Episode 36

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Published on:

2nd Aug 2026

Episode 36: "The August Over-Planning Spiral

Back-to-school over-planning — in this episode of Comprehend THIS!, we get into why every August our planning brain overshoots into color-coded systems we abandon by week three. You'll walk away with a saner standard for how much to actually prep before day one, and permission to stop rebuilding units that were already fine.

We talk through the guilt of reusing last year's materials, the over-engineered systems that fall apart by October, and what "good enough and sustainable" really looks like when you're setting up for a new year.

I'm joined by Pamela Parks — a former professional translator who now teaches world language — and guest Mary Hooker, wrapping up her 33rd year teaching Spanish and Teacher Academy at Sehome High in Bellingham, a 2025 WAFLT Teacher of the Year, and a SOMOS teacher who happily admits she's never reused a lesson plan without major tweaks. So this back-to-school planning conversation is part support group, part intervention, and fully honest about how much prep is actually sustainable for a language teacher heading into a new year.

Not sure where you land as a comprehensible input teacher? Take the CI Proficiency Quiz and find out: https://imim.us/ciquiz

And if you want a whole year of CI-aligned materials you don't have to build from scratch every August, the CI Survival Kit has you covered: https://imim.us/kit

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Hosts:

Scott Benedict - https://www.instagram.com/immediateimmersion

Pamela Parks - https://imim.us/pamela

Mary Hooker - https://instagram.com/@mary.c.hooker

Resources & Links:

CI Survival Kit: https://imim.us/kit

Back-to-School Bootcamp - https://imim.us/bootcamp

Entertaining an Elephant - https://imim.us/elephant

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Transcript
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Hey everybody and welcome to

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episode 36 of Comprehend This.

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It's August 1st, not today but just

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thinking about it's August 1st.

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You have a color coding system, you have

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a fresh laminating

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cartridge, you have three

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brand new units for content that was

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completely fine last year

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and a wall calendar that will

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be alive by September 12th.

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Welcome to the over planning spiral.

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I'm here with Pamela Parks, a formal

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professional translator,

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current world language teacher

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and someone who has watched me build

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systems I could not

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maintain for years now.

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And our guest is Mary Hooker finishing

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her 33rd year in

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teaching Spanish and Teacher

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Academy up at Suhome High in Bellingham.

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Mary's a 2025 Waffle Teacher of the Year,

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a Somos Convert and

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this is the part I love,

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a woman who has, by her own admission,

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never once reused a lesson

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plan without major tweaks.

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Same here.

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So this episode is going to be a support

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group and an

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intervention at the same time.

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We're talking about the guilt of reusing

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the systems that

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collapse by October and how to

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prep enough without prepping yourself

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into a hole you'll spend

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all of September climbing

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out of.

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Come for the shame, stay

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for permission to stop.

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And we'll be right back

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after these short messages.

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It will go.

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Is it already August again?

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And you're supposed to have a fresh,

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engaging, life changing

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plan for the first week?

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Cute.

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Here's the deal.

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Back to school boot

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camp is your secret weapon.

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10 short pre-recorded lessons you can

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watch in pajamas while

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hiding from your admin or

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during that mysterious

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planning period we keep hearing about.

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You walk away with strategies, plans and

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actual confidence, not

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just a Pinterest board full

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of guilt.

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Access it all for a full year.

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Go to mm.us slash boot camp and get

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yourself together

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before the kids show up.

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Welcome to Comprehend This, Real Talk for

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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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Good morning.

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How's everybody doing this morning?

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Doing great.

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So excited to see my friend

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Mary Hooker here this morning.

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Yay.

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Awesome.

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Yes.

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Welcome, Mary.

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Tell us a little bit about yourself.

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Well, as you said in the intro, I am a

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Spanish teacher starting

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my, well, I started teaching

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in 1992.

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So however long ago that was.

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I teach at See Home High School in

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Bellingham, Washington.

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Bellingham is an amazing place if you

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haven't ever been here.

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It's beautiful.

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I originally, I grew up in Texas though,

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so that's sort of how I

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got Spanish on my radar

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having so many kids at my school who were

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native Spanish speakers and friends.

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And so that's sort of what began my

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journey learning

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Spanish or acquiring Spanish.

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Let's see, I'm enjoying my summer.

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I have a husband, a golden retriever, an

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18 year old cat, and my

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adult children who are

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27 and 24.

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Oh my gosh.

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That's a full plate there.

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Full plate.

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I can barely keep up with my two year old

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Belgian Malinois, I

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can barely keep up with.

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And then I've got a 16 year old grumpy

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old Gus of a dog who is grumpy and

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particular and wants

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what he wants and begs and

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barks when he doesn't get it.

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So yeah, I can't imagine a cat and a dog

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and a husband and kid.

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Oh my gosh.

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And my summer was

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officially over on Wednesday.

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I had to go back Wednesday and Thursday

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for this is a misnomer.

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I thought it's called curriculum camp,

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but it has nothing to do with curriculum.

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It's two half paid days that you go in

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and set your room up.

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Oh, or do whatever you want to do.

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Well, that's nice.

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But for four hours.

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You're paid.

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Yeah.

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So how are your new digs?

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How are my gosh?

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Okay, we all have

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start of the year problems.

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So this is this was no different.

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I get it.

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It's a new school.

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Yeah, my assistant principal

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comes in and I really like her.

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She's a former Spanish teacher.

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I hope she's my supervisor, but I don't

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know who's my student.

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I haven't met the principal yet.

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But so go in and she comes and tells me

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she says, well, I got to

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let you in your room because

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we're rekeying the entire campus and

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they're not finished yet.

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So we don't know.

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I don't know if your room's

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got keys or not on it yet.

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But even so, even if it's been a rekey,

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there are no keys yet.

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We don't have the keys.

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So we, the administration will have to

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open the doors for you.

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Okay, good.

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There.

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Then we get in there and she goes, yeah,

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the rooms weren't cleaned yet.

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Because two of our, well,

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one print, one custodian quit.

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The other one moved ahead

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custodian in elementary school.

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So they're still cleaning the rooms.

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Looks like yours is done.

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So go ahead and put your furniture down.

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I put my furniture, get it

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all the way I want to get.

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There's 45 desks in my classroom.

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What the heck?

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Am I going to have 45 students?

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I still can't see my class.

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That's me.

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So, so I get it all arranged so it fits

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in there and there's still

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room to kind of move around.

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And then the custodian comes in and he

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goes, we need you to put this all back.

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Why?

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They hadn't cleaned the room.

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They hadn't cleaned the room.

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So I'm like, oh, my.

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That happened to be one.

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That happened to be one year.

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And I was like, no, the

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room's not getting cleaned.

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Yeah, I was really sore because normally

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I don't have to move the furniture,

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but I had to move all the furniture

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because all the desks were stacked up.

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I, and I'm like, I am way

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too old to be moving all this.

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My hips were sore.

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My knees were sore.

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So that was my first.

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And then I put up all my posters, right?

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And in 24 years, I have never had a

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problem putting up posters.

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Never.

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I stand on desks.

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I stand on bookcases.

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I'm, you know, I'm balancing.

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I staple.

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They're always in a perfect

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line because my I can do it.

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I must have been drunk

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because I stand back.

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I stand back at the end.

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And one side of posters is going up like

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a mountain and the

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other one's going down.

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And I'm like, this is

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going to irritate me.

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I've got to fix it.

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And it wasn't even by

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a like a little bit.

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It was really noticeable.

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So the second day I came in, I had to

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tear them all down and

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do it all over again.

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And the teacher left me seven staplers.

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And only one word.

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Seven.

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Yeah, but only one word.

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So I'm like, why did you just not throw

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those away if they don't work?

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So, yes, that was my first two days.

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Everybody seems nice so far.

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Our official day to start is Friday.

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That's when we're supposed to officially

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be back because the

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curriculum camp was voluntary.

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Okay.

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So Fridays are official day and then kids

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come back a week from this Wednesday.

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The 12th is when they.

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So early.

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Yes.

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Well, how many times

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early is my last school?

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My last school, they start.

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Well, the teachers come back officially

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tomorrow and the kids start on Wednesday.

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So very early.

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Yeah, in California,

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we kind of start early.

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Spanish department.

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How big is or the

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language department as a whole?

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How big is it?

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I'm trying to think I don't know.

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I don't haven't met everybody yet.

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So there's two guys.

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I met one of the guys.

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There's two.

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I think there's two girls.

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That's four.

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I'm the fifth one.

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And then we have ASL, one ASL teacher.

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So six.

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Wow.

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So we have about 2100

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students and they already asked me,

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do you think you might want to sell your

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prep because we think

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we're overbooked in level one.

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Oh, yeah.

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Already.

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Sell your prep.

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Wow.

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I would rather.

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I don't know.

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I could not do that.

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I don't even.

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I've done it before.

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I've done it before and

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where I've had no prep.

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But this is because

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we're on this weird block.

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I still have a prep.

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I guess when I have a prep every day, I

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have a prep every other day.

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But I've done it where I've sold my prep

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where I have no prep the whole year.

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Yeah.

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The thing that gets you excited about it,

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it's one seventh of your salary.

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You get extra because

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we teach seven classes.

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Divide your salary into sevens and then

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you get an extra one seventh of that.

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So that's a lot of money.

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That's a lot of money and it goes towards

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retirement and everything.

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So I mean, I said yes if you need me.

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Yeah.

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Good for you.

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Yeah, I would have too.

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Well, let me tell you

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how I met Mary before we.

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Yes.

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Yes.

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Go ahead.

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We served on this statewide committee,

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which I love to pieces.

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It was so great.

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This was the state proficiency initiative

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for languages and learning.

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Spill.

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I don't know where

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they came up with that.

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We were talking about crazy acronyms.

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So that was a crazy acronym.

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This was so great.

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And unfortunately, the

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funding has run out for it.

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So I haven't seen Mary in

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like two years now, right?

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But we got like, I think one of the best

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things we did that

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really changed my teaching was

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we got training on the

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stamp test, the Avant test.

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And although, you know, of course, I know

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the actual descriptors and everything,

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but I don't think I'd really internalized

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it until we got training.

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Because, you know, for years, I'd been

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teaching my students

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how to take the test.

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I'd taken the practice test, but I hadn't

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seen it from the other side.

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Like, how are they getting scored?

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Because sometimes I was like, how did you

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get this good of a score?

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Because I know you're not doing as well.

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And now I understand it.

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So the thing that really blew me away the

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most was understanding that

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students aren't consistently conjugating

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verbs until intermediate low.

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That totally blew me away.

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Like, I needed to get that training to

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really understand what that meant.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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Yeah, it makes you

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realize that our expectations,

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especially if you're following a

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textbook, for what they should be able to

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do with the language,

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are completely unrealistic.

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They are very unrealistic.

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And when you read the intermediate low,

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that's where they

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start to have control over.

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And the only tenses they really care

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about is past, present, and future.

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Right.

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You know, if you have subjunctive or

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conditional, that's

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just icing on the cake.

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But they're looking for that, you know,

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when you get an intermediate mid,

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some more control of those three tenses,

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past, present, and future.

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And so, and it's funny,

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I just watched a video.

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I've been getting into

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these linguistic videos lately.

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There's this one guy, he's

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not really a linguistics.

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He's a military teacher.

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And he's talking

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about some of the things.

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And one of the things he talked, I never

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seen it put this way.

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He put a grid, a nine

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square grid of grammar tenses.

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And the first part is

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what's called tense.

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And that is past, present, and future.

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And then he's got aspect.

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Aspect.

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Yep.

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Yep.

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And for the last one.

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Yeah.

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Well, you know, I

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didn't put the mood in there.

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I just put aspect was the last one in the

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middle one was continuous.

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Oh, yeah.

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So he did those.

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And so we just did nine.

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Some languages don't have it.

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Like French doesn't have it.

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You know, German doesn't

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really have it the same way.

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It's built into the present tense.

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We're Spanish, we kind of

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spell it out a little bit more.

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But it was just an interesting way to

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think about tenses a

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little bit different.

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And then he said something that I had to

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look up because I'm like,

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I know I learned 14 tenses in Spanish.

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I know I did.

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And he said English was

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only a two tense language.

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And I'm like, what?

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Okay.

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We have past, we have present, we have

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future, we have conditional.

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And so he said it was English was two

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tenses and Spanish was only five tenses.

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And I'm like, what?

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And I'm learning Maltese and I know

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Maltese is only two tenses.

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So I was like, but what?

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Then I read what the

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definition of tense is.

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The linguistic definition of tense is not

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using a helper word.

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The actual root word changes.

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It changes.

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And in English, it's true.

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We only have two conjugations, the S on

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third person singular and present,

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and ED for past tense.

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Everything else uses a helper verb.

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We don't conjugate the

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word talk to say, I will talk.

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We add will to it.

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So it's not counted as a tense.

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And then when I look at

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Spanish, it was the same with it.

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Oh, now I see how you got your, your only

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your five tenses because we're not

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changing the actual verb.

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We're adding helping verbs into it.

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And that's where

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you're, you're getting it.

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And then you're not counting subjunctive

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because that's a mood, not a tense,

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even though you morph the verb.

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Right, right.

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So it's very, it was

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just very interesting.

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And he said interesting.

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He goes, and I can

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expand this to a 16 grid.

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If you want that, let me

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know and I'll make that video.

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But it was just very

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interesting and different.

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I've never saw it presented

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in that way before the tenses.

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And so it was just very,

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very interesting to me.

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Very interesting to me.

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So speaking of that, let's get on to our

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topic of today, which is over planning.

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And Mary and I were laughing because we

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both over plan our notes for the show.

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Mary, I'm like, and I'm just winging it

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off the top of my head

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because I don't over plan any more.

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I'll tell you when I first started way

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back when Mary talked

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about way back when with

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when TPRS just got was in its infancy.

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I did because I didn't know what I was.

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I didn't feel

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comfortable enough to wing a story.

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So I was like Oprah Winfrey.

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I took a sheet of paper.

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It was actually card stocks.

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I want to last longer than a day.

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Cardstock.

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I cut it in half and I printed in large

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like 14 font, the question in bold face.

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I'm going to have to question the

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sentence in bold face and then all of the

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questions I was going to

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ask underneath it and I was like Oprah

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Winfrey and I would read a

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card and someone said, oh,

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yeah, I used to put it on a ring.

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I said, oh, no, that

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was leading it to chances.

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If I dropped it, they could all go in a

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different order on a ring.

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Mine were stapled.

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So the order was fixed.

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I would have to worry about that.

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And I would just flip back and forth.

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I had certain things I would color code

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and I'd say, OK, that could change.

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But it was basically

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the name of the place.

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And then the rest was descriptions

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because if I wrote it was a

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boy, it was a boy in my story.

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It did not change.

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If I wrote it was target, that's where we

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were going because I couldn't figure.

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I couldn't think on the spot.

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So that's when I over planned.

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Nowadays, I don't over plan.

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I do have a plan and I have what I call

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my templates, my

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shells, which are my daily

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activities.

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I do in a slide and those are planned

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because they're not really changed.

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I don't have to adapt.

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But in between, it'll say conversation.

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What that conversation

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is going to be about.

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Who knows what are the

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kids want to talk about?

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It'll be a story.

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And I know I got to use

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these three words in my story.

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But the first day will

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be just called person.

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I'm not a character.

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It's where us developing a character on

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that day, what that

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character will be or what it

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looks like.

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I have no idea.

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I just need those little headers to let

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me know that's what the

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activity that we're working

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on.

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But I don't over plan anymore.

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I used to.

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I got beyond that.

Speaker:

Right.

Speaker:

Well, Scott, I think that

Speaker:

only comes with practice.

Speaker:

Yes, absolutely.

Speaker:

When you are starting, absolutely.

Speaker:

Write it out.

Speaker:

Do your mad libs and leave like, oh, I

Speaker:

need an adjective here.

Speaker:

This is where I'm going to circle.

Speaker:

You know, absolutely have that framework

Speaker:

for yourself so that

Speaker:

you don't drive yourself

Speaker:

crazy so that you're not nervous so that

Speaker:

you can be in the moment.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Is it bad that I

Speaker:

still do stuff like that?

Speaker:

After 30 years.

Speaker:

Because I don't do it

Speaker:

on a little binder thing.

Speaker:

I do it in my slides.

Speaker:

I use active inspire and I have, you

Speaker:

know, the bare bones

Speaker:

of the story up there.

Speaker:

And I've got pictures that because I

Speaker:

really feel like the

Speaker:

students need the pictures to

Speaker:

help associate the words and everything.

Speaker:

There's less of me doing

Speaker:

pop up grammar when I do that.

Speaker:

And I can just move the

Speaker:

pictures around on the screen.

Speaker:

But it reminds me, oh, yeah, I was going

Speaker:

to introduce the word school here.

Speaker:

Oh, yeah, I was going to introduce the

Speaker:

word house here, you know, whatever.

Speaker:

Yeah, slides are really helpful for

Speaker:

reminding me what I need to do next.

Speaker:

Because if I didn't have that, I would

Speaker:

completely forget what I was doing.

Speaker:

Absolutely.

Speaker:

The slides are like, oh,

Speaker:

yeah, I live and die by slides.

Speaker:

My kids goes, there's

Speaker:

160 slides to this deck.

Speaker:

I'm like, it's the whole week.

Speaker:

It's not just for today.

Speaker:

It's the whole week.

Speaker:

And if the we were talking about that.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

And when they go that like the office

Speaker:

will call me goes, okay, in

Speaker:

third period, you have Johnny.

Speaker:

Will you tell Johnny he's got to come

Speaker:

pick up his lunch at lunchtime?

Speaker:

I am not going to remember that.

Speaker:

We're in the middle of second period.

Speaker:

You asked me to remember it in third?

Speaker:

No.

Speaker:

So I go to my slides and I add a slide.

Speaker:

Johnny and then the slide comes up and

Speaker:

Johnny's name's up there.

Speaker:

He's like, what I do?

Speaker:

That's a reminder for me.

Speaker:

You have 180 slides in one slide deck.

Speaker:

I have 180 slide decks

Speaker:

with five slides apiece.

Speaker:

Because I don't know how, oh, this is

Speaker:

third period and they're

Speaker:

being kind of squirrely.

Speaker:

I'm going to go to the

Speaker:

activity, the exercise first.

Speaker:

We're going to we're going to get up on

Speaker:

our feet and we're going to, you know,

Speaker:

do some stretching and stuff.

Speaker:

And now we can go back to

Speaker:

the TPRS that I had planned.

Speaker:

So that way I can jump

Speaker:

around a little bit better.

Speaker:

I make links.

Speaker:

Yeah, I make links in my thing.

Speaker:

So either to an external

Speaker:

slide deck if I need to go there.

Speaker:

So I don't have to have all those tabs

Speaker:

open or I'll put them all in the thing.

Speaker:

And then I have links that goes to a

Speaker:

specific slide within my deck.

Speaker:

So my deck could grow even larger so I

Speaker:

can skip some things or or

Speaker:

thing that because I'll have

Speaker:

a link to be able to do that so I can

Speaker:

keep it organized in one slide deck.

Speaker:

I work just better with one slide deck

Speaker:

and something I love with Google Docs

Speaker:

that they just started adding.

Speaker:

They had that like table of contents

Speaker:

where you can kind of put a

Speaker:

doc within a doc within a doc

Speaker:

in the Google Docs because I

Speaker:

used to have my vocab list,

Speaker:

running vocab list, which is not a vocab

Speaker:

list in a traditional

Speaker:

sense where the kids have to

Speaker:

memorize these words.

Speaker:

It's just the you need to know this word

Speaker:

to understand what we're

Speaker:

talking about right now.

Speaker:

So I'll put it up there.

Speaker:

But I used to have one vocabulary list.

Speaker:

It's one running list for the whole year.

Speaker:

I just add to it and whatever is on the

Speaker:

screen is what we have to worry about.

Speaker:

But I used to have one for every class.

Speaker:

Well now with the way Google Docs works,

Speaker:

you can make one section

Speaker:

that's completely separate

Speaker:

from the other one.

Speaker:

It's not like it's

Speaker:

further down in the page.

Speaker:

It's like a whole new document, but

Speaker:

they're all linked off to the left.

Speaker:

And so I can have period one, period two,

Speaker:

period three, period four,

Speaker:

all listed on the left hand

Speaker:

side and then just click.

Speaker:

So I have one now one vocabulary doc for

Speaker:

everybody, but each have their own

Speaker:

section that's completely

Speaker:

separate from each other.

Speaker:

So I like that because the conversation

Speaker:

we have in period one is

Speaker:

not the same conversation

Speaker:

we have in period two.

Speaker:

So I can't have a common vocabulary list.

Speaker:

And again, it's not a vocabulary list in

Speaker:

the traditional sense.

Speaker:

It's a vocabulary list where, you know,

Speaker:

to make myself

Speaker:

comprehensible instead of me writing

Speaker:

it on the board because I get sloppy and

Speaker:

don't have as much board

Speaker:

space, I just type it up

Speaker:

on the screen just to make

Speaker:

myself be comprehensible.

Speaker:

I only translate written so that number

Speaker:

one, they can go back and see it.

Speaker:

And number two, that I'm not breaking the

Speaker:

illusion of being all

Speaker:

in the target language.

Speaker:

Right.

Speaker:

Mary, are you a

Speaker:

Google class or school or?

Speaker:

No, we do Microsoft.

Speaker:

I think up here on the Pacific Northwest,

Speaker:

it's a law that we have to do Microsoft.

Speaker:

I have no idea what when everyone says,

Speaker:

oh, Google classroom,

Speaker:

there's Google classroom

Speaker:

that it's a foreign language to me.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

The school, my schools use the Windows

Speaker:

computers, which when I

Speaker:

did middle school, we were in

Speaker:

Mac, which I love

Speaker:

because I'm a Mac person.

Speaker:

But but we still use

Speaker:

Google for everything else.

Speaker:

Google Me.

Speaker:

Yeah, we know.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Google Me.

Speaker:

We use Google Docs instead of Microsoft

Speaker:

Office because that costs more money.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Google Docs is free and.

Speaker:

I think we might get it out of cheap just

Speaker:

because of I don't know where we are.

Speaker:

Where we are.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

I do power mine on PowerPoints and I have

Speaker:

a giant PowerPoint for every unit.

Speaker:

Every unit.

Speaker:

Okay.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

And I like that.

Speaker:

I'm going to look into Google slides,

Speaker:

even though I use

Speaker:

PowerPoint, but I have a slide

Speaker:

that says day one, day two, day three and

Speaker:

a link so that it's

Speaker:

like my table of contents

Speaker:

so I can jump and I

Speaker:

share it with students.

Speaker:

I don't know if anyone ever looks at it

Speaker:

outside of class, but if they're absent.

Speaker:

You're doing your due diligence.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker:

It's funny.

Speaker:

I used to use because I'm a Mac person

Speaker:

keynote and I like

Speaker:

keynote because it was cleaner

Speaker:

when I look at a

Speaker:

PowerPoint or not a PowerPoint.

Speaker:

When I open up PowerPoint or open up

Speaker:

word, I used to use those

Speaker:

before they were alternatives.

Speaker:

Now they're alternatives and they're so

Speaker:

busy with all the little

Speaker:

options that the toolbar

Speaker:

is so busy.

Speaker:

I'm like, oh my gosh, my head hurts where

Speaker:

Mac was so simplified.

Speaker:

And so Google docs is something like

Speaker:

simplified and what I used

Speaker:

to use the keynote is what

Speaker:

it is on Mac.

Speaker:

I used to use that one, but then you can

Speaker:

convert it to

Speaker:

PowerPoint, but not everything

Speaker:

really works just the same way.

Speaker:

So what I found is I switched and it took

Speaker:

me a while to get used

Speaker:

to it to go to Google

Speaker:

slides because anybody, whether they're

Speaker:

on a Mac or Windows or

Speaker:

whatever they might be

Speaker:

on can use Google slides and it looks the

Speaker:

same across all the computers.

Speaker:

So it was just a more universal one

Speaker:

because I know one time I

Speaker:

was doing a presentation

Speaker:

on Mac and they had just switched the

Speaker:

type of connection cable

Speaker:

that you needed to connect

Speaker:

it to power.

Speaker:

It was a proprietary one

Speaker:

only Macs used and I forgot it.

Speaker:

So halfway through my presentations, it

Speaker:

was my Mac went dead and

Speaker:

I was like, oh my gosh.

Speaker:

And if I was only on

Speaker:

Keynote, I'd be stuck.

Speaker:

But because I did it on Google slides, we

Speaker:

can just open up on

Speaker:

someone else's computer

Speaker:

and bingo, bingo, bingo, I was saved.

Speaker:

So that's another,

Speaker:

another thing in there.

Speaker:

But yep, the Microsoft

Speaker:

stuff is just too busy for me.

Speaker:

Too busy.

Speaker:

So Mary, what do you do to over plan

Speaker:

since, since you never

Speaker:

reuse a lesson like me?

Speaker:

Well, it's funny you should ask because

Speaker:

yesterday I went to one of

Speaker:

those, you know, they have

Speaker:

the retirement seminars, um, the, whoever

Speaker:

we're, we invest our,

Speaker:

you know, for a month

Speaker:

case with and stuff.

Speaker:

And I was like, well, I'm not, I'm over

Speaker:

five years away from

Speaker:

retirement, but I should find

Speaker:

out.

Speaker:

But a lot of it didn't really apply to me

Speaker:

because I'm ways out.

Speaker:

So I was like, I'll just multitask and

Speaker:

look at some stuff from

Speaker:

my school, from my school.

Speaker:

And I'm a little bit, um, I don't know, a

Speaker:

little bit stressed

Speaker:

about this coming year

Speaker:

because our school is

Speaker:

going to a new schedule.

Speaker:

So we're moving from an eight period AB

Speaker:

schedule to a seven period

Speaker:

schedule where we see our

Speaker:

classes four times a week instead of two

Speaker:

or three, which I love that.

Speaker:

But the class will be 48 minutes, Monday,

Speaker:

Tuesday, Friday, and then

Speaker:

block days on Wednesday,

Speaker:

Thursday for like 75 minutes.

Speaker:

So that schedule before.

Speaker:

So every, I'm only teaching one prep that

Speaker:

I taught last year, Spanish one.

Speaker:

So even for that one, as far as reusing

Speaker:

my lesson plans, I have

Speaker:

to change them because it's

Speaker:

shorter, you know, a

Speaker:

shorter class period.

Speaker:

And then I'm teaching Spanish three,

Speaker:

which I haven't taught

Speaker:

for like three, at least

Speaker:

three years.

Speaker:

I'm using the same curriculum, but

Speaker:

obviously that will have to change.

Speaker:

And then I'm teaching one AP Spanish

Speaker:

three combined class and

Speaker:

the AP exam has changed.

Speaker:

I went to a training earlier.

Speaker:

And so I'm very, I'm very nervous about

Speaker:

that class because I,

Speaker:

you know, you don't want

Speaker:

Spanish three kids to feel overwhelmed,

Speaker:

but you don't want the

Speaker:

AP kids to feel like, oh,

Speaker:

I got short changed because there's

Speaker:

another full AP class.

Speaker:

Like my colleague is teaching, but it was

Speaker:

either that or have an

Speaker:

AP class with 49 kids or

Speaker:

have two instead of three Spanish three

Speaker:

classes of like 42 or three kids.

Speaker:

I'm like, nobody should have a, I mean, I

Speaker:

know you, Pamela, you

Speaker:

have, and maybe Scott

Speaker:

with your desk, 30, something.

Speaker:

But I just think if you can make it

Speaker:

smaller, try to sell.

Speaker:

So all of this is going through my brain

Speaker:

and I think, oh, I

Speaker:

have to revamp all of my

Speaker:

lessons. And, and there's always the

Speaker:

question of, do I go back

Speaker:

to my previous lessons and

Speaker:

revise them? Because that gets really

Speaker:

overwhelming because you

Speaker:

have stuff in there, like

Speaker:

the kid's name who has the appointment

Speaker:

with the counselor or

Speaker:

whatever you threw in there.

Speaker:

Or do you just start with a blank?

Speaker:

Like Scott, I like the idea of your blank

Speaker:

template and then just

Speaker:

takes things from the

Speaker:

other lesson that I need.

Speaker:

So it's all kind of so I started looking

Speaker:

and then started

Speaker:

getting a little overwhelmed.

Speaker:

I'm like, I should not look.

Speaker:

And that's usually

Speaker:

makes a three and an AP.

Speaker:

I've seen a four and an AP, but never a

Speaker:

three and an AP

Speaker:

because that's a big jump.

Speaker:

Well, AP is our level four.

Speaker:

Three and AP all in one class next year.

Speaker:

When I took German in high school, they

Speaker:

only had one German class period.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

And all the Germans were in there.

Speaker:

And so the way she did it, she was so

Speaker:

funny because she was only

Speaker:

a part time German teacher.

Speaker:

She taught elementary

Speaker:

music for part of the day.

Speaker:

And then the other day

Speaker:

she was here at high school.

Speaker:

She taught one class period.

Speaker:

And so the first two rows

Speaker:

were spent or German one.

Speaker:

The next like row and

Speaker:

a half was German two.

Speaker:

And then German three was

Speaker:

like the next four desks.

Speaker:

And then German four didn't even have AP

Speaker:

back then with maybe two

Speaker:

more desks that were in

Speaker:

there. And all she did was she couldn't

Speaker:

really interact with us

Speaker:

because there's four levels.

Speaker:

So what she did was she go, she'd stand

Speaker:

in front of the first two

Speaker:

rows and she'd teach the

Speaker:

first two rows and vocabulary for level

Speaker:

one and says, OK, get

Speaker:

work in the workbook.

Speaker:

Then she'd go to the row two, the German

Speaker:

twos and give the grammar.

Speaker:

OK, get to work on the workbook.

Speaker:

And that's what she did.

Speaker:

She went back and forth because she had

Speaker:

one class period that

Speaker:

she had to teach all of the

Speaker:

levels in. And so

Speaker:

that was that was tough.

Speaker:

But I know someone I forgot his name.

Speaker:

He's going to forget. I'm horrible name.

Speaker:

So I apologize.

Speaker:

He's even a senior woolly video.

Speaker:

I can picture his face.

Speaker:

But in crashing.

Speaker:

No, no, no, it's a teacher.

Speaker:

It's a teacher.

Speaker:

He taught in like Missouri and he.

Speaker:

He was the the.

Speaker:

The developer of the Guinea pig.

Speaker:

I don't know what it was, but he taught

Speaker:

multilevel classrooms and he

Speaker:

because of his area that he

Speaker:

was in, he was in a rural area.

Speaker:

They weren't having very many options.

Speaker:

That was his solution.

Speaker:

And he did it really, really well where

Speaker:

it wasn't

Speaker:

overwhelming to the lower levels.

Speaker:

But at the same time, the upper levels

Speaker:

were getting what they

Speaker:

needed at the same time.

Speaker:

And I didn't really pay a lot.

Speaker:

I mean, I was intrigued by it, but it was

Speaker:

earlier in my career and I really

Speaker:

couldn't wrap my head around that.

Speaker:

I should have paid more

Speaker:

attention to what he did.

Speaker:

But that was really interesting.

Speaker:

And in Missouri and Kansas, those little

Speaker:

those Midwestern states, they do

Speaker:

something alternative because that was

Speaker:

their solution that he came up with.

Speaker:

But I met another lady and she was like a

Speaker:

Mennonite, I think something like that.

Speaker:

But she was in a like a newsroom, think

Speaker:

like a news studio

Speaker:

for a professional news.

Speaker:

She was in there and taught and it

Speaker:

broadcasted out to all of the different

Speaker:

schools because they were so far apart.

Speaker:

She couldn't travel back and forth.

Speaker:

OK. So she never saw

Speaker:

her students physically.

Speaker:

It wasn't like a Zoom line before online.

Speaker:

Yeah, exactly. And so she had to teach in

Speaker:

a little room and they had the cameras

Speaker:

all around her, you know, just like a

Speaker:

broadcast studio would be.

Speaker:

And she taught to all these rural areas.

Speaker:

And I was like, oh, my gosh, I couldn't

Speaker:

imagine not seeing my kids.

Speaker:

I mean, it's one thing you're on Zoom and

Speaker:

they choose to turn their cameras off.

Speaker:

But this one, you have an option to see.

Speaker:

Give me flashbacks, though.

Speaker:

Yeah. Yes. So that was

Speaker:

really, really interesting.

Speaker:

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I plan my plan is and a

Speaker:

shout out to our French teacher who has

Speaker:

always had level three

Speaker:

and four in the same room.

Speaker:

And this year she has she has French one

Speaker:

and AP in the same classroom.

Speaker:

So I feel like I've won an AP.

Speaker:

That's going to be hard.

Speaker:

Yeah, I feel lame for complaining, but

Speaker:

for mine, I feel like I'm going to teach

Speaker:

as if it were an AP.

Speaker:

Well, it is an AP class, but all of them

Speaker:

as if they were AP and

Speaker:

differentiate for the level threes.

Speaker:

So that, you know, and now with Scott

Speaker:

talks a lot about A.I.

Speaker:

And it's like, oh, well, I can put this

Speaker:

authentic resource into A.I.

Speaker:

and make it intermediate low or novice

Speaker:

high level for the if

Speaker:

it's something we're reading.

Speaker:

So I'm hoping that works.

Speaker:

It does. I use a lot to make to create

Speaker:

those embedded readings.

Speaker:

I use it a lot. I use it to make images

Speaker:

because back in the day,

Speaker:

I used to use clip art.

Speaker:

I would just look for

Speaker:

clip art to make my images.

Speaker:

But the problem was that the poses the

Speaker:

clip art had didn't always stick with the

Speaker:

story as you went through,

Speaker:

because they were static. You couldn't

Speaker:

find like multiple

Speaker:

poses of one character.

Speaker:

You couldn't usually

Speaker:

find that kind of stuff.

Speaker:

And sometimes the character would change

Speaker:

because I needed it to be a surprise look

Speaker:

and I'm looking for a surprise.

Speaker:

So I do like that I can use

Speaker:

A.I. to help make my stories.

Speaker:

And then some of the things I do is I

Speaker:

will go and take my the

Speaker:

the the if I can speak,

Speaker:

take the image that I created, I take it

Speaker:

into Canva and I'll

Speaker:

delete the background.

Speaker:

So I just have the

Speaker:

character and then I can do it.

Speaker:

Pamela does and sometimes slot on a

Speaker:

slide, move the character from one

Speaker:

direction to another in there.

Speaker:

So I like doing something like that to

Speaker:

kind of make those like little A.I.

Speaker:

puppets, I guess we kind of call them.

Speaker:

So, yes, we are.

Speaker:

But I like using A.I. to make images

Speaker:

because especially when I

Speaker:

make a story about a kid,

Speaker:

I'll take their school picture and put it

Speaker:

in there without their name

Speaker:

and then I'll have it put into

Speaker:

a cartoon version of them.

Speaker:

Yeah. So that makes it fun and a little

Speaker:

bit more personalized in there.

Speaker:

That's where I plan more.

Speaker:

My reading stories because my reading

Speaker:

stories are always about my kids.

Speaker:

And then I put little

Speaker:

illustrations that go along with it.

Speaker:

So I plan that one a little bit more.

Speaker:

And I will say, what is it?

Speaker:

My I my last school is at

Speaker:

my last school for two years.

Speaker:

And I the first year I was just trying to

Speaker:

wing it with a textbook because I haven't

Speaker:

used a textbook in at

Speaker:

least 15 years before that.

Speaker:

So the second year I had planned at the

Speaker:

end of that first year, I made all these

Speaker:

slides and kind of organized it by my

Speaker:

units and stuff and had it somewhat plan.

Speaker:

You know, my warm up actually matched the

Speaker:

grammar that actually went

Speaker:

with the unit type of thing.

Speaker:

And then. I left.

Speaker:

And so now I have all those beautifully

Speaker:

made sides and I can't use them now.

Speaker:

So like Mary says, every year we're

Speaker:

recreating the slides,

Speaker:

even our best wishes.

Speaker:

Always recreating, always recreating.

Speaker:

So I had a really good time.

Speaker:

Well, someone I saw a really good idea.

Speaker:

I don't know if I heard about in a

Speaker:

conference or saw it in a blog or

Speaker:

podcast, but they have this person had a

Speaker:

slide deck called The Hub.

Speaker:

And they had all of their routine, you

Speaker:

know, things they do every single day or

Speaker:

frequently like the

Speaker:

instruction slides for that.

Speaker:

And so I started doing that, too. And

Speaker:

that's kind of helpful.

Speaker:

That's what I do.

Speaker:

Yeah, I've got a folder.

Speaker:

Yeah, I've got a folder.

Speaker:

It's got my classroom procedures.

Speaker:

Welcome back.

Speaker:

And then I just copy and paste those into

Speaker:

my active slide deck for the thing.

Speaker:

I also have because I do more themes, I

Speaker:

do a more theme of the week.

Speaker:

So I have a whole slide

Speaker:

deck of all my more themes.

Speaker:

I have a whole slide deck of all my

Speaker:

inspirational quotes.

Speaker:

I have one hundred and eighty

Speaker:

inspirational quotes from all religions,

Speaker:

colors, nationalities, wherever I could

Speaker:

find all the different kinds of things.

Speaker:

And I have and I just copy and paste them

Speaker:

into the current slide.

Speaker:

I do that.

Speaker:

Mm hmm. All my warm ups, too.

Speaker:

I have a warm up deck and I just copy

Speaker:

them instead of going like Pamela and go,

Speaker:

oh, I got to open my

Speaker:

warm up deck for this day.

Speaker:

I just copy that slide into my current

Speaker:

week slide deck so that it will.

Speaker:

And I'm going on the schedule this year,

Speaker:

which I've never done a complete A.B.

Speaker:

We did an A.B.C. but never an A.B.

Speaker:

So now I've got to make my deck is now

Speaker:

going to be for two weeks, but five

Speaker:

school days because I'll see one kids for

Speaker:

three days and next week

Speaker:

I'll see them only for two.

Speaker:

So that'll give me my whole cycle.

Speaker:

My five day cycle will

Speaker:

take two weeks to get through.

Speaker:

That's what I just came from.

Speaker:

Yeah, I'm too old for that one.

Speaker:

I'm never going to remember if it's an

Speaker:

odd day or an even day.

Speaker:

I'm not going to remember.

Speaker:

Oh, yeah, it's hard.

Speaker:

I have all the schedules posted and every

Speaker:

day I had to look like

Speaker:

what time does this class end?

Speaker:

What's yeah, I never had

Speaker:

it in my just in my head.

Speaker:

Yeah, that I we used to have the A.B.C.

Speaker:

where C day was Friday.

Speaker:

It was our catch up day.

Speaker:

So we saw all classes

Speaker:

that day for like 45 minutes.

Speaker:

And then if we had a holiday that took a

Speaker:

Monday or a Friday away, that's the day

Speaker:

that got lost was that C day.

Speaker:

So we always started the week with an A

Speaker:

and then we went to a B and

Speaker:

then went to an A and then a B.

Speaker:

And then if we had Friday, we had a C.

Speaker:

So we always knew the first day of the

Speaker:

week, whether it was a Tuesday or a

Speaker:

Monday, it was an A day.

Speaker:

I didn't have to worry about that.

Speaker:

This week's an A day.

Speaker:

Next week's a B day on a Monday.

Speaker:

I didn't have to worry about that.

Speaker:

So it was a little bit

Speaker:

easier to keep track of.

Speaker:

But I'm I'm terrified

Speaker:

about just the straight A.B.

Speaker:

schedule and the schedule that you're

Speaker:

talking about the year on this year.

Speaker:

I had been on that one for many years

Speaker:

where Monday, Wednesday and no Monday,

Speaker:

Tuesday and Friday

Speaker:

were actually we did it.

Speaker:

We had three schedules

Speaker:

because Monday was PLC day.

Speaker:

So that was a really short day where the

Speaker:

kids got up early and we had PLC.

Speaker:

Then we had Tuesday, Friday schedule and

Speaker:

then Wednesday,

Speaker:

Thursday were the block days.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

We have a short one early

Speaker:

release every week now on third.

Speaker:

So we have Wednesday.

Speaker:

We see one three five seven and advisory

Speaker:

and then Thursday is two

Speaker:

four six early release.

Speaker:

And some teachers will not have a

Speaker:

planning on we have we

Speaker:

teach six out of seven classes.

Speaker:

One of the days you

Speaker:

won't have a planning.

Speaker:

We had to waive that contract.

Speaker:

But luckily my planning's on the one

Speaker:

three five seven day.

Speaker:

And so then the two four six day at least

Speaker:

we have an early release.

Speaker:

So that's sort of.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

We used to always

Speaker:

complain about that day.

Speaker:

They go, oh, it's my no prep day.

Speaker:

It's my no prep day the whole day long.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

And the classes are.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

The classes are long.

Speaker:

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker:

My new schedule we're on a block every

Speaker:

day just like I was last year.

Speaker:

But I don't know why they

Speaker:

made lunch after third period.

Speaker:

Because that puts lunch at almost one

Speaker:

o'clock in the afternoon.

Speaker:

That's a long.

Speaker:

What time do you start?

Speaker:

Day.

Speaker:

We started eight forty five.

Speaker:

Oh, that's why.

Speaker:

OK.

Speaker:

No, because my school started at eight

Speaker:

thirty and we had we

Speaker:

have four periods a day.

Speaker:

You did it after a period too.

Speaker:

OK.

Speaker:

Halfway through the day.

Speaker:

One lunch only.

Speaker:

We only have one lunch.

Speaker:

No, OK.

Speaker:

We have two with two thousand students.

Speaker:

You only have one lunch.

Speaker:

We only have one lunch.

Speaker:

Part of that because we have

Speaker:

something called the pause.

Speaker:

It's intervention

Speaker:

because we're the Wildcats.

Speaker:

They call it pause.

Speaker:

I don't know what it

Speaker:

stands for, but it's pause.

Speaker:

And they it's at the beginning of lunch.

Speaker:

So the kids who are who

Speaker:

have because we only give ABCs.

Speaker:

We don't give anything lower than a C.

Speaker:

It's called no credit.

Speaker:

You get no credit for the class lower

Speaker:

than the C, which is new.

Speaker:

So I like it.

Speaker:

I like it because if you don't pass level

Speaker:

one with a C or

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better, it doesn't come for

Speaker:

college anyway.

Speaker:

So why pass it with the D?

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So OK.

Speaker:

Anybody who has got a no credit in any

Speaker:

class is required to

Speaker:

attend the half an hour pause

Speaker:

program, which is right after third

Speaker:

period before lunch.

Speaker:

The kids who have who have all good

Speaker:

grades, they get to have

Speaker:

an extra half an hour for

Speaker:

lunch.

Speaker:

Interesting.

Speaker:

So I like that solution because we've had

Speaker:

that that kind of

Speaker:

pause program in my other

Speaker:

schools, but they did

Speaker:

it very differently.

Speaker:

We used to have to do either

Speaker:

enrichment or intervention.

Speaker:

So we'd have to come up with a lesson

Speaker:

that was enrichment

Speaker:

either in our subject area or

Speaker:

just enrichment in general because kids

Speaker:

want to do something fun.

Speaker:

So you might get arts and crafts or

Speaker:

something with food or something.

Speaker:

So we always complain it was an extra

Speaker:

lesson we had to plan

Speaker:

that we didn't have to.

Speaker:

So I like the idea of just giving them,

Speaker:

rewarding them with an

Speaker:

extra half an hour of

Speaker:

lunch, but that it's just

Speaker:

so late because I'm diabetic.

Speaker:

They get a snack period that's five

Speaker:

minutes long at 10 o'clock.

Speaker:

But I don't know why they

Speaker:

don't put it earlier in the day.

Speaker:

It's just it seems really, really late

Speaker:

because I also have to

Speaker:

eat my dinner because I'm

Speaker:

diabetic by five o'clock.

Speaker:

Well, by the time we get out, if I'm

Speaker:

eating dinner at one

Speaker:

thirty, I'm feeling I mean,

Speaker:

eating lunch by one thirty, I'm finishing

Speaker:

when I get out of school at four o'clock,

Speaker:

that's too close for me to have a dinner,

Speaker:

you know, right after that.

Speaker:

So I don't know how the my

Speaker:

food schedule is going to work.

Speaker:

But I just think it's really weird that

Speaker:

it's after a third period.

Speaker:

Why not after a second?

Speaker:

It doesn't make sense.

Speaker:

Go through half the day because they got

Speaker:

to go through three ninety minute periods

Speaker:

before they get lunch.

Speaker:

And some kids don't eat breakfast.

Speaker:

Yeah. So they're going to be dying.

Speaker:

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker:

Yeah. So I don't know

Speaker:

how that's going to work.

Speaker:

We'll see in a couple of

Speaker:

weeks when I my kids come.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

So with all this over planning that we've

Speaker:

done and I already

Speaker:

told my story of how my

Speaker:

system that I tried working on last year

Speaker:

completely collapsed.

Speaker:

I'm moving new school, new curriculum,

Speaker:

new textbook, everything.

Speaker:

So all those slides are gone.

Speaker:

Well, I save them, I

Speaker:

have them, but they're gone.

Speaker:

I can't even use them.

Speaker:

Those of us who do over plan, Pam, we

Speaker:

haven't heard much about your planning.

Speaker:

Let us know.

Speaker:

Does it still work for you in October or

Speaker:

are you completely

Speaker:

rehashing like, oh, my gosh,

Speaker:

I over plan and it's just not working.

Speaker:

I am the anti procrastinator.

Speaker:

OK, I cannot sleep at night

Speaker:

unless I know what I'm doing.

Speaker:

And then once everything

Speaker:

starts going, I'm happy camper.

Speaker:

OK, but if I don't know, like this next

Speaker:

year coming up, I'm going to

Speaker:

again have packed classes and I have to

Speaker:

have I have two English nine classes.

Speaker:

And frankly, the only reason I agreed to

Speaker:

do English nine for two

Speaker:

reasons, because I had

Speaker:

been doing English 11, they crammed a

Speaker:

bunch of kids in my

Speaker:

classes so that I could

Speaker:

squeeze in English 11.

Speaker:

And I said, OK, English nine,

Speaker:

that means more work for me.

Speaker:

That means my summer's all gone because

Speaker:

now I need to get ready for English nine.

Speaker:

But I'll never have to do

Speaker:

the great Gatsby ever again.

Speaker:

I hate the great Gatsby.

Speaker:

And to English nine is

Speaker:

capped at 24 students.

Speaker:

And I was like, oh, I'm so used to having

Speaker:

35 students, 36

Speaker:

students, 39 students being

Speaker:

capped at 24 might be kind of nice, but

Speaker:

it means that my whole summer has been

Speaker:

planning for English nine.

Speaker:

And then, of course, I got my other like,

Speaker:

oh, I got a great idea.

Speaker:

I want to do this

Speaker:

kind of thing, you know.

Speaker:

And so for me, I have

Speaker:

to plan ahead of time.

Speaker:

And I was just talking to somebody else

Speaker:

because it's conference season, right?

Speaker:

And we were talking about a couple of

Speaker:

weeks ago, we were

Speaker:

talking about Chasing the

Speaker:

Shiny New Object.

Speaker:

And it's because it's conference season

Speaker:

and I get so many great ideas.

Speaker:

And I'm speaking at four

Speaker:

conferences this summer.

Speaker:

And I was just talking about project

Speaker:

based learning, game based learning.

Speaker:

And I realized a lot of people aren't

Speaker:

wrapping their heads

Speaker:

around it because they've got

Speaker:

a massive rubric for their project when

Speaker:

their project comes.

Speaker:

For me, I've planned

Speaker:

all the little steps.

Speaker:

And so once all my kids get through the

Speaker:

little steps, the

Speaker:

project is just basically me

Speaker:

sitting back.

Speaker:

I've got a clipboard in hand.

Speaker:

I'm walking around the class and I'm

Speaker:

pretending to grade

Speaker:

them, but I'm not really

Speaker:

grading them because if they can get to

Speaker:

the project, they're

Speaker:

speaking in the target

Speaker:

language. I'm having a blast.

Speaker:

They're having a blast.

Speaker:

It's just calm now.

Speaker:

So if I can get to that

Speaker:

point, I'm like, everything's fine.

Speaker:

So I need to over plan so that I can be

Speaker:

relaxed for the rest of the year.

Speaker:

I know, which is kind of crazy.

Speaker:

I mean, it's it's

Speaker:

really I know I'm weird.

Speaker:

I know I'm eclectic.

Speaker:

But for me, that's the only way I can

Speaker:

sleep at night is by

Speaker:

over planning to begin

Speaker:

with so that I can take it easy when the

Speaker:

rubber hits the road.

Speaker:

Basically, when when things are like, you

Speaker:

know, during the school year, you have to

Speaker:

be flexible. You got to be able to pivot.

Speaker:

If I've over planned, it's so easy for me

Speaker:

to say, oh, that's not working.

Speaker:

Here's this other thing

Speaker:

I have in my back pocket.

Speaker:

And then less gray hair.

Speaker:

Yeah. And I'll say I'm with you.

Speaker:

The teachers go, I don't know what I'm

Speaker:

doing today or I got to do my lesson plan

Speaker:

for tomorrow. That freaks me out.

Speaker:

I lesson plan on Thursdays because I

Speaker:

pretty much know where

Speaker:

they're going to end up

Speaker:

by the end of Friday.

Speaker:

Sometimes I get it wrong like something

Speaker:

went off or we got

Speaker:

off topic or something.

Speaker:

But nine times out of

Speaker:

10, I've got it down.

Speaker:

So I lesson plan on Thursday and I have

Speaker:

my whole plan for the next week because I

Speaker:

cannot go in in the morning not knowing

Speaker:

that I'm doing in 20 minutes.

Speaker:

That would freak me out because then

Speaker:

there's something that's going to happen.

Speaker:

I say, guess what? I go,

Speaker:

I'll just plan it on my prep.

Speaker:

And then you go, oh,

Speaker:

crap, they called you in.

Speaker:

You had a cover for

Speaker:

someone else on your prep.

Speaker:

Then you're like, what

Speaker:

the heck am I going to do?

Speaker:

And that is even more stressful than just

Speaker:

having to give up your prep

Speaker:

unexpectedly when you plan to maybe

Speaker:

grading something or

Speaker:

doing something else.

Speaker:

But I know that I no matter if they take

Speaker:

my prep or not, my whole week is planned.

Speaker:

So I have that much plan.

Speaker:

I do my whole week.

Speaker:

So Thursday is when I do my plans and

Speaker:

it's all done on Thursdays.

Speaker:

And that works out

Speaker:

really, really well for me.

Speaker:

I can't do much more than

Speaker:

that because my kids adapt.

Speaker:

Like you said, you never know where

Speaker:

they're going to be or

Speaker:

what kids you're going to

Speaker:

have and which if the class are going to

Speaker:

be in sync with each other.

Speaker:

But so I do mind about a week in advance.

Speaker:

I used to hate one school

Speaker:

district that I worked in.

Speaker:

We had to turn in our lesson

Speaker:

plans two weeks in advance.

Speaker:

I'm like, that is poor teaching because

Speaker:

you don't know where

Speaker:

your kids are going to

Speaker:

be in two weeks and I have to turn them

Speaker:

in to officially turn

Speaker:

them in and get them

Speaker:

signed off and then I'm

Speaker:

like, I had to change my plans.

Speaker:

So I have to send in a new revised one

Speaker:

and get that signed off.

Speaker:

They're like, you

Speaker:

keep revising your plans.

Speaker:

I'm like, I have to.

Speaker:

I have to adapt to my kids.

Speaker:

I thought they would get

Speaker:

this really difficult concept.

Speaker:

It was going to take three days.

Speaker:

It only took them one day.

Speaker:

But this easier concept took them three

Speaker:

days instead of one day.

Speaker:

You know, so you've got to adapt and

Speaker:

you've got to adapt in front of

Speaker:

in front of them.

Speaker:

And I will say, I think

Speaker:

I've shown this one before.

Speaker:

Let me see if I can find it.

Speaker:

See, while you look for it, I'm going to

Speaker:

say thank you for

Speaker:

bringing that up because

Speaker:

one of the the hammers that came down for

Speaker:

us was not only do

Speaker:

you have to have common

Speaker:

things, but you have to have your your

Speaker:

quarterly plans for your units.

Speaker:

And I'm like, this is not set in stone

Speaker:

because, you know,

Speaker:

like I teach two Spanish

Speaker:

one classes, they're

Speaker:

not on the same place.

Speaker:

My colleagues aren't on

Speaker:

the same place as I am.

Speaker:

And you expect this to be set

Speaker:

in stone for next year, too.

Speaker:

Like you haven't seen the

Speaker:

students in front of you.

Speaker:

It's not going to be the same thing.

Speaker:

So when I have to do that lesson planning

Speaker:

thing, it's just bare bones.

Speaker:

It's just like I can understand.

Speaker:

I was just like, fine, I'm going to I'm

Speaker:

going to submit my AAT,

Speaker:

ATT from spill.

Speaker:

I'm just submitting that.

Speaker:

They can't complain.

Speaker:

They can't even argue with me about that.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Having an outline is one thing, but less

Speaker:

specific lesson plans

Speaker:

is just not practical.

Speaker:

Yeah, and no, and it's

Speaker:

like, why are they doing that?

Speaker:

It's like another example, I feel like,

Speaker:

of how they don't trust teachers to

Speaker:

get the work done that

Speaker:

they need to get done.

Speaker:

So they have to like at P.D. stuff, you

Speaker:

have to fill up all the time.

Speaker:

Our principal is really good about giving

Speaker:

us time to work on stuff.

Speaker:

So I'm just saying,

Speaker:

but from things I hear

Speaker:

and so are they doing that because some

Speaker:

people don't really have a plan and

Speaker:

you know, whereas most teachers do have

Speaker:

that plan, it just is flexible.

Speaker:

Absolutely.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

And I'll show you, here's my I'm trying

Speaker:

to get the link really here quickly.

Speaker:

Entertaining an Elephant.

Speaker:

I highly recommend this

Speaker:

book to everybody and anybody.

Speaker:

It.

Speaker:

It has nothing to do

Speaker:

with the world language.

Speaker:

It is a short novel.

Speaker:

I'm trying to get a quick link here and

Speaker:

my quick link is not working.

Speaker:

Ah, it's working now,

Speaker:

so I'll put it in here.

Speaker:

Mm.us

Speaker:

elephant is the link I made to make it

Speaker:

really easy to find it on Amazon.

Speaker:

It's a short little book.

Speaker:

I had to read it in teacher school and

Speaker:

it's about an English teacher who has

Speaker:

his lesson plans laminated.

Speaker:

Oh, you told me that.

Speaker:

And it's not by the date, but it's like

Speaker:

the first day of school,

Speaker:

the second day of school,

Speaker:

the third day of school.

Speaker:

And he's been teaching forever and he's

Speaker:

an older gentleman and he's now teaching.

Speaker:

His school has become

Speaker:

more and more inner city.

Speaker:

So he's got more and more disconnect with

Speaker:

the kids in his classroom.

Speaker:

He doesn't identify with them.

Speaker:

He actually kind of despises them and has

Speaker:

a negative opinion about them.

Speaker:

And he always uses this grammar book and

Speaker:

the kids, it's really dry and the kids

Speaker:

don't understand it.

Speaker:

But there is this

Speaker:

international and immigrant

Speaker:

custodian and every day he went after he

Speaker:

cleans the classroom,

Speaker:

he writes a quote up on the board.

Speaker:

The kids assume it's the

Speaker:

teacher who read who wrote this.

Speaker:

So as a warm up, they write

Speaker:

something about the quote,

Speaker:

but the quote wasn't

Speaker:

put out by the teacher.

Speaker:

And I can't remember the the custodian

Speaker:

leaves for whatever reason.

Speaker:

I don't know if it's an immigration

Speaker:

problem or I don't know.

Speaker:

He's no longer there after a while and

Speaker:

they're like, where's the quote?

Speaker:

And so what the quote and the teacher

Speaker:

didn't realize that there's

Speaker:

this quote up on the board.

Speaker:

And he was trying to teach them how to

Speaker:

write a persuasive essay and all these

Speaker:

different things, but he's doing it all

Speaker:

the grammatical way.

Speaker:

Open the grammar book,

Speaker:

following the text book all the way.

Speaker:

And the kids were just

Speaker:

like, I can't focus on this.

Speaker:

Right now, we're at our apartment and our

Speaker:

apartment doesn't have any electricity,

Speaker:

not because we didn't pay the bill, but

Speaker:

because there's a problem with

Speaker:

electricity in our apartment and the

Speaker:

landlord's not doing anything about it.

Speaker:

Or we're not having hot

Speaker:

water, we're not having this.

Speaker:

And it took him a while to actually

Speaker:

identify that he needed to tap into that

Speaker:

to make them write

Speaker:

their persuasive essay.

Speaker:

So it's a really good thing about you

Speaker:

have to teach the kids in front of you.

Speaker:

And this was even before I

Speaker:

knew anything about TPRS or CI.

Speaker:

And it really is a metaphor for that as

Speaker:

well, because you can't teach concretely.

Speaker:

Even if you have to use a textbook, you

Speaker:

can't teach from the textbook word for

Speaker:

word, page for page, because that's not

Speaker:

how the brain works.

Speaker:

And you're not going to make those

Speaker:

connections with kids.

Speaker:

And without the connections,

Speaker:

nothing else is going to stick.

Speaker:

So it's just an overall good book.

Speaker:

I highly recommend it for every teacher

Speaker:

to read, regardless of what you teach.

Speaker:

I think it's a powerful book and it's not

Speaker:

even it's 115 pages.

Speaker:

It is 115 pages.

Speaker:

So

Speaker:

it's just something I

Speaker:

highly, highly recommend.

Speaker:

It's a really, really good book.

Speaker:

It's called Entertaining an Elephant,

Speaker:

which I always I'm glad I remembered it

Speaker:

because I always forget the name of the

Speaker:

book because it has nothing to do with

Speaker:

teaching the name.

Speaker:

There's no elephants in the book.

Speaker:

You know, there's nothing in there.

Speaker:

So nothing that

Speaker:

triggers my memory with that.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

I wrote it down on my list.

Speaker:

It's a really it's a really

Speaker:

good and it's a short read.

Speaker:

I wish they had a Kindle version.

Speaker:

I have the paperback, but I wish they'd

Speaker:

make a Kindle version because I mean,

Speaker:

I read this 20 some years ago.

Speaker:

And I have the paperback, but I really

Speaker:

would like a Kindle

Speaker:

so I can keep it in my

Speaker:

Kindle and refer to it all the time and

Speaker:

having to have the book.

Speaker:

But it was such a good overall book.

Speaker:

So I highly recommend

Speaker:

Entertaining an Elephant.

Speaker:

And I'll put the link and I'll add the

Speaker:

link to the show notes as well.

Speaker:

But I made it at least easy to remember.

Speaker:

Mm.us elephant.

Speaker:

Is the name is the link

Speaker:

that we can all find it in.

Speaker:

Cool. OK, we're coming

Speaker:

near the end already.

Speaker:

I can't believe we're

Speaker:

already here at the end.

Speaker:

But let's give some teachers some hope.

Speaker:

And some things that

Speaker:

make it easier for them.

Speaker:

To sustain the planning thing.

Speaker:

So let's start with you, Mary.

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What do you do to help sustain the

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planning so it's not

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overwhelming too much,

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but it's also not too little that you're

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like, oh, I got 10 more minutes.

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What am I going to do at the end of the

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period type of thing to keep you covered

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and sustain so you're not

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burnt out the whole year long?

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Yeah, I don't know.

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I will say do as I say, not as I do.

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But

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classic teacher statement.

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Well, I will just say like to help

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myself, a goal that I

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have this summer has been

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not to although yesterday I broke the

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rule, but not to start planning too much.

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I mean, I can think about things, but

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don't do a lot of

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concrete planning until I'm

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closer to the time because I'll make the

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mistake of planning a

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lot in a lot of detail.

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And then I forget what I did and I go

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back right before school starts.

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I'm like, oh, no, I don't like that.

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And I do it all again.

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So so don't plan the

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details too far ahead.

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Because like you said, like you say,

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Scott, you need to see

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the kids in front of you.

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And so maybe like a week before plan the

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week in a lot of detail.

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And that's a goal of mine.

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Scott is to do what you do and plan the

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next week or maybe two

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one week. And so you're always sort of a

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week or two ahead of of where you are.

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And and of course, you can

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you can revise. And another thing is

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it can be OK, not especially if we'll be

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in teaching this long,

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it can be OK to under plan a little bit

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because then things

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you can make something

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last longer or you can do a quick, you

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know, brain break or something like that.

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So that's actually

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something I'm working on is

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maybe trying to I don't want to say wing

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it, but try to have a chunk,

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a little chunk of time where I have to

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sort of come up because I could literally

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walk into a class with absolutely no plan

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and have an entire

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class out of everything

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that's in my head if I wanted to.

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But I wouldn't recommend that for a

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beginning teacher necessarily.

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But I never do that.

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But just sort of take a step back and not

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not go into too much detail too early.

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And I like the under planning where you

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can if you as long as you have like five

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or seven activities that are generic

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enough that can apply to any lesson in

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your back pocket to pull from,

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you know, little games like I love the

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pencil game because I

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can do that with anything.

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You know, you can we got five minutes.

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Let's do the pencil

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game right here, right now.

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Or I can throw in some TPR.

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Let's do some TPR right here, right now.

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Or let's play a game of silent ball.

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I'm tired of listening to you

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guys talk while I'm talking.

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So we silent ball going

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for a couple of times.

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You know, I've always

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got balloons for that.

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I like to play the

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silent ball with balloons.

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So I always have a package of balloons I

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can blow up and get ready to go.

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I have I have all these different little

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things that I have that helps with that.

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Or kids just need a break

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like this is just too heavy.

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Or they had a giant test in physics today

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and half your kids all came from physics

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and their eyes are all glazed over.

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You just can't do what you need to do.

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So having some activities that are

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generic and

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adaptable, meaning they're not

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completely outside of your curriculum,

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but they can adapt to whatever you happen

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to be doing or needing to practice on,

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you know, gim kits and book.

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It's are great for that as well.

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A song that you're doing that unit.

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You can. Oh, let's listen to our song.

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Yeah. Anything like that really does help

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in there and gives you that

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little bit of wiggle room.

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And I'm I'm a little

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bit of an underplanner

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in that way because I want that wiggle

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room so that if something goes long,

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I have the time for it or something,

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something else like the kids need more

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practice with it. I've got

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that wiggle room where I go.

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Oh, no, I got to get to here because

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tomorrow we're doing this.

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I leave that little bit of wiggle room.

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So that's a great, great piece of advice.

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What about you, Pamela?

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Flexibility, the

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flexibility that we need.

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Yeah. Yeah.

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I've got two things.

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First, the piece we haven't talked about,

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which is the flip side.

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You plan, plan, plan.

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Now you need to reflect.

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And I make sure that I

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carve out time every single day

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at the end of the day,

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write down this worked.

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This didn't. This is

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how I want to tweak it.

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And that way, my planning for the next

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year is much easier because I can look

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through and I can say

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this was really good.

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This was kind of good.

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But I think I know how I can tweak it.

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So at this point of

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after teaching for 100 years,

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planning is easier because

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I have done that reflection,

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which doesn't take that much

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time if you do it immediately.

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You because while things are fresh in

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your head, you write down your reflection

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as quickly as you can.

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Do you do it in the slide?

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No, I do it.

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My personal like a little personal diary

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I have and then I'll refer back to it.

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But sometimes I'll go back and I'll say I

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need to make a note in the slide note

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to self and if I have to, I'll write it

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in a language that the

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kids don't understand.

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If it's a Spanish slide,

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I'll write it in Japanese.

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If it's a French slide, I'll

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write it in Spanish, whatever.

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And then say, you

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know, change the, you know,

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make sure to grab the deck of cards, make

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sure to do this, whatever.

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Do this first.

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So that'll just keep

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me on track and stuff.

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If I don't have time to go back and fix

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it at that moment,

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which I probably don't.

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So I think that

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reflection piece is really key

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as part of

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making sure your planning goes smoothly,

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because if you don't reflect,

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it's kind of pointless

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that you put in all that work.

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And the second thing I'll say is I

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started in the last couple of years

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getting a little more selfish.

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OK, you know, we're teachers, we put

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ourselves out there.

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We're killing ourselves

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for the kids and everything.

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Mary knows, what was it?

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Like four years ago, I broke

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my leg and it's a horrible.

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Oh, yeah.

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I like it's I have so

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much metal in me now.

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I'm a cyborg and I still

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can't walk without a cane.

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And I was like last year, I was like, I'm

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going Spanish, French, Japanese,

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Spanish, again, English, I'm bouncing

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between all the stuff.

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And I am not carving out enough time to

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do the exercises that I need to do.

Speaker:

And I'm exhausted by the end of the day.

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So I went through and I found little five

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minute exercise videos in the target

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language.

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Uh oh, we lost her.

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I wanted them to be, you know,

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oh, did you lose me for just a second?

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Yeah, I'm back.

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OK.

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Oh, yep, I know I can see.

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All right. So I'll talk fast.

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So I don't want to do

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like yoga in Spanish

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because I don't really feel that I can

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get cultural with that.

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So like with Japanese, it's really easy.

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I've got that agiotiso stuff.

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And you know, so but I went through and I

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found little five minute stretching

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videos and when I'm like, ah, I've got a

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little bit of extra time in class.

Speaker:

My wiggle room is, guys, I need to do my

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exercises and you need to learn your body

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parts and you need to

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learn left and right.

Speaker:

So here we're doing this little five

Speaker:

minute stretching video.

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So everybody on your feet, you know, and

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it's a good brain break.

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It's good in the middle of the class when

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they need to be woken up and everything.

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Um, so so that's my wiggle room is making

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it really selfish for me.

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What do I want to do?

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I like music.

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Hey, guys, we're going

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to listen to a song now.

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Let's here's the

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words projected on screen.

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So that's selfish for me.

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And it keeps me, I

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think, a little more grounded.

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As a teacher, you know,

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when things get really crazy.

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So so that's my my advice is reflect,

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reflect, reflect and then your extra

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planning stuff, think about what you

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enjoy, because if you enjoy it,

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you're not really work, right?

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Yeah. And I don't think

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it's really selfish because

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if you don't take care of yourself, you

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can't be there to take care of your kids.

Speaker:

You know, when they tell you on a plane,

Speaker:

put your own oxygen

Speaker:

mask on before helping

Speaker:

your children put theirs

Speaker:

on, there's a reason for that.

Speaker:

They don't want you to pass out and then

Speaker:

you can't help them at all.

Speaker:

So if you don't take care of yourself,

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you're not going to

Speaker:

be there for your kids.

Speaker:

So I think that's really important there.

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Absolutely.

Speaker:

And the reflection piece,

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it is so very important.

Speaker:

I've been in an IV school for 11 years

Speaker:

and part of the lesson

Speaker:

plan at the bottom is

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to reflect on how that unit went so that

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you're ready for your plan next year.

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Now, I'll tell you how I do it because I

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don't like to stay after school at all.

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You know, when the bell rings, I would

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like to go as quickly as I possibly can

Speaker:

afterwards. Now, my new school, I got to

Speaker:

stay 30 minutes after the bell.

Speaker:

My last school, I

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could leave at the bell.

Speaker:

So I was beating those kids out the door.

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Let's go. I want to get the parking lot.

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Let's go. So I got 30 minutes.

Speaker:

I got to wait. So that's OK.

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But I don't want to be sitting at my

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computer because I got to tidy up the

Speaker:

classroom a little bit, you

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know, and stuff like that.

Speaker:

So what I do for that reflection piece is

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I will go through and

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I will voice record.

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I'll just yeah, I'll set my phone on a

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desk because it'll pick up wherever I'm

Speaker:

in the room and I put it on record and

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then I can just talk to it.

Speaker:

And if you need a

Speaker:

transcript, you can put it in AI.

Speaker:

You can put the recording in AI and it'll

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give you a transcript.

Speaker:

That's the next question.

Speaker:

It'll put in a

Speaker:

transcript for you in there.

Speaker:

But then you can also if you do that and

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I would recommend doing it in notebook

Speaker:

LM. So that's notebook

Speaker:

LM dot Google dot com

Speaker:

because notebook LM will only it doesn't

Speaker:

go out to the Internet.

Speaker:

It only goes you have to add sources.

Speaker:

So it only sticks to what you give it.

Speaker:

So if you put in your recording and ask

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for a transcript, good.

Speaker:

Then you go and ask questions about like,

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what are what's the the biggest takeaway

Speaker:

from this reflection, it won't go out to

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the Internet to search and give you some

Speaker:

other things. It'll only use what you put

Speaker:

in there and it keeps it really solid.

Speaker:

And so it's a little bit more private if

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you put it into chat or clawed.

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You know, yeah, it's a

Speaker:

little bit more public.

Speaker:

Training chat.

Speaker:

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker:

So I like doing that and that really

Speaker:

helps because you can

Speaker:

get some insights that you

Speaker:

didn't notice when you were thinking

Speaker:

about it or you think about it before.

Speaker:

It'll give you some insights because you

Speaker:

can talk with it and then ask it and then

Speaker:

maybe go, oh, what

Speaker:

suggestions would you have?

Speaker:

Because I don't have any ideas and it

Speaker:

will give you some ideas.

Speaker:

And either one of those

Speaker:

ideas will be really great.

Speaker:

Or you go, oh, that just triggered a

Speaker:

really good idea on my own.

Speaker:

So it's kind of like a devil's advocate

Speaker:

partner kind of liking.

Speaker:

You could have a chat with it, like

Speaker:

especially if you work solo, it's someone

Speaker:

you can chat with to

Speaker:

get and bounce ideas off.

Speaker:

Do you think this would work and it will,

Speaker:

you know, work with you?

Speaker:

So I like doing that.

Speaker:

So the reflection piece

Speaker:

is extremely important.

Speaker:

I will say a couple of things.

Speaker:

If you start planning in the end of

Speaker:

summer, which we had a

Speaker:

podcast about this earlier in the

Speaker:

in the summertime about only like

Speaker:

dedicating the last two weeks of your

Speaker:

summer to planning, don't plan too far in

Speaker:

advance because Mary said it.

Speaker:

You have the kids in front of you and you

Speaker:

thought this this order was going to work

Speaker:

really, really well and the way you you

Speaker:

built your lessons and it doesn't.

Speaker:

And then you plan six weeks out and now

Speaker:

you've got to redo it.

Speaker:

You're redoing all that work.

Speaker:

So only plan maybe one or two weeks to

Speaker:

see if that actually is

Speaker:

going to work for you.

Speaker:

That cycle is working.

Speaker:

That system is working

Speaker:

for you and for the kids.

Speaker:

And then I will tell you two more things.

Speaker:

I like to do what I have and it doesn't

Speaker:

change for the most part.

Speaker:

I have my template shells.

Speaker:

I know what I do every class period,

Speaker:

every level, every group of kids.

Speaker:

I know that I start with a warm up.

Speaker:

I know that after that, do an inspiration

Speaker:

slide that has nothing to do with

Speaker:

languages, it's just a it came from covid

Speaker:

to kind of give them some kind of

Speaker:

inspiration or hope.

Speaker:

And I always try to find

Speaker:

something that has every everybody can

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see themselves in it.

Speaker:

So there's different religions, different

Speaker:

cultures, different languages.

Speaker:

It represented different groups of people

Speaker:

so they can all find something.

Speaker:

They see themselves in from at least a

Speaker:

few of the hundred eighty school days.

Speaker:

Then we do a song.

Speaker:

And so I know my songs don't have

Speaker:

anything to do with what we're teaching.

Speaker:

They're just songs because I don't

Speaker:

believe in targeted

Speaker:

teaching because I don't

Speaker:

think it's how we learn.

Speaker:

We learn things that we have to learn all

Speaker:

the fruits and vegetables today.

Speaker:

That's you've got to do it.

Speaker:

That's what we do.

Speaker:

So I'm I'm a non targeted teacher.

Speaker:

So I pick my songs based on what are

Speaker:

maybe easier songs versus harder songs

Speaker:

and stuff like that.

Speaker:

And so I know I do a song for two weeks.

Speaker:

So I put my song in there and

Speaker:

it doesn't change every year.

Speaker:

No matter what curriculum I use, it's the

Speaker:

same order of songs I

Speaker:

go through the whole

Speaker:

year. Then I have my morphemes again.

Speaker:

My morphemes have nothing to

Speaker:

do with what we're teaching.

Speaker:

It's teaching them to use word parts to

Speaker:

help decode words

Speaker:

they've not seen before.

Speaker:

So that's what I'm teaching so that

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morphemes stays in the same.

Speaker:

Then after that, guess what?

Speaker:

That's my meat of my lesson.

Speaker:

And that's the part that

Speaker:

I've got to adapt every week.

Speaker:

That's the part that I create every week.

Speaker:

And then I have my

Speaker:

my wrap ups.

Speaker:

No, I have what I how I close the lesson.

Speaker:

So my comprehension

Speaker:

check, maybe an exit ticket.

Speaker:

So all those things I do every day.

Speaker:

Those are pre coded.

Speaker:

Those are blank slides in my slide

Speaker:

shell folder and it's going by week one,

Speaker:

week two, week three,

Speaker:

week four, week five,

Speaker:

week six, week seven, etc.

Speaker:

That's how that's organized.

Speaker:

And then as I go in, I

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make a copy of that shell.

Speaker:

I don't change that shell.

Speaker:

I will make a copy of that

Speaker:

shell for that year's week

Speaker:

so that I have that and

Speaker:

then I add in what we're doing.

Speaker:

Are we doing conversations this day?

Speaker:

What are we doing?

Speaker:

So I have this shell and it

Speaker:

makes my life so much easier.

Speaker:

So I'm not planning all

Speaker:

the smaller activities.

Speaker:

I'm planning the big ones

Speaker:

that we're going through.

Speaker:

So that's my other thing.

Speaker:

And then so once you've got the routine,

Speaker:

yeah, then everything is pretty easy.

Speaker:

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker:

Because then it's just filling in what's

Speaker:

left over, which is

Speaker:

your meat and potatoes.

Speaker:

Now, and having other things really helps

Speaker:

with seeing in the

Speaker:

target language as well.

Speaker:

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker:

From Claudia Elliott.

Speaker:

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker:

So the other thing I suggest doing is

Speaker:

putting your ideas into and

Speaker:

not this this one you can't use.

Speaker:

Don't use notebook.

Speaker:

You're not going to get

Speaker:

as a rich of a feedback.

Speaker:

I like Claude because

Speaker:

Claude's more human than GBT.

Speaker:

And I like what the makers of Claude are

Speaker:

a little bit more humanistic in the way

Speaker:

that they think and are a little bit more

Speaker:

protection and are more cautious in what

Speaker:

they do. They just they don't want AI to

Speaker:

reach out and take over the world.

Speaker:

So they have a little bit more restraint.

Speaker:

So I like them.

Speaker:

I use Claude and put your ideas in there.

Speaker:

Like I put in here all the activities, my

Speaker:

routine activities, and I put them all in

Speaker:

there, just brainstorm them all and said,

Speaker:

what is the most logical order to put

Speaker:

these in on a regular

Speaker:

daily routine lesson?

Speaker:

And so it does and it tells you why, why

Speaker:

it thinks this one should go first.

Speaker:

This one should go second.

Speaker:

So it helps you think put in, let's say

Speaker:

you've got a common assessment at the end

Speaker:

of quarter one, put in your your chapters

Speaker:

that you have to teach from that time,

Speaker:

put in your vocabulary, put in your

Speaker:

grammar and say, can you rearrange this

Speaker:

to a more student

Speaker:

friendly, logical order?

Speaker:

It may not coincide with your textbook,

Speaker:

but you know that your common assessment

Speaker:

covers three chapters.

Speaker:

So then let it reorganize it.

Speaker:

So I like to put in some stuff and say,

Speaker:

is there a better way I can do this,

Speaker:

a better way that I can organize this?

Speaker:

And it can look at everything and it

Speaker:

takes seconds where it

Speaker:

would take me hours to

Speaker:

see that all this vocabulary from chapter

Speaker:

three goes really

Speaker:

well with the vocabulary

Speaker:

and maybe they should come together

Speaker:

rather than be two chapters apart from

Speaker:

each other. So I find that

Speaker:

to be very, very helpful.

Speaker:

So I've I've said this before, because I

Speaker:

know a lot of people are against AI for

Speaker:

lots of different reasons and I don't

Speaker:

believe in having AI

Speaker:

do your work for you.

Speaker:

But I do like having it be a

Speaker:

teacher's assistant for you,

Speaker:

kind of like when Bryce Headstrom says,

Speaker:

any job that does not

Speaker:

require a college education,

Speaker:

delicate to a student.

Speaker:

So anything that doesn't require you to

Speaker:

actually be actively involved in it.

Speaker:

Have AI do it for you because you could

Speaker:

be spending your time on much more

Speaker:

important things that are much more

Speaker:

impactful to the actual student and the

Speaker:

classroom. I'm not

Speaker:

having it build my lessons.

Speaker:

I'm having it tell me which activities

Speaker:

are more important

Speaker:

than other ones or more

Speaker:

helpful and why and which what order

Speaker:

should I do these

Speaker:

activities in if I've got all

Speaker:

these activities or if I've got a

Speaker:

multitude like I just did

Speaker:

a webinar last week about

Speaker:

taking my first chapter, showing people I

Speaker:

take their chapter and whittling it down.

Speaker:

I can say, OK, I've got these activities.

Speaker:

There are 25 activities, but I've only

Speaker:

got 10 school days to teach it.

Speaker:

I can't do all these activities.

Speaker:

Which ones would be the

Speaker:

most impactful for my kids?

Speaker:

And it will tell you and explain why.

Speaker:

Having it do those kinds of things where

Speaker:

it would take us hours or trial and error

Speaker:

to find out can really save up some time.

Speaker:

So don't have it replace your work, but

Speaker:

have it be a

Speaker:

teacher's assistant that works

Speaker:

for free. Well, 20 bucks a month.

Speaker:

That's a lot cheaper than paying a real

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teacher assistant to do.

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But it can't make copies for you, but it

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can do a lot of the analytical stuff.

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Sometimes I'll put in grades without

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names and it will tell me, oh, I see this

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pattern that I didn't see in the grades

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so that maybe it can give me some

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suggestions of what I can do to fix that.

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Here's a couple of

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errors I'm seeing in my kids.

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I'll put them in. I go, what

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do you think I could do to help

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my kids understand this concept better?

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Because this is what I've

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done and it's not been working.

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So what other ideas and it will give me

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some ideas or if I lead a new game,

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I need a new game to teach me to help the

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kids understand this concept.

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It'll give me some idea.

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So that's what I highly suggest.

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I know a lot of teachers are against AI

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and some for very valid reasons,

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some not so valid, some valid.

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I kind of think of it as the I think my

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history is really bad, so I

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think it was the Luddites.

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I think it was where who are against the

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the industrialization of the world when

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all the machines started coming in.

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And I think we're at

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that point right now.

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You can either join us or

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you're going to be left way behind.

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So I think you're going to have to find

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some way to to come to peace with AI,

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because I think it's

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going to be here to stay.

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And I don't think it's going

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to replace all of our jobs.

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It's going to replace some jobs because

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the industrial did to the industrial age

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did too, but it made things

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without that industrial age.

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We wouldn't be at this point.

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We are now because when those simple jobs

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are taken, then our brains can be focused

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on making some more advanced things that

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we would not have gotten to.

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So I'm thinking the same

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thing is going to happen here.

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So you're going to have to adapt or

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you're going to be left behind, I think.

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But I don't think we should

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do it to replace our jobs.

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It should just help us do our jobs better

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or more efficiently than otherwise could

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have done because I could spend hours

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looking for clipart that

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just fits or I can tell

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it what I want. And in five minutes out

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comes a perfect image that I needed

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perfectly. So those are my suggestions.

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Any other final thoughts?

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Final thoughts, let's see.

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Remember where you put things, I guess.

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Sometimes I have a job for that.

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Yeah.

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Where I put my marker, where I put my

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clicker, I have a job for that.

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I have students. That's

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their job because I'm too old.

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That's good. That's good.

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Because I'll spend 10 minutes.

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Where did I put that damn clicker?

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Because sometimes I

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plan and plan and plan.

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Where I put the cards I

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printed up or something.

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Yeah, I usually have a little slide, a

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slide somewhere in my day,

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the whole unit plan.

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These are things I need.

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And so I can sort of or copies that I'm

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horrible at

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remembering what copies I need.

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And so then I have to

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take my planning period

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furiously copying for the next period

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when if I were doing what Scott did,

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I would have had those the week before.

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Yeah, I think that Thursday before.

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So just sort of trying to have that all

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of that stuff done so that your

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planning period can actually be to plan

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for future things, not the next period.

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And I use it to do this, too, that tells

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me like I got to make copies on Monday.

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Yeah, I think one of

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the things that really

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freed me is when I was planning, I

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decided I was going to

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have these one size fits

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all copies, like all I need to do is go

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in the first Monday of the month and make

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100 copies and then I've

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got it for all my classes.

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And this is kind of a plug and

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play thing where I'll just say

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looking at the board and the vocabulary

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on the board, you

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know, or using your free

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voluntary reading, write me a sentence

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about, you know, so

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it's all like it's it's

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one size fits all kind of things if I

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have to copy anything.

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I like to make all my copies far in

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advance because I come in early in the

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morning where there's nobody waiting for

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the copy machine so I can

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just go make a whole bunch.

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But my last

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classroom, I had zero storage.

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I had a literally what

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they have in a kitchen,

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not like in a commercial kitchen, those

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wire racks had one wire rack that I could

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sell all my stuff and I'm

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like, that is not enough.

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Now I have way too much storage.

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I have way too much storage in my

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classroom, which I'm

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not complaining about.

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I rather have more than enough.

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But what I used to do when I used to have

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spot behind my whiteboards because we

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have shells been our whiteboards.

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You could slide the whiteboards.

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And I haven't had that in 20 years.

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But now that I have it back again,

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what I used to do was make all my copies

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and then I'd have stacks behind there in

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the order that I needed

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them I have to slide up here.

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Period one.

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I mean, level one was on the top row.

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Level two was in the middle row.

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Level three was in the bottom row.

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In the last couple of years, I had to

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like stack them in a basket, crisscross.

Speaker:

And then I couldn't remember what order I

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needed them and got to find them.

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And I could never

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find the copies I needed.

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So this will be really

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happy to have it nice

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and organized again to where I can find

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all the copies that I pre-made.

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So I can make copies weeks and weeks in

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advance that I know I already have,

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especially last year, I had to teach a

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class that nothing new with languages,

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but required lots of copies.

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I never used the copy

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machine so much in my life.

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But I all this paper, I couldn't find a

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place to put this and keep it organized

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to where I could find

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it when I needed it.

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Yeah, yeah, that's where I live.

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So many different

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subjects and a tiny portable.

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Yeah. Oh, yeah.

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Mm hmm.

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So I want to thank

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Mary for joining us today.

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She is a self-confessed podcast addict.

Speaker:

So I'm so glad she was able to join us

Speaker:

and I hope she will come back again.

Speaker:

Yeah, we'd love to have her back.

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Have the West Coast represented because

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we're all West Coasters.

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Yeah. We're all West

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Coasters, which is weird.

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Last week we had a special viewer from

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Iran, which I was so excited to have.

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We get a lot of international viewers,

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but rarely they actually

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came in and did a chat with us.

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So that was really nice to have people

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from all around the world,

Speaker:

because we all are what I like about what

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we what we're doing now,

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what we can do with Internet and

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technology is the world has gotten

Speaker:

extremely smaller.

Speaker:

We 20 years ago, we could I could not

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have had an easy conversation

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with someone in Iran.

Speaker:

You couldn't do that.

Speaker:

It was not so easy to do.

Speaker:

And so that we can all connect because we

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are all human beings,

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regardless of our ideologies, our

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countries, our

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nationalities, our religions.

Speaker:

We're all human beings

Speaker:

and we have that in common.

Speaker:

And we have this very similar thoughts

Speaker:

and processes and

Speaker:

worries and stuff like that.

Speaker:

Bringing the world together is a great

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thing that we can share ideas because

Speaker:

where could we share ideas from what we

Speaker:

do here in America with someone who wants

Speaker:

to hear them and is interested in Iran?

Speaker:

That would never have

Speaker:

been possible before.

Speaker:

So I am thankful for you viewers out

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there from all over the world that come

Speaker:

and watch us either live or on a podcast.

Speaker:

So we do appreciate that.

Speaker:

But that's the episode for today.

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You've been at this spa and you're

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currently starring,

Speaker:

staring at a bin of supplies

Speaker:

you bought in July because, you know,

Speaker:

Target puts her stuff right up after 4th

Speaker:

of July for a system you've

Speaker:

already mentally abandoned.

Speaker:

Hey, us too.

Speaker:

The only thing I recommend

Speaker:

from that target bin, though,

Speaker:

that's when you can get the nice Crayola

Speaker:

thick markers for a dollar a box.

Speaker:

Oh, I have to go down.

Speaker:

That's what you do.

Speaker:

That's what I buy at that

Speaker:

target thing every year.

Speaker:

So us two, no notes.

Speaker:

Pamela, thank you, as always, for being

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the voice of you don't actually have to

Speaker:

rebuild that and marry a genuine thank

Speaker:

you for driving two hours south of the

Speaker:

Canadian border metaphorically to tell a

Speaker:

room full of over planners that tweaking

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a lesson counts and doesn't

Speaker:

require starting from zero.

Speaker:

You made major tweaks

Speaker:

sound almost reasonable.

Speaker:

If you've got one thing today, let it be

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this good enough and repeatable beats

Speaker:

perfect and unrepeatable

Speaker:

and the color coding can wait.

Speaker:

If this one landed, subscribe so you

Speaker:

don't have to remember we exist.

Speaker:

Leave a review if you're feeling generous

Speaker:

and send it to the teacher in your

Speaker:

building who is right now, laminating

Speaker:

something they will never use.

Speaker:

Watch us live on YouTube or catch the

Speaker:

replay wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker:

Ditch the drills, trust the process, and

Speaker:

I'll see you next

Speaker:

time on Comprehend This.

Speaker:

Bye bye, everybody.

Speaker:

See you next time.

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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.