Episode 14: “Do They Actually Like Class? Student Feedback, Fear, and Facts”
Student feedback, CI teaching, and classroom engagement collide in this brutally honest, funny, and relatable episode for world language teachers featuring Jackie Deming-Plunk and Karla McCann, a French teacher and native Spanish speaker who has cracked the code on language acquisition, high-frequency vocabulary, reading strategies, story-telling, and curriculum design.
Take the free CI Proficiency Quiz and find out your CI level at https://imim.us/ciquiz.
In this episode, we unpack the chaos of student feedback — why it swings wildly, what “boring” really means, how to collect honest insight without hosting therapy sessions, and how to adjust your teaching without betraying CI principles. With guests Jackie Deming-Plunk and Karla McCann, we explore how real-world feedback fits into research-backed, story-driven acquisition.
Grab the CI Survival Kit for ready-to-use comprehensible-input tools at https://imim.us/kit.
#comprehensibleinput, #CIteaching, #studentfeedback, #languageacquisition, #worldlanguageteacher, #teacherlife, #teachingspanish, #comprehendTHIS, #classroomengagement, #CIclassroom
Hosts:
- Scott Benedict - https://www.instagram.com/immediateimmersion
- Jackie Deming-Plunk
- Karla McCann - https://www.instagram.com/madamemccann
Resources & Links:
- Back-to-School Bootcamp: https://imim.us/bootcamp
Join the Conversation:
Got thoughts or your own story? Share it in the comments or tag us @ImmediateImmersion!
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Transcript
Good morning and welcome back to the
Speaker:comprehend this podcast.
Speaker:How is everybody
Speaker:doing this Sunday morning?
Speaker:I don't know about you, but I'm two weeks
Speaker:away from winter break and last two weeks
Speaker:of the semester.
Speaker:We're on the four by four, so that means
Speaker:we get new kids when
Speaker:we come back from break.
Speaker:The end of the academic year for this
Speaker:first group of students
Speaker:is in December and we start
Speaker:over again.
Speaker:So a lot of stuff happening for me.
Speaker:So welcome back and today we're tackling
Speaker:the emotional roller
Speaker:coaster we call student
Speaker:feedback.
Speaker:You know that magical system where one
Speaker:kid writes, this class
Speaker:is so fun and another kid
Speaker:writes we never do anything.
Speaker:I get that one all of the time.
Speaker:We never do anything because what we do
Speaker:doesn't look like normal
Speaker:school, even though they
Speaker:were both in the same room breathing the
Speaker:same oxygen and
Speaker:watching the same story about a
Speaker:confused alpaca.
Speaker:We're sorting the signal from the noise,
Speaker:figuring out how to get
Speaker:honest feedback without hosting
Speaker:accidental therapy sessions and asking
Speaker:the eternal CI
Speaker:question, do they actually like
Speaker:class or am I just doing dramatic
Speaker:monologues to teenagers
Speaker:who are secretly napping with
Speaker:their eyes open?
Speaker:And today we've got a great guest.
Speaker:Jackie Deming-Plunk is back with us who
Speaker:brings the real talk wisdom.
Speaker:To language acquisition and we love to
Speaker:have her back every time.
Speaker:So buckle up.
Speaker:This one's going to hit home and we'll be
Speaker:right back after this short message.
Speaker:Ever feel like you're clinging to the
Speaker:edge of your teacher planner?
Speaker:Just hoping today's
Speaker:lesson magically appears?
Speaker:Enter the CI survival kit, a monthly
Speaker:membership made for
Speaker:teachers who love comprehensible
Speaker:input, but also love not reinventing the
Speaker:wheel every Sunday night.
Speaker:Each month you get fresh, ready to use
Speaker:lessons, time saving
Speaker:tools, and just enough structure
Speaker:to keep your teaching life together.
Speaker:No stress, no guilt, just monthly help
Speaker:from someone who gets it.
Speaker:Sign up at mm.us slash survival and let
Speaker:the survival kit do the
Speaker:heavy lifting for once.
Speaker:Welcome to comprehend this.
Speaker:Real talk for real language teachers.
Speaker:No drills, no dry theory, just honest
Speaker:stories, practical ideas,
Speaker:and a reminder you're not
Speaker:alone in the CI trenches.
Speaker:Let's dive in.
Speaker:And we're back.
Speaker:Good morning, Jackie.
Speaker:How are we doing today?
Speaker:I'm doing great Scott.
Speaker:Glad to be here.
Speaker:I'm glad to have you.
Speaker:You are a frequent guest with us.
Speaker:So we love having you
Speaker:back each and every time.
Speaker:And today we've got a new topic.
Speaker:Do they actually like class?
Speaker:Do feedback, fear, and facts.
Speaker:So let's go ahead and
Speaker:get started this morning.
Speaker:What about from the best class ever to
Speaker:never, we never do
Speaker:anything, feedback swings wildly.
Speaker:How do you sort that out between the two?
Speaker:Because I know I get
Speaker:that we never do anything.
Speaker:I'll talk about that after you.
Speaker:Go ahead.
Speaker:OK, so I think a lot of it comes down to
Speaker:knowing your students, right?
Speaker:For me, the ones who are like, oh, well,
Speaker:we never do anything
Speaker:in here are the ones who
Speaker:do not engage more than anything else.
Speaker:Now, sometimes I have had, I mean, I have
Speaker:had students who are
Speaker:really high achieving
Speaker:academically, but they think that, you
Speaker:know, because it doesn't
Speaker:look like school, we're
Speaker:not doing the same thing as
Speaker:the other language classes.
Speaker:We're not doing it.
Speaker:So there's those types.
Speaker:And then there are the type who are not
Speaker:as high performing
Speaker:academically, and they don't
Speaker:necessarily have the skills to stay
Speaker:engaged for whatever
Speaker:reason that might be.
Speaker:And so knowing kind of what category they
Speaker:fall in is kind of how
Speaker:you have to address that.
Speaker:So when it's a, well, this doesn't look
Speaker:like school, if they're
Speaker:the more academically minded
Speaker:type, that's when you personally give
Speaker:them some of the like,
Speaker:OK, so here's why we do
Speaker:what we do.
Speaker:Here's why this works.
Speaker:And sometimes I'll show them like, here's
Speaker:a free right you did
Speaker:at the beginning of the
Speaker:semester.
Speaker:And here's a free right
Speaker:you did two weeks ago.
Speaker:Do you see a difference?
Speaker:OK, you know, so
Speaker:that's one way to handle it.
Speaker:And then with the ones who are not
Speaker:engaging, those are the
Speaker:ones where I go, OK, well, you
Speaker:know, I go over the norms again.
Speaker:Hey, if you don't understand something,
Speaker:you have to let me know.
Speaker:I can fix what I know is a problem.
Speaker:I can't fix it if I
Speaker:don't know it's a problem.
Speaker:So if you're sitting there with
Speaker:headphones in one or two
Speaker:and just staring at me during
Speaker:class, then you're not giving me the
Speaker:feedback I need to help you.
Speaker:Like, I know Spanish aren't.
Speaker:I've been to Spain.
Speaker:I have a degree in Spanish.
Speaker:I have taken Spanish
Speaker:one and two and passed it.
Speaker:I don't need the class.
Speaker:You need the class.
Speaker:So, you know, that's kind of where it is.
Speaker:And then, you know, sometimes, you know,
Speaker:there is some legitimate
Speaker:like we've been doing the
Speaker:same thing over and over and over for
Speaker:several days and we
Speaker:need a routine change.
Speaker:We need to break up to pace a little bit.
Speaker:We need to do something different.
Speaker:But at the end of the day, it comes down
Speaker:to knowing the kids
Speaker:and knowing whether they
Speaker:fall into the "this doesn't seem like
Speaker:school" category or "I
Speaker:don't know how to engage and
Speaker:get the help that I need."
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker:And I wrote a couple notes
Speaker:down as you were talking here.
Speaker:But for me, the kids who say we never do
Speaker:anything, at least my
Speaker:experience, aren't those off-topic
Speaker:kids for me.
Speaker:They're ones who go, "This is what I do
Speaker:in other language classes.
Speaker:This is what I do in other classes."
Speaker:You know, I've got work.
Speaker:I've got class work I've got to do.
Speaker:I've got that busy
Speaker:work to fill in the time.
Speaker:I've got homework that I've got to do.
Speaker:There's always daily assignments I have
Speaker:to write out and turn in.
Speaker:And so they don't do that so they don't
Speaker:realize that they're
Speaker:actually doing something.
Speaker:They go, "We didn't do anything because I
Speaker:didn't have to turn in any work.
Speaker:I didn't have to do this.
Speaker:I didn't have to do that."
Speaker:All I did was sit there.
Speaker:And they don't realize, and even though I
Speaker:explained from the beginning of the year,
Speaker:they let that go right away, that when
Speaker:they're listening and
Speaker:understanding, their brain is
Speaker:doing much more work than it is in an
Speaker:English class or a math class or a
Speaker:science class because
Speaker:they don't have to
Speaker:conquer the language barrier.
Speaker:It's not about just paying
Speaker:attention and learning the topic.
Speaker:It is you have a language barrier so your
Speaker:brain is working 10 times harder.
Speaker:It's one thing not to understand math,
Speaker:but it's a whole other
Speaker:thing not to understand
Speaker:math and a foreign language type of thing
Speaker:because they've got to do that.
Speaker:And I said, "I can't tell what's going on
Speaker:in that brain of yours."
Speaker:I always tell the kids, they go, "This is
Speaker:what a kid who understands looks like.
Speaker:And this is what a kid who doesn't
Speaker:understand looks like.
Speaker:There ain't no difference."
Speaker:So you've got to show me, you've got to
Speaker:give me some
Speaker:demonstrative way that I know that
Speaker:I know that's
Speaker:understanding here, what's going on.
Speaker:And we are joined by
Speaker:our second guest here.
Speaker:Bear with me a moment while
Speaker:I switch screens everybody.
Speaker:Let me add her in.
Speaker:And she'll pop in hopefully in a moment.
Speaker:So welcome Carla, just
Speaker:so if you can hear us.
Speaker:We've already gotten
Speaker:started a little bit.
Speaker:So for me, that's that big thing that is
Speaker:going on that they don't
Speaker:understand all that stuff
Speaker:that's going on.
Speaker:And then they'll come back to me and
Speaker:they'll go like two or
Speaker:three years after they had
Speaker:me, they say, "You
Speaker:know, Profe, I was at...
Speaker:In fact, I just got an
Speaker:email, what two weeks about this.
Speaker:I'm a nurse."
Speaker:He said, "I'm a nurse
Speaker:and I remember your class.
Speaker:I remember the songs we did.
Speaker:I had a couple of years of Spanish after
Speaker:you at the high school
Speaker:and I didn't really learn
Speaker:much in there, but I'm so appreciative
Speaker:because I can use some
Speaker:of the Spanish that I know
Speaker:to make, communicate in my job."
Speaker:And I'm like, "You told me
Speaker:you didn't learn anything.
Speaker:We didn't do anything in class."
Speaker:And he goes, "I was wrong.
Speaker:I just didn't realize it because you
Speaker:don't realize it until you need it."
Speaker:It's kind of like CPR.
Speaker:You kind of forget it goes to the back of
Speaker:your head after your training and then it
Speaker:all comes back to you when
Speaker:you actually kind of need it.
Speaker:So that's the kind of
Speaker:thing that I usually get.
Speaker:My problem this year, oh my gosh, I have
Speaker:my second period, which
Speaker:is the largest apathetic
Speaker:group that I have ever had.
Speaker:I've only got 14 kids in that class.
Speaker:Seven of them are failing, not just my
Speaker:class, but all their classes.
Speaker:I have one girl, I kid you not, and it's
Speaker:not because I'm punitive
Speaker:grading, has a 2% because
Speaker:she's only done like two assignments the
Speaker:entire semester because
Speaker:she just doesn't do the work
Speaker:and they don't want to be there.
Speaker:That's just my class.
Speaker:They don't want to be at school.
Speaker:They don't know how to do school.
Speaker:That's the one that is really hard to
Speaker:give that student feedback
Speaker:to, to get that information
Speaker:going with them
Speaker:because they're so apathetic.
Speaker:They just don't care.
Speaker:No matter what I do to try to engage
Speaker:them, they just want
Speaker:nothing to do with it.
Speaker:They don't even get excited about games.
Speaker:We'll play trash get ball.
Speaker:We'll play trash get ball.
Speaker:They'll argue, "You go throw the ball."
Speaker:"No, you go throw the ball."
Speaker:"No, you go throw the ball."
Speaker:I'm like, "Really?"
Speaker:Most of my kids are
Speaker:like, "We're playing a game.
Speaker:We don't have to do anything else.
Speaker:We're playing a game right now."
Speaker:I'm like, "There's always a method to my
Speaker:madness for a game."
Speaker:But hello, it's a game.
Speaker:It's not regular class.
Speaker:Get a little excited.
Speaker:We've got to be here 90
Speaker:minutes together no matter what.
Speaker:We can either make it somewhat fun and
Speaker:enjoyable, but I'm
Speaker:like, we last, what was it?
Speaker:Friday where I asked them if they wanted
Speaker:to play gimkit or blookit.
Speaker:This is what I got.
Speaker:I'm like, "Guys, it's like pulling teeth.
Speaker:It's just a simple decision.
Speaker:Yes or no?
Speaker:One or the other?"
Speaker:Then I got them.
Speaker:One kid goes, "Blookit."
Speaker:The kid who always answers that question.
Speaker:Which game in Blookit
Speaker:do you want to play?
Speaker:I just upgraded my Blookit.
Speaker:I usually use free Blookit, but they had
Speaker:some Christmas ones.
Speaker:I paid the $9.99 for the month for this.
Speaker:I'm like, "Okay, we got
Speaker:all these ones available.
Speaker:Which one?"
Speaker:It's crickets.
Speaker:I'm like, "Really?"
Speaker:Okay, here's my last question.
Speaker:Do we want to play two games for seven
Speaker:minutes each or one game for 10 minutes?
Speaker:Now, any kid would say two games for
Speaker:seven minutes each because
Speaker:it's four minutes without
Speaker:doing something else.
Speaker:Nobody answered.
Speaker:I'm like, "Come on.
Speaker:It's like really pulling
Speaker:teeth for every little thing."
Speaker:This is even a Spanish decision.
Speaker:I'm asking this question in English.
Speaker:There is no language
Speaker:barrier that needs to happen here.
Speaker:It's just a simple.
Speaker:I said, "We don't have
Speaker:to play a game at all.
Speaker:I've got other activities that I can do
Speaker:that are a lot less interesting."
Speaker:That's been my challenge this semester.
Speaker:I've had kids with challenges before, but
Speaker:I've never had such an apathetic class.
Speaker:I don't think in all my teaching years
Speaker:have I had such an
Speaker:apathetic class that just doesn't
Speaker:care about anything that we do at all.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I had that several times at my last
Speaker:school district where
Speaker:we would have students.
Speaker:It was just complete apathy.
Speaker:Did not care.
Speaker:Did not want to be engaged.
Speaker:Did not want to involve
Speaker:themselves in anything.
Speaker:Is this for a grade?
Speaker:Oh yeah, I get that.
Speaker:That was about the best I got out of it.
Speaker:Is this for a grade?
Speaker:I got to the point where I told them
Speaker:everything is for a grade,
Speaker:even though the vast majority
Speaker:of it did not fill in the grade book.
Speaker:Everything is technically for a grade
Speaker:because it leads up to
Speaker:something that is going to
Speaker:be for a grade.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:I have a girl who goes...
Speaker:When I'm asking them conversation
Speaker:questions, I had to ask
Speaker:them, "How hard is this question
Speaker:to answer?"
Speaker:I said, in Spanish, of course, it says,
Speaker:"Do you have a big
Speaker:family or a small family?"
Speaker:I don't want to answer.
Speaker:I don't want to do this activity.
Speaker:I'm not speaking.
Speaker:I'm like, and I have this sentence
Speaker:scaffolded on the top.
Speaker:It says, "Tango una familia," and then it
Speaker:says, "Grande slash pequeña."
Speaker:That's it.
Speaker:You just literally have to
Speaker:read it off the damn board.
Speaker:They outlay refuse.
Speaker:I'm not doing it.
Speaker:Yeah. I'm like, "Speaking is 25% of your
Speaker:grade," and you're refusing.
Speaker:I've never had kids outright refuse,
Speaker:especially something so dang simple.
Speaker:I'm not asking them to give me a whole
Speaker:dissertation, an oral
Speaker:dissertation in Spanish.
Speaker:I'm asking them to answer me one
Speaker:question, either or, and
Speaker:the sentence is on the board.
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker:It's challenging.
Speaker:Carlotte, your picture's not coming
Speaker:through, so I'm not
Speaker:sure if you're with us.
Speaker:Can you hear us?
Speaker:Yeah, I can hear you.
Speaker:I'm sorry.
Speaker:I'm having problems with my camera, but
Speaker:I've been listening and
Speaker:sympathizing with you guys
Speaker:these few minutes.
Speaker:I really apologize.
Speaker:I'll try to get my camera working.
Speaker:I just can't seem to
Speaker:get it to work right now.
Speaker:No worries.
Speaker:I have a lot of things I could say.
Speaker:I apologize for my phone.
Speaker:I'm trying to silence it here.
Speaker:Yes, I experience those same things, but
Speaker:I tend to be very unique.
Speaker:I'm hard in the beginning, and the
Speaker:expectations are there from
Speaker:day one about the speaking,
Speaker:about the apathy.
Speaker:I tell them I'm onto it.
Speaker:I understand what's going on, and that
Speaker:it's just not going to happen in here.
Speaker:I said eventually, when you see the
Speaker:family that we create,
Speaker:you're going to stick out
Speaker:like a sore thumb.
Speaker:If you don't adopt these kind, inclusive,
Speaker:this is a language
Speaker:class, we're here to learn
Speaker:how to speak.
Speaker:There's really one of the
Speaker:best ways is to practice.
Speaker:I have quad set up.
Speaker:I have my seating set up in a certain way
Speaker:so kids can sit by people
Speaker:that they're comfortable
Speaker:with.
Speaker:Yes, I do experience that, and when I get
Speaker:the, what I call ungratefulness, it's not
Speaker:just apathy.
Speaker:It's being ungrateful
Speaker:for someone who's there.
Speaker:I remind them.
Speaker:I'm like, "Listen, I put 30
Speaker:minutes into this activity.
Speaker:We've got the holidays coming up.
Speaker:I've got some fun.
Speaker:Noel, we've got
Speaker:Hanukkah, we've got everything."
Speaker:I've done my part to try to get something
Speaker:that will hopefully touch all of you.
Speaker:We got Bodhi Day on Monday.
Speaker:Anyway, when they give me that kind of
Speaker:stuff, I kind of snap on
Speaker:them really quick and tell
Speaker:them what kind of
Speaker:classroom we could have.
Speaker:I tell them, "You've
Speaker:been in a CI classroom.
Speaker:You have no idea how
Speaker:boring this classroom could be.
Speaker:Do you want ... Can I
Speaker:go get the worksheets?
Speaker:I'll go get them.
Speaker:We can conjugate ER verbs
Speaker:for the rest of the period.
Speaker:I got to get caught up on grading that
Speaker:the school now
Speaker:doesn't give me enough time.
Speaker:If you want to do that,
Speaker:and it will be worth points.
Speaker:Don't forget who is in charge of your
Speaker:citizenship grade and who
Speaker:is also in charge of not just
Speaker:your letter grade, your citizenship and
Speaker:your work habits grade."
Speaker:I happen to teach in a district where the
Speaker:parents are involved
Speaker:and there is pressure.
Speaker:Of course, I want them to be
Speaker:extrinsically motivated.
Speaker:Luckily, I do have them.
Speaker:Yes, that's my picture.
Speaker:I'm trying to put it in a little spot.
Speaker:No, that's fine.
Speaker:Yes, sometimes you have to do what you
Speaker:have to do just to even
Speaker:get them intrinsically
Speaker:motivated and remind
Speaker:them about the points.
Speaker:Then, sometimes just having that kind of
Speaker:talk like, "Listen guys,
Speaker:it's 9 AM and you're in
Speaker:French class.
Speaker:Can we just bring it down a second?
Speaker:We're just playing the game here."
Speaker:Like what you said, it is Friday.
Speaker:We're trying to end the week.
Speaker:I'm tired too, but you know what?
Speaker:We're here, so let's do something.
Speaker:Anyways, that's kind of
Speaker:how I try to deal with it.
Speaker:I agree with you.
Speaker:I set those expectations, but this class
Speaker:has just been very different.
Speaker:I don't know what it is.
Speaker:They don't care all those
Speaker:little things that are going on.
Speaker:It turned the other seven kids in my
Speaker:classroom to not like the class as well.
Speaker:None of us like that class because we've
Speaker:tried classroom resets.
Speaker:We've done all kinds of things.
Speaker:Whatever it is, it's not working.
Speaker:Some of them, I have one kid who does all
Speaker:four of his teachers because we're on the
Speaker:four by four, have
Speaker:complained about this kid.
Speaker:He's a nice kid, but he does absolutely
Speaker:nothing in class at all.
Speaker:Not a thing.
Speaker:Not in all four of his classes.
Speaker:I would go crazy.
Speaker:I would just do something so I wouldn't
Speaker:be bored for 90 minutes
Speaker:times four, but he does
Speaker:nothing in his classes.
Speaker:In my class, he plays dumb.
Speaker:He's the native speaker of Spanish in a
Speaker:regular Spanish one class.
Speaker:He should be in our
Speaker:Spanish language arts class.
Speaker:He goes, "I don't speak Spanish."
Speaker:I'm like, "Don't lie."
Speaker:The instructions on the computer says,
Speaker:"Contact parents in Spanish only.
Speaker:They don't speak English."
Speaker:You are also in an ESL class.
Speaker:Every once in a while, I'll get him to
Speaker:chime in, but he'll play dumb like, "No."
Speaker:He won't answer a question.
Speaker:I'm like, "Come on.
Speaker:You know the answer."
Speaker:Then I'll make some kind of
Speaker:funny little joke in Spanish.
Speaker:I'll make a comment because
Speaker:two kids are talking together.
Speaker:My little thing is always whenever two
Speaker:kids always keep
Speaker:talking, I'm like, "Oh, is this
Speaker:a budding relationship?
Speaker:Are you in love?"
Speaker:He starts laughing at all these.
Speaker:All the other kids don't
Speaker:understand what I'm saying at all.
Speaker:He's cracking up.
Speaker:I'm like, "I know you know the language."
Speaker:Of all your classes, this
Speaker:one you could get an A in.
Speaker:You don't have to struggle with this one.
Speaker:He goes, "But it's too easy."
Speaker:Then you shouldn't be in this class, but
Speaker:because you're here, you
Speaker:might as well get that easy
Speaker:A, but they never do.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:I mean, that's funny.
Speaker:Go ahead, Carl.
Speaker:No, no.
Speaker:I was just going to say.
Speaker:If you're going to complain about that,
Speaker:and he's like, "Okay,
Speaker:well then you need to prove
Speaker:to me that you're going to actually do
Speaker:the work to be in the
Speaker:other class that you should
Speaker:be in because it's so easy in here."
Speaker:Then they don't want to do that.
Speaker:I have a native speaker who signed up for
Speaker:honors and then did
Speaker:not start doing any of
Speaker:the summer assignments that he was
Speaker:supposed to do that would
Speaker:have been super easy for
Speaker:him because he's a heritage
Speaker:speaker and ESL didn't do it.
Speaker:Finally, dad was like, "I think he's just
Speaker:going to take regular."
Speaker:I was like, "Yeah, that's
Speaker:probably the correct answer."
Speaker:I do have a couple students that this
Speaker:year, it is surprising.
Speaker:I will say, I agree.
Speaker:I have a few that just
Speaker:will not do anything.
Speaker:I think I have about 135 total.
Speaker:I might have a couple where I'm
Speaker:constantly
Speaker:babysitting and I do tell them.
Speaker:I'm like, "Okay, I got to babysit you."
Speaker:I go, "Listen, I don't care if you just
Speaker:copy the story we
Speaker:just read word for word.
Speaker:You don't want to answer the question."
Speaker:You cannot sit there.
Speaker:I tell them.
Speaker:I tell the whole class, "You cannot sit
Speaker:here and just suck up the air.
Speaker:You got to actually give something back.
Speaker:You can't just take up our air.
Speaker:You must do something back."
Speaker:I tell them that in the beginning again,
Speaker:if you never picture
Speaker:yourself ever talking to
Speaker:anyone in this class, this
Speaker:might not be the class for you.
Speaker:I know some people would disagree with
Speaker:that because you want
Speaker:the numbers, but I'll tell
Speaker:them from the very beginning, "I give
Speaker:very little homework.
Speaker:I try to do all of the learning in class.
Speaker:That's just cut, but
Speaker:you've got to buy into it."
Speaker:That's what I was
Speaker:saying about the beginning.
Speaker:Then when I do get those people who are
Speaker:like, "Yeah, whatever lady.
Speaker:I'm going to do whatever I want anyway.
Speaker:I will be your biggest nightmare.
Speaker:I will come over five times and ask you
Speaker:to pick up that pencil."
Speaker:Then I do something that no one likes to
Speaker:do, but sometimes it
Speaker:really, really works.
Speaker:I did it with the one kid that I was
Speaker:experiencing that with who
Speaker:just when I was gone, sub days,
Speaker:I know what he's doing.
Speaker:He's distracting
Speaker:everyone, not doing anything.
Speaker:He's got one of the lower grades of the
Speaker:class, and he just doesn't
Speaker:care about a lot of things.
Speaker:Well, I did reach out to the parents, and
Speaker:they said, "You're
Speaker:the only person who has
Speaker:reached out about my kid, and
Speaker:I'm aware, and you know what?
Speaker:I appreciate it."
Speaker:Oh, we lost Carmen.
Speaker:Others.
Speaker:Or phone call, and I have found that with
Speaker:those kids, those parents do care.
Speaker:They don't want their kid to be that kid,
Speaker:and maybe they're struggling at home too,
Speaker:but that's just what I have found with
Speaker:those extreme ones where
Speaker:I just sit in there with
Speaker:the parents and just
Speaker:say, "This isn't working."
Speaker:Yeah, unfortunately, in my district,
Speaker:those parents are just as apathetic.
Speaker:They don't really care about their kids.
Speaker:I mean, that came out wrong.
Speaker:They do care about their kids.
Speaker:They don't care about their kids' grades
Speaker:or their behavior in the classroom.
Speaker:They'll start responding positively in
Speaker:the beginning, like, "I'll talk to them."
Speaker:After a while, they just shut up and stop
Speaker:saying anything and let their kids go.
Speaker:I'm like, "I had one parent this year."
Speaker:It goes, "Education's really important to
Speaker:me, and I had both of
Speaker:her kids in my class,
Speaker:both of them.
Speaker:They're twins."
Speaker:I'm like, "Okay, great.
Speaker:We can work on this, get this going."
Speaker:By the third week of school, the boy,
Speaker:it's a boy-girl twin,
Speaker:the boy was removed from
Speaker:my classroom because I'm in a satellite
Speaker:part of the school, and
Speaker:he can't be observed as
Speaker:much.
Speaker:He's such a problem, behavioral-wise,
Speaker:grade-wise,
Speaker:inappropriateness, all that stuff.
Speaker:They pulled him back to the main campus
Speaker:for the whole day, and
Speaker:he still gets in trouble.
Speaker:His list is huge.
Speaker:Mother's not involved, doesn't really
Speaker:care about doing that.
Speaker:The girl, the moment that her brother was
Speaker:taken off that campus
Speaker:and going to the main
Speaker:campus, she shut down.
Speaker:Both of them are
Speaker:failing all four classes.
Speaker:You can't tell me that you think
Speaker:education's important if
Speaker:you're letting your kids fail
Speaker:out of their freshman year, essentially
Speaker:putting them on a
Speaker:five-year plan because now they
Speaker:have to make up four classes, and we only
Speaker:allow them to make up
Speaker:one class per summer.
Speaker:Now their next four summers are already
Speaker:taken for these first four classes.
Speaker:They have a whole new set of classes
Speaker:coming up in January,
Speaker:another four, and then they've
Speaker:got three more years after that.
Speaker:I think it's just the area that I'm in.
Speaker:I have a mixture of social-etronomical
Speaker:situations in my area, and
Speaker:it's apparent it shows up
Speaker:that some of the parents are apathetic as
Speaker:well, which doesn't help the kids at all.
Speaker:It's just a struggle.
Speaker:It is a struggle all the way around.
Speaker:A parent can think that education is
Speaker:important and not
Speaker:know what to do about it.
Speaker:I think a lot of parents,
Speaker:they get into parenting.
Speaker:They have children because they think
Speaker:that's what they're
Speaker:supposed to do, or something
Speaker:happens, and they end up with a kid that
Speaker:they didn't really
Speaker:plan on having, whatever.
Speaker:Then they don't know what to do.
Speaker:They don't know how to do discipline with
Speaker:their children, and
Speaker:they don't know how to
Speaker:raise their children in a way where their
Speaker:children are respectful and do the things
Speaker:that they're supposed to do.
Speaker:You can think, "Oh yeah, education is
Speaker:important," but not have a
Speaker:single clue of how to help
Speaker:your child access that.
Speaker:That's very true, but a
Speaker:lot of us ... A lot of us ...
Speaker:That's something we as
Speaker:teachers can do anything about.
Speaker:A lot of us put in the information,
Speaker:because we have academic outreach.
Speaker:We have parenting classes.
Speaker:We've got lots of different things, and
Speaker:we put that in there.
Speaker:We have to give out a legal statement
Speaker:about your child is
Speaker:failing at certain points of
Speaker:the year because we have to at least give
Speaker:them two notices, or
Speaker:we can't fail them by
Speaker:state law.
Speaker:We can't fail them if you haven't given
Speaker:the parents notices.
Speaker:Even though they've got progress reports
Speaker:and report cards, that's not enough.
Speaker:You have to give them
Speaker:notice before those.
Speaker:I have a standard email that I use for
Speaker:that, and I give them all
Speaker:the little resources that
Speaker:go on.
Speaker:The system principals will pull the
Speaker:parents in about
Speaker:discipline and give them suggestions
Speaker:on how we can do it, but the parent
Speaker:doesn't know, "I don't
Speaker:want my child in detention.
Speaker:I don't want my child doing this.
Speaker:I don't want my child doing that."
Speaker:Our hands are completely tied because
Speaker:they're putting all these little
Speaker:restrictions on there.
Speaker:We do try to give them opportunities.
Speaker:I know that some may, like you said, be
Speaker:inexperienced parents and such and such.
Speaker:By high school, I would hope that they've
Speaker:gotten some help along the way if they're
Speaker:really having trouble.
Speaker:This one kid, we'll call him B. He has no
Speaker:relation to his name,
Speaker:but I'm just saying,
Speaker:he says he talks to his mother the same
Speaker:way that he talks to us
Speaker:and the assistant principal,
Speaker:which is horribly
Speaker:disrespectful and loud and uses Gus words.
Speaker:I'm like, "I would not be alive today if
Speaker:I talked to my mother that way.
Speaker:My mother would have
Speaker:completely killed me."
Speaker:I can certainly see what you're saying,
Speaker:but I think at some
Speaker:point they need to seek some
Speaker:help if they're really
Speaker:having that struggle.
Speaker:Yeah, no.
Speaker:I completely agree with you.
Speaker:I don't say that to absolve
Speaker:the parents of responsibility.
Speaker:It's more of a, "This is a situation that
Speaker:we deal with that we don't have."
Speaker:I as a classroom teacher do not have the
Speaker:ability to fix that.
Speaker:My district does have some
Speaker:resources for that kind of thing.
Speaker:There's a lot of places where those
Speaker:resources aren't accessible.
Speaker:I love that your district has that.
Speaker:You're right, there are parents who are
Speaker:still not going to do
Speaker:that because they do truly
Speaker:do not care about their children.
Speaker:They don't care about what their children
Speaker:are going to become
Speaker:and the path that they
Speaker:are putting their
Speaker:children on by not parenting.
Speaker:The door is by closing the doors for
Speaker:opportunities for them.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Karla, at this moment, why don't we take
Speaker:a little bit of a
Speaker:break so that you can talk
Speaker:about yourself a little bit, let
Speaker:everybody know who you are.
Speaker:Okay, so I am a teacher
Speaker:in Southern California.
Speaker:I am a native Spanish
Speaker:speaker, born in Mexico.
Speaker:I just took French in high school because
Speaker:I felt that Spanish was too easy.
Speaker:I've got both of those.
Speaker:I've been teaching using, I guess, well,
Speaker:first TPRS and then CI and now it's just
Speaker:kind of really my own thing.
Speaker:Thankfully the entire time that I have
Speaker:been teaching, I broke
Speaker:away from, not that I didn't
Speaker:love the way that I was taught.
Speaker:That's kind of my story.
Speaker:I've developed my own curriculum and I do
Speaker:a lot of work on how to engage students.
Speaker:Like I said, it took a long time for me
Speaker:to get to where I am.
Speaker:I absolutely command respect and I do.
Speaker:I do come in with a strong presence in
Speaker:the beginning and some
Speaker:of those things that they
Speaker:say like, don't smile until October.
Speaker:I wouldn't go that extreme, but I
Speaker:definitely, I say, guys, I
Speaker:am a very ... Some of you will
Speaker:think I am the most chill, relaxed
Speaker:teacher because there's a
Speaker:lot of big picture things
Speaker:I do not stress about.
Speaker:I go, however, the respect towards me and
Speaker:the respect towards
Speaker:each other and the fact
Speaker:that this is a language class and then
Speaker:I'm going to get you to
Speaker:turn to talk to one another
Speaker:constantly in here,
Speaker:that is not negotiable.
Speaker:I spend like two days and they probably
Speaker:are like, enough lady.
Speaker:However, it sets the tone because I can't
Speaker:teach the way I do if I
Speaker:don't have that buy-in
Speaker:because there's a lot of chatting.
Speaker:I do a lot of
Speaker:personalized questions and answers.
Speaker:Every Monday I share what I did over the
Speaker:weekend and then we
Speaker:spend, could spend almost the
Speaker:entire period talking about them.
Speaker:So all of that requires a lot of like
Speaker:molding in the beginning
Speaker:and then the kids that know
Speaker:me, they're like, yay, because I tend to
Speaker:teach them sometimes
Speaker:for up to four years.
Speaker:They like these routines.
Speaker:So I'm all about the routines and you've
Speaker:got to have ... Myself
Speaker:personally, I'm not such
Speaker:a structured person, but I have learned
Speaker:and just become a
Speaker:structured teacher where I need
Speaker:to be so that I can be
Speaker:unstructured where I need to be.
Speaker:And I know I make it sound easy, but it's
Speaker:really, it's hard
Speaker:because sometimes you have
Speaker:to be the bad guy.
Speaker:Well can we just do this?
Speaker:Well, can we just do that?
Speaker:Or like, I'll play a video of
Speaker:my favorite storyteller, Alisa.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They'll be like, oh, no.
Speaker:I say, excuse me.
Speaker:That is my friend.
Speaker:And you are not going to disrespect my
Speaker:friend from across the globe.
Speaker:You will watch it and
Speaker:you have two choices.
Speaker:You can either watch it and learn
Speaker:something and get better at
Speaker:French or you can pretend.
Speaker:That's it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And so it sounds, but once they get to
Speaker:know me, they know
Speaker:that's just, you know, Madam
Speaker:McCann asserting herself.
Speaker:However, I really am not that person.
Speaker:So I don't know how to describe it
Speaker:because you guys don't
Speaker:know me, but you'd get to
Speaker:know what I mean.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I have.
Speaker:So when it comes to respect, I think
Speaker:that's where I'm like,
Speaker:I'll crack the whip and I'm
Speaker:not negotiable.
Speaker:And after a while, those bad kids or
Speaker:those apathetic or those
Speaker:ones that are always, they
Speaker:do stick out like a sore thumb.
Speaker:They're the ones that, but you know, it's
Speaker:taken me a long time to get here.
Speaker:So anyways, that's it.
Speaker:My thing always is that it's always for
Speaker:me was always try to get
Speaker:those kids, that particular
Speaker:kid who the kid who's a potential
Speaker:troublemaker on my side from
Speaker:right away in the beginning.
Speaker:So so I'll go right away and I will,
Speaker:let's say if we're going
Speaker:to like, I start the first
Speaker:couple of weeks.
Speaker:Why is my screen not working right?
Speaker:I start the first couple of weeks.
Speaker:I'm always, you know, doing the
Speaker:conversations with kids,
Speaker:getting to know who my kids are.
Speaker:And I'll pick that kid that the one that
Speaker:I can see right away
Speaker:is going to give me, try
Speaker:to give me trouble.
Speaker:I'll pick him right away and start
Speaker:getting him on my side,
Speaker:making him look successful
Speaker:because lots of times it's because they
Speaker:don't feel they, they,
Speaker:by the time they've gotten
Speaker:to me, they've had so many bad
Speaker:experiences with school
Speaker:that they're over it and they
Speaker:want nothing to do with it anymore.
Speaker:And so they've been made to look dumb or
Speaker:not smart or embarrassed in class.
Speaker:And so I want to get them right away and
Speaker:make them look like they're smart,
Speaker:they're intelligent,
Speaker:they're engaging.
Speaker:Cause they get them
Speaker:right away on that side.
Speaker:I work really hard to try that.
Speaker:Sometimes it works.
Speaker:Sometimes it doesn't, but Lee showing
Speaker:them that in this class,
Speaker:they're the smartest kid
Speaker:in the room can sometimes deflect the
Speaker:attitude that they're
Speaker:getting because I make sure that
Speaker:they're successful.
Speaker:I only ask them questions that I know
Speaker:that they can answer so
Speaker:that it makes them look
Speaker:smart in front of their peers.
Speaker:They don't have to go, well, I don't know
Speaker:what you're saying, or I don't understand
Speaker:that or I don't know the answer that I
Speaker:never asked them
Speaker:questions that are so challenging
Speaker:that they can't answer.
Speaker:It's always a yes, no, or an either, or,
Speaker:and nine times out of
Speaker:10, I'm pointing at the
Speaker:answer at the same time.
Speaker:And that kid notices I'm pointing at the
Speaker:answer, but the other
Speaker:kids don't really notice that
Speaker:I'm pointing at the answer because they
Speaker:don't need me to point the answer out.
Speaker:So they're not even looking for some kind
Speaker:of life preserver to
Speaker:be handed out to them
Speaker:where this kid is desperate.
Speaker:He's looking for the life preserver to
Speaker:get out of the situation.
Speaker:So I try to work on that too in the
Speaker:beginning of the year.
Speaker:Always try to get them and
Speaker:I'll start again in January.
Speaker:I got a new class set of kids coming up.
Speaker:So we'll try it again.
Speaker:Hopefully, I just won't
Speaker:get that apathetic class.
Speaker:Yeah, no, I know what you
Speaker:mean about that type of kid too.
Speaker:I will spot them right away.
Speaker:And even if I have to like crack, you
Speaker:know, whatever, say
Speaker:something one day, you, as soon
Speaker:as you see them doing something good, you
Speaker:know, you go onto the
Speaker:phrase like, Oh my gosh,
Speaker:let's just call him, I
Speaker:don't know, Lucas or whatever.
Speaker:Oh my gosh, you did that.
Speaker:Did everyone see how Lucas just did this?
Speaker:Do that again, Lucas.
Speaker:Say it one more time.
Speaker:And then, you know, they look around
Speaker:sometimes like
Speaker:victorious, like that's right.
Speaker:You know, the teacher is
Speaker:highlighting me and absolutely.
Speaker:So when they're always, that's one thing
Speaker:I think that gives me
Speaker:the buy-in is that yes,
Speaker:if I catch you being disrespectful or
Speaker:saying something rude or
Speaker:whatever, I will say something.
Speaker:But if I catch you doing something great,
Speaker:I try to do more
Speaker:praising than I do reprimanding.
Speaker:So I do a lot of, I'll be like a lot of
Speaker:applause for the dumbest things.
Speaker:Anyways.
Speaker:Yeah, it's true.
Speaker:You know, that little policy of, you
Speaker:know, giving two
Speaker:positives for every one negative
Speaker:or PBIS says you've
Speaker:got to give five to one.
Speaker:So five positive interactions for every
Speaker:one negative interaction in there.
Speaker:That's not always possible because
Speaker:sometimes it's really hard to find.
Speaker:But yeah, PBIS, I forget
Speaker:always what it stands for.
Speaker:Positive behavior intervention.
Speaker:Is there is I think that's what it is.
Speaker:I don't remember.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Thank you for teaching me
Speaker:that I'm going to focus on that.
Speaker:Yeah, because it's and it's funny because
Speaker:I am on the PBIS committee.
Speaker:I don't even know what the thing means.
Speaker:Stands for I know what
Speaker:it is, but it stands for.
Speaker:But it's positive behavior intervention
Speaker:systems or something like that.
Speaker:But yes, they always recommend five to
Speaker:one and anybody can go
Speaker:to the PBIS website, which
Speaker:is a really good resource because you can
Speaker:plug in the
Speaker:discipline issue you're having
Speaker:with your student and it gives you some
Speaker:suggestions of what to do.
Speaker:So that is really, really helpful.
Speaker:So if anybody struggling with that, that
Speaker:is a great resource.
Speaker:Let's move on a little bit here and talk
Speaker:about collecting usable feedback.
Speaker:So what methods do you use to give honest
Speaker:insight to your
Speaker:students without turning into
Speaker:a therapy or a lecture or
Speaker:doing so much work on your end?
Speaker:Because as Carla said, they're giving us
Speaker:less and less time to
Speaker:actually grade and assess
Speaker:and give that feedback.
Speaker:So we need to economize our our our time
Speaker:couldn't think the
Speaker:word economize our time.
Speaker:And we talked I believe it was last week
Speaker:we talked about a
Speaker:balance between your school
Speaker:life and your personal life.
Speaker:And we need to have that balance.
Speaker:So what kinds of things do you use in
Speaker:each of your classrooms
Speaker:to collect that feedback
Speaker:and give that feedback back to students
Speaker:so that they can take
Speaker:action upon that and whoever
Speaker:wants to start can.
Speaker:Go ahead, Jackie, you can go first.
Speaker:So I usually keep it pretty simple.
Speaker:I if I noticed that there's a specific
Speaker:issue with like a
Speaker:specific student, I will usually
Speaker:go ahead and just pull them and be like,
Speaker:yo, what's going on?
Speaker:You know, I am I would not say that I'm
Speaker:100% fluent in Gen Z
Speaker:Gen Alpha slang, but I am
Speaker:better at it than the
Speaker:average bear it seems.
Speaker:And so I will employ it when needed to
Speaker:like get them to level
Speaker:with me and be like, listen,
Speaker:I can speak your language.
Speaker:What is going on?
Speaker:Like, and if I need a more broader set of
Speaker:feedback, I usually
Speaker:just do a Google form.
Speaker:And when I do a Google form, one of the
Speaker:things I lead with
Speaker:getting them to evaluate their
Speaker:own actions because I firmly believe that
Speaker:students need to own their own behavior.
Speaker:They need to learn the accountability of
Speaker:they need to show up
Speaker:and they need to choose to
Speaker:engage.
Speaker:And I can't choose that for them.
Speaker:If I could unscrew the top of their skull
Speaker:and take Spanish and
Speaker:just shove it in there
Speaker:and put the lid back on, I would do that.
Speaker:Because then I could do
Speaker:other things with my time.
Speaker:But I can't do that.
Speaker:And I tell them that, you know, if I
Speaker:could do that, I would.
Speaker:This is the closest
Speaker:thing I have to doing that.
Speaker:So that's what we're going to do.
Speaker:So if you are not doing the things that
Speaker:you need to do, you
Speaker:need to recognize that you
Speaker:need to choose to make that change.
Speaker:I can't change it.
Speaker:Now, if there are breakdowns in what I'm
Speaker:doing, then I do want to know.
Speaker:But we're going to start with going with
Speaker:putting it on you of what am
Speaker:I doing that is contributing
Speaker:to this?
Speaker:So.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:How about you, Carla?
Speaker:I think I misunderstood the question.
Speaker:Like we were asking about assessment.
Speaker:Is that what you were saying?
Speaker:Yeah, that's yeah.
Speaker:Like, yeah, feedback on
Speaker:their progress in language.
Speaker:In language.
Speaker:OK, so I keep a portfolio of my students.
Speaker:So I keep anything that shows written
Speaker:work that came from their head.
Speaker:I collect it all year.
Speaker:And if I have them for multiple years,
Speaker:like I have students
Speaker:that have now been with me
Speaker:for four years, they
Speaker:have a huge portfolio.
Speaker:So really, it's written work, right?
Speaker:Written work.
Speaker:The best assessment is what
Speaker:can come out of their head.
Speaker:And so I guess I
Speaker:would put that at the top.
Speaker:Of course, I have my multiple choice
Speaker:because you need to give
Speaker:that to some of the students
Speaker:who don't shine with being
Speaker:assessed by what can you do.
Speaker:But they shine in other ways.
Speaker:They're good at memorizing.
Speaker:They put in the work.
Speaker:You know, some students have to work
Speaker:harder to become fluent
Speaker:or write better or speak
Speaker:better in the target language.
Speaker:But really, it's writing.
Speaker:And how do I do it so that I don't have
Speaker:to spend my whole life?
Speaker:It is now the true assessment to me is
Speaker:writing or speaking.
Speaker:So either they make a language video.
Speaker:I have a partnership with the school in
Speaker:France and we exchange
Speaker:six videos throughout the
Speaker:year.
Speaker:You know, intro videos,
Speaker:we present our school.
Speaker:So that's one way I assess.
Speaker:And then, of course, you know, the
Speaker:standard quizzes where did
Speaker:you know what happened in
Speaker:the story?
Speaker:And then for me, the top is writing.
Speaker:So what in the story of whatever, "noi
Speaker:misterios," "mysterious
Speaker:nights," "noce es misteriosas,"
Speaker:you know what I mean?
Speaker:Right to me, like when we get to level
Speaker:two, I want them to
Speaker:tell me like, what part was
Speaker:the status for you or what
Speaker:part did you find funniest?
Speaker:And so to me, that's
Speaker:the type of assessment.
Speaker:Now, we practice a ton of it and we do
Speaker:rough drafts and I get
Speaker:them really, really set up.
Speaker:And we go over the types
Speaker:of vocab that they likely...
Speaker:And I'm all about going back to the text.
Speaker:So I give my students
Speaker:the prompts ahead of time.
Speaker:I am not a gotcha teacher.
Speaker:And here's what I'm going to ask you on
Speaker:the written part of the big test.
Speaker:And so I do short writing prompts is what
Speaker:I've started doing so
Speaker:that I can still see
Speaker:how they're writing and how they're, you
Speaker:know, but I don't have to
Speaker:spend a ton of time grading
Speaker:it.
Speaker:Just shorter prompts and maybe in the
Speaker:past I'd have them do
Speaker:like a longer written mini
Speaker:essay or something.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:And I'm with you as well.
Speaker:I...
Speaker:The writing and the speaking are for me,
Speaker:that's why it's so high
Speaker:in my grade book because
Speaker:that really tells me what they under...
Speaker:You know, what they
Speaker:can do in the language.
Speaker:If they can speak it, then I know they
Speaker:can understand listening
Speaker:because in order to get
Speaker:to speak, you have to
Speaker:understand what you hear.
Speaker:And I know when I assess writing that
Speaker:they have to actually be
Speaker:able to understand reading
Speaker:because reading is the
Speaker:stepping stone to writing.
Speaker:So if I only had to assess two things,
Speaker:all I would ever
Speaker:assess would be speaking and
Speaker:writing because those two things already
Speaker:will tell me how well
Speaker:they understood language
Speaker:that they hear and understood language
Speaker:that they saw because
Speaker:those are stepping stones.
Speaker:You can't get to the speaking and writing
Speaker:until you can understand.
Speaker:And then I do it a lot of different ways.
Speaker:I do exit tickets.
Speaker:I have my exit tickets that are going and
Speaker:I make my exit
Speaker:tickets kind of a little bit
Speaker:goofy so they're not the
Speaker:same type of thing every time.
Speaker:Like the one I'm going to be giving on
Speaker:Monday is if you could
Speaker:explain one thing from this
Speaker:class to a five year
Speaker:old, how would you do it?
Speaker:So that not only do they have to go back
Speaker:and think about what
Speaker:we did in class and pick
Speaker:something, but then they've also got to
Speaker:then put it in their own
Speaker:words and then take those
Speaker:words and now lower them
Speaker:down to a five year old's level.
Speaker:So that takes a lot of higher brain power
Speaker:and they really
Speaker:synthesize that information
Speaker:and I can get a really good feedback as
Speaker:to whether or not they
Speaker:understood what we did
Speaker:that day or not.
Speaker:So I'm doing two really good things that
Speaker:I love and the videos
Speaker:I'm going to talk about
Speaker:started in COVID and I can't even think
Speaker:now what the name of that app was.
Speaker:They closed it like two years ago.
Speaker:I used Flipgrid.
Speaker:I used to use Flipgrid for recording
Speaker:these because I could
Speaker:have kids interact with each
Speaker:other on the Flipgrid and back and forth.
Speaker:I have not found a
Speaker:good replacement for that.
Speaker:That actually allows for kids to have
Speaker:that interaction with
Speaker:each other on the video,
Speaker:but what I used for that now is formative
Speaker:and so formative I can
Speaker:have them do a recorded
Speaker:video because I want to make sure they're
Speaker:not reading off something.
Speaker:A recorded video of a question that we
Speaker:did that day and so it
Speaker:started in COVID because
Speaker:we were online and I had no interaction
Speaker:with my kids so I could
Speaker:get that which helped me
Speaker:learn their names faster because I'm
Speaker:seeing their picture with
Speaker:their name all that time,
Speaker:but I was getting a really good sense of
Speaker:their speaking ability
Speaker:over time because normally
Speaker:I'd have a speaking assessment.
Speaker:In level one, I wouldn't even do the
Speaker:first speaking
Speaker:assessment until the third month
Speaker:of school because they got to have all
Speaker:that language put in
Speaker:their head first, but then
Speaker:it would be maybe I'd give two or three
Speaker:speaking assessments a
Speaker:grading period and it really
Speaker:is not enough to get a good picture.
Speaker:I mean, yes, we're having conversations
Speaker:and interactions
Speaker:regularly throughout the time,
Speaker:but this constant thing like the videos
Speaker:really, really helped me.
Speaker:It's solidified and I had evidence that I
Speaker:could back up and I
Speaker:got to really know the
Speaker:kids' speaking ability over time.
Speaker:That's one of the things I do.
Speaker:Because I'm on a 90-minute block every
Speaker:day, we spend, Mondays
Speaker:is the weekend talk, but
Speaker:every other Tuesday through Friday, I
Speaker:have one question to
Speaker:ask kids and I was talking
Speaker:to Jackie off air earlier.
Speaker:The question, one of the questions this
Speaker:past week was, "Do you
Speaker:have a large or small family?"
Speaker:Because we're reviewing the family
Speaker:vocabulary, so that's
Speaker:what we're talking about.
Speaker:Then the second question this week was,
Speaker:"Who's your favorite
Speaker:family member and why?"
Speaker:We go and answer these questions orally
Speaker:in class together and
Speaker:then I give them three
Speaker:minutes to go and record their video on
Speaker:their Chromebook right away.
Speaker:I can go back and view those
Speaker:and really get a good sense.
Speaker:They all get graded, absolutely not.
Speaker:I mean, I'll put a grade so the kids can
Speaker:see it on there, but
Speaker:the grade doesn't always
Speaker:go into the book in there.
Speaker:That second one that I
Speaker:love is quick writes.
Speaker:I hate the writing that comes on a final
Speaker:exam or a midterm
Speaker:because kids have so much time
Speaker:to make their writing look pretty.
Speaker:I want to see the rawness because when
Speaker:it's rawness, they
Speaker:don't have time to fix their
Speaker:mistakes.
Speaker:I can see where their strengths and where
Speaker:their weaknesses are and then use that to
Speaker:help build my lessons going forward.
Speaker:I love quick writes.
Speaker:Another tool that I use is formative.com.
Speaker:That's where all my assessments go in,
Speaker:all my class activities.
Speaker:Anything that they're turning in for
Speaker:grade goes into formative.
Speaker:I like formative.com.
Speaker:It's worth my $15 a month.
Speaker:I pay for that because they have like, I
Speaker:want to say 15 to 20
Speaker:different types of activities
Speaker:you could have kids do.
Speaker:There is drag and drop,
Speaker:like fill in the blanks.
Speaker:They can drag and drop.
Speaker:They have short answer.
Speaker:They have essay answer.
Speaker:They have scramble so you can put a story
Speaker:sentences together
Speaker:like we used to cut the
Speaker:strips and they can drag and drop them
Speaker:and put them in order.
Speaker:Some of the things can be auto graded.
Speaker:Some of the things can't.
Speaker:I can make rubrics, which makes it really
Speaker:easy for me to assess using a rubric.
Speaker:I can do multiple choice,
Speaker:short answer, fill in the blank.
Speaker:All of those things I can do.
Speaker:Audio responses, video
Speaker:responses are all there.
Speaker:I love this tool so much and it keeps
Speaker:track of every student
Speaker:based off the standards because
Speaker:I can assign a
Speaker:standard to everything I do.
Speaker:I can go and look at that student and see
Speaker:much better than the
Speaker:grade book because the
Speaker:grade book does not do it by standard.
Speaker:I can't see it that way and I can't see
Speaker:it all nice and pretty
Speaker:in our grade book like
Speaker:I want to.
Speaker:I can go in there and see the standards.
Speaker:One point one, which is the interpersonal
Speaker:skills and one point
Speaker:two is the interpretive
Speaker:skills.
Speaker:I can go and see where my kid's strengths
Speaker:and weaknesses are on
Speaker:individual very easily
Speaker:with formative.
Speaker:I like that, but why it's great for
Speaker:feedback is I can record oral feedback.
Speaker:I don't want to type.
Speaker:I just hit the button and I can go and
Speaker:talk to the kid right
Speaker:then and there and say my
Speaker:feedback right to them
Speaker:about that assignment.
Speaker:They can also, during a test or an
Speaker:assessment or whatever
Speaker:they're doing, they can pose a
Speaker:question to me right away
Speaker:and it pops up on my screen.
Speaker:I can see it live and I can answer that.
Speaker:That prevents the kid coming up to the
Speaker:class and goes, "I
Speaker:thought the answer number four
Speaker:was A, but could it possibly be B, can
Speaker:you help me with this one?"
Speaker:You're like, "You're giving away the
Speaker:answers orally to the whole class.
Speaker:It's happened to me so
Speaker:many times back before."
Speaker:Now they can just pose that question
Speaker:secretly right in there and
Speaker:I can go ahead and answer.
Speaker:I can also group feedback.
Speaker:I can go everybody who put B, which is a
Speaker:wrong answer for number
Speaker:two, I can say everybody
Speaker:who put B and I can type one time the
Speaker:feedback for that
Speaker:question, why it's wrong, and click
Speaker:send and it goes to just
Speaker:those kids who got it wrong.
Speaker:The best part about it, you can save and
Speaker:pin common feedback
Speaker:things that you always write.
Speaker:You always write like, I don't know, I'm
Speaker:trying to think of one,
Speaker:like this needs to be answered
Speaker:in Spanish or whatever.
Speaker:I can just use the pinned ones too and
Speaker:just click on the
Speaker:pinned ones so I have to type
Speaker:them up every time, plus they keep the
Speaker:last like 10 that you wrote.
Speaker:You can just click those.
Speaker:If you don't want to save them forever,
Speaker:you can just click on those.
Speaker:It saves me so much time.
Speaker:If I didn't have formative, I was trying
Speaker:to look this up while
Speaker:you guys were talking,
Speaker:the one app that I really, really like
Speaker:for giving oral feedback
Speaker:to kids is called Mote,
Speaker:M-O-T-E dot com.
Speaker:Let me put it here in the chat, mote.com.
Speaker:This is a relatively inexpensive app.
Speaker:They do have a free version which allows
Speaker:them to record 20 voice
Speaker:recordings, one minute
Speaker:limit.
Speaker:Then you can listen to the voice, notice
Speaker:that the kids can respond back to.
Speaker:It works really well.
Speaker:But for 60 bucks a year, it's $59.40, you
Speaker:get many more features
Speaker:and that doesn't come
Speaker:out to very much for the
Speaker:year, even on a teacher's budget.
Speaker:But you can have it
Speaker:read aloud some things.
Speaker:If you have a kid who needs special needs
Speaker:and they need it to
Speaker:be read to them, it'll
Speaker:do that.
Speaker:You can leave unlimited voice responses
Speaker:up to five minutes so
Speaker:you're not limited to those
Speaker:20.
Speaker:You can save and reuse voice recordings,
Speaker:so some kind of
Speaker:feedback you use over and over
Speaker:and over again.
Speaker:It'll translate into 60
Speaker:plus different languages.
Speaker:If you have a kid whose English is not
Speaker:their first language, and
Speaker:then you can create classes
Speaker:so you can monitor it back and forth.
Speaker:I don't use this app because I have
Speaker:something else and I have
Speaker:no affiliation with this app.
Speaker:I'm not getting any kickback from it.
Speaker:It's just an app that I know that
Speaker:teachers have used and
Speaker:found very, very useful for
Speaker:giving that feedback.
Speaker:There's lots of different things.
Speaker:Plus, all the other feedback that we do
Speaker:in class with, it
Speaker:doesn't have to be pencil and
Speaker:paper feedback all the time.
Speaker:Having listening to the kids when they
Speaker:answer the questions,
Speaker:observing what they're doing.
Speaker:Even games, GIMCIT and BLOOKIT, which are
Speaker:the two most
Speaker:versatile games that I use in
Speaker:my classroom, the kids think it's just a
Speaker:game and they're
Speaker:competing against each other for
Speaker:candy.
Speaker:But in the back end, I can see which
Speaker:questions they got right,
Speaker:which ones they got wrong.
Speaker:I know they adapt and give the questions
Speaker:the kids get wrong, get
Speaker:thrown at them more often
Speaker:than other questions.
Speaker:That's even a type of formative
Speaker:assessment that I can do
Speaker:that I can get feedback and
Speaker:I can look at and see, "Oh, all my
Speaker:students got this
Speaker:question wrong and so now I need
Speaker:to work on that question."
Speaker:Or, just this small group
Speaker:of kids or just this one kid.
Speaker:I can always adapt and differentiate my
Speaker:lessons going forward
Speaker:based on that information.
Speaker:My kids just played a game on BLOOKIT or
Speaker:played a game on GIMCIT
Speaker:and they didn't do anything
Speaker:else, but I still got feedback.
Speaker:It was like a quiz and they didn't even
Speaker:realize that it was like
Speaker:a quiz and it's repetitive
Speaker:because I'll play for
Speaker:10 minutes at a time.
Speaker:Those questions, there might
Speaker:be only 25 questions in there.
Speaker:In 10 minutes, they're getting those
Speaker:questions over and over and
Speaker:over and over and over again.
Speaker:It really is helpful and you can make
Speaker:questions about anything.
Speaker:They could be verb conjugation questions,
Speaker:they can be vocabulary
Speaker:questions, they could
Speaker:be story questions.
Speaker:Here's a little cheat sheet.
Speaker:Use chat GPT.
Speaker:You can put, let's say, I have a vocab
Speaker:list that we have to use from school.
Speaker:I'll take the English vocab, I'm sorry,
Speaker:the Spanish vocab list.
Speaker:I'll upload a chat GPT along with a
Speaker:BLOOKIT or a GIMCIT
Speaker:blank template that they have
Speaker:for uploading the answers.
Speaker:I'll tell chat GPT,
Speaker:"Please take this vocabulary.
Speaker:I want you to ask the questions in
Speaker:English, give me four
Speaker:multiple choice answers and fill
Speaker:in this template for me for BLOOKIT or
Speaker:for GIMCIT, whatever."
Speaker:In two minutes flat, they give me a
Speaker:downloadable file that I can
Speaker:upload to BLOOKIT or GIMCIT
Speaker:and I don't have to type in
Speaker:all the A, B, C, D options.
Speaker:It saves me so much time.
Speaker:Use chat GPT as a classroom assistant.
Speaker:It works wonders and it will put them in
Speaker:those particular formats
Speaker:for you so you don't have
Speaker:to worry about it.
Speaker:Those are my ways of giving feedback that
Speaker:allows kids to take
Speaker:action upon that feedback
Speaker:or for me because most of the feedback,
Speaker:let's be honest, the
Speaker:kids aren't going to really
Speaker:take it or pay much attention, but I'll
Speaker:use it for myself
Speaker:because I'll make notes and
Speaker:say, "Oh, I see all these kids are having
Speaker:trouble with this
Speaker:particular thing and I can
Speaker:make and use that information for myself
Speaker:when I'm going to make
Speaker:lesson plans going forward."
Speaker:Yeah, I do a lot of note card, exit
Speaker:tickets for that kind of
Speaker:feedback and I mostly just
Speaker:kind of skim them for, "Okay, what do I
Speaker:need to target a little
Speaker:bit more in future classes?"
Speaker:When it comes to giving feedback to
Speaker:students, that is an area
Speaker:that I could stand to grow
Speaker:in, although I usually get pretty high
Speaker:scores in that in my evaluations.
Speaker:It comes down a lot to time and I wish I
Speaker:had more time to
Speaker:conference with students.
Speaker:I could say, "Here's what I'm seeing.
Speaker:There are some things that you should
Speaker:maybe try to pay more
Speaker:attention to in class and
Speaker:that I don't want you to
Speaker:grow in this and this."
Speaker:There's always more to be done.
Speaker:That's what I would love to be able to do
Speaker:as well if I had more
Speaker:time to be able to have
Speaker:conferences with kids, but there's no
Speaker:time in the schedule for that.
Speaker:With my high school kids and the area
Speaker:that I teach in, like in
Speaker:my middle school, I could
Speaker:have done it better or I could talk to
Speaker:kids and have kids do
Speaker:something else and not have
Speaker:to babysit them, but in my classes now,
Speaker:the moment I take my
Speaker:eyes off what they're doing
Speaker:is the moment that all hell is breaking
Speaker:loose in my classroom.
Speaker:I can't take the time in the classroom to
Speaker:actually interact with the kids like that
Speaker:one-on-one where I can go through and go
Speaker:with their essay or
Speaker:whatever they wrote and
Speaker:talk about that.
Speaker:That is one area that I
Speaker:would love to have more time in.
Speaker:I wish in high school they would schedule
Speaker:those conference
Speaker:times in there along with
Speaker:finals that we can have that.
Speaker:Give us one day where we can schedule
Speaker:kids an appointment for
Speaker:kids to be able to talk
Speaker:about them and their grades and have that
Speaker:one-on-one with them
Speaker:because in the classroom
Speaker:it's just not always feasible to do.
Speaker:We are coming to the end already.
Speaker:I know it's coming so quickly.
Speaker:What do any final words that you want to
Speaker:say about students
Speaker:enjoying or not enjoying class,
Speaker:which you can do for that, or giving them
Speaker:constructive feedback
Speaker:to help them improve
Speaker:their language?
Speaker:All the topics we were talking about
Speaker:today, any final words?
Speaker:Carla, I'll let you go first.
Speaker:I was listening to what you were saying
Speaker:about, "Yes, we don't have enough time."
Speaker:My school has confirmed it.
Speaker:I was asked to write 20
Speaker:letters of recommendation.
Speaker:We used to get a day off to do all that
Speaker:if you were getting a lot
Speaker:of requests from seniors.
Speaker:If you had three or more preps, you'd get
Speaker:a day because that and
Speaker:I have four different
Speaker:preps that went away as well.
Speaker:I've just made peace with it.
Speaker:Rather than be bitter about it or try to
Speaker:find ways to create more
Speaker:work for myself, I will
Speaker:be 100% honest.
Speaker:I was honest with the school about it.
Speaker:They were like, "Yes, sorry.
Speaker:Those two paid days for you
Speaker:to," you know what I mean?
Speaker:Be able to do all these extra things.
Speaker:By the way, I also host six clubs in my
Speaker:classroom because the
Speaker:kids want to be in there.
Speaker:I know, and I'm just going to tell them
Speaker:myself, especially around
Speaker:the holidays when things
Speaker:get crazy, I have
Speaker:review things that they do.
Speaker:Well, I take the last 15 minutes.
Speaker:Every maybe three weeks, I will have a 30
Speaker:minute on a Friday
Speaker:where you can do connect
Speaker:the dots and review your numbers in
Speaker:French and make Christmas
Speaker:trees and candy canes out
Speaker:of it.
Speaker:Or I also have French themed just
Speaker:coloring things, which 90%
Speaker:of the kids love it where
Speaker:they're just like these black and white
Speaker:detailed things like Joie
Speaker:Unoel and I've got the Hanukkah
Speaker:ones.
Speaker:I'm open for my office hours.
Speaker:If you want to come talk to me or if I
Speaker:got something, I'm going
Speaker:to use this time to catch
Speaker:up on grading.
Speaker:You can come and talk to me right now.
Speaker:If you've got a question about your grade
Speaker:or about how we can help you improve your
Speaker:grades.
Speaker:So that is something brand, brand new.
Speaker:I did that honestly to save my sanity and
Speaker:the kids love those 30 minutes to sit and
Speaker:chit chat.
Speaker:I try in my level three's and four's, it
Speaker:has to be Francais,
Speaker:Franglais, chit chatting about
Speaker:life.
Speaker:That's fine.
Speaker:I put French music on and
Speaker:that has really helped me.
Speaker:So I do something kind of productive.
Speaker:Sometimes it's the weather.
Speaker:Sometimes we're going to do a little, you
Speaker:know, la metéo review.
Speaker:Sometimes we're just going to review
Speaker:things that I never would
Speaker:have done before because
Speaker:I am so CI oriented.
Speaker:But you got to do what you got to do
Speaker:because at the end of the
Speaker:day, we also have to take
Speaker:care of ourselves and I'm not going to
Speaker:bring eight hours worth of
Speaker:work home with me anymore.
Speaker:So there it is.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:And I'll tell you the one thing, the one
Speaker:thing that I can get my
Speaker:kids to work on and not
Speaker:be disruptive is coloring.
Speaker:But there's no academic value to that.
Speaker:So like for we did the Day of the Dead,
Speaker:they I had some
Speaker:coloring pages they did because
Speaker:at the main campus,
Speaker:they do a big display.
Speaker:They all do the the altars.
Speaker:They do the merry goals.
Speaker:They decorate the hall with papel picado.
Speaker:They go all they spend a
Speaker:whole week doing all this stuff.
Speaker:Well, I'm on a satellite spot.
Speaker:I don't have a spot to put any of those
Speaker:things where anybody
Speaker:could see them like out in the
Speaker:hallway.
Speaker:We don't have a hallway.
Speaker:We're outside.
Speaker:So there's no hallway.
Speaker:So the best I can do is put decorations
Speaker:up on my windows so
Speaker:when people walk by, they
Speaker:can see him.
Speaker:So all I can do is coloring and that they
Speaker:were the quietest they've ever been.
Speaker:And they're like, can I have another one?
Speaker:They want to I like I only required one
Speaker:coloring and they
Speaker:want to do two and three.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:So but there's still kids though.
Speaker:There's still kids.
Speaker:They still they are that time.
Speaker:And they appreciate you for not.
Speaker:And like I said, it's not every day.
Speaker:It's just you know what I mean?
Speaker:It's a Friday.
Speaker:We've worked hard and I tell them okay
Speaker:this coming Friday,
Speaker:we're going to build in okay
Speaker:if you like grammar, I got
Speaker:some grammar worksheets for you.
Speaker:But if you want to sit and chat in frong
Speaker:lee Friday, we're going
Speaker:to take the last 30 minutes
Speaker:you want to come talk
Speaker:to me about your grade.
Speaker:Great, but I'm going to
Speaker:be looking over stuff.
Speaker:And if I find something in your writing
Speaker:and you happen to be
Speaker:here, I might call you over
Speaker:to teach you something that
Speaker:I'm noticing you're doing wrong.
Speaker:So I kind of like what you guys were
Speaker:saying, we don't have
Speaker:time to conference with them.
Speaker:I've just found a way to build it in.
Speaker:And like I said, 30 minutes every three
Speaker:weeks once a month, it's
Speaker:not going to kill anything.
Speaker:You're not going to lose all this
Speaker:instructional opportunity
Speaker:and many will love you for it.
Speaker:The ones I don't want to label anyone.
Speaker:I don't want to say like the whatever the
Speaker:more you know that want
Speaker:to do work and they're
Speaker:more like little robots.
Speaker:Fine.
Speaker:You want to practice the passe composé?
Speaker:I got a slew of stuff.
Speaker:If you want to choose these 30 minutes,
Speaker:there's like, I don't want
Speaker:to color or I already know
Speaker:my numbers all the way to 1000.
Speaker:I don't want to do the connect.
Speaker:Okay, let's get you something else.
Speaker:So anyway, awesome.
Speaker:That's great, great, great.
Speaker:What about you, Jackie?
Speaker:I mean, for me, I always try to take the
Speaker:opportunity to like, if I
Speaker:can tell that they're just
Speaker:early and they're wanting to go off the
Speaker:rails a little bit, if
Speaker:we've been doing what we
Speaker:need to do for the most
Speaker:part, I usually allow that.
Speaker:And I usually use it as a time to do kind
Speaker:of like a lore drop
Speaker:with the kids and I will
Speaker:tell them something about my life because
Speaker:I am fascinating to them because I am not
Speaker:from West Tennessee.
Speaker:And I have been to a lot of
Speaker:places that they have not.
Speaker:And so I will tell those
Speaker:stories and stuff like that.
Speaker:And the ones who need that kind of
Speaker:connection to be able
Speaker:to buy in, they love it.
Speaker:And the ones that don't give a rip, you
Speaker:know, then it's a break
Speaker:for them to be like, okay,
Speaker:Pro Fae is just rambling about how
Speaker:amazing she is or whatever, whatever.
Speaker:And they kind of tune out or, you know,
Speaker:they tune in and eventually
Speaker:they start being interested.
Speaker:And, you know, and I tell them like, I
Speaker:want this to be fun and
Speaker:I want us to learn and
Speaker:all this other stuff.
Speaker:And sometimes that means it's kind of
Speaker:boring and we just kind
Speaker:of have to get through it.
Speaker:But you know, if you don't like this
Speaker:activity, there's other
Speaker:activities and the circle around
Speaker:to something that you like
Speaker:again and life will be good.
Speaker:So absolutely.
Speaker:And I think Friday idea that Carla
Speaker:mentioned now, I might steal that.
Speaker:I'll say my coloring sheets and every
Speaker:language they exist.
Speaker:Like right now I've got the Noel ones.
Speaker:And like I said, and maybe during the
Speaker:December, I use them twice
Speaker:in the month, but they're
Speaker:like a dollar for eight different ones,
Speaker:you know, related to
Speaker:the holidays in the target
Speaker:language.
Speaker:It's awesome.
Speaker:That was the best one or
Speaker:three dollars I've spent.
Speaker:I also go to Canva.
Speaker:I can find images on
Speaker:Canva for them to do that.
Speaker:So that's another way to do that kind of
Speaker:thing because yeah, I
Speaker:make them and I make my own
Speaker:little packets so I can use them.
Speaker:I have one for Day of the Dead.
Speaker:I have one for Christmas time, you know,
Speaker:different holidays to do
Speaker:that so I can display that
Speaker:up there.
Speaker:Now, what I will say in that, you know,
Speaker:Jackie talked about a bit
Speaker:was activities, multiple
Speaker:activities.
Speaker:You might not like this activity, but
Speaker:give it five more
Speaker:minutes and we'll be in another
Speaker:activity and you might
Speaker:like that one better.
Speaker:So doing a multitude of activities that
Speaker:engage students in
Speaker:different ways can really help
Speaker:because, you know, the kids who want to
Speaker:be moving it up around,
Speaker:we've got these few activities
Speaker:to do.
Speaker:The kids who want to sit down and put
Speaker:their heads, you know,
Speaker:put their heads focused on
Speaker:something.
Speaker:We've got that activity for that.
Speaker:We've got the visual activities.
Speaker:We got the audio activities.
Speaker:Lots of different ways.
Speaker:So they're not all going to hit a home
Speaker:run with every student.
Speaker:But if you have a variety of activities,
Speaker:that's going to really
Speaker:help overall with your kids
Speaker:in your classroom and balancing that fun
Speaker:versus acquisition
Speaker:kind of thing that we're
Speaker:talking about.
Speaker:And then, like you were talking about
Speaker:your fun Fridays, your
Speaker:fun Friday's what I have
Speaker:done and I started it was it seconds.
Speaker:I think it's second semester last year
Speaker:because I taught high
Speaker:school for 11 years, went to
Speaker:middle school for 11 years.
Speaker:And I don't know what I was thinking, but
Speaker:I decided post COVID to come back to high
Speaker:school.
Speaker:I'm not sure of my second era, my second
Speaker:journey into high school.
Speaker:But second semester last year, I started
Speaker:this thing where I've
Speaker:always kept track of if kids
Speaker:are working on what
Speaker:we're supposed to be doing.
Speaker:So during our song, is
Speaker:everybody up and singing?
Speaker:They get a point.
Speaker:If not, I get a point.
Speaker:And then the points would add up towards
Speaker:like party points or free
Speaker:time, not free time points,
Speaker:party points or class candy points or
Speaker:another fun activity time points.
Speaker:And there's kind of like
Speaker:the Pat time from Fred Jones.
Speaker:I think that's the one who's got who came
Speaker:up with preferred activity time.
Speaker:So I've done it that way.
Speaker:But last year I changed it up.
Speaker:I still do those points that way.
Speaker:But any points they earned in that class
Speaker:period up to 15 is free
Speaker:time at the end of the class.
Speaker:So I get them to work for 90 minutes.
Speaker:So I'll get them to work really well for
Speaker:75 minutes and then up to 15 minutes max.
Speaker:And most times they only get eight to 10
Speaker:minutes of free time.
Speaker:But that's like you stay off your phones.
Speaker:I'll give you this time at the end to be
Speaker:able to use your phones.
Speaker:If you do this, you can play or do
Speaker:whatever you want during
Speaker:that last time, as long as
Speaker:it's not causing mayhem in the classroom.
Speaker:You can do those types of things.
Speaker:And that has worked really, really well
Speaker:to give them that
Speaker:because I expect 75 minutes
Speaker:of good time before we get that.
Speaker:And what's great about this and the kids
Speaker:don't realize it, I
Speaker:am in complete control.
Speaker:So if I know I've got more stuff I have
Speaker:to cover today, I'm
Speaker:not as liberal at giving
Speaker:them points that I normally would.
Speaker:And then if they're being really, really
Speaker:good or let's say
Speaker:they were really, really
Speaker:bad yesterday behavior wise, they were
Speaker:too chatty and not on
Speaker:task, then I'm going to
Speaker:work really hard to try to give them more
Speaker:bonus points, letting
Speaker:them know go, "Oh look,
Speaker:you guys are really being on task today,"
Speaker:and give them an extra
Speaker:point in there so they
Speaker:can earn some.
Speaker:So they realize, "Oh, if we are behaving
Speaker:and doing what we're
Speaker:supposed to be doing, we
Speaker:get that maximum of up to
Speaker:15 minutes of free time."
Speaker:And when I spoke to my administrators,
Speaker:they're like, especially my PBIS
Speaker:administrators, like
Speaker:this is great because they're working
Speaker:hard to earn that time
Speaker:and they don't always get
Speaker:that time.
Speaker:And the average in my class is between
Speaker:seven and 10 minutes,
Speaker:they rarely get the full 15
Speaker:minutes.
Speaker:But it's kind of like your franque
Speaker:Fridays that they have
Speaker:something that they can do
Speaker:and it's not about laying with it, it's
Speaker:complete free time, I'm
Speaker:not expecting them to do.
Speaker:But if they're behind on work, some kids
Speaker:choose to get caught up
Speaker:on their work during that
Speaker:time as well.
Speaker:Some just use it as free phone time or go
Speaker:on their Chromebooks
Speaker:and play video games.
Speaker:I don't care because it's like they're
Speaker:earned time because I got
Speaker:75 minutes of quality time
Speaker:from them.
Speaker:And if I didn't get 75 minutes of quality
Speaker:time with them, then
Speaker:they don't get the free
Speaker:time.
Speaker:So that also works,
Speaker:those are some other ideas.
Speaker:Any final words before
Speaker:we say goodbye today?
Speaker:I just want to say
Speaker:thanks for inviting me.
Speaker:I always love to talk to other teachers.
Speaker:You guys have given me like a bunch of
Speaker:ideas, the PBIS, just
Speaker:lots of little tidbits that
Speaker:I'm hearing that you guys, you know,
Speaker:works for you in the classroom.
Speaker:So that's very, but at the end of the
Speaker:day, you know, don't
Speaker:stress too much about it.
Speaker:You know, that's what I've kind of let go
Speaker:a little bit is just the expectation.
Speaker:I used to be able to teach at this level.
Speaker:I do 55 minute periods.
Speaker:I see my kids every
Speaker:single day for 55 minutes.
Speaker:And I used to be on the whole 55 minutes
Speaker:because that's ideally
Speaker:you're feeding them the language.
Speaker:We're doing PQAs, we're doing
Speaker:the Monday thing on Fridays.
Speaker:What are you gonna do?
Speaker:I teach the future tense.
Speaker:If I can't, that's okay.
Speaker:I'm not going to be
Speaker:frustrated about it anymore.
Speaker:Because you know, if I do teach that way
Speaker:still, I unfortunately
Speaker:have way too many things that
Speaker:now I have to do a pile of work after the
Speaker:bell rings when everyone goes home.
Speaker:And so just don't don't stress out, be a
Speaker:little bit easy on yourself.
Speaker:If you can't get it all
Speaker:done, just do your best.
Speaker:I think if you're doing engaging
Speaker:activities that get them to
Speaker:speak, that get them to hear
Speaker:the language, you're already
Speaker:like so ahead of the curve.
Speaker:You could have a classroom that's
Speaker:perfect, that are doing
Speaker:grammar worksheets all day.
Speaker:And I'm sure if you ask those kids,
Speaker:they'd rather be in your
Speaker:class, even if they sometimes
Speaker:act apathetic and just remind them what
Speaker:it could be like, I'm doing my best.
Speaker:Can we all just put some effort in here?
Speaker:So those are, you know, I mean, just like
Speaker:be real with them and
Speaker:just say, I understand,
Speaker:but you know what, you're here.
Speaker:And let's, let's, even if it's a silly
Speaker:little thing, we're
Speaker:dancing, we're doing French turkey
Speaker:yoga.
Speaker:I don't care.
Speaker:You know what I mean?
Speaker:Just like everyone can be a little bit
Speaker:easier on themselves.
Speaker:It's all going to be okay.
Speaker:That's my final warning.
Speaker:Oh, great.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Anything else for you from me, Jackie?
Speaker:Um, I mean, I think
Speaker:Carla hit it on the head.
Speaker:I, one of my big mantras is I tell the
Speaker:kids, I cannot care more than you do.
Speaker:And if you are choosing to not care and
Speaker:you repeatedly choose
Speaker:that, then that is the choice
Speaker:that you've made, you know, and when you
Speaker:want to come back in
Speaker:and engage and be a part,
Speaker:then we're going to do that.
Speaker:Every day is a new day.
Speaker:And, you know, I emphasize, I'm like, I,
Speaker:I care about you guys.
Speaker:I want you to be in here, you know, and I
Speaker:fortunately have an
Speaker:example in my building
Speaker:of how different it could be.
Speaker:And the kids know that.
Speaker:And I, so it's one of those things where
Speaker:I don't let them bad
Speaker:mouth my colleague, but
Speaker:I do, they do recognize, hey, I mean, we
Speaker:could be in this other
Speaker:class where it, we really
Speaker:are not learning anything, it feels like.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And that's the thing is, you know, with
Speaker:CI, like I have kids in
Speaker:Spanish one who have already
Speaker:said, you know, I was watching a show and
Speaker:they were saying
Speaker:things with Spanish and I
Speaker:understood what they were saying.
Speaker:And I was like, yeah, that's,
Speaker:that's why we do what we do.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:Thank you so much.
Speaker:And thank you both for being here today.
Speaker:And for everybody who's with us today,
Speaker:thanks for hanging out
Speaker:with us on comprehend this.
Speaker:Seriously, we appreciate you choosing us
Speaker:over grating that
Speaker:mysterious stack of assignments
Speaker:that somehow grew legs
Speaker:and multiplied on your desk.
Speaker:A huge thanks to our amazing guests,
Speaker:Jackie and Carla, Jackie
Speaker:with the honesty and humor
Speaker:we all needed and Carla bringing the kind
Speaker:of language
Speaker:acquisition expertise that makes
Speaker:the rest of us go, Oh cool.
Speaker:I also truly plan my
Speaker:curriculum on purpose.
Speaker:If today's episode gave you a new
Speaker:strategy, a good laugh, or
Speaker:just emotional validation
Speaker:that you are in fact, not the problem.
Speaker:Make sure you subscribe, leave a review
Speaker:and share this episode
Speaker:with another teacher spiraling
Speaker:over student feedback this week.
Speaker:And remember, you can watch live on
Speaker:YouTube or catch the
Speaker:replay on your favorite podcast
Speaker:app.
Speaker:Reach the drills, trust the process, and
Speaker:I'll see you next
Speaker:time on comprehend this.
