Zach Diamond  0:02  
Music. 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 to be joined by a certified health and PE teacher of over 20 years. Hi, Jake, welcome.

Jake Bersin  0:46  
Hi Toni. Thanks for having me. It's great to be here. 

Toni Rose Deanon  0:48  
Yeah, it's so exciting to be in this space with you. And thank you so much for saying yes to the podcast before we get started. What is bringing you? Joy currently. 

Jake Bersin  0:56  
Joy currently, I got a couple things. So one, we picked up a little kitten couple weeks ago, and we have a two year old cat, and she was getting lonely. So this, this kitten is just, you know, our joy, bundle of joy now. So I also have a first grader in a middle school or seventh grader, and they both love the kitten too. So you named him Gideon, after Gideon Gray from the movies utopia. So, so he's he's keeping us busy. So, you know, animals are, they run all over the place and and are into everything so, but so that's really bringing us joy. 

Toni Rose Deanon  1:29  
That is beautiful. Kudos to you. I could never be a cat person. I am a dog person through and through. And no desire to get any cats at all. I feel like cats don't cuddle at all. So I need all the cuddles. Okay, so Jake, I know that you and I just recently met, and I'm so excited to have come across and spend some time with you, to just kind of get to know you a little bit more and also just talk more about PE I have such a soft spot for PE teachers, because y'all are just really dope. I always just got along with all of my PE teachers at the schools that I worked at. And so tell us more about who you are and how you started your MCP, or just your education journey in general. 

Jake Bersin  2:17  
Sure, absolutely, I'm glad to hear you got along with those teachers. So I'm a certified health and PE teacher, which means I can and I have taught all these subjects, K to 12. So I'm currently in my 24th year of teaching. I teach elementary PE right now, and I've been fortunate to work in many different kinds of environments, which I think has given me a broad perspective about the profession. I'm pretty involved in my profession, volunteering on different state and national committees, serving specifically in the role of PR and advocacy. As far as my MPC journey. About a year ago, I was exploring a new podcast to listen to on my way to work, and I stumbled upon this podcast the modern Class and Project. I have listened to many of the episodes before, and I thought they're great, where the people who come on, discuss their insight and tell their stories and how the impact it has on them. So I dug a bit deeper on the website, and I noticed there was some free training. So I took that and which gives a comprehensive overview of the MCP from here, I went online and noticed that folks could apply to the virtual mentorship program. Needless to say, I didn't waste any time. I set up an information call to learn more. After that call, I got accepted into the program shortly after, and I just want to give a shout out to whoever the donors are, or people responsible for offsetting the cost of this. It definitely is a big help. Shout out to Tony and Bob, too. They were my first face to face interaction from folks from MCP and they also connected us. So shout out to them. There are many great facets about this. However, one of the main elements that really resonates with me is that the MCP model holds the students and the teachers accountable for learning. Students are accountable for completing the work on whatever level they're on, and teachers are responsible for planning the lessons and supporting students through a variety of routines, structures and systems. The amount of support that modern classrooms gives is incredible. I'm working with a mentor now. She's answering my questions anytime. I've emailed her a few times. And then there's also, as you know, the Facebook group, the zooms, the webinars. It's just incredible the amount of support. So I'm really grateful for this opportunity, and I can't wait to learn more about this whole process.

Toni Rose Deanon  4:25  
Oh, I'm so excited that you are in this community with us. I know that Bob and Tony were both really excited to introduce me to you, because they were like, Oh, this is gonna be a whole vibe, like you and Jake are gonna get along really well. So I'm so excited about this partnership and just this friendship that we're going to cultivate, right? And so you pointed out a lot of things. I know you said that you were prepared for this podcast, and I was like, holy cow, those are, like, great answers just for the first question. So I'm so excited for the other answers that you may have. So Jake, I do have some follow. Question. So we're going to kind of go off, off script, right? You've been teaching for 24 years. What is your favorite grade to teach?

Jake Bersin  5:08  
Hmm, that's a good question every it's hard to nail it down, but I would, I would say Elementary. And the only reason is because at that level, in my eyes, you're really building the foundation for healthy moving, the foundation of skills that they need, the SEL skills, the physical skills, the social skills, like I said, I taught the other levels, and they're great too, in their own respect. But as far as getting students to really enjoy movement, they really students have made up their mind by around middle high school level. Not that the man can't be changed, but I think it really built a foundation at the at the earlier level. So, you know, I've never met a kindergartner that didn't like PE. They love to move. It's in it's natural for us to be moving so, but somewhere along the line, something happens, you know, where they might fall out of love with moving. So we're trying to as PE teachers, we're trying to get them to fall back in love with moving, and just show them how important it is for a healthy lifestyle to be active, to be well. So I would have to say, elementary, yeah,

Toni Rose Deanon  6:11  
I was gonna say those are really great points that you said too, right? Like, kids really love to play. They love to move. They want to move. They want to play. They want to learn more on how they can kind of control their bodies, right? You're talking about kindergarteners. I watched kindergarteners in a PE class one time, and I just found it to be the cutest thing in the world, because you still have to teach them hand eye coordination. How how do you manage that step of like, the hand eye coordination? Because I feel like even as an adult, I still don't have very good hand eye coordination. So I'm just curious. Out of curiosity for me, I'm asking for me, honestly,

Jake Bersin  6:52  
let me, well, let me just back up a little bit. So we all have different class sizes. So I have my class. Average class size is 24 to 27 students. For the younger students, as far as hand eye coordination, they really need a lot of repetition. They need a lot of different ways to move. They're juggling scarves. They're not necessarily trying to toss and catch tennis balls because it's too heavy for them. It moves too quick. Some of the students can, but not everybody can. So we're trying to use equipment that's differentiated to where the students are at. So everyone's at a different level, as you know. So whether the skill be dribbling a basketball, dribbling a soccer ball, shooting a bow and arrow, you know it all. It's catered to where the students are at. So they can choose the type of equipment they use, how far they stand from the target, just utilizing those different approaches. Did I answer your question? Toni, 

Toni Rose Deanon  7:47  
yes, yes, you did. You did that was actually, again, beautifully done, and I didn't even think to consider equipment, right? Like you do have to manage a lot of equipment, especially with the different skills that you're teaching different grades, right? So how do you I guess I know we're like going through, I'm I'm curious, because I've never taught PE before. And then we'll talk, we'll talk about health in a little bit as well. But how do you manage? You said you have 24 to 27 students, right? And then you also have equipment, so there's safety procedures and concerns, right? How do you manage all of that? 

Jake Bersin  8:24  
Good question. So, um, it's it's really all about the protocols and procedures that the teacher sets up. So if there's 24 students, ideally you want equipment in every single student's hands at some point, but they have to know how to use it. They have to know when to stop. So we have a protocol, or I have a protocol, when it's time to stop, they have 10 seconds to put the equipment down, put it between their feet, between their ankles, and then get ready to listen. As far as them getting the equipment, the equipment is in separate bins, spread out throughout the gymnasium, so they're not all running or going to the same space, which is a safety issue. So they're spread out in bins of let's say, if there's 24 students, there's there's six to eight, whatever the equipment is in a bin. So there's a there's a it's all spread out, so there's no chance of anybody getting hurt. Same thing with putting the equipment back. A lot of PE teachers, including myself, they have squads, they have a student sit in rows. And so I very easy for the teacher when they have that routine, they say, Okay, row one time to line up, time to put the equipment away. I wrote two so it just, it's just a way to manage the equipment and and also have the students be safe and held. How accountable to for putting the equipment away, using the equipment safely. And we demonstrate. We model everything, any new skill we have, we're always demonstrating how to use it, what do you what? What do? How to properly use it by themselves, in with a partner?

Toni Rose Deanon  9:46  
Yeah. And I'm also thinking about just the protocol, right? I really like this thing that you said that they have 10 seconds to drop, you know, whatever it is that they're holding on to, and that kind of gives time for students to, I don't know, get it together, and that. Those 10 seconds. 

Jake Bersin  10:01  
Yeah, that. I think that time frame is important, because if, if, if I don't set the time as a teacher, they're going to set their own time. And there's going to be, especially at the middle school level, they've taken that last shot. They're doing this. They're so it's really important that they, I'm really strict on this, those protocols, how they enter the gym, if they're coming in under control. This is great. This is what I want to see. But if they're coming in, sliding on the ground, you know, yelling noisy, then that's how that's going to set up the tone for the rest of the class. And we want to set up, set them up for success. So, you know, it's not unreasonable to have them. They're walking in the hallway quietly. They can come in the gym 10 more seconds quietly, and then we can get started on a good note,

Toni Rose Deanon  10:41  
yeah. And that's such a great reminder, too. Of you know, setting up the time, or else, the students will set that time for themselves, and they will take three, four times the amount of what you actually initially wanted or expected them to do. So great reminder for me and for listeners as well. And so one last like, follow up question, then we'll continue having the conversation. Right? What does health look like in in elementary, in elementary classrooms or classes? 

Jake Bersin  11:06  
Yeah, so health, we have a comprehensive health curriculum. So we're teaching students about boundaries, personal safety, alcohol, tobacco, other drugs, basically, life skills, nutrition, proper hygiene. So depending on what district you're talking to or what teacher you're talking to, we have there's different health curriculums. So our District uses a couple different ones, which are standard based. So health has national standards just like be does. So they're all standard based, and they've been, you know, vetted by the school committee. So everything's good to go. Health classes are about 40 minutes, just like the PE classes and the health teachers in our district travel from school to school. So so my district has around 25,000 students over 30 schools, so they're traveling to maybe four, four to five buildings in a week. So, and our health and PE and then we have tech and music, these, what I call the specialist, quote, unquote. So they, they're basically the prep time for the classroom teachers. But, um, the health teachers are, are great, you know, it's, I definitely think it's, it's so valuable to be teaching students health,

Toni Rose Deanon  12:21  
yeah, and another thing that I was thinking too, something that I've learned when I'm having conversations now, right? Like I have when I told you that I got along with my PE teachers at the school that I worked at, right? And then I started working at MCP and having more conversations with other PE and health teachers. And it's really important to determine the difference, right? There are PE teachers, there are health teachers, and then there are PE and health teachers, right? And so I'm from what I'm from, what I'm hearing you say is that you have separate, like you have separate health teachers, so you only teach PE, correct? 

Jake Bersin  12:58  
Yes. So because the size of our district, we have health teachers solely hired just to teach health I know we're going to talk about this a little bit later, but when I was in my prior role, I hired a couple health teachers because we introduced K to three health in our district, and so those teachers had a crazy schedule. They were going to all the schools in the district, and there were just two of the three of those teachers. So we have health broken down into K to three, four to six, and then middle school has health, and so does high school, they have, I believe, one or two semesters of health so, but you're right, yes, in some districts, the PE teacher does teach health, but I think those districts are probably smaller,

Toni Rose Deanon  13:38  
yeah, okay, okay, that makes, yeah. That makes a lot of sense, and I'm gonna date myself a little when, when I took health in middle school, we had the DARE program. I don't know if you remember dare still do that. I know that that's like not a thing anymore, but I have seen it in some cases.

Jake Bersin  13:57  
We don't do it in our district, but I know it's still, it's still being practiced. It's still, it's still a program out there. But no, we have, we have different programs that we like to bring, sometimes police officers in to talk about safety. We like to have our district likes to develop partnerships. We have something called the UMass extension program, where the educators of UMass come in and teach our students about nutrition. So we're always trying to foster partnerships between different community members and stakeholders. So,

Toni Rose Deanon  14:31  
oh, that's nice. I love the community aspect of it, right? Like getting folks outside of the school to be in the school so folks so students can see different adults. Okay? So Jake, how often do you see your students? Do you see them every day, once a week. How does how does your schedule look?

Jake Bersin  14:48  
I see my students once, once a week, and I have different classes. So for example, I'll have a third grade class, fourth grade class, kindergarten class, and then I'll. Have a fifth grade class, second grade class, and then, like, a fourth grade class. So I wish I could see them longer, but I only see them once, once a week. So basically, this has been asked of me before, the classroom teacher sees their students more in the first two weeks of school, then we see them all year, and especially if there's the holidays or there's some type of school event that that lessens the time. So we're really trying to I wish we could see them more, but it's just that the nature of the reality of the way things are. So I think Illinois, and I want to say Alabama, if I'm not mistaken, do have daily de requirements, but they are also dealing with much larger numbers in the classes, 5060, students at a time, which is a whole nother challenge. But so, you know, there's pros and cons to everything. You know, there's always two sides to the cookie, as they say, but, but I think my schedule is good. I mean, I like it. I'm at two different schools. I got to know the students. I try to, you know, we have duties as teachers, as you know, and so we, we try to build relationships with them in the bus duty, the hallway duty, the recess duty. I one of my schools, I started a fitness club just to get more face time with their students. I wanted to teach them more about how to be healthy. So, so that was at one of the schools, and that was before, so they had to get up early to get there, or their caregivers had to drop them off early, I should say. And so that was good. That was a an eight week program that ran this this fall, which I'm which I'm psyched that the kids were able to take part of. 

Toni Rose Deanon  16:33  
So that's so nice. That's so exciting. You're making me think of all the things that the PE teachers I've worked with have done for the community. I know one of the things that I really, really enjoyed was strength training class. So when I was at DC, I taught at the International School in DC, DC International School, and we had this really beautiful gym, and so one of our coaches who did a little bit of body building as well. Just kind of like worked out teachers on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It was specifically for teachers. And then we had another teacher who was a yoga certified teacher, and she did hers on Wednesdays. And I was like, Whoa, this is like a whole workout for teachers. How exciting. 

Jake Bersin  17:17  
That's great. That's great way to get your colleagues involved too, right,

Toni Rose Deanon  17:21  
right? It was such a great way for adults and just, again, the teams to do other things outside of just planning and working all the time, right? So it was a really nice way. So I'm glad to hear that you're able to create fitness clubs for students to show up and to enjoy, right? And to, again, incorporate more movement and for you to get to know them a little bit more. So that's that's really dope. Okay, so, Jake, we've been talking about PE, and you've been giving me things to visualize in my head so that I have a better understanding of how your class is run. I am curious, though, what made you want to teach PE? What was your inspiration? How did you get into PE and health.

Jake Bersin  18:02  
You know, I've always known for a while that I wanted to work with people, and in high school, actually let me backtrack. In eighth grade, I started taking martial arts, and I actually lived in Japan for a few years. My dad worked for a Japanese company, and so we were able to travel a little bit. So I'm taking karate in Tokyo. I didn't speak any Japanese, but the instructor obviously Japanese, and he's trying to, you know, teach me the martial art. And I'm in ease, and I'm copying him, and I'm trying to emulate, you know, and so that martial arts is a great tool to build discipline. So from there, when I got back to the States, I enrolled in a different type of forum Taekwondo, and I just, I went through the ranks. I competed at different levels. And when you compete, and when you when you're when you get to a black belt, or even beyond that, you teach, you get the coach. So you know, I was coaching people at all levels, older than me, younger than me, and so I knew I like seeing how people develop their skills and and it just intrigued me, you know, they're working through something physical, you know, a mental and they they're breaking their own down their own barriers. So that really inspired me. So I enrolled. So I did martial arts all through high school. So I enrolled in college on the North Shore Endicott, and it wasn't a teacher prep program. It was actually my degrees in sports management, but I knew I wanted to teach. So then I enrolled in another college close by Endicott, and I went to a two year teacher prep program specifically for PE teachers. And so that's that's kind of the story. And so now I have my masters, which I got from in 2013 so I have a master in PE. So I'm all about the subject. I'm all about the content, furthering the profession, learning from other teachers, both health PE teachers and non health and PE teachers. Think we could all learn from each other so 

Toni Rose Deanon  20:00  
yeah, definitely. I love this story of martial arts and how you got into PE and it got me thinking too, you know, I have ADHD, so I struggle sometimes with focus and discipline. And one of the things that I learned is that martial arts is actually really good for folks who are neuro divergent because of the balancing, because of the balancing that happens and just again, the discipline. So that's really, really cool that you are able to do martial arts and then find your love and passion for PE, you know, physical education. So thank you for sharing that. And so okay, for listeners who may not know, I know that you had kind of, like, slightly touched on standards, right? So that you said that there are PE standards or health standards, but what are, yeah, tell us a little bit more about the standards and the skills that you do teach in PE.

Jake Bersin  20:50  
Okay, so yeah, no, great question. So we do have standards, we have our frameworks, our state frameworks, and we have our national standards, and they were, both of them are actually updated this past year. The national standards are broken down by grade span, and those are called grade span indicators. So K to three has indicators, four to six, middle school and then high school has indicators. And so these standards are really guidelines for the health and PE teacher of what to teach and even when to teach it. So I we we know every district's different. Every district has their own kind of guidelines and culture, but when the teachers follow these standards, they're doing their their students a good service. And so all the lessons that we teach are based off the standards. And so we have, I can dribble a ball successfully in open space. I can throw the bulk correctly using the correct form. So depending on the grade level we're talking about, the standards will be adjusted accordingly. We also have different models in PE. I don't think a lot of people are familiar with this. There's something called the TGF, you model. You might have heard of teaching games for understanding. So what, what it is, is basically tennis, badminton, ping pong. They're all kind of similar in what, in how you the forehand, the back here, they're all kind of similar in the movements. So those would be called net wall games, invasion games would be something like basketball, soccer, where you're going into another person's area to score. So when we teach through this model or through this framework, it helps the students understand the content a lot better, as opposed to just teaching them isolated skills. For example, we wouldn't say, Well, I mean nothing that there's anything wrong with saying the sport, but personally, I wouldn't say like soccer. I would say foot skills or manipulative skills. So it's kind of broadens the in a way, in a sense of what what the students are learning, and it gives the teacher more leeway of what to teach and what to teach. As teachers, I mean, we've we've taught in classrooms. You've taught. Some of us don't have a gym. We've taught in gyms. Some of us are outside. So there's a lot of different looks, quote, unquote, of what PE might look like depending on the space we have. So did answer your question,

Toni Rose Deanon  23:15  
yeah, and that's something that I've never even considered, right, not isolating the skills and not solely focusing on specific sports as well. So, you know, like you said, calling it foot skills and manipulation skills. And I really, you know, the invasion games as well. I mean, basketball season is is upon us right now, right? So March Madness is coming up. And so this is, this just got me thinking about just a different skills, I guess, like, of course, the team sports as well, right? Because, like, I know, probably in PE do a lot of team tasks as well, right?

Jake Bersin  23:53  
We do. I mean, it's, it's really, it's, I wouldn't call it team games, but whatever skill we're working on. I try to put them in groups and in teams. And I'm really stressed that students are able to work with everybody and anybody. I mean, I know people have different people they're comfortable with, and they're best friends and whatnot, but in in my class, it's really, I really stress working the ability to work with everybody. We got to put we're all trying to get to the goal. You know, we want to get to the game. You want to improve our skills. We want to socialization is definitely important, especially in PE. One thing I want to say about PE, it's a very public content area. Their Students are not sitting behind a desk. There's nothing's private. If they're in front when they're demonstrating something, most of the time they're in front of other people, whether it be their peers or the teacher. So the teacher really has to do a good job of setting up the environment so the students feel safe enough to do that, to put themselves out there. It's okay to make a mistake. If they drop the ball, then, you know, cheer on your teammate. Lift them up. It's fine. We all make mistakes. So. So this SEL piece is another important component of a quality PE program. There has to be that SEL, that socialization, that that camaraderie, and just, you know, everybody's trying to do the best they can, yeah, and

Toni Rose Deanon  25:15  
I never even considered that. It is a very public class, right? And when you said that, that it was a different definition in my head, but you kind of explaining it and saying that everyone is looking at you. Everyone sees what you're doing. You're not hiding behind a desk, right? And and I really, again, appreciate you just saying, how do we create a space where students are brave enough to participate? First of all, right, to participate, to feel good enough and comfortable enough in their bodies to be able to, yeah, to be able to participate in the activities, right? And so let's skip around. You know, this is such a great segue to the question that I had as well. It's like, how do you ensure that PE is a brave and safe space for all bodies? Because, you know, we're thinking about like, there's different types of bodies. There's also physical disabilities that are out there. How do you make sure that PE is that space where students can make mistakes, can work together, can do all the things that you have, that you have planned for them, right? So how do you engage also students who don't see themselves as athletic or need improvement in their hand eye coordination, right? So I know for me as a student, I hated PE because I just didn't feel like I was fast enough or fit enough, or, you know, all these things. And there's also this other step too, of changing clothes. And so, you know, our students are really comparing themselves. And so I know that there's a lot of students who avoid PE for a lot of reasons, because of, you know, whatever reason. So how do you, how do you ensure, how do you create a space for your elementary school students and even just middle and high school students that you've worked with that PE is a brave and safe space for them.

Jake Bersin  27:01  
Yeah, sure. Great question. I'm gonna start with saying, because of the diversity of students we have, we're I'm saying class sixth graders. I'm not saying boys and girls. I'm trying to, we have check ins every time they come in. How's it going? I like to use visuals in the gym a lot. I use it the projector every day. So I have the check in varies, but from day to day. But the whole premise is that we're checking it. How are they doing? We don't jump right into the content. Sometimes students need a breather just to just to talk, or just to maybe ask me the teacher question. So those check ins are really important. If a new student enrolls, which we have students coming in every I'm sure you do too all the time from from either different states or different schools. I give them a reflection sheet. And this is something I also do for every student, even if I had them the beginning of the year. So the reflection sheet will ask, what was your favorite part about PE? How do you feel about PE? Do you have any question for your teacher? What is something? What's the one goal you have for this year? And I really take some time to read those reflections, because it helps him learn about the student more. And they're, they're, they're pretty honest in the reflections. I've never, I haven't seen a reflection yet where they're just make kind of making stuff up. They're pretty honest, even if you I don't know the student that well. So those reflections are important, and I do those also throughout the year, different checkpoints at the end of the lesson, I like to have a student reflect on not only what they learned, their their physical skills, but also how they how many times did somebody pass the ball? How many times were they cheering? What do they hear? You know? What do they see? And we're always trying to end on a positive note. And something I've started in the last couple years has been, instead of me always giving the feedback, I want the students to give each other some peer feedback. So they're writing shout out notes. They're they're telling each other, giving each other compliments, and I think it means a lot when it comes from the students themselves. So yeah, as I mentioned, FTE is a pretty public place, so you know, we're all learners, and which I try to demonstrate that with my students, that it's okay to make a mistake, and we're all trying to get better. So no, no one becomes a master overnight. We have to, we have to own the craft. So for younger students, they need a lot of practice, as far as because, as I mentioned, I only see them once a week. They would be I'm taking, for example, today at kindergarten class, we were working on local motor skills, copying, jumping, skipping, they need a lot of that basic repetition and practice over and over again. Whereas the older students who have those skills can the practice can be spaced out a little bit more. They don't have to necessarily do the skill of the drill that long. They can do it for a little bit in a dynamic environment, and that would be good for them. Whereas the younger students, they don't know what they don't know, but they need to know the skills of how to successfully move in space, space awareness, you know, their own bubble, um, directionality, up, down, in front, behind. You know, we can't take anything for granted, especially with when we have ELL learners or students who don't speak the language that well, and that's where I love visuals. I have a colleague in the district, because she does an outstanding job. Everything that's taught is a visual. I mean, if you want throwing, kicking, jumping, hop, everything is out there. So it's really helpful for the students to see.   So,

Toni Rose Deanon  30:39  
yeah, the visual piece is really important. I know when I taught adult ESL learners, as well as just when I was in Costa Rica and spoke no Spanish and was teaching all grade levels or all ages, it was a lot of me moving my body to show exactly what it is that is like, Hey, here's what we do here. You know, this is how you access the things that we need. So lots of modeling and lots of repetition, like you said, I also, you know, I love this whole concept of reflection. I think we don't. We definitely don't do that enough, right with the reflection piece of like, hey, what were my favorite parts? Why was it my favorite parts? How can I make this more joyful for me. And so the check ins, like you said, those are really important. And and, you know, one thing that you said, too, is a breather, right? Sometimes, I think as adults, we forget that some of our kids have six, seven periods, right? Or six, seven different content. And so sometimes they really do need to just catch their breath. So I'm, I'm so happy to hear that you provide those spaces for students to just take a breather, you know, check in, check in with your body, check in with people around you. And also, just like you said, the SEL skills, right of, Hey, um, how many, you know, like, what does team work look like, how many times was the ball thrown to you? Or, you know, one thing that was coming up for me was like, did you feel included, right? Because sometimes I feel like students feel excluded, especially when they're when they're doing tasks like this, right? So it's like, hey, how do you feel in these spaces and just the awareness of others? I really love the whole concept of peer feedback, so that students have to pay attention to each other and not just themselves. And I think even as adults, we are so focused on ourselves sometimes and how we're perceived, that we don't see what every you know what everyone else is doing. So the the whole notion of here's peer feedback. I want you all to celebrate each other. I want you all to challenge each other. That is such an important thing and something that we definitely want more of.

Zach Diamond  32:54  
Hey there, listeners. This is Zach. Got a bunch of announcements for you this week, so buckle in. Here we go. Want to connect with other educators of color who are creating a more student centered learning environment. Join our monthly shades of excellence. Meet up on Monday, March 24 at 7pm Eastern. You can join educators Monte Woodard, Allison Stone and Suma Paidi for a live webinar where they'll share their expertise in transforming a science classroom into a dynamic, personalized learning environment. And that's on Tuesday, March 25 at 7pm Eastern, we have four educators presenting at personalized competency based learning summit pcbl in Layton, Utah on March 26 2025 Dr Cindi Dunford and Stephanie Quinlan are presenting on creating a culture of competency in the middle school math classroom. And Cammie Moore and Elizabeth Van Patten are presenting on modernizing instruction in CTE with MCP if you are attending, make sure to drop by and say hi. Finally, Allison stone is presenting at NSTA 2025 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from March 26 to the 29th on using a self paced mastery based blended model in the high school science classroom. And again, if you're attending, please be sure to drop by and say hi to Allison. I know that was a lot, so we do have links and more information down in the show notes, but for now, let's go ahead and get back into it with Toni Rose and Jake.

Toni Rose Deanon  34:23  
Okay, so I'm curious to Jake. I know that you have been a district coordinator for health and PE, and you said that you were able to hire health teachers to help with with the classes. Tell us more a little bit about that prior role that you had 

Jake Bersin  34:42  
Sure so a few years ago, there was an opening for what's called the district liaison. And so what they do is basically they oversee all the health and PE teachers in the district, and they the charge was to teach them about professional learning, about best practices. I would set up partnerships with different. Stakeholders. And so it was a lot, a lot of juggling going on, a lot of adult learners. And as you know, adult learners are different than students. So as I mentioned, we have over 25,000 students. So I would, I hired a couple, I actually hired a few PE teachers, a couple health teachers. We started a new health curriculum called the three hours. I don't know whether you've heard of it, but it's a really good program. But so in in order for that to happen, because we started this new program, we needed to hire the district, needed to hire more health educators. And so from that we, I believe they hired. We have five high school, so one health educator at all the high schools. So in this role, there was a lot of developing new programs, working with grants, working with partners. What are the most? So we did a lot, but one of the proudest accomplishments that that in my role there was developing common assessments with the high school team. And so what we did is we took 10 question, multiple choice, we devised this, we all agreed on it, a fitness form, and we gave it to the students. We had a pre and post test, and from this, they after analyzing the data, we figured out what students knew in the content area and what they were struggling with, and so we had also taught they were this. The teachers were able to talk amongst each other and figure out, well, why is this student learning at a higher level than maybe this other student? So they were able to share and discuss best practices because they they didn't know that they were using one approach to teach fitness, and another teacher using a different approach. So it's really important you got everybody on the same page, on the pacing. And I think it's it's really important that these common assessments were developed from the teachers. There wasn't something that was just in a book that we found, because every every system is different. So giving the teachers the autonomy to come up with their own assessments, I think was really empowering for them. So we learned a lot from that process. We also, as I mentioned, we started the health curriculum. Those hired the two health educators, and they did a phenomenal job. As I mentioned, they went go to the different schools. They taught health their schedule. I mean, crazy is the only way to say it. But they do a great job. They went to a different school every two weeks. At the end of they had a template. They had to email the principals, dear so and so, I'm going to be at your school. Is there anything you want me to know? And then they would go to that school, do a like a caregiver information session, and then they would continue with the lessons. So there was K to three. So Kate, I believe had five lessons. One had five lessons. Two had five lessons. And so it depended on how long they were at the school, because every building is a different size, they would do a different number of lessons. But the goal was to get teach you the standards. So so it was an interesting time. It was it was, it was, I learned a lot. It was a really valuable time. I have a lot of respect for district administrators. They definitely have to see a bird's eye view. It's, you know, as teachers, we kind of, sometimes we get stuck in what, what's what we're doing in our class, which is great, but they're, they're having to kind of think about not just the teacher, but the school, and how the school interacts with the district, and how the district and so there's a there's a whole broad view, a bird's eye view, that we have to be aware of. 

Toni Rose Deanon  38:31  
Yeah, it's a really great perspective to have too, right? Like being a district coordinator for for health and PE gives you this perspective of like, oh, wow, there's so much more that's happening that I wasn't aware of as the classroom teacher, right? And and something that I've heard you say, too is, you know, the assessments are created by teachers, which again, makes it that much more meaningful and intentional, because our teachers know our community of learners, so that's really awesome. And then to create an alignment as well. So folks are teaching very similar things and not just kind of off and doing their own thing. So there's that whole, like you said, being on the same page. So I really love that part, too. And it just sounds like there was a lot of support and structure so that the health teachers do feel successful and not fail failing, right? And so I love that. And so for folks who don't know, I don't know, what are the three R's that you mentioned earlier? Jake, 

Jake Bersin  39:28  
sure, so the three R's is a health curriculum. It's called right, respect, responsibility, and it's a, it's a comprehensive sexual education curriculum. It does focus on just sexual health, whereas our curriculum in our district is comprehensive. So what that means is we don't teach just sexual health, we teach about alcohol, tobacco, we teach about safety, nutrition. So it encompasses a variety of different topics. There's a misnomer. That when people think of health, they think they're just getting one topic, but we're teaching them about SEL skills, refusal skills, decision making skills. So see again, these are all based off the standards. So whenever you hear comprehensive health, that's what that means. There you're you're getting, not only you're getting a variety of topics, basically, that are that are age appropriate, because there's some folks that say, Well, you know, I wouldn't, I don't want this, you know, my child to be taught this, and caregivers have a right to opt out. But these are all age appropriate, medically accurate topics that are developmentally appropriate for the students at that time.

Toni Rose Deanon  40:35  
And I think, yeah, and that's really important to name too, right? Like age appropriate topics. And I know that you had mentioned in health, you know, you talk about the drugs, you talk about nutrition, boundaries, hygiene, which is really great, and you know it so, Jake, I gotta tell you, there was one year I was teaching sixth grade. I'm a sixth grade middle school English teacher, right? Sixth grade English teacher, and they needed a, like, a health teacher for a semester, and they were like, oh, tr, you're available. You have time, so you're gonna teach sixth graders sexual health. And I said, Excuse me, excuse me. And that was the hardest semester, because I was not prepared. We didn't we didn't have a curriculum. There was nothing, Jake, I think it was just like, oh, we need a teacher to babysit for the semester. And it's

Jake Bersin  41:30  
there wasn't any training. There wasn't any training. They just kind of threw you in there. They threw

Toni Rose Deanon  41:34  
me in there, Jake. And that's why I was like, I have so much respect for PE and health teachers because I did it. I wasn't mentally mature enough to have conversations about the things that middle schoolers are asking. I mean, y'all, if y'all, have ever taught middle school, you know, middle school is wild. 

Jake Bersin  41:53  
Oh yeah, yeah, some of the questions I'll ask, you know, definitely,

Toni Rose Deanon  41:56  
right? And there's, you know, there's a lot of hormonal changes, there's a lot of questions, and I was just not prepared for the questions that they had. And you know, it was just so interesting because I was so confident in my teaching ability, because I'm like, Oh, I'm a really good English teacher. Health isn't going to be that difficult. And when they started asking those questions, Jake, I was like, oh, no, this is, I can't do this.

Jake Bersin  42:23  
That must have been a surprise, huh?

Toni Rose Deanon  42:25  
Yeah, the three R's would have definitely been useful in this, in this case,

Jake Bersin  42:29  
but good for you for getting in there and doing something. I mean, not everybody can't teach, like I couldn't teach math or I couldn't teach science, but I'm sure it brought in your perspectives, right, to see what other content areas are teaching, right? Yeah, yeah, we're good for you for getting in there. So yeah, no middle school, it's a whole nother level.

Toni Rose Deanon  42:49  
They tried me. They tried me Jake. And that was probably one of, one of the semesters that I will never forget, because I was like, Okay, I am not prepared to have conversations about this with children, so I really had to dig deep and, like, find resources and people to have conversations with. About, like, hey, how do I narrow the topics down? And then also, again, like, you said, age appropriate, right? Like, I don't want to shut them down because of great questions. And I don't want to just say, like, no, no, no, no, no, or we can't ask that. So it was, it was definitely a learning curve for me as well, and that's why, again, I hold PE and health teachers to, like, such a high, like, pedestal, because I'm like, Oh, thank god y'all got to do this, because I can't do this.

Jake Bersin  43:37  
No, I appreciate that. And we have to be also mindful of in respectful of the caregivers that don't want their students. They want to teach the health that's fine. So we have to keep, you know, really stringent documents. If they opted out, they cannot be in the class. So what happens is, they go to another classroom, or they go to library, they have an alternative assignment, typically, so, but no, it's important to document all this and respect the parents wishes, caregivers wishes. So

Toni Rose Deanon  44:06  
Yeah, most definitely. Okay, so before we dive into MCP, because I know you're going through the virtual mentorship right now, and you have conversations with your mentor, but before we go into that piece, you shared with us a Padlet, which is titled advocacy and education beyond the classroom walls and listeners, we're going to put that in our show notes as well, so you'll have access to that. So no worries about trying to Google it or anything like that. But Jake, Tell us. Tell us more about that.

Jake Bersin  44:32  
Yeah, sure. So for those of you who don't know, I know you know what a Padlet is, but a Padlet is basically an online way to share information. So this Padlet was developed for a variety of reasons, but mainly for advocacy. So in one of my roles, I'm the chair of advocacy for our state organization called mayford, Massachusetts, Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. I like the Padlet idea because not everybody's on. On other forms of social media, Twitter, Facebook and so in the Padlet, you don't have to be on social media. All you have to do is basically look at what the questions are and add your response by hitting the plus sign. So really, there's four questions that I'm asking folks on the Padlet. One of them is, in your own words, how would you describe advocacy? And number two, what are some ways you could advocate for your students or program three, what are some barriers that get in the way of your advocacy efforts, and how do you remove them? And then finally, four, what is an advocacy effort you're proud of? And I came up with those questions because it's important to look at what's working, but also what might not be working. And initially I had this just for health and PE teachers, but I I realized, why not just put it out to everybody, no matter what they teach? So I'm really hoping that folks in any profession, nursing, administrators, assistants, students, I just want them to really I invite them to take a look at this and answer those questions. The reason I titled it beyond the class and walls is because we can't wait for a crisis to happen. A lot of times, I shouldn't say a lot of times, sometimes we only intervene when there's a crisis. And I think, you know, saying prevention is better than intervention if we can advocate and show all the stuff, good stuff that's happening in our classes and what others are doing before we need an intervention, or before a crisis happens. I think that's ideal. Um, also, it's important to learn from other people's perspectives. You know, you can learn from from what other teachers are doing, what other educators are doing. And so it's just the way, as as this podcast, you know, having Zach talks about lifting up the voices, right, of educators, that that's my main goal with this paddle, is to lift up the voice of other teachers when it comes time to advocacy. It's not a, you know, it's not a it's, I think some people shy away from it, like they don't know where to start, but just sharing your success story is an advocacy effort going into in in in observing another teacher, sharing with them, you know, your thoughts, having them come into your class, having, if possible, having caregivers come into your class, talking about what they're having parents ask or caregivers ask their students what they're learning in class, developing newsletters, bringing caregivers in, developing programs. I mean, there's all advocacy efforts that will go a long way in in not only furthering the impact on the students, but also furthering the profession, whatever, whatever content area you're in. So so that's really my main goal for this Padlet. So I'm really hoping folks can can answer some of those questions, either one or all of them. So

Toni Rose Deanon  47:47  
what a great way to reflect as well. Right? For folks who don't know what advocacy may mean, they can look at this Padlet and just kind of read through the responses that folks have already put in. So I really love this. Again, you're the common theme here is just a lot of reflection, right? Reflecting with students, reflecting by yourself, reflecting with others. I think that's really important. And I want to reiterate what you said, right, proactive, and you used other words. But for me, what I say is like proactive versus reactive. We want to be proactive rather than reactive, because, again, it's good for us to just, I like the whole strategic thinking nowadays, right? That's something that I'm kind of cultivating for myself. And a lot of the time strategic thinking is being proactive, right, being able to kind of not predict but understand what kind of challenges may come up, and then how can we together as a community, right, come together and support each other and kind of create, again, a space where we can learn from each other, right? So thank you for naming that. And, yeah, I just love that. I'm just sitting with that for for now. And I love that. Thank you. So okay, how do you anticipate using MCP in your elementary PE classes? You know, we're talking about blended learning, self paced we're talking about mastery based learning. How are you anticipating doing that?

Jake Bersin  49:08  
Well, I think I'd start with one grade level at a time, maybe a fourth or fifth grade, upper elementary, and as I get better, I'd definitely like to roll this out with more grade levels. But like most educators who teach art, tech, music, we teach multiple grade levels, so it's a little bit challenging to just start off with, with all the grade levels. I really want students to find success and value in PE in by implementing this model with fidelity. I believe it can be done. As I mentioned before, I'm in the mentorship program learning about the model and how the different structures are set up. So I'm halfway through to use the MCP language. I believe I'm ahead of base, right? Because I turned in, I turned in my stuff a couple weeks in advance. So I've started making templates already for progress trackers, guided notes, and I've already made a couple instructional videos. And I'm really, I've really learned a lot from these. Podcast in hearing what other folks have done, and so that's helped me a lot. Again, the resources that the modern classrooms project provides are really excellent, and they're all free. I mean, I don't think there's any that you have to pay for So, and if there are, I would pay for it. But no, it's really excellent.

Toni Rose Deanon  50:18  
We don't want your money, Jake, we don't want your money,

Jake Bersin  50:22  
but I'm really excited to utilize this model with my students. I think it's I don't want students falling behind through the cracks. And I would venture to say that it's impossible utilizing this model to have any student fall through the cracks, because of the amount of time and the reflection that it takes, in the planning that it takes. I mean, with the progress trackers, everyone's everyone's having success, whether it be a little bit or a lot, everyone's having success. And so I'm really excited about that, 

Toni Rose Deanon  50:55  
and I'm excited to see how you come up with it right. Again, just a great reminder for our listeners is to do one class at a time. You don't have to do it in all of your classes. You don't have to do all three pillars all at once. So start with something small. Start with something Yeah, just something small. Y'all, we don't have to do it all at the same time. So I'm excited to be a part of your journey, Jake, and I'm excited for you to just kind of keep me posted on what's happening on all the things that you try and thanks for shouting out our community, our community of educators are so supportive and so resourceful as well. So, you know, for folks who are like, I don't know how to start this, like, join our Facebook group. Our Facebook group has like 20,000 members on there, constantly sharing all of their things, right? And, and I know that Jake and I spent some time. The first time we spent time was at the shades of excellence Alliance. And so that's for educators of color. And so if you are an educator of color and you want to be around other black, indigenous people of color, like come through rice, we have all of these really, again, supportive, supporting groups, just for you to try out different things in the classroom, because I know it's really rough, which is everything that's happening, so to be in community is so important,

Jake Bersin  52:11  
absolutely, yeah, there's nothing like having a thought partner or somebody to bounce ideas off of. It's really it's really awesome, yeah?

Toni Rose Deanon  52:18  
And it alleviates a lot of stress, right? It kind of there's not a lot of you're not the only one holding on to stress. You can actually share, I don't want to say, a burden, but share that challenge with someone, and then you too can create, come up with a plan to make it a little bit better for both the teachers and the students, right? So, oh, I'm excited. This is going to be a whole vibe. I like you being in the beginning of your journey and being excited to try it out in your upper grades. So I'm again, I'm just excited for you. I'm excited to hear from you as well. So Jake, what do you hope to see in the future? What goals do you have? And you can share, either professional or personally, whatever you want to share with the audience, to the listeners. 

Jake Bersin  53:03  
Good question. Toni. So I really want my students to have fun, be challenged, develop their skills. And I want, I want the I want parents and the students too, that sometimes they're like, What are we what are we playing today? I really want to go from that to what are we learning today. I mean, just what are they so the impact is really for the student. I also want to be the best version of myself for them. And you know, I believe with this program, through this program, you know, I can be the best version of myself. I would love to see a community of health and PE teachers who were implementing this model in their classes. I see this model as something pre service teachers could teach their students. I don't know whether this is being done. I'm sure it has. But why wait till we're 15 years in the field to start this? Why? Let's get it started now? So I'm sure, I'm sure it's being done. This is kind of an a side note, but I get the emails from Mr. Barnett, you know, the co founder, and he has this thing called, I believe it's Insta lesson. So I tried it out, and it's really great. I mean, basically, you type in what topic you want to learn, and we'll teach about and it gives the mastery check for you, or gives a template, if some ideas. And so I don't know if other folks are aware of that, but it's a really good resource. I did, I used it a couple times already, and I'm not even implementing the model yet, but I'm getting some ideas from that. So, yeah, I'd love, I'd love to have a community of health and PE teachers utilizing this model. And I think it's, it's gonna have, it already has had a huge impact, but it's just gonna continue. So that's where I'm at. Those are my goals.

Toni Rose Deanon  54:39  
Yeah, we Okay, a couple of things we are trying. There are some professors who are utilizing our free course for pre service teachers. So that's really exciting, because I completely agree with you. I implemented the model my 10th year of teaching, and I was like, rah, you mean, I could have been doing this like this all these years, and you're just now teaching me so complete. Completely understandable about that. And then also, Rob is just so dope when it comes to creating stuff to make things more sustainable for our teachers. So thank you for that shout out as well. We'll put that in the show notes so that folks can can access it and play around with it, right? Because we want things to make our lives a little easier. Because it is, it is hard out here. And another thing that I want to name, too, is just how excited and eager you are to implement this model. And I think, you know, I've had lots of conversations with people who have who have implemented for at least a semester, a year, or a couple of years, and so to have you on here as a newbie, right with the model, and you being so stoked you're going through the virtual mentorship program, and you just seeing already the impact that it could have in your classrooms. It's really heartwarming for me to hear that, because you haven't even, like, started implementing the model, right? You're just, like, creating this in your mind, and you're already seeing some benefits, as far as the teacher mindset, right? As far as like, how can I make this more sustainable for me and then being the best version of myself through this model is so real, so real, because I definitely saved so much energy with this model so that I can show up in a more joyful, more positive way in front of my students and so thank you for that. How can our listeners connect with you. Jake

Jake Bersin  56:21  
Toni Rose, so I'm on, I'm on BlueSky just got on a few months ago, so I have a link. I'll share that, and I also have a website that people can contact me through. So I I'm pretty active on my on every day, but you know, if you, if you DM me or have a question I'm happy to answer, you could also connect with a Padlet that I think is going to be shared in the in the notes as well. So if you have a question, or I can ask a question on there. So So those are the three ways. So blue sky website or the Padlet, yes,

Toni Rose Deanon  56:51  
and we will definitely have that in the show notes, so you don't have to Google it or struggle. You can just click on it. So, Jake, thank you. Thank you so much for sharing your experience and expertise with us. I really just appreciate again, your presence, your time and your energy. So thank you so much for being here. 

Jake Bersin  57:07  
Thank you, Toni. It's been great. Great chatting, 

Toni Rose Deanon  57:10  
yay.

Zach Diamond  57:16  
Thank you so much for listening. You can find links to topics and tools we discussed in our show notes for this episode. And remember, you can learn more about our work at www.modernclassrooms.org and you can learn the essentials of our model through our free course at learn.modernclassrooms.org you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram 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.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai