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. Hello and welcome to the modern classrooms project podcast. My name is Zach diamond, and I'm a high school media production teacher in Washington, DC, and a modern classrooms implementer. And today I'm joined by Althea Carter, a middle school math teacher. Welcome to the podcast, Althea. It's great to have you. Althea Carter 0:45 Thanks. It's great to be here. Zach Diamond 0:47 Yeah, I'm excited because this is an episode where we get to hear from students, although not from them directly. You have some reflections that students have, things they've said to you, things that they've, I guess, written down, maybe too. You're going to tell us all about that. But before we get started, why don't you tell me and our listeners a little bit more about yourself, what you teach, how you got into education and how you started your modern classrooms journey? Althea Carter 1:11 Oh, wow, I am definitely a career switcher when it comes to teaching, originally, undergrad, actually, Hospitality Administration. Hotels and trade shows and amusement parks and things like that. So yeah, after I got married and we had our first kiddo, it just wasn't an industry that was conducive to doing all of the things mom, like, all those things. So I stayed home for a while. But you know, during that is when, like, that passion aligned as I'm, like, raising and working with the kids, and just it birthed that teaching bug. And so I went back to school, got my master's degree, master's in teaching middle grade mathematics, and I started my journey, what 1516, years ago now, and our family recently moved here to Virginia, and so for the past five years, I have been a middle school math teacher. Three years ago, I started with MCP, and I have not looked sexy, Zach Diamond 2:27 yeah, for sure. I mean, I definitely feel I've talked about this a little bit. I also sort of switched careers because I was a, you know, a musician, and I became a music teacher just because I, you know, we had a daughter, and it's just like, you can't be, you can't be living that life and be a parent. I mean, some people can. I couldn't, yeah, but teaching, while it can be exhausting, can also be very stable. So and yeah, modern classrooms, for sure, it makes it less exhausting, that's for sure. And it's definitely a math based I mean, it started in math classrooms, so you lucked out there really fits. Also you're wearing, I don't know if people like we might have some clips on the internet for people to see. A video you're wearing a wicked sweatshirt, which I immediately noticed, because that's awesome. Althea Carter 3:12 What ways that let the people see? Zach Diamond 3:14 How did you do? What does it have? Like, those sequins that like reverse color. This needs to be clipped. I'll find a way to make sure that gets clipped. That's amazing. We should just have a wicked podcast at this point. And I don't know if you know this, I've never met anyone named Althea before, but there's a Grateful Dead song called Althea. Do you know this song? Yeah, so I'll put it in the show notes. Every time we email back and forth, the song kind of pops into my head. Althea Carter 3:46 So amazing. Yeah, I just found out about the song maybe six years ago. There's like, a famous tennis player named Althea Gibson, African American tennis player. So I learned about her in third grade first time, and then the Grateful Dead spot I probably learned about maybe seven years ago. Zach Diamond 4:03 Oh, well, I just learned about the tennis player today. So I'll link to both of them all the altheas. But today we have you, and we're going to talk about your class and your students, I guess, like we're going to sort of dive into things that students have said to you about your class. But before we do, I'm gonna keep saying, before we do, we're diving in now. But I'm curious to hear about like, how your class works, because I want to know where these reflections come from. Like, is it part of a class activity that you do with them? Is it more informal? Tell me about how you get these reflections from your students that we're going to be hearing later. Althea Carter 4:41 Awesome sauce. So our class, it started off more formal, where I would use Google Forms for the reflection, but I felt like I wasn't getting enough information from them. So now my reflections from students are more informal, where I'll jot things down, and it's so interesting to see them, like watching me write. The things that they say down, but they always want to make sure that what they're saying is recorded. So sometimes during independent work, I might just go and sit with a pair of students who are working together. I might go plop myself down at a group of kids at cafeterias table. One of my most recent reflections was on the school bus if we were going to a field trip just the week before school got out. So I'm on the bus with a good student, and once you start talking about it, and some of my reflections actually that will come straight from like home or parents, from what students are telling them, and, you know, different conversations that they're having with their kids at home. So I kind of gather from all these different places and record it. Zach Diamond 5:49 Yeah, that's really cool. I think it's also much more authentic that way than the Google Form approach, right? Because I used to do that too, where I would, and I still sometimes do. There are activities in my class where we do reflections, but, like, it's this sort of eyes open and ears to the ground, kind of thing where you're just sort of picking up on where your students are at, where their families are at, you know, where the community is at, and then using that to inform your own practice. I think that's that's also really cool, like the way that it's not just making them reflect for reflection sake. Sometimes it's for you to improve your modern classroom or to improve your teaching. So tell me. Tell me some of them. Let's get into it. What have your students said that is sort of that you've recorded and has, I guess, impacted you in any way that it has. Althea Carter 6:32 So I like one of the biggest one from many of them is that you can't learn this way, or no one likes learning, and they look at it as learning from a video. The way my brain I got my class first is it's mathematics based, obviously. So they may have six to eight minutes of video, note, guided notes. For me, the classroom design is more so their notes are numbered. It matches the video, which is usually an end up or something like that. Grab the sheet, the same sheet that I'm going through on the video. They'll fill it in guided notes. Then they have some independent practice, which they can work with a group or partner on. Have a couple like that. And then they're matching, check, completely independent. So a lot of students are stuck on that beginning part that guided notes doing that part. There was at one point, we had one who I just wanted to he just had had enough. So His thing was, no one likes this. Althea Carter 7:37 It can't work. And he wanted his brains to get in. And so in that moment, because I could see his frustration, and instead of it being a full distraction, I decided to just hold that. It was a group setting classroom right now. Let's all talk about it. That was one of the most eye opening just experiences because all of the kids were able to contribute, and it wasn't just one voice, but there were so many different voices, and kids felt okay saying exactly how they felt about whatever it was they felt, because there was at least one or two other kids that felt the same way. But in that moment, he just really was having a hard time with the whole the video lesson, part of everything. So for him, I asked him, I said, how you feel about going back to traditional for this, for this next upcoming lesson? He's like, Yes, that'll be great. And so we did it. Kind of make any comments. I just, you know, went through it the same way, you know, that we've done in, you know, previous years. And at the end, you know, I asked him how it was, and he wanted to say he liked it, but his notes weren't filled out. And I know his notes weren't filled out because most of the time he's kind of turned around talking to some of his friends. He was playing with things, but at the table. But I let it happen just so I can show him. And then in the end, he just kind of said, he just felt like it was, it's just too much work. Zach Diamond 9:07 He learned. He figured it out. That's fantastic. I mean, I think first of all, I thought, I kind of chuckled to myself, when this this kid is saying, No one likes learning like this. And then what you said is maybe one or two other kids agreed, right? Like, sometimes they can have a sort of inflated sense of everybody else feeling the same way that they feel. That's a very middle school thing, Althea Carter 9:31 right? It was a lot of us. It is, right. It is very, very much age appropriate, yeah. Zach Diamond 9:37 But I love the responsiveness on your part, right? I love the sort of like, well, let's, let's go back to traditional, let's try and, yeah, I think that a lot of times students I've found this too, and lots of guests on this podcast have talked about how students are surprised by the sort of increase in self accountability, right? But also the, I guess, the over. Set from the teacher, where we can really see what they're doing, what they're not doing, and they have to do it right. Some kids maybe don't like that. Althea Carter 10:06 For that one, I also wanted to ask that at the end, hearing from the students who were, you know, fans of the format. You know, they were just like but it was so slow. Miss Carter, I already knew how to do XYZ, yeah. And so, you know, they were very much not pleased with feeling like they were being held back from moving forward when I did that activity for sure. So another one was just recently, we were on a field trip, and so the student decided to use that time because I asked them, you know, we're on field trips, and you didn't allow them to bring their phones or anything. So I'm like, Well, I have you guys here now talk to me about how that they were almost done. I won't see you again till 2026 once we get out of school. Because this was, like the week before we got out of school, the field trip was. So tell me what's been great so far. You completed almost half of seventh grade. How you feeling about it? And it just so happens that my team is unique in that three out of their four teachers are modern classroom educators. Zach Diamond 11:14 Sorry, wait, Althea, when you say your team, do you mean the math teachers or like the seventh grade teaching team, Althea Carter 11:20 the team. So in seventh grade, you know, the middle school model is like, we might have five teams. Each team has a English, history, math, science teacher, team, one team, two teams. Zach Diamond 11:30 So they're getting modern classrooms in all of their subjects, or most of their subjects, Althea Carter 11:35 in three out of four rights of their core subjects our students, because we have one shared group of about 100 students. Okay, that's awesome. And so the four of us share that group of students, and three out of their four classes are modern, their science, English and math or modern classroom. Wow. So yes, and some students are coming from some, I want to say, trauma based, but maybe courses that were labeled my classroom, but might not have been properly implemented at the time. So they're kind of having some, yeah, so we had some that came with a little bit of, I can't do this. There's no way I can do this. And then my science teacher and I are just kind of like, well, give us a chance. Give us a chance. And if it doesn't work, Althea Carter 12:19 we'd be more than happy of, you know, switching team or whatnot. And those students, actually those, I want to get to that reflection that was just one of the best, okay, but during that time on the field trip, so I asked about what's working what do you guys feel should be different or not different? And so they're like, Well, I like the ability to choose when I do and how I do things, but one of the major things that I hadn't even realized that I stopped doing was class wise reviews, like right before, like a major test or quiz or things like that. It has so many independent pieces so like, when they complete the study guide or the online game that I've, you know, kind of set up for self pacing. You know, we just moved on to it. But they told me it was like, the only thing that we wish that you would start doing is, like a whole group, class, wide review before 10, and I don't do that anymore. I want to start doing that again, which I did love doing it, you know, but so that was one thing that, because of them, I started implementing again, and that actually did raise and change how they perform, like I literally saw it, Zach Diamond 13:43 yeah, for sure. And I think that's a really important reflection, I guess, for us as modern classrooms teachers, to keep in mind as well, because I had a similar experience. I mean, I do sort of project based learning, and there's no test, so there was no review. But like, I think that I in implementing modern classrooms for the first time, I also became a little bit too hands off. Too hands off. I was like, this is just all I could just like, it's so easy for me. I can just give you all the work, and you all just do it, and I, you know, Coach and guide and do what I need to do, Althea Carter 14:13 and facilitate Right, right, facilitating courage, promote Zach Diamond 14:17 right. As I've become a more experienced modern classrooms teacher, I have started slowly implementing more and more pieces, and that is feedback that I get from my students, right? We'd like you to be a little bit more hands on, even though I'm like, come on. I'm like, sitting with you. I'm like, literally with students for an hour and a half, you know, like, all of the whole time, absolutely, yeah, but, but they're right, right? You know, it's like, sometimes it's not just. And obviously I don't think that I was, or that you were, like, throwing them in the deep end and being like, later guys, you know, right, sink or swim kind of thing. But today, I might have felt that way, like, right? I think that they, there is obviously a lot of sort of. Conditioning that has gone into them by the time they get to seventh grade. And now I'm teaching. I was teaching middle school, and I experienced that too, but now I'm teaching older kids, and it's even more ingrained, right? Like the teacher should walk us through this and that accountability piece we were talking about before it could be hard for them and and having a little bit more support in the form of, like full group things, not self paced things, not independent. And it builds community, right? Like It, it's, it's, it's all part of a sort of a well oiled machine, a functioning classroom. And so I think that's important for us to remember, right? It's not just about doing self paced activities the whole time. Althea Carter 15:38 Now, I must say, having multiple teachers or kids who share teachers who do it also opens up a whole new string of reflections from them, which just brought to mind one where we both had playlists she and I, and I would do a playlist look similar, but the way that student access information is to play early on. Now we use way to build tracker. We had our playlist the student, which is coming in, they were like, Ms Carter, why don't you do your playlist like Miss so and so? And I said, How does miss so and so do their playlist? And they walk me through it like that was direct from the students. Had they not brought that to me? It was still done this way. And they all were on board. It was like, the whole class wide, like, Yes, do it this way. And it was a slight change. And sure enough, and I went to her and her, she's like, yep. And like, I just love the fact too, that we develop that kind of environment for them to feel, okay, Zach Diamond 16:46 yeah, yeah, but giving you that feedback, right? I think that's, that's sort of like Gone unspoken here, but that's a really important part, right? Like you, you've created an environment where they're they're feeling comfortable giving you that maybe even critical feedback, right? Particularly that one kid who thought that no one liked it, but, but even this, right? Like, if the class is unanimously saying, Oh, Miss Carter, maybe you could try doing this. That's, that's cool, that's like, really involved, that's buy in, right? And I think, you know, we often talk about, like, the teacher, bestie, right? Like somebody supporting you, and also somebody that you can kind of bounce can kind of bounce ideas off of, and you can try out their ideas, like in this case. But I actually think it's really cool that you didn't get the idea from the teacher. You got the idea from the students who have that teacher. Yes, that's, that's, they're just like, so involved with their learning. They're like, we learn better this way, even if they're not necessarily thinking about it from the sort of metacognitive science of learning side of things, right, which is what maybe we would do as the teachers. But like, they're, like, this is just easier on my brain, right? Like, this works better for me. And so, yeah, I love that you're creating that environment for them, and I love that that they're they're able to share that with you and have be that involved in their learning. Was that the one that you were gonna say before, like one of the best reflections? Or is there another one? Althea Carter 18:09 One of the best reflections was coming from a student like I said, who had experience, I guess some teachers that were trying to implement first time implementers, I'm still working out the case, and they felt students completely overwhelmed. It was just kind of one of those things, like they might have been the first year of grade slipping and just feeling, you know, just very, very much overwhelmed, or MCP. And so when they found out that they were coming to a team where most of their teachers were modern classrooms. They didn't do they could do it. And so that was on me and my teacher, Betsy, who they put back together. They separated us last year, but they put us together so we, you know, give us a chance. And when she gave us that chance, it was just, this is the best. Was like, it was, she was one of the ones on the field trip, and she just said, I'm really glad that I stayed on this team. And I was just like, it was just a lot to hear a student like, just say that, because she was adamant that she just couldn't do it. And I said, so how's it working? Though? Like, you know, Paul, you have so many more modern classroom teachers. You know, last year you said it, she was like, but it wasn't like this last year. She's like this year. So what's different? And she was like, the ability one for them to work together in communities. I guess. I don't know how it was designed for her previously, but she felt like she didn't get enough time to work with her classmates on different things. And another thing she said, she said she feels like there's a lot more patience with her mastery. Use text and mastering the content. So she's like, every time that I, you know, whenever I don't do well, it's like, you'll walk me through it, or talk to me about, you know, what I missed, and then I'm able to, you know, give it another chance. And so, like knowing the kids value that I do have to be careful, though, because I feel like some might take advantage of that aspect, but it seems like a lot of them truly, truly value like that, ability to make the mistake, get guidance on the mistake and go back in time. Zach Diamond 20:33 Yeah, for sure, I think it's a misconception that teachers have that students don't care or don't want to learn. There's like, 1000 reasons why a kid might be distracted in class or checked out or or not motivated. A million, a billion. There's so many reasons, you know, and they want to succeed like they want to learn. And giving them that space is what it's so interesting, right? Like, I don't know, I guess, but I kind of doubt that the actual workload changed. The overwhelm was coming from something else, right? Like giving the student the space to try again to, I'm guessing, also, like the environment where she could feel comfortable giving you feedback took some of the pressure off right where she could come and talk to you. I have students that are like, they'll come to me privately right at lunch or whatever after school, and be like, I need an extension, right? And I'm like, okay, you know, like, sometimes we got to get things done, right? Sometimes my grades are due and I got to put a grade in for you. We're on this deadline together, but like, where we can I think it's usually good to give kids a little bit of grace, right? And the model has certainly allowed me to do that more. And it's interesting to hear from students. I mean, that one to me is like, it's great to hear from the students, and it's great when they can articulate that, but it's also like, you could just see it. You could just see it in a modern classroom, right? Yeah, like all the kids, there's just this sort of, like, lifting of this weight that we all have teachers and students alike. It's, it's just so much less pressure in a modern classroom. That's my experience. Althea Carter 22:16 I agree, and I definitely feel like that for you know, our teachers that, and I do think from middle school, they have to have that grace for that learning to do that. I mean, it's coming from elementary school or, you know, even sixth grade, when seventh grade, that accountability factor is not innate for them. It is not something that they do well, I mean, we have grown ups that still can't, you know, manage that aspect. But I think the biggest part is just creating that space for them to be able to give these feedback, for them to be able to reflect on, you know, even if it's something that I might change for just one kid on how I do certain things, you know, he might have to come directly to me to get the next assignment. That's fine, because, for some reason the sequential or the setup of the learning design, it just doesn't work for this one kid, you know, so. But them feeling comfortable enough to, you know, want to tell me that, hey, when I go over there, maybe it's just too many papers over there. So you might say, Is it okay if I just come here to get the papers? Or I might tell him, if it's too much, just come get the paper, you know? But I think that's like one of the biggest things in that learning, that stepping stone, giving them the grade to learn how to manage their learning, yeah. Zach Diamond 23:43 How do you balance the grace and the accountability? Because I feel like if you go too far in either direction, like if you go too far on the accountability side, you put the pressure back on, and that's not good. And then if you go too far on the grace side, then, like, while they are they all want to succeed. Some certainly seventh graders maybe lack the executive functioning too, and they will start to be like, Oh, she's never going to make me do anything, right? How do you balance that? Althea Carter 24:09 So our classroom is definitely set to where the one non moving day is our unit test. Everyone takes the unit test on the same day. Yeah, everything else just needs to get done before then. So I would do spot checks. Who's where? I'm not sure if you guys have discussed like radio tracker or anything like that on the show yet? Zach Diamond 24:34 Yeah, we have a whole episode about it. I'll link the episode, and I'll link the tracker too. Althea Carter 24:37 Yeah, beautiful. That's one of the things about the kids, it's great again, because they're on the team where three out of four use the same thing. So they're updating. They'll put things, we'll display that, and we'll use that to see who's where. A lot of times, I may have to pull the small group those that might be taking too long, which kind of for. Pushes them out of that, and then I put them on deadline, because now I need this from you by here if we're going to get it all in prior to MCP. So some of them don't like switching to that deadline accountability practice, but sometimes it happens on the flip side, some of them are so driven by incentive that I can use that. So I have the soft deadline for certain for all their assignments, there's a due date, but of course, it's a soft due date, and I actually give rewards for completing it by the due date. So I have, like, a little question, you know, what goes to the rest of my hour? So I use those. They have, like, 10 punches, and then I have a wheel, kind of like a little wheel, a fortune wheel. They'll spin the wheel at 10 punches. And it's like, you know, all the free things that I get my girl, you know, getting to choose the music in class or lunch with friends. That's one of my biggest ones, where them, plus three friends from anywhere in seventh grade, can come in my room and they can watch, some reason seventh grade is like watching bluey. Bluey, all right, on, you know, on the big screen, but it's just them and their friends, like having a private lunch, you know, just anything that can think of I have, like, space. Special seating in my room that could stay there for the entire block 90 minutes. So just those little things that there's just so eager to achieve kind of help those that are motivated. Zach Diamond 26:35 Yeah, for sure, that's, that's awesome. I mean, like, it is a balance, right? We can't just let them do whatever, whenever. You're still sort of helping them develop those executive functioning skills. They need them. They need them in middle school, for sure. And they need to develop them for high school and beyond, absolutely. Yeah, I love that. I love the wheel idea too, and a little punch card I might, I might steal that. I don't know. I feel like I had this sort of like, when I, when I switched from middle school up to high school, I had this, this transitional year where the kids were, like, not responding to anything I said, and we're like, no fun. I was like, what's going on? Is it me? High schoolers, I don't know. They're, they're a little bit more subdued, and I don't, I mean, like they do love their private lunches, and I bet that they probably also would watch bluey. So, oh yeah, all right, so do we have any more reflections before we close out the episode? Althea Carter 27:32 So every now and then, I might get some feedback from parents. Okay, I know, which is very interesting, because, of course, all of their feedback is only coming directly from their 12 year old, their little 12 year old nugget, Zach Diamond 27:47 that's kind of the unfiltered like you, and they only hear that one side of the story like, you know what the they'll tell you what the kids are saying. Althea Carter 27:53 Usually the feedback only comes if little him, he's missing a few assignments. Or, you know, right? So it's just interesting to hear how they describe what happens to the parent, because I'm assuming that that's what the parent is giving me and the reflection. So a lot of the feedback or reflections I get are Miss Carter. I just don't understand how you expect any students to learn if they just watch videos all day long and are not allowed to ask you any questions. So oftentimes, what's really helpful when I get those is to actually get the kids and let them read it and so, and then I asked them about it. Althea Carter 28:46 Sometimes they'll say, Well, no, that's not what I said. Or sometimes they'll actually, like, kind of feel like, that's what happened. And I do notice that, like, for my slower workers, it's kind of how they feel. They might have taken a long time on the video. Granted, it's eight minutes. It may have taken them 20 because pausing going to the restroom, you know, whatever. And so I used that opportunity, one to kind of go direct back and forth with them, like you have access to me at all time throughout the class, you'll see me working with somebody. You can even come and just say, can I be next? Or you can sit at that time, depending on what's happening. Then I don't necessarily have like, a formal take a number, because I try to get to all the kids throughout the entire block. But if you're ever feeling like you know you're falling behind or you just need some help catching up with something, you can kind of sit with me at my kidney table. So I use that to kind of actually direct conference with the student, and then I respond to the parent basically on the format of the class and how it should go. Um. But you know, let me know if you speak to so and so today, when they get home, let me know you said, I don't hear back from the parent after that. But to me, I kind of feel like that's good, because at least they are feeling some peace, and they may have spoken with their child, and that might be why I haven't heard that. Zach Diamond 30:18 But right? And if you do hear back, then you're in a dialog with the parent, right? And you can maybe that's more feedback for you that you can act on. But I actually think that's really cool, because having the student read the like, the parents interpret. It's like, was this a game of telephone where, like, my class got, like, passed through the brain of a seventh grader into the mind of a parent who then emailed me back and like, I'm getting this weird, messed up interpretation of what you think, or is this actually what you said? And if it is, now, is our chance to talk about it both, I think, because if the kids also like, that's not what I said, that's a lesson too. It's like communication is hard, right? Sometimes when you when you're a seventh grader, everything comes out, like you're just complaining about stuff, maybe, maybe not. I don't know. Sometimes they're more articulate than that. No, no, that's accurate. You know what I mean? Like, I think in both cases, it's a really great opportunity for the student to reflect themselves, right? And it could result in feedback for you, it could result in dialog with the parent, or it could result in a productive conversation with the student then and there. But either way, it's it's powerful reflection for the student. And I think that's really cool. That's really cool. Well, that's fantastic. Althea, what goals do you have for yourself? What do you hope to see in the future? I love the informal reflection. I'm sure that's going to keep going. That seems like just an attitude thing with you, absolutely. But what else these goals could be? Personal, professional, anything? Althea Carter 31:49 Um, personally. So I'm currently on track to completing my mentorship. Zach Diamond 31:57 Oh, okay, Althea Carter 31:58 so I am currently enrolled in the mentorship program, to become a MCP mentor, to get a few more teachers on board with this thing, because it is phenomenal. Ideally for like in my class, is to kind of get to that even three years in. And I know it's for me. It's probably because I'm running two curricula at the same time to become a little bit more seamless. I still feel like I'm treading water some of the time, just trying to stay afloat with keeping up with the grading and student feedback and things like that. So but I do see, I definitely see the light at the end of the tunnel. It is, as I'm getting further into the semester and further into the school year, I'm noticing some of the things that I started picking up along the way later in the year last year, I'm now coming into that now, which kind of changed things for me so professionally, I definitely want it to become kind of more of a seamless thing, and where I might not have as much misconceptions. As far as feedback from the students on how things are supposed to be run, maybe just being a lot clearer on what's expected from them versus what they should expect from me, Zach Diamond 33:20 yeah, but I think, like, you're absolutely on the right track. And I mean, I'm not, like, an expert here or anything. You're the expert in getting feedback from the students. But like, what a good way to move toward that goal, you know, listen to them, and every little change that you make is going to streamline the class and make it more student friendly, because they're the ones telling you what they need. And I love that. I just, I love like, I'm glad that we got to sort of dedicate a whole episode to just, sort of like the honoring hearing from students. Althea Carter 33:50 Yes, I'm telling you, it is. It's what you want to do, I promise you. And even if you're not a modern classroom teacher, let the students tell you the things they think might work, I mean, and give it a shot. You. It's just so amazing hearing their voice and allowing them to kind of build and foster their shape, their learning environment. Zach Diamond 34:14 Yep, and they're the experts, right? Like they're the ones doing it, they're the ones going class to class every day, and you it's important that second part right, where you actually try the things you can't just like, have them say stuff and then not do anything, because then they'll just get then they'll just get discouraged and not want to tell you anything. But if you show them how you said, I should try this. So let's try it, right? And then they can either see, oh, actually, this worked, or this completely bombed. My idea, my 12 year old brain came up with an idea that wasn't actually that good. But sometimes they do, sometimes they come up with the best ideas ever, and they, like I said, they really know, right? And at least, even if they're not the ones designing the classroom experience, at least they can give you feedback on what they're struggling with, so you can then sort of tailor the experience, either individually to them or I. A whole group, if that's beneficial. So yeah, what a great takeaway. Althea. If our listeners would like to connect with you and talk more about this, how could they do that? Althea Carter 35:11 I am in Chesapeake. So Althea dot Carter at C, E, S schools. Now there's just 1s It's the very word, c, p, s, C, H, O, L, S, Zach Diamond 35:25 okay, don't worry, I'll put it in the show notes. Click on it from right there. Email me anytime. Awesome. Well, thank you so much. This has been fantastic. Thank you so much again for joining me. You MCP, thank you so much for listening. Listeners, remember, you can always email us at podcast@modernclassrooms.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.modernclassrooms.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.modernclassrooms.org and you can follow us on social media at modern class proj, 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. Transcribed by https://otter.ai