Zach Diamond  0:03  
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 believe teachers learn best from each other. So this is our way of lifting up the voices of leaders and innovators in our community. This is the modern classrooms project podcast.

Toni Rose Deanon  0:29  
Hello, and welcome to episode 130 of the Modern Classrooms Project podcast. My name is Toni Rose Deanon, she/they pronouns, a Community Engagement Manager at MCP and I am joined by Whitnei Moore, fifth and sixth grade math and science special education teacher and Andrea Kowalski, high school English teacher. Welcome Whitnei and Kowalski. Hello, hello. It's so exciting to be in this space with you. And thank you so much for saying yes to the podcast. So before we get started, what is bringing you both joy this week and Whitnei, we can start with you.

Whitnei Moore  1:01  
What is bringing me joy. Our school is actually putting on a production of Shrek the Musical. And it's a K to 12th grade production. And the students are really really excited about it. They got to find out their their roles this week. So that was really exciting to see them excited.

Toni Rose Deanon  1:23  
That sounds like a blast. Kowalski, what about you?

Andrea Kowalski  1:26  
I love that you call me Kowalski. Thank you. I will tell you this Whitnei brings me joy because she found me a computer and a headset with a microphone.

Toni Rose Deanon  1:37  
Oh, that is so beautiful and right on point as well. So for our listeners, Whitnei and Kowalski were scrambling to find the headphone and the laptop to get to this recording. So the joys of teaching and stress and running around and trying to do all the things right. Yes, all the things. Well, again, thank you so much for saying yes to this podcast. So tell us more about who you are and how you started your MCP journey. Whitnei, we'll start with you. And then Kowalski.

Whitnei Moore  2:11  
So this is my 12th year of teaching. And this is my third year working with diverse learners in at the end of like every year, I just kind of reflect how can I do things better? What is something I can implement next year that's going to, you know, just improve my teaching practice. So at the end of last year, our Vice Principal kind of brought up the Modern Classroom Project to us. And I was like, That's it, that's something new, something that I could learn about that could potentially elevate you know, my students and my teaching practices. So that's kind of how I learned about it, or vice principal, bringing it to us as like an option that we can do over the summer.

Toni Rose Deanon  2:49  
I love it when admin are the ones who introduces something. And then the teachers are like, Oh my gosh, yes, that sounds amazing. So Kowalski, your turn. All right. Well,

Andrea Kowalski  2:59  
I've been in the teaching game a little bit longer. This is my 33rd year being an educator, and I am a lifelong learner. And so it was pretty easy when our vice principal said, Hey, you want to take some classes, and learn some new things, tricks for your classroom and ways to engage better with your students? And I said, Of course I do. Because I love to take classes. And I signed up as well. happy that I did

Toni Rose Deanon  3:29  
that. It's like music to my ears. I think I have to be I have to agree with you. I love learning. So whenever admin put something in front of me, I'm like, done. Yes, I love to do it. I want to learn more about it. So this is really quite exciting that you learned it from your admin. So, okay, well tell us a little bit more about your school Whitnei.

Whitnei Moore  3:48  
Um, so our school is located in Chicago, Illinois, it's in the Rogers Park neighborhood, which is far north in the city. Our school has changed a lot over the years. This is my ninth year here at the school. And our demographic now is shifted a lot. So it's about 48% Black 47%, Hispanic than we have about 3% White 1% of students are Asian and 1% of students are two or more racist. When I first started teaching here was more like 67% 70% Hispanic. So it's it's definitely shifted a lot over the course of the last decade. Oh, our technology. Every student has a one on one. They have a Chromebook that they are, you know, they can use throughout the day.

Toni Rose Deanon  4:36  
And I said would you say that, you know, when the pandemic hit your students were pretty knowledgeable of how to use their devices.

Whitnei Moore  4:44  
So prior to the pandemic there, they weren't able to use technology here at school. Each student did not have their own individual device. But we did have a technology class for many years here so students you know, even our younger students were able to log into computers pretty successfully. I think they did have those skills. And then kids are just kids. They're just, they're just way more tech savvy than adults are nowadays. So they were able to kind of jump on to the virtual learning pretty quickly, in my opinion.

