Episode 42: "Explaining CI to a Parent Who Wants Worksheets"
Explaining comprehensible input to a skeptical parent is one of the hardest conversations a CI teacher has, and this episode of Comprehend THIS! is built for exactly that moment. Pamela, guest host Kimberly Floyd, and I get into what to say when a parent asks why their kid "isn't learning any grammar," and how to make the CI approach land without sounding defensive.
It's parent-teacher conference season, and somewhere this week a parent is going to ask a CI teacher why their kid isn't doing worksheets or conjugation drills. In this episode of Comprehend THIS!, we talk through the parent conversation that still lives in our heads, what's actually driving the "where's the homework" question, and the analogies that have genuinely gotten skeptical parents to come around.
This isn't about winning an argument at a folding table. It's about translating what's happening in a comprehensible input classroom into language a worried parent can actually hear, and building the kind of trust that holds up over a whole school year, not just one conference. We also cover the tools we now bring into conferences that we didn't have in our first year, and what we're hoping a doubtful parent believes by the time June rolls around.
ABOUT OUR GUEST HOST
Kimberly Floyd has been a world language educator for 20 years and has used CI/ADI methods since 2018. She has worked in a variety of school districts and has found comprehension-based language learning to be the best approach for both students and teachers. In her free time, Kim likes to travel, listen to podcasts, walk her dog, and spend time with her family.
Not sure where your comprehensible input skills actually stand right now? Take the free CI Proficiency Quiz and find out in a few minutes: https://imim.us/ciquiz
If you want a done-for-you way to keep your CI instruction consistent and easy to explain to families all year, check out the CI Survival Kit - monthly, ready-to-teach materials that make conversations like this one a whole lot easier: https://imim.us/kit
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comprehensible input, CI teaching, parent teacher conferences, world language teacher, TPRS, ADI, acquisition driven instruction, explaining CI to parents, language teacher podcast, teacher parent communication, Spanish teacher, French teacher
Hosts:
Scott Benedict - https://www.instagram.com/immediateimmersion
Pamela Parks - https://imim.us/pamela
Kimberly Floyd - https://instagram.com/@language_forward and www.linkedin.com/in/kimberly-floyd-6b855325a
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Transcript
Hello and welcome everybody. We are on
Speaker:episode number 42 in season
Speaker:number five. How is everybody
Speaker:doing this morning? And there we go a
Speaker:little bit better. So
Speaker:here today we are going to
Speaker:be talking about worksheets. Nothing
Speaker:quite says parent
Speaker:teacher conference season like
Speaker:mom leaning across the table and asking
Speaker:why her daughter isn't
Speaker:learning any grammar.
Speaker:You smile, you breathe, you do not under
Speaker:any circumstances say what
Speaker:you're actually thinking.
Speaker:This week, Pamela and I are joined by
Speaker:guest host Kimberly Floyd,
Speaker:a world language educator
Speaker:for 20 years who has been using CI and
Speaker:ADI methods since 2018.
Speaker:Kim has taught in a variety
Speaker:of school districts and has found this
Speaker:approach to be the best for
Speaker:both students and teachers.
Speaker:So she has explained it to more than a
Speaker:few skeptical families
Speaker:along the way. Together
Speaker:we're getting into the exact conversation
Speaker:every CI teacher
Speaker:eventually has to have. The
Speaker:one where you're translating what's
Speaker:genuinely happening in
Speaker:your classroom into language
Speaker:a skeptical parent can actually hear
Speaker:without sounding
Speaker:condescending, without getting defensive
Speaker:and without accidentally starting a
Speaker:diplomatic incident with the front
Speaker:office. We're talking
Speaker:about the conference that still lives in
Speaker:your head. The analogy
Speaker:that finally made someone's
Speaker:mom nod instead of frown and the moves
Speaker:you bring into that
Speaker:room now that you didn't
Speaker:used to have. If conference season has
Speaker:you rehearsing your CI
Speaker:elevator pitch in the shower,
Speaker:this one's for you. And we'll be back in
Speaker:just a short messages.
Speaker:Love teaching but hate the part where
Speaker:you're the classroom bouncer? Yeah,
Speaker:saying enter dynamic
Speaker:discipline. No, it's not a boot camp for
Speaker:kids. It's a course for
Speaker:teachers who are tired of saying
Speaker:stop looking the whiteboard for the 500th
Speaker:time. You'll get 10 on
Speaker:demand lessons full of realistic
Speaker:relationship based strategies that
Speaker:actually work without turning into the
Speaker:teacher who yells or
Speaker:gives up and plays Netflix. Watch them on
Speaker:your time. Rewatch when
Speaker:you're having a week and start
Speaker:handling behavior without losing your
Speaker:soul. Sign up now at mm.us discipline.
Speaker:Your sanity will thank you.
Speaker:Welcome to comprehend this real talk for
Speaker:real language teachers.
Speaker:No drills, no dry theory,
Speaker:just honest stories, practical ideas, and
Speaker:a reminder you're not alone in the CI
Speaker:trenches. Let's dive in.
Speaker:Welcome, welcome, welcome everybody.
Speaker:Welcome Kimberly. How are
Speaker:we all doing this morning?
Speaker:Great. Thank you. We're so happy for
Speaker:joining us. Yeah, great that you're here.
Speaker:And Kimberly is from
Speaker:my old stomping ground Michigan. I grew
Speaker:up in Michigan. We talked
Speaker:about how I left when I was
Speaker:20 because it was too dang cold. And I
Speaker:grew up in different parts of the state.
Speaker:My niece actually is
Speaker:in Lansing now because she's going to
Speaker:Michigan State. She's
Speaker:going to graduate in December,
Speaker:a year and a half early. I don't know how
Speaker:she did it. And I also lived in
Speaker:Frankamouth, which is not
Speaker:too far from Lansing either, but I grew
Speaker:up mostly in the suburbs of
Speaker:Detroit. So welcome Kimberly.
Speaker:She says this is her first time being on
Speaker:a podcast. So we welcome her and
Speaker:encourage her. We tell her
Speaker:it's just really easy. We're just
Speaker:gossiping on the, on YouTube live, right?
Speaker:Nothing wrong can happen.
Speaker:It's like a water cooler conversation.
Speaker:You know, the bell hasn't rung yet and
Speaker:we're just hanging out
Speaker:having fun. Yeah. And I didn't even look
Speaker:at the topic. I am really
Speaker:bad. I write these topics
Speaker:weeks in advance and I like, okay, what's
Speaker:our topic today? And I
Speaker:go, oh, and it just happens
Speaker:I do have a parent conference coming up
Speaker:that wants to talk. Oh, I
Speaker:thought you planned this. No,
Speaker:no, it just happened. I'm like, what's
Speaker:our topic today? I have no
Speaker:idea. I know I'm such a bad,
Speaker:it's like when I first started, when I
Speaker:first started teaching
Speaker:novels, I made a mistake. I,
Speaker:I am a bad teacher. I read the novel. If
Speaker:I hadn't read the novel yet,
Speaker:my first period is where I'm
Speaker:reading it for the first time with them.
Speaker:Yeah. I made the mistake
Speaker:and I read a Blaine Ray novel.
Speaker:And then I did a dramatic reading a la
Speaker:Karen Rowan, where you
Speaker:dramatic and the kids are,
Speaker:are listening and I'm just dramatically
Speaker:reading. And I'm like, there
Speaker:is this part that it was the,
Speaker:what is it? The El Biaje desu vida, where
Speaker:they are on a cruise
Speaker:ship and she steals a,
Speaker:a necklace. And I'm reading that part,
Speaker:the dramatic part of that where I'm like,
Speaker:it's dark. She reaches under the table.
Speaker:She grabs something. It's
Speaker:hard. And all the kids are like,
Speaker:what the heck? And I'm like, I'm like,
Speaker:what am I reading? What am
Speaker:I reading? And then the next
Speaker:line is it's shiny. And then they're
Speaker:like, they're all over the
Speaker:place. So I've learned now in the
Speaker:future, never to do that again. And
Speaker:because I had no idea what was coming, I
Speaker:just choose this chapter.
Speaker:And I'm going to dramatically read it out
Speaker:loud. And yeah, that didn't
Speaker:work so well. So that's like
Speaker:I am here. So today we're talking about
Speaker:explaining CI to a parent
Speaker:who wants worksheets. What
Speaker:experience do you have with that so far?
Speaker:Because I've got my idea,
Speaker:but I always talk too much. So
Speaker:I'm gonna let you guys start it off. Oh,
Speaker:Kim, would you like to start?
Speaker:Yeah, I can. So I have learned through
Speaker:trial and error to head it off with a
Speaker:newsletter that I send
Speaker:like the first or second week of school.
Speaker:Welcome to level one
Speaker:language. And this is the way that
Speaker:language is taught in this district. And
Speaker:here are some links that you
Speaker:can look at to understand why
Speaker:language is taught this way. Right. So I
Speaker:just front load them
Speaker:with a ton of information.
Speaker:So that then when we get to conferences,
Speaker:which is in a couple weeks for us,
Speaker:they usually just have some follow up
Speaker:questions. And it's not, it's not so
Speaker:intense of like, well,
Speaker:what are you doing in this class, right?
Speaker:Which when I first started
Speaker:with CI pre COVID, right,
Speaker:I did get some questions and just some
Speaker:wonderings. But I think that
Speaker:once and if they don't read it,
Speaker:they do have those questions at
Speaker:conferences, then you know,
Speaker:I will go through my spiel of
Speaker:this is what acquisition driven
Speaker:instruction is. And this is
Speaker:why we do it. And I usually
Speaker:have them think back to like when they're
Speaker:when their children
Speaker:were learning to talk,
Speaker:and how language developed with their
Speaker:children. And then that's
Speaker:basically where we are, you know,
Speaker:classroom, we're just learning to talk,
Speaker:and we're getting a lot and a lot of
Speaker:input. And worksheets,
Speaker:you know, like, drilling vocab or
Speaker:drilling verb conjugations is
Speaker:not input. That's a different
Speaker:part of the brain that you're accessing.
Speaker:So so, you know, we have
Speaker:those kind of conversations.
Speaker:Awesome. And I'll talk afterwards, but I
Speaker:do something similar
Speaker:that you do. So go ahead,
Speaker:Pamela, it is your turn. You are on. Same
Speaker:thing. Same thing. First of
Speaker:all, in any of our electronic
Speaker:grade books, it's super easy to click a
Speaker:button that says email all
Speaker:students. And then you click
Speaker:another button that says CC the parents.
Speaker:So every week I sent home, Hey, guys,
Speaker:this is what we were
Speaker:working on. And this is what we're
Speaker:working towards. And this is how we're
Speaker:doing it. And this is why
Speaker:we're doing it. Because I know the kids
Speaker:don't read their emails. But now the
Speaker:parents read the emails,
Speaker:and they can nag the kids at the dinner
Speaker:table. Right. And so by
Speaker:the time I meet the parents,
Speaker:they already feel like they know me,
Speaker:because I send these weekly
Speaker:emails all the time. And then
Speaker:a few years ago, I realized, you know, my
Speaker:classroom time is precious.
Speaker:And when I on day one have to
Speaker:stop and explain the syllabus in English,
Speaker:that just really drags down all the
Speaker:momentum I'm trying to
Speaker:build. You know what, I learned something
Speaker:from COVID. Why don't I
Speaker:just film myself explaining
Speaker:the syllabus and send it home and the
Speaker:parents can watch it too.
Speaker:And so I started doing that.
Speaker:That is great. Because now the parents
Speaker:they see me the how
Speaker:goofy I am, how weird I am,
Speaker:how eccentric I am. And I don't have to
Speaker:redo it every year, I just
Speaker:have to click send again,
Speaker:right. So really, by the time we get to
Speaker:conference season, it's like the parents,
Speaker:even though I don't know them, I haven't
Speaker:talked to them at all.
Speaker:They feel like they know me.
Speaker:So like that's half the battle right
Speaker:there, right? Yeah, and I love that.
Speaker:That's a great idea.
Speaker:Yeah, I'm gonna steal that because that
Speaker:is a great idea. Because I hate the
Speaker:syllabus time too. And I
Speaker:spread it over like two weeks, only talk
Speaker:about one topic a day, so
Speaker:that I can get more CI in. And I
Speaker:never do it the first week because I
Speaker:really want to build that relationship.
Speaker:Yeah, you got momentum
Speaker:don't want to lose it. Exactly. The
Speaker:minutia of read your student handbook.
Speaker:And so I can also talk
Speaker:about, hey, this is how language
Speaker:acquisition works. This is how your brain
Speaker:works. This is what I need
Speaker:from you in class, I can do all that. And
Speaker:then I you know, I have them
Speaker:like fill out a little form
Speaker:saying yes, I have watched your syllabus.
Speaker:And that's good enough
Speaker:for me. Yeah. And I would,
Speaker:I always have like a fun quiz about the
Speaker:syllabus stuff like that in
Speaker:the beginning just to have it
Speaker:there to make sure. But I'll tell you
Speaker:what I kind of do the
Speaker:combination of what you both do here.
Speaker:Soon as I get and I was a little upset
Speaker:this year, because I'm
Speaker:in a new school this year,
Speaker:new district, and they give out the
Speaker:student lists really late, like, we're
Speaker:already in school, like
Speaker:the teachers are back. And that's when
Speaker:the list comes out. Like at
Speaker:the end of that first day. And
Speaker:I'm like, because I like to email my
Speaker:parents and my kids before
Speaker:school starts. And I introduced
Speaker:you to the first day. No, no, on the
Speaker:first day we do but the first day
Speaker:teachers are back, we don't
Speaker:have them. Oh, okay. Okay. First day.
Speaker:Well, how do you take attendance? Isn't
Speaker:that like mandatory?
Speaker:Like the kids came back on a Wednesday,
Speaker:we came back on a Friday,
Speaker:we got them late that Friday
Speaker:you know that after school type thing. So
Speaker:I'm not used to that. I'm
Speaker:used to at least having them a
Speaker:week in advance. So I sent out an email
Speaker:to parents. And the 504.
Speaker:Yeah, those come those come one or
Speaker:two weeks after school starts. Oh my
Speaker:goodness. Yeah. I'll know
Speaker:who they are because they're
Speaker:flagged in the system. But I won't know
Speaker:what the issue is. Wow.
Speaker:It takes I don't know how
Speaker:elementary teachers do that. Like, that
Speaker:would be so they label everything. And
Speaker:yeah, I don't know. But
Speaker:that's not my word. I don't teach
Speaker:elementary school kids. No offense to
Speaker:those who do. I could not do
Speaker:it. You guys are angels. I couldn't do
Speaker:it. So I sent my email. So
Speaker:I had to send it out on the
Speaker:weekend before which is it was early but
Speaker:not as early as I like to
Speaker:send it out. I send one out to
Speaker:you know what my class looks like what
Speaker:they can expect. And I ask
Speaker:them to give me something
Speaker:embarrassingly funny about their child
Speaker:that's okay to share. And that works out
Speaker:really, really well.
Speaker:Not every parent does it. It's maybe out
Speaker:of my 200 students, maybe
Speaker:three or four do. But it's enough
Speaker:that we can get some fun stuff going. And
Speaker:then I also send out an
Speaker:email to my kids telling them
Speaker:the weirdest teacher you'll ever meet.
Speaker:And all things they can
Speaker:expect. Now, those are the only
Speaker:two emails that aren't translated. I'll
Speaker:explain what I mean by that
Speaker:in a minute. Those are the
Speaker:only two those go out just in my I write
Speaker:them and they go out. Then
Speaker:right before class starts the
Speaker:day before the night before I then write
Speaker:another fun email to my
Speaker:students saying hold on to your
Speaker:seats get ready we're coming on premiere
Speaker:night. You know that kind
Speaker:of a thing. And I tell them
Speaker:what they can expect but this one I
Speaker:translate into teenage slang. So I don't
Speaker:have I don't write I
Speaker:write it in normal English and then I put
Speaker:it in chat GPT. I know
Speaker:there's a lot of people hate
Speaker:chat GPT. I use it as an assistant. I
Speaker:don't use it as or an assistant or a
Speaker:somebody to bounce ideas
Speaker:off of you know but this one I haven't
Speaker:translated. I wrote the email. They
Speaker:translated it to teenage
Speaker:speak and put it in all the slang that
Speaker:the kids all love and the kids really
Speaker:think it's funny that
Speaker:I am writing this and they share it with
Speaker:their parents. I don't
Speaker:translate the parents. I write
Speaker:the parents email each time. They don't
Speaker:need translation. We speak
Speaker:the same language. I don't
Speaker:speak teenage slang. So the kids find it
Speaker:funny and they laugh at it
Speaker:and they share it and they're
Speaker:like oh they call me because I'm so old
Speaker:to be this way. So they
Speaker:put that in there and then
Speaker:getting my kids to read it that's number
Speaker:one because they want to
Speaker:read it because it's fun.
Speaker:And number two I put hidden gems in there
Speaker:that if they tell me
Speaker:something like it could be a code
Speaker:word. It could be some having them do
Speaker:something like if you come
Speaker:into class and you say you
Speaker:identify as a slippery banana then I will
Speaker:give you candy. So they
Speaker:have to read the email to find
Speaker:out what they have to do. Like I had one
Speaker:where I said you have to
Speaker:sit backwards at your desk.
Speaker:Turn your chair around and sit backwards.
Speaker:So the kids are like what
Speaker:are these kids doing? They're
Speaker:all turned around and I walk around the
Speaker:candy jar and I'm giving. I go I know
Speaker:exactly who read the
Speaker:email. So that's one of the things I do.
Speaker:Then when it comes to weekly
Speaker:I send out weekly but I send
Speaker:out different ones to parents and kids.
Speaker:So my kids ones gets
Speaker:translated every week and then my
Speaker:the adult one does not. I write it you
Speaker:know by hand and I explain
Speaker:what we're doing what's coming
Speaker:up how the kids did things I'm seeing
Speaker:those kinds of things in
Speaker:there. And then we don't have
Speaker:conferences unless a parent requests a
Speaker:conference or we request one
Speaker:because of grades. So unlike
Speaker:elementary in our district where they
Speaker:have scheduled
Speaker:conferences we don't have that. We
Speaker:don't have like an arena style where all
Speaker:the teachers are sitting
Speaker:at the cafeteria tables
Speaker:and the parents come in and they're like
Speaker:oh my kid has this
Speaker:teacher all stand in this line.
Speaker:You don't have that kind of thing? No we
Speaker:do is the first couple well I don't
Speaker:remember when we did
Speaker:it we did it in August. I can't remember
Speaker:it so long ago. We have what's called
Speaker:back to school night.
Speaker:Right. And then in the in the spring we
Speaker:have showcase night. I
Speaker:don't know what they mean by
Speaker:showcase night because I've not done that
Speaker:with my district before. So
Speaker:I don't know what that is.
Speaker:But back to school night has been the
Speaker:same. I've done it for the
Speaker:same for the last 25 years I've
Speaker:been teaching. We all we have like 10 or
Speaker:15 minutes in our
Speaker:classroom. The parents go through
Speaker:the kids schedule. Right. And then they
Speaker:come to each classroom and
Speaker:they sit for a 10 to 15 minute
Speaker:spiel. Yeah. What I don't like especially
Speaker:at my when I taught at
Speaker:middle school we had the back
Speaker:school and the very first day of school.
Speaker:I hated that. It was long.
Speaker:Oh you're exhausted. You're
Speaker:exhausted. It's long. And our principal
Speaker:said we all voted for this.
Speaker:I don't remember being part
Speaker:of that election. But it was also
Speaker:problematic because I used to teach my
Speaker:kids words that they
Speaker:were supposed to teach their parents. So
Speaker:I had their parents reenact
Speaker:a story in class they could
Speaker:feel it. And the parents loved that.
Speaker:They're like I if I would have been able
Speaker:to speak a language too
Speaker:if we did it this way. That kind of
Speaker:thing. Yeah. Because the
Speaker:proof is in the pudding.
Speaker:We do it too early now. Even in this
Speaker:school we did it too early where I
Speaker:couldn't really teach
Speaker:what I wanted my kids to teach their
Speaker:parents and get that done. Just didn't
Speaker:get that repetition.
Speaker:Right. So I couldn't do that enacting
Speaker:part. So I just do my spiel about how
Speaker:language is learned.
Speaker:And I don't talk about any of the stuff
Speaker:about class. I don't do
Speaker:that. I give them a handout
Speaker:with that information. And I am talking
Speaker:about how CI works. How kids
Speaker:learn from you know like they
Speaker:did with as a baby that type of
Speaker:situation. And then for the parents who
Speaker:are you know let's see
Speaker:less parent oriented. That's the nicest
Speaker:way I can say. And more
Speaker:sports oriented. So they understand
Speaker:sports analogies. I'm like we practice
Speaker:Spanish in class so that they
Speaker:can perform well at the game.
Speaker:Yeah. Which is the text. You can't study
Speaker:for football or basketball or soccer.
Speaker:You've got to actually show up to the
Speaker:practices or you're going to suck. And I
Speaker:said and just because
Speaker:you know the rule book and the playbook
Speaker:so vocabulary and grammar does not mean
Speaker:you can execute them
Speaker:on the field. So you can have the whole
Speaker:rule book and the playbook
Speaker:memorized. But if you don't
Speaker:practice putting those two things
Speaker:together then you're still going to suck
Speaker:on game night. And it's
Speaker:parents will say my kid knows all the
Speaker:vocabulary knows all the
Speaker:grammar. Why is he still getting a
Speaker:C because they can't actually use those
Speaker:in real life. Yes. Yes. And
Speaker:I add to that analogy. I say
Speaker:you can't stay up all night and cram your
Speaker:football practice and wake
Speaker:up and play football the next
Speaker:day perfectly. Yeah. It's got to be
Speaker:spaced out. You've got to do
Speaker:the everyday practice. Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah. I found an image online that I like
Speaker:to also put in my
Speaker:newsletters which has the brain and it
Speaker:says like you know that old commercial of
Speaker:like an egg in a frying
Speaker:pan. Like here's your brain.
Speaker:So if you were born post 2000 you don't
Speaker:know that commercial and
Speaker:that's OK. But so this one is like
Speaker:your brain with like traditional just
Speaker:grammar and vocab instruction and it's
Speaker:got like like Tetris
Speaker:kind of shapes all jumbled up. And then
Speaker:it says your brain with
Speaker:acquisition driven instruction
Speaker:and they all like lock into place. You
Speaker:know which I really love that. I'll have
Speaker:to find it somewhere
Speaker:in all my files. But for some parents
Speaker:that visual really helps
Speaker:them like oh yeah they're just
Speaker:bits and pieces but they can't put it
Speaker:together. And ADI is this way of
Speaker:instruction access as the
Speaker:part of the brain that can put it all
Speaker:together. Right. And so I
Speaker:find that that one is really
Speaker:helpful too when I'm explaining things.
Speaker:But really Scott you
Speaker:made me think it's just it's
Speaker:all about that parent connection and you
Speaker:know just teaching parents
Speaker:about what language really
Speaker:what language instruction and learning
Speaker:really should be because
Speaker:we've done it for such a long
Speaker:time forever in this country the wrong
Speaker:way. Right. So you know and I often say
Speaker:you know it's not like
Speaker:a class that you or I ever had in the
Speaker:language. Right. This is
Speaker:completely new and different and
Speaker:this is why it's better. And I do find
Speaker:like if I start out like
Speaker:you guys did with some sort of
Speaker:email newsletter etc. I like to link to
Speaker:Bill Van Patten because he
Speaker:was at MSU for a long time
Speaker:and I'm right near MSU. So you know
Speaker:parents will really
Speaker:identify and connect with that.
Speaker:Yeah it's meant to be absorbed. And so
Speaker:then they don't ask me so
Speaker:much for the worksheets etc.
Speaker:Just like okay Mrs. Floyd is doing this
Speaker:new and better thing and
Speaker:they're happy with it you know.
Speaker:Yeah most of my parents when they tell
Speaker:them and how it works
Speaker:especially when I demoed it
Speaker:what now my whole picture just came off
Speaker:this cold screen. When they demoed it
Speaker:they go oh this is so
Speaker:much better and so I don't get the
Speaker:questions. I still get the questions now
Speaker:when I don't demo it.
Speaker:I don't have the time or whatever the
Speaker:thing is. Yeah and I made
Speaker:this poster just this year and
Speaker:have it printed in my room now. Grammar
Speaker:is meant to be absorbed not
Speaker:memorized. And so I have that
Speaker:poster. So I printed it up. So you're
Speaker:absolutely right Kim that I don't I have
Speaker:not had a parent yet
Speaker:who learned language the way I'm teaching
Speaker:it. And they all say oh my gosh I
Speaker:wouldn't have stuck with
Speaker:it had had I had a teacher like you and
Speaker:I'm like it's not just me
Speaker:it's just you know I'm trying
Speaker:I'm trying to be as authentic as
Speaker:possible. And there is a transference
Speaker:problem. And Scott we
Speaker:were talking about this last week when
Speaker:you were arguing with your
Speaker:colleague about the summative
Speaker:assessment. I just had that argument on
Speaker:Friday which is why I'm
Speaker:having an existential crisis
Speaker:right now because I'm like ah help me
Speaker:with this. Because the whole fill in the
Speaker:blank multiple choice
Speaker:thing you may be really good at that but
Speaker:you can't actually transfer
Speaker:it to a real skill that works.
Speaker:And the way I'm trying to explain it to
Speaker:my colleagues who want to make a
Speaker:summative assessment
Speaker:that's just fill in the blank and
Speaker:multiple choice. I'm like look let's say
Speaker:I'm the drama teacher.
Speaker:I need a summative assessment. Is it
Speaker:gonna be all fill in the blanks multiple
Speaker:choice? No I'm gonna
Speaker:have my students perform something. Let's
Speaker:say I'm the photography
Speaker:teacher and I'm teaching my
Speaker:students how to take pictures. Is their
Speaker:summative assessment gonna
Speaker:be fill in the blank multiple
Speaker:choice? No I'm gonna have them take a
Speaker:picture. I'm gonna the band teacher. Do
Speaker:they fill out multiple
Speaker:choice? No he's gonna have the students
Speaker:perform something. It's the
Speaker:same thing. We've got to have
Speaker:them apply the skills or they'll never be
Speaker:able to use them. Yeah it's so very
Speaker:important. It is very
Speaker:important. And I did have that
Speaker:conversation and I haven't had a chance
Speaker:to talk. We gave the test on
Speaker:Thursday and Friday last week and I don't
Speaker:know how his side did on
Speaker:it. So I want to find out how
Speaker:how he liked it because I showed the kids
Speaker:the original exam we were
Speaker:supposed to give. It's 50
Speaker:pages. 50 pages. That's ridiculous. 50
Speaker:pages. This is the argument I'm having
Speaker:right now Scott. I'm like oh I need Scott
Speaker:in the room with me. We went from 50
Speaker:pages to a one pager. We went
Speaker:10 listening, 10 reading, 5 speaking
Speaker:questions and 5
Speaker:interpersonal writing questions.
Speaker:That's what we went to. 30 total
Speaker:questions. It took the kids a half an
Speaker:hour to do. Yeah. Uh-huh. And only the
Speaker:slow kids took a half an hour. The fast
Speaker:kids did not take a half an hour.
Speaker:You know so um I I gave them a full 40
Speaker:minutes to you know just to make sure but
Speaker:I was like oh my god I am not giving a 50
Speaker:page test in a 90 minute period. I'm not
Speaker:doing it. No that's stupid.
Speaker:And then he complains about grading. I
Speaker:shouldn't say stupid on an
Speaker:education podcast. I'm sorry.
Speaker:It's like 60. He goes I spend six hours a
Speaker:week in grading. I'm
Speaker:like that's on you bud.
Speaker:That is on you. There are better ways to
Speaker:do it and we have this
Speaker:textbook and um I am going to
Speaker:criticize you both as Teacher's
Speaker:Discovery. I have loved Teacher's
Speaker:Discovery since I was a child
Speaker:growing up in Michigan because I have
Speaker:been a customer of Teacher's Discovery
Speaker:since I was in high school.
Speaker:When I was learning languages but your
Speaker:Vothis curriculum I have
Speaker:already found a huge loophole
Speaker:in your Vothis curriculum. If you give
Speaker:assignments to kids they all
Speaker:have to be manually graded.
Speaker:There are only a handful that are
Speaker:automatically graded and I don't have
Speaker:time to give all those
Speaker:little activities and then sit there and
Speaker:grade them. So a lot of them
Speaker:can be auto or at least semi
Speaker:automatically graded because I'm telling
Speaker:you I know I use
Speaker:formative.com and I only have to grade
Speaker:the listening and the writing. Everything
Speaker:else can be pre-graded so it saves me
Speaker:time and I just have
Speaker:to check it along the way. I do not have
Speaker:time to assign even four
Speaker:activities. I did one activity.
Speaker:It was a culture activity about Mexican
Speaker:map and I had to grade
Speaker:38 of those times six
Speaker:and I had to grade. There are only five
Speaker:questions but it took me
Speaker:two hours to grade them all.
Speaker:Yeah. I am like I do not have that kind
Speaker:of time so Vothis
Speaker:please constructive criticism
Speaker:please for the love of everything world
Speaker:language please find a way. The whole
Speaker:curriculum is online.
Speaker:You want us to do it online. Find a way
Speaker:to make it. Like even when I
Speaker:have writing ones I can tell
Speaker:formative to give me like all the
Speaker:varieties of answers that kids will give
Speaker:me. So the answer will
Speaker:be like 10 answers possibility right at
Speaker:the bottom like oh they misspelled and
Speaker:put the accent wrong.
Speaker:They forgot the punctuation. They did not
Speaker:capitalize. So I can have 10 correct
Speaker:answers that I will accept
Speaker:for every handwritten post that they do
Speaker:but it makes my life
Speaker:so much easier because
Speaker:it graded a good portion of them and then
Speaker:the ones it could not grade. I then
Speaker:manually but I am only
Speaker:manually grading out of that writing like
Speaker:if it is a question and
Speaker:answer maybe three out of the 10
Speaker:questions because the kid wrote it didn't
Speaker:fit in any of those other
Speaker:possibilities and then what I
Speaker:love about formative is oh I did not know
Speaker:that. I will accept that
Speaker:answer and I can click one
Speaker:button and it adds it to the answer key
Speaker:and then all the kids wrote
Speaker:it the same way. It regrades
Speaker:them so that it is even less that I have
Speaker:to keep grading. That is cool. That is
Speaker:amazing. I have never
Speaker:used that website before. Oh my gosh it
Speaker:is worth the money that
Speaker:comes out of my own pocket. It is
Speaker:worth it. Every assessment, every
Speaker:practice, every activity that we do is in
Speaker:there because I can tie
Speaker:it to standards. I can see the kids
Speaker:grades by standards. I can
Speaker:see which questions they got
Speaker:right, which ones they got wrong and not
Speaker:to advertise for
Speaker:formative.com. I don't get any
Speaker:kickbacks from them but I love the
Speaker:program so well. I've been using it for
Speaker:so long and it saves all my
Speaker:tests but one thing that I did, this
Speaker:never happened to me before
Speaker:but it did this year. First
Speaker:time in 25 years. I gave up my first
Speaker:assessment a listening and a reading and
Speaker:I have to wait a long
Speaker:time. This is where I'm going to have a
Speaker:parent conference about
Speaker:coming up. I had to wait a long
Speaker:time because there's got to be enough
Speaker:language in their head to give them an
Speaker:assessment that's fair.
Speaker:So it was not till week seven because I
Speaker:only see my kids every
Speaker:other day. So at really,
Speaker:we're at the ninth, tenth week. I've
Speaker:really only seen my kids. You know we've
Speaker:been in school since
Speaker:August, the beginning of August. So I've
Speaker:only seen my kids 15 times.
Speaker:Oh my gosh. So they have 15 classes
Speaker:because I see them every other day. It
Speaker:takes me two weeks to see
Speaker:them for five class periods.
Speaker:How long are the class periods? An hour
Speaker:and a half. Okay. But just
Speaker:because you're doing that
Speaker:hour and a half does not mean you can
Speaker:pile two classes in on the
Speaker:same day. So no, no. Yeah. So
Speaker:15, I've only seen them for 15. I had to
Speaker:give them assessments, right? And the
Speaker:week seven, I had to
Speaker:start giving them assessments. And we've
Speaker:been doing calendar talks
Speaker:since the very beginning,
Speaker:like day two. So I thought it would be
Speaker:fair to give them a, you
Speaker:know, the first one was 65 words.
Speaker:It was just like a news forecast of the
Speaker:weather. Different cities
Speaker:with a different weather.
Speaker:And some of my kids bombed it, like
Speaker:bombed it outright. I was
Speaker:like, this has never happened
Speaker:in the first quiz before. Never, as soon
Speaker:as the easy one, the AZA,
Speaker:right? And they bombed it.
Speaker:So here's where formative came in. I saw
Speaker:two questions right away
Speaker:that were flagged because
Speaker:the questions most of my kids all across
Speaker:the classrooms got it
Speaker:wrong. So I'm like, let me
Speaker:look at the question and it both had to
Speaker:do with rain, the word for rain in
Speaker:Spanish. I guess I must
Speaker:not have hit that word well enough. So
Speaker:that was my fault because I
Speaker:tell my kids all my... Or maybe
Speaker:it was conjugated and not conjugated and
Speaker:they recognized... Well,
Speaker:in one it was, it was unfair
Speaker:because it was "yo bio." It was in past
Speaker:tense, but I thought with the context
Speaker:clues, it would have
Speaker:been able there. The other one was in the
Speaker:tense we've always used it, "yuebe."
Speaker:"Yuebe" was always there.
Speaker:Okay. So they just didn't get it. And so
Speaker:I go, I always told the
Speaker:kids, because my quizzes are all
Speaker:pop, all tests are pop, everything is
Speaker:pop, pop, pop, pop, pop,
Speaker:because I want to know what they
Speaker:know and not what they studied for. So I
Speaker:looked and I go, okay, I
Speaker:told them I'm always fair. If
Speaker:it's not right, I'll make it right. So
Speaker:most of the kids did well, so I didn't
Speaker:want to throw the quiz
Speaker:out. But what I did, and it was so easy
Speaker:and informative, is I made
Speaker:those two questions extra
Speaker:credit. So if the kids got it right, it
Speaker:boosted their grade. And
Speaker:if they didn't get it right,
Speaker:it didn't affect anything. Yeah. And all
Speaker:I do is click a button and
Speaker:it regrades them all. I don't
Speaker:have to, like, if you had to do it by
Speaker:hand, you had to go all back
Speaker:and readjust all the grades.
Speaker:I didn't have to do that. So that was the
Speaker:number thing. And it
Speaker:allowed me to see that those
Speaker:questions were problems. And then I made
Speaker:another quiz. That happens.
Speaker:Yeah, it happens. So I made
Speaker:another quiz, which I never give quizzes
Speaker:back to back, but I made
Speaker:another quiz for a couple days
Speaker:same content, different texts to use. And
Speaker:I did that when I made it only 45
Speaker:words instead of 65 words for the
Speaker:listening. Because normally
Speaker:my listings are about 200 and
Speaker:my readings are about 300 for a test or a
Speaker:quiz. I usually kind of make
Speaker:them that way for level one.
Speaker:So but formative let me know what was
Speaker:working and what wasn't
Speaker:working. And it was so easy to fix
Speaker:and then I can give feedback to the
Speaker:students on formative right away. Or I
Speaker:can give feedback to
Speaker:the parents right away and say, Johnny is
Speaker:not doing so well in this.
Speaker:And like this parent that
Speaker:I have coming up, I'm looking he's a
Speaker:really smart kid. He's got
Speaker:all A's but the parents want a
Speaker:converse because he's not getting an A in
Speaker:my class. He's getting a
Speaker:B plus. And they're upset.
Speaker:But I'm looking back at his thing is
Speaker:listening and reading
Speaker:comprehension is there. But he's
Speaker:some base. I mean the writing I don't
Speaker:usually assess writing and
Speaker:speaking so early in the year.
Speaker:But we had to put it in there. We had to
Speaker:have a common assessment.
Speaker:And my thing was I made we
Speaker:made the writing and the speaking the
Speaker:same. So it was interpersonal
Speaker:answering the same questions
Speaker:once orally, once written. And they were
Speaker:all basic questions. What's
Speaker:your name? How old are you?
Speaker:When's your birthday? Where are you from?
Speaker:What's your email address?
Speaker:What's your telephone number?
Speaker:How are you? And what's the weather like
Speaker:on one of the days it says that in there.
Speaker:Nothing really hard. But when I saw all
Speaker:of his answers in the
Speaker:speaking and the writing portion,
Speaker:this is what I saw. He didn't know how to
Speaker:answer some of the
Speaker:really basic questions.
Speaker:So he would go like he said, Tango,
Speaker:catorte, anos tienes.
Speaker:Oh, okay. Or he'll go. He went in there.
Speaker:De donde soy de Rockland. Right. Right.
Speaker:So he's he's just mixing
Speaker:up. So if you just spent a few
Speaker:more moments learning those common
Speaker:phrases, then he would
Speaker:have done so much better.
Speaker:But I can isolate that right away because
Speaker:they're also recording
Speaker:their speaking in deformative.
Speaker:So if a parent says, I don't believe you,
Speaker:let me play it for you.
Speaker:Yeah, play it for you. It's right
Speaker:there. You can hear it. And I mean, it
Speaker:sounds fair because it sounds like he's
Speaker:at a proficient level.
Speaker:He's not. So like we use a comprehensible
Speaker:classroom. We use a somos.
Speaker:And then the French version is
Speaker:new some. And so, you know, it has all
Speaker:assessments broken into like developing
Speaker:proficient advanced.
Speaker:And yeah, that's what I would and that's
Speaker:another thing that I make
Speaker:sure that I share with the
Speaker:parents in my newsletter, that first
Speaker:newsletter that I send out
Speaker:is like, this is how I will be
Speaker:talking with your students about their
Speaker:progress in French. Are they developing?
Speaker:Are they proficient?
Speaker:Are they advanced? And if they get
Speaker:developing on something, I
Speaker:will give them the option to
Speaker:try that assessment again, because
Speaker:developing means you're still
Speaker:working on it and you need to
Speaker:push forward and proficient is perfectly
Speaker:fine. And so in the
Speaker:gradebook, proficient translates to
Speaker:B, typically. And then your advances,
Speaker:your A, and sometimes I'll push advanced.
Speaker:I know my colleagues and I go back and
Speaker:forth because we are in a
Speaker:high performing district.
Speaker:And kind of like you, Scott, like we
Speaker:would we will have
Speaker:parents who are like, well,
Speaker:my child has a B and not an A and Y and
Speaker:they want that A. Right. So,
Speaker:but anyways, don't need to get
Speaker:into the weeds there. But yeah, so I
Speaker:school the parents also on developing
Speaker:proficient or advanced.
Speaker:And where are you with the American with
Speaker:the pyramid? Oh, gosh, AATF, right,
Speaker:American Association.
Speaker:Oh, sorry. So it's for teachers of
Speaker:French. But I think that
Speaker:that you guys probably.
Speaker:Oh, right. Right. Right. Right. Yeah. And
Speaker:so there's like the there's like the
Speaker:silly and not a cylinder. Help me with my
Speaker:shapes. It's like the inverted triangle.
Speaker:It's a call. Yeah. Thank you. It is a
Speaker:phone. Thank you. Many
Speaker:reasons. I'm not a math teacher.
Speaker:You just saw some of you. And so I also
Speaker:share that with the
Speaker:parents and like your student is
Speaker:down here at the very tippy point of this
Speaker:language acquisition
Speaker:cone. Right. And I don't
Speaker:even think I'm up at the very tippy top.
Speaker:I think I'm somewhere,
Speaker:you know, in the, you know,
Speaker:advanced. But I don't know that I'm
Speaker:distinguished. Right. Right. Like native
Speaker:speakers are distinguished,
Speaker:possibly some native speakers aren't even
Speaker:distinct. Yeah, exactly. How
Speaker:they do with their grammar,
Speaker:etc., you know, like, or are they college
Speaker:educated or not, things like that.
Speaker:And so I think that that really helps in
Speaker:conferences, too. And I
Speaker:get frustrated because
Speaker:our district is standards based case six,
Speaker:but then seven, twelve,
Speaker:which is where I teach,
Speaker:it's all grades, it's all letter grades.
Speaker:Right. So then I have to.
Speaker:And that's frustrating. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker:You have to translate
Speaker:it into a letter grade
Speaker:that I really prefer to not give them a
Speaker:letter grade at all and just be like,
Speaker:you are proficient, you are advanced. If
Speaker:you want to pop into
Speaker:advance, these are the things
Speaker:you need to do. And sometimes those are
Speaker:conversations that I'll have with parents
Speaker:to your conferences.
Speaker:Like my kid has the B, how can we get the
Speaker:A? Well, these are some
Speaker:ideas. And here's how I have
Speaker:battled this. And we put this on the test
Speaker:here. So I also want to
Speaker:make for the first speaking and
Speaker:writing test as easy as possible so that
Speaker:they are not. So it wasn't
Speaker:completely impossible because
Speaker:I said, I don't like to grade at this
Speaker:early. You don't grade
Speaker:to starting in November,
Speaker:especially when you realize I've only had
Speaker:them for 15 classes.
Speaker:Right. When you only have.
Speaker:That's my. And it's what I hate about the
Speaker:block. I hate about the
Speaker:block. At least my last year's
Speaker:class, I had them. We only we taught a
Speaker:semester in a year. So I had
Speaker:them every day. But they have
Speaker:day off from language every week. And
Speaker:some weeks I see them
Speaker:three times. The next week,
Speaker:I only see them two times that week. So
Speaker:there's a lot of gaps that
Speaker:happen. But I do see them for
Speaker:the whole school year. So for the first
Speaker:time, I haven't done this
Speaker:before, but I've done it now.
Speaker:And I like it. Actful says at the end of
Speaker:level one, the students
Speaker:should be at novice mid
Speaker:at the end of level one in all the four
Speaker:skills, listening,
Speaker:reading, writing and speaking.
Speaker:They should be at novice mid. So I
Speaker:reworded instead of using proficient and
Speaker:advanced, I reworded my rubrics to no
Speaker:evidence. So they didn't do
Speaker:it. Or it was so bad that it was
Speaker:it's wrong. You know, like I asked how
Speaker:old are you when you say
Speaker:I'm doing really well and you
Speaker:that shows they have no evidence on the
Speaker:question. No evidence. Then
Speaker:like you, Kimberly, we use
Speaker:emerging. Then the next one for the B,
Speaker:because remember our goal
Speaker:at the end of the year for
Speaker:level one is novice mid. So novice low
Speaker:was my B, that would be my
Speaker:proficient. And then novice,
Speaker:and then novice mid would be my A for the
Speaker:beginning of the year.
Speaker:At the end of the year,
Speaker:I'm going to change it to where my novice
Speaker:mid is my B. My novice
Speaker:I is my A. My novice low
Speaker:is my emerging and then missing. So I'm
Speaker:going to do and I use the
Speaker:I put it in child speak,
Speaker:the actual descriptors of each of those
Speaker:things. So for, you know,
Speaker:novice low is memorized speech,
Speaker:you know, can you memorize it? So I put
Speaker:it. So for our novice high,
Speaker:both in the speaking and in the
Speaker:writing, I put novice mid was you could
Speaker:answer it correctly using a complete
Speaker:sentence. So instead
Speaker:of just answering, how are you good, they
Speaker:said, I am good. So they
Speaker:wrote that that got them the two
Speaker:points. The one point was the novice low,
Speaker:which was just answering
Speaker:the question. They understood
Speaker:the question. They knew the right answer,
Speaker:but they didn't give me a complete
Speaker:sentence. So they would
Speaker:just say good. Or what's your telephone
Speaker:number? My and they would just say, you
Speaker:know, 9 1 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7.
Speaker:And they just gave me the number. And
Speaker:then emerging was, I could tell they
Speaker:understood the question,
Speaker:but they botched the answer. So they were
Speaker:giving me the right like
Speaker:some kids gave me the weather
Speaker:wrong. Like they said, it was cold. It
Speaker:was 98 degrees. It was not
Speaker:cold. So I gave them credit.
Speaker:They obviously knew that it was, you
Speaker:know, that it was weather. It
Speaker:was weather related. Or like my
Speaker:kid who answered, they don't they saw a
Speaker:day Rockland. He understood
Speaker:the question, but form it wrong.
Speaker:So he got the emerging compared to the
Speaker:kids who got it completely
Speaker:wrong, which there weren't that
Speaker:many who did, but there were some who
Speaker:like would say, you know, where are you
Speaker:from? And you're like,
Speaker:oh, I'm at school today. You know, or I'm
Speaker:doing really good today,
Speaker:you know, whatever they'd
Speaker:answer. So that's kind of how I've worded
Speaker:it. And I've told the
Speaker:parents what this means. And that,
Speaker:you know, I did tell the kid, I go like,
Speaker:he is proficient. He's
Speaker:right where I expect him to be
Speaker:at this time of the year. That's why he's
Speaker:not been on my radar.
Speaker:That's why I've not pulled him
Speaker:into intervention. Because my kids were
Speaker:low, I pull into intervention. But I
Speaker:didn't, he's got to be
Speaker:so I didn't have a reason to pull him
Speaker:into intervention. I've
Speaker:got kids who are in C's,
Speaker:which I am pulling an intervention season
Speaker:lowers, because we don't give lower
Speaker:grades than C. If they
Speaker:don't have a C, they don't pass in our
Speaker:school. That's amazing.
Speaker:They don't pass unless they're
Speaker:like special needs or special situation.
Speaker:We give something called
Speaker:grad credit, where they'll get
Speaker:for grad, but it's not call it's not
Speaker:they're not college ready.
Speaker:So the parents have to sign
Speaker:something. And the kids have to sign
Speaker:something that lets them
Speaker:know that it's not you are not
Speaker:getting it's not college ready, you
Speaker:cannot go to a four year if you do it
Speaker:this way. And that's where
Speaker:we give them credit for the D. So get
Speaker:their diploma, but they
Speaker:won't, they're not college ready,
Speaker:they can't go, they have to go to a
Speaker:community college, or go out
Speaker:of state because California
Speaker:really strict restrictions of what you
Speaker:have to have accomplished to
Speaker:get into a four year college
Speaker:in California. That's such an interesting
Speaker:way to do it. So yeah, we
Speaker:do it. I have not heard that
Speaker:before. I've heard about our state not
Speaker:giving a D or F. If you
Speaker:don't have a C, you get an F.
Speaker:But we don't even give an F. We don't
Speaker:give D's or F's at all. We
Speaker:give what's called no credit.
Speaker:Right, right, right. So it says no credit
Speaker:on there. We have a
Speaker:couple of districts around here
Speaker:which are doing, they think that they're
Speaker:doing something like
Speaker:that, but it's actually
Speaker:grade inflation, where they're just like,
Speaker:we don't give out F's, which
Speaker:means that when the student
Speaker:fails the class, they get a D. Yeah, and
Speaker:they can still pass on with a D. So
Speaker:that's very interesting
Speaker:what you say. That's yeah, well, I like
Speaker:this because, yeah, because
Speaker:we don't have to have that
Speaker:argument with a parent that says, but my
Speaker:kid got a D, why can't he
Speaker:go on to level two? Well,
Speaker:he doesn't have enough knowledge to be
Speaker:even successful in level two right now.
Speaker:But they go, but he passed. Well, not
Speaker:really. You know, you
Speaker:gotta, and even the C kids
Speaker:struggle going into level two, they're
Speaker:already deficient in 25% of the language.
Speaker:Yeah. So do you, sorry. So if a kid has a
Speaker:C and they can't go into
Speaker:level two, what do they do?
Speaker:No, if they have a C, they can go into
Speaker:level two. Oh, so if it's
Speaker:below a C, then they just,
Speaker:do they have to retake? They got no
Speaker:credit. So you guys have them retake it
Speaker:then, if they want to?
Speaker:If they want to go for college ready,
Speaker:they have to retake it.
Speaker:Okay. If they don't. So like your
Speaker:conversation is like college ready or not
Speaker:college ready, like
Speaker:throughout high school. Yeah. Okay.
Speaker:That's interesting. It's kind of like two
Speaker:different tracks. Now we
Speaker:don't generally let just regular
Speaker:kids go non-college ready. We don't
Speaker:usually let that. They usually have to
Speaker:have some kind of an
Speaker:issue. Usually they're on IEP, not even a
Speaker:504. I don't think we offer it to 504s.
Speaker:And then, or we offer it to kids who are
Speaker:really struggling with
Speaker:school. Like they don't show up
Speaker:to school, those kinds of things. We're
Speaker:trying to get them over
Speaker:the hump until these let them
Speaker:have a high school diploma. But it's not
Speaker:something we offer. It's not
Speaker:something we usually offer. The
Speaker:counselor will look at it and look at the
Speaker:situation with the kid. And then we'll
Speaker:talk with the teacher
Speaker:first. And then we open it up to the
Speaker:parents and that. Okay. Well, that's
Speaker:good. That's good. Yeah.
Speaker:And I also just wanted to throw out that
Speaker:I was trying to think
Speaker:of ACTFEL, the acronym,
Speaker:and I was just having a major brain fart.
Speaker:So sorry, ACTFEL, that I couldn't
Speaker:remember your acronyms.
Speaker:And we have too many acronyms. We have
Speaker:too many acronyms to remember.
Speaker:Absolutely. That's what I
Speaker:was talking about. Absolutely. My bad.
Speaker:Yeah. We have way too many. Oh gosh.
Speaker:Scott was talking about,
Speaker:he introduced you with ADI and I had to
Speaker:think, okay, whoa, whoa,
Speaker:whoa. Oh yeah. Of course.
Speaker:The brain fart. Because that's a Michigan
Speaker:term that started in
Speaker:Michigan. That did. Oh, is it
Speaker:that a Bill Van Patten thing? No. It's a
Speaker:Carol Gobb. Oh. And all her
Speaker:people work. But she's not from
Speaker:Michigan. She's from Wisconsin. She
Speaker:taught in Arizona. But
Speaker:right. All of her colleagues that
Speaker:she brought into her workshops are from
Speaker:Michigan. Why am I not
Speaker:escaping her name? I went to quite a
Speaker:few of her workshops. What is her name?
Speaker:Her name is Escapie. I can picture her
Speaker:face. And she lives in
Speaker:Blond? Blond? Blond hair. Yeah, Blond
Speaker:hair. And she lives
Speaker:right outside of, I think,
Speaker:Faulerville. That keeps coming to my
Speaker:mind. Erica Paplinski?
Speaker:No, but she's one of them.
Speaker:Yeah. That's not the one I'm thinking of
Speaker:though. Okay. She's the one
Speaker:who writes novels. I know who
Speaker:you're thinking of. Christy? Christy?
Speaker:Yes. Christy Placido.
Speaker:Christy Placido. There you go.
Speaker:Yeah. She was at Faulerville for a long
Speaker:time. Yeah. So, you know,
Speaker:they came up with that term
Speaker:to differentiate themselves from TPRS, I
Speaker:think is what they were
Speaker:trying to do. Right. And so,
Speaker:they came up with the ADI. So, when I
Speaker:know, I know they're from the
Speaker:Midwest, if they use the term
Speaker:ADI, because it's only, it's really,
Speaker:that's where it's
Speaker:proficient from. That's interesting.
Speaker:I didn't know that part. Because all the
Speaker:people that Carol Cobb
Speaker:worked with and hired and stuff
Speaker:were all from that particular area. It
Speaker:just happened to be a
Speaker:coincidence. It wasn't like
Speaker:she was prejudicial against anybody else.
Speaker:She's an amazing
Speaker:instructor, amazing woman.
Speaker:Midwest is best. Let's
Speaker:just say it out loud.
Speaker:So Scott, you brought up something. I am
Speaker:a Californian now since
Speaker:I lived most of my life
Speaker:in California than I have. But I hate to
Speaker:say this, but you know
Speaker:what the Californians say?
Speaker:Oh, those are the flyover states. They
Speaker:say that about some of the Midwest. I
Speaker:don't know. Michigan
Speaker:is a special place though, because it's
Speaker:like we're almost East Coast,
Speaker:you know? Or like, obviously,
Speaker:we refer to ourselves as the fresh coast.
Speaker:So, I don't know. We're in
Speaker:the Midwest, but we're not.
Speaker:We're kind of just half Midwest.
Speaker:Everybody I know calls
Speaker:it the flyover states,
Speaker:because we go from LA to New York and
Speaker:everything in the middle is
Speaker:flyover. I think that's funny.
Speaker:Scott, you were talking about something
Speaker:kind of crucial, I
Speaker:think. You were talking about
Speaker:calling students down for intervention,
Speaker:right? Ideally,
Speaker:intervention is supposed to be also,
Speaker:hey, I've got a high flyer and I want to
Speaker:push them harder. I
Speaker:have not seen in my school,
Speaker:nobody's doing that yet for the high
Speaker:flyers. And for me
Speaker:personally, there is no way I can really
Speaker:bring the high flyers in, because I'm
Speaker:going crazy with intervention time.
Speaker:Because I got my Spanish
Speaker:students, I got my French students, I got
Speaker:my Japanese students, and
Speaker:now I have English students
Speaker:in there. And I'm hobbling around with my
Speaker:broken leg that won't heal
Speaker:for some bizarre reason. It
Speaker:won't heal because I'm like overtaxed.
Speaker:And so, it's frustrating to me that
Speaker:when am I going to be able to do that
Speaker:intervention for the high flyers?
Speaker:Can you guys talk more about intervention
Speaker:time? Because that sounds
Speaker:like something different than
Speaker:what the Midwest might know it as. It's a
Speaker:trend going on right now.
Speaker:Well, since I've been teaching, well,
Speaker:let's see. We didn't have
Speaker:it when I was teaching in
Speaker:Southern California in the early 2000s.
Speaker:We didn't have it in
Speaker:Nevada when I taught in the mid,
Speaker:what do you call it?
Speaker:It's not 2010. So, like.
Speaker:It's very new. It's very, very new.
Speaker:But starting when I started teaching in
Speaker:2013 in Northern California, we've had
Speaker:it. We've implemented
Speaker:different ways. I love how my school
Speaker:introduces it now. It really, I love
Speaker:this. This is the best
Speaker:implementation I've ever seen. When I
Speaker:taught in middle school, it
Speaker:was called intervention and
Speaker:enrichment. So, all the kids had to go.
Speaker:It was once a week for 90
Speaker:minutes. It was on our block day.
Speaker:90 minutes. They came in and they either
Speaker:did an intervention. You did an
Speaker:intervention with them.
Speaker:Or you came up with an enrichment for
Speaker:them. Now, your
Speaker:enrichment didn't have to be
Speaker:what you taught. Like sometimes I did
Speaker:intervention. I did
Speaker:photography. That's a hobby of mine.
Speaker:Or I've done intervention where it was
Speaker:food. It had nothing to do
Speaker:with language, but it was food.
Speaker:We made Halloween snacks out of Oreo
Speaker:cookies. We made spiders
Speaker:and we made witches out of
Speaker:marshmallows. The kids just loved all of
Speaker:that kind of stuff. So, the
Speaker:enrichment. So, for the kids
Speaker:who didn't have the lower grades, they
Speaker:could do something
Speaker:relatively fun. Or it could be
Speaker:educational. I also, I never did
Speaker:enrichment in Spanish, but I did do
Speaker:enrichment in German because
Speaker:we didn't have German and some of my kids
Speaker:were interested in
Speaker:learning German. So, I would teach
Speaker:a German, do a German story with them.
Speaker:And they would come to that.
Speaker:The problem with that model
Speaker:was if you were doing an enrichment, you
Speaker:had to come up with an
Speaker:extra lesson plan that you did
Speaker:not normally have to do. And so, a lot of
Speaker:the teachers didn't
Speaker:like that system because
Speaker:it's extra work. You got to come up with
Speaker:another lesson plan. And
Speaker:these kids you don't even know
Speaker:because they could come in from anywhere.
Speaker:If they had the grades,
Speaker:they could take an enrichment
Speaker:instead of an intervention. If they had
Speaker:C's or lower, they had
Speaker:to take an intervention.
Speaker:If they had A's and B's, they could go to
Speaker:an enrichment. And you
Speaker:didn't know who the kids
Speaker:were going to be. And so, it was a whole
Speaker:different story. The
Speaker:way my school does it.
Speaker:So, I think I need to back up for a
Speaker:minute and just like give the basic like,
Speaker:so you've got your normal six period
Speaker:classes or whatever. Maybe
Speaker:you're on a block schedule
Speaker:or whatever. You have some extra amount
Speaker:of time. Scott's talking about 90
Speaker:minutes. We're doing 30
Speaker:minutes right now where it's blank. You
Speaker:don't have a set group of
Speaker:students. You either call
Speaker:students down. You say, "Oh, I'm getting
Speaker:in the computer and I'm
Speaker:saying, Bob Smith, you need to
Speaker:come down to my room on Monday for this
Speaker:period." Or you say, you know, or Bob
Speaker:Smith is sitting at his
Speaker:computer. He says, "I want to go to Mrs.
Speaker:Parks for Mondays and an
Speaker:intervention." Okay. So, the
Speaker:students either select to come or you
Speaker:select the students. And so, it's a
Speaker:special period of time.
Speaker:And Scott, you're absolutely right that
Speaker:you are responsible for
Speaker:coming up with what you do in that
Speaker:time. So, I'm sorry I cut you off. I just
Speaker:want to make sure that
Speaker:you're getting a great break.
Speaker:So, I'll back up and say like, I know
Speaker:what that is. Now, we just
Speaker:didn't call it intervention.
Speaker:Like in my school, we had, it was flex
Speaker:time. And it was a little bit less
Speaker:restricted. So, like,
Speaker:we just have a six-hour day, like
Speaker:58-minute periods. And
Speaker:so, Tuesdays and Thursdays,
Speaker:or sometimes just Thursdays, the classes
Speaker:were shortened and you had
Speaker:like 50 minutes flex time
Speaker:where you could sign in to other
Speaker:teachers' rooms where...
Speaker:And it was really more for
Speaker:help with other subjects. Or if you
Speaker:didn't really need help with anything,
Speaker:you could just sign into
Speaker:teachers' flex just to be in there. But,
Speaker:you know, we didn't, we didn't like,
Speaker:there was this whole
Speaker:conversation. So, teachers don't want to
Speaker:have another prep, which I
Speaker:totally understand because
Speaker:that's too much. And so, and then the
Speaker:state of Michigan said,
Speaker:well, if you're not like actually
Speaker:teaching something, then it can't count
Speaker:as educational minutes.
Speaker:But it's like, but I am
Speaker:teaching. I'm just like running around,
Speaker:you know, helping kids or
Speaker:like, you know what, if no one
Speaker:needs help in my flex this hour, that's
Speaker:kind of cool. Like, and we
Speaker:can, you know, do enrichment or
Speaker:they can do work or whatever. So,
Speaker:anyways, it had to go away
Speaker:because it wasn't technically
Speaker:doing towards our minutes with the state.
Speaker:Ours are considered
Speaker:instructional minutes.
Speaker:And this is how they do it at my school.
Speaker:It's now 25 minutes. It's 25 minutes.
Speaker:Now, partly we can get
Speaker:away with it because these are extra
Speaker:instructional minutes
Speaker:because we're in school, let's see,
Speaker:849, 10. So, 9, 10, 11, 12, 23. We're in
Speaker:school over seven, almost
Speaker:seven, a little over seven hours.
Speaker:So, the kids have, so we're over in those
Speaker:minutes. We had to adjust it
Speaker:though, because they say we
Speaker:didn't have enough PE minutes. So, they,
Speaker:I guess they adjusted it
Speaker:from last year to this year
Speaker:because we didn't have enough PE minutes.
Speaker:But this is how I love it.
Speaker:And this is why I love how they
Speaker:implemented it. This is the best way I've
Speaker:seen it. So, it's 25
Speaker:minutes right before lunch.
Speaker:So, there's two types of, we call it
Speaker:pause because we're the Wildcats. And it
Speaker:stands for something,
Speaker:but don't ask what it stands for. Pause,
Speaker:something, I don't
Speaker:know. But pause time. So,
Speaker:there's school-wide pause. So, if your
Speaker:last grade report, whether it's a
Speaker:progress report or report
Speaker:had any no marks, no credits on it, even
Speaker:one, you are forced into
Speaker:pause every day until the next
Speaker:report card. So, you have to stay with
Speaker:your fifth or sixth period, because those
Speaker:are periods that are
Speaker:right before lunch. Fifth or sixth
Speaker:period, teacher for an extra 25 minutes,
Speaker:and you have to work on
Speaker:whatever you have to work on to get your
Speaker:grades up. Okay, that's, the teacher
Speaker:doesn't necessarily,
Speaker:because it might not be their class. It
Speaker:might be math, but you're a history
Speaker:teacher. Oh, they're
Speaker:in the class? You stay in the classroom.
Speaker:Now, if the other teacher wants them,
Speaker:they have to send a pass for them. So,
Speaker:the math teacher says, "I'm doing a
Speaker:instruction about this,
Speaker:and this child needs to be there." They
Speaker:would give the child a
Speaker:pass, and then they would leave
Speaker:your classroom and go to there. But
Speaker:they're accountable. If
Speaker:they don't get there, it's a
Speaker:class. Okay? Okay. So, then there's the
Speaker:other one, which is what
Speaker:I do, because, you know,
Speaker:on top of it, any kid who's doing poorly
Speaker:in my class, I will send
Speaker:them a personal pass. They
Speaker:may not be normally in pause. They may
Speaker:have all good grades, but
Speaker:I'm noticing in listening
Speaker:comprehension, they're not doing as well
Speaker:as they could be. So, I
Speaker:personally pull them in, send them
Speaker:a pass, and I do mine a week at a time. I
Speaker:said, "You're in my pause
Speaker:for the whole week. Tuesday
Speaker:through... We only do pause Tuesday
Speaker:through Friday. So,
Speaker:you're in for the whole week,
Speaker:because we're going to be doing
Speaker:activities, and I make
Speaker:extra activities for them to do.
Speaker:Informative, this is where I can
Speaker:differentiate. You guys do the listening
Speaker:activities. You do the
Speaker:reading activities. You do the writing
Speaker:activities. You do the speaking
Speaker:activities, because that's...
Speaker:I'm differentiating, because I can't be
Speaker:four different people
Speaker:in the same classroom.
Speaker:So, I call them in. But here's where the
Speaker:best part is. We don't have
Speaker:to come up with an enrichment,
Speaker:because the kids who have the good grades
Speaker:and aren't called in have
Speaker:an extra 25 minutes of lunch.
Speaker:That seems like a good report.
