Zach Diamond  0:00  
Foreign 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 very excited to be joined by Miguel Melchor, a personalized learning coordinator in Chicago, and a modern classrooms mentor. Welcome to the podcast, Miguel, really happy to have you. 

Miguel Melchor  0:51  
Thank you for having me. I'm very excited to be here.

Zach Diamond  0:53  
Yeah, and we were talking beforehand. I think that this topic is really interesting, and I think it's really important too. Our topic for today is math and English language learners. That's the title of the show, and I guess we're going to see where that goes. I I'm really excited to hear from you the experiences that you have teaching in that in that context. But before we get into the topic, can you tell me and tell our listeners a little bit more about who you are and how you started your education and modern classrooms journey.

Miguel Melchor  1:22  
I'm currently a personalized learning coordinator at my school in Chicago, where I support teachers through coaching, professional development and Mon and monitoring the goals of implementation. Before stepping into this role, I taught math and science in grades four through six for 10 years, and then serve as an English Learner Program teacher for one year, and that position, I coordinated the bilingual program for over 800 students. I coached teachers and El practices on shelter instruction and supported parents through the bilingual Advisory Committee, through workshops and equipping parents and supporting their their student. My MCP journey began over four years ago in my sixth grade math classroom. At the time, I was searching for a way to give students more ownership of their learning. I saw that some were racing ahead, while others struggled to keep up in the in the content and the traditional pacing just wasn't serving everyone so MCP, when I started researching MCP, it aligned with my vision of creating a classroom that was responsive to individual needs and gave students real agency. And I started by completing the free course, which gave me a strong foundation of implementation. I implemented right away, my first year since doing the course. And while it wasn't perfect at first, I saw immediate shifts in student engagement. Students were highly motivated, moving through the learning plans and the trackers and through self pacing. And later, a year later, I attended the virtual Summer Institute, which was a turning point for me, because I got to work with a mentor through modern classrooms training. And I didn't just learn the what of MCP. I got to learn really the how and how to build the systems coach students in self direction and sustain the work over time. And that has been my experience so far. And I became a distinguished modern classroom educator, a mentor, and so I and now with my new role with this appeal coordinator, I coach teachers using the MCP practices. 

Zach Diamond  3:34  
Yeah, and I want to definitely hear more about that later, because that's really always just in general, that's always fascinating to me. I've been a modern classrooms mentor, and so I'm interested to hear, like, how that plays out in a school setting. But Miguel, you're kind of like already enlightening me, because you mentioned involving the students families as part of your process. And I, honestly, I hadn't even thought of that. Like what I imagined in the context of math and English language learners was like classroom stuff, basically, right? But I love the idea of involving the families. Do you think you could tell me, I know it's not even in the in the questions that I wrote because I hadn't thought of it? Do you think you could tell me a little bit more about what that looked like, or maybe that will come up in the rest of our conversation as well? 

Miguel Melchor  4:17  
So for me, like when I started thinking about my students, I really started thinking about making content accessible, and I usually start by building relationships with my students. I spend, like the beginning of the year getting to know my students as people and as learners, and I use the families as a way for me to better understand their student. So I do spend a lot of time getting to know my students, linguistic assets, their experiential assets, their social emotional assets and their cultural assets. And I usually that information comes through their parents and understanding their role in education and how they view how they view teaching and learning, because a lot. Our parents are refugees and they are immigrants, so they are bringing a lot of their cultures and their experiences into our school. So for me to better serve them, I do spend a lot of time getting to know my students, and we use what we call the learner profile, which is a think of it as a student portfolio, where students write down their answer, their alert, the answer question, the learner preferences, their their experiences with math. What are their goals? What do they hope to aspire after they leave sixth grade, move on to the next grade? So really, it's a way to collect and to document the progression of my students progress throughout the entire year, and the parents played a huge role in that process.

Zach Diamond  5:45  
That's awesome. I'll link all of that in the show notes listeners to check it out. Yeah, that's that's fantastic. I love that, and I appreciate you enlightening me. Like, I said I think that, like, yeah, like, it's so important to think about how, learning extends beyond the classroom, and obviously involving the families. And I do have some wonderings that I'll get to later, about culturally, just beyond the language barriers, right? Culturally, what your role looked like, right? The work you were doing, what it looked like. And I think that involving the families is so important. So that's awesome to hear. But that being said, I also think that, like my Well, I guess my immediate reaction to the idea of teaching math to English language learners is that math is already hard, and I just love to hear from you like all the strategies that you have to make it accessible for students who are already experiencing challenges accessing the curriculum.

Miguel Melchor  6:43  
So going back, so going using learner profile, as I was saying, like using building relationships with students, first getting to know them as individuals, and which then helps me create content that is relevant to them. So whether that's sports, stats, cooking, building or cultural references that resonate with them, that I get that all the information through the learner profile, and that is how I use that information to create the lessons. Because I believe in making content that is not only it's not just about scaffolding the content, but making it meaningful for them and personalized for them. I try to provide multiple entry points into solving problems. So if students, if students aren't ready to compute, they can still engage in Reason using visual representation. And that is where MCP is powerful, because students who are ready to move ahead. Can do so without waiting for the rest of the class. And students who need more time there, they have the time to revisit content without any stigma. And those in the middle, they get the support through small groups, blended learning in the scaffolds, because I'm trying to meet students at at both ends, students who are like the high achievers are always ahead of pace, planning for those students and then planning for students who need additional scaffolds and supports, and all of those supports help my middle students in the middle move ahead as well.

Zach Diamond  8:14  
Right? Of course, accessibility benefits everybody, right. So you were developing materials uniquely for them to be able to access what was happening in those classes.

Miguel Melchor  8:23  
Yes, and I would that's when the MCP model would come into play, because I will create my instructional videos to be highly visual, and especially now with technology, you're able to translate to different videos to different languages using screen PAL and Screencastify, for example, like posh still, like which is a language in our inner building, we don't have teachers to speak that language, but now we're able to record instructional videos and change the language, not just the captions, oh, wow, the voice overs, the voice overs and they're in is very accurate, and I used it a lot of my students was about posh still, they were able to get access to the content and through small groups, through the use of my Learning Plan and trackers, I really enjoy using the modern classrooms digital tracker, the the sheet that they provided where you put an X if they mastered it, and are they need to revise, or, Oh, it's optional, because I create like this beautiful I put the kids in groups depending on the lesson, and I will use that information to plan for my instruction, my small groups, my conferencing schedule was based on that tracker and parents, you were able to using the extension moat. I believe that moat. I forget the extension name, but there's an extension that where you use, it's aligned to the the sheet that they provided to send emails to the parents, and that kept the parents informed of the progress and engaged. So they were always asking questions, and they knew where their kid, where their student. Working on in the lessons, and it made everything meaningful and personalized for them.

Zach Diamond  10:06  
Yeah, that's fantastic. And I totally agree on the tracker. I think lots of lots of people who talk about modern classrooms talk about using the tracker to kind of group kids based on their needs, and so that makes it easier for you to check in with like, more efficiently with them, right? And I do love what you were saying before, about like the students who are in the middle also benefit the you know, like all of these supports make it easier for everyone to learn at their own pace, and it also makes it so that your students who are who are able to pull ahead, can do so and don't have to wait around, yeah, this is, this is the miracle of modern classrooms, right? So something specifically that occurred to me was in math and science, there is, like, discipline specific vocabulary that even your native English speakers are learning, and they're also words I don't know, I guess, like multiply, right, or divide, or some I'm thinking of what I don't know. What happens in fourth grade math. I'm now a high school teacher, but like these are discipline specific words vocabulary, right? That I think students, maybe you can correct me if I'm wrong, but students probably aren't picking up in their day to day lives, living in an English environment. So how do you help them learn those words? Do you connect them back to their native languages, or are they learning them just in the same way that the English language or the English the native English speakers are learning them in the class? Can you talk more about subject, specific discipline, specific vocabulary, and how it's taught?

Miguel Melchor  11:36  
Yeah. So with vocabulary, there's several ill strategies that I use, one of them being the Frayer model for deep work exploration. So providing Definition Examples, non examples, and some sort of visual that aligns to the Word, and the framework is the graphic organizer with four boxes and the words in the middle, and that it really helps the students kind of see what the word is. Provide that visual. I'm big on bilingual dictionaries and making sure that students have a dictionary where they have the word English, and then they go out and they find their native language word to kind of see the correlation. Oh, yeah. But then something that I really found that is beneficial is that students they, they better have access to the vocabulary by them using it in the classroom, so lots of discussion based collaborations, like through the Met, through math talks that help students use the vocabulary, but also through gestures and physical movement. One of the things that I've done in my classroom is Science Theater, where students put on performances based on the concepts that we're learning. So for example, in fourth grade, we did photosynthesis. They use their bodies and gestures to create videos themselves, modeling the language, using movement and words through the video. And that was another way that students were engaging. But I will say that the the best way for students to practice with a peer discussing, using the words given opportunities for them to write it out in sentences and to really engage in through like the through the math and the context and the content totally

Zach Diamond  13:20  
and that's awesome. And you know, talking about accessibility benefiting everyone, like the native English speakers will benefit from that too, right?

Miguel Melchor  13:28  
Always, I always say that we're everyone's learning academic language like we're all learners, and that sounds like we're all learning the language together. And the students really do support each other, and they they're very understanding of each other's needs, because they know, like at our school, we have several refugee students who are newcomers, which horse, who don't know the language. And I use those students who are in the classroom as supports, as tutors and as mentors for those students to teach them in the class as well.

Zach Diamond  14:01  
Yeah, I think that's awesome, because I guess now that we're talking about this, you're making me realize like there are sort of two different types of vocabulary learning that I was imagining, like, if the native English speakers are just encountering these words for the first time, they're all learning together, right? But I would imagine that there are also words that would need to be taught remedially, right? Like that. If a student is a newcomer to the US and they're in fourth grade, there might be math words or science words that their peers have been learning since, you know, kindergarten, first, second, third grade that they have to be taught is, is there a difference there? Or do you do you teach those words in the same way

Miguel Melchor  14:38  
I will teach them in the same way I believe in having those high expectations, and making sure that they're getting exposed to the language into the experiences in the class and and providing those supports, like through small groups, through conferencing, and providing the additional vocabulary that they may need.

Zach Diamond  14:54  
Okay, so what? What happens in those conferences? Like, do you? Do you? Do in the small groups, right? It's something maybe correct me if I'm wrong. But like the the photosynthesis example, sounded almost like a whole class thing, or is that a small group activity? 

Miguel Melchor  15:09  
We will start off as a whole group. So for example, I did in my classroom through dramatization, modeling a circuit. So that was a whole class activity where each I assigned different people a role. So taking the role of the light bulb, taking the role of the wires, taking the role of the mortar, the switch, and we all put it all together to really understand, like the how a circuit functions and works. And we spend a lot of time talking about switch on and switch off, because a lot of the kids were getting confused with that concept of when it like when the switch is off, or when that when the switch is on. So given those opportunities for them to experience the content, the through movement, or just it just really did, made an impact in the class. And not only were they using the language through modeling, but also they were able to then transfer that knowledge to writing, and would have them in their science notebooks, write out, describe what happened, draw out the model, label the model, describe the different parts, the different components of each of the of the circuit. And that really helped them through experiencing themselves, through movement and gestures.

Zach Diamond  16:22  
That's really interesting. I guess I want my question then is like when you're working with the kids in small groups who are struggling, are they struggling with the concept, or are they struggling with the language? Or both?

Miguel Melchor  16:35  
Sometimes it's both, because I do have because we do have multiple different languages in our building, right the we do have conferences. And with conferences, those are usually one on one conversations. And the purpose of a conference, there's really three main roles, like either one is to build a relationship with a student for me, to get to know them a bit better. The second purpose of a conference to set goals and to monitor the goals have been established. And the third is to meet with the student, provide like a quick mini lesson on what they have learned. And then when the small groups, sometimes, what I'll do is I'll group students based on their score, so they're getting the master checks. And that is how I target those skills, and when possible, I would form groups based on language to see if that was also a cause of of students. That was the reason why they weren't mastering the content. Interestingly, dependent on the student. It really depended on the scores, the data that I was that I was getting and also dependent a lot on the student and what their needs are, because the needs are so diverse, and I need just, just trying to figure out how to differentiate was always my goal. I fear, how can I best support each of the students, what strategies work?

Zach Diamond  17:55  
And so that kind of segues into my next question, because you've already talked about some of the ways that modern classrooms, like the model itself, has helped you. I would imagine that the groupings and the one on ones come from the pacing tracker. You've talked about how students are able to pull ahead, and you also mentioned instructional videos. That's all MCP stuff. Is there anything else that you use in the model that makes math and science more accessible to English language learners. I think,

Miguel Melchor  18:23  
just like the blended learning model, making sure that students have access to the instructional videos, but we also have, like our whole group activities through math talks, discussions. We have the small groups where I pull based on the tracker and having those one on one conversations. But then also as a thinking about our multilingual learners, I do use shelter instruction practices. I'm making sure that I have language objectives posted, making sure that students are not only engaging with the content, but also providing opportunities for them to engage with listening, this listening, speaking, writing and reading and just collaborative structures, through partner work, through peer tutoring, and through just like, just collaborative structures that would help students engage and discuss with each other, and lots of choice, I like to give students choice and through the model it does. It does give opportunities to give students choice if they want to work using a paper activity or a digital activity, or choice in their in their assessment, how they want to present their knowledge to their master check. Some master checks. Kids want to use Google Forms. Some kids want to use a exit ticket on paper. Others just want to be able to speak about it, or some just want to be able to model it using gestures and explain it through so there's different there's I like using all the different parts of the model to really achieve that personalized learning instruction in the class.

Zach Diamond  19:55  
I love that, and I think that also speaks to sort of the idea of universal design for learning like. Think when we provide those options for them, or provide options that allow for multiple different kind of modalities of submission, for example, in a mastery check, it just makes everything more accessible to everyone, whatever language they speak in the classroom or at home, right? The idea that we're assessing a particular skill is really at the core, and I hear that in what you're saying, right? Like the student can present in a variety of different ways that they've learned the skill or the concept. I guess a question occurs to me, like, if a student is able to express to you that they've learned a math or science concept in their native language. Is that like enough? Or do you need to work with them to express that in English?

Miguel Melchor  20:49  
I think for me, they're able to use it in their native language. Then, to me, that's mastering, because I'm focusing on the content right, focusing on the content. Then, yes, if they are able to use their native language to explain the concept, and they concept and they mastered it, then yes, they'll get credit and but then I will still work with them through my small groups and through like my one on one conversations, and really supporting them. And that's what I love about the model, as well as that, it really frees me up. I'm not in the front of the class lecturing as a as a as the students are self pacing, my role as a teacher really shifts. I'm become not just the the teacher given knowledge, but really become the coach and the facilitator. And it gives me the time to really meet with students, to support them, one on one, and yeah, to provide that encouragement, and also to build relationships with the kids, and that's also so and also to address any fires that may arise. I'm not holding the entire class hostage for one incident. I can now address that directly with that particular student in the class.

Zach Diamond  21:53  
Totally. That's that's the kind of thing that I feel like, again, that's like, the modern classrooms miracle, right? There's just certain things. When you run a modern classroom, then it's like, oh my gosh, I don't have to think about classroom management in the same way ever again, right? If something comes up, it's okay. Everyone has something to do. But that's really interesting. I think the idea of like, stripping away everything, but the actual mastery is something that I learned from modern classrooms that that is important to do, and, you know, Universal Design for Learning UDL, because what we really want to focus on are the skills and concepts that we're teaching our kids and the relationships. Like you said, Man, I, you know, it's, it's hard for me to imagine how it would feel to to be in a country where a very different language is spoken, and to have your teacher be a person that you feel comfortable around, that's just where I land on this. Like it's so important to have those relationships in general, right? But especially for students who are navigating challenges in a language that they may not understand and

Miguel Melchor  23:00  
creating that welcoming space in the class. So I do like, which is why like, especially now that we started school, like spending the first couple of weeks getting to know the students, their identities, their cultures, and establishing that classroom culture and environment. Which is why I love MCP, because I really using the trackers it creates like this friendly competition in the class, but the students become super. They want to support one another, they want to be the teacher assistant. They want to be able to assist and translate. So it really does help establish that collaborative structures in the class, which is, I love seeing that happen.

Zach Diamond  23:40  
Totally, totally. Okay. So I want to pivot a little bit to talking about being a learning coach, which you were telling me before we started recording, is something of a new role for you. And you already mentioned this a little bit that you so you are a learning coach, and you integrate modern classrooms into that. Can you talk a little bit about that? How, like, you work with teachers in your school, and you bring your modern classrooms mentoring knowledge into that.

Miguel Melchor  24:05  
So in my culture role, I always start with getting to know the teacher like, what are their goals and what is their vision? So I like asking teachers like, what do you want learning to look like and feel like in your classroom? And then from there, we start talking about, how can MCP support your vision in your class. And what's great about being in this PL, personalized learning role is a lot of the teachers in my building have already gone through the training. Have already okay. They work with a mentor, so I'm just really there to support their vision for implementation, because it looks different for everyone. It will look different in an ELA classroom, from a math classroom, from a science class to a music class, the practice is still the same, but I and I always tell teachers, you don't have to completely reinvent the wheel and change what you really are doing, because a lot of the practices of MCP, they're just good teachers. Practices like having clear learning targets, having practice aligned to the learning target, and allowing kids choice through the self pacing and the learning plans. So I support teachers when adapting their curriculum to be self paced, creating clear learning plans and building structure systems and routines so students take ownership. We also practice high having struggle opening routines through check ins and closing routines, where students are able to reflect on their on their learning and my experience as a coach, it has strengthened my mentoring in the program, because now I can provide resources and concrete examples to my mentees of what I've experienced and I've seen in the classroom, which makes it even also, as someone who's implemented the model myself, I'm able to bring all of that into my mentoring and coaching to really support other teachers and their personalized learning journeys.

Zach Diamond  25:58  
Yeah, that's awesome. Like, I have a couple of thoughts. So I think, like the modern classrooms, mentorship program is really great in how it allows teachers to basically build things for their actual class with the guidance of a mentor, right? But I think that in your position, implementing in the classroom is another step further into sort of authenticity and like meaningfulness to the teacher, right? You're there with them when they can see, like, oh, I had this plan, but this did not work. Let's re evaluate, which is something that like, as a modern classrooms mentor, going back and forth on the planning phase is great, but the implementing is another level, and I think that that's really cool. And I totally hear what you're saying, how you can take that experience back to your mentoring and be able to foresee and understand things differently, especially, I would imagine if you're working with teachers in different subjects,

Miguel Melchor  26:57  
there's so many resources that teachers create that I'm able that I'm also learning through my mentoring experiences. Because I it's great for me to see like other teachers think about the mod and how it looks like in their classrooms, and it's amazing to see like their resources being created. And I can bring those ideas to my teachers in my building to get them thinking, to get them wanting to try these new, new strategies.

Zach Diamond  27:20  
Yeah, totally. You know, it's in the intro to this podcast. Like we think that teachers learn best from each other. Sometimes I Oh, actually, always, I feel like the very best PD is just going into another teacher's classroom and watching them teach, even if they're a less experienced teacher than you like they're a different person, and not everything they do is better, quote, unquote, right? It's just good to see other teachers teaching, and I think that it helps us escape the sort of silos that we sometimes put ourselves in, where it's like, I have to be teaching right, and I'm quoting with my fingers right, like I have to be teaching right, or I'm not a good teacher, or whatever. But every teacher is different, and so looking into other teachers classrooms and seeing the different ways that they teach, and specifically seeing the different ways that they can implement MCP. I think it's just it's great, and I think it's awesome that you as a coach are responsive to that. Do you mentor any of the teachers in your building who you're also coaching?

Miguel Melchor  28:16  
Yes, it's fun, because I have a lot of the teachers who have registered for the virtual mentorship program with with MCP, I ended up, we ended up matching through through the through the course. So yes, I have mentored teachers this past year, actually this past summer, and now I'm supporting them in the classroom with implementation. And it's great because now, like they're getting the information through the course, they're creating the materials, and I'm supporting them in that process of adapting their curriculum and building these resources and supporting them in that way. But now I can, because we're in this we work in the same building, now we can actually take those resources and actually implemented. So it's been really nice this, this first week that I've been in the we started school this week. It's been really nice to see how teachers have already implemented their unit zeros into their classrooms, and how they're building those structures and those routines. And it was all because we did the work in the summer through the mentorship in through the mentorship program

Zach Diamond  29:20  
that's That is so cool, and I imagine that in in a way, it's also an interesting feedback loop for you, right? Like to see how your coaching is now playing out in the classroom. What a cool situation that you're in that's so fascinating. And it's also cool to hear that so many teachers in your building are using MCP. Yeah, that's awesome.

Miguel Melchor  29:41  
They're all using it. And I've actually had like in the past, student teachers go through the course like these newer teachers learn learning these new practices and how, I still keep in contact with many of them, and they're still they saw it be implemented in my classroom, and now they're in their own class. Rooms implemented in their own, in their own, in their own spaces.

Zach Diamond  30:04  
That's awesome. That's just awesome. Cool. So what advice would you give to Gen Ed teachers who are not specialized e ll teachers, but are working with multilingual learners? And this question, you know, generally for everyone, it could be more specific to math, or it could just be like advice that you have from having worked with multilingual learners for so long,

Miguel Melchor  30:29  
I would say, first, get to know your students and build strong trusting relationships and get to know their cultures or assets, whether they their funds of knowledge. Now, what do they bring into the classroom through their cultures, their linguistic assets, which then, in turns, like having those high spec, having whole holding high expectations, our multilingual learners are capable of rigorous thinking when given the right support and scaffolds. And I would say, maintain a can do mindset. Focus on what students can do with the language that they have, because they have knowledge in their native languages. And I would say, collaborate with your el specialist. They can provide strategies, but they also need you to be they need you to partner with them and supporting with implementation. And I will say, use visual sentence stems and multiple modalities. And I would, and I would say, like, go through modern classrooms training, because they will support you implementing great practices that will support all learners

Zach Diamond  31:30  
totally. And I think I love, well, I love everything you said. I think that it's very clear from how you're talking about your students that you're taking, like, an assets based approach to teaching these kids. I really liked what you said before about how of a student can demonstrate mastery of a concept in their native language. That counts because, like, the fact that they don't necessarily speak fluent English doesn't mean anything for for their capabilities, for their knowledge, for their skills, right? It they're totally capable of learning all of these concepts, just the same as a native English speaker, they may be more capable of it depending on a number of factors, right? You're approaching them. I just, I love to hear the asset based approach, like what they are able to do, as opposed to what they're not able to do. I thought of one other question that may be kind of like a wild card. I don't, I don't know exactly how relevant this is specifically to, like language learning, but you've talked a lot about students culture, and I'm interested to hear about your experience working with newcomers. The thing, the thing that I imagine here is like, okay, a student is coming to the US to start in fourth grade. Like, what if the US fourth grade math standards are different from the math standards that they had where they're coming from in their home country, and there's a gap, or they're, like, two years ahead of the of the students that they're joining. And I also thought of like units of measure right, come to the US, and we use the imperial system right, like inches and Miles pounds, but they may be coming from the metric system. Like, how do you address in their in in their learning, these differences that come from a major cultural shift for them?

Miguel Melchor  33:17  
Well, I think one of the ways that we we try to address all of their needs. It's first really getting to know them and their backgrounds, pre assessing them to know where to give us a baseline of where they are in the content. And from there, we start creating like individualized, like learning plans. So within our which we call their trackers for us, what we call them the learning plan, sometimes in a learning place we might have like our prerequisites column, where we want students before moving on to like the real content standard, the grade level content. We want students to really master those prerequisites that they would have learned in the previous grade. Which why pre assessing them is critical in this process, because we need to know what their what knowledge they're bringing in, but also like in terms of their cultures, their experiences, but also understanding like what content knowledge, because that would also that that will determine the level of support that we can provide in the classroom, and reaching out To the El specialists to collaborate, to bring in the El strategies, but then also goes back to having those high expectations, because data, it gives you a baseline, but it's not the end all be all we try to really get to know the students in the class, which is why we really enjoy having the kids Self pacing, because it really gives us like a visual like or an idea of what they're able to do. Because a lot of the kids are really good at being independent. They know how to collaborate really well them in their native language. They may know how to be able to read fluently, be able to write fluently. So using all of those skills that they bring. Okay, and help in supporting that and with them mastering the content in the classroom

Zach Diamond  35:04  
totally. And I guess, like the self pacing allows you to modify that learning plan, right? If they're going too quickly through the content, then you can it doesn't matter what the baseline was, right? Now you know where they're at and just staying on top of that is it? Is it difficult to do that like at scale when you have lots of students? Because I think that the individualized ness of this is really, really cool. How do you do that at scale? What starts off? 

Miguel Melchor  35:30  
Well, the beginning of the year, like when we start with implementation, we really focus on that unit zero and making sure that students are understanding, like, the process for self pacing. So we talk about, like, our learning plans. We talk about the tracker, the importance of the tracker. We talk about how they collaborate, how they ask for help, and just really building those executive functioning skills early on. And then we we start assessing kids. We start, you know, once the kids are self pacing, we start pulling them in small groups, conferencing with them. And as the year progresses, because we do get several revenue students coming in mid year, the kids who've been with us at the beginning of the school year, they already are prepared, and they're ready to support the next person coming into the class. So I really tried, in my classroom, through MCP, to empower and equipping the learner and providing the supports Google Translate, using all the tech tools that we have available to empower them to then use those same skills and support the next student who may need that support.

Zach Diamond  36:42  
I love that. That's so cool. That is so cool. Anything about empowering kids to help each other, I just I think that, like, that's the very best we can do, the very best we can do for them. That's amazing. So I love that. Wow. Okay, we go. What do you hope to see in the future? And what goals do you have? I know you're starting this new role, right? Or this is your second year in the new role.

Miguel Melchor  37:07  
This is my first year in this new role. Yeah. So just looking ahead, I want to continue expanding personalized learning through the modern classes, Project instructional model across my school community and really supporting all the teachers in my build in the building. My goal for all students, especially for multilingual learners, is for them to feel empowered as learners and to see themselves as capable mathematicians. I also hope to see more collaboration between the general education teachers and the Yale specialists so the language development and content learning are truly integrated. And ultimately, I want to help create classrooms where every student feels seen, supported and supported and challenged to reach their highest potential.

Zach Diamond  37:55  
Yeah, I love that your students are lucky to have you. I love again. You're you I love I just love hearing the way that you talk about them and all the things that they can do we know they can do. Thank you so much, Miguel. I like this was enlightening to me, because it's kind of not my world. I do teach multilingual learners, but I am a gen ed teacher, and listeners can't see the questions, but I've been like doing all kinds of left turns and right turns off of our outline to ask you follow up questions about things that you said that was just fascinating to me, and I I really appreciate this. Yeah. So thank you so much for coming on and and explaining all this, and hopefully our listeners got as much as I did out of this conversation. Miguel, thank you so much. 

Miguel Melchor  38:46  
No thank you for inviting me to share our like my my school story, my students story. I feel very honored and privileged to be their teacher and to support them in their learning journeys. So it's, I feel very grateful. Thank you.

Zach Diamond  39:00  
Of course, of course. 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 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 also, we're asking our listeners to leave a review if this podcast has been helpful in supporting you to create a blended, self paced, mastery based learning environment that does help other folks find the podcast. Thank you all for listening. Thank you, Miguel again. Have a great week, and we'll be back next Sunday. 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@www.modernclassrooms.org and you can learn the essentials. Of our model through our free course@learn.modernclassrooms.org you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at modern class proj, that's P, R, O, J, we are so appreciative of all you do for students in schools. Have a great week, and we'll be back next Sunday with another episode of the modern classrooms project podcast, you.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai