Episode 29: "CI for the Not-Cute Classes"
CI strategies for hard classes — in this episode of Comprehend THIS!, we talk honestly about what comprehensible input looks like when the magic is missing and the class just won't cooperate.
When one group makes you question everything you believe about CI, it's not a teaching crisis — it's a conversation worth having. Pamela Parks and Noemí Rodriguez-Grimshaw join us to unpack the not-cute classes that every teacher has and nobody talks about.
If you've ever walked out of a class wondering why CI doesn't seem to be working the way the books say it should, this one is for you.
Pamela Parks is a former professional film and TV translator who now teaches French, Spanish, and Japanese — which means she comes to language acquisition from a genuinely different angle than most of us. Noemí Rodriguez-Grimshaw is a veteran Spanish teacher from New Jersey and the founder of Lo Logramos Consulting, an educational consulting company that supports language instruction and programs around the world. Together, they bring a combined view of what CI looks like in real classrooms — including the ones that are actively resisting it. We cover low engagement, invisible progress, confidence protection, and the real wins that hide inside classes that don't feel good yet.
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Hosts:
- Scott Benedict - https://www.instagram.com/immediateimmersion
- Pamela Parks - https://imim.us/pamela
- Noemi Rodriguez - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVCWmY2V2uZJttEk1nCU1Hw
Resources & Links:
- CI Survival Kit - https://imim.us/kit
- Assessment Academy - https://imim.us/academy
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Transcript
And good morning, welcome
Speaker:everybody to episode number 29.
Speaker:You know that class?
Speaker:The one where you do your very best CI
Speaker:lesson, carefully
Speaker:crafted, totally comprehensible,
Speaker:genuinely engaging, and
Speaker:they just look at you.
Speaker:Not hostile, not
Speaker:disruptive, just unmoved.
Speaker:Like you've been speaking
Speaker:directly at a bag of flour.
Speaker:And then you walk out wondering if you've
Speaker:been doing this job
Speaker:correctly for the last
Speaker:decade.
Speaker:That class has a name.
Speaker:Well, we're giving it one today.
Speaker:The not cute class.
Speaker:And this Sunday we're talking about it,
Speaker:finally, out loud, without
Speaker:pretending it doesn't exist.
Speaker:I'm joined by Pamela Parks, former
Speaker:professional film and TV translator,
Speaker:turned world language
Speaker:teacher of French, Spanish, and Japanese,
Speaker:which is already
Speaker:enough of a plot twist to
Speaker:keep me listening, and Noemi Rodriguez
Speaker:Grimshaw, a veteran
Speaker:Spanish teacher out of New Jersey
Speaker:and the founder of Lolo Ramos Consulting,
Speaker:where she helps language programs around
Speaker:the world figure out
Speaker:what they're actually doing.
Speaker:These two have seen the full spectrum of
Speaker:classes, and they're not
Speaker:here to tell you the not cute
Speaker:ones don't count.
Speaker:We're talking about what CI actually
Speaker:looks like when the magic
Speaker:is missing, how you stay
Speaker:patient when there's nothing to celebrate
Speaker:yet, and how you
Speaker:protect your confidence when
Speaker:one class starts making
Speaker:you question everything.
Speaker:If you've been quietly surviving a rough
Speaker:group this year, this one is specifically
Speaker:for you.
Speaker:And we'll be right
Speaker:back after these messages.
Speaker:Pop quiz.
Speaker:Are your assessments aligned with what
Speaker:you're actually teaching?
Speaker:No?
Speaker:Cool.
Speaker:Let's fix that.
Speaker:The Assessment Academy is 10 pre-recorded
Speaker:lessons that help you ditch the scantrons
Speaker:and actually assess what matters, like
Speaker:proficiency, performance,
Speaker:and whether your students are
Speaker:still breathing by Friday.
Speaker:Watch on your time, as many times as you
Speaker:want, for a whole year,
Speaker:and know there's not a
Speaker:single lesson about bubble sheets or
Speaker:grading 72 essays at 11 PM.
Speaker:You're welcome.
Speaker:Head over to mm.us slash academy and
Speaker:start assessing like
Speaker:you actually mean it.
Speaker:Welcome to Comprehend This, Real Talk for
Speaker:Real Language Teachers.
Speaker:No drills, no dry theory, just honest
Speaker:stories, practical ideas,
Speaker:and a reminder you're not
Speaker:alone in the CI trenches.
Speaker:Let's dive in.
Speaker:And welcome and good morning.
Speaker:How are we all doing today?
Speaker:Great.
Speaker:Good morning.
Speaker:We've got, I'm going to post up here,
Speaker:Michelle is on with us this morning.
Speaker:She says, "Love these messages."
Speaker:Welcome Michelle.
Speaker:She's amazing.
Speaker:I know her from another group, so she is
Speaker:amazing this morning.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Oh, these teachers are amazing.
Speaker:She's not a language teacher.
Speaker:You're not Michelle.
Speaker:What do you teach?
Speaker:She doesn't teach.
Speaker:She's not even a teacher.
Speaker:Just interested.
Speaker:That is even more amazing.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:She's an amazing, she's in my, and I have
Speaker:a cohort for doing
Speaker:lives and doing stuff like
Speaker:doing the video stuff.
Speaker:And so she is part of that with me.
Speaker:We were just on our cohort yesterday
Speaker:morning, so she is one of
Speaker:the groups that I'm in and
Speaker:work with.
Speaker:And she's been very supportive of me.
Speaker:And I just love her to death.
Speaker:She's in DC.
Speaker:Love her to death.
Speaker:Yeah, East Coast.
Speaker:That's where I am.
Speaker:East Coast.
Speaker:Look, she wrote, "A Scott fangirl."
Speaker:Oh, she's funny.
Speaker:So welcome, welcome, Michelle.
Speaker:Aren't we all? Yes.
Speaker:Welcome, welcome.
Speaker:So today we are talking
Speaker:about that not so cute class.
Speaker:And you know what's funny?
Speaker:Before I even thought about making this
Speaker:episode, oh my gosh, I
Speaker:had one last semester.
Speaker:I am lucky in this year, at least, we're
Speaker:changing our schedule next year, but this
Speaker:year I'm on the four by four.
Speaker:So I don't know if I could have lasted
Speaker:with this not so cute
Speaker:class if I had them all year
Speaker:long because we're on 90 minute blocks
Speaker:and I teach three out
Speaker:of four classes and then
Speaker:we change it.
Speaker:After winter break, we change again.
Speaker:This class pushed every single one of my
Speaker:buttons and there is
Speaker:nothing that I could do to get
Speaker:them to crack a
Speaker:smile, not a single thing.
Speaker:So I'm excited to talk about that.
Speaker:We can go through that.
Speaker:But let's start with what do we even mean
Speaker:by a not cute class?
Speaker:I mean, I'll just jump in.
Speaker:I think every class has a vibe, right?
Speaker:And you know that there's certain
Speaker:personalities in the class that will
Speaker:influence the overall
Speaker:vibe of said class.
Speaker:So it depends.
Speaker:I've had classes where the students seem
Speaker:to be engaged, but it's
Speaker:really hard to get them
Speaker:to participate.
Speaker:And then I've had other classes where
Speaker:they just keep talking,
Speaker:talking, talking, but it's
Speaker:not in Spanish.
Speaker:And then certain personalities, again,
Speaker:that are very attention
Speaker:seeking or they're putting
Speaker:on a show in front of 25 of their peers,
Speaker:they're looking for that,
Speaker:I guess, dopamine hit of
Speaker:let me act like the clown or let me see
Speaker:if I can get a rile out of this teacher.
Speaker:So it all depends on the
Speaker:grouping of the students.
Speaker:Sometimes it works out that you happen to
Speaker:have a group that's
Speaker:ready with you, engaged,
Speaker:wanting to participate in Spanish.
Speaker:And then in other cases, they just don't.
Speaker:No, that's very very true.
Speaker:I mean, you have to
Speaker:roll on the head, I think.
Speaker:Scott knows, I've been complaining about
Speaker:this for a couple months
Speaker:now, but the hammer came
Speaker:down in my district that all math
Speaker:teachers have to teach
Speaker:the exact same thing on the
Speaker:exact same day.
Speaker:All history teachers have to teach the
Speaker:exact same thing on the exact same day.
Speaker:All Spanish teachers, I'm
Speaker:one of four Spanish teachers.
Speaker:I'm the only French teacher, I'm the only
Speaker:Japanese teacher,
Speaker:thank goodness, I can do
Speaker:whatever the heck I want there.
Speaker:But I want to force Spanish teachers and
Speaker:we all have to do the
Speaker:same thing on the same
Speaker:day and then we all have to give the same
Speaker:common formative assessment.
Speaker:And I keep pushing back saying it's not a
Speaker:formative assessment if we're planning it
Speaker:and it's all the same day.
Speaker:I have two Spanish one classes.
Speaker:They are not on the same page.
Speaker:We're going to talk
Speaker:about not cute classes.
Speaker:One of my Spanish one classes is one of
Speaker:my not cute classes this year.
Speaker:And last week we did project based
Speaker:learning, we were talking
Speaker:about project based learning.
Speaker:And my project is we're going
Speaker:to put on a fake quinceañera.
Speaker:You're going to have to
Speaker:speak in Spanish the whole time.
Speaker:You need to learn how
Speaker:to write invitations.
Speaker:You need to learn how to dance el vals so
Speaker:they have to learn isquierda, la derecha,
Speaker:and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker:You need to learn how
Speaker:to make papel picado.
Speaker:You need to choose some songs.
Speaker:You know, like we have a whole thing.
Speaker:Oh, you need to make la entrava.
Speaker:You need to understand the
Speaker:significance of all this.
Speaker:And we're doing it all in Spanish.
Speaker:Class number two wanted
Speaker:nothing to do with it.
Speaker:And I'm like, there's no
Speaker:reason I need to get more gray hair.
Speaker:If you guys, you're not listening, you're
Speaker:not, you're not speaking in Spanish right
Speaker:now.
Speaker:You don't want to do this.
Speaker:You're telling me you
Speaker:don't want to do this.
Speaker:And it's like, it's not everyone.
Speaker:It's like 12 out of 35
Speaker:students don't want to do it.
Speaker:I can't do it.
Speaker:They're not going to be
Speaker:successful in this project.
Speaker:So it's like, okay, you guys, we're going
Speaker:to work on school schedules.
Speaker:Other class, maybe
Speaker:eventually you'll get jealous.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:But the other class is doing their
Speaker:quinceañera falso, falso
Speaker:this week, you know, and they're
Speaker:not on the same page.
Speaker:So how can you expect if I I'm the same
Speaker:teacher with two classes and
Speaker:I can't keep my two classes
Speaker:on the same page, how can all four of us
Speaker:Spanish teachers keep our Spanish classes
Speaker:on the same page?
Speaker:It's 100% classroom dynamics.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Sorry, that was long winded.
Speaker:That was a diatribe.
Speaker:That was last episode.
Speaker:I felt like I was in my element.
Speaker:This episode, I'm going to be like, ah,
Speaker:help me, help me, please help me.
Speaker:Well, I think that's why this
Speaker:conversation is so important because
Speaker:we've all been there.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And we're in it right now.
Speaker:And we've all experienced it really
Speaker:difficult situations or students or
Speaker:challenging circumstances
Speaker:that you think like, wow, I don't know if
Speaker:I was really that well prepared for this.
Speaker:Or even after 20 plus years of teaching,
Speaker:they still keep you on
Speaker:your toes with what they
Speaker:say and what they do.
Speaker:It's I find myself sometimes just like,
Speaker:okay, let me not react.
Speaker:Let me respond.
Speaker:Let me take a breath and pause in between
Speaker:those inappropriate comments or questions
Speaker:or something that happened that you're
Speaker:just like, what are we doing?
Speaker:Like, how is this okay?
Speaker:Like, why is this okay for
Speaker:you when we know it's not okay?
