Episode 45: "Calling in Sick Feels Like Betrayal"
Calling in sick to a comprehensible input classroom comes with a very specific kind of dread, and this episode of Comprehend THIS! is about naming it and actually solving it. Pamela and I are joined by guest host Lynne Hendrick to talk through what happens when a sub can't run the kind of instruction a CI classroom depends on, and how to build a sub plan that protects your momentum.
Lynne Hendrick is a high school German teacher in southeastern Virginia. She has worked in the public schools for 21 years and in education for 30 years. In her free time, Lynne enjoys reading, watching a good romcom, baking, and taking walks near the water.
Waking up sick usually means relief, but for a CI teacher it often means dread, because a substitute can't steer a story or run a real discussion the way the classroom needs. In this episode, we talk through the sub days that went completely sideways, what we learned to never hand off to a substitute, and the one type of activity that actually survives fine without us in the room.
We also get concrete about what a genuinely good sub day looks like now, how to prep students to hold a class together, and what we've had to accept about not being fully replaceable in our own classrooms. This one's for anyone who has ever gone to work sick because the alternative felt scarier than being sick.
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If you want a done-for-you way to keep instruction consistent, including on the days you can't be there, check out the CI Survival Kit - monthly, ready-to-teach materials built with real classrooms in mind: https://imim.us/kit
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comprehensible input, CI sub plans, substitute teacher plans, world language teacher, TPRS, language teacher podcast, teacher sick days, Spanish teacher, French teacher, German teacher, classroom management
Hosts:
Scott Benedict - https://www.instagram.com/immediateimmersion
Pamela Parks - https://imim.us/pamela
Lynne Hendrick - https://www.instagram.com/lmhgirls/
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Dynamic Discipline - https://imim.us/discipline
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Transcript
Good morning and happy, as my kids were
Speaker:saying all week, "Hollow weekend."
Speaker:So it's the last day of Hollow Weekend.
Speaker:I hope your kids are not on a sugar high.
Speaker:I already warned my kids.
Speaker:I told them on Friday, "Don't take candy
Speaker:from strangers and
Speaker:don't come into school high
Speaker:on Monday, a sugar high."
Speaker:So we'll see if they follow my
Speaker:instructions or not when they come back.
Speaker:But welcome, we are
Speaker:here at episode number 45.
Speaker:And tomorrow might be the day that you
Speaker:just want to call in
Speaker:sick because you don't want
Speaker:to deal with all that sugar.
Speaker:I know I'm thinking about it.
Speaker:So you wake up sick in a normal job.
Speaker:This is a relief.
Speaker:A day off.
Speaker:Guilt free.
Speaker:Maybe some soup.
Speaker:But in a CI classroom, this
Speaker:is a full body dread spiral.
Speaker:Because a sub cannot run a story, cannot
Speaker:steer a discussion, and
Speaker:watch a movie and fill out
Speaker:this worksheet isn't a lesson plan.
Speaker:It's a hostage negotiation
Speaker:with your own input flow.
Speaker:And even if you found a teacher that can
Speaker:speak your language, they
Speaker:still can't produce what
Speaker:you need them to produce
Speaker:and get your kids ready.
Speaker:So this week, Pam and I are joined by the
Speaker:wonderful, the
Speaker:amazing, Lynn Hendrick, a high
Speaker:school German teacher from southeastern
Speaker:Virginia with over 21
Speaker:years in public schools and 30
Speaker:years in education.
Speaker:That's a lot of sub plans
Speaker:written at 5 in the morning.
Speaker:Together we're getting into the very
Speaker:specific guilt of being
Speaker:out of a CI classroom, the
Speaker:sub days that went completely sideways,
Speaker:and how to actually
Speaker:build a plan that doesn't
Speaker:undo a month of momentum the second
Speaker:you're not in the room.
Speaker:We're talking about what actually goes
Speaker:through your head the
Speaker:moment you decide to call in,
Speaker:the activity that somehow survives
Speaker:without you, and what
Speaker:we've learned never to leave
Speaker:for a substitute no matter how tempting
Speaker:it looks at midnight.
Speaker:If you've ever gone to work sick because
Speaker:the alternative felt
Speaker:worse, this one's for you.
Speaker:We'll be right back
Speaker:after these short messages.
Speaker:"Love teaching but hate the part where
Speaker:you're the classroom bouncer?"
Speaker:Yeah, same.
Speaker:Enter dynamic discipline.
Speaker:No, it's not a boot camp for kids.
Speaker:It's a course for teachers who are tired
Speaker:of saying, "Stop looking the whiteboard
Speaker:for the 500th time."
Speaker:You'll get 10 on-demand lessons full of
Speaker:realistic
Speaker:relationship-based strategies that actually
Speaker:work without turning into the teacher who
Speaker:yells or gives up and plays Netflix.
Speaker:Watch them on your time, re-watch when
Speaker:you're having a week,
Speaker:and start handling behavior
Speaker:without losing your soul.
Speaker: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, just honest
Speaker:stories, practical ideas,
Speaker:and a reminder you're not
Speaker:alone in the CI trenches.
Speaker:Let's dive in.
Speaker:Okay, looks like we have
Speaker:some technical difficulties.
Speaker:That's for being live.
Speaker:The audio version will get the update
Speaker:with the right files all working.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:Everything just stopped.
Speaker:That's part of teaching though, right?
Speaker:That is.
Speaker:It has to be flexible.
Speaker:It cracks me up when we're in a staff
Speaker:meeting and there's some
Speaker:technical glitch and they
Speaker:spend 20 minutes fighting with the
Speaker:computer to get it right.
Speaker:I'm like, "If that happened to me in the
Speaker:classroom, it would be 10
Speaker:seconds," and then I'd be like,
Speaker:"Okay, we're pivoting to something else."
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:So today, welcome, Lyn.
Speaker:How have you been since
Speaker:our last time together?
Speaker:I'm hanging in there, doing well.
Speaker:Busy, busy year.
Speaker:Interesting children.
Speaker:I mean, what can you do?
Speaker:Yep, that is true.
Speaker:I've got some interesting characters
Speaker:myself and I am planning
Speaker:a multicultural class that
Speaker:has no curriculum, so that takes a lot of
Speaker:work out for me and I
Speaker:got to actually plan
Speaker:unit number four today.
Speaker:That's all my agenda today.
Speaker:That's a month worth of
Speaker:classes I got to plan for.
Speaker:I feel you.
Speaker:I feel you.
Speaker:I feel you.
Speaker:And I got the tiredness I
Speaker:can feel right behind my eyes.
Speaker:That extra hour of
Speaker:sleep that we got was a lie.
Speaker:Oh, no.
Speaker:Always is.
Speaker:I didn't get it.
Speaker:I didn't get it.
Speaker:I was awake.
Speaker:Oh, I got to put my grades in.
Speaker:Before we started, I was thanking Lyn for
Speaker:how she emboldened me
Speaker:because this year I've
Speaker:been trying to work with my special ed
Speaker:department for, "Hey, you
Speaker:can send students to me."
