Episode 30

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Published on:

10th May 2026

Episode 30: "When It’s Working… but You Still Feel Like You’re Failing"

CI teacher imposter syndrome and self-doubt — in Episode 30 of Comprehend THIS!, we get into why it's possible for your classroom to be working and still feel like you're failing.

If you've ever driven home after a solid CI class convinced something was wrong, this conversation is for you. We're talking about the specific kind of self-doubt that lives in comprehensible input classrooms, how to read real evidence of acquisition, and what it actually means to trust the process.

Pamela Parks — former professional translator of film and television, now a high school world language teacher of French, Spanish, and Japanese — is back for Episode 30, and she brings a perspective on language acquisition that most teacher training programs simply don't offer. Together we get into why CI progress looks quiet and slow and easy to miss, what imposter syndrome looks like when your classroom doesn't match the traditional model, and how to recalibrate your definition of good teaching without losing your edge. It's honest, it's practical, and it's the conversation a lot of CI teachers need to hear.

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Transcript
Speaker:

Hey and welcome to a special

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Mother's Day edition today.

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So sorry we're late.

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Pamela and I were talking behind the

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scenes and completely lost track of time.

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So sorry about that.

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But welcome and happy Mother's Day to all

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of the mothers out

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there who are celebrating

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today.

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You guys are the true MVPs out there.

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I can't imagine doing your job and having

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another job on top of that.

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I'm a man.

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I can't do that kind of stuff.

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Anyway so congratulations and have a hope

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you have an amazing

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day after you listen to

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us first.

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So you know that feeling when a student

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looks up mid-story

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completely locked in and you

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think okay something is happening here.

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And then you go home and

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spend the evening convinced.

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You're doing it all wrong.

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Yeah that feeling has a name and we're

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talking about it today on

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this special Mother's Day

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edition of Comprehend This.

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Pamela is back with us and if you caught

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her last time you

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already know she doesn't do

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fluff.

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Before she was translating films and TV

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shows for a living she

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was navigating language the

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way your students are

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right now from the outside in.

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Now she's in the classroom teaching

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French Spanish and

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Japanese and she's got opinions

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about the gap between what's actually

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working and what it

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feels like from the inside.

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Today's episode is called When It's

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Working but you still

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feel like you're failing and

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that title is doing a

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lot of heavy lifting today.

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We're getting into specific imposter

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syndrome that lives in CI

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classrooms the kind that

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shows up not when things are going badly

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but when they're going

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fine and somehow that

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still doesn't feel like enough.

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We're talking about what real evidence of

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acquisition looks like

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why we keep measuring

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ourselves against standards we know are

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wrong and how to give

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yourself credit without lowering

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the bar.

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We'll be right back

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after these short messages.

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Pop quiz.

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Are your assessments aligned with what

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you're actually teaching?

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No?

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Cool.

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Let's fix that.

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The Assessment Academy is 10 pre-recorded

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lessons that help you ditch the scantrons

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and actually assess what matters like

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proficiency, performance

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and whether your students are

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still breathing by Friday.

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Watch on your time as many times as you

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want for a whole year and

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know there's not a single

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lesson about bubble sheets or

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grading 72 essays at 11 p.m.

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You're welcome.

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Head over to mm.us slash academy and

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start assessing like

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you actually mean it.

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Welcome to comprehend this.

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Real talk for real language teachers.

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No drills, no dry theory, just honest

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stories, practical ideas

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and a reminder you're not

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alone in the CI trenches.

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Let's dive in.

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And we're back.

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Good morning, Pamela.

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I know I already said it.

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Thanks for having me.

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Happy Mother's Day.

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You're welcome.

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Thank you very much.

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Scott and I were talking about how

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important it is to love your students.

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Even when they're driving you absolutely

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crazy, you've got to love them.

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You do.

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You've got to love them.

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And that is a key.

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And that just kind of brings me up to one

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little point that I'll make.

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Years ago, I had this

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student who drove me crazy.

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We opened up a brand new

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school and on the school.

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Sorry, there was a technical difficulty.

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I'm trying to work out on the school.

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We opened a brand new school.

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And then the first day we did a scavenger

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hunt so that kids could

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find where the rooms were

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and stuff because all it was new to the

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teachers to his brand new.

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Well, he disappeared

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for three of the hours.

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We couldn't find this child.

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We only started with level one the first

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year and he had already

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failed level one at his

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previous school.

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He's back in my class.

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He failed it again.

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I'm a horror movie fan.

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I love horror stories.

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I love Stephen King.

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So Gore does not bother me, but he would

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draw the goriest

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pictures on his books and stuff

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like that.

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And he was just kind of off.

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The kids thought he was off.

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And then they allowed

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him to sign up for archery.

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They gave this child a weapon.

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So we're all terrified.

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We had conferences

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about the kid and the kid.

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The parents agreed and the counselor

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already said, we can't

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help this kid anymore.

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He was just going to give up on him and

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it's okay to give up on him.

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The parents agreed too

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because he wasn't doing anything.

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And he was just driving us all crazy.

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So I go, okay, all I gotta do is make it

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through this year because

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this school was a on invitation

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only type school.

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If you didn't keep up your grades and

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behavior, you were

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supposed to be let go back to your

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home school.

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So I thought, okay, I

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gotta do is make it to June.

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Well I made it to June, come back in

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August or September.

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We came back in September and guess what?

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He was back in my class, back in level

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one for level one for the third time.

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And I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm stuck with

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this kid for another 180 days.

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How the heck am I

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going to go through that?

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So then I channeled my inner Susie Gross

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who said you have to love every child.

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And so I found a way to love this kid.

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I don't know how.

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I didn't work about school.

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I found something that

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we both had in common.

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Oh no, I first started.

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I didn't have anything

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in common with this kid.

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So then I just found something.

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I saw something on his shirt or something

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and we start the

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conversation about that as

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they walked into class and

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they started working on that.

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And that first year we

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both hated each other.

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It was so obvious.

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And I was worried because kids who failed

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the class three times, you know, it's not

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going to be, you know, the third time is

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not going to be good.

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But because if everyone's given up on

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him, he's definitely given up on himself.

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Exactly.

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So because they even said

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he wasn't going to graduate.

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There's no way he was going to graduate

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because he was not just

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failing my class, but other

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classes as well.

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And he was already a sophomore when he

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came into my school.

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So anyway, he I found this thing kept

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having conversations with him.

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And it got to a point where we were

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tolerating each other.

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He became the class clown in my class.

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Everybody knew he failed Spanish twice,

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but this time he

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pulled himself a C. So he he

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left the level one with a C.

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So he got to go into level two.

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But by this was his junior year.

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So by the end of that junior year, we had

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a good semi good relationship.

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Then anyone else in the school, right?

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Yeah.

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Then comes his third year, his third year

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or his senior year, but third year at the

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school.

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I get him again from level two.

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I'm like, there are

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other Spanish teachers.

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And then our relationship just progressed

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and he actually started

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doing well in Spanish.

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You end up with a B. But

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two things happened in April.

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He asked me for a letter of

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recommendation for a job.

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So that was strange.

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I don't know if that was because I was

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part of the only one who

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was going to give it to

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him or but you know what?

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That means a lot.

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That like, oh my gosh, if somebody feels

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like the world is

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against them, they are going

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to act accordingly.

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Right.

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Yeah.

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And then the last thing that really blew

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me over at the end, he

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invited me to his graduation

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party.

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Oh, he had a party.

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He did actually graduate on time.

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Okay.

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And so it really does work to love every

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child no matter what.

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Find something to grab on.

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Even if you don't have anything common,

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talk about what's on

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their shirt that day or the

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new shoes that they have or whatever

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their hobby might be.

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Find it, learn about it, do something to

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make that connection

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because it is so very important.

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I cannot tell you how many sports I have

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learned about and I have

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zero interest in sports in

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reality.

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Me too.

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But it's like, oh really?

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So tell me more about.

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Yeah.

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I am with you there.

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I am.

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That connection or like we talk about the

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effective filter and

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how important it is in

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linguistics to lower

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that effective filter.

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This little voice in your head that says,

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oh, you know, if I say,

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ah, out loud, I'm going

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to sound stupid and

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everyone's going to laugh at me.

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So you know what?

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I just won't say, ah, at all.

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You know, they walk in the front door on

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day one and they say,

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oh, back in kindergarten,

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I remember my teacher gave me, uh, the

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colors in French and I

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don't remember any of it right

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now.

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So I just stink at language.

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So you have to spend like six months

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deprogramming that from the students.

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And if the students come in with a chip

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on their shoulder

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because whatever's going on

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in their life, I mean, I have no idea

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what goes on like with

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their friends at school

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or, or at home or, you know, where

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they've come from any of

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their background or anything.

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All I know is I've got them right in

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front of me right now.

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How am I going to lower

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that effective filter?

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How am I going to make them be

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comfortable in my class so that they

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don't feel like they're

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going to get attacked by everybody else?

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And how am I going to get them to realize

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that there is a

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growth mindset that you can

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learn you have to apply yourself.

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There needs to be a little bit of

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motivation, but how am I

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going to get them to that point?

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And it's got to start with relationships.

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It's got to start with treating them

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decently and, and

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teaching them to treat the others

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in the class decently.

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And otherwise you won't, you won't get

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anything into their head.

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Absolutely.

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And I like, cause I, we've

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talked about this before.

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I'm learning Maltese, which is a very

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complex language in many aspects.

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Like they don't use personal pronouns.

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They add suffixes to

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their words to make that.

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And then they can take, sometimes they

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don't even make a verb

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like the word name and say,

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my name is all you do is put the suffix

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for my, and then the word name.

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And then you put your name on there and

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they make a noun into a

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verb without using any

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verb conjugation at all.

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So is there no copula at all?

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There's no, there's no to the verb.

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Probably only in the past tense.

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I know.

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Isn't that weird?

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It's in the past tense.

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It's in the past tense.

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And if you need it, if it needs to be

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clarified, all you do is

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put the subject pronouns.

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In place.

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So the subject pronoun not only means I

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am, but, or it also just means I.

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So if you really need it in there, like

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if you say Sarah is,

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and you really need that

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is, then you put in Sarah, she, and then

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whatever you need to put

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after it, but you can just

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put Sarah pretty cool.

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So it is, but I'm struggling with that

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stuff too, because it's

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so different from, from

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everything else that I've said, cause

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it's an Arabic based

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language, Semitic based language.

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And so I'm expressing it with my kids

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that we're going in the

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same struggles that we're

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doing the same things.

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I'm right in the woods with you.

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And it's funny because the grammar and

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Maltese comes from two different

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directions, the Latin

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through Italian and

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Arabic, which is the main.

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So if the words come from Italian, they

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have a whole different

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grammar structure to them.

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And the, we've got an English too, you

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know, we've got like

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mothers in law, you know, we've

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got the, the adjective

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after, you know, it gets crazy.

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I mean, when you're a language of

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thieves, it is crazy, right?

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Yeah.

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And when I'm, I look through and I, but

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my, what I'm seeing and

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I'm explaining to my kids

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is the patterns that I'm seeing is I'm

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doing this and I can

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see my brain remapping.

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Cause we worked on a lot of adjectives

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last, I do my classes

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every Saturday morning.

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I do a lot, we do a lot of adjectives.

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We did adjectives yesterday and Maltese

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has, you know, a

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masculine, a feminine and a plural

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and they sometimes don't

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look anything like each other.

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The only thing that's in common is they

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have three consonants

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and they stay in the right

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order, but the vowels

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and how they get shifted.

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Right.

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That's the Arabic influence, right?

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That's the Arabic influence.

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So you have like, um, what is it?

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Ah, dah, ah, boy, ah,

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dah is green masculine.

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Ah, dah is green feminine

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and hodor is green plural.

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Uh-huh.

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So these patterns going through and then

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you've got the easy ones where you've

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got, um, intelligenti

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is.

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Yeah.

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So intelligent, it's intelligenti,

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intelligenta and intelligenti for plural.

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So it follows the pattern, you know, a

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much simpler pattern,

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but it's just, I tell my

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kids that I am learning with you.

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It's a different language.

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And if it was another Germanic language

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and they're Latin based

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language, then the grammar

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kind of falls in line with what I already

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know and understand.

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But this, and forgive me for the word I'm

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about to use, but it's

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like the bastard language.

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It's got all these different components.

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There's some French in there.

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There's some Italian in there.

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There's some English in there.

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There's some Arabic, the root words and

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all the grammar is Arabic based.

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And then you throw an Italian, which

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throws in a whole loop

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of all different words.

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It's just very interesting, but I see the

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patterns that are going on.

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Some things he doesn't have to explain.

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He's explaining to me about how the

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numbers are backwards.

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But I'm like, that's

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how German does them.

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And when English used to do them to four

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and 20 blackbird, we

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used to do it that way.

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So that you don't don't have

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to explain that to me anymore.

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We can just move on to something new

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because that I understand already.

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So I understand the adjectives come after

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in multis just like

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they do in any Roman based

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language.

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That's from the Roman based or that's the

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Arabic of Arabic does the same way.

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I don't know.

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But that's I mean, you don't

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have to explain that to me.

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I know that too from Spanish and French.

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Yeah.

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So we can focus on the

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stuff that really is hard.

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Tying into imposter syndrome.

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You are reminding me that my very

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favorite math teacher in

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high school, he told me that

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over the summer, he always takes a class

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so that he remembers

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what it's like to be a

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student.

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I certainly have taken that to heart as

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in my adult life as a

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teacher, lifelong learner.

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Then I don't forget what it's like to

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have to puzzle through something.

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Exactly.

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And so I think that helps me a lot as a

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teacher, like, ah, okay, I

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know exactly where you're

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tripping up because I first of all, I

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remember when I was

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learning this, these are the tricks

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that helped me.

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And secondly, this is these are the the

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look, I'm a professional

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educator, I know how to

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educate myself.

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So these are the things like these are

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the steps I take when

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I'm learning something new,

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and I can pull that into my teaching.

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So I think that helps lower my own

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effective filter maybe so

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that I don't have quite the

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imposter syndrome that I do sometimes.

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Because we all do, right?

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Absolutely.

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And I think because it's been so long

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since I started acquiring

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a language back with French

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and German and Spanish, that I forget

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what it's like to

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struggle from the very beginning

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and explain them.

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Plus, I didn't learn those languages

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through CI, you know, they were all

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taught to me traditionally.

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So look how old I am.

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I did not miss when I was their age.

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Exactly.

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It was a little bit of writing from from

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crash and but not that much.

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Yeah.

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So it this is a very different experience

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for me, because this

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is the first language

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that I'm truly learning.

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And he's not a CI teacher, this guy is

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not, but I'm applying

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the CI techniques to my own

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instruction to it.

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So I'm learning what that's like.

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Because even when I take like, you know,

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when you go to a demo of

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a language, it's French,

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I already know some French, so I'm not

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ready to learn anything.

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Or even if I didn't know French, I know

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Spanish, it's close enough

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that I can get, you know,

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the ideas going through German.

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Get it.

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The other languages, no Mandarin, I've

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had some Mandarin in

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there, I've had some Japanese,

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some Latin, Latin hurts my head.

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I don't know why, but it literally

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physically hurts my head.

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No offense to Latin teachers.

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But it's like someone's taking a hammer

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and going, boink, boink, boink.

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After I've had like 15 minutes of Latin,

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I've got a big headache.

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I don't know why.

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I've had those, those

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aren't long and extended.

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We are in like week seven

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or eight of the small teas.

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And so I'm really, I'm in it.

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I'm going right

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through it just like my kids.

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So it really does help.

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And it makes me also think about, because

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I can actually see my

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mind remapping itself

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and how things work as we go along.

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Where things go, oh,

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now I see that pattern.

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Oh, now I see what's happening here.

Speaker:

And I can see it with my kids.

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And so that's the thing that we're

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talking about that

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imposter syndrome where

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everything is going well and the kids are

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acquiring and they're

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showing that they're

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acquiring in both the formative and the

Speaker:

summative assessments, but

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you still don't feel like

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you're there.

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You still don't feel

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like you're giving 100%.

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You still feel like you can give more or

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should be giving more.

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And that is a horrible feeling.

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And this is the time we all feel it

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towards the end of the school year.

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Because we're like that.

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I think there's something else too, and

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that is class

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dynamics, that when you start

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comparing your classes and especially

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man, for me, comparing

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this year to last year,

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the year before, the year before, I'm

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like, what am I doing wrong?

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These are all the tips and tricks and

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techniques that I've always used.

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And suddenly they're not working.

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Like, what am I doing wrong?

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You know, that's so very true.

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And as teachers, we want to model that

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like you said, lifelong learning.

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And we at the end of the year, we always

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complain about where our students got to.

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We don't celebrate the successes, but

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we're like, well,

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they don't can't do this.

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They can't do that.

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And then instead of and we know better

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instead of looking at

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what we did and what

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we could do better, we do the exact same

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thing the next year.

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And then we complain about the exact same

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results at the end of the year.

Speaker:

So we have to pair this with that

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imposter syndrome versus what's actually

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happening in our classrooms.

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We need to look at that.

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We do need to take that time.

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You know, we make our

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kids do reflection questions.

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We need to do some reflection time along

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the way, especially

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at the end of the year

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and have your students give you

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reflection on the class,

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what worked for them, what

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didn't work for them, any positive

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suggestions that they

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can make, having them

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always frame it in a positive light.

Speaker:

So we're not attacking

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each other along the way.

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But then make those changes.

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Find out what because you can say I've

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been doing this this way for 10 years and

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it's worked.

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It didn't work with our class.

Speaker:

Can you give me some ideas?

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Why is it a generational thing?

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Is it, you know, it's just, you know,

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what is it that's not

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working here along the

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way so that we can do figure out what is

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working and what isn't and make those

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changes?

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Because if we're not making those

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changes, then it's,

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you know, then we're not

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growing.

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Yeah, exactly.

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So we can't keep doing the same thing and

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expect different results.

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But at the same time, yeah, if we are

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doing this is the thing.

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If we are doing those same old things and

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we are still getting results, we need to

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trust that what we're doing is right.

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Right.

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Yep.

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Because I know a lot of teachers don't do

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the writing every week.

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They say, I don't want to give up 10

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minutes every week to do writing.

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I'm like, oh my gosh, I do not.

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That is that is

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something I don't give up.

Speaker:

It is like, yeah, with religion.

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I already know that if they don't do it

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one week, they fall two weeks behind.

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And it takes three weeks

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to get them back up there.

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And I know the act of writing doesn't

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lead to better writing, but it's the

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practice of writing the words out and

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getting the words out of your head from

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whatever language they

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started in onto the page.

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And that's how I get kids.

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You can write 150 words, 200 words,

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because we do it religiously every week.

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Once we start.

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Absolutely.

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I think the, the mindset you need to have

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is not, uh, I'm giving up 10 minutes.

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The mindset you need to have is, okay, if

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I invest 10 minutes here doing this,

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is it going to pay off

Speaker:

for me with this next thing?

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Is it going to pay off

Speaker:

for me in the long run?

Speaker:

So like, you know, again, in fact, a

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filter, we're going to shift the mindset.

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Of I'm, I'm wasting 10 minutes on this.

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It's not a waste if you see results.

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Okay.

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If you don't see results, it's a waste.

Speaker:

But, and, and exactly.

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And this is the best way to see results

Speaker:

because if you, I always save the first

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one, the last one, and one in the middle.

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And I make a copy of those, but not even

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for them to compare.

Speaker:

I'll let them compare too.

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But I want to compare to

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say, look at the growth.

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I know what I'm doing is

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working because it's here.

Speaker:

And my first year teaching at my middle

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school, we added language that year

Speaker:

because we became an IB school and

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language was required.

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So it was a first year.

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They were all brand new CI teachers.

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I had been doing it for many years.

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Um, the one teacher came from

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a grammar based instruction.

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The other teacher was a

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history teacher and was becoming a

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first time Spanish teacher.

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She was a native Spanish speaker.

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Um, she got her, um, credential in

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Spanish and she was going to teach.

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But that first year, they were like, you

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write all that time, all that, you're

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giving up all that time writing the, all

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our kids were level one.

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They were sixth graders.

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I'm like, yup, I do.

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They're like, well, we, we

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do it maybe once a month.

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And then we got to the next year and our

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kids got mixed up when we had level two.

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So some of my kids went to them and

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they're like, your kid.

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In 10 minutes wrote

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like 213 words, 187 words.

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What did you do?

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I like, I told you I do it weekly.

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I mean, in, in level one, I

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don't start till November.

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We, I wait three months for the, the, the

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silent period to come in, you know, they

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get to have enough

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language to be able to write.

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So it's three months.

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They are on the four by four.

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It's week six.

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We start writing because

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it goes so much faster.

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Um, but it's that

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religiously writing all of the time.

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And so I always laugh when you see tests

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and finals that go, please write five

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sentences about my five sentences.

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I want a hundred words, you know, five

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cents or like nothing for them.

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My kids to be able to write in there and

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are they always perfect?

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Absolutely not.

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But they are communicating language and

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that's what's important.

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That's, that was a huge mental shift for

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me because of course I grew up with, um,

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audio lingual method, um, and all those

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other methods that are like, Oh, um, you

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have to jump on mistakes immediately.

Speaker:

Or the students are going to fossilize.

Speaker:

I mean, that was like the fear.

Speaker:

And so it took me a long time to get out

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of my own way, I guess.

Speaker:

Um, where it was like, Oh, I don't have

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to be correcting my students all the time

Speaker:

because a lot of it will

Speaker:

just, they need exposure.

Speaker:

They need exposure to the language before

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they can give me a grammatically

Speaker:

perfect sentence, but if they're

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communicating, they've got a subject,

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they've got a verb, I understand what it

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is they're trying to say.

Speaker:

And that's 90% of the battle right there.

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Here's a couple of things about that.

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You just mentioned it and

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brought some ideas to my head.

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One, I remember the first time I did, um,

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not the first time, like when I started

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in my second year doing quick writes.

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Um, and I had some good ones.

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I brought them into

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my, um, department chair.

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She was a Spanish teacher.

Speaker:

I go, look at what my kids wrote.

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And it was like 150 words.

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You know, they've been

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writing for a few weeks now.

Speaker:

There were 150 words and 10 minutes.

Speaker:

And she goes, but it's full of errors.

Speaker:

I'm like, yeah, it is full of errors, but

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my gosh, uh, they wrote 150 words

Speaker:

and you understood what they said.

Speaker:

Your kids write five sentences and they

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may be perfect sentences, but nine times

Speaker:

out of 10, they were memorized sentences

Speaker:

and they weren't,

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they're not transferable.

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Yeah.

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So like, Oh, I know how to say la SIA, la

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CITIA eso Roja, but heaven forbid you

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show me, um, I don't know a panda bear.

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That's red.

Speaker:

And I don't, I can't

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figure that out, you know?

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

And none of these sentences, my kids

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could memorize cause

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they're writing about weird

Speaker:

things or writing about their cat.

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We didn't learn about their cat, you

Speaker:

know, they're actually

Speaker:

thinking in the language

Speaker:

and coming up with their own sentence.

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Not my name is I live

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at, I am so many years old.

Speaker:

They're not doing that.

Speaker:

And then the mistake issue,

Speaker:

we harp on those mistakes.

Speaker:

But if you go back and look at our kids,

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when they are learning language, they

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have to make the mistakes

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to get to the other side.

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There is my,

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Well, your brain rewires

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better when you make mistakes.

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The, it's my sister goes,

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cause she's a teacher too.

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She's a kindergarten teacher.

Speaker:

She used to be special needs.

Speaker:

Um, and she says, my kids are not going

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to make the mistake when they're, they're

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not going to say I runned or I singed.

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They are not going to make that mistake.

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I'm going to teach them

Speaker:

right from the beginning.

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It's I sang and I ran.

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And I laughed in my head because I know

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in order to get to, I

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ran, you have to say,

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I runned, you have to, it's

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the way the brain does it.

Speaker:

It's good.

Speaker:

So it shows you that they're progressing

Speaker:

because they're now adding the brain

Speaker:

said add ed to make past tense and it

Speaker:

overgeneralized and then it realized,

Speaker:

Oh wait, there's a few

Speaker:

detours we got to make.

Speaker:

And so it learns those

Speaker:

detours as they come.

Speaker:

And so my nephew and niece, they made

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those same mistakes like everybody else

Speaker:

does, but they get over them.

Speaker:

You have to make that mistake.

Speaker:

And Van Patten says, does it matter if

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you're a native speaker of that language

Speaker:

or you are second or third or fourth

Speaker:

language that is everybody makes the same

Speaker:

mistakes it all that it matters is, or

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all that is different is how long you

Speaker:

stay in that mistake pattern because

Speaker:

French speakers who may be learning

Speaker:

German are not going to have as many

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problems with conjugations with the

Speaker:

endings because they have

Speaker:

them in their own language.

Speaker:

So it's a concept

Speaker:

they understand already.

Speaker:

Whereas Americans and English speakers

Speaker:

don't have conjugations in the same way.

Speaker:

So we, we stay in that we make the same

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mistakes the French do.

Speaker:

It's just, it takes us longer to get

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through that

Speaker:

particular stage because it's

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not a component we already

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have in our own language.

Speaker:

And so I find that that's really

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interesting and we need to take that into

Speaker:

account when we're looking at them.

Speaker:

We're not looking if you say it when,

Speaker:

when your first child

Speaker:

says me want cookie,

Speaker:

you celebrate that for the first time

Speaker:

they didn't scream and cry and you trying

Speaker:

to figure out you need

Speaker:

to go to the bathroom.

Speaker:

Need, do you need food?

Speaker:

Are you hungry?

Speaker:

Are you thirsty?

Speaker:

Trying to figure out what that cry means.

Speaker:

Are you cranky?

Speaker:

Need to go nap where you go,

Speaker:

I understand what you want.

Speaker:

Let me go get you a cookie.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

You know, we don't do

Speaker:

that enough with our kids.

Speaker:

And I think that's a really important

Speaker:

part to celebrate because even

Speaker:

speaking with a native Spanish speaker,

Speaker:

she goes, my kid made the mistake with

Speaker:

Tieno for those who don't know, um, it's

Speaker:

an irregular verb and

Speaker:

first person I have,

Speaker:

but you add an O to the end of the verb.

Speaker:

Generally is generalization, making it an

Speaker:

I form, but it's Tengo not Tieno.

Speaker:

But then you have to worry

Speaker:

about the IE change spelling.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

And she goes, um, he makes them, he made

Speaker:

all Hispanic kids make that mistake

Speaker:

until they learn that it's finally Tengo.

Speaker:

So instead of bashing our kids for making

Speaker:

that mistake, celebrate that they have

Speaker:

internalized that I verb.

Speaker:

You wrote us an O.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

There's an O at the end.

Speaker:

So that's what you're doing right there.

Speaker:

And so that's what's important.

Speaker:

I know, like, you know, we learn, I don't

Speaker:

teach the verbs the same way, um, the

Speaker:

textbook does, but if they make the

Speaker:

mistake and say

Speaker:

vivemos instead of vivemos,

Speaker:

because there's an E on it and I teach

Speaker:

them just add MOS to the he, she form.

Speaker:

I'm like, we understood

Speaker:

it's not that big of a mistake.

Speaker:

We can fix it later, but right now

Speaker:

celebrate that they were able to make a

Speaker:

we form instead of just saying a he, she

Speaker:

form, you know, or using the

Speaker:

infinitive as a verb, you

Speaker:

know, that kind of thing.

Speaker:

So we need to celebrate, we

Speaker:

need to look and find ways.

Speaker:

This is the going back

Speaker:

to our, uh, imposter.

Speaker:

Find ways to take samples of your kids so

Speaker:

you can see the growth that they have.

Speaker:

At the end of a year, a semester, a

Speaker:

quarter, whatever you want to measure

Speaker:

against to see if what you're doing is

Speaker:

working because from our aspect, it may

Speaker:

not be so obvious because some things are

Speaker:

going on in the brain from the kids

Speaker:

that they can't verbalize.

Speaker:

They cannot put out there.

Speaker:

And so it's really interesting.

Speaker:

I will give them at the

Speaker:

end of the year, I give them.

Speaker:

So at about a week or two, I give them,

Speaker:

cause we're four weeks left, four weeks

Speaker:

left, three weeks of

Speaker:

instruction, one week of finals.

Speaker:

Yes.

Speaker:

So, um, we're coming to the end.

Speaker:

I give them a simplified actful

Speaker:

descriptor sheet, like a rubric.

Speaker:

And I ask them to find out where they are

Speaker:

on that based on their own.

Speaker:

So that it'll say, can you

Speaker:

understand the main ideas?

Speaker:

Can you understand the

Speaker:

main ideas with some details?

Speaker:

So it's labeling them novice low, novice

Speaker:

mid, novice high, intermediate low,

Speaker:

intermediate, mid, intermediate high.

Speaker:

And it's funny because I'll do the same

Speaker:

thing for every kid and we'll compare.

Speaker:

Nine times out of 10, they graded

Speaker:

themselves harder than I would have.

Speaker:

So, yeah.

Speaker:

So they say that they're not as high as

Speaker:

they are, but it's really interesting how

Speaker:

accurate they are about

Speaker:

their abilities that way.

Speaker:

When you look at it that way, they go

Speaker:

through and they'll

Speaker:

say, cause in listening

Speaker:

and reading, most of my kids, even in

Speaker:

level one are not our intermediate low in

Speaker:

under comprehension,

Speaker:

albeit at level one stuff.

Speaker:

I mean, I couldn't do a explaining, you

Speaker:

know, nuclear physics to them in Spanish.

Speaker:

Not that I understand nuclear physics

Speaker:

either, but Dix and they could understand

Speaker:

that, but level one test.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

But level one stuff they can understand

Speaker:

at an intermediate low, but they're

Speaker:

speaking and writing, which all always

Speaker:

lags will be at maybe

Speaker:

a novice mid or maybe

Speaker:

even a novice high, but

Speaker:

they are putting it in there.

Speaker:

Look at those.

Speaker:

See where the kids think they

Speaker:

are, where you think they are.

Speaker:

And see that there is growth there.

Speaker:

It doesn't always look.

Speaker:

And I'll tell you one more thing and then

Speaker:

I'll let you talk because I've been

Speaker:

talking for a lot, but, um, this is why I

Speaker:

love level one, because when I have level

Speaker:

one from the end of the year, all the

Speaker:

Spanish they

Speaker:

produced, I know came from me.

Speaker:

I know it sounds really egotistical, but

Speaker:

that's it's the clearest indication of

Speaker:

success I can see right away.

Speaker:

That's where it came from in

Speaker:

a level two or level three.

Speaker:

You don't see it and you don't know how

Speaker:

much came from you and how much they came

Speaker:

in with you really, it gets all muddy.

Speaker:

You don't know how much, um, because even

Speaker:

though they may have grown, it may have

Speaker:

been right there at the surface from

Speaker:

level one and now it

Speaker:

just had more time to

Speaker:

blossom, you know, to kind of come out.

Speaker:

And then in level three, you're starting

Speaker:

that intermediate and that is the longest

Speaker:

stage with the smallest changes in it.

Speaker:

That's true.

Speaker:

Kids will go, I didn't

Speaker:

learn anything this year.

Speaker:

Because really what they were doing in

Speaker:

love that what level three really is at

Speaker:

least brain wise is refining

Speaker:

more of what you already know.

Speaker:

You're really not making these jumps

Speaker:

where level one,

Speaker:

you're going from nothing

Speaker:

to something and then in level two,

Speaker:

you're going from something to something

Speaker:

even more and then level three, it's much

Speaker:

more incremental because that the kids

Speaker:

always say, I didn't learn anything.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

And you and actual says you stay in this

Speaker:

mode much longer than any other mode, um,

Speaker:

in there.

Speaker:

And so it's harder to see.

Speaker:

So find ways to measure, take a speaking

Speaker:

sample where they record it, take a

Speaker:

writing sample, um, look at your, your

Speaker:

first listening activity and reading

Speaker:

activity to how long and how complex they

Speaker:

got the end because my kids also say

Speaker:

writing, they go, I'm not writing any

Speaker:

more words in level two.

Speaker:

I know you're not, but you're writing

Speaker:

more complex sentences with more complex

Speaker:

grammar and so that's going to slow you

Speaker:

down, but you're writing better.

Speaker:

You're not writing, there is a cat.

Speaker:

The cat is fat.

Speaker:

The cat eats a lot.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

You are writing.

Speaker:

You're starting to have your transitions,

Speaker:

your more detail about the cat, your

Speaker:

prepositional phrases, your adverbs.

Speaker:

It's a much more polished piece of

Speaker:

writing and it's coming

Speaker:

off the top of your head.

Speaker:

So we have to celebrate

Speaker:

those and look at those.

Speaker:

And you, if you don't take those samples,

Speaker:

if you don't look at that, you're going

Speaker:

to think that you are not doing your job

Speaker:

when you absolutely are.

Speaker:

And then you can't compare yourself with

Speaker:

La Maestro Loca or with Diane

Speaker:

Newbauer or Blaine.

Speaker:

You can't, you have to find your own

Speaker:

personality and your own way of doing it.

Speaker:

You can't say, oh my gosh, look how

Speaker:

awesome La Maestro Loca is.

Speaker:

And she puts these videos out of there or

Speaker:

Alina Phillipescu puts these.

Speaker:

Let me tell you something before they put

Speaker:

that perfect video out.

Speaker:

They made lots of bad videos and like I

Speaker:

put that one out on the Internet.

Speaker:

It was the best day of that

Speaker:

week that they put out there.

Speaker:

It is not, it's not a normal every day.

Speaker:

To be fair, on my YouTube channel, I

Speaker:

tried to explain my

Speaker:

thinking process and I

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explained all my failures because

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hopefully somebody will

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learn from my failures.

Speaker:

And usually it's just me talking through

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it so that I'm reflecting on like what

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worked, what didn't. But I'm going to

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take this one step further.

Speaker:

OK, because I do think, yeah, you take

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your sample before, during and after.

Speaker:

But definitely share

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it with your students.

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I'm going to tell you why.

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Absolutely.

Speaker:

My third child, Scott and I were talking,

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I have five kids because obviously I like

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kids. My third child, I was asking him

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one day, what's your

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favorite class in high

Speaker:

school? And he said, guitar.

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And I was like, oh, that's cool.

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Why is guitar your favorite class?

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I wasn't expecting him to say that.

Speaker:

And he said, well, in math,

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I have no idea how I'm doing.

Speaker:

But in guitar class, I

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can see I'm getting better.

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And I was like, oh, my

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gosh, that's brilliant.

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And at that point, that's when I started

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having my students reflect a lot more

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shade in the bar of how well you think

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you did and then always giving them back.

Speaker:

This is how you did three months ago and

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this is how you did now, because I think

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seeing that progress is really powerful

Speaker:

for the growth mindset.

Speaker:

It's really powerful to keep that

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effective filter low

Speaker:

that, hey, I am progressing.

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I am learning.

Speaker:

I can master this, you know.

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Absolutely. I think

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that is very valuable.

Speaker:

And I always am pedagogical where I teach

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my kids how we're

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learning because I think

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it's important because

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I was always a Y kid.

Speaker:

Yeah, you need to understand why are we

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doing this crazy thing that we're doing?

Speaker:

You got to do that.

Speaker:

And you got to do that in

Speaker:

English so that they understand.

Speaker:

Exactly. And so they

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understand what they're

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doing and why they're doing it and why it

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works and why, you know, why we're not

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doing something else that they're doing

Speaker:

in maybe another class that I haven't

Speaker:

found to be as effective for whatever

Speaker:

reason back and forth without bashing any

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teachers or any

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methodologies, but just going through.

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It's really important for that.

Speaker:

And it helps you, like you said, that buy

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in and let the understand so they can see

Speaker:

the process, they go, I'm making that

Speaker:

mistake, but I make the same mistake that

Speaker:

native speakers are making. It's not.

Speaker:

It's just a it is a not a mistake.

Speaker:

I want to say something else. It is a.

Speaker:

I lost my word.

Speaker:

I had a good word for it and I forgot

Speaker:

what it was, but it's

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the path that I have to

Speaker:

take. It is.

Speaker:

And we celebrate mistakes and then I'll

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ask questions about

Speaker:

them because I'll have

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them think about it. I'll go, so which

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sounds better to you?

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S or a star?

Speaker:

Yeah. And they're like, it's not like

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exactly.

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They think it's in there.

Speaker:

They just need a little

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bit of the self correct.

Speaker:

And that takes a long time to teach them.

Speaker:

You know, it's so funny.

Speaker:

The

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my school is very traditional, so they

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are teaching the SARE

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versus a star thing,

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which for those who don't speak Spanish,

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we have two verbs to be.

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And one I'm just going to say

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this is how I teach to my kids.

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One means is one means

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is located or is feeling.

Speaker:

And so they're like, have

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you been practicing this?

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We're going to put on the final.

Speaker:

I'm like, I haven't been practicing it.

Speaker:

I taught it, but I

Speaker:

haven't been practicing it.

Speaker:

They're like, well, why not?

Speaker:

Because my kids got it.

Speaker:

They're like, really? Your kids got it.

Speaker:

Like, yeah, my kids got it.

Speaker:

They're like, what do

Speaker:

you mean your kids got it?

Speaker:

I'm like, I started teaching

Speaker:

at level one and my kids get it.

Speaker:

And they're like, well, what do you do?

Speaker:

And they don't want

Speaker:

to listen to what I do.

Speaker:

I try to explain. I go, you have to

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translate it differently.

Speaker:

Yes, you have to do that because they're

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not going to remember those 15 were those

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15 rules of what it is,

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permanent and, you

Speaker:

know, change of status.

Speaker:

Yeah, no native speaker can

Speaker:

recite those rules either.

Speaker:

You just get the feeling.

Speaker:

And so I tell them S is just like in a

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math problem and a story problem.

Speaker:

That's where you put the equal sign.

Speaker:

So that's S is.

Speaker:

But then Esta is either is feeling or is

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located, whichever makes the most sense.

Speaker:

So I forget where I read it.

Speaker:

But for what you feel and where you are,

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always use the verb estar.

Speaker:

And I have my students chant that to me.

Speaker:

And then they I just have them translate

Speaker:

because when we learn it, we, you know,

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we go Estan McDonald's.

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That's our little gesture right here,

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like you are here on a map.

Speaker:

And then Esta contento.

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We do that.

Speaker:

So when I give those exercises in my

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class, you know, here's a sentence.

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Choose S or Esta.

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And most of my kids, even my struggling

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kids, get it 80% or better, right?

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Because I've ingrained it into them is

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and is feeling or is located.

Speaker:

Now, I do tell them there is verbs for is

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feeling and is located.

Speaker:

There are verbs for that.

Speaker:

But this has that same meaning.

Speaker:

And you don't need to use those fancy

Speaker:

verbs to explain it.

Speaker:

You can just do this.

Speaker:

And so it makes it much

Speaker:

easier for them to understand.

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And I don't have to explain it a hundred

Speaker:

different ways or practice with different

Speaker:

sentences so they knew it because they

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just get it because the way I taught it.

Speaker:

And they're like, don't teach it.

Speaker:

Just translate it differently.

Speaker:

And it saves the whole

Speaker:

problem from the beginning.

Speaker:

You don't have that problem.

Speaker:

I do the same thing with most are good.

Speaker:

And French has it with Plazir.

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German has it with Gefalen.

Speaker:

It works backwards.

Speaker:

Right. But what I like about Gustar,

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we don't have it in

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the positive in English.

Speaker:

We don't have I guess something.

Speaker:

But we have it in the negative.

Speaker:

It disgusts me.

Speaker:

Right. It's the gust.

Speaker:

So I teach disgust before I teach gust.

Speaker:

Oh, that's a good idea.

Speaker:

Because they never have to think about it

Speaker:

because it works exactly as it does in

Speaker:

English. And then all they're going to do

Speaker:

is say to say you like something.

Speaker:

We just take the deaths off of

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it and it works the same way.

Speaker:

Same way.

Speaker:

Uh huh.

Speaker:

So I teach it works so well because we

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have the exact and I

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don't have to explain

Speaker:

the backwards verb. Sorry, French and

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German, because

Speaker:

Gefalen does not sound like

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disgust and Plazir does not sound.

Speaker:

But we have it French with the Plazir.

Speaker:

It pleases me.

Speaker:

But I hate that English translation

Speaker:

because my high school kids twist it.

Speaker:

They twist it.

Speaker:

And when I'm a little note down to go

Speaker:

see the vice principal for me because the

Speaker:

kids were snickering about it.

Speaker:

Yep. Yeah.

Speaker:

They I have a kid who is

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like really smart and smart.

Speaker:

Alec. So he when a kid

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made a mistake and said,

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how do you do it?

Speaker:

He goes.

Speaker:

May gusta.

Speaker:

And he's like, he's like, oh, he pleases

Speaker:

himself is what he was.

Speaker:

You know, Sam, like, oh, no, we're not

Speaker:

going down that road.

Speaker:

We're not going down that road.

Speaker:

We're not going down that road.

Speaker:

We're not going down the road.

Speaker:

But he was actually thinking and normally

Speaker:

I would have if it wasn't an appropriate

Speaker:

answer, I would have been celebrating his

Speaker:

brain was thinking that through.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

But I tried to do it.

Speaker:

You're so close. You're so close.

Speaker:

But then all the kids were snickering all

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through lunch and everything.

Speaker:

And suddenly I had to go explain to the

Speaker:

vice principal what I was talking about

Speaker:

in class. Yeah.

Speaker:

So I had. Yeah.

Speaker:

So I don't want to belabor that.

Speaker:

So I just moved right on real quickly.

Speaker:

I don't want to point

Speaker:

anything out with that.

Speaker:

I've been there.

Speaker:

Yep.

Speaker:

Oh, my gosh.

Speaker:

I'll tell you a really funny story.

Speaker:

When I first started teaching, I was

Speaker:

trying to teach the difference between

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a pelota and a balon.

Speaker:

And again, for Spanish people there, it

Speaker:

depends on which country you're in.

Speaker:

But for many countries,

Speaker:

they differentiate between

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the two balls like Mexico does.

Speaker:

Everything's a pelota.

Speaker:

But in Spain, we have

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a balon and a pelota.

Speaker:

And this is how I did it because I did

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not have the teenage brain.

Speaker:

I was mature and didn't think about it.

Speaker:

So I said,

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a balon is a ball that you blow and a

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pelota is a small hard ball.

Speaker:

That's why I said and I got all the

Speaker:

Snickers like you said.

Speaker:

And I'm like, oh, my gosh, I just can't

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believe what I said.

Speaker:

So now I have to change it that a balon

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is an inflatable ball.

Speaker:

The one you have to add air to and then a

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pelota is one that is solid,

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like a tennis ball, a baseball, a

Speaker:

softball, golf ball.

Speaker:

So but I made that mistake that year and

Speaker:

I like, oh, boy, did I make that?

Speaker:

I stepped right in it.

Speaker:

And my other fellow teachers say,

Speaker:

ever, it was my first year teaching.

Speaker:

It was actually a Japanese to class.

Speaker:

It's important in Japanese to know is the

Speaker:

action going away from the speaker

Speaker:

is the action coming towards the speaker.

Speaker:

OK, and what I didn't count on was that

Speaker:

right before that class,

Speaker:

we had to have a special time of the day

Speaker:

where we did the AIDS lecture.

Speaker:

Do you remember back in the day when we

Speaker:

had to have to give the

Speaker:

AIDS lecture, the HIV lecture?

Speaker:

So we just done that.

Speaker:

My Japanese students come in.

Speaker:

I have this great

Speaker:

lesson prepared for them.

Speaker:

And I start explain going and coming.

Speaker:

And

Speaker:

I'm like, after two minutes, I'm like,

Speaker:

you children are so immature.

Speaker:

So, yeah, I've been there, too.

Speaker:

Yeah, I always give when I

Speaker:

give them words that I know.

Speaker:

Yeah. When I get when I give them that I

Speaker:

know is going to get a sink.

Speaker:

I go, you've got 30

Speaker:

seconds get out of your system.

Speaker:

Like when I say the word that douche,

Speaker:

you've got to explain.

Speaker:

Yeah. Or in Spanish, gonna do.

Speaker:

Oh, yeah.

Speaker:

Yeah, because they just came out of sex

Speaker:

ed and learned about

Speaker:

STDs and they got that one or Puse.

Speaker:

They start. Oh, my gosh.

Speaker:

Molestar. Oh, yes.

Speaker:

They laugh that one.

Speaker:

Oh, my gosh.

Speaker:

Yeah, they go.

Speaker:

He's my kids.

Speaker:

When they learn that they go, he's

Speaker:

molesting me Spanish

Speaker:

way, not English way.

Speaker:

And they don't believe me.

Speaker:

So I had to steal from a hotel.

Speaker:

Yes, I stole from a hotel.

Speaker:

They didn't believe me that the do not

Speaker:

disturb signs say no more less.

Speaker:

And so I brought one home

Speaker:

from there and they showed him.

Speaker:

They're like, oh, my God,

Speaker:

it really does say that.

Speaker:

And then I have a picture

Speaker:

of a sign, a rule sign about

Speaker:

the alligators in Mexico.

Speaker:

They don't they put a fence around their

Speaker:

habitat not to keep them in their

Speaker:

habitat, but to keep

Speaker:

us out of their habitat.

Speaker:

And it has in there, it says, don't

Speaker:

bother the alligators.

Speaker:

It says, keep your pets

Speaker:

and your children away.

Speaker:

You know, all these little funny little

Speaker:

things, but they

Speaker:

always laugh at the molest.

Speaker:

And I go, originally molest is not what

Speaker:

it meant that it means now.

Speaker:

It originally was to bother.

Speaker:

There's some old Disney cartoon and I

Speaker:

took a screenshot and

Speaker:

it's the park ranger.

Speaker:

And he's putting out a sign that says

Speaker:

don't molest the bears.

Speaker:

And so I show the students

Speaker:

that I'm like, this is the 1940s.

Speaker:

We were still saying that just because we

Speaker:

needed a euphemism because we didn't want

Speaker:

to talk about actual

Speaker:

bad stuff in the world.

Speaker:

So we came up with a euphemism and and I

Speaker:

remember using that word in the 80s.

Speaker:

I don't remember using that word.

Speaker:

It might have been we just didn't talk

Speaker:

about that stuff, too.

Speaker:

It could have been that.

Speaker:

But I don't remember when

Speaker:

that word came into usage.

Speaker:

But it's funny how words that we can

Speaker:

laugh at, but I let them go. You got 30

Speaker:

seconds after 30 seconds.

Speaker:

You laugh. That's

Speaker:

we're going to have a talk.

Speaker:

We're going to have words.

Speaker:

Giving you 30 seconds so you can all get

Speaker:

it out of your system.

Speaker:

Because German has a lot of ones, too.

Speaker:

We have a good to fight a good to fight.

Speaker:

Yeah, that's right.

Speaker:

By us.

Speaker:

Then you have an iron fart in our part.

Speaker:

It's it's part right.

Speaker:

Yeah. But it's just,

Speaker:

yeah, be turned into an F.

Speaker:

So yeah, because the fart is goes.

Speaker:

No, no, it has nothing

Speaker:

to do with it's it's goes.

Speaker:

So I'm fart is it's on right.

Speaker:

Depart, right. Oh, depart.

Speaker:

Yes. Yes.

Speaker:

So so they always laugh at the fart on

Speaker:

there when you do the fart.

Speaker:

And dick is fat.

Speaker:

Oh, yeah. Something is dick and it's

Speaker:

spelled exactly the same way.

Speaker:

So they're going right off, you know.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Languages are so funny.

Speaker:

And then, you know, you

Speaker:

got your French on fuck.

Speaker:

Yeah. Oh, my gosh.

Speaker:

My kids went crazy

Speaker:

over that a few years ago.

Speaker:

Yeah. I try to avoid seals in class

Speaker:

whenever possible

Speaker:

because it's close enough.

Speaker:

It's close enough.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

So let's go back to our

Speaker:

we're getting near the end here.

Speaker:

I can't believe we always when I talk

Speaker:

with you, it goes so fast.

Speaker:

Sorry.

Speaker:

What let's see if a good question I've

Speaker:

got in here that we

Speaker:

can kind of go back to

Speaker:

well, for me, I think a lot of just

Speaker:

because especially when I started, I felt

Speaker:

like an imposter and I had to keep

Speaker:

telling myself, wait a

Speaker:

minute, I'm the one who's fluent.

Speaker:

It's OK. Take a deep breath.

Speaker:

You know, and now that I'm teaching, I

Speaker:

have to teach an English language

Speaker:

arts class and I'm not used to teaching

Speaker:

English language arts.

Speaker:

I'm not used to teaching the

Speaker:

great Gatsby in the crucible.

Speaker:

And so I really feel like

Speaker:

an imposter in that class.

Speaker:

And I have to keep like reminding myself

Speaker:

for me, the mantra that I keep coming

Speaker:

back to now, I've got colleagues who are

Speaker:

very, very old school,

Speaker:

my next door colleague

Speaker:

whom I love to pieces.

Speaker:

He's been teaching for 38 years, but by

Speaker:

golly, he's going to teach

Speaker:

the audio lingual method and that's it.

Speaker:

He's he's not

Speaker:

experimenting with anything new.

Speaker:

And so for me, I keep reminding myself,

Speaker:

my students remember

Speaker:

this three months from now.

Speaker:

My students remember this next year.

Speaker:

His students, they

Speaker:

start something on Monday.

Speaker:

They do their skit on Friday.

Speaker:

The next Monday, they don't remember what

Speaker:

they said in that skit on Friday.

Speaker:

Absolutely. And so for me, for me, that's

Speaker:

that's a lot for why I'm like,

Speaker:

I'm going to stick with the comprehensive

Speaker:

input because I can see in my students

Speaker:

that they're retaining

Speaker:

everything that we've done,

Speaker:

partially because we don't

Speaker:

ever it's not one and done.

Speaker:

It's not like we're done.

Speaker:

We're moving on to the next chapter now.

Speaker:

We're always

Speaker:

spiraling back to everything.

Speaker:

They're always building on.

Speaker:

You were talking about the intermediate

Speaker:

low, intermediate mid.

Speaker:

You're kind of at a plateau.

Speaker:

It's because everything is

Speaker:

solidifying in your head now.

Speaker:

Yeah. OK. And so that's

Speaker:

that's where my students are.

Speaker:

Things are solidifying.

Speaker:

They're getting really good at that, at

Speaker:

just, you know, adding detail and

Speaker:

making sure the verb matches the subject

Speaker:

for the romance

Speaker:

languages and things like that.

Speaker:

And so I'm very like when I look at how

Speaker:

my students are doing,

Speaker:

I feel pretty confident

Speaker:

because I only teach Spanish one.

Speaker:

I feel pretty confident when I send my

Speaker:

Spanish one students on to him

Speaker:

the end to my other colleagues that my

Speaker:

students are coming from a solid

Speaker:

foundation, they're going to do just fine

Speaker:

in my colleagues classes in Spanish, too.

Speaker:

They're probably even

Speaker:

done with there is to.

Speaker:

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

Speaker:

Something you made me

Speaker:

think about that all the time.

Speaker:

You know, that map you were talking

Speaker:

about, I remember when

Speaker:

Apple Maps first came out,

Speaker:

it was like taking people in rows that

Speaker:

didn't exist and all that kind of stuff.

Speaker:

That's that messy part of the brain.

Speaker:

You know, when the map is starting to

Speaker:

develop with an

Speaker:

intermediate is when finally,

Speaker:

you know, Apple Maps kind of caught up to

Speaker:

Google Maps where it was pretty accurate.

Speaker:

But Apple Maps had

Speaker:

that imposter syndrome.

Speaker:

I want to be Google

Speaker:

Maps, but I'm not there yet.

Speaker:

So it's kind of funny that way.

Speaker:

But what we it's so important that the

Speaker:

kids know that it's

Speaker:

messy and it's not clear.

Speaker:

And there's going to be big jumps in some

Speaker:

things and slow jumps and other things.

Speaker:

But we need to be able and

Speaker:

we kind of talked about that.

Speaker:

We need to look for that evidence of

Speaker:

acquisition along the way.

Speaker:

Right. And we also have to be critical

Speaker:

of ourselves because there are some

Speaker:

things that we do in our

Speaker:

classrooms that are not

Speaker:

working and that needs to change and you

Speaker:

can look to somebody else.

Speaker:

But know that you're going to take the

Speaker:

ideas from that other person.

Speaker:

You're not going to be that other person.

Speaker:

I am not a la maestro loca.

Speaker:

I am not that person.

Speaker:

I am me. Yeah.

Speaker:

And I do things very

Speaker:

similarly, but different.

Speaker:

I am not a bling.

Speaker:

I am not I my own self and I have my own

Speaker:

ways of doing the things.

Speaker:

But I take what works.

Speaker:

And I make it my own.

Speaker:

Some things I take and go, OK, I like it

Speaker:

exactly the way it is.

Speaker:

I'm going to keep it

Speaker:

exactly the way it is.

Speaker:

I have been doing quick rights the same

Speaker:

way, the way that

Speaker:

Blaine told us to do them

Speaker:

way back in the beginning. 2001.

Speaker:

Started 10 minutes when

Speaker:

class average gets to 100,

Speaker:

dropped time by 30 seconds with a goal of

Speaker:

getting to five by the end of the year.

Speaker:

Done the same way every year since 2001.

Speaker:

Other teachers go, I don't

Speaker:

want to give up the 10 minutes.

Speaker:

I'm going to do five minutes.

Speaker:

Just watch the numbers grow.

Speaker:

I'm like five minutes,

Speaker:

at least in the beginning.

Speaker:

They're not right.

Speaker:

They don't have time to think.

Speaker:

They don't have time to think.

Speaker:

They need that 10 minutes.

Speaker:

And then it's really neat when you start

Speaker:

them in level two and you start back at

Speaker:

the 10 minutes and you see them like, I

Speaker:

need two papers, please,

Speaker:

because I'm going to run

Speaker:

out of words at the bottom.

Speaker:

So that's impressive.

Speaker:

And you see where they go.

Speaker:

Take these samples,

Speaker:

find ways to make note

Speaker:

of where your kids are,

Speaker:

where you want them to be

Speaker:

and see, yes, this area.

Speaker:

Is where they're getting it.

Speaker:

This area, they might

Speaker:

need some more work.

Speaker:

So I need to find another way or adapt

Speaker:

the way that I'm teaching it.

Speaker:

Just like you do with your kids.

Speaker:

I my grade book is broken up into

Speaker:

listening, reading, speaking and writing.

Speaker:

My kids don't come and say, I've got a C.

Speaker:

I need to get a B. What do I need to do?

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They come and go, Pro F.

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I my my listening grade is not good.

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What can I do to help

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improve my listening grade?

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Then as a teacher, as a coach, I can say

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these activities will help you build your

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vocabulary and your listening ability to

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hear those words so that when they're put

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back into context,

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you can listen to that.

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So I can tell them what to actually do

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just like a sports coach did.

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That's as far as sports as I get.

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But but you can tell them exactly that.

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So you have to do the same thing as

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yourself as a teacher.

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What skills are you asking

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your kids to be able to do?

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Where are they meeting those expectations

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and where are they not?

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And instead of looking at what they're

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not doing, look at

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what you can do to change

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your habits to help them

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because part of it is them.

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But part of it's you.

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I love what Blaine always said.

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If the kids fail an

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assessment, that's on you, not on them.

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You didn't teach it to them long enough.

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You didn't teach it to them using the way

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that they understood it.

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It and it's not a

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reflection of you as a teacher.

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It's just the way that you

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totally need another way.

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And a principal once

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told me that he won't

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hire a math teacher who can't teach how

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to solve a problem three completely

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different ways because

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the brains think different.

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That can't always be the same way.

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Yep.

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And the genius of math is not whether you

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get the right answer.

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It's how many different ways can you

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break the numbers apart?

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And I think language is the same thing as

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how many different ways can you express

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the same idea? And, you know, it's funny.

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Years ago that they

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made a movie about it, the

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Spanish teacher who got these kids in

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algebra, who all the teachers rejected.

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And he got him to pass the

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AP test, the AP math test.

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And these kids were like gang

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bangers and stuff like that.

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It was a true story based in Los Angeles.

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And they got the AP, the college board

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accused them all of cheating because they

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all did the math the exact same way

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because he taught them a system and they

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followed that system. Everybody in that

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class followed the exact same system

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to the letter.

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So they had to redo the test with the

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college board watching every student

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and they did it again all the same way

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and passed it again.

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So they made a truth that I forgot the

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name of the movie,

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but it's a great movie.

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It's really inspirational.

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But that kind of thing.

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So you got to know

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different ways to teach

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the same thing because what works for

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some work doesn't work for others.

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My latest thing with adjective agreement,

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I say it's got to rhyme.

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La Casa Bonita.

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And I do the gestures, La Casa Bonita,

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and Chico Bonito.

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Right. And I do my little gestures with

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it and I make it's got to make it rhyme.

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Los Chico's Bonito's got

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a rhyme and it helps them.

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They don't understand what you got to

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make it match the the noun.

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We don't have that in English, but they

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understand what rhyming is so they can

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make it work all the

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time. No, it doesn't.

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But it works about 80 to

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90 percent of the time.

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And they understand it.

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Sometimes that's good to know.

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Yeah, that's good.

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Eighty ninety is good.

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Yeah, because the practice of the

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language will get

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them over the rest of it.

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The hump eventually.

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Yeah, we've been talking a lot about

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thinking reflection and thinking about

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what you did. I carve

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out because it's important

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before I go home every

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single day, I have a journal.

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This is what I did.

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Did it work?

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This is what I'm going

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to tweak it next year.

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It only takes five minutes.

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Doesn't take that long.

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I'm not writing this long letter to my

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future self that's going to go in a time

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capsule, but it's so easy for me to look

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back on last year's

Speaker:

journal two years ago.

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Journal, what did I do for this?

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Oh, yes. OK, this is what worked.

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This didn't and then also being flexible,

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like teaching is all about flexibility.

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Hey, this has been working for a decade.

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Suddenly, it's not working.

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It's time to change things up.

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But I've got my my daily reflection so

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that I know like I don't wait six months

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before I realize it's off track and

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you're better than me.

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I don't do it that often.

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I usually do it a couple

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every couple of weeks or so.

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But I do the same thing.

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But I spend a good hour at the end of the

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year reflecting not only on what I think

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did well and what things that could

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change, but what things I want to do

Speaker:

differently next year, I make a list of

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things that I want to do differently so

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that I can when I come back in the fall,

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that I have that right there for me right

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off the bat, I think it's really

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important, the reflection piece.

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We ask our kids to do it.

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We need to do it as well.

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And I think there's a lot of growth in

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that when you when you take that time

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and think about what's

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working and what's not.

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And sometimes it's not

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changing what you did for many years.

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I don't know what happened to it, but TPR

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went away for me in my classroom.

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It was a staple.

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Then all of a sudden it disappeared.

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I don't know exactly when it happened.

Speaker:

But then I'm like, wait, and I

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brought it back and it helped.

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It did what it did back then.

Speaker:

But I don't know why I dropped it for

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like five or six years.

Speaker:

Yes. So so I I had to

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drop it for like two

Speaker:

months this year because the kids were

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getting they were expecting it.

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And so they were

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knowing when to check out.

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So I switched it up and I started doing

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other stuff and then when I brought it

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back and slightly different and they're

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responding to it again.

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But basically, it's again, the

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flexibility I had to say, OK, it's

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suddenly not working.

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My reflection showed me

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it's suddenly not working.

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Let me do something else.

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OK, let me try it again.

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Oh, good, it's working.

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Let me try it this way.

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Good, it's working.

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You know, so again, that that reflection

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piece I think is so important, especially

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if if we want to avoid that feeling of,

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oh, no, I'm not doing anything right.

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As long as we're reflecting, we know

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exactly where we know where.

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Yeah, we know where we are.

Speaker:

And when you talk about TPR, too, back in

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the olden days, we used to do.

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Blaine gave us 100 words that we had to

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teach before we started stories.

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It took about six weeks

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to teach those 100 words.

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And then he had us do an experiment, only

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talk 20 words and got in the story.

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I'm like, oh, my God, 20 words.

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I'm going to get that done

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in like in a week in there.

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And I now have a happy medium where I

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focus on most of the

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year on the sweet 16.

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Right. So it doesn't matter whether it's

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level one or level two.

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We start right back at the beginning.

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Even for level two, if they

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had me, they know them already.

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We do them again.

Speaker:

We do them slowly.

