Episode 11: “CI with THAT Class: When It’s All Chaos and Side-Eye”
Ever tried staying comprehensible while teaching that class — the one fueled by chaos, sarcasm, and an Olympic-level side-eye game? Yeah, this one’s for you.
🎯 Ready to see how your CI skills stack up? Take the CI Proficiency Quiz and find out your level at https://imim.us/ciquiz. You might surprise yourself… or confirm everything you’ve suspected since last Tuesday’s fire drill.
In this solo episode, Scott dives headfirst into the glorious disaster known as “THAT class.” From Bathroom Kid and Eye-Roll Expert to the art of pretending everything’s fine while silently screaming inside — this one’s equal parts therapy, humor, and hope for every teacher who’s ever ended class whispering, “At least no one cried.” Expect real talk, survival strategies, and a reminder that even chaos can be comprehensible… mostly.
💡 Want ready-to-use CI lessons that don’t make you lose your mind? Grab the CI Survival Kit — fresh, funny, and classroom-ready lessons every month at https://imim.us/kit.
#ComprehendTHIS, #CITeacher, #LanguageTeachers, #WorldLanguage, #TeachingPodcast, #TeacherHumor, #ComprehensibleInput, #SpanishTeachers, #TeacherLife, #CISurvivalKitHosts:
Scott Benedict - https://www.instagram.com/immediateimmersion
Resources & Links:
BAssessment Academy: https://imim.us/academy
CI Survival Kit: https://imim.us/kit
Class Reset Questions - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Tgv_OoD5Df-cM5Vz4Fcc6T6KbjBWOPWt/view?usp=sharing
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🌐 https://immediateimmersion.com
📧 Scott@immediateimmersion.com
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Transcript
Hello and welcome to...
Speaker:Comprehend this
Speaker:podcast, I'm going solo today.
Speaker:So have you ever had that class?
Speaker:You know, that one that feels like
Speaker:teaching inside a tornado
Speaker:made of teenage side-eye
Speaker:and missing pencils?
Speaker:Yeah, that one.
Speaker:This week it's just me flying solo.
Speaker:No guests, no backup, no
Speaker:emotional support co-host.
Speaker:Just one teacher trying to
Speaker:make sense of that class.
Speaker:We're talking chaos management, bathroom
Speaker:kid, eye-roll expert and how to keep your
Speaker:sanity when the vibe is crowd control
Speaker:instead of comprehensible input.
Speaker:So grab your caffeine, lower your
Speaker:expectations and let's commiserate
Speaker:because if you've ever
Speaker:ended class thinking, well, no one cried.
Speaker:So that's a win.
Speaker:This episode's for you.
Speaker:Let's go ahead and get started right
Speaker:after these messages.
Speaker:Ever feel like you're clinging to the
Speaker:edge of your teacher
Speaker:planner, just hoping today's
Speaker:lesson magically appears?
Speaker:Enter the CI Survival Kit, a monthly
Speaker:membership made for
Speaker:teachers who love comprehensible
Speaker:input but also love not reinventing the
Speaker:wheel every Sunday night.
Speaker:Each month you get fresh, ready to use
Speaker:lessons, time-saving tools
Speaker:and just enough structure
Speaker:to keep your teaching life together.
Speaker:No stress, no guilt, just monthly help
Speaker:from someone who gets it.
Speaker:Sign up at mm.us.survival and let the
Speaker:Survival Kit do the
Speaker:heavy lifting for once.
Speaker:Welcome to Comprehend This, Real Talk for
Speaker:Real Language Teachers.
Speaker:No drills, no dry theory, just honest
Speaker:stories, practical ideas
Speaker:and a reminder you're not
Speaker:alone in the CI trenches.
Speaker:Let's dive in.
Speaker:And welcome back.
Speaker:How's everybody doing today?
Speaker:As always, if you have any questions or
Speaker:comments, go ahead and
Speaker:please put them in the chat or
Speaker:in the comment box.
Speaker:I will be glad to answer any questions
Speaker:you have, address your
Speaker:comments as we go along.
Speaker:I'm going solo today, so we
Speaker:don't have any guest hosts.
Speaker:We'll have some new
Speaker:guest hosts next week.
Speaker:Excuse me.
Speaker:But for this one, we
Speaker:don't have any guest hosts.
Speaker:So let's go ahead and
Speaker:just get started here.
Speaker:That class, everybody has had that class.
Speaker:That one class that either has too much
Speaker:energy or not enough
Speaker:energy or they're unpredictable,
Speaker:they're moody, all kinds of things.
Speaker:And let me tell you, oh, I
Speaker:have had a whopper of a class.
Speaker:Last year I talked about coming back to
Speaker:high school and I had
Speaker:some problems with my first
Speaker:semester and I made some changes and my
Speaker:second semester went
Speaker:swimmingly after that.
Speaker:And then comes this fall.
Speaker:Oh my gosh, I have a class.
Speaker:And let me start how our school works.
Speaker:So we're on a four by four, which means
Speaker:that we have four classes
Speaker:per semester and we cover
Speaker:a year's worth of
Speaker:material in one semester.
Speaker:So the kids take eight classes a school
Speaker:year, four first
Speaker:semester and then four second
Speaker:semester.
Speaker:Teachers teach three out of four.
Speaker:The fourth class would
Speaker:be their prep period.
Speaker:So I have this class and I am teaching,
Speaker:this year I have a weird schedule.
Speaker:I'm teaching two level ones, Spanish, and
Speaker:then my third class
Speaker:is building foundations
Speaker:for success.
Speaker:I have no experience teaching this class.
Speaker:They signed me up for it.
Speaker:I had to teach it has
Speaker:nothing to do with Spanish.
Speaker:And so that was just a
Speaker:challenge all on its own.
Speaker:But my second Spanish one class has been
Speaker:challenging from the first
Speaker:minute of the very first day.
Speaker:I kid you not.
Speaker:I start classes the same way.
