The Modern Classrooms Project is a nonprofit dedicated to helping teachers enact personalized learning, student-centered instruction, and mastery-based assessment. They take a grassroots approach by supporting teachers with making the transition to a specific new learning model. Their theory of change is that this approach can help create a tidal wave of change through the resulting ripples and tensions. In this conversation with the co-founder and CEO Kareem Farah, we dig into just how they operate and what he sees as the most critical points of leverage in changing the system. We also dug into the results of their work--both in terms of student learning outcomes and attitudes from the teachers themselves.
I also love the picture of bottom-up transformation. Very much about “acting your way to a new type of thinking” versus a top-down “thinking our way to a new behavior.”
I also love the picture of bottom-up transformation. Very much about “acting your way to a new type of thinking” versus a top-down “thinking our way to a new behavior.”
This line blew me away: if the students don’t feel that the teacher is the expert in the room, it’s hinders relationship building.