Speaker:So, that's an incentive for them to get
Speaker:off of pause. Teachers aren't
Speaker:responsible, because who
Speaker:monitors behavior during lunch? The
Speaker:administration. So, it puts
Speaker:the next 25 burden on them.
Speaker:But it's generally the better kids,
Speaker:because the kids who are
Speaker:getting good grades all the way
Speaker:across. So, I like that instead of us
Speaker:coming up with an extra
Speaker:plan and enrichment or doing
Speaker:anything like that, the kids... Because
Speaker:even in the enrichment, that
Speaker:really was an incentive for
Speaker:them to get out, to do well. Because I
Speaker:still got to be somewhere
Speaker:I really don't want to be.
Speaker:But here, an extra 25 minutes of lunch,
Speaker:they want that. That means
Speaker:they get 55 minutes of lunch
Speaker:instead of 30 minutes for lunch. So, that
Speaker:works out well. And I love
Speaker:using my formative, because
Speaker:I can give them, if I know they're weak
Speaker:in speaking, I can create
Speaker:some speaking activities
Speaker:for them to do, where I don't have to
Speaker:monitor them. Because
Speaker:I've got kids from... I teach
Speaker:multicultural too. So, I've got kids from
Speaker:multicultural, I've
Speaker:got kids from Spanish,
Speaker:and I've got kids in Spanish who have
Speaker:weaknesses in different areas. And I
Speaker:can't address that all
Speaker:in one period, 25 minutes, I can't do it.
Speaker:So, this formative really
Speaker:does, they can put their
Speaker:headphones on, do their listening, and do
Speaker:it that way. They get
Speaker:the practice that they need
Speaker:to help them get them over the hump. So,
Speaker:I like how it's done that way.
Speaker:So, do you think... I wonder, I'm going
Speaker:to throw out the word
Speaker:data here, but I wonder what
Speaker:the data shows. Does that really help
Speaker:students to get out of pause, or do they
Speaker:just get into a slump,
Speaker:and they're like, "I can't get out of
Speaker:pause." The kids who truly need the help,
Speaker:who truly are struggling in school,
Speaker:they're usually in
Speaker:pause for most of the year.
Speaker:But it's giving them that... Do you have
Speaker:any pushback about that? No.
Speaker:Because if we didn't have it,
Speaker:it'd be class time. Yeah. It would be
Speaker:actual, we just add those minutes back
Speaker:into the regular class.
Speaker:But this gives us extra help. And we put
Speaker:it as, it's the help time.
Speaker:If kids have questions, they can also
Speaker:volunteer to come in.
Speaker:They can sign up to come in too, if they
Speaker:think they need help on something.
Speaker:So, there are kids who get themselves
Speaker:out, and I reward them. I give them
Speaker:candy, and I give them a
Speaker:little postcard. It says, "You got
Speaker:yourself out of pause. Congratulations
Speaker:for putting the work in."
Speaker:I do that, so it's a little, it's an
Speaker:event. I want them to realize that
Speaker:they're working towards
Speaker:something. They're not just sitting there
Speaker:fooling around. There are no bathroom
Speaker:breaks during pause.
Speaker:There are no cell phones during pause,
Speaker:because it's only 25
Speaker:minutes. And when the kids take
Speaker:seven minutes to go pee-pee, they're
Speaker:wasting their time. Yeah. So, they can
Speaker:wait 25 minutes to go pee.
Speaker:They can't even write that down. So,
Speaker:they're not allowed to
Speaker:go. No bathroom breaks.
Speaker:Of all the schools I've had that had
Speaker:intervention, we didn't have intervention
Speaker:at my last high school
Speaker:I taught at for two years. We didn't have
Speaker:it. We definitely needed it,
Speaker:because I had kids who were
Speaker:failing four out of four classes. Yeah.
Speaker:They didn't have it. But
Speaker:here, I like the implementation,
Speaker:because being able to spend an extra 25
Speaker:minutes with your
Speaker:friends at lunch is incentive.
Speaker:Mm-hmm. That's incentive. That's a
Speaker:reward. Oh, yeah. I mean, I think that's,
Speaker:I mean, you could go across the nation,
Speaker:and what will every kid
Speaker:say they want more lunchtime?
Speaker:Like, they want more time. And it costs
Speaker:the school zero dollars.
Speaker:Yeah. Like, if you come up with
Speaker:other incentives, like, we do, we give
Speaker:incentives like five dollar Chick-fil-A
Speaker:gift cards and stuff
Speaker:like that for other things, that costs
Speaker:the school money. This does
Speaker:not cost the school any money,
Speaker:and it's more valuable to a kid than a
Speaker:five dollar Chick-fil-A card. Yeah.
Speaker:Because they get a whole
Speaker:four weeks of spending 30 minutes extra
Speaker:with their friends at lunch. Yeah.
Speaker:Mm-hmm. Yeah, I know.
Speaker:That's huge. That's really cool. So, I
Speaker:love how they've
Speaker:implemented it. I think it's the best
Speaker:implementation that I have seen or heard
Speaker:of from other teachers who do the
Speaker:intervention. I know the
Speaker:high schools in my neighborhood, because
Speaker:I teach in the
Speaker:neighborhood in the next city over,
Speaker:they do it like once a week, and it's
Speaker:like a zero period. The
Speaker:kids who don't need it,
Speaker:they sit in the gym and just socialize.
Speaker:But then- Oh. And then the
Speaker:other kids, it's before school
Speaker:starts, before the actual day starts. So,
Speaker:the day is shortened, and
Speaker:they normally come in and they
Speaker:either go to the gym or they have to go
Speaker:to their intervention. And
Speaker:I'm like, I don't like that
Speaker:implementation, because now you've got a
Speaker:discipline problem, because it's not
Speaker:lunch, they're not trying
Speaker:to eat, they're just all hanging out in
Speaker:the gym. Mm-hmm. Yeah,
Speaker:that's so good. Yeah. You know?
Speaker:Separate but equal, yeah. Yeah. So- Yeah,
Speaker:that almost seems like a
Speaker:punishment. Yeah, I don't like-
Speaker:It's got to supervise that too. So, I'm
Speaker:like, no, thank you. I like
Speaker:the way we do it. Well, who's
Speaker:gonna come to it early in the morning
Speaker:when you don't like school already?
Speaker:Right. Yeah. I mean,
Speaker:it's not, they don't actually come
Speaker:earlier to school, it's
Speaker:just that the regular scheduled
Speaker:day starts later. Okay. But you're right.
Speaker:But still, it's
Speaker:intervention. I'm not showing up,
Speaker:I'm not missing anything from class.
Speaker:Yeah. You know, that type
Speaker:of thing. Yep, exactly. So,
Speaker:that's a problem. And we take, if they
Speaker:skip what they're supposed to be in
Speaker:pause, and they skip it,
Speaker:we take it seriously. It's, because it's
Speaker:instructional minutes.
Speaker:So, it is a technical
Speaker:ditch of class. Yeah. So, they take it
Speaker:seriously. So, and they do
Speaker:kind of, it is instructional
Speaker:minutes, but I think they might be an
Speaker:extra, because we are in
Speaker:school. This is, we're in school
Speaker:then, I'm used to in this school. Yeah.
Speaker:We, I don't know really of
Speaker:any district, I'm sure there are
Speaker:some in my state who do like extra
Speaker:minutes, like more than is
Speaker:required by the state. So.
Speaker:Yeah, we have, we have minutes and we
Speaker:have the 180 school days. So,
Speaker:both have to be, have to be,
Speaker:yeah, contended with. But, but I like
Speaker:this implementation.
Speaker:I think it really does
Speaker:help the kids who need the help. It gives
Speaker:them the time. It's
Speaker:also time to make up tests,
Speaker:or quizzes. Yeah. Because getting them to
Speaker:come before school or
Speaker:after school, or you have to
Speaker:give up your lunch. Yeah. No. You know,
Speaker:so this is another time. It's, it's
Speaker:already built in the
Speaker:school day, the kids, it's in the middle
Speaker:of the day. It's not like
Speaker:the kids have to come in early
Speaker:they don't have to give up their lunch
Speaker:either. It's a time
Speaker:that's just set for them. So,
Speaker:I like the way it's implemented and it
Speaker:really works. We are, we
Speaker:are at time, but let's do one
Speaker:last thing that gets us back to kind of
Speaker:our topic that we're talking about.
Speaker:Homework. Excuse me.
Speaker:What is everybody's idea on homework?
Speaker:What do you want to say about that? And
Speaker:we'll end today with
Speaker:that little topic. Who would like to go
Speaker:first? You're not going to
Speaker:like what I say. I, I assign
Speaker:homework. My homework has to be, because
Speaker:I feel like we're fighting
Speaker:Ebbinghaus's forgetting curve,
Speaker:especially if you're only seeing your
Speaker:students every other day,
Speaker:they're going to forget things.
Speaker:So, I work really hard on making my
Speaker:homework fun in less than five minutes.
Speaker:But you've got to look
Speaker:at some of the words we talked about in
Speaker:class, some of the
Speaker:sentence structure we talked about
Speaker:in class, you've got to remind yourself
Speaker:what we did in class. Otherwise, you're
Speaker:just going to forget
Speaker:it all. It's got, you got to look at it
Speaker:one time outside of class.
Speaker:So, I do, do homework and I take
Speaker:it very seriously, but it's quick and
Speaker:easy and nobody should be
Speaker:telling me they didn't have five
Speaker:minutes during, you know, like during
Speaker:their pack time, during their
Speaker:intervention time, they could
Speaker:do it then. Just not inside my four walls
Speaker:because I want that transference. What
Speaker:about you, Kimberly?
Speaker:So, sometime during COVID, I just gave up
Speaker:on homework, I think,
Speaker:and not give up, I guess,
Speaker:but just obviously when you were teaching
Speaker:online all the time, like
Speaker:you had to change things and
Speaker:then coming out of that, I just really
Speaker:have, I really hone in on
Speaker:the kids who have been absent,
Speaker:right? And I see that that's a podcast
Speaker:that you have coming up,
Speaker:Scott, unlike what to do when
Speaker:kids are gone for like six days in a row.
Speaker:Like again, I'm currently
Speaker:in a more affluent district
Speaker:and, you know, I had a kid who went to
Speaker:Hawaii from Michigan for a full week,
Speaker:just the other week,
Speaker:like week five or six in school. And I
Speaker:was like, oh, you're in French one and
Speaker:you're going to Hawaii
Speaker:for a week. Great. You know, so, I
Speaker:really- And that's
Speaker:definitely post-COVID that the parents
Speaker:are like, yeah, we can take the kids out
Speaker:of school forever. Yeah. You
Speaker:know, we've got a wedding in
Speaker:another country, we'll just go for a
Speaker:month. And you're like, yes,
Speaker:yes, 100. Yes. And so, I just
Speaker:really hone in on those kids, making sure
Speaker:that they get the work done,
Speaker:that they were meant to have
Speaker:done in class and make sure that they're
Speaker:all caught up because
Speaker:that keeps me pretty busy.
Speaker:And then when we have breaks, like
Speaker:parents will always say, like, what can
Speaker:we do over break? And
Speaker:I don't- And I always really recommend
Speaker:like we- I have song playlists and we
Speaker:learn specific songs
Speaker:with every unit, right? That have
Speaker:specific target structures that I want
Speaker:them to know. And so,
Speaker:I say, listen to the playlists. You know,
Speaker:I have some shows through-
Speaker:French shows through Facebook
Speaker:a couple on Netflix that they can watch.
Speaker:I'm like, just keep getting your input in
Speaker:while you're on break. Like, that's very
Speaker:important. So, I really emphasize that.
Speaker:And then- And that's
Speaker:what the beginning levels, you know, I'm
Speaker:currently teaching like level
Speaker:one, level two. And I tell the
Speaker:parents like, if your kid is going to go
Speaker:through to AP, they're going to have
Speaker:homework. Like, that's
Speaker:just a given, you know? But I just say in
Speaker:level one, level two, it's
Speaker:mainly if they don't finish
Speaker:their work in class because they're
Speaker:farting around and they're not doing what
Speaker:they're supposed to do,
Speaker:then they have homework, right? And or if
Speaker:they're gone for a
Speaker:significant amount of time, they're
Speaker:going to have work to do, to make up. So,
Speaker:that's what I do. And I'll
Speaker:say, this came before COVID.
Speaker:I taught in Vegas. We taught in a block
Speaker:school. And what's unique
Speaker:about Vegas is, well, Nevada,
Speaker:they don't do school districts based on
Speaker:city. They do them based
Speaker:on county. So, the whole
Speaker:southern cone of Nevada is Clark County.
Speaker:It's the fifth largest
Speaker:school district in the country.
Speaker:So, I could have kids in my classroom who
Speaker:were on the California border,
Speaker:and then other kids in the same classroom
Speaker:were on the Arizona border.
