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. In this episode, Zach is joined by Amy Azaroff and Jesse Buck to talk about implementing Modern Classrooms in the secondary context - from middle to high school - and the unique opportunities and limitations we have when we teach older students.

It’s a misconception by many educators that self-pacing only works for secondary students. Although the Modern Classrooms Project model was developed in high school math classes, educators have successfully implemented self-pacing in kindergarten through university. Self-pacing can empower students of all ages to take more responsibility for their learning while more heavily involving them in the process, they just require different levels of preparedness and support.

Preparing Your Secondary Students for Self-Paced Learning

Although many secondary students are blossoming into responsible young adults who require less guidance, expecting them to be able to fully manage their own learning from start to finish is still an unreasonable expectation. Amy’s middle school students, some of whom she describes as “deer-in-the-headlights fifth graders or grade five, as we call them in Canada,” experience a huge range of maturity levels, and with that, a range of executive functioning skills. She supports that by self-pacing within individual lessons, keeping students who are head of pace involved in learning with should do or aspire-to-do activities, as well as supporting other students toward mastery. She has found that this helps them to manage their own learning in light of the new expectations that shifting around them. As they progress through the year, she allows some students to move forward, no longer needing to self-pace within a single lesson.

Additionally, she employs a robust Unit Zero that is very consistent and reflected throughout every unit. She keeps the notes, videos, and papers in the same place, every time. In introducing Modern Classrooms Project through her Unit Zero, she made sure students understood what they were responsible, what was expected of them, and how the class was going to work. And to check that they had mastered the content from this unit, she had them teach it to someone at home. She even gave the adult at home some work as well - “they had to write two things that they learned about Modern Classrooms and then filled out a certificate saying that their student taught them what a Modern Classroom was.” This not only ensured that students understood the process, but also helped to get an adult invested in the process, as well.

Jesse’s high school students, ranging from 9th-graders to seniors, require far less scaffolding and support. While he still employs a Unit Zero, he requires students to learn about it more independently, as well. Using the website and an article about Modern Classrooms Project, he helps them gain familiarity with the model. They then write an essay about the model, how they can benefit from the learning style, and why it fits into the school community. At the end of this process, they discuss it as a class and ensure that students know what learning will look like. Unlike Amy, he doesn’t need to refer students back to this lesson to remind them of expectations as frequently.

Building Student Relationships

Many educators are surprised to hear that a model based in blended learning can help them build stronger relationships with their students. Jesse confirmed that this was the most surprising by-product of implementing self-pacing with his students. “I'm able to have some real conversations with kids that aren't necessarily math-related, but life-related and really kind of help to mentor them,” he said. Not only has it allowed him more opportunities to chat with students, it has helped him to build stronger relationships with students he might not have as much one-on-one time with. As a coach, he gets frequent opportunities to connect with the athletes in his class and around the school. But he says “This really has helped me develop some relationships with kids that I wouldn't normally… It's kind of been an eye-opening experience for me because I've been able to see how I can relate to some of these kids more closely than I have in the past.”

Keeping On Track

Amy is confident with the chaos of a self-paced classroom, but has found many tools to help her and her class stay organized. She has an opening routine that is familiar for her students. It looks a little like this:

• A social emotional do now check-in that varies every day

• A soft start for ten minutes - allowing students to choose whether they want to read, play games, or talk to friends (and allowing Amy to take attendance!)

• 15 minutes of sketch-noting practice, using resources from Jen Giffen

This routine allows Amy to start the day gently with her students, identify a list of students she should check in with personally, and for them all to build skills that make them more capable learners. Additionally, she uses Classroom Q, a digital tool that allows students to join a virtual queue to connect with her one-on-one. The free version allows five students to join the queue at a time, which Amy also credits with helping to keep her sane!

Jesse began implementing self-pacing without fully implementing all elements of the model, but he found employing a progress tracker to be a game-changer. He keeps his public-facing, on the whiteboard. Every student has their name on the board, color-coded based on their pace, and identifying which lesson they are working on. Jesse says that it’s not only been helpful in keeping his students on track, but himself, as well. His school employs both regular class periods and block schedule classes, making it difficult to keep track of where each of his classes are at any given time. “It helps me know what they're actually asking me some days because in math I could be doing something totally different on a similar-looking math problem from one section to another.”

Tips for Secondary Classrooms

Amy’s suggestion for teachers who are just getting started with Modern Classrooms Project is to start small. Remember that you don’t have to do everything at once. Many educators suggest starting with one subject, which might not be helpful advice for secondary educators. “Or just start with one element. Just put in some blended learning elements, see how that goes, see how you like it, see how it fits with what you already do that's working,” Amy said. She also suggested that you involve students in the process. “Get feedback from the students and see how they like it, see how it's working for them, and then add on the self-pacing or the mastery-based grading part.”

Jesse’s tip for educators getting started with Modern Classrooms Project was simple and straightforward: “Don’t get hung up on the videos!” It’s easy to be overly critical of yourself, especially when you have to hear your voice and and see yourself on your computer screen. But go easy on yourself. He said that effective planning helps him. “I actually print out every slide and I have notes written all over it about how I'm going to go through this and the things I might even say. And I have arrows written everywhere for myself,” Jesse said. “Doing a little extra preparation before you take a video makes the videos so much quicker to make.”

To learn more about self-paced structures and how you can implement them in your own classrooms, check out this episode of Keeping Up with Modern Classrooms Project, where expert mentors Sarah Bonin Moon and Tavia Clemendor answer questions about self-paced structures in a Modern Classroom.

Our Guests

Amy Azaroff started her teaching career as a teenager, teaching swimming, boating, and drama at summer camp and working in a variety of early childhood education settings after high school. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington and teaching 2nd grade in a private school in Seattle, she moved to Los Angeles, where she taught 4th grade in a Social Justice Magnet School and completed an Alternative Teacher Credential Program. For the last 16 years, Amy has taught almost every subject at every grade level from K-5 in a large suburban school district outside of Vancouver, British Columbia. Now in her 2nd year in a middle school grade 6/7 classroom, Amy is looking forward to her next adventure: pursuing a master’s degree in some area of education. Amy is also a First Aid and CPR Instructor for the Red Cross, a Zumba Instructor, a Group Fitness Instructor, and a Personal Trainer. Amy loves working out, cooking, baking, traveling, exploring the outdoors, and listening to music (live and otherwise) with her husband and son.

Jesse Buck has been teaching for nine years, and currently teaches Algebra 1, Algebra 2 and Senior Math, and coaches sports in Concord, Michigan. He went to college to become an engineer, but realized he didn’t have much of a passion for the work. He was a passionate coach, so he decided to go into education to begin coaching football. Once he got into the classroom, he fell in love with the art of teaching and connecting with students. Email Jesse at jesse.buck@concordschools.net or connect with him on Facebook

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.

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