society celebrating and appreciating others differences versus just tolerating. So we learned Steam science, technology, engineering, art, and math through an Afrocentric gender specific lens. And we talk about gender specific. We're not talking about the stereotypes of how girls learn, but really more of an emphasis on empowering our gyms, instilling them confidence and very strong voice and choice and lots of agency, making them the next change makers. To not be able to just sit and keep their mouths closed, to make everyone else comfortable, but for them to be out there in society challenging and questioning and leading the charge for change that can impact any particular demographic. But it starts with building them up as human beings. And so we put a lot of emphasis on social and emotional learning. I say that's more important than your academic knowledge, only because they're children. They're evolving human beings. Parts of their brains haven't even developed yet. So unless they are socially and emotionally whole and have a connection to another human being in this very rigorous academic space, they will struggle. When a kid is having a bad morning or a bad bus ride or got into it with a sibling or a parent, they have a safe place they can come to. The first three days of the week, we meet for 30 minutes and what we call sister circles. Sister circles are a division of what we call our larger gym communities, kind of like Harry Potter houses or sororities. And they go along with the acronym of Crown, because we are one Crown, one sisterhood. We are GEMS girls, excelling in Math and science. So C stands for collaboration. So we have a gym community that's collaboration. And girls take a survey and they end up being put in one of those gym communities based on, like, a personality test. So we have collaboration. We have Resilience, which I am the leader of resilience. We have originality, we have willingness, and we have narrative. And then, of course, we are one Crown, one sisterhood. The gym communities meet as a whole every Thursday, and then once a month, we meet as an entire school. One crown, one sisterhood. And we call that Crown day. And we meet in the morning, and we have friendly competitions, and we bond together within those smaller, intimate groups to get to know each other and to be able to lean on each other. And the girls that we have within our sister circles will stay with us until they graduate from high school. That's to make sure that we have that connected bond with our gym. I've had girls for the last three years since we opened in 2021, and the first thing we do is admin if a girl is struggling or something tragic happened to them or they're just not themselves or their grades are falling. The first thing we talk about when we talk about students is who is her sister? Circle Leader? That's her person. Now, it's not always that person, but we want to make sure that we emphasize the social and emotional health of adolescents before learning can even begin. Because at the end of the day, they are children. As a matter of fact, they are somebody's child. And so even if they don't come to school whole, our goal is to send them back home whole and give them tools and strategies in order to navigate these very, very challenging years, especially middle school age girls. There are so many changes that they have to go through, and then we expect them to come in the classroom and pay attention and learn. Understanding the child development and the biology behind who they are and the brain science behind who they are at this stage in their lives impacts how we connect with them in the classroom. But before they could even do class work, they have to be seen as a whole human being. All their ups and downs, they're talking in class, their attitudes, their smart, ellic mouths, and all the things and fun things that come with middle school girls. They are being exactly who they are biologically supposed to be. What are we doing as far as schools are concerned, as far as leaders are concerned, to meet them where they are and give them the education that they deserve versus schooling them to death in the traditional model of education? Yeah, and I mean, even when I was walking around your hallways, there was just so much excitement and so much respect for each other. I was just so just amazed by all of it, because I just remember not really having the best time in middle school as a brown girl in South Georgia. Right. And so we just didn't have those kind of conversations. And I feel like you just put everything up front. You create the space to be able to ask questions, answer questions, share ideas, and just be able to voice their opinions, which I think is really powerful. So, again, thank you for focusing on just creating a better humanity and focusing on social, emotional learning, because like you said, if our students are coming in and even as teachers, right, if we're coming in and something's not right, we're not going to be able to focus. We're not going to be able to do the best that we can unless someone checks in and make sure that we're okay. Overall, and this is something that I tell educators all the time is that we want to view our students as human beings first before students. They need to be seen and heard, not just top down adult centered by middle school age. They have very strong opinions, and they're incredibly insightful, and they can tell you about yourself and your institution if you just give them an opportunity and safe and place to do