Teaching Teachers About a Modern Classroom
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 hear quite frequently from teachers in our Facebook group that they want to use the Modern Classrooms Project model to teach others about the Modern Classrooms Project model in a PLC or staff meeting. In this episode, Zach is joined by two instructional design coaches, Elizabeth Armstrong and Kathleen Shafer, from California, about how they use the Modern Classrooms approach to teach other teachers.
You can’t run before you walk, just like you can’t teach the basics of Modern Classrooms Project without having mastered them yourself. We recommend completing the free online course, implementing with your students, or completing the Virtual Mentorship Program - or all three! These will provide you with the foundational knowledge you need to share the model with others.
If you’re looking for additional support or information, you can check out these great articles from the Cult of Pedagogy:
Assess Your Setting
Before you begin, think about the environment that other educators will be receiving this learning through. One of the basic tenets of a Modern Classroom is self-pacing, but that can look different if a teacher is being provided this training in a staff meeting, a conference session, or asynchronously at their own pace.
Kathleen and Elizabeth employ Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles, as well as the 5Es of inquiry-based instruction which encourages educators as learners to engage, explore, explain, elaborate, evaluate, and engage once more. They point out that these are good elements for educators to be employing in their own classrooms that fit in neatly to the Modern Classrooms approach, so they hope that by modeling these concepts, it becomes easier for educators to implement them, as well.
Employing Modern Classroom Tools for Teacher Training
One of the first things that comes to mind when educators think about a Modern Classroom is self-pacing. Kathleen and Elizabeth offer much of their training as asynchronous courses, but require two hard deadlines - at the beginning and end of the course - which helps educators start off on the right foot. If you are introducing this model during a staff meeting, you can employ similar deadlines, perhaps starting the course together in one staff meeting and wrapping up learning at a future meeting.
Another basic element of a Modern Classroom? Progress trackers! Even adults benefit from being able to visualize their progress. If you’re worried about progress trackers being patronizing for adult learners, Kathleen offers a shift in perspective: “We make the self pacing trackers totally optional,” she says. “If you're using a game board or a checklist tracker, we explain to the teachers why we're doing so… We [also] add a video of how to use the trackers for the teachers and hopefully, how to use the trackers for the kids.”
Differentiating Learning
Just as with younger students, it’s important to provide opportunities for differentiation. Making use of lesson classifications (must do, should do, and aspire to do) can be a great way to cater to those who are hungry for Modern Classrooms content.
Kathleen and Elizabeth provided a great example of this with the article How to Give Your Next Summative a Makeover. “The must do is to read that article and highlight text that resonates with them and add a comment or question,” Kathleen says. They use Perusall to support teachers with this. “But then the should do would be to respond to someone else's comments or questions. And then an aspire to do would be to use this tool with your class.”
For a variety of reasons, not all educators are going to breeze through the training. “If there's something that happened and the teacher needs some extra time, we have that conversation with that individual teacher,” Elizabeth says. This is all about giving educators grace, and modeling how giving grace and accepting late work isn’t the end of the world. They hope that these teachers would be willing to do the same for their students.
“And if we find that they are falling too far behind, we actually will personally reach out,” she says. Sometimes this conversation is about providing educators with the support and encouragement they need to complete their training. Many teachers may want to take on learning about the model and teaching with a Modern Classrooms approach, but need additional support to do so.
But other times, this can mean releasing teachers from their commitment. “We might have that discussion that maybe this isn't the right time to take on this course,” Elizabeth says. “We want this to be their choice to do, not something that they feel like they have to do.”
Make Learning Actionable
Just as our students want to know the answer to the question “when will I ever use this?” educators also want to know how they can actually use the techniques they are learning about. “We're very explicit about what we're trying to model and [identifying] how you could use this with your students,” Kathleen says. Just like many K-12 Modern Classrooms, they offer guided notes, add breaks in learning and reflections on learning for educators. “And we also kind of incorporate into our courses a lot of SEL - social emotional learning transitions… and again, it's really to model how they could do that with their own students as well.
Differences in Implementation
The Modern Classrooms approach is highly applicable to adult learners, but it’s smart to modify teaching and learning in some ways for adult learners. One way that Kathleen and Elizabeth differentiate for adult learners is by removing the explicit “behind pace” classification from their trackers. They do, however, still signify suggested pacing for adult learners. “If teachers are not on pace, they see the assignment in a different color so they know that they aren't on pace,” Elizabeth says.
Additionally, while they require teachers to complete the course sequentially, they release all assignments at once and allow educators to view everything at once. This isn’t something we would traditionally suggest with students, as it can be overwhelming, but adult learners typically want to see everything they will be expected to do at a glance.
Kathleen suggests not expecting perfection from yourself the first time you share the Modern Classrooms model. You will probably make mistakes, and that’s okay! Seek feedback from other educators, have someone go through the course first to test it out, and start in ways that can be really low-risk. Ultimately, supporting educators through implementing a Modern Classroom is a process - your goal should be to just try to get them started!
To access training slides, agenda, and one-pager informational sheets to share Modern Classrooms with educators in your own school community, simply fill out this form.
Our Guests
I am a High School English teacher with a corporate background consistently searching for creative ideas to use in the classroom to motivate students and provide them with the skills they will need to succeed in their careers and life goals. To this end, I am beginning my journey with the Masters program in Educational Technology in September.Of course, because of my love for education (my own and my students), I also took enough courses at IVC and Saddleback to earn a credential in Psychology, my second love.
Experienced teacher (30+ years), Instructional Design & Technology ToSA, Virtual Academy Instructional Coach, Google Level 2 Educator, Seesaw Ambassador, and Distinguished Modern Classroom Educator. Implemented Blended Learning in my own classroom and provided professional learning workshops to district teachers interested in using this approach to support student learning in their own classrooms. I have witnessed firsthand how Blended Learning can be the catalyst to creating a student-centered classroom.
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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