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 learners. In this episode, Zach Diamond is joined by Maureen Delgado to discuss personalized learning and differentiation at her diverse, multilingual elementary school. 

A learner once told Maureen that school was being done to him and not with him which prompted her to figure out a way to give students more ownership about what they were doing, how they were learning, and how to show what they learned. She first found out about the Modern Classrooms Project when she started learning about personalized learning and differentiation through professional development in order to meet the needs of all the diverse and multilingual learners at her school. 

Why go school-wide?

The decision to go school-wide came from Maureen’s teachers - they received a stipend for taking the Virtual Mentorship Program, but they found the course not only useful but also enjoyed having a mentor from MCP help with implementation. Students were excited about it, which pushed more educators to try it. 

The momentum built from there, driven by learners, administrators, and educators who were excited about it. Representatives from the Modern Classrooms Project reached out when they realized how deeply her school was involved with the model. Maureen hopes to eventually earn the Personalized Learning School designation for Clinton Elementary School in the future. 

What does school-wide mean at Clinton?

There are educators who are fully implementing a Modern Classroom, others who are just using parts of the model, and still others who teach more traditionally. Maureen’s goal is that all teachers at the school take the training and currently they have 77% of the staff who will complete the Virtual Mentorship Program after the next cohort.

The teachers who are using it best really work with their PLC to plan using the time that Maureen gives them. The students have ownership and can articulate what is happening in the class, why the class is set up, how it is, what they are working on, how they achieve mastery, and how they are doing as individuals. There is a lot of frontloading involved with MCP so educators do need a support system and time to plan ahead. 

What unique ways are Clinton educators personalizing learning?

Student-led conferences are a developing custom at Clinton. All students have a learner profile that they update during the year with goals, learning products, and more. During conferences, the learners prepare ahead of time and practice how they will showcase their learning and their progress toward their goals.

While some educators have been resistant, especially those who had been successful with traditional instructional methods (good test scores, observations, and positive feedback from educators/parents), parents have largely embraced the model.

Ensuring educator success

Since there are no instructional courses within the school, Maureen has relied on educators within the school to support one another. The excitement around this work is infectious and a good network of support makes the model doable.

For some educators, implementation feels straightforward and easier than traditional instruction. One of Maureen’s educators found Modern Classrooms easy to implement in her first-grade math classroom. Since she is the only one in her grade level using MCP she has built it on her own. However, there are three sixth-grade math teachers who are collaborating to the point where they share the work and all the videos they create. That method of organization has actually reduced their planning time, and will continue to reduce their planning time as they are able to reuse lessons in years to come.

Clinton Elementary School in Chicago has a wide variety of learners, from newly immigrated students with gaps in learning or language to students who outpace their peers. Maureen has allowed her educators to discover how a Modern Classroom differentiates, and therefore enables learners to get the level of support they need.

Discussion questions for PLC and PD: 

• Where do you fall in the MCP implementation process (a mentor, completed the course, working on the course, planning to take the course in the future, or just waiting)? What is preventing you from moving forward? 

• Could you foresee your school going school-wide with MCP? Why or why not? What positives would that lead to and what drawbacks would there be?

• Does your school use student-led conferences? What are your thoughts surrounding that concept? Would you be willing to try it or do you think it would work? Why or why not? 

• What supports does your school currently have towards using MCP? Which would you like to see in the future? Do you, personally, use them? Why not or how have they been helpful?

Our Host

Zach Diamond studied Music History and Theory at Oberlin College and received a Masters of Music in Music Education from Boston University. He taught music for five years in Lima, Peru, and is currently a Middle School music teacher at DC International School, a language-immersion school where he teaches in Spanish. He began implementing the Modern Classrooms Model in the 19-20 School Year and enthusiastically continues his work with the organization as a mentor and podcast producer.

Our Guest: Maureen Delgado

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