Episode 39: "150 New Names and No Relationship Yet"
Building relationships in a CI classroom is the first job of the school year - in this episode of Comprehend THIS!, we get into how you do it fast with 150 new students. Learn practical ways to build trust in a comprehensible input classroom before you teach a single unit. If your class went quiet in week two, this one is for you.
Late August is the stranger phase: a roster of names, no rapport, and a pacing guide that doesn't care. Pamela Parks joins me as always - former professional translator, now world language teacher, and the person most likely to ask what your inspiring advice actually looks like on a Tuesday. Guest host Tracey Grogan-Collazos piloted CI at her high school in 2017, has taught French and Spanish for over twenty years, and is currently obsessed with building community in the target language. We cover learning 150 names without losing your mind, why relationship-building in a CI classroom is load-bearing rather than decorative, how to build trust across five periods without it turning into a performance, and the moves that quietly damaged trust before anyone noticed the cost.
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Hosts:
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Pamela Parks - https://imim.us/pamela
Tracey Grogan-Collazos
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Transcript
Good morning and welcome to episode 39.
Speaker:We're almost done with season number 4.
Speaker:Can you believe it?
Speaker:And it's late August and you have 150
Speaker:people in your room,
Speaker:actually it's 200 for me, who
Speaker:do not know you, do not trust you and are
Speaker:definitely not about to guess out loud in
Speaker:a language they've had for 11 days.
Speaker:You've got a curriculum map, a seating
Speaker:chart and a folder of names
Speaker:you already are mispronouncing.
Speaker:What you do not have is a single
Speaker:relationship with any one of them.
Speaker:That's the actual starting condition.
Speaker:Not students arrive eager to acquire.
Speaker:Strangers, a room full
Speaker:of them, 5 times a day.
Speaker:I'm joined by Pamela Parks who spent
Speaker:years as a professional
Speaker:translator getting paid
Speaker:for precision and now spends her days
Speaker:trying to be understood
Speaker:by a sophomore who didn't
Speaker:sleep.
Speaker:And Tracy Garan-Cayatos, who piloted CI
Speaker:at her high school way
Speaker:back in 2017, has been
Speaker:teaching French and Spanish for over 20
Speaker:years and still, her
Speaker:words, looks forward to going
Speaker:to work.
Speaker:We're going to interrogate that today.
Speaker:So today, how you build, trust, fast, at
Speaker:scale, without it
Speaker:turning into a performance you
Speaker:can't sustain past October.
Speaker:What actually works, what quietly
Speaker:backfires and what Tracy
Speaker:does in the first week before
Speaker:she teaches anything at all.
Speaker:Stick around, somebody's about to say the
Speaker:thing you did wrong last year.
Speaker:We'll be right back
Speaker:after these short messages.
Speaker:Is it already August?
Speaker:Again?
Speaker:And you're supposed to have a fresh,
Speaker:engaging, life-changing
Speaker:plan for the first week?
Speaker:Cute.
Speaker:Here's the deal.
Speaker:Back to school boot
Speaker:camp is your secret weapon.
Speaker:10 short, pre-recorded lessons you can
Speaker:watch in pajamas while
Speaker:hiding from your admin or
Speaker:during that mysterious
Speaker:planning period we keep hearing about.
Speaker:You walk away with strategies, plans, and
Speaker:actual confidence, not
Speaker:just a Pinterest board
Speaker:full of guilt.
Speaker:Access it all for a full year.
Speaker:Go to mm.us slash boot camp and get
Speaker:yourself together
Speaker:before the kids show up.
Speaker:Welcome to Comprehend This, real talk for
Speaker:real language teachers.
Speaker:No drills, no dry theory, just honest
Speaker:stories, practical ideas,
Speaker:and a reminder you're not
Speaker:alone in the CI trenches.
Speaker:Let's dive in.
Speaker:And good morning, Pamela and Tracy.
Speaker:How's everybody doing today?
Speaker:Good morning.
Speaker:Good morning.
Speaker:Tracy, I'm so excited to
Speaker:have another double dipper here.
Speaker:We teach French and Spanish.
Speaker:But you're a quadruple dipper.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But what are your four languages?
Speaker:I'm over my head.
Speaker:Excuse me?
Speaker:What are your four languages, Pamela?
Speaker:I teach French, Spanish, and Japanese.
Speaker:And then for the last three years now,
Speaker:they've crammed extra
Speaker:students in my classes because
Speaker:they said we need
Speaker:another English teacher.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Well, I'm getting whiplash so badly.
Speaker:Well, I'm going to say we already talked
Speaker:about that your school isn't like you.
Speaker:They got you in the back 40.
Speaker:I think they like me.
Speaker:They just have too much confidence in me.
Speaker:But it's your fault for
Speaker:getting too many credentials.
Speaker:I think so.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:The overachiever.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I'm credentialed in English as well, but
Speaker:I'm not teaching it yet.
Speaker:So who knows?
Speaker:We'll keep it quiet.
Speaker:No jinxing.
Speaker:No jinxing.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I am not credentialed in English.
Speaker:Thank you very much.
Speaker:I've got German, Spanish,
Speaker:and English language learners.
Speaker:That's enough.
Speaker:That sounds wonderful.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:I don't do Germans.
Speaker:That sounds great.
Speaker:Well, I wish I did German.
Speaker:I'm going to teach it at my school.
Speaker:So I never get to use
Speaker:German, but it's still fun.
Speaker:It's still fun.
Speaker:So today we're talking
Speaker:about building relationships.
Speaker:Pamela, you're not back
Speaker:to school yet, are you?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:We start all of our week long PD tomorrow
Speaker:and then our school starts.
Speaker:Tracy, did you start already?
Speaker:We have started.
Speaker:We started on the 13th.
Speaker:So it's been a week and a half.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:Where are you, Tracy?
Speaker:I'm in Burbank.
Speaker:I'm in Burbank.
Speaker:The high school in Burbank.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:The 13th.
Speaker:We did the 12th.
Speaker:Ours with kids came back on the 12th.
Speaker:So I got one more day on her.
Speaker:But yeah, we're starting technically our
Speaker:third calendar week of school.
Speaker:It's not the...
Speaker:And I only see my kids
Speaker:every other day for a block.
Speaker:So I hate that, but it is what it is.
Speaker:And they hate it too because they're
Speaker:like, "We got really
Speaker:involved in the language and
Speaker:then all of a sudden we
Speaker:miss a day and then we gotta...
Speaker:It's like starting back over again to get
Speaker:a little mini review every day.
Speaker:Being houses forgetting curve.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:So is all of California that early?
Speaker:Mostly.
Speaker:I think so.
Speaker:And we're late considering California.
Speaker:We're late.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Because most of the schools started here
Speaker:around me a week before us.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:They usually start...
Speaker:Teachers come back the first Monday of
Speaker:August and then usually
Speaker:by the end of that first
Speaker:week, whether it be Wednesday or
Speaker:Thursday, kids are back.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:So yeah.
Speaker:We start early.
Speaker:And it's really bad because August is the
Speaker:hottest month in
Speaker:where the northern part of
Speaker:California and all the kids are coming
Speaker:back and all the sport
Speaker:practices are really early
Speaker:in the morning.
Speaker:Because you can't do them at night.
Speaker:Because in the afternoon it's 104 and
Speaker:they can't run football
Speaker:drills at 104 in pads.
Speaker:It's just not gonna happen.
Speaker:So they must be super tired by the time
Speaker:they get to you because
Speaker:they've already had a foot
Speaker:workout.
Speaker:Well, it really works
Speaker:well for the ADHD kids.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It might be good to get them exhausted
Speaker:before they come into class.
Speaker:And I know I keep doing this and I don't
Speaker:mean to associate kids
Speaker:with dogs, but they say
Speaker:a tired dog's a good dog
Speaker:and a tired kid's a good kid.
Speaker:Not like tired as in
Speaker:physical tired, not sleepy tired.
Speaker:Sleepy tired, there's a difference there
Speaker:between being sleepy and
Speaker:being physically tired because
Speaker:you just did a giant workout.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So today we're talking about building
Speaker:relationships and
Speaker:Pamela pointed out earlier.
Speaker:This is one of my big things anyway,
Speaker:doing relationships.
Speaker:But pointed out that I'm
Speaker:new to my school this year.
Speaker:I switched and it's harder because you
Speaker:wonder if you can build
Speaker:up a similar relationship
Speaker:with your kids that you
Speaker:did at your previous school.
Speaker:And you can keep that reputation going
Speaker:like you've done in the past.
Speaker:And so that was a challenge for me to
Speaker:make sure, because I knew
Speaker:none of these kids, it's
Speaker:not like I had them or their friends have
Speaker:had me and kind of know what to expect.
Speaker:They don't.
Speaker:So it was completely brand new for me.
Speaker:Brand new, the culture's brand new to me.
Speaker:The kids were brand new to me.
Speaker:I would just like the freshmen except the
Speaker:freshmen at advantage
Speaker:because they knew each
Speaker:other.
Speaker:I had nothing.
Speaker:So I was building it from ground zero.
Speaker:How's it going so far?
Speaker:Is it working?
Speaker:Yeah, it is working.
Speaker:And I'll tell you what I've done.
Speaker:I do every, I only
Speaker:started maybe five years ago.
Speaker:And what is really been helpful is I send
Speaker:out an email before
Speaker:the, before school starts.
Speaker:It was a little harder this year because
Speaker:they don't give us our
Speaker:class list to like right
Speaker:before.
Speaker:So I usually have a weekend or something
Speaker:that I can give them,
Speaker:you know, time to be able
Speaker:to read their emails.
Speaker:But I send it out to the parents, an
Speaker:email, a different email
Speaker:than I send to the kids.
Speaker:And I let them kind of know this is going
Speaker:to be a wacky class.
Speaker:Get ready for it, you know.
Speaker:Put your big boy britches on, you know,
Speaker:it's going to be different.
Speaker:We're going to be doing singing.
Speaker:I said you're never going to meet a
Speaker:teacher who sings and
Speaker:dances as badly as I do.
Speaker:You know, I just kind of front load the
Speaker:craziness a little bit.
Speaker:And then we talked that I give candy for
Speaker:reading emails to get them
Speaker:to train to read the email.
Speaker:So I told them I go by profe.
Speaker:So I said if you can come and tell me
Speaker:that as you walk in the
Speaker:classroom, when you come
Speaker:in, you're going to get a sucker.
Speaker:So that's how I know they read it.
Speaker:And some kids would actually reply.
Speaker:And then parents, I said, please tell me
Speaker:something funny about
Speaker:your child that they wouldn't
Speaker:mind you sharing, but at the same time
Speaker:would kind of be, oh my
Speaker:gosh, don't say that kind
Speaker:of embarrassing kind of thing to say too.
Speaker:So I get those things and I use it
Speaker:against my students later on.
Speaker:Like I had a kid a couple of years ago,
Speaker:parents said he's terrified of spiders.
Speaker:And she goes, you've got to pick on him
Speaker:about that because he's a
Speaker:grown boy and he shouldn't
Speaker:be.
Speaker:He's broken two of my vacuums trying to
Speaker:kill spiders in there.
Speaker:So I would put a little fake spiders
Speaker:around my room a lot of times.
Speaker:And you just hear him scream or I put a
Speaker:random spider slide in my slide deck.
Speaker:So I just switch slides.
Speaker:There'd be a giant spider up there.
Speaker:And the parents on the last day of school
Speaker:said, you know, it was graduation day for
Speaker:our eighth graders.
Speaker:They came and said, oh my gosh, he said
Speaker:this was the best school year ever.
Speaker:He goes, he was loving
Speaker:all the spider tricks.
Speaker:He didn't know where a
Speaker:spider was coming from.
Speaker:And she goes, that was the best thing.
Speaker:So, you know, it didn't
Speaker:work to desensitize him.
Speaker:No, no.
Speaker:On our class trip, we went we go to Six
Speaker:Flags, which is about,
Speaker:you know, an hour and a half
Speaker:away on a bus and they get
Speaker:a professional bus on there.
Speaker:Well, he you can't use the
Speaker:bathroom while the bus is moving.
Speaker:That's state law for kids.
Speaker:They got to be in their seats.
Speaker:So when the bus stops,
Speaker:they can go into the bathroom.
Speaker:Well, he went to the bathroom.
Speaker:So I had, you know, you go to Halloween,
Speaker:you buy all those
Speaker:little tiny spider rings.
Speaker:They had all those little spider rings.
Speaker:So when he was in the bathroom, I went to
Speaker:his backpack and I
Speaker:dumped a whole bunch of
Speaker:them in there.
Speaker:And the kids said the kids said when he
Speaker:was waiting in line at
Speaker:one of the rides, he was
Speaker:getting trying to get a snack out of his
Speaker:bag and scream bloody murder in the line.
Speaker:That is funny.
Speaker:That's good relationship
Speaker:building to be able to do that.
Speaker:And parents helped me with that by
Speaker:telling me something
Speaker:about their kid that is kind
Speaker:of funny and a little bit
Speaker:embarrassing, but not mean.
Speaker:You know, I don't want
Speaker:to know the mean stuff.
Speaker:I want to know the stuff that is kind of
Speaker:funny and interesting
Speaker:and I can use it because I
Speaker:might go something else comes up and I
Speaker:go, oh, I'll use that for a story.
Speaker:And it might not come up till October,
Speaker:but I've stored it away
Speaker:in my back of my head.
Speaker:So that's what's really great about that.
Speaker:So yes, I do build relationships and I
Speaker:will say that and being yourself
Speaker:unashamedly, unembarrassingly
Speaker:yourself really helps because I'm goofy.
Speaker:No matter, you know, I'm goofy period.
Speaker:I make bad jokes.
Speaker:I warned them about my bad jokes.
Speaker:They seem to laugh at them.
Speaker:So I'm just unashamedly
Speaker:myself right away on first day.
Speaker:I sing really badly.
Speaker:They know it.
Speaker:They hear it.
Speaker:And I think that helps alleviate because
Speaker:we did our first
Speaker:reflection this week about about
Speaker:how Spanish class went.
Speaker:And I had a lot of kids
Speaker:say they felt welcomed.
Speaker:Oh, that's.
Speaker:And so that was a really nice, sweet
Speaker:thing because I didn't go
Speaker:out of my way to welcome
Speaker:anybody, you know, that kind of thing.
Speaker:But they felt welcome.
Speaker:They could be themselves and they didn't.
Speaker:They just knew it was going to be a
Speaker:different type of a class.
Speaker:So so it was it was a pretty good start.
Speaker:Pretty good start.
Speaker:How about you, Tracy?
Speaker:I was it's funny as you were thinking
Speaker:about saying, you know, you're
Speaker:unashamedly yourself.
Speaker:I'm a little bit shy about revealing
Speaker:little parts of me, but
Speaker:I am very happy to share.
Speaker:I'm very proud of the fact that I ride a
Speaker:tractor and saw your
Speaker:email right attractor.
Speaker:Do you have a little farm?
Speaker:There is a hole in your grass.
Speaker:It's a big red barn.
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker:So my grandparents were from Iowa and
Speaker:they had a property that
Speaker:the family used to spend
Speaker:time on around Yosemite area.
Speaker:And we still maintain it and love it and
Speaker:use it as our escape.
Speaker:And it's four acres
Speaker:and it has to be mowed.
Speaker:We have an orchard and everything else.
Speaker:And so I usually in the first two weeks,
Speaker:I make sure I show
Speaker:myself on the tractor, you
Speaker:know, with my big old hat
Speaker:and this and that, you know.
Speaker:And I do have kids that come from
Speaker:families who have
Speaker:experienced rural life and they're
Speaker:always super shocked, right, that their
Speaker:Spanish or French teacher
Speaker:is out there riding a tractor
Speaker:and mowing the orchard and the whole bit.
Speaker:So I use it when we do kind of a guessing
Speaker:game about the
Speaker:teacher, you know, the four
Speaker:corners.
Speaker:And I just, we have some fun with that.
Speaker:And, you know, what thing do you think I
Speaker:actually do ride on?
Speaker:You know, is it rollercoasters?
Speaker:Is it a tractor?
Speaker:Is it a horse?
Speaker:Is it a whatever?
Speaker:And then, you know, the big reveal is
Speaker:like me on the tractor.
Speaker:And that's always a fun one.
Speaker:So, but yeah, they're
Speaker:always very similar.
Speaker:You could top that if
Speaker:you learned to ride a bull.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:That might be out of my wheelhouse.
Speaker:Yes, that's a great idea though.
Speaker:Don't make it a bull.
Speaker:Just make it a cow.
Speaker:Just a calm cow that you go.
Speaker:That's a really good idea.
Speaker:That would be super fun.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So that helps.
Speaker:We also talk about my favorite drink and
Speaker:their favorite drink.
Speaker:And I am a hot chocolate
Speaker:person through and through.
Speaker:So when I'm stressed
Speaker:out, that's my go-to drink.
Speaker:I said, if you see me with hot cocoa, you
Speaker:know I'm having a hard day.
Speaker:Because I drink it when it's hot.
Speaker:I drink it when it's cold.
Speaker:It doesn't matter.
Speaker:It's me and the cocoa.
Speaker:You know, we're just going
Speaker:to barely make it through.
Speaker:And we do that all in Spanish.
Speaker:And I support it with English
Speaker:translations underneath.
Speaker:And I go nice and
Speaker:slow and point and pause.
Speaker:And then we talk about
Speaker:what their favorite drink is.
Speaker:And I love to hear the
Speaker:different flavors they like.
Speaker:It's so interesting.
Speaker:There are so many flavors.
Speaker:Like when I was younger, I feel like we
Speaker:did not have access to all Ube.
Speaker:Oh no.
Speaker:You know, like they love an Ube.
Speaker:Something or another.
Speaker:And it's fabulous.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:So we get to talk about all
Speaker:the flavors that they like.
Speaker:That is really fun for me.
Speaker:And I think it's fun for them.
Speaker:Especially because I do have students who
Speaker:bring their favorite
Speaker:drink to class with them.
Speaker:You can see that they've swung through
Speaker:the Starbucks or they
Speaker:have their favorite juice.
Speaker:We have a supermarket
Speaker:really close to our school.
Speaker:And so students will go to the
Speaker:supermarket before school.
Speaker:And then bring it whatever it is they
Speaker:want to sip on into class.
Speaker:We have a Dutch brose across the street.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:Perfect.
Speaker:It's great.
Speaker:And you know, it's funny because I read
Speaker:your email about the beverages.
Speaker:And I'm going to forget her name.
Speaker:So I apologize.
Speaker:She's a Parisian.
Speaker:She teaches French.
Speaker:She's in the United States in Denver.
Speaker:I met her many times.
Speaker:I even took French class with her.
Speaker:And I can't remember her name.
Speaker:I'm horrible things.
Speaker:I really apologize.
Speaker:Is it Sabrina?
Speaker:Yes Sabrina.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Sabrina.
Speaker:It's Sabrina.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Sabrina.
Speaker:She at Ajaan.
Speaker:I watched her, observed her,
Speaker:and she did the beverage thing.
Speaker:And I thought.
Speaker:You can't get tea from her.
Speaker:This is boring.
Speaker:How are you?
Speaker:What are you going to
Speaker:do with what they do?
Speaker:Because like half my kids say water.
Speaker:And then I watched what she did with it.
Speaker:And she went on for like three classes of
Speaker:an hour and a half on what they drink.
Speaker:And I thought, OK, this is genius.
Speaker:I'm going to bring it
Speaker:back to my classroom.
Speaker:And I did.
Speaker:And I had just what I thought I would.
Speaker:Water.
Speaker:Water.
Speaker:Water.
Speaker:And I'm like.
Speaker:So I would say, "Qué aborido."
Speaker:How boring.
Speaker:That water is your favorite thing.
Speaker:And then I said.
Speaker:I would say in Spanish, I say, "Oh, do
Speaker:you like the dirty water?
Speaker:Do you like bottled water?
Speaker:Or do you like fufu water with gas?"
Speaker:You know?
Speaker:So and the dirty waters of water out of
Speaker:the faucet, I always say.
Speaker:They're like, "That's not dirty water."
Speaker:I go, "Go up and look up that faucet and
Speaker:see what that faucet looks like."
Speaker:And so we would go and
Speaker:some kids would probably say,
Speaker:"Oh, aguasútía.
Speaker:Aguasútía.
Speaker:Dirty water.
Speaker:Dirty water."
Speaker:But we had fun with that kind of a thing.
Speaker:So you can.
Speaker:Something so boring and so easy as what
Speaker:your favorite drink is.
Speaker:I stretched that out
Speaker:for a lot longer time.
Speaker:So thank you, Sabrina.
Speaker:Because that was an idea that I never
Speaker:ever thought of before.
Speaker:You know, before when I used to ask.
Speaker:This is my level threes too.
Speaker:I would ask.
Speaker:And before I would ask
Speaker:that my question was.
Speaker:What made you special?
Speaker:What's your special
Speaker:little talent or something?
Speaker:I didn't get as much play out of that one
Speaker:as I did with the drinking.
Speaker:With the water?
Speaker:Yeah, because I had one kid
Speaker:who goes, "It's Dr. Pepper,
Speaker:but I'm not allowed to have Dr. Pepper.
Speaker:I'm not allowed to have soda."
Speaker:And he goes, "But I
Speaker:have one in my backpack.
Speaker:I sneak it."
Speaker:So we made it a big secret.
Speaker:And I go, "If he's like talking class,
Speaker:do I need to call your
Speaker:parents about the Dr. Pepper?
Speaker:Do I need?"
Speaker:And it just became a class little joke
Speaker:because he's not allowed to have soda.
Speaker:And he always brings one to school.
Speaker:He goes to the closed store and picks up
Speaker:one and has it in his bag.
Speaker:And so it was just hilariously funny and
Speaker:what you can get out of that.
Speaker:So the beverage thing is a
Speaker:really, really good thing.
Speaker:And it breaks down those barriers that
Speaker:you can get kids to talk about.
Speaker:Because it's innocuous.
Speaker:Your drink, you don't have to be
Speaker:embarrassed about it.
Speaker:You know, it's nothing.
Speaker:Nothing.
Speaker:They drink it right in class anyway.
Speaker:So it's like it's not that big of a deal,
Speaker:but you can learn a lot about people.
Speaker:We had one who said, "I don't know where
Speaker:you get the pink drink from."
Speaker:Is it Dutch Bros?
Speaker:That's Starbucks.
Speaker:That's Starbucks.
Speaker:Okay, Starbucks.
Speaker:So she goes, "Starbucks."
Speaker:She goes, "Yeah, my dad gets
Speaker:me a pink drink every day."
Speaker:I said, "Even on the weekends?"
Speaker:She goes, "Even on the weekends."
Speaker:And I said, "How much is it?"
Speaker:She's like, "It's like seven
Speaker:or eight dollars each one."
Speaker:I'm like, "They're here.
Speaker:It was your college fund."
Speaker:Because we did the math.
Speaker:And you're like,
Speaker:"That's seven days a week."
Speaker:You're talking, it's almost, you know,
Speaker:75, 80 bucks a week?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And for--
Speaker:We talk about like with ice, without ice,
Speaker:with a straw, without a straw.
Speaker:And then you can go from that to like
Speaker:environmental issues about straws.
Speaker:If you use straws, is it plastic?
Speaker:Is it paper?
Speaker:Is it potato straw that's compostable?
Speaker:They get super into the straws.
Speaker:I don't know why we
Speaker:talk about straws a lot.
Speaker:Oh, and nightmares from the 70s.
Speaker:They're bringing back
Speaker:those damn paper straws.
Speaker:Oh, I hate those.
Speaker:I hate those.
Speaker:The texture in your mouth?
Speaker:The taste in my mouth right now.
Speaker:Those are my favorite.
Speaker:Oh, no.
Speaker:Oh, it's my mouth is all going?
Speaker:Not only that, they get soggy.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:The bottoms get--
Speaker:I drink my coffee with a paper straw.
Speaker:You have a paper straw in your coffee?
Speaker:Yeah, I'm vain about my teeth.
Speaker:But that's only the talk of that.
Speaker:I get, I have glass
Speaker:straws and silicone straws.
Speaker:Oh, yeah.
Speaker:Okay, I have metal at home.
Speaker:Yeah, but metal doesn't
Speaker:do well with hot drinks.
Speaker:No, it's not as good.
Speaker:I burned my mouth.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:Your hot chocolate, you cannot use.
Speaker:You cannot use a metal straw.
Speaker:Yeah, only room temperature works.
Speaker:Oh, yeah, that's the other thing.
Speaker:You can talk about
Speaker:hot cold and, you know,
Speaker:thiebier room
Speaker:temperature, which is so great.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:I feel like there's so
Speaker:much you can do that.
Speaker:So it must have come from Sabrina.
Speaker:I know I put that in
Speaker:my little thing to you.
Speaker:I could not remember who my
Speaker:colleague had learned it from
Speaker:when we were training in CI,
Speaker:and it must have been Sabrina.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:I got it from Sabrina.
Speaker:That was an awesome idea
Speaker:I've used it ever since.
Speaker:So what do you do, Pamela?
Speaker:Well, you know, I always like, I don't
Speaker:know why they call them
Speaker:dad jokes when I invented them.
Speaker:That makes no sense to me.
Speaker:Yeah, like, I like to get the buy in.
Speaker:I think we were
Speaker:talking about this last time.
Speaker:You know, you have to talk about your
Speaker:syllabus on the first day.
Speaker:And I realized I don't want to do that
Speaker:because that's too dull.
Speaker:I recorded myself talking about the
Speaker:syllabus, and I send it home.
Speaker:And since I CC the parents,
Speaker:they get the syllabus too.
Speaker:So now the parents know I'm
Speaker:weird because when I'm explaining
Speaker:the syllabus, I'm
Speaker:explaining I'm eccentric.
Speaker:I'm a weird lady.
Speaker:The background of how I
Speaker:became a teacher is also very weird
Speaker:because I was a professional translator.
Speaker:And the reason I became a professional
Speaker:translator is because
Speaker:I'm a voracious reader.
Speaker:And the reason I'm a voracious reader is
Speaker:because I love comic books.
Speaker:Okay, so the fact that I worked on 150
Speaker:cartoons, like immediately
Speaker:the students are just like,
Speaker:like, they're like, you're a weird lady.
Speaker:And I'm like, yes, I'm very weird.
Speaker:Very eccentric.
Speaker:Um, yeah, of course, of course.
Speaker:And, um, the other thing is, um, I've had
Speaker:kind of a tough life.
Speaker:I was totally paralyzed 23 years ago, and
Speaker:I had to learn to walk again.
Speaker:And then I, a couple of years ago, I
Speaker:tripped over a student's backpack
Speaker:because we're a game based classroom.
Speaker:And so my foot has still hasn't healed
Speaker:because of the fact that
Speaker:the nerves haven't regrown
Speaker:yet in the leg completely.
Speaker:So immediately I'm telling the kids,
Speaker:look, learning a language
Speaker:is not the hardest thing
Speaker:you will ever do in your life.
Speaker:And so I think between the two of those
Speaker:things, the fact that I'm so eccentric,
Speaker:I'm very eccentric and that I'm like,
Speaker:like, hey guys, I've
Speaker:come back from a near death
Speaker:experience.
Speaker:You know, the doctors did
Speaker:not think I would survive.
Speaker:So, um, I try to get
Speaker:them on my side that way.
Speaker:And then of course, once I embraced
Speaker:comprehensible input, that made the
Speaker:relationship building
Speaker:so much easier because, you know, the
Speaker:students walk in your
Speaker:door the first day and they're like, Oh,
Speaker:I'm going to try and
Speaker:get out of this class
Speaker:because I heard I have to do
Speaker:presentations and I'm
Speaker:so socially awkward.
Speaker:I don't want to do presentations.
Speaker:And here we are making up some goofy
Speaker:story about, um, uh,
Speaker:purple mouse, trying to find
Speaker:school supplies and
Speaker:everyone's just corally repeating.
Speaker:And then we'll play a
Speaker:little game with it afterwards.
Speaker:And like a couple of days there, you
Speaker:know, I feel like, like,
Speaker:how long does it take me
Speaker:to hit my stride is what I'm always
Speaker:thinking in my head.
Speaker:You know, how many days is it going to be
Speaker:before I feel like, Oh
Speaker:yeah, this feels like
Speaker:we've been doing it for three years.
Speaker:And I've only known these
Speaker:students for three days.
Speaker:So those are the big things I think.
Speaker:Oh, and the fact that we play a lot of
Speaker:games, games always
Speaker:lower the effective filter.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So agreed that that sounds
Speaker:like you're going to hear it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I think just it's so important to
Speaker:build these relationships
Speaker:because if you have these
Speaker:connections, um, then discipline becomes
Speaker:a lot easier and you can
Speaker:use the disappointed card.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Which is much more
Speaker:effective than you're in trouble.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I know Tracy mentioned in her email
Speaker:and it's something that
Speaker:I do every day is greet
Speaker:the kids at the door.
Speaker:And I even have kids, I'm usually not a
Speaker:touchy feely kind of person.
Speaker:I tell you, I, I'm not, but I'm on the
Speaker:autism spectrum somehow.
Speaker:Somehow I'm on there.
Speaker:I don't know where, but I am.
Speaker:And there's this, I have
Speaker:these really weird quick quirks.
Speaker:Um, but touching, I'm not a big touchy
Speaker:feely kind of person
Speaker:with strangers, you know,
Speaker:massages are like the
Speaker:most terrifying thing to me.
Speaker:You have a stranger touch
Speaker:me, those kinds of things.
Speaker:No, no, no, no.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Um, but I had a kids who volunteer, they
Speaker:come out, want to fist bump you.
Speaker:And I'm like, okay, you know, um, but the
Speaker:greeting them at the
Speaker:door has been really,
Speaker:really a great thing for me.
Speaker:Um, I know that, uh,
Speaker:some people do passwords.
Speaker:I don't do the password.
Speaker:Um, that part, because it, for me, it
Speaker:slows everything down.
Speaker:I rather just like make it common about
Speaker:what clothing they're wearing.
Speaker:You know, that's a great shirt, good
Speaker:shoe, something personal.
Speaker:So I can really build
Speaker:the relationship there.
Speaker:And I'm outside the classroom.
Speaker:So it's not like it's, I have to do
Speaker:language because I, when
Speaker:I'm in the classroom, that's
Speaker:when language happens.
Speaker:So it's kind of, I'm outside.
Speaker:So it's kind of like that buffer zone.
Speaker:So I'm really trying
Speaker:to connect with them.
Speaker:Oh, I love that band too.
Speaker:Or great pair of new
Speaker:shoes or something like that.
Speaker:Or, oh my gosh, you dyed your hair today.
Speaker:It's now purple, pink and blue, you know,
Speaker:something like that.
Speaker:So the kids see that I'm noticing them.
Speaker:They're not just a, a blur coming in.
Speaker:So I do that, but I do have, like I said,
Speaker:I do my crazy emails.
Speaker:I sent them out and my
Speaker:little secret also for the emails.
Speaker:I do not speak teenage slang, but I will
Speaker:type my email out in English.
Speaker:And then I go to chat GPT and I say, can
Speaker:you please translate
Speaker:this into teenage slang?
Speaker:No cap fam.
Speaker:And so it's all there.
Speaker:It's really funny.
Speaker:Like, like, I know I always put in there,
Speaker:my end, my Friday is always,
Speaker:have a good weekend, stay out of trouble.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Well, one time it translated it to
Speaker:something about have a good
Speaker:weekend, whatever it said,
Speaker:I forgot, but it says, stay out of jail.
Speaker:I ain't bailing you out.
Speaker:And it was funny.
Speaker:And I'll call out a kid, like a kid who's
Speaker:a little troublemaker.
Speaker:I'll go and Owen, I'm watching you.
Speaker:And something, so they go, I got called
Speaker:out in there, but I
Speaker:have them sometimes have to
Speaker:tell me something when they come back in
Speaker:just that one day a week.
Speaker:So on Monday, I'm looking for something,
Speaker:something that was
Speaker:from the email like me,
Speaker:what's your favorite animal or what's
Speaker:your favorite mythical animal?
Speaker:Or do you prefer unicorns or dragons?
Speaker:You know, something dumb like that, just
Speaker:to make sure that they read it.
Speaker:You sometimes see it on YouTube too.
Speaker:They go, if you made it this far, put in
Speaker:the comments, you
Speaker:know, a dolphin emoji or
Speaker:a thumbs up emoji or something like that.
Speaker:So it's same kind of thing to make sure
Speaker:they got to the end kind of thing.
Speaker:And then I award with
Speaker:candy for that type of thing.
Speaker:But it's really, I find that really fun.
Speaker:And the kids are like,
Speaker:oh my God, you're so bad.
Speaker:It's like, boomer.
Speaker:I'm not a boomer, but they
Speaker:call me a boomer anyways.
Speaker:They call me punk when I do that.
Speaker:But it's funny because they're laughing
Speaker:and I know they read it because they're
Speaker:laughing at me in a good way.
Speaker:You know, absolutely.
Speaker:That's a great way to do that.
Speaker:Let's talk logistics because I find it
Speaker:very difficult to meet
Speaker:my students at the door
Speaker:because I'm changing languages.
Speaker:So are you meeting your students at the
Speaker:door or are you
Speaker:welcoming them when they come in?
Speaker:I do meet my students
Speaker:at the door, but I have.
Speaker:So you know how Scott talks about having
Speaker:all of his like
Speaker:expressions and things that he
Speaker:uses every year and has either in files
Speaker:or they're already laminated.
Speaker:So I have whatever my password or my chit
Speaker:chat is at the door already ready to go.
Speaker:And I have it at the back of my door.
Speaker:So my room is set up so I can grab
Speaker:whatever it is and whatever language.
Speaker:Also, I have multiple whiteboards.
Speaker:And so I'll switch like I have a rolling
Speaker:one that I bought for myself.
Speaker:It was expensive.
Speaker:It was like two hundred dollars.
Speaker:But I have a rolling
Speaker:whiteboard that I bring out.
Speaker:And so I'll have one language on the
Speaker:rolling whiteboard and one language on
Speaker:the other whiteboard.
Speaker:And then the whiteboard has two sides.
Speaker:So I flip the other side if I have a
Speaker:different level class so that I have
Speaker:something that I can
Speaker:use.
Speaker:And then my other thing that has really
Speaker:helped me throughout the
Speaker:years in terms of like,
Speaker:you know, when I'm circulating and
Speaker:students are wanting to
Speaker:know how to say things,
Speaker:I carry a whiteboard with me.
Speaker:And you know those little velcro dots?
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:I velcroed.
Speaker:This was my stroke of genius.
Speaker:I'm sure someone else has thought of it,
Speaker:but I felt really good about myself.
Speaker:So I velcroed it to a marker and velcroed
Speaker:the marker to a whiteboard.
Speaker:And I was like, yeah,
Speaker:they're always together.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And the eraser too.
Speaker:And so when I walk around the room, I can
Speaker:just give them what they need right away.
Speaker:And then I use black for Spanish or
Speaker:French and blue for English.
Speaker:And so I have a color code.
Speaker:I do.
Speaker:I color code them.
Speaker:So that's great.
Speaker:And then I would, but I would, so that's
Speaker:how I do it, but you're right.
Speaker:It's absolutely difficult.
Speaker:And I usually, if I'm using slides, I
Speaker:have, I pull up all
Speaker:my tabs before school.
Speaker:I did too.
Speaker:And they can't slap at me so much because
Speaker:I've got a million
Speaker:things open and I'm like,
Speaker:got to, you know,
Speaker:have to, because otherwise you lose them
Speaker:during transition time
Speaker:or you lose yourself.
Speaker:During transition time.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I will tell you, yeah, I was going to
Speaker:say about the slides
Speaker:and a couple of secrets
Speaker:I have too that I've done.
Speaker:One, with the slides, and I know Pamela,
Speaker:you need to work on this part of it.
Speaker:I have one tab per prep that I teach.
Speaker:So I know you do multiple slide decks for
Speaker:the same class where I
Speaker:will merge them all into one.
Speaker:So one slide deck might be
Speaker:200 slides for the whole week,
Speaker:but everything's in there.
Speaker:So I just have to click next.
Speaker:I don't have to open
Speaker:up another slide deck.
Speaker:So that will save you some tabs.
Speaker:Markers.
Speaker:But it won't save me time because then
Speaker:I'm scrolling through it.
Speaker:And this way everybody gets the same kind
Speaker:of bones of the TPRS
Speaker:story and everybody gets the
Speaker:same art picture to look at.
Speaker:Well, they do.
Speaker:They do because it's
Speaker:all in the same thing.
Speaker:I guess refresh it.
Speaker:I go right back to the
Speaker:start at the next period.
Speaker:That's all I got to do real quick.
Speaker:Markers.
Speaker:You can buy two headed markers.
Speaker:We'll have two different colors on each
Speaker:end, but that's for the rich people.
Speaker:That's true.
Speaker:Fighting.
Speaker:That's for the rich people.
Speaker:The poor people, we take two markers and
Speaker:we tape them back to back so
Speaker:that they are opposite ends.
Speaker:I don't have markers.
Speaker:I have pins right here.
Speaker:I didn't think about that.
Speaker:I got the head when I came back to the head.
Speaker:So you can go like this and you tape them
Speaker:back to back like that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And then you can flip them.
Speaker:Uh huh.
Speaker:So that's the secret there.
Speaker:Well, I'm totally doing that.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:And if you have a magnetic whiteboard,
Speaker:they do have magnetic
Speaker:markers that will just hang on the
Speaker:thing.
Speaker:They have that.
Speaker:Here's my other secret,
Speaker:especially with multiple languages.
Speaker:It's usually multiple levels for me.
Speaker:Number one, I'll start
Speaker:neat writing on the board.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I'll start neat.
Speaker:It won't stay that way.
Speaker:It'll start slanting.
Speaker:I running out of board space.
Speaker:So what I do instead is I have one Google
Speaker:doc per class where that's
Speaker:where I write all my words on.
Speaker:I make it 24 size font.
Speaker:I make it a table.
Speaker:So it's a two column table.
Speaker:And I pre color code it.
Speaker:Now I cannot stand black markers.
Speaker:They are too hard to erase.
Speaker:And I need to have my white board white.
Speaker:So raising it, the
Speaker:black always leaves marks.
Speaker:So I don't use black.
Speaker:I use any color but black.
Speaker:I do not like black.
Speaker:And they always buy me black markers.
Speaker:And I like, here kids, who needs markers
Speaker:for their white boards?
Speaker:Because I hate black.
Speaker:So um.
Speaker:Send them to me Scott.
Speaker:Send them to me.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So um, I do it color coded.
Speaker:I like to do blue and orange.
Speaker:So I have one language
Speaker:in blue and the other one,
Speaker:the other language in orange.
Speaker:And it's pre done.
Speaker:I don't have to do it.
Speaker:Set it up.
Speaker:I set it up beforehand.
Speaker:I have a template I use every year.
Speaker:And then, so I had a
Speaker:Google doc for each class.
Speaker:And so I could write the words up there.
Speaker:Pre-write any words.
Speaker:Like I, when I'm starting off, I always
Speaker:ask, um, like day one is como estas?
Speaker:I mean, how old are, how are you?
Speaker:What's your name?
Speaker:How old are you?
Speaker:When is your birthday?
Speaker:So I have those already pre written.
Speaker:Because I'm already going to do that.
Speaker:And then anyone's that come up
Speaker:afterwards, I write.
Speaker:But Google added this new thing where you
Speaker:can keep one doc but
Speaker:multiple tabs in that doc.
Speaker:So now I have one doc open, but each of
Speaker:my classes is a tab.
Speaker:So I don't have to like, oh my gosh, I
Speaker:gotta have six tabs open.
Speaker:So I teach six classes.
Speaker:I have one tab with all of it.
Speaker:I just gotta click each one
Speaker:little, the little part in it.
Speaker:And that makes it so easy.
Speaker:So that would work for
Speaker:multiple languages as well.
Speaker:Because you already have it pre done.
Speaker:And instead of having to erase your board
Speaker:and rewrite your board,
Speaker:you just click the new
Speaker:one and it's already done.
Speaker:Plus, I make this available to my kids.
Speaker:Not as a vocab list, but if they're
Speaker:missing a day or they want
Speaker:to catch some words I wrote,
Speaker:they can just, I put it up there and it's
Speaker:a live link to a Google doc.
Speaker:So it gets updated constantly.
Speaker:And it's one doc per class per year.
Speaker:So I'll make a space like on the next day
Speaker:on Tuesday, I'll make a space.
Speaker:I'll put the date on the next line and
Speaker:then I'll start fresh.
Speaker:So that they, if they want to look at it,
Speaker:most kids don't look at it,
Speaker:but the kids who can't take a picture of
Speaker:that, no, I've got it already for you.
Speaker:It's already linked.
Speaker:Nope.
Speaker:Yeah, it's already linked
Speaker:for you if you really need it.
Speaker:So that's a beautiful idea.
Speaker:I'm in the Pacific Northwest.
Speaker:We are not a Google school because we
Speaker:have too many Microsoft parents.
Speaker:Well, before I did
Speaker:that, I used Microsoft Word.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So you can use Microsoft
Speaker:Word to do the same thing.
Speaker:You just have to deal with a
Speaker:lot more buttons at the top.
Speaker:Because Microsoft is way too busy.
Speaker:But that's what I used
Speaker:to use before Google Docs,
Speaker:because I've been doing this since way
Speaker:before Google Docs was a thing.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So it's the same
Speaker:thing, same kind of idea,
Speaker:but you can type it up there and have it
Speaker:on your screen and be there.
Speaker:So that's my logistics.
Speaker:Because it's really
Speaker:important for me to be at that door.
Speaker:It really is.
Speaker:And no matter what's happening, I got to
Speaker:make sure I'm at the door.
Speaker:Like if a kid goes, "I need
Speaker:to talk to you for a second."
Speaker:I go, "Let's take it to the door.
Speaker:Let's take it to the door.
Speaker:I got to be at the door."
Speaker:That's true.
Speaker:And I do, as the students walk in, I'm
Speaker:greeting them by name.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah. I try.
Speaker:Oh, that's what we should talk about.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I have 200 kids, and it's going to take
Speaker:me a long time to get to know.
Speaker:I said, "If I know your name before
Speaker:December, it's because
Speaker:you've been in trouble."
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So I used to be like that.
Speaker:And I was just doing the back to school
Speaker:party with Parfait de
Speaker:Montparnelle out of Canada.
Speaker:And this was my speech for that
Speaker:conference, was my
Speaker:first couple years teaching,
Speaker:I was exactly like that.
Speaker:I think there's something
Speaker:about us linguistic nerds,
Speaker:where names and faces
Speaker:just don't come easy to us.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:We're just not a market.
Speaker:No, I'm really good with names.
Speaker:Are you?
Speaker:And I'm definitely a linguistic nerd.
Speaker:Excellent.
Speaker:Excellent.
Speaker:Because like all my colleagues at school,
Speaker:they're all the same as you, Scott.
Speaker:They're like, "I don't know
Speaker:anyone's name by December."
Speaker:And the first couple of years I was
Speaker:full-time teaching, I was like,
Speaker:if I had twins, oh my God,
Speaker:how can I tell them apart?
Speaker:And it's like May, and I'm finally just
Speaker:now telling them apart.
Speaker:And then suddenly I had this epiphany.
Speaker:It was like, "I'm a memory expert.
Speaker:What the heck is my problem?"
Speaker:So I started doing everything I do to
Speaker:learn a language, to
Speaker:learn the students' names.
Speaker:So the very first thing, I know
Speaker:handwriting is important.
Speaker:Handwriting aids memory in a way that
Speaker:typewriting does not.
Speaker:When I get that student list, and I just
Speaker:got my student list on Friday,
Speaker:when I get my student list, I sit down
Speaker:and I copy over all
Speaker:their names, handwriting.
Speaker:And then I leave space next to it,
Speaker:because I'm going to
Speaker:write notes next to it.
Speaker:Then I'm doing all my memory techniques.
Speaker:I know that making weird
Speaker:connections is crucial to memory.
Speaker:You have to, you're going to
Speaker:hear some weird foreign word.
Speaker:It's not a cognate.
Speaker:How are you going to relate that back to
Speaker:stuff you already know?
Speaker:So you've got to make some weird little
Speaker:hopscotch jump to get to that word.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And so I'm looking at their name and I'm
Speaker:trying to make a connection.
Speaker:I've got, oh my God, Jackson must be the
Speaker:popular name this year.
Speaker:I've got like four Jacksons.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So I'm looking at
Speaker:them and I'm like, okay.
Speaker:His eyebrows look like
Speaker:he's got little Jacks in them.
Speaker:Just whatever weird connection, he's got
Speaker:a square jaw, like
Speaker:somebody has jacked up his jaw.
Speaker:So whatever weird connection I can make,
Speaker:that's helping me
Speaker:remember the students' names.
Speaker:So it's all the memory tricks, every
Speaker:single memory trick we do
Speaker:to learn a word we can learn
Speaker:on our students' names.
Speaker:So by golly, by the first time they walk
Speaker:into the classroom, I am
Speaker:going to know all of their names.
Speaker:And I think this is for summer school
Speaker:too, because in summer
Speaker:school, I only have three weeks
Speaker:with the kids.
Speaker:So if I don't know their name within the
Speaker:first hour of summer school,
Speaker:then my classroom
Speaker:management is really bad.
Speaker:And so I really like, I want to know
Speaker:their names before they walk in the door.
Speaker:And it takes, yes, it
Speaker:takes work on my part,
Speaker:but I'm more confident then as I'm trying
Speaker:to build the
Speaker:relationships with my students.
Speaker:And they appreciate
Speaker:that I know their names.
Speaker:And if it's some unusual name, like over
Speaker:summer school, oh my
Speaker:gosh, this year I was the only
Speaker:Caucasian in the classroom.
Speaker:That was really cool.
Speaker:Everybody else was, they had either
Speaker:Mandarin names, which is
Speaker:great because I'm trying to learn
Speaker:Mandarin.
Speaker:They, I don't speak Punjabi.
Speaker:I don't speak Hindi.
Speaker:You know, and so I went to YouTube and
Speaker:pronouncedmyname.com and I look up all
Speaker:their names and how to
Speaker:pronounce them.
Speaker:Me too.
Speaker:And the students appreciate that because,
Speaker:you know, I've got a lot
Speaker:of students who come in
Speaker:and I'm like, they say, well, yeah, my
Speaker:name is Xinyi, but
Speaker:everyone calls me Cindy because
Speaker:they can't pronounce it.
Speaker:And I'm like, look, what
Speaker:do you want to be called?
Speaker:I will call you what
Speaker:you want to be called.
Speaker:And they are so appreciative that
Speaker:somebody's trying, you know?
Speaker:I do the same thing, but I have a, mine
Speaker:is more of, it's gotten
Speaker:worse after COVID, but even as
Speaker:a young kid, before I was even a teacher,
Speaker:names have our problems.
Speaker:There's something in my brain because I
Speaker:forgot my best
Speaker:friend's name after 20 years.
Speaker:I mean, it's really, I forget, like if
Speaker:this didn't have a label
Speaker:on it, you can't see them
Speaker:in the screen.
Speaker:If this didn't have a label on it, I
Speaker:would forget what it was.
Speaker:I do that.
Speaker:I go, I went to the store.
Speaker:What store did I go to?
Speaker:What was it?
Speaker:What was, oh, Target.
Speaker:I mean, I forget these things.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:I can learn languages, but
Speaker:these other names, I can't.
Speaker:It's been a problem forever for me.
Speaker:So it's not just the classroom.
Speaker:I will say what helps me is because I
Speaker:start my class with getting to know kids.
Speaker:We do the conversations, what I call it.
Speaker:Some people call it card
Speaker:talk or different things.
Speaker:So the first thing I ask
Speaker:them is what's your name?
Speaker:How old are you?
Speaker:And so I'm spending 15 to
Speaker:20 minutes with this kid.
Speaker:It's helping me learn their name because
Speaker:I'm spending the time with them.
Speaker:But also it was really
Speaker:good when it was Flipgrid.
Speaker:It's a little harder now that I use
Speaker:formative.com because Flipgrid went away.
Speaker:It's gone.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Thank you, Microsoft.
Speaker:That was Microsoft's fault.
Speaker:That was Microsoft.
Speaker:That was absolutely Microsoft.
Speaker:They bought it and they killed it.
Speaker:And I used to use it because a lot of my
Speaker:exit tickets, I'd have the kids
Speaker:tell them to me verbally,
Speaker:even if they were English ones.
Speaker:And then I would learn their names
Speaker:because their name would be under it.
Speaker:I could see their face
Speaker:right there and there.
Speaker:And so that helped me a lot
Speaker:when I started doing that.
Speaker:But names are really, really difficult.
Speaker:And I tell the kids, "It's not you."
Speaker:And I know teachers have told you that
Speaker:they are difficult learning names.
Speaker:I am the worst at it because my brain
Speaker:just does not do it.
Speaker:For whatever reason, it doesn't.
Speaker:I don't usually
Speaker:forget a face, but a name.
Speaker:I'm sorry.
Speaker:And it's not you personally.
Speaker:It really is a huge problem.
Speaker:I do stress over it because, I mean, I
Speaker:said, even if I did
Speaker:your techniques, Pamela,
Speaker:it wouldn't work for me because I'm like,
Speaker:she was my best friend
Speaker:for 20 years at the time.
Speaker:And I'm going through like I
Speaker:was at our apartment building.
Speaker:You know, apartments,
Speaker:you got a ring to get in.
Speaker:So I'm scrolling through all of the names
Speaker:on the apartment building
Speaker:and none of them ring a
Speaker:bell, not a single one.
Speaker:Literally, they don't ring a bell.
Speaker:Yeah, they literally.
Speaker:And so I'm going through
Speaker:and I'm like, "What the heck?"
Speaker:And then, so I waited until someone came
Speaker:out the apartment building and I ran in.
Speaker:So that's what I did.
Speaker:And then one of the kids goes, "Why
Speaker:didn't you just look at your phone?"
Speaker:I'm like, "Oh, I didn't
Speaker:even think about that."
Speaker:So I was like, "Dumb."
Speaker:Yeah, I'm a fan.
Speaker:But I mean, I was like that.
Speaker:I was like that when I
Speaker:first started teaching.
Speaker:And I had to recognize, this is the
Speaker:growth mindset, right?
Speaker:I had to recognize I'm going
Speaker:to need to work harder at this
Speaker:than somebody like
Speaker:Tracy, who's good at names.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I'm going to have to, this
Speaker:is going to be my homework.
Speaker:And then when the students are like,
Speaker:"Wow, how would you
Speaker:learn my name so quick?"
Speaker:Then I say, "These are
Speaker:the techniques I used."
Speaker:And now they see, "Ah, there's a
Speaker:relevance to learning language.
Speaker:There's a relevance to
Speaker:all these techniques."
Speaker:This is metacognition.
Speaker:There's more buy-in now because they know
Speaker:the techniques work.
Speaker:They know they can use them on their math
Speaker:class, their science class,
Speaker:their history class,
Speaker:learning people's names.
Speaker:It's not just language.
Speaker:It's an approach to learning.
Speaker:So that's my pitch.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:And I'll tell you one other thing.
Speaker:Everybody in my PLCs know if I'm looking
Speaker:at you and I'm going,
Speaker:they know to insert their name.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, I like when they wear the badges,
Speaker:but the badges fall backwards.
Speaker:Oh, yeah.
Speaker:And I'm like, "Oh, dang. What's that?"
Speaker:Oh, what I love is now when
Speaker:kids come back and visit you,
Speaker:especially when I taught middle school
Speaker:because they look so different
Speaker:in high school.
Speaker:Oh, yeah.
Speaker:Right? You can't tell.
Speaker:But they have to sign in and they get a
Speaker:sticker badge they have to wear.
Speaker:I am so thankful because I remember them,
Speaker:but the name is completely gone because
Speaker:when the summer comes, I purge because I
Speaker:need to have room for
Speaker:new names to come in.
Speaker:So I forget your name.
Speaker:So that really helps when they have to
Speaker:have that little sticker badge.
Speaker:And I'm like, "Oh, hi,
Speaker:John. How are you doing?
Speaker:You remember me?"
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:I think I tend to use names all the time.
Speaker:And I think that's part
Speaker:of why they stick with me.
Speaker:I do tend to have a pretty good visual
Speaker:memory, but also just
Speaker:the fact that when I say,
Speaker:"Thank you" to a student, I always use
Speaker:their name or when
Speaker:procedures in my classroom,
Speaker:I don't know how your procedures work,
Speaker:but if we're passing something up,
Speaker:I say everyone's name across the front
Speaker:row because everybody
Speaker:passes to the front row.
Speaker:And this week, I got stuck on two at the
Speaker:front because they didn't
Speaker:have their cards up and I
Speaker:didn't know their names yet.
Speaker:So a lot of them, I already know their
Speaker:names, but I have two at the front.
Speaker:And I was like, "Ugh."
Speaker:At that point, I had to ask them, "Okay,
Speaker:what's your name? What's your name?"
Speaker:And I was like, "Okay, let's please have
Speaker:your cards up because clearly I don't
Speaker:know your names yet."
Speaker:But I think that's part of why I grab
Speaker:onto them is because my brain
Speaker:knows I'm going to need them
Speaker:really fast because I
Speaker:think I just have the practice.
Speaker:Somehow, I use them all the time.
Speaker:And at the door, I start greeting
Speaker:students by name probably on day three.
Speaker:I don't know them all yet.
Speaker:Okay, I have five.
Speaker:I can tell I have five for the first
Speaker:class or I have seven for the
Speaker:first class and I still have
Speaker:to learn 23 or 25 or
Speaker:whatever it happens to be.
Speaker:So I don't know.
Speaker:That to me really helps.
Speaker:And then also just chatting with them,
Speaker:like you were saying,
Speaker:Scott, about their cards,
Speaker:what they have on it.
Speaker:Although we were talking a little bit
Speaker:about fails and I was
Speaker:going to share a fail moment.
Speaker:I am not a talented, gifted, or even
Speaker:well-trained artist.
Speaker:I stopped drawing on the board many, many
Speaker:years ago because we were
Speaker:drawing animals at one point
Speaker:and my students were peering at it like
Speaker:they had reading glasses on.
Speaker:Is that a pig or a dog
Speaker:or a cat or what is that?
Speaker:And I was like, "Uh-oh, now we're not in
Speaker:target language and they
Speaker:don't know what I'm drawing."
Speaker:You weren't being comprehensible.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:Tracy, you're in good company because I
Speaker:love comic books and
Speaker:cartoons and the kids always
Speaker:laugh at me.
Speaker:I'm like, "Remember, I'm the old lady who
Speaker:loves comic books and cartoons.
Speaker:I cannot draw.
Speaker:I spent all my time learning how to speak
Speaker:a language but not learning how to draw."
Speaker:So yeah, you're in good company.
Speaker:I have to be careful.
Speaker:My stuff looks really weird.
Speaker:So I just stopped and I said, "Okay,
Speaker:we're going to have student artists."
Speaker:Anytime we draw, it's better anyways.
Speaker:It's better to have them
Speaker:drawing so it's perfect.
Speaker:Anyway, so yeah, we always
Speaker:have student artists now.
Speaker:But at one point I was looking at someone
Speaker:else's card and I
Speaker:used sentences this year.
Speaker:And Scott, I got that from your idea to
Speaker:use the sentences on the card talk.
Speaker:And I thought, "Oh, this is going to be
Speaker:so nice for me because
Speaker:sometimes I can't tell
Speaker:what they've drawn."
Speaker:And then I'm thinking, "Oh gosh, I want
Speaker:to talk to the student
Speaker:about what they're interested in
Speaker:and I want to stay in target language but
Speaker:I don't know what that is."
Speaker:So I'm thinking, "What should I do?
Speaker:What should I do?"
Speaker:And I honestly don't
Speaker:remember how I handled it.
Speaker:I think I asked them.
Speaker:We make fun of it.
Speaker:We make fun.
Speaker:Like I had a kid who drew a football and
Speaker:it looked more like a crescent roll.
Speaker:And so I said, "I said, "It's obvious
Speaker:that he doesn't play football."
Speaker:It's obvious he doesn't play football
Speaker:because if that's what that looks like,
Speaker:he's playing the wrong sport.
Speaker:So we just had fun or I go, "Class, we
Speaker:have a magnificent artist in class.
Speaker:They are so good.
Speaker:They put us all to shame."
Speaker:And I show this really awful stick figure
Speaker:picture and we all just kind of laugh.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:I think I could go the
Speaker:way of abstract art perhaps.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Like, "Are you trying to make me guess?
Speaker:Let me see if I can get what this is."
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:We've got our Picasso.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And then I was also thinking about...
Speaker:We were talking about procedures and kind
Speaker:of going to the door
Speaker:and all those things.
Speaker:And one of the things I think I would
Speaker:share with everyone is that in
Speaker:the first two weeks of class,
Speaker:you were talking about doing music and
Speaker:singing and dancing on
Speaker:your first day, Scott.
Speaker:And I think it's really
Speaker:important as a teacher to roll in.
Speaker:A lot of those things are a little weird
Speaker:for students in the
Speaker:very first couple of...
Speaker:Like the very first week, basically.
Speaker:And off the bat, they know
Speaker:we're going to be singing.
Speaker:We're going to be
Speaker:doing actions when we talk.
Speaker:We're going to be using our TPR.
Speaker:We're going to be
Speaker:getting up and getting down.
Speaker:We're going to walk around the room.
Speaker:And I feel like if you wait to where you
Speaker:feel like, "Oh, students
Speaker:are more comfortable now.
Speaker:Now I can introduce."
Speaker:And then it's going to be harder and
Speaker:you're going to have much less buy-in.
Speaker:So all of those things when you roll in
Speaker:your TPR at the
Speaker:beginning and then one year...
Speaker:So this year, I actually...
Speaker:We're already doing a story.
Speaker:I have a medical Spanish three class and
Speaker:I've got two of those classes.
Speaker:That is cool.
Speaker:I have dreamed of that.
Speaker:Oh my gosh. I have dreamed of that.
Speaker:Well, we should chat
Speaker:because it's really great.
Speaker:It's all of Spanish three so
Speaker:that they can move on to AP,
Speaker:but we do also medical units within the
Speaker:context of Spanish three.
Speaker:So that's super fun.
Speaker:I really enjoy it.
Speaker:They seem to enjoy it.
Speaker:We started a story this week because I
Speaker:thought, "Okay, we need to
Speaker:get them up to speed with
Speaker:listening and talking and what I sound
Speaker:like and how class works."
Speaker:And I had two very brave volunteers.
Speaker:It was so fabulous.
Speaker:I didn't know if I was
Speaker:going to have anybody.
Speaker:And I had them volunteer
Speaker:to act, which was amazing.
Speaker:But the best story I think I've ever done
Speaker:is I actually brought
Speaker:a pup tent into class.
Speaker:And I highly recommend
Speaker:bringing a pup tent to class.
Speaker:It was so much fun.
Speaker:All the kids want to crawl in?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:We had a bear.
Speaker:They somehow wound up at 7-11
Speaker:and there was a slurpy flood
Speaker:and there was all kinds of craziness.
Speaker:It got carried away.
Speaker:But props make it.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And then if you only have butcher paper,
Speaker:you can make a river and you
Speaker:can make a butcher paper tree.
Speaker:So I would just say to all of us out
Speaker:there, use your props when you have them.
Speaker:That tent has been the best thing.
Speaker:I'm bringing it back this year.
Speaker:And you saw there is a
Speaker:teacher who also did...
Speaker:He's an English teacher.
Speaker:He's got a YouTube channel.
Speaker:He got a fake campfire.
Speaker:It's got a little fan with
Speaker:paper things and a light.
Speaker:And so he does campfire talks where
Speaker:everybody sits around the campfire.
Speaker:And they did campfire talks.
Speaker:That was something you talked...
Speaker:That was when you said
Speaker:the pup tent really...
Speaker:That was really amazing.
Speaker:He can tell scary stories and they turn
Speaker:the lights out and do
Speaker:different kinds of things.
Speaker:They roast fake marshmallows over it.
Speaker:He brings marshmallows.
Speaker:They all stick them on sticks.
Speaker:And then they roast them in class and eat
Speaker:the fresh marshmallows.
Speaker:So he just has little fun things.
Speaker:He also plays truth or dare.
Speaker:He plays truth or dare.
Speaker:He's an English teacher so
Speaker:he brings it from the novel.
Speaker:Truth or dare.
Speaker:And the dares are goofy dares.
Speaker:He never forces kids to do
Speaker:the dares they don't want to.
Speaker:But some of them are like
Speaker:march outside in the hall,
Speaker:singing the ABCs as you go by.
Speaker:Just little goofy things.
Speaker:He does his little funny
Speaker:little things in there.
Speaker:So it's kind of a fun thing.
Speaker:Just one last thing I want to touch about
Speaker:the naming name thing.
Speaker:What helps me do is I
Speaker:have jobs for everything.
Speaker:But my paper princesses, those are the
Speaker:ones who pass out papers,
Speaker:they don't get their
Speaker:jobs until two months in.
Speaker:Because I pass out the
Speaker:papers for the first two months
Speaker:because it helps me learn
Speaker:their names when I go through.
Speaker:So that was one thing.
Speaker:And yeah, I got my kids singing.
Speaker:I'm going to try classroom jobs.
Speaker:They really are.