Speaker:And finally, finally, I've got some
Speaker:students who are very,
Speaker:very high in the special needs
Speaker:in my language
Speaker:classes and they're a blast.
Speaker:They're so much fun and
Speaker:the other kids love them too.
Speaker:And so it's thanks to Lyn that I felt
Speaker:emboldened to take this on.
Speaker:Yep, that is.
Speaker:That has been a great thing.
Speaker:And I do.
Speaker:I absolutely love special needs kids.
Speaker:When I first started teaching, I was part
Speaker:time so I would sub
Speaker:and my favorite classes
Speaker:of sub four were the special needs kids.
Speaker:And whenever they ask for a volunteer to
Speaker:help cover when we
Speaker:don't have a sub for special
Speaker:needs, I'm like, "I'll do it.
Speaker:I'll do it because I love those kids.
Speaker:Their enthusiasm for learning and life.
Speaker:They've got so many things against them
Speaker:and they don't complain about it."
Speaker:But then you get your averagely abled
Speaker:students in class and
Speaker:all they do is complain and
Speaker:they've got really
Speaker:nothing to complain about.
Speaker:I have one in my special needs class this
Speaker:semester who's
Speaker:stimming, like a little verbal
Speaker:stim just spins in my brain a lot because
Speaker:if he makes a mistake
Speaker:or he does something
Speaker:the wrong way, he
Speaker:just says, "That's okay.
Speaker:Try again.
Speaker:It's okay.
Speaker:I can do better."
Speaker:And I'm like, "Well, there you have it."
Speaker:Yeah, that is amazing.
Speaker:Every time I'm like, "Oh, his little
Speaker:voice is just in my head.
Speaker:That's okay.
Speaker:Try this."
Speaker:That is a great, great thing.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker:I know I have a kid who's not special
Speaker:needs and you talk
Speaker:about stimming and he can't
Speaker:get his hands still so he's constantly
Speaker:flipping his drink bottle.
Speaker:It's not a metal one.
Speaker:Oh, there's something with that.
Speaker:Yeah, he's just doing it
Speaker:and you're making a mess.
Speaker:He goes, "I haven't made a mess.
Speaker:The lid is on."
Speaker:The next thing he flips, it cracks open
Speaker:and there's a mess everywhere.
Speaker:So then he's ... Oh, he was playing with
Speaker:his pen and then on
Speaker:Friday his pen exploded and
Speaker:ink went everywhere.
Speaker:His shirt, his face,
Speaker:his hands, everywhere.
Speaker:I go, "That doesn't happen.
Speaker:You had to be doing
Speaker:something like this to do it.
Speaker:Inks don't just explode.
Speaker:They might leak but they don't explode."
Speaker:I hate those new fidgets that are squishy
Speaker:because when they break, they're nasty.
Speaker:Oh, my God.
Speaker:Yeah, the needles.
Speaker:I'm like, "You need a fidget."
Speaker:He goes, "I don't need a fidget.
Speaker:I never fidget in class."
Speaker:I'm like, "Really?"
Speaker:So then he started playing with his
Speaker:Chromebook and it fell
Speaker:and the screen cracked.
Speaker:Oh, no.
Speaker:That was expensive.
Speaker:I'm like, he goes, "It's good.
Speaker:We got insurance.
Speaker:It's only $30."
Speaker:Oh, my gosh.
Speaker:Well, he ... I'm not if I tell your
Speaker:parents why it broke.
Speaker:Yeah, it's funny.
Speaker:It's funny.
Speaker:Okay, so today we are
Speaker:talking about calling in sick.
Speaker:Today, you guys are
Speaker:talking me down off the ledge.
Speaker:I know that Scott wrote this one just for
Speaker:me because I will not take a sick day.
Speaker:Neither will I.
Speaker:It is harder to write sub plans than it
Speaker:is to wheel myself to
Speaker:school in a wheelchair,
Speaker:which I did four years ago.
Speaker:So I'm looking forward to
Speaker:this but I'm not the expert.
Speaker:No, I'll tell you.
Speaker:I'm the same way.
Speaker:It is more work to actually go out than
Speaker:it is just to drag
Speaker:your butt in because when
Speaker:you're miserable, you
Speaker:got to write lesson plans.
Speaker:Then you've got to make lesson plans that
Speaker:actually will be
Speaker:productive and that a teacher
Speaker:who only is going to watch the bell can
Speaker:do because they're just babysitting.
Speaker:And then you've got to
Speaker:grade those things afterward.
Speaker:Otherwise, if you
Speaker:don't, you will not do it.
Speaker:If you don't grade it, they're going to
Speaker:go, "Oh, so next time
Speaker:he's got a sub, we don't
Speaker:have to really do it because it's not
Speaker:going to go in the grade book."
Speaker:So there's all of that.
Speaker:And I'll tell you, when I had COVID and I
Speaker:literally died and I
Speaker:came back, I had COVID
Speaker:Christmas morning of 2021.
Speaker:Merry Christmas.
Speaker:It was 2020.
Speaker:It was 2020.
Speaker:I got COVID that morning and
Speaker:I had to go to the hospital.
Speaker:And I was out for two months.
Speaker:And that first week back when we came
Speaker:back from break and I was
Speaker:still in my bed at home,
Speaker:I had no energy.
Speaker:I was still recovering from COVID.
Speaker:I mean, really badly.
Speaker:I was at auction for two months.
Speaker:But I still was in that deep part of
Speaker:COVID and getting up and
Speaker:making a lesson plan took
Speaker:every ounce.
Speaker:I mean, I had to go, "Should I go to the
Speaker:bathroom or make my lesson plan?"
Speaker:Because I could not do both in a day
Speaker:because the energy was so gone.
Speaker:The bathroom isn't your office.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:And I remember the days when I had other
Speaker:jobs where you
Speaker:punched in, you punched out.
Speaker:When you punched out, you
Speaker:didn't think about work anymore.
Speaker:And if you called in sick,
Speaker:someone else covered for you.
Speaker:You didn't have to worry about it.
Speaker:And it was actually a true sick day.
Speaker:As a teacher, that is not, and I avoid
Speaker:sick days like the plague.
Speaker:If the doctor does not give me a doctor's
Speaker:note to stay out, in
Speaker:other words, orders me
Speaker:to stay out, I go in.
Speaker:Unless I'm contagious.
Speaker:If I know I'm contagious, I'm not going
Speaker:to go in, that type of thing.
Speaker:But I have only taken long term.
Speaker:One was for the neuro
Speaker:virus and one was for COVID.
Speaker:Other than that, I
Speaker:have shown up with colds.
Speaker:I haven't had the flu in a long time.
Speaker:So yeah, I do not go.
Speaker:That's what better not come over there.
Speaker:Can I just say, as a linguist, I love
Speaker:that you said, "I avoid
Speaker:sick days like the plague."
Speaker:Oh, thank you.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:No pun intended.
Speaker:I have to tell you guys though, I'm a
Speaker:little bit different in
Speaker:how I look at my sick days
Speaker:because I've had friends who have retired
Speaker:with like over 306 sick days.