Speaker:Well, but I think it's that's why I think
Speaker:this conversation is so necessary because
Speaker:anyone listening in or anyone who's going
Speaker:to listen in the
Speaker:future, I think can agree
Speaker:with us that we've all had those classes
Speaker:or we all have those classes right now.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You know, it's funny.
Speaker:I am so happy right now.
Speaker:I don't have those classes right now.
Speaker:My classes, my second semester classes, I
Speaker:have perfect kids, but you said something
Speaker:it was funny about things they say.
Speaker:And I have this kid I
Speaker:had last year in level one.
Speaker:I got him in level two.
Speaker:He is a goofy kid.
Speaker:You never know what he's going to say.
Speaker:And so one of the girls,
Speaker:she was having a headache.
Speaker:She was, can we turn the lights out?
Speaker:I'm like, we're not
Speaker:turning the lights out.
Speaker:We're not going to go take
Speaker:a nap, nap time in class.
Speaker:And when the guy goes, he goes, oh, but
Speaker:Profe, I would like to cuddle with you.
Speaker:You know, we can spoon.
Speaker:I'm like, no, we're
Speaker:not doing that at all.
Speaker:Oh, but he just says the weirdest things
Speaker:off of off the cuff.
Speaker:And I'm like, no, he's like, but you're
Speaker:just a big cuddly bear.
Speaker:And I'm like, no, I
Speaker:don't want to touch you.
Speaker:No, thank you.
Speaker:Yeah, no, thank you.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:He says about taking a breath.
Speaker:I really need to work on that.
Speaker:I like I got one student who keeps making
Speaker:really inappropriate jokes.
Speaker:I mean, worse than that, you know, so
Speaker:much so that other girls
Speaker:in the class are complaining
Speaker:about his jokes and just, you know, 20
Speaker:years teaching and I
Speaker:still don't know to take a
Speaker:breath before I react.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So that's the way you're working.
Speaker:Your pulse goes up, right?
Speaker:Like you're like, no, you just say that.
Speaker:I just see that.
Speaker:And I've been practicing mindfulness and
Speaker:like different practices.
Speaker:Even with my own students, we do medita,
Speaker:you know, just like give
Speaker:us a few moments to just
Speaker:pause, have some space with how we feel
Speaker:and just take a take a few deep breaths.
Speaker:And we always talk about how we can
Speaker:always go back to the breath.
Speaker:We can always focus on our breath.
Speaker:So even if they're feeling anxious or
Speaker:upset or frustrated about
Speaker:something, let's go back
Speaker:to our breath.
Speaker:And I hope it doesn't sound hokey, but I
Speaker:do find that it helps
Speaker:us as a class community
Speaker:to just stop, pause and take a breath.
Speaker:And even with situations like that, I
Speaker:find myself like, oh, I want to react.
Speaker:And then I'm like, no, wait, stop.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Even for two seconds
Speaker:because I know the reaction.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:What specifically do you
Speaker:do with your Spanish class?
Speaker:Because I do a lot of mindfulness with my
Speaker:Japanese class because
Speaker:it's so imbued in the
Speaker:culture.
Speaker:And I do a lot of exercises with my other
Speaker:classes because they
Speaker:need to get up and move
Speaker:around.
Speaker:But I haven't really like I want to
Speaker:always tie things into
Speaker:the culture and I haven't
Speaker:really found any mindfulness technique
Speaker:that is like very, very Hispanic centric.
Speaker:Like this is what they would glom onto as
Speaker:a cultural, like this
Speaker:speaks to the culture,
Speaker:I guess is what I'm saying.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I felt like just going on YouTube and
Speaker:looking up medita fium
Speaker:panenos and like seeing what's
Speaker:already out there that's
Speaker:created as an authentic resource.
Speaker:And then I'll grab like different like
Speaker:square breathing, excuse me.
Speaker:We did like rainbow breathing right
Speaker:around St. Patrick's Day
Speaker:where they had to draw the
Speaker:rainbow.
Speaker:So things like that.
Speaker:I'm honestly I'm on YouTube searching and
Speaker:then trying to compile playlists.
Speaker:Calm also has different
Speaker:just sound based meditation.
Speaker:So there it's not necessarily culturally
Speaker:connected, but it has very
Speaker:soothing music for them to
Speaker:take deep breaths.
Speaker:So I in my in my opinion, I do try to
Speaker:lean into the culture as much as I can.
Speaker:But with something like this, it's
Speaker:helping my classroom culture.
Speaker:So that's where I think it's I think it's
Speaker:like it's like you're
Speaker:like, okay, I want this
Speaker:to be authentic, but at the same time, I
Speaker:need this because it works for them.
Speaker:And I did, I did survey my not cute class
Speaker:a few months ago,
Speaker:kind of in the middle of
Speaker:the year, we ended up
Speaker:creating a class contract.
Speaker:They signed it.
Speaker:They agreed to do and we surveyed them
Speaker:and they shared I we
Speaker:want we want to continue
Speaker:with many definitely on my face.
Speaker:We want to do more movement, brain
Speaker:breaks, we want to have
Speaker:the ability or ownership of
Speaker:like working with peers that we like.
Speaker:So we talked about that.
Speaker:And we said, Okay, as long as we're
Speaker:working with people, and
Speaker:we're being productive in
Speaker:the allocated time, then we will, you
Speaker:know, pick and choose
Speaker:when to let you kind of work,
Speaker:pick people to work with
Speaker:that you like to work with.
Speaker:So trying to give them some voice and
Speaker:some choice and what we do.
Speaker:And movement, I find, I'm like I was
Speaker:sharing earlier, like
Speaker:every six to seven minutes,
Speaker:we need to be doing something different
Speaker:or something where I'm
Speaker:getting them to move their
Speaker:bodies, even if it's simple, like, raise
Speaker:your hands, put your
Speaker:hand on your head, put your
Speaker:hand on your stomach, like as different
Speaker:like signaling techniques
Speaker:to respond, just anything
Speaker:that gets them to not just sit and look.
Speaker:And that's so important for me, because
Speaker:I've got a I teach for 90 minute blocks.
Speaker:And Michelle is coming up here because
Speaker:she this is her
Speaker:wheelhouse, the the meant the mind
Speaker:stuff.
Speaker:So she's talking about pausing does so
Speaker:much more than what we thinking about.
Speaker:And she's got vagal nerve exercises.
Speaker:You know, the meditation type stuff is
Speaker:where she really focuses on
Speaker:and emotional intelligence
Speaker:in classrooms culturally
Speaker:and language is so important.
Speaker:And I'll tell you about my not so cute
Speaker:class that I had in the
Speaker:fall, because what normally
Speaker:I usually can get build relationships
Speaker:with these kids with kids.
Speaker:And that's kind of where some of the kids
Speaker:get a little bit more open and use things
Speaker:like I want to cuddle with you type
Speaker:things because they kind
Speaker:of the boundaries not as
Speaker:clear for them.
Speaker:But this class didn't work.
Speaker:I had two classes in the fall.
Speaker:My morning classes, I
Speaker:they're both level one.
Speaker:And I didn't teach
Speaker:Spanish in the afternoon.
Speaker:I taught something completely different.
Speaker:So I can only compare those two classes.
Speaker:And they were totally
Speaker:night and different day.
Speaker:Like we talked about the
Speaker:different personalities.
Speaker:And my first period, you know, I've never
Speaker:had a quiet, sleepy
Speaker:first period because I'm
Speaker:so energetic.
Speaker:And I'm like, boy, no,
Speaker:the class and brighten out.
Speaker:It's like a radio
Speaker:announcer in the morning.
Speaker:I am just going.
Speaker:I've got all this energy.
Speaker:I'm trying to
Speaker:invigorate them in the mornings.
Speaker:Well, it didn't work
Speaker:for my second period.
Speaker:From day one, they were
Speaker:not happy from day one.
Speaker:The first day of school, usually they're
Speaker:like quiet and no, they were not.
Speaker:They were obnoxious and they
Speaker:were they were challenging.
Speaker:And all my little tricks they normally
Speaker:did to get them to be on
Speaker:the side of Spanish and
Speaker:to get them to enjoy class and to get
Speaker:them to have fun didn't work with them.
Speaker:I felt like a comedian up there saying
Speaker:these amazing jokes with
Speaker:not a single laugh in the
Speaker:back.
Speaker:And we played games.
Speaker:They didn't want to play games.
Speaker:Right now, well, we got a second runner
Speaker:up who's going to start
Speaker:beating the first one.
Speaker:But the biggest game up until we did sink
Speaker:or swim was trash get ball.
Speaker:They loved trash get ball.
Speaker:That class?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:I couldn't get them to throw the ball.
Speaker:I'm like, I'm giving you permission.
Speaker:And I don't use paper wadded balls.
Speaker:I have little bouncy balls.
Speaker:And I'm giving you permission to actually
Speaker:throw a ball in the
Speaker:classroom at a garbage
Speaker:can.
Speaker:Now if I said no, you can't do that, they
Speaker:would be all over that.
Speaker:But we're doing it.
Speaker:And I'm like, you're
Speaker:getting points for this.
Speaker:And they wouldn't.
Speaker:They were just they would not have it.
Speaker:Tell them to split the teams.
Speaker:No, go ahead and pick your own teams.
Speaker:No, it really was.
Speaker:Everything that I did just fell flat all
Speaker:semester long to the
Speaker:point where I liked the kids,
Speaker:but I dreaded the class
Speaker:because there was no energy in there.
Speaker:And I did have some troublemakers in that
Speaker:class, like everybody does.
Speaker:We all have those kids.
Speaker:But this was just something else where
Speaker:the other kids weren't
Speaker:making up for the troublemakers.
Speaker:It was.
Speaker:And they hated the class.
Speaker:The energy was there.
Speaker:They told me they hated the class, not
Speaker:disrespectfully, but like
Speaker:in reflections and such.
Speaker:And it was I never had a class like that.
Speaker:I've never in 24 years had a class.
Speaker:I've always had some stinkers, you know,
Speaker:some kids that were
Speaker:stinkers along the way, but
Speaker:never a whole class like that.
Speaker:And it was shocking because when second
Speaker:semester started, I got
Speaker:these new kids, I could see
Speaker:a chip on their shoulder already.
Speaker:Oh, we heard about this class.
Speaker:And I'm like, did you hear about this
Speaker:class from the first
Speaker:period class or my second period
Speaker:class?
Speaker:Because the first period
Speaker:class was enjoying class.
Speaker:We built those relationships.
Speaker:We had that good community.
Speaker:But in the second period, we did not have
Speaker:that community at all, no matter how hard
Speaker:I tried.
Speaker:And whatever, I don't know which attitude
Speaker:that they got, which
Speaker:which version they got
Speaker:before they got to my class.
Speaker:But what I normally did worked again.
Speaker:Now I have three Spanish classes.
Speaker:They're all Spanish this semester, level
Speaker:one in the morning and
Speaker:then level two in the
Speaker:afternoon.
Speaker:And they are amazing.
Speaker:They're my normal types
Speaker:of classes that I have.
Speaker:So my normal techniques worked.
Speaker:But I don't know what why it didn't work
Speaker:for that my not so cute
Speaker:class in first semester.
Speaker:And it came so quick, I mean, 20 weeks in
Speaker:the semester came so
Speaker:quick that I tried different
Speaker:things.
Speaker:I never found what would
Speaker:work with that particular class.
Speaker:If I had them all year, might have found
Speaker:something or might not have.
Speaker:And it would have just been that class
Speaker:that I'm like, OK, I got first period.
Speaker:Let's kind of not
Speaker:think about second period.
Speaker:And then I got third period afterward
Speaker:that and I can think
Speaker:about those kinds of things.
Speaker:But mine was really in all the things I
Speaker:tried, they just weren't having it.
Speaker:They just were not part of
Speaker:there, too cool for school.
Speaker:And it really made it a bad experience
Speaker:for both them and me.
Speaker:And so it was just a really tough class.
Speaker:Were they grade motivated at all or no?
