Episode 23: "CI and Admin Observations: Smile, Nod, and Strategically Insert Buzzwords"
Admin observations can be stressful for Comprehensible Input teachers who don’t teach with worksheets or traditional drills.
Take the CI Proficiency Quiz to assess where you are in your CI journey: https://imim.us/ciquiz.
In this episode of Comprehend THIS!, we talk about admin walkthroughs, buzzwords, and how to show rigor and engagement while teaching CI with stories, interaction, and confidence.
Want classroom-ready CI resources that support real acquisition? Check out the CI Survival Kit: https://imim.us/kit.
comprehensible input, admin observations, CI teaching strategies, language teacher podcast, classroom walkthroughs, CI classroom, teacher confidence, language acquisition, teacher humor, CI methods
Hosts:
- Scott Benedict - https://www.instagram.com/immediateimmersion
- Pamela Parks - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXHEK-1ra4IyzO5avtqEkmQ
- Kelly Garcia
Resources & Links:
- CI Survival Kit - https://imim.us/kit
- Bryce Hedstrom - https://brycehedstrom.com
- Observation Checklist - https://www.brycehedstrom.com/wp-content/uploads/Checklist-for-Observing-a-WL-Classroom-2.pdf
- Entertaining an Elephant - https://amzn.to/4bJK7J5
- Admin Observation Tips by Pamela Parks - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hSgAg0UAGX8zYiFwfDud9c83HJiYe7Kz/view?usp=sharing
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
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Transcript
You ever be deep into a CI story like the
Speaker:llama is thriving, the
Speaker:kids are understanding,
Speaker:and then you look up and
Speaker:see an admin with a clipboard?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Today's episode is CI
Speaker:and admin observations.
Speaker:Smile, nod, and
Speaker:strategically insert buzzwords.
Speaker:Because while they're asking for rigor
Speaker:and engagement, you're
Speaker:just trying to keep the
Speaker:sombrero on the llama and
Speaker:the input comprehensible.
Speaker:I'm joined by Pamela Parks and Kelly
Speaker:Garcia, and we're
Speaker:talking survival strategies for
Speaker:admin observations that let you play the
Speaker:game without selling your CI soul.
Speaker:If you've ever nodded confidently while
Speaker:internally screaming,
Speaker:this episode is for you.
Speaker:So welcome everybody to episode number
Speaker:23, and we'll be back
Speaker:after these short messages.
Speaker:Ever feel like you're clinging to the
Speaker:edge of your teacher planner?
Speaker:Just hoping today's
Speaker:lesson magically appears?
Speaker:Enter the CI Survival Kit, a monthly
Speaker:membership made for
Speaker:teachers who love comprehensible
Speaker:input but also love not reinventing the
Speaker:wheel every Sunday night.
Speaker:Each month you get fresh, ready-to-use
Speaker:lessons, time-saving
Speaker:tools, and just enough structure
Speaker:to keep your teaching life together.
Speaker:No stress, no guilt, just monthly help
Speaker:from someone who gets it.
Speaker:Sign up at mm.us slash survival and let
Speaker:the Survival Kit do the
Speaker:heavy lifting for once.
Speaker:Welcome to Comprehend This, real talk for
Speaker:real language teachers.
Speaker:No drills, no dry theory, just honest
Speaker:stories, practical ideas,
Speaker:and a reminder you're not
Speaker:alone in the CI trenches.
Speaker:Let's dive in.
Speaker:And welcome everybody.
Speaker:Welcome Pamela and Kelly.
Speaker:How is everybody doing this morning?
Speaker:I'm warm today.
Speaker:After two days of power outage.
Speaker:I can't imagine.
Speaker:I grew up in Michigan and I don't
Speaker:remember having power
Speaker:outages in the wintertime very
Speaker:often, but I could not manage.
Speaker:I do not do well in the cold at all.
Speaker:So I could not imagine
Speaker:two days without power.
Speaker:Hope you had some warm blankets.
Speaker:Yep, and a fireplace.
Speaker:Oh, that works too.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So refresh us, Kelly.
Speaker:I mean, Pamela, tell us a little bit
Speaker:about yourself again.
Speaker:I know you were on once before.
Speaker:Pamela Parks, my
Speaker:students call me Madame Sensei.
Speaker:I teach Spanish, French and Japanese.
Speaker:I also have an English language arts
Speaker:class and over the summer I teach health.
Speaker:So I'm kind of Jack of
Speaker:all trades, master of none.
Speaker:Been teaching at this
Speaker:school for about 15 years.
Speaker:Using comprehensible input all the time.
Speaker:Love what I do.
Speaker:I love the puzzle solving.
Speaker:Just love teaching.
Speaker:Used to be a professional translator
Speaker:before, which was also a
Speaker:dream job, but I love teaching
Speaker:maybe a little bit more.
Speaker:Awesome, awesome, awesome.
Speaker:And tell us about you, Kelly,
Speaker:you're our first time with us.
Speaker:Yes, thanks for letting me jump in here.
Speaker:It's exciting.
Speaker:I am Kelly Garcia and I have been at ESU
Speaker:Educational Service Unit
Speaker:5 in Beatrice, Nebraska
Speaker:since 2019.
Speaker:And I threw out my textbooks
Speaker:in 2012 and never looked back.
Speaker:And I love my job because our
Speaker:administrators really get
Speaker:what we do and how we do it and
Speaker:why.
Speaker:So I'm just delighted to be here today.
Speaker:Happy Sunday.
Speaker:And we're happy to have you with us.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Happy Sunday.
Speaker:It's so important to
Speaker:have administrative support.
Speaker:So I've got some stories about that,
Speaker:positive and negative,
Speaker:that we can all talk about.
Speaker:And most of us can relate to one or the
Speaker:other or somewhere in
Speaker:between that we can talk about
Speaker:and how to better the circumstances.
Speaker:I always say do what you have to do to
Speaker:keep your job, but advocate for kids.
Speaker:So do what you have to do because you
Speaker:don't want to lose your job.
Speaker:But at the same time, you want to
Speaker:advocate for kids and
Speaker:find a subtle way to educate
Speaker:the uneducated.
Speaker:And I will give some credit to
Speaker:administrators because I
Speaker:know their job is not easy.
Speaker:And the problem with administration, and
Speaker:it's not the people
Speaker:themselves, it's the position,
Speaker:is that they have to lead anywhere from
Speaker:25 staff members to over
Speaker:100 staff members, depending
Speaker:on how big of a school that you have.
Speaker:And each one has a different
Speaker:discipline that they teach.
Speaker:And they can't be a master of everyone.
Speaker:They're the master of what they taught,
Speaker:but they can't be the master.
Speaker:And it's really hard to apply, let's say,
Speaker:I remember when they did the, what was it
Speaker:called the, I can't remember what they
Speaker:called it, but one person
Speaker:used to ask the questions
Speaker:and you're supposed to put them in groups
Speaker:of four and each one
Speaker:had a different role in
Speaker:the groups of four.
Speaker:And it was talking about, what was it?
Speaker:Jigsaw.
Speaker:Oh, no, it wasn't that sound.
Speaker:I'm thinking something, I'm thinking
Speaker:Socrates or something like that.
Speaker:I don't remember what it was called.
Speaker:The Socrates seminar.
Speaker:But yeah, those things don't really work
Speaker:in a language classroom.
Speaker:And so it comes down and they have to
Speaker:apply it to everybody.
Speaker:And you're like, well, how does that work
Speaker:in PE or band or dance?
Speaker:Let's say, let's talk
Speaker:about your trumpet right now.
Speaker:And you know, it doesn't, and in world
Speaker:language is more like a,
Speaker:I call it like more like a
Speaker:fine art.
Speaker:It is like dance or, or even a sport
Speaker:because it's a skill
Speaker:that you're building.
Speaker:It's not a knowledge
Speaker:base that you're creating.
Speaker:So I give them credit because it's a real
Speaker:hard thing for them to
Speaker:be able to take district
Speaker:objectives and apply it
Speaker:evenly across an entire staff.
Speaker:So their job is not easy and we could
Speaker:help them maybe by
Speaker:giving them a little bit of
Speaker:education about how we do it, why and why
Speaker:we do it and why it's good for kids.
Speaker:Because most
Speaker:administrators are on the side of kids.
Speaker:And so if it's good for kids, they will
Speaker:more likely side with what we're doing.
Speaker:So that's kind of my
Speaker:little opener in there.
Speaker:Let's talk about first before we go to
Speaker:the positive, does
Speaker:anybody have kind of a negative
Speaker:interaction about maybe not negative,
Speaker:maybe that's not the right word.
Speaker:But a counter indicator with an
Speaker:administrator about CI.
Speaker:Well the things you were just saying
Speaker:Scott about you get the
Speaker:district directives and
Speaker:they are like across the board.
Speaker:That's something we've been dealing with
Speaker:for, geez, ever since I started I think.
Speaker:I mean the idea that math class has to
Speaker:teach their class exactly
Speaker:like history class, exactly
Speaker:like PE, exactly like music, exactly like
Speaker:art, those are not the same skills.
Speaker:Why would we use the same
Speaker:techniques in those classes?
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:And exactly as you were
Speaker:saying, we are a progressive skill.
Speaker:So like at one point I was fighting with
Speaker:the principal, I'd been
Speaker:through four or five principal
Speaker:now.
Speaker:I was fighting with the principal because
Speaker:he said he didn't like homework.
Speaker:And I was like are you ever going to tell
Speaker:a piano student you have a concert in two
Speaker:weeks, I don't want you practicing at all
Speaker:outside of piano class.
Speaker:I need the students to look at the
Speaker:language for five
Speaker:minutes outside of class.
Speaker:This is Ebbinghaus' forgetting curve.
Speaker:It's well documented.
Speaker:They're going to forget everything unless
Speaker:they have some more
Speaker:contact with it for five
Speaker:minutes.
Speaker:So, yeah, I've had a lot of arguments
Speaker:with admin over the years.
Speaker:When I first started, my very first PD
Speaker:day, professional
Speaker:development day, they were trying
Speaker:to convince me that oh, well, English
Speaker:department can do
Speaker:this, you can do this too.
Speaker:You need to compare 19th century
Speaker:foundational literature.
Speaker:And I was like, they can't even read
Speaker:right now 20th century
Speaker:foundational literature.
Speaker:How are they going to read 19th century
Speaker:foundational literature?
Speaker:They can't read Dr. Seuss.
Speaker:Yeah, I wound up doing a folktale thing.
Speaker:I don't normally like to do translations
Speaker:because there's so much
Speaker:culture I can embed into like,
Speaker:hey, we're reading a folktale.
Speaker:There's culture in there, right?
Speaker:But I happen to have a traditional
Speaker:Japanese folktale and an
Speaker:Aesop fable translated.
Speaker:And I was like, okay,
Speaker:I'll compare those two.
Speaker:We'll pretend it's 19th century, but it's
Speaker:far earlier than that because this one is
Speaker:800 AD.
Speaker:And this one is, one was
Speaker:Aesop, I don't even remember.
Speaker:But yeah, my biggest knockdown drag out
Speaker:fight was probably a
Speaker:couple of years ago, I had
Speaker:a principal who kept telling me I need to
Speaker:write up, I need to do a
Speaker:show her the standards.
Speaker:Okay, in Washington State, I'm on the
Speaker:committee to create the
Speaker:standards, but we don't have
Speaker:standards yet.
Speaker:And I kept saying, there is no standard
Speaker:in the world that says
Speaker:first year students need
Speaker:to know how to say the pencil is yellow.
Speaker:That is not what we do.
Speaker:We have descriptors.
Speaker:And descriptors are a totally different
Speaker:thing than standards.
Speaker:I'm like, this is one of the skills I'm
Speaker:teaching my students to use.
Speaker:This is how they're going to use it.
Speaker:She's like, no, I need your standards.
Speaker:After six months of fighting with her, I
Speaker:looked at her and I
Speaker:said, oh, wait a minute.
Speaker:Are you talking about scope and sequence?
Speaker:And sure enough, she wanted a scope and
Speaker:sequence, not standards.
Speaker:So she didn't know the buzzwords either.
Speaker:So that was like, just keep pushing back
Speaker:and use the terms you know how to use.
Speaker:Don't fall.
Speaker:Don't say, oh, well,
Speaker:they're saying that word.
Speaker:I should use it too.
Speaker:Like descriptors, that's
Speaker:the hill I'm going to die on.
Speaker:Formative assessment.
Speaker:I'm going to keep pushing back.
Speaker:No, this is a formative assessment.
Speaker:We world language teachers are
Speaker:constantly, constantly,
Speaker:formatively assessing.
Speaker:Don't force me to do a summative
Speaker:assessment right here just
Speaker:because you think everyone
Speaker:should be giving the exact same formative
Speaker:assessment on the exact same time, on the
Speaker:exact same day.
Speaker:It's no longer a formative
Speaker:assessment if you do that.
Speaker:So I don't know.
Speaker:There's a lot.
Speaker:It sounds like.
Speaker:I have to take off my soapbox.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:Let me just say I love
Speaker:my current principal.
Speaker:I love her so much.
Speaker:But it's been like, I've been through so
Speaker:many principles of like,
Speaker:there was one where even
Speaker:the teacher who had the random acts of
Speaker:kindness club, she would
Speaker:come to me and say, that guy
Speaker:scares me.
Speaker:So I've been through a lot of principles.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Sounds like.
Speaker:How would Kelly, do you have a negative
Speaker:or counter experience?
Speaker:Yeah, actually, in one of my old schools
Speaker:way, way long ago, we
Speaker:would have these PLCs, of
Speaker:course, and then our administration would
Speaker:create teams within our school to visit.
Speaker:Like for example, for the Spanish class,
Speaker:maybe we would have a 10
Speaker:to 15 minute lesson and
Speaker:we would have a fourth grade teacher,
Speaker:science teacher and a music
Speaker:teacher and an administrator.
Speaker:They're watching that lesson all at the
Speaker:same time, trying to give
Speaker:us constructive feedback
Speaker:when they knew nothing
Speaker:about what was going on.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So they would suggest a polish or, Oh, to
Speaker:make your lesson
Speaker:better, you should have the
Speaker:students speaking Spanish wine.
Speaker:They're not able.
Speaker:They are, I mean, they can do memorize
Speaker:words, you know, and
Speaker:phrases, but I was in the middle
Speaker:of a story talking to them.
Speaker:They were engaged, they were watching.
Speaker:And then as my polisher, they wanted some
Speaker:kind of spoken
Speaker:something from the student.
Speaker:And that just, it's like, tell me you
Speaker:don't understand how to
Speaker:teach foreign language without
Speaker:saying you don't know how
Speaker:to teach foreign language.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I have had a complete
Speaker:mixture of combinations.
Speaker:So many people on the podcast have heard
Speaker:my story before, but I
Speaker:started in 2001 right
Speaker:after 9 11.
Speaker:They hired me, you know, in October
Speaker:because they had an
Speaker:overflow of kids and not enough
Speaker:teachers.
Speaker:So it was a part time position I had
Speaker:never taught before.
Speaker:They hired me on an emergency permit.
Speaker:They only hired me because they were
Speaker:desperate because I had no teaching
Speaker:experience whatsoever.
Speaker:And I sucked that first semester.
Speaker:I sucked.
Speaker:I knew it.
Speaker:It was horrible.
Speaker:It was painful.
Speaker:I was bored.
Speaker:And if I was bored, they were bored.
Speaker:I didn't know what I was
Speaker:doing and I was terrified.
Speaker:It was Spanish too.
Speaker:I only had to teach
Speaker:fifth and sixth period.
Speaker:It was horrible.
Speaker:But I knew it was horrible and I'm like,
Speaker:there is no way that I can
Speaker:do this for 30 some years.
Speaker:There is no way.
Speaker:So I've got to either
Speaker:fix it or I've got to quit.
Speaker:So I tried the fixing.
Speaker:And so in December of that year during
Speaker:winter break, I searched
Speaker:desperately for something
Speaker:and I found Blaine Ray and TPRS and that
Speaker:was we didn't call it
Speaker:comprehensible input back
Speaker:then.
Speaker:It was only TPRS.
Speaker:It was the only
Speaker:alternative to the textbook.
Speaker:So that's what I did.
Speaker:And I went whole hog starting second
Speaker:semester and it was amazing.
Speaker:In fact, my principal told me that after
Speaker:first semester, I was
Speaker:on the no rehire list.
Speaker:But when he saw me in the second
Speaker:semester, it was amazing the
Speaker:transformation I did and
Speaker:it really wasn't me.
Speaker:It was the method, you know, I guess.
Speaker:And I was doing it badly.
Speaker:I was horrible because I had no training
Speaker:in it yet because I
Speaker:couldn't get my first training
Speaker:until the summertime.
Speaker:So I was just.
Speaker:And there was no training, right?
Speaker:Well, there was.
Speaker:There was some training.
Speaker:Blaine Ray did
Speaker:trainings, but that was it.
Speaker:So he said that's what transformed you.
Speaker:And so he was the this.
Speaker:The other teachers were not
Speaker:into it, but he was into it.
Speaker:So it was worked well when the economy
Speaker:went bad in California in 2005.
Speaker:I got laid off and then I found a school
Speaker:district in Vegas and
Speaker:they were a CI school.
Speaker:So I didn't have to worry about it.
Speaker:Then it was the principal wanted it.
Speaker:The assistant principal.
Speaker:Everybody wanted it.
Speaker:The teachers were on
Speaker:board, so it was easy peasy.
Speaker:I wanted to get back to California.
Speaker:So in 2012, I moved back to California.
Speaker:I got back in because
Speaker:the economy was better.
Speaker:And I got lucky into a job where the this
Speaker:is the best experience I've had.
Speaker:It was a middle school.
Speaker:I didn't want to teach middle school.
Speaker:And I already had a job.
Speaker:I got a new job.
Speaker:I got this job.
Speaker:I only went to this interview because my
Speaker:friend said I put you on this interview.
Speaker:That's the only reason you're here.
Speaker:I went to the interview because I already
Speaker:had a job committed and I was moving from
Speaker:where I was in California to a different
Speaker:district in California, a
Speaker:different part of California.
Speaker:My house was all packed up
Speaker:and school started in a week.
Speaker:So that's what I was doing.
Speaker:So I only went to this interview and I
Speaker:knew I did not want middle school.
Speaker:I already accepted this job.
Speaker:So there's nothing like I'm
Speaker:just doing it for the formality.
Speaker:It was a weird interview.
Speaker:I should have known this about this
Speaker:principle to begin with.
Speaker:It should have set up bells.
Speaker:He was weird.
Speaker:He called me in for an
Speaker:interview at seven o'clock at night.
Speaker:He was the only one in there and he's in
Speaker:t-shirt shorts and flip flops.
Speaker:And I am like, this is the strangest
Speaker:interview I've been on.
Speaker:So I'm going and doing it.
Speaker:And he's telling me all about
Speaker:the school and all this stuff.
Speaker:And I'm like, um, I go, forgive me.
Speaker:But this is a really strange interview.
Speaker:He's like, this isn't the
Speaker:F-ing except he said it.
Speaker:He cussed through the whole thing.
Speaker:He goes, this isn't the F-ing interview.
Speaker:I'm preparing you for the interview.
Speaker:The interview is tomorrow.
Speaker:I'm like, okay, well, I did tell you I
Speaker:already have a job, right?
Speaker:I'm just here for formalities.
Speaker:He goes, yeah, you told me,
Speaker:but I'll see you tomorrow.
Speaker:So I come in for the interview for
Speaker:tomorrow and he says,
Speaker:um, you know, um, we'll let
Speaker:you know in a couple of days, uh, whether
Speaker:you get the position or not.
Speaker:And um, and that I'm like, I'm telling
Speaker:you right now, I'm not
Speaker:accepting the position.
Speaker:I already have a job.
Speaker:I'm only doing this to honor my friend
Speaker:who scheduled me for this.
Speaker:I go, I need to fill out your paperwork
Speaker:because at the time this
Speaker:school district did not do
Speaker:online applications.
Speaker:You had to do everything by hand.
Speaker:And I'm like, in California, we do ed
Speaker:joint and it's all digital.
Speaker:So I'm like, I am not
Speaker:filling out all this stuff by hand.
Speaker:There's just no way.
Speaker:I'm not even doing that part.
Speaker:He's like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:We'll call you in a couple of days.
Speaker:He calls me that afternoon, says, can you
Speaker:come back to the school?
Speaker:And I'm like, yeah, I can come back.
Speaker:What do you need?
Speaker:He goes, just come on, comes in and he
Speaker:goes, um, I want to just
Speaker:show you around the school.
Speaker:This is your room.
Speaker:This is the, we just
Speaker:got the PE floor done.
Speaker:See our new mascot is put on the floor.
Speaker:It was done.
Speaker:This is a beautiful school that I'm like,
Speaker:did I tell you I already have a job?
Speaker:He goes, yeah, you told me
Speaker:just quit that job and come here.
Speaker:You're here.
Speaker:He goes, here's your keys.
Speaker:We start tomorrow.
Speaker:I'll see you then.
Speaker:So this is the kind of principle he is
Speaker:and he was an amazing principle.
Speaker:So I had to give you all that preamble to
Speaker:get to the point of what we're doing.
Speaker:So they were just
Speaker:starting world language.
Speaker:They are becoming an IB school that year.
Speaker:So they were starting the world language
Speaker:program and they wanted to do CI.
Speaker:So it was a CI and he
Speaker:didn't really know much about it.
Speaker:He was a math teacher.
Speaker:And then he paid for
Speaker:all of us to go to NTPRS.
Speaker:I had been going for many years, but he
Speaker:paid for our whole team to go, which at
Speaker:the time was only three teachers.
Speaker:Cause we were just starting
Speaker:and we're all teaching level one.
Speaker:And, and he showed up too.
Speaker:He came with us and he took the level one
Speaker:with Katya, the Russian.
Speaker:And I don't know if it was, he was
Speaker:interested in Russian or he was more
Speaker:interested in Katya cause
Speaker:she was a beautiful woman.
Speaker:Um, cause he always said, he goes, if I
Speaker:leave my wife, that's
Speaker:the one I want Katya.
Speaker:So, uh, it was so funny, but he picked up
Speaker:some Russian and he was really amazing.
Speaker:He goes, this is amazing.
Speaker:This is what our kids need.
Speaker:And for him, language was not a
Speaker:afterthought and elective.
Speaker:It was a must have because he
Speaker:goes, the future is language.
Speaker:You need the world's getting smaller and
Speaker:it's not an elective.
Speaker:It's really important that
Speaker:our kids have a second language.
Speaker:And this is amazing because my, um, you
Speaker:know, cause I took Spanish.
Speaker:She goes, I can't speak a word of it.
Speaker:I took it for four years and I can speak
Speaker:some Russian after a few hours.
Speaker:And he said, this was
Speaker:just really amazing.
Speaker:So, um, I don't know again, I don't know
Speaker:if it was the method or Katya, but, uh,
Speaker:either way he was on board.
Speaker:And so he was very, um, advocated for us
Speaker:a lot and so made sure we got what we
Speaker:wanted, what we needed, he came two more
Speaker:years to that conference, going through
Speaker:and doing it and learning more about it.
Speaker:And I was in there one time and I go, um,
Speaker:we were in, uh, uh, a presentation and
Speaker:she was talking about desolate classrooms
Speaker:and I'm like, that's what I want.
Speaker:And he goes, well, why don't you have it?
Speaker:I go, because I asked our assistant
Speaker:principal is in charge of facilities.
Speaker:I asked, he said, no, you can't do that.
Speaker:You got to have desks in your classroom.
Speaker:And he goes, he goes, hold on a minute.
Speaker:And he starts texting.
Speaker:And he goes, your desk will be gone
Speaker:within 15 minutes
Speaker:because it was summer break.
Speaker:And he got rid of the desk and then he
Speaker:goes, but your kids need something to
Speaker:write on, so let me
Speaker:get you some clipboards.
Speaker:And so he ordered some clipboards for us
Speaker:and they were waiting when I got back to
Speaker:school, you know, in the, in
Speaker:the, at the end of the summer.
Speaker:And so he was very, uh, he was an
Speaker:advocate for it, even
Speaker:though he was a math teacher.
Speaker:And then I have another principal and
Speaker:this is going to go to the
Speaker:negative who has no clue was a special
Speaker:needs teacher, which is awesome, but
Speaker:doesn't really have a clue of how
Speaker:language acquisition
Speaker:works and all of that kind of
Speaker:stuff.
Speaker:And so he's telling me, like you said,
Speaker:the multiple
Speaker:assessments I, you need in this,
Speaker:I need you.
Speaker:How do you know that your kids learned
Speaker:what you were supposed
Speaker:to teach them that day?
Speaker:Like, oh, it's progressive.
Speaker:It's not, it's not a, uh, no, I taught
Speaker:and they learned kind of a thing.
Speaker:I said, I'm asking questions.
Speaker:Well, Cora, you can't ask coral questions
Speaker:cause coral questions
Speaker:don't tell you about
Speaker:individual students.
Speaker:I go, but they do because I can see which
Speaker:kids are answering and with, with
Speaker:confidence and who are whispering or who
Speaker:are looking around at people.
Speaker:I'm watching the kids and I do do
Speaker:individual questions.
Speaker:You just haven't seen them yet because my
Speaker:lesson is not a one hour lesson.
Speaker:My lesson is a whole week long
Speaker:lesson and we haven't got it.
Speaker:I just introduced on Monday and Tuesday
Speaker:what we're working on for the week and
Speaker:you're only seeing the beginning stages
Speaker:and didn't like the,
Speaker:uh, even though I gave
Speaker:him research about the no desk thing,
Speaker:said I had to put
Speaker:desk back in my classroom
Speaker:because kids have to
Speaker:have their own space.
Speaker:I'm like, my kids do have their own
Speaker:space, but he's like,
Speaker:well, they don't have a
Speaker:place to put their backpacks.
Speaker:Nobody puts their backpacks on a desk.
Speaker:They put them on the floor, which is the
Speaker:same place they put them without a desk.
Speaker:So we just got butting heads and butting
Speaker:heads all year long has no real
Speaker:understanding because he's seeing a
Speaker:textbook version and sees that every day
Speaker:they're doing a physical
Speaker:assignment that they're turning in.
Speaker:And so I ended up having to make
Speaker:everything that I do an assignment and
Speaker:have to turn it, we do calendar talk.
Speaker:I have to ask you three questions to
Speaker:write down on a piece of paper and
Speaker:turn it in about calendar talk.
Speaker:I'm like, really?
Speaker:Calendar talks only supposed
Speaker:to be a five minute activity.
Speaker:It's not supposed to be a 15, I don't
Speaker:want to spend 20 minutes on this because
Speaker:that's just kind of keeping the dates
Speaker:fresh in their mind.
Speaker:It's not really the
Speaker:content I'm trying to teach.
Speaker:So I've had that big struggle and I had
Speaker:one administrator come in in Vegas and
Speaker:they said, why are your
Speaker:kids level one week four?
Speaker:Where are those do K three questions?
Speaker:I'm like, do Keith do K three questions.
Speaker:My kids barely can communicate in
Speaker:English, let alone in Spanish.
Speaker:And you're asking to do deal.
Speaker:Do you do do K three
Speaker:questions in kindergarten?
Speaker:It's really not, you know, they just
Speaker:don't have a clue of what they're doing
Speaker:because they only know the experience of
Speaker:teaching about language like the
Speaker:textbook does and not
Speaker:the actual language itself.
Speaker:Cause I mean, you don't ask your, your
Speaker:infant when you're teaching them,
Speaker:but their native language, can you give
Speaker:me a do key three question?
Speaker:Give me some thought
Speaker:provoking questions about that.
Speaker:No, it, it, it, there's a disconnect.
Speaker:And again, it goes back again, no fault
Speaker:to many admin, administrators who
Speaker:don't want to learn or be educated is a
Speaker:different issue, but for the majority
Speaker:of educators, there's too much to learn
Speaker:for them to be able to understand
Speaker:every discipline.
Speaker:So I'm not faulting them for that.
Speaker:But when you, when us teachers provide
Speaker:you with information to help you do your
Speaker:job a little bit better
Speaker:to make your job easier.
Speaker:Please trust us that we
Speaker:know our, what we're doing.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Scott, I want to go back to
Speaker:how you started your story.
Speaker:Cause I think this is really crucial.
Speaker:You know, our students come in the room
Speaker:and they know nothing, they know zero.
Speaker:And so we have to teach them, right?
Speaker:Why is it that educators don't get the
Speaker:same grace that we give our students?
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:You said for the search first six months,
Speaker:you were a crappy teacher for the first
Speaker:maybe, maybe seven
Speaker:months I was a crappy teacher.
Speaker:You know, we all, we all
Speaker:were awful when we started.
Speaker:It's called the learning curve.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I mentor a lot of teachers and I keep
Speaker:saying, Hey, cut them some slack.
Speaker:They're just learning.
Speaker:And it's the same as if, you know, we
Speaker:were teaching students when we teach
Speaker:other teachers, it takes a while.
Speaker:It takes some repetition.
Speaker:It takes practice.
Speaker:It takes failure before
Speaker:you get good at something.
Speaker:And so why don't we offer that same
Speaker:amount of grace to educators?
Speaker:Like we're supposed to roll out of bed in
Speaker:the morning and be like, absolutely.
Speaker:Bobby, this is how I teaching English
Speaker:this year is my previous principal said,
Speaker:um, well, gee, you can teach, uh,
Speaker:Spanish, French, Japanese, you can
Speaker:teach English too, but you know, teaching
Speaker:English as a second language, which I've
Speaker:done is totally different than now.
Speaker:Let's open our copy of great Gatsby.
Speaker:And so I have to learn all sorts of
Speaker:different skills now to teach English.
Speaker:My bag of tricks I'm using my language
Speaker:classes does not work on my
Speaker:junior English 11 students, you know, so
Speaker:just, just like, let's cut educators
Speaker:some slack, it is a learning curve.
Speaker:And I hope that's why people are tuning
Speaker:into the podcast right now is
Speaker:because they want to learn and even
Speaker:veteran teachers, such as ourselves.
Speaker:I'm still learning.
Speaker:There is so much I will never be a master
Speaker:at what I do, but I sure as heck you try.
Speaker:And I think that's, yeah, I've never been
Speaker:able to reuse a
Speaker:lesson plan that I've done
Speaker:previous years for 25 years and all the
Speaker:lesson plans, I have to adjust them every
Speaker:single time.
Speaker:Thank you so much for saying that.
Speaker:Cause right now the district is making us
Speaker:write our lesson plans and etch them in
Speaker:stone.
Speaker:And I'm like, I changed it here.
Speaker:I am not going to do
Speaker:the same thing every year.
Speaker:I got two Spanish one classes.
Speaker:I don't do the same thing with my two
Speaker:Spanish one classes.
Speaker:My colleagues in the district, cause I'm
Speaker:one of four Spanish teachers.
Speaker:They don't do the same thing.
Speaker:Like class dynamics makes a difference.
Speaker:Teach the kids.
Speaker:And I'll just interrupt
Speaker:real quick about what you said.
Speaker:Cause I don't know if
Speaker:this came from Blaine itself.
Speaker:That's all I heard it.
Speaker:So I'm going to credit to Blaine, but I
Speaker:don't know if he got
Speaker:it from somebody else,
Speaker:but he always says, and I
Speaker:love this little phrase.
Speaker:He goes, anything worth doing is worth
Speaker:doing poorly at first.
Speaker:So it's so true because whatever we do,
Speaker:and it has nothing to do with education,
Speaker:anything you do, if you learn to
Speaker:skateboard, you learn
Speaker:to swim, you learn to
Speaker:play football, whatever it is, you suck
Speaker:when you start, nobody starts at
Speaker:perfection. And so you
Speaker:have to build that skill.
Speaker:And so if it's something worthwhile to
Speaker:you, then it's
Speaker:worthwhile that you're going
Speaker:to suck for a while.
Speaker:It's going to be painful.
Speaker:You're going to be putting lots of effort
Speaker:in, but the reward will come if you keep
Speaker:at it. And this is something that really
Speaker:hit home with me because, and this is,
Speaker:I don't mean this to be offensive, so
Speaker:please do not take it.
Speaker:It's my, my boards never come out the way
Speaker:I want them to, but I am the
Speaker:most autistic, non-autistic person.
Speaker:I have very these quirks that go with
Speaker:things that make, I swear I'm autistic in
Speaker:many cases, but one of the ways I was
Speaker:when I was a kid, if I wasn't good at
Speaker:something right away,
Speaker:I quit it right away.
Speaker:And so that was, yeah.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And I, but everybody's got it for
Speaker:everything and we need buzzword time,
Speaker:growth mindset.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:So Kelly, tell us about you,
Speaker:what's your experience here?
Speaker:Well, I just think like, like Pamela
Speaker:said, give yourself
Speaker:grace because no, we don't
Speaker:know what we don't know in the beginning.
Speaker:And when we know better,
Speaker:we're going to do better.
Speaker:And I guess that's just the thing.
Speaker:And if that's another my opinion, if we
Speaker:want to, if we want to educate the
Speaker:administrators on what we do and how we
Speaker:do and why we do it and what to look for,
Speaker:Bryce Headstrom has a superb checklist
Speaker:for observation in the world language
Speaker:classroom, so it helps the administrators
Speaker:unpack what they're seeing.
Speaker:And I think it's really important that
Speaker:there's a little quote here.
Speaker:And if, if you don't
Speaker:mind, I'll share it with you.
Speaker:Not using the target language in a class
Speaker:is in a language class is like a band
Speaker:teacher, letting students play ping pong
Speaker:every day and never playing music.
Speaker:It's messy.
Speaker:And there's a lot of mental gymnastics
Speaker:when we are trying to
Speaker:teach students, we're
Speaker:doing our CI lesson, we're telling that
Speaker:story about the, the
Speaker:llama with the sombrero.
Speaker:And then there's a lot of mental
Speaker:gymnastics that, that people can't see
Speaker:going on inside the student's head
Speaker:because we're teaching for the long haul.
Speaker:We're building background knowledge.
Speaker:We're teaching for proficiency and it's a
Speaker:marathon, not a sprint.
Speaker:We have to make them understand that.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:And I love that you quoted because I
Speaker:don't know if you knew that you quoted
Speaker:Maya Angelou, but she says, do, you know,
Speaker:I, I'm going to mess
Speaker:up the quote exactly,
Speaker:but, um, do the best that you can, but
Speaker:when you know better, do better.
Speaker:And so that's what I always use for when
Speaker:I try to train people to do CI because
Speaker:then they go, well, I've
Speaker:been doing this for 15 years.
Speaker:And so was I a horrible
Speaker:teacher for the past 15 years?
Speaker:No, you did the best you could with what
Speaker:you knew, but now you
Speaker:can do better.
Speaker:So now you can do better.
Speaker:And I think that's a really, another good
Speaker:quote that really works really well.
Speaker:And I've got, I'm going to
Speaker:put it up on our screen here.
Speaker:Give me one second.
Speaker:And I've got that checklist that you
Speaker:talked about from Bryce.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Love Bryce Hadrum.
Speaker:Oh yes.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:And you know, it was funny when I had a
Speaker:job, when I was looking for a job, I had
Speaker:an opportunity to work with him or with
Speaker:Carmen Andrews in Vegas.
Speaker:Oh, wow.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:I was interviewing, getting ready to do
Speaker:the interview for him in Colorado.
Speaker:And it was, I was talking with the
Speaker:assistant principal was on board,
Speaker:bringing me on.
Speaker:And then the principal had another idea.
Speaker:So I didn't even get the interview
Speaker:because the principal
Speaker:override the assistant
Speaker:principal, but I had almost
Speaker:got a chance to work with him.
Speaker:It would have been amazing, but I did
Speaker:work with the amazing Carmen
Speaker:Andrews from Vegas and
Speaker:where, where'd that download go?
Speaker:So I did get a good experience.
Speaker:And we're just name dropping.
Speaker:We talk about Blaine Ray a lot, but, um,
Speaker:yeah, my introduction to
Speaker:comprehensible input
Speaker:was through Ben Slavik.
Speaker:And, oh yes.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Really, really.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I'll just name drop that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I've learned a lot from him too.
Speaker:A couple of his books I use.
Speaker:So here is, uh, let's see
Speaker:if I can scroll through.
Speaker:Let's make it smaller.
Speaker:So you're not going to be
Speaker:able to really see this.
Speaker:I'm going to put the link though in the,
Speaker:um, let me go ahead and put this link.
Speaker:Definitely the chat so you
Speaker:can download it for yourself.
Speaker:There is the link.
Speaker:Sorry.
Speaker:It's so long, but that's the actual link.
Speaker:So you've got the things in here, the
Speaker:checklist for observing
Speaker:a world language classroom.
Speaker:So target language use the teacher speaks
Speaker:in the target language,
Speaker:less than 50% of the time, 75, 95% of the
Speaker:time, 50 to 75% of the
Speaker:time, or 90% or more.
Speaker:We also in that school where I had that
Speaker:amazing principle, we decided as a team
Speaker:to observe each other on our own.
Speaker:And it was just a private between us.
Speaker:It was not going to admit in any way.
Speaker:Um, and one of the questions we asked, we
Speaker:only asked three questions on the little
Speaker:form, the observation form, how much
Speaker:target language was being used?
Speaker:What did they do to make
Speaker:the language understandable?
Speaker:And then what did they do to make the
Speaker:kids comfortable in class?
Speaker:Those are the only
Speaker:three questions we asked.
Speaker:Then you had a free form and can only
Speaker:talk about positive,
Speaker:but it is so important.
Speaker:How are they going to learn language?
Speaker:If they don't hear language, um, teacher
Speaker:uses a variety of comprehension checks.
Speaker:Teacher offers opportunities for
Speaker:sophisticated language use.
Speaker:You know, you don't see a lot of that in
Speaker:level one, but you still can.
Speaker:You can still ask those.
Speaker:I call those the how and why questions
Speaker:because the how and why questions require
Speaker:a little bit more language.
Speaker:And I know which kids to target.
Speaker:See my administrator thinks I don't know
Speaker:what my kids can do.
Speaker:I do know because I know who
Speaker:to ask the right questions.
Speaker:I know to ask little Joey over here, a
Speaker:simple yes or no question where I am
Speaker:pointing at the word yes so he can get it
Speaker:and feel successful.
Speaker:And then I know little Sarah over here,
Speaker:you know, she's just the average kid,
Speaker:just a really everyday kid, good kid.
Speaker:And I need to know I got to stick to a
Speaker:who what where a concrete question.
Speaker:And I still may have
Speaker:to point to the answer.
Speaker:And then I've got superstar, um, uh,
Speaker:Stephanie, let's call her superstar who
Speaker:wants to prove and show off that she can
Speaker:do all this language.
Speaker:So I'm going to ask her a how or why
Speaker:question because I know she can do it.
Speaker:And that gives her little
Speaker:way to show herself off.
Speaker:So there are ways to do this.
Speaker:And we use a lot of these comprehension
Speaker:checks to be able to do it.
Speaker:And a lot of ways to give them even at
Speaker:their level ways to use sophisticated
Speaker:language, and then he's
Speaker:got the best practices.
Speaker:Teacher raises the level of student
Speaker:attention by all the
Speaker:different things that
Speaker:we do, students are
Speaker:actively engaged in lesson by.
Speaker:And notice it doesn't necessarily say
Speaker:that they're out there speaking.
Speaker:They don't, especially in level one,
Speaker:they're not doing a lot of speaking.
Speaker:I was asked an interview question.
Speaker:What do you think about the target
Speaker:language use in the classroom,
Speaker:both from the teacher
Speaker:standpoint and the kids standpoint?
Speaker:And my thing was, well, let me be honest,
Speaker:my expectation is that everybody try to
Speaker:use the language as much as possible.
Speaker:But the reality is the only language I
Speaker:can control is my own.
Speaker:So I control my language and I strive for
Speaker:my 90 to 95 percent.
Speaker:But I use the lack of language
Speaker:as a formative assessment that either one
Speaker:of three things are happening.
Speaker:They're still in the silent period
Speaker:because we don't
Speaker:expect infants to be able
Speaker:to talk instantly out of the womb.
Speaker:They don't have the
Speaker:vocabulary for what they want to say.
Speaker:And nine times out of 10, they do.
Speaker:But they're thinking at their grade level
Speaker:vocabulary, not at
Speaker:kindergarten vocabulary.
Speaker:They want to say a much more
Speaker:sophisticated sentence and they.
Speaker:And then the third thing is they don't
Speaker:have the confidence.
Speaker:They they're not in the silent period.
Speaker:They do have the
Speaker:vocabulary, but they lack confidence.
Speaker:So they're not using the language is a
Speaker:formative assessment for me.
Speaker:And then I need to ask further questions
Speaker:to find out which of those three stages
Speaker:are they in so that I
Speaker:know how to combat that.
Speaker:So but notice it doesn't say there.
Speaker:And as you know, students are actively
Speaker:engaged by speaking the target language.
Speaker:They show us in so
Speaker:many other different ways.
Speaker:And then students are held
Speaker:accountable by the lesson.
Speaker:By here is where
Speaker:you're showing the evidence.
Speaker:The speaking is in there retelling
Speaker:materials in their own words,
Speaker:formative assessments, helping each
Speaker:other, translation when asked,
Speaker:writing in the target language or an L1
Speaker:to show that they understood.
Speaker:So there's lots of different things.
Speaker:This is an incredibly useful document.
Speaker:And I provided this with my administrator
Speaker:and said he had his own checklist.
Speaker:So and in fact, this administrator also
Speaker:and the kids notice as well
Speaker:fell asleep during an observation and was
Speaker:also showing boredom
Speaker:because he couldn't
Speaker:understand the language.
Speaker:So he couldn't really verify
Speaker:the stuff that was going on.
Speaker:So thank you, Kelly,
Speaker:for bringing this up.
Speaker:This is an excellent resource.
Speaker:And Bryce has tons of stuff on his
Speaker:website on Bryce Headstrom dot com,
Speaker:free and paid that I highly encourage
Speaker:people to take a look
Speaker:when they get a chance and look at that.
Speaker:So for those who are
Speaker:listening on the podcast,
Speaker:I'll put the the link as
Speaker:well in the show notes.
Speaker:So if you're only
Speaker:listening and not viewing,
Speaker:you can look at it yourself and download
Speaker:it for yourself as well.
Speaker:I'll put those in the show notes when I
Speaker:put them up there for you guys.
Speaker:At least it can start a conversation
Speaker:between you and your administrators.
Speaker:And that's what we're talking about.
Speaker:I think that's what we need to have.
Speaker:I remember I told you at the beginning
Speaker:that my firm belief was to do what you
Speaker:need to do to keep your job, but advocate
Speaker:for the kids and do some education,
Speaker:if need be. And so having a candid
Speaker:conversation where we're not accusing
Speaker:anybody of anything and we're being
Speaker:empathetic to both sides,
Speaker:they are being empathetic to our position
Speaker:and we are being
Speaker:empathetic to their position.
Speaker:We can have these candid conversations
Speaker:about what's what's going on and why we
Speaker:do what we do and
Speaker:give them some assistance
Speaker:to help them and any educator, not just
Speaker:administrator, any educator,
Speaker:work their salt is
Speaker:always willing to learn.
Speaker:We we I have not met a school district
Speaker:that does not
Speaker:encourage lifelong learners.
Speaker:And if we cannot model that ourselves and
Speaker:if our administrators cannot model that
Speaker:themselves, then we're
Speaker:in the wrong business.
Speaker:And I totally and I'm going
Speaker:to try to look it up here.
Speaker:I'm probably not going to find it before
Speaker:I have a book and it
Speaker:might be out of print.
Speaker:Elephants.
Speaker:Teaching book, I have
Speaker:to look for this book.
Speaker:We'll keep talking and I'll look for this
Speaker:book because what I love about this book
Speaker:it has nothing to do with education,
Speaker:education, nothing to do
Speaker:with teaching languages.
Speaker:But I'll find it's a short novel.
Speaker:They asked us to read it in college
Speaker:during my education thing.
Speaker:And I love the book.
Speaker:I have it.
Speaker:But what I love about this book and we
Speaker:kind of talked about
Speaker:this earlier with Pamela.
Speaker:It's about an English teacher who
Speaker:literally had his lesson plans laminated.
Speaker:And they didn't have a date on them.
Speaker:And they had the fifth day of school, the
Speaker:sixth day of school,
Speaker:the 10th day of school,
Speaker:all of that.
Speaker:And he used this grammar textbook.
Speaker:But his clientele had changed.
Speaker:He's now an inner city
Speaker:English teacher with
Speaker:inner city kids of color.
Speaker:And he couldn't relate
Speaker:to these kids at all.
Speaker:Could not relate to these kids at all.
Speaker:And he just kept teaching the same way he
Speaker:did when his school was mostly a white
Speaker:population. He taught the
Speaker:same way to the same to the kids.
Speaker:And it wasn't reaching them.
Speaker:And he's asking them to do these
Speaker:different types of essays.
Speaker:And the kids are like,
Speaker:guy, we don't know where
Speaker:our next meal is coming from.
Speaker:We are not thinking about when we go home
Speaker:to write a 500 word
Speaker:essay going back and forth.
Speaker:Then there's this custodian who's an
Speaker:immigrant custodian.
Speaker:And I can't remember.
Speaker:He leaves in the middle of the book.
Speaker:But I don't know if he had to leave
Speaker:because of immigration status.
Speaker:I don't remember.
Speaker:But he had to leave.
Speaker:But he left these quotes on the board
Speaker:every day after he cleaned the room.
Speaker:He left. And the kids
Speaker:thought these were warm ups.
Speaker:So they were starting to
Speaker:respond to these quotes.
Speaker:And throughout this, the novel, and it's
Speaker:short, it maybe I don't even think it was
Speaker:200 pages.
Speaker:The teacher starts to
Speaker:learn to throw out the textbook
Speaker:and to actually teach
Speaker:the kids in front of us.
Speaker:And this was before I even
Speaker:knew what TPRS was or CI was.
Speaker:And this is exactly what.
Speaker:The whole.
Speaker:Movement for CI is, is to teach the kids
Speaker:in front of us and not from a concrete
Speaker:textbook, which is out of date, the date
Speaker:it was published, because it's a piece
Speaker:of paper and it doesn't
Speaker:change the culture points.
Speaker:They put in there are the things that at
Speaker:the time the book was created were
Speaker:interesting to kids is no longer
Speaker:interesting to kids by the time it gets
Speaker:published to the us and get bought by us.
Speaker:So and then we keep the books for 14
Speaker:years on average for language teachers.
Speaker:So by the time it's done, like I remember
Speaker:one was talking about Michael Jackson,
Speaker:like Michael Jackson is a pride now.
Speaker:Nobody talks about
Speaker:Michael Jackson anymore.
Speaker:And the whole book is taught, you know,
Speaker:trying to relate to Michael Jackson.
Speaker:I'm like, this is not good.
Speaker:This is not good.
Speaker:So my that has me
Speaker:teach the word CBR Cafe.
Speaker:You know, or why VHS tapes.
Speaker:My kids don't even
Speaker:know what a VHS tape is.
Speaker:They barely know what a DVD is.
Speaker:Oh, elected to David Day.
Speaker:I've got that my French textbook.
Speaker:Yeah. So it's it's so funny.
Speaker:But you don't even have
Speaker:to move to the inner city.
Speaker:Like, you know, in the last decade,
Speaker:students have changed their
Speaker:attention spans have changed.
Speaker:What they're willing to do has changed.
Speaker:There's been a societal shift.
Speaker:So, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:I'm trying to find this damn book because
Speaker:it is such a good one to recommend.
Speaker:I love to recommend.
Speaker:While you look for the book.
Speaker:So you were talking about it
Speaker:should be student centered.
Speaker:And I think every single
Speaker:admin will agree with that.
Speaker:Yeah. So I know here in Washington State,
Speaker:we use the Danielson framework for all of
Speaker:our evaluations.
Speaker:Kelly, what do you do in Nebraska?
Speaker:You can use not that one.
Speaker:We use the other one
Speaker:that I can't remember.
Speaker:But it's not the Daniel.
Speaker:Oh, yeah. The Daniel.
Speaker:So when it came out, it was
Speaker:on the on the the CIA group,
Speaker:bashed it back and forth,
Speaker:back and forth, back and forth.
Speaker:And Dr.
Speaker:Terry Waltz got into a
Speaker:fight with Danielson about it.
Speaker:And she got Danielson to say, well, when
Speaker:I was writing this, I didn't
Speaker:think about every discipline and it
Speaker:probably does not
Speaker:apply to world language.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:Yeah. So because it's student centered,
Speaker:I think there are a lot of tricks we can
Speaker:do when the admin walks in the room with
Speaker:that clipboard and wherever it is in your
Speaker:lesson that you're doing.
Speaker:So let me just while
Speaker:you're looking for that,
Speaker:I'll just give some solid things.
Speaker:Yes. Yes. Yes.
Speaker:So I first was hired 15
Speaker:years ago to teach Japanese.
Speaker:I taught Japanese one through four.
Speaker:And whenever the principal walked in,
Speaker:there is what you do in Japan,
Speaker:where I went to school. Oh, my gosh.
Speaker:The principal walks in.
Speaker:Everybody on your feet right now.
Speaker:You have to greet him and bow to him.
Speaker:OK, so I want to stand up.
Speaker:Odey, Ohio, as I'm
Speaker:honest, you know, whatever.
Speaker:And then the principal was
Speaker:always blown away by that.
Speaker:Like, oh, wow, the class
Speaker:is eating out of her hands.
Speaker:But that's that's like
Speaker:typical Japanese culture. Right.
Speaker:So when he had me start bringing on
Speaker:French, I was like, oh,
Speaker:well, I really like doing
Speaker:this. It's not really part of the French
Speaker:culture, but it is part of the French
Speaker:culture to be polite. So by golly, when
Speaker:the admin walks in, you guys
Speaker:to my deep bojour.
Speaker:And they all turn around their seats and
Speaker:they say hello to the principal.
Speaker:And then, you know, then when I had to
Speaker:start taking Spanish, it's like, yeah,
Speaker:the students still need
Speaker:to work on their greetings.
Speaker:Why not? When an admin or when a
Speaker:colleague walks in, why shouldn't they
Speaker:greet him, you know, be
Speaker:friendly and everything?
Speaker:So that's the first thing I say, because
Speaker:they want they want to see the students
Speaker:doing something. Right.
Speaker:Second, second, a very solid thing is
Speaker:teach your kids rejoinders
Speaker:so that they can shout at you during the
Speaker:whatever it is you're doing.
Speaker:Oh, see, you know, whatever it is, you
Speaker:want them to shout at you,
Speaker:teaching those rejoinders.
Speaker:And then there are a couple of really
Speaker:good kegin techniques where so because
Speaker:the Danielson framework and Kelly, I
Speaker:don't know what you
Speaker:have, but it's probably
Speaker:kind of similar. They want to see
Speaker:students conversing with each other.
Speaker:All right. So you can have a turn and
Speaker:talk in the middle of your giant
Speaker:see I lesson. And frankly, I think
Speaker:because of the students
Speaker:attention spans lately,
Speaker:I have to do this anyway, because some of
Speaker:them like I have one class,
Speaker:50 percent of them are
Speaker:my barometer students.
Speaker:OK, because we're always constantly
Speaker:formatively assessing and like 50 percent
Speaker:of you are just parroting
Speaker:or you're moving your lips.
Speaker:And I can tell you're
Speaker:not really getting it.
Speaker:So we need to chunk and chew a lot.
Speaker:And there are a lot of things we can do
Speaker:where, hey, I need
Speaker:you to be a little more
Speaker:interactive with the material right now.
Speaker:So there's your simple turn and talk and
Speaker:you can teach them how to do that in the
Speaker:target language. You can give them the
Speaker:turn and talk in the target language so
Speaker:that the students will note and you just
Speaker:ask them a question and say to your
Speaker:partner, "Repon de a votre paginaire"
Speaker:you'll tell your friend whatever.
Speaker:"Oui la llama" where's the llama, you
Speaker:know, and have them do that.
Speaker:I always take my lessons when we got the
Speaker:story mostly fleshed out when I've got
Speaker:about at least 30 lines of the thing or
Speaker:even like 30 lines is also like the llama
Speaker:did not go to the discotheque.
Speaker:OK, back the line.
Speaker:All right. So when I have about 30 of
Speaker:them, I print it and I make the font like
Speaker:really, really big, like 42 point font.
Speaker:And then I run down to the copier and I
Speaker:print it on cardstock
Speaker:and I just go slice,
Speaker:slice, slice, and then
Speaker:I've got cards to play with.
Speaker:OK, so during the story we can play quiz
Speaker:quiz trade, which is great.
Speaker:So I don't want the
Speaker:students translating usually.
Speaker:But if I've got questions on the cards,
Speaker:then the other student has to answer it
Speaker:or if they know the
Speaker:next line of the story,
Speaker:then they have to answer it.
Speaker:And then if I don't want to do quiz quiz
Speaker:trade, I could do fan and pick,
Speaker:which is another Kagan technique.
Speaker:And my admin came in last month and
Speaker:watched me doing that
Speaker:and absolutely loved it.
Speaker:Because first of all, when I held up the
Speaker:cards for the students, I was like,
Speaker:"De que culo a son las taretas?"
Speaker:You know, what color the cards and the
Speaker:students were able to answer "asul."
Speaker:And the admin was
Speaker:very impressed with that.
Speaker:And then the fact that the students were
Speaker:asking each other the questions
Speaker:when I passed out the cards to them.
Speaker:And for fan and pick, what I did, what I
Speaker:wound up doing was I printed
Speaker:six cards. I have table groups.
Speaker:So I have thirty nine students in one
Speaker:class and usually
Speaker:thirty six in the others.
Speaker:And that's so that I could take on that
Speaker:English class, you know.
Speaker:So I printed up the cards
Speaker:with their roles on them.
Speaker:So I have the students shuffle the cards
Speaker:and then they pick the role.
Speaker:And the one role says you get
Speaker:to read the card to the table.
Speaker:And then the other card
Speaker:says you get to answer.
Speaker:And then the another
Speaker:card says you get to coach.
Speaker:And another card says,
Speaker:these are your rejoinders.
Speaker:Fenesidades, buen
Speaker:trabajo, you know, whatever.
Speaker:And so all the students had a role to do
Speaker:and it was right there in front of them.
Speaker:And so when I gave them the cards, which
Speaker:were part of the story,
Speaker:they were able to
Speaker:interact with the story.
Speaker:So those are my solid techniques for when
Speaker:admin walks in and the admin wants to see
Speaker:the students turn and talk.
Speaker:That's basically what they
Speaker:want to see the students do,
Speaker:regardless what you're doing.
Speaker:Sorry, that was like
Speaker:an information though.
Speaker:And I'll just.
Speaker:I bought you some time.
Speaker:Did you find it? I did.
Speaker:We'll talk about that in just a second.
Speaker:But you brought me something else that
Speaker:made me think of something.
Speaker:You know, the the teacher centered thing
Speaker:and the student centered and the teacher
Speaker:centered, you know, what I try to explain
Speaker:to my admins is that.
Speaker:It looks from the outside what we do,
Speaker:even if we're not
Speaker:doing if we're not doing
Speaker:all the things you're talking about, it
Speaker:looks very teacher centered because it
Speaker:looks like we're lecturing, we're sitting
Speaker:at the top of the
Speaker:classroom and we're doing
Speaker:all the talking and the
Speaker:kids are doing the listening.
Speaker:But I say it's not.
Speaker:It's no more teacher centered than band,
Speaker:where the instructor is at the front of
Speaker:the room, pointing at all
Speaker:the different instruments.
Speaker:All the content is coming from the kids.
Speaker:The music is coming from the kids.
Speaker:Where is my story coming from?
Speaker:Not from me.
Speaker:It's coming from the kids.
Speaker:I'm asking leading questions.
Speaker:That's using the baton to point to the
Speaker:right kids to get the answers to the
Speaker:leading questions I'm asking so that we
Speaker:can co create a story.
Speaker:And my job is only to ask the right
Speaker:questions and then to pick the right
Speaker:answer that I got from the kids.
Speaker:So it is very.
Speaker:It's teacher led, but it is student
Speaker:centered because they're not my stories.
Speaker:I the stories look at period one versus
Speaker:period two versus period
Speaker:three versus period four.
Speaker:They're all I'm teaching the same
Speaker:content, but we have all
Speaker:these different stories
Speaker:because they came
Speaker:from the kids themselves.
Speaker:When I write stories, I
Speaker:write stories about my kids.
Speaker:My test questions come about my kids.
Speaker:So all of those kinds of things.
Speaker:So it looks from the outsider, especially
Speaker:if you don't understand the language that
Speaker:it is very teacher
Speaker:centered, but it's not.
Speaker:And using a framework like Bryce's or
Speaker:another framework that's similar,
Speaker:that shows that them
Speaker:understanding the language,
Speaker:them doing gestures in
Speaker:response to the language,
Speaker:that is also student centered because
Speaker:they can't always turn and talk on that
Speaker:first week of Spanish
Speaker:one, they can't turn it.
Speaker:It's going to be totally rote memorized.
Speaker:And I am firmly against rote memorize
Speaker:because I will tell you,
Speaker:I took French, German and Spanish in
Speaker:school and I had to memorize those awful
Speaker:dialogues and I can't memorize word crap
Speaker:and I had to memorize those dialogues.
Speaker:And you memorize them and you had every
Speaker:classmate you memorize these dialogues
Speaker:that I went to Germany and I go,
Speaker:I remember the hotel
Speaker:dialogue, I'll do my part.
Speaker:And then the other guy didn't know his
Speaker:lines because he didn't
Speaker:answer the exact same way.
Speaker:And now I'm stuck because
Speaker:I don't know what he said
Speaker:because he didn't say
Speaker:what he was supposed to say.
Speaker:So I go, I know my next line, but I don't
Speaker:know if it follows what you just said.
Speaker:So the rote memorization doesn't teach
Speaker:kids how to interact and adapt in a real
Speaker:life situation. And so that's my goal.
Speaker:So my kids can't turn and talk.
Speaker:Yes, we've been practicing what's your
Speaker:name and how old are you?
Speaker:But they're not ready to
Speaker:produce that kind of thing yet.
Speaker:If I ask them the
Speaker:question, they can answer it.
Speaker:But the other kid can't
Speaker:ask them the question.
Speaker:Those types, they're
Speaker:just not ready for that.
Speaker:And the way that I teach, I'm not
Speaker:teaching them rote
Speaker:memorization of those phrases.
Speaker:I'm just asking every kid those questions
Speaker:as I'm getting to know the kids.
Speaker:Because I talk to one or two kids a
Speaker:period in that first
Speaker:couple of weeks till I get
Speaker:through all of my kids and I go through
Speaker:all the same questions.
Speaker:What's your name?
Speaker:How old are you? When's your birthday?
Speaker:Where are you from?
Speaker:All those same questions.
Speaker:And then I ask what's
Speaker:your favorite activity?
Speaker:So I get to know you as a personal.
Speaker:Then the next kid, I
Speaker:do the same questions.
Speaker:So they hear them.
Speaker:They know them, but they're
Speaker:not ready to produce them.
Speaker:They didn't memorize them.
Speaker:So the turn and talk doesn't always work
Speaker:for those types of things.
Speaker:Go ahead, Kelly.
Speaker:Well, that's why they always have your
Speaker:students have some crutch in their hands.
Speaker:The rejoinders,
Speaker:the if you've you've printed up the cards
Speaker:that are like the lines from your thing
Speaker:after you've been
Speaker:working on it for a while.
Speaker:Yeah, because because
Speaker:they're going to panic.
Speaker:They've got that effective filter that
Speaker:you need to lower and they need some
Speaker:processing time. Absolutely.
Speaker:Kelly, I'm sorry.
Speaker:I did not mean to cut you off.
Speaker:That's okay.
Speaker:We are all here together and I got you.
Speaker:And also in the beginning with the three
Speaker:modes of communication, you're focused on
Speaker:letting students do the interpretive
Speaker:business, you're just trying to throw
Speaker:enough language at them and give them
Speaker:enough repetitions so that you can move
Speaker:on to the interpersonal presentation or
Speaker:where they could do more
Speaker:with partners or on their own.
Speaker:So we're teaching for proficiency.
Speaker:What can they do in the language?
Speaker:Like you were saying, you memorized your
Speaker:dialogue for a hotel, but the other guy
Speaker:didn't know what what was going on.
Speaker:But you're teaching for proficiency.
Speaker:Show me that you can get this task done.
Speaker:Later.
Speaker:You know, of course, after the
Speaker:interpretive and you just
Speaker:go through so many cycles of that.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:I had absolutely.
Speaker:And I'm going to tell you now I've got
Speaker:that book because I did find it.
Speaker:I know always has an elephant in it.
Speaker:But beyond that, I
Speaker:never remember the title.
Speaker:I'm really bad about that.
Speaker:Here's the picture of the book, if I can
Speaker:put it on the screen.
Speaker:And I couldn't get a bigger picture.
Speaker:So I apologize.
Speaker:It's going to get
Speaker:blurry as I make it bigger.
Speaker:But it's called Entertaining an Elephant.
Speaker:It's available for 9.
Speaker:Ninety five.
Speaker:No, nine forty nine on paperback.
Speaker:I wish they put this in Kindle book.
Speaker:It's one hundred and fifteen pages.
Speaker:I told you it was short.
Speaker:And I put the link in
Speaker:in the chat and I'll also
Speaker:put it in the show notes for my
Speaker:podcast listeners in there.
Speaker:But it is a really, really good book.
Speaker:I highly recommend every teacher read it.
Speaker:Not just world language,
Speaker:not just English teachers.
Speaker:It is a really good
Speaker:educational book and it's short.
Speaker:One hundred and fifteen pages.
Speaker:You can whip that out in an evening.
Speaker:It's not too bad.
Speaker:I'm a slow reader.
Speaker:So it's just a really good book.
Speaker:I gave you the kind of
Speaker:premise that was about.
Speaker:But just seeing the transformation of
Speaker:this teacher who
Speaker:started out with laminated,
Speaker:literally laminated lesson plans written
Speaker:by the day, the day of the school year,
Speaker:and transforming completely.
Speaker:So it's got lots of different themes
Speaker:about teaching to inner city kids and
Speaker:adapting to them, especially if you are
Speaker:not from that group that you're trying to
Speaker:teach. It's teaching from how to teach
Speaker:away from a strict textbook type
Speaker:curriculum to a more
Speaker:student centered curriculum.
Speaker:Because I remember he one of the things
Speaker:he had him do is he goes, yeah,
Speaker:we're worrying about we got cockroaches
Speaker:and the sink's not
Speaker:working and the plumbing
Speaker:is so he had them write essays or actual
Speaker:letters to the
Speaker:landlord about the problems
Speaker:that they had. So he took
Speaker:his standards that he had to
Speaker:teach and instead of making it a boring
Speaker:business letter that doesn't relate to
Speaker:these kids at all, they really got
Speaker:involved in writing
Speaker:these letters to their
Speaker:landlord about the complaints that they
Speaker:had about their
Speaker:living conditions and such.
Speaker:So it's just a really
Speaker:good all around book.
Speaker:And I think it should be
Speaker:required reading for all teachers.
Speaker:I just got to remember
Speaker:that title a little bit more.
Speaker:I'm going to put that in my notes
Speaker:somewhere so I can find it more easily.
Speaker:Had to go through all my
Speaker:saved books in Amazon to find it.
Speaker:But yes, it's a really good book.
Speaker:I highly recommend that book in there.
Speaker:So we are coming to the end of our time.
Speaker:It went really fast today.
Speaker:But let's go around.
Speaker:Everybody give one tidbit to leave people
Speaker:with those who have
Speaker:supportive and those who have
Speaker:I don't want to say less supportive, but
Speaker:who are more questioning admins along the
Speaker:way, what advice would you give them?
Speaker:So whoever would like to start.
Speaker:Let me just start with Bryce Hedstrom's
Speaker:checklist and say, hey, can can I talk to
Speaker:you about what you might see in a world
Speaker:language classroom, start there and let
Speaker:him know it's a marathon, not a sprint.
Speaker:Absolutely. Great, great suggestion.
Speaker:What about you, Pamela?
Speaker:So when I first started teaching,
Speaker:I the union had a
Speaker:little like professional
Speaker:development for us and it was about like
Speaker:how to handle a
Speaker:parent teacher conference.
Speaker:And they had a couple of tips which I
Speaker:thought were really good.
Speaker:One was always have something in between
Speaker:you and the parents,
Speaker:some piece of paper
Speaker:that you can focus on.
Speaker:So to say, oh, this is
Speaker:what your student did.
Speaker:And that way it's not about like the
Speaker:parent looking at you or anything.
Speaker:But so I think that
Speaker:also works with admin.
Speaker:And you don't want to be adversaries.
Speaker:You want to be allies. Right.
Speaker:So keep focusing on the students.
Speaker:OK, this is what the students know.
Speaker:Hey, I am an expert in what I do.
Speaker:You got to trust me.
Speaker:But this is our technique and this is how
Speaker:I get the students responses.
Speaker:And this is how I
Speaker:formatively assess my students.
Speaker:And yes, here are some summative
Speaker:assessments and everything.
Speaker:But this is my goal.
Speaker:And this is this is how the students are
Speaker:reacting to everything we're doing in
Speaker:class, but just keep keep both of your
Speaker:heads focused on the same thing.
Speaker:And I think that will
Speaker:because I've certainly
Speaker:bumped heads with
Speaker:admin over the years a lot.
Speaker:And so I just got to keep bringing it
Speaker:back to this is what's
Speaker:best for the students.
Speaker:And this is why it's
Speaker:best for the students.
Speaker:Sometimes it takes a good six months to
Speaker:get the admin there.
Speaker:But eventually,
Speaker:eventually you'll be there.
Speaker:So that's my advice.
Speaker:Absolutely. And I've just got two.
Speaker:One I've been reiterating since the
Speaker:beginning and that is, you know,
Speaker:do what you need to do to keep your job,
Speaker:advocate for your students.
Speaker:And educate where possible.
Speaker:That will really, really help
Speaker:you in that in that endeavor.
Speaker:And you are we are
Speaker:working together as a team.
Speaker:And that's what we're
Speaker:supposed to do along the way.
Speaker:And then the other point I was going to
Speaker:make, I completely lost.
Speaker:Pamela, you gave me the idea and then now
Speaker:I I completely, completely escaped me.
Speaker:Let me try to think here.
Speaker:What was I going to say about the
Speaker:oh, that's it.
Speaker:Focus on results.
Speaker:So that's your administration wants data.
Speaker:So I can say I know my kids can write,
Speaker:you know how I know.
Speaker:And here is a piece of
Speaker:writing that they did.
Speaker:I know my kids can
Speaker:understand, you know how I know.
Speaker:Here's a piece of
Speaker:reading that they interpret it.
Speaker:You know, I know my kids are thinking
Speaker:about learning because that
Speaker:metacognition is a big piece as well.
Speaker:How do I know?
Speaker:Because I ask reflection
Speaker:questions every Friday.
Speaker:And this is what they wrote.
Speaker:So
Speaker:have that evidence as well.
Speaker:So when you're educating your
Speaker:administrator, give them the evidence,
Speaker:the data that they're looking for,
Speaker:because, yes, in an observation,
Speaker:they're focusing on the process, but
Speaker:they're only there for one period
Speaker:once every couple of months, if that
Speaker:many, maybe twice
Speaker:they see you and they're
Speaker:supposed to make a whole academic
Speaker:decision based on two hours.
Speaker:Let's be realistic.
Speaker:They're not seeing the whole picture.
Speaker:So you show them that, yeah, you saw this
Speaker:and this is what it led to over here so
Speaker:that they have the data along the way.
Speaker:And that's also how I recommend
Speaker:getting your other teachers who may not
Speaker:be CI focused on board.
Speaker:Because when I was younger and I was a
Speaker:little more cocky, I was more of an
Speaker:evangelist and I would get in their face
Speaker:and I would, you know, this is the best
Speaker:thing and what you do sucks.
Speaker:You know, that kind of stuff.
Speaker:I didn't put it that way, but I was much
Speaker:more strongly pushing people towards this
Speaker:and being such an advocate.
Speaker:And I know they didn't
Speaker:want to hear me anymore.
Speaker:But what I found works so much better is
Speaker:in those PLCs, because back in the day,
Speaker:we didn't have PLCs in the early 2000s
Speaker:was when they go in
Speaker:the PLCs, they go, oh,
Speaker:we're focusing on writing.
Speaker:I bring out my piece of writing and I
Speaker:don't say anything about it.
Speaker:And they look at it and
Speaker:they go, dang, this is good.
Speaker:How are you getting your kids to do this?
Speaker:Then I can tell them what I did so that
Speaker:it's focused on the results where they
Speaker:want the same results.
Speaker:They don't want to know
Speaker:the process right away.
Speaker:They don't want to know the process first
Speaker:and then see the results.
Speaker:They want to see the results.
Speaker:They go, oh, then they ask the question,
Speaker:how did you get there?
Speaker:And now, you know, their ears are open to
Speaker:listening to what you did.
Speaker:And so I find that is a much more
Speaker:effective method as well.
Speaker:So both in administrative ways and in
Speaker:getting other teachers on board with CI,
Speaker:because let's face it, there are awesome
Speaker:textbook teachers and
Speaker:there are awesome CI teachers.
Speaker:There are crappy CI teachers and there
Speaker:are crappy textbook teachers.
Speaker:The bottom line is we
Speaker:all have the same goal.
Speaker:To get kids to be
Speaker:bilingual, that's our goal.
Speaker:To be honest, the data shows textbook has
Speaker:not been successful in that
Speaker:because in America, at least since the
Speaker:80s, they've been requiring two years of
Speaker:language and kids are just not being
Speaker:bilingual from that.
Speaker:So it hasn't worked.
Speaker:So we need to look at something else.
Speaker:So even the top textbook teachers only
Speaker:get about four percent of their kids,
Speaker:which in a classroom of 35 is one kid.
Speaker:To be somewhat bilingual.
Speaker:And CI has a much better success rate in
Speaker:that because CI is nothing more than
Speaker:teaching kids how to acquire language the
Speaker:same way they acquired it as a baby.
Speaker:And that is pretty much
Speaker:universally successful.
Speaker:There are very few failures.
Speaker:And usually the failure is because the
Speaker:kid has some kind of major deficiency
Speaker:in the brain that doesn't allow them to
Speaker:to learn because even the severely
Speaker:mentally challenged can communicate in
Speaker:their native language.
Speaker:So it's just a very small percentage.
Speaker:You can't they've got
Speaker:usually some physical
Speaker:issue with the brain that doesn't allow
Speaker:that to happen or their vocal chords or
Speaker:something doesn't allow that to happen,
Speaker:but we are pretty much successful.
Speaker:I'm going to go is 98 to 99 percent
Speaker:successful in passing on our native
Speaker:language to our kids.
Speaker:And so CI does work
Speaker:and it does work better.
Speaker:We just need more people to execute it.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Anybody else have any parting words
Speaker:before we leave for today?
Speaker:There was a lot that we didn't
Speaker:get to, of course, of course.
Speaker:There's always too much.
Speaker:And our is never enough.
Speaker:Well, we'll need a part two, I think.
Speaker:Yeah, it's it's all we
Speaker:never have enough time.
Speaker:But Pamela, thank you so much for your
Speaker:your ideas of showing
Speaker:the kids are actually doing something
Speaker:with the language
Speaker:because, yes, we do need some
Speaker:of those
Speaker:those techniques and
Speaker:strategies to know what to do.
Speaker:I know my current my last two schools
Speaker:I've worked at, they
Speaker:announce when they're
Speaker:coming and I hate that I hate when they
Speaker:announce because I don't do it.
Speaker:But I know other teachers do it.
Speaker:They turn on their
Speaker:show pony at that time.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:You know, they don't
Speaker:normally do this stuff.
Speaker:But this day they're going to do it
Speaker:because they're they're going to be on.
Speaker:I rather just show up.
Speaker:I don't care. I don't
Speaker:want to stress about it.
Speaker:Just show up because I'm what I'm going
Speaker:to do when you announce it.
Speaker:And what you're doing, you show up is
Speaker:they're going to be the same.
Speaker:You're going to see a real
Speaker:aspect of what I'm doing.
Speaker:So sometimes we need those skills.
Speaker:So I would love it if you
Speaker:could share me a list of those.
Speaker:I can add them to the show notes of those
Speaker:activities that you're talking about
Speaker:because I'm on my YouTube channel.
Speaker:I go through them, too.
Speaker:So, OK, yeah, I already
Speaker:linked your YouTube channel.
Speaker:So I'll go ahead and reiterate that in
Speaker:the show notes so we could
Speaker:show some concrete techniques for people.
Speaker:And I'll give you a write up.
Speaker:Awesome. And Kelly, thank you so much for
Speaker:joining us and sharing with us
Speaker:the Bryce Headstrom observation checklist
Speaker:because it's so powerful.
Speaker:And you don't have to use Bryce's, but
Speaker:it's a good starting point to be able to
Speaker:have a conversation with your colleague
Speaker:who just happens to be an administrator
Speaker:so that you guys can work together and
Speaker:get a mutual understanding.
Speaker:That is the best practice for kids, best
Speaker:practice for kids, not for the bean
Speaker:counters, not for the curriculum writers,
Speaker:not for the superintendent,
Speaker:but for the actual kids that are in your
Speaker:class, because that's what we're supposed
Speaker:to be doing it for in the first place.
Speaker:So I thank you both for coming here.
Speaker:Let's go ahead and move
Speaker:into our outward here.
Speaker:Let's go right to this.
Speaker:Thank you so much again for having me.
Speaker:This is a blast.
Speaker:Kelly, nice to meet you.
Speaker:Nice to meet you, Pamela.
Speaker:You're both welcome always to join back.
Speaker:Let's go ahead here.
Speaker:All right, friends.
Speaker:So that's it for today's
Speaker:episode of Comprehend This.
Speaker:I know we just scraped
Speaker:the surface of this topic.
Speaker:It is so big, just like
Speaker:all of our other topics are.
Speaker:I want to give a huge thanks to Pamela
Speaker:and Kelly for helping us survive.
Speaker:Admin observations with
Speaker:our CI dignity intact.
Speaker:And if this episode reminded you that
Speaker:storytelling,
Speaker:interaction and comprehension
Speaker:are rigor, clipboard or
Speaker:not, then it did its job.
Speaker:Make sure you subscribe, leave a review
Speaker:and share this episode with another
Speaker:language teacher who's been observed
Speaker:during a story about an animal in a hat.
Speaker:And remember, you can watch live on
Speaker:YouTube or catch the replay on your
Speaker:favorite podcast app, ditch
Speaker:the drills, trust the process.
Speaker:And I'll see you next
Speaker:time on Comprehend This.
Speaker:Goodbye, everybody.