Speaker:And I was like, "That is so silly because
Speaker:my school district will
Speaker:pay us for 60 sick days."
Speaker:And that's it.
Speaker:Some school districts will pay you
Speaker:unlimited at a reduced rate.
Speaker:Some will give you like a year of
Speaker:insurance in exchange for a certain
Speaker:number of sick days.
Speaker:But my school district is 60 days.
Speaker:That's it.
Speaker:So my plan is to not retire
Speaker:with more than 75 sick days.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And sometimes you just need a mental
Speaker:health day and that's okay.
Speaker:And some days you do have a really bad
Speaker:cold and you need to stay home.
Speaker:And I think that's one thing that like
Speaker:the COVID era actually taught me was,
Speaker:"Take the dang sick day if you need it."
Speaker:You know, I had to have a hernia repair
Speaker:that was an emergency hernia repair
Speaker:at the start of a new semester, at the
Speaker:start of new courses.
Speaker:And I had to figure out what to do with
Speaker:these kids for three weeks.
Speaker:And so, you know, I figured it out.
Speaker:But I will take a sick day and I have
Speaker:some go-to things that I use
Speaker:knowing that most of my kids, even though
Speaker:I do grade their sub
Speaker:work, aren't going to do it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They just aren't going to do it.
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:Even though I grade it, a
Speaker:lot of times it sits undone.
Speaker:So those are the days that I like turn to
Speaker:some computer things.
Speaker:Those are the days that I turn to using
Speaker:their free voluntary
Speaker:reading as an activity base.
Speaker:Because I'm going to take
Speaker:a sick day here and there.
Speaker:You know, when my daughter graduates from
Speaker:college in May, I'm going
Speaker:to be there for everything.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Every last event I will be
Speaker:there and I will not care.
Speaker:For me, it's even harder now that I'm
Speaker:teaching on an A-B schedule because if I
Speaker:take an A day off, then...
Speaker:Oh, that throws you off.
Speaker:It throws everything off.
Speaker:And I know next year when there are even
Speaker:arguing, they go,
Speaker:there's an odd number of days.
Speaker:So the second semester not only starts on
Speaker:an odd day, but it
Speaker:ends on an odd day too.
Speaker:So you got an extra day there and they're
Speaker:like, what do you want
Speaker:us to do with that day?
Speaker:We're like, I'm like, it's a free day.
Speaker:It's going to be at the
Speaker:end of the school year.
Speaker:It is a movie day.
Speaker:But I understand what you're saying about
Speaker:saving up your sick days, or not saving
Speaker:up too many for the retirement.
Speaker:But that retirement year where I really
Speaker:probably won't give a care anymore, I
Speaker:will be taking, you know,
Speaker:mental health weeks off.
Speaker:Well, you're absolutely right that COVID
Speaker:taught us that sometimes you're not going
Speaker:to be able to follow the lesson plans.
Speaker:Sometimes, you know, like the school
Speaker:shutting down and sending the kids home,
Speaker:you know, it was like, okay, sometimes we
Speaker:got to let go of things.
Speaker:And when you're sick, stay home because
Speaker:that's for the good of society.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:So yeah, you're absolutely right about
Speaker:the lessons that COVID taught us.
Speaker:Yeah, and I've always been of the thought
Speaker:that if you're contagious, whether you're
Speaker:a kid or you're the adult, don't come to
Speaker:school, you know, for
Speaker:the good of society.
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah. It's one thing
Speaker:to have a cold and come on in.
Speaker:But if you've got a flu, which can be
Speaker:much more serious, or you've got COVID or
Speaker:you've got something else that's
Speaker:contagious, you know,
Speaker:I've never had chicken pox.
Speaker:So whenever a kid gets chicken pox, my
Speaker:mom tried. She stuck me and my sister
Speaker:together, trying me to
Speaker:get cut. I never got it.
Speaker:We didn't like each other as children. So
Speaker:we stayed as far apart as possible.
Speaker:But I've never got it. So when they do
Speaker:the chicken pox, they have to alert me
Speaker:because as an adult, I don't
Speaker:know if it's the same for women.
Speaker:But for men, it's really serious. It can
Speaker:have lots of serious implications for men
Speaker:who've never had it.
Speaker:So I've never had it.
Speaker:These guys, James and
Speaker:Rebecca, are the same.
Speaker:So, you know, I've got all the
Speaker:vaccinations for that. But when I was a
Speaker:kid, there was no such thing
Speaker:as a chicken pox vaccination.
Speaker:Right. It didn't exist.
Speaker:The vaccination was get it from your
Speaker:sibling. You know, they really tried.
Speaker:Or the chicken pox party that your mom
Speaker:took you to. Chicken pox parties.
Speaker:So, you know, those kinds of things,
Speaker:those should stay home. You've got a
Speaker:fever. Stay home. Those ones.
Speaker:But for those days where I've got a
Speaker:headache, it's really where I get a
Speaker:headache, you know, I just tough it out
Speaker:because it's number one, it's really hard
Speaker:in our area to find subs.
Speaker:Number two, finding a sub that actually
Speaker:can teach what you teach
Speaker:is a whole nother thing.
Speaker:And I have very incompetent, no offense
Speaker:to the competent ones. But my experience,
Speaker:I've had quite a few incompetent subs
Speaker:where like one sub leads my lesson plan
Speaker:goes, we're not doing this.
Speaker:And I'm like, when the kids come back,
Speaker:they say, they go, we weren't, we didn't
Speaker:do that. Why? He goes, he
Speaker:said we weren't doing this.
Speaker:I'm like, you have a test coming up in
Speaker:three days. This was in preparation for
Speaker:that. I was expecting you to do this.
Speaker:That's just all I was
Speaker:responsible. Thank you.
Speaker:I'm like a lot of subs sit on their phone
Speaker:worse than the kids do the whole time.
Speaker:I know. Oh, my God.
Speaker:I've had subs fall asleep.
Speaker:Yep. Oh, my God. I was like first time
Speaker:ever like last year. No, it was it last
Speaker:year. Yeah, it was last
Speaker:year for the first time ever.
Speaker:I walked down to the office and I
Speaker:complained about a sub in my colleague's
Speaker:room because I always go when I when
Speaker:there's a sub in my
Speaker:colleague's room, I'll go.
Speaker:I'll say, hi, I'm your next door
Speaker:neighbor. If you need anything, come talk
Speaker:to me. And I came to talk to him and he
Speaker:was wearing his earbuds.
Speaker:And this was like in the middle of like I
Speaker:saw him later in the day and he was
Speaker:wearing his earbuds in the middle of
Speaker:class when I went to go talk to him.
Speaker:And I was like, oh, my God, that's that's
Speaker:irresponsible. You can't hear what kids
Speaker:are doing. You got your earbuds in.
Speaker:So I went down and I said, we cannot hire
Speaker:this guy ever again. And they said, we're
Speaker:having a substitute shortage. We're going
Speaker:to take whoever signs up.
