Are you curious about what a Modern Classroom looks like in practice IN HALTON? 

The Modern Classrooms model offers a great set of tools to help meet the needs of ALL learners in our classrooms.  The model provides structures to support differentiation, and it fits with the principles of UDL (Universal Design for Learning). 

Thank you to our panel of presenters for joining us and sharing your expertise at our Shifting in Action event last year around:

  • Blended-learning approaches
  • Self-pacing structures
  • Mastery-based grading

Resources from the session are linked below for continued access.

Our Panelists

Emily Dia

Emily Dia worked as a classroom teacher and instructional coach for the last 20 years. Her grounding purpose is to create equitable access to transformative teaching for all children. She is passionate about culturally responsive and relevant practice, assessment reform, and dynamic curriculum design and currently spends her days as Partnerships Manager for the Modern Classrooms Project, supporting educators, schools, and districts reimagining instruction with the Modern Classroom model. Emily holds a bachelor’s degree from Wake Forest University and a Master’s degree in Learning & Instruction from Northeastern University. When she’s not thinking about creating paths and systems to help all students succeed, she dreams about reading a book on a beach and enjoying time with her family and their dog Buffy, slayer of vampires.

Toni Rose Deanon

Toni Rose is a teacher by nature with 10 years of teaching experience in Middle School English in both public and public charter schools. She was also an instructional coach for an independent school. She started implementing Modern Classroom in 2019-2020 and has not looked back since! She’s used the model with all of her learners, all ages, and she’s enjoyed the ability to cultivate and nourish relationships. In her “free” time, she loves to cuddle with her two furbabies, eat pints of ice cream, travel, lift weights, roller skate, and read a ridiculous amount of books per year.

Kristi Pocock

Kristi Pocock is a Grade 3 teacher at Post’s Corners P.S. in Oakville.  She was first introduced to the Modern Classroom Project by the SHIFT team in January 2021 participating in the PLC series and completing the free course.  After implementing the MCP model in her classroom in the Spring of 2021, Kristi continued her learning journey with the Summer Institute virtual mentorship program in July 2021.  While partnered with a Modern Classroom Mentor, Kristi designed lessons and unit plans for her Grade 3 Math program for the 2021/22 year.  Kristi considers MCP to be a “game changer” for her practice and looks forward to building on the momentum next year.

Karla McEachern

Karla McEachern Grade 8 Teacher at Irma Coulson Public School in Milton, Ontario. I am currently in my 20th year of teaching and am always looking for new and exciting ideas and opportunities for my students in the classroom.  When I learned about MCP last spring I was “all in” right from the beginning.  I have rolled out MCP in my Grade 8 class through multiple different subject areas.  I have since received the Distinguished Modern Classroom Educator designation and have been accepted into the MCP Expert Mentorship program this summer. 

Caitlin Kemp

Caitlin Kemp has been a classroom teacher in the Halton District School Board since 2011. She has taught in a variety of subject areas including English, Special Education, History, and Social Sciences. She enjoys learning and new strategies in her classroom to support students, which ultimately brought her to the Modern Classroom Project. Outside of work Caitlin is also a wife and mother of two. 

Sheri Hill

Sheri is a mother of two young girls, a wife, and an inspiration to many. She has been a passionate teacher for over two decades and has explored a variety of epistemological approaches to teaching mathematics and computer. More recently, Sheri has been encouraged by the effectiveness of implementing student-based teaching strategies. Some examples include Peter Liljedahl’s thinking classroom, modern classroom mastery-based learning, and exploring how to better integrate indigenous teaching into the classroom. Recognizing that there is a lot to learn in the realm of learning how to learn, she is excited to continue to explore strategies that improve students’ experience and learning in the classroom.

Resources

Grade 3 Examples from Kristi Pocock

Grade 8 Examples from Karla McEachern

Middle School Examples from Toni Rose Deanon

Grade 9 English Examples from Caitlin Kemp