Speaker:No, no. I had kids first time in my
Speaker:career who absolutely refused.
Speaker:Like I asked them, can
Speaker:you answer this question?
Speaker:No. I'm like, there wasn't an option to
Speaker:answer the question.
Speaker:It was, you know, answer the question or,
Speaker:you know, put your makeup away.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Yeah, it was really a challenging class.
Speaker:And Michelle's put here a growth class
Speaker:allowed you to grow.
Speaker:Yes, I needed to grow mentally.
Speaker:I don't know if I
Speaker:actually grew along that way.
Speaker:I had to what I did.
Speaker:I get quiet when I get angry.
Speaker:So I really had to focus and take the
Speaker:pause and count to 10
Speaker:because I'm like, I
Speaker:really wanted to get guys.
Speaker:I'm trying in here.
Speaker:I found a fun game that
Speaker:every other class likes.
Speaker:What's up with you?
Speaker:What's wrong with you?
Speaker:And we did a class reset about halfway
Speaker:through where I said, OK,
Speaker:I'm going to be honest with you.
Speaker:I don't like this class.
Speaker:I'm going to be honest.
Speaker:I know you don't like this class either,
Speaker:but we can have a
Speaker:chance to make it better.
Speaker:And let's talk about it.
Speaker:Frankly, you can you can tell me the
Speaker:problems you're facing in the class
Speaker:as long as you're respectful.
Speaker:And we can share and have a conversation.
Speaker:And the conversation went well.
Speaker:We did it for about two days to get
Speaker:through the whole information.
Speaker:But not much changed after that.
Speaker:You know, they agreed to some things and
Speaker:I agreed to some things.
Speaker:But it's still I think
Speaker:it was just too late.
Speaker:It was just too late.
Speaker:They were just challenging.
Speaker:They said most of the kids in that class,
Speaker:I love them to death.
Speaker:But they just I couldn't even see the
Speaker:real personalities because
Speaker:we never got it to show.
Speaker:And so and that's where I
Speaker:really shine is getting those kids
Speaker:to show their personalities and using
Speaker:their personalities to
Speaker:to work in the classroom.
Speaker:And they weren't giving it to me.
Speaker:They were just blank
Speaker:slates, kind of like.
Speaker:So, yes, I did have to grow in that.
Speaker:But that was the toughest
Speaker:class and not behavior of Lee.
Speaker:That also was a challenge in there.
Speaker:But just atmospherically, it was a
Speaker:challenging class for me.
Speaker:I do find myself calling kids out like
Speaker:with my popsicle sticks,
Speaker:like big team of all on Thalia.
Speaker:But it sounds from what you're describing
Speaker:that not even that was
Speaker:like they wouldn't even give you that
Speaker:because I've definitely had it
Speaker:where it's like silence and you're like,
Speaker:I know you know this.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:I guess I have to pick on you.
Speaker:I have to call on some of
Speaker:you, you know, at random.
Speaker:And when I call, because I call on every
Speaker:kid before I call on another kid,
Speaker:repeat, and they would refuse, they would
Speaker:absolutely refuse to do it.
Speaker:I'm like, you know, speaking is 25
Speaker:percent of your grade.
Speaker:I don't care.
Speaker:This is where also, too, I don't know the
Speaker:administration in your building
Speaker:or the culture of your department.
Speaker:If it would be worth it to invite either
Speaker:someone else from your department
Speaker:or an administrator to come and watch and
Speaker:see if in the moment they can assist you.
Speaker:It just because it seems very it seems
Speaker:like insubordination.
Speaker:Like I'm not doing anything.
Speaker:I refuse to do anything.
Speaker:And it's really very disrespectful to
Speaker:treat someone like that,
Speaker:knowing that you're trying to set them up
Speaker:with fun games and activities
Speaker:and like knowing you,
Speaker:personalizing, you know, the stories,
Speaker:the interviews, doing all the things to
Speaker:really get them to be a part of it.
Speaker:So I feel like and I've seen this, too,
Speaker:where you get to a
Speaker:point where you're like,
Speaker:I need I need help from someone else.
Speaker:I need to invite my peer or my supervisor
Speaker:or my principal to come and watch
Speaker:and just see what they think and see what
Speaker:are some ideas that
Speaker:maybe they could potentially,
Speaker:you know, give me to try to like you were
Speaker:saying, like reset or what can I
Speaker:what can I do
Speaker:differently or maybe change?
Speaker:But in some cases, it's it's really hard.
Speaker:Their attitudes need
Speaker:to shift dramatically.
Speaker:Yeah. So, Scott, this is exactly where
Speaker:I'm floundering this year.
Speaker:Oh, Michelle has another good thing.
Speaker:Yeah. Sounds like she has
Speaker:some military experience.
Speaker:Is that me? Is that me?
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker:As Michelle comes from the military.
Speaker:Oh, see, I've never
Speaker:served. I've never served.
Speaker:My brother, though,
Speaker:happens to be Coast Guard.
Speaker:He was on the Coast
Speaker:Guard, but I've never served.
Speaker:Maybe I just ran a
Speaker:tight ship in my class.
Speaker:No pun intended.
Speaker:I turned to game based learning because I
Speaker:had 100 percent student engagement.
Speaker:Like who doesn't want to play a game?
Speaker:Yeah. And this year,
Speaker:for the first time ever,
Speaker:I just told you about my not cute class
Speaker:who doesn't want to have a quinceañera.
Speaker:Who doesn't want to have una fiesta?
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:Another thing that's going on is I was
Speaker:given classes of 35 to 39 students.
Speaker:So that I could cram in an English
Speaker:language arts class this year.
Speaker:And my English language
Speaker:arts class, I was like, OK.
Speaker:I kind of feel like a first year teacher
Speaker:because all the tricks that I normally
Speaker:know and use don't work on them because
Speaker:it's a class, first of all,
Speaker:that they have to take.
Speaker:And they're really jaded by the time
Speaker:they're juniors, you know.
Speaker:So I'm like, OK, guys, I have made an
Speaker:escape room for the great Gatsby.
Speaker:And they grown.
Speaker:They don't want to do.
Speaker:I'm like, who doesn't want to play games?
Speaker:I don't get it.
Speaker:So I don't know if it's a shift in
Speaker:society or because for
Speaker:me to have two not cute
Speaker:classes this year, it is difficult for me
Speaker:because all you know,
Speaker:the other thing that you were saying,
Speaker:Scott, is you're up there using 110
Speaker:percent of your energy, right?
Speaker:And so it had always been my feeling that
Speaker:as long as I model the behavior I want,
Speaker:they'll see how sincere I am.
Speaker:They'll see how much time and effort I
Speaker:put into everything that at least
Speaker:at least they know that I'm
Speaker:on their side and everything.
Speaker:And I did have a parent email me the
Speaker:other day and she was
Speaker:like, I just want you
Speaker:to know that that my son said that he
Speaker:sees the effort that
Speaker:you put into everything.
Speaker:And I'm like, oh, this kid is flunking my
Speaker:class, but he sees the effort I'm putting
Speaker:in everything, you know.
Speaker:So. Yeah, that's I'm
Speaker:really floundering this year.
Speaker:And, you know, no, Nick, you said about
Speaker:the insubordination in
Speaker:it's called defiance in
Speaker:California and they changed it.
Speaker:You cannot. Suspend or escalate
Speaker:punishment for defiance in California.
Speaker:It's a state law. You can't do it.
Speaker:So the the the biggest problem that we
Speaker:have second to cell phones
Speaker:this biggest problem that we have, at
Speaker:least in my
Speaker:experience working in multiple
Speaker:schools, is defiance.
Speaker:And they took all the power out of out of
Speaker:being able to discipline for that.
Speaker:I mean, we can give a detention, but the
Speaker:kids don't come to detention.
Speaker:And there's not really any.
Speaker:And because it's now that's still not
Speaker:going to detention is defiance.
Speaker:We can't escalate that.
Speaker:So if they don't, we have no other power
Speaker:because that's the worst that we can do
Speaker:for defiance and the kids know it.
Speaker:And so they get more involved in that.
Speaker:And with the when you have an
Speaker:administrator come in,
Speaker:I didn't have a
Speaker:supportive administrator this year.
Speaker:My supervisor was not
Speaker:supportive in what we did. But.
Speaker:The thing is, when I I want an observer
Speaker:to like look to the window
Speaker:because when I have an observer in the
Speaker:classroom, it changes
Speaker:the whole atmosphere
Speaker:and they don't see how
Speaker:they really, really are.
Speaker:And that that's the difference.
Speaker:So I mean, I had my
Speaker:department chair come in and say,
Speaker:what do you see in this class?
Speaker:And he says, oh, this is a tough class.
Speaker:It is a tough room.
Speaker:And he goes, you're
Speaker:not doing anything wrong.
Speaker:You're doing everything right.
Speaker:And you are trying.
Speaker:They are just not responding.
Speaker:And, you know, I he
Speaker:didn't have any suggestions.
Speaker:He doesn't teach the way that I do.
Speaker:He's got.
Speaker:I love how they call this.
Speaker:We used to call this Espa no Blantes
Speaker:class, but they call it.
Speaker:SLA, second, what a
Speaker:Spanish language arts.
Speaker:So he teaches Spanish
Speaker:language arts and AP.
Speaker:So he doesn't usually have the same kind
Speaker:of the same kind of students.
Speaker:This is level one and level one is
Speaker:required in my in my school to graduate.
Speaker:They need level one and
Speaker:level two to graduate.
Speaker:And so, you know, they're not there
Speaker:willingly when you get into SLA2 or AP.
Speaker:They've chosen to continue in those
Speaker:classes selection factor.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:So it makes a big difference.
Speaker:And Michelle says, this is so
Speaker:interesting on so many levels
Speaker:and it helps that my
Speaker:mom is a retired teacher.
Speaker:So, yeah, I was going to I was going to
Speaker:just jump in and sit
Speaker:and also just share something that I had
Speaker:done this year with all of my students
Speaker:setting up the one on one conferences.
Speaker:I don't know if that's
Speaker:something that you tried.
Speaker:I know it's hard to to
Speaker:sit with one student.
Speaker:I was thinking about that.
Speaker:Yeah. And I found that.
Speaker:Yeah, we did that at
Speaker:the beginning of the year.
Speaker:We did it at the
Speaker:midway point in the year.
Speaker:And I'm hoping to also end the
Speaker:year with some of my classes.
Speaker:Again, I'm very lucky.
Speaker:I have it's myself and then
Speaker:a special education teacher.
Speaker:So we're together.
Speaker:So I know that the
Speaker:kids aren't by themselves.
Speaker:So I'm able to sit with them in the
Speaker:hallway and we talk
Speaker:about how things are going,
Speaker:what they like about the class, what they
Speaker:want to see, you know,
Speaker:themselves improve in.
Speaker:And then we look at their writing sample
Speaker:as it's grown over time.
Speaker:And that I thought was especially in
Speaker:level one, really, really
Speaker:powerful for them to see, wow,
Speaker:this is what I was able to write in
Speaker:September versus this is
Speaker:what I can write in January.
Speaker:And then we also talked about goals that
Speaker:they have for themselves
Speaker:for either the year or for the second
Speaker:half of the year, because I see them.
Speaker:I see them for one full school year.
Speaker:So I have all of those goals.
Speaker:I hand wrote it just to
Speaker:in the essence of time.
Speaker:I'm like, I'm taking notes during all of
Speaker:our conversations, as opposed to typing.
Speaker:I find that I work faster when I write.
Speaker:And I have that saved.
Speaker:And I'm looking forward to scheduling
Speaker:those one on one conferences
Speaker:again at the end of the year
Speaker:with, you know, the hope of celebrating
Speaker:their success,
Speaker:looking back and reflecting
Speaker:and really thinking about
Speaker:the proficiency continuum.
Speaker:So portfolios is
Speaker:something I've always done.
Speaker:And I felt that this year embedding that
Speaker:one on one conversation,
Speaker:especially with some of my harder
Speaker:students and in some
Speaker:conversations, I got very little.
Speaker:Right. Like there wasn't much there.
Speaker:They didn't really
Speaker:want to engage with me.
Speaker:And that's OK. But at least I held the
Speaker:space and the time to
Speaker:be one on one with me
Speaker:and to share a little bit about how
Speaker:they're feeling in the class and what
Speaker:they want to do moving forward.
Speaker:So I think that also kind of like
Speaker:humanized maybe me a little bit.
Speaker:And I wasn't like, oh, teacher, student.
Speaker:And, you know, you don't want them to
Speaker:feel too comfortable.
Speaker:But at the same time, you do want them to
Speaker:take risks and engage
Speaker:and be a part of that
Speaker:class community in a positive way.
Speaker:I love that. So while
Speaker:you're having the conferences,
Speaker:what is your assistant
Speaker:teacher doing with the students?
Speaker:So they were at that time writing the
Speaker:reflections in English.
Speaker:So he was monitoring them, writing the
Speaker:reflections in English.
Speaker:I also I also set up free voluntary
Speaker:reading for the classes.
Speaker:I also have things on Quizlet that they
Speaker:can kind of just self
Speaker:self-study a little bit,
Speaker:but keeping them so they're busy, quote
Speaker:unquote, with something while I'm having
Speaker:the one on one convos that that's
Speaker:that seems to have worked so far.
Speaker:We'll see what June brings, of course, at
Speaker:the end of the year.
Speaker:And your one on one conversations, of
Speaker:course, or in English, they're not.
Speaker:You're not pushing the speakers.
Speaker:OK, OK. And even I'm I'm I'm.
Speaker:OK, well, because I want them to look at,
Speaker:OK, what did we do in Spanish?
Speaker:Well, what are we what are we
Speaker:what do we want to celebrate?
Speaker:What do we want to think about for the
Speaker:second half of the year?
Speaker:What do we want to
Speaker:continue to work towards?
Speaker:And I talk all the time about
Speaker:novice mid versus novice high.
Speaker:Like they'll give me like a
Speaker:really beefy, amazing sentence.
Speaker:And I'm like, I'll we'll do high fives
Speaker:like you just did novice high.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah. Using that because you added
Speaker:for a and a few more details.
Speaker:Look at you. Exactly.
Speaker:So I have I have the proficiency
Speaker:continuum on the back
Speaker:of my classroom with like
Speaker:it's really it's like the
Speaker:road map to proficiency.
Speaker:And I'm constantly referencing it.
Speaker:I started the year thanks to there were
Speaker:resources that I found
Speaker:from Meredith White from Joshua Cabral.
Speaker:I grabbed those resources and I said,
Speaker:we're going to we're going to talk
Speaker:proficiency levels first and foremost.
Speaker:So they understand really the why behind
Speaker:why we're doing things
Speaker:the way that we're doing them with that
Speaker:continuation and that growth mindset.
Speaker:Absolutely. And I've done
Speaker:conferences in the past.
Speaker:I didn't with this particular class,
Speaker:partly because first of all,
Speaker:we wouldn't have much to talk about
Speaker:because when we did our weekly writings,
Speaker:half the kids didn't do them.
Speaker:They just sat there for the
Speaker:10 minutes and left a blank.
Speaker:So it's like there's nothing
Speaker:really to talk about because
Speaker:a lot of them didn't
Speaker:care about their grades.
Speaker:And what we found in this district.
Speaker:And I don't remember when I it's as I'm
Speaker:two years back into high school.
Speaker:So I taught California high
Speaker:school first, my first four years
Speaker:in the 2000s. So 2001 to
Speaker:2005, then I went to Vegas,
Speaker:taught high school for seven years.
Speaker:Then I came back to California, taught
Speaker:middle school for 11 years.
Speaker:Now I'm back high school.
Speaker:I don't remember if in 2001 to 2005
Speaker:that we didn't count the ninth grade
Speaker:grades on the transcript for colleges.
Speaker:But now we don't. Now we don't.
Speaker:The only ones that show up are 10th
Speaker:through 12th grade for the colleges.
Speaker:So I don't know if
Speaker:that changed somewhere.
Speaker:So it's weird to me because
Speaker:I've always had the four years.
Speaker:But so the kids know this so they don't
Speaker:really try that freshman year,
Speaker:which then causes a problem because I've
Speaker:got kids who have failed
Speaker:for classes first semester, which now
Speaker:means they're only allowed
Speaker:to repeat one class per
Speaker:year during the summer.
Speaker:They can't do more than that.
Speaker:So now they're already on the five year
Speaker:plan because you can't repeat.
Speaker:You know, it's going to take you all four
Speaker:years to get through those classes again
Speaker:because in freshman year, they've got
Speaker:they're all required classes.
Speaker:It's not like it's an elective that they
Speaker:can just blow off and not pass.
Speaker:They they're all required classes.
Speaker:So it's just that that I think is
Speaker:contributing to some of that apathy
Speaker:that we have in this school.
Speaker:So I don't know if that's
Speaker:causing some of the issues.
Speaker:But my first semester, as I said, this is
Speaker:my second year in this school.
Speaker:My first year in the school was something
Speaker:I didn't have it as bad.
Speaker:But first semester had the more
Speaker:challenging students,
Speaker:the more challenging classes.
Speaker:And then second semester was 100 percent
Speaker:better like night and day.
Speaker:Like I couldn't even recognize.
Speaker:And I think part of that might be that
Speaker:transition from front
Speaker:from eighth grade to ninth grade.
Speaker:They don't really know.
Speaker:Part of it also is I
Speaker:teach at the satellite school.
Speaker:So we're much smaller and we don't have
Speaker:that men on our on our campus at all.
Speaker:So if I have a major problem, I've got to
Speaker:call them and they got to drive
Speaker:the five miles, which can take 15 to 20
Speaker:minutes to get to our school.
Speaker:If something were to happen.
Speaker:So it's much smaller.
Speaker:We don't have, you know, the supervision
Speaker:that we would normally have
Speaker:at like the bigger at the because we're
Speaker:about twenty five hundred students.
Speaker:But the kids that come to my campus are
Speaker:only maybe a hundred students.
Speaker:So, you know, there's
Speaker:that difference there.
Speaker:But in second semester,
Speaker:I noticed the big change.
Speaker:And I'm going to a
Speaker:different school next year.
Speaker:And I don't know if it's
Speaker:going to be the same thing.
Speaker:We're not on the four by four.
Speaker:We're on the A.B. block,
Speaker:which is going to drive me crazy
Speaker:because I'm never going to know if it's
Speaker:an A day or a B day.
Speaker:So I've never had to
Speaker:deal with that before.
Speaker:I've been on block a variety of block
Speaker:schedules, but never where
Speaker:Monday was a different
Speaker:day than it was last week.
Speaker:You know, that type of thing.
Speaker:Oh, that's crazy.
Speaker:Because we used to do the ABC schedule.
Speaker:So A, B, Monday was a Tuesday was B.
Speaker:Wednesday was a Thursday was B.
Speaker:Friday was C, where we saw all the
Speaker:classes, but for a shorter period.
Speaker:So we could catch up.
Speaker:And if any day was off like we had a
Speaker:Monday off or a Friday off,
Speaker:the C day would go away.
Speaker:So we always started on
Speaker:the first day of the school.
Speaker:That a week was a B.
Speaker:It was always a B, a B, where this will
Speaker:come out where some days
Speaker:some Mondays will be a B day.
Speaker:And I'm like, what am I going to?
Speaker:You know, I'm just not used
Speaker:to that, that kind of shift.
Speaker:So we'll see how that works.
Speaker:And we'll see how the kids change along
Speaker:the way and see if
Speaker:that makes a difference.
Speaker:But it is interesting how all of these
Speaker:things have changed, you know,
Speaker:pre covid versus post covid, pre cell
Speaker:phone versus post cell phone.
Speaker:Because when I started teaching, you
Speaker:know, not everybody had a cell phone.
Speaker:And if they did, it was
Speaker:one of those flip phones,
Speaker:though I was amazed at the
Speaker:talent of how they could text.
Speaker:I never texted on a flip phone because I
Speaker:could never count the, you know,
Speaker:you have to click the one so many times
Speaker:to get to the A, the B, the C,
Speaker:and they could do it under
Speaker:the desk without looking.
Speaker:And I'm like, that is a that is a talent
Speaker:because I'm doing it.
Speaker:And I'm like, my printer right now has to
Speaker:do that to put in the password
Speaker:for the Internet and I go,
Speaker:OK, I got to get a capital.
Speaker:Oh, I missed it.
Speaker:I got to go all the way back again
Speaker:through the whole cycle.
Speaker:And I keep missing it.
Speaker:So I don't know how they do the talent,
Speaker:but we didn't know the
Speaker:these contests in Japan
Speaker:for who could do it fastest.
Speaker:Yeah, it's just funny, though, that
Speaker:contest I think
Speaker:education has never changed
Speaker:as much before, but in the 2000s, it has
Speaker:changed drastically from.
Speaker:Yes. Yeah.
Speaker:Michelle says just the wrong talent.
Speaker:It has changed so drastically in our
Speaker:generation of teaching, our 20,
Speaker:you know, our tenure of teaching, it has
Speaker:changed so drastically.
Speaker:I don't think any previous generation of
Speaker:teaching has seen that much change.
Speaker:I mean, I was using the overhead
Speaker:projector with my, you
Speaker:know, like I was showing
Speaker:vocabulary with my overhead projector
Speaker:when I first started teaching.
Speaker:I was using cassette tapes for students
Speaker:to record themselves and have, you know,
Speaker:that speaking. Yeah, that's what I mean.
Speaker:Like going, it's only technically it's
Speaker:only been 20 plus years,
Speaker:but it's really been 20 plus years where
Speaker:there's so much change.
Speaker:And I mean, my whole time as a student,
Speaker:you know, they use
Speaker:the overhead projector.
Speaker:It never changed. That's
Speaker:what they had, you know.
Speaker:And, you know, we
Speaker:went from the beginning.
Speaker:We had DVDs. Now we don't even use DVDs.
Speaker:We use Internet streaming
Speaker:for for videos, you know.
Speaker:So everything has changed.
Speaker:Think about
Speaker:pedagogically how much has changed.
Speaker:When I got my master's degree and I was
Speaker:studying all the different teaching
Speaker:methods, there was grammar translation,
Speaker:there was audio lingual,
Speaker:there was
Speaker:communicative language learning.
Speaker:There was there was
Speaker:silent method, you know.
Speaker:But these methods had been
Speaker:kind of set in stone for 50, 60
Speaker:grammar translation
Speaker:for thousands of years.
Speaker:And then it's only relatively
Speaker:recently that comprehensible
Speaker:input has grown into its own thing.
Speaker:So my teaching methods have
Speaker:changed a lot over the years.
Speaker:And given my teaching methods have
Speaker:changed and then suddenly we've got this
Speaker:technology that's changed and the student
Speaker:population focus has changed.
Speaker:I think I need to keep modifying my
Speaker:teaching methods even more.
Speaker:You know, all the tricks that I that I
Speaker:really settled into a low.
Speaker:This is this is a hot. This is golden.
Speaker:It's always working.
Speaker:Suddenly suddenly Kagan
Speaker:techniques aren't working.
Speaker:Suddenly, you know, my TPRS isn't working
Speaker:the same way it used to work.
Speaker:Suddenly calendar talk.
Speaker:OK, the kids are done with calendar talk.
Speaker:They're they're spacing out on it.
Speaker:I have to do something else.
Speaker:OK, what I'm going to do is I'm going to
Speaker:show some pictures of my cats and I'm
Speaker:going to talk about what they did
Speaker:yesterday so that we can get those
Speaker:calendar, those those
Speaker:dates and those times and those
Speaker:weather expressions in there without
Speaker:actually showing a calendar anymore.
Speaker:It's like like I mean, when you're a
Speaker:teacher, flexibility
Speaker:is the name of the game.