that. Oh, yeah. I mean, I definitely got thick skin from teaching middle schoolers for ten years, so I totally understand, and they have the best ideas. I feel like my teaching really elevated because I welcomed my students into creating a learning environment that they wanted for themselves. Okay, so for any of the students, it can be an Asia, Monica, Haley, Natalie, or Nicole. Your principal, ms. Gospel, created this empowering space for you to truly shine and be yourselves. What are some of your favorite things about Grace James, about your learning environment? They're being so polite. You can go no you can go. Okay. One thing I like about Grace James is because the different things you can do and the different people you meet, and also it's like, built to accommodate things you like. Today on Friday, we have our crowd classes, and that's where you get to choose something that you enjoy, and it's a class where you can take and you can have fun, and it's just like a safe environment here. I like that the people around you like, if you were to get a question wrong in class, they'll help you understand the question, and they won't make fun of you for it. And with the self paced learning thing, it's easier to work and it's faster because you're going at your own pace, at your own level, with your own understanding of the work. I like it because it gives you a chance to actually understand the lesson and not just move on without understanding something and not getting the full concept of it. Even if you don't, after you go over your lessons, you are still able to get extra support and feel like it's not something like, oh, they're getting angry because you keep asking for help, but you're actually understanding and making sure. What I like about Grace James is I think that I have people that are just like me, and even if they're just not like me, we have commonalities and similarities and not just about appearances, but just about each other. And coming to a space like that. At my old school, there wasn't a lot of diversity and especially girls like me who can look at problems from the same perspective. So coming to a school for atrocities and gender specific perspective, it really helps me see the perspective of other gyms while also seeing our perspectives mixed together. What I like about Grace James is that I can be myself, and I can be myself in my own way, and I don't have to worry about people telling me that I'm wrong because of my skin color or the way I dress. I can be me like the girl who I want to be, and I don't want to be nobody else. And also, there's a lot of people like me. I feel like I fit in perfectly. Representation definitely matters. And being able to look around you and seeing people who look like you, it's also really powerful. I know. I definitely crave that when I was in school. What grades are you all in? 7th. 7th. Oh, my gosh. 7th graders? Yes. This is like, the best grade, in my opinion. Well, I mean, you all dropped some really great gems. Yeah, gems. You all did really great with dropping these gems for our listeners to be able to listen and truly understand. I mean, our listeners really love hearing from students, and our educators also love hearing from students. So I'm really excited again for you all to be here. And so one of you captured already the self pacing learning environment for you all and how much easier and faster it is, and that you're able to really just be able to catch up or not catch up, but go ahead and move ahead and all of that. And so when I was there, we heard great testament from students about how a blended learning, self paced and mastery based learning environment has been really powerful for students. And so, do any of you all want to elaborate? How has this model helped you with your learning experience? Self paced learning has helped me with my experience because personally I'm like a fast learner and traditionally it's standardized for just a teacher to go to the front of the classroom and talk to everyone and they're expected for everybody to be on the same page. So that's not how everyone learns, which needs to be understood. So when you have self paced learning, everybody can work at a different pace and it's more efficient for each person. I feel like lectures are often normalized, especially in the JCP district and especially in schools. You're going to have a bunch of diverse learning and you're going to have different learnings whether you're a visual learner or you learn from audio, like you can hear, if you hear it, then you learn better. So I feel like this really helps me because I don't really know what type of line I am, but I feel like having lectures and listening to the teacher all day about a lesson that maybe I understand may not be efficient. Or if I am struggling with the lesson but my other gyms already know the lesson, then it might not be self efficient for them. And now modern classroom isn't just like forcing you to remove lectures because even though our school may have a lecture altogether, so we all understand the topic, I think it's better because we have all different types of learning. So when we have this self paced work, it's easier for me to do my work. The self paced learning is like something I love because it gives me a time. For me, if I don't understand it myself, I can ask a peer, I can ask my teacher for support and if I don't get it, I can watch the videos for help and support, or the three before me method and help share other content. If I don't understand it, or if I understand it and my peer doesn't understand it, to help them understand it. And even if for the mastery check the first time I don't get it, I can fill out the form and understand, okay, this is why I didn't get it and didn't try it again. I think this is going to help me because for me, I don't know why, but I don't like having the teacher up front just talking about the whole lesson and she going through it because most of the time I already know the lessons. So I like just going out of my way because I can be like ahead of other people and then after I'm done, I can go back and look at my work and see this is what I need work on, this is what I know and things that I can improve on. It's helped me because I'm a visual learner and with the videos that our teachers make for us, it's easy to see what happens. And sometimes I'll try to do the work and then go back and look at the video so that I can compare my answers to the video, see what I got right, see what I got wrong, see why I got it wrong and fix it. These are great. These are really great answers, right? And so I guess I have a follow up question. What was the biggest challenge for you to shift from traditional learning to a more modern way of learning? So you're thinking about the blended learning. Was it easy for you all to transition from traditional to a more modern classroom or were you just able to pick it up right away? It was some form of a challenge because I have a short attention span and I struggle with time management. So when doing when first starting the self paced lessons in 6th grade, it was kind of hard, but as time went on I got better at it and now I'm really good. I think it was like easy but it was hard because I was used to the teacher standing in front of the classroom doing the lessons, but now I can watch a video and actually learn more like that instead of having the teacher already go through things that already know. I think that it was kind of hard for me because I was so accustomed to the teacher just taking over the lead and basically like holding my hand every step of the way through the lesson and not really giving me some time to understand the lesson fully. So I think that if you have a classroom like that, it may be harder for you to transition, but once you see the outcome of it, I feel like it's pretty easy for you to do. Yeah, I think it was kind of a rough transition coming in because, as everyone else is saying, with the teachers leading the classroom and you're not really having to say on what you really agree with the stuff, it was kind of hard. And then it's like, okay, well, I like this better anyway. And I prefer it because I get a voice in what I'm learning, I get a voice in how they're teaching it, or I prefer them showing me as a group, or if I prefer as myself. And it gave me a better chance to understand which learning environment I prefer better. I felt like the change was easy for me one because I felt like it just got easier for me because I had more time and when I got something done, I was able to move on to the next thing and I felt like it just helped. Thank you for owning the fact that this is a shift, right. It's definitely harder in the beginning, but then when you continue to practice these skills, it's a lot easier for you to manage your time, it's a lot easier to manage the assignments and the tasks that you're working on. And I really appreciate the fact that you also named that there were options for you. Right. You could either work with a small group, a whole group, or by yourself, but you really get to know who you are as a learner. And I think that that's a really important piece to be aware of just so that you can advocate for yourselves. Right. And so do you often use these videos outside of the class or do you just strictly use it in class? Outside of the class. Outside of class, I love them. I strictly use it in class because I tend to get work done fast and it doesn't take as long. So when I'm on a lesson, I watch the video and then once I finish all the lessons, I don't forget about the video, but I tend to forget about the video. I like the honesty there. I really like the honesty there because you're right, when you already know the content, you can continue moving forward. So you don't necessarily have to go back if you don't need to. And that's okay. Like the other gym said, I strictly use them in classroom because I do my work in class. But I think that's what adds on to the modern classroom because even though if you don't finish your working class, then you have to have that responsibility to get it done either at home or the next day. And I feel like for the videos, I feel like the infrastructure information I took from the videos is in my head and it's kind of like background knowledge. So if I see a question about the video I watched like maybe a couple of weeks ago, then I'm going to be like, okay, this video taught me this and I know it, so let me go ahead and answer the question like that. I agree with that because also I feel like I reuse the videos. So even if I used to watch the video in the past week, if I see an upcoming question that I know was about that video, I can just go back and then look at that video to see if there's something that I missed or something I can use from that video. But yes. Do you all ever share those videos with your families at home? No, not at all. Okay, that's okay too. So moving on to the next question, again, thank you for sharing that. I really love hearing from students perspectives. And so how do you think that this