Speaker:They're amazing.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We started singing.
Speaker:I told you we have our wild days, our
Speaker:welcome, our wild cats back.
Speaker:We can't do any
Speaker:curriculum that day, those days.
Speaker:But the third day I was
Speaker:able to do curriculum.
Speaker:And so we sang on the
Speaker:first day and they're like,
Speaker:a lot of their reflections said,
Speaker:I couldn't believe we were
Speaker:going to sing in this class.
Speaker:And he said we were going to sing.
Speaker:And we were singing.
Speaker:Everybody stood up and they were singing.
Speaker:So they bonded over that because we all
Speaker:look silly together.
Speaker:And I will tell you, it's not new with
Speaker:personalization or getting to know
Speaker:or building relationships.
Speaker:But you said TPR and
Speaker:something that just evolved this year.
Speaker:I've been doing TPR for 25 years.
Speaker:I do TPR aggressive style.
Speaker:Whoa, what does that look like?
Speaker:It just came up.
Speaker:We're only working with
Speaker:three words right now.
Speaker:There is, wants, and has.
Speaker:So I'll go, I, which means there is.
Speaker:And they have to tell me,
Speaker:I added them translating it
Speaker:and doing the action at the same time.
Speaker:Because I got a lot of kids who knew the
Speaker:action but didn't know what it meant.
Speaker:So I say I, they go,
Speaker:there is or there are,
Speaker:and they do the action.
Speaker:This is my action.
Speaker:There is an apple on the thing.
Speaker:So then I go, I, I, I, I.
Speaker:Kitty, kitty, kitty.
Speaker:And it just comes out more aggressive.
Speaker:I go faster and it's more aggressive.
Speaker:And I repeat them over and over again.
Speaker:And they're having fun with
Speaker:that because they're doing it,
Speaker:or they're doing it wrong.
Speaker:And it's just kind of
Speaker:funny that we're doing that.
Speaker:But it comes out a
Speaker:little more aggressive.
Speaker:So I'm just like, kitty, kitty, kitty.
Speaker:And then they think
Speaker:another one's me, kitty, go,
Speaker:titty.
Speaker:And they're like,
Speaker:wait, that wasn't expected.
Speaker:And so it's, it's a fun, it
Speaker:got a little fun that way.
Speaker:And it just came out naturally this year.
Speaker:It came out before, but
Speaker:the kids are having fun.
Speaker:So we do in our five
Speaker:or six minutes of TPR.
Speaker:That's what we do.
Speaker:When I focus on TPR,
Speaker:it's mostly the sweet 16.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So it takes me a while to go through.
Speaker:We did the first three
Speaker:words and I'll be doing,
Speaker:I won't change the
Speaker:words this week either.
Speaker:It'll be the same three words.
Speaker:They get those words
Speaker:really stuck under their head
Speaker:before I start adding
Speaker:some other ones in there.
Speaker:And since I'd only meet
Speaker:my kids every other day,
Speaker:it takes two weeks to really
Speaker:hit a week worth of classes,
Speaker:five days because I meet
Speaker:with them every other day.
Speaker:So it takes, it's a two week cycle.
Speaker:So that's kind of how
Speaker:I, how I, how I work it.
Speaker:But TPR helps a lot too when you do that.
Speaker:So it's nothing to do with what we're
Speaker:talking about today,
Speaker:but you mentioned TPR and I
Speaker:guess wanted to tell everybody
Speaker:that's another variation of it.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:Because they do tell you
Speaker:sometimes to whisper things
Speaker:and to shout things and to,
Speaker:you know, so change your voice.
Speaker:But I just found this and the
Speaker:kids were having fun with it.
Speaker:And they were like, my hands
Speaker:are bruised from doing this.
Speaker:But that activity gets into it.
Speaker:It lowers the effective filter.
Speaker:And that's really all
Speaker:we're talking about.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Is lowering the effective
Speaker:filter earlier rather than later.
Speaker:It's so true.
Speaker:Because then you build these
Speaker:relationships and then discipline.
Speaker:You're going to still
Speaker:have discipline issues,
Speaker:but you can discipline with a smile
Speaker:instead of with anger.
Speaker:You can go through and, you know, come
Speaker:on, you know better than that.
Speaker:I expect something from, you know, and
Speaker:they feel that disappointment,
Speaker:which is a much more different feeling
Speaker:than I got in trouble.
Speaker:They're like, I don't
Speaker:like to teach her anyway.
Speaker:So it doesn't really matter.
Speaker:It doesn't, it goes right off the, you
Speaker:know, off their back.
Speaker:But if they like you and you've worked
Speaker:that relationship with them,
Speaker:then they have that, oh, he's
Speaker:disappointed with me.
Speaker:It's just a different feeling.
Speaker:They want to please you.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So it's a whole different.
Speaker:So, you know, this is probably the most
Speaker:important thing that
Speaker:you can do with your kids.
Speaker:Period.
Speaker:You've got to spend the time doing it.
Speaker:It's a mix between in-target language and
Speaker:not-target language.
Speaker:But let's be honest.
Speaker:I'm going to be completely honest.
Speaker:Kids are going to
Speaker:forget what you teach them.
Speaker:They are.
Speaker:Period.
Speaker:They're going to forget it, but they're
Speaker:not going to forget
Speaker:how you made them feel.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:And that they feel
Speaker:comfortable in your classroom.
Speaker:And then you're teaching them how to have
Speaker:relationships with other people,
Speaker:which is going to last.
Speaker:And ultimately, I say my goal secondary
Speaker:is to teach you Spanish or the language
Speaker:or whatever you're teaching.
Speaker:My first goal is to teach you
Speaker:how to be a good human being.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:That's first and foremost.
Speaker:I got to tell you.
Speaker:So I tell my students that our goal is to
Speaker:learn how to make a friend
Speaker:in the language that we're learning.
Speaker:That's awesome.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:You have a big idea because
Speaker:you have to be able to exchange
Speaker:and understand when someone talks to you.
Speaker:And so that's our whole goal for the year
Speaker:is to just level up that connection
Speaker:you can establish with someone.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:It's so true.
Speaker:And so building these relationships, you
Speaker:may think it's a waste of time.
Speaker:I tell people I spend six to eight weeks
Speaker:in a normal class, hour a day,
Speaker:five days a week on card talk.
Speaker:They like you spend two months.
Speaker:How do you get through the book?
Speaker:I'm like, you don't understand.
Speaker:Card talk can be anything.
Speaker:So I start with what every textbook start
Speaker:with greetings and numbers.
Speaker:So I'm doing how are you?
Speaker:What's your name?
Speaker:How old are you?
Speaker:So I get the numbers that
Speaker:are most important to them.
Speaker:So I'm working with 14, well, 13 to 17.
Speaker:Most of my kids are in that range.
Speaker:So we're getting those and those are
Speaker:harder numbers than one through 10.
Speaker:Anyway, so I'm getting those numbers out.
Speaker:Then we're talking about activities.
Speaker:So now we got likes
Speaker:and dislikes in there.
Speaker:Then we can talk about
Speaker:months because we got birthdays.
Speaker:Then I can say, when
Speaker:do you do your sport?
Speaker:When's your practice?
Speaker:So I've got morning, afternoon, evening.
Speaker:I can go days of the week.
Speaker:I can talk about weekends.
Speaker:Do you practice
Speaker:football on Saturday or Sunday?
Speaker:I can get all those things that are
Speaker:usually taught in the
Speaker:first three chapters.
Speaker:I can get in card talk out of a natural.
Speaker:Now, the first kid didn't
Speaker:get all those questions.
Speaker:They start spiraling out.
Speaker:We focus on the core ones.
Speaker:When I think they've got the core ones,
Speaker:I'm still asking my later
Speaker:kids the same core questions.
Speaker:And I can go through those much more
Speaker:quickly as I spiral out and add more.
Speaker:Because my goal is I have to make
Speaker:connection with every
Speaker:kid in that classroom
Speaker:before we actually start true curriculum.
Speaker:So if I've got 38 in my classroom, each
Speaker:of my classes have 38 kids in them.
Speaker:And I spend at least 15
Speaker:minutes with each kid.
Speaker:Some kids are longer because they just,
Speaker:their personality tends to,
Speaker:we can go a little bit longer and they're
Speaker:fun and it's going strong.
Speaker:So I keep it going.
Speaker:But I slowly spiral out this card talk.
Speaker:And it's like teaching procedures.
Speaker:A lot of high school teachers don't want
Speaker:to teach procedures.
Speaker:They don't want to go outside and
Speaker:actually walk the fire escape route.
Speaker:But you do all of these things because it
Speaker:actually saves you time later.
Speaker:Because I'm not explaining we don't talk
Speaker:when other people are talking.
Speaker:We don't talk because
Speaker:we've already done that.
Speaker:So instead of having that fight all year
Speaker:long, we practice it.
Speaker:We do it in the beginning of the school
Speaker:year over and over and over again.
Speaker:Same thing here.
Speaker:All this stuff is about them.
Speaker:So it's like I say, my point is to get to
Speaker:know the students through the language.
Speaker:It's not to teach them language.
Speaker:It's to create that secondary and the
Speaker:kids know the difference.
Speaker:If you're throwing in
Speaker:vocab just for the vocab,
Speaker:they know that difference from then
Speaker:trying to get to know them.
Speaker:Because textbooks have
Speaker:those personalized questions.
Speaker:It says "do you play basketball" and what
Speaker:are the instructions tell you to do?
Speaker:Ask every student if
Speaker:they play basketball.
Speaker:So you go through all 38 kids.
Speaker:Do you play basketball, do you play
Speaker:basketball, do you play basketball.
Speaker:And there's no follow up questions.
Speaker:And then it says next question.
Speaker:Do you play hockey?
Speaker:Ask all 38 kids.
Speaker:They know you're working the vocabulary.
Speaker:But if they go, "Oh, you
Speaker:play basketball, great!"
Speaker:Do you prefer to watch basketball?
Speaker:Or play basketball?
Speaker:You prefer to play basketball.
Speaker:Do you watch college basketball?
Speaker:High school basketball?
Speaker:Or professional basketball?
Speaker:Who's your favorite team?
Speaker:Who's your favorite player?
Speaker:What position do you play?
Speaker:Do you play for the school?
Speaker:Or you just hang out with your friends?
Speaker:Look at all the follow-up questions.
Speaker:I'm still teaching that word basketball.
Speaker:It's in every question.
Speaker:But it's now much more
Speaker:interesting in there.
Speaker:Actually go, "Wait, he cares about me?"
Speaker:And what's that little phrase they say?
Speaker:That little phrase.
Speaker:They don't care what you know
Speaker:until they know that you care.
Speaker:Yes, I like that, I like that.
Speaker:And so you've gotta show them.
Speaker:And it makes a really big deal.
Speaker:In fact, I'll tell you one little story
Speaker:that I'll let someone else talk,
Speaker:because I'm talking too much.
Speaker:But I had a student I
Speaker:really, really liked.
Speaker:I called the mom and I
Speaker:said, "I just love your child.
Speaker:"He's awesome, he's a great kid."
Speaker:Blah, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker:So she goes, "Oh, thank you so much."
Speaker:Blah, blah, blah, she was so happy.
Speaker:She hangs up and I get a
Speaker:call back within three minutes.
Speaker:And she calls me back and I said,
Speaker:"Yes," she goes, "You
Speaker:were just talking to me.
Speaker:"I wanna know, you were
Speaker:just talking about your son."
Speaker:He goes, "But if you
Speaker:looked at his grade."
Speaker:And I'm like, "Yeah, I know he's failing.
Speaker:"That's not the point."
Speaker:I said, "Your student's
Speaker:grades, your student's behavior,
Speaker:"and your student are
Speaker:three different things."
Speaker:Different things, yep.
Speaker:And so I like your kid.
Speaker:No, he's not good at Spanish.
Speaker:That's not what I'm worried about.
Speaker:I like your kid for who they are, period.
Speaker:The personality, the
Speaker:kindness, or whatever it was.
Speaker:And so I think that's
Speaker:really, really important
Speaker:and I really, really need to emphasize
Speaker:that they're not just numbers or grades
Speaker:or behaviors in your book.
Speaker:I have what's deemed by
Speaker:everybody else a difficult class.
Speaker:It has not been difficult for me
Speaker:teaching this multicultural class.
Speaker:It's a dump station for kids
Speaker:to get their language credit.
Speaker:And so it's kids who have
Speaker:discipline records this big.
Speaker:It's kids who are special needs
Speaker:that are troublesome special needs.
Speaker:Not just the, you know, they have ADHD
Speaker:or something like that.
Speaker:Their special needs also causes
Speaker:behavior problems in class.
Speaker:And they're usually 11th or 12th graders.
Speaker:This is their last
Speaker:straw to be able to graduate
Speaker:kind of a class.
Speaker:And I connected with
Speaker:these kids right off the bat.
Speaker:And I like this class.
Speaker:I always liked the underdogs anyways.
Speaker:The kids who drive me
Speaker:crazy are also my favorite,
Speaker:the ones do.
Speaker:But it's really, it's so important
Speaker:to have these relationships.
Speaker:And like on the second day,
Speaker:these kids were coming in during my
Speaker:classroom during lunch
Speaker:cause they wanted to hang out.
Speaker:We were talking about that.
Speaker:And it's like, what?
Speaker:Cause I'm like, I go, it's not lunch.
Speaker:I mean, I go, it's lunch right now.
Speaker:It's not class cause they were coming in
Speaker:right before their class.
Speaker:I'm like, they go, we
Speaker:know, we just want to hang out.
Speaker:And then, you know, on
Speaker:the third day to have that,
Speaker:I'm not bragging or anything.
Speaker:I'm not trying to brag.
Speaker:I'm just saying, making that
Speaker:relationship is so important
Speaker:cause these kids, I'm not gonna have
Speaker:discipline issues with.
Speaker:I mean, everybody's gonna have their day.
Speaker:We all have our days, but
Speaker:I'm not gonna be fighting
Speaker:with them all year
Speaker:long about their behavior.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And I can just give
Speaker:them a look and they know,
Speaker:sorry, sorry, Profay,
Speaker:let me get back to it.
Speaker:You know, I can give them that look
Speaker:and it's so very important.
Speaker:Okay, I'm done talking for the moment.
Speaker:Who else wants to say something?
Speaker:No, I think that's really important.
Speaker:I think building those relationships,
Speaker:building those connections
Speaker:and that idea that, you know,
Speaker:you, everyone feels, hopefully you're
Speaker:working on everyone,
Speaker:feeling welcome and seen, right?
Speaker:That you see them as
Speaker:the person that they are
Speaker:and not just as a student
Speaker:that you're teaching, you know,
Speaker:so that when they come to
Speaker:your class, they know that,
Speaker:you know, they have an ally
Speaker:in class that you're not just
Speaker:there to, you know,
Speaker:send information their way.
Speaker:You're there to help them
Speaker:learn and see who, hopefully,
Speaker:hopefully they'll show
Speaker:you who they really are.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:Scott, you're reminding me.
Speaker:When we're talking
Speaker:about the fake campfire,
Speaker:I just found it on Amazon.
Speaker:Oh, cool.
Speaker:15 bucks.
Speaker:Totally gonna look it up.
Speaker:How much is it?
Speaker:15.
Speaker:Woo, it's mine.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:(laughing)
Speaker:It's a flickering fire
Speaker:lamp and rechargeable.
Speaker:Rechargeable.
Speaker:Oh, that's cool.
Speaker:Scott, you're reminding me
Speaker:that sometimes I get frustrated
Speaker:because we work so hard on
Speaker:making those relationships
Speaker:the get go.
Speaker:Often I'm the first
Speaker:teacher to report a student for,
Speaker:this student's gonna
Speaker:slip through the cracks
Speaker:if we don't do something.
Speaker:So, okay, this student
Speaker:is struggling already
Speaker:and it's always a
Speaker:battle for, oh, come on.
Speaker:It's only the second week of school.
Speaker:Give her some time.
Speaker:She's just gonna get used to things.
Speaker:And I'm like, then we
Speaker:gotta keep our eye on this one
Speaker:because, you know, just,
Speaker:she's not engaged in school.
Speaker:Early intervention, early intervention.
Speaker:So I've got this student who just
Speaker:graduated last year.
Speaker:I had her as a freshman.
Speaker:I pegged her on day two.
Speaker:She's gonna slip through the cracks
Speaker:if nobody does anything.
Speaker:And sure enough, she flunked
Speaker:all of her freshman classes
Speaker:except for mine for some reason,
Speaker:maybe because I was
Speaker:working with her, right?
Speaker:And she went on to take
Speaker:three years of French.
Speaker:Except that she had to
Speaker:make up all the other classes
Speaker:that she'd flunked as a freshman.
Speaker:She was a terrible student.
Speaker:Like, I was surprised she was taking
Speaker:three years of French
Speaker:because the language
Speaker:wasn't really clicking with her,
Speaker:but our relationship was solid.
Speaker:And she just emailed
Speaker:me, like she's graduated.
Speaker:She just emailed me
Speaker:three weeks ago and said,
Speaker:would you write a
Speaker:letter of referral for me?
Speaker:And I was like, thank goodness.
Speaker:I got her through school.
Speaker:And she's off to her next stage.
Speaker:And it took work,
Speaker:but it's all because of
Speaker:that relationship building.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:So your class, your multicultural class
Speaker:is gonna be a blast.
Speaker:Like that's, it's gonna be really fun.
Speaker:And they're sharing.
Speaker:Cause a lot of it's
Speaker:discussion, we're sharing.
Speaker:I mean, we had this picture
Speaker:and I don't mean to offend anybody.
Speaker:So please don't take it offensively.
Speaker:But it was a Swedish open face sandwich
Speaker:with toothpaste tube of
Speaker:fish paste that goes on top.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And all the kids were
Speaker:going, that's disgusting.
Speaker:I'm like, I don't do fish.
Speaker:So it's disgusting too for me too.
Speaker:Though I'm trying to
Speaker:change the word disgusting
Speaker:to something more
Speaker:descriptive and more, you know,
Speaker:change the attitudes.
Speaker:But we all had a reaction
Speaker:except one kid, he goes,
Speaker:well, I grew up, he was a military kid.
Speaker:I grew up in Germany and we ate this too.
Speaker:And it's not that bad.
Speaker:But it was just funny
Speaker:cause it's a toothpaste tube.
Speaker:It literally is a toothpaste tube.
Speaker:You squeeze odd.
Speaker:And it's like, it just
Speaker:did not look appetizing
Speaker:in any way, shape or form.
Speaker:I don't care if it was chicken or steak.
Speaker:You know, I don't care
Speaker:what was coming out of a tube.
Speaker:I wasn't eating something that you
Speaker:sprayed out of a tube,
Speaker:you know, kind of a thing.
Speaker:But we all bought it and we were sharing
Speaker:and we were talking about like,
Speaker:what other foods do
Speaker:you find unappetizing?
Speaker:And then they were
Speaker:like, well, we were talking
Speaker:cause we're talking about
Speaker:all these different cultures.
Speaker:And I said, okay, I'm
Speaker:going to give you one right now
Speaker:that Asians don't like
Speaker:and think is disgusting
Speaker:that we Americans eat.
Speaker:And they're like, what?
Speaker:And I'm like, it's
Speaker:something you guys eat every day
Speaker:and you could not get
Speaker:rid of it out of your life.
Speaker:You would die without it.
Speaker:And they're like, what is it?
Speaker:I'm like, cheese.
Speaker:Asians think cheese is nasty
Speaker:because it's--
Speaker:Lactose intolerant.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Most of them are lactose intolerant.
Speaker:And lactose intolerant, and
Speaker:they don't know this either,
Speaker:is actually the normal.
Speaker:Lactose tolerant is abnormal.
Speaker:Our bodies are designed to
Speaker:become lactose intolerant
Speaker:once we're doff weaning
Speaker:off our parent, off our moms.
Speaker:We're supposed to
Speaker:become lactose intolerant.
Speaker:And the ones who are lactose
Speaker:tolerant are the abnormal ones.
Speaker:But so they go about,
Speaker:they talk about this,
Speaker:they're like, really?
Speaker:They don't like cheese?
Speaker:No, they think it's really nasty.
Speaker:So things that we
Speaker:accept is completely normal.
Speaker:And daily part of our lives, like a
Speaker:burger's not a burger
Speaker:without cheese on it, type of a thing.
Speaker:So it kind of twisted around
Speaker:and we all had this
Speaker:little argument and debate
Speaker:and it was, they get really involved
Speaker:and it's so great to have that.
Speaker:And as I said, we've only
Speaker:had a few handful of classes.
Speaker:I think I've only seen
Speaker:them three or four times
Speaker:because it's every other day.
Speaker:So it's not been that,
Speaker:we haven't had that much time to bond,
Speaker:but it's really good.
Speaker:And I said, I wasn't gonna talk anymore,
Speaker:but Pamela, you put it around here,
Speaker:turning our kid around.
Speaker:I told this story before,
Speaker:I'm just gonna tell it really quick,
Speaker:that I had a kid as a
Speaker:sophomore in Spanish,
Speaker:one who failed and
Speaker:caused all kinds of problems
Speaker:in the entire school,
Speaker:including his parents,
Speaker:checked out on him,
Speaker:said, just give up on him.
Speaker:Don't worry about him, he's leaving to
Speaker:sit back in the room.
Speaker:He's not gonna graduate
Speaker:anyways, nobody cares.
Speaker:Bump, bump, bump, bump, bump.
Speaker:So not my proudest
Speaker:moment, but I agreed with them
Speaker:and we just let him sit
Speaker:in the back of the room
Speaker:and fall asleep and do nothing.
Speaker:And he was supposed to
Speaker:get kicked out of our school
Speaker:because our school was,
Speaker:you had to have grades
Speaker:and behavior, had to be up to
Speaker:be able to stay in our school
Speaker:as a special magnet type of a school.
Speaker:So he should have been
Speaker:kicked out, but he wasn't.
Speaker:And he came back into my
Speaker:Spanish one as a junior.
Speaker:And I said, okay, I'm stuck with him
Speaker:for a whole nother 180 days.
Speaker:So I am gonna have to love this kid.
Speaker:I channeled Susie
Speaker:Gross and I love this kid
Speaker:and I worked on the
Speaker:relationship with him.
Speaker:And I had him again the
Speaker:following year and Spanish too.
Speaker:And we actually
Speaker:became friends after that.
Speaker:So it took a whole, it
Speaker:took from September to April
Speaker:of his second year with me, for me to
Speaker:build that relationship
Speaker:to where we actually
Speaker:tolerated each other.
Speaker:Didn't like tolerated.
Speaker:And then the next year we
Speaker:became to like each other.
Speaker:So it really does make a
Speaker:difference when you get to know
Speaker:and you work on building
Speaker:the relationship with the kid.
Speaker:And this kid wasn't learning Spanish.
Speaker:So he was in my Spanish
Speaker:class, but he wasn't learning.
Speaker:So it was all in
Speaker:English, this personalization
Speaker:and building relationships with him.
Speaker:But it's so important you don't realize
Speaker:how it can change things around.
Speaker:That's why we're
Speaker:spending all this time on it
Speaker:thing to do with your kids.
Speaker:And it has long-term
Speaker:benefits, not just for your classroom
Speaker:but their mental
Speaker:health, your mental health,
Speaker:teaching them how to be good humans.
Speaker:All these things is where it's at.
Speaker:Well Scott, if we could, I
Speaker:would love to go back to food
Speaker:for a minute because food is
Speaker:so important for all of us.
Speaker:And some years ago I
Speaker:emailed with Adriana Ramirez.
Speaker:Oh yes.
Speaker:She's a teacher with a manida.
Speaker:Yeah, and she was telling
Speaker:me that she has a flavor
Speaker:for every unit that she does.
Speaker:Some sort of something that
Speaker:students can smell or taste.
Speaker:And it's taken me years.
Speaker:I don't know about you,
Speaker:but sometimes when there's
Speaker:a new idea, it has to
Speaker:ferment for a while.
Speaker:It's got percolate.
Speaker:It percolates.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yes, so this year I
Speaker:finally decided, okay,
Speaker:I'm gonna try it.
Speaker:I'm gonna try and infuse
Speaker:each unit with some sort
Speaker:of a flavor and I'm
Speaker:starting with my level three class.
Speaker:And then I'm gonna go ahead and filter
Speaker:down to my level two
Speaker:once I get it together.
Speaker:But so our first one,
Speaker:we go back to school
Speaker:and it's so, so hot.
Speaker:So I decided agua frescas
Speaker:is what we're starting with.
Speaker:And so I think what I'm
Speaker:gonna do is I'm gonna send
Speaker:students home to make
Speaker:their own agua fresca.
Speaker:And then to have them compare it, make
Speaker:some sort of connection
Speaker:to their culture, to
Speaker:something they drink in their culture
Speaker:and go ahead and either
Speaker:talk about that or, you know,
Speaker:taste it with a friend.
Speaker:They can make a video,
Speaker:whatever it is that they wanna do.
Speaker:One, one unit has
Speaker:coffee in it, of course.
Speaker:So they can just smell it.
Speaker:Cause we do have students who, you know,
Speaker:don't have any caffeine
Speaker:or don't drink coffee.
Speaker:It's part of their practice at home.
Speaker:But just, you know, I said, you know,
Speaker:you can just smell it if
Speaker:you want to, that's fine.
Speaker:So anything they
Speaker:don't actually wanna taste
Speaker:or whatever, that's okay.
Speaker:But so I thought we'd do that.
Speaker:And then we have like a desserts one.
Speaker:So postres of some
Speaker:sort, we're gonna work on.
Speaker:They de ser.
Speaker:So I thought that would,
Speaker:that I'm working on that.
Speaker:We have at our school,
Speaker:we have a mix of cultures,
Speaker:backgrounds and students
Speaker:from different countries.
Speaker:And so we have a lot of opportunities
Speaker:to make cultural connections.
Speaker:And I was just thinking of
Speaker:your culture's class as well.
Speaker:So I love the idea of, you know,
Speaker:something becoming familiar.
Speaker:And even if you don't care for it,
Speaker:I like that idea of
Speaker:shifting from discussing to,
Speaker:oh, that's particular to that culture.
Speaker:That's something that they enjoy.
Speaker:I wonder why, why is it important?
Speaker:You know, is it, that
Speaker:was what was available
Speaker:or they needed
Speaker:preservation techniques or, you know,
Speaker:this is because many
Speaker:people in this area of the world
Speaker:experience, you know,
Speaker:heat waves or whatever it is.
Speaker:So I love that idea of just,
Speaker:of making these connections
Speaker:with food and with flavors
Speaker:and with smells that go with food.
Speaker:So we're gonna work on that.
Speaker:And actually my
Speaker:students are gonna be watching,
Speaker:I'm gonna be out this next week
Speaker:and they're gonna watch Canela.
Speaker:I don't know if you've
Speaker:seen the movie Canela or not,
Speaker:but it's all about a restaurant.
Speaker:And so it's all about sort of these,
Speaker:these two chefs who make mole.
Speaker:They make their own mole
Speaker:sauce and one is a traditional
Speaker:and one is a more trendy, you know,
Speaker:with a little bit of orange
Speaker:in it and things like that.
Speaker:So there's some tension
Speaker:between the traditional sauce
Speaker:and the trend. And the modern.
Speaker:Yes, yes.
Speaker:And so I'm looking forward to
Speaker:discussing that with students
Speaker:and, you know, if they tend to air more
Speaker:on the traditional side
Speaker:with what they appreciate
Speaker:in their palette or if
Speaker:they like to try new flavors
Speaker:and that kind of thing.
Speaker:So I just, I really think, you know,
Speaker:that's a wonderful way for
Speaker:us to build relationships
Speaker:and connect with students.
Speaker:I just wanted to make
Speaker:sure I talked about that
Speaker:because you brought it up.
Speaker:And you talked about agua fresca.
Speaker:We are, I'm so fortunate.
Speaker:All my schools have had this
Speaker:where these Hispanic
Speaker:vendors sit outside our schools
Speaker:on a day and they have
Speaker:these little push carts
Speaker:and they sell the
Speaker:fruit and the agua fresca
Speaker:and different things from
Speaker:their cart with the Chile
Speaker:and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker:And the kids go and buy that stuff.
Speaker:It's right outside.
Speaker:They have like three
Speaker:or four of them come out
Speaker:and they all bring,
Speaker:it's a little push cart.
Speaker:It's a little push cart that they do.
Speaker:And so we can go and do that.
Speaker:I could like take a little class,
Speaker:like in my culture classes.
Speaker:It's a field trip.
Speaker:Yeah, it's my last block of the odd days.
Speaker:So I can take them as a class
Speaker:and we can go outside the gate together
Speaker:and go buy some of this.
Speaker:So it's supporting our
Speaker:local Hispanic community,
Speaker:but also they're trying something a
Speaker:little bit different
Speaker:they might not have
Speaker:tried before or they have
Speaker:and they just want to try it some more,
Speaker:that kind of thing in there.
Speaker:And so it's kind of fun and nice.
Speaker:And they're like, and
Speaker:they didn't understand
Speaker:about why they always,
Speaker:why do you always put
Speaker:Chile and all the fruit
Speaker:or on the candy, they
Speaker:put chili powder first,
Speaker:because they want the spicy
Speaker:and then you have to
Speaker:earn your way to the sweet
Speaker:by getting through the spicy.
Speaker:So it's just very
Speaker:different from American candy
Speaker:and American stuff.
Speaker:We don't, we focus on the sweet.
Speaker:We don't like mix the, you know,
Speaker:you might do something
Speaker:salty and then something sweet,
Speaker:but you don't mix the two
Speaker:together at the same time usually.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:So it's just a fun little thing,
Speaker:but that Agro Frescius
Speaker:made me think about that
Speaker:because they, I don't
Speaker:know what it is in my area,
Speaker:but every school I've been at,
Speaker:they come with their carts
Speaker:right near the end of school day
Speaker:and they sell those
Speaker:little things all out there.
Speaker:And so it's just kind of
Speaker:a fun, fun little thing.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Oh, that's fabulous.
Speaker:I wish we had that.
Speaker:Scott knows I love my projects
Speaker:and I decided to be
Speaker:very ambitious this year.
Speaker:Every single month, we're
Speaker:gonna do a different food
Speaker:and we're gonna learn
Speaker:to make it in class.
Speaker:And because that's team building, right?
Speaker:You know?
Speaker:But like my French students loved crepes.
Speaker:They adore making crepes.
Speaker:And I was like, yeah,
Speaker:Japanese food is so easy to make.
Speaker:We can do that.
Speaker:You know, Spanish students,
Speaker:I haven't done it in a couple of years,
Speaker:but we were making
Speaker:tortillas from scratch,
Speaker:but that takes a
Speaker:really, really focused class
Speaker:because I don't want them
Speaker:falling over the hot cords.
Speaker:And the last two years, I
Speaker:haven't had very focused class.
Speaker:So I was like, okay,
Speaker:we'll do something else,
Speaker:something easier.
Speaker:So I just bring in some
Speaker:snacks and stuff and we have those.
Speaker:But I'm getting back into
Speaker:the actual food differences.
Speaker:I'm about to make you jealous.
Speaker:I'm about to make you jealous.
Speaker:Tell me, tell me.
Speaker:My, what you know, room
Speaker:is right next to mine.
Speaker:The culinary class.
Speaker:That is great.
Speaker:So they've invited us
Speaker:that we can go in there
Speaker:and use the kitchen on certain days.
Speaker:That is fabulous.
Speaker:So I don't have to worry about the cords
Speaker:and all that stuff.
Speaker:The kitchen is already built in there.
Speaker:Can you work with the
Speaker:culinary teacher on some lessons
Speaker:that they can learn them in English
Speaker:and you guys learn them in Spanish and.
Speaker:We could do something like that,
Speaker:but he said like, cause
Speaker:they have a classroom portion
Speaker:and then the cooking portion.
Speaker:So he goes there some
Speaker:days we're in the classroom.
Speaker:So you're welcome to use the kitchen.
Speaker:Oh, that is, I am so jealous.
Speaker:And we don't have to
Speaker:like walk across campus.
Speaker:It's literally the next door over.
Speaker:That is so cool.
Speaker:So I won't even be losing my kids.
Speaker:We have a coffee cart
Speaker:in school that sells
Speaker:so that the kids don't go to Starbucks.
Speaker:We have FBLA runs a coffee cart
Speaker:and my French classes
Speaker:worked with them last year.
Speaker:We turned it into a
Speaker:French cafe for a week.
Speaker:We pulled out the round
Speaker:tables from the career center.
Speaker:We covered them with tablecloths.
Speaker:The floral students made us arrangements
Speaker:for the like little flower arrangements
Speaker:and if any of the
Speaker:students in the whole school
Speaker:ordered in French and my
Speaker:students were standing up there
Speaker:at the counter with
Speaker:them and coaching them
Speaker:how to order in French.
Speaker:If they ordered in French,
Speaker:they got like 25
Speaker:cents off of their coffee.
Speaker:And so we did like, it was
Speaker:like total immersion thing
Speaker:and it was great.
Speaker:You know, you say that they
Speaker:told us it hasn't happened yet
Speaker:but the special needs
Speaker:kids do the same thing.
Speaker:And they'll come to your
Speaker:classroom and sell coffee.
Speaker:I don't drink coffee but
Speaker:what I thought I would do
Speaker:is I'll buy one anyways, I
Speaker:wanna support them, right?
Speaker:But then I don't wanna,
Speaker:but I don't want to make it go to waste.
Speaker:So I'll make, you know,
Speaker:today you are my coffee kid.
Speaker:What coffee do you want?
Speaker:I'll buy it and then I'll give it to you
Speaker:for that they earn
Speaker:something for doing something.
Speaker:So I think, yeah, so that's
Speaker:what I think I'm gonna do.
Speaker:That way I can support
Speaker:the special needs kids
Speaker:as they come in with their little cart
Speaker:and then they ask if you
Speaker:want any coffee or anything.
Speaker:I thought that'd be a really fun thing
Speaker:because I don't drink coffee.
Speaker:I'm a hot chocolate
Speaker:person, but only when it's cold.
Speaker:But when it's cold.
Speaker:But it's this much hot
Speaker:chocolate and that much whipped cream.
Speaker:Oh wow.
Speaker:I like the whipped cream.
Speaker:If it's not getting on
Speaker:your nose, it's not enough.
Speaker:Yeah, Pamela, I love
Speaker:that you have a coffee cart.
Speaker:I wish we had one of those.
Speaker:The main
Speaker:cross-curricular thing that we have done
Speaker:with French was with French and drama.
Speaker:And our drama teacher
Speaker:is absolutely amazing
Speaker:and he works really
Speaker:hard to bring in multiple.
Speaker:And so he invited us,
Speaker:they were performing tattoo.
Speaker:And so for tattoo.
Speaker:Tattoo.
Speaker:Yes, tattoo.
Speaker:And so he invited my
Speaker:students to, they had a cafe,
Speaker:the same thing at the beginning.
Speaker:And it was also there at intermission.
Speaker:And they did a bunch of tall tables
Speaker:and my students ended up being servers
Speaker:and their job was to be a French server
Speaker:and only speak French
Speaker:to all of the parents
Speaker:and faculty that were attending.
Speaker:It was really cool, super fun.
Speaker:Oh wow.
Speaker:That, what a great idea.
Speaker:It was his idea.
Speaker:He was the one who said,
Speaker:"Hey, do you wanna have
Speaker:your students do this?"
Speaker:And I said, "Let me see
Speaker:if I have some volunteers."
Speaker:Cause that sounds amazing.
Speaker:And they did so well and
Speaker:it was so well received.
Speaker:I think the parents
Speaker:loved seeing their students,
Speaker:sort of on servers,
Speaker:even though they might not have been
Speaker:in the drama department.
Speaker:It was really great.
Speaker:We've done with art.
Speaker:Like we teach about Day of the Dead
Speaker:and then in art class they
Speaker:build all the different things,
Speaker:the altars, the skeletons,
Speaker:all those different things.
Speaker:Oh, they do the little calabereas?
Speaker:Yeah, the only problem is not ever,
Speaker:I don't have all the
Speaker:art kids or vice versa.
Speaker:So, when I taught in IB school,
Speaker:we had to have cross-curricular units
Speaker:and it was easier to do with that,
Speaker:with art lots of times or with dance,
Speaker:but it was semi-cross-curricular
Speaker:cause not every kid had
Speaker:dance or every kid had art.
Speaker:It worked a little
Speaker:bit better with history
Speaker:cause everybody had history,
Speaker:some kind of history, social studies,
Speaker:but those weren't as fun of units
Speaker:as teaching kids how
Speaker:to merengue and do that.
Speaker:And then they do that
Speaker:in their dance class,
Speaker:type of thing and teaching,
Speaker:I would teach them about it,
Speaker:what's important about it,
Speaker:where it's from, all those things.
Speaker:And then they would
Speaker:actually learn to do the dance
Speaker:in the class and the
Speaker:compromise we had was,
Speaker:he would bring his,
Speaker:whatever dance class was my period,
Speaker:he would bring some of those kids
Speaker:who already knew how to do it,
Speaker:to kind of teach my
Speaker:kids a couple of steps.
Speaker:Oh, that's cool.
Speaker:So those kinds of things we did for IB
Speaker:cause it was a
Speaker:cross-curricular requirement
Speaker:that we had at least two units a year
Speaker:that were interdisciplinary.
Speaker:We had to have at least two.
Speaker:And so it worked out really, really well.
Speaker:Those were the fun
Speaker:ones, the history ones,
Speaker:granted they could be much
Speaker:more in depth with history,
Speaker:but it wasn't as fun,
Speaker:it wasn't as interesting
Speaker:when you're mixing it with
Speaker:social studies in Spanish
Speaker:cause they're kind of in the same field,
Speaker:there's not much differentiation
Speaker:where art and dance are completely,
Speaker:they're more physical things
Speaker:and you can more
Speaker:expressions of what you learned
Speaker:and you can see something tangible,
Speaker:either the dance or the
Speaker:thing, or even with choir,
Speaker:we didn't always have choir
Speaker:cause they didn't have enough kids,
Speaker:they wouldn't have choir.
Speaker:But just to be able to mix
Speaker:these kinds of things together,
Speaker:music and stuff like that,
Speaker:learning about the different instruments
Speaker:and stuff like that.
Speaker:So cross-curricular is always a great way
Speaker:if you can find a way to bridge.
Speaker:And that brings into
Speaker:everything your students interests.
Speaker:So we're talking about
Speaker:relationship building,
Speaker:it's like, oh, you like dance, great,
Speaker:I'm gonna teach you, I'm
Speaker:gonna teach you this folk dance,
Speaker:I'm gonna teach you this,
Speaker:hey, if I can do it with a broken leg,
Speaker:you guys can do it too.
Speaker:But then this, I got a lot of dancers
Speaker:and so that gets their buy-in.
Speaker:And I've got drama
Speaker:students and when we do,
Speaker:we haven't done Tarduff in a while,
Speaker:but that gets their
Speaker:buy-in and everything.
Speaker:So yeah, it makes it relevant for them.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:We did a pitonk, we did a
Speaker:little pitonk tournament.
Speaker:All my kids live outside.
Speaker:Yeah, those sets are expensive.
Speaker:So like every year I buy another set,
Speaker:cause like last year
Speaker:I had a class with 39
Speaker:and I was like, some of
Speaker:you were using croquet balls,
Speaker:some of you were using bocce balls,
Speaker:but gosh, they love getting outside.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Like it's,
Speaker:Oh, getting outside, you
Speaker:wanna know what I do too?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:A TPR parade.
Speaker:TPR parade, what do you do for that?
Speaker:How does that work?
Speaker:So I'm calling out the words,
Speaker:they're doing them and
Speaker:we're following it a line.
Speaker:And then I go to visit, like the office,
Speaker:we go to the office, we go to the office.
Speaker:Oh my gosh, I'm so high.
Speaker:And we're all practicing our
Speaker:vocabularies, we're going.
Speaker:And then we come back around,
Speaker:we might go into the library.
Speaker:That's awesome.
Speaker:And do that.
Speaker:So we've done that before,
Speaker:kind of like flash
Speaker:mob style a little bit.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Oh, that's way fun.
Speaker:I used to do that sort
Speaker:of thing pre-pandemic,
Speaker:like we'd learn a song
Speaker:and then we'd go bust in
Speaker:on the math class or whatever.
Speaker:And then post pandemic,
Speaker:like nobody's wanted
Speaker:anybody in their classrooms.
Speaker:Oh yeah, so we do the flash,
Speaker:cause I loved our
Speaker:dancers at my old school,
Speaker:I had not, what is it called?
Speaker:Okay, here's my word, I don't have it.
Speaker:What are you, ballroom,
Speaker:there it is, ballroom dance,
Speaker:ballroom dance, I couldn't think of the--
Speaker:Oh, we had ballroom dance?
Speaker:It was ballroom dance.
Speaker:Oh, I'd love to have that class.
Speaker:So they were doing
Speaker:that and they would come
Speaker:and do flash mobs.
Speaker:You would ask, is it
Speaker:okay if I come to your room
Speaker:and I had to respond
Speaker:and I'm like, hell yes,
Speaker:come to my classroom,
Speaker:they come and do a flash mob
Speaker:and then they leave.
Speaker:I do that too.
Speaker:Cause they also do it at the local mall.
Speaker:They would come and do
Speaker:it at the local mall,
Speaker:especially at Christmas time,
Speaker:they would come do Christmas music
Speaker:and do ballroom dancing
Speaker:right in the middle of the mall
Speaker:and you have sixth,
Speaker:seventh and eighth graders
Speaker:doing ballroom dancing in
Speaker:their nice dresses and things.
Speaker:You know, it's really fun.
Speaker:And he does it, he takes
Speaker:classic ballroom dances,
Speaker:but to modern relevant music.
Speaker:So he brought the two, so
Speaker:kids would be interested
Speaker:and it's a popular class.
Speaker:He has to turn kids away.
Speaker:But I got the idea to also do our songs
Speaker:and I'll bring my phone
Speaker:and I'll play it really loud
Speaker:and we'll go flash mob a class in Spanish
Speaker:with our Spanish songs.
Speaker:And so I had the kids think, oh my gosh,
Speaker:no, don't go to that class.
Speaker:I'm gonna be so embarrassed.
Speaker:My friends in that class, I'm like,
Speaker:we're gonna be
Speaker:embarrassed together, let's go.
Speaker:(laughing)
Speaker:So it's just kind of
Speaker:fun to get them in and out
Speaker:and get them moving, getting them up
Speaker:and you're building
Speaker:because embarrassment,
Speaker:nobody likes embarrassment,
Speaker:but when we're all
Speaker:embarrassed together, that's bonding.
Speaker:It's team building.
Speaker:It's team building.
Speaker:It's just fun.
Speaker:Yeah, it's fun.
Speaker:I mean, the kids told
Speaker:me when I made them sing.
Speaker:That's the only thing you can
Speaker:do with the effective filter.
Speaker:Yeah, when they made them sing, they go,
Speaker:it was awkward on the first day,
Speaker:but by the second day, we were all in it.
Speaker:And on Friday, we do a competition.
Speaker:So at the end of the
Speaker:week, we do a competition.
Speaker:I split the room into halves
Speaker:and it could be blonde versus brunette,
Speaker:boys versus girls,
Speaker:athletes versus non-athletes.
Speaker:I guess come up with some random grouping
Speaker:and who sings the loudest, we go
Speaker:alternate line by line.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And they are all into it.
Speaker:I do that too, yeah.
Speaker:And if I forget the competition one day,
Speaker:forgot to do it, they're like,
Speaker:wait, we didn't do our
Speaker:competition this week.
Speaker:Hello?
Speaker:So it's something, it's that bonding.
Speaker:They don't wanna sing,
Speaker:but we get them to sing
Speaker:and now they wanna compete singing.
Speaker:That's great, that's super fun.
Speaker:I haven't done that before.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I tell them one of the
Speaker:stories to get them sing,
Speaker:I go, I lost a bet to my
Speaker:leadership kids one year
Speaker:and I lost it big.
Speaker:I had to sing live in
Speaker:front of the entire school
Speaker:during a rally.
Speaker:Oh.
Speaker:All by myself.
Speaker:That is wonderful.
Speaker:And I lost and they got to pick the song.
Speaker:What did they pick for you?
Speaker:What did they pick?
Speaker:That's a sito.
Speaker:I said I had one veto.
Speaker:I could veto one thing.
Speaker:So they tricked me.
Speaker:They set me up.
Speaker:They, the first song they
Speaker:picked was an inappropriate song.
Speaker:So they knew I would veto it.
Speaker:And then you had to do the next one.
Speaker:I had to do the next one,
Speaker:which is what they picked.
Speaker:And what it really wanted me to do,
Speaker:they had me sing, it's raining men.
Speaker:(laughing)
Speaker:Did you get the umbrella?
Speaker:They gave me an umbrella
Speaker:to use a big colorful one.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:The only benefit to that was I said,
Speaker:if I have to do this,
Speaker:I told my principal,
Speaker:if I have to do this, okay, I am not
Speaker:supervising the rally.
Speaker:I'm gonna go and do my
Speaker:song and I'm leaving,
Speaker:I need to recover.
Speaker:(laughing)
Speaker:That is gonna like build the relationship
Speaker:with your students
Speaker:because you are modeling
Speaker:that you're willing to put
Speaker:yourself out there and be goofy.
Speaker:And I lost the bet fair and square.
Speaker:I don't even remember what you bet upon.
Speaker:I don't remember what you bet upon,
Speaker:but I lost the bet fair and square.
Speaker:And so I showed them I would do that.
Speaker:I also, for relationships, I
Speaker:used to use real whipped cream.
Speaker:I don't use real whipped
Speaker:cream anymore, I'll tell you why.
Speaker:But if you earn
Speaker:enough points in my class,
Speaker:for I was like 250 points,
Speaker:which is doable in my class,
Speaker:you could throw a
Speaker:whipped cream pie at my face.
Speaker:At lunch in front of all the other kids.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I stopped using whipped cream
Speaker:because no matter how hard you try,
Speaker:without a shower you cannot get it out
Speaker:of all of your orifices.