Toni Rose Deanon  5:16  
Yes, kids are amazing. I know that when I was in the classroom, they were constantly teaching me all the things. So if there was like something I wanted to try out in our class, I would just say like, Hey, there's this new cool thing, take 10 minutes to figure out what all it can do. And my students all figured it out for me so that they're so useful that way. So let's shift a little bit about, you know, from talking about students to leading a PLC for your school. So Kowalsky, what motivated you to lead a PLC for your school?

Andrea Kowalski  5:45  
Motivation. I'm a big believer that motivation comes from within. And I often like to hear myself talk. And I thought, hey, this is a great way to work with my, my fellow teachers and say, Hey, listen, this thing is new. And it's cool. And it doesn't matter how long you've been in the education business, how long you've been a teacher, you will get something out of it. And we were told, actually, when we signed up to take the classes that we would be doing it, so I knew going in, that I was going to have to teach the teachers, which is sometimes daunting, because I think as a group, sometimes teachers are your hardest audience way, way more demanding, and sometimes can't sit as still as my high school students.

Toni Rose Deanon  6:35  
I completely agree with you on that. I know definitely. When I shifted, again, from Classroom Teacher to instructional coach, educators are really, really hard audience. And I would have to say, as an educator, I was also hard audience, because I'd be like, questioning everything and anything that's being thrown at me. So I completely understand that. Okay, well, so how did you plan out the PLC for the school year? So you already kind of knew like, okay, cool, I'm gonna have to teach to educators on how to do this, you know, blended learning, self paced, as well as mastery based learning. And so you and Whitnei, kind of started collaborating from my understanding, and creating a PLC for the school year. So you've led a couple already. So how did you plan this out? How did you like kind of scaffold it so that educators aren't? What's the word like overwhelmed because you know, we are overwhelmed out here. And so how did you make sure that it was tiny bite size that they were something it was going to be something that they can utilize right away without a lot of overwhelm?

Whitnei Moore  7:37  
So in the beginning, we knew that we would have to lead for PD on modern classroom project. So we just wanted to kind of divide we wanted to, to implement a PLC that was as close to what we went through during our summer mentorship. So we wanted to kind of divide it up into the four sections, the four major sections and kind of allows teachers to decide what section did they need to know, you know, the most information on and kind of go from there. So the very first PD that we led, we wanted to get them excited. So that was the PD where we just kind of gave them a brief description of all the sections of the modern classrooms project, we created a video of ourselves kind of talking about why we decided to do it, and how we're using it in our classrooms. So one of the major sections of it is are the instructional videos, we wanted to kind of lead our PD by showing them an instructional video kind of, of us speaking of our personal experiences with the modern classroom project. And then the the other three PLCs that we'll have, we wanted to kind of allow teachers to just choose their own adventure basically choose a section of the strategies that they, you know, needed the most work or what they felt like they can implement first, perhaps, so we kind of divided it up that way. One, this section is instructional videos. Then another section is trackers data tracking. We also have another one about learning management systems. And then our fourth one is on what's the pronoun, Andrea.

Andrea Kowalski  9:16  
I think the fourth one is a summary of what you're supposed to do with all of this information. Because we were going to let them pick their own adventure. And they only got to do that twice. And then the last one we're going to do is going to be how you put all of this stuff together. So put the put the instructional video together with your tracker to get together with your learning management plan and assessments. And this is how it all works. And I think the best part, I don't know if I'm getting ahead of myself, but the I think the best part of modern classroom project is that you don't have to use all of the parts at the same time in the same class. Because high school teachers have a totally different kind of schedule than grade. school teachers. And I know that I don't use this in in every one of my classes, we sort of did it as a springboard. We use it in one class or two classes, because I have two sections of it. And then as we move forward, we will be implementing it more and more in the majority of our classes.

Toni Rose Deanon  10:18  
I guess I have a follow up question as well. How did you two find each other because I see that Whitnei is fifth and sixth to end math and science. And then Kowalski, your high school English. So how did you come across each other?

Andrea Kowalski  10:29  
Because we work in the same building, and we should be friends with our colleagues. And Whitnei is totally in charge of all of the the incentives for the grade school and I do incentives for the high school and I am the keeper of our Acero cruise dragon. And she often likes to use our dragon at her events in the grade school and we just worked well together. It was fun. Oh, I

Toni Rose Deanon  10:55  
love that so much. Did you to go through the mentorship together?

Andrea Kowalski  10:59  
We took it separately, but we both did it during the summer.

Toni Rose Deanon  11:03  
Got it? Got it. Okay, so you you both already knew each other. And then you realize that you both took this mentorship and you're like, Okay, we're gonna both lead this PLC together.

Whitnei Moore  11:12  
Yes. So before the year ended, I believe the vice principal made us aware of the other teachers who had also decided to take the summer mentorship program. So we knew who was taking it. And we knew we would be a team. And I expected to see them throughout the mentorship program, but I didn't. But it was actually really nice to be able to work with teachers from other schools from other states, it was really nice to just see how they were implementing it. And just to get insight from teachers that live in different places.

Toni Rose Deanon  11:43  
Yeah, that's pretty awesome. And I really love that you too, were able to kind of mirror the mentorship program into something that you can bring back to your school, how long were these PLCs.

Whitnei Moore  11:54  
So our PDS are about 45 minutes each.

Toni Rose Deanon  11:59  
Nice. I don't know why I was expecting you to say 60 minutes, but 45 minutes, for some reason was just like a sweet spot for me. And I love that you also provided options for your educators, for your colleagues to figure out which ones they were really more curious about or, you know, need assistance. And so I love that you were able to create those different avenues for educators. And so tell us how it's going so far, like what are your colleagues reactions to your PLC to the sessions that you're leading? And, and also, I mean, I know I've heard that admin has been pretty supportive with this journey. And so how have How has your admin continued to support you in this,

Andrea Kowalski  12:43  
I want to say that we really do have a phenomenal group of administrators that we work with and work together side by side, sometimes I even feel as though they're, they're not our boss, they're definitely our colleagues, which is very different. Like I said, I've been in education for 33 years. And this is probably the sweet spot that I've hit for good administration, but they've been 100% supportive. And they they give us time to work on things, and they set up places for us to meet. And they make it really easy so that we have anything that we need if we actually need something. Plus, I would say that at the beginning, some of our colleagues were thinking, Oh, my gosh, is this required? Do we have to do this? We don't, we don't want to be forced to do it. And I believe we did a survey the first and that after the first and a second time of how many of our colleagues would be interested. And at first, it was maybe a handful, and I think it is now in the double digits, which to me is amazing to have educator buy in. Because they're not being forced to do it. Obviously, there's no way to say you have to do this. But we want it because we want them to do it because it will be beneficial to them. It's not as though it's just this fly by night way to teach in a classroom. It literally is the future of our classrooms, students need to become more independent, they need to have ownership of what is going on in the classroom. And teachers really need to be there as just this sounding board or this wealth of information. And students should be the one saying, Wait, I get this but can I do it this way? Oh, wait, I need to help my friend because my friend doesn't really understand. Is that okay? And I think that freedom in the classroom is just something that is it models more what is going on in the collegiate way. And it's great for them to learn it so young, and then they just have it build every year as they move up through grade school and into high school.

Toni Rose Deanon  14:42  
Yeah, I love that. I love hearing that. You know, it just kind of started trickling in and out double digits and so expanding and all of that. That's really great. Whitney, did you want to add anything?

Whitnei Moore  14:53  
So yeah, just like cool. ASCII said we have more staff now that are interested in it. And the more than that See, because every time we lead a PLC, we're bringing our own data from our classrooms or bringing examples from what we're actually using. So I think once they see it from us, they're like, oh, I can do that too, or I already do something very similar to that, you know, I can implement it in this way. So after showing them a little bit more, I think each time they see a little bit more, they're more willing to try it, and they're more interested in it. So definitely getting a lot more buy in from teachers. And I think one thing, especially I work with fifth and sixth grade, we have a lot of students that have, they have a lot of absences. And sometimes it's so difficult when a student comes back to school after they've missed so much the students will I work with diverse learners. So when a diverse learner misses a day, sometimes it can be frustrating, you know, they come back and they feel lost. And they already feel slightly behind. So coming back, you know, and missing an additional day, I have a student that gets very frustrated when he misses school. So having a system where kids can just go in, you know, click on an instructional video, and they can catch up on their own. Teachers see more value in that. So like, we have students that can use something like that, because the teacher can always go back to Lessons, because the students missed it. So they just think they're now just seeing how valuable this system can be and how they can implement it, you know, stream lessly into their lessons into their curriculum that they're already using.

Toni Rose Deanon  16:23  
Yeah, and I really liked that you brought that into, because I know that as an educator, I was also really frustrated with having to get our students caught up, right, because I just didn't have that time. Like I didn't have the time to teach this new lesson. Plus also reteach a lesson that they'd missed. And so creating instructional videos really allowed for me to have even more time that I could spend intentionally with that student who has been out while not, you know, not neglecting the rest of my, my class. And so I really liked that you pointed that out. Thank you so much for that. Okay, and then would you say that, you know, and we're already we're thinking about this model, and we're spreading the the model and really like sharing our data and how we use it in our classroom? Do you think that it's a lot more meaningful? And teachers get more bought in when other teachers are doing it? Or would you say that it would be about the same if admin was also doing the same thing as far as introducing this model?

Whitnei Moore  17:22  
I think that well with our colleagues when they see, you know, other staff actually doing it, I mean, it's one thing to hear something from admin, because I mean, in a sense, admin, there are bosses. So they're like, Oh, the boss is telling us to do this. But when they're seeing it from their friend, their co worker friend, like, Hey, I'm using this and it's really working. I think, teachers are more likely to say, Oh, well, let me try it, too. Let's see how it works for my students, because I mean, admin, of course, supports us in many ways, but they're not actually in the classroom with the students teaching the students. So to hear from someone that a lot of our classes are departmentalized, which means one teacher sees both classes are both groups of students. So if one teacher in that grade band is using it, and the other one's like, Hey, I'm using it in this way for our students, and it's really working like oh, well, maybe I'll implement it too with these subjects for our students. So I think coming from teachers is a little more helpful from than just hearing it from admin.

Toni Rose Deanon  18:16  
Yeah, most definitely. Kowalski, did you want to add anything in or did Whitnei say everything?

Andrea Kowalski  18:21  
I'm just, I'm just throwing in a I concur.

Toni Rose Deanon  18:26  
No, that makes that makes sense. Okay, so listeners, we're going to take a quick break for an announcement. And when we come back, we'll talk a little bit more about Whitney's and crosskeys experiences and expertise.

Allison Vanterpool  18:41  
If you're ready to build a modern classroom, we have scholarships for you. We're offering a special invite only session for up to 200 educators and our April 3 to May 7 session. This opportunity includes fully funded tuition to our virtual mentorship program, which gives you one on one support as you create materials for your modern classroom. To apply, visit www.modernclassrooms.org/april podcast by March 20.

Toni Rose Deanon  19:14  
All right, and we're back with Whitnei and Kowalski. So what has been the impact of your PLC so far on your school?

Whitnei Moore  19:22  
So oftentimes, I feel as a teacher, we have PD every Wednesday, and some PDS we leave and I might hear from someone saying jokingly, hey, that could have been sent an email that we really have to go through a PD for that information. So I think just after our PLCs and they are being able to interact and see the data that we're we have and everything that we're using it they see it in real time. I think it's just more beneficial. They're, they're excited about the Pete The we call them professional developments, but the PLLC they're a little excited about it because it's actually something that's useful to them that they can actually use right now and implement in their classrooms to help their students now not next year, not two years from now. So I think it's had a positive impact on our teachers, we are now seeing more excitement after our professional developments is that like, they're not upset. They're excited, I feel. And usually I have teachers come and talk to me afterwards. And they're like, hey, so how did you do it? How did it go for you over the summer, they just want to know more information about it. And they seem really excited to learn and to implement, and to try it out.

Toni Rose Deanon  20:31  
Yeah, that's always so exciting to be able to have a thought partner, and also to be given the space to really explore and figure out what strategies to implement in the in the classroom like the next day. So I know, I was definitely that educator who would say, oh, that could have been an email or like, what did we learn there? Again, I forget. And I've been in professional development sessions to where, you know, it's just a lot of being talked at, as opposed to like, Let's do these things, right? Like, hey, you're introducing this thing to me. But now, like, Give me time to actually explore and make it work for my class. So that's really exciting, that the shift from those, you know, email comments to like, Oh, this is actually quite exciting, or like, what do you do differently? So I really love that that authentic collaboration, that are the organic collaboration that's happening within your your educators in your school. And so if you could redo the PLC from the beginning, what would you improve Kowalski, we can start with you.

Andrea Kowalski  21:33  
It's really difficult to mess with perfection. I don't know if you've seen any of Whitnei's videos. But she's ridiculous. I would I really, I've got to tell you, we work very well together. And we have two other colleagues that chickened out and didn't necessarily want to do the podcast. But they did. They went through the summer program with us and they are doing the professional developments or the PLCs with us. And we've had time to collaborate. We're sitting in the library right now. And we come to the library. We're all on different floors in the building, which is sort of cool, and we get to meet together. And when we filmed our first video to show them on our kickoff PD, it was super cute. I wanted to jump out from behind the bookcases because I'm sort of a ham. I don't know if you could tell that by by voice. But I thought it was super fun. And someone else wanted to sit down and someone wanted to walk and then we recorded somebody in their classroom, and it was great. I don't know if we'd actually have to do a redo because we we brought to the attention of our, our educators to our teachers that this is something that you can do too. And we're gonna model it for you rather than again, just sending a link or giving them a piece of paper, we actually did it for them. And then when we broke into the groups for our second PD, they actually got to do it there. And then we got to say, Oh, see, you could do it this way. Or you can do it that way. I was in charge of the group that actually made videos and every teacher that came to that walked out with a video, which was fabulous.

Toni Rose Deanon  23:09  
Oh, that is amazing. And also, can we have a link to that video that you were talking about Whitnei's video?

Andrea Kowalski  23:17  
Of course you can. I'm sure she will send it to you. She is super organized. It's really cute. I do like that video. That's that's

Toni Rose Deanon  23:26  
really, really, really cool. And that's another thing too, that I always remind our educators is like, you know, if you're gonna give a task to students, make sure that you do it so that you know exactly what the misconceptions are. And also, like, when you have an exemplar and a model that you can show off with your students, then they know for a fact like, oh, okay, like Ms. D knows what we're doing. And Ms. D did this, and this is how she did it. And so I think that's just such a, it's a beautiful part of the journey of learning and teaching. Right. And so I really love that you had addressed Kowalski that like, you know what we we did it we're not just sitting, you know, we're not just giving them a link, we're not just giving them a task, but we also did it and then they could see how we did it. Okay, so we often get questions from educators on how to start leading a PLC or professional development for their own school. What are 123 tips that you would provide for educators who plan to or want to start a PLC?

Andrea Kowalski  24:22  
All right, well, I thought about this because this is the question that only has my initial in the parentheses. A little nervous about that. I think the first thing you have to be as organized, you have to know what it is that you want the teachers to know. You have to have a plan. So you have to be organized in some way, whether you're organized digitally or if you have it on paper or if you just know, these are the things that I have to include and you put it on cue cards, you have to be organized. I think another thing you need to be is you have to be open minded and meaning. I don't I don't mean that other teachers are close minded. But you have to also think about this has got to be fun in some way. It has to be fun and engaging. And it has to appeal to our ability to be able to use it in the classroom. We don't want to come off as we're so pompous, we know how to do this. And we also don't want to come off as it's so easy. Why would I even bother, you have to find this great balance. So you have to use your, the intelligence that you have and your ability to sell it. Because basically, what you're doing is you're selling this new way of teaching that that really isn't, hasn't always been the way the pandemic has really done many things to do teaching and education in general. And you need to have that open mindedness. And I think the third most important thing is you have to realize that you might make a mistake, and you have to learn from that mistake and either be able to quickly rebound, have Plan B, and show the people that you're wanting to get this information, that it's okay to make a mistake. My first video was horrible. And even though my mentor said it was great, you did such a good job. I know, she was just telling me that because she didn't want me to cry and drop out of the program. But like I said, I teach speech, I love to talk, but I don't necessarily like to be recorded. And I think that human component, when you do anything like this is super important. So be organized, be open minded, and realize that it's not all going to go perfect, and you can recover from it. Those are my three. Oh,

Toni Rose Deanon  26:33  
I love that. And you wrapped it up at the end, too. I also just really liked that you said just have fun with it. Right? Like look at your audience, see what your educators in the school are really like, looking for solutions, or even just like struggling with and then kind of accommodating to those needs, right? And not just like coming in there. Like you said, Being pompous, or saying like, this is so easy, because it's clearly not. And also just a nice reminder that we definitely want to embrace all of our mistakes, because that's how we learn, right? And if we don't make mistakes, then there's no growth. And then that's kind of stagnant and boring. So thank you for all of that Kowalski. That's actually really, really great. And so what do you hope to see in the future? And what goals do you have? This could be for your grade for your class for the school? It can be anything really that pops up for you? And we'll start with you. Kowalski. All right.

Andrea Kowalski  27:26  
What do I what do I hope to see in the future, I would really love to see teachers let go of some of the control they have in the classroom. Again, I will tell you, I've been an educator for 33 years, and I like to have control of my classroom. But I realized that if I'm able to allow a student to take that lead, that makes me even more proud of what they've done. And that's super important. And it's been, it's been a learning curve. Because there have been times when I've said no, I'm the teacher, I have to teach them, they have to learn it for me. And I think the coolest thing that happens, especially using this with peering with with peer helping and they sit next to each other, and someone finishes and they do really well on the must do and they do really well and they aspire to do and then they help the students who can barely get through the can do. Just it brings tears to my eyes. I literally get emotional because it's so cool to see happen, especially in high school classroom.

Toni Rose Deanon  28:27  
Yeah, that I mean, that itself is just the magic that happens when we relinquish control. And any and every aspect of our lives is actually just beautiful. Beautiful. What about you Whitnei?

Whitnei Moore  28:39  
I would like to see more classroom observations. Some of the teachers like I said, we're doing it, we have it in place, and a lot of teachers are interested. But they might, you know, feel like oh, this is so such a daunting tasks, it's overwhelming. But if they come to observe our classrooms and kind of see it in place, classroom observations were things that we did many years ago, pre pandemic, I just want to see more of that, again, seeing it in real time. And, and I want teachers to feel like this is a learning process is not someone coming into your room to evaluate you. It's you sharing what you're doing with others. And we're all learning from one another. I would love to see that happening in our classrooms.

Toni Rose Deanon  29:23  
Yes, observations are also very powerful. I think that sometimes as educators, we find it to be really lonely in those four walls, right. And so when you step out and witness some of the cool things that your colleagues are doing, it gives you a little bit more of a spark and the motivation and the drive to be like, oh, I want to do that because that's working. And I bet I can make some tweaks to make it work for me as well. So thank you for bringing that in. Because I do think classroom observations are really important. And it's also very intentional, right? I know that as educators we have a lot to do and our schedule, so finding that like 15 minutes to go into serve a teacher it's really difficult and we'll definitely need some support. So hopefully that happens for you all because I know how important it is to observe one another and feel that that magic and that presence that's happening in the classroom and so, one last questions How can our listeners connect with you? We'll start with you Whitnei and then Kowalski.

Whitnei Moore  30:18  
They can connect with me via email at wmoore@aceroschoosl.org.

Toni Rose Deanon  30:26  
beautiful and classy. What about you?

Andrea Kowalski  30:29  
I'm good with email as well. And my email is akowalski@aceroschools.org and Kowalski is K OWALS K I just like the penguin in Madagascar.

Toni Rose Deanon  30:43  
I love that reference so much. Well, thank you so much for being in this space with me and sharing your expertise and your your experiences and just your joy and passion when it comes to implementing the modern classrooms project as well as like spreading the joy and your school. So listeners remember, you can always email us at podcast@modernclassrooms.org And you can find the show notes for this episode at podcast.modernclassrooms.org/130. We'll have this episode's transcript uploaded by Friday, so be sure to check back in the show notes for this episode if you'd like to access those. Thank you all for listening. Have a great week and we'll be back next Sunday.

Zach Diamond  31:24  
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 work at www.modernclassrooms.org. And you can learn the essentials of our model through our free course at learn.modernclassrooms.org. You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @modernclassproj. 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.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai