Episode 26: "Do They Think This Is a Joke?"
Humor in the CI classroom — how much is too much, and how do you get control back without killing the vibe? In Episode 26 of Comprehend THIS!, we dig into what happens when a joyful language classroom turns into a comedy show — and how to fix it.
We're talking about one of the most common CI classroom problems that nobody names out loud: the class that's fun but not acquiring. There's a real difference, and this episode helps you see it, address it, and move forward without becoming the teacher everyone's afraid of.
I'm sitting down with Pamela Parks, a former professional translator who now teaches French, Spanish, and Japanese at the high school level. Pamela brings a rare combination of linguistic precision and classroom-tested patience to this conversation — and if anyone knows what it's like to manage comprehension across multiple languages and personalities, it's her. We cover the full arc: how humor naturally emerges in CI, where it starts to work against you, what in-the-moment responses actually help, and how to project the kind of calm authority that keeps input happening even when students would rather joke around.
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Hosts:
- Scott Benedict - https://www.instagram.com/immediateimmersion
- Pamela Parks - https://imim.us/pamela
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Transcript
Welcome everybody to episode number 26.
Speaker:How's everybody doing
Speaker:this Sunday morning?
Speaker:I hope everybody had or is continuing to
Speaker:have a wonderful spring
Speaker:break for those who have those
Speaker:and that everybody had a wonderful Easter
Speaker:or Passover for those who
Speaker:celebrate either of those.
Speaker:But today's topic, you know that moment
Speaker:when you realize your CI class has fully
Speaker:devolved into a comedy show?
Speaker:And you're not even
Speaker:sure when it happened?
Speaker:Like everyone's having a great time,
Speaker:students are
Speaker:laughing, the energy is good,
Speaker:and then you realize no one has actually
Speaker:acquired anything in the
Speaker:class in the last 20 minutes.
Speaker:That's exactly what we're
Speaker:getting into on this episode.
Speaker:I'm sitting down with Pamela Parks,
Speaker:former professional translator, now
Speaker:teaching French, Spanish, and Japanese,
Speaker:oh my, at the high school level, which
Speaker:means she has approximately three times
Speaker:the opportunities for
Speaker:chaos in any given school day.
Speaker:We're talking about humor in the CI
Speaker:classroom, where it
Speaker:helps, where it hurts,
Speaker:and how to get your class back without
Speaker:becoming the teacher who hates fun.
Speaker:If you've ever stared on a room full of
Speaker:students who thought your pop-up grammar
Speaker:moment was a stand-up
Speaker:prompt, this one's for you.
Speaker:We'll be right back
Speaker:after these short messages.
Speaker:Ever feel like you're clinging to the
Speaker:edge of your teacher planner, just hoping
Speaker:today's lesson magically appears?
Speaker:Enter the CI Survival Kit, a monthly
Speaker:membership made for teachers who love
Speaker:comprehensible input,
Speaker:but also love not reinventing
Speaker:the wheel every Sunday night.
Speaker:Each month you get fresh, ready-to-use
Speaker:lessons, time-saving tools, and just
Speaker:enough structure to keep
Speaker:your teaching life together.
Speaker:No stress, no guilt, just monthly help
Speaker:from someone who gets it.
Speaker:Sign up at mm.us.survival and let the
Speaker: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, and a reminder
Speaker:you're not alone in the CI trenches.
Speaker:Let's dive in.
Speaker:And welcome back, Miss
Speaker:Pamela Parks. So nice to have you.
Speaker:Thank you so much again for having me.
Speaker:This is a blast being here.
Speaker:We just love having you. It's been always
Speaker:a great conversation, and I know you're
Speaker:enjoying the last day of
Speaker:your spring break, so...
Speaker:Last day.
Speaker:I miss the kids. I'm ready to go back. I
Speaker:think it's a long
Speaker:time to be without them.
Speaker:Oh, I was out with them two weeks, and
Speaker:believe me, I wasn't
Speaker:thinking about them for two weeks.
Speaker:And you know, it's funny that what
Speaker:today's topic is, because I
Speaker:came back to exactly this.
Speaker:I'm thinking, man, I
Speaker:personally need this episode today.
Speaker:Like, yeah.
Speaker:I mean, my second period, my first period
Speaker:is fine. My third period is as goofy as
Speaker:they always have been.
Speaker:But my second period, oh my gosh, they
Speaker:found my little balls that I use for
Speaker:different brain breaks.
Speaker:First of all, they were sneaking them,
Speaker:and then throwing them at each other
Speaker:without passing them to each other,
Speaker:without trying to make it noticeable to
Speaker:me that they were doing this.
Speaker:Then I caught that and had to put the
Speaker:balls back. Like, put my balls back.
Speaker:And then they're laughing at me because I
Speaker:said, "My balls." And I'm like, "Oh my
Speaker:gosh, can we please grow up?"
Speaker:Oh, yes. They are our children, you know.
Speaker:Then they found my board washing sprayer.
Speaker:So I don't use the expensive board
Speaker:washing fluid, whatever that
Speaker:is. That's really expensive.
Speaker:So I just use water. It
Speaker:works just fine. I use water.
Speaker:My old squeeze do really something cheap.
Speaker:They used to do one part
Speaker:alcohol to nine parts water.
Speaker:So 10% rubbing alcohol, and it worked
Speaker:really, really well.
Speaker:But I'm too cheap to even buy rubbing
Speaker:alcohol. That's a dollar, you know?
Speaker:I hear you.
Speaker:I have a sink in my back of my room. I
Speaker:just go fill up the water, and I's good.
Speaker:And it works just fine.
Speaker:So that's what I use. So they realized
Speaker:there was no chemicals in there.
Speaker:Oh, no. Were they
Speaker:squirting in their mouths?
Speaker:No, they were squirting at each other.
Speaker:Oh, well.
Speaker:So, yes. The chaos has ensued, and I had
Speaker:to put my ugly face on for
Speaker:the first time in this semester,
Speaker:because these kids have been amazing,
Speaker:because I get new kids every semester.
Speaker:So I got them in January, right when we
Speaker:came back from winter break, and they
Speaker:have been absolutely amazing.
Speaker:All three of my classes. We teach on a
Speaker:four by four, so I only have four.
Speaker:We only have three out of four classes
Speaker:per semester, and they have been amazing.
Speaker:So they've not seen my ugly face. I had
Speaker:to put on my ugly face.
Speaker:And one kid looked at me and just started
Speaker:laughing at my ugly face.
Speaker:He says, "I can't keep a straight face
Speaker:when you look like that."
Speaker:And I'm like, then I said, "You're not
Speaker:going to like me when I'm angry."
Speaker:Thank you, Dr. Banner.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly. So, and I had
Speaker:to get a little bit serious.
Speaker:Okay, guys, we're stopping here, because
Speaker:this is just not working. I
Speaker:had to have that serious talk.
Speaker:So this episode I need as well, because
Speaker:my kids, plus they realize
Speaker:now, well, now it's eight weeks.
Speaker:When we came back, we had
Speaker:nine weeks without a break.
Speaker:They don't get a break until Memorial
Speaker:Day, which is literally the week before
Speaker:the last week of school.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So they're going to have to go all those
Speaker:weeks without a single break,
Speaker:which then drives them crazy when that
Speaker:happens, and drives us crazy in turn.
Speaker:Uh-oh.
Speaker:I don't know. Sometimes when it's leading
Speaker:up to the break, they're
Speaker:like already checked out,
Speaker:because I also lost my
Speaker:cool, and I never lose my cool.
Speaker:And I lost my cool to one of my classes.
Speaker:I was like, "Guys, you're high schoolers.
Speaker:You need to start acting
Speaker:more mature." And wow, it was...
Speaker:So yeah, I definitely need this episode.
Speaker:Well, the problem is
Speaker:I'm not mature, so...
Speaker:Well, neither am I. And I think that's
Speaker:why the kids, they know it's a fun class,
Speaker:because it is a fun class.
Speaker:We do a lot of laughing.
Speaker:We make a lot of jokes.
Speaker:I do all the dumb, "Oh, I know you're 57
Speaker:years old, but you're pretending like,
Speaker:you know, hello, fellow kids,"
Speaker:just to get them invested and all that.
Speaker:And so they come in.
Speaker:You know, I spent so long trying to lower
Speaker:that effective filter, trying to get them
Speaker:comfortable in my classroom.
Speaker:And yeah, just this year especially, it's
Speaker:been so hard to hold the kids' focus.
Speaker:And I know everyone wants to blame the
Speaker:pandemic, but I don't
Speaker:think it's the pandemic.
Speaker:I think it's a societal shift about what
Speaker:does education mean.
Speaker:So yeah, I'm really struggling this year.
Speaker:And you know, it's funny because we
Speaker:always, as CI teachers,
Speaker:have to strike that balance.
Speaker:We want to lower that effective filter,
Speaker:but by doing so, we also take a little
Speaker:bit of the formality out of class.
Speaker:And there's this, you know, this balance
Speaker:that you're always having to play.
Speaker:I mean, like my third
Speaker:period, I've had these kids before.
Speaker:I have... You're all going to laugh
Speaker:because it's a really small class.
Speaker:I have eight kids in that class.
Speaker:Oh my God, I've got 39
Speaker:in one of my classes.
Speaker:It's because I'm at the
Speaker:CTE. That's why it's this way.
Speaker:But I have eight... I wasn't supposed to
Speaker:have... I was supposed to
Speaker:have almost 34, but they...
Speaker:All kinds of schedule
Speaker:changes happen over winter break.
Speaker:So I have eight kids and really only
Speaker:seven show up on a regular basis.
Speaker:I have a senior in there and
Speaker:he doesn't want to show up.
Speaker:So he doesn't usually show up very often,
Speaker:even though he needs this class.
Speaker:Without this class, he will not graduate.
Speaker:But he hasn't... He figured this out at
Speaker:the beginning of the semester,
Speaker:but the middle of the semester now, he's
Speaker:completely forgotten he
Speaker:needs this class to graduate.
Speaker:So I have about seven
Speaker:kids regularly in that class.
Speaker:And of those seven kids,
Speaker:I had six of them before.
Speaker:So they're very friendly with me.
Speaker:And they share. They overshare.
Speaker:I have one kid who's got
Speaker:ADHD. He's a really sweet kid.
Speaker:I love him to death, but he's not always
Speaker:running 100% of the time
Speaker:or even using the capabilities of his
Speaker:brain at a full time.
Speaker:The school is literally
Speaker:on the Sacramento River.
Speaker:And he's like, "So you know that river,
Speaker:the Sacramento River, right?"
Speaker:I'm like, "We all do.
Speaker:We live in Sacramento."
Speaker:The school is called
Speaker:River City for a reason.
Speaker:I had no idea what he was talking about.
Speaker:He does this frequently.
Speaker:So he overshares about his body a lot.
Speaker:He needs to go to the private bathroom
Speaker:because he's about to
Speaker:blow up the bathroom.
Speaker:Or, "I need to fart right
Speaker:now." He just overshares.
Speaker:I had a student like that last year.
Speaker:So this class is very comfortable and
Speaker:they just love to overshare.
Speaker:And so it's because you've
Speaker:made them so comfortable,
Speaker:which is a good thing, but
Speaker:it's that razor edge sword.
Speaker:I'm trying to fix my camera here. It
Speaker:keeps bouncing around.
Speaker:So that's always
Speaker:causing me a problem in there.
Speaker:And then when I get angry, I get quiet.
Speaker:When I get angry in a funny way where I
Speaker:don't want them to really
Speaker:think that I'm really truly angry,
Speaker:but I want them to cut out, I growl.
Speaker:It takes away. I'm like, "Grrrr."
Speaker:Just kind of let them
Speaker:know that I'm getting there.
Speaker:I'm getting there. Cut it out. "Grrrr."
Speaker:So they always laugh
Speaker:at me when I do that.
Speaker:But I still want to keep
Speaker:that effective filter low.
Speaker:I don't want to get to that straight.
Speaker:But this week I had to
Speaker:get to the straight face.
Speaker:But I had a kid and I love
Speaker:him to death. He's a great kid.
Speaker:I love him to death.
Speaker:But he was just pushing my buttons this
Speaker:week, pushing my buttons.
Speaker:And it was funny. I was talking about it
Speaker:at lunch with the other
Speaker:teachers at the school thing.
Speaker:And I'm like, "Oh my gosh, my second
Speaker:period, they were driving me crazy.
Speaker:They were doing this." And one of the
Speaker:other teachers names him by name.
Speaker:I'm like, "Yep, that was the ringleader."
Speaker:So it's obvious who it was.
Speaker:Everybody knew who it was.
Speaker:Yeah, we all have students like that.
Speaker:Yes. But I love him to death. I
Speaker:absolutely love him.
Speaker:There's not a single student that I don't
Speaker:like or who really,
Speaker:really, truly annoy me.
Speaker:Or like, "Oh my God, he's here today." I
Speaker:have none of those this semester.
Speaker:If you have a student like
Speaker:that, why are you teaching?
Speaker:If you don't love your students.
Speaker:Because I once went back 100 million
Speaker:years ago, I taught music.
Speaker:I taught piano, guitar, and voice.
Speaker:And the head of the music, English, the
Speaker:school, it wasn't really a
Speaker:school, but it was tutoring.
Speaker:So she would always complain about the
Speaker:students behind their backs.
Speaker:I'm like, "He's eight years old. Of
Speaker:course he's not a good pianist yet.
Speaker:She's 10 years old. Of course she can't
Speaker:play the flute well."
Speaker:And I was like, "Why are
Speaker:you complaining about that?
Speaker:If you're complaining that much, you're
Speaker:in the wrong line of work.
Speaker:If you don't like kids."
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Absolutely. So very, very true.
Speaker:And there are those teachers who complain
Speaker:about the kids all the time.
Speaker:And we do have those kids
Speaker:who kind of grade on us.
Speaker:Last semester I did have, I had a second
Speaker:period where I was truly shocked.
Speaker:Truly shocked at some of the
Speaker:things that the kids would do.
Speaker:In 24 years of teaching, I would tell my
Speaker:principal, "I have
Speaker:never experienced this."
Speaker:I asked them a question and
Speaker:they go, "I'm not doing that."
Speaker:I just asked you, "Do you like video
Speaker:games?" And they're
Speaker:like, "I'm not doing that."
Speaker:I mean, I've had kids not do work before,
Speaker:but overtly not answer
Speaker:questions and say, "I refuse."
Speaker:Or, "Put your makeup away." No.
Speaker:I'm like, "What? I never had that. And
Speaker:we're not allowed to
Speaker:send kids out of the room."
Speaker:So I'm like, "What else do you want me to
Speaker:do? I can't turn them
Speaker:over my knee and spank them.
Speaker:What have you taken all my power away
Speaker:because I can't escalate this?"
Speaker:Because what am I supposed to do to that?
Speaker:I can't forcibly take it from them.
Speaker:So then they do it and then more kids
Speaker:learn that you can get away with things.
Speaker:So I had a really bad class.
Speaker:In fact, that class, all
Speaker:my other classes were fine.
Speaker:That class bad mouthed me saying that
Speaker:this class is the most boring.
Speaker:It's awful. You're
Speaker:horrible. You're going to hate it.
Speaker:And then the kids came in and go, "Yeah,
Speaker:we heard a lot about this class when I
Speaker:asked about the reflections
Speaker:of the first day of the week.
Speaker:The first week of school." I mean.
Speaker:And now they're like, "This
Speaker:is nothing like that class."
Speaker:I'm like, "Because you guys make the
Speaker:class. The class is
Speaker:what you guys make it."
Speaker:They came in with a hostile attitude on
Speaker:day one and were hostile
Speaker:fighting every step of the way.
Speaker:I mean, they wouldn't even play games.
Speaker:They're like, "I don't
Speaker:want to play trash get ball."
Speaker:This is the first year I've ever had to
Speaker:deal with a class that
Speaker:doesn't want to play games.
Speaker:I'm like, "What the heck?"
Speaker:Yeah, I know. And trash get ball right
Speaker:now. They're like, "Every day. Can you
Speaker:play trash get ball?"
Speaker:"Can you play trash get ball?" "Trash get
Speaker:balls Thursdays. We play
Speaker:trash get ball on Thursdays."
Speaker:"We don't play trash get ball Monday,
Speaker:Tuesday, Wednesday,
Speaker:Thursday, and Friday."
Speaker:"Just on Thursdays." But it's
Speaker:the most fun game they love.
Speaker:So, have you ever played the, just
Speaker:speaking of this, have you
Speaker:ever played the unfair game?
Speaker:Oh yeah. Uh huh. With the cards? Yeah.
Speaker:I made an app that makes
Speaker:the unfair game up there.
Speaker:So, because you can download PowerPoint
Speaker:ones or Google slide ones.
Speaker:But there's always a failure because you
Speaker:can't keep track of which numbers were
Speaker:called and stuff like that.
Speaker:That's my calling. The white boards and
Speaker:the guys write this down for me. Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah. So, I don't have to do that. The
Speaker:app does it all. All in there.
Speaker:And all I do is give it its vocabulary
Speaker:and then it goes through and
Speaker:it will make all the questions.
Speaker:It makes all the questions.
Speaker:It makes all the point values.
Speaker:It puts in three specialty cards like
Speaker:bankrupt or swap points or any of those
Speaker:kind of weird cards in there.
Speaker:It does it all. Makes the grid. All I got
Speaker:to do is put it up on the board.
Speaker:I loved it. I loved it. I loved it. I'll
Speaker:have to share it with
Speaker:you. I love it. Absolutely.
Speaker:It's just a fun little game and the kids
Speaker:now like it because I mean my other one,
Speaker:if I click the wrong button, it would
Speaker:reveal the answer before it was too soon.
Speaker:Oh no. It's programmed perfectly. It
Speaker:works just so wonderful.
Speaker:Anyway, so going back to today, what
Speaker:we're talking about. So, have you ever
Speaker:had a moment when you realize your CI
Speaker:classes just
Speaker:completely crossed that line?
Speaker:This is the story of
Speaker:my life, right? Okay.
Speaker:I'll have so many moments in this
Speaker:episode. Yeah, constantly.
Speaker:So, I mean, there's lots of different
Speaker:levels of it, right? There's times when
Speaker:it just gets crazy and silly and then
Speaker:you're like a half an hour into the day
Speaker:and you're like, wait a minute, we
Speaker:haven't really done anything.
Speaker:Okay. And at those points, I tell myself
Speaker:that's okay because
Speaker:sometimes the review is just crucial.
Speaker:You know, students need to have more
Speaker:contact with the language. And so it's
Speaker:okay that we really didn't progress to
Speaker:the next thing. That's fine.
Speaker:Now, during the pandemic, when I was
Speaker:trying to do my TPRS on Zoom, I started,
Speaker:I don't use PowerPoint, I use Active
Speaker:Inspire, but it's kind of the same thing.
Speaker:Active Inspire is great because I can
Speaker:circle things. I can draw arrows from a
Speaker:noun to an adjective
Speaker:that's describing the noun.
Speaker:I can conjugate a verb right on the
Speaker:screen or whatever. I can move pictures
Speaker:around. So during the pandemic, I used
Speaker:Active Inspire to put up pictures because
Speaker:I couldn't call a student down to the
Speaker:front of the class to pretend to be Bob
Speaker:the Builder or whatever, you know?
Speaker:So, I used, Duolingo had just come out
Speaker:with the Project World characters, so I
Speaker:used them the first year.
Speaker:And I took those screenshots, Duolingo
Speaker:gave me all sorts of screenshots and
Speaker:everything. And then I took a little
Speaker:clipart of a school and then I wrote the
Speaker:word school underneath it and then a
Speaker:clipart of a bank and wrote the, you
Speaker:know, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker:And then I did it for three different
Speaker:times for all my languages that I teach.
Speaker:But that way, when I was doing the story,
Speaker:I could move the pictures around and the
Speaker:students had like all
Speaker:the visual supports.
Speaker:And that worked so well that once the
Speaker:pandemic lifted, I still do all my TPRS
Speaker:on the board in front of them with, okay,
Speaker:I'm drawing this out in the, oh, you want
Speaker:to add a discotheque? Okay, I'm going to
Speaker:do a little discotheque and that's our
Speaker:discotheque, you know?
Speaker:And so it's more like, for me, it's more
Speaker:like Mad Libs right now, where I've got
Speaker:the story all structured. And so it's
Speaker:harder for the kids to take it off the
Speaker:rails, which has really
Speaker:been happening lately.
Speaker:I mean, I love it when they take it off
Speaker:the rails, but sometimes they take it off
Speaker:the rails in a stupid way. I don't want
Speaker:to do, I don't want to go down that
Speaker:rabbit hole, you know? I do want, these
Speaker:are the things, look, I'm one of four
Speaker:Spanish teachers in the district, we all
Speaker:have to march lockstep and they're going
Speaker:to let me do my crazy stuff, but I have
Speaker:to teach you this vocabulary because it's
Speaker:what the textbook has, you know?
Speaker:So I don't really want it to go too far
Speaker:off the rails, but I'll let the students
Speaker:choose, is Bob going to the discotheque
Speaker:or is he going to school or is he going
Speaker:to appear on a TV
Speaker:show? You know, whatever.
Speaker:As long as I'm fitting in that grammar
Speaker:that I need to and most of the vocabulary
Speaker:that I need to. So keeping it on the
Speaker:rails, having it scripted
Speaker:out ahead of time helps a lot.
Speaker:Sometimes I just say, okay guys, you've
Speaker:come up with something really weird that
Speaker:I wasn't prepared for. I need to put
Speaker:pictures in, so we're going to pause here
Speaker:and that gives me time to think about it
Speaker:and try and get it back
Speaker:on the rails, you know?
Speaker:So I'll say, I'll pause here. I'll just
Speaker:look, I'm saving it right in front of
Speaker:you. This is period two, I'm saving it
Speaker:and we'll come back to it,
Speaker:mañana, you know, or whatever.
Speaker:So sometimes that's good enough. What
Speaker:else? Oh, sometimes I just, I was just in
Speaker:a class with Christina Smekins. Now, you
Speaker:know that my classes are like 35 to 39
Speaker:students apiece so that I could squeeze
Speaker:in one section of English language arts.
Speaker:And I feel like I'm a first year teacher
Speaker:with English language arts because I
Speaker:haven't been teaching it. This is my
Speaker:second year doing it. And I'm like, I
Speaker:have no idea what I'm doing.
Speaker:So I'm taking a lot of English language
Speaker:arts classes and I just took one with
Speaker:Christina Smekins of the Smekins
Speaker:Institute or whatever.
Speaker:She was absolutely amazing.
Speaker:And she was talking about just with five
Speaker:year olds when she does turn and talk and
Speaker:then she wants to like model thinking.
Speaker:And she said, okay, so the five year
Speaker:olds, they get off topic and they want to
Speaker:tell you what they're thinking.
Speaker:And you don't want, you don't have time
Speaker:for that. You don't want them to tell you
Speaker:what they're thinking. You want to get
Speaker:them back to this, your modeling, what
Speaker:your thought process is
Speaker:looking at this story.
Speaker:And so she just turns to the kids and she
Speaker:says, hey, this is my show. And she's got
Speaker:this really thick Southern drawl, you
Speaker:know, and I was like, that's beautiful.
Speaker:So she shut them down immediately.
Speaker:Yeah, Blaine does the same thing. It's my
Speaker:story. That's what he always says. He
Speaker:says it's my story. And I'm with you.
Speaker:You're allowed to say, you're allowed to
Speaker:ignore them if they
Speaker:shout out something stupid.
Speaker:My problem this week, the reason I lost
Speaker:my cool is because I had a student
Speaker:shouting out things that are really
Speaker:inappropriate and it
Speaker:was like a hallway talk.
Speaker:You know, it was like, I've got to take
Speaker:out the classroom contract again and go
Speaker:over the syllabus with the students
Speaker:again. This is not acceptable behavior.
Speaker:You know, so that's when I lost my cool.
Speaker:But so that I had to talk about.
Speaker:Generally, it's enough to just pretend
Speaker:like you haven't heard them.
Speaker:You know, I've got my story. It's
Speaker:prepared with, um, you wanted to talk
Speaker:about Lady Gaga and now you guys are
Speaker:pulling in Michael Jackson.
Speaker:No, I'm sorry. I've already prepared Lady
Speaker:Gaga. I'm ignoring everything you say
Speaker:about Michael Jackson
Speaker:now, you know, whatever.
Speaker:So sometimes sometimes it's enough to
Speaker:ignore them. Sometimes you got to go back
Speaker:into English and draw it back.
Speaker:Guys, we're going to be
Speaker:school appropriate. So.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, I have found because this had
Speaker:happened a lot. It happens a lot more
Speaker:when I like you left
Speaker:the story more open ended.
Speaker:But since I've been experimenting with
Speaker:the TPRS 2.0, I make graphics for each
Speaker:phase. So all my stories
Speaker:are like our five phases.
Speaker:So there's the character phase where they
Speaker:introduce the character and then but we
Speaker:talk about the character. What's the
Speaker:character? Let's ask how old he is and
Speaker:all those kinds of questions.
Speaker:So I'm spending all that time doing all
Speaker:that stuff that we normally would have
Speaker:done, but I just have a
Speaker:character up on the board.
Speaker:And then I give him a problem to work
Speaker:through. So they've got a
Speaker:problem slide about the problem.
Speaker:And then there's a he attempts to solve
Speaker:the problem, but fails. And then there's
Speaker:a solves the problem.
Speaker:So he's got all the parts. I've got all
Speaker:the little parts up there in the slides.
Speaker:I've got a anchor sentence that I start
Speaker:the slide with. So my statements are
Speaker:there and the kids can see them. They can
Speaker:see them translated.
Speaker:I also make sure I have a dialog box up
Speaker:there so that they can see
Speaker:the dialog of what's going on.
Speaker:And then there's also whatever the key
Speaker:verb is that I want to focus on for that
Speaker:slide for that
Speaker:picture. I have that as well.
Speaker:In fact, let me put one up here so you
Speaker:can kind of see what I'm talking about.
Speaker:You choose the problem or do you ever let
Speaker:the students choose the problem?
Speaker:It depends. Since these are pre done, my
Speaker:problems are already taken care of. But
Speaker:when I when I let them choose, it's when
Speaker:I do guided writing.
Speaker:So we all sitting down, we're making a
Speaker:story together and I have no story in
Speaker:there. And then they go off the rails,
Speaker:not always in a bad way, but they're
Speaker:copying down what I write.
Speaker:So I take what they say. I put it in
Speaker:proper grammar and then we write it down
Speaker:together and have a written story.
Speaker:So that's when I do that more often. But
Speaker:let me get one here of my stories. Let's
Speaker:see here. Let me do this. Speak one.
Speaker:Oh, here's one of your stories. I don't
Speaker:even know what story this is. So I'm not
Speaker:sure what this is going
Speaker:to look like on my screen.
Speaker:Oh, I know I'm going to take it out here
Speaker:first. Let me. It's going to make me do a
Speaker:screenshot. So let me do
Speaker:that first. One of the pages.
Speaker:But I think the the main thing is is if
Speaker:you find yourself getting derailed a lot,
Speaker:script your stories out ahead of time,
Speaker:project them on the
Speaker:board, keep your kids.
Speaker:I mean, look, years and years of Dungeons
Speaker:and Dragons taught me how to
Speaker:keep people on the rails. Yeah.
Speaker:And it is important. And when when you do
Speaker:go off the rails, when things go bad or
Speaker:things aren't and you need a reset, there
Speaker:are two ways of resetting that you can do
Speaker:is I'm still looking for my thing here.
Speaker:The one thing you can do for a reset is a
Speaker:disciplinary reset, like, OK, everybody,
Speaker:we need to stop. We need to get back on
Speaker:track, you know, and do it that way.
Speaker:But I prefer, if at all possible, to
Speaker:avoid that. And so what I do is I'll say
Speaker:we need a brain break or it's time for a
Speaker:game right now to kind of get that so
Speaker:they can focus their energy in a more
Speaker:positive way and work that way.
Speaker:And then after our five minute brain
Speaker:break or maybe our seven minute game,
Speaker:then we can do something from there.
Speaker:You know, then we can go back to what we
Speaker:were supposed to doing. For the last
Speaker:several weeks, you've been talking a lot
Speaker:about ebb and flow. Yeah.
Speaker:This is part of it. Exactly. He has
Speaker:changed. We need to change up. And
Speaker:besides, you know what?
Speaker:We're in world language.
Speaker:We should be doing our formative
Speaker:assessments every 10, 15 minutes or so.
Speaker:So if things go off the
Speaker:rail, it is time to change it.
Speaker:It is time to pivot to whatever formative
Speaker:assessment you're planning or whatever
Speaker:formative assessment
Speaker:you pull out of your hat.
Speaker:I mean, there's so many things we do on
Speaker:the fly, right? Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:But yeah, it's time to pivot to something
Speaker:new. And maybe you get back to the story
Speaker:today or maybe you don't.
Speaker:Exactly. Because you have to be what do
Speaker:we learn as teachers? You always have to
Speaker:be flexible and adaptable.
Speaker:And here is when I finally got a picture.
Speaker:So here's one I made. This
Speaker:was in my Spanish two one.
Speaker:I love that. So I've got the graphic in
Speaker:there. So I know Estecico Siempre
Speaker:Uselacos en correcta para cotinar es un
Speaker:problema de todos los día.
Speaker:So there's our problem slide. And then
Speaker:there's the dialogue
Speaker:Siempre Uselacos en correcta.
Speaker:And you've given the conjugations for
Speaker:usar. Yeah, because that's what I really
Speaker:want to focus on because I'm going to add
Speaker:because I have like character.
Speaker:I'll have a student play the character.
Speaker:You're the character.
Speaker:And I'll say, que usas.
Speaker:And then they're going to say, oh,
Speaker:Uselacos en correcta. You
Speaker:know, so they can I can engage.
Speaker:I call it. This is the triangling part,
Speaker:which Blaine calls it. I call
Speaker:interviewing the characters so I can have
Speaker:him interview the character.
Speaker:So he's about to cut a carrot with a
Speaker:rolling pin. So he's using the wrong
Speaker:thing. And I have different
Speaker:slides that go through this.
Speaker:Do your students know the names of all
Speaker:the utensils or do you give them that on
Speaker:another slide or are
Speaker:they circumlocuting to.
Speaker:I added so that I'll let them use the
Speaker:English for like rolling pin and I'll
Speaker:write it up on the board for
Speaker:them so they have it after that.
Speaker:But it's what I call a throwaway
Speaker:vocabulary. You don't need to know this
Speaker:for any test or anything else.
Speaker:Just just to be able to talk about the
Speaker:different things. But I'll go through and
Speaker:I'll label. I go el broccoli, el tomate,
Speaker:el sartain, you know, la cucara.
Speaker:I'll go through el tathón. I'll go
Speaker:through some of those things and I'll
Speaker:label them because if I do this on my I
Speaker:don't have a smart board.
Speaker:But if I do this on an iPad and play it
Speaker:from an iPad to my screen, I can write on
Speaker:the iPad right next to the things because
Speaker:I liked it when I had a smart board.
Speaker:When I had a smart board, I would write
Speaker:right up on the board along the side
Speaker:there. Yeah. But you talk about not
Speaker:having your classroom
Speaker:for a couple of days.
Speaker:Yeah, I really use my smart board a lot.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly. I use so many images and
Speaker:songs and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker:I'm not going to have access to. So this
Speaker:is just something that you can do to help
Speaker:keep the kids on track.
Speaker:You can let them customize.
Speaker:Like we came up with a name for this kid
Speaker:and how old he was and what city does he
Speaker:live in? Does he live in a big house or a
Speaker:small? All that stuff, they can
Speaker:personalize those types of things.
Speaker:And then I can review things with them
Speaker:like descriptions. What color is his
Speaker:hair? Does he have big eyes or small
Speaker:eyes? What about his mouth? What was he
Speaker:wearing? All those kinds of
Speaker:things we can go over and review.
Speaker:But this chapter that I have to teach the
Speaker:vocab, it had a lot of kitchen vocab. So
Speaker:it's got the word for sink and it's got
Speaker:the word for stove and
Speaker:cabinet and all those things.
Speaker:So we just used them as needed. But so
Speaker:this is one way to keep them on track
Speaker:when they go in. It kind of it's not a
Speaker:what to do if they go too far.
Speaker:It's kind of a preventive measure before
Speaker:they get too far. It kind of holds them
Speaker:in. Whereas when I do my guided writing
Speaker:that one they go off the rails and
Speaker:sometimes I'll have to reel them in.
Speaker:Usually they don't go inappropriate.
Speaker:My middle schoolers used to go
Speaker:inappropriate, but my my high school kids
Speaker:don't generally they don't usually go
Speaker:inappropriate, which is
Speaker:kind of surprising to me.
Speaker:Though it's funny, a little funny side
Speaker:story. I am very naive when it comes to
Speaker:drugs. Absolutely naive. I have no clue.
Speaker:So it's funny because this story came up
Speaker:because this woman started going to the
Speaker:dog park last couple days and she's the
Speaker:mother of one of my ex-students.
Speaker:And she used to work at the school. And
Speaker:so it's like funny. I haven't seen her in
Speaker:years. And so she's like, remember when?
Speaker:And I'm like, oh my gosh, because we were
Speaker:doing the one word image coming up with
Speaker:an inanimate object and making a
Speaker:character out of it.
Speaker:And someone we started with lettuce. So
Speaker:that's what they chose with. And then
Speaker:they said, it's the devil's lettuce. I
Speaker:didn't know what that meant. So we drew a
Speaker:picture of a lettuce.
Speaker:We drew a picture of a lettuce. And we
Speaker:put horns on it and a tail. And I spoke
Speaker:for the whole hour about
Speaker:this devil's lettuce. Right.
Speaker:And the mom comes to me afterwards and
Speaker:she goes, I just want you to know that
Speaker:devil's lettuce is
Speaker:marijuana. I'm like, oh, I just spoke.
Speaker:I just spoke for a whole hour with eighth
Speaker:graders about marijuana. I was like, I
Speaker:went straight to the principal and had to
Speaker:explain. He's just laughing at me,
Speaker:completely laughing at me.
Speaker:I'm like, I'm so sorry. I had no idea.
Speaker:Literally, we drew a picture of it. It
Speaker:looked nothing like marijuana. It was a
Speaker:head of lettuce with, you know, horns and
Speaker:a tail. It was a devil's lettuce.
Speaker:But we were just laughing. So she brought
Speaker:that up and reminded me of that. So those
Speaker:things used to go wrong in middle school.
Speaker:I don't get so much of that in the high
Speaker:school, surprisingly enough.
Speaker:But they still go off way off on tangent
Speaker:or they'll get a little personal joke in
Speaker:there, an inside joke with the kids and
Speaker:then they go off rails and then they
Speaker:start to laugh and I can't get them back.
Speaker:And so that's kind of where those kinds
Speaker:of things happen for me. And so I only do
Speaker:guided writing maybe once a month with
Speaker:them. And it takes us two or three days
Speaker:to get to the whole story.
Speaker:It's a whole like, you know, our main
Speaker:activity for most of the week. But that's
Speaker:when that happens to me when it happens.
Speaker:So I'd like to do these guided stories.
Speaker:And I used to do them before as we used
Speaker:to call them story strips.
Speaker:And it was like a usually a review. It
Speaker:was a review after we had gone through
Speaker:all the vocabulary for the week. It'd be
Speaker:a review story and I can get through
Speaker:these within a half an hour.
Speaker:And it worked really, really well. Now I
Speaker:do it a lot differently than I did
Speaker:before. And now with the image
Speaker:generators, I can get them to make the
Speaker:image exactly the way that I want them to
Speaker:make because I am an artist
Speaker:in drawing real life animals.
Speaker:I do not do cartoons and I do not have
Speaker:time to draw, you know, cartoons for all
Speaker:my classes for every week of class. It
Speaker:just would drive me crazy.
Speaker:Well, you know, when I'm on the fly, it's
Speaker:always stick figures and stuff. The kids
Speaker:laugh at me because I became a
Speaker:professional translator because I wanted
Speaker:to read more comic books
Speaker:and watch more cartoons.
Speaker:And I'm like, look, guys, I'm the woman
Speaker:who loves cartoons and comic books, but I
Speaker:can't draw worth a darn. You know, so
Speaker:they just they laugh at me so much.
Speaker:Yeah, I draw the sheet.
Speaker:I did writing is a good way to keep them
Speaker:on the rails, too, because I had a class
Speaker:two weeks ago where the kids just got
Speaker:really wild with it. And I was like, OK,
Speaker:I need to pivot. I was like, OK, go grab
Speaker:a sheet of scratch paper.
Speaker:You write me the next line in the story
Speaker:and turn it in and I will choose the best
Speaker:line for next time. And of course, I
Speaker:could choose the line that was more and
Speaker:more in with what I was thinking, you
Speaker:know, but the kids were
Speaker:like, oh, that's my line.
Speaker:That's my line. And then, you know, there
Speaker:were a couple that were really good. So I
Speaker:put a bunch in and they were more
Speaker:invested because they
Speaker:recognized their own lines.
Speaker:So we got. But I didn't have to call it
Speaker:open to the whole class. Shout out some
Speaker:stuff because that was getting crazy.
Speaker:But this way, this way, three or four
Speaker:people got their lines in
Speaker:and everyone felt invested. So.
Speaker:And you know how I did that? I used to do
Speaker:that. I forgot I had done that. What I
Speaker:used to do with those one word images. So
Speaker:the first day I used to
Speaker:spread it out to three days.
Speaker:So we spent the first day just describing
Speaker:the character. Then the second day we
Speaker:would do just focus on the problem, do
Speaker:nothing more than the problem.
Speaker:And then on the third day, we would try
Speaker:to solve it and then not solve it and
Speaker:then try to solve it and
Speaker:solve it. We finish it up.
Speaker:But on that first day, we established the
Speaker:character who, what, where,
Speaker:all that kind of stuff in there.
Speaker:But then I would give them an exit ticket
Speaker:in Google Forms where I would have them.
Speaker:So one of the things that I always used
Speaker:to do is they had this emotion associated
Speaker:with this character. What emotion was
Speaker:associated with this character?
Speaker:Oh, that's good. Was it happy? Was it
Speaker:anger? Was it sadness? Whatever. So we
Speaker:established that in the class. So what we
Speaker:established was the
Speaker:name, the age, what it was.
Speaker:We all gave it one emotion. We decided
Speaker:what emotion it was going to be. We
Speaker:described it and described it physically
Speaker:and we left it at that.
Speaker:Then on their exit ticket, they had to
Speaker:answer two questions and they answered
Speaker:them in English. Why did he feel this
Speaker:way? And what was his
Speaker:deepest, darkest secret?
Speaker:So then they went ahead and put those all
Speaker:in there. I compiled the answers and made
Speaker:a new Google Form, which was my warm up
Speaker:for the next day, where they voted on
Speaker:what the reason for the emotion was.
Speaker:So I put them in there and what was good
Speaker:about that is I could throw away all the
Speaker:inappropriate ones before they even saw
Speaker:them. And I could consolidate the ones
Speaker:that were almost the same, just different
Speaker:words. So I could consolidate them.
Speaker:So I did that and they choose. And then
Speaker:there was also the deepest, darkest
Speaker:secret. I would pick like five or six of
Speaker:the best ones and I would put them down
Speaker:there. And then they would vote.
Speaker:And then I would have the results, but I
Speaker:wouldn't share the results. I would use
Speaker:those to develop that problem on that
Speaker:day. So I had the results up on my screen
Speaker:where I could see and then I would just
Speaker:ask leading questions to get us to that
Speaker:result that they had already chosen.
Speaker:And it was really funny because we came
Speaker:up with one that said it was about a
Speaker:water bottle. So where's my water bottle
Speaker:right here? So a kid had a water bottle
Speaker:like this. It was a metal one and it was
Speaker:dented badly on the corner.
Speaker:And we always joke with him that he got
Speaker:mad and threw his water bottle down. But
Speaker:he said, no, that's not what happened. He
Speaker:goes, I ordered this water bottle second
Speaker:hand. So he bought it like on Facebook
Speaker:Marketplace or something like that.
Speaker:So they said that the water bottle was
Speaker:angry. That was the emotion. So why was
Speaker:it angry? It was angry because he dropped
Speaker:it. He didn't care enough about it and he
Speaker:dropped it. So that was the reason why
Speaker:that's when we chose.
Speaker:And then the his deepest darkest secret
Speaker:was he had murdered his previous owners.
Speaker:So they drew this water bottle. I got to
Speaker:see if I saw that. I had the picture
Speaker:somewhere. A water bottle with an angry
Speaker:face holding a knife.
Speaker:Holding a knife. And it was just so
Speaker:funny. And we went through this whole
Speaker:thing. Yeah, he goes, he was adopted now.
Speaker:That's what we called instead of he
Speaker:bought him on second hand. He was adopted
Speaker:and he had the dent in
Speaker:him. And it was just so funny.
Speaker:But that story came from that. And that's
Speaker:another way, like you said, to keep it a
Speaker:little bit more under control. I know
Speaker:that La Maestro Loca absolutely hates the
Speaker:shouting out. She goes,
Speaker:it goes way off the rails.
Speaker:She hates it. So she's got what she calls
Speaker:the whiteboard dice. It's a blank dice
Speaker:with whiteboard type thing. And then you
Speaker:write. So she would write choices on
Speaker:there and just roll. And
Speaker:whatever came up is what came up.
Speaker:So that's how she wrote from dice. And I
Speaker:just like will say, OK, number one is
Speaker:blah, blah, blah, blah. Number two is
Speaker:blah, blah, blah. Number three is and
Speaker:then I'll give it to a
Speaker:student to roll. So it's not me.
Speaker:You know, yeah. And I just whenever I
Speaker:need to roll a dice, I go to Google and
Speaker:go roll a dice and a little graphic comes
Speaker:up and it actually rolls.
Speaker:I do flip a coin that way, too, because
Speaker:Google has a flip a coin thing to just
Speaker:type it in a coin and it will flip a coin
Speaker:live and the kids can
Speaker:see it right off the bat.
Speaker:So I have to go. I've got a quarter. I've
Speaker:got a quarter. No, I've got one. You
Speaker:know, I don't play the game. Just do it
Speaker:right there digitally and it's done. It's
Speaker:just done nice and easy. Nice and easy.
Speaker:So we kind of talked about the resetting
Speaker:the room without becoming the fun place
Speaker:because we can go into those brain
Speaker:breaks. We can go into a different game.
Speaker:We can also just be honest and say, you
Speaker:know what, this ain't working. It's not
Speaker:your fault. It's not my fault. It's just
Speaker:not the day for this.
Speaker:But not only that, there is a time when
Speaker:you have to say this story is not
Speaker:working. Yeah, just leave it aside. And
Speaker:that that took me a hundred million years
Speaker:to get to that point, you know, because I
Speaker:had thought really long and hard about
Speaker:I'm going to have a story that's going to
Speaker:have this grammatical structure in it and
Speaker:it's going to have this vocabulary.
Speaker:And when the rubber hits the road, I'm on
Speaker:day four of it and we still not pass the
Speaker:create the character section, you know,
Speaker:and I'm like, this just isn't working.
Speaker:Throw it out. Maybe next year it'll work.
Speaker:You know, I need to pivot to something.
Speaker:But that took me a long, long time. I
Speaker:guess it's kind of like when you're an
Speaker:author and they say, kill your darlings,
Speaker:you know, like you've
Speaker:invested so much time.
Speaker:It's hard to say, all right, this isn't
Speaker:working. I need to do something else
Speaker:entirely. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
Speaker:Because it's something it took me a while
Speaker:to figure out too, because you put all
Speaker:this time planning this lesson and it's
Speaker:not working for whatever reason.
Speaker:Or it's a lesson you planned before and
Speaker:it worked perfectly last year. But with
Speaker:these kids, it's just not working. And so
Speaker:you need to know when it's
Speaker:time to get to whatever. Yeah.
Speaker:Cut your losses and say, all right, well,
Speaker:you know, at least you got exposure to
Speaker:the vocabulary. We need to put them
Speaker:together in a different way. It's just
Speaker:absolutely dynamics.
Speaker:And so it's it's great to have those
Speaker:backup activities ready. So I have games
Speaker:in the back of my head that I can I can
Speaker:do and use all the time that I don't
Speaker:require a lot of planning the pencil game
Speaker:or when the Pictionary doing Pictionary
Speaker:with the vocabulary.
Speaker:A lot of different games that there's no
Speaker:setup that I have to do or I can make
Speaker:that new I can make a good, you know, put
Speaker:an unfair game in there or a bingo in
Speaker:there because I've got a digital bingo
Speaker:that I guess put my words in it and comes
Speaker:up with different cards for all the kids.
Speaker:They just log in and it goes. So lots of
Speaker:different things that you can do. So
Speaker:you're not becoming the fun police.
Speaker:You're still doing something that's fun
Speaker:for the kids. But it's a
Speaker:reset to get them back on track.
Speaker:And it works so well before a break,
Speaker:right after a break, before an assembly,
Speaker:after an assembly. There's so many
Speaker:different things when it goes well, or
Speaker:it's just one of those days. It's a weird
Speaker:Wednesday. And just
Speaker:everything is going wrong that day.
Speaker:You know, have those
Speaker:backup plans. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:We'll say sometimes also, you want to get
Speaker:it back on the rails, but the students
Speaker:really need more contact with the words
Speaker:and you're still invested in or you know
Speaker:maybe you're like I'm going to quit this
Speaker:story tomorrow, whatever, but you still
Speaker:want the students to
Speaker:remember some stuff out of it.
Speaker:It's time to put a little accountability
Speaker:piece into it. Okay. Yeah. And I don't
Speaker:mean like not a pop quiz because you
Speaker:know, yeah, we were talking about pop
Speaker:quizzes and how we do
Speaker:them because we're different.
Speaker:We're all about memory, right? So there's
Speaker:a bunch of memory techniques you can do
Speaker:that will give accountability to the
Speaker:students. You say, okay, guys, go grab a
Speaker:sheet of scratch paper.
Speaker:I want you to write down everything you
Speaker:remember from the
Speaker:story we just were telling.
Speaker:Don't talk to each other. Everyone has to
Speaker:be in silence. Write down everything you
Speaker:remember. If you remember words, great.
Speaker:If you remember whole
Speaker:sentences, that's great.
Speaker:Hey, you know, everything that we said
Speaker:Bob wasn't because we were circling, you
Speaker:know, that counts as part of the story
Speaker:too, you know, so you first of all, you
Speaker:have them do that information. Don't.
Speaker:And then have them turn it in, you know,
Speaker:but what I like is because the students
Speaker:police each other
Speaker:better than I will ever do.
Speaker:I like the Harvard Project Zero plus one
Speaker:routine where I say, okay, now pass the
Speaker:paper one person to the right. All right.
Speaker:Look over their list. What did they
Speaker:forget? What do you want to add?
Speaker:So if somebody hasn't been engaged and
Speaker:they've only written down two words that
Speaker:they remember, they're going to be kind
Speaker:of embarrassed and they'll try a little
Speaker:harder next time. All right.
Speaker:And then I say, okay, pass it one more to
Speaker:the person on the right. Okay. Now look
Speaker:over the words. Doodle something. One of
Speaker:those words. Take one of those words and
Speaker:doodle it. Okay. Pass
Speaker:it one more to the right.
Speaker:Take any two of those words on the list
Speaker:and put them together into a sentence.
Speaker:The sentence does not have to appear in
Speaker:the story. Just connect them together.
Speaker:And you know, really, I only look at this
Speaker:afterwards to say, okay, yeah, the kids
Speaker:wrote a lot. That's fine. I don't like,
Speaker:I'm not like spending 100
Speaker:million years grading this.
Speaker:I'm just trying to get them to feel like
Speaker:there's a little bit of accountability to
Speaker:it that they really ought to be paying
Speaker:attention because I'm going to do
Speaker:something afterwards.
Speaker:Maybe I'm going to say, draw me a before,
Speaker:during and after of the story we just
Speaker:did. Okay. Draw a scene and label it. You
Speaker:know, it's something that's easy.
Speaker:It's fun. So we're not like saying, ah,
Speaker:it's time for this high stakes test. It's
Speaker:were you paying attention? You know, I'm
Speaker:going to be checking to see
Speaker:if you were paying attention.
Speaker:So hint hint, pay attention while we're
Speaker:doing this. And hopefully I'll get a
Speaker:little bit more memory, working memory at
Speaker:least from them. Hopefully shuffling
Speaker:things into the long term memory.
Speaker:Absolutely. And that's a good point
Speaker:because a lot of people think if you have
Speaker:them write something and turn it in, that
Speaker:you have to grade it. You
Speaker:don't have to grade everything.
Speaker:And my rule is it doesn't go in the grade
Speaker:book unless it's demonstrating their
Speaker:ability. Sorry, Kona is jumping up on my.
Speaker:She wants to be on the screen too. She's
Speaker:like, between you, Chris, and I have my
Speaker:cat last week in my lap.
Speaker:I know. She's like, when are we going to
Speaker:the dog park? When are we going to the
Speaker:dog park? Can't go to dog park.
Speaker:She's been locked in the rain. What's her
Speaker:name? Kona. Kona. Kona. Because she looks
Speaker:like coffee. Kona coffee. What breed is
Speaker:that? Belgian Malinois.
Speaker:Very pretty. Thank you. She's a good
Speaker:girl. She's a good girl. Okay, girl, you
Speaker:need to go down. You got to work still a
Speaker:little bit more. You know your viewership
Speaker:just skyrocketed by 50 people just
Speaker:because you had a dog on screen.
Speaker:And I forgot my train of thought. I was
Speaker:thinking. It's talking about that we
Speaker:don't have to grade everything. Oh, yeah,
Speaker:we don't have to grade everything. Okay,
Speaker:it is really important not to just throw
Speaker:them in the trash is really important for
Speaker:me just to look and say, oh,
Speaker:Fred didn't turn one in at all.
Speaker:Sam didn't write that much. It is really
Speaker:important for you to put your eyeballs on
Speaker:it. But really, that takes less than
Speaker:three minutes per class.
Speaker:Even with my classes of 39 students, it's
Speaker:just been been been been been been been.
Speaker:Okay, yeah, everyone did it. Everyone
Speaker:wrote pretty much. Oh, no. Bob is
Speaker:struggling a little bit. And I'm not
Speaker:grading anything. I'm not putting in the
Speaker:gradebook. I'm not correcting spelling. I
Speaker:don't have my red correction pen in my
Speaker:hand. You know, it's just you need your
Speaker:eyeballs on it. And this is why I'm never
Speaker:going to let generative AI grade my stuff
Speaker:because I need to have my eyeballs on it.
Speaker:It's quicker. And my brain
Speaker:works faster. And then I mean,
Speaker:I mean, and you get familiarity. So you
Speaker:get a better feeling of where your
Speaker:students are at. I know, I'll tell you,
Speaker:there's three things I'm going to mention
Speaker:about this. So the first thing I was
Speaker:still going to say was that I don't put
Speaker:anything in my gradebook that doesn't
Speaker:show me how well they can do the
Speaker:language. If it doesn't show me how well
Speaker:they can do the language, it's not going
Speaker:to the gradebook. Two, you mentioned the
Speaker:little the your eyeballs have to be on
Speaker:it. Absolutely. And this is how I show
Speaker:that. So the kids, even though the kids
Speaker:don't won't check to see if
Speaker:it's actually in the gradebook,
Speaker:they just look to see if there's a grade
Speaker:on it. That's all they want to check.
Speaker:Well, for those things, I have stamps. I
Speaker:have Spanish stamps and I have a forever
Speaker:ink pad. And it is forever because I
Speaker:bought it my first year
Speaker:of teaching in my 24th.
Speaker:And I'm on my 24th year and I've never
Speaker:had to replace it at all. Well, so I have
Speaker:this big ink pad and then I just use
Speaker:various stamps. So I just stamp stamp
Speaker:stamp stamp stamp stamp stamp stamp
Speaker:stamp. And then a kid will go to me.
Speaker:Pro Fae, you forgot to put this in the
Speaker:gradebook. And I'm like, how does she
Speaker:know that I didn't put any in the
Speaker:gradebook is I'm thinking of a head.
Speaker:There's no stamp on it. I'm like, oh, I'm
Speaker:so sorry. Put it in my inbox.
Speaker:I'll grade it tonight. I'll put it right
Speaker:in the gradebook tomorrow. So it's all
Speaker:back for you. So you don't have any
Speaker:problems in your gradebook. She's like,
Speaker:thank you. Soon as she leaves stamp, put
Speaker:it in my outbox to go back
Speaker:out because that's all I did.
Speaker:All they're looking for is that stamp,
Speaker:that little reassurance that it was there
Speaker:and it works really, really well. When
Speaker:you when you just put a little stamp on
Speaker:it, it is perfect. And I had one third
Speaker:point. I forgot what I was going to say.
Speaker:I was going to have that.
Speaker:Well, I don't even stamp these stuff. I
Speaker:just take them and I sometimes I'll scan
Speaker:them just as like evidence. But I don't I
Speaker:don't even hand them back because that
Speaker:takes too much time.
Speaker:Well, I always have a kid hand back kids
Speaker:hand back papers, but I just like because
Speaker:that way they because if they don't get
Speaker:it back with a grade, my kids go, did it
Speaker:actually count? So that's what I like.
Speaker:And here's what I say about touching
Speaker:every paper, not having anything else
Speaker:graded or even having a student assistant
Speaker:graded or whatever. I like the touch
Speaker:points like you said.
Speaker:And this is where I really found this to
Speaker:be useful. We don't have it anymore. I
Speaker:found a replacement, but it's not as good
Speaker:as the original flip grid before the
Speaker:pandemic. I did not use Flipgrid. I
Speaker:didn't know what it was. I didn't want to
Speaker:learn anything new
Speaker:and I just didn't do it.
Speaker:But I had kids, you know, I when they
Speaker:speak, I get little tidbits, but I never
Speaker:got a really good feeling overall from
Speaker:last quiz to next quiz where my kids were
Speaker:in the speaking realm.
Speaker:I had it with writing because we did
Speaker:writing every week, but I didn't have it
Speaker:with speaking. But with Flipgrid during
Speaker:the pandemic, especially and then I
Speaker:continued it after the pandemic is I
Speaker:would have them answer questions or talk
Speaker:about a picture or do something orally on
Speaker:Flipgrid two or three
Speaker:times a week every week.
Speaker:And then I listened to those and I had I
Speaker:didn't have to give a speaking quiz
Speaker:because I already knew where their
Speaker:abilities were in the speaking and, you
Speaker:know, the kids were very polished. I knew
Speaker:they were reading. I knew they were
Speaker:reading because they were so polished.
Speaker:And they I wonder why they got worse
Speaker:grades and the kid who didn't read and
Speaker:made tons of mistakes. I'm like, because
Speaker:it's his own language and I
Speaker:can actually see where he's at.
Speaker:So that touch point is a very valid
Speaker:point. You need to have that touch point
Speaker:with each one so you know and you get
Speaker:that feeling of where the kids are. It's
Speaker:a whole point of formative assessment.
Speaker:So, you know, my friend always says,
Speaker:Kelly Ferguson says you delegate work
Speaker:that doesn't require a college degree. So
Speaker:passing out papers is fine.
Speaker:Putting the grades in the gradebook is
Speaker:fine. Those kinds of things you can
Speaker:delegate out, but you don't delegate
Speaker:grading or reading the stuff or getting
Speaker:because I get that's where I get the
Speaker:sense of those kids of what their
Speaker:abilities are because
Speaker:I don't get a sense.
Speaker:Just looking at one quiz. I don't get an
Speaker:assess looking at a test or their final
Speaker:exam. I should already can predict what
Speaker:grade they're going to get on any quiz,
Speaker:any assessment before that because I
Speaker:should be knowing the kids abilities
Speaker:intimately before that.
Speaker:And you get that to those formative
Speaker:assessments. Absolutely.
Speaker:Now, if you miss Flipgrid, which then
Speaker:became flip, which is now just gone, you
Speaker:might try way ground. You can make 20 for
Speaker:free. Past 20 you have to pay, but make
Speaker:20 for free and then delete
Speaker:them as you go if you'd like.
Speaker:The speaking exercise, you could have
Speaker:speaking questions, the prompts and
Speaker:everything. And those are really good.
Speaker:The one problem is what Flipgrid was good
Speaker:at was responding to the
Speaker:colleagues and way ground.
Speaker:You can't do that. But if you just want
Speaker:to get a bunch of sound files of your
Speaker:students, you might try way
Speaker:ground. I use formative for that.
Speaker:OK, yeah, that's formative does formative
Speaker:does the same thing. I can assess it to a
Speaker:standard and then I can look at it by the
Speaker:standard. So I have that in records.
Speaker:But it's the same thing like you said,
Speaker:there's not that response, that
Speaker:interaction. But I guess
Speaker:I haven't tried it yet.
Speaker:I use Padlet way back when for certain
Speaker:things, but I guess they have added a
Speaker:communication aspect to Padlet.
Speaker:So I haven't had time to investigate it.
Speaker:Maybe it's on my to
Speaker:do list for the summer.
Speaker:But a lot of people are swearing by
Speaker:Padlet because that's the part that I
Speaker:miss is that because I used to have them.
Speaker:You have to respond
Speaker:to others. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker:Two other ones. So that would always work
Speaker:well. We're coming to the end.
Speaker:So what I would like to I
Speaker:know it goes so fast, doesn't it?
Speaker:It does. Now I wonder, now I know why
Speaker:that the podcast that I listen to started
Speaker:out as a half an hour
Speaker:that went to an hour.
Speaker:Now they're like two hours long. And I'm
Speaker:like, who has two hours
Speaker:to listen to a podcast?
Speaker:And if you listen to like, I listen to
Speaker:two of them consistently, one about
Speaker:teaching and one about technology.
Speaker:And they're both about two hours long. I
Speaker:like who's got four hours a week to
Speaker:dedicate to listening to these things.
Speaker:And they're like, why don't you listen to
Speaker:while you're walking your dog?
Speaker:I like because I'm paying attention to my
Speaker:dog. It's our time together.
Speaker:So, you know, I'm paying
Speaker:attention. I want to tune out.
Speaker:I want to be especially because we meet a
Speaker:lot of critters in the morning like
Speaker:skunks and raccoons and stuff.
Speaker:And I want to be prepared so I don't have
Speaker:to get sprayed by a skunk at
Speaker:four thirty in the morning.
Speaker:It's not going to be a fun day.
Speaker:Though I should get my students back and
Speaker:come to school smelling like that so they
Speaker:know how they smell back to me.
Speaker:And they're going to go, God, the room's
Speaker:really smelly. I'm like, I
Speaker:don't smell it. Nothing. No.
Speaker:I know I'm horrible. But bring him back.
Speaker:What do you do? This is how we're going
Speaker:to end it today. To mitigate to.
Speaker:Sorry. To keep the humor,
Speaker:because we want to keep the humor.
Speaker:We want to keep that in there because it
Speaker:does lower that effective filter and it
Speaker:makes him want to pay attention without
Speaker:it slipping to the dark side.
Speaker:What? Yeah. Do you have any strategies or
Speaker:ideas or things that you do?
Speaker:My strategies are to to
Speaker:have things pre scripted.
Speaker:Pivot when you need to pivot to a
Speaker:different game, to some accountability
Speaker:piece that's not really like it's not
Speaker:going in the gradebook,
Speaker:but the students have to demonstrate that
Speaker:they remember that they were paying
Speaker:attention so that they'll
Speaker:pay attention the next time.
Speaker:Ignoring stuff doesn't always work.
Speaker:But yeah, I mean, this is this is the
Speaker:bane of my existence right now.
Speaker:Yeah, it is. It has this this last this
Speaker:last month has been really difficult to
Speaker:keep the students focused.
Speaker:Not speaking in English. I mean, like
Speaker:they're slipping in
Speaker:English so much right now.
Speaker:Yeah, I hear you, especially here.
Speaker:It's been uncharacteristically warm.
Speaker:So like during my spring break, I felt
Speaker:like I was on summer break because it was
Speaker:in the high 80s, low 90s.
Speaker:Beautiful day. I got sunburn in the back
Speaker:of my neck a little bit.
Speaker:My farmer's tan is starting to develop
Speaker:already because I sit two
Speaker:hours in the dog park every day.
Speaker:So the warm weather is also
Speaker:putting it in there for them.
Speaker:So in the end of the year is near for
Speaker:them. And for me, it's boundaries.
Speaker:And I'm not always good with boundaries,
Speaker:but setting them up before you need them
Speaker:is really important.
Speaker:So I explain my rules and I have to re
Speaker:explain them, especially after a long
Speaker:break, I have to re explain them,
Speaker:make sure that they understand them. But
Speaker:I find that boundaries because I want the
Speaker:humor and I probably let more things go
Speaker:than most teachers would let slip by
Speaker:because I don't want to.
Speaker:It's not that I want to be the cool
Speaker:teacher, but I don't want to be the
Speaker:teacher that people dread coming to.
Speaker:Or I want them because language already
Speaker:for a lot of kids is scary and I don't
Speaker:want that to be for them.
Speaker:They walk in the door on day one and they
Speaker:say, I'm too stupid to learn a language.
Speaker:And so you have to spend six months
Speaker:de-programming that. Exactly.
Speaker:So I do that in there and I tell them as
Speaker:long as it's PG-13 or below, we're good.
Speaker:You know, PG-13.
Speaker:And the other the other way to keep them
Speaker:on the rails is explain teaching to them.
Speaker:Yes, explain language
Speaker:acquisition. Talk in English.
Speaker:And I always have metacognition Monday
Speaker:where I explain this
Speaker:is how your brain works.
Speaker:This is why we do the
Speaker:weird thing that we're doing.
Speaker:And this is how it's going to help you,
Speaker:because I think this also lowers the
Speaker:effective filter and it shows them you're
Speaker:not too stupid to learn a language.
Speaker:You just haven't learned the
Speaker:tools of the trade yet. Right.
Speaker:You know, so this is
Speaker:TPRS. This is how it works.
Speaker:This is why it works. This
Speaker:is what we're going to do.
Speaker:And it's not. Don't don't let it be a
Speaker:mystery to your kids why
Speaker:you are the crazy way you are.
Speaker:Exactly. I'm a Y kid. I
Speaker:always want to know why. So.
Speaker:I want to share that with
Speaker:those kids because they will.
Speaker:There are Y kids in the room. And right
Speaker:now I'm taking a class in Maltese.
Speaker:I have two teachers on Friday nights and
Speaker:one on Saturday mornings.
Speaker:And I'm learning what it's like to be a
Speaker:learner again because I speak
Speaker:German and French and Spanish.
Speaker:They're very unless you
Speaker:go to an Asian language.
Speaker:They're very few languages that I can't.
Speaker:OK. It's similar to this.
Speaker:It's similar to that. It's similar to
Speaker:this. This language is not.
Speaker:It is what literally a Frankenstein
Speaker:language. The roots are Semitic.
Speaker:They come from Arabic. They share a lot
Speaker:of vocabulary and all the
Speaker:grammar comes from Arabic.
Speaker:So that's very different from what I did.
Speaker:They only have present and past tense.
Speaker:That is it. There are
Speaker:no other tenses in the.
Speaker:There's gender but now but
Speaker:articles don't reflect gender.
Speaker:There is no formal or informal but there
Speaker:is a separate he verb form
Speaker:and a separate she verb form.
Speaker:So they split the third person up. So
Speaker:there's a lot of weird stuff and I can
Speaker:see the numbers are done like German.
Speaker:They're read four and 20. But you know
Speaker:that I can see some Italian influences
Speaker:and I can see some French
Speaker:words slipping in there.
Speaker:And then I see all the Arabic words. So
Speaker:it's really. So my point of this is my.
Speaker:I don't know why I'm still with my Friday
Speaker:night tutor because she only just goes
Speaker:over the vocabulary.
Speaker:She reads the vocabulary. She's got a
Speaker:vocabulary list and then the hour is up
Speaker:and that's that we
Speaker:don't do anything with it.
Speaker:And so there's no there's no hook to
Speaker:connect the vocabulary worth with.
Speaker:Yeah. And so the other one is
Speaker:a good one except he's very.
Speaker:Inputty let's put it that way but he's
Speaker:not the seed does not
Speaker:have the comprehensibility.
Speaker:So he's a native speaker. They're both
Speaker:native speakers but he's a native speaker
Speaker:and he speaks the whole time in Maltese.
Speaker:And I don't understand what he's saying
Speaker:half the time. He's asking me to do
Speaker:something and I had no idea
Speaker:what he's asking me to do.
Speaker:But I'm learning a lot more from there
Speaker:and we're having conversations because
Speaker:after we go through all of this stuff
Speaker:then he sums it up with a conversation.
Speaker:And we actually we do the conversation
Speaker:together. So he's got the input down is
Speaker:just a comprehensive
Speaker:ability is not there.
Speaker:But what I'm realizing and this is what
Speaker:I'm getting back to with the going off
Speaker:the rails is with him my effective
Speaker:filters up because I don't
Speaker:understand everything he says.
Speaker:He's not speaking slowly.
Speaker:He's speaking in a natural pace.
Speaker:I pick up a word here or a word there but
Speaker:usually not enough until he tells me in
Speaker:English or goes over it like nine
Speaker:different ways before I figure out what
Speaker:he wants me to actually do.
Speaker:Like spell these words or using the
Speaker:alphabet or count the numbers.
Speaker:You know tell me the numbers stuff. So
Speaker:tutors talk to each other.
Speaker:Can he use the
Speaker:vocabulary list that she gave you.
Speaker:He's kind of following that anyway but
Speaker:hers isn't always practical vocabulary.
Speaker:His is more practical. He's doing
Speaker:conversational and I'm just learning so
Speaker:much more from what he's doing.
Speaker:She actually told me because I'm a
Speaker:teacher. Please don't copy my techniques
Speaker:and I'm like I'm not. Don't worry.
Speaker:No I'm going to. So sometimes I think you
Speaker:do like it's nice to have a preview of
Speaker:this is the vocabulary
Speaker:and then you apply it.
Speaker:Yeah. So I mean there is a lot of overlap
Speaker:in that way but not always.
Speaker:But the thing is that my effective filter
Speaker:is going up so I can
Speaker:find a way to derail it.
Speaker:I'm going to type of thing. I don't do
Speaker:that in my tutoring class.
Speaker:But if I were a student in class and this
Speaker:was all over my head that is something
Speaker:that I that would happen.
Speaker:You know I started talking about the
Speaker:problem students and this is part of
Speaker:differentiation is first of all
Speaker:understanding that if a student is acting
Speaker:out it might be to say face.
Speaker:You know like to cover it like everyone's
Speaker:going to know that I don't know this.
Speaker:And so they're trying they're trying to
Speaker:bring it back to something that they
Speaker:understand some sphere.
Speaker:And so when you understand where the
Speaker:student is coming from first of all it
Speaker:makes it easier for you to deal with
Speaker:student because like we said at the
Speaker:beginning if you don't like your students
Speaker:you're not going to be a
Speaker:very effective teacher.
Speaker:So figuring out why they're derailing it
Speaker:I guess is a big piece of the puzzle that
Speaker:we probably should have talked about.
Speaker:Yeah. And the point is to make it more
Speaker:comprehensible because that may be the
Speaker:issue that you're not
Speaker:being as comprehensible.
Speaker:That's why Dr. Kerry Walt says it's not
Speaker:enough to be comprehensible because you
Speaker:may be thinking that
Speaker:you're comprehensible.
Speaker:And I was in many years ago I was in
Speaker:Michelle Whaley's Russian class and I had
Speaker:no idea what she was saying and she
Speaker:thought she was being comprehensible.
Speaker:But I am not a Russian speaker.
Speaker:I have no background in any Slavic
Speaker:language whatsoever.
Speaker:And so I had Google translate up the live
Speaker:version where it was listening and then
Speaker:typing the English down so I could keep
Speaker:up with what she was talking about
Speaker:because I was just
Speaker:observing your classroom.
Speaker:So the big difference is being what you
Speaker:think is comprehensible if it's not being
Speaker:comprehended by the students then you're
Speaker:not being comprehensible.
Speaker:So it's not from Europe's standpoint.
Speaker:It's from their standpoint.
Speaker:So I always say to the kids you know let
Speaker:me know if I'm speaking too fast.
Speaker:I'm speaking too fast even though I might
Speaker:not be speaking too fast for him or her.
Speaker:But if I'm speaking too fast for you then
Speaker:I'm speaking too fast.
Speaker:So it's up to you to tell me.
Speaker:So it's really important.
Speaker:And so make sure that
Speaker:you're being comprehended.
Speaker:And my tutor is open to ideas.
Speaker:So I'm going to be asking you a little
Speaker:bit more to slow down and to be more
Speaker:comprehensible for me in the beginning.
Speaker:Because once you tell me
Speaker:what it means then it's great.
Speaker:Now I'll study it afterwards.
Speaker:I go oh now I see what's happening here
Speaker:because one of the weird things in
Speaker:Maltese there they have the verb but not
Speaker:everything that's
Speaker:that's uses a verb is a verb.
Speaker:So they have the word name.
Speaker:They don't have a verb is in
Speaker:Maltese like Arabic is never is.
Speaker:But instead to make there's no verb for
Speaker:my name is like in Spanish you know you
Speaker:might say we don't
Speaker:have they don't have it.
Speaker:So they say my name and then they put a
Speaker:suffix that means my on it.
Speaker:OK OK.
Speaker:So I sim is the word name but
Speaker:you see me is my name is yes.
Speaker:Sim is your name is because
Speaker:it got the EK which means your.
Speaker:But those and those suffixes although
Speaker:they're personal possess I mean
Speaker:possessive adjective suffixes they're the
Speaker:same ones for the direct
Speaker:objects and the indirect objects.
Speaker:So you don't have to
Speaker:learn a whole new set.
Speaker:They just pop on the end
Speaker:of that which is weird.
Speaker:But then there are some that are true
Speaker:verbs that are actual verbs and they get
Speaker:conjugated and then there's different.
Speaker:Well they use prefixes to endings for
Speaker:verb ending for verb endings they use
Speaker:verb prefixes instead.
Speaker:OK.
Speaker:But it's just kind of weird because they
Speaker:use what's called a trilateral system.
Speaker:So most words have three main consonants
Speaker:and so they stay in the same order.
Speaker:So KTB has something to do with writing.
Speaker:And then the way you put the vowels and
Speaker:which vowels in which order change it
Speaker:from verb to a noun to an adjective.
Speaker:So as long as you know those three
Speaker:consonants in that row you know it has
Speaker:something to do with it's like the root
Speaker:they call it the mama.
Speaker:So just kind of interesting but it's like
Speaker:a Frankenstein and it makes me feel.
Speaker:Yeah it makes me feel like a kid again
Speaker:learning a language because when I do the
Speaker:demos when I go to demos they're usually
Speaker:done in French or
Speaker:sometimes they're done in Mandarin.
Speaker:I know enough Mandarin to where I'm
Speaker:understanding the Mandarin now and I
Speaker:don't have to do it.
Speaker:My head starts to hurt with the Japanese
Speaker:and the Russian but I've
Speaker:done those ones as well.
Speaker:Just because I'm when I'm a coach at
Speaker:conferences I'm having to listen to all
Speaker:these different languages try to keep
Speaker:maul straight in my head and they're all
Speaker:getting all mixed up and my brain starts
Speaker:to physically hurt after a while.
Speaker:Listening to all the different languages
Speaker:though it's so interesting.
Speaker:It's just exhausting.
Speaker:It's exhausting in there.
Speaker:So those are my things to like Pamela
Speaker:said pre script and have those ideas
Speaker:ready have backup plans when things go
Speaker:wrong and be OK with giving it up giving
Speaker:it up for that class giving it up for
Speaker:that day giving it up for that year and
Speaker:just saying next year is going to be a
Speaker:better year for that story or whatever
Speaker:that activity is going to be.
Speaker:For me I'm saying set have those
Speaker:boundaries and think of them before you
Speaker:need them and establish them before they
Speaker:need them the routines and stuff and then
Speaker:be so comprehensible that you're actually
Speaker:comprehended and then I judge my
Speaker:comprehensibility by the lowest that the
Speaker:the I don't want to say it that way.
Speaker:Let me see this the most struggling of
Speaker:kids who's actively struggling meaning
Speaker:they're still trying to
Speaker:learn they're not checked out.
Speaker:The barometer student.
Speaker:Yeah barometer student.
Speaker:Yeah the barometer.
Speaker:I just like to call
Speaker:them struggling students.
Speaker:It's a little more like I said I don't
Speaker:like to have the have
Speaker:to explain the jargon.
Speaker:So I have to explain it twice.
Speaker:If I say a struggling student every
Speaker:teacher knows what that
Speaker:struggling student is.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:And it's not the checked out student
Speaker:because you can't judge your teaching on
Speaker:the checked out student.
Speaker:So it is the struggling student in the
Speaker:classroom because they're struggling
Speaker:because they're still trying.
Speaker:That's why they're struggling.
Speaker:Otherwise they'd be checked out.
Speaker:So use those to make sure because a lot
Speaker:of times it could be that it is they're
Speaker:not understanding or the alternative is
Speaker:you may be too easy.
Speaker:And then the kids are getting bored and
Speaker:finding a way to entertain themselves
Speaker:because that can happen too that you are
Speaker:being too easy for it.
Speaker:So if they remember the way crashing
Speaker:talks about it it's input plus one.
Speaker:It should be just above where they are.
Speaker:And I always explain this.
Speaker:Think about when you're
Speaker:teaching your kid to swim.
Speaker:We are so mean when we do that to our
Speaker:kids because we say you're like six
Speaker:inches away and you say come swim to me.
Speaker:And then you move a little bit back as
Speaker:you're swimming to you.
Speaker:And by the time you're done they swim
Speaker:across the whole edge of the pool.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Because you're you're horrible that way.
Speaker:But that's that plus one that you're
Speaker:adding a little bit
Speaker:outside of the comfort zone.
Speaker:Yes. You're never you're
Speaker:never six feet away from them.
Speaker:You're always six inches.
Speaker:Just you keep moving the six inches back
Speaker:every every little bit.
Speaker:And it's the same.
Speaker:That's good.
Speaker:It's the same kind of
Speaker:thing with your kids.
Speaker:But if it's too easy
Speaker:they're like I got this.
Speaker:I don't need to pay attention anymore.
Speaker:I can check out.
Speaker:That's how the brain works.
Speaker:If I say you have to fail
Speaker:and the brain will rewire.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But if you don't like it like if you're
Speaker:just always doing the
Speaker:easy stuff your brain says
Speaker:I don't need to know this.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:It's the same thing I tell the kids with
Speaker:when they're when they're
Speaker:doing their weight training.
Speaker:You're supposed to do it to failure
Speaker:because your your muscles
Speaker:don't get bigger to you tear
Speaker:them apart.
Speaker:Break them and then it rebuilds.
Speaker:And that's exactly what's happening.
Speaker:It's your bones break.
Speaker:They become stronger at that point.
Speaker:You're less likely to break right at that
Speaker:particular point
Speaker:because they built up some
Speaker:extra in there.
Speaker:And so if you're not pushing it you're
Speaker:not building them brain muscle at all.
Speaker:You've got to have it.
Speaker:It's got to be slightly challenging.
Speaker:And like you know runners do it too.
Speaker:They're trying to shave
Speaker:seconds off their time.
Speaker:They're not looking for minutes.
Speaker:They're looking for
Speaker:seconds off their time.
Speaker:Or people makes points.
Speaker:I want to at least make one more point
Speaker:this game score one more
Speaker:goal make one more basket.
Speaker:They're not saying I want to do 10 more
Speaker:baskets than I normally do.
Speaker:It's just a little bit
Speaker:and they grow a little bit.
Speaker:And that's what makes it
Speaker:really really effective.
Speaker:I think so.
Speaker:Think about that.
Speaker:You could be too hard
Speaker:and you could be too easy.
Speaker:You want to find that happy middle ground
Speaker:and use your your mid
Speaker:kids and your struggling
Speaker:kids.
Speaker:Use your mid kids to
Speaker:figure out if it's too easy.
Speaker:If your mid kids are always right there
Speaker:and you know they are
Speaker:not it's not challenging
Speaker:to them then you're
Speaker:probably being too easy.
Speaker:And then if you're struggling kids are
Speaker:struggling too much
Speaker:you're being too hard.
Speaker:And then you're always
Speaker:going to have your top kids.
Speaker:You're always going to differentiate for
Speaker:them no matter what
Speaker:because they're there.
Speaker:If you teach to your top kids you're
Speaker:losing everybody below.
Speaker:So those are the
Speaker:suggestions that we both have.
Speaker:We have gone way over.
Speaker:We've gone 12 minutes over.
Speaker:So thank you so much panel.
Speaker:Let's go to our little
Speaker:outro today and we can.
Speaker:Thank you so much again for having me.
Speaker:This is a blast.
Speaker:You're welcome.
Speaker:I get so much information from you.
Speaker:She's mentioned this activity this game.
Speaker:I write it down.
Speaker:I go research it right afterward.
Speaker:I like doing this too.
Speaker:I'll send you some links for show notes.
Speaker:Oh awesome awesome awesome.
Speaker:So everybody we will be back next week.
Speaker:Pamela's joining us again.
Speaker:We also have LaDawn
Speaker:coming with us next week.
Speaker:So we're back to three of us.
Speaker:And if you're watching and you would like
Speaker:to become a guest
Speaker:please do you can go and let
Speaker:me put it here in the chat here.
Speaker:You can go.
Speaker:This is fun.
Speaker:Come join us.
Speaker:www.mm.us.com to sign up for our dates
Speaker:that you'd like you can
Speaker:see what topics are hanging
Speaker:whatever interests you.
Speaker:You don't have to be a professional for
Speaker:just everyday teachers.
Speaker:We just talking about the topics at hand
Speaker:to help everybody
Speaker:because it's just like talking
Speaker:in the lunchroom
Speaker:talking at the coffee machine.
Speaker:So thank you for hanging out with us
Speaker:today on comprehend this
Speaker:seriously the fact that
Speaker:you're listening to this podcast about
Speaker:teaching instead of
Speaker:lying face down on your couch
Speaker:is impressive and we respect it.
Speaker:A huge thank you to Pamela Parks for
Speaker:bringing the kind of real talk
Speaker:perspective that only
Speaker:comes from someone who's navigated humor
Speaker:and classroom
Speaker:management across three different
Speaker:languages.
Speaker:Go check her out at mm.us slash Pamela.
Speaker:I made her her actual little link here
Speaker:goes right to her YouTube page.
Speaker:I'll put this one up
Speaker:on the screen as well.
Speaker:So I've made that for her because she is
Speaker:absolutely the real deal.
Speaker:Hopefully you're walking away with a
Speaker:clear read on where
Speaker:humor helps where it derails
Speaker:and how to be the calm confident person
Speaker:in the room without
Speaker:turning into a buzzkill.
Speaker:That balance is a skill and you're
Speaker:already working on it
Speaker:just by thinking about it.
Speaker:Leave this episode hit
Speaker:home like it did for me.
Speaker:Subscribe so you never miss one.
Speaker:Leave a review if you've got two minutes
Speaker:and share it with a
Speaker:colleague who's currently
Speaker:surviving their own
Speaker:classroom comedy hour.
Speaker:Catch us live on YouTube or
Speaker:wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker:Ditch the drills.
Speaker:Trust the process.
Speaker:And I'll see you next
Speaker:time on comprehend this.
Speaker:Bye bye everybody.
Speaker:Bye bye.