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We do about in the first

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couple of weeks, we do six a week.

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And then by the third week, we're only

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doing like three a week.

Speaker:

But I do all the sweet 16 and then I go

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through because I have to teach with the

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textbook, I go through my textbook

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chapters and I pull out the most

Speaker:

highest frequency words out of there.

Speaker:

So I've got like talks and lives.

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Those aren't in the sweet 16, but those

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are ones that I have to teach.

Speaker:

Anyway, so I'll add those in.

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Wega.

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I'll add those in and

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they're nice and easy.

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So I think I've got maybe 30 words that I

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focus on all year long.

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Yes. Yes.

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And I do those on TPR so

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they get them, they get them.

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And so and I can see right

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away when kids are understanding.

Speaker:

So I know that it's working because I

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have now a girl competing with a native

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speaker in my class

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to get them right fast.

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Oh, great.

Speaker:

And then she's like she was a kid who was

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struggling and being like, I can't

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remember all these and now

Speaker:

we're almost at the end of them.

Speaker:

And she is going because I have them

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acted out and say it at the same time.

Speaker:

They have to. Yeah.

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Yeah. So I have them do it.

Speaker:

And she's like, so I go pony.

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She goes, here she puts and I'll go late.

Speaker:

She goes.

Speaker:

Here she gives.

Speaker:

She goes, you know, and she's going just

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as fast and they compete.

Speaker:

I'm like, you're competing with a native

Speaker:

speaker who knows the words already.

Speaker:

He knew him before he came in the class.

Speaker:

So that's another way to show that

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progress where

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they're actually acquiring.

Speaker:

So bottom line here

Speaker:

is if you're in class,

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you're speaking as much of the target

Speaker:

language as you possibly can.

Speaker:

And the kids are comprehending it.

Speaker:

You're doing your job.

Speaker:

That's it.

Speaker:

Did you cover the

Speaker:

past participle that day?

Speaker:

Did you cover Agile agreement that day?

Speaker:

Who the heck cares?

Speaker:

As long as you're speaking the language,

Speaker:

you're making yourself comprehensible and

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the kids are comprehending it.

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You are being successful.

Speaker:

Yeah.

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It's not going to show

Speaker:

you on a daily basis.

Speaker:

There's not going to be

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leaps and bounds of growth.

Speaker:

It's a marathon.

Speaker:

It is not a sprint.

Speaker:

Take those.

Speaker:

Yeah.

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Take those samples.

Speaker:

I mean, the textbook expects them to

Speaker:

master a chapter in

Speaker:

two weeks and excel at it

Speaker:

for the rest of their lives.

Speaker:

It ain't happening that way.

Speaker:

Sorry.

Speaker:

It just does not do it that way.

Speaker:

That's not the way the brain works.

Speaker:

You can't just memorize it.

Speaker:

And now, OK, you're done learning these

Speaker:

words. We're moving on to the next thing

Speaker:

now and you never revisit those previous

Speaker:

words. Yeah, absolutely not.

Speaker:

They got to be in context.

Speaker:

They've got to be

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repeated over and over again.

Speaker:

And it's funny because my curriculum for

Speaker:

me, my personal curriculum is based off

Speaker:

the suit, 16 period. Yep.

Speaker:

That's the book I want to teach them.

Speaker:

They're like only 16 words.

Speaker:

Yep. Because

Speaker:

everything else comes for free.

Speaker:

I don't have to teach boy and girl

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because I need them in a

Speaker:

sentence and they're going

Speaker:

to be in the sentence all the time.

Speaker:

I don't need to get enough.

Speaker:

Yeah, I don't need to teach and or but or

Speaker:

or because they come up all the time.

Speaker:

As long as I'm focusing on the verbs, the

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other words come in naturally.

Speaker:

I don't have a list

Speaker:

of adjectives I teach.

Speaker:

I describe people and animals.

Speaker:

And guess what?

Speaker:

The highest frequency

Speaker:

ones show up automatically.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

So, you know, that's what I work on.

Speaker:

And if you work on something and simplify

Speaker:

your curriculum, you will find that that

Speaker:

will work really, really well.

Speaker:

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker:

So we have wrapped up episode number 30.

Speaker:

Can't believe we're

Speaker:

at number 30 already.

Speaker:

We started this and I started this back

Speaker:

in July of last year and we're almost to

Speaker:

that year. So that's our episode 30.

Speaker:

And if you made it

Speaker:

this far, congratulations,

Speaker:

because you just spent your special

Speaker:

Mother's Day, Sunday morning thinking

Speaker:

critically about your own teaching

Speaker:

instead of watching

Speaker:

home improvement shows,

Speaker:

which probably says everything about who

Speaker:

you are as a person.

Speaker:

A genuine thank you to

Speaker:

Pamela for all these weeks.

Speaker:

She's been with us for

Speaker:

coming back and being

Speaker:

characteristically

Speaker:

honest about the hard stuff.

Speaker:

Someone who has literally translated the

Speaker:

words of professional actors for a living

Speaker:

and still chooses to spend her days in a

Speaker:

high school classroom.

Speaker:

We're all a little bit crazy for that.

Speaker:

And it is either deeply committed to

Speaker:

craft or extremely stubborn.

Speaker:

And maybe both. Yeah, a little.

Speaker:

Yeah. And a little bit crazy for me.

Speaker:

And in CI, those are

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basically the same thing.

Speaker:

If this episode made you think, made you

Speaker:

feel a little less alone or made you

Speaker:

realize you've been grading yourself on a

Speaker:

curve that doesn't apply to you,

Speaker:

please share it with another

Speaker:

teacher who needs to hear it.

Speaker:

Subscribe so you don't

Speaker:

miss what's coming next.

Speaker:

And if you want to leave a review,

Speaker:

that's the kind of thing that actually

Speaker:

helps other teachers find the show.

Speaker:

I also want to give a shout

Speaker:

out to all of the moms out there.

Speaker:

You are the true MVPs.

Speaker:

And I hope you have an incredible day

Speaker:

with your family

Speaker:

celebrating your children.

Speaker:

And one more thing before we go, we're

Speaker:

taking a short break.

Speaker:

So we're at the end

Speaker:

of the current season.

Speaker:

We'll be back on Sunday, June

Speaker:

14th with a brand new episode.

Speaker:

I'm still working on our topics.

Speaker:

So mark your calendar, set a reminder, do

Speaker:

whatever you need to do.

Speaker:

We'll see you then.

Speaker:

And in the meantime, catch up on past

Speaker:

episodes on YouTube or

Speaker:

your favorite podcast

Speaker:

app. Ditch the drills, trust the process.

Speaker:

And I'll see you next

Speaker:

time on Comprehend This.

Speaker:

Bye bye, everybody.

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About the Podcast

Comprehend THIS!
Real talk for real language teachers—because comprehension isn't optional.
Welcome to Comprehend THIS!, the podcast for language teachers who are tired of the same old textbook chatter and want the real talk instead.

Every episode is like pulling up a chair in the copy room or leaning on the hallway wall at your favorite conference — except it’s not awkward, the coffee’s better (yours, not mine), and nobody’s grading you.

Host Scott Benedict sits down with 1–2 guests — teachers, trainers, authors, CI rebels — to swap stories about what actually works in a comprehension-based classroom.

We talk the good, the weird, the messy middle — first wins, facepalms, reading that actually sticks, grammar without drills, surviving department side-eyes, grading for real proficiency (without losing your mind), and everything in between.

It’s casual. It’s honest. It’s LIVE — so you get all the “did they just say that?” moments, unfiltered.

Pull up your favorite mug. Laugh, nod along, steal an idea or two for Monday, and remember: you’re not the only one doing it different — and doing it better.

Watch LIVE: Sunday mornings at 8am Pacific / 11am Eastern, on YouTube at youtube.com/@immediateimmersion — or listen soon after on your favorite podcast app.

Comprehend THIS! — Real talk for real teachers. Ditch the drills. Trust the process. Stay human.

About your host

Profile picture for Scott Benedict

Scott Benedict

Scott Benedict has been teaching Spanish since 2001—which means he’s survived more textbook adoptions, curriculum rewrites, and “revolutionary” teaching fads than he cares to count. He runs Immediate Immersion and hosts the Comprehend THIS! Podcast, where he tells the truth about teaching with comprehensible input: the good, the bad, and the “did that student just say tengo queso again?”

After two decades in the classroom, Scott knows what actually works (spoiler: not conjugation charts) and isn’t afraid to say it out loud. On the podcast, he dives into CI strategies, teacher survival hacks, and the occasional story that will make you question your career choices—but in a good way.

When he’s not recording or coaching teachers, you’ll find him traveling, taking photos, or wandering yet another zoo because apparently, one giraffe enclosure is never enough.

Comprehend THIS! is equal parts professional growth and comic relief—because let’s be honest, if we don’t laugh about teaching, we’ll cry.