Episode 73: Self Pacing in Elementary Classrooms


Voiceover: 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. 


Toni Rose: Hello, and welcome to episode 73 of the Modern Classrooms Project Podcast. My name is Tony Deanon, she/her pronouns, a program manager at MCP, and I am joined by two mentors, Calla and Sarah. So our listeners shared that we needed more elementary voices, and I couldn't agree more. Welcome, Calla and Sarah. 


Calla: Thank you. 


Sarah: Hi. Thanks for having us. 


Toni Rose: It's so exciting to be in this space with you. And so thank you so much for saying yes to the podcast. I know that Calla has been a mentor with us for a year now. I think her one year is coming up in February. Right, Calla? 


Calla: Yeah. 


Toni Rose: Yay! And I was just telling Calla, as well. I haven't had a lot of time with Calla, so I'm really excited to get to know Calla a little bit more. And then, of course, we have Sarah, who just became a mentor this past December. So welcome aboard, Sarah. How exciting. 


Sarah: Thanks. It is very exciting. 


Toni Rose: So first of all, Happy New Year, it’s 2022. How are you both feeling? Let's start with Sarah and then Calla. 


Sarah: So right now I'm feeling pretty good. My class this year is, they're doing great. I have a big class. They definitely had a hard time in the past few years, but we're working well. We're working through it. So far, 2022. We started off on a positive note. 


Calla: Yeah. And I'm excited to see what 2022 brings. It's been a year of growth so far just in the past month. So I'm kind of just excited to see where we go. 


Toni Rose: Yay. That's always exciting to hear. My 2022 has definitely been on a more positive side, which is really great because I've just had such interesting previous years. So tell us more about who you are and how you started your MCP journey. We'll start with Calla. 


Calla: Yeah. So I am an early elementary teacher, also a mom. I have a kindergartener and a three year old, but I am early elementary, through and through. This is my 12th year straight in first grade. Actually, I was thinking about that the other day. I haven't taught another grade since my first year, which I taught second grade. I started on a Modern Classroom journey, kind of, when we initially shut down in March of 2020. I was on a district leadership team that was talking about how we can move forward from where we were, what we could take from distance learning, and how we could build that into our future, and how that could kind of change what our teaching looks like. So an article was shared with our team about Modern Classrooms. A small team in my building started to look at that and kind of dive into it. We completed - I think there were three of us that completed the mentorship program in my building. I started implementing in that fall then, of 2020, and then early on in 2021, I applied for Distinguished Educator and then became a mentor. And like you said, I'm coming up to a year now, and I think I've had 31 mentees, I checked, complete the program, which is super exciting. I've learned so much from them. And now I have fully transitioned my math and writing teaching to this model in my first grade classroom and starting to kind of think about how I can move that into other places. 


Toni Rose: Holy Moly, 31 mentees. That's exciting. And also twelve years in first grade. 


Calla: I know, knock on wood that I stay there. Right? 


Toni Rose: And Sarah? 


Sarah: So I teach fifth grade at the elementary level. I started with Modern Classrooms Project or kind of poking around the model in December of 2020. During that time, district admin had gathered together a group of teachers that they thought could help others feel a bit more comfortable incorporating technology into their daily lessons. Because at the time, we were a district that we were on Zoom with our students for five hours a day straight, kind of giving that direct instruction for the entirety of our days. So I joined that team, started looking into the model, took the free course, watched the Edutopia video, all of that. In January of 2021, one of my coworkers, Jess Billy, she's a third grade teacher at my school. She and I just called each other one weekend, and we were like, this math, what we're doing, trying to be face-to-face teaching, and it's not working. This is not working out. Let's jump into it. So over the course of a weekend and a lot of hard work, we each created our first unit for math. She in third, me in fifth and haven't looked back since. In September of 2021, I took part in the Virtual Summer Institute, which was great. Applied to be a Distinguished Educator right after I did the summer Institute, got it in September, and then in December became a mentor. And I just picked up my two first mentees for February. So I'm excited. It's kind of been a whirlwind, but it's working out well so far. 


Toni Rose: And I'm so excited for you, Sarah. I can't even remember my first two mentees. So I know that you're going to have a blast in this, and we're here for you as well. So it's exciting. One thing that really stuck out to me is that you both had a community of teachers who are really interested in implementing this model, which is really exciting, right? This is something that I tell teachers who are interested in this model all the time is that “hey, find yourself a teacher bestie to do this model with, because I think it will be a lot more attainable if you have someone that you're doing this model with, as well.” And so thank you for sharing your story. That was really cool. Tell us more about your school so you can talk about, like, demographics, total number of students, location, technology, anything you want to tell us about your school? We can start off with Calla. 


Calla: Yeah. I teach at Doherty Elementary, and it's in West Bloomfield, Michigan. We're in the kind of Metro Detroit area. The kind of cool thing about my school is we're a kindergarten through second grade school. So we really have an elementary, early elementary focus. I've been there since about 2016. This year, I was just checking. I think we're about 500 students, just under 500 students. So we have a large number of sections in each grade, which really gives us the opportunity to collaborate with the team. I'm in a team of seven first grade teachers, so we have a lot of knowledge in that building, which is wonderful. I was the first person on my team to implement, and I have had several of my team members and staff in the building go through the course, and they're just kind of thinking about how they can apply this at this point. But my district has one-to-one Chromebooks, which has been super helpful with the little ones. One thing that I found that has been really helpful is wireless mice, which the touchpad is fine, but a wireless mouse is this amazing tool that I was able to write a grant and get some of those. We have a whole class set that we just store them in like an over-the-door shoe holder. And it just has really changed my students' ability to use the Chromebook a lot easier. But, yeah, so that's kind of our technology that we're using. We use Canvas as our LMS, which with practice, we've been able to make it work really well, even with six and seven year olds. But, yeah, the biggest thing about our school is that it's K-2. So we're able to really focus on what elderly elementary students need. 


Toni Rose: Wait, Holy Moly. Canvas and K-2, right? 


Calla: Yeah. When they rolled it out, it was K-12 initiative for our district when we were remote and we all looked at it like, wow, that's a lot of text on the page. But really, we've been able to make it work. A lot of buttons, a lot of videos, giving directions. So it works. 


Toni Rose: Wow. I may have to pick your brain later on for that. That is fascinating. Well, that's great. You have about 500 students and you have seven in your team. That's incredible. 


Calla: It’s a lot of fun. 


Toni Rose: I'm sure it is. All right. Thank you for that. Sarah, what about you? 


Sarah: So I work at Lincoln Thompson Elementary School. It's in Lynn, Massachusetts. So it's just north of Boston. My school is a K-5 school. It's a tiny school. We only have about 200 students in a much larger district of about 15,000 students. So my school is a tiny school that's plunked into a much larger city. We have a high population of English language learners. And so I feel like this model has definitely helped me reach some of those students a lot more. For technology, Lynn Public Schools -  We didn't have a ton of technology before the pandemic. Now all of our students in grades one through 12 are one-to-one with laptops, which was fantastic. Each student received a laptop. They got headphones, they got a mouse, which was great. That really helped the transition because our students again, before they were desktop computers a few times during the week. We didn't really have a technology course. Now we have a fourth prep with technology, which is awesome. They're using those laptops daily, and we use Schoology as our LMS. This is our second year in Schoology, and again, it's K-12. We are using it all at different capacities, in different ways. But it's been working out. 


Toni Rose: Yeah. And I think that's what happened with COVID, right? Like, a lot of schools were really forced to get into technology. So if you didn't have it before, it was like, now you kind of have to have it. And it's really good to know that your school is able to provide all of those resources for students. And so they got their headphones, they got their Chromebooks, which is really exciting. And I think another thing, too, that was Calla, back to what you were talking about with the wireless mouse. I would have never thought to have that option for little kids, but it makes so much sense. 


Calla: Yeah. It's a lifesaver, and it's just one less barrier between them accessing what they need. They don't have to learn a new, I mean, a mouse is still new, but it's not as novel or difficult as that touchpad. 


Toni Rose: Yeah. And I'm thinking about it, too. I taught adult ESL, and so some of my adult learners had never touched a computer before, and I was teaching computer lab as well. So it was like computer skills and English skills on top of that. And so them knowing how to work the mouse was really interesting. So I can only imagine what that would be like with younger kids as well, who've never had a mouse before, right? Like, they have to figure out what those skills are. That's so much to think about. Okay. So, Calla, tell us more about your thought process and implementing a self-paced structure in your classroom, especially with your first graders. So how does self pacing look in early childhood? 


Calla: Yeah. So initially my goal for self-paced learning in my class was just that I could keep students moving forward in their learning and then also provide support so all my students can keep moving forward. They can all make progress, right? So right now, like I said earlier, my math and writing are self-paced from a student experience. I guess, when we're starting either one of those subjects throughout the day, I do spread them out. So it's not back-to-back. We do other instruction forms throughout the day, but when we start writing or we start math, we gather together, we take a look at our progress tracker. So my progress tracker has just the assignments that any students happen to be on. So if there are assignments that we've all passed or none of us have made it to yet, I don't put those on our tracker just to kind of limit what they see. Because again, they're six and seven. Sometimes they're five when they come to me, so they're young and too much visual information would be hard to navigate. So I lead them kind of through what their goals are for the day. What do they need to get done? What do they want to get done if they have some choice, and then who are they going to get some support from, or who might they make themselves available to support? So some of my students who might be a little further ahead in the lessons could make themselves available to others. Like I said, they log into their computers, they access their work from Canvas. Most of what I do is housed in Google Slides, so they use that to navigate their assignments within Canvas. And something that might be a little bit different for my students in early childhood is that I generally make one or two new assignments available a day to work on. So, like I said, for early childhood, sometimes the lesson is just me giving directions for a math game or even early on, in like a unit 0 it’s me just explaining how to take a picture and submit something or how to find the button to submit something. But when I said it's like simply giving directions, that's a full lesson for a six year old. That's modeling a game, giving instructions on how to find a partner to play. So sometimes that's what a lesson is, and that's what the game is. And that's one new thing that they have to do that day, for the students who are on pace. When I see students that always have a new assignment to work on, that's me having some control also over that self-paced process. So keep them reined in a little bit, and they're not too far apart from each other. They still have the opportunity for collaboration because they're not being able to access an entire unit at once. Again, only being six and seven, seeing that full unit in front of them could kind of be overwhelming and difficult to navigate. So to make it manageable, I open 1-2 assignments for the day. And then if a student finishes it, my next step is a choice board of aspire to do activities. We call them Dolphin activities because that's our school mascot and it just is kind of fun. But those changes are objective changes. So as we move through a unit, they change with what we're working on. There are also the students, then, who are working through earlier lessons. They know they can find the students who are on our Dolphin, and they can go to them first if they have a question about maybe submitting or where to find work that they need. I spend most of my time in one-on-one conferences that are pretty fast. It's actually been a big change for me to think about how I used to spend maybe my workshop model of time and how I used to have a larger group for a larger amount of time. And now I'm really spacing my time out where I'm working with students quickly to kind of review maybe some work that's been submitted during the day, maybe working in a small group from what I saw the previous day, but also I'm doing a lot of collaboration facilitation. So, like helping students to work together. What does that look like when you're just learning to do that? And how do I help you learn to help yourself? So you might not know how to submit something, but instead of just saying, “I don't know how to do that,” how can you find some help for yourself before just kind of giving up? So that's something that I've been really working on this year is working on helping ourselves, giving ourselves some resources. So throughout the day, I'm doing many different things, but it looks much different than what I've seen myself doing in the past. And at first it was a little bit scary because I wasn't sure, “am I doing this right?” But I've noticed now I'm able to catch those big gaps before they become big gaps because I have a quick time that I can check in with somebody, fix any misconceptions, and then they can move on. But we kind of wrap up our day going back to our goal - “Did we do what we want to get done. Did we get done what we wanted to get done? What did we actually get done in our work?” And then we also have that conversation with a partner, some accountability, and then sometimes it's more formal as the unit goes on. They might submit something to me in Canvas, letting me know their goals and how things are going. But that's kind of how we wrap things up. 


Toni Rose: Calla. This sounds so fascinating. I like going to be in your class just to see how it is in first grade. I mean, I can't even imagine working with six, seven, or five year olds. Like, what? I can't wrap my head around it.


Calla: It's so much fun. It's a blast. It's not anything that you would expect it to look like when you walk into a first grade classroom, but it is the best part of my day. 


Toni Rose: How long would you say it took for the students to get a hang of this self pacing structure? 


Calla: I don't know. I was actually talking to a mentee about that the other day, and I kind of block out the beginning of the year sometimes. Right? Like all the routines and procedures, like how I taught them to go to the bathroom and to ask for all of these things. Right? But I know that it was no different than me teaching them any other procedure. It just was something I had to think a few steps ahead of what I needed them to do. So I needed to know how I wanted them to turn things in, how I wanted them to access their work, just like I would want to be able to teach them how to ask to go to the bathroom or how to find materials in a regular classroom. 


Toni Rose: Yeah. And something that I heard from one of our kindergarten mentors, actually, was that there's a lot of hand-holding in the beginning. Right? Because these are such young learners, they really need a lot of hand-holding and explicit directions on how to do certain things. 


Calla: Definitely, very clear. And as a teacher, you have to really know where you're going with things before they even have access to any of that. 


Toni Rose: Yeah. And I really like what you said, as well, of just having 1-2 new things that students are looking at every day. And just the fact that you said I still control it. Right. So for teachers, us teachers, we have a hard time relinquishing control. 


Calla: Never. 


Toni Rose: And so it's really interesting to hear you say, like, you could still have that control. It's still self-pacing and you still have a little bit of control because then students aren't all over the place. Right? So I love the fact that you chunk for your younger learners. So the pacing tracker, I would have never thought to just have the specific lessons that you've done and not give them the entire thing to overwhelm them. That would have never been something I thought about. So that's really good to keep in mind. And I like that you said sometimes lessons are just directions on how to do something. Right? Like it could be how to be a lesson expert or how you could find a partner. But those are still skills that need to be taught. And so I really like that you take that time to teach students because I think sometimes as teachers, especially in middle school and high school, we just assume our students know how to do something, and that's not the case. So I appreciate you working with your younger kids and just teaching them explicitly what the expectations are and what the directions are so they can be successful in this type of learning. And also just kudos to having wrap-up talks at the end. Right. Like, hey, what did we actually do today? Because sometimes in the beginning it's like, oh, I'm going to do lesson one, two, and three. And then at the end you're like, no, I actually just did lesson one. 


Calla: Right. And it's a way for them to just reflect on some of the awesome things they're doing. I actually just had a conversation with a parent today who was asking me how is their child doing in math? Because she wasn't sure. And I realized that student hadn't been sharing a lot about how she'd been working through the math unit. And so I brought her to my table and I was like, hey, look at your last math assessment. And she's like, I got all of it, right? I was like, yeah, you're understanding everything. Let's think about the kind of the work that you're doing. And so it's just kind of time for me to think back “is everybody sharing. Is everybody thinking about what they're working on?” 


Toni Rose: Yeah. And I always talk about, too, for us to learn anything. Right. Students, young, older, young adult, we need to have conversations about what we're learning about. That's the only way it will stick. So thank you for sharing that - Sarah. So you're in fifth grade, you have a little bit older students. Tell us about your thought process on implementing a self-paced structure in your classroom. How does it look in elementary? 


Sarah: So fifth graders, even though they're a bit more independent, they still definitely needed a lot of hand holding in the beginning. I did have a Unit 0, and started that off at the beginning of September. And a lot of the activities, the videos, we just did, the Class Dojo videos, I used those. And then the activities were all social-emotional learning, all about growth, mindset. A lot of their mastery checks were just standing up and high-fiving a few kids or standing up and shouting “I believe in myself!” and just doing weird things like that. So one to get comfortable with the classroom, going around, trying to find a place that if I need a break, here's where I'm going to chill out for a little bit, but then also getting used to the structure of self-pacing with a hard end-line in sight, and then also just getting used to being on the computer go, finding their activities, coming back to their desks, finding a partner, working with someone. So it was a lot of that in the beginning, and they definitely needed that hand-holding. However, now I'm going to be starting my 8th unit, and the students are doing really well. Before winter vacation, my students were still able to work together. They were able to find a partner or to work with someone who might be a bit ahead of them to help them on an activity that they don't quite understand. Now, after winter vacation, we came back with some new guidelines in Massachusetts. And so it's a bit harder for students to work together, but we're still making it work. It just looks a little different. For my class, I have three progress trackers that really set the whole stage for self-pacing. I have a student-facing tracker that each of my units has some sort of a theme. So this unit right now working on volume, it's called Stacking Up Volume, and our theme is Legos. So the game board, it has all of the lessons, the entire unit there laid out for them, and it's all in the LMS. So they have a Lego piece that they move around the game board. And so that way they're able to keep track of their own pace. I only implement currently in math, and each of my math units are between four and seven, maybe eight lessons long. Each of my lessons should take about a class period, and it's the video, activity and then mastery check. So everything is there for them, color-coded in the LMS, and then also same color-coding in their map, their gameboard. And then I have a classroom-facing tracker that has three different sections on it catching up, right on track, and ahead of schedule. And each of my students underneath one of those sections is their first name and their lesson number. That way, if someone needs a little extra help, they've already gone back, they've watched the video. Again, I have a three-before-me rule in my class, so they find someone who is a lesson or a few ahead of them, and they can ask that person because that person has already mastered the lesson. They've done all the work so they should be able to help. And this year it's actually really cute. I have a bunch of students with the AOS crew, the ahead of schedule cre, and their goal, they've told me, is to remain ahead of schedule the entire time and to try to get other students to be ahead of schedule, too. So that's really cute. And then I have my teacher tracker. My teacher tracker is more just a checklist that I keep that I just check off each individual piece of the lesson that the students have completed. It's where I keep grades for the activities, if I choose to grade them, or the mastery checks. And that way if students because again, they're fifth graders, they're 10-11 years old. If they don't keep track of their game board and where they are with their piece, one day they forget to move their progress tracker. Then I'm able to tell them exactly what they're on. But so far they've been doing pretty well with that. I also use the teacher tracker for students who I have who are out sick, because still currently, students are quarantining for one and a half-two weeks at a time. And so when students are out, they're able to jump back in, even if we're on the next unit. If I see on my checklist that they haven't finished the unit, they're able to jump back in where they were, and then within a few days try to finish that unit, take the test, and then come right back into the unit where we are. And so far, I've had quite a few students who have needed to do that, but they've been pretty self-sufficient. They've been able to do that, take the test, and then keep on moving, which is awesome. So during that time, while my students are working on whichever lesson they're touching upon or the activity, the mastery check, I am working with students. I can't necessarily pull a small group anymore, but I can work with a student one-on-one at my table, or I just kind of float around the classroom checking with my students, making sure each of them is getting what they need. Even if I can't pull those small groups, I'm still able to check in with them, see what they're doing. They're still passing in their activities, passing in their mastery checks. I can still have those quick meetups with them because I have the time because the rest of my students, like I said before, are pretty self-sufficient. They're all doing what they need to be doing. 


Toni Rose: Sarah, you said some really incredible things. I teach again, 6th grade. Right. So I feel like fifth grade, 6th graders are kind of similar but really different at the same time. I love the movement that you incorporated with them, like giving high fives or just celebrating their wins. And I love that. I used to do that with my students, as well. So sometimes my students would get really tired of the instructional videos. So then I started incorporating some movement breaks in the video. Right. So that I know, oh, they're in this part of the video. So it could be as silly as, like, stand up on your chair and stretch or walk around the classroom. And so you can see students doing different things movement-wise just so they can have that brain break. So I really like that you had mentioned that in the beginning. Another thing, too, that I really appreciate is the fact that you have catching up, right on track, and ahead of schedule. And I love the phrase of “catching up.” I feel like it's a lot more positive than “behind pac”e because that was what I used in my classroom. But I love the catching up aspect, the phrase itself. And then, of course, your AOS crew, how adorable that their goal is to stay ahead and also get other students ahead. That's incredible. And I think that's one of the pros of this model is that it really does create an authentic, collaborative learning environment. Right. And so students really want to work together and they don't see this as a competition. They see it as no, this is a community and I want to help my friends and my peers succeed as well, which I find to be just so amazing. 


Sarah: Yeah, definitely. And I feel like some teachers will shy away from a classroom-facing progress tracker just because they think it's going to be a tool of ridicule or students will make fun of each other, depending on where they are. But I feel like phrasing it as catching up - students will be catching up for many different reasons, whether again, they were out sick, whether it be COVID or something else, or they were down with the social worker for a period or they had instrumental lessons, orthey were at chorus. So they can be catching up for many different reasons. It's not always about not understanding the material. And I think right off the bat on Unit One, they all understood that there were so many different reasons for students to be on catching up that it was never anything negative. And so they have been working really well. I do have a lot of students who get so excited when I move their name because it's projected on the smart board when I move their name to right on track or ahead of schedule. But again, I don't see anyone getting made fun of or being super upset if they are in that catch up section. 


Toni Rose: You said it beautifully. Basically, it's how you introduce the pacing tracker. Right. Like if you roll it out in a really positive way, the kids buy in. And so if you buy in as a teacher, they also buy in. And I love the fact that it's an intrinsic motivator. Right. Like, oh, you're going to move my name. That's really cool. As a teacher, we don't have to buy them candy or anything to get them to move ahead, but it's just more so they just want to see their name move forward or they want to see that color where their name is, which I think is really great. So yeah, that's awesome. So then I have a follow up question for you. So for your teacher tracker, where do you keep that? Is that on your computer? Do you print it out or do you just do it manually by hand? How does that look? 


Sarah: So I have it printed out because again, for my classroom-facing tracker, I usually keep that up on my computer for the most part. Sometimes I'll pause the screen, move to something else, but for the most part that's there, I'm moving that live. So students, like I said, they get so excited when their name moves. Do I have to do it in the middle of class? No, but they love it. So I like to do it. So my teacher tracker, I keep just in a file folder kind of right in front of me at my station. So that way, I mean, I still have those students because again, fifth grade, they're still little kids. Some of them like to tell you, Miss Kay, I just finished the video, or Miss Kay, I'm halfway through that activity. So some of them love to check in with me. Even when I know what they're doing. I know what they're handing in. I can see their laptops, they move around, but they love to check in with me. And they like to see me check off their name on that tracker as well. So I feel like it's one of those things that I mean, I think everyone just loves to check items off on a list. And so I just have a list at the beginning of each unit. And as we go through, I just check off or again, that's where I keep their grades for mastery. If I do have a student that doesn't do great on the mastery check, the first time, I'm able to write that down, two out of six, four out of six, whatever it is. And then that way, when I work with the student and give them either the same mastery check to try again or I give them a different one, focusing on the same skill, I'm able to see their growth. And I can show them their growth right there, too, because even if they don't get 100 on the second master check, I can show them my checklist and say, well, this first time you only got one right. Now, maybe you didn't get all six, but now you got four. It’s just the way we always talk about with this model that you have the data right there. That's kind of what it is for me. It's to keep that data right there. It's right at my fingertips. I can show it to them live. And so that's the greatest part of my teacher tracker for me. 


Toni Rose: Yeah. And the beauty, too, of just, like, focusing on growth, truly showing growth as opposed to just talking about it like you can actually see it. Oh, my gosh. And this is thing, too. Like, Debbie and I always talk about how we, as teachers, carried around a clipboard. And so it's good to know that you print out your teacher tracker and you just kind of check it off. And there's power to that. Okay. So we'll take a quick break right now, and I'll be right back. 


Kareem: Hi, everyone. It's Kareem here from the Modern Classrooms Project. I just wanted to share some exciting news about our big Virtual Summer Institute this summer, the summer of 2022. Now, as many of you all know, the summer is one of the most popular times for folks to learn our model. It's a time where folks can take a step back from their normal classroom experience and really rethink and redesign their approach to teaching and learning. And this summer, we plan to train 3000 educators this summer. Now, educators come through a variety of ways. You can enroll individually, you can enroll through a school and district partnership. And this year we have some pretty awesome regional scholarship opportunities. These are scholarship opportunities for educators. If you're located in DC, New York City, Connecticut, Chicago, Seattle, the Twin Cities, or Tulsa. These are folks who can just apply if you're an educator in these communities. And if you get accepted, you get a full scholarship to our summer Institute and some really great perks, including a $500 stipend. So check them out. You can just go to modernclassrooms.org/scholarships to see the regional scholarships. And you can just go to our website and you'll see at the top announcement bar. You can learn more about our virtual Summer Institute, see the variety of ways you can roll individually or collaborate with us on a school or district partnership. I hope everyone's doing all right. Good luck with the rest of the year. Thank you for all that you do. 


Toni Rose: All right, we're back. Thank you for sharing both of your thought processes as far as self-pacing in early childhood, early elementary, as well as elementary school. So let's continue the next question. What is one challenge and one success you've had with self pacing? So, Calla, we can start with you, and then Sarah, you can just jump in whenever. 


Calla: Yeah. I would say the biggest challenge for me has definitely been related to planning and feeling like I could stay ahead of the game. So thinking about when I first launched, I had a lot more content because I had been working on it through the summer. But trying to stay ahead as I continued through the school year was pretty difficult. And I decided to finally give myself that grace of I'm only going to be rolling out that one new assignment or a couple of new assignments every day. So my goal for myself has been to be about a week ahead of where my students are. Now, I have my content planned. Is it ready for students? No. So that's why I'm looking for that five day window that I have student-facing work ready, and then I have my plan for the unit. It just might not all be created or recorded by then. That has been really the only way I've been able to face that hurdle. And working with a lot of teachers as a mentor, that's the thing they've asked me is how do I stay afloat or how do I make this sustainable? And I think we just have to be honest with ourselves. At the first year, you're not going to be able to be ahead as much as you'd like to be. And if you are, that's amazing, and I want to know how you do it. But for me, I just couldn't be. So for my students who are on pace, they will still have access to a new assignment or a new lesson every day and then have those opportunities to assist and help work out aspire-to-do activities. But for myself, I can keep myself ahead of the game enough so that if I do have to be out or if there's a reason why I couldn't record new content, I still have enough to go moving forward. So that would be my biggest challenge. My biggest success is definitely that no matter what this year has thrown at us, whether we had to quickly go remote or whether we have students out for ten to 14 days or myself out for that period of time, that my students are not missing that core instruction in math and writing. Something that's shown to be more true now than ever is that we never know when a student will be out for a long period of time and we're still on pace to finish our current unit when we need to finish it. Which is amazing because I have a student, several students, actually, that I haven't seen since the beginning of December, except for maybe one or two times. And it's the end of January now. So I haven't seen them either because they've been out and then I've been out or we were remote. And even with all of that, they are still going to finish the unit and not only finish the unit, but be able to show mastery. And that's something that I definitely would not have been able to say if I was just teaching traditionally. So I'm really excited to be able to know that I'm providing the same opportunity for all of my students. Whether they have to be out because of quarantine, whether they are sick, or if they receive services that they need to be pulled out for, I'm still able to give them the instruction that they need. 


Toni Rose: Yeah. And I would even add on to, like you said, you were gone for two weeks. Right. Calla, is that what you said? 


Calla: Yep


Toni Rose: For me? It was so much easier for me to be out because I knew that it did not disrupt the learning. It continued even when I was not there. So that's really great to hear that learning continued. And I think, again, that's why a lot of people really buy into this model as well. Right. And then as far as the challenge is concerned, I hear you. I think the front-loading part of this is really overwhelming for some teachers. And I really like your advice of like, you know what? Probably the first year you're not going to be ahead and maybe the next year also. And that's okay. And I think that's why the way that you have your self-pacing structure as well in your classroom, Calla, is just like having one or two lessons for the week or for the day or whatever that may be. So you still have that control that gives you time to work on the next couple of lessons as opposed to having all of it ready by then. Yeah. Thank you for that. What about you, Sarah? 


Sarah: So one of my biggest challenges is that I have had students who have not finished units when it comes time for the hard deadline, the test date that comes up, and I always just feel really guilty about that. And I feel that I should have done more to help them throughout this unit, even though maybe they were stuck on one particular skill, they couldn't get past that. But I've always felt really guilty. I do have some students that have taken advantage of this second chance form that I have that I'll staple to an assessment that maybe is I mean, I really do it for any grade below a 70. If there's any student that wants to retake the test, they can. But I staple the second chance paper to any test that's below a 70. What they have to do is they have to fill in the unit that it was on and then two ways that they could work to enhance their score if and when they take it again. And then I usually give them a few days. They're able to come in either early in the morning or after school one day and retake that test. And I have seen it worked really well. I have students, one student particularly, who is so proud of himself, he went from a 29 the first time to a 100 a week later. And I truly think he just needed a bit more time to process all of that information. But he went in, he finished the unit, he went back, studied those videos, gave himself more example problems, took some extra activities, came back, and he did such a great job on that assessment. But then I have students who don't finish the unit and they don't take their time and go back. And I mean, they're young kids, and so that's to be understood. And the way that I've been kind of dealing with it is when I was teaching in a more conventional way, I would still have students who weren't mastering all of the skills I was teaching them. But now, even if they don't go back and retake that test, I have my checklist. I know exactly where they ended in that unit. I know exactly what's in the lessons that they didn't complete. And so I know what they can and currently can't do. So even if they don't go back and take their own time to come back and finish that unit, I'm able to work on those skills with them throughout the rest of the year. So maybe they didn't have them for that test. Grades don't motivate everybody, but they will have them by the time they get to 6th grade because I'll make sure that I continue to work with them on those skills, or if it's an entire class that was lacking on a certain skill, I'm able to put that into my whole group at the beginning of class. I'm able to put that in there before we go over our goals. I usually do a bit of whole group. It might be some review problems. It might be a discussion on what's coming up next. So I'm able to work that in there. A huge success with self-pacing, I have to agree with Calla, same thing that when I have students who are out for two weeks at a time, if they feel healthy enough, if they're out because they're just quarantining, then they're able to continue with the math instruction the same as we are. If they're not feeling great and they're sick for those two weeks or they're on vacation for whatever reason, they are able to come back to school instead of jumping into a new unit and completely forgetting about the last one, they have the autonomy to go back to that old unit, finish the unit, take the test, and then come back to where we are. I have a student who he was recently out for two weeks. He was ahead of pace when he left. When he came back, we were already on the next unit. He finished out the previous unit, took the test, and now a week later, he's actually back on track with where we are in the next unit. So that was kind of awesome to see. So successes with self pacing. It's really just giving students the autonomy to complete their units and to learn the material instead of just being on my schedule the entire time. 


Toni Rose: Yes. You couldn't have said it better. From a 29 to 100? I mean, it just shows. And I bet you that kid was so proud. And they probably learned a lot just being able to revise and go back and relearn what they needed to relearn. That's exciting. Those are all great. Thank you so much for sharing. So now what is one tip that you would tell a hesitant elementary teacher, early elementary or just a fourth or fifth grade teacher. Right. About self pacing? Calla? 


Calla: Yeah. So this might be less of a tip and maybe more motivation, but for someone who's hesitant. But what made me really buy in before I even saw it work in my classroom or really work in any classroom was a graphic that I remember seeing early on. It was either on the Modern Classroom website or it was in an article about Modern Classroom Project? But it highlighted the giant holes that we create during traditional instruction and based on absences and students just not being getting the instruction that they need to receive at the time. But it made me realize that no matter what great lesson I had taught that day, that having so many students not being able to access just was creating these inequities amongst my students that I could solve that problem with the help of Modern Classrooms Project. But I had a strategy to solve that. So I knew that even if I just started slowly with one subject and then kind of reflected on how it was going, that I could begin to address that. And for me, I decided to start the place that I kind of dreaded teaching during the day. And I love teaching, but I really dreaded teaching writing because for 13 years, there was always somebody who wasn't there for my lesson that day. And it was so hard to move on. Writing in elementary school takes a lot of hand-holding and gradual release. So if I am gradually releasing my students and I have a section of students who haven't heard any of my instruction, they don't know what to go and work on. And so it was very hard to have a successful workshop model where I could work with students and keep them moving when I was doing a lot of reteaching. So I decided to start with writing because I thought I could make my biggest impact there and be most manageable for me. So my tip is think about what's an area that you would want to have the biggest impact for you or your students or even what could be the most manageable for you, but think about how that will motivate you to stick with it and then kind of move from there. 


Toni Rose: Calla, what you said in the beginning, how you could have a great lesson and still students who are not there or students who are not like who are there physically but got a lot going on, they're going to miss that great lesson of yours. So I really like that because I agree with you. And now reflecting back, I've had great lessons, and then I have a group of kids who didn't get it, and I would have to reteach them the next day. And I didn't have the capacity to do that for that day because I had another lesson that I need to go over. So I like how you approach that where you're like. Writing is my least favorite to teach because of all of these things. And so this is where it's going to have the greatest impact. And then you ran with it. That's really cool. Thank you for that. Sarah, what about you? What's a tip that you have? 


Sarah: So my biggest piece of advice, like you said earlier, is to find another teacher that will go on this journey with you. Like I said before, that one of the third grade teachers at my school, Jess. She and I have been working together the entire time, and yes, two completely different grade levels, but it has definitely worked to have someone to bounce ideas off of, to share information as we're learning all of these new skills, recording, putting everything on the computer, on our LMS. It's just been really nice to have that person to talk to, to bounce ideas off of, to work with. And then also, if it's your first or even your second unit, you need to give your students and yourself much more time than you think that you would need to adjust. I know when I was planning my first unit, and even this year not my first unit, but it was my students’ first unit, I had allotted for a lot less time than what we needed. And so now I try to give myself and my students a bit more grace. So if you're just starting off, congrats, that's awesome. You'll love it. However, give yourself and your students time to get used to it, time to adjust, time to work out the kinks of this model, however it may look in your classroom, whether you're in person, online, a bit of both and just stick with it. 


Toni Rose: Thank you. Thank you for that, because you are absolutely correct. And I know our listeners had a lot of questions about how this could potentially work for elementary. They're too young. There's a lot of skills that they need to work on. And you two have just basically debunked all of it and was like, no, you're able to do all of this, especially with hand holding and explicit directions and really just modeling and lots of patience involved. Right. And so I appreciate you both. So we'll start wrapping this up. But before we go, how can our listeners connect with you, Calla and Sarah? 


Calla: I'm on Twitter. My Twitter handle is @teachCmiller. And also I try to be pretty active on the Modern Classrooms Facebook group. So if I have seen any elementary questions, I try to answer those if I can. 


Sarah: I have not really tried to be active in the Facebook group, but that's one of my upcoming goals is I'm going to start being a bit more active in the Facebook group, posting a few things that I've made that I would love to share out and then also answering questions as well. So you can definitely connect with me on there. 


Toni Rose: Yay. So listeners, definitely check out our Facebook group. We do have about 8.60 members now, which is really exciting. And you'll be able to see Cala and Sarah there as well. So again, thank you, Calla and Sarah, for joining us. Today, 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/73. Thank you all for listening. Have a great week, and we'll be back next week.


Voiceover: 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 at 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.