Will all your hard work pay off?

This week in our Facebook Group, a teacher wrote: "How long has anyone implemented this model? I am working so hard implementing the program (on my first unit now) and I want to hear that the second year I will use MCP is so worth all the late nights and early mornings I am putting in now."

This educator is not alone.  In fact, we're often asked whether all the hard work of classroom transformation -- recording videos, updating progress trackers, grading reassessments, etc. -- is worth it.  Here's how I respond:

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Dear educator,

I don't think there's any way around the fact that what you are doing is hard.  You are trying to replace a model that has been deeply ingrained over 100+ years!  If you think that transforming instruction is easy, then (a) you might not really be doing it or (b) we need to hire you ASAP!

If you are anything like me you will experience many days where your videos don't seem good enough, or you feel you can't motivate your students, or you wonder why you don't just stand up front and lecture. You'll be frustrated because you see what education can/should be and you just aren't there... yet.  But you'll have moments when your students are genuinely teaching themselves, and truly working together, and actually getting it, not just getting the content but discovering how to learn. (Sitting and listening doesn't count.) And then one day you'll wake up and those will stop being just moments, and you'll have a year's worth of good content already made, and your classroom won't show what learning can/should be, it will prove what true learning really is.

And then others will notice what you're doing and ask about it and you can tell them, well, I found this thing called Modern Classrooms and it sounded really good but it was really hard and it didn't go so great at first so I improved X, and Y, and Z, and over time it got better and here's where I am. And your colleagues will take what you've done and improve it in their own ways and you'll learn from them and get better too. And your students will take on meaningful challenges in the years head, in college or career or simply in living their lives, and they'll know exactly how to succeed.

Or something like that. That's the vision at least.

Of course, you may for any number of perfectly good reasons decide that this model won't work for you or your students. And that's great too! If there's even one useful thing that you've taken away from our course or this group then I and the whole team at MCP will be happy. You know better than anyone else what your students need and our goal is to help you deliver that.

*****

I don't know if that's helpful - it's only one teacher's experience - but I hope it is.  If you're reading these words and nodding along, you should know that your students are truly fortunate to have a committed teacher like you.  All of us at MCP admire you for it.