February 27, 2024 • 8 mins
In this episode, I spill the beans on how a game-changing shift in my teaching approach not only made my life easier but saved my career in the process! If you're tired of the teacher nightmares we all dread, this one's for you. Get ready to revolutionize your teaching journey!
Check out my interview with Kareem Farah, co-founder of the Modern Classroom Project: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/ep-128-how-to-realistically-reach-99-of-your-students--55987156
Learn more about the Modern Classroom Project and its incredible impact: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/ep-129-this-one-shift-could-make-you-a-better-teacher--56042223
Still figuring out lesson planning? Grab my free Lesson Planning Guide here 👉🏼https://teachersneedteachers.com/lessonplan
I have a new YouTube channel! Join me over there and subscribe!
Got questions, feedback, or want to be on the show? You can email me at kim@teachersneedteachers.com
Connect with me
Check out my interview with Kareem Farah, co-founder of the Modern Classroom Project: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/ep-128-how-to-realistically-reach-99-of-your-students--55987156
Learn more about the Modern Classroom Project and its incredible impact: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/ep-129-this-one-shift-could-make-you-a-better-teacher--56042223
Still figuring out lesson planning? Grab my free Lesson Planning Guide here 👉🏼https://teachersneedteachers.com/lessonplan
I have a new YouTube channel! Join me over there and subscribe!
Got questions, feedback, or want to be on the show? You can email me at kim@teachersneedteachers.com
Connect with me
- Subscribe to Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, or Stitcher
- Join my Facebook Group
- Message me through Instagram
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the Teachers Need Teachers podcast, the podcast for teachers who don't want
teachers survive teaching but actually thrive.So it's been a while since my last
episode, and I actually have areally good reason why I've been gone so
long, And in this episode,I definitely am going to dive into all
of that and update you and what'sgoing on and what I have planned for
(00:22):
a future episode. And for thoseof you that are new, I'm Kim.
Welcome. I've been teaching for twentytwo years and I still love it.
That's right. I'm one of thoserare specimens who still loves teaching and
actually looks forward to seeing their students. Now, one of many teachers' nightmares
is to be sick and not haveanything planned for a substitute. You probably
(00:46):
left your classroom in complete disarrayed theprevious day, and I bet you even
have to make some copies for thecurrent day, and maybe you're even behind
on your pacing and you need tocatch up. So missing a day would
really throw everything off. But whatif you never had to worry about that?
What if you had everything planned outand prepared ahead of time for one
(01:07):
to even three weeks in advance.What if you could be sick or just
out for an extended period of timewith minimal loss of instruction. Well,
my friends, this happened to me. In two of my previous episodes,
I interviewed Kareem Farah, one ofthe co founders of the Modern Classroom Project.
The Modern Classroom Project model is basicallya way of personalizing instruction using digital
(01:33):
tools such as videos. It allowsstudents to move at whatever spee that they
need to go, while also lettingme meet with them one on one and
give them individualized instruction. So thisis sort of like flipping learning if you've
ever heard of that, where studentswatch videos on their own time and then
they do the practice in front ofyou so that you can help them.
(01:55):
Very similar to that, you theneither create or curate instructional video is to
replace the lecture that you normally wouldhave in front of the class. That's
kind of it in like a reallyshort and truncated nutshell. And I'll be
sure to link those episodes so thatyou can catch up on those if you
haven't heard them yet. I thinkit's really important that in order for you
to understand what it is that I'mdoing and why that you watch those episodes
(02:19):
and I really believe that it's goingto change a lot of things for you.
And in my next episode, I'mdefinitely going to dive into how I
am implementing the modern classroom project model, so be sure to subscribe to that
you don't miss out on that.Now, I know that the payoff will
come next year, when all Ihave to do is just reuse these units
with the already pre made videos andI can just focus on getting to know
(02:40):
my students and spending time with themone on one and trying to figure out
what it is that they each need. However, I actually had an immediate
payoff when I got sick recently.You see, right after Thanksgiving, I
ended up in the emergency room forwhat I thought was appendicitis. I mean,
based on my symptoms, that's whatit sounded like according to doctor Google.
(03:04):
When I went to the emergency room, the er doctors initially thought that
I had these gallbladderstones that were prettybad and that I had to have my
gallbladder removed. But after a seriesof tests, they determined that I actually
had some major kidney stones. We'retalking two giant marble sized fifteen millimeter kidney
stones and if you know, youknow, as you can imagine, it
(03:27):
took multiple procedures and the subsequent recoverytime to get rid of these, and
so I had to miss quite abit of work right before finals, which
obviously isn't ideal and really is therean ideal time to miss school. So
in this model, you do plantan entire unit of study at one time,
and maybe you already have a curriculumthat has entire units already planted out,
(03:50):
which is beautiful, or maybe you'relike me where you have a lot
of autonomy and leeway in terms ofwhat and when you teach certain subjects.
I have to say, had Inot had my units of study planned already
sent out to the students ahead oftime in the learning management system, this
could have been a nightmare situation,not just for myself but also my students,
(04:13):
because a lot of them they maynot necessarily say that they want to
learn, but at the same timethey want to do well, and they
definitely wanted to do well on thefinals, and you know the drill.
They could have had a substitute fortwo or three weeks and be given grammar
packets or just other busy work thatwould have just made them really hate coming
to class and basically they would havelearned nothing during that time if I hadn't
(04:34):
followed this model. And you know, I didn't want any of that.
I mean, none of us wantthat for our students. In fact,
so many teachers will come to schoolsick or just won't ever take a mental
health day because it just takes somuch work just to plan a lesson for
one day. And just imagine ifyou have to miss multiple weeks. But
(04:57):
when you literally have the week plannedin advance and already disseminated to the students,
you can kind of just have aboutanything thrown at you and your classroom
will still function fairly normally. Thatand you'll also increase the chance of your
students actually accomplishing something and dare Isay, learn something in your absence.
(05:17):
And I know for a lot ofteachers, your students' test scores are heavily
monitored. It doesn't matter if you'reliterally on your deathbed, had a baby,
or or in mourning. There's seeminglyno excuse that will save you if
your test scores are low. Itsucks and it's a horrible reality. That
(05:38):
so many of us have to face. Luckily, my students did just as
well on the finals as they didin previous years, even though I missed
school right before finals. I mean, I'm sure that some of it can
be attributed to the instruction that Ihad given throughout the entire semester, but
I definitely think that some of itis due to the fact that they didn't
(05:59):
miss out on instruction in my absenceleading up to the final. So after
learning about this model over the summer, I decided to go all in.
I decided that I was just goingto see how it goes. I've been
teaching this long and what do Ihave to lose by trying it out?
And if it doesn't work after asemester, then I can just go back
to what I was doing before.I don't know how I can go back
(06:20):
to just doing normal lecture style.So basically the takeaway from this is that
by adopting this model, I wasable to future prove my teaching and I'm
going to go more into that inmy next episode, where I do talk
about how my classroom runs. Andjust like the pros and cons of this
model and actually the results of teachingthis way. On a side note,
(06:42):
this is why I haven't posted sinceNovember, just their recovery time and just
having the energy to come up withmaterial. And then over the break,
I was just tired and I reallyhad to save my energy to recovering because
those stones they just would not goaway, and so I had to have
three different procedures. And apparently I'mstill not done just taking a lot out
(07:04):
of me, and what energy thatI do have, I am putting it
into still creating more units of studyand spending time with my family. So
that's why I'm gone, and I'mgoing to try to get back on track
with these episodes. For those ofyou that are listening to this episode after
all of that, I really appreciateyou if you're not following me on YouTube
(07:24):
and you want that format of thispodcast, and go ahead and find me
at Teachers Need Teachers on YouTube,and I'm also going to link that in
the show notes. I'd love tosee you over there as well. I'm
actually entertaining the idea of going liveoccasionally doing something like a Plan with Me
format, So let me know ifyou're interested in something like that, because
(07:47):
that way, if you want toknow how I plan an entire unit for
this modern classroom project model. Thenwe could plan together. Thanks for hanging
out with me today, you guys, and I will see you same
Welcome to the Teachers Need Teachers podcast, the podcast for teachers who don't want
teachers survive teaching but actually thrive.So it's been a while since my last
episode, and I actually have areally good reason why I've been gone so
long, And in this episode,I definitely am going to dive into all
of that and update you and what'sgoing on and what I have planned for
(00:22):
a future episode. And for thoseof you that are new, I'm Kim.
Welcome. I've been teaching for twentytwo years and I still love it.
That's right. I'm one of thoserare specimens who still loves teaching and
actually looks forward to seeing their students. Now, one of many teachers' nightmares
is to be sick and not haveanything planned for a substitute. You probably
(00:46):
left your classroom in complete disarrayed theprevious day, and I bet you even
have to make some copies for thecurrent day, and maybe you're even behind
on your pacing and you need tocatch up. So missing a day would
really throw everything off. But whatif you never had to worry about that?
What if you had everything planned outand prepared ahead of time for one
(01:07):
to even three weeks in advance.What if you could be sick or just
out for an extended period of timewith minimal loss of instruction. Well,
my friends, this happened to me. In two of my previous episodes,
I interviewed Kareem Farah, one ofthe co founders of the Modern Classroom Project.
The Modern Classroom Project model is basicallya way of personalizing instruction using digital
(01:33):
tools such as videos. It allowsstudents to move at whatever spee that they
need to go, while also lettingme meet with them one on one and
give them individualized instruction. So thisis sort of like flipping learning if you've
ever heard of that, where studentswatch videos on their own time and then
they do the practice in front ofyou so that you can help them.
(01:55):
Very similar to that, you theneither create or curate instructional video is to
replace the lecture that you normally wouldhave in front of the class. That's
kind of it in like a reallyshort and truncated nutshell. And I'll be
sure to link those episodes so thatyou can catch up on those if you
haven't heard them yet. I thinkit's really important that in order for you
to understand what it is that I'mdoing and why that you watch those episodes
(02:19):
and I really believe that it's goingto change a lot of things for you.
And in my next episode, I'mdefinitely going to dive into how I
am implementing the modern classroom project model, so be sure to subscribe to that
you don't miss out on that.Now, I know that the payoff will
come next year, when all Ihave to do is just reuse these units
with the already pre made videos andI can just focus on getting to know
(02:40):
my students and spending time with themone on one and trying to figure out
what it is that they each need. However, I actually had an immediate
payoff when I got sick recently.You see, right after Thanksgiving, I
ended up in the emergency room forwhat I thought was appendicitis. I mean,
based on my symptoms, that's whatit sounded like according to doctor Google.
(03:04):
When I went to the emergency room, the er doctors initially thought that
I had these gallbladderstones that were prettybad and that I had to have my
gallbladder removed. But after a seriesof tests, they determined that I actually
had some major kidney stones. We'retalking two giant marble sized fifteen millimeter kidney
stones and if you know, youknow, as you can imagine, it
(03:27):
took multiple procedures and the subsequent recoverytime to get rid of these, and
so I had to miss quite abit of work right before finals, which
obviously isn't ideal and really is therean ideal time to miss school. So
in this model, you do plantan entire unit of study at one time,
and maybe you already have a curriculumthat has entire units already planted out,
(03:50):
which is beautiful, or maybe you'relike me where you have a lot
of autonomy and leeway in terms ofwhat and when you teach certain subjects.
I have to say, had Inot had my units of study planned already
sent out to the students ahead oftime in the learning management system, this
could have been a nightmare situation,not just for myself but also my students,
(04:13):
because a lot of them they maynot necessarily say that they want to
learn, but at the same timethey want to do well, and they
definitely wanted to do well on thefinals, and you know the drill.
They could have had a substitute fortwo or three weeks and be given grammar
packets or just other busy work thatwould have just made them really hate coming
to class and basically they would havelearned nothing during that time if I hadn't
(04:34):
followed this model. And you know, I didn't want any of that.
I mean, none of us wantthat for our students. In fact,
so many teachers will come to schoolsick or just won't ever take a mental
health day because it just takes somuch work just to plan a lesson for
one day. And just imagine ifyou have to miss multiple weeks. But
(04:57):
when you literally have the week plannedin advance and already disseminated to the students,
you can kind of just have aboutanything thrown at you and your classroom
will still function fairly normally. Thatand you'll also increase the chance of your
students actually accomplishing something and dare Isay, learn something in your absence.
(05:17):
And I know for a lot ofteachers, your students' test scores are heavily
monitored. It doesn't matter if you'reliterally on your deathbed, had a baby,
or or in mourning. There's seeminglyno excuse that will save you if
your test scores are low. Itsucks and it's a horrible reality. That
(05:38):
so many of us have to face. Luckily, my students did just as
well on the finals as they didin previous years, even though I missed
school right before finals. I mean, I'm sure that some of it can
be attributed to the instruction that Ihad given throughout the entire semester, but
I definitely think that some of itis due to the fact that they didn't
(05:59):
miss out on instruction in my absenceleading up to the final. So after
learning about this model over the summer, I decided to go all in.
I decided that I was just goingto see how it goes. I've been
teaching this long and what do Ihave to lose by trying it out?
And if it doesn't work after asemester, then I can just go back
to what I was doing before.I don't know how I can go back
(06:20):
to just doing normal lecture style.So basically the takeaway from this is that
by adopting this model, I wasable to future prove my teaching and I'm
going to go more into that inmy next episode, where I do talk
about how my classroom runs. Andjust like the pros and cons of this
model and actually the results of teachingthis way. On a side note,
(06:42):
this is why I haven't posted sinceNovember, just their recovery time and just
having the energy to come up withmaterial. And then over the break,
I was just tired and I reallyhad to save my energy to recovering because
those stones they just would not goaway, and so I had to have
three different procedures. And apparently I'mstill not done just taking a lot out
(07:04):
of me, and what energy thatI do have, I am putting it
into still creating more units of studyand spending time with my family. So
that's why I'm gone, and I'mgoing to try to get back on track
with these episodes. For those ofyou that are listening to this episode after
all of that, I really appreciateyou if you're not following me on YouTube
(07:24):
and you want that format of thispodcast, and go ahead and find me
at Teachers Need Teachers on YouTube,and I'm also going to link that in
the show notes. I'd love tosee you over there as well. I'm
actually entertaining the idea of going liveoccasionally doing something like a Plan with Me
format, So let me know ifyou're interested in something like that, because
(07:47):
that way, if you want toknow how I plan an entire unit for
this modern classroom project model. Thenwe could plan together. Thanks for hanging
out with me today, you guys, and I will see you same
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