Zach Diamond 0:03 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 Deanon 0:28 Hello, and welcome to episode 79 of the Modern Classrooms Project podcast. My name is Toni Rose Deanon and she/her pronouns, a program manager at MCP and I am joined by an elementary school mentor. Jess Bille, welcome. Jess Jess Bille 0:42 Hi, everyone. Toni Rose Deanon 0:43 It's so exciting to be in this space with you. And thank you so much for saying yes to the podcast. Typically, when teachers think about or educators think about self pacing, right, it's just kind of like, oh, well, cool. We're just gonna let our learners go. And kind of like the opening and the closing routines get thrown out of the window, because it's just a lot. You know, it's a misconception that when it's self pacing, the students really are just like on their own. Jess Bille 1:14 Together, we look at the Progress Tracker, and we discuss which lesson is on track who's working on revision and who might be ahead of schedule. This time gives students ideas on who to ask for help, or who they can partner up with for the day, I try to encourage them to set goals for themselves on what they'd like to accomplish. Some days, I might start with a whole class mini lesson where I can clear up any major misconceptions before I release them to get to work on their own. Whenever I noticed a lot of students are stuck on the same thing, I tried to make sure I address it as a mini lesson before the next block. Toni Rose Deanon 1:45 And so that was another thing that I really liked doing an n are opening routines is that the students knew the expectations they want, as soon as they walk in, they either have a new seating chart, or they need their binders, or they just go straight to their seats, and then they do their SEL do now. And so my do now consisted of just like five questions. So I asked him how they were feeling. And it was a drop down menu. And it was like a weather thing right like sunny, rainy, stormy. And then my students gave me some feedback on what kind of words they wanted to add in, which was a lot of fun as well. And then we talked and then I asked them, are you on pace behind pace or ahead of pace? And then asking them what what is your goal for today? Right? Like, what do you want to get done today? And then the last one was basically like, hey, is there anything else that you'd like to tell me so you know, our students love telling stories. So this was a great way for my students to just kind of keep me posted on how they're doing outside of school, in school, whatever they want to share with me. And so this was a great way for me to get to know my students as well. And I really love that part. Jess Bille 2:54 They were first exposed to these routines from the beginning of the year, when I rolled out a unit zero to the unit zero, I focused on growth mindset, because I wanted it to be something that was low stakes as a unit zero should be and I wanted to really teach about growth mindset at the beginning of the year, because I really feel like what better thing to work on with a modern classroom project than growth mindset. So we would every day, we would begin our blog discussing the Progress Tracker, and we'd have a lot more conversation in depth conversations at that point, because it was really new for the students. So they would really, they would struggle to use their own individual pacing trackers or progress trackers, they would kind of forget to update them, or they're not really sure where they're supposed to be or did I actually complete this. So those first few weeks of school that we spent doing the unit zero, we really kind of zoned in on what we needed. What I was expecting them to do at the beginning of the math block. So they know just to come in and get those binders and then we're gonna go over the Progress Tracker in the front of the classroom. Toni Rose Deanon 4:03 You know, our opening routines, we need to practice that with our students. It's not like a one time thing or they'll get it right there. And then it's actually consistent thing, right? So and even if you do have small changes, something that you add on, like, you know, how just you were talking about you added on the the daily goal sheet, right? Even if you make some like small minor changes, students still feel, you know, like, they know the routine as they walk in, like, yeah, you can add this on, but like they know, like, this is how it looks. And I think the beauty of our our learners are young learners, that they're able to adapt to anything as long as you give them the opportunity to practice the opportunity to get, you know, to get to know the routine and really just to have them be part of the conversation as well. Jess Bille 4:52 I think with the elementary level, I think a lot of these routines. We spend a lot of time at the beginning of the school year. I know at every level like you said it took a few weeks. And no at the beginning of the school year, September is really a big routine in the elementary, maybe even October. So we practice those routines so that they're just solid. And now when my math block starts when, when our morning circle is over, and I say, Okay, time For Math, my students know exactly what to do. So it's really, those routines are so effective. Toni Rose Deanon 5:24 This is something that I tell people all the time, it's like, it's really important for us to name and acknowledge our feelings, walking into a space so that we can be aware of our reactions or words or behaviors. And it actually loosens up the environment as well. And so I've noticed with my adult learners that, you know, hey, you know, I introduce myself, and then it's like, Okay, the next five minutes, you're just going to talk in small groups and just kind of touch base and check in. And whenever they come back after the five minutes, like the environment is just so much different, like either coming back with smiles or laughing. And that just brings, you know, so much joy when we're doing this work together. And so it's really good to be able to just check in. And so taking that, and putting that and part of your opening routine is really important for any age. Jess Bille 6:19 So I like to end my math block with the public Progress Tracker, again, at the end of the block I feel is the most, we get a lot accomplished with the public Progress Tracker for the next block for the next day. So while the students are working, I have my teacher tracker that I like to go around. And I keep track of where everyone is they have their own individual trackers that they're responsible for updating throughout the unit. So everyone kind of knows where they are on their own. At the end of the block, I really like to come together as a whole group and share where we are share those accomplishments. So when I call everybody back to their seats at the end of the math block, we update the public progress Progress Tracker together. So we'll talk about okay, so tomorrow's lesson is on track lesson is less than blah, blah, blah. If you're on less than this, you need to get to this and this. Some people are starting to should do tomorrow or up, I have a few who are on the aspire to do. Here are some helpers for tomorrow. And it's a really nice way since I've incorporated that new daily check in it's a really nice way to check in. And now I can see that this student actually wrote a goal down and paper that they really wanted to reach lesson five, and I can say, wow, look at you, you actually reach you, you finish your master lesson five, you're onto lesson six. That's awesome. You met your goal. And there's no greater satisfaction for students than that, to know that they've met their goal independently on their own. After we're kind of done updating and discussing goals. I like to do shout outs. So I might say, Wow, I noticed I noticed Bobby back there. He did such a great job this whole time. I noticed he went to two students to ask for help. He came back to his computer he got right back to work he for you watch the video. And then he moved on to his activity and was able to pass on his mastery check. Way to go Bobby and then we'll all kind of cheer for Bobby a little bit. Toni Rose Deanon 8:16 You know, just I had that I was going to ask you as well, like how long does your closing routine? Last? And you said it five to seven minutes. And it seems like we're doing a lot but you know, it's, it's it's nice to know that like in five to seven minutes, you can do all of this. Jess Bille 8:32 It's a lot of reiterating what I already what they have already done and what I've already done. So that's why it goes so fast. It's not really new information, because I have my check board my checklist throughout that I'm checking. So I really know who's made it to Lesson five already. And they should know that they've made it to Lesson five based on their own Progress Tracker. So that's why it kind of goes quickly because I'm kind of in my head like just waiting for verbal affirmations. But I know exactly where everybody is. Toni Rose Deanon 8:59 Lisa was sharing with me that for that implementer what they had was that it was a great and progress check. And that was their opening routine. So the kids crafted an email to families to their own families to update their families and caregivers on process and goals for that week. And I feel like that was such a great idea because I was sending those emails to caregivers and see seeing the student and so I just sent a weekly email, updating every one of the progress and of course all stakeholders had access to the public pacing tracker that I have but it was really nice for me to do a weekly email as well to caregivers so that they kind of know what's happening. But and I know that this movement, I've seen a lot of implementers do craft that email or have their students craft that email to their caregiver so it's that's one less thing that teachers have to do. Jess Bille 9:57 So every opening routine is pretty similar. In the fact that we do the, the daily check in, and we just quickly look over the Progress Tracker, we do have our like I mentioned, we do our morning circle right before math. So on Fridays, I actually do soft start Fridays. And a soft start is when students like play like board games and things like that with each other. So it's just kind of a start way to roll into a Friday, which happens to be up kind of a heart, a high stress day for a lot of students, spelling tests, sometimes we have reading assessments, Fridays, or just a lot of assessments. So a soft start is a really nice way to slowly welcome them into the classroom. And they can use that soft start time to, if they felt like they needed to catch up on some math work, they could do that they could rewatch a video, they could do an activity, if they felt like they wanted to study for a spelling test, they could do that then. But it's a really nice way for them to enter the day on Friday. So I guess I should say, when we did come back in person, there was still the option for students to stay home. So I did have four students that were remote while the rest of my students were in person. So that was kind of like a little hybrid ish, because I had to be in two places at once, which was really hard. But the model made that so much easier. Because I felt like they were actually learning like I wasn't leaving anyone behind. So I'd like have a few minutes to check in with my my zoomies, I called them zoomies, and then I'd have a, send them off on their own. And then I'd work with the kids in the room. And you know, they were always on Zoom. And I'd always be there. So if they needed to come back had any questions at any time I was there to support them. I know a lot of people worry about using a public Progress Tracker because it can be divisive, and, you know, make kids who will feel or who are behind feel bad about themselves. And as you know, I use the public tracker a lot. It's one of my favorite tools. And I've actually never had any issues with it. I've taught my students from the beginning to treat the public tracker as a guide and a way to find a friend to work with or a friend to ask for help. They know that just because they're behind in one unit, that doesn't mean there'll be working behind in every unit. And I'd really like to stress that I really liked them to know that you know what, maybe maybe multiplication is really hard for you. But next unit when we're learning about fractions, you might be ahead of pace the whole time. Toni Rose Deanon 12:27 Listeners like before, you've heard me say there's no right or wrong way to do modern classroom. And I was immediately corrected and called in which was great by one of our mentors, and I really appreciate this. And, you know, the mentor was like, actually, there's like a wrong way to do modern classroom. I think there's just multiple right ways to do it. And I was like, oh, that's even better, right? Like, there's so many right ways to do modern classroom and it's really up to you. It's really up to your students, you get to decide how that looks for you and your students. And I think that's the beauty of this model as well. Jess Bille 13:03 I've reached the year mark about two units ago. So now I'm just kind of tweaking so I'm in a really good spot. So I'm really excited to like really tweak everything from here on out and then next year being able to start with a whole year's worth of great lessons and videos. Toni Rose Deanon 13:22 Thank you all for listening. Have a great week, and we'll be back next week. Zach Diamond 13:30 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 in schools. Have a great week, and we'll be back next Sunday with another episode of the Modern Classrooms Project podcast.