Episode 20: “CI Forever? Evolving, Adapting, and Not Getting Stuck”
Comprehensible Input teaching, CI strategies, and language teacher growth collide in Episode 20: “CI Forever? Evolving, Adapting, and Not Getting Stuck” for teachers wondering what comes after the switch.
Take the CI Proficiency Quiz to see where you are on your CI journey: https://imim.us/ciquiz.
Once CI routines are solid, it’s easy to slip into autopilot—this episode tackles how to stay curious, evolve your practice, and mentor others without turning CI into a rigid rulebook.
Want plug-and-play CI resources that actually work? Check out the CI Survival Kit: https://imim.us/kit.
#comprehensibleinput,#languageteachers,#CIteaching,#worldlanguages,#teacherpodcast,#CIclassroom,#proficiencybased,#teachCI,#teacherPD,#languageacquisition
Hosts:
- Scott Benedict - https://www.instagram.com/immediateimmersion
- Kayla Velasquez - https://www.instagram.com/srta_kaylavela
Resources & Links:
- Assessment Academy - https://imim.us/academy
- CI Survival Kit - https://imim.us/kit
- NotebookLM - https://notebooklm.google.com
- Gemini - https://gemini.google.com
- ChatGPT - https://chatgpt.com
Join the Conversation:
Got thoughts or your own story? Share it in the comments or tag us @ImmediateImmersion!
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Connect with Scott:
Host: Scott Benedict — Immediate Immersion
🌐 https://immediateimmersion.com
📧 Scott@immediateimmersion.com
Youtube: https://youtube.com/immediateimmersion
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Transcript
Good morning everybody, how's everybody
Speaker:doing this Sunday morning?
Speaker:You ever look up mid class and realize
Speaker:you're doing the same
Speaker:thing you've done for the last
Speaker:4 years but now on autopilot?
Speaker:Yes, same.
Speaker:Today on Comprehend This I'm joined by
Speaker:the wonderful Caleb
Speaker:Alaskas to talk about what
Speaker:happens after you go CI.
Speaker:When the novelty wears off, the routines
Speaker:get comfy and you start wondering if this
Speaker:is just how I teach now.
Speaker:We're talking growth, curiosity, evolving
Speaker:without losing your mind and how to avoid
Speaker:becoming that CI teacher who hasn't
Speaker:changed a thing since 2017.
Speaker:If you've ever loved CI and felt a little
Speaker:stuck, this one's for you.
Speaker:We'll be right back
Speaker:after these short videos.
Speaker:Top Quiz Are your
Speaker:assessments aligned with what you're
Speaker:actually teaching?
Speaker:No?
Speaker:Cool, let's fix that.
Speaker:The Assessment Academy is 10 pre-recorded
Speaker:lessons that help you ditch the scantrons
Speaker:and actually assess what matters.
Speaker:Like proficiency, performance and whether
Speaker:your students are
Speaker:still breathing by Friday.
Speaker:Watch on your time, as many times as you
Speaker:want, for a whole year and
Speaker:know there's not a single
Speaker:lesson about bubble sheets
Speaker:or grading 72 essays at 11pm.
Speaker:You're welcome.
Speaker:Head over to mm.us slash academy and
Speaker:start assessing like
Speaker:you actually mean it.
Speaker:Welcome to Comprehend This, real talk for
Speaker:real language teachers.
Speaker:No drills, no dry theory, just honest
Speaker:stories, practical ideas
Speaker:and a reminder you're not
Speaker:alone in the CI trenches.
Speaker:Let's dive in.
Speaker:Good morning and welcome Kayla.
Speaker:How are we doing this morning?
Speaker:I'm doing great.
Speaker:I got my Benito bowl shirt on.
Speaker:I'm ready to go for later.
Speaker:Oh, awesome, awesome, awesome.
Speaker:Just remind some people about yourself a
Speaker:little bit before we go
Speaker:ahead and get started because
Speaker:I know you've been on once before, but
Speaker:they may not have seen
Speaker:that episode or remember.
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:So my name is Kayla Velasquez.
Speaker:I am a Department of One Spanish teacher
Speaker:in rural Wisconsin and I
Speaker:have been in this position
Speaker:for seven years and this is my 11th year
Speaker:teaching and I've always
Speaker:been a Department of One.
Speaker:So I teach middle school exploratory and
Speaker:Spanish one through four
Speaker:at the high school and I
Speaker:have been a CI teacher since pretty much
Speaker:year one, year half of
Speaker:my teaching career and we
Speaker:have music every day.
Speaker:We read a ton, lots of games, brain
Speaker:breaks, stories,
Speaker:co-creation and I love my job.
Speaker:I love my kids.
Speaker:I love seeing the progress that they make
Speaker:and I enjoy sharing all
Speaker:of that with my husband
Speaker:and we live here with
Speaker:our dog and two cats.
Speaker:Awesome, awesome.
Speaker:I have two dogs.
Speaker:I have a 15 and a half year old who's a
Speaker:little grumpy as he's
Speaker:older and then I have a little
Speaker:puppy that's on a year and a half.
Speaker:So I'm feeling you with that.
Speaker:Well, plus I have a lizard.
Speaker:He's sleeping right now because it's
Speaker:winter time but I have a
Speaker:four and a half foot, you
Speaker:can't even see on the screen, four and a
Speaker:half foot lizard that I have here.
Speaker:He's like a puppy dog.
Speaker:But you're like me.
Speaker:We have about the similar origin story.
Speaker:I started with CI in my second semester
Speaker:of my first year of
Speaker:teaching so I've been teaching
Speaker:a little longer.
Speaker:I've always taught within a team but
Speaker:sometimes I think that I
Speaker:might want to be that solo
Speaker:teacher.
Speaker:Right now, my current situation, I teach
Speaker:off the main campus at a
Speaker:Career and Tech Academy.
Speaker:So the kids get bused back and forth.
Speaker:They take two classes at the Career and
Speaker:Tech Academy if they
Speaker:choose to take that path and
Speaker:then two classes back at the main campus.
Speaker:And one of those classes would be their
Speaker:Career Academy class,
Speaker:whether it be construction,
Speaker:culinary or agriculture.
Speaker:So they choose one of those and then I'm
Speaker:one of their electives
Speaker:that they have, the Spanish
Speaker:over there.
Speaker:So I kind of feel like I'm all by myself
Speaker:over there and though I
Speaker:still have to coordinate
Speaker:with the main campus.
Speaker:But I'm seeing some benefits of working
Speaker:by myself sometimes.
Speaker:And I'm more of an introvert, which you
Speaker:wouldn't believe with what I do.
Speaker:But I'm more of an introvert.
Speaker:So I think I might, I know some teachers
Speaker:say I hate being the
Speaker:only one, but I think that
Speaker:might not be a bad thing
Speaker:in my retirement years.
Speaker:I always say it's a blessing and a curse
Speaker:because it's a lot of work.
Speaker:It's a lot of responsibility.
Speaker:I mean, I feel like I'm responsible for
Speaker:their entire Spanish
Speaker:acquisition journey or whatever
Speaker:they have in middle
Speaker:school and high school.
Speaker:But at the same time, when I can see that
Speaker:progress and I can
Speaker:see, I can literally show
Speaker:them growth from eighth grade through
Speaker:senior year, that's extremely rewarding.
Speaker:And I don't know if I
Speaker:could ever give it up.
Speaker:So I don't think I'm gonna.
Speaker:That is the best part because I've had
Speaker:that experience where
Speaker:I've had kids for three years
Speaker:because when I taught a middle school,
Speaker:I'm at high school
Speaker:right now, but when I taught
Speaker:a middle school, we were
Speaker:starting the program brand new.
Speaker:So there was no language program.
Speaker:So that first year was horrible for me
Speaker:because I had never only
Speaker:taught level one all day
Speaker:long.
Speaker:And so teaching six out of seven periods,
Speaker:level one, I couldn't remember what I did
Speaker:and what I hadn't done.
Speaker:Did I already go over this with you?
Speaker:I don't remember because I, you know,
Speaker:it's repetitive so much.
Speaker:I don't remember what I did.
Speaker:I started putting a little sticky notes
Speaker:with what I'm supposed to
Speaker:cover and a little checkmark
Speaker:for every period to make sure that I
Speaker:covered that or didn't talk about that.
Speaker:And then the second
Speaker:year we added level two.
Speaker:So at least I got some variety in there
Speaker:and I had some kids
Speaker:who I had in level one.
Speaker:And then we did level three that third
Speaker:year and I got some of those kids too.
Speaker:And it is a really reward.
Speaker:It's one of the reasons why I like
Speaker:teaching level one because
Speaker:not to be egotistical, but
Speaker:I can see their growth.
Speaker:And I know it's all what I did.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And level two or level three, you know,
Speaker:they had some other teacher experience.
Speaker:So even if they came back to you and you
Speaker:don't really know how
Speaker:much of it, you know, their
Speaker:acquisition pie, how much was your
Speaker:ingredients and how much was
Speaker:it someone else's ingredients?
Speaker:And so I had that one year that I had
Speaker:about six kids that I
Speaker:had in level one, level two
Speaker:and level three.
Speaker:And I keep exemplar quickwrites.
Speaker:So I always keep the
Speaker:first one of the year.
Speaker:I keep one from the middle of the year
Speaker:and one from the last one they do.
Speaker:So I make copies of them.
Speaker:I give them back the
Speaker:originals and I make copies.
Speaker:So and I always have them compare.
Speaker:So at the end of the year, I go, here's
Speaker:your one of the first part of the year.
Speaker:Here's one at the end.
Speaker:Look at what has happened so you can
Speaker:celebrate what you've done
Speaker:because even though maybe
Speaker:your word count didn't increase, like in
Speaker:level three, word count
Speaker:starts to stabilize on a
Speaker:quickwrite because they're
Speaker:writing more complex sentences.
Speaker:So they're not writing, you know, it's
Speaker:really easy to write
Speaker:short, choppy sentences and
Speaker:get 200 words.
Speaker:Not so hard, not so easy when you're
Speaker:writing more complex.
Speaker:And then for some of those kids, they go,
Speaker:I have your very
Speaker:first quickwrite from when
Speaker:you were a sixth
Speaker:grader is when you wrote.
Speaker:And the other kids are
Speaker:like, do you have mine?
Speaker:I'm like, why would I have yours?
Speaker:You were at my teacher, you know, you
Speaker:were at my student at the time.
Speaker:But that's a really nice experience to be
Speaker:able to see that
Speaker:where these kids started.
Speaker:And then three years later, because they
Speaker:were sixth, seventh and
Speaker:eighth graders, where they
Speaker:ended up.
Speaker:I think it's a really powerful thing.
Speaker:And it really tests.
Speaker:It's a testament to see if what you're
Speaker:doing in the
Speaker:classroom is actually working.
Speaker:I keep portfolios in a similar way, too.
Speaker:And it's cool because I that every
Speaker:student in our building
Speaker:who's taken Spanish has some
Speaker:sort of record.
Speaker:I kind of think of them as like a memory
Speaker:folder in a way because I
Speaker:keep every every writing
Speaker:sample that they've ever done any and
Speaker:then like fun little
Speaker:things like if we'll do like
Speaker:a plate sketch drawing and then it'll
Speaker:turn out really funny or write draw pass.
Speaker:And it's like a
Speaker:particularly funny drawing.
Speaker:And those will go in there just as like
Speaker:memories of Spanish class.
Speaker:And my hope is that when I give those
Speaker:portfolios to the kids, when they
Speaker:graduate, whether they
Speaker:stuck through Spanish for they, you know,
Speaker:stop at Spanish to at
Speaker:some point, they look
Speaker:at them and they're like, look what I was
Speaker:able to do with a
Speaker:second language at one point
Speaker:in my life, whether they
Speaker:continue with it or not.
Speaker:And kind of just inspires them to either
Speaker:pick it back up or continue with it.
Speaker:And they can just see that
Speaker:progress from themselves as well.
Speaker:And you just reminded me of something
Speaker:that my first school did 25 years ago.
Speaker:And I did it during the time because it
Speaker:was a required thing.
Speaker:But I think it's really valuable.
Speaker:And I think I might actually bring it
Speaker:back and incorporate it
Speaker:in my own classroom is
Speaker:that idea of a portfolio.
Speaker:But what was different was because they
Speaker:were the kids were
Speaker:supposed to contribute from
Speaker:all their classes in this portfolio.
Speaker:And it's really hard
Speaker:if it's a physical one.
Speaker:So we called it the electronic portfolio.
Speaker:So they had to upload pictures and images
Speaker:and evidence of different things.
Speaker:And we had different prompts along the
Speaker:way they could reflect upon, too.
Speaker:So I think that's a really good idea to
Speaker:be able to implement
Speaker:back in my own classroom,
Speaker:even if it's not for if I don't have the
Speaker:kids for more than one
Speaker:year, just a portfolio for
Speaker:that year.
Speaker:And because it's
Speaker:digital, they can take it away.
Speaker:We used to use like back in the day was
Speaker:PowerPoint, but now we
Speaker:can use Google Slides.
Speaker:To put all that information in there and
Speaker:make it, you know,
Speaker:they can have it in there.
Speaker:I think that's a really good idea.
Speaker:I think I might I put it on my little
Speaker:notes here for today
Speaker:that I think I might start
Speaker:looking at implementing
Speaker:that for for next year.
Speaker:It's fun because it acts
Speaker:like a little time capsule.
Speaker:And it's so cute because even the
Speaker:freshmen at the end of
Speaker:their freshman year will look
Speaker:back at the beginning of freshman year.
Speaker:And they're like, oh, my gosh.
Speaker:So even though it's only been nine months
Speaker:or something that's passed, they're like,
Speaker:look, look, look, look.
Speaker:Look how young I was.
Speaker:A little I can write
Speaker:and I look what I can do.
Speaker:But then you add four years onto that and
Speaker:that type of growth.
Speaker:And it's just fun for them to be able to
Speaker:see that because I
Speaker:don't know how in other
Speaker:contexts that anybody suggests doing that
Speaker:for them or like
Speaker:keeping track of those types
Speaker:of things.
Speaker:I know my mom always did that when I was
Speaker:little, like she kept a
Speaker:memory box of all of my
Speaker:stuff and we'd go through it at like
Speaker:frequent checkpoints in my life.
Speaker:So I think that's just
Speaker:something about me that I like.
Speaker:Like I enjoy scrapbooking and and like
Speaker:keeping I print out pictures.
Speaker:I'm like the picture printer friend.
Speaker:So I'm always like, oh, here I have a
Speaker:stack of photos for you every few months.
Speaker:So I think that's just part of my
Speaker:personality coming
Speaker:through in that way, too.
Speaker:Yeah, I like that.
Speaker:And I think it's like we
Speaker:do that as a human beings.
Speaker:You know, parents will put the little
Speaker:growth chart like
Speaker:they'll mark your height as you
Speaker:grow up in the family
Speaker:house and such like that.
Speaker:And I think it is a real good thing.
Speaker:And I don't think any other class is
Speaker:really a good candidate
Speaker:for that except maybe, you
Speaker:know, music or drama.
Speaker:But English, there's not a lot of growth
Speaker:that you can show that
Speaker:because they're already
Speaker:fluent in the language and maybe their
Speaker:essay may be more
Speaker:refined, but the differences are
Speaker:going to be a lot more
Speaker:subtle than they would have been.
Speaker:Yeah, it's a really cool skill that they
Speaker:can see kind of going up over time.
Speaker:But like music, they can see, you know,
Speaker:they're making these
Speaker:horrible noises out of their
Speaker:instrument for the
Speaker:first time they get it.
Speaker:And then, you know, at the end of the
Speaker:year, they're starting to
Speaker:sound like something and
Speaker:then you move on further and further.
Speaker:So it's a very specialty disciplines that
Speaker:can actually appreciate
Speaker:a growth portfolio like
Speaker:that, other than just an exemplary quote
Speaker:for that just shows you
Speaker:examples of their work.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Like a growth portfolio.
Speaker:I think that's a good way
Speaker:to refer to it for sure.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Which in indirect way, we are talking
Speaker:about our topic today,
Speaker:which is that ever evolving
Speaker:CI and not getting stuck
Speaker:in a rut type of thing.
Speaker:And I'll just start just here for quickly
Speaker:because I was just thinking about it.
Speaker:I am a very only in my in my school life,
Speaker:am I very organized?
Speaker:I am very organized to a T.
Speaker:I have the very first quiz I gave because
Speaker:it saved my Google Drive.
Speaker:It's been there and my Google Drive is
Speaker:now two terabytes, but it
Speaker:is, you know, everything
Speaker:I've ever created.
Speaker:And I learned long ago to create
Speaker:everything in my own
Speaker:personal Google Drive because I
Speaker:had a friend who left schools and she
Speaker:went to high school and,
Speaker:you know, it's different
Speaker:district or high school and middle
Speaker:schools are different districts.
Speaker:She went from middle school to high
Speaker:school and she is
Speaker:desperately, she did not plan
Speaker:enough time before they were closing down
Speaker:her Google account to download everything
Speaker:and move it over.
Speaker:She goes, I expected it be a day because
Speaker:it took a week to
Speaker:download all the stuffs that
Speaker:she had accumulated in 10
Speaker:years at the middle school.
Speaker:So I say, I always create my everything
Speaker:in my own Google
Speaker:Drive and that way I have
Speaker:access to it forever and
Speaker:wherever I happen to be.
Speaker:So it works really, really well.
Speaker:And it's also saved my butt when my
Speaker:computer battery died
Speaker:or like one time I can
Speaker:computer battery
Speaker:died, I forgot my charger.
Speaker:And so I could access everything on
Speaker:someone else's computer.
Speaker:So that really saved my butt.
Speaker:But I'm a, but in that organization, I
Speaker:make templates for
Speaker:everything because so much of
Speaker:what we do is repetitive and I don't want
Speaker:to always recreate the wheel.
Speaker:I mean, for example, I'm
Speaker:so lazy with my whiteboard.
Speaker:I make whiteboard labels of things I
Speaker:always have to write, like the goal, the
Speaker:activities that we do.
Speaker:I make little activities that says we're
Speaker:doing a story today.
Speaker:We're doing a quick write today.
Speaker:We're doing a warm,
Speaker:whatever the warm up might be.
Speaker:And I, they're little labels that I
Speaker:laminate and put magnets on.
Speaker:So all I have to do is put those up there
Speaker:and then maybe add a detail like we're
Speaker:singing a song.
Speaker:Well, what's the name of the song?
Speaker:I can write that one in.
Speaker:So I am so template driven and I have
Speaker:templates for my lesson plans.
Speaker:I don't even listen to
Speaker:my lesson plan anymore.
Speaker:My, my lesson plan is my, um, Google
Speaker:slide deck and it's got
Speaker:200 slides in it because
Speaker:it's the whole weeks and everything I do.
Speaker:What am I doing next?
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:Click.
Speaker:Oh, that's what I'm doing next.
Speaker:So that's how I kind of do it.
Speaker:So I do everything template driven, but I
Speaker:will say I've never been able to use my
Speaker:templates year to
Speaker:year the exact same way.
Speaker:So I'm always constantly changing.
Speaker:In fact, in one of my temp and my
Speaker:templates I currently
Speaker:use right now, we do
Speaker:reading and listening activities on
Speaker:Thursdays and Fridays, and I write a
Speaker:story based on a student
Speaker:for those, for each of those.
Speaker:So on my template, where I may have a
Speaker:cartoon that we're going to ask a story
Speaker:about in the beginning part of the week,
Speaker:the second part of the week, I don't know
Speaker:what those stories are going to be.
Speaker:And I can't, I'm not
Speaker:going to use last year's kids.
Speaker:I'm going to, it's
Speaker:always going to be fresh.
Speaker:So I just leave a blank spot in my
Speaker:template where I can put
Speaker:in my stories in there,
Speaker:but I'm always rearranging and
Speaker:rearranging and like, Oh,
Speaker:I want to do this in this
Speaker:order or that order,
Speaker:nothing really sticks.
Speaker:I have gotten in the ruts before where I
Speaker:feel like I'm on autopilot.
Speaker:And it's not really, let's
Speaker:see how I'm going to say this.
Speaker:My routine that stays constant, like
Speaker:usually at the order of
Speaker:the things that I do, I
Speaker:sometimes change it up.
Speaker:Like this week I started thinking, well,
Speaker:maybe I don't want to do two readings and
Speaker:listings.
Speaker:We want to extend the
Speaker:oral story a little longer.
Speaker:So I, I'm playing with that.
Speaker:I made that change just for this next
Speaker:week coming up and
Speaker:we'll see how it works out.
Speaker:Um, so that part doesn't change, but the
Speaker:activities sometimes I get in a rut into
Speaker:and I need to force myself like, we
Speaker:haven't done a picture talk in a while.
Speaker:I forgot about picture talks
Speaker:or I forgot about a movie talk.
Speaker:I haven't done that one in a long time.
Speaker:And I'm like, why did I stop doing that
Speaker:activity or that brain break?
Speaker:I get in a rut with my brain breaks and
Speaker:sometimes, so the actual activities,
Speaker:sometimes where I get in the rut, I'll
Speaker:forget like a few years ago, I forgot
Speaker:that I go, I haven't done
Speaker:TPR in such a long time.
Speaker:And it used to be such an
Speaker:integrated part of what I did.
Speaker:And I'm like, what happened?
Speaker:Why did I stop?
Speaker:I don't remember.
Speaker:So now I put a slide in
Speaker:to remind me to do it.
Speaker:I do it for the sweet 16 birds where I
Speaker:really focus on the
Speaker:TPR on there, but, uh,
Speaker:I don't know why I stopped.
Speaker:It just something just kind of phased out
Speaker:of my lesson plans and I brought it back
Speaker:in.
Speaker:So it's the activities for me that I get
Speaker:into a rut with not necessarily, um,
Speaker:the routine, because I think for me and
Speaker:for a lot of teachers, that routine is
Speaker:really, really important.
Speaker:And for the kids,
Speaker:they know what to expect.
Speaker:They know Wednesday's monday
Speaker:because it's quick, right day.
Speaker:And now my kids always want to moan.
Speaker:And they're all got to
Speaker:write another one of these.
Speaker:Cause I do it every week religiously.
Speaker:So, um, they know what
Speaker:to expect on every day.
Speaker:So they know that, you know, Mondays are
Speaker:conversation days and Tuesdays and
Speaker:Wednesdays and Thursdays are our story
Speaker:days and Fridays are reading days.
Speaker:So they have those kinds of expectations.
Speaker:And I think that lowers that anxiety of,
Speaker:and what are we doing today?
Speaker:Kind of questions that go on and kids
Speaker:really want to know.
Speaker:And I remember when I first started
Speaker:teaching, we weren't
Speaker:supposed to tell them.
Speaker:It was supposed to be a surprise.
Speaker:So to build that engagement in there.
Speaker:And then a few years later, they said,
Speaker:write everything down.
Speaker:Everything should be
Speaker:on agenda on the board.
Speaker:So the kids know exactly where they are
Speaker:in class and what we have to get done.
Speaker:So there's a mix, but
Speaker:I'm all for the routine.
Speaker:It's just the different activities that
Speaker:I, that at least where I get
Speaker:stuck in a rut sometimes, what about you?
Speaker:I totally get that.
Speaker:I think there's a, it's all, always about
Speaker:finding a balance between
Speaker:routine and novelty, because I totally
Speaker:agree that the routine, the, the
Speaker:systems in a class throughout a day,
Speaker:throughout a week is super important
Speaker:for the kids and for me, I think, I mean,
Speaker:especially as a department of one, when
Speaker:I can be teaching up to three or four or
Speaker:five prep set of time, and I only
Speaker:have 60 minutes of actual prep time for
Speaker:that, like I need to be able to just
Speaker:look at, I think about my day, I think
Speaker:about my lesson as like a template in
Speaker:a way, and I know that I'm going to start
Speaker:with an SEL check-in.
Speaker:I know that I'm going to have Musica.
Speaker:I know that I'm going
Speaker:to do calendar talk.
Speaker:And then I, all I really need to plan is
Speaker:my, you know, my, my anchor of my class.
Speaker:And depending on what day of the week
Speaker:that is and then what level, you know,
Speaker:like in my upper levels on Fridays, it's
Speaker:our, it's our authentic TV show.
Speaker:Um, you know, in lower, in my lower
Speaker:levels on Mondays, every other Monday,
Speaker:we're going to start doing our news, our
Speaker:weekly news from, um, um, Mundo and
Speaker:Tuzmanos from the
Speaker:Comprehensible Classroom.
Speaker:And so I need those systems for my own
Speaker:sanity in planning that many preps, but
Speaker:I know what you mean as far as activities
Speaker:that I don't want the kids to start
Speaker:feeling like, oh, we, we, we just keep,
Speaker:we keep doing the same thing as far as
Speaker:a whole group reading, we do whole group
Speaker:reading the same way every time.
Speaker:And that's what I feel like I'm trying to
Speaker:focus on varying more.
Speaker:And a few years ago, I started a project
Speaker:of, I called it the great
Speaker:ZI strategy harvest, and
Speaker:it's this huge Google sheet.
Speaker:And I just started to like brain dump
Speaker:every strategy that I read about in
Speaker:blogs, heard about in podcasts, heard
Speaker:about on social media and PD and
Speaker:conferences and anything that I knew.
Speaker:And I just kind of listed it like here
Speaker:are a whole bunch of whole
Speaker:class reading activities so that if we
Speaker:have a text that we're reading as a
Speaker:group, I can try to pick one of these
Speaker:things to, to, to use as we read the
Speaker:text or if I want to do a listening
Speaker:activity, here's 20 different listening
Speaker:tasks that I can have the
Speaker:students engage in as we do it.
Speaker:So I try to refer to that document and I,
Speaker:I shared it out on one of like the
Speaker:Facebook groups a while ago.
Speaker:Um, but I, I use it all the time.
Speaker:I referred to it.
Speaker:I try to update it because I feel like
Speaker:it's like a menu, like I almost need a
Speaker:menu of strategies to pick from because
Speaker:when we have our content, when we have
Speaker:our text or our story, I mean, we could
Speaker:do the same thing with it, but why?
Speaker:Because I get bored too.
Speaker:And I don't, if I'm bored, I don't want
Speaker:the students to come
Speaker:and be bored for sure.
Speaker:So I agree.
Speaker:It's always about finding that difference
Speaker:between routine and novelty.
Speaker:And it's definitely, it can be
Speaker:challenging sometimes.
Speaker:Cause sometimes I'm just exhausted and I
Speaker:just want to just
Speaker:read, but I know I can't.
Speaker:I know.
Speaker:Like especially when I taught the sixth
Speaker:class in a row, I'm like, I am so
Speaker:done playing fly swatter today.
Speaker:I am like, maybe we just skip it.
Speaker:Will they even notice if I
Speaker:just skip it in third period?
Speaker:Cause I'm just, I can't do it again.
Speaker:I'm with you there.
Speaker:And I will tell you, I know a lot of
Speaker:people don't like AI and there are some
Speaker:things I agree with them, but the way
Speaker:that I use it makes my
Speaker:life easier because I
Speaker:use it as a teacher assistant.
Speaker:Um, and so I will ask, I will go into
Speaker:chat GPT and I'll
Speaker:ask, I go, I've got this
Speaker:reading, this is what
Speaker:I normally do with it.
Speaker:Can you give me five other ideas?
Speaker:Oh, okay.
Speaker:And so he comes back and it gives me a go
Speaker:and I go, I don't like two and four.
Speaker:Can you please give me swap out two
Speaker:different ones for that one, or I need
Speaker:an activity for a novice low students, or
Speaker:I need something to differentiate this
Speaker:activity for the variety of kids I have.
Speaker:I have kids who are novice low.
Speaker:I have kids who've got, even though we're
Speaker:in the second semester of the year,
Speaker:who still have zero language ability.
Speaker:So I need something for that.
Speaker:You know, it gives me some good ideas.
Speaker:Not all of them are great, but they give
Speaker:me some ideas, but now I'm going to
Speaker:tell you some super user power.
Speaker:I, I've heard of this app before, but I
Speaker:never really used it.
Speaker:And then I took a class on this app for
Speaker:some, it wasn't even based off school.
Speaker:It was just another class I took about
Speaker:how to use this app.
Speaker:It had nothing to do with school.
Speaker:And this app is not only amazing for not
Speaker:only teachers, but also for students.
Speaker:And it's free.
Speaker:And it comes with your Google account.
Speaker:It is called notebook LM.
Speaker:And let me tell you how
Speaker:I can, you can use it.
Speaker:Notebook LM is the thing.
Speaker:And it said notebook.lm.google.com.
Speaker:So what it does, it takes the best of AI
Speaker:and leaves off the bad stuff.
Speaker:One of the bad things about AI is what
Speaker:they call hallucination,
Speaker:that it makes up things.
Speaker:Notebook LM works in a vacuum.
Speaker:It only can, it only references
Speaker:information that
Speaker:you've uploaded as a source.
Speaker:So it can't make up anything else.
Speaker:So as a student base,
Speaker:they can take their notes.
Speaker:They can take a picture of their
Speaker:handwritten notes if they did it by hand,
Speaker:or upload a PDF of their,
Speaker:if they typed their notes in.
Speaker:Take, if the teacher gave them access to
Speaker:the slide deck, they can upload that.
Speaker:Put all the sources in there.
Speaker:And then once you have all those sources,
Speaker:you can make an audio podcast from that.
Speaker:So not only, it'll, it'll replay with two
Speaker:different voices and it will
Speaker:review all that information.
Speaker:And there's a button that you can
Speaker:actually ask live questions to that
Speaker:podcast and it will generate.
Speaker:So if you like, oh, I don't remember that
Speaker:thing and ask the
Speaker:question, it will do that.
Speaker:It will make a little short overview
Speaker:video for you explaining the concepts or
Speaker:whatever you're trying to study.
Speaker:You can make an
Speaker:infographic of all that information.
Speaker:So a really colorful image that's like
Speaker:comprising of all your
Speaker:notes, all of the things in there.
Speaker:You can also make
Speaker:PowerPoint slides from that.
Speaker:So there's a lot of different variety in
Speaker:that, but what's great about it, as I
Speaker:said, it works off the sources only.
Speaker:It does not go out and find things unless
Speaker:you ask it to go out.
Speaker:And so here's where
Speaker:your harvest would come in.
Speaker:You have some sources that you know of,
Speaker:so you've uploaded those, but you can
Speaker:click the deep research button and then
Speaker:tell it, I need reading activities for
Speaker:second language acquisition.
Speaker:You put that in there and it's going to
Speaker:take its time and it's going to research
Speaker:all of these websites and then upload
Speaker:them as sources to your spot.
Speaker:And you can vet them if you want to vet
Speaker:because it comes up with like 50 of them.
Speaker:So if you want to vet them, you can, but
Speaker:you don't have to use them like that.
Speaker:And then you can tell it now, make me an
Speaker:infographic summarizing the top 10
Speaker:different activities for reading or
Speaker:whatever you're researching.
Speaker:And it will make that infographic for you
Speaker:and it makes beautiful infographics.
Speaker:In fact, I think I've got one I can show
Speaker:right here really quick.
Speaker:Honestly, this sounds like exactly what
Speaker:my idea behind starting this a few years
Speaker:ago was just to have something that I can
Speaker:reference either in
Speaker:planning or on the spot.
Speaker:Because sometimes that's the thing too.
Speaker:It's I think we're going to have 20
Speaker:minutes for an activity and in reality we
Speaker:have 40 or in reality we have 10 and what
Speaker:I had planned isn't
Speaker:going to fit in the time.
Speaker:So I'd love to just be able to have
Speaker:something that it's again, like a like
Speaker:just like a quick pick menu.
Speaker:And you can do it based on time, based on
Speaker:the amount of kids that are in the room,
Speaker:based on whatever it is, whether you
Speaker:want, whether they're antsy or whether
Speaker:they're feeling kind of blah that day and
Speaker:they need activity or they need chill.
Speaker:And calm.
Speaker:And I feel like that's just what I've
Speaker:been trying to do with it and I just have
Speaker:not had time to get back to it.
Speaker:And it takes so much time, but what's
Speaker:great about it, as I said, you can just
Speaker:go ahead and ask it.
Speaker:So once you've done it, you know, you can
Speaker:ask you like just like
Speaker:you can with chat GPT.
Speaker:OK, call these activities and give me the
Speaker:ones that only fit in a
Speaker:five minute time period.
Speaker:And then you can make that infographic or
Speaker:whatever you want to have done.
Speaker:Let me see here is where we go to my.
Speaker:Just found it, let me put it in to to to
Speaker:to my drive desktop.
Speaker:So this is one I did on comparing.
Speaker:I has not do it with what we're like for
Speaker:classes, but comparing
Speaker:TPRS 1.0 versus TPRS 2.0.
Speaker:OK, so here's that
Speaker:infographic that it came up with.
Speaker:Oh, that looks great.
Speaker:So I mean, and I've
Speaker:done them with vocabulary.
Speaker:I'll put in my our our week's vocabulary
Speaker:that I have to teach from the textbook
Speaker:and then I will make
Speaker:that one into one, too.
Speaker:So I think I've got another one of those
Speaker:I can show here really
Speaker:quick if I can go ahead.
Speaker:Oh, this is awesome.
Speaker:So they and they're
Speaker:really good and well designed.
Speaker:Well, let's see here, Spanish one.
Speaker:Oh, yeah, here's a perfect one.
Speaker:I'll download this one really quick.
Speaker:Only current page.
Speaker:Download this one is
Speaker:on the sweet 16 verbs.
Speaker:OK, so I love what I did,
Speaker:what it did with this one.
Speaker:And if you don't like what it
Speaker:does, tell it to do it again.
Speaker:You know, just like if you were having a
Speaker:teacher assistant or a student teacher
Speaker:assistant in your class and they didn't
Speaker:do it exactly the way you wanted, you
Speaker:tell them to do it again, please.
Speaker:And so it works really, really well.
Speaker:Let me see, this one is called sweet 16.
Speaker:Sweet 16. Where did they go?
Speaker:There it is. Oh, oh, I love that.
Speaker:Yeah. So you can make it.
Speaker:And you can put your
Speaker:vocab list in for the week.
Speaker:Yeah. And make this thing.
Speaker:And it really helps the visual learners.
Speaker:And what I love about these two is I
Speaker:cheat because my our school now has
Speaker:color copiers or huh.
Speaker:So we're supposed to switch it to black
Speaker:and white, but it defaults to color.
Speaker:Oops. I just made 30 copies of these.
Speaker:Because I think there's so
Speaker:much more effective in color.
Speaker:They are. They are something like this.
Speaker:A hundred percent is
Speaker:more effective in color.
Speaker:Yeah. And so the kids have these and I
Speaker:keep giving them to go.
Speaker:Do you have another
Speaker:infographic for us today?
Speaker:I make infographics because I don't
Speaker:really I'm not an explicit grammar
Speaker:teacher, but I make the infographics up
Speaker:like we're getting ready
Speaker:to do plurals in level one.
Speaker:And I have to teach that in explicitly
Speaker:teach it at my school.
Speaker:So I made an
Speaker:infographic that explained it.
Speaker:All the way.
Speaker:So the notebook notebook.
Speaker:Yeah. I told you research.
Speaker:How do you make plural?
Speaker:I mean, I know the answer, but I didn't
Speaker:want to do the work.
Speaker:So I said, how do you how do
Speaker:you make plurals in Spanish?
Speaker:Please include the exceptions.
Speaker:So that it went through and I'll show you
Speaker:what it came up with
Speaker:because I did that one, too.
Speaker:Oh, I did one for telling time.
Speaker:And it was, you know, so I got an
Speaker:infographic for telling time for them.
Speaker:Where is the one to do with plurals,
Speaker:plurals, Spanish
Speaker:plurals, the quick start guide?
Speaker:Here it is.
Speaker:So it really helps to
Speaker:synthesize the information.
Speaker:I tell the kids I make them get.
Speaker:Actually, I buy a whole stack of those
Speaker:those plastic page protectors and they
Speaker:buy them like in packs of 500.
Speaker:And they're really cheap if you buy them
Speaker:on Amazon for those packs.
Speaker:And then I give them to the kids and I'll
Speaker:put them back to back in there and they
Speaker:can keep them in a folder so that they
Speaker:always have that in there.
Speaker:And so you can do it with grammar.
Speaker:You can do it with OK,
Speaker:just do this one, plurals.
Speaker:Where are we going?
Speaker:P for plural.
Speaker:Here's this.
Speaker:So I told Stephen, give you
Speaker:the example of exceptions.
Speaker:So I put in there the Z for
Speaker:C change that you need to do.
Speaker:That the kids always forget.
Speaker:So it has it in there and it says, you
Speaker:know, add the vowel, add an S if it's a
Speaker:vowel, add a consonant if it's an E.
Speaker:It's giving them examples.
Speaker:And it tells about the L and the Lada and
Speaker:the Los and the Las and the Una and the
Speaker:Una and the Unas and Unas.
Speaker:And then it even talks about if it's a
Speaker:mixed group that it
Speaker:uses the masculine form.
Speaker:So it did all of this.
Speaker:And all I had to do was
Speaker:prompt a notebook to do it.
Speaker:And then I go to the domain.
Speaker:They do make like typos and stuff like
Speaker:that sometimes in there.
Speaker:So I read through it to
Speaker:make sure it's all there.
Speaker:And if it's not, I just
Speaker:have them regenerate it.
Speaker:But it is this is a nice little quick
Speaker:guide for my level ones
Speaker:to refer to really quick.
Speaker:It's like no.
Speaker:And it's I think it's a really useful for
Speaker:things like pop up grammar.
Speaker:And I mean, you said like just like an
Speaker:anchor chart that you would make in a
Speaker:classroom and hang up on.
Speaker:You know, like the books or paper or
Speaker:something like that.
Speaker:But it's really clear.
Speaker:It's easy. It's not
Speaker:overly complicated and grammar.
Speaker:So I tell you this.
Speaker:One of the tricks I tell it to do, I say
Speaker:when you make this, do
Speaker:not use any grammar jargon.
Speaker:Use language kids understand.
Speaker:OK. Yeah.
Speaker:So notice it doesn't say masculine and
Speaker:feminine anywhere in here.
Speaker:It's it's you know, it's stuff that my
Speaker:kids can really, really grasp onto.
Speaker:And yes, you can actually print these
Speaker:into posters if you want it.
Speaker:Oh, you know, I use I put that site up
Speaker:here because this is
Speaker:one I use all the time.
Speaker:Short run posters dot com.
Speaker:Because if you go to Kinko's or what they
Speaker:call FedEx office now,
Speaker:they don't they charge an arm
Speaker:and a leg to buy one poster.
Speaker:But short run posters for
Speaker:less than seven dollars.
Speaker:I think it's like six something.
Speaker:They give me an 18 by 24
Speaker:poster that's laminated.
Speaker:Oh, wow. OK.
Speaker:No, that's great.
Speaker:It's called short one because you don't
Speaker:you don't have to make,
Speaker:you know, 50 of the same ones.
Speaker:You can just do whatever ones you make.
Speaker:So I have like you said, I have a lot of
Speaker:anchor charts in my room
Speaker:and I've had printed up.
Speaker:But now I can start
Speaker:having these printed up.
Speaker:And instead of having kids take notes,
Speaker:I can give this to the kids.
Speaker:I project this on my screen and then I go
Speaker:to my whiteboard and I clarify
Speaker:so they can add to these notes instead of
Speaker:taking them from scratch and scratch.
Speaker:Right. Where they're just
Speaker:worried about copying down
Speaker:rather than really
Speaker:understanding it anyway. Exactly.
Speaker:And they might not have to
Speaker:add anything if they don't.
Speaker:I say you don't add anything
Speaker:if you don't have any questions.
Speaker:If you know if you're going through, but
Speaker:anything that you go,
Speaker:why didn't know about or that interest
Speaker:me, add that to your little paper
Speaker:and they have these as a reference chart.
Speaker:So I'm telling you, notebook LM has.
Speaker:And I said, I didn't really understood
Speaker:because it says notebook.
Speaker:And I'm like, so is
Speaker:it a note taking thing?
Speaker:And it's not a note taking thing.
Speaker:I think the name is
Speaker:really bad for what it does.
Speaker:I never, ever would have guessed that
Speaker:that's what this is.
Speaker:And so this is part of Google Suite.
Speaker:Yes. OK.
Speaker:It's free to the kids
Speaker:and it's free to, you know,
Speaker:anybody who's got a Google account and
Speaker:then you only get so many uses per day
Speaker:of each thing if
Speaker:you're on the free account.
Speaker:But I pay for my because I pay for two
Speaker:terabytes of Google Drive access.
Speaker:So I get the paid version for free comes
Speaker:part of that as part of the features.
Speaker:But this is just such a well
Speaker:worth it thing that it does.
Speaker:And. It makes a whole lot of them,
Speaker:and I just put them all in Canva so that
Speaker:I can have one place they're all saved.
Speaker:So I make my Spanish ones and I have all
Speaker:the ones vocabulary,
Speaker:then the grammar ones, I have them all
Speaker:built in there and it
Speaker:makes it just so much easier.
Speaker:So this is something I said as
Speaker:a teacher, it's really great.
Speaker:And as a student, because if there it
Speaker:doesn't even just use for language,
Speaker:they don't understand a concept.
Speaker:So you can share your notebook with them
Speaker:and don't give them access to edit it.
Speaker:And let's say now you created
Speaker:an audio of explaining this.
Speaker:So they'll come up
Speaker:with a podcast of five,
Speaker:depending on how complex to 15 minutes
Speaker:I've seen some where it
Speaker:goes over and it talks
Speaker:and to real it's not a
Speaker:robotic voice at all.
Speaker:If I didn't know better, it sounds like
Speaker:two people have in conversation
Speaker:about the topic and they can re listen to
Speaker:it and they're getting in a different way
Speaker:than the way you explained it.
Speaker:And it works for all
Speaker:different kinds of concepts.
Speaker:You can put it in for math concepts or,
Speaker:you know, explain to me the
Speaker:Romeo and Juliet type thing,
Speaker:you know, any of that kind of stuff.
Speaker:And so that's a little bit more engaging
Speaker:for the kids as well to listen to that.
Speaker:And they got their
Speaker:headphones in their ear anyway.
Speaker:So why not?
Speaker:You know, just helps them learn a
Speaker:different way and you can
Speaker:teach them how to do that.
Speaker:Oh, it'll make flash cards too from
Speaker:vocabulary by a click of a button.
Speaker:You don't have to do anything.
Speaker:You click the button
Speaker:and it makes flash cards.
Speaker:You can share that with your kids and
Speaker:they can practice with the
Speaker:flash cards on there as well.
Speaker:So there's a lot of
Speaker:different things it can do.
Speaker:And I said it's a really good and it's
Speaker:free and I think it's a worthwhile.
Speaker:And this is where AI is not the evil
Speaker:beast that people make it out to be.
Speaker:It is an assistant.
Speaker:That's how I use it.
Speaker:And it was funny because I'm in another
Speaker:group, a mentor group
Speaker:has not new teaching.
Speaker:It's just a different
Speaker:half a mentor group.
Speaker:And we had our mentor meeting yesterday
Speaker:and we were talking
Speaker:about this and how people,
Speaker:some people are really so far against AI.
Speaker:They're like fighting it and saying it's
Speaker:the evilest thing in the
Speaker:world and it's using up
Speaker:all of our resources and it's taking away
Speaker:human creativity and all of that stuff.
Speaker:I use it to augment those things, but the
Speaker:word we've figured out this
Speaker:happened, the same kind of
Speaker:attitude happened in the 1800s with the
Speaker:industrial revolution and
Speaker:they were called Luddites.
Speaker:We couldn't remember that
Speaker:term, but we looked it up.
Speaker:They were really about the automation and
Speaker:creating textiles that the
Speaker:machines were doing that.
Speaker:But think about how expensive our clothes
Speaker:would be if they were all hand sewn.
Speaker:And how many people could afford to buy
Speaker:clothes if every piece of
Speaker:clothing that you bought
Speaker:from your socks to your shirts were all
Speaker:hand created every time.
Speaker:We just have to embrace what it is and
Speaker:anything can be used for good or evil.
Speaker:So just use it for good.
Speaker:But as my teacher's assistant, it saves
Speaker:me so many hours of time and gives me,
Speaker:I could never create these infographics
Speaker:like this and these
Speaker:literally come up in like
Speaker:three to four minutes.
Speaker:Even if I could draw like that, it would
Speaker:take me hours, if not
Speaker:days to work on one of those.
Speaker:It's just not something sustainable.
Speaker:I think there's a benefit
Speaker:there for the kids is so great.
Speaker:And I know the topic of AI was going to
Speaker:come up in our conversation today and
Speaker:talking about evolving
Speaker:and teaching and in CI.
Speaker:So I was thinking about it and I think
Speaker:I'm glad you shared this tool
Speaker:because I think it's a really
Speaker:good example of exactly what you said.
Speaker:It's of how AI is not, it
Speaker:doesn't have to be the enemy here.
Speaker:And I think back to, I think it was two
Speaker:years ago, I was at
Speaker:Waffle and in Wisconsin,
Speaker:the annual language
Speaker:teaching conference here.
Speaker:And the amazing Jim Woolbridge was our
Speaker:keynote speaker, a case in your woolly.
Speaker:And he talked a lot about AI in the space
Speaker:of language teaching and
Speaker:his key message and his
Speaker:key takeaway that I feel like really
Speaker:stuck with me and sticks with a lot of
Speaker:language teachers is
Speaker:that language is innately human.
Speaker:So the language part of it is the part
Speaker:that I, and I feel like a lot
Speaker:of us don't want to mess with
Speaker:the AI part.
Speaker:But when I see tools like this, which is
Speaker:really just enhancing what
Speaker:you can do with these stories
Speaker:that are innately human and the
Speaker:connection and the
Speaker:communication that you can get from them.
Speaker:Then I see its use, then I
Speaker:see its power, I see its value.
Speaker:And it keeps us from, like you said,
Speaker:spending so much time on these things
Speaker:when we could really
Speaker:be pouring ourselves into the connections
Speaker:with our students and
Speaker:self-care and all these other
Speaker:things that make teaching, that require
Speaker:us to be good teachers.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:We can focus on other things.
Speaker:Like Kelly Ferguson, also a great person
Speaker:from Wisconsin, she
Speaker:always says like with student
Speaker:jobs, she goes, "Anything that doesn't
Speaker:require a college degree, delegate."
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Why waste your energy and effort on doing
Speaker:stuff like collecting
Speaker:papers and passing out papers?
Speaker:You don't need a college degree for that?
Speaker:Give it to a kid.
Speaker:Child labor is cheap.
Speaker:And it's the same thing.
Speaker:We can delegate things to our AI that we
Speaker:don't need to do ourselves.
Speaker:I'll tell you another good example and
Speaker:then I'm going to share my
Speaker:screen because I forgot I made
Speaker:this. This is another thing that comes in
Speaker:Gemini, which is also part
Speaker:of the free Google thing,
Speaker:where I use it a lot because
Speaker:this is where I get my rut.
Speaker:This is a rut thing that I have.
Speaker:When I write my quizzes or I write
Speaker:stories and I create
Speaker:comprehension questions,
Speaker:my comprehension questions
Speaker:tend to be the same every time.
Speaker:So, I mean, that's the exact same
Speaker:question, you know what I mean?
Speaker:But the same style of question.
Speaker:You know, I write my none of the above
Speaker:questions always a certain way.
Speaker:I always ask about the
Speaker:age of the character.
Speaker:I get in these ruts so the kids can
Speaker:almost predict what
Speaker:question four is going to be
Speaker:because they've read
Speaker:so many of my stories.
Speaker:So, I'll write the story and I'll upload
Speaker:it to chat GPT or to
Speaker:Gemini, whatever you use.
Speaker:I upload the story.
Speaker:Then I'll tell it to make 20
Speaker:comprehension questions at
Speaker:the novice mid level in English.
Speaker:Please make them slightly challenging and
Speaker:please include 30% inference questions
Speaker:because I want my kids to be able to
Speaker:infer stuff as well, not just look for
Speaker:the concrete stuff in
Speaker:there. Now, I always created inference
Speaker:questions, but my inference
Speaker:questions would always be the
Speaker:same style so my kids could always
Speaker:predict them. And so I like this and it
Speaker:made up the questions.
Speaker:If you do a multiple choice, it'll make
Speaker:multiple choice and it'll
Speaker:create the answer key for you.
Speaker:And then you can use it how you use it.
Speaker:But I love this because you can actually
Speaker:convert it to a, if you use Google forms
Speaker:to make things, it'll do that for you.
Speaker:You know, it'll do whatever you need it
Speaker:to do. But I like that's
Speaker:one of the ways that I really,
Speaker:really enjoy using it because the
Speaker:questions, I don't need a
Speaker:college degree to come up with
Speaker:questions. I wrote the story. That's
Speaker:where the creativity is. And the
Speaker:questions, it would take
Speaker:me at least 30 minutes to come up with 20
Speaker:questions and I have to
Speaker:go back and read them,
Speaker:make sure that they weren't, that no
Speaker:earlier question gave
Speaker:away the answer to the second
Speaker:question. And then make sure, oh, did I
Speaker:put my 30% inference in
Speaker:there? Because in a 20 question,
Speaker:that's six inference questions and I
Speaker:don't want them all at the
Speaker:end. I want them, you know,
Speaker:put in throughout so the kids will go, oh
Speaker:yeah, the last six
Speaker:questions are going to be inference
Speaker:questions. I don't want that kind of
Speaker:predictability in there. And as humans,
Speaker:we always, even though
Speaker:we may not think about it, we always work
Speaker:in patterns and we kind
Speaker:of tend to do the things
Speaker:the way we always did them. So I delegate
Speaker:that part out and it
Speaker:comes up with 20 questions in
Speaker:less than a minute. So that would have
Speaker:taken me 30 minutes. It saved me my
Speaker:precious prep time for
Speaker:that. So I absolutely love that. And I'm
Speaker:going to see if I can get
Speaker:here. Here's a screen. Let me
Speaker:go to this real quick. I'm going to
Speaker:screen share because I want
Speaker:to show you this. Okay. Can you
Speaker:see that on your screen too? Yeah. Okay.
Speaker:So I put this story. This
Speaker:is a picture of my student.
Speaker:I put this story here so she could be in
Speaker:the, in the story because
Speaker:there's a story about her
Speaker:that I wrote and she's my level two
Speaker:student. And so I'm going
Speaker:to make this bigger. So it's,
Speaker:she's not so skinny here. The book. So we
Speaker:had a story in her, in level
Speaker:one about her having a wig.
Speaker:She wore a wig. She did not have real
Speaker:hair. So, cause she used to
Speaker:always make fun of me because I
Speaker:have no hair. So I made this little story
Speaker:about her not, you know,
Speaker:having a wig. And it's our
Speaker:classic joke story about the wig thing.
Speaker:So I wrote this other story now and you
Speaker:can download this as
Speaker:a PDF, but you can also share this
Speaker:because listen, what's going to happen.
Speaker:I'm going to click listen
Speaker:and you can change the voice and you can
Speaker:change the speed, but
Speaker:listen, what happens.
Speaker:Oh my God.
Speaker:I'm not going to torture everybody with
Speaker:hearing the whole story.
Speaker:What she does, oops, I didn't mean to
Speaker:move that other way.
Speaker:What she ends up doing is she gets some
Speaker:special magic hair seeds
Speaker:and plants them in a garden.
Speaker:And makes real hair and
Speaker:that's how the story kind of ends.
Speaker:But look at what this created.
Speaker:That is really cool.
Speaker:You can do it as a PDF, but for your
Speaker:kids, special needs kids,
Speaker:kids who need more scaffolding,
Speaker:they can listen and read along.
Speaker:It's an audio book
Speaker:that Amazon charges you.
Speaker:You have to buy it twice.
Speaker:You have to buy the written book and the
Speaker:audio book separately to
Speaker:be able to listen and read
Speaker:at the same time.
Speaker:And look what this created.
Speaker:And I just put the story in and they came
Speaker:up with this in a few minutes.
Speaker:Are you able to print that out as well?
Speaker:Would you add that for FVR?
Speaker:You could because you can go right here
Speaker:and download it as a
Speaker:PDF and then print it.
Speaker:It's loving that for FVR because they're
Speaker:talking about routines every Tuesday,
Speaker:Wednesday, Thursday.
Speaker:But my gosh, I'm always trying to spice
Speaker:something up there for them.
Speaker:We do the, you can do it that way.
Speaker:But also, everybody told you about
Speaker:printing out your own
Speaker:class stories that you've done.
Speaker:And so I see I'm just not, I could
Speaker:download it as a PDF.
Speaker:And then, let's see, we can
Speaker:see what it looks like here.
Speaker:So it won't have the sound, obviously,
Speaker:but you've got the PDF and why is it not?
Speaker:There it is.
Speaker:Okay, it's just
Speaker:taking a sweet little time.
Speaker:And then you can print it on paper,
Speaker:staple it together,
Speaker:and you've got a story.
Speaker:And you can do some of your class stories
Speaker:and put your whole, your library in there
Speaker:and to create some.
Speaker:Some of the books in my FVR too have QR
Speaker:codes for the audio.
Speaker:So I wonder if you could link the audio
Speaker:on a QR code and just, why not?
Speaker:You definitely could do that.
Speaker:So it's just a great way to do it.
Speaker:And you could also put a QR code, like
Speaker:have a list of QR
Speaker:codes, like on your wall next
Speaker:to your library.
Speaker:And they can listen to them during FVR,
Speaker:listen and read to
Speaker:them on their Chromebooks.
Speaker:So they can, if they need the additional
Speaker:support, because I have
Speaker:some really low readers who
Speaker:might need it, they can put their
Speaker:headphones in and then they
Speaker:can use this guided reading
Speaker:during their time.
Speaker:And so again, this is Gemini.
Speaker:And when you go to Gemini, Gemini, if I
Speaker:can spell it, dot
Speaker:Google.com, you have to go to
Speaker:what's called gems.
Speaker:And it's right here called storybook.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Or let me scroll down further.
Speaker:So it's this one called storybook.
Speaker:And then you click-
Speaker:So gems are almost
Speaker:like little, little tools.
Speaker:Little cheat sheets, yep.
Speaker:So you don't have to
Speaker:type all the stuff in there.
Speaker:And then you've got this in here and then
Speaker:you can go ahead and upload.
Speaker:Like I uploaded my thing in there, but
Speaker:you can tell it whatever.
Speaker:You just start chatting with it and
Speaker:telling it what you want.
Speaker:And if you don't like
Speaker:it, tell it to redo it.
Speaker:But I like these too.
Speaker:And I like the idea, because I always,
Speaker:the stories I make my kids
Speaker:at the end of the semester,
Speaker:I print out their stories for them, but
Speaker:they're just text
Speaker:because I write them in text.
Speaker:I don't add illustrations to them.
Speaker:So what I like about it is being able to,
Speaker:now I can do the
Speaker:storybook, print that PDF
Speaker:that's got the graphic of them in the
Speaker:picture, as well as the story.
Speaker:And they can take that as like a little
Speaker:souvenir of class for all
Speaker:the stories that I wrote
Speaker:about them.
Speaker:So give them a little giveaway, takeaways
Speaker:that they can have and
Speaker:have some good memories
Speaker:of school and stuff like that.
Speaker:So-
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And then they put in a growth portfolio.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:So it's just some just good ideas where
Speaker:AI doesn't have to be evil.
Speaker:It can be really, really helpful.
Speaker:And I love using it for,
Speaker:oh, we had some questions.
Speaker:Sorry, I didn't see the questions that I
Speaker:was running that I'm here.
Speaker:So Senorita Thornton says, "Is this free?
Speaker:I just logged in."
Speaker:Yes, it is free.
Speaker:It is limited in the free.
Speaker:You can only do so many at a time.
Speaker:I don't know what the limit is.
Speaker:But if you pay for any aspect of Google,
Speaker:the full version comes for you.
Speaker:So I pay for extra Google
Speaker:space, Google Drive space.
Speaker:So it comes for free for me.
Speaker:And if you don't, if you don't do any of
Speaker:that, if you want the full
Speaker:version, it's $20 a month.
Speaker:But you know what?
Speaker:That is well worth it.
Speaker:Just alone making questions for my
Speaker:stories, saving me 30 minutes per story.
Speaker:And I write at least four stories a week.
Speaker:That's two hours of
Speaker:savings a week for me.
Speaker:That is well worth $20.
Speaker:So you don't go to Starbucks two times
Speaker:that month because
Speaker:Starbucks is about $8, $9 each
Speaker:nowadays.
Speaker:So I think it's really, really worth your
Speaker:time and to be able to
Speaker:do these types of things
Speaker:with it and not get stuck in that rut.
Speaker:Use these to come up with other ways.
Speaker:That's a different way of reading.
Speaker:Instead of me reading it with the class,
Speaker:because I usually read
Speaker:it in the language so they
Speaker:can hear how it's pronounced, they can
Speaker:listen to a different voice doing it.
Speaker:And you can adjust the speed.
Speaker:You can adjust if you want a
Speaker:deep voice or a higher voice.
Speaker:It's got a couple of choices in the
Speaker:voices that you can choose.
Speaker:But it didn't sound
Speaker:overly robotic either.
Speaker:And it didn't sound like an American
Speaker:trying to speak Spanish.
Speaker:They pulled a really
Speaker:authentic accent out of the box.
Speaker:So it's such a valuable.
Speaker:And I just learned this.
Speaker:I made that last week.
Speaker:I just learned about that.
Speaker:I usually use chat GPT as my go-to.
Speaker:But I'm starting to use the Gemini a
Speaker:little bit more because
Speaker:it's got some other features
Speaker:that chat GPT doesn't have.
Speaker:I'm not giving up my chat GPT.
Speaker:But I am using this because I'm already
Speaker:paying for it in a different way.
Speaker:I'm already paying for it.
Speaker:Mine as well take advantage of some of
Speaker:these things that it can do.
Speaker:And as I said, using it
Speaker:to get out of your ruts.
Speaker:I always do this activity with this.
Speaker:Give me some other ideas.
Speaker:And I make lists like you said.
Speaker:I make a whole list.
Speaker:I make it in Canva to
Speaker:make it look pretty.
Speaker:And then I print it out.
Speaker:I laminate it.
Speaker:And I use a whiteboard marker.
Speaker:I've done this one this week.
Speaker:I've done this one.
Speaker:And I go I won't repeat one.
Speaker:Because I'll make like a list of 20.
Speaker:20 brain breaks.
Speaker:20 vocabulary games.
Speaker:Whatever.
Speaker:My number is 20.
Speaker:And then I won't repeat
Speaker:one until we get back to it.
Speaker:Unless it's one kid my
Speaker:kids really really love.
Speaker:My kids love trash get ball.
Speaker:So every Thursday we play trash get ball.
Speaker:It's our brain break for the day.
Speaker:We spend 10, 15 minutes doing it.
Speaker:And then you know, here's nothing you use
Speaker:chat, cheaper, T4 or Gemini whatever.
Speaker:Type in your vocabulary
Speaker:list or your grammar structure.
Speaker:And say for like vocabulary lists I'll
Speaker:say please randomize this list.
Speaker:And then I've now got cue cards that I
Speaker:can ask questions for trash get ball.
Speaker:Without me thinking about it.
Speaker:Or I am working on
Speaker:present tense of AR verbs.
Speaker:If you have to teach grammar.
Speaker:Write me 10 questions that not only ask
Speaker:about how to you know,
Speaker:perform these things or when
Speaker:present tense is used.
Speaker:But also some example verbs of in there.
Speaker:And I've done ones with adjective
Speaker:agreement when I teach that.
Speaker:So I'll have it go and
Speaker:it'll say which is correct.
Speaker:The Chico bueno or the Chico buena.
Speaker:And I'll say that to the kids and then
Speaker:they choose bueno or
Speaker:buena and if they write they
Speaker:get their points.
Speaker:So it really really works really really
Speaker:good for things like that.
Speaker:And then the last thing I'll say about AI
Speaker:that we can move on from AI.
Speaker:Embedded readings.
Speaker:I love embedded readings.
Speaker:But they're so time consuming to create.
Speaker:So I'll create my longest one and then
Speaker:I'll upload it and I'll
Speaker:say I need the following.
Speaker:I need four other versions of the story.
Speaker:The first version needs the most
Speaker:simplistic with no descriptions.
Speaker:Just they did this they did this they did
Speaker:this and give them
Speaker:examples just say it just
Speaker:like that.
Speaker:They did this they did this you know I
Speaker:just want plot point one
Speaker:plot point two plot point
Speaker:three plot point four that's it.
Speaker:Then I want you to add some words and
Speaker:some descriptions in version two.
Speaker:Then I want you to add a little bit more
Speaker:version and more words in
Speaker:version three and then same
Speaker:thing for version four.
Speaker:Spit them out and I get four versions of
Speaker:this and now I've got an
Speaker:embedded reading packet
Speaker:that I can give my kids.
Speaker:Save me a ton of time and I lied.
Speaker:I said I cheated and I'm
Speaker:going that was my last one.
Speaker:Here's another one.
Speaker:I was out for subs.
Speaker:I told you Kayla and I
Speaker:talked before we started.
Speaker:I broke my ribs last week so I was out
Speaker:Monday Tuesday Wednesday
Speaker:because I could not move
Speaker:literally it could not move every pain
Speaker:was every time I moved
Speaker:it was painful and I don't
Speaker:usually cuss but when I do cuss it's
Speaker:because I'm in pain I
Speaker:could not bring that to the
Speaker:classroom.
Speaker:So I stayed home but I ran out of ideas
Speaker:for my sub plan so I
Speaker:asked it to give me some
Speaker:idea for sub plan some I use some I
Speaker:didn't but dreaming Spanish
Speaker:YouTube channel and there's
Speaker:a channel like this for every language.
Speaker:But here's the kicker I gave it the link
Speaker:to the YouTube video I
Speaker:told chat GPT please make
Speaker:me 20 comprehension
Speaker:questions based on this video.
Speaker:I didn't even watch the video.
Speaker:What a hack.
Speaker:Too much.
Speaker:And it made me great sub plans.
Speaker:Yeah that's awesome.
Speaker:So I put it in my formative I use
Speaker:formative for everything.
Speaker:I put a link to the video and then I put
Speaker:the questions on there
Speaker:made a multiple choice
Speaker:bingo bango and I had a sub activity that
Speaker:sub did not have to do
Speaker:anything but just babysit.
Speaker:Honestly that's a great hack I should
Speaker:totally I don't know I
Speaker:haven't thought of that because
Speaker:I love using Pablo's videos from dreaming
Speaker:Spanish just I mean
Speaker:sometimes we'll do his
Speaker:game ones even just as like
Speaker:a brain break type of thing.
Speaker:So they they're familiar with him but
Speaker:I've never thought to
Speaker:use them as a sub plan but
Speaker:that's great.
Speaker:And you can do the same thing
Speaker:with saying your woolly videos.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You know to get some do something
Speaker:different than other than
Speaker:the nuggets and the stuff
Speaker:that they do just some just some
Speaker:comprehension questions they
Speaker:understand the video did they
Speaker:do those kinds of things.
Speaker:So I'm telling you AI does not have to be
Speaker:your enemy it is your
Speaker:teaching assistant and
Speaker:if you look at it from that perspective
Speaker:then you're going to get a lot out of it.
Speaker:And if you don't even know how you can
Speaker:use these tools as
Speaker:teaching assistant go to YouTube
Speaker:and type using AI as a teacher assistant
Speaker:you'll find videos that
Speaker:are helpful because once
Speaker:I learned some of these things I went to
Speaker:YouTube to do my research
Speaker:and watch videos and that's
Speaker:where I learned about the storybook.
Speaker:You know I didn't even know that I had no
Speaker:idea that existed
Speaker:where was it all my life
Speaker:you know that is just a very good little
Speaker:version and they'll tell
Speaker:you how to do them step by
Speaker:step.
Speaker:I'm telling you I've got like 10 minute
Speaker:or less videos and they're worth my time.
Speaker:So that was our little delve into AI but
Speaker:it was still telling us
Speaker:how to get unstuck from
Speaker:our routines.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:We are almost near our end.
Speaker:So do you have any words of wisdom about
Speaker:getting unstuck when
Speaker:you're stuck like that.
Speaker:My words of wisdom would be do something
Speaker:that that is fun for you as the teacher.
Speaker:I think I think it was Carrie Toth who
Speaker:referred to them as a look forward to.
Speaker:I think I read a blog post or a social
Speaker:media post of hers at the
Speaker:beginning of this calendar
Speaker:year and she was thinking about going
Speaker:back to school after the
Speaker:break and she was reflecting
Speaker:on her look forward to is what is she
Speaker:excited about in the classroom.
Speaker:What is she excited to teach.
Speaker:What is she excited to
Speaker:get into with students.
Speaker:I think anytime I'm feeling stuck that's
Speaker:what I think about if
Speaker:there's nothing if I have
Speaker:no LFT then I switch it because I have to
Speaker:be invested in what
Speaker:I'm doing with the kids
Speaker:and I want to be excited about it.
Speaker:This last week was so amazingly relevant
Speaker:for Spanish teachers
Speaker:with Bad Bunny's Grammy
Speaker:wins last Sunday and
Speaker:the Benito Bowl today.
Speaker:So I took a pause for my regularly
Speaker:scheduled programming this
Speaker:last week and we just dove
Speaker:into the album David B. T. Ramos photos
Speaker:and we looked at the
Speaker:short film and we talked
Speaker:about Puerto Rico and identity and his
Speaker:activism and some of the
Speaker:lyrics and that was something
Speaker:that I felt like was such a shake up
Speaker:because I've never
Speaker:talked about Bad Bunny before.
Speaker:We haven't been in this particular month
Speaker:or this week in February in 2026.
Speaker:So I think that the relevancy of the
Speaker:world going around us is
Speaker:something that we can really
Speaker:lean into especially
Speaker:as language teachers.
Speaker:So if you feel stuck just switch it.
Speaker:You know you still meet your targets and
Speaker:you can still meet your
Speaker:objectives and just pick
Speaker:something that's exciting to you and
Speaker:it'll be exciting to them.
Speaker:Basically I will mirror that saying if
Speaker:you're not having fun neither are they.
Speaker:And that was the whole reason I got into
Speaker:CI in the beginning
Speaker:because that first semester
Speaker:my first year teaching I was bored and I
Speaker:was having trouble
Speaker:staying awake in my own darn
Speaker:classes.
Speaker:So if I'm doing that then my kids are.
Speaker:So I was looking for something because
Speaker:I'm like I cannot do this for 30 years.
Speaker:I will not make it.
Speaker:I couldn't make it for
Speaker:the first two months.
Speaker:It was driving me so bad.
Speaker:So yes if you're not having fun neither
Speaker:are your kids so you
Speaker:need to find a way to merge
Speaker:what you're teaching what you have to
Speaker:teach with what the kids
Speaker:want to know and what's
Speaker:interesting to them.
Speaker:And one of the ways that I
Speaker:do that is personalization.
Speaker:I make it when I learn things about kids
Speaker:I incorporate that
Speaker:story like just well last
Speaker:year I had this kid in Spanish one and he
Speaker:opened up his backpack and he was pulling
Speaker:things out and he pulled
Speaker:out three jars of Vaseline.
Speaker:Three a huge Costco size one a medium
Speaker:size one like you get at
Speaker:Target and a little tiny
Speaker:one I'm like what the heck do you need
Speaker:three different he goes
Speaker:they're all for different
Speaker:purposes the small one is for your lips
Speaker:just to put it on your lips.
Speaker:Then I'm like oh my gosh so I wrote a
Speaker:whole story about a kid
Speaker:who's got three jars of
Speaker:Vaseline.
Speaker:How could I not.
Speaker:Well just on Friday this I was another
Speaker:kid who happened to be
Speaker:in that class with that
Speaker:first kid last year and they're both in
Speaker:my Spanish to this year
Speaker:and he pulls out a big
Speaker:bottle of Elmer's glue in a Ziploc bag so
Speaker:in case it leaked I
Speaker:am like why do you have
Speaker:a big bottle of Elmer's glue.
Speaker:First off not seen that
Speaker:since elementary school.
Speaker:He's like well teachers are always asking
Speaker:us to glue things they go yet normal kids
Speaker:use glue sticks.
Speaker:They don't actually carry liquid Elmer's
Speaker:glue I said and
Speaker:Elmer's glue I remember in
Speaker:our class it makes your paper wrinkly you
Speaker:know use rubber cement or glue stick.
Speaker:Well we didn't have glue sticks when I
Speaker:was a kid but you know
Speaker:we use rubber cement to
Speaker:put two piece paper
Speaker:because it kept it flat.
Speaker:He's like I don't like glue
Speaker:sticks so I have this thing.
Speaker:Well I am going to write this story about
Speaker:this kid who opens up his backpack.
Speaker:He's got a giant bottle of Elmer's glue.
Speaker:I don't know where their story is going
Speaker:to go because I mix
Speaker:fiction with truth but my
Speaker:kids love I have one kid who said he goes
Speaker:why is it always so
Speaker:boring reading an English
Speaker:class but I look forward to reading in
Speaker:Spanish class is because
Speaker:I make these stories about
Speaker:the kids they want to learn they want to
Speaker:find out about them.
Speaker:I'm going to write this story about me
Speaker:having my accident that
Speaker:caused my injuries so the
Speaker:kids can all laugh at me because we can
Speaker:merge into that and so
Speaker:those are the things that
Speaker:get you out of that rut
Speaker:that makes things different.
Speaker:Yes we have to read and we have to do
Speaker:comprehension questions.
Speaker:We have to do that but how can I make
Speaker:that more engaging more
Speaker:fun the storybook all those
Speaker:things and which brings us we have a
Speaker:question here from Senorita Thornton.
Speaker:She says this is an excellent question
Speaker:because I find that that
Speaker:AI can really help us in
Speaker:differentiating for the different kinds
Speaker:of kids we have in our
Speaker:classroom and so she let
Speaker:me stretch this out a little bit.
Speaker:There we go.
Speaker:I have a visually impaired student.
Speaker:Any ideas?
Speaker:I struggle because I can't do the
Speaker:activities that I do with her in class.
Speaker:All this is such an AI problem to have.
Speaker:So first of all type
Speaker:that right into chat GPT.
Speaker:In fact I'm going to do it.
Speaker:Let me go right here.
Speaker:This is a good live demo.
Speaker:Yeah live demo.
Speaker:So we're going to go and see.
Speaker:I got to open up a window.
Speaker:Let me do that first.
Speaker:chat GPT.
Speaker:Let's move this to a new window and then
Speaker:let's break that window out.
Speaker:There.
Speaker:Don't look behind the curtain as I do
Speaker:this on my screen here.
Speaker:OK.
Speaker:Now let's make this smaller
Speaker:so we can actually see it.
Speaker:And here.
Speaker:I'm going to go into incognito mode so it
Speaker:doesn't show up
Speaker:anything that might be private
Speaker:about my kids in here.
Speaker:You can do this also
Speaker:for so it doesn't record.
Speaker:Whenever I do anything about my kids that
Speaker:has anything I can identify I go into the
Speaker:temporary chat button because it does not
Speaker:save the information.
Speaker:Chat GPT cannot use your previous
Speaker:information other than for
Speaker:your stuff but it keeps track
Speaker:of all the stuff.
Speaker:So if I write another story about Gabby
Speaker:remember the story I
Speaker:wrote before and it can add to
Speaker:it but anything that's private that I'm
Speaker:going to put in there I
Speaker:do it in a temporary chat
Speaker:so that it does not save it to chat GPT.
Speaker:So I'm going to go right here.
Speaker:I'm going to put it in here.
Speaker:I have a visually impaired
Speaker:student in my Spanish class.
Speaker:I need some ideas on how I can
Speaker:incorporate what I usually
Speaker:do in class so that she can
Speaker:be a part.
Speaker:And let's just see what it says.
Speaker:OK so treat sound is the primary input
Speaker:channel which CI already does.
Speaker:The goal here is that your
Speaker:class is already auditory.
Speaker:It's already story based.
Speaker:It's interactive.
Speaker:It's repetitive.
Speaker:It's slow.
Speaker:That's perfect.
Speaker:What she'll need is explicit
Speaker:verbalization of everything
Speaker:is normally visual instead of
Speaker:look at this picture say in this picture
Speaker:there is a giant
Speaker:purple dog sitting on a tiny
Speaker:chair instead of pointing on
Speaker:the left side of the board.
Speaker:I wrote here a that means what you're
Speaker:narrating your visuals out
Speaker:loud as part of a comprehensible
Speaker:input here something that I already knew
Speaker:I was going to tell
Speaker:you about this anyway but
Speaker:there is an option you know
Speaker:you've heard of closed captions.
Speaker:There is an option that there's closed
Speaker:captions for the visual and
Speaker:I only found it by accident
Speaker:because I clicked it by accident without
Speaker:realizing I clicked the
Speaker:wrong thing and it literally
Speaker:describes the TV show as it's going.
Speaker:Soft music is playing.
Speaker:The main character comes in from the left
Speaker:walks in smile on their face.
Speaker:It describes it.
Speaker:So that's one thing that I would highly
Speaker:recommend be more descriptive of it.
Speaker:Board work spoken work when
Speaker:you write say what you write.
Speaker:I'm writing the word TNA on the board.
Speaker:T-E-A-N-A-A it means has spell the new
Speaker:words out loud the first
Speaker:few times not forever just
Speaker:enough to anchor but that also teaches
Speaker:the alphabet in a
Speaker:logical inclusive way instead
Speaker:of having a memorize the alphabet.
Speaker:Record yourself reading
Speaker:key structures and post them.
Speaker:Send audio summaries after class.
Speaker:Stories in PQA are a super power.
Speaker:This is where she'll shine.
Speaker:Story asking PQA personalization circling
Speaker:TPR gestures acting
Speaker:all of this is readily
Speaker:accessible because it's language plus
Speaker:sound plus interaction.
Speaker:So you know that's in there.
Speaker:But images you can still use pictures
Speaker:just don't rely on them
Speaker:silently before showing
Speaker:the class a picture do this describe it
Speaker:first in Spanish let them
Speaker:build the image then show
Speaker:it you'll be shocked at how much better
Speaker:the whole class
Speaker:comprehends props help a lot stuffed
Speaker:animals hats objects reality those are
Speaker:tactile and 3D easier to
Speaker:her perceived than flat images
Speaker:so you can give them to her if you're
Speaker:talking about a dog have
Speaker:a stuffed dog give it to
Speaker:her in her hands have her hold it have
Speaker:her feel it have her
Speaker:engage with it a little bit
Speaker:as you're still describing the images
Speaker:reading without excluding
Speaker:her this is the tricky part
Speaker:but very solvable provide digital copies
Speaker:she can use with a
Speaker:screen reader if she has one
Speaker:if not you can record yourself reading
Speaker:them and you can provide
Speaker:them not just to her because
Speaker:I always find stuff that you do for
Speaker:special needs kids your
Speaker:504 is your IP kids don't
Speaker:just benefit that kid they benefit all
Speaker:kids so instead of just
Speaker:sharing that little audio
Speaker:clip with her share it with all of your
Speaker:classes in there do some
Speaker:more coral reading and teacher
Speaker:read alouds I always read the one we're
Speaker:reading together as group
Speaker:I read it out loud so they
Speaker:can hear how the words are pronounced as
Speaker:well turn worksheets
Speaker:into listening tasks if you
Speaker:normally do read an answer switch to
Speaker:listen and answer for her seating and
Speaker:classroom flow put her
Speaker:where she can hear you more clearly that
Speaker:she's close to action and
Speaker:actors she's not relying on
Speaker:distance vision you can hear the you know
Speaker:Kelly Ferguson thing
Speaker:someone who doesn't need a degree
Speaker:assign a buddy for her so let's do your
Speaker:acting out in class the
Speaker:buddy's job is to describe
Speaker:what's going on in English the character
Speaker:is doing this so she can
Speaker:describe the action that's going
Speaker:on because she can't see that and you
Speaker:don't know what's going on you're
Speaker:focusing on speaking the
Speaker:language and teaching language the buddy
Speaker:can then just tell them
Speaker:what's going on so she can follow
Speaker:along that way what she cannot access
Speaker:well silent reading for
Speaker:long periods tiny print fast
Speaker:slideshows visual only jokes look at the
Speaker:screen so talk through them like a
Speaker:podcast those little
Speaker:storybooks that we just made in Google
Speaker:Gemini you can have those
Speaker:available for so she can listen
Speaker:to some stories in here and this is the
Speaker:magic piece give her a
Speaker:verbal role make her the class
Speaker:clarifier you can say can you tell us
Speaker:what just happened in the
Speaker:story she'll often track the
Speaker:narrative better than anyone because her
Speaker:ears are trained to
Speaker:compensate for what her eyes cannot do
Speaker:and the secret benefit you're about to
Speaker:become a more comprehensible
Speaker:teacher this I said when you do
Speaker:something specific for a kid and you
Speaker:share it with them all
Speaker:you're helping everybody because
Speaker:you're gonna slow down you're gonna
Speaker:repeat more naturally you're gonna
Speaker:describe more clearly
Speaker:you're gonna rely less on text and you're
Speaker:gonna use richer language
Speaker:so those things then as you
Speaker:see if I move my screen up here it says
Speaker:it gives you some follow-up
Speaker:questions if you want tell me
Speaker:what a typical day looks like in your
Speaker:class and you can say what your most
Speaker:worried won't work put
Speaker:it in there and ask about it in those
Speaker:things now and my school
Speaker:district I don't know if my school
Speaker:district now has it I have to ask but I
Speaker:worked in a previous school
Speaker:where I could submit something
Speaker:and they would put it in Braille so I
Speaker:could submit a reading and they would
Speaker:translate to Braille
Speaker:that's another option if that's available
Speaker:to you if not make audiobooks for it
Speaker:either you record it
Speaker:or you use the storybook function in
Speaker:Gemini and that can record it
Speaker:but there's a lot of things and
Speaker:there's a specific activity that you do
Speaker:that you don't know how to
Speaker:translate it for someone who's
Speaker:visually or even audio impaired whatever
Speaker:just switch it up and ask
Speaker:I'm doing this activity let's
Speaker:let's use this example we play trash get
Speaker:ball every Thursday this
Speaker:is a key element of my class
Speaker:and my students love it and get mad
Speaker:because we didn't do it this
Speaker:week because I was sick get mad
Speaker:when we don't do it how can I adapt this
Speaker:or include the visually
Speaker:impaired student in this activity
Speaker:what I also like about chat GPT or any of
Speaker:them is think about it it's
Speaker:a it's it's called chat for a
Speaker:reason if you don't like what they're
Speaker:giving you then tell them I don't like it
Speaker:give me something new I do it all the
Speaker:time or you're way off on this one or I
Speaker:like this aspect but I don't like this
Speaker:aspect and it will change chat with it
Speaker:people say it doesn't work for me it
Speaker:doesn't work for you for two reasons one
Speaker:you have to use it enough for it learns
Speaker:about your habits it knows about me
Speaker:notice I didn't say that I was a CI
Speaker:teacher in there it knows that I'm a CI
Speaker:teacher it knows I use tprs techniques
Speaker:so it knows that about me so it use that
Speaker:so the more you use it the better it gets
Speaker:but also they go they type it in they get
Speaker:their first response and they don't like
Speaker:the response they go it sucks
Speaker:but just like your training an employee
Speaker:they don't do it right the first time you
Speaker:don't say I'm firing you you talk with
Speaker:them and you tell them what you're
Speaker:looking for so in here so it says right
Speaker:here trash cut trash get Thursday the
Speaker:sacred ritual the more engine
Speaker:you don't have to take this
Speaker:away but here's a few tweaks
Speaker:it's a listing comprehension and suspense
Speaker:game that happens to involve a shot so we
Speaker:keep the suspense we keep the team
Speaker:manager we just as redistribute the roles
Speaker:so make the shot a team role not an
Speaker:individual requirement every team has a
Speaker:shooter a spotter director and answer so
Speaker:this is perfect this is how it does in my
Speaker:class anyway I didn't adapt it this way
Speaker:not all my kids like to be the shooter so
Speaker:they pick the best shooter of their team
Speaker:and then they shoot.
Speaker:So she can still
Speaker:participate in that part.
Speaker:She can be an answer, you know,
Speaker:she can still participate in the
Speaker:answering of the questions.
Speaker:She can be part of the team building.
Speaker:So you can ask these things
Speaker:in here and have it something.
Speaker:Put something in the trash can so it
Speaker:makes noise when hit.
Speaker:And I'll tell you, I can tell
Speaker:you exactly what I would use
Speaker:because normally I have a
Speaker:little blow up ball that I use.
Speaker:I don't use a crumpled piece of paper.
Speaker:But I have a dog ball
Speaker:that not only lights up,
Speaker:which won't help her,
Speaker:but it also makes a noise
Speaker:as it bounces because
Speaker:it's to track the dogs.
Speaker:So that could be when it hits the basket
Speaker:or wherever it goes, it makes a noise
Speaker:so where she can
Speaker:pinpoint where it's going.
Speaker:And also, and not to make fun of her,
Speaker:this is not to make fun of her,
Speaker:and I would talk with her
Speaker:outside of class saying,
Speaker:"Would you like to be
Speaker:a shooter sometimes?"
Speaker:And we can all just laugh
Speaker:at each other, all of us,
Speaker:because I like, if I
Speaker:try to make a basket,
Speaker:it ain't making no
Speaker:basket, I'm telling you,
Speaker:it's not gonna even get close.
Speaker:And we can do that if she's
Speaker:willing to do that kind of thing
Speaker:just for brevity and levity.
Speaker:If she's not
Speaker:comfortable, that's perfectly okay.
Speaker:But that's something that we can all
Speaker:share and understand
Speaker:because sometimes we can have it like,
Speaker:we're gonna do the
Speaker:bad trash skip all day.
Speaker:Only bad throwers can throw today.
Speaker:None of the good kids can throw.
Speaker:If you play basketball, you cannot play.
Speaker:So, I mean, you can play,
Speaker:but you can't be the shooter.
Speaker:So you can include her
Speaker:in that action part two,
Speaker:and we can all laugh at how bad
Speaker:that we did this stuff in here.
Speaker:So there's lots of different things,
Speaker:I'm not gonna go through all the options,
Speaker:but you can see how you
Speaker:can put this stuff in here
Speaker:to get ideas, a specific
Speaker:activity, how you can adapt it.
Speaker:Use chat GPT or
Speaker:Gemini or whatever you use,
Speaker:there's Claude out there.
Speaker:Any of the ones you use,
Speaker:put them in there, find out,
Speaker:test it and see what goes on.
Speaker:You can find ideas and
Speaker:things you didn't think about.
Speaker:And I'm gonna say, this
Speaker:one here is a great one.
Speaker:I love this one.
Speaker:I just saw this as a corner of my eye.
Speaker:The blind route.
Speaker:I would put blindfolds on the shooters.
Speaker:So they're in the same
Speaker:situation that she's in.
Speaker:And then they can
Speaker:have someone direct them
Speaker:to where the basket is.
Speaker:It's directly in front of you.
Speaker:It's right behind you, wherever it is,
Speaker:and see if they can guide
Speaker:them into making the basket.
Speaker:And it works really
Speaker:well to include her too,
Speaker:because now everybody is
Speaker:doing it the exact same way.
Speaker:Nobody can see and they're
Speaker:all relying on their teammates
Speaker:to direct them in the right way.
Speaker:And you might give them like
Speaker:three times to make the shot
Speaker:to get the preciseness
Speaker:of it to give instead
Speaker:of just the one shot in there.
Speaker:But these are just fun ways that you can
Speaker:use these activities
Speaker:to be able to make use of chat GPT,
Speaker:to get yourself out of the rut,
Speaker:to make accommodations for kids
Speaker:that have different abilities
Speaker:than the standard kid in your classroom.
Speaker:So there's so many things that we can do
Speaker:and chat GPT really helps us
Speaker:or any of the AI really can
Speaker:help you solve that problem.
Speaker:And Senorita Thornton says,
Speaker:oh my God, this is wonderful.
Speaker:Thanks so much.
Speaker:AI to the rescue.
Speaker:Yes, there's so many different things.
Speaker:Put it in there, make it
Speaker:your teacher assistant,
Speaker:chat with it, make it your
Speaker:teacher bestie right there.
Speaker:Have those conversations in there.
Speaker:I put in there when I
Speaker:have discipline problems,
Speaker:I have this kid, I've
Speaker:tried the, this is the issue.
Speaker:I've tried this and this and this.
Speaker:I need some other
Speaker:ideas, put that in there.
Speaker:I have a kid who's always down in class,
Speaker:just get some other ideas
Speaker:that you didn't think about before to do.
Speaker:And so it gives you so many ideas.
Speaker:Some of them are
Speaker:great, some of them are not.
Speaker:Let them know because it learns from you.
Speaker:So if you don't like that,
Speaker:it won't put that kind of
Speaker:a response back in there.
Speaker:So it's so many different ways
Speaker:and it can help you get out of that rut
Speaker:because you can go through, you can say,
Speaker:I do this activity, I
Speaker:need to teach reading,
Speaker:I need to teach reading comprehension.
Speaker:This is what I normally do.
Speaker:Can you give me five new ideas?
Speaker:We're getting bored and
Speaker:it will give you other ways
Speaker:that you can incorporate.
Speaker:So there's so many things
Speaker:that you can do with it.
Speaker:It does not have to be an evil thing.
Speaker:Absolutely, and thank you
Speaker:so much, Sanyarithorton.
Speaker:That was an absolute
Speaker:banger of a question.
Speaker:And we have these problems all the time
Speaker:where we have kids,
Speaker:because I had a visually
Speaker:impaired kid way before AI.
Speaker:He carried a little, it was like a glass,
Speaker:half a glass dome.
Speaker:And he literally, he could see,
Speaker:but he had to have things blown up.
Speaker:The text had to be two inches high
Speaker:for him to be able to read it.
Speaker:And he couldn't even like
Speaker:read the numbers on the room
Speaker:and he didn't read Braille.
Speaker:He didn't learn Braille.
Speaker:And so he take this
Speaker:little magnifying thing
Speaker:and put it up to the room number
Speaker:so he can read to see if
Speaker:he's at the room number.
Speaker:But we could, this is that one
Speaker:that I could have them print in Braille,
Speaker:what we sent, we sent the textbook pages
Speaker:or whatever we had handouts,
Speaker:and then we sent it to them
Speaker:and then they would enlarge it.
Speaker:So they came in like this huge,
Speaker:look like a sheet, a bed sheet.
Speaker:And I fold it down to size,
Speaker:but then I lay it out
Speaker:in the middle of my floor
Speaker:and he could sit down and read it
Speaker:because everything had to be two inches,
Speaker:or I could hang it on
Speaker:a wall for him to read
Speaker:because he could not read anything,
Speaker:10 or 12 font, forget that,
Speaker:that was not happening for him.
Speaker:So I would have loved
Speaker:to have alternative ways
Speaker:to be able to do this stuff.
Speaker:And I would have loved
Speaker:to have chat GPT help me.
Speaker:But we have kids like this
Speaker:all the time in the class.
Speaker:Put in there, I have a kid
Speaker:who has a real time paying attention,
Speaker:but fidget tools don't work for him
Speaker:because he focuses on the fidget tool,
Speaker:but not on what's
Speaker:actually going on in class.
Speaker:Can you give me some strategies
Speaker:and help the kid to be able to focus
Speaker:on what we're doing in
Speaker:class and work with him?
Speaker:And it gives you some great ideas.
Speaker:So use chat GPT to help you, it can do.
Speaker:And those particular
Speaker:cases, just keep it generic.
Speaker:Don't put the kid's name in there
Speaker:because it's special IEP stuff,
Speaker:but you can put that information in there
Speaker:and it will give you
Speaker:some really good feedback.
Speaker:So thank you so much,
Speaker:Kayla, for joining us today.
Speaker:I really appreciate it.
Speaker:Thank you, Señora Thi
Speaker:and Señora Thornton for
Speaker:asking some amazing questions
Speaker:and the rest of you for joining us today.
Speaker:If you're watching this on the replay,
Speaker:feel free to put your
Speaker:questions in the comments section
Speaker:and we'll get back to you.
Speaker:If you're watching on the podcast
Speaker:or listening on the podcast,
Speaker:feel free to put your
Speaker:questions in the comments there
Speaker:and we'll be sure to
Speaker:get back to you in there.
Speaker:We love when we get the engagement.
Speaker:And so let's go ahead
Speaker:and end up this episode.
Speaker:We're almost an hour
Speaker:and a half, oh my gosh.
Speaker:So thank you so much for
Speaker:spending part of your week
Speaker:with us today,
Speaker:especially almost 90 minutes.
Speaker:Seriously, there are a lot of things
Speaker:you could be doing right
Speaker:now, I would be still sleeping,
Speaker:and you chose this.
Speaker:Huge thank you to Kayla for showing up,
Speaker:being honest and
Speaker:reminding us that good teaching
Speaker:isn't about freezing in time,
Speaker:it's about staying curious as she said,
Speaker:if she's not interested,
Speaker:there's no point in
Speaker:doing it in class either.
Speaker:If today's episode
Speaker:reminded you that CI can evolve
Speaker:without losing its soul,
Speaker:do us a favor, subscribe,
Speaker:leave a review and share
Speaker:this episode with a teacher
Speaker:who might be quietly stuck in autopilot.
Speaker:You can watch us live on YouTube
Speaker:or catch the replay on
Speaker:your favorite podcast app.
Speaker:And as always ditch the
Speaker:drills, trust the process,
Speaker:and I'll see you next
Speaker:time on "Comprehend This".
Speaker:Goodbye everybody.
Speaker:(upbeat music)