Speaker:Right. You always are on your toes.
Speaker:Noemi, you're 100
Speaker:million percent correct.
Speaker:Every seven minutes, every 10 minutes, we
Speaker:are changing what we're doing.
Speaker:That's the way we formatively assess.
Speaker:But I feel like even more so lately, I
Speaker:have to be on my toes.
Speaker:And, you know, you
Speaker:talk about calendar talk.
Speaker:I just did something different.
Speaker:I've never done it before.
Speaker:But I'm like, you know, I'm tired of
Speaker:doing calendar talk.
Speaker:So I said, you get up here.
Speaker:I called three kids.
Speaker:Yeah. And I had them
Speaker:present the calendar.
Speaker:And and it was tough for them, even
Speaker:though they've heard
Speaker:it all year long or all
Speaker:semester long, they have heard it.
Speaker:Them actually doing it is that is
Speaker:different than them answering questions
Speaker:about it and stuff like that.
Speaker:So I scaffold it pointing as this, you
Speaker:know, because I've got a whole
Speaker:slide that's got all the vocabulary, you
Speaker:know, yesterday, day before yesterday,
Speaker:today, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow,
Speaker:the seasons, the months, the days.
Speaker:It's all there.
Speaker:They just got to put it together.
Speaker:And so, you know, I'd be
Speaker:pointing to help the kids.
Speaker:But we just did three kids and it was a
Speaker:little slow and rusty at the beginning.
Speaker:But it was I think I'm going to do it a
Speaker:couple more times and get
Speaker:them a little more used to it
Speaker:because I think it is, you know, it's
Speaker:something different and it changed up
Speaker:what we kind of did. There's a balance.
Speaker:And Michelle has got a comment we'll talk
Speaker:about in just a second.
Speaker:But
Speaker:there's a balance, I think, between kids
Speaker:need routine, even though they say they
Speaker:don't they want the
Speaker:routine, they need the expectation.
Speaker:They need to know what's coming next on
Speaker:what day, et cetera.
Speaker:But we also need to merge that with
Speaker:novelty a little bit
Speaker:because I remember years ago, we didn't
Speaker:have to put the agenda on the board.
Speaker:Now it's a requirement to put the agenda.
Speaker:I'm like, where is the surprise?
Speaker:Where is the element that, you know, we
Speaker:did something fun that they weren't
Speaker:expecting that came in now
Speaker:they know it's coming up.
Speaker:And so, but we have to put that agenda up
Speaker:there every single day.
Speaker:So this was kind of something just we
Speaker:still had the calendar talk.
Speaker:I put calendar talk on the agenda, but we
Speaker:kind of flipped the script a little bit.
Speaker:And Michelle says you become a ringleader
Speaker:and a performer all at once.
Speaker:Yes. And I think that's what it's true.
Speaker:She says is really true, that when I
Speaker:first started teaching, I was more of a
Speaker:teacher and less of a performer and now
Speaker:I'm more of a performer and less of a
Speaker:teacher, that I really have to work at
Speaker:entertaining the students.
Speaker:And the expectation is
Speaker:that we entertain them.
Speaker:Where when I was a kid and even when I
Speaker:first started teaching.
Speaker:Class was not the
Speaker:place to be entertained.
Speaker:You went to the movies for that.
Speaker:You hung out with your friends for that.
Speaker:It was not a goal to be entertained
Speaker:during class where I
Speaker:feel nowadays that's a good
Speaker:portion of our job is to entertain them
Speaker:to combat that attention span that they
Speaker:don't have anymore. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:When let's talk to her about.
Speaker:Sorry, go ahead.
Speaker:Go ahead. No, no, no.
Speaker:Cell phones, because I want to go back to
Speaker:that, because that's been a significant
Speaker:distraction.
Speaker:And I saw that Los Angeles, the whole
Speaker:school district now is
Speaker:going cell phone free.
Speaker:And that's incredible.
Speaker:That's such a large school district has
Speaker:opted to go in that direction.
Speaker:Here in New Jersey in January, our
Speaker:previous governor, we now have a new one,
Speaker:has signed into law about a cell phone
Speaker:ban in schools as well.
Speaker:And it just so happens that the town that
Speaker:I live in at the high school, they
Speaker:purchased, which I know is very costly,
Speaker:but they purchased these bags that get
Speaker:locked so the students have their phones
Speaker:with them, but locked in the bag at all
Speaker:times. And then upon exiting the
Speaker:building, it will unlock.
Speaker:They can scan it to unlock.
Speaker:So that's I don't know.
Speaker:I guess.
Speaker:Yeah, I don't know what the best case
Speaker:scenario is, because in some instances
Speaker:I've had them like jump on their phones
Speaker:and look for something or research
Speaker:something when it's like a good, a good
Speaker:use or here, grab a picture of someone
Speaker:that you love and we're going to talk
Speaker:about the picture and we're going to talk
Speaker:about why you love this person so much.
Speaker:So like those in the moment uses of the
Speaker:cell phone, I've appreciated.
Speaker:But then the majority of the time they're
Speaker:texting the Apple Watch that they wear.
Speaker:I've had students make calls in the
Speaker:middle of the class.
Speaker:So it's just.
Speaker:Someone put his phone away and he does
Speaker:and then he starts going like this.
Speaker:And I'm like, yeah, stop that.
Speaker:Yeah. My one student
Speaker:says she has a burner
Speaker:phone now that she can use and I'm like,
Speaker:why do we have burner phones?
Speaker:Like we just shouldn't have it used.
Speaker:So there's obviously a boundary that
Speaker:needs to be set and a limitation.
Speaker:But I'm actually excited to see what
Speaker:comes of this here in
Speaker:New Jersey to hopefully
Speaker:minimize the distractions because the
Speaker:minute class is done, they have we have a
Speaker:cell phone holder in my my classroom and
Speaker:some of them choose to put it in and I
Speaker:remind them, but I also don't want to
Speaker:battle with them all the time every day.
Speaker:And if I see it, then I confiscate it.
Speaker:That's usually how it goes if they do
Speaker:happen to try to use it.
Speaker:But with as soon as they walk out of my
Speaker:classroom, they all grab their phones and
Speaker:they're all on their phones and they're
Speaker:walking in the hallway like almost
Speaker:hitting each other because they're so
Speaker:like for the three
Speaker:minutes of passing time
Speaker:that they get to use their phone freely.
Speaker:I would love to see that disappear.
Speaker:And yeah, I'll share
Speaker:a quick example, too.
Speaker:In Italy, when I was
Speaker:there observing a few
Speaker:years ago and of course, cell phones have
Speaker:been around, but I
Speaker:went on a trip with the
Speaker:kids, the cell phones all get locked in a
Speaker:box in the front of the classroom.
Speaker:So everybody comes in, everybody puts
Speaker:their cell phone in the box.
Speaker:It gets locked.
Speaker:The teacher puts the key away and then
Speaker:they begin with the lesson.
Speaker:And this is in Italy.
Speaker:So I thought if the Italian the Italians
Speaker:are on to something here to like really
Speaker:just put it away, get rid of it.
Speaker:And you know, it's funny
Speaker:because our governor kind of
Speaker:weakened in this because
Speaker:they passed a law, but the law says the
Speaker:district must come up with a policy to
Speaker:reduce cell phone use, which left it up
Speaker:to the districts, which is a problem
Speaker:because our district has a rule.
Speaker:But it's I mean, if you write someone up
Speaker:for violating the rule, according to the
Speaker:rule that has the write up stuff in
Speaker:there, they don't do anything about it.
Speaker:So the kids have lost my previous
Speaker:district before the law passed with a no
Speaker:student tech policy.
Speaker:So they're not allowed to have their
Speaker:Apple watches, their
Speaker:Android watches or cell
Speaker:phones, period, in the classroom at all.
Speaker:They cannot bring them if they have them.
Speaker:There's a locker at the in the office
Speaker:where they go and lock them up.
Speaker:And I'm talking to someone who still
Speaker:works at that school.
Speaker:And she says she goes, what I've noticed
Speaker:is the engagement at
Speaker:lunch with each other
Speaker:has increased because
Speaker:they're not in their screens.
Speaker:You talk about the lockbox.
Speaker:They gave us the little shoe box thing,
Speaker:the little shoe hanging things.
Speaker:Put the cell phones in.
Speaker:That never worked for me.
Speaker:And so, excuse me, what I did
Speaker:this year because I tried the
Speaker:lockbox thing, I have a
Speaker:lockbox, like you said, from Italy.
Speaker:I call it my phone jail and I did it
Speaker:backwards last year.
Speaker:Last year I did it where I said, if I see
Speaker:your phone, it goes in the jail.
Speaker:So it became a punishment.
Speaker:This year I turned it around because when
Speaker:you say something negative,
Speaker:it just sets the whole wrong tone.
Speaker:So this year what I said was everybody's
Speaker:phone goes in the phone
Speaker:jail at the beginning of class.
Speaker:And if everybody turns in their phone at
Speaker:the beginning of the class voluntarily
Speaker:without me having to say anything,
Speaker:because I do lock it there, I count the
Speaker:phones before I lock it, if I've got nine
Speaker:kids in the class, I've got nine phones,
Speaker:you just earned 10 minutes of free time
Speaker:at the end of the class period.
Speaker:And remember, I've got 90 minutes.
Speaker:So if I had 43 minutes, it
Speaker:would only be three minutes.
Speaker:It would not be
Speaker:proportional to how much time I had.
Speaker:But I've got 90 minutes.
Speaker:So I would rather have 80 minutes of
Speaker:focus and give up 10
Speaker:minutes than to have 90
Speaker:minutes of not so
Speaker:much focus all the time.
Speaker:And I said during that 10 minutes, I'm
Speaker:not supposed to let you have the phones,
Speaker:but I will at the 10
Speaker:minutes you can have.
Speaker:So you can go and check in with your
Speaker:friends the last 10 minutes of class.
Speaker:You can see what text
Speaker:messages you missed.
Speaker:You can go and play a video game if
Speaker:that's what you want to do.
Speaker:If you want to fry your brain on TikTok
Speaker:for 10 minutes, you can
Speaker:do that during that 10
Speaker:minutes. The only thing
Speaker:is you can't be disruptive
Speaker:to class and you can't be a line lizard.
Speaker:You can't be hanging out by the door
Speaker:waiting to get out of the class.
Speaker:You've got to be in your seats.
Speaker:So you can't do any of those things.
Speaker:And in the beginning, I had
Speaker:one class that would do that.
Speaker:No problem. But my second period didn't.
Speaker:They weren't a big cell phone problem,
Speaker:but they didn't all voluntarily turn.
Speaker:So what I've done now in the last few
Speaker:weeks, I've made a game app
Speaker:and it's growing every day.
Speaker:It started off with a seating assignment
Speaker:app and it's been
Speaker:growing now to where I'm
Speaker:giving because I use class.
Speaker:I used to use class dojo to give points.
Speaker:Now I've got my own app.
Speaker:My own app does the points
Speaker:for me so I can do it that way.
Speaker:And so it's more versatile than
Speaker:then, you know, class dojo.
Speaker:There's so many things I can do.
Speaker:But one of the things I can do
Speaker:right now is I've been giving them points
Speaker:for checking in their phones.
Speaker:So I give them five extra points for
Speaker:checking in their phone.
Speaker:And this is how I'm doing it.
Speaker:I am walking around
Speaker:the room with the phone
Speaker:jail in my hand at the beat while they're
Speaker:doing their warm up and they're putting
Speaker:their phones in and I give them their
Speaker:points for doing that.
Speaker:So it's it's been working a lot more
Speaker:because I have a kid who
Speaker:never put his phone in.
Speaker:And begrudgingly, when I
Speaker:come over there, he's like, ah,
Speaker:he's in the middle of texting, too, and
Speaker:he gives me his phone.
Speaker:So that has been working.
Speaker:And I love this app that I made.
Speaker:I just added a new feature
Speaker:this morning that counts down
Speaker:the days of school.
Speaker:Now, when it's less
Speaker:than 45 days of school,
Speaker:it shows up on their version of the app
Speaker:and my version of the app that countdown.
Speaker:So it helps us to focus.
Speaker:But I have it now where I can send them a
Speaker:comprehension check through the app and
Speaker:they can all go on their Chromebooks and
Speaker:then say, yes, I understand.
Speaker:No, I don't understand or
Speaker:rate their understanding.
Speaker:I've got two ways of doing it in there.
Speaker:I can send a poll right through them.
Speaker:And it's all my app.
Speaker:I'm not paying for some other service.
Speaker:I'm not having to go
Speaker:to a different website.
Speaker:It's all the the because I have my phone
Speaker:in my hand the whole period because I'm
Speaker:giving points from the ask questions, I
Speaker:give no negative points.
Speaker:Everything is positive, but I
Speaker:can note a negative behavior.
Speaker:Like if they have their head down, I can
Speaker:note it for that student.
Speaker:It doesn't deduct any points.
Speaker:But then I can go back and have
Speaker:communication with
Speaker:parents about, you know,
Speaker:at four, fourteen,
Speaker:we're not for four teams.
Speaker:I'm not school that time.
Speaker:So at two fourteen, the kid had their
Speaker:head down and they can also request their
Speaker:bathroom passes so I
Speaker:don't have to do it anymore.
Speaker:They don't have to ask.
Speaker:They just click on it
Speaker:and they click on it.
Speaker:It pops up on my screen that they're
Speaker:going to the bathroom.
Speaker:It has a timer.
Speaker:It lets them know how long it's going,
Speaker:how long they've been
Speaker:in the bathroom for.
Speaker:It warns me if they've been there longer
Speaker:than five minutes and they come back and
Speaker:they click check back in.
Speaker:And so now I have a log.
Speaker:What is the name of this app?
Speaker:I need to download it.
Speaker:It's my own. It's my own personal app.
Speaker:I made it myself.
Speaker:But is it on the app store?
Speaker:No, not yet.
Speaker:No, not yet.
Speaker:I'm still the bathroom and the
Speaker:asking to go to the bathroom.
Speaker:And also for us checking to see how many
Speaker:kids like have used
Speaker:the bathroom that week
Speaker:or like, you know what, you've already
Speaker:gone twice this week.
Speaker:You really can't go a third time.
Speaker:And the amount of minutes like that's
Speaker:that's something that
Speaker:it's just an annoyance.
Speaker:And I know if it is a true emergency, it
Speaker:is a true emergency.
Speaker:You've got to go.
Speaker:But then I also like I
Speaker:know they're roaming the hall.
Speaker:I know they're not really, you know,
Speaker:they're using it as an
Speaker:escape, which is so obnoxious.
Speaker:It is they'll find a way to do it.
Speaker:But I love that your app does that
Speaker:because I'm using ClassDojo.
Speaker:I'm rewarding positive,
Speaker:respect, responsible,
Speaker:being ready to learn.
Speaker:So if I see moments of
Speaker:them being respectful,
Speaker:responsible, ready to learn, I give them
Speaker:points like they come
Speaker:in, they start the do.
Speaker:Now they get a point.
Speaker:They put their cell phone
Speaker:in the cell phone holder.
Speaker:They get a point.
Speaker:Those are all things that I've embedded
Speaker:to again, with some
Speaker:sort of grade motivation
Speaker:at the end of the week.
Speaker:But I love the bathroom,
Speaker:like requesting the pass.
Speaker:The other day I had a I wrote their names
Speaker:on the board because I couldn't remember.
Speaker:They all kept asking me.
Speaker:And I was by myself.
Speaker:My my counterpart was out.
Speaker:And that would have
Speaker:been so helpful to just.
Speaker:And what I love about it, I'm going to
Speaker:show you the app really quickly.
Speaker:Let me open up a new window here and I'll
Speaker:show for those who are
Speaker:listening in the podcast,
Speaker:are going to have to go
Speaker:check the video to see it.
Speaker:But let me put it in here.
Speaker:There's a class, a class version that's
Speaker:my version and there's a
Speaker:student version as well.
Speaker:So let me go and see.
Speaker:Do I have the screen screen share?
Speaker:All right. Well, you bring it up.
Speaker:I'm going to push back on students have
Speaker:to ask for permission
Speaker:because when my students learn
Speaker:Puedo, Puedo, Ira, Banyo or Esque, Pua,
Speaker:Leo, Twilight, I call
Speaker:back to that all the time.
Speaker:When they want to
Speaker:ask, can we play Bluekit?
Speaker:I'm like, you got to figure it out.
Speaker:How do you say, can I?
Speaker:All right. How do you say, you know, they
Speaker:want to say, oh, can I go get water?
Speaker:I'm like, how do you how do you say that?
Speaker:So I'm always, always,
Speaker:always calling back to it.
Speaker:And once we start doing like two verb
Speaker:combinations, it's not a
Speaker:problem at all for them
Speaker:because they already know Puedo, Ira,
Speaker:Banyo or Esque, Pua, Leo, Twilight or
Speaker:Otoi, they need Timo,
Speaker:Ira, Ska or whatever.
Speaker:We're always calling back to those forms
Speaker:that they already remember.
Speaker:So yeah. Yeah.
Speaker:I the reason I don't like them to call is
Speaker:because it interrupts my flow.
Speaker:That's the thing.
Speaker:And so I've never I'm not one who says
Speaker:you can't go to the bathroom.
Speaker:I'm not one of those people
Speaker:because I'm like, when you're an adult,
Speaker:you get to go to the bathroom,
Speaker:when you need to go to the bathroom.
Speaker:And so I give them that respect as well
Speaker:unless you abuse it.
Speaker:But here, look at these buttons.
Speaker:So I can do passes close and I can close
Speaker:and now nobody can request a pass.
Speaker:So like if it's because we
Speaker:have a school rule, they can't go
Speaker:the first 10 minutes or last 10 minutes
Speaker:of class because they
Speaker:have a passing period
Speaker:that they should have
Speaker:been using that time for.
Speaker:So I can block it or
Speaker:during a quiz, I can block it.
Speaker:Then let me go.
Speaker:They can when they
Speaker:request it pops up on my screen
Speaker:and only one kid can go at a time.
Speaker:If someone tries to
Speaker:request it while someone's out,
Speaker:it says you got to wait till someone so
Speaker:comes back so they can't do that.
Speaker:I can.
Speaker:So they can do all of those things.
Speaker:I have kids they can go through.
Speaker:Here's the student.
Speaker:Let's show that real here.
Speaker:This is what the students see.
Speaker:See, there's 24 days of school left tells
Speaker:them right off the bat.
Speaker:They see the leaderboard
Speaker:so they can see for
Speaker:their class how many points
Speaker:because that's like a
Speaker:competition thing to get them going.
Speaker:They can see the badges that they won.
Speaker:So here they've got
Speaker:they've earned 200 points.
Speaker:Here they earn the 50 points here.
Speaker:It was the first day in class.
Speaker:Everybody gets a
Speaker:little something on there.
Speaker:They can make their
Speaker:own little profile pics.
Speaker:They love doing that. I don't know why.
Speaker:Oh, my gosh. Look at Isaiah's.
Speaker:It's probably too small for you to see.
Speaker:But Isaiah is stalking me online and he's
Speaker:found me a picture of me going like,
Speaker:oh, and he's got that as
Speaker:his as his little emoji.
Speaker:They can check through here.
Speaker:They can see how many this is where they
Speaker:request their bathroom pass.
Speaker:And it's coming on the screen here.
Speaker:I can't see it right here, but that's
Speaker:what they would
Speaker:request their bathroom pass.
Speaker:And they can go to the rewards, see all
Speaker:the different rewards they can buy.
Speaker:And how much they cost.
Speaker:And then they can actually order from.
Speaker:And it's not going to show on the screen
Speaker:because of the way it's
Speaker:done because it's cut off.
Speaker:There it is.
Speaker:It's done at the bottom.
Speaker:So they can go ahead and put in their
Speaker:information and then
Speaker:buy whatever they want.
Speaker:It deducts the points right away.
Speaker:And then it goes to me.
Speaker:Give a class to economy with the points.
Speaker:OK.
Speaker:They can check the history of all the
Speaker:stuff that they did.
Speaker:They put in their information.
Speaker:Here's where the poll pops up or the
Speaker:comprehension check.
Speaker:They can also do a mood.
Speaker:They can put in their name.
Speaker:I don't know if I still
Speaker:have his IDs set in here.
Speaker:Let me see control.
Speaker:You're not worried about your students
Speaker:having their Chromebooks
Speaker:out the entire class period.
Speaker:Well, they're out, but I tell them to
Speaker:close their crack them
Speaker:during certain times.
Speaker:So I'll say, OK, everybody
Speaker:close your Chromebook now.
Speaker:So then they've got to close.
Speaker:They close their
Speaker:Chromebooks at that particular point.
Speaker:And then I can see right away.
Speaker:Oh, yeah.
Speaker:Here's his number so we can see.
Speaker:So he can put in here.
Speaker:Not great.
Speaker:A bit off.
Speaker:OK.
Speaker:Pretty good.
Speaker:Great.
Speaker:And submit that check in
Speaker:so he can go right here.
Speaker:He can submit his check in.
Speaker:And it closes it.
Speaker:And then I can go over here and then I
Speaker:can go into my class in first period.
Speaker:And I can see I have one
Speaker:response out of 10 students.
Speaker:And Gabrielle put it as pretty good.
Speaker:So I can see that.
Speaker:Why didn't you give
Speaker:the emotions in Espanol?
Speaker:Because they have the faces.
Speaker:Yeah, I know.
Speaker:Because I'm also kind of thinking like
Speaker:Noemi says, making it
Speaker:available for everybody.
Speaker:So it's too hard to do it with different
Speaker:languages and switching all
Speaker:the languages through there.
Speaker:So I didn't think about doing it.
Speaker:And I just added this feature.
Speaker:They have not seen this feature.
Speaker:This feature I added
Speaker:this weekend in there.
Speaker:OK.
Speaker:I can do my random pick.
Speaker:And it picks them and
Speaker:then takes them off the list.
Speaker:And then I can add their points right
Speaker:away here for what they're doing.
Speaker:Kind of like.
Speaker:And so I didn't like class dojo because
Speaker:it would repeat
Speaker:everybody over and over again.
Speaker:And so this way does it.
Speaker:But if I need it, if I want that to
Speaker:happen, I can click the true random
Speaker:and it will ignore that
Speaker:he was already been asked.
Speaker:You know, so they'll do the popsicle
Speaker:sticks to the popsicle sticks.
Speaker:You can't avoid.
Speaker:Get stuck in the popsicle sticks.
Speaker:Look what I have.
Speaker:Oh, there they are.
Speaker:The popsicle sticks.
Speaker:So I can do the draw stick and it comes
Speaker:up like a little stick with their thing.
Speaker:I can do that.
Speaker:I made these tools.
Speaker:So I've got a scoreboard for the classes.
Speaker:I can change it so they can do that.
Speaker:I can flip a coin.
Speaker:OK, so it does that I can do a spinner.
Speaker:I can put in the
Speaker:whatever I want and put in.
Speaker:This reminds me of I have
Speaker:spinners on wordwall.net.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:And I do the same thing.
Speaker:All those apps that I used to use, I try
Speaker:to consolidate into one place.
Speaker:And then I have a dice roll.
Speaker:Yeah, that they can do the dice roll.
Speaker:So let us know if you
Speaker:need people to test it out.
Speaker:I'm probably going to get that done soon
Speaker:and put that in there.
Speaker:I love the groups that I can do the
Speaker:groups right away, create a group of two.
Speaker:And that gives me where
Speaker:class dojo does the same thing,
Speaker:but I have to count how many students I
Speaker:have and tell them how
Speaker:many people I want in a group.
Speaker:Instead of just
Speaker:saying, I need two groups.
Speaker:You divide how many kids are there.
Speaker:So I like that they check themselves into
Speaker:your class when they're there each day.
Speaker:Is that part of it for them to be able to
Speaker:like, no, they just go to that.
Speaker:They just go to the student app, which is
Speaker:under profab.com slash students.
Speaker:And then you can see, but they can't do
Speaker:anything unless they log themselves in.
Speaker:So they come here.
Speaker:Let's see now.
Speaker:She like to go to the store.
Speaker:They have to actually put their name,
Speaker:their thing and their
Speaker:student I.D. in there.
Speaker:It won't let them.
Speaker:It won't let someone
Speaker:randomly go in there.
Speaker:They got to do that kind of stuff here.
Speaker:They can change their avatar.
Speaker:I'm going to have them on Monday.
Speaker:They're going to put log
Speaker:their mood for me right away.
Speaker:And then I can do it.
Speaker:I said I can send a comprehension check
Speaker:here, launch comprehension check.
Speaker:So I click it here
Speaker:and then I go over here.
Speaker:Find my check.
Speaker:Gabor here.
Speaker:And then his I.D. number.
Speaker:And here it is.
Speaker:Now he can rate how well
Speaker:he understands he's a four.
Speaker:He clicks submit.
Speaker:And then on my app, it
Speaker:tells me that Gabriel was there.
Speaker:So I love that I can send
Speaker:them that kind of stuff.
Speaker:I love that they can check
Speaker:it because this is a good way.
Speaker:Like we're talking
Speaker:about this not acute class.
Speaker:This is a motivator.
Speaker:They love leaderboards.
Speaker:They want to be on that
Speaker:leaderboard at the top.
Speaker:I added they've not seen this yet.
Speaker:I added the badges over the weekend.
Speaker:I spent yesterday adding stuff to it.
Speaker:So they've got all these different badges
Speaker:that they can see and
Speaker:they can earn towards.
Speaker:So here's all the kids with their points
Speaker:alphabetically by first name.
Speaker:And then here's the leaderboards.
Speaker:They can always see where like class dojo
Speaker:is always a pain for
Speaker:them to be able to log in.
Speaker:It was an extra step that they had to do.
Speaker:I had to open it and do all that kind of
Speaker:stuff where here I don't.
Speaker:They just go in this and
Speaker:they can see it right away.
Speaker:And I'll have this up when
Speaker:when they come into class.
Speaker:It'll be up right away before I do the
Speaker:warm up so they can take a quick look
Speaker:if they're not on
Speaker:their Chromebooks just yet.
Speaker:They can check it out.
Speaker:They can compete.
Speaker:I also have it on my app.
Speaker:I'll show them my version because on the
Speaker:my home screen here,
Speaker:it tells them which
Speaker:class has the most points.
Speaker:So period two is right now in the lead
Speaker:with twenty one hundred and
Speaker:seventy total cumulative points.
Speaker:And period one has sixteen hundred ninety
Speaker:six cumulative points.
Speaker:But it also gives me one check here.
Speaker:I can see right away how many kids were
Speaker:called, how many
Speaker:phones have been checked in,
Speaker:how many kids were absent.
Speaker:It tells me this was from Friday.
Speaker:So fourteen kids were present.
Speaker:No absent.
Speaker:Nine phones came in.
Speaker:Four kids were called on that day.
Speaker:So I can see all of that information.
Speaker:I can click on a summary so I can see all
Speaker:three classes at the same time.
Speaker:And it gives me all that information.
Speaker:So I'm developing it and I'm hoping to
Speaker:put it out there for
Speaker:everybody once it comes out.
Speaker:But I'm still kind of like I just built
Speaker:this two weekends ago.
Speaker:And now I've just been
Speaker:been working with it.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:Vibe coding.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:But it works really, really well.
Speaker:So far I can download summary reports.
Speaker:I can do all kinds of things.
Speaker:But my goal was not to make
Speaker:it available to everybody.
Speaker:But now people have been asking.
Speaker:So I'm like, well, once I get
Speaker:these bugs worked out, I will.
Speaker:I will make it available
Speaker:because I think it is so useful.
Speaker:And all the stuff that we
Speaker:do in CI that we can do.
Speaker:And I just have my phone.
Speaker:I can do it easier because I used to do
Speaker:this either manually
Speaker:giving participation points
Speaker:or I was doing class dojo.
Speaker:And here are the orders.
Speaker:Kids have put the orders
Speaker:through with their points.
Speaker:So I've got to get.
Speaker:Why do you know what this is?
Speaker:Flaming hot puff corn.
Speaker:Two kids ordered that.
Speaker:Someone wants to sit at
Speaker:my desk for 45 points.
Speaker:And it deducts the
Speaker:points right away from them.
Speaker:So I just love what
Speaker:this is and what it can do.
Speaker:And my kids are liking it.
Speaker:They're checking it
Speaker:when they first come in.
Speaker:They're logging in
Speaker:because they want to see it.
Speaker:They have it on a tab
Speaker:on their Chromebook.
Speaker:But again, I don't want
Speaker:their Chromebooks out.
Speaker:Like we're doing a story.
Speaker:I want their Chromebook closed.
Speaker:So I'll tell them close their Chromebook.
Speaker:And I do that in Spanish, by the way,
Speaker:theater and the comporte doras.
Speaker:But that's computer doras.
Speaker:And then I'll say, OK,
Speaker:Avren, let's compute the doras.
Speaker:Because we're going to
Speaker:do a comprehension check.
Speaker:And so I'll send it to them.
Speaker:They can go and do it.
Speaker:And then right away.
Speaker:So I love that.
Speaker:This new thing about
Speaker:the days left of school.
Speaker:I love this.
Speaker:Because we are all in
Speaker:that countdown mode.
Speaker:And so now we know
Speaker:we've got 24 days left.
Speaker:It goes yellow when we get closer.
Speaker:And it turns green when we're in the last
Speaker:week before school ends.
Speaker:So just some things in there.
Speaker:And yeah, I've used
Speaker:Claude to make the app.
Speaker:And it's about three weeks
Speaker:we've been using this app.
Speaker:So it's been fun.
Speaker:It's been fun.
Speaker:And the kids are enjoying it.
Speaker:And it's motivation.
Speaker:I don't know if this would have helped
Speaker:last semester or not.
Speaker:But I'm hoping it would have.
Speaker:And made it much more
Speaker:interesting for them.
Speaker:Let me come back to all of us here.
Speaker:Our screen here.
Speaker:So I think that I'm hoping that it would
Speaker:be more fun for them.
Speaker:And something that more
Speaker:engaging and gets them more.
Speaker:Because Pamela kind of--
Speaker:I mean, I tried doing
Speaker:this gamification years ago.
Speaker:Manually with a spreadsheet.
Speaker:And it was so much work.
Speaker:This is a lot less work for me.
Speaker:And it makes it automated a lot more.
Speaker:Because Pamela's been talking about
Speaker:gamifying her classroom for weeks now.
Speaker:And I was trying to find a way to do it.
Speaker:And this started-- I didn't
Speaker:even show you the seat map.
Speaker:I have the seat thing.
Speaker:And I have it put in there.
Speaker:So and so can't sit next to so and so.
Speaker:And it will-- if I try to put
Speaker:him next to it, it says, uh-uh.
Speaker:And turns them red.
Speaker:And I can't-- it won't let
Speaker:him go next to each other.
Speaker:Or so and so needs to sit in the front.
Speaker:If I put him in the
Speaker:back, it says, no, no.
Speaker:It's got to be in the front.
Speaker:So it's just-- it's great.
Speaker:And the kids can see their seats too.
Speaker:I forgot where I sat.
Speaker:Go on there and click on seats.
Speaker:And it has the seat map for you.
Speaker:You can see exactly where you are
Speaker:supposed to be seated.
Speaker:So I love it.
Speaker:It's been very, very useful.
Speaker:It saves me a lot of time.
Speaker:And let's see.
Speaker:Oh, god.
Speaker:So Michelle said, please show.
Speaker:I did.
Speaker:And she says, love the emotional check.
Speaker:So important.
Speaker:Yes, social emotional
Speaker:learning is important.
Speaker:And I have an
Speaker:inspirational quote that I do.
Speaker:I have 180 of them, one for
Speaker:every day of the school year,
Speaker:coming from different
Speaker:races, different religions,
Speaker:different genders, different sexualities,
Speaker:trying to have everybody represented
Speaker:so everybody sees someone who's like them
Speaker:coming up with an intelligent
Speaker:quote that is inspirational.
Speaker:It has nothing to do with languages.
Speaker:Some of them do.
Speaker:But that wasn't my goal.
Speaker:My goal was just to be
Speaker:an inspirational quote
Speaker:and have different
Speaker:figures tell that quote.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I also just want to throw out there
Speaker:that as good as we are about
Speaker:checking in with our students,
Speaker:it's also good for you
Speaker:to check in with yourself.
Speaker:I've done this thing.
Speaker:I started doing this thing at about 3.15.
Speaker:My phone plays like a
Speaker:beautiful little ringtone.
Speaker:And it's my time to
Speaker:just check in with me.
Speaker:What do I need right now?
Speaker:And what would be beneficial for me?
Speaker:It's usually when I'm
Speaker:driving home is when it goes off.
Speaker:And it's like a nice little reminder of,
Speaker:okay, let me pause and let me think about
Speaker:just hopefully leaving
Speaker:parts of that day behind
Speaker:and thinking about what do I
Speaker:need in this present moment.
Speaker:Sometimes it's gelato, to be honest.
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker:It is.
Speaker:I got to grab my kids and
Speaker:we got to go get some gelato.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:And then other times it's like,
Speaker:okay, maybe I need to
Speaker:sign up for yoga tonight.
Speaker:Or maybe I just need to
Speaker:take a few moments to myself
Speaker:and just breathe and
Speaker:go back to my breath.
Speaker:But that's something where if you set it
Speaker:as an alarm on your phone
Speaker:and it happens, I only do it
Speaker:on weekdays, Monday to Friday.
Speaker:Maybe I should do it seven days.
Speaker:But every Monday to Friday
Speaker:at 3.15, my alarm goes off.
Speaker:And it's a good way for me
Speaker:to just check in with me,
Speaker:which teachers, we need that.
Speaker:We need to lean in on each other.
Speaker:And we need to also make
Speaker:sure that we ourselves are okay.
Speaker:Because it's very hard.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And for me, that's going to the dog park
Speaker:with my dog every day.
Speaker:We go there for about two hours.
Speaker:So that's seven days a week.
Speaker:It looks it's not raining.
Speaker:So that's where I
Speaker:kind of calm down there.
Speaker:But I tell my kids, I go,
Speaker:you got to smile in my class.
Speaker:That's my rule.
Speaker:And so I said, and if you don't smile,
Speaker:that is a challenge.
Speaker:And I'm going to harass you all period,
Speaker:looking for ways to make you smile.
Speaker:Because I want you to
Speaker:feel good and be positive.
Speaker:So I'll have a kid who's
Speaker:kind of down and down in the,
Speaker:down in the dumps that day.
Speaker:And I'm like, smile.
Speaker:Like, I don't feel like it today.
Speaker:Well, oh, you just challenged me.
Speaker:So I find all kinds of ways.
Speaker:And I'll get them to
Speaker:giggle by the I go, there it is.
Speaker:I got it.
Speaker:I won.
Speaker:See, all it just
Speaker:takes is just a something.
Speaker:We all have bad days.
Speaker:But you can always take
Speaker:a positive light to it
Speaker:and do something that's more
Speaker:positive to bring your day.
Speaker:Because I had a class
Speaker:years ago that I dreaded
Speaker:at the first few days of school.
Speaker:It was a really tough class.
Speaker:It was a class designed to be tough.
Speaker:It was all the kids who
Speaker:were either troublemakers
Speaker:or failed level one
Speaker:because they were troublemakers.
Speaker:And they're all in one class and they
Speaker:gave it to me first period.
Speaker:What were they thinking?
Speaker:Because it was going to set my mood for
Speaker:the rest of the day.
Speaker:And so I follow my own advice.
Speaker:Well, I follow first of
Speaker:all, Susie Gross's advice.
Speaker:You have to love every student period.
Speaker:So I kept going the more the more
Speaker:challenging the student.
Speaker:I love you.
Speaker:As I kept saying him ahead.
Speaker:I love him.
Speaker:I love him to death.
Speaker:He's my favorite student.
Speaker:And I told the kids
Speaker:they're my favorite class.
Speaker:It was not true for the
Speaker:first three months of school.
Speaker:Was not true.
Speaker:But I told him it was.
Speaker:And they go, you say that to every class.
Speaker:I say, no, I don't.
Speaker:I made that my rule.
Speaker:I said, I told other classes,
Speaker:you are my most engaged class.
Speaker:You are my quietest class.
Speaker:You are my smartest class.
Speaker:But I never said they were my favorite.
Speaker:And they would ask my
Speaker:other kids under classes,
Speaker:whose his favorite class goes.
Speaker:It's period one.
Speaker:He always tells us his
Speaker:favorite class is period one.
Speaker:And they're like, he's not lying.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So I got him.
Speaker:Trust me a little bit more.
Speaker:And I lied to myself, you
Speaker:know, fake it till you make it.
Speaker:So I kept saying
Speaker:they're my favorite class.
Speaker:They're my favorite class.
Speaker:I love this class.
Speaker:I'm looking forward to this class.
Speaker:And by month four, they became my
Speaker:legitimate favorite class.
Speaker:And I took my kids on the first field
Speaker:trip that I've ever
Speaker:taken kids in during the
Speaker:school day ever in 24 years of teaching.
Speaker:They're the only ones we and I'm like
Speaker:that all the kids
Speaker:were mad because we took
Speaker:they've got to miss fifth and sixth
Speaker:period because we left
Speaker:at lunch to walk to the
Speaker:Mexican restaurant, which is about a mile
Speaker:and a half away to walk
Speaker:to the Mexican restaurant,
Speaker:have Mexican food.
Speaker:They had to order in Spanish.
Speaker:And then we walked back and they were
Speaker:like, they felt so special.
Speaker:I go, I only do this
Speaker:for my favorite class.
Speaker:And it really did work.
Speaker:So they start out as
Speaker:my not so cute class.
Speaker:They were actually my terrifying.
Speaker:Oh, my gosh, I'm scared to
Speaker:go into this classroom class.
Speaker:And they actually became
Speaker:some of my favorite classes.
Speaker:And I had my kid in that
Speaker:same class the next year.
Speaker:And he's like, like, oh,
Speaker:do we get to go to Mexico?
Speaker:He goes, no, that was
Speaker:only for his favorite class.
Speaker:And that was last year.
Speaker:We're not going this year.
Speaker:That was special.
Speaker:And so that really does.
Speaker:We have gone way, way over.
Speaker:We have gone way over.
Speaker:So I just want to end with
Speaker:one thing that will really help.
Speaker:And it's kind of what Naomi was talking
Speaker:about right at the end.
Speaker:And Michelle said, regulate yourself.
Speaker:Is how do you protect your confidence
Speaker:when one class shakes it?
Speaker:So let's end with that.
Speaker:Pamela, do you want to share
Speaker:or do you want to say that?
Speaker:Well, now, because the
Speaker:feeling of my confidence
Speaker:has taken a hit this last year.
Speaker:I got to trust the brain science.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I know I'm the expert.
Speaker:These kids are not.
Speaker:I know what will make
Speaker:them on the path to fluency.
Speaker:So I have to keep telling myself, I'm
Speaker:doing the right thing.
Speaker:We talked a bit about novelty.
Speaker:And I do want to get back to that because
Speaker:sometimes it's enough
Speaker:just to change the
Speaker:order of the stuff you do.
Speaker:Calling a kid up to do
Speaker:your TPRS instead of you.
Speaker:The kids are suddenly listening to the
Speaker:new kid instead of to you.
Speaker:And you know that it's so, so whatever
Speaker:tiny way you can
Speaker:tweak it is going to help.
Speaker:But oh, keep being a warm demander.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So your kids are going to sit there and
Speaker:they're going to say,
Speaker:nope, not going to answer that.
Speaker:You're like, okay.
Speaker:You asked the next kid,
Speaker:the exact same question.
Speaker:They hear the answer and then you go back
Speaker:to the first kid who refused.
Speaker:And you might have to do that four or
Speaker:five times, but that warm
Speaker:demander stuff does work.
Speaker:Just hold their feet to the fire.
Speaker:There's a lot of times when I do speak
Speaker:English because I'm
Speaker:trying to get their buy-in.
Speaker:So I do metacognition Monday where this
Speaker:is how your brain works, kids.
Speaker:This is what you need
Speaker:to do to memorize quickly
Speaker:because you're going to
Speaker:have to memorize in a language.
Speaker:This is going to help you.
Speaker:And this is why we do the weird and wacky
Speaker:stuff we do in this class.
Speaker:So if I can get their buy-in, then I can
Speaker:get a bit of their behavior, I guess.
Speaker:So that's where I'll end it.
Speaker:No, it's always the best where they look
Speaker:up and they're like, oh
Speaker:my gosh, class is over.
Speaker:How did that just work by so quickly?
Speaker:I think honoring you and what you do and
Speaker:knowing what you do,
Speaker:as you were sharing Pamela
Speaker:too, we've gone to school.
Speaker:We've done this for several years.
Speaker:We sometimes know what to expect and then
Speaker:sometimes not, right?
Speaker:Because you never know.
Speaker:But I think going back to
Speaker:what's best for the students
Speaker:and then never to lose sight of you're
Speaker:there to hopefully instill a love for
Speaker:learning this language.
Speaker:And in some kids, hopefully you set them
Speaker:up with a path to continue.
Speaker:And other cases, maybe not.
Speaker:We can't always make it glamorous, but we
Speaker:try to bring our energy
Speaker:because they do feed off of our energy
Speaker:throughout each of the lessons.
Speaker:So it's really just a matter of be true
Speaker:to you, be kind to
Speaker:yourself, take the deep breaths.
Speaker:And hopefully the kids will meet you
Speaker:halfway or sometimes lead activities
Speaker:or sometimes jump into that teacher seat
Speaker:after they've seen it so
Speaker:many times and they can do it.
Speaker:I love when I'm able to be like, "Yep,
Speaker:professor, professor, jump in."
Speaker:Like, go ahead. You can
Speaker:lead the do now today.
Speaker:Yeah. And you just made me
Speaker:think about it because I do...
Speaker:I don't know if you're going to be able
Speaker:to see it. Let's see.
Speaker:I made another app. Where is it?
Speaker:On my phone, I have...
Speaker:Let's see if we can see it.
Speaker:That was all. Let me start it.
Speaker:So I can put in the verbs that we're
Speaker:working on and it makes
Speaker:a little flash card here.
Speaker:And then I can put whether they got good
Speaker:or then we need to go
Speaker:through that verb again.
Speaker:And that's how I kind of do my TPR.
Speaker:Doesn't have the answers on the back.
Speaker:Just has the word so I know because I
Speaker:already know what they mean.
Speaker:It's not for flash card
Speaker:thing, but it lets me...
Speaker:I used to have a deck of cards doing
Speaker:this, but my deck of cards were where I,
Speaker:for a few weeks I have to make more deck
Speaker:of cards and it was wasting paper.
Speaker:So I can do this, but I can give them my
Speaker:phone to do this or, you know,
Speaker:and let them do it on my
Speaker:phone and be the leader for it.
Speaker:That's a great idea in there.
Speaker:And that way they cover all the words.
Speaker:They know all the words are there because
Speaker:it goes through them
Speaker:all and when it's done,
Speaker:it goes, "Hooray! You finished them for
Speaker:the day. It tells you at the end."
Speaker:So that's a great idea to use that.
Speaker:And I will say my thing I would like to
Speaker:leave everybody with is, you know,
Speaker:you may have that tough class.
Speaker:You may not like them, but love every
Speaker:student no matter what.
Speaker:It works.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:It really does.
Speaker:And fake it till you make it because
Speaker:sometimes you're going to have that class
Speaker:and it's going to be a tough class and
Speaker:you have to just tell it
Speaker:yourself you're going to love it.
Speaker:And it will come true.
Speaker:If you follow Suzy Gross's advice to love
Speaker:every student, no matter what,
Speaker:take their behavior out of the picture,
Speaker:take their grades out of the picture,
Speaker:look at them as a human being first,
Speaker:grade second, behavior third.
Speaker:You can actually find something that you
Speaker:can love about that
Speaker:student and latch on to that.
Speaker:It's all about building those
Speaker:relationships and then
Speaker:everything will grow from there.
Speaker:And my second period last year, let me
Speaker:last semester, we had to have that reset.
Speaker:And sometimes you have to be honest.
Speaker:And I was honest with them.
Speaker:I'm saying, "I hate to tell you this, but
Speaker:I know you feel the same way.
Speaker:I dread this class."
Speaker:And that honest and frankness opens it up
Speaker:because they're like, "What
Speaker:teachers ever told us that?"
Speaker:Or told us they struggle
Speaker:with the class or what in there.
Speaker:And yes, she's got a
Speaker:very, very good point.
Speaker:Michelle put it here.
Speaker:We never know the story they are living.
Speaker:Absolutely true.
Speaker:And that brings me to something else too.
Speaker:I have this countdown and we count down
Speaker:to vacations, breaks and stuff like that.
Speaker:But one of my principals always said
Speaker:those breaks, summer
Speaker:vacation is not always something
Speaker:that every kid looks forward to because
Speaker:their home life is not the best.
Speaker:We can't be so exuberant about it.
Speaker:Summer break is coming in four days, that
Speaker:type of thing, because that one kid,
Speaker:it could be something
Speaker:that's dreadful for them.
Speaker:So we have to think about everybody and
Speaker:where their experiences are coming from.
Speaker:But always look for the positive.
Speaker:You can always find the positive.
Speaker:And if you find the positive, you're not
Speaker:so cute class might
Speaker:become a little cuter.
Speaker:A little cuter along the way.
Speaker:So let's go ahead and wrap
Speaker:this up since I think this is the
Speaker:longest one we've ever done
Speaker:an hour and 20 minutes already.
Speaker:Oh, wow.
Speaker:We had a lot to say.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So all right.
Speaker:So if you've made it this
Speaker:far, you are a true champ.
Speaker:You either have a not cute class right
Speaker:now or you're currently
Speaker:recovering from the one.
Speaker:Either way, you're in good company.
Speaker:And Michelle says it becomes beautiful.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:A massive thank you to Pamela and who
Speaker:somehow translated action
Speaker:movies and telenovelas for
Speaker:a living and then decided, you know what,
Speaker:let me try teaching teenagers,
Speaker:which is honestly the bolder career move.
Speaker:And to know Emmy, who has been doing this
Speaker:work long enough to know
Speaker:exactly where the invisible
Speaker:wins are hiding.
Speaker:You too gave every tired teacher in the
Speaker:audience something
Speaker:real to hold on to today.
Speaker:I've got so many gems from both of you.
Speaker:I'm going to be doing that, letting them
Speaker:teach a little bit more in class.
Speaker:One of the things I got today.
Speaker:And if this episode
Speaker:hit home, do the thing.
Speaker:Subscribe, leave a review or text it to
Speaker:the colleague who's been
Speaker:complaining about their
Speaker:fifth period all year long.
Speaker:They need this one.
Speaker:You can catch us live on YouTube every
Speaker:Sunday or listen
Speaker:whenever your schedule allows on
Speaker:your favorite podcast app.
Speaker:Ditch the drills, trust the process, and
Speaker:I'll see you next
Speaker:time on Comprehend This.
Speaker:Bye everybody.
Speaker:[MUSIC]
