Episode 13

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Published on:

30th Nov 2025

Episode 13: “CI Burnout Is Real — Let’s Talk About It”

CI teacher burnout is real, messy, and wildly relatable, especially when you’re trying to stay comprehensible while running on caffeine and sheer force of will.

Before you dive in, take the CI Proficiency Quiz and find out your actual CI level (no judgment, promise) at https://imim.us/ciquiz.

In this episode, we’re tackling the emotional chaos of CI burnout with a good dose of humor, some painfully honest teacher confessions, and insights from guests Andy Dykema and Meg Fandel Vernon—because nothing says “we’re struggling together” like talking about the week you almost quit teaching to become a professional barista.

If you need a little lifeline to keep your CI classes running without sacrificing your sanity, check out the CI Survival Kit with Ask-a-Story Slides in Spanish, French, and German at https://imim.us/kit.

#comprehensibleinput, #citeachertips, #worldlanguageteacher, #CIsurvivalkit, #spanishteacherlife, #languageacquisition, #teachingspanish, #CIstrategies, #teacherburnout, #teacherwellbeing

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Host: Scott Benedict — Immediate Immersion

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Transcript
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Good morning everybody on this

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Thanksgiving weekend. How

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is everybody doing today?

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So let's be honest. Are you fine fine?

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Or are you a CI teacher in late November

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telling everyone you're just a little

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tired while silently

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wondering if you can take a nap

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under your desk between classes?

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Yes, same. Today we're diving into CI

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burnout. The real kind not the I forgot

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my coffee on top of my car kind.

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Though also that and to help us dig into

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this emotional dumpster

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fire of teacher exhaustion

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We've got two absolute powerhouses

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joining us first up Andy Dykma

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The man who somehow teaches Spanish AP

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Spanish IB Spanish and still plays the

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clarinet at a level

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that suggests he sleeps

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Never if anyone understands

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I said yes to too many things

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It's Andy and then

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there's Meg Fandel Vernon

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Coming straight from Des Moines with more

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warmth wisdom and global learning energy

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than the rest of us

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have in an entire semester

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She co-founded a teacher wellness retreat

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in Columbia, which honestly make already

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makes her the

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healthiest person on this call

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So buckle up grab your lukewarm coffee

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and let's talk about burnout

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Why CI teachers hit the wall what the

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warning signs sound like and how to

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recover without quitting

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crying or moving to a year in?

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The mountains let's get into it after

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these short messages

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Ever feel like you're clinging to the

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edge of your teacher planner just hoping

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today's lesson magically appears

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Enter the CI survival kit a monthly

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membership made for teachers who love

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comprehensible input

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But also love not reinventing the wheel

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every Sunday night each month you get

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fresh ready to use lessons

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Time-saving tools and just enough

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structure to keep your

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teaching life together

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No stress. No guilt just monthly help

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from someone who gets it sign up at mm

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Us slash survival and let the survival

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kit do the heavy lifting for once

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Welcome to comprehend this real talk for

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real language teachers no drills

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No dry theory just honest stories

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practical ideas and a reminder. You're

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not alone in the CI

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trenches. Let's dive in

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Hey and welcome everybody. How is

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everybody doing this morning?

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Doing good

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Okay, Andy want to tell us anything more

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about yourself other than

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what came up in the intro

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Well

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No, just that thanks for the thanks for

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that. There was a good intro. I I guess

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just a little context that I

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Have been working with

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CI in a couple different

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Different settings I guess and one was

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all in on CI and a

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couple were not all in on CI

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So there was a little bit of you know, I

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guess I've taught in kind of traditional

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ways you mentioned AP

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IB so I've taught it that

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kind of like the college level

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high expectations kind of

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You know high rigor and also at beginning

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CI levels and stuff like that

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so I have kind of a pretty broad

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experience, but I've tried to like

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When since learning

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about CI and the power of it

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I've been trying to kind of integrate it

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as much as I can and so that's it

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And how about you Meg anything else you

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want us to know about yourself?

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Well, I have to ditto that was an awesome

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introduction, thank you for that

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And I'm just I'm glad to be here

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You know

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this is the time of year where all of us

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start feeling like the high energy from

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the kids and the low energy from

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Just like the routines need

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tightening up

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and as you mentioned like I'm really big

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into wellness and I think teacher

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wellness is extremely

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important right now and

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Compressible input, you know, I've been

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doing comprehensible input for maybe

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15 years plus

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And it just it can feel more

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More sometimes if you don't know how to

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balance it out and you know, I'm happy to

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talk about that a little bit later

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As well as we get into some of these

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questions, but there

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definitely are ways to

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balance out and I think

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additionally like if you're anything

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like the teacherpreneurs that I tend to

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talk to like we demand

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a lot of ourselves and

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Sometimes we give too much and that can

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be really detrimental to our own

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well-being and sometimes our own

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relationships our own families

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Really? I'm really thrilled to be here on

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this episode. Thank you Scott

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Absolutely. Thank you. You brought up a

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couple things that I

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was thinking about as well

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You know when I first started teaching,

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you know back in 2001 long time ago. I

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Used to bring home

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tons of work on the weekends to do

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And I would spend Saturday mornings

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working on that for many hours

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And then that's time away from my family

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as you said, you know

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You're taking away and most jobs don't

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have to do that when you leave your job

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You're done for the day and then you come

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back the next day and you start over

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But teachings never been like that and I

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did that for a first couple of years and

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then I started bringing home this stuff

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But never taking it out to do

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and I would just carry it back

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So it was an exercise and weightlifting

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of all the papers back and forth

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And then I started saying, you know what?

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I'm not doing it anymore

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so I stopped bringing home

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stuff on the weekends and

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I don't stay after school

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We are contract is 10 minutes before

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contour before Bell and then afterwards

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we can leave at the Bell

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My previous school is 20 minutes before

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20 minutes after but so

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I leave at the bell at

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345 when my bell rings I am going out the

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door. I'm not staying now

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I do come in the mornings and I do get

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there about an hour and a half before

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school starts and I do that for

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Two reasons one. I want to beat traffic

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because I live in a traffic area

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So if I were to go right

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time, it'd take me a lot longer

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I rather be sitting in my classroom

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working than sitting in

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traffic not being productive

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But also it's not time away from my

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family because my family's still sleeping

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So after school is taking time away from

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family time and my dog time

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It needs a lot a lot a lot a lot of time

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So I don't get you know taking it

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afterwards is a big deal

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So I think that wellness

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that you were talking about is

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So very important that

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and we do as CI teachers

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We're on the whole time the

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whole class period we're on

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whereas

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Traditional teachers teach a concept and

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then the kids get to work on individual

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work right away individual practice

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And they get that little bit of off time

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and then they make it up with having to

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grade all that work afterward

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But so it is it is a real big concern,

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especially with CI teachers all teachers

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really but CI teachers

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You know, they say we have the highest

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rate of urinary tract infections because

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we're all holding our bathroom so much

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We can only go to bathroom, you know for

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before first period lunch

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prep and then after school

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you know three times a

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day is all you get and

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You know those kinds of things we need to

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take into consideration if we want to be

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here for the long stay

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So thanks you for bringing that up

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so

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Andy give us some experience you have

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with burnout that you've had Oh

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a

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Lot and it you know, I think it yeah, it

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comes from what you're kind of what

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you're saying, right?

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I mean I had I had a

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Fabulous intro to CI but I was also in I

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was teaching at a Catholic school at

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Jesuit High School in New Orleans

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and it was very traditional

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in a lot of ways and then I

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I got to see an workshop at st. Martin's

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also in the New Orleans area

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but that was like fully in CI and stuff

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like that and it was it was a little bit

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of an intimidating

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introduction because I I

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saw some like really

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high energy like circles and

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story asking and stuff

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like that and like it was

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Owl organic world language workshop where

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we were all in circles and it was all in

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the target language and

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the teacher was leading

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And it just it felt like a lot of energy

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And then I tried it and then

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I you know, I kind of got I

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Got into CI and kind of got into like

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figuring out what you know

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how the best practice is how it's the

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best way to teach language and how you

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can you can get to grammar you can do all

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These you can teach all the

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things that you need to in a

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Different way that's not just study from

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the book or translate whatever

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and I was I was

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department head at the time and

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Ended up I kind of tried to steer the

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ship and tried to kind of be like hey,

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let's be a CI department

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But I had I didn't have any buy-in and

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Ended up spending a lot of time on a

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problem that was not mine to solve

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You know and I guess

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you know kind of the so

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That that a little bit goes to the you

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know power of saying no

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You know, I I said yes to solve a problem

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that nobody asked me to

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solve and I spent a lot of time

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You know saying this this way we're

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teaching is not right

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We should do this everybody look over

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here and I was like just spending time

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I don't trying to convince folks and it

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was it ended up being like a crusade

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You know and my

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therapist was like, okay, kihote

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You know, this is a this is a windmill

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and you're not gonna

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you're not gonna get it

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So I don't know to me like the roots of

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Burnout is like it's actually a good

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thing because you want

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you want to do the right way

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You want to be a good CI teacher you want

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to get folks to see the

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light for lack of a better word?

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If nobody wants to see it you could end

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up like spinning your wheels

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and putting a lot of energy

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It doesn't go anywhere and that's just

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really frustrating and demoralizing. So I

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don't know I've learned to that

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That's where the roots I think sometimes

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internal and sometimes

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like trying to change a big

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Monolith that doesn't want to change

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Absolutely

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Absolutely. What about you make?

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Actually as soon as you started talking I

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was like, okay, I I'm gonna jot down a

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couple ideas to kind of

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be able to bridge so I

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Thankfully have been very blessed in the

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sense that like I have worked

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in schools that are bought in

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But I also do a lot

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of local leadership and

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Especially now that our

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world is so connected online

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I see a lot of like there's kind of like

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two or three schools of thought when it

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comes language acquisition

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And I I know that that can weigh very

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very heavy on people's

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hearts and pulling like right now

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I work in a really large district

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There's almost 50 world language teachers

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at my school and so trying

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to have some cohesiveness

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and we work with a

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affluent

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In population, you know the students that

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go to my middle school now might be at a

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different middle school in the fall

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They might go to a separate high school

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in the spring all within

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DMPS and so having that consistency is

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important for the stability of our

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students and I work in an urban district

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And I think that's a little bit where

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the burnout comes

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For people in a position of leadership

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Additionally, I think sometimes it's just

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You know, there's no package when it

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comes to comprehensible input

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There's no one package that you can

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purchase and that will work for every

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single person and that

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is extremely frustrating

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It has been very frustrating for me in

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the past as well. However, I don't I

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don't think that even if it did exist

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People would completely marry themselves

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to it. There are good programs out there.

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There are excellent scaffolds

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There are excellent curriculums at a

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variety of levels. There are units galore

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especially as a Spanish teacher

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I feel like the

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materials have really really

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There's just a plethora of beautiful

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materials out there in the

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Spanish speaking world is

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exceptional in its

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beauty and its diversity in

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The offerings of content

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that we can give to our students

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But what comprehensible input is in the

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route is teaching kids?

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It's pivoting every single day with what

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can they do and how can I adjust?

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To to fit the needs of my classrooms and

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then I do kind of want to bring it back

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to that being a guest man

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Because I have found that I want to reach

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every single child at

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every moment in my classroom

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Well, what does that end up being like a

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boatload of prep all the

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time when it's like, okay

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How can I put a scaffold in for this

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group of kids? How can I

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mainstream teach this group of kids?

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I've got some high flyers that are

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You know obsessed with Duolingo. I've got

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three that went to immersion school in

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elementary. I have a handful of heritage

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Heritage learners and

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I've got native speakers that like went

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to school in Guatemala until fifth grade

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all in my classroom at

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the same time and that is

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That is part of my burnout while we're

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revamping curriculum

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Because certain things are not working

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with our sixth grade through 12th grade

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curriculum as such a

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large district anymore

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and it's that is

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most world language

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teachers realities anymore is

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Every single day. It's a it's a tiny

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pivot. It's a tiny

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pivot and I think that that

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Bridges over to kind of zoom out into the

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burnout of the whole

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person it zooms out into

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arguments about

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Dinner because you can't handle one more

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question and then you come home and like

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three people are looking at you like hey

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What's for dinner and it's like I can't

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do any more decisions today

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And that's just one example, you know

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I think a pretty standard thing that

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we're all dealing with

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as caretakers as teachers

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As people that you don't want to want to

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make the world a little bit

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better place with our careers

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And that can be a very heavy load

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Yeah, absolutely absolutely and like you

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I've been writing down

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Tons of notes as you've been talking

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about things that I wanted to say as well

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Because you guys

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first of all the yes thing

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I that's the big thing that a lot of us

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teachers we are people pleasers by nature

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And so we say yes to

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things because it's for the kids

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But there's got to be a time. I mean when

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I think about it, you know

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Like our school my middle school when I

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taught at middle school, I've done high

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school and middle school

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I'm back in high school right now. And

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when I did middle

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school, we had what two?

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Events that we had to cover over the

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year, you know, the after school events

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that we had to supervise

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Here at my high school

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now. I got to do 12 hours

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So it depends on what the event is and

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how many so 12 hours and it's unpaid time

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And sometimes if you started for one

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event, it's an extra four hours

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So I get to school at 6 a.m. School

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starts at 830 in the morning

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Then

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It ends at 4 and then I've got to be it's

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at the event at 5

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until 8 or 9 p.m. At night

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That's a heck of a long day and the end

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of the day is not it's not you're not

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getting paid for that time

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And then kids want

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you to attend their own

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You know Oh prof a come to my game

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I'm in a game or come to my play I want

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to do the play all these

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kinds of things that are going on

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and you know, you you you want to

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To be there for them at the same time.

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You've got to be there for your family

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And what other job demands you pretty

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much like 20 hours out of 24

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That they need you to you know, either if

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you go to every game and every play

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You're never gonna be home at all to

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spend with your family

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We always want to say yes because it's

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for the kids and that

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that there's no other job

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That's like that that requires that much

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investment from you and out of your

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personal time and

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they're like, oh come to the

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Marching band competition on Saturday.

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I'm like when you want me to have a day

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off and to get away from

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School for five minutes. Can I add on to

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that a little bit? Sorry

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to interrupt. No, no, no

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Go ahead. I think

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another aspect of this is the

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Rampant changes that education as a

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system has been through

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in the past 10 20 years

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There are so many

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Responsibilities that were so much better

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at so many things that it has

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created a system where we're

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Overloading the boots on the ground,

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which I like to call, you know

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the teachers on our sports staff kind of

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the boots on the ground, but

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You know, I have more

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IEPs and 504s than ever

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This is a good thing that we're

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recognizing needs and we're giving

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students support. This is a good thing

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But we have less money than ever which

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means we're short staffed. So then we

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have to overextend the our state had

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last year

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put into law a solution for

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chronic absenteeism chronic absenteeism

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and a huge thing sweeping

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our nation and so we have to

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be on top of attendance and make

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attendance calls every single week, like

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these are things that

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Seemingly are like good

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solutions, but at the end of the day

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chip away

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10 minutes 15 minutes at a time and

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There's not been radical support

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for us as a career

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And I think additionally we pay for a lot

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of our own professional development and

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we do a lot of our own professional

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development on our own time

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And that does not go unnoticed

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amongst our community

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You know, it's it's

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My husband's an actuary. I know for a

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fact he didn't pay for a single one of

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those exams and he

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got paid study time off

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Different career different sector. I

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realized corporate America

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works very differently than

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education and I would not want corporate

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America running education, but

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Corporate America pays for corporate

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America to stay ahead, you know, and I

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don't see that rapidly happening

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I know that it does

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I know that there are programs out there

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especially with running the experience

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yet Columbia program like teachers are

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getting funding other things like

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Grants for teachers funds for teachers

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things like that, but you know, we're

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going out and speaking those out. They're

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not readily available to us

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systematically

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so there's just a lot

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of factors and I guess

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Instead of just piling on the list of

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reasons we're burning out

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I think we need to take a step back and

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say, you know, what is it that I can do?

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That's effective

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With my time and my

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energy and what can I let go?

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And you know, I stopped I

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stopped writing as many papers

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Absolutely

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There I say I feel I feel like that

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tiniest little bit of bit of nervousness

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in my chest to say this out loud

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But here I did it and guess what?

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Almost no one has complained

Speaker:

in the past like seven years. I

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Grade a handful of things when I can I

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have a rolling grade book

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and if I get 10 grades in

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For first hour today great

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the next 10 come tomorrow cool

Speaker:

Second hour happens on Wednesday and I

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just started rolling things out in

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smaller chunks because

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it wasn't working for me

Speaker:

I was doing the weightlifting my

Speaker:

My backpack took a field trip to my house

Speaker:

and didn't see anything

Speaker:

But the inside of the backpack came home

Speaker:

and it's like well that

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that's not what I'm doing anymore

Speaker:

But I just started

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making different choices

Speaker:

I'm not not grading papers, but I'm just

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not grading as much and

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You know as a middle school exploratory

Speaker:

Spanish teacher, I think that's just fine

Speaker:

Absolutely, and I was gonna say when you

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talk about the grading there a couple

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things you brought up and

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me gave me some more points

Speaker:

talk about

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Grading doesn't

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Equal acquisition

Speaker:

Because we do not confetti. Yeah

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Under pretty yeah, put the confetti back.

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Yeah, hundred percent

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Because parents get their kids to acquire

Speaker:

a language without any grading whatsoever

Speaker:

And then when we look at it, you know,

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you get those community

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programs you I love these things

Speaker:

I used to do them a lot as

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a kid you get the community

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education

Speaker:

Brochure in the mail about learning how

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to do art or taking another language

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Or learning how carpentry these little

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classes that you take at the community in

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the community and

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there's no grading in there

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But you still learn so grading does not

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able learning, you know

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It's just it's just the evidence of that

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learning and we don't

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have to take that evidence

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Every five minutes, you know, we we're

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constantly evaluating as

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we go through the classroom

Speaker:

But we don't need to have paper and

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pencil evidence every five minutes. So

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I'm with you on that

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I'm big on grading. I mean, I think it's

Speaker:

important just not for the acquisition

Speaker:

but to see where my kids are

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Compared to where I want them to be so

Speaker:

that I have the information to do my job.

Speaker:

That's what grading is for me

Speaker:

Couple of things that you're talking

Speaker:

about the education thing every other

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profession that

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requires continuing education

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pays for that education there not just in

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paying for the actual classes but in

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Compensation that you get as a person,

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you know doctors nurses lawyers

Speaker:

They all have continuing education

Speaker:

requirements just like teachers

Speaker:

But they're it shows in their

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compensation where it doesn't show in our

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compensation at all

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our compensation stays

Speaker:

I mean right now we're in my school

Speaker:

district. We are without a contract

Speaker:

We're working without a contract. We're

Speaker:

on a verge of a strike. So, you know,

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this is what we're right now Scott

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in Sacramento

Speaker:

Okay

Speaker:

So we're we're at the

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impasse stage. We're bringing in a

Speaker:

Mediator to come in and look at it

Speaker:

because what the school wants to give and

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what we want to give

Speaker:

Are not not anywhere not even close and

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it's not just about the money

Speaker:

Just want to be valued for what we do and

Speaker:

we don't we can't afford to live anymore

Speaker:

we're having teachers leave to

Speaker:

neighboring districts because

Speaker:

The compensation is not there and we

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can't afford to live. We

Speaker:

had one teacher who left it

Speaker:

We're just right before Thanksgiving. She

Speaker:

left she got permission to get out of her

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contract because and

Speaker:

this is so disheartening

Speaker:

Her daughter came back from wherever she

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was living. She came back because she got

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sick and I don't know

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what the sickness was

Speaker:

but

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She didn't have insurance at this point

Speaker:

because she came back home and to add her

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to her insurance to her mom and her dad's

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Insurance was an extra

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thousand dollars a month

Speaker:

No, I got her daughter

Speaker:

but she needed to do that because her

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daughter needed to go to

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the doctor and go to the

Speaker:

Hospital and do these kinds of things and

Speaker:

she goes I can't afford it at my current

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salary. I cannot afford a

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$1,000 out of my salary

Speaker:

So she had to leave to a different school

Speaker:

district where she actually

Speaker:

her salary was slightly less

Speaker:

But they paid more of the insurance

Speaker:

So she didn't have that big chunk of

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change coming out and

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it's hard to make she goes

Speaker:

My heart is here at this

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district with this school

Speaker:

But I had to make the hard choice for my

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family and that we shouldn't have to make

Speaker:

those kinds of choices

Speaker:

That's really tough. That's

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really tough with education

Speaker:

I mean because because I feel

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like I feel like as you know

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As you were speaking like the demands

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keep getting bigger, you know

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If you're good at something you're gonna

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be asked to do something

Speaker:

else you want to say yes

Speaker:

and at the same time there treats like

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There's there's a push from from above to

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know more with less

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and to reach every kid

Speaker:

but it's the teacher's job to reach this

Speaker:

kid now, you know, and and just things

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You know and

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Yeah, and we want to say yes because we

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are in education for the right reasons

Speaker:

because we want to

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help the kids and and you

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know, like when they asked

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they asked me to teach civics a

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population of English language learners,

Speaker:

which I love the idea of

Speaker:

You know and they were like because at my

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last school I was

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kind of a hybrid teacher

Speaker:

I was I had the Spanish and

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I thought English language

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Learner and I thought English and was in

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class support for that and then they

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needed someone to do a

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civics class like for that

Speaker:

Group so they were like do it in Spanish

Speaker:

or do it bilingual or something like that

Speaker:

and it sounded great

Speaker:

I was like, oh, yeah,

Speaker:

that sounds like a great idea

Speaker:

But then I I didn't as I said, yes

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I didn't make any like provision to like

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make that give myself any support to make

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it work for myself and I

Speaker:

Burned out really fast and I was like

Speaker:

this was a terrible idea never like but I

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thought you wanted to do it

Speaker:

I'm like, well, yes, but yeah

Speaker:

Yes, but no. Yeah, you know and something

Speaker:

came up came up on my my

Speaker:

Instagram feed yesterday

Speaker:

was Trevor Noah talking about

Speaker:

ADHD and stuff like that and his thing

Speaker:

was he was like you should start with no

Speaker:

He's like if somebody asked you to do

Speaker:

something start with no and then there

Speaker:

and he's like because then

Speaker:

you don't over commit yourself

Speaker:

and

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Wind up disappointing people and shame

Speaker:

spiraling and whatever

Speaker:

He's like start with a no and then if

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there's a compelling reason to do the yes

Speaker:

Go with the yes, so that that was a

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helpful kind of reframe for me. There's

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worth everything about like

Speaker:

Boundaries because that's really what all

Speaker:

this is about is like, yeah professional

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boundaries and your work boundaries

Speaker:

and you're on your first

Speaker:

you can separate those lives

Speaker:

and still be a good teacher, but

Speaker:

That historically was not the expectation

Speaker:

like the expectation was, you know,

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you're gonna be this

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nurturing figure you're gonna like

Speaker:

Attends to all the students needs all of

Speaker:

the time, you know,

Speaker:

and and it's a it's a lot

Speaker:

It's just it's you can't do it all

Speaker:

No, absolutely. And to those points that

Speaker:

you were talking about, you know, I had a

Speaker:

really good principal

Speaker:

Many years ago and he said his job as a

Speaker:

principal was to remove

Speaker:

everything off teachers plates as

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much as possible so

Speaker:

they could just teach and

Speaker:

I thought he goes

Speaker:

that's what my job was and

Speaker:

The best definition of what a principal

Speaker:

should be doing, you know

Speaker:

Yeah, taking as much off the teachers

Speaker:

plate so they can actually focus on what

Speaker:

they're supposed to be doing, you know

Speaker:

We're not administrators

Speaker:

We're not being counters

Speaker:

We're not all these other little things

Speaker:

or budget managers trying to figure out

Speaker:

how to use our own money to

Speaker:

To supply our classroom with what the

Speaker:

classroom needs to be able to do that.

Speaker:

That should be all coming from

Speaker:

Other people who are better at it than we

Speaker:

are so I really appreciated when he said

Speaker:

that and I'll talk about my two times

Speaker:

when I have been

Speaker:

Very burnt out and then my overall

Speaker:

arching why I get burnt out

Speaker:

when I was in middle school

Speaker:

It's like teaching at middle school

Speaker:

Especially the first couple years we were

Speaker:

starting the program and I was teaching

Speaker:

the same class every

Speaker:

day. So it was level one

Speaker:

We taught six out of seven periods. So I

Speaker:

was teaching six classes of level one

Speaker:

Every single day and I didn't remember

Speaker:

did I cover this

Speaker:

already? Did I talk about this?

Speaker:

The kids are like what are you senile,

Speaker:

you know, but they only have one

Speaker:

Time with me and I have six times I'm

Speaker:

doing this and I can't remember anything

Speaker:

And I was write everything down on sticky

Speaker:

notes and tried and I was just getting

Speaker:

burnt out doing the

Speaker:

same thing over and over

Speaker:

So I advocate that you

Speaker:

change what you teach

Speaker:

You don't always be a level one teacher

Speaker:

or a level two teacher or level three

Speaker:

teacher an AP teacher that you

Speaker:

Rotate it out every few years. Yes, you

Speaker:

want to get there a

Speaker:

couple years so you can

Speaker:

Master it a little bit but then change it

Speaker:

up because you can always learn new

Speaker:

skills that can apply to everything

Speaker:

And I think that's really important at a

Speaker:

middle school. It's much more difficult

Speaker:

We did have level one two

Speaker:

and three at my middle school

Speaker:

So eventually as we added more classes, I

Speaker:

became two and three

Speaker:

the two and three teacher

Speaker:

But again, it was the same thing all the

Speaker:

time and then I begged

Speaker:

of my last couple years

Speaker:

There I can I have a one again so I can

Speaker:

at least feel what that's like again

Speaker:

Because one is one of my favorite ones to

Speaker:

teach because and this is

Speaker:

gonna sound a little egotistical

Speaker:

But at the end of the year

Speaker:

Everything that they

Speaker:

learned was because of me

Speaker:

It wasn't like at level two

Speaker:

I'm like how much of it was me and how

Speaker:

much of it was their level one teacher or

Speaker:

a level three teach it being a level

Speaker:

Three how much of it was their level one

Speaker:

and their level two teacher?

Speaker:

How much of it was me?

Speaker:

So I just like to be able to see the

Speaker:

growth and know that

Speaker:

what I'm doing is working

Speaker:

So it's not as egotistical. It's just but

Speaker:

in level two and level three. I didn't

Speaker:

know exactly how much

Speaker:

Of what they learned was because of what

Speaker:

I did in the classroom

Speaker:

so I could measure my own

Speaker:

Proficiency in teaching them

Speaker:

Now I'm in high school. Yeah. Yeah,

Speaker:

really cool in high

Speaker:

school. My problem is I

Speaker:

I'm in a more rural and a more urban

Speaker:

district not suburban so

Speaker:

The apathy I have too many kids who they

Speaker:

have way too much apathy

Speaker:

they don't care to be in any

Speaker:

class let alone Spanish and

Speaker:

Spanish just makes it worse than

Speaker:

everything else because they defaulted

Speaker:

into Spanish because at our school

Speaker:

We have Spanish Russian or Mandarin and

Speaker:

they know if they

Speaker:

can't hack it in Spanish

Speaker:

There's no other choice because they

Speaker:

can't if they can't hack Spanish, which

Speaker:

is of the three the easier one

Speaker:

They're not gonna hack it in Russian or

Speaker:

Mandarin with a whole another alphabet

Speaker:

whole another way of writing,

Speaker:

you know a whole different way

Speaker:

They're not gonna be able

Speaker:

to do those kinds of things

Speaker:

So they default into Spanish and they

Speaker:

don't want to be there. So that apathy

Speaker:

I having to combat that and have to

Speaker:

motivate them every single

Speaker:

day to do the smallest of things

Speaker:

Like I'll have a kid just ask her in

Speaker:

question. Like do you have?

Speaker:

Siblings and I have kids who refuse I

Speaker:

don't want to answer that

Speaker:

And it's not because they don't want to

Speaker:

give out personal information because I

Speaker:

don't care what the answer is

Speaker:

It doesn't have to be true

Speaker:

I just need you to speak a sentence and I

Speaker:

have the scaffolding on

Speaker:

the board and they're like no

Speaker:

I'm not doing that. I have kids. I've

Speaker:

never had that before

Speaker:

Even when I taught high school before I

Speaker:

didn't have the apathy and I

Speaker:

don't know if the apathy is

Speaker:

The area that I'm

Speaker:

teaching or is it post Covid?

Speaker:

Because I don't know because when I

Speaker:

taught pre Covid I

Speaker:

taught high school pre Covid

Speaker:

And so I can't tell you what if it's just

Speaker:

the generation or the area or what but

Speaker:

that's my big thing right now

Speaker:

That I deal with is the apathy they just

Speaker:

they don't want to participate and do the

Speaker:

work and then my big

Speaker:

overarching and I don't know how this

Speaker:

speaks I find a lot of

Speaker:

teachers are introverts and

Speaker:

I am a 150 percent introvert. I

Speaker:

use every ounce of

Speaker:

Extrovertedness which

Speaker:

is zero in my classroom

Speaker:

and when I get home, I am just

Speaker:

Exhausted for having to put on this

Speaker:

facade. That's not

Speaker:

me. I'm very introverted

Speaker:

I rather be home with my

Speaker:

family and my dog and watching TV

Speaker:

Then be out partying or engaging in

Speaker:

social. I mean when they say oh, there's

Speaker:

a Christmas party and everybody's

Speaker:

expected to be there my

Speaker:

Anxiety goes way up because I'm just not

Speaker:

good in those situations

Speaker:

so for me being that introvert in an

Speaker:

extroverted type of career is

Speaker:

really

Speaker:

Exhausting so I get a

Speaker:

lot of burnout from that

Speaker:

not from the actual job just having to

Speaker:

put myself out there and communicate with

Speaker:

parents and kids and

Speaker:

co-workers and administration and all of

Speaker:

those things and putting on my

Speaker:

My polite hat instead of saying, you know

Speaker:

what this could have been an email

Speaker:

Why are you wasting my time for a meeting

Speaker:

on this or you know, really?

Speaker:

You're wasting my time with that little

Speaker:

bit of a topic, you know, cuz that's what

Speaker:

I really want to say because I am a very

Speaker:

Direct kind of person. I don't like

Speaker:

sugarcoating. Just tell me what it is

Speaker:

And all those playing all those games the

Speaker:

politics. I just don't play politics

Speaker:

Well, yeah, the political correctness is

Speaker:

there's an extremely high standard

Speaker:

My administrator was talking about this

Speaker:

Six or six or seven weeks ago and we had

Speaker:

been through a really tough situation

Speaker:

with some upper

Speaker:

leadership in our district and

Speaker:

We had a meeting the next day and one of

Speaker:

the takeaways that she said that I want

Speaker:

you to zoom out real far

Speaker:

When you zoom out really far what's

Speaker:

happened today and yesterday is a blip

Speaker:

and

Speaker:

The more and more you zoom out it will

Speaker:

give you a better perspective

Speaker:

But the catch side is

Speaker:

when you work in education

Speaker:

People hold you to a

Speaker:

high standard all the time

Speaker:

You are not just a teacher at school.

Speaker:

You're a teacher at the movies

Speaker:

You're a teacher at the grocery store.

Speaker:

You're a teacher everywhere and people

Speaker:

have a really really hard time separating

Speaker:

the identity of our

Speaker:

careers with the moral high

Speaker:

political correctness that we're supposed

Speaker:

to hold all the time and so especially

Speaker:

You know, I feel like the older I get the

Speaker:

more life experience I

Speaker:

have the better perspective

Speaker:

I have the more responsibilities I have

Speaker:

like I am finding myself more comfortably

Speaker:

outspoken about what I

Speaker:

believe in but people can't

Speaker:

Separate Meg Vernon from Mrs. Vernon at

Speaker:

school. And so it

Speaker:

really becomes a dangerous

Speaker:

Topic, you know when we have when we feel

Speaker:

strongly about things

Speaker:

and especially in education

Speaker:

We're constantly scratching and fighting

Speaker:

tooth and nail for our own professional

Speaker:

dignity for our students for kids to eat

Speaker:

Food at school, you know

Speaker:

the all the layers of things

Speaker:

And it becomes really

Speaker:

it can weigh very heavy

Speaker:

On

Speaker:

us as people because we're expected to

Speaker:

like you said have

Speaker:

this kind of facade and I

Speaker:

Think a lot of us do it so well.

Speaker:

Sometimes we don't even

Speaker:

realize that you know, I've I've

Speaker:

Taken on this role. It's kind of it you

Speaker:

do you step through the

Speaker:

doors and it's like, okay

Speaker:

Here I am this type of a person in school

Speaker:

and to bring it back to

Speaker:

the conference will input

Speaker:

I think that is another I'm just so

Speaker:

thankful that I've been through many

Speaker:

years with so many nurturing communities

Speaker:

Like especially the online and

Speaker:

comprehensible input acquisition driven

Speaker:

community has raised me

Speaker:

So well, I you know, I still use your

Speaker:

writing rubrics got from comprehensible

Speaker:

Iowa maybe a decade ago

Speaker:

It's just you know

Speaker:

all those little things that are tools

Speaker:

that we've been trained to do because we

Speaker:

care about each other and we care about

Speaker:

Doing the next thing it's helped me get

Speaker:

to a place in my career where I do feel

Speaker:

like I can make some decisions

Speaker:

Or I don't feel like I have to copy

Speaker:

someone to learn like when I first really

Speaker:

started getting into

Speaker:

Compressible input. I wanted to be Elena.

Speaker:

I was like this woman is

Speaker:

Unbelievable, I cannot believe the things

Speaker:

that she is doing in her classroom

Speaker:

You know and at that time

Speaker:

being a younger CI teacher

Speaker:

I didn't realize all of the factors that

Speaker:

went into raising her as a

Speaker:

teacher and I was a novice

Speaker:

You know jumping in for a few times

Speaker:

You know a few like techniques and I

Speaker:

tried them a few times and

Speaker:

then I would look and be like

Speaker:

Why does her YouTube

Speaker:

classroom not look like my classroom?

Speaker:

but

Speaker:

Because of all those little experiences

Speaker:

I have been able to take things that all

Speaker:

these teachers are doing

Speaker:

around the world and make them mine

Speaker:

I can do my own personality, you know,

Speaker:

and so if you are a

Speaker:

little sarcastic and you love

Speaker:

Alina take a lean as

Speaker:

Technique and make it yours because it's

Speaker:

gonna land when it comes from you

Speaker:

And I think that is

Speaker:

something that has really helped me

Speaker:

Because for a solid decade there and my

Speaker:

teaching career every February was like

Speaker:

can I work at Lowe's and get like a home

Speaker:

improvement just now as a manager because

Speaker:

it would definitely be easier and

Speaker:

And I was having that conversation

Speaker:

I probably had that conversation 50% of

Speaker:

my career like do I want to

Speaker:

continue this again next year?

Speaker:

And it can be a little self-sabotaging

Speaker:

when you're like, well, you know, I'm

Speaker:

good at it or when I am

Speaker:

Not teaching how much am I

Speaker:

gonna miss it or you know?

Speaker:

I've spent all I have two degrees and

Speaker:

countless professional development hours

Speaker:

in why would I throw that away?

Speaker:

you know all these things that go into

Speaker:

our decisions, but I

Speaker:

mean

Speaker:

honestly, there are times when I'm like

Speaker:

when people when teachers are miserable

Speaker:

and they are reaching burnout and like

Speaker:

it's just a year like

Speaker:

If you do decide not to teach next year,

Speaker:

like it's just a year.

Speaker:

Is that the worst case?

Speaker:

I wouldn't advocate that people leave

Speaker:

teaching but like if you are not well if

Speaker:

The students in your classroom are not

Speaker:

having a beneficial experience because

Speaker:

you're not handling

Speaker:

things well and like no shame

Speaker:

No shame

Speaker:

Zoom out zoom out. See if you can take

Speaker:

yourself out of that

Speaker:

teacher identity for a minute

Speaker:

Which is really hard to do. Yeah, we are

Speaker:

married to our

Speaker:

teacher personalities a lot

Speaker:

and

Speaker:

I'm gonna go right on to that and then

Speaker:

I've got this is a great segue for Andy

Speaker:

that he wanted to talk about

Speaker:

too in a moment, um

Speaker:

That you said we're on

Speaker:

24-7 we are that teacher and I used when

Speaker:

I worked at the middle school

Speaker:

I am less than a mile away from the

Speaker:

middle school that I taught at

Speaker:

Which was really hard cuz I've always

Speaker:

lived 20 to 30 minutes away from work

Speaker:

Which I loved because I wouldn't have to

Speaker:

worry about seeing the kids at Target at

Speaker:

the movies at the doctor's office

Speaker:

But here I mean I didn't even think about

Speaker:

it the first time I had hollow

Speaker:

Halloween came and my kids

Speaker:

were knocking at my door now

Speaker:

They know where I live and it's like, you

Speaker:

know, so I started to

Speaker:

pay kids to hand out candy

Speaker:

So don't you know I'm an introvert kid

Speaker:

So it's like I had kids on Friday night

Speaker:

knock on my door saying

Speaker:

profe. We got a skit for you

Speaker:

I'm like great. It's Friday night. Show

Speaker:

me on Monday morning. I don't

Speaker:

want to see you on the weekends

Speaker:

I have a doorbell cam and I have kids who

Speaker:

dance out in front of my doorbell cam

Speaker:

And I had a left sugar-free pudding in my

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mailbox in the jar, you know, he goes I'm

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thinking about you profane

Speaker:

No, you're diabetic and you can't have

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sugar. So here's this

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and then put a little note

Speaker:

Can we camp out in your backyard this

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weekend? I'm like, oh my gosh

Speaker:

And it was you know, you you like you

Speaker:

love the idea that the kids like you

Speaker:

enough to feel comfortable with that

Speaker:

But you also want to have

Speaker:

your own time and away from work

Speaker:

But then in a bigger thing you

Speaker:

talk about online social media

Speaker:

there are so many things that I want to

Speaker:

like or comment on but I'm hesitant to

Speaker:

because if a kid sees it or

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If a parent sees it are they gonna make a

Speaker:

judgment you hear about

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teachers being fired for

Speaker:

You know making this comment or that

Speaker:

comment so, you know, I stay away from

Speaker:

all politics, you know, even go

Speaker:

Oh, I really agree with that. Oh, I'm not

Speaker:

saying a word. I'm not liking it

Speaker:

I'm not doing nothing with that because I

Speaker:

don't want people to

Speaker:

perceive me, you know

Speaker:

Because that teacher personality and

Speaker:

we're supposed to be neutral. We're not

Speaker:

Democrats. We're not Republicans

Speaker:

We're not anything we are right in the

Speaker:

middle and we can't give any kind of

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indication in what

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way that we lead and so

Speaker:

I'm always constantly. Oh that is so

Speaker:

funny, but so inappropriate

Speaker:

So I don't want to you know like that

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because I don't want a

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parent say look with this teacher

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I don't want this kid this teacher

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teaching my child because this is the

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kind of humor that they appreciate

Speaker:

You know that kind of thing. So I am

Speaker:

completely with you there that we have to

Speaker:

there's very few jobs

Speaker:

Where you are always on and you always

Speaker:

got to think about how

Speaker:

you are conducting yourself

Speaker:

Because you never know who's gonna see or

Speaker:

who's recording or you know, what's gonna

Speaker:

show up on social media

Speaker:

You never know and so we're

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always so very very cautious

Speaker:

Like some days I forgot to take out my

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garbage and I got to take

Speaker:

it out at 5 in the morning

Speaker:

And I just want to wear my pajamas and

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just walk out there my

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slippers, but I'm like, okay

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I'm in the neighborhood where I work.

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That's not appropriate. I need to be

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completely, you know, I need a shower

Speaker:

I need to dress I need

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to put on my you know

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My Sunday clothes just to take out the

Speaker:

garbage where everybody else is in their

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robe and you know

Speaker:

slippers out there taking out

Speaker:

Their garbage at 5 in the morning. So it

Speaker:

is a lot of pressure is real

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Yeah, they really are. Yeah and make kind

Speaker:

of alluded to it and done Andy wanted to

Speaker:

talk about it earlier about

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Authenticity and you brought it up with

Speaker:

wanting to be Alina Philip rescue

Speaker:

All of us want to be Alina Philip rescue

Speaker:

when we grow up. I mean she is absolutely

Speaker:

positively amazing in every which way and

Speaker:

Andy wanted to talk a little bit about

Speaker:

that and I think that also leads to

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burnout that we try to

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be people who are not and

Speaker:

instead of taking what's good about them

Speaker:

and adding it to what's good about us and

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becoming a

Speaker:

Us

Speaker:

And using the techniques and strategies

Speaker:

that we've learned from other people

Speaker:

Instead of trying to be somebody

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different can also be

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exhausting. So Andy you're on

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Yeah, I wanted to be Annabelle Allen

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Because that was like

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that was kind of my first

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She was so that she was at the at St.

Speaker:

Martin's which posted up the very first

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Anyway, but he

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anyway, but I she was at that and I got

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to know her and I

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started following her stuff and

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You know learned a

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lot about see I from and

Speaker:

But I learned about you

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know playing mafia in class and

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classroom jobs and she had this little

Speaker:

Unicorn it would like eon people and she

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would like, you know talk about the

Speaker:

Unicorn pee and then for her brain

Speaker:

breaks. She would like rock paper

Speaker:

scissors and like it. I don't know

Speaker:

I mean if your energy is

Speaker:

Mandy and it's powerful and she's this

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huge extrovert, right and then a

Speaker:

position opened up at st. Martin's a

Speaker:

different position not hers, but I

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Was going to I was going to

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inherit a lot of her students

Speaker:

So she was also being like

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a language workshop at IFLT

Speaker:

Which is fabulous conference and so I

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like I purposely

Speaker:

waited until the very end

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Because I had this kind of building

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anxiety like I can't be hurt how on earth

Speaker:

am I going to be her?

Speaker:

What am I gonna do?

Speaker:

And it was big and I was I felt a huge

Speaker:

pressure because I was gonna

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inherit a lot of her students

Speaker:

And so I knew from the get I was gonna

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have a but but my extra used to do this

Speaker:

Why can't we do what my extra does or why

Speaker:

can't you be like my extra and at the

Speaker:

very end of the conference?

Speaker:

She looked at me and she was like Andy

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you you don't have to do this. She's like

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You if you don't want to do the the like

Speaker:

roller coaster brain break for all the

Speaker:

kids are sitting on

Speaker:

the floor and going like

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You know, you don't have to do that

Speaker:

She's like that your students next year

Speaker:

don't need me. They need

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you they need an offense

Speaker:

you know, so

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That was a real like it was a real moment

Speaker:

to me that I hadn't realized that I was

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putting that much pressure on myself

Speaker:

But the upshot of it is you do you you

Speaker:

know, if you don't want to do the the

Speaker:

mafia brain break don't

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Know I'm done if you hate story asking

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there's tons of other ways to provide

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You know if you want to do if you don't

Speaker:

like movie talk don't you know, but

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figure out what works for you

Speaker:

Because best practice is

Speaker:

sustainable and authentic

Speaker:

And if you're trying to put on a show and

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trying to be someone who you're not

Speaker:

It's four times a day

Speaker:

You're gonna burn out real fast and I had

Speaker:

a couple moments where I

Speaker:

was like trying to do much

Speaker:

And I was like, this is not working

Speaker:

So what works for me in that moment was

Speaker:

going back to that almost I don't know if

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you're talking about program

Speaker:

It's up a little bit earlier Meg

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And so, you know

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If there's anyone who's kind of new to

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see I and wants to get their feet wet in

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terms of like a really structured way

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I you know, I recommend

Speaker:

the Somos is like a good

Speaker:

Scaffold because it's very scripted

Speaker:

It's got units and you can just like

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picked it pick a couple units and I

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Followed it pretty closely for a while

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and then it's like,

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okay. I got it from here and

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My other stuff so or you know, you're

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just you know, whatever not not

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dogmatically following it anymore

Speaker:

So anyway, thanks for that

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Really good tip as well like Martina has

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created with her team

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They have created not only a

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solid like a pedagogically solid

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curriculum, but I

Speaker:

Found that there is actually teacher

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training embedded because you read the

Speaker:

Instructions and you read the lesson

Speaker:

plans and then the materials are so

Speaker:

meticulously laid out for you

Speaker:

That it's like once you've done three

Speaker:

units four units you're like,

Speaker:

oh that's what movie talk is

Speaker:

I think I got this, you know and you can

Speaker:

start bridging into so I

Speaker:

will double down on that

Speaker:

Like if you are a new to acquisition

Speaker:

driven instruction teacher

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Even if you you know, if you have a very

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low budget like my school

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settle

Speaker:

Navas or like materials and we have to

Speaker:

get them approved like 18 months in

Speaker:

advance and it's just like

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Okay, I'm gonna buy this by myself on

Speaker:

teacher-free teachers, but

Speaker:

that is a good solid start

Speaker:

And they're just the teacher training in

Speaker:

there is is really good

Speaker:

and and a lot of those

Speaker:

Beginning units like you can add on your

Speaker:

level life experiences you can bring in

Speaker:

so many different aspects and through and

Speaker:

not just so most like all the way into

Speaker:

acquisition driven

Speaker:

instruction that you like

Speaker:

the authenticity of

Speaker:

You in the classroom and me teaching

Speaker:

about things that I learned, you know

Speaker:

doing my master's degree in Spain or

Speaker:

spending my summers in

Speaker:

Colombia now is gonna

Speaker:

be way different than

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You know my co-worker who's got a

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master's in history from the Dominican

Speaker:

He does completely different things. He's

Speaker:

got his students like reciting poetry and

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creating carnival

Speaker:

outfits and he's got a huge Latino

Speaker:

population at his school and they

Speaker:

they do those types of things and and

Speaker:

that's because it comes

Speaker:

from him his own creativity and

Speaker:

My my experiences and what I get enthused

Speaker:

about is different and those are all

Speaker:

things we we got to honor them

Speaker:

But the

Speaker:

Imposter syndrome to say like I'm not

Speaker:

very good at that like when you said

Speaker:

story asking or like PQA

Speaker:

I just like the student interview thing

Speaker:

like special person and I

Speaker:

want to like it so badly

Speaker:

But just something doesn't click when I'm

Speaker:

standing in front of kids trying to

Speaker:

personalize questions

Speaker:

While simultaneously keeping the other 28

Speaker:

like somewhat engaged. It's like

Speaker:

It's too much for me

Speaker:

I just am not good at it enough or I

Speaker:

don't like it enough to do that

Speaker:

So guess what I don't do special person

Speaker:

interviews ever and I have attended

Speaker:

Not once not twice not thrice, but many

Speaker:

times where I headstrong special person

Speaker:

like workshops where it's like, okay

Speaker:

Finally, I'm gonna do this

Speaker:

But I'm not bright. I

Speaker:

can never be that chill

Speaker:

the amount of empathy that just

Speaker:

Bubbles around him

Speaker:

when he walks into a room

Speaker:

His

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He has just a

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different aura than I do and

Speaker:

I've never been able to do it like him

Speaker:

And I got to find a way to do it on my

Speaker:

own if I want to do it, you know

Speaker:

What do it's not working needs to change

Speaker:

Yeah, Bryce I know yeah

Speaker:

And you know something you said to

Speaker:

Back when I started there was the only CI

Speaker:

wouldn't even call it

Speaker:

back that back then was

Speaker:

TPRS that's all you had so it was story

Speaker:

after story asking story asking

Speaker:

And so I'm so thankful that we have all

Speaker:

this variety of stuff

Speaker:

That we have that you can do there's

Speaker:

picture talk. There's

Speaker:

movie talk. There's clip chat

Speaker:

There's all these other

Speaker:

things that you can do to provide

Speaker:

Comprehensible input you don't have to

Speaker:

just do the story asking and something

Speaker:

that you mentioned to PQA

Speaker:

First of all, I am so anti jargon. Can we

Speaker:

just call things what they actually are?

Speaker:

Because anything that you

Speaker:

have to explain what it means

Speaker:

Before you actually explain how to do it.

Speaker:

That's a problem for me. It

Speaker:

adds like an extra barrier

Speaker:

So PQA press my questions and answers.

Speaker:

Nobody knows what that

Speaker:

is just by you saying

Speaker:

Oh, I know exactly what that is. Nobody

Speaker:

knows it's just a conversation

Speaker:

But it took me so many years to figure

Speaker:

that out and like you that PQA stage

Speaker:

When it was just TPRS and that was an

Speaker:

important stage. I skipped

Speaker:

it. I didn't know how to do it

Speaker:

I didn't feel comfortable do it. There's

Speaker:

my introvert part. I'm

Speaker:

not a conversationalist

Speaker:

So I skipped it completely plus in every

Speaker:

workshop I had ever attended

Speaker:

Nobody ever demoed that they went

Speaker:

straight it straight into the story

Speaker:

asking so they skipped that part

Speaker:

Which was like an important step of the

Speaker:

process, but nobody ever demoed it

Speaker:

So I never saw it actually being done

Speaker:

until I read from

Speaker:

Ben Slavik's book PQA

Speaker:

in a wink and I go oh

Speaker:

This is just small talk. It's

Speaker:

conversation. It's how

Speaker:

you handle it at a party

Speaker:

I'm like I can do that and so I did I

Speaker:

don't do as extensive as

Speaker:

a special person interview

Speaker:

Because that never worked well because

Speaker:

you can do things and if it doesn't mesh

Speaker:

with your personality

Speaker:

If you don't believe in it, the kids

Speaker:

aren't gonna believe in it

Speaker:

I can make kids believe in a lot of stuff

Speaker:

as long as I believe in it

Speaker:

Like I can get kids to sing and kids

Speaker:

teachers like that's a

Speaker:

really hard native speaker song

Speaker:

How are you getting your kids to sing

Speaker:

that song? I'm like

Speaker:

because I'm singing it

Speaker:

I'm out there and I you know, I can get

Speaker:

them to it because I'm into it, too

Speaker:

And so that makes a big thing

Speaker:

So if you're not into something if you're

Speaker:

seeing a technique that

Speaker:

everybody says is fabulous

Speaker:

Like special person

Speaker:

interviews by bread Bryce headstrom

Speaker:

If it's not you then you can't fake it

Speaker:

because the kids will see that you fake

Speaker:

it and it's not gonna

Speaker:

It's not gonna work

Speaker:

for you in your classroom

Speaker:

So find the things that do work in your

Speaker:

classroom mesh that with your personality

Speaker:

and you'll have success

Speaker:

I now do

Speaker:

PQA I don't call it that I call it

Speaker:

conversations because that's what it is

Speaker:

Circling. Oh my gosh

Speaker:

I have to explain what circling is

Speaker:

because circling to me

Speaker:

is remember those little

Speaker:

Spirograph gate that little design thing

Speaker:

a tool in the 70s you put your

Speaker:

That's what I'm thinking circling is it's

Speaker:

just scaffolded differentiated

Speaker:

questioning the moment you say that

Speaker:

now you don't have to explain what it is

Speaker:

because every teacher knows what

Speaker:

scaffolding is and what

Speaker:

Differentiation is and questioning is you

Speaker:

don't have to come up with a whole new

Speaker:

Triangling okay, it's a great technique,

Speaker:

but it's really just interviewing the

Speaker:

actors the personalities in the story

Speaker:

Interviewing them. Can we not just say

Speaker:

that instead of having to say

Speaker:

Triangling let's explain what triangle is

Speaker:

first and then let's

Speaker:

talk about how to do it

Speaker:

We can take that

Speaker:

intermittent step out in there

Speaker:

So I'm with you there that

Speaker:

a lot of those techniques

Speaker:

you've got to find what works in your

Speaker:

classroom because if you're constantly

Speaker:

trying to be somebody else or trying to

Speaker:

implement the next great

Speaker:

Strategy that doesn't mesh with your

Speaker:

personality. You are gonna burn out and

Speaker:

you're gonna burn out quick

Speaker:

And to add on to that, you know

Speaker:

If you're in a position right now

Speaker:

listening and you're like, I am currently

Speaker:

experiencing burnout

Speaker:

How do I get out of this because I don't

Speaker:

want to quit my job. I

Speaker:

don't want to quit my career

Speaker:

I would suggest like one if you are

Speaker:

active on social media

Speaker:

Start following the teachers that other

Speaker:

teachers are following and unfollow the

Speaker:

ones that don't mesh with you

Speaker:

Um, I listened to Diana Castro twice

Speaker:

give presentations and she

Speaker:

Everything that came out of her mouth. I

Speaker:

was like I'm doing that tomorrow. I'm

Speaker:

trying this tomorrow

Speaker:

A lot of her delivery and her heart

Speaker:

What spoke so much to the types of things

Speaker:

that I wanted to see in my classroom

Speaker:

She does a lot of positive

Speaker:

regard and she said, you know

Speaker:

You can make a pact right now with

Speaker:

yourself that everything that comes out

Speaker:

of your mouth from now

Speaker:

forever in the classroom

Speaker:

It's stated positively, you know instead

Speaker:

of don't yell ask for a volume one

Speaker:

instead of and you know

Speaker:

Okay, it's not time to leave say we have

Speaker:

two minutes to pick up

Speaker:

you know just that mind shift change was

Speaker:

really saving for me and

Speaker:

Scott to bring it back to the apathy man.

Speaker:

The post-covid stuff was brutal. That was

Speaker:

hands down way harder

Speaker:

Coming back to school. My school district

Speaker:

was out for almost a year and a half

Speaker:

Consistently we were

Speaker:

like out for I don't know

Speaker:

March to summer then the kids came back

Speaker:

somewhat hybrid then there were a hundred

Speaker:

percent online then they

Speaker:

were back then they were not

Speaker:

And then it was Monday Tuesday. Nobody on

Speaker:

Wednesday. It was all

Speaker:

this like wonky inconsistency

Speaker:

which

Speaker:

Whatever

Speaker:

But like the year after

Speaker:

that the apathy was so

Speaker:

high and so I literally like I remember

Speaker:

Feeling the inside of my ears like no

Speaker:

one's talking my ears

Speaker:

are working so hard to hear

Speaker:

Like my head hurts my heart hurts

Speaker:

It was so hard

Speaker:

I'm still that urban district. There are

Speaker:

the diversity of needs that urban

Speaker:

districts can be very

Speaker:

Challenging and I've

Speaker:

been able to adjust through

Speaker:

Finding people that I resonate with

Speaker:

I'll throw out another name Ben tinsley

Speaker:

is a phenomenal online

Speaker:

presence

Speaker:

And we started doing math

Speaker:

talks and I was like, I love maps

Speaker:

It's me personally Google Maps is hands

Speaker:

down my number one used app on my phone

Speaker:

He showed me map talks. I

Speaker:

don't know four years ago or so at

Speaker:

Kansas World Language Association and I

Speaker:

was like I love maps

Speaker:

Let's grab that peg man and drop him

Speaker:

around, you know, and so we started doing

Speaker:

map talks and it just it was so fun

Speaker:

There's a hundred different ways to do it

Speaker:

And he's got a really a couple really

Speaker:

good examples online but

Speaker:

Okay, so before I go too far down. That's

Speaker:

my first suggestion find people you

Speaker:

resonate with and it

Speaker:

doesn't have to be online

Speaker:

There are small conferences all around

Speaker:

the country now that you can attend and I

Speaker:

strongly I strongly suggest

Speaker:

That if you are burning out go in

Speaker:

Person to these conferences the online

Speaker:

conferences are phenomenal. They're great

Speaker:

prices. They bring in

Speaker:

huge amount of talent

Speaker:

it's definitely worth your money and

Speaker:

there's nothing like

Speaker:

having lunch next to someone and

Speaker:

Spending the day learning with them and

Speaker:

fostering a relationship in

Speaker:

Person that you can then later depend on

Speaker:

and learn from and find support and I

Speaker:

Think this is true, but I know it's

Speaker:

definitely true for the conferences that

Speaker:

I'm involved with like

Speaker:

Attendance is low in-person attendance at

Speaker:

conferences are low our

Speaker:

state conferences are dying

Speaker:

They used to be our only in-person

Speaker:

opportunities and you know, everything

Speaker:

has changed so much in

Speaker:

a decade that it's like

Speaker:

The online access is amazing. And I also

Speaker:

think every at least every couple of

Speaker:

years try to get in person with people

Speaker:

And then I tangented for a long enough to

Speaker:

forget what my other

Speaker:

Idea was connection just get connected

Speaker:

get connected with people

Speaker:

And you know, that was a great segue

Speaker:

because that's what I was gonna ask next

Speaker:

What would you suggest for people who are

Speaker:

experiencing burnout that they

Speaker:

can do to try to combat that?

Speaker:

So that was a great thing to find people

Speaker:

that you connect with and again, just

Speaker:

like different techniques

Speaker:

Just because they happen to be an amazing

Speaker:

person amazing grew

Speaker:

their strategies may not

Speaker:

mesh with your

Speaker:

Personality so that's okay find somebody

Speaker:

else. There's somebody

Speaker:

out there for everybody

Speaker:

There's Bryce who's a very calm person

Speaker:

compared to Blaine Ray who's not he's a

Speaker:

very extrovert ala

Speaker:

maestro loca is very extroverted

Speaker:

There's how you knew who teaches Mandarin

Speaker:

and she's a very calm personality as well

Speaker:

You don't have to be that extreme always

Speaker:

on type of personality

Speaker:

So find the people and there are people

Speaker:

from all over the world

Speaker:

that you can find and listen to

Speaker:

on there and and

Speaker:

learn from them and their

Speaker:

Personalities and find the ones that mesh

Speaker:

with you that will really really help.

Speaker:

What's your suggestion Andy?

Speaker:

Well, I think I think the big one is

Speaker:

authenticity, you know

Speaker:

And like and like Meg was saying right

Speaker:

curate curate what's

Speaker:

coming into your space, you know

Speaker:

and if there's someone's ideas who you

Speaker:

just totally recoil at and even if

Speaker:

they're one of the like

Speaker:

Gurus or like if even if they're they're

Speaker:

widely regarded if it doesn't work for

Speaker:

you. It doesn't work for you

Speaker:

Don't try to don't try to force it

Speaker:

you know, and then I think

Speaker:

you know that there's there's

Speaker:

Plenty plenty strategies like I think

Speaker:

even on on martina vexus

Speaker:

vlog. I think she's got

Speaker:

Crock-pot meals like freezer meals

Speaker:

recipes like buried in somewhere under

Speaker:

the so most curriculum

Speaker:

So, you know, it's not you know,

Speaker:

self-care is huge huge and important

Speaker:

You know, and I think it's it's part of

Speaker:

the it's got to be part of the

Speaker:

conversation and I think it you know

Speaker:

It wasn't prioritized in the same way

Speaker:

before but I think you know dealing with

Speaker:

Post-covid kids in the passenger mode or

Speaker:

You know just so many

Speaker:

pressures and so many

Speaker:

things that things that are

Speaker:

Going to us. I think you know

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You just have to you just have to be

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yourself and be authentic

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and do what works for you

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if it sucks change it

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And if it comes to a place a situation

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where you might need to leave your school

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Maybe you need to leave

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your school and I've you know

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If I I don't know I think um, I remember

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hearing a long time ago about you know

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Find the school that makes you the least

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crazy and stay there as long as you can

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And it's you know, and I guess that's

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that's a barometer that

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still works. So, you know, we

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I think we are fortunate that we have

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options especially as spanish teachers

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There are lots of positions available and

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therefore you can find your own

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You know the best fit

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school but also like, you know

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Where you are try to water the grass

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that's planted and take good care of it

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That's a good thing. I like that. Take

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good care of the grass that

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you planted. That's an awesome

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Quote there and I'm just gonna say and

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I'm not this you know

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This is gonna come out

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really bad and I apologize

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Um, I am not that person who goes to

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workshops and when the presenter starts

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goes take three deep

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breaths before we start

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Let's all set that kind

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of stuff. That is not me

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It's just not me that and the

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oh, let's do some icebreakers

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That's that right there. Let's my hair on

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the back of my neck goes

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straight up icebreakers and uh,

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Let's take a moment to center ourselves

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and let's take five deep

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breaths. That is just not me

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But I know it works for some

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people so i'm not knocking it

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I'm just saying it's just not for me, but

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what I think is important and the

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ultimate takeaway is

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That you need to take care of yourself

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First because if you don't take care of

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yourself, you're no good to

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anybody your family your friends

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Or your students

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So you have to take care of yourself and

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whatever that looks like for you that for

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me is not breathing in and out

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That's just doesn't do anything for me. I

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breathe it out every day. That's why i'm

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alive. I don't need to do it extra

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It doesn't do anything for me

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But going to the movies

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I like going to the movies and watching a

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good movie or watching a good tv program

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or spending time with my family or my dog

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That kind of stuff centers me whatever it

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is for you. You need

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to take care of yourself

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First because you're not good for anybody

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if you aren't well yourself

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and you need to set boundaries

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So like andy said, um say no first

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Also tell your students, you know what

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i'd love to come to your game or i'd love

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to watch you in the musical

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I'd love to come to your concert

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But I need to spend time with my family

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and that's important for me

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And I wish you all the best. I know

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you're going to be amazing

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But you need to set some of those

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boundaries and say no to some of these

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things because you can't be

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Something to everyone if you're trying to

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be something to everyone you're no one

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you're nothing to everyone

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So you've got to find that way and so

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find what works for you

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Set your boundaries don't spend hours at

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school after the bell rings. No one's

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benefiting from that

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Your kids benefit for you to be

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Present while you're in class from bell

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to bell anything that you

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do after the bell is over

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Isn't probably as helpful to students as

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you might think it is

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So don't spend all those

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that can be really tough

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Yeah, it can be when that we used to have

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tell us one teacher that I

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worked with she was amazing

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But on friday nights, she'd be there till

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like eight o'clock at night

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getting ready for the next

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Week and i'm like what the hell?

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Why are you being school ended at 2 30?

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Why do you need

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another six hours at school?

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Yeah, and it wasn't like she was a brand

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new teacher she'd been

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teaching for 10 or 15 years

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So, you know, I understand my brand new

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teachers you get to try she's like I

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gotta do all this stuff

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I gotta make sure it's

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perfect for the next time

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But what are you doing that needs an

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extra six hours on a

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friday to prepare for?

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The next week and is

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it really benefiting?

Speaker:

The students or is it something else

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that's going on that you're working on

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you need to get away from the school

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So we a lot of us we'd have this little

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accountability group or

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like texting each other

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Okay, are you in the parking lot yet?

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Everybody we need to go. It's time to go

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My old principal at my middle school one

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thing he did that was really amazing

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A parent was a yoga

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instructor and she volunteered

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To come in once every

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two weeks before school

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In the gym to lead

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yoga for whoever wanted to

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Participate and so that was great for

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those who did I am not a human pretzel if

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I bent into those shapes

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I would never be able to get out, but I

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know my cousin is a yoga instructor

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It works for so many people. So if that's

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your calling then that was a great way to

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Um, it was on a friday

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So it was great at the end of the week

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and people were getting refreshed

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For the weekend and getting and to make

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it through that last day that last hurdle

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So there's lots of different ways but

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make those boundaries realize

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that school is not everything

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There are only so many hours of the day

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and you need to be away from school as

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much as you are at school

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You can't do both

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And have a healthy balance that balance

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is really difficult for us teachers

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because we are people pleasers

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And we keep saying but it's for the kids,

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but it's for the kids,

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but it's for the kids

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But again, if you aren't whole yourself,

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you can't be there for the kids

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That's right. Yeah

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Yeah, and finding things that you enjoy

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That will pull you out of that because

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just leaving I mean i've

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been working my whole career

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On trying to get closer and closer my

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contract hours so that I can be balanced

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But i'm also the person like when you

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were saying about the friday afternoon

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I'm like, man, I love to work a good hour

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and a half on a friday afternoon

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Why no line at the photocopier? I don't

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have to worry about any kind of traffic.

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Nobody interrupts me. I put on my like

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You know

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Whatever hurts left brain right brain

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Like brain music

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that's basically white noise

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And I just go to town on a friday night

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and then monday morning rolls around and

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like it's ready to go

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Um, and so I enjoy that time

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As well, I found that it works for me. Um

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You know

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Yeah, and I and also I I will say i'm a

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childless person this year

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We have an exchange son from Kosovo and

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he's here and he's changed our

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Our schedule but that it

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reminds me during my prep time

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Like okay, go to bathroom refill your

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water. Come on back and let's like get

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through a to-do list here

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So that at the end of the day, you know,

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i've got something that pulls me out of

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school find something that motivates you

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If you like to dance find a dance class

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if you live in a rural

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area and you don't have

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You know lots of things

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at your fingertips like

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Be creative about how your home feels to

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you what you can find

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ways to be out of school

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Um, and then also I

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would say like whatever

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I feel like we've hit this a few times

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just in different worlds the routines

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uh about two years ago

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I finally decided that fridays in my

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classroom was going to be

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makeup day and dual lingo day

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So I wasn't teaching lessons on friday

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outside of a regular like this is our

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You know class mantra that we say this is

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this thought then we do a song and then

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we move on with our like routine

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Like I would still do that, but then it's

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like, okay, we're going to go

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to our you know station work

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This station of kids is

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with me at the back table

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And then the rest of you get your free

Speaker:

reading book get on to dual

Speaker:

lingo and you know, it just

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It helped so much and nobody complained,

Speaker:

you know, the kids

Speaker:

were happy with dual lingo

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They were doing it at home. They were

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checking out books

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from my classroom library

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um, which is another routine that

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I very very strongly suggest if you have

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any reading materials whatsoever

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Even if it's only one thing per kid

Speaker:

Or one thing per every two kids get those

Speaker:

reading materials in their hands and give

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them time five to ten minutes to read it

Speaker:

And train them train

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them how to read silently

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If they're verbal

Speaker:

like my middle schoolers

Speaker:

Like they find a funny picture and

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immediately they're sharing

Speaker:

with the person next to you

Speaker:

And so I was like I can't just squish

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squish squish squish

Speaker:

their energy or i'm gonna

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Burn out their little teaspoon for

Speaker:

reading. So I said we're gonna read we

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read for five minutes silently

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Then we do like a chat mat about their

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book and then they turn and talk because

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it builds up, you

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know, they want to share

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um

Speaker:

and

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That has been a

Speaker:

Routine that I have established. It's

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really good. Not just for me, but for the

Speaker:

kids, you know, like I take attendance

Speaker:

quietly now

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With urban seventh graders

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That's

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Huge for me. It's yeah, it's such a small

Speaker:

slice of wellness where it's like I can

Speaker:

look at the seating chart

Speaker:

See whose seats open. Nobody's

Speaker:

interrupting me also

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Um, no talking to mrs. Vernon

Speaker:

Um about can I fill in the

Speaker:

blank during passing period?

Speaker:

That I I have a rule about that. Can I go

Speaker:

get a drink? Don't

Speaker:

ask it's passing period

Speaker:

Just go do it. If you like read the clock

Speaker:

Be back on time. Good luck

Speaker:

Um, and it doesn't

Speaker:

have to be rude, you know

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But little things like that because while

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I do think i'm pretty

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extroverted in social

Speaker:

I also only have so much in my cup and

Speaker:

answering the question

Speaker:

And reading the clock for a kid and just

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asking them. Oh, you have 90 seconds

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Do you think you have enough time to go

Speaker:

to the bathroom and wash your hands and

Speaker:

be back like such a waste of my?

Speaker:

Social energy cup for the job that I have

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And so I just kind of put some of those

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boundaries and

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routines into place as well

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and um

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Yes, there's tons of routines out there

Speaker:

that you can do in the classroom and

Speaker:

alice and white mold is another one

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Is another one that

Speaker:

has tons of routines. So

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um

Speaker:

Routines have saved me

Speaker:

Absolutely, and i'll just touch on one

Speaker:

thing you said you do yours on friday. I

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schedule I I cannot live it

Speaker:

Out of to-do lists between

Speaker:

my calendar my to-do lists

Speaker:

Those are my two most used apps because

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my to-do list keeps me honest

Speaker:

It tells you what i'm doing and it keeps

Speaker:

nagging at me if it's not done

Speaker:

But I schedule my lesson plans for the

Speaker:

next week on thursday

Speaker:

So that I get them all done on thursday

Speaker:

if something comes up and I still got

Speaker:

friday to work on it

Speaker:

But then I know when that

Speaker:

bell rings at 3 45 pm on friday

Speaker:

Because if I want to beat traffic, I need

Speaker:

to leave right at 3 45 and

Speaker:

I i'm in the middle of light

Speaker:

Light to moderate traffic, but i'll have

Speaker:

to wait to like seven

Speaker:

To get away from traffic completely and

Speaker:

i'm not staying that long. So

Speaker:

3 45 I know i'm good because I did my

Speaker:

lesson plans the day before

Speaker:

So I have them done

Speaker:

So that's kind of how

Speaker:

I do mine and I do mine

Speaker:

between my prep and my hour and a half

Speaker:

before school starts that's when I get my

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Um, my lesson plans done, but like you,

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you know, I want to have

Speaker:

it done for the next week

Speaker:

So i'm not stressed what i'm doing on

Speaker:

monday, but I do it on thursday because I

Speaker:

know i'm completely spent on friday

Speaker:

I just want to leave on friday and by

Speaker:

thursday, it's not too early. I still

Speaker:

know where we're probably

Speaker:

going to end up on friday

Speaker:

So I don't have to rewrite the plans. I

Speaker:

mean one school district may just write

Speaker:

plans two weeks in advance

Speaker:

I'm like how the heck can I do that?

Speaker:

I don't know where my kids are going to

Speaker:

be and I know I have to keep rewriting

Speaker:

them and have to resubmit them

Speaker:

Because they change because my kids got

Speaker:

further than I thought or they

Speaker:

didn't get as far as I thought

Speaker:

But on a thursday before friday, I pretty

Speaker:

much know where we're going to end up

Speaker:

So I can pretty much write my lesson

Speaker:

plans for the following week and it works

Speaker:

pretty pretty well. So

Speaker:

That's what I do. We have gone over a

Speaker:

little bit. That's okay. I

Speaker:

want to thank both of you for

Speaker:

Showing up today. I really appreciate

Speaker:

this was a great episode and

Speaker:

I think it's a perfect time

Speaker:

Right before we do that

Speaker:

final plunge before winter break

Speaker:

We've got three weeks before winter break

Speaker:

comes when we go back

Speaker:

Um, and luckily for us we start over in

Speaker:

january. We start a whole new semester

Speaker:

with a whole new kids. So it's a complete

Speaker:

refresh

Speaker:

Restart at that time

Speaker:

So, um, that's a perfect time. I just

Speaker:

want to say thank you to any final words

Speaker:

Anybody want to say

Speaker:

before we close up for today?

Speaker:

Okay, great thanks for your time scott

Speaker:

this is fun. Thank you

Speaker:

Thanks for having the conversation it's

Speaker:

important really

Speaker:

important it absolutely is

Speaker:

so

Speaker:

um

Speaker:

Thanks for hanging out with us everybody

Speaker:

and of course a huge shout out to our

Speaker:

guests andy and megh

Speaker:

For keeping it real

Speaker:

and reminding us that yes

Speaker:

C. I burnout is a thing and no you're not

Speaker:

the only one who has considered teaching

Speaker:

from under your desk

Speaker:

I know I have yeah, if

Speaker:

you've got something useful

Speaker:

Validating or at least mildly

Speaker:

entertaining out of this episode

Speaker:

Make sure you hit

Speaker:

subscribe leave a quick review

Speaker:

And share it with another teacher who

Speaker:

might need the reminder

Speaker:

That they're not alone in

Speaker:

this circus. We call teaching

Speaker:

And don't forget you can

Speaker:

watch us live on youtube

Speaker:

Or catch the replay anytime on your

Speaker:

favorite podcast app

Speaker:

So, all right, that's it for today. Ditch

Speaker:

the drills trust the process and i'll see

Speaker:

you next time on comprehend this

Speaker:

Have a good one everybody

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About the Podcast

Comprehend THIS!
Real talk for real language teachers—because comprehension isn't optional.
Welcome to Comprehend THIS!, the podcast for language teachers who are tired of the same old textbook chatter and want the real talk instead.

Every episode is like pulling up a chair in the copy room or leaning on the hallway wall at your favorite conference — except it’s not awkward, the coffee’s better (yours, not mine), and nobody’s grading you.

Host Scott Benedict sits down with 1–2 guests — teachers, trainers, authors, CI rebels — to swap stories about what actually works in a comprehension-based classroom.

We talk the good, the weird, the messy middle — first wins, facepalms, reading that actually sticks, grammar without drills, surviving department side-eyes, grading for real proficiency (without losing your mind), and everything in between.

It’s casual. It’s honest. It’s LIVE — so you get all the “did they just say that?” moments, unfiltered.

Pull up your favorite mug. Laugh, nod along, steal an idea or two for Monday, and remember: you’re not the only one doing it different — and doing it better.

Watch LIVE: Sunday mornings at 8am Pacific / 11am Eastern, on YouTube at youtube.com/@immediateimmersion — or listen soon after on your favorite podcast app.

Comprehend THIS! — Real talk for real teachers. Ditch the drills. Trust the process. Stay human.

About your host

Profile picture for Scott Benedict

Scott Benedict

Scott Benedict has been teaching Spanish since 2001—which means he’s survived more textbook adoptions, curriculum rewrites, and “revolutionary” teaching fads than he cares to count. He runs Immediate Immersion and hosts the Comprehend THIS! Podcast, where he tells the truth about teaching with comprehensible input: the good, the bad, and the “did that student just say tengo queso again?”

After two decades in the classroom, Scott knows what actually works (spoiler: not conjugation charts) and isn’t afraid to say it out loud. On the podcast, he dives into CI strategies, teacher survival hacks, and the occasional story that will make you question your career choices—but in a good way.

When he’s not recording or coaching teachers, you’ll find him traveling, taking photos, or wandering yet another zoo because apparently, one giraffe enclosure is never enough.

Comprehend THIS! is equal parts professional growth and comic relief—because let’s be honest, if we don’t laugh about teaching, we’ll cry.