Speaker:Oh, yeah. So, they could be commuting to
Speaker:school an hour, an
Speaker:hour and a half each way.
Speaker:Yeah. So, they could be doing that. And
Speaker:actually, like, even on school
Speaker:buses have to do connections.
Speaker:They go, one school bus goes to one
Speaker:little hub area, and then
Speaker:they have to get another school
Speaker:bus to go to the rest of the way. So, the
Speaker:parents were complaining
Speaker:because we were block. And the
Speaker:math teachers especially were guilty.
Speaker:They said, like, well, if I
Speaker:don't see you tomorrow, I only
Speaker:see you today. And I don't see you
Speaker:tomorrow. That's two days where the
Speaker:homework I need to give you.
Speaker:So, they were doubling up on the
Speaker:homework. So, our principal came to us,
Speaker:the whole staff, and said,
Speaker:okay, we got to figure out this homework
Speaker:problem. Because the kids, there's
Speaker:potentially three hours
Speaker:a day commuting. They're in school seven
Speaker:hours, three hours
Speaker:commuting. That's 10 hours. By the
Speaker:time they get home, they don't have the
Speaker:time to do all this homework.
Speaker:So, we need to figure it out.
Speaker:PE doesn't give homework, so they were
Speaker:already. And world language
Speaker:volunteered. We said, we won't
Speaker:give homework either. And guess what
Speaker:happened? Nothing. Yeah.
Speaker:The ceiling did not fall. The
Speaker:grades did not all of a sudden drop
Speaker:because they weren't getting extra
Speaker:practice. And then I started
Speaker:doing research, and I'm thinking about it
Speaker:myself too, because I was
Speaker:at a school before that who
Speaker:required us to give homework five days a
Speaker:week and over breaks.
Speaker:Require. Wow. Now, I never did. I
Speaker:told the kids, if you talk and you tell
Speaker:on me, you're going to get
Speaker:homework. So, I would give
Speaker:homework Monday through Thursday, and I
Speaker:never gave it over break. Because I
Speaker:thought of my life too.
Speaker:As a job, if you're punching out for the
Speaker:day, and your boss said, when
Speaker:you go home today, I need you
Speaker:to do these other activities for me off
Speaker:the clock. And then you're going on
Speaker:vacation for your two
Speaker:weeks, and they go, and can you do this
Speaker:project off the clock
Speaker:while you're there? You know,
Speaker:you tell them, right? You tell them where
Speaker:the door was. So, I'm
Speaker:thinking the same thing with kids.
Speaker:Plus, kids can only be kids once. And if
Speaker:I'm taking that home life or
Speaker:that sport life or something
Speaker:else for them to do, where they're
Speaker:unwinding for themselves, or spending
Speaker:time with their families,
Speaker:I didn't want to take away. And since I
Speaker:didn't see a drop in grades, I thought,
Speaker:I don't necessarily need it. When I did
Speaker:give homework, this is what I did. I
Speaker:assigned it on Monday,
Speaker:and it was due the following Monday. So,
Speaker:I gave three assignments.
Speaker:They could choose, is it after
Speaker:school they wanted to do it? Wherever
Speaker:they could fit it. If they
Speaker:had something on Tuesday to do,
Speaker:they didn't have to on Tuesday. They
Speaker:could do it on Wednesday. And they also
Speaker:had the weekend. They
Speaker:did not have to use their weekends. But
Speaker:if they chose to use their
Speaker:weekends, they could. Because
Speaker:the kids would do the following Monday.
Speaker:Until I stopped giving
Speaker:homework. And I stopped giving
Speaker:homework back in 2009 when we made that
Speaker:decision as a department
Speaker:and nothing happened. And then
Speaker:there, I forgot his name, horrible name,
Speaker:so I apologize. He's an
Speaker:author, and he talks about
Speaker:homework being the second shift of a
Speaker:kid's school day. Because I
Speaker:didn't want to take that away.
Speaker:So, I followed him. And then, as I'm
Speaker:going on and with technology coming
Speaker:around so much that it has,
Speaker:I don't know who's doing the homework. I
Speaker:don't know who's doing
Speaker:it. Because I used to even
Speaker:tell the story to your parents that we
Speaker:did in class. But they
Speaker:would write it down or have
Speaker:something write it down, and they just
Speaker:read it. And they're not, I
Speaker:don't know who is doing the
Speaker:homework. I even had one class that was
Speaker:so smart. They came up with a homework
Speaker:pool. Kind of like a
Speaker:car pool. This week, student A would do
Speaker:the homework, and students
Speaker:B, C, D, and E would copy.
Speaker:The next week, student B would do the
Speaker:homework, and students A, C, D, and E
Speaker:would do the copying.
Speaker:Oh my gosh. And they rotated it that way.
Speaker:So, I don't know who's doing the
Speaker:homework. Is it Google?
Speaker:Is it another kid? Is it a friend or a
Speaker:parent? I don't know. So,
Speaker:when I have it in the classroom,
Speaker:I know who's doing it. And I can help
Speaker:them right there if
Speaker:they're on the struggle bus,
Speaker:and they're not understanding how to do
Speaker:it. Instead of getting a
Speaker:zero because they didn't do it,
Speaker:I can help them go through it. So, I
Speaker:don't do activities they
Speaker:have to do every day. But I'm
Speaker:like you, Kimberly. I give them time in
Speaker:class to do it. And if they
Speaker:are farting around, they're
Speaker:going to have to finish it at home.
Speaker:That's the thing. But I can be there to
Speaker:help them if they're
Speaker:struggling along the way to answer their
Speaker:questions. So, I like that approach to
Speaker:the homework. And I'm
Speaker:finding it a trend, not just in world
Speaker:language, but in most of the
Speaker:classes, even math, which I
Speaker:never thought I would hear this, they're
Speaker:not giving homework
Speaker:anymore. They're giving less. And I
Speaker:completely understand what you're saying,
Speaker:Pamela, about having that
Speaker:exposure. I don't disagree with
Speaker:that. But I'm going to be honest as well
Speaker:that majority of my kids,
Speaker:even my good kids, aren't
Speaker:going to do that all the time. And that
Speaker:may hurt their overall
Speaker:grade. So, I have enrichment, like
Speaker:you say, if you want to do it, I have
Speaker:activities you can do. But I
Speaker:am not going to put them in the
Speaker:office. They're only for your particular
Speaker:benefit. You want a suggestion
Speaker:on how to help with speaking?
Speaker:I can give you that. And you can work on
Speaker:it. I can give you
Speaker:activities to do. But I'm not going to
Speaker:assign that as work for you to do because
Speaker:then it's penalized if you
Speaker:don't do it. So, that's the
Speaker:kind of how I handle it. And I haven't
Speaker:noticed a drop in fluency,
Speaker:a drop in grades. I haven't
Speaker:noticed any negative components. But what
Speaker:I have noticed is positive
Speaker:is that they are getting a
Speaker:break from school. They're having
Speaker:whatever their hobbies, maybe sports.
Speaker:They're spending time with
Speaker:their families. And it's not putting like
Speaker:one parent put on when I
Speaker:said read the story to your
Speaker:parent. The parents sent me an email that
Speaker:said, "I am not doing my child's
Speaker:homework. Please not
Speaker:send this assignment home again." Oh,
Speaker:wow. Yeah. And then another, I'm like, "I
Speaker:guess you don't like
Speaker:your kid, right? It's like two minutes of
Speaker:your dang time." Or I had
Speaker:one parent who goes, "Thank
Speaker:you for this assignment because this is
Speaker:the only five minutes my daughter and I
Speaker:got to spend together
Speaker:today because we were so busy." So, you
Speaker:get both ends of it. But my
Speaker:thing that I get from it, what
Speaker:I never got when I assigned homework is
Speaker:the anecdotes where
Speaker:students go, "I was at such and
Speaker:such a place and this person didn't speak
Speaker:English and I was able to
Speaker:help them." Yeah, I love that.
Speaker:I love that. And so, I get more of that
Speaker:now that I don't assign the
Speaker:homework than I did when I did
Speaker:assign homework. Because now that it's
Speaker:spontaneous when it's coming out, they're
Speaker:working at McDonald's.
Speaker:They are working at the mall and it comes
Speaker:up. Or they're just at
Speaker:Taco Bell and someone is
Speaker:struggling with being able to communicate
Speaker:with something and they
Speaker:can help them. And so, those
Speaker:are the things that are very rewarding
Speaker:for me. And so, I tend to get more of
Speaker:those when I don't know
Speaker:why it is, but it's just my anecdotal
Speaker:data that I'm getting more
Speaker:of those since I haven't been
Speaker:giving the homework. And I think it might
Speaker:be because when the homework is assigned,
Speaker:they get a negative relationship with the
Speaker:language. And when they don't have it,
Speaker:then it's more positive. They're more
Speaker:willing to use it. Or if
Speaker:they're doing all this homework,
Speaker:"I'm not going to do it. I don't like
Speaker:this language. I'm not
Speaker:going to use it. I could
Speaker:help this person, but why I hate this
Speaker:language?" And I'm not
Speaker:saying that's happening with you,
Speaker:Pamela. You're only doing five minutes,
Speaker:which is fine. And game-based. Yeah.
Speaker:And game-based. So, it all differentiates
Speaker:out there. I am just a no
Speaker:homework person. And as I
Speaker:said, it hasn't helped or hurt my kids'
Speaker:grades one way or the
Speaker:other. I would say...
Speaker:I'm fascinated. I'm fascinated that you
Speaker:say you haven't seen a difference because
Speaker:10 years ago, I tried the no homework
Speaker:route. And at six months, I
Speaker:had a big class meeting like,
Speaker:"What has happened, guys?" And they were
Speaker:begging for homework. It was
Speaker:a disaster. And I was like,
Speaker:"Okay, I learned my lesson because
Speaker:Ebbinghaus is forgetting
Speaker:her." But I will tell you the two
Speaker:things that work for me. The onus is on
Speaker:me. I know if I'm not
Speaker:giving you homework, I really
Speaker:got to maximize my 90 minutes in input. I
Speaker:really got to work my
Speaker:butt off. We don't have any
Speaker:downtime. We're not taking a two-minute
Speaker:break. We got to do it. And
Speaker:I tell the kids, "You're not
Speaker:going to have homework as long as you do
Speaker:what I need you to do. If
Speaker:you don't do what I need you
Speaker:to do, we're going to have homework." So,
Speaker:it's also a disciplinary
Speaker:type issue. So, I use it as that
Speaker:too. And I just haven't had any negative
Speaker:from it. My kids' grades
Speaker:are just fine. They're right
Speaker:where they're supposed to be. And then
Speaker:Kimberly, you said, "I want
Speaker:to talk about this." And then
Speaker:we'll stop or let you guys talk if you
Speaker:need to say anything. For
Speaker:the vacations, because I'm in
Speaker:school, they go to Disneyland. The week
Speaker:we come back from winter
Speaker:break because the lines are
Speaker:shorter. Or I have people who are from...
Speaker:Usually it's my Indian
Speaker:students who take like three weeks
Speaker:to go to India in the middle of school
Speaker:year. And it's three weeks. It's like,
Speaker:heck, three weeks is
Speaker:a long time. What I do is I have senior
Speaker:woolly. I know French doesn't
Speaker:have much senior woolly, but
Speaker:senior woolly I use, I have a scarf and a
Speaker:hat. The actual ones. And I have extra
Speaker:ones. So, I give the
Speaker:kids one and they have to do like flat
Speaker:Stanley. They have to go. And
Speaker:every other day of their trip,
Speaker:so if they're gone five days, they got to
Speaker:do it Monday, Wednesday,
Speaker:Friday, three times. They have
Speaker:to take a picture with Billy or La Gora,
Speaker:the hat, whichever one I
Speaker:gave them, in their location.
Speaker:And they have to write one sentence in
Speaker:the target language about it.
Speaker:So, that's their work. Because
Speaker:in California, the way we get paid for
Speaker:students' attendance is on a
Speaker:daily basis. So, if they're
Speaker:absent a day, we don't get paid for them.
Speaker:Unless they do work
Speaker:during that day. So, we have to
Speaker:sign work. It's called independent study.
Speaker:And if they do the work,
Speaker:then we get paid for them. If
Speaker:they don't do the work, we don't get paid
Speaker:for them. And we lose a
Speaker:lot of money California wise.
Speaker:So, it costs us a lot of money. So, we
Speaker:have to give them work. And
Speaker:this is the work that I give
Speaker:them to do. And it's fun for them. They
Speaker:take a picture. They're
Speaker:going to Hawaii. They take Billy.
Speaker:They're on the beach next to Billy on the
Speaker:beach. And then they write
Speaker:Billy, Esta, and La Playa.
Speaker:Bingo. They got the credit for that day.
Speaker:And that's my idea of
Speaker:homework. Because a lot of times
Speaker:with the math teachers, they're assigning
Speaker:60 problems that are all
Speaker:the same thing. You don't
Speaker:need to do that. You can figure out if
Speaker:the students know it or
Speaker:not. You can give them practice
Speaker:with three problems. You don't need all
Speaker:that stuff. Yeah. And I
Speaker:will tell you. Yeah, I agree.
Speaker:I'm sorry. Just trying to make it
Speaker:shorter. And that's what we
Speaker:talk about. Just within my
Speaker:world language department, we have
Speaker:German, Spanish, and French, which is
Speaker:kind of typical for the
Speaker:Midwest. And it's a conversation between
Speaker:the different
Speaker:languages. Some teachers want to
Speaker:have those things that test the same
Speaker:thing or assess the same
Speaker:thing like 10 times in a row.
Speaker:And I'm very anti that. That's my
Speaker:colleague that I work. He
Speaker:wants to get it from like seven
Speaker:different angles. I'm like, you don't
Speaker:need that many. And I will
Speaker:say one piece of homework that
Speaker:came from COVID that I really did like.
Speaker:It was really easy. And I
Speaker:think it really did help my
Speaker:kids. And it helped me also learn their
Speaker:names and get a better
Speaker:feeling for their speaking
Speaker:was what was the app called? They got rid
Speaker:of the app. They could video set
Speaker:themselves on the app.
Speaker:Flipgrid. Flipgrid. Yes, I love Flipgrid.
Speaker:Microsoft killed it. I
Speaker:don't know why Microsoft
Speaker:killed it. I have no idea. I love
Speaker:Flipgrid. I don't
Speaker:understand why. So I told them,
Speaker:I give them a question to answer in the
Speaker:target language every
Speaker:day. So they could record it.
Speaker:They could do it at lunch. It didn't
Speaker:matter because it was
Speaker:just answering one question.
Speaker:And we had already answered it together
Speaker:in class. It was a question
Speaker:we already worked on in class.
Speaker:So it might have been how many sloths fit
Speaker:in your bedroom. You know,
Speaker:they're always fun like little
Speaker:questions. You don't have to record and
Speaker:answer them. And that was
Speaker:it. And so I could see their
Speaker:face. I learned their names better. And I
Speaker:had a better sense of
Speaker:where their speaking was when
Speaker:they did that. So that's one assignment I
Speaker:did a lot. I can do it on
Speaker:formative, but it's not the
Speaker:same way. But I like that. And I often do
Speaker:that as an exit ticket. Now,
Speaker:so I give them five minutes
Speaker:in the class and then they can do it. I
Speaker:want a video. I don't want
Speaker:just an audio recording. I
Speaker:want a video so I can see their face and
Speaker:see if they're reading
Speaker:from something or if they're
Speaker:doing it. And I like that one because it
Speaker:really does help me. It
Speaker:gets me a good sense of where
Speaker:speaking is without giving him a speaking
Speaker:quiz. So I like that one.
Speaker:The kids always, some kids
Speaker:liked it. Some kids hated it. I had one
Speaker:kid who did all kinds of fun
Speaker:things with it. He edited his
Speaker:video before I uploaded it to Flipgrid.
Speaker:You know, he would make
Speaker:himself disappear in the background
Speaker:and all of a sudden appear and talk to
Speaker:themselves or yeah. So they did really
Speaker:create. And that was
Speaker:not the requirement or even expectation.
Speaker:It was just give me one
Speaker:sentence in Spanish. That's all
Speaker:I'm asking for. But I had some kids who
Speaker:took it to the higher level and it was
Speaker:fun, but it was a good
Speaker:that that's one piece of homework that I
Speaker:find that was valuable.
Speaker:That really did help my kids
Speaker:the most. And it was the lead. It's like
Speaker:Pamela's where it's less
Speaker:than five minutes to do.
Speaker:And you literally could pull your phone
Speaker:out and do it as you're
Speaker:walking between classes.
Speaker:No. If you're allowed to have your phone
Speaker:out between classes.
Speaker:We are in the state of
Speaker:Michigan. You are not.
Speaker:California, they can't have them in
Speaker:class. We have to keep them
Speaker:as teachers. That's the rule.
Speaker:In school, but they can have, oh, I'm
Speaker:sorry. Take it back. It's only a ninth
Speaker:through 12 can have it
Speaker:during passing and lunch. Anybody lower
Speaker:cannot have the phone at
Speaker:all. But I mean, nine through
Speaker:12 can have it during lunch and passing.
Speaker:But we have to collect them in the
Speaker:beginning of the class.
Speaker:I wish we'd go to a no phone policy, but
Speaker:our governor. I wish to.
Speaker:We just went just beyond it, but he said
Speaker:we're going to review it.
Speaker:We're going to ask teachers in a couple
Speaker:of years, how is it going?
Speaker:And if it goes that it's not
Speaker:working, then they're going to ban the
Speaker:phones. And I told the kids that I go,
Speaker:you if you don't turn
Speaker:in your phones, we're going to report
Speaker:you're not turning in your
Speaker:phones like you're supposed to.
Speaker:And then you're going to end up like Los
Speaker:Angeles County, where Los Angeles County,
Speaker:there are no phones at school period.
Speaker:They don't allow them at
Speaker:all. So you do you want that to
Speaker:happen? If you don't want that to happen,
Speaker:you need to act responsibly
Speaker:and use the phones when you're
Speaker:allowed to use the phones and not
Speaker:otherwise. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know it's
Speaker:a state ban on cell phones
Speaker:in schools, especially in classrooms. And
Speaker:I don't know all the
Speaker:specifics, but like at our high school,
Speaker:they can have them at lunch. Like they
Speaker:can pull them out at lunch
Speaker:and do what they want at lunch,
Speaker:but you're not supposed to have it out
Speaker:passing time or you're not
Speaker:supposed to see it at all
Speaker:in the classrooms. Yeah, we're supposed
Speaker:to collect them in the
Speaker:classroom. I would hate that.
Speaker:Well, it's I don't collect them. What
Speaker:they do is we have a pouch with their
Speaker:numbers. And so I can
Speaker:see right away who didn't do it. Yes,
Speaker:there's a number on their desk and a
Speaker:number on the pouch.
Speaker:Yeah. And so I just go right on through
Speaker:and then they have to if
Speaker:they don't have their phone that
Speaker:day, we have a card they put in there
Speaker:that says I don't have my
Speaker:phone that day. But if I'm caught
Speaker:with my phone, I get more strict
Speaker:consequences because you're
Speaker:lying that you don't have your
Speaker:phone and you really do have your phone.
Speaker:So they have to put it in
Speaker:there or if it's charging
Speaker:somewhere, they can put the charging card
Speaker:in. Yeah. So it's not
Speaker:really something I have to
Speaker:kind of look over there. How I do it is I
Speaker:guess give extra points to
Speaker:the kids who turned them in.
Speaker:But then I noticed the ones who didn't
Speaker:turn them in or there's
Speaker:nothing in the pocket. And then I
Speaker:kind of watch them all class period and
Speaker:see if I see them bring out
Speaker:a phone because if it does,
Speaker:they get the double consequences. Yeah.
Speaker:It's not been a huge problem. It's not
Speaker:been a huge problem.
Speaker:That's good. So anyway, we have gone way
Speaker:over. We're at an hour and a half today.
Speaker:Always. Yes. I was trying to cut us off
Speaker:on time today, but it just didn't happen.
Speaker:So any last words before we go? Let me go
Speaker:back to. Well, since we're
Speaker:talking about curriculum night,
Speaker:a piece of advice I got my very, very
Speaker:first year teaching was when you're
Speaker:meeting with a parent,
Speaker:always have something for you and the
Speaker:parent to focus on. Okay. It does not
Speaker:have to be homework.
Speaker:It does not have to be the student
Speaker:schoolwork or anything. If you just have
Speaker:a page of your philosophy
Speaker:written out, this is what comprehensible
Speaker:input is. This is what ADI
Speaker:is, whatever you want to say,
Speaker:have it on the paper so that you can
Speaker:slide it over to the parents and you can
Speaker:direct their attention
Speaker:to it. It somehow that triangulation of
Speaker:you and the parents and
Speaker:the piece of paper makes any
Speaker:conversation that might be tense, less
Speaker:tense. That's good advice.
Speaker:Very good advice. Yeah. And I
Speaker:would also, oh, sorry. I would piggyback
Speaker:off of that too. Like if
Speaker:you think that you're going to
Speaker:have issues with your parents, make sure
Speaker:your admin are schooled
Speaker:also on how you're teaching.
Speaker:Right? Like you get your admin on your
Speaker:side or like our district,
Speaker:this is the district approved
Speaker:curriculum. So that's also a tool in your
Speaker:tool belt to remind the
Speaker:parent, this is just me doing
Speaker:new and different or that's not been
Speaker:vetted because that
Speaker:will help you as well.
Speaker:And just along the same route, because
Speaker:I'm about to have that
Speaker:current conference too, is
Speaker:CYA. Don't go into a conference alone. Go
Speaker:in with your administrator to
Speaker:back you up so that it's not
Speaker:a, he said, she said, we've got a third
Speaker:party in there. And I am
Speaker:lucky this year, my administrator
Speaker:is a world language teacher. Oh, wow.
Speaker:That helps. That helps. Rare. Along the
Speaker:way. It's very rare.
Speaker:The last time I had a world language
Speaker:teacher as an
Speaker:administrator, it did not go so well.
Speaker:She was French, no offense to the French,
Speaker:but she was very strict
Speaker:and she was not an ally. Oh,
Speaker:she was not an ally at all. I know she
Speaker:reigned me for explaining something
Speaker:because I used religion
Speaker:to explain it. I wasn't teaching
Speaker:religion. I wasn't trying to
Speaker:profess religion. It wasn't
Speaker:even my religion that I was talking
Speaker:about, but I was saying how
Speaker:Spanish, a lot of the grammar
Speaker:is based because of the Roman Catholic
Speaker:ideas at the time. That's
Speaker:why boys override the girls.
Speaker:And she goes, I have never heard of that.
Speaker:And you cannot mention
Speaker:religion one more time in your
Speaker:class, or I will write you up. She was
Speaker:just very, I'm like, I'm not preaching
Speaker:religion. I'm explaining
Speaker:origins of the language and how it came
Speaker:and why it is the way that
Speaker:it is because it was coming up
Speaker:the same time. Roman Catholicism was
Speaker:coming up. Right. A lot of
Speaker:stuff was based off that. So
Speaker:this is a good experience. I love my
Speaker:administrator. She is incredibly awesome.
Speaker:And she's even in the
Speaker:CI camp. So that even helps even more. So
Speaker:always go into a conference,
Speaker:even if the parent just wants
Speaker:to meet with you, get your administrator
Speaker:to come along so that you
Speaker:can see why a at all times,
Speaker:because you never know. It might seem
Speaker:like this is going to be a really good
Speaker:conference. It's not
Speaker:going to, nothing negative is going to
Speaker:come up. And then they bring
Speaker:something up that you came out
Speaker:of nowhere. So, okay. So start the
Speaker:conversation, start the
Speaker:conversation with how much you love
Speaker:their kid and end the conversation with
Speaker:how much you love their kid. Yeah,
Speaker:exactly. Always start
Speaker:the conversation with the
Speaker:sandwich approach. So that's episode 42,
Speaker:everybody. Thank you for spending your
Speaker:Sunday getting ready
Speaker:for the conference conversation. None of
Speaker:us actually enjoy having
Speaker:Kim. Thank you so much for
Speaker:joining us as a guest host. Thank you.
Speaker:You're welcome. 20 years in
Speaker:the classroom across a variety
Speaker:of districts means you've heard every
Speaker:version of, but where's the
Speaker:homework? And you brought that
Speaker:perspective to the table today. Now go
Speaker:enjoy some well-earned
Speaker:travel, a good podcast, and a walk
Speaker:with your dog. Thank you. Pamela, thank
Speaker:you always, especially for
Speaker:those parents who come in with a
Speaker:fight. That's the whole episode in one
Speaker:anecdote. So if you needed a better
Speaker:analog analogy, a script
Speaker:for where the homework moment, or just
Speaker:proof that other people have
Speaker:bombed this conversation too,
Speaker:you got it today. Subscribe, leave a
Speaker:review, and pass one along to
Speaker:the teacher in your department
Speaker:who has conferences this week and is
Speaker:already dreading it. They'll
Speaker:thank you, eventually. Catch
Speaker:us live on YouTube or find a replay
Speaker:wherever you get your
Speaker:podcasts, ditch the drills, trust the
Speaker:process, and I'll see you next time on
Speaker:Comprehend This. Bye-bye, everybody.
Speaker:Thanks for joining us,
Speaker:everyone. See you.
Speaker:[Music]
