Zach Diamond  0:00  
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  0:28  
Hello and welcome to the modern classrooms project podcast. My name is Toni Rose Deanon, they them pronouns, a designated hype person here at MCP. And I am so excited today because I am joined by a principal in Virginia. Dr Beth Pallister, and I actually got to see her work in her school and the district that she's serving, and so I'm really excited to have her here to talk a lot, to talk a little bit more about how to support our teachers and when they're trying to innovate and create a more student centered classroom. So welcome. Dr Beth Pallister, 

Beth Pallister  1:01  
thank you for having me.

Toni Rose Deanon  1:03  
Yeah, thank you so much for your time. It's just again, really exciting to be in this space with you, virtually. I know we've been in the same physical space. And I also just really wanted to give a shout out to your office. I really loved the office layout, just because you can see outside, like the hallways, the busyness of it. And then, of course, students, teachers, everyone else in the community, can also see in to see like, oh, is Dr Pallister around. It's such a cool concept. And I really love that.

Beth Pallister  1:30  
I call it the fishbowl. And I would not have it any other way, because even if I have to be doing something in my office, the students and the teachers are walking by. They see me there, I can wave or give the look whatever is necessary, but I love being able to be connected with the kids and the teachers in the hallway. 

Toni Rose Deanon  1:47  
Yeah, and it's really great too, because it gives a different meaning to like being seen, right? Because we're always talking about admin school leaders. We want, we want to see y'all like as a teacher, I really loved it with my admin. Would be in the hallways, you know, just cackling with us, greeting the students. And so it just gives a different definition of being seen and being visible. So that was really, really dope. And so before we get started, Dr Pallister, what is bringing you joy currently?

Beth Pallister  2:15  
Oh, I am full of joy right now. And what I am so joyful at the moment is that it looks like we are going to get a big snowstorm in our area. And we don't get big snowstorms in our area very often, and the weather forecasters are all in agreement that something big is going to happen this weekend. So between the kids being super excited about just snow and the teachers perhaps being excited about maybe a snow day coming, we're all just really anticipating that.

Toni Rose Deanon  2:43  
Oh my goodness. You know that's really fun to hear you say that coming from a school leader being like, no snow day. It's coming. It's coming. This is so fun.

Beth Pallister  2:52  
Everybody loves a snow day. I don't want 10 of them, but everybody loves a snow day. 

Toni Rose Deanon  2:56  
Yeah, you're absolutely right about not having 10 of them, because that is a lot to make up, but that's, yeah, fingers crossed. We're going to manifest a snow day, a couple of snow days, not 10 days, so that you all can enjoy that, because y'all are near the beach, so Virginia Beach, so I can, I can see that there's not a lot of snow there. So this, there's a huge excitement for it. Okay, so, Dr Pallister, I know I gave a brief, brief, brief introduction of who you are as a human being, but I'd love for you to share with our listeners who you are and how you started your MCP journey.

Beth Pallister  3:27  
So I am currently in my fourth year as the principal at Western Branch Middle School, and in my first year as a principal and at Western Branch, our division was moving towards block scheduling for the middle schools. And our Director of School Leadership, Dr Larkin, and I were talking about block scheduling and whether we thought our school would want to go to block schedule and and I knew, having come from a high school setting where we were already doing 90 minute blocks, that there were a lot of advantages to go into a block schedule for all of our students. So being a first year principal, I went to our teachers, and I kind of presented what our options were, and we used some leadership teams to come up with pros and cons. And over the course of several months, the staff decided that they were ready to move to a block schedule. And also at that time, Dr Larkin had learned about modern classroom project along with Dr Jones, who is our Director of Professional and organizational development. And so I'm I call myself a professional development nerd. I love all things professional development. So we were talking about that, and then that became the second half that if we were going to go to block schedule and have something in the neighborhood of 90 minute blocks that could not be just 250 minute blocks pushed together and call it a day, like we really needed to look at new ways to engage students in that 90 minute block, new ways to have students be engaged in their learning and have some advocacy for their learnings. And also teachers have a hard time staying on on the show. If you will, you know the sage on the stage for 90 minutes. So also to give them some release of autonomy in the classroom and let the kids take over. So I presented all that to our teachers, and we had some early adopters, and I got right behind our early adopters, and they started with the free course. I also took the free course so that I could talk to them about what they were seeing. And then our school division championed for modern classroom project. We got them to go through the virtual training, and then from there, it sort of just really grew organically in our building. So we started out that first year, so we're on our third year implementing modern classroom and our first year, we had four trained teachers, teachers who had trained over the summer, and as of right now, we have 26 trained teachers, which accounts for close to 70% of our core classrooms. So we're starting to make inroads in our classrooms that have students with disabilities and also our elective classes, but over half of our core classrooms, math, science, English and social studies have modern classroom project teachers, yeah.

Toni Rose Deanon  6:09  
And this is also fascinating to Dr Pallister, because I loved walking around and noticing like how everyone is so aligned with what modern classrooms could look like, sound like feel like in their classrooms, right? And something that I really appreciated about it too, is that there's a sign that says, like, this is a modern classroom, so that, again, it gives that visual sign for your teachers, as they're doing classroom walks, or even if they want to visit a colleague's classroom, right? That they can see, oh, this is a modern classroom. Let me check in and see, like, what they're doing versus what I'm doing, and then what can I do to make it a little better for myself and for for my students? So that's really, really great. And I mean kudos to you also for thinking about block scheduling, block scheduling in middle school that is wild, right? And and to think about 90 minutes or more of you know where students have to sit and and learn a concept, a skill, a content, right? Within those those that time block, right? It's really important for us to think about like, how do we make this engaging? How do we make this more meaningful for both of our teachers and our students, so that everyone included in this learning environment is happy. And I love that you were able to really sit back and reflect on like, okay, cool, we're gonna do block scheduling, but then, how can we support our teachers so they feel successful when they're doing their blocked their block scheduling, right? Because a lot of the times that's a huge shift for teachers, right? And I, and I love that you were able to just recognize that and name that. I also wanted to give you a shout out for saying a PD nerd. I was also a PD nerd. Like, throw a PD at me, and I'm gonna take it and I'm gonna, you know, just what is it like? Just go through all the things that I'm supposed to learn and figure out all the different pieces of what could be used and implemented in the classroom, right? Not saying that every single thing was being used, but like, really understanding what's being taught and then being able to implement that in the classroom. So 70% of core classrooms, that is incredible. Clearly, you've done something in your school where your teachers are like, yes, I want to do it. Yes. I want to sign up. Yes, I want to collaborate. And so this is actually such a great segue, too. Is, you know, how are you supporting your teachers? Right? Like you've said, you have a lot of interest, and you also took the free course, which, again, Dr Pallister, that's amazing. I mean, I think I said this to you in person of like, I want you to be my school leader, because you're just so intentional and thoughtful behind all of the actions that that you do as a school leader.

Beth Pallister  8:47  
Well, it's very difficult to support the teachers if you haven't taken the free course, if you don't understand the tenants of modern classroom project, and if you don't understand where there can be challenges so that you can provide teachers the support that they need. I really think that there's, there's probably three big ways that we support teachers in our school and also, coincidentally, through our district, because our district provides a lot of support as well. The first one is with encouragement and advocacy. The second one is through time and planning, and the third one is through exemplars and feedback. So I don't think that I had really had much to do with the spreading of MCP through our school. It was our teachers and our teacher leaders that caused that to happen. I helped create an environment where teachers could feel like they could experiment with this, they could learn this, they could try, fail, get feedback and do better, they could be vulnerable and not have to worry that there were going to be some kind of draconian consequences if they didn't do well the first time that they started. So I think that environment was created. But really the teachers learned the best from from each other. Me going into a teacher's classroom and saying, you really should do modern classroom project, because. As all of these reasons is not nearly as impactful as them sitting in a PLC with somebody else who's also doing it and saying, This is why I think that you should do it. This is what it's doing for me. This is what it's doing for our children, and then they are the best advocates. Now, where my advocacy comes in is to help get things out of their way. I need to provide them the environment and then take away all those roadblocks, or at least minimize those roadblocks, and take obstacles out of their way so that they can learn and do their job and and while they're doing that, I am their big champion. I am highlighting their successes. I am talking about them, to other people and to to people in our district so that they can receive recognition. I am supporting them. If a parent were to call or there was a question about the the pedagogy related to it, I am. I am that part. I am the encouragement and the advocacy for them that also extends to time and planning. I think the teachers would say the biggest thing for an implementer, a first time implementer of MCP, is the time commitment that is necessary for it. And there's, there's no reason to pretend that there isn't a lot of time. There is a lot of time that's necessary to do this and to do it right from the start. So I have to protect that time for them. If I'm going to put something on their plate, I need to take something off their plate. If I'm going to give them PLC time, then it should be their PLC time. Now my PLC time. If it's a meeting that could have been an email, then let it be an email so that they can have as much time as possible and advocating for them to be compensated as the professionals that they are for the the time that they are giving. And then lastly, in terms of exemplars and and feedback, we do learning walks within our building, and also our district has a very robust learning walk process where our teachers, our teachers welcome teachers from other schools into their class so they can see how it runs and get some ideas. And I always encourage our teachers to go on those learning walks, whether they are novice or third year MCP teachers, you're always going to learn something new. So giving them that opportunity to see it work in other classrooms, to take to cherry pick an idea from someone else. And also, I'm not the only one who's taken the free course on our admin team. I recommend that all administrators who are working with teachers who are part of MCP also take the free course, because you are not going to be able to be an instructional leader in that building. You're not gonna be able to provide feedback and coaching to teachers who who want it and need it, if you aren't able to use the vernacular, if you don't understand what the point is behind each of the tenets of MCP. So those are, those are really like the big three rocks, I guess, in the way that we support teachers in our building, and I also think in our district,

Toni Rose Deanon  13:00  
honestly, all I can say is, amen, right? Like, say it louder for the people in the back. You said some really beautiful gems here. Dr Pallister, where you said, I want to provide this space where teachers can try, can fail, can be vulnerable when they're when they're implementing something brand new, right? And, you know, you do. You did say, like, it's all the teachers, it's all the teachers. They really do this work. They make it magical, yes, and they're able to make it magical because of your guidance, right? Like you said, I want to take away all the obstacles, right? If they want to do something and there's things that are just standing in the way, I want to get those things out of the way so that my teachers can be successful. Another thing that I really love too is that recognition piece, right? Like teachers honestly, like, Yeah, we don't get compensated enough. And we really love recognition. We love being recognized with all the things that we're doing, with all the things that we're juggling in the classroom, and then also being able to showcase student growth, student engagement, all of that, the recognition goes a really long way. So I love that you, you said that right, like standing by and with your teachers when there are questions is really important as well. And then that piece of protecting the time, I think that, in itself, like that, should just be mic drop, right? Protect the time. If we want to do something different. We have to give our educators time to process, to reflect, to plan, to do all the things that they need to do so that they can feel safe in failing, in trying and being vulnerable, right? So I really, really, really love that. And again, y'all like, when I say, I've again, I've been in the same physical space is Dr Pallister, and I'm just like, holy moly, I love all the things. And your school culture is so positive as well. Your teacher speaks so highly of you, which, again, shows a lot of the impact that you have created as well. And so now you know you said you were in the third year of implementing let's talk about the first year. How. Rough was it? And you know, when you say, like, oh, teachers fail. They have to be vulnerable. How rough was it from year one to now? Like, okay, I got it year three. There's still a lot to learn. Because every year there's a lot to learn. What are some huge comparisons or changes or anything that you can share with us? From year one to year three? 

Beth Pallister  15:20  
Well, I was fortunate that the teachers that started the first year by early adopters, they were really awesome teachers to begin with. I mean, they had courage and they really wanted to do this, so they already started with a pretty high teaching skill and ability. But that unit zero, and that first unit, and that first few months when they didn't have necessarily a lot of people to rely on, there wasn't a collective mass of people that they could call or they could go visit the to to work out some of the kinks. That was that was a challenge for some of them. Some of them started out thinking, What have I done? You know, there is that three months in where they're like, I I am really, I'm really worried about the life decisions that I've made, and maybe I have bit off more than I could chew. But that's where the encouragement comes in. That's where trying to help them find the resources that they could go, that they could go to to find out answers to some of the challenges that they had, and also where we encourage them to lean on each other, and the, you know, 20 or other teachers who were in our district who were also in the same boat, I think MCP is an organization does a great job providing resources, whether you're going to the website or the MCP university or, you know, just being able to reach out to any of you to ask questions, is, is? Is thrilling, but they had that start of a problem. Problem, I don't know what to do. I don't know who to reach out to. I'm feeling scared. I'm feeling overwhelmed. What do I do now? So it took a little while to get over that, and it took a little while for them to get really good at making videos and to trusting the students to follow their trackers and to sort of trust the process that the kids really would be able to get this and and of course, they have, and it was not but maybe by mid year that we were already starting to grow in our PLCs. And that's really how it took off. It would be one teacher in one PLC, a sixth grade science teacher in the science PLC, who started to talk about what she was seeing in her classes, what her students were able to do that they weren't doing before, how it was be helping with behavior management, how refreshed she felt to not have to be on stage and on all The time. That really just started to infiltrate with the other teachers, and once other teachers started to see it and they got trained, then it just grew exponentially, not only in our building, but across the district. I also think that first year, we had some parental concerns, we heard, probably things that you hear all the time, like, that's covid teaching, or that's a flipped classroom and and I that was, and that was really my responsibility. That's where my advocacy needed to come out. I needed to speak at open houses. I needed to take the parent phone calls. I needed to provide educational materials in our monthly newsletters to families to just try to keep educating them on what MCP really was and all the benefits of MCP and how it's nothing like covid teaching or flipped classrooms or things like that. So those were the initial challenges, I think, that we had. But as we grew, those challenges went away and and now we're at a point where our kids, because some of our kids, were sixth graders when we first started, and now they're eighth grade. They're eighth graders, but our students will say, Hey, can you make sure that I'm in a modern classroom, Project classroom? Because that's what I want. Or parents will call and say, I really want my child to be on one of those teams that does this, and and I, and I know that they're going to be able to do it, because at this point, I have more teams and more teachers who are MCP teachers, then then not. So it's easy to accommodate that, and I have gradually, over the years, refined the way that I present it at open houses and the way I present it in newsletters, so that I'm highlighting it better and we're able to showcase all of the gains and the benefits to students, not only academic gains to the students, but also all those soft skills that really get strengthened through the advocacy, the agency, the time management skills, all the things that students get when they're in a modern classroom project. And then you know that the teacher, leader aspect of it has kind of handled the the new teachers who come on so now they know they have people in the building that they can go to to ask questions, to go visit in a learning walk, to just stop in during their planning Bell and see how they handle a beginning of the lesson or an end of the lesson, or. Show me how you use your tracker. What what do you do for your videos? What do you do when students aren't showing mastery? They do that within their group, their the school group. But then also the district has district level PLCs and district level learning walks and all kinds of supports that are offered that way.

Toni Rose Deanon  20:18  
I mean, there are so many great things that you're offering, right? So many great things that you're providing for teachers as well. One of the things that stood out to me is that parental communication. I love that because I know I hear from educators all the time, hey, I'm having to go back and forth with a parent. I don't have the support from admin so that I can continue teaching in this way. And so I really love that you were like, No, that's actually my part of my advocacy as a school leader is that I handle all of those parental concerns. I handle all of the communications. I've refined the ways that I've communicated with with our parents and our caregivers as well, to ensure, again, that there's clear communication, that there's no misunderstanding of what the model could be for students. And I really love too, that not only have you provided or not even provided, but like encouraged for your teachers to advocate for themselves. Now your students and parents and caregivers are also advocating and saying, like, Hey, this is what we would like our learning to look like. Can you please make sure that this is what my student or what I'm getting as a student, right? And so I love that so much, and I can definitely relate with the beginning of implementation of like, what have I done?

Toni Rose Deanon  21:29  
What is this mess? Oh, my goodness, it's chaotic. I don't know what's happening. And so I really love that again, you, you've created this space where teachers could feel that, right? They could feel all the feelings and not be reprimanded. But I'm, again, I'm getting all the good feelings as you're talking. And I know this is not just all talk, it's also how you really walk in the school space that you're in, right? So again, I really appreciate that you provided this space for teachers to really encourage each other, to encourage them to learn from each other as well, and that teaching doesn't have to be so isolating.

Speaker 1  22:08  
Another thing that I really love that you said to Dr Pallister is that you talk about where teachers didn't really know who to go to for support, right? And so what I appreciate about Chesapeake is that you all collaborate with MCP so well, like you all are advocating also for what you need from us so that you can be successful and supportive of the teachers who are implementing the model, right? And so I love this partnership that we have as well of like, hey, MCP, here's a gap that we have. What can we do together? Right? As opposed to, like, let me make this whole thing up myself. You're inviting partnership to happen. There's a lot of collaboration. So again, there's this modeling piece that's really important too, that the school leaders and the district leaders are showing their teachers. And I love that so much. Well, let

Beth Pallister  22:56  
me say, let me piggyback off of what you just said, because although we reach out to you to get information, we receive so much from that relationship when as a demonstration school, when you all come and do your walkabouts and you provide just the best feedback and suggestions to our teachers, I study that because you all CC me on the responses that you give teachers. I study that because if a teacher comes to me with a problem, I try not to solve that problem for them, but I try to send them to somebody who might have also had that problem, or who might have also had that success, and let that teacher be the teacher leader for for that particular teacher. But we just get so much out of the relationship. I learn so much every time you all come to our building.

Toni Rose Deanon  23:45  
And I think that's another thing too. The communication is just so open, right? Like, not only you, but also the district leader, Dr Jones, Dr Alarcon, who's also CC in those emails, they see all the feedback, so that again, the communications are, it's all alignment, right? There's an alignment there. There's no gap of like, well, I don't know what MCP said to this teacher, or I don't know what MCP said to this school leader, but it literally is. Everyone is involved in this process, and I love that so much. So kudos to y'all for just being like, Hey, we're receptive to feedback. We want feedback. We're receptive to it. Please share all the feedback that you have for us so that we know the wording that you're using, so that we can continue to align and not well, MCP said this, so why are you saying this? Right? Like there's always that alignment that I absolutely, really love again, so intentional, so meaningful, and it makes a huge impact as far as creating trust within the community and so Okay, Dr Pallister, you've said some really, really amazing gems, I want to just reiterate again. Do you have another hot take when it comes to supporting teachers, something that like not a lot of people do? I guess. Not even think about doing or like, Oh no, that's like a real like, that is real spicy, real risky. I don't want to do that. But do you have another hot take of supporting teachers?

Beth Pallister  25:11  
I think I have an easy one and a harder one. The easy one for school leaders who are implementing MCP and want to support their teachers is give them supplies. There are not a lot of supplies that are necessary for MCP. It's not an expensive program to put into effect, but there are. But it makes the teachers feel special, and it makes their job easier every year and all during the year, I have a Google form that I send out to them, and I'm like, what do you need? They always need lots of earbuds, because a middle schooler cannot keep track of an earbud longer than 15 minutes. And to me, an earbud is the is the modern day pencil. You would not let a student sit in a classroom without a pencil. You're not going to let them sit in your classroom without an earbud. Give them earbuds. They cost me 15 cents, 25 cents a piece, so I buy them by the hundreds. So they always ask for for ear buds. They like colored paper. Colored paper helps them make the centers more easily identifiable. Helps with assignments for students. So give them colored paper. A lot of them want signage for their centers. Buy that for them. We make posters in our in our building, educational infographic posters that we put up in all of our MCP classes, so that all the students are seeing the same processes in and using the same language in the different classrooms. But that is very easy to get, to give teachers. And teachers love school supplies, so make them happy, buy them the school supplies. Set aside a small part of your budget for it. So that's like, one of my hot takes, buy things for the students, I mean, for the teachers. And then the other hot take, I would think, I think, is really this concept of protecting their time. And that is, that's a from an administrative lens. It's realizing that the things that you think are so important that you need to take teachers time for they're really not as important as you think they are. That what is important is that the teachers have time to work in with their PLCs, to work with their partners, to work in their classrooms so that they can produce what is necessary, so that students can learn your faculty meeting about dress code is not important. It's just not as important, and they know it, and you have got to accept it for yourself. Make it an email. Make it an individual conversation. Make it part of something else. But don't take their precious planning time, their PD learning days, their after school time. Don't take that for them, for thing from them, for things that you can manage other other ways.

Toni Rose Deanon  27:53  
And listeners, I know y'all can't see me, but I'm just like dancing, just dancing, because that is so true. You have your easy right, like put put in your budget, go ahead and purchase those things, because you know that's going to bring joy to your teachers. It's less stressful for them to worry about the supplies that they need, right? And again, going into year three of implementing, you already know, you know, you already know, for the most part, what teachers are going to need. So I really love that. And then this protecting time piece. Dr Pallister, when I say, like you said, if a meeting could have been an email, make it an email. There's no need to meet. And just like what you said, teachers need time to collaborate. Teachers need time to plan, very similar to what we're doing for our students, right lecture based teaching is not really it right now, like we want to utilize that time wisely and effectively. There's there's a need for collaboration. There's a need for processing and reflecting and so taking away the talk time, right, and then providing that in different ways so that students can actually practice the skills and the content and the context that we're teaching is really, really important, and it brings to mind the lesson classification. Dr Pallister of must do, should do and aspire to do right like hey. As teachers, I also thought as as an English teacher, I also thought everything was a must do, and this model quickly made me realize that is false, that is ego coming in, thinking that every single thing that comes out of my mouth is important when it's actually not. So I love that reminder. Thank you so much for that reminder, and I hope we play that back over and over and over again, because we need that reminder, I think, almost daily. So Dr Pallister, as we wrap up our conversation, what do you hope to see in the future and what goals do you have?

Beth Pallister  29:35  
I would like for us to continue to grow in our content classes. I'd like for us to continue to grow in the MCP model in our classrooms for students with disabilities. Right now that we have three teachers who teach students with disabilities who are trained, but I'd like that to continue, because I think it's the perfect differentiation model for a classroom like that. And I'm very excited, as excited I think about. As I was when we started MCP, I'm excited about the potential for AI to help our teachers in planning for modern classroom, so that they can use AI for their should do's and their Aspire tos and their must do's, which are the things that every student needs to learn, the objectives, the you know, the minimum that we need them to learn that's very easily accomplished through our curriculum guides, but those extra assignments that can either reteach, reiterate or or give them opportunities for enrichment, that's where I think AI can really help our teachers. So I'm excited about that. That's one of our kind of our PD initiatives this year is to try to help give teachers really tangible ways that they can use AI to save time be more efficient and more creative in the classroom.

Toni Rose Deanon  30:49  
Yes, oh, that's so beautiful. It's music to my ears. Dr Pallister, thank you so much for being you, for being the school leader that you are, for taking care of the teachers and your students as well. And again, just thank you for saying yes to this podcast and sharing your experiences and your expertise. I really appreciate it well.

Beth Pallister  31:06  
It was my pleasure. I love talking about MCP. I wholeheartedly believe in the method.

Zach Diamond  31:16  
Thank you so much for listening. Listeners. Remember, you can always email us at podcast at modern classrooms.org and you can find the links to topics and tools we discussed, as well as more info on this week's announcements and events in the show notes for this episode at podcast dot modern classrooms.org We'll have this episode's recap and transcript uploaded to the modern classrooms blog on Friday, so be sure to check there or check back in the show notes for this episode if you'd like to access those. And if you enjoy our podcast and it's been helpful in supporting you to create a blended, self paced, mastery based learning environment, we would love if you could leave a review that does help other folks find our podcast. And of course, you can always learn the essentials of our model. If you want to go beyond the podcast through our free course at Learn dot modern classrooms.org and you can follow us on social media at modernclassproj, that's P, R, O, J, we are so appreciative of all the hard work you do for students and schools. Have a great week, and we'll be back next Sunday with another episode of the modern classrooms project podcast. You.

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