Speaker:So I had a first period.
Speaker:I had a second period.
Speaker:My first period went perfectly just like
Speaker:I would expect a first day to go.
Speaker:My second period, I had challenges from
Speaker:the get go from the moment.
Speaker:So it wasn't about not
Speaker:building relationships.
Speaker:It wasn't because they didn't like how I
Speaker:taught or they didn't
Speaker:like me or they didn't have
Speaker:a chance to say they didn't like Spanish.
Speaker:They came in with their preconceived
Speaker:notions as they came into my classroom.
Speaker:So they came in wanting
Speaker:to not like the classroom.
Speaker:Guten Morgen.
Speaker:Skating Frau.
Speaker:I think that's how you're
Speaker:supposed to pronounce that.
Speaker:Welcome, welcome, welcome.
Speaker:Guten Morgen.
Speaker:So right from that very, very, very get
Speaker:go, I had issues with them.
Speaker:They didn't want to
Speaker:sit in assigned seats.
Speaker:They wanted to do what they wanted to do.
Speaker:I had blurters.
Speaker:I had two blurters that just blurted
Speaker:everything, just interrupted.
Speaker:And if they weren't blurting directly at
Speaker:me, they were blurting
Speaker:across the room to their
Speaker:friends.
Speaker:I mean, usually on that, you get like a
Speaker:week at least before the
Speaker:kids start actually causing
Speaker:problems before they start waking up and
Speaker:becoming themselves.
Speaker:They like to feel out the class, not this
Speaker:class from the day one.
Speaker:We have, because of state law, we have
Speaker:strict cell phone policies.
Speaker:They're not allowed to
Speaker:have their cell phones out.
Speaker:So a lot of us have lock boxes.
Speaker:They refuse to put their
Speaker:phones in the lock box.
Speaker:My first period, my
Speaker:third period, not a problem.
Speaker:They went right in
Speaker:the lock box right away.
Speaker:Second period, nobody.
Speaker:I even bribed them with candy with little
Speaker:snack packs of Sour
Speaker:Patch Kids, which is what
Speaker:they liked.
Speaker:I could not get them to put
Speaker:their phones in the lock box.
Speaker:Not only that, they would take the phones
Speaker:out and blatantly use them.
Speaker:They would complain
Speaker:about everything in class.
Speaker:I asked for the cell phone
Speaker:because if I see it, I take it.
Speaker:For the first time, I had kids absolutely
Speaker:refuse and refusing is
Speaker:an automatic suspension
Speaker:at our school, but they still did it.
Speaker:I just never had so many challenges.
Speaker:They came in looking for
Speaker:a fight every single day.
Speaker:That was that class, cussing out of
Speaker:control, using the N word out of control.
Speaker:None of these kids wanted to be here and
Speaker:it showed and they showed.
Speaker:These are freshmen.
Speaker:They're just starting their high school
Speaker:careers and they are
Speaker:giving so much resistance.
Speaker:Let me correct that.
Speaker:It's not every student in my class.
Speaker:Because of the nature of where I work, I
Speaker:work with career and technical academy.
Speaker:I don't have as normal sized classes as
Speaker:everybody else because
Speaker:they have to pair them up with
Speaker:the academy class that they're in.
Speaker:They have to come to a different campus
Speaker:than the main campus.
Speaker:My class size was 18 and I had about
Speaker:seven of those kids were
Speaker:my challenging kids, seven
Speaker:of them in different ways.
Speaker:The blurters, the cussers, the N worders,
Speaker:the refused to give
Speaker:up the cell phone, the
Speaker:ones who refused to sit in their seats.
Speaker:That was all of it.
Speaker:I struggled.
Speaker:I'm telling you, this is like my 24, 25,
Speaker:I can't remember anymore.
Speaker:I'm getting so old.
Speaker:This was a struggle for me
Speaker:like I've never had before.
Speaker:I thought last year where I only had a
Speaker:few kids who were
Speaker:troublemakers, this time it's
Speaker:not.
Speaker:I had a lot of them and all in one class
Speaker:and nothing was getting done.
Speaker:I would ask questions, crickets.
Speaker:I would try to get
Speaker:them to engage crickets.
Speaker:I would get them to play, find new games
Speaker:for them to play, crickets.
Speaker:They weren't having any of it.
Speaker:No matter what I tried,
Speaker:they did not want to do it.
Speaker:Any of you have that same situation?
Speaker:If so, put in an emoji in the comments
Speaker:and let me know that
Speaker:you've had one of these classes
Speaker:or somewhat similar to this because I'm
Speaker:telling you, I was frustrated.
Speaker:I didn't know what to do because what I
Speaker:was doing in my first
Speaker:period was working beautifully
Speaker:like it usually does, but
Speaker:this class just wasn't having it.
Speaker:I made personalized stories that put
Speaker:those kids as stars of the stories.
Speaker:They didn't care.
Speaker:I'm telling you everything that I tried.
Speaker:I tried positive postcards.
Speaker:I tried positive emails.
Speaker:I tried positive phone calls home.
Speaker:I gave them points that they can use
Speaker:rewards for candy and
Speaker:other things like that.
Speaker:I tried points for parties.
Speaker:All of these things were
Speaker:utter failures with these kids.
Speaker:They just did not want any part of what
Speaker:we're doing, not any part of it at all.
Speaker:They wanted nothing to do
Speaker:with what was going on in class.
Speaker:And I didn't know what to do to fix it.
Speaker:I had no idea on how to fix it because
Speaker:everything I tried just wasn't working.
Speaker:I needed to find a way to reach these
Speaker:students so that I
Speaker:could find a way through.
Speaker:So I wanted the other kids, at least
Speaker:those seven kids, they
Speaker:don't know how to do school.
Speaker:They didn't want to do school.
Speaker:They're having trouble, not just in my
Speaker:class, but in all of their classes.
Speaker:My secondary goal was to try
Speaker:to find a way to reach them.
Speaker:But my primary goal was to reach the rest
Speaker:of the class and get
Speaker:them to be able to learn.
Speaker:I didn't want them to have to suffer
Speaker:because of the schedule that they got.
Speaker:And it was difficult.
Speaker:Excuse me.
Speaker:What I had to do is
Speaker:go back to the basics.
Speaker:I went back to the basics and I'm going
Speaker:to tell you, I was out of ideas.
Speaker:I would go in and I know
Speaker:I've told you this before.
Speaker:Chat GPT is my
Speaker:wonderful teacher assistant.
Speaker:I use it for a lot of things and I used
Speaker:it to try to give me
Speaker:ideas to help these kids
Speaker:become more engaged in class.
Speaker:So I went in and chat GPT
Speaker:and I described my class.
Speaker:I didn't put kids' names in there
Speaker:obviously for privacy
Speaker:reasons, but I would put, "I have
Speaker:the blurter," and I
Speaker:would put what he would do.
Speaker:I had the inappropriate talker who used
Speaker:not only sexual talk but
Speaker:cursing and the N-word.
Speaker:Put that in there.
Speaker:I put in there, "I have kids refuse to
Speaker:sit in their assigned
Speaker:seats like openly refuse
Speaker:and will not move and will not budge."
Speaker:I had kids about the cell phones.
Speaker:I put all of the problems I had and I
Speaker:asked chat GPT for help
Speaker:and it gave me some great
Speaker:strategies.
Speaker:Some worked, some did not.
Speaker:As I'm progressing through the semester,
Speaker:I'm trying these new
Speaker:strategies, trying new games,
Speaker:ways to engage them, ways to
Speaker:reward them, different things.
Speaker:A lot of things that came was very
Speaker:straightforward stuff, stuff
Speaker:that we all know about and we
Speaker:try.
Speaker:I tried those.
Speaker:I went back and said, "I've done those
Speaker:and they still don't work."
Speaker:I've done what I ended up doing in the
Speaker:past, but when you don't
Speaker:do something for a long
Speaker:time, it kind of escapes your mind.
Speaker:It's not on top of mind.
Speaker:That's what happened with this particular
Speaker:strategy that I tried.
Speaker:Chat GPT brought it back to me.
Speaker:What I had done is I was just getting
Speaker:frustrated because my kids
Speaker:needed to learn and I wanted
Speaker:my kids to be successful, but the issues
Speaker:were they weren't and
Speaker:they were resisting me at
Speaker:every chance.
Speaker:CI wasn't really working when I wasn't
Speaker:getting the engagement that I wanted.
Speaker:I went back to what
Speaker:Blaine Ray always did.
Speaker:If they didn't want to do CI, we'll go
Speaker:back to the textbook and
Speaker:you try it temporarily.
Speaker:I brought the textbook out.
Speaker:We started working on it
Speaker:and we did it for two weeks.
Speaker:Just like I suspected, even more lack of
Speaker:engagement, even more frustration.
Speaker:They weren't learning from the textbook.
Speaker:We know the textbook
Speaker:doesn't really teach very well.
Speaker:I would give the instructions and then I
Speaker:would tell them to work
Speaker:on so many exercises and
Speaker:then I would create them and work with
Speaker:them and walk around and
Speaker:help them, but a lot of
Speaker:kids were more and more disengaged and
Speaker:they didn't like the textbook.
Speaker:I knew they wouldn't.
Speaker:After I have done that two weeks and I'm
Speaker:telling Chat GPT what I'm
Speaker:doing, it reminded me of
Speaker:something I have had to do maybe once or
Speaker:twice in my career and
Speaker:that was a classroom reset.
Speaker:What we did is we took two days.
Speaker:It took two days and I said, "Okay, I
Speaker:know you're not happy.
Speaker:I'm going to be honest with you.
Speaker:I'm not happy either."
Speaker:I was completely honest.
Speaker:I opened up and I said, "You know what?
Speaker:I like my job.
Speaker:I like teaching kids and I like all of
Speaker:you, but I hate this class.
Speaker:I dread coming into this classroom every
Speaker:single day just like you do."
Speaker:The kids were nodding their heads.
Speaker:I'm like, "Many of you come in wanting to
Speaker:fight right from the
Speaker:beginning and it wasn't
Speaker:because you didn't like me, because you
Speaker:did that on the day one,
Speaker:the very first day before
Speaker:you even knew me.
Speaker:You came in with a fight on your hands."
Speaker:We were honest.
Speaker:After talking to them, I
Speaker:said, "I want you guys to learn.
Speaker:I want you guys to pass high school and
Speaker:many of you already as
Speaker:freshmen are not on the
Speaker:path to graduating high school.
Speaker:We need to fix this."
Speaker:I gave them like 10
Speaker:reflection questions about the class.
Speaker:They could be completely honest with no
Speaker:repercussions as long as
Speaker:they were being respectful and
Speaker:didn't call out anybody's names.
Speaker:They could say, "I was having problems
Speaker:with this particular
Speaker:student or this particular
Speaker:student was doing this, this, this that
Speaker:didn't help me learn,"
Speaker:but without calling names.
Speaker:I knew who those kids were, so I didn't
Speaker:even need to call the names out.
Speaker:I wanted them to be honest and I gave
Speaker:them about 20 minutes to
Speaker:answer these questions,
Speaker:get some ideas, get some things.
Speaker:These were questions
Speaker:like, "What isn't working?
Speaker:Why do you think it's not working?"
Speaker:Or, "What could we do as a
Speaker:class to make this better?
Speaker:What are you frustrated by?"
Speaker:Just no common questions to get them to
Speaker:really think about the
Speaker:class and how we can make
Speaker:changes to it.
Speaker:I said, "Tell me, be honest.
Speaker:Don't tell me what you
Speaker:think I want to hear.
Speaker:Tell me what your truth is.
Speaker:Nobody's going to get in
Speaker:trouble for this at all.
Speaker:It's just the, "I need this honest
Speaker:feedback so we can make it better."
Speaker:We did this class reset.
Speaker:Then I went through and I read every
Speaker:single answer that they
Speaker:wrote and I commented back
Speaker:on every single one.
Speaker:There was like 10 to 20 questions.
Speaker:I can't remember exactly how many
Speaker:questions it was, but they did it.
Speaker:They did it in my formative.
Speaker:I used formative for everything.
Speaker:They put it in there.
Speaker:I read it.
Speaker:I sent them comments back.
Speaker:The next day, I gave them time to read
Speaker:those comments that I wrote.
Speaker:I addressed some of the comments that
Speaker:they wrote in there
Speaker:anonymously, of course, about
Speaker:things that they brought up.
Speaker:I addressed all of those.
Speaker:I explained some of the things, why I do
Speaker:certain things and
Speaker:some of the things that
Speaker:they wanted wasn't going to happen
Speaker:because of this, that, and that.
Speaker:Like they, "Please let
Speaker:us sit by our friends."
Speaker:I'm like, "I love to have you sit by your
Speaker:friends, but let's be honest.
Speaker:You guys aren't doing the work when you
Speaker:sit with your friends.
Speaker:You're just goofing off."
Speaker:That is a problem.
Speaker:What was some other
Speaker:thing they said they wanted?
Speaker:I can't remember they said something that
Speaker:was there, but I can't
Speaker:remember what it was.
Speaker:It was obviously not going to happen.
Speaker:We went through all of this, and then I
Speaker:gave them a plan based on
Speaker:what they wrote and what
Speaker:I needed from them in class.
Speaker:We came up with some
Speaker:new classroom reset rules.
Speaker:I didn't think about this before, but I'm
Speaker:going to do it right now.
Speaker:Let me pull up what they were.
Speaker:I've got to pull up my lesson
Speaker:plans from a couple weeks ago.
Speaker:Spanish one.
Speaker:Let's see.
Speaker:So it was probably here.
Speaker:Let me see if this is the right one.
Speaker:Maybe this wasn't the right lesson plan.
Speaker:Sorry.
Speaker:Give me just a moment while I find it.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So it wasn't that week.
Speaker:That was week 11.
Speaker:So maybe it was week 12.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Here it is.
Speaker:Week 12.
Speaker:Let me tell you the steps I did.
Speaker:First of all, what we did was
Speaker:we did the reset reflection.
Speaker:We had a reset conversation.
Speaker:Then this part was
Speaker:setting the new expectations.
Speaker:Here is the
Speaker:expectations that we came up with.
Speaker:We talked about them.
Speaker:Here they are.
Speaker:Here were the Spanish class reset rules.
Speaker:Let me see if I...
Speaker:No, it's going to be too hard.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So sit in your assigned seat.
Speaker:No switching.
Speaker:No trading or wandering in easy win.
Speaker:Don't stay in jail or out of sight.
Speaker:If it's out, it goes to
Speaker:jail till the end of class.
Speaker:No warnings.
Speaker:Three, listen when someone's talking.
Speaker:Me, your classmates.
Speaker:It doesn't matter who.
Speaker:Respect equals quiet.
Speaker:Four, be part of the
Speaker:class or work silently.
Speaker:We're going to talk
Speaker:about that in just a moment.
Speaker:You choose.
Speaker:Participate or stay chill and quiet.
Speaker:No drama.
Speaker:Follow directions the first time.
Speaker:It's faster for everyone, including you.
Speaker:And we keep it calm, clean and kind.
Speaker:No side talk.
Speaker:No shade.
Speaker:No chaos.
Speaker:We've got things to do.
Speaker:Bottom line.
Speaker:You control your choices.
Speaker:I control the environment.
Speaker:Let's make this less
Speaker:miserable for everyone.
Speaker:And so I went with that.
Speaker:And then I put that on a.
Speaker:On a form.
Speaker:And getting it was informative.
Speaker:They had all the things
Speaker:they could read through.
Speaker:And I said, do you
Speaker:agree to follow these rules?
Speaker:Or no, I don't agree
Speaker:to follow these rules.
Speaker:And if they wrote no, they had to write
Speaker:why they didn't agree.
Speaker:Well, everybody bought in and I have no
Speaker:record because everybody's recorded with
Speaker:they're saying, yes, I agree.
Speaker:And so we started class
Speaker:with this new mindset.
Speaker:Now, in the past, I hadn't ever done this
Speaker:part of this reset before.
Speaker:And this reset is
Speaker:different from previous resets.
Speaker:I mean, you've got to look at the kids
Speaker:that you're in and with the kids that you
Speaker:have and deal with those particular kids.
Speaker:So what you did three years
Speaker:ago doesn't necessarily work.
Speaker:So I adjusted my reset plan to.
Speaker:To this particular class.
Speaker:Again, I follow the same.
Speaker:The same steps in my reset because I
Speaker:going back to my reset
Speaker:steps, if I can find them.
Speaker:There they are.
Speaker:Reset reflection, reset conversation,
Speaker:expectations, and a class contract.
Speaker:Those steps are all the same, but what
Speaker:that reflection looks
Speaker:like, what that conversation
Speaker:looks like, and what the expectations
Speaker:look like, that's where things change.
Speaker:Based on the kids you
Speaker:have in front of you.
Speaker:Now, this part I've not done before and
Speaker:the chat should be suggested.
Speaker:And I said, well, I will
Speaker:try it and it's been working.
Speaker:So be a part of the
Speaker:class or work silently.
Speaker:That means the students
Speaker:have two choices every day.
Speaker:Option one, be a part of the class.
Speaker:Join in, listen, answer, laugh
Speaker:appropriately, and do the activities.
Speaker:You don't have to be perfect.
Speaker:Just be present and respectful.
Speaker:Or two, work silently.
Speaker:If you're not feeling it that day, that's
Speaker:fine, but you can't distract others.
Speaker:You'll do your work quietly and let
Speaker:everyone else focus.
Speaker:No talking, no phones, no side shows.
Speaker:You get to choose your level of
Speaker:participation, but you
Speaker:don't get to choose chaos.
Speaker:And I wasn't sure how
Speaker:this was going to work.
Speaker:So I went through and I found activities
Speaker:that my kids could do silently.
Speaker:In my previous schools where we didn't
Speaker:use the textbook, I would
Speaker:have had to create these
Speaker:or find them from previous class years.
Speaker:I save everything I do, so I wouldn't
Speaker:have to recreate the
Speaker:wheel, but I could use previous
Speaker:stories and questions and stuff that my
Speaker:kids did not have that I
Speaker:didn't use for this year's
Speaker:kids.
Speaker:But because I had the textbook, what I
Speaker:did is I printed out all
Speaker:the workbook activities.
Speaker:I made a packet.
Speaker:I'll tell you what, it's probably got 32
Speaker:pages and I print two to
Speaker:a side of paper, so I get
Speaker:four on each piece of paper.
Speaker:So it's a little packet.
Speaker:And when I ask at the beginning of class,
Speaker:so right after
Speaker:attendance, I mean right after
Speaker:our warmup, I'll say, okay, I ask every
Speaker:kid and it takes a
Speaker:couple of minutes, but this
Speaker:way I'm getting that commitment.
Speaker:I go through my attendance sheet and I
Speaker:say, John, are you going
Speaker:to be part of the class
Speaker:today or you want to work silently?
Speaker:And they tell me, then I go, Sally, do
Speaker:you want to be part of
Speaker:the class today or you
Speaker:want to work Sally?
Speaker:So I'm getting the
Speaker:commitment right off the bat.
Speaker:And that's important because they're
Speaker:going to now get in the
Speaker:mindset that they either are
Speaker:doing option one or
Speaker:they're doing option two.
Speaker:If they choose to do option two, they
Speaker:either they get the
Speaker:packet, I'll write their name on
Speaker:the packet and I'll
Speaker:hand them that packet.
Speaker:And it's a daily decision.
Speaker:Now, during class period, if something
Speaker:goes wrong and let's say
Speaker:they're talking or they're
Speaker:not participating or they're not, I'm
Speaker:just going to say, I
Speaker:need you back on board or I
Speaker:can get your packet for you.
Speaker:And nine times out of 10, they come back
Speaker:on board and we're good.
Speaker:But sometimes it's like, you know, I'm
Speaker:just not feeling it today.
Speaker:Give me the packet.
Speaker:So I'll give them the packet.
Speaker:If it's if they've already had the
Speaker:packet, I've collected it already.
Speaker:I give it back to them.
Speaker:The one they've already had or if they're
Speaker:a brand new packet
Speaker:user, they get a new packet
Speaker:with their name on it.
Speaker:At the end of class, they put the packet
Speaker:in the turn in basket
Speaker:and then I will grade the
Speaker:work that they did for that class period.
Speaker:I'll keep the packet again
Speaker:until they ask for it again.
Speaker:And it's been working.
Speaker:It keeps the kids who just can't focus or
Speaker:can't whatever out of
Speaker:disrupting the rest of the
Speaker:class.
Speaker:And it's their choice.
Speaker:It's not a punishment.
Speaker:I say it with a
Speaker:straight face with no emotion.
Speaker:It's up to them.
Speaker:They're still getting language practice,
Speaker:not the best language
Speaker:practice that they're
Speaker:choosing the worksheets instead, but at
Speaker:least they're getting it.
Speaker:And I'm fulfilling my job of getting them
Speaker:to learn what it is
Speaker:that they need to learn.
Speaker:And they're not
Speaker:distracting the rest of the kids.
Speaker:And so that was really,
Speaker:really important for me.
Speaker:The other thing that I did was if they
Speaker:choose not to participate, so they're not
Speaker:participating actively and they're not
Speaker:participating doing the worksheets.
Speaker:I tell them if you choose not to person,
Speaker:can I speak this morning, participate?
Speaker:There's a three strike system.
Speaker:You always have choices in this class,
Speaker:but choices come with
Speaker:results, not surprises, not
Speaker:drama, just clear steps.
Speaker:So the first time it's a reminder,
Speaker:something like I'll
Speaker:quietly say, like, Hey, you can
Speaker:join in or work silently.
Speaker:Your choice, no lecture, no attitude,
Speaker:just my warning that they're off track.
Speaker:Fix it and we move on easy.
Speaker:Strike two, a seat
Speaker:change and silent work.
Speaker:If it happens again, you'll move to a
Speaker:quiet spot and work on your own.
Speaker:No phone, no talking, no side comments.
Speaker:You're still
Speaker:responsible for the assignment.
Speaker:This is your reset zone.
Speaker:Take it and chill.
Speaker:And the third parent
Speaker:guardian contact and a behavior log.
Speaker:If they still choose not to participate
Speaker:or distract others, I'll log it.
Speaker:I'll contact home.
Speaker:If this happens three times in a week,
Speaker:I'll also loop and admin for support.
Speaker:No surprises.
Speaker:That's the line.
Speaker:And I tell them the bottom line is you
Speaker:control your choices.
Speaker:I control the learning environment.
Speaker:Let's keep it fair, calm
Speaker:and consistent for everyone.
Speaker:And that has been working.
Speaker:I haven't had to write anybody up or make
Speaker:any, um, parent contacts as of yet.
Speaker:And I think we're in
Speaker:second week of doing this reset.
Speaker:So it has been working.
Speaker:Now, the other things I had to address
Speaker:where I have frequent bathroom users.
Speaker:And we talked about this before and I
Speaker:told you last year, I
Speaker:came up with bathroom
Speaker:passes, something I've never had to do
Speaker:before because, um, my kids were taking
Speaker:advantage of my system, but the bathroom
Speaker:pass I came up with
Speaker:last year were getting
Speaker:to be a mess to handle.
Speaker:The kids would lose them all the time.
Speaker:Um, they were small.
Speaker:It just was more of a
Speaker:hassle than it was worth.
Speaker:So I came up with a new
Speaker:bathroom pass system for my kids.
Speaker:So they still have to sign out with me,
Speaker:but how they do that is
Speaker:I give them a calendar,
Speaker:a calendar for, for the month.
Speaker:So they'll get a calendar for October.
Speaker:They got a calendar just
Speaker:last week for November.
Speaker:And when they want to go to the bath,
Speaker:because I don't like
Speaker:them raising their hand and
Speaker:asking cause it interrupts class.
Speaker:They just come up, they
Speaker:drop the paper on my desk.
Speaker:I will sign it.
Speaker:I will put a time stamp on it.
Speaker:And then they pick it
Speaker:up when they're done.
Speaker:They go take the pass.
Speaker:They go to the bathroom.
Speaker:And I still limit five passes and I can
Speaker:see if they've used the
Speaker:five passes where when
Speaker:they turned in the little slips of paper,
Speaker:they only had five,
Speaker:but they were swapping
Speaker:them with other kids.
Speaker:So some kids were taking 10 passes while
Speaker:other kids were not having any passes.
Speaker:There was all kinds of issues.
Speaker:So this worked really well.
Speaker:And then I could let them know they've
Speaker:already three ago,
Speaker:you're on number three.
Speaker:You've only got two left and we still got
Speaker:two weeks left of class of the month.
Speaker:So that really, really helped.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:once I got everybody to agree to the
Speaker:bathroom passes, that has been working.
Speaker:The contract that I had the kids sign, if
Speaker:they are breaking it,
Speaker:like I've asked them
Speaker:to move their seat because they're not
Speaker:sitting there
Speaker:assigned seat and they start
Speaker:to give me gruff about it, I say,
Speaker:remember, we had an agreement.
Speaker:Everybody has to sit in their assigned
Speaker:seats to do their work.
Speaker:If they still give me
Speaker:objections, then we deal with it.
Speaker:I'll take them outside.
Speaker:I'll talk to them,
Speaker:explain what the problem is.
Speaker:And if I have to, I
Speaker:might make a deal with them.
Speaker:I go, if you can get your work done or
Speaker:participate actively participate in class
Speaker:for maybe three days or maybe even four
Speaker:days, I'll let you sit next to your
Speaker:friend for Friday, but then we have to go
Speaker:back to our assigned seat on Monday, make
Speaker:these kinds of deals with them.
Speaker:The other thing is mental.
Speaker:I had to change my
Speaker:mentality because I'm not kidding.
Speaker:I have had some tough classes and I used
Speaker:to teach a class in middle school where
Speaker:the kids were all behavior problems, all
Speaker:in the same room, all at the same time.
Speaker:It was done by design.
Speaker:So they wouldn't be mixing in, distracting all the other kids.
Speaker:And I drew the first year I
Speaker:taught that I absolutely dreaded.
Speaker:It was horrible, but I lied to myself
Speaker:until it became true.
Speaker:And I said, I love this class.
Speaker:It's my favorite class.
Speaker:I told them they were my
Speaker:favorite class every single day.
Speaker:And then we tell me, guess what, profane,
Speaker:you said it to all of your classes.
Speaker:And I made sure that I did not.
Speaker:And they tested it because I was a little bit more than I did. And they tested it because they would ask
Speaker:kids from other of my classes, who was my
Speaker:favorite class?
Speaker:And I told my other class that my peer,
Speaker:that period was my favorite class.
Speaker:That first, it was my first period.
Speaker:I said, my first period is my favorite
Speaker:class, even though it was with a whole
Speaker:bunch of challenging kids for all kinds
Speaker:of different reasons.
Speaker:Um, and I made them believe it until I
Speaker:believed it as well.
Speaker:Now my other classes, I would say, Oh,
Speaker:you are my, um, most engaged class.
Speaker:I said anything but favorite.
Speaker:And my kids started to believe that they
Speaker:were my favorite class.
Speaker:And then I started to believe that they
Speaker:were my favorite class.
Speaker:And we came together as
Speaker:a team working together.
Speaker:So that mindset is really important.
Speaker:So I go into that class saying, this is
Speaker:going to be a great day.
Speaker:I love these kids. I love this class.
Speaker:It's going to be awesome.
Speaker:Instead of complaining about it.
Speaker:And it's a mindset
Speaker:shift and it takes a while,
Speaker:but it does work when you
Speaker:feel good about the class,
Speaker:the kids see that you feel good about the
Speaker:class and the energy changes.
Speaker:So you have to be in
Speaker:that right mindset and you
Speaker:can't take it personally nine times out
Speaker:of 10. It's not you.
Speaker:Why they're behaving this
Speaker:way. They have issues at home.
Speaker:They have issues with
Speaker:friends. They don't do school. Well,
Speaker:there's so many things going on in
Speaker:today's kids' lives.
Speaker:You can't take it personally.
Speaker:So you have to find a way to love every
Speaker:one of these kids, no matter what,
Speaker:so that you can have the
Speaker:energy to teach them the best way
Speaker:that you know how. And lastly, I know
Speaker:I've been talking a lot.
Speaker:We're going to end pretty soon here. If
Speaker:you have any questions or comments,
Speaker:please share them.
Speaker:I know I'm not the only one who has
Speaker:classes like this and you may not have it
Speaker:every year or every semester, but you've
Speaker:had a couple of them in your career.
Speaker:The last thing I want to talk about is
Speaker:just celebrating tiny wins.
Speaker:So whatever is a win when you have
Speaker:something that happens
Speaker:and it might be small,
Speaker:might just be there were
Speaker:no tears that day and only,
Speaker:we had partial participation
Speaker:rather than no participation.
Speaker:That is the win and let's celebrate it.
Speaker:So then I will go into the
Speaker:next day or at the end of class,
Speaker:like class, that was a good
Speaker:class. Was it our best? Not yet,
Speaker:but it was better than yesterday.
Speaker:Skatin Frow says, would you be willing to
Speaker:share that reset reflection with us?
Speaker:Yes, I will. Let me actually,
Speaker:let me go ahead and see if I can get that
Speaker:done right now before I forget.
Speaker:Let's see. And for those who are
Speaker:listening in a podcast,
Speaker:I'll put it in the show
Speaker:notes. I got to find it here first.
Speaker:I do everything
Speaker:informative. So I've got to
Speaker:go there first. Let's see. Where's my
Speaker:class? There's my class reflection.
Speaker:And while I'm doing
Speaker:it, let me just say, um,
Speaker:what the questions were. I can tell those
Speaker:cause I can look it up right here.
Speaker:And there weren't as many questions as I
Speaker:thought there were. There's,
Speaker:I think there, there
Speaker:are only six. So I said,
Speaker:how are you feeling about this class
Speaker:right now? Honest version,
Speaker:not the one you think I want to hear. Be
Speaker:nice, but be honest.
Speaker:What makes it hard for you to focus or
Speaker:stay engaged in here?
Speaker:What's one thing I could do differently
Speaker:that would make it easier for you to
Speaker:learn or participate?
Speaker:Please don't put things like let us play
Speaker:on our phones or sit with our friends.
Speaker:Be realistic. What can I do to actually
Speaker:help you focus and learn?
Speaker:What's one thing you could do differently
Speaker:to help this class go better for
Speaker:everyone, including you.
Speaker:And when class is going well,
Speaker:what's happening? What are people,
Speaker:including you doing that helps it work?
Speaker:Anything else you want me to know, even
Speaker:if you think I don't, I won't like it.
Speaker:So those were the
Speaker:questions. Let me go ahead and
Speaker:rent this to a PDF. Let's do that.
Speaker:Print as a PDF.
Speaker:Let's see. Class reset questions.
Speaker:Put that in my
Speaker:account.
Speaker:I'll get a share link here. Just a
Speaker:second. Class reset questions.
Speaker:There it is.
Speaker:Anyone with a link copy link done. Okay.
Speaker:So here it is.
Speaker:I put it in the comments
Speaker:for those who are watching on
Speaker:YouTube, but I will go ahead and also put
Speaker:it in the link in the show notes so you
Speaker:can get that for yourself as well.
Speaker:I didn't grade this by the way either. I
Speaker:just gave it to them.
Speaker:I told them it wasn't going to be graded,
Speaker:but I want it honest,
Speaker:but respectful answers. And
Speaker:they, they lived up to that.
Speaker:So that was really good.
Speaker:And thank you for asking that was a great
Speaker:question. Skate and frown.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:just celebrate those tiny wins. Every
Speaker:little win says, you know,
Speaker:you guys, you were quiet
Speaker:today. That was the win.
Speaker:Skating process. Thanks. I
Speaker:wish more were watching with me.
Speaker:I have that one class that makes me cry
Speaker:on the regular. Yep. Um, yeah,
Speaker:we don't usually get a lot of viewers.
Speaker:We've got about five or six
Speaker:right in the six right now. Um,
Speaker:live on Sundays, but we
Speaker:usually get a lot on the replays.
Speaker:So that's where a lot
Speaker:of them will be watching.
Speaker:I'll see we'll watch it
Speaker:get bigger and bigger.
Speaker:Sunday mornings are always
Speaker:hard for a lot of people,
Speaker:but with the time changes is always hard
Speaker:for me to find a good time that works
Speaker:with everybody. So, um, it,
Speaker:it will be available on YouTube so you
Speaker:can rewatch for those who, um,
Speaker:missed it live or miss part of this. And
Speaker:also it will be out.
Speaker:I'll be sending it
Speaker:out to the podcasts. Um,
Speaker:smooth we're done here sending it out
Speaker:there, but thank you. Yes.
Speaker:I wish as well cause every,
Speaker:I everybody's had this
Speaker:problem one time or another,
Speaker:at least one time in their career,
Speaker:but we want to celebrate those wins and
Speaker:every little win, you know, guys,
Speaker:half of you
Speaker:participated today. That's the win.
Speaker:Let's try to get at least one more kid to
Speaker:participate tomorrow or
Speaker:uh, you know, seven of you
Speaker:turned in your phones today.
Speaker:Can we get eight or nine tomorrow? If we
Speaker:can get nine tomorrow,
Speaker:then I will do this for you on the next
Speaker:day. We can have, you know,
Speaker:10 minutes of free time or, um,
Speaker:I'll bring candy in for the class or I'll
Speaker:bring cookies in or something like
Speaker:that. Sometimes you've got to bribe them.
Speaker:You know, PBIS does work sometimes.
Speaker:And so do what you've got to do, but you
Speaker:celebrate those wins.
Speaker:You can't wait for it to be a full
Speaker:success cause that's not going to happen
Speaker:right away.
Speaker:You take those small wins and show them
Speaker:that they're progressing and
Speaker:every little step along the way helps.
Speaker:And that's what's really,
Speaker:uh, what really work. And they,
Speaker:they start to see that I'm
Speaker:like, Oh my gosh, guys, look,
Speaker:this happened, you know, we got everybody
Speaker:turned in their cell phones today.
Speaker:That is awesome. That is awesome.
Speaker:We're going to go and show, um, 20
Speaker:minutes of a movie tomorrow,
Speaker:something like that.
Speaker:Whatever you can do, or, Oh my gosh,
Speaker:every turn on their phones, I'm going to
Speaker:buy all of you donuts tomorrow.
Speaker:We'll buy a, you know,
Speaker:every class gets donuts,
Speaker:something like that to
Speaker:get them really excited,
Speaker:find something they really,
Speaker:really love and celebrate those wins.
Speaker:Give those big jackpot prizes for big
Speaker:wins. Like all the cell phones,
Speaker:those incremental wins, a
Speaker:few minutes of free time,
Speaker:we'll help them with that.
Speaker:Maybe a piece of candy, you know,
Speaker:like some a Jolly Rancher or that,
Speaker:or a little snack packs
Speaker:of gummy bears or, um,
Speaker:Sour Patch Kids cause those are their two
Speaker:favorite things that they like.
Speaker:So, um, those little, like the Halloween
Speaker:packs are what I'm talking about.
Speaker:Not like the snack packs like that.
Speaker:The little tiny things you buy multiple
Speaker:in the bag for Halloween.
Speaker:Those work really, really well.
Speaker:Find what works for your kids and
Speaker:celebrate those tiny wins.
Speaker:But the biggest thing, the
Speaker:biggest thing is your mindset.
Speaker:They reflect off of you.
Speaker:If you don't have a good mindset going
Speaker:into your class, neither will they.
Speaker:And you're going to have to lie to
Speaker:yourself in the beginning.
Speaker:Like I did for that
Speaker:class. I said that first class,
Speaker:many years ago. Um, I
Speaker:like, Oh, I love this class.
Speaker:I love this class. And I did not. I, you
Speaker:know, in the beginning,
Speaker:it was really tough, but eventually guess
Speaker:what really happened.
Speaker:I did love that
Speaker:class. We bonded together.
Speaker:And one thing that I did that I had never
Speaker:done with a class before
Speaker:is I took this class on a
Speaker:field trip. It was a local one.
Speaker:We have a local Mexican restaurant,
Speaker:right? Um, a couple blocks down from,
Speaker:um, maybe the half a
Speaker:mile, um, from our school.
Speaker:And so I said,
Speaker:you guys are the only class I've ever
Speaker:taken on a field trip.
Speaker:And we're going to go to a Mexican
Speaker:restaurant and we're
Speaker:going to have lunch and
Speaker:you get to take lunch and you're going to
Speaker:skip the class after lunch.
Speaker:So that was for us fifth
Speaker:period. Um, no, yeah, fifth period.
Speaker:So they took, yeah, fifth. I'm trying to
Speaker:remember that schedule.
Speaker:It's been so long. Um, so we took lunch
Speaker:and we took fifth period
Speaker:and partially six periods. I said,
Speaker:you'll be coming back in the middle of
Speaker:sixth period and they had seven periods.
Speaker:So, and then they had seven period and
Speaker:they liked it because these kids didn't
Speaker:really like school. So they were getting
Speaker:out of class. We walked over there.
Speaker:We had two other chaperones with me. We
Speaker:had a really good time.
Speaker:The kids enjoyed it. And the next year I
Speaker:had that class again.
Speaker:And a couple of those kids repeated that
Speaker:class with me and they're like, Oh no,
Speaker:we're not doing that again.
Speaker:Next year. He goes, that was us.
Speaker:That was our special thing for being a
Speaker:good class last year.
Speaker:And nobody else is
Speaker:going to replicate that.
Speaker:They were really proud that they had
Speaker:earned that. And so that was a win.
Speaker:So there's going to be days that you're
Speaker:not going to like all your classes.
Speaker:It just is the way that it is.
Speaker:And there are those classes that are
Speaker:going to drive you bonkers.
Speaker:That's just the way that it is,
Speaker:but your attitude in the way that you
Speaker:handle it can make
Speaker:changes for the better.
Speaker:We're near the end of
Speaker:the semester for me.
Speaker:We end this semester
Speaker:middle of December, right?
Speaker:When we go for winter break.
Speaker:So I've only got four weeks left with
Speaker:these kids and then finals week.
Speaker:So five weeks left with
Speaker:these kids. So it came late.
Speaker:I should have done it earlier, but the
Speaker:class reset really has helped.
Speaker:And it made everybody
Speaker:focus on the behavior,
Speaker:the atmosphere and everything.
Speaker:So I can't highly recommend that enough.
Speaker:And then also use chat GPT to help you.
Speaker:If you have a stubborn kid
Speaker:that you don't know how to,
Speaker:what you can do to help this kid or how
Speaker:you can better handle this situation,
Speaker:chat GPT doesn't always
Speaker:get it right. We know that,
Speaker:but it can give you
Speaker:ideas. It can make you think,
Speaker:it can give you other perspectives.
Speaker:So put in all the details.
Speaker:Don't put any personal information in
Speaker:there and let it give
Speaker:you some suggestions.
Speaker:And if you don't like the suggestions,
Speaker:it's a chat. Tell them,
Speaker:I don't like that suggestion or I've
Speaker:already done that suggestion.
Speaker:Can you go deeper? Can
Speaker:you give me something else?
Speaker:And that will get you some good ideas and
Speaker:get you flowing in the right
Speaker:direction. So that's a
Speaker:wrap on today's chaos.
Speaker:I mean episode,
Speaker:thanks for hanging out with me and
Speaker:surviving that class.
Speaker:Talk without backup.
Speaker:You're a true CI warrior. And please let
Speaker:me know if you've done it,
Speaker:what you've done to help win over a
Speaker:class. Let me know in the chats.
Speaker:Let me know in the comments. Let me know
Speaker:that we're all in this together.
Speaker:And I hope what we talked about helps you
Speaker:get through that class that makes you
Speaker:cry.
Speaker:But if you got a laugh or a new idea or
Speaker:just felt a little less
Speaker:alone in the classroom madness right now,
Speaker:Skate and Frau and I are all alone in the
Speaker:room cause no one else is talking
Speaker:here. Do me a favor,
Speaker:hit that subscribe button,
Speaker:leave a quick review and share this
Speaker:episode with another teacher
Speaker:who needs it.
Speaker:You can always watch live on YouTube or
Speaker:catch the replay anytime on your
Speaker:favorite podcast app. And until next
Speaker:time, ditch the drills,
Speaker:trust the process. And I'll see you next
Speaker:time on comprehend this.
Speaker:Have a good week everybody.