model, right, the blended learning, self paced, and the mastery based learning environment, how do you think this will help you in the future moving forward? I think it will help me in the future moving forward because I think it gives students that responsibility and that independency to just do your work and have time management. Because oftentimes in elementary school, you'll be guided through the lesson or they would stand over you and watch you complete every lesson. But as you grow older, you won't have somebody that's going to check on you to make sure your homework is turned in or make sure your assignments turned in. And especially in college and in high school, you're going to have to have some independence to turn your work in anti management, which I think modern classroom gives you that little taste of reality on getting your work turned in and just staying on top of your work. I think that the modern classroom, it will help you in the future because it helps you learn a little bit about yourself, like what works best for you. If you know that you like to slack off and like to put other things before your work, then it just helps you realize, okay, this is how I learned. This is what's going to make me more efficient. So I feel like the blend of learning, it just helps you realize what works best for you and what gets your work done more efficiently. I think basically going off what the previous gym said, it builds modern classrooms and self paced lessons, builds time management and independent skills, but it's also an innovative way of learning. And like when you have the innovative way of learning, it could give you this thought to create more innovative things in life and develop things that will help students in the future. Going along with the other gentleman, I think it's going to help us because it can help you with your independency. Basically for me, I'm going to be a nurse and I have to have time management for other things in my life. And also because it teaches you how you want to learn. Because some people, they learn better with videos and stuff like that. Some people learn with no videos and a teacher in front of them. Yeah, going on what they said, I think it's going to help me in the future life because if I'm sitting there in college, no one's going to come out working for me. So it's like, yes, we're one crown with sisterhood here, but we're still one person ourselves, so we have our own responsibility to take care of and have to put our independency in and use it to make sure our work is turned in on time and everything is completed and that we fully understand it. I really love all of this because I think our educators need to know that learners really want their autonomy to be able to do what they need to do for themselves, right? And I think just to recap everything that you all said, it allows you to be independent. It allows you to be self directed, because you all are aware that in the future, as you get older, you're not going to have someone continue to remind you of things that you have to do. And so creating this kind of urgency to learn and to cater to how you learn is just really, really exciting. I think, for me, the biggest thing was I love this little taste of reality. I don't think I've ever heard anyone describe the model that way. But I really love that. And it's so true, because I feel like these are the skills that I should have known as a middle schooler as a student. Because when I transitioned from being a teacher to working from home, I really struggled with my time management as an adult. Right. Because, again, this was something that I just didn't have. And so I really appreciate the self awareness that you all bring to the table. This is really, really great. Okay, so listeners are going to take a quick break for an announcement, and we come back, we'll talk a little bit more about Miss Cosby and her Gems experiences. Hey, listeners. It's Tony Rose here with some announcements and reminders. If you and or your teacher bestie are interested in the virtual mentorship program, we do have scholarships available. Make sure to check out Modern Classrooms.org scholarships. We have regional scholarships available for educators in Baltimore City. New York City, DC. Chicago, Tulsa County, and the Twin Cities that include full tuition, a year of implementation support, and a $500 stipend for finishing the program. We are continuing our scholarship across the state of Indiana, which includes implementation support and 30 PGPs. Any educator in the state can enroll right now@modernclassrooms.org. Indiana. We also have partnerships with districts across the country who are paying for educators to go through our training. As for professional learning, make sure to check out our webinars page on Modern Classrooms.org slash webinars, and to connect with our community. Join our Twitter chat on the first Wednesday of the month and our virtual meetup on the second Wednesday of the month. We hope to connect with you outside of our podcast. All right, now we're back with Miss Cosby, Anasia, Monica, Haley, Natalie, and Nicole. Miss Cosby, we often get comments about how much more taxing this model is, meaning it's just a lot of front loading, right? So how do you provide support for educators who are implementing this model, and how has this model impacted your school? One way is it's not mandated? So I can give you a little history of how Modern Classroom has spread through my school just within the last two years. I just simply showed the end of our first year of. Grace James. We were in COVID the last two months of school. They let us come to school, and at the end of May, I just showed the video and I said, if any of you are interested in transforming your classrooms, this delivery model directly supports our mission and vision here at Grace James. So I had two first year teachers over the summer. They did the first module on their own, and then they made videos and they came back, started Unit Zero, and just their second year, second year teachers. And I didn't even know anything about it. I happened to be walking by his room one day and he was talking about Unit Zero. I said, well, that's different. And so I went in there and he's like, yeah, Miss Nanny and I were doing the Modern Classroom, and I about jumped up and down. I was so excited. I finally convinced someone to do Modern Classroom. And I had seen the video in 2018, and I had always wanted it to happen. So most of the staff were actually interested in incorporating the Modern Classroom in their classrooms. And they found kind of like you just said, some were like overwhelmed, this is too much. And then others did what they could, and now we're in our second year and more people are comfortable with it. And I try to explain to them, I said, you have lots of recorded videos already just from Nti. They just need to be a lot shorter. But still it depends on how you're wired as a person and your executive functioning skills. A lot of times you start something brand new, it can at first seem overwhelming, and there's no way I'm going to have time to do this. But it's a lot faster than long drawn out lesson plans because you're multiplying yourself within the classroom and it supports all levels of students within the classroom. So at the end of last year, I offered stipend pay for up to ten or 15 hours of video for teachers to create over the summer, and I paid them to make their videos. So the entire math team made their videos over the summer for like the first two grading periods for math. And you'll see them sometimes even on their planning. Their doors are closed and they have a sign outside their door recording because they're making their videos for the next week or whatever. And every classroom looks different. Some are very much strictly blended learning, very little direct instruction. And then you have some where there's at the beginning of each class or whatever, they may 10 to 15 minutes of direct instruction, or there'll be another class where the teacher is literally doing small groups based upon the needs of the students at that time who may need more than the video. They need a teacher. So depending upon which class they serve is how the teacher adjusts. There's no one size fits all for anything. But the majority of our students, especially at this age, they want autonomy, they want independence, they want choice, and they want agency. So they will buy in more. When those components are offered to them. I would say to start off with modern classroom, go slow, chunk it out, scaffold it, do a little out of time, become really good at something, and then add another component to it. If you try to do everything all at one time, yes, it is overwhelming. But if you front load, like next year, my whole math department, they will already have the videos for every grade level, so they're already ahead of the game. But there's so many more benefits and payoffs and pros than there are cons. It makes your life way easier in the classroom. I know my teacher said he is no longer leaving work exhausted because he's not doing all the work. The cognitive load and the work that needs to happen within the classroom are happening with students, which is the way it should be versus the teacher doing all of the work. And he said he just literally walks around the room and provides clarifying questions or checks on students as they are working through a task or their mastery check. But he is very busy all over the classroom. And in a traditional setting, the teacher is at the front of the room, and the kids have to wait in line one at a time to get the teacher's attention. When with the modern classroom, you may have eight kids who are speeding through, you may have eight who are right on pace, and you may have eight who have watched the video a couple of times, worked with a partner. But the teacher will be able to quickly know that they need to be pulled as a small group and get some more one on one attention in real time. Yeah, Ms. Cosy, this is all really great. And I think time and time again I've heard from educators just saying the work life balance is finally there. Because I know as educators, we definitely struggle with that, right? Like always having to bring home work, always being so exhausted at the end of the day. And I know that I always tell our educators, too, like, hey, get the students to do majority of the work. It really is okay to let go of the control. Like, let the students drive the wheel. They can. Our students can not just GMJ students, but all students who are in school. Yeah, and that's such a nice reminder. And I think also for the students, like, shifting our educators, some of our educators really struggle or really more mindful about like, oh, but if I change it, I don't know how my students will adjust to it. Or they say things like, oh, my students can't do something like that. And so for the students, how do you think you would navigate that conversation when an educator is saying, well, the students can't handle all of these changes, what would you say to that educator? Yeah, what would you say to that educator? I'm curious to know because I've got a few who'd like to hear. So I think that you're not looking through other people's perspectives. And I feel like anybody can do something, well, almost anything, if they just try. So if you're not putting belief in a student, then what type of educator is that? You have to have belief in all of your students that they can exceed and be beyond what people say about different students. So I would say that at least try it, because you can't knock up there until you try it. So if it works for your classroom, then you can keep doing it. Also, I feel like how to navigate the situation honestly, if a teacher doesn't think that a student can do it, I feel like that they're discouraging the student. And if you're educated, you're there to help and support. So if you already are doubting them, that means you've been feeling that way. And I feel like you're not looking at the benefits for your students because at the end of the day, that's who you want to succeed. So when you're trying to discourage somebody, you're trying to belittle them, to make them stick to a level of where they're already at instead of trying to help them exceed that. I feel like the people who say that the kids can't do it or they think that they won't be able to shift, I feel like they should ask the students. I feel like they should do things like surveys and things of that nature to figure out how the students feel. Because if you just put words in the student's mouth, it's not going to be good for them and it's not going to be good for you. Because if a student finds out that you said that you feel like they can't do something, it'll hurt their self esteem and it'll start hurting their academic levels and things like that. And also it's just really you should always look from a modern day perspective. Because I feel like when people say they feel like a student can't transition between traditional and modern, it's because they're thinking back on like, how they grew up and how they were taught and not looking from the perspective of younger generations. Yes, like she was saying as the term, like, it's a different time now. You have to think, okay, it's a different time, we're learning differently. And it's kind of giving. You don't have no hope in this. So it's like, what's the point if you want to be an educator if you're not actually trying to educate someone and get different chances and different opportunities in learning and showing different ways you can learn and just giving them, okay, it's a different time now. Ways have changed. It's different ways, different ways for me to teach and also for other people to learn. And if anybody tell you that you can do something and you start to give up on yourself, don't let nobody discourage you. Do what you put your mind to. For the listeners. I hope you're taking so many notes here. I mean, our students have spoken. These are 7th grade students gems who are telling us what they need and what they need from their educators. Honestly, you all basically said it. You have to believe in your students. They can do these things. There's not a can't unless you try it, right? And I love that you all just even highlighted, hey, ask the students. Really bring them in and make sure that they understand we're going to try something new, and that's okay. We may make mistakes, but that's also okay. And I just really love again, I always tell our educators that it only takes one adult to really change the trajectory of a student's learning journey. And so when students hear teachers say, like, oh, they can't do something, it really does bring down that self esteem, the confidence, and then they just don't want to be at school anymore because they know that their teachers don't believe in them. And so I love that you all acknowledge the fact that some educators, they really like the way that they teach because this is how they grew up. This is how they were taught. So they want to continue teaching the way that they were taught, but really highlighting and advocating for the fact that there's different ways of learning now. And it is a modern day now. We don't actually have to keep doing what we're doing. And so that was beautifully said. I couldn't have said it better myself. So thank you for that. It's just so great to hear students say all of these things, because I'm just not saying it as an adult and just running my mouth, essentially. But it's really nice to hear students say that these are all the things that could potentially happen when you create the space for students to actually learn independently and have the autonomy to do. And so for both of you, I guess we could start with Ms. Cosby first. What do you hope to see in the future and what goals do you have? What do I hope to see in the future? We're getting ready to go to a high school, and our focus is going to be early college. We really want our students to leave here with an associate's degree, whether they stay in state or out of state. And my goal and my hope is that those college professors who end up teaching our students, that they adapt to the teaching and delivery model that best meets the needs of students in 2020 dot, dot, dot, versus the traditional way of doing teaching and learning. I really feel like every three to five years, because of technology, we are being challenged to meet the needs of the learner that is sitting in front of us. So in three to five years, we will have to adjust the delivery model. Because a few years ago, I mean, like, I don't know, ten years ago, you know, YouTube was the thing and then, you know, Twitter and Facebook, and now we've gone from watching 1520 minutes videos on YouTube to a minute or less on a TikTok. And so things are evolving and iterating and changing on a regular basis because of technology. And instead of being so against using it to make learning, like they said earlier in the podcast, more efficient for them, because this Gen Z generation, they are used to efficiency. They can learn how to do something in a minute or less on a TikTok. So for you to stand and lecture for an hour and they got pretty much the concept that you wanted in the first 15 minutes, you're going to lose them because they can learn it faster with technology. I am so excited about Gen Z, Ms. Cosby. They tell you what they want and then if you don't give it to them, they find a way to get what they want. Yes. I mean, talk about self directed learners. I feel like they were born that way and they advocate for what they need. I'm low key jealous that I'm not a judge, but I'm so thankful for them. And they challenge that status quo, which I absolutely love. And they don't just sit back and let things happen, they make things happen and change for the better. Yeah, I love it. They're definitely disrupting that status quo that you stated in the beginning. So what about you all? Anaya, Monica, Haley, Natalie, Nicole, what do you hope to see in the future and goals do you have? I hope to see more schools doing the modern classroom thing because I feel like it's very helpful for students our age, and not just students our age, but like, the students that are to come through the next couple of years. Yes. In the future, I hope to see a change. And like, she was seeing, like, in the more schools using modern classroom and actually fit into a test, even if they don't fully use it, just actually trying it and see what they like. Or give more school opportunities with that modern classroom learning because maybe you can keep those same schooling, but give more schools, not just a few schools we have that have the modern classroom methods, but give it more opportunities for everybody. And I hope to see every school using the modern classroom. And also I hope to see that teachers and adults in general to stop giving up on the kids. In the future, I'd hope to see also, as everyone say, modern classroom, but also just an out for everyone to have an even opportunity to where everyone benefits from the same thing and everyone's on the same plate. So that's what I hope to see in the future. Yeah. Speaking from a non school perspective, what I hope to see is where well, it is a school perspective to see where some of the gyms go, because I know a lot of these gyms well. All of the gyms are beyond amazing, and they excel in so many different things. So I just want to see where the school actually takes them. And also I want to see where my friend group and support system takes them, because I don't know what I would do without them. They have my bags, and they would never let anything bad happen to me. So I want to see where they would go, and I hope they go somewhere good with the opportunities Grace James gave you. Yeah. That was beautiful. Just amazing. I love the community that you've created here in Miss Gospel, and I love that they all have the words to really articulate exactly like, what they want, right? To really advocate for what they want as learners. And I love the whole vision of, like, we want to provide these equal opportunities for every single student and not just some. And again, amazing. I know I definitely did not have these words to articulate exactly what I was feeling and what I was needing when I was in 7th grade. And so just to be able to hear students just speak about it is just so great. So, Miss Cosby, how can our listeners connect with you? They can email or they can call the front office. That is beautiful. And we'll definitely put that in the Show Notes for our listeners because Ms. Cosby is doing some really magical stuff, like great things that we should have been having all these years. And so thank you so much, Ms. Cosby. Thank you, Anasia, Monica, Hailey, Natalie, and Nicole. I am so grateful for your time and stories today and just your input. It's always such a pleasure to hear from students just because it's not just adults saying these things, but it's also students really wanting this type of learning to happen as well. 


And so, listeners, remember, you can always email us at podcast@modernclassrooms.org and you can find the Show Notes for this episode at podcast modernclassrooms.org 121. So we'll have this episode's recap and transcript uploaded to the Modern Classrooms blog on Friday, so be sure to check there. Check back in the Show Notes for this episode if you'd like to access those. Thank you all for listening. Have a great week and we'll be back next Sunday.


Participant #1:
Thank you so much for listening. You can find links to topics and tools we discussed in our Show Notes for this episode. And remember, you can learn more about our work at www.modernclassrooms.org. And you can learn the essentials of our model through our free course at learn modernclassrooms.org. You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @modernclassproj. That's P-R-O-J We are so appreciative of all you do for students and schools. Have a great week. And we'll be back next Sunday with another episode of the Modern Classrooms Project podcast.