Speaker:It does not come out.
Speaker:And so after lunch it starts to ferment.
Speaker:So I've got like rotten milk
Speaker:smell going through my nose,
Speaker:in my ears, it was nasty.
Speaker:And I would wear a
Speaker:garbage bag over my clothes
Speaker:so it wouldn't go over there.
Speaker:So I switched to shaving cream.
Speaker:Shaving cream, yeah.
Speaker:So it's still messy,
Speaker:it's still, you know,
Speaker:it gets the idea.
Speaker:But the kids come and they
Speaker:like rub it right in your face
Speaker:yearbooks always
Speaker:there to take the picture.
Speaker:But again, putting yourself out there
Speaker:really makes a difference.
Speaker:It does.
Speaker:If you can be, I
Speaker:always say being a teacher,
Speaker:you lose your dignity at the door.
Speaker:If you can do that and
Speaker:be real with your kids,
Speaker:it makes so much more of a difference.
Speaker:And the thing is, this is not me outside.
Speaker:I am reserved.
Speaker:I am an introvert.
Speaker:I use all my extrovertedness that I have,
Speaker:which is not much in
Speaker:school and I'm dead afterwards.
Speaker:I am completely dead afterwards.
Speaker:I would never do any, I would never sing.
Speaker:I don't do karaoke, none of that stuff.
Speaker:I can't sing, believe me.
Speaker:You'd rather hear a dog
Speaker:being dragged by in a car
Speaker:than me singing.
Speaker:So I'm horrible at it.
Speaker:But I put myself out there for the kids
Speaker:because I know it
Speaker:builds those relationships
Speaker:so that I can have better
Speaker:instruction time in class.
Speaker:Because they want to be there.
Speaker:They want to behave.
Speaker:They want to do their work
Speaker:because they don't
Speaker:want to disappoint you.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:This is such an important thing.
Speaker:That's why I always hate
Speaker:that when they pick people,
Speaker:don't smile till Christmas.
Speaker:Well, that's why you've got a tough class
Speaker:that you have problems with all year.
Speaker:You're not smiling.
Speaker:Yeah, you're not.
Speaker:I can't.
Speaker:You're not human.
Speaker:I can't smile.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That would be so hard.
Speaker:I don't know how I would
Speaker:keep myself from smiling.
Speaker:Oh, and I used to.
Speaker:I used to be the teacher who
Speaker:they said an inappropriate joke
Speaker:and I would try really hard not to laugh
Speaker:and get angry with them.
Speaker:Okay, I'm human.
Speaker:Okay, I laugh.
Speaker:That was funny.
Speaker:Not appropriate.
Speaker:Don't do it again.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:You know?
Speaker:It comes off too fake if I don't laugh
Speaker:because that was a good joke.
Speaker:I'm using it tomorrow in another context,
Speaker:not in class, you know?
Speaker:Because it was a dirty
Speaker:joke or inappropriate joke
Speaker:or something like that.
Speaker:But it was hilariously funny.
Speaker:It was.
Speaker:And I can't stop
Speaker:because it was just so funny.
Speaker:What they said, it
Speaker:was a burn or something.
Speaker:Whatever it was, it
Speaker:was hilariously funny.
Speaker:So I just laugh and say,
Speaker:okay, that was so inappropriate.
Speaker:We're not doing that again.
Speaker:And move on.
Speaker:And move on.
Speaker:Okay, I think this is our record.
Speaker:(laughing) One, we have gone an hour and 37 minutes.
Speaker:Oh my gosh, I didn't
Speaker:even look at the clock.
Speaker:That's crazy.
Speaker:I know, an hour and 37.
Speaker:This is so much like
Speaker:water cooler conversation.
Speaker:We're just getting
Speaker:together and having a fun time.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:It's so easy to be here.
Speaker:It's so much fun.
Speaker:I know.
Speaker:We're lowering the effective filter.
Speaker:Yep, yep, that's it.
Speaker:I'm very much enjoying myself.
Speaker:Yeah, so this has
Speaker:been a great discussion.
Speaker:And if you didn't get anything else,
Speaker:build the relationships to improve your
Speaker:classroom management.
Speaker:It really does.
Speaker:And by spending the time with
Speaker:the getting to know your kids,
Speaker:that building the relationships
Speaker:improves your classroom management.
Speaker:So you can do what?
Speaker:Do your job and teach them
Speaker:what you have to teach them.
Speaker:It is front loading.
Speaker:It takes a lot of time, a lot of effort.
Speaker:But the payoff is
Speaker:better than anything else
Speaker:you'll do in your classroom.
Speaker:So very much more.
Speaker:Go back and think about the 80s.
Speaker:Is there any teacher you really remember?
Speaker:Probably not, because this was not part
Speaker:of that, teachers did what they did.
Speaker:I have a teacher I remember,
Speaker:because she cussed in
Speaker:class for the first time.
Speaker:And back in the 80s,
Speaker:you never even heard.
Speaker:Nowadays they can say
Speaker:the B word on regular TV.
Speaker:They couldn't in the 80s,
Speaker:you never heard that word.
Speaker:And when the teacher said
Speaker:on the first day of school,
Speaker:when she's going over a
Speaker:syllabus, she's saying,
Speaker:"I'm the biggest B you'll ever meet."
Speaker:You're like, did she just cuss in class?
Speaker:And she even used the F word
Speaker:a couple of times in class.
Speaker:Well, I know, it's taboo
Speaker:now, but think about the 80s.
Speaker:It was even more taboo.
Speaker:You never heard an
Speaker:adult do that kind of thing.
Speaker:And even us kids didn't
Speaker:throw the F word around.
Speaker:But some kid wrote, F you
Speaker:spelled it out on the desk.
Speaker:She goes, "At least if
Speaker:you're gonna write F you."
Speaker:She said it.
Speaker:She goes, "Write it right
Speaker:side up so I can read it
Speaker:because I'm assuming
Speaker:that's who you're talking to."
Speaker:And then some kid was
Speaker:running down the halls
Speaker:and she told him to slow down.
Speaker:He goes, "F you."
Speaker:And she goes, "You couldn't afford me."
Speaker:So...
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:I know, but of all my
Speaker:high school teachers,
Speaker:who do I remember?
Speaker:Oh my God.
Speaker:Because she was more of herself.
Speaker:I mean, she didn't cuss all the time.
Speaker:But she did cuss.
Speaker:And I never heard an adult,
Speaker:let alone a teacher do that.
Speaker:And especially in the
Speaker:80s when you couldn't say
Speaker:any of those words on regular TV at all.
Speaker:Those were all rated R
Speaker:movies that showed that.
Speaker:Not even PG-13 showed,
Speaker:put the cuss words in there.
Speaker:So a really big difference.
Speaker:So building these
Speaker:relationships really do,
Speaker:the time is well spent.
Speaker:You're not wasting class time
Speaker:and you can do it in the target language.
Speaker:So I highly recommend it.
Speaker:Pamela, what's your final words on it?
Speaker:I think the one thing we didn't touch on
Speaker:is the risk taking and how
Speaker:crucial that is to learning.
Speaker:Not just a language, any classroom.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:And as the years go on,
Speaker:I'm seeing more and more of the students
Speaker:are so afraid to invest
Speaker:in that try fail cycle.
Speaker:So the sooner we can,
Speaker:I keep saying lower the effective filter,
Speaker:that's my mantra.
Speaker:The sooner we can
Speaker:lower the effective filter,
Speaker:the sooner we can show them
Speaker:that making mistakes are funny.
Speaker:There's no embarrassment
Speaker:because we're all having fun.
Speaker:It's part of the learning process.
Speaker:The sooner we can get them to that point,
Speaker:then the deeper the learning will stick,
Speaker:the farther we can get in our curriculum
Speaker:that we have to teach.
Speaker:So I'd say making those
Speaker:relationships is tantamount
Speaker:to getting the students to
Speaker:invest in the try fail cycle.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Just one little point
Speaker:on that that you said,
Speaker:they always say kids learn languages,
Speaker:younger kids learn languages faster than
Speaker:adults or teenagers.
Speaker:And I don't think that's true,
Speaker:but here's why I think that statement
Speaker:has some validity to it.
Speaker:It's because little kids
Speaker:don't care if they make mistakes.
Speaker:They have no problems taking risks.
Speaker:They're fine with it.
Speaker:They're proud to say,
Speaker:"I go to the bathroom
Speaker:yesterday all by myself."
Speaker:They are so happy with it.
Speaker:But as we get older,
Speaker:we're more self-conscious
Speaker:about what other people think
Speaker:about us, so we're less
Speaker:likely to take those risks
Speaker:and make those mistakes.
Speaker:And I think it's not an age thing.
Speaker:It's a take a risk thing.
Speaker:We're less willing to
Speaker:do it as we get older.
Speaker:So it just happens to be a correlation,
Speaker:type of a thing.
Speaker:And I think that's why that
Speaker:statement has validity to it.
Speaker:Because if you're willing to be goofy
Speaker:and make mistakes as an adult,
Speaker:you can learn a language just
Speaker:as quickly as a four-year-old.
Speaker:Absolutely. I would agree with that.
Speaker:And I would also add
Speaker:just to kind of wrap up
Speaker:the idea of building that relationship
Speaker:and focusing on the message.
Speaker:So reminding students that
Speaker:if you're understanding their message,
Speaker:that's all we really care about.
Speaker:We don't care about
Speaker:whether they said it right
Speaker:or what they sound like, right?
Speaker:That really what you're
Speaker:interested in is who they are
Speaker:and what they have to tell you.
Speaker:And so it doesn't matter if
Speaker:it comes out in Tarzan speech
Speaker:or Gestures Plus or whatever,
Speaker:as long as they're
Speaker:communicating that that is number one.
Speaker:And so that focus on the message
Speaker:and letting them know
Speaker:that's what you're listening for
Speaker:is just what they're saying,
Speaker:because you wanna know.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:If communication happens,
Speaker:if one person understands the other.
Speaker:Yeah, Tracy, that took
Speaker:me so long to get to.
Speaker:Like it took me forever
Speaker:to get to that point of,
Speaker:because I was steeped
Speaker:in all the old 1980s
Speaker:language learning techniques.
Speaker:Oh, you don't want the
Speaker:mistakes to fossilize.
Speaker:You've got to jump on them right now.
Speaker:So that's golden what you're saying.
Speaker:It took me a long time to get there.
Speaker:And I'm with you too.
Speaker:We'll see how you can get out of line.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:What really dawned on me
Speaker:is because, you know,
Speaker:Crashing talks about this
Speaker:and I believed Crashing when
Speaker:I read him and talked to him,
Speaker:but I didn't have proof
Speaker:until I saw it in my niece
Speaker:and nephew when they
Speaker:were learning language.
Speaker:And then it still didn't
Speaker:really stick in my head
Speaker:because I really frustrated me.
Speaker:My Spanish kids would say,
Speaker:Tieno and Sabo.
Speaker:And then when a native
Speaker:speaker parent told me
Speaker:that is completely normal,
Speaker:my kids did that too,
Speaker:because they are not fossilizing,
Speaker:they're over generalizing the rules.
Speaker:And I love this.
Speaker:And I told my kids about this on Friday
Speaker:when I talked to them
Speaker:about how we learn languages,
Speaker:that Van Patten says,
Speaker:your brain is constantly building a map.
Speaker:And then if there's a,
Speaker:and it doesn't realize
Speaker:there's a detour yet,
Speaker:that it's not Sabo, it's Se.
Speaker:And it's not Tieno, it's Tengo.
Speaker:But then once it's
Speaker:got a detour, it knows,
Speaker:oh, there's a detour here.
Speaker:And I always go, I go,
Speaker:it's kind of like
Speaker:when Apple Maps started.
Speaker:Apple Maps drove you right over cliffs
Speaker:or to dead end streets in the beginning
Speaker:until it started
Speaker:building its maps better.
Speaker:And so I said, in class,
Speaker:it doesn't look like you're working here,
Speaker:but your brain is
Speaker:constantly doing two things,
Speaker:trying to understand what I'm saying.
Speaker:And at the same time,
Speaker:building a map of how it
Speaker:thinks the language works.
Speaker:And every kid's gonna do
Speaker:it at a different pace.
Speaker:And in a different way,
Speaker:nobody's map looks exactly
Speaker:the same in the beginning.
Speaker:But by the end, when you
Speaker:become fluent or quasi fluent,
Speaker:then the maps start synchronizing again,
Speaker:because everybody's got the
Speaker:same detours and such like that.
Speaker:And so I think that's a
Speaker:really powerful message there.
Speaker:So if the communication happens,
Speaker:it doesn't matter if it's Tarzan speak,
Speaker:or if they use the wrong gender,
Speaker:or they put the
Speaker:adjective in front of the nouns,
Speaker:or they put the adjective after the noun,
Speaker:if you understood, that's
Speaker:the whole point of language.
Speaker:Perfection has never
Speaker:been the point of language.
Speaker:Language is a way to
Speaker:communicate between two human beings.
Speaker:And I use the example,
Speaker:I say you to go to the grocery store
Speaker:and the person's first
Speaker:language is not English.
Speaker:It's another language.
Speaker:And so they said
Speaker:something and it was wrong.
Speaker:You knew in your ears, it was wrong,
Speaker:but you understood them.
Speaker:So you don't stand
Speaker:there and correct them.
Speaker:You just accept it because you
Speaker:communication happened.
Speaker:And if you didn't
Speaker:understand, you said, excuse me.
Speaker:And then they rephrase it
Speaker:and they go, okay, got it.
Speaker:And communication happened.
Speaker:And that's what we want to
Speaker:encourage in the language.
Speaker:You don't have to be perfect.
Speaker:As long as communication occurs,
Speaker:that is a successful utterance.
Speaker:Agreed, perfect.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Okay, so let's go up
Speaker:one hour and 47 minutes.
Speaker:So that's the very,
Speaker:very, very long episode.
Speaker:Thanks for spending half of
Speaker:your Sunday with us today,
Speaker:instead of doing the
Speaker:thing you've been avoiding
Speaker:in your grade book.
Speaker:At least we are all on the West coast.
Speaker:So our day is just starting.
Speaker:The East coast is half over already.
Speaker:We noticed we're not
Speaker:going to say anything.
Speaker:Pamela, thank you as
Speaker:always for being here with us
Speaker:Pleasure.
Speaker:And Tracy, thank you for being honest
Speaker:about the trust moves that backfired.
Speaker:Everybody wants to
Speaker:share the highlight reel.
Speaker:Very few people volunteer
Speaker:the part where they broke it
Speaker:and had to rebuild.
Speaker:So the stranger phase,
Speaker:why rapport is the engine
Speaker:and not the garnish,
Speaker:trust across five periods
Speaker:without, I have six,
Speaker:performing and the first brick you lay
Speaker:before any input happens.
Speaker:If this one helped you subscribe
Speaker:so you don't stop missing us.
Speaker:Leave a review if you're feeling generous
Speaker:and send it to the teacher down the hall
Speaker:who's currently
Speaker:learning 150 names by pointing.
Speaker:Catch us live on
Speaker:YouTube on Sunday mornings
Speaker:or grab the replay
Speaker:wherever you get podcasts
Speaker:during your commute, during your prep,
Speaker:during the staff meeting
Speaker:where nothing else is happening
Speaker:and it should have been an email.
Speaker:Ditch the drills, trust the process
Speaker:and I'll see you next
Speaker:time on Comprehend This.
Speaker:Bye-bye everybody.
Speaker:Bye everyone.
Speaker:There we go.
Speaker:(upbeat music)
