S2 EP 13 Claudett Edie on Empowering Students Through Project-Based Learning

PODCAST Season 2 EPISODE 13

Claudett Edie

Library Media Specialist, Leestown Middle School

Introduction of Guest BIO – 

Claudett Edie, a former High School English and Science teacher, is not just an educator, but a passionate advocate for Project-Based Learning (PBL). With over a decade of experience in PBL, she brings a wealth of knowledge and dedication to her role as a Leestown Middle School Library Media Specialist and a member of Fayette County School's Deeper Learning Team. Her primary focus is to support PBL projects and experiences for the students of Leestown Middle, as well as team-teaching, supporting, and coaching teachers as they design PBL experiences in their classrooms. 

Claudett's commitment to deeper learning and PBL is not just a belief but a proven strategy for empowering students. She has seen firsthand how PBL can transform students, equipping them with critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving skills. Her approach to creating engaging learning experiences that connect classroom content to real-world issues has not only fostered equity and access to high-quality education for all students but has also made a significant impact on the Leestown Middle School community. Claudett's innovative contributions have not gone unnoticed. Her achievements include being a 2024 PBL Champion Nominee, winning the 2023 PBLWorksKY Innovator Contest, and being Leestown Middle School's 2023 Teacher of the Year. Recently, she accepted a part-time position as a PBLworks National Faculty member, where she will facilitate PBL 101 workshops for educators. 

As a dynamic presenter, Claudett not only facilitates professional development sessions on PBL classroom integration at local, district, and state-wide conferences but also ignites a spark of innovation in every participant. Her master’s degree in Instructional Leadership and Middle School Science and English Education is a testament to her dedication to empowering educators through innovative learning methodologies, leaving a lasting impact on the education landscape.

Interview

Agents of Change: Leaders/Innovators

•  30,000 Ft. View – Why so we, as a society invest in education?
• What drew you to education?
• What are the biggest challenges to you?
• What would you like decision makers to know?

Podcast/book shoutouts

Shoutouts to CKEC Deeper Learning Amanda Burrows, Erin McIver, Holly Lawrence, and Heather Brown 

PBLWorks workshops provided by the KDE Professional Development Grant 

Current Podcast - The Balance, by Dr. Catlin Tucker 

Books that make me a better teacher: Dive Into Deep Learning: Tools for Engagement First Edition by Joanne Quinn, Joanne J. McEachen, & 3 more 

The Handbook for the New Art and Science of Teaching (Your Guide to the Marzano Framework for Competency-Based Education and Teaching Methods) 

Making Thinking Visible: How to Promote Engagement, Understanding, and Independence for All Learners 1st Edition 

PBL Handbook for Middle & High School by PBLWorks 

The Power of Making Thinking Visible: Practices to Engage and Empower All Learners 

Teaching for Deeper Learning: Tools to Engage Students in Meaning Making 

The Shift to Student-Led: Reimagining Classroom Workflows with UDL and Blended Learning 

Transcript

Liza Holland [00:00:02]:
Welcome to education perspectives. I am your host, Liza Holland. This is a podcast that explores the role of education in our society from a variety of lenses. Education needs to evolve to meet the needs of today and the future. Solving such huge issues requires understanding. Join me as we begin to explore the many perspectives of education. Claudette Eady, a former high school English and science teacher, is not just an educator, but a passionate advocate for project based learning. With over a decade of experience in PBL, she brings a wealth of knowledge and dedication to her role as a Leestown Middle School library media specialist and a member of Fayette County Public Schools' deeper learning team.

Liza Holland [00:00:52]:
Her primary focus is to support PBL projects and experiences for the students of Leestown Middle, as well as team teaching, supporting, and coaching teachers as they design PBL experiences in their classrooms. Claudette's commitment to deeper learning and PBL is not just a belief, but a proven strategy for empowering students. She has seen firsthand how PBL can transform students, equipping them with critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and problem solving skills. Her approach to creating engaging learning experiences that connect classroom content to real world issues has not only fostered equity and access to a high quality education for all students, but has also made a significant impact on the Leestown Middle School community. Claudette's innovative contributions have not gone unnoticed. Her achievements include being a 2024 PBL champion nominee, winning the 2023 PBL Works KY Innovator contest, and being Leestown Middle School's 2023 teacher of the year. Recently, she accepted a part time position as a PBLWorks national faculty member, where she will facilitate PBL 101 workshops for other educators. As a dynamic presenter, Claudette not only facilitates professional development sessions on PBL classroom integration at local district and statewide conferences, but also ignites a spark of innovation in every participant.

Liza Holland [00:02:25]:
Her master's degree in instructional leadership and middle school science and English education is a testament to her dedication to empowering educators through innovative learning methodologies, leaving a lasting impact on the educational landscape. Hello, Claudette. Thank you so very much for being here for Education Perspectives today.

Claudett Edie [00:02:48]:
Thank you. I am very excited to be here, and, very grateful that you've asked to have me.

Liza Holland [00:02:56]:
Absolutely. I'm gonna kick us off with the question I ask everybody. Tell me, from a 30, 000 foot view, why do you think that we as a society invest in education?

Claudett Edie [00:03:07]:
Well, I have my honest answer and then the answer that everyone wants to hear. So I wanna give you the answer that everybody wants to hear. Why we invest in education? 1st and foremost, I think we invest in education for economic growth. Sadly, we sometimes view individuals of their worth and how they will contribute to society in the future. Also, sometimes, you know, we feel like it's something that we are churning out. We're churning out this mode, this individual that maybe they're all sort of looking alike, we know what is predictable, and people take comfort in that. They take comfort of knowing that their education was similar to what their children are doing, and then we all have this commonality with our journey through education. And that's important.

Claudett Edie [00:04:07]:
Right? It's important that we do have jobs, that we do create individuals that are compassionate and understand other cultures and just have a lens of lifelong connections even with others. Right? We talk about, like, this is like your first networking. Like, the people you're in class with in middle school, you're like, I went to middle school with you, and that's your first just your interactions with people and how to get along with others. I want people to invest in education because I think it's a great way to build students and individuals and foster their curiosity. And, also, just, like, understanding that maybe we're not all equal in this world and we all have our own challenges, but we can meet you where you are and support you. So just taking that idea of a student who is interested in learning that child at, like, 2 or 3 years old and how they are just just want to learn and learn and learn. And how can we invest in education in such a way that we keep that spark in all our students and support families so that they have the tools and the resources that they need so that we're all on a level playing field when we graduate and enter the workforce and contribute? I know that's a roundabout answer.

Liza Holland [00:05:48]:
Honestly, it really resonates with me because it speaks a little to that, how this system was created in the first place. You know, I mean, it was built on an industrial model that was to convert farmers into productive factory workers who needed to be compliant and very detail oriented and afraid to speak up and all those kinds of things. And our society has really changed since that model was developed, and the skills that kids need don't necessarily thrive under that model. So that really speaks to me about meeting each child where they are and that whole lifelong learning. I hear more CEOs say, you know, I need people who can learn, unlearn, and relearn. And if you don't keep some of that love of learning, that's really hard to do. So I definitely am more aligned with your vision.

Claudett Edie [00:06:44]:
Thank you. I hope that we all turn our focus on fostering individuals and fostering collaborators and just curious people. Right? If you could have a student who graduates either high school or college and says, I'm just still so curious, and I can't wait to learn more. Like, instead of, like, woo, I'm finished with that. I don't have to do that anymore. I mean, sometimes we even hear, like, adults say, you know, I would never wanna go back to school or I would never wanna do that again or I don't want to go and get an advanced degree, But instead, I would love to be like, I'm hungry. When can I have more? Like Yes. That's the individual I want to spark and have in my world.

Liza Holland [00:07:43]:
That is totally the ideal, isn't it? So I'm so glad that there are few of you out there in education who that you're guiding light. I love it. I love it. Tell me a little bit about yourself. What drew you to education in the first place?

Claudett Edie [00:07:54]:
Oh my gosh. Okay. So this is where it gets really nerdy. So my, family my grandmother actually was a 1 room, schoolhouse teacher. So my aunts and my cousins are educators. My immediate my parents were not in education, but I always loved to play school. And looking back on it, I was that person who loved to teach my stuffed animals, do the lesson plans, and do the work for them. That was but that was, you know, I did it all.

Claudett Edie [00:08:28]:
And I remember having, like, the little Fisher Price schoolhouse and had the magnetic letters on it, and I would, like, open up this, you know that was I was playing school in such a way that I didn't realize I was loving the planning and the experience of the classroom even then, and I can still say to until, like like, right now, this moment, I am thinking about that student's experience and trying to plan lessons and support teachers for their school day, so and I was doing that as play, and then as I was moved on to college, it's weird because I wasn't going to be in education, I thought I was going to be in psychology, something in psychology. I didn't know exactly what, and I took a career planning class, and my instructor, we had taken these interest exams or, like, these interviews and all these, like, quizzes and stuff, and then we had to sit down with the instructor. And she was like, alright, Claudette. It looks like you have the moral values of being a middle school teacher, but you probably could be, like, in show business, or you could do something like you you're on stage and so so I had those 2 ventures to think about, and I did. I walked away from them, like, okay, middle school education. Okay. I will say that my economics and my where I was growing up sort of pension hold me being an educator. Now this is the part where people are gonna be like, oh my gosh.

Claudett Edie [00:10:20]:
Maybe, you know, like, do I have regrets going in education? Maybe I feel like my potential was not there. So, like, what I'm talking about is that I had a university in my town. I went to Morgan State University. My family didn't have the money to, like, send me anywhere. I didn't have a car. My parents would deliver me to the university, come to pick me up later. Sometimes I would have to wait long time at the the library until my parents could come and get me, and so just the economics of where I was going to school, also the economics of where I would be employed. So Morehead, it was either gonna be a hospital because that's, like, 1 of the biggest places that people are employed or the school system.

Claudett Edie [00:11:12]:
I didn't see myself having the economics to go to medical school, even though I ended up being a high school science teacher. I feel like if the economics behind my journey was there, I probably would have not gone into education. So when I share that story, I'll also think about our Eastern Kentucky students

Liza Holland [00:11:36]:
Mhmm.

Claudett Edie [00:11:37]:
And how their experience, their educational experience is so much different than Central Kentucky students. And I'm thinking, like, very specifically, like, Northern Kentucky, Lexington area, Louisville area, how just their geographic location limits their opportunities, whether it be, summer camps, maybe it's industry that's coming in and where they see themselves employed in the future that they don't see themselves leaving that area, Maybe they have a strong family tie, they wanna stay close by, and so I'm an educator, and I feel like I'm a successful educator. And this is my blood and my happy spot, but I don't know if that path was my choice as much as it was my circumstance.

Liza Holland [00:12:35]:
I can totally respect that, and I think that that happens for a lot of kids. And I thought a lot about that dichotomy of teachers come up through education in a very siloed type of a pathway. So they don't ever get exposed to the breadth and depth of all the different types of jobs that are out there. And and through no fault of their own. You know? And a lot of times, the people who are counseling students, etcetera, maybe they don't know as much as they need to about the breadth and depth of what's available out there. So that's kind of on my radar to find ways that we can introduce kids to possibilities earlier and more often and, you know, find a way to be able to, in that case, educate the teachers alongside the students.

Claudett Edie [00:13:26]:
Yeah. So, Liza, you need, like, something that's really on my radar right now, and it's my passion. When I'm working with teachers and we're designing learning experiences and we're looking at real life products that these students are working towards, 1 of the questions I will ask them, where do we see this in the real world? So if the students are writing an essay, when would this essay appear in the real world? What does that look like in the real world? What does it look like in industry? And so sometimes that pushback is, you know, that's startling because we have this preconceived notion of what writing looks like in school, what writing looks like in an assessment, but then we are not helping students write for their careers, write for what's out there. And if you don't know, like you you just said, if you don't really know what industry is out there or what a job looks like outside of school because you go to school, you go to college to be a teacher, and then you go right back to school, So you don't know what a different day looks like or a different interaction looks like. So, yes, students need those experiences, those field trips, those experts coming into the classroom, but also, like you said, Liza, is that teachers need a chance to have those opportunities, like no fault of their own, but we need to know what another day looks like, what another job looks like.

Liza Holland [00:15:10]:
Absolutely. And you can never underestimate the number of employers that tell me, you know, my young people can't write a coherent email. And I'm like, really? They could probably write an essay.

Claudett Edie [00:15:23]:
I don't literally, like, when I was saying that, I was thinking an email. Just composing an email or just composing a summary of what happened. Like, I know a lot of times in the medical field, they have to summarize or even, like, if you're working independently or who your audience is, like understanding who you are writing for. You're not writing for a teacher. Like, this is the only time you will be writing for a teacher. You are writing for multiple perspectives. So just like your language, and I think Grammarly, I use Grammarly all the time. I have the premium, and it'll say, do you want an informal tone, a casual tone, an educated tone? And so, like, students have to know that and, like, who are they writing for?

Liza Holland [00:16:14]:
Absolutely. And I'm hoping it's interesting watching the dynamics of the arrival of AI into schools and how incredibly worried people are, but I I imagine it's not a whole lot different than when the Internet first came around. You know, how do we do this? How do we control it? How do we do this? And so it I love the way that it could possibly be a good tutor for students to say, okay. Rewrite this in an informal tone. Rewrite this in a professional tone just so that they could understand and see the difference right in front of them. Yeah. So

Claudett Edie [00:16:45]:
Well, so speaking of Grammarly, I feel like I'm, like, not advertising for Grammarly. Grammarly will also, like, since you since I had the premium, it will even, like, say, you know, give suggestions and, like, what does your audit like, your audience may need you to explain more about this. The reader needs to know more about this. And so it does sort of prompt you because it could AI only gives what you put in.

Liza Holland [00:17:12]:
Yes.

Claudett Edie [00:17:12]:
So if I didn't give those details, the AI is asking for that. So I'd I really think we should embrace AI myself. It is here. It's not going anywhere. So let's teach students how to use it.

Liza Holland [00:17:27]:
Well, I'll tell you what, you're doing so many neat and innovative things over there at Leastown, and I have to give you a huge shout out. The the showcase night just blew me away. It was such a well thought out, well done event, and I learned so much from the students that night. I just rock star. Good job.

Claudett Edie [00:17:50]:
Well, it was a team effort. It was a progress of teachers saying yes and administration saying that our students have a voice and they can showcase their work. And I'm sure, like you said, like, when you walked around, students wanted to show what they had made. They wanted to share. So it was really nice to see teachers having work that can be shared, student work that can be shared. That's a journey. Right? So as a teacher, like, hey. We've got this night coming up.

Claudett Edie [00:18:30]:
We want you to showcase your showcase deeper learning. We wanna showcase students communicating and collaborating and having a forward thinking product that is out there that you're gonna present. And then as a teacher, you have to reflect what have I done that meets that criteria. Yeah. Or what can I do to put students out there in first? What can I do that's not a handout? What can I do that's not in Google Drive and just stays in Google Drive? Right? So there were a lot of teachers that stepped up and presented what they were doing in class. So when I say they presented, their students were presenting what was happening. So you have to be brave. Right? Because that student is your product.

Claudett Edie [00:19:24]:
Right? That student and their success and the challenges that they face in their reflective comments about their learning is your product. So that's scary because you are sharing that with the world. You're sharing that with visitors and family members, and I really appreciated everyone who said yes. And we grew. I mean, we had a 102 students that stayed that night to showcase, and they were so happy about they were like, but I need to go to so and so and present, and I need to and they they were coming around and, like, sharing with each other. So, yeah, that was it's there was a huge win, and that is that started, like, last year, and then our showcases were this year. So big shout out to mister Gibson, Joe Gibson, our principal and our leadership team, Haley Bromigen, Seth Miller. They were the people who were knocking on doors.

Claudett Edie [00:20:36]:
I'm like, hey. What do you have? Or you should be showcasing this and giving shout outs on our digital signage all year to these students and these teachers. And even though we were sharing out during the school day, having those evenings set aside for the community to come in to celebrate students was very powerful and we plan on doing that again this coming year. And, we're also going to be partnering with a community member to have even more focus if the teachers were maybe thinking that maybe they didn't have A lot of times when you do project based learning, your final product, a lot of times you are doing that for someone else. Right? So you have an audience, you have someone that empathy piece that you're creating something beyond your classroom. And there were teachers that didn't have those connections to community members to reach out. So a lot of times when students were presenting, it was just still in that fishbowl in the classroom, right, or down the hall or to another teacher or to an administrator. So we're hoping that we're going to have community members or community or a a partnership so that we are creating a product for people, individuals outside the school.

Claudett Edie [00:22:04]:
So that's our growth for next year is to take PBL larger scale outside, so to build that empathy, to build that knowledge of others, that knowledge of community and community support and outreach.

Liza Holland [00:22:20]:
Oh, that's fantastic. And I love the intentionality around giving the shout outs and actually having administrators help by knocking on doors to say, you know, can you participate in this? Because that's the way, you know, early adopters probably like you and I, it's you know, that's a great challenge and it's so neat, but there's a lot of people who are, gee, I don't know I could do that. And we have to empower our teachers just as much as we empower our students to be able to do that and provide some scaffolding of sorts. You know? Maybe we need to find some ways to be able to solicit new partners and figure out how to do those matchups and all that kind of a thing, but I think that is a fabulous growth plan.

Claudett Edie [00:23:06]:
Yeah. We're hoping yeah. So that's, like, we're talking about, like, scaffolding, student work, like, scaffolding teacher and letting them know what they are doing is impactful, and what they're doing gives students voice, and maybe they're not thinking that it's worthy of showcase.

Liza Holland [00:23:26]:
Mhmm.

Claudett Edie [00:23:26]:
And it is, and I think we are our hardest critics. Like, at the end of the day, you know, the teachers reflecting. They're always looking at what they can do better. And so we always feel like we're always not meeting the mark, and that sometimes that guard that we put up is what keeps us from taking the next step and also, like, keeping ourselves from, like, showcasing student work sometimes because we feel like it's not good enough. But it's doesn't have to be distinguished. It doesn't have to be proficient, and, you know, these are all assessment languages that I'm using.

Liza Holland [00:24:05]:
Mhmm.

Claudett Edie [00:24:06]:
But has the student grown? Can the student reflect from the moment they hurt just started their project to where they are now? What changed, and how does that make me feel as I move through those struggles? And it's okay to struggle. It's okay to recognize that reading is hard for me. It is okay to recognize that I didn't understand it. I understand it a little bit better now, and I still need more practice with it, and giving permission, that is the journey, and then it is where we are, that's why we have students move from many, many, you know, 13 years with us because of that progression. So highlighting that and, you know, stop waiting for perfection Yes. Before you let students share what they've learned.

Liza Holland [00:25:02]:
Don't let perfection be the enemy of good. And, you know, that's the other thing that I think our system really needs to examine is that, you know, out in the real world, people fail all the time. And they do it once, and then they're like, well, that really wasn't quite good enough, so let's again, and let's try it do it this way. And that type of, you know, dedication to an iterative process that can continue to grow doesn't really gel really well with our you gotta get an a culture. And I I'm really glad to hear you say that because that I actually had another guest on last year, and he is a professor at MIT. And he wrote a book called Iterate, and he said, we fail here all day long every day. Yeah. And I was like, you know what? That with confidence from an MIT professor, let's we need a little more of that infusion in there that it's okay, and it's gonna get better, and you're gonna get better.

Claudett Edie [00:25:55]:
Yeah. And so, like, if anyone's, like, listening and they're thinking about PBL and are thinking about their showcase, 1 of the, things that I have to really, really beg you to do is not select your best behaved class, your best a class, your advanced class to do a PBL. All students can do that and not you don't have to select your best behaved student, your most articulate student to get up and share when that night happens. Like, all students should share their learning journey, and creating and scaffolding those conversations is very easy to do. So we had our first showcase in December. Students had stickers, and they could actually say what ask me about. Ask me about my biggest struggle. Ask me about what I loved about this project.

Claudett Edie [00:27:04]:
Ask me about what I would do next time. So the student already knew the answer, and so when the person came up and spoke to them, they were ready to share. So you didn't have to have a student that had, you know, was had everything, like, oh, this was great. This is what I did, and I was also mad at the entire time. And I had all these things that were advantages in my life that allowed this to take place. So there's that imperfection. Right? We're trying to we put up the perfect student for the showcase, but we all our students are perfect, and they all are perfect in their learning journey, just embracing that journey.

Liza Holland [00:27:51]:
It's funny when we move to more hands on kinda career connected learning like this, a lot of times, the best students are some of the ones that have the challenges with it. They're like, I've got the routine here. I know how to take a test. I know how to do that. But putting into the practical application space, sometimes you'll find that some of your best students are actually some that you thought were the worst, but maybe they just needed to learn a little differently. That's so cool.

Claudett Edie [00:28:15]:
They have to be given a chance for a voice. So when you are doing PBL, when you're when the student is able to choose their, you know, their audience, when they're able to choose their final product, and there's time built into the day with shoulder partners, and they are discussing back and forth, and they're able to be leaders in their small groups, and they're able to give feedback during the school day, and they're listening to 1 another. That gives that value to all learners, so you don't have to be a standout to be part of a learning community.

Liza Holland [00:28:54]:
Tell us, do you have a favorite story or memory about your work in education so far?

Claudett Edie [00:28:59]:
So I do have 1 that goes way back, and it is not necessarily student based. It is my journey based.

Liza Holland [00:29:10]:
Awesome.

Claudett Edie [00:29:11]:
So when I started out as a new teacher, I was hired as a speech coach to get my foot in the door. And then I was an English high school English teacher. I had a double major, English and science, and I really wanted to teach science. And what happened about a couple years into my employment, a science position opened up, but it was only for, like, a couple of classes. So I was still teaching English, and I was teaching science. So I taught English at the beginning of the school day, and then I had a couple of science classes at the end of the school day. And to help me, the administration I don't even know how it happened, but I was given a mentor, and the mentor was Arv Allen. Arv Allen was an amazing physics teacher, and he taught freshman physics and chemistry just like the classes that I was assigned to.

Claudett Edie [00:30:13]:
I was assigned 2 of those classes. And 1 of those classes during my work day, I was able to go into mister r Valens classroom and observe him. So I would walk in, had taught English all morning, and then the afternoon, my first class was to go observe him. And he was teaching the same class science class that I was gonna be teaching after that. I walked in with my notebook, and he was an amazing teacher, hands on, extremely brilliant. He was top of his field. He would go present at conferences. He wrote grants and got gratins for equipment, and he was my mentor.

Claudett Edie [00:30:59]:
And I was able to watch his classroom management style. I was able to look at his lesson. I guess we will call those professional learning communities now, like he would right? But he was my mentor, and someone in leadership, whether it's department chair, principal, saw in me that I had the potential to be a good science teacher, a great science teacher. But I needed support and I needed mentorship. So I really like, Arf Allen and whoever in administration, like, came up with that idea that I was able to not teach, I'm doing air quotes, not teach 1 period, but to be mentored every day that school year by mister Allen. Like, I want that for other teachers because I could talk to him and ask why he did things a certain way. He could model great teaching in real time for me. Everybody should have that.

Claudett Edie [00:32:16]:
So that's my favorite memory and the fact that that's how I grew, and that is a lot of my role as a library and media specialist at Leastown. I'm not your typical librarian. This space is used as a model lab a lot of times. I get to guide teachers and coach teachers and model for teachers, good teaching, deeper learning teaching, reflective teaching. And that all started with me needing to learn myself.

Liza Holland [00:32:48]:
Oh, I love that. And now you're paying it forward. That is just, that's pretty magical. My next question is kind of surrounding the biggest challenges and obstacles that you face, and I know that time, honestly, has come up in our conversations together about, you know, maybe we need to rethink our school day. Maybe we need to, you know, to do things a little differently. Tell me about the challenges that you face and what your dream day might look like.

Claudett Edie [00:33:15]:
Look. Yes. Our profession is the structure is outdated and maybe not relevant to what needs to happen. My gut tells me that we need to allow teachers to have space to plan and to learn. And 1 planning period a day. A middle school at here at Fayette County, and we actually have 2 planning periods. Now those 2 planning periods, 1 is a collaborative support staff and planning period, so that's it's not really a planning period, but it's a built in time for looking at data and looking at support services that wrap around students. But then you have another 50 minutes that is your dedicated planning period.

Claudett Edie [00:34:13]:
And elementary school teachers, they even probably have less, and high school teachers, you know, they only have 1 planning period, and they may have multiple classes that they're teaching. Most middle school teachers only have 1 prep, which is nice. But planning takes time. Reflection takes time, collaboration takes time, and we are asking teachers to do their job without having the time to do that. If you are a teacher and you are listening, you know, you get up, you wake up, and you're already thinking about the day, and you plan you work before work, you work during work, you work after work, and then on weekends, you force yourself maybe to have 1 day that you're not working, but Sunday, you're back to work. And for those teachers who say, no. I'm not going to do that. I don't know how you do it.

Claudett Edie [00:35:18]:
Yeah. Like, I don't know how you do it. I've not been able to do that to meet the needs of your students and to give feedback and management even if you're following Katlyn Tucker. And Katlyn Tucker has some great ideas on how to grade and assess in a way that you're giving quick feedback, important feedback, but that still takes time. Mhmm. We also are not some districts are moving away from having autonomy on what PD, professional learning, their teachers are getting. And I understand the idea of streamlining and everyone being on the same page. And if you've adopted a curriculum, you do need to know that curriculum and you need to, like, build in, like, timing and a plan for all that.

Claudett Edie [00:36:16]:
But also individuals, teachers need individual PD because they know where their weaknesses and strengths are. We need time for allow teachers to be leaders within their school, within the district, because teachers are in the trenches and they know what works, what doesn't work, and they also need to be unsiloed and so that they are speaking to 1 another and helping each other out by creating experiences for their students. So it's just we can restructure. We have the box, and I think, like, a box is empty. Right? You've got a box, and everything is, like, in there, and you could let's move it around a little bit and, like, restructure our day so that students also I mean, let's talk about students. They sit for most of the day. They are not really able to move out. Like, in middle school, we don't have breaks.

Claudett Edie [00:37:21]:
We don't have they don't go outside and, like, shake it off like an elementary school, and they're not allowed to talk a lot of times. And it's just and you go in the cafeterias and kids are told to, like, you're being too loud. Well, yeah, it is loud because it's a small room, and we're all the noise is loud. But that's the only time they get to have some kind of social, and they don't know how to act around each other. And so when we ask students, like, why did you do that? Well, they don't know. They'll have a lot of experience navigating conflict. Conflict is difficult. And so if you don't have time to talk to other people and talk things through and just be for a moment.

Claudett Edie [00:38:08]:
Right? You, like, get up and they take their stuff to another class, and then it's a total new subject and you've, how do they even wrap their head around? Like, looking back, like, I don't even know how the kids do it.

Liza Holland [00:38:21]:
I don't either. When I go to conferences these days, I'm like, okay. After 20 minutes, unless it's a really engaging speaker, I'm already multitasking. So and we blame the kids for trying to do that kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah. No. I agree with you wholeheartedly.

Liza Holland [00:38:34]:
And and honestly, you've answered a lot of my next question, but I wanted to give you the opportunity to add to it if you'd like. What would you like decision makers to know?

Claudett Edie [00:38:44]:
Well, I want decision makers to know that they have the opportunity to be innovative. And they have the opportunity to change the system.

Liza Holland [00:38:57]:
Mhmm.

Claudett Edie [00:38:57]:
If you are a congressman at your state level, you have the opportunity to vote in such a way that you have listened to educators. You have the opportunity to step inside a school, a school system to observe, to take place, like, take time

Liza Holland [00:39:22]:
out of your day and see

Claudett Edie [00:39:22]:
if you could, like, create a lesson or navigate a day. Like, you have the choice to be a student in our schools. And I would encourage you take that time and gain the perspective of a journey that everyone in your state goes through. So whether that student is homeschooled, they're still facing the challenges of completing assignments and meeting the expectations of assessments, or, like, most of our students who go into public schools? Like, what does that journey look like, and do you think it needs to be changed? Do you think it could improve, and how could we do that? Would you take time out of your busy day to listen to innovative teachers and leaders. And looking back on our assessment and how many assessments we are giving our students daily, month I mean, it's insane how many assessments our students are completing. And going back to our conversation at the beginning, as, you know, as a district leader, what type of student do you want to look back on to have created? Do you want a communicator? Do you want a engaged citizen? Do you want an empowered learner? And do you want a productive, not worker, but maybe a productive collaborator. So, like, just listening and taking time to not assume that the students that are in our schools today have to go through the same journey that you went through.

Liza Holland [00:41:35]:
That is excellent, excellent advice. Thank you so much for being a part of Education Perspectives, Claudette. I could talk to you all day.

Claudett Edie [00:41:43]:
Oh, I know. I could too.

Liza Holland [00:41:47]:
Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Education Perspectives. Feel free to share your thoughts on our Facebook page. Let us know which education perspectives you would like to hear or share. Please subscribe and share with your friends.