Episode 24: "Is It Me? Or Are They Actually THAT Tired?"
Student burnout and teacher exhaustion are common in Comprehensible Input classrooms during the mid-semester slump, and this episode tackles how to keep CI alive when everyone is tired.
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 student fatigue, low energy classes, and how to adjust CI instruction without panic, guilt, or abandoning what works.
Looking for ready-to-use CI resources that support sustainable teaching? Check out the CI Survival Kit: https://imim.us/kit.
#comprehensibleinput, #teacherburnout, #studentengagement, #CIteaching, #languageteacherpodcast, #midsemesterslump, #languageacquisition, #teacherhumor, #CIclassroom, #comprehendthis
Hosts:
- Scott Benedict - https://www.instagram.com/immediateimmersion
- Pamela Parks - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXHEK-1ra4IyzO5avtqEkmQ
Resources & Links:
- CI Survival Kit - https://imim.us/kit
- Soundtrap - https://soundtrap.com
- Formative - https://imim.us/formative
- The Strategic Teacher - https://amzn.to/4sZBbFh
- Sink or Swim Game - https://imim.us/sinkorswim
Join the Conversation:
Got thoughts or your own story? Share it in the comments or tag us @ImmediateImmersion!
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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.