Speaker:So there's so few subs in my school
Speaker:district that they now pay teachers fifty
Speaker:dollars for every planning block that you
Speaker:get out of that substitute.
Speaker:And so like my old school, we got paid
Speaker:one hundred and fifty dollars. Wow. Are
Speaker:you serious? I'm going to I'm going to go
Speaker:sub at your old
Speaker:school during my planning.
Speaker:That was that was we were on block. So it
Speaker:was one hundred fifty dollars for a block
Speaker:period. This school district, I don't
Speaker:even know how much they paid something
Speaker:like thirty or forty dollars.
Speaker:My old school before that was twenty
Speaker:dollars in after tax. It was nine. Yeah.
Speaker:And you're like, I'm not
Speaker:doing nothing for nine.
Speaker:My school district is fifty dollars for
Speaker:teachers for their planning
Speaker:block, which is ninety minutes.
Speaker:Full day subs don't even make one hundred
Speaker:and fifty dollars in southeastern
Speaker:Virginia. That's true. That's true.
Speaker:Because they get paid twenty five a day.
Speaker:Oh, they get paid twenty two hundred. The
Speaker:average out here is two hundred for a
Speaker:short term sub and three hundred a day
Speaker:for a long term sub.
Speaker:But we're in California. Two of the
Speaker:expenses are different.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly. I will say I love.
Speaker:Yeah, go ahead. So I was going to say I
Speaker:said probably two days a week during my
Speaker:planning block just because like who else
Speaker:is going to do it right.
Speaker:And if you're going to pay me an extra
Speaker:hundred bucks a week to sub two days a
Speaker:week. OK, I'll do that. I've
Speaker:got a kid in college that helps.
Speaker:But yeah, I mean, the the sub plans that
Speaker:I see that teachers
Speaker:leave are sometimes horrible.
Speaker:Yeah. And I think with with the LMS is
Speaker:that we're using that's more or less what
Speaker:I do is if I know I'm going to be out, I
Speaker:go through it with the students.
Speaker:I show them exactly where it is.
Speaker:Everything they need is online. And if
Speaker:it's not online, I show them where it is
Speaker:in the classroom so they can be self
Speaker:sufficient no matter who's in the room.
Speaker:And I'll talk about that. My thing I was
Speaker:going to say, but you just said something
Speaker:about I right now have not volunteered to
Speaker:do any sub days at this school because
Speaker:I'm still behind the eight ball trying to
Speaker:figure out everything.
Speaker:You know, the new schedule and how
Speaker:everything works. And I really can't
Speaker:afford to give up one of those days.
Speaker:Plus, a lot of mine are being
Speaker:taken away for it with IEPs.
Speaker:They schedule them all during my prep.
Speaker:And I'm like, am I the only person it's
Speaker:my own. It's only my only.
Speaker:If it's not before school or after
Speaker:school, which is why I think they should
Speaker:be, they should not be during the school.
Speaker:But they do do them during the prep and
Speaker:they take up an hour because now the
Speaker:state of California is required.
Speaker:Usually a gen ed teacher only had to be
Speaker:there for their part
Speaker:and then they could leave.
Speaker:But now they have to be there for the
Speaker:beginning, middle and end of the IEP. And
Speaker:if they go in 90 minutes, you've got to
Speaker:be there for the full 90 minutes.
Speaker:Even if you've never even had the kid,
Speaker:they're a special kid who's never ever is
Speaker:in regular classroom, but you still have
Speaker:to have a general ed in
Speaker:there to comply with the law.
Speaker:You still have to be there for the full
Speaker:90 minutes. And so I'm like, you know,
Speaker:can you pick somebody else because I
Speaker:can't keep giving up all my prep time
Speaker:because I'm also giving up before school
Speaker:and after school because I've got a lot
Speaker:of IEPs this year or just regular kids
Speaker:who are on parent
Speaker:conferences and stuff like that.
Speaker:So I haven't given them up, but the extra
Speaker:money can come in handy,
Speaker:like you said, comes in handy.
Speaker:Well, I didn't sub last week because they
Speaker:took Tuesday and Wednesday
Speaker:for the state mandated testing.
Speaker:Oh, so when I got the phone call as I'm
Speaker:eating breakfast on Monday
Speaker:morning, can you sub today?
Speaker:I said, yeah, no, I can't. Not until
Speaker:Friday because I have to give up Tuesday
Speaker:and Wednesday for testing and I cannot go
Speaker:until Thursday with no planning.
Speaker:Yeah, no, it's real. And I would say if
Speaker:I'm invited to an IEP, that's during my
Speaker:planning block, I have to go.
Speaker:But if I'm invited to an IEP meeting,
Speaker:that's not during my planning block,
Speaker:that's during my teaching time.
Speaker:I know for finding somebody to cover my
Speaker:classroom while I go to set IEP meeting.
Speaker:Oh, I refuse in the classroom.
Speaker:Because, yeah, you should you should be
Speaker:there, which means they should have it
Speaker:before school or after school.
Speaker:Yeah. If it's during my teaching period,
Speaker:I always say, sorry, no, nobody can do
Speaker:what I do in my classroom.
Speaker:And my classroom is not open textbook 13
Speaker:and work on pages 13
Speaker:through 20. I am interactive.
Speaker:And that not only throws off, you know,
Speaker:me, but those kids are often that class
Speaker:is off because no one can do
Speaker:what I do in the classroom.
Speaker:I'm not saying I'm special or anything.
Speaker:I'm just saying that it's
Speaker:an interactive classroom.
Speaker:And whoever you put in there is not going
Speaker:to be a Spanish teacher. And even if they
Speaker:are, everybody else in my at my school
Speaker:and teaches Spanish
Speaker:teaches from the textbook.
Speaker:And my kids do not get the textbook. So
Speaker:it's not going to happen. So I say no.
Speaker:Sorry. But no, you've got seven other
Speaker:teachers that you can pull in.
Speaker:Yeah. I will say for subbing during my
Speaker:planning period, I love to do that
Speaker:because I am out in a portable and I
Speaker:don't know what's going on
Speaker:in the rest of the school.
Speaker:And so if I get to sub for one of my
Speaker:colleagues, I kind of see how they're
Speaker:teaching. I see how they're writing their
Speaker:lesson plans. Right.
Speaker:And it gives me ideas and it gets me out
Speaker:of my bubble. So I do enjoy doing that.
Speaker:And I also came up as a substitute.
Speaker:So I will tell you, there are good
Speaker:substitutes out there. There are. And
Speaker:I'll say, you brought me up.
Speaker:She's listening. There are good
Speaker:substitutes out there. But you said even
Speaker:if they're a Spanish teacher. So when I
Speaker:broke my leg, they found a 21 year old
Speaker:who speaks Spanish and they
Speaker:said, good, she speaks Spanish.
Speaker:She can sub just because you can speak
Speaker:the target language does not mean you
Speaker:know how to teach. OK. Ignoring my French
Speaker:and my Japanese classes, which she was
Speaker:just like, you couldn't handle it all.
Speaker:Spanish class just because she can speak.
Speaker:I mean, there's so much that goes with
Speaker:teaching. There is a puzzle
Speaker:solving that you have to learn.
Speaker:She just didn't know it. And so suddenly
Speaker:my classroom went all my classrooms, they
Speaker:went Lord of the Flies when
Speaker:I was out with the broken.
Speaker:And I will talk about that later. But
Speaker:like it was oh, my God. OK, so it was
Speaker:terrible because I had students sending
Speaker:me pictures and I'm like, OK, first of
Speaker:all, why do you have your cell phone out?
Speaker:Oh, because she doesn't put herself on
Speaker:the way because she doesn't know how to
Speaker:do that. She doesn't know how to tell the
Speaker:kids, put your cell phones away.
Speaker:So they're sending me pictures and are we
Speaker:safe on YouTube if I say this? OK, they
Speaker:the students were drawing penises on my
Speaker:desks and I have never had that before.
Speaker:15 years at the time teaching, I have
Speaker:never had penises drawn on my desks until
Speaker:I wasn't in the classroom.
Speaker:And so I was like, OK, I don't care. I
Speaker:know the doctor said I can't be on my
Speaker:foot for three months. Too bad.
Speaker:I'm wheeling myself down to school in a
Speaker:wheelchair because this is
Speaker:ridiculous. So that's my story.
Speaker:And I'll say that when I was a sub,
Speaker:because there are good subs out there,
Speaker:but I was like Felix
Speaker:the cat with my magic bag.
Speaker:So I prepared. I prepared for teachers
Speaker:not having sub plans because I can't tell
Speaker:you how many times I've walked in and I'm
Speaker:like, where's the sub plan?
Speaker:The second goes, they didn't make one.
Speaker:I'm like, that is part of your job. And
Speaker:we were always required to have three
Speaker:days of emergency sub plans
Speaker:that we gave the secretary.
Speaker:So if there were no sub plans, they'd say
Speaker:use day one of my emergency
Speaker:sub plans and we had something.
Speaker:But I as a sub, I went in many times and
Speaker:they had nothing. So I had activities,
Speaker:games and things that we could do to make
Speaker:the time a little bit more productive and
Speaker:not just a study hall.
Speaker:Type of a situation. Definitely.
Speaker:Yep. And I'll tell you, because I told
Speaker:you that teacher when when that one
Speaker:teacher told me or the kids told me that
Speaker:that one sub said, oh,
Speaker:we're not doing this sub plan.
Speaker:That's when I said, guess what? I am no
Speaker:longer giving my subs sub plans.
Speaker:I don't do it. I give them the procedures
Speaker:like how they go to the bathroom, who my
Speaker:special needs kids are, who are my kids?
Speaker:You've got to watch out for the bell
Speaker:schedule, any health issues, the stuff
Speaker:they need to manage the classroom.
Speaker:But I give the sub plans directly to the
Speaker:children. So I use formative. So I'll
Speaker:make a multi step formative assignment
Speaker:and it has the
Speaker:instructions and it says, do this.
Speaker:Here's the first thing. Then do this. And
Speaker:it's got the activities all embedded in
Speaker:there. So the kids know.
Speaker:I go if I'm on a thing, I've already
Speaker:assigned it. So it shows up in their
Speaker:formative so they can see it. But I say
Speaker:whenever I'm not there, the first thing
Speaker:you should do is go straight to formative
Speaker:and find the one that
Speaker:says sub plans for that date.
Speaker:And it'll be there. It'll be there
Speaker:anyways, because I've already assigned
Speaker:it. It'll be at the top of their screen.
Speaker:But just in case I let
Speaker:them know that is a procedure.
Speaker:What do I do if you're not here or if I'm
Speaker:late to a class or something like that?
Speaker:Because they pulled me into an IEP
Speaker:meeting and they said it could run over.
Speaker:So that, you know, I have stuff there for
Speaker:you to do right away. So always go to
Speaker:formative and follow through. And guess
Speaker:what? After that, I've had no problems.
Speaker:I get, what did you do with these kids? I
Speaker:just had to show up and open the door and
Speaker:then kick them out when the bell rang.
Speaker:They were fine. What were they doing?
Speaker:I'm like, I gave them activities to do.
Speaker:And they're like some of the best classes
Speaker:because they know what to do and they're
Speaker:not the sub is not writing the
Speaker:instructions on the board.
Speaker:And the kids are like, well, the sub
Speaker:didn't tell us that. It's not. Follow it.
Speaker:I gave you all the instructions. So
Speaker:there's nothing that
Speaker:you have to think about.
Speaker:I have found that works really, really
Speaker:well. So to use your LMS, because I know
Speaker:Lynn talked about her LMS, that putting
Speaker:it in the LMS, making it one assignment
Speaker:so they don't have to go to different
Speaker:places on the LMS, one giant assignment.
Speaker:And I say, I know it's 90 minutes. I plan
Speaker:two hours worth of activities. Do I think
Speaker:you're going to finish them? No, I don't.
Speaker:But you better get through more than half
Speaker:of them because otherwise I
Speaker:know you're wasting your time.
Speaker:And what I do is I don't tell them this,
Speaker:but I look at where my top kid got to and
Speaker:where my lowest kid got to. And I pick
Speaker:somewhere in the middle where my
Speaker:expectation is that the
Speaker:average kid should get to.
Speaker:OK. That's what I look at. So it might be
Speaker:different for different classes because
Speaker:maybe I didn't know period two had a fire
Speaker:drill that came up all of a sudden, you
Speaker:know, an accidental fire drill or
Speaker:something like that.
Speaker:I look at each class and go, OK, period
Speaker:two got this far. So most kids got this
Speaker:far. So that's going to be
Speaker:the getting the full credit.
Speaker:And I rely a lot. And I know for German,
Speaker:you can't. In French, you can't. In
Speaker:Japanese, you can't. We are lucky in
Speaker:Spanish to have senior woolly though. Oh,
Speaker:my gosh. Funny story
Speaker:for the for the week.
Speaker:My kid, I don't know if she was playing
Speaker:us or she really didn't know, but she's
Speaker:like, can we please see Mr. Willie? I
Speaker:want to see Mr. Willie.
Speaker:All the kids are looking at her like, you
Speaker:know what that is, right? And I go, you
Speaker:mean, say you're a woolly?
Speaker:She goes, yeah, Mr. Willie.
Speaker:But she had she said she had no clue what
Speaker:the other thing was referencing to. But
Speaker:she didn't have like a
Speaker:Chicago accent or anything.
Speaker:The the whole class was like looking at
Speaker:her. Stop saying that out loud. OK, OK, I
Speaker:got one for you. For six months, I had
Speaker:written on the board like we
Speaker:had to work out of a workbook.
Speaker:This was a really bad this which you
Speaker:know, right? Yeah. So I would write on
Speaker:the board practice
Speaker:workbook, pa, Hina Cinco, whatever.
Speaker:OK. And after about six months, this girl
Speaker:and I'm always talking and saying it and
Speaker:everything that but this girl raises her
Speaker:hand and she goes, I keep
Speaker:forgetting what is pajina.
Speaker:Oh, that is so. That one. Yeah, I'm not
Speaker:sure that is that is funny. We had at
Speaker:lunch when I told him about the story
Speaker:about Mr. Willie when the other Spanish
Speaker:he goes, well, I was
Speaker:trying to teach weather.
Speaker:So I was drawing a thermometer on the
Speaker:board. And then when I start, he goes
Speaker:when I start getting halfway through, I'm
Speaker:like, oh, no, change of thought. And he
Speaker:raised it really quick.
Speaker:I'm like, yeah, thermometers. No, no, no
Speaker:thermometers, no rockets. And for me, I'm
Speaker:not allowed to draw the United States
Speaker:because when I drew the United States,
Speaker:all the kids thought Florida was
Speaker:something that it wasn't supposed to be.
Speaker:So so I'm not allowed to draw the United
Speaker:States either. I can draw states and
Speaker:countries that don't have
Speaker:any dangling appendages.
Speaker:So Spain is OK. You know, Mexico is OK.
Speaker:But, you know, when you start getting
Speaker:into Florida, New
Speaker:England, you know, you get some.
Speaker:Yeah. My kids, their creative thoughts.
Speaker:So what are you saying? You're willing.
Speaker:I'm for German. Using the Deutsche Welle
Speaker:learn German
Speaker:resources is a great sub plan.
Speaker:They kind of need a little bit of
Speaker:pre-exposure to it, but there's these
Speaker:video courses that, you know, there's a
Speaker:short video that they watch that has a
Speaker:short story and then there's online
Speaker:activities and there, you
Speaker:know, they're a little bit more.
Speaker:More traditional versus CI based, but it
Speaker:all revolves around a story and they can
Speaker:go back and listen to that video and
Speaker:watch the video over and over again.
Speaker:And it, you know, it does a good job of
Speaker:kind of parsing out
Speaker:language and culture and things.
Speaker:It's not necessarily asking them to
Speaker:perform grammatical functions. You know,
Speaker:there's there's things that are asking
Speaker:them to use grammar, but not necessarily
Speaker:understand the grammatical rules.
Speaker:There's always vocab that they can access
Speaker:if they need help. So for longer term
Speaker:absences, if you're a German teacher, and
Speaker:relying on some of those video courses is
Speaker:nice because everything is pre-made.
Speaker:And everything is self-correcting. And
Speaker:like I told, that's what I used with my
Speaker:German three class when I was out for my
Speaker:surgery and I told them, I was like,
Speaker:look, if, you know, if you do a section
Speaker:and you're not happy with the score,
Speaker:redo it. Yeah, feel free to go back and
Speaker:redo that section and get
Speaker:the score that you want.
Speaker:Yep. Yeah. And so get more exposure to
Speaker:the language. Why am I going to be mad
Speaker:about that? Yeah. I always say do it as
Speaker:many times as you want until
Speaker:you have the grade you want.
Speaker:And the only thing with those and I'm not
Speaker:familiar with Deutsche Welle. I'm not
Speaker:because I don't teach German. I wish I
Speaker:did, but I can't, you know, they have
Speaker:fine German on the West Coast.
Speaker:But is the least they have when the
Speaker:textbooks when they have those, they say
Speaker:they're for level one. But when you look
Speaker:at it like, oh, this is a level three,
Speaker:you know, this is not a level one to be
Speaker:able to understand and do.
Speaker:So I do something similar, though. I look
Speaker:online and I find, you know, there's easy
Speaker:German, easy Spanish, easy French.
Speaker:I don't know if there's an easy Japanese
Speaker:one, but it's a group of YouTube
Speaker:channels. They're all the similar and
Speaker:they make them and they
Speaker:have different topics.
Speaker:So if you have to teach themes, you can
Speaker:find them. Yeah, I'll do that. Or for
Speaker:French, you got a Lisa, that you can find
Speaker:stories for that. She does on YouTube or
Speaker:Spanish. I use dreaming
Speaker:Spanish and I can find them.
Speaker:And so here's the key because it's four
Speaker:in the morning and you're throwing up. So
Speaker:I take the video link, I go into chat
Speaker:GPT, I put the video link in and I say,
Speaker:please make 20 comprehensive questions in
Speaker:English, multiple choice for this video.
Speaker:Bingo. Couple seconds later, I've got it.
Speaker:Then I say, please make this into an
Speaker:attractive worksheet in a Google Doc and
Speaker:bingo in a couple of minutes. I've got a
Speaker:complete worksheet. I just sent it to the
Speaker:secretary. Can you please
Speaker:run off 200 copies of this?
Speaker:And it's done. So when you've got
Speaker:something like Deutsche Vela, which works
Speaker:and has all it made, that's awesome. If
Speaker:you don't have that, you can go to
Speaker:YouTube to find some of those because I
Speaker:said the textbook ones are OK if you got
Speaker:them because we've got them in our
Speaker:textbook, which is both is.
Speaker:But they're a little harder and they need
Speaker:more scaffolding and they need more
Speaker:teacher support, so it's not good for the
Speaker:sub. But I can go to dreaming Spanish or
Speaker:easy Spanish or easy French or easy
Speaker:German and find something. And those are
Speaker:scaffolded really, really well.
Speaker:Dreaming Spanish was created with CI in
Speaker:mind, so that one is better. Alisa Yael,
Speaker:same thing with CI in mind. But easy
Speaker:German, easy Spanish, easy French aren't
Speaker:really coming from that CI standpoint.
Speaker:They're not talking slow. They're not
Speaker:trying to make themselves comprehensible,
Speaker:but they do put highlights up of stuff
Speaker:that they're saying.
Speaker:They do have gloss stuff in there, so it
Speaker:can be something in a pinch to do and
Speaker:then use AI to help you make the
Speaker:questions so you don't have to do that
Speaker:when you're sick. And for me, I said I
Speaker:use formative.com for everything. I love
Speaker:it, even though it was bought up by Newsy
Speaker:LA and they just up the price by one
Speaker:hundred dollars a year.
Speaker:That's right. So it used to be cost me
Speaker:one hundred and forty dollars a year. Now
Speaker:it's two hundred and forty dollars a
Speaker:year. But it is worth it for me for all
Speaker:the time. It saves and all the activities
Speaker:I can do it. And it's got AI in it. So if
Speaker:I have a Google Doc with questions, all I
Speaker:have to do is upload that doc and it will
Speaker:turn it into a formative automatically.
Speaker:So it'll make all the mult choice
Speaker:questions. It'll pick the right answer if
Speaker:you've got an answer key there. So all
Speaker:you did is upload it, say please turn
Speaker:this into a formative. Bingo. Done. Put
Speaker:the link of the video in there so they
Speaker:can watch the video. And my lesson plan
Speaker:is done for that period or whatever that
Speaker:class is. And if it's an hour and a half,
Speaker:I probably have to do two or three videos
Speaker:on there that I expect them to do. So
Speaker:I'll actually do five videos. And once
Speaker:you do it, you save it. So informative,
Speaker:I'll do five videos.
Speaker:So informative, I have a place called
Speaker:Spanish one sub plans and I have all
Speaker:those videos in there. So when I'm
Speaker:creating new ones, I've got a bank that I
Speaker:can just go to and assign. So it makes it
Speaker:it makes it really nice. But using the
Speaker:videos is a great way to do sub plans
Speaker:that all the sub has to do is point them
Speaker:in the right direction.
Speaker:All right, I'm going to combine what you
Speaker:and Lynn just said, okay, go ahead. Lynn
Speaker:said something crucial. She said, um,
Speaker:they're self grading. Okay. Now that self
Speaker:grading is important because we know that
Speaker:quick targeted feedbacks is a really high
Speaker:Hadi effect size, right? It's like point
Speaker:eight or something, right? If you can get
Speaker:the students that quick targeted
Speaker:feedback. And that's part of why I don't
Speaker:like being absent is because suddenly my
Speaker:students aren't getting any
Speaker:feedback for the day, right?
Speaker:So going to things that are online that
Speaker:will give them that quick targeted
Speaker:feedback, I think is pretty important.
Speaker:Um, I mean, we've got that was, that's
Speaker:one thing awesome about formative. Yep.
Speaker:So, um, you like videos. Um, way ground
Speaker:is a little expensive. Okay. But I really
Speaker:like way ground because, um, if I want to
Speaker:do multiple choice, I'm going to go to
Speaker:blook it, blook it hands down for
Speaker:multiple choice. Blook it is far more fun
Speaker:for multiple choice.
Speaker:But way ground has lots of different
Speaker:question types. Um, you can do a
Speaker:labeling, you could do a matching, you
Speaker:could do multiple choice if you want. You
Speaker:could do fill in the blank. You can do,
Speaker:um, hotspot. There's a hundred million
Speaker:different things. You can take any
Speaker:YouTube video at all or any video that
Speaker:you already own and paste it into way
Speaker:ground. If you like the large language
Speaker:model, generative, generative AI, they
Speaker:will put their own questions in it if you
Speaker:like, or you can do that as a
Speaker:starting point and then look over it and
Speaker:say, no, I don't like this question. Uh,
Speaker:you didn't put this in the target
Speaker:language. I got to switch it into the
Speaker:target language, whatever you can change
Speaker:it. But at least, you know, they're
Speaker:probably in the right time stamps and
Speaker:everything. And so you can have a video
Speaker:with questions embedded into the video.
Speaker:Yep. So formative does that too formative
Speaker:and way ground are very similar because
Speaker:my old school paid for way ground. But I
Speaker:didn't like that. Even on the serious
Speaker:assessments, it was
Speaker:still game oriented. So,
Speaker:you don't like that. Yeah. Because like
Speaker:when I'm giving a test, I don't want it
Speaker:to be a game right then and there, I need
Speaker:them to be actually,
Speaker:they have a setting now that's just, uh,
Speaker:uh, just like a test setting. So you can
Speaker:take off the game
Speaker:application if you want.
Speaker:Cause there wasn't in that sense. And I
Speaker:didn't really use extensively because I
Speaker:had so much invested in formative and I
Speaker:have samples I can pull from and such
Speaker:from formative. So I use that. But
Speaker:formative has that same
Speaker:thing, embedding in the video.
Speaker:It has that same option. It will create
Speaker:questions for you. If you don't want to
Speaker:do it from a Google doc, you can ask it
Speaker:just to complete create questions for
Speaker:you. Again, you can accept them or deny
Speaker:them. And I even have it do make answer
Speaker:keys. Like if it's, if I'm asking them to
Speaker:translate something like single word
Speaker:vocabulary stuff, I'll say, please create
Speaker:a answer key based on the English
Speaker:translation of this word.
Speaker:And please give me multiple answer
Speaker:possibilities to depending on different
Speaker:ways kids will spell the word and or
Speaker:punctuation or capital. So they'll have
Speaker:like 10 different answers that will be
Speaker:accepted because sometimes they'll
Speaker:capitalize. Sometimes they won't.
Speaker:Sometimes punctuation. Sometimes they
Speaker:won't. And it will do that in there. And
Speaker:one of the features I love about
Speaker:formative is I'm grading and I see an
Speaker:answer that oh yeah, I'm going to give
Speaker:two points for that answer.
Speaker:So I'll say add that answer and give it
Speaker:two points. So any assessment I haven't
Speaker:graded that has that answer now becomes
Speaker:self graded with two points for that
Speaker:particular answer. So it keeps on going
Speaker:and then feedback because you know the
Speaker:feedback is important and not just the
Speaker:grade feedback but comment feedback.
Speaker:I can put a comment in and save it so
Speaker:that I can just say apply it to kids 4,
Speaker:7, 9, 12, 13 on question number two and
Speaker:send that out for everybody all at once.
Speaker:And so I like that as well that I can I
Speaker:can do it. I just love
Speaker:formative. I hate because most of us.
Speaker:Because the $240 price is single teacher,
Speaker:which means teacher pocket.
Speaker:If it's not by school or district is
Speaker:single teacher is teacher pocket. So why
Speaker:the hell did you put it up to $240?
Speaker:Yeah, I mean I understand what you've got
Speaker:there, but it's teachers
Speaker:and we can't afford this.
Speaker:We can't afford it. But there are
Speaker:districts who pay for it and charge them
Speaker:the big bucks because they've got the
Speaker:bigger pockets, but we do not. So 240 was
Speaker:steep for me this year.
Speaker:But and they used to have a monthly plan
Speaker:was $15 a month. They
Speaker:took away all monthly plans.
Speaker:Did they really? Wow. And all you can do
Speaker:is annual, which is really a stinker and
Speaker:it's 240 came out of my pocket. It's
Speaker:stung. But then when I looked at all how
Speaker:I use it, it's all my warm ups, all my
Speaker:exit tickets, all my
Speaker:assessments, all my practices.
Speaker:Self graded is for a lot of it. Rubrics
Speaker:obviously can't be self graded, but
Speaker:anything else that's you know, single
Speaker:word answers, all that stuff can be self
Speaker:graded saves me a heck of a lot of time.
Speaker:Plus, it's got
Speaker:cheating features in there.
Speaker:So it doesn't have all of them. You have
Speaker:to have the district license to have all
Speaker:of them. And for accommodations.
Speaker:Yeah, tabs, which is enough. And
Speaker:accommodations is another one that you
Speaker:have to have a district license for
Speaker:because you can put accommodation. So you
Speaker:give one assessment and it automatically
Speaker:applies the
Speaker:accommodations to student ABCD.
Speaker:Those features are there, but I really do
Speaker:love formative because it really does. It
Speaker:saves me a lot of time and
Speaker:makes me a lot of effort. So it's.
Speaker:Is it worth $240? I made the decision
Speaker:yesterday. Yes, it is. I've not found
Speaker:anything better or cheaper. So no,
Speaker:they've got me hooked. But if you're
Speaker:listening, New Zealand, please think
Speaker:about the poor teacher that you are
Speaker:robbing from who's
Speaker:desperately using this as a.
Speaker:Yeah. As as you have a. Do you have a
Speaker:P.T.S.A at your school?
Speaker:What's a P.T.S. Oh, parent
Speaker:teacher. Yeah. Yes, we do.
Speaker:Sometimes you should approach them. Yeah,
Speaker:see, see if they've got a grant that will
Speaker:at least like partially fund your idea
Speaker:because, yeah, it's too difficult for us.
Speaker:I mean, we don't we're not in teaching
Speaker:because we are rolling in the dough,
Speaker:right? I mean, how many sub periods do I
Speaker:have to do to pay a
Speaker:year to pay that off? Yeah.
Speaker:Like, yeah, at the end of the year, I
Speaker:cash in my unused sick days, you know,
Speaker:because we're not getting paid enough.
Speaker:So, yeah, go to your P.T.S.A and see if
Speaker:they will like if they have
Speaker:a grant form or something.
Speaker:And at least, you know, maybe they'll
Speaker:kick in $50, $100 at least. Maybe they'll
Speaker:pay for the whole thing. Hopefully.
Speaker:Yeah. My last school, we had a budget
Speaker:based on how many preps you had. So yeah,
Speaker:I use part of it to pay for
Speaker:this and part of it to pay for.
Speaker:Send your wooly because then your wool is
Speaker:there $200. So right there, there's $450
Speaker:that I have to come
Speaker:out of my own pocket for.
Speaker:And it's not that I can stretch it out
Speaker:and pay a monthly fee because I often do
Speaker:that, even though I know it's cheaper to
Speaker:buy it for the year.
Speaker:My budget doesn't always allow me to come
Speaker:up with at the beginning of the school
Speaker:year, $450 all at once.
Speaker:So I like the monthly fee options, too.
Speaker:But senior really doesn't have a monthly
Speaker:fee and neither does New Zealand.
Speaker:So I got to pay $450 out of my pocket.
Speaker:And that's a lot of change for a teacher.
Speaker:That's a car payment.
Speaker:I love my school district gives us money
Speaker:each year, too. We have a little budget
Speaker:that we can spend it on, but I cannot
Speaker:spend it on things like
Speaker:Look at or gimkit or subscriptions. Yeah,
Speaker:subscriptions. I can't spend it on that.
Speaker:It has to be spent on things that are
Speaker:tangible for the kids.
Speaker:Oh, yeah. Ours just says it has to be for
Speaker:the kids. It can't be for you. So it's
Speaker:got to be for the kids.
Speaker:Now I pay for book it. I used to pay for
Speaker:gimkit, but my kids, for whatever reason,
Speaker:I like gimkit better, but
Speaker:my kids like book it better.
Speaker:I don't know why. So that's what I pay
Speaker:for. Yeah, I pay for the
Speaker:one I don't pay for Quizlet.
Speaker:Yeah. Oh, no. No, I started paying for
Speaker:gimkit. So I paid for gimkit. Yeah, they
Speaker:got a school-wide subscription.
Speaker:I like gimkit, but with Bluekit, the
Speaker:students get more questions in seven
Speaker:minutes than in gimkit.
Speaker:And so I choose wisely in gimkit. Yeah,
Speaker:yeah, yeah. So so my my three go tos now
Speaker:that okay, so Duolingo
Speaker:threw us under the bus. Forget Duolingo.
Speaker:They're not supporting teachers. I'm just
Speaker:beside myself because they
Speaker:used to be so supportive.
Speaker:Now they they really want everyone to
Speaker:pay. I mean, it's it's classic and
Speaker:shitification, right?
Speaker:They're not supporting teachers anymore.
Speaker:So forget Duolingo. My three go tos are
Speaker:Roxam, which is a music program.
Speaker:And they have German and they have French
Speaker:and they have Spanish and they have
Speaker:English and they have Mandarin.
Speaker:Mandarin also, but they're not adding
Speaker:Japanese anytime soon. So for music, I
Speaker:have to do my own stuff.
Speaker:So Roxam, Bluekit, which you can assign
Speaker:homework on Bluekit. So on the days when
Speaker:I'm like giving a speech downtown,
Speaker:I'll assign a Bluekit and a Roxam and
Speaker:Wayground, because I feel like I can get
Speaker:a good cognitive demand out of my
Speaker:students with Wayground.
Speaker:Wayground's the most
Speaker:expensive of the three.
Speaker:But I do use it in a lot of different
Speaker:ways. So and you can
Speaker:make 20 Waygrounds for free.
Speaker:You can have Bluekit for free. You don't
Speaker:have to make an account. But if you want
Speaker:that juicy, juicy
Speaker:data, it's pretty cheap.
Speaker:And then Roxam is also pretty cheap, but
Speaker:you can also use Roxam for
Speaker:free. So so all of those.
Speaker:Is under $60 a year.
Speaker:Book it as under $60 a year.
Speaker:Yeah. And I pay by the month because I'm
Speaker:always afraid the kids are going to go,
Speaker:we're tired of Bookit.
Speaker:Let's go ahead and go for Gamekit. So I
Speaker:only pay by the month just
Speaker:to cover my butt that way.
Speaker:But but yes, I and I don't have to pay
Speaker:for the the two months that were off.
Speaker:So I don't pay for those
Speaker:months either. So I do that.
Speaker:Yeah, Bluekit is such a great company.
Speaker:They're so responsive. Like I've emailed
Speaker:them like a bug report.
Speaker:Wayground two and Roxam, all three of
Speaker:them, they're really responsive. They're
Speaker:what Duolingo used to be.
Speaker:Duolingo used to be responsive, but now
Speaker:they're filled with bots. But anyway, you
Speaker:know, like all of them,
Speaker:if I email them a bug report on a Friday
Speaker:afternoon, like Saturday
Speaker:morning, they'll get back to me.
Speaker:And I'm like, what the heck are you doing
Speaker:on Saturday morning? Yeah.
Speaker:But they like very responsive companies.
Speaker:And so Bluekit, I get the
Speaker:sense that they're working out
Speaker:of their garage. So I'm like, yeah, take
Speaker:my money. You deserve it.
Speaker:You obviously work really hard.
Speaker:I use a lot of Bookit. So I don't have a
Speaker:problem with giving them
Speaker:my money. And then Formative
Speaker:added a flashcard based activity, which
Speaker:I'm not really fond of
Speaker:flashcards because I know with my
Speaker:T's it's not really helping me. So I
Speaker:don't think it's helping the kids either.
Speaker:But what I like about
Speaker:it is it's got four modes, kind of like
Speaker:Quizlet. It's got four modes.
Speaker:So you can take a quiz, which
Speaker:is it makes multiple choice on it. You
Speaker:can take a writing quiz,
Speaker:which means you have to write the
Speaker:actual answers out. But they have a
Speaker:matching game, which is what look at not
Speaker:not Bookit Quizlet used
Speaker:to have a matