Shortcast 201 - Increasing Student and Teacher Confidence

Megan Meachum 00:58

had some rough years. I I was really rethinking my life. Like, is this really what I want to do? Like, can I keep doing this? And so, yeah, I knew I was going to need to take some risks and do the things I knew needed to be done, but that were going to be a challenge and that maybe I wouldn't always be supported. A lot of people were thinking I was kind of crazy, but it I saw the benefits in my classroom and in my own teaching. So yeah, I'm gonna keep going with it.

Toni Rose Deanon 01:35

How do you communicate this? Because I'm having a hard time and then now thinking like you're in a rural community, and it's a smaller community. So how did you communicate that? How did you nurture the questions that folks came up with, or rather, like if there were any hesitation, how did you navigate those conversations?

Megan Meachum 01:56

Well, I'm pretty excited for this next year, because I do want to be able to share with the caregivers at home more of like what we're doing in class and how it kind of looks a little different and sounds a little different, but the benefits have been super clear, I think, and obvious when students are Going home and they're excited to tell their families about what the new things that they tried in class. And so sometimes parents would be like, I heard you were doing something different. And so first it was like kind of curiosity, and now I think that I can really show them the benefits and the differences may be scary at first, they really are going to be a good thing.

Toni Rose Deanon 02:50

Okay, so, so another follow up question for you was that, when you implemented this model, how long did it take for your students to like, embrace it and accept it and like, love it. Hmm. Some

Megan Meachum 03:03

of them right away. They liked watching videos. They liked working on their own. They liked going faster. Some of them were a little more reluctant. It took some getting used to, but I would say, pretty quick they got into it. There was one point I remember I had to, kind of like, step back and work out some kinks. Like, oh, you kind of skipped some things there. I better work that out. So, yeah, there was some kinks to work out, but it just kept getting better and better.

Toni Rose Deanon 03:38

I love that. I mean, that's kind of very similar to my journey too. Like, we definitely tweaked it probably every week, because, you know, our students are so real. They're like, hey, this, this wasn't it, or this was really hard to understand, or this wasn't accessible, like, I cannot access it, so there's, like, shared settings or something that's not, that's not the quote, unquote, correct way. And so I love that this, this environment, also really encouraged our students to be advocates, right, to just, like, be able to, like, say, Hey, I don't get it, or I do get it, or, like, I need help. So here are the people that I can go and ask, because it doesn't just have to be my teacher right now. So I love, I love all of that. How did you feel about felt like shifting from a traditional way of teaching and learning to more of a modern classroom like blended self paced mastery based like, Was this something that was, I know I can hear the excitement, right? You love, you loved, like revamping and trying out new things. But I think you know for for this to work, you really had to relinquish control. So how did you feel about that?

And then, of course, you're working with 1011, year olds. How did you trust? That your students would do what they're supposed to do, or at least do what they think is best for their learning. Well,

Megan Meachum 05:08

I would say that modern classroom really envelopes everything that I believed in, that wasn't always happening in the classroom. So there was a long time, years where I knew I wanted to do things different, but it was scary. It was hard to like change things and be different from the other schools or the other teachers, the rest of your team, the way that they the families were used and the kids were used to it was a risk, but I finally got brave enough, I guess I don't know, I just, I just had to, I had to make a change, and it it was worth it to me, and I think, to the students. But yeah, it did. It took some years to be brave enough to really do it, do what I wanted to do, and modern classroom sort of helped me have that like courage and confidence to make the big changes. And the students are very smart, and sometimes they did find some loopholes, some ways to kind of get around things. I kind of learned some tricks based on the little tricks and loopholes that they found. For example, how do I know if my students are watching these instructional videos, maybe they're fast forwarding or they're just skipping it all together and going straight for the practice?

So those are some of the kinks that I learned about that I had to work out there. There's lots of great tools out there that the modern classroom programs do teach you about. So you can get rid of fast forwarding, or you can throw in embedded questions. I can have them logging in. So I used a lot of the resources that modern classroom provides to learn how to set up these lessons the best way possible.

Toni Rose Deanon 07:01

I love that. I love that. Yeah, I'm just sitting in processing like, I love this thing that you said, like modern classroom just built up my confidence, right? Like, I was able to be brave enough, because these are all the things I've been wanting to do. I just didn't know how I

Megan Meachum 07:23

Yeah, and the collaboration has really helped motivate them too. Like I like to let them work together and help each other, but I like to provide some collaboration activities as well, both on the computer and off the computer. But there are some really great ones online, some interactive like slideshow type lessons, like Nearpod, things like that, where they can do collaboration boards, and they're they're chatting about the books that they're reading, they're making, they're recording themselves and doing little videos. They really love that they they're like a YouTube star for the day, and then they get to comment on each other's videos. So I like to try to find those really fun, collaborative opportunities, and that does motivate them too, yes,

Toni Rose Deanon 08:04

and that's the thing, right? Like we want our students to be talking, we want all of our students to be talking. I mean, especially for our students who are emergent, bilingual, multilinguals, right? For students who are learning English, like we want them to speak. Y'all speaking and knowing is actually good.

Zach Diamond 08:27

Hey there, listeners. This is Zach. Hope you're enjoying the first of many short casts in our summer hiatus. So here are some reminders and announcements for June 1 2025 calling all school and district leaders, we're hosting a virtual summer summit on June 24 for leaders supporting modern classrooms. Educators. Leaders will learn practical skills from fellow leaders, attend workshops of their choice and connect with the modern classrooms project leadership, collaborative community. Modern classrooms. Co founder Rob Barnett is our featured keynote speaker and will share insights from his book, meet every learner's needs alongside voices of students, educators and leaders. We invite educators to share the summit with their leaders and invite leaders to register. Want to start building your own modern classroom. Sign up for our summer virtual mentorship program from June 23 to July 27 work with one of our expert educators to build materials for your own classroom. We have scholarships all over the country so you can enroll for free if you teach in Chicago, Alabama, Oakland, LA, Minnesota, and more. To see if there's an opportunity for you, check out modern classrooms.org/apply-now.

That's modern classrooms.org/apply-now. We're hosting two book clubs this summer. We're reading the promises and perils of AI in education, by Ken Shelton and de Lanier in June, and the identity conscious educator, by Lisa tallison in July. Look out for more details. Stacy. Schneider is presenting on modernizing instruction with mastery based learning using Google for Education tools at create 2025 on June 5 in Maumee, Ohio. Hui couch is presenting on empower every learner and self paced, blended and mastery based learning MCP model at JCPS Academic Innovation Summit from June 3 to fifth in Louisville, Kentucky. And Kate Klug is presenting on self pacing, letting students drive their learning at Dakota State University teach camp on June 6, virtually, t, r, d n, who you may know will be attending Georgia Council for Exceptional Children annual conference from June 6 to seventh in Carrollton, Georgia. And if you're attending, definitely make sure to stop by and say hi. That was a lot of information. Of course, there will be links and more info in the show notes for this short cast, but let's go ahead and get back into it.

Toni Rose Deanon 11:00

So it was like, one of those things is like, Oh no, I'm gonna go sit with this, this peer, instead of my friend, because I have this work to do. And I'm like, wait, what? You're a sixth grader making good decisions. That's really dope, actually,

Megan Meachum 11:16

yeah. And like, the the kids who are more like shy, the ones who they never raised their hand. Never wanted to be called on. All of a sudden they're, like, growing and blooming because they're on the computer and they can write about it or speak about it or record themselves. There was so many more ways for them to interact and engage with others that wasn't so, like, stressful,

Toni Rose Deanon 11:40

yeah, yeah. And like you said, building that confidence, right, so that students are able to and want to share out what they're learning. So I love that whole I feel like it's sprinkles on top, right? Like you have this really dope instructional model, plus you get to have all of these, like, 21st Century skills that we want to teach our students that we're always talking about, right?

Megan Meachum 12:06

I still am doing some of the regular assessments that we need to do, the ones that are useful for my team or for my school, for the state, so we still have those assessments. I'm still making sure my students are prepared for those, and I feel like with mastery based learning, they really are more prepared for those big tests that we have to do, as far as like assessing, like, engagement and growth, I feel like it's more like I can observe it. I'm seeing that they're engaged. I'm seeing that they're caught up on their work. I think even like the parents started to notice, like, hey, they they're not behind anymore. Like they're they're catching up. And even like, having the resources online is very helpful for caregivers at home, because they knew exactly what we were learning, and they could help them at home. And so, yeah, I still am doing the assessment, but I I really like the focus on mastery based assessments, rather than just like cramming it all in to one big test.

Toni Rose Deanon 13:18

Yeah, yeah. No, I love i Yes, I love the chunking as well, and I love the intentionality behind what we grade right to make sure that, like our students actually master the skills and the standards and the concepts that we're teaching. How do you differentiate to meet the diverse needs of your students in this like self paced mastery based model, and then also, what support systems have you put in place for students who struggle or Excel? Because we have students who will struggle and we have students who will excel, and those students aren't always the same students in each unit. Let's see,

Megan Meachum 13:57

I find that with the blended learning and the self paced learning so students are engaged, they're doing their lessons, it frees me up to pull those kids who need, like, a reteach, or they need some more practice, or they need to see it modeled in a different way. I'm able to differentiate and like, give them those different kinds of lessons and work with them, one on one and in small groups, and while the rest of the class is still learning and engaged, I have so much more time for that. Now, before you're right, like, it is, it was so hard. It was like, you have, like, just the one lesson, and you don't have time to, like, teach it in a bunch of different ways, but I do have more time to work with those students and to give them the lessons in a way that they need. And if they are still struggling, you know, I do still have some supports in the school, or they can go to lessons with other teachers and other resources. So we still, I do still take advantage of that. And. And work together with them, and for the ones who are excelling like I said, I let them. I'm not going to say, whoa, whoa, whoa, you like you.

You have to be right with me how I students can't stand that, so I let them. They're like, well, what if I work ahead and I say, go for it, and they like, you can see the shock on their faces. They're like, you're gonna let me work ahead. I'm like, Yeah, as far as you want keep going, I'm not gonna stop you. And they they just think that's awesome. And sometimes they take it as, like, this personal mission that they're going to see how far they can get ahead of everyone else and and so, well, last year I was, you know, still building, and so I would tell him, Oh, no, you you caught up to me, like you beat me. So that was kind of fun for them, too.

Toni Rose Deanon 15:53

Yeah, because, you know, I talk about, like, busy work, busy works, not busy work. It's really like y'all aspire to do is like, I don't know. How do you even describe

Megan Meachum 16:02

like projects, like more in depth, like projects and like more complex things, like, you should give them something to build, or an experiment, or it's I want it to be something that the other students single, whoa, what is that I want to do that? Like I want to get to that point. So that's what I try to make it like, the bigger, like, more fun and involved things, that kind of flashy

Toni Rose Deanon 16:27

stuff. Yes, yes, yeah. Because as educators, we also get to be creative, right? Like, oh, if I had all the time in the world, what would I want my students to do? And that's what we typically put in our aspire to do. And I like to see it that way too. And so like, for listeners who are like, well, what if a student takes forever to do their must do's and then they get, don't get to go to the aspire to do? So I'm like, well, sometimes that happens, and there are other times too. If you know already the student a and Student B is going to struggle with the concept for their must do's go ahead and go sit with them and go through that lesson with them, just so that they can go and get their aspire to do done, because I've done that multiple times as well. Thank you all for listening. Have a great week, and we'll be back next Sunday. Megan, thank you so much.

Zach Diamond 17:26

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 [email protected] and you can learn the essentials of our model through our free [email protected] you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at modern class proj, 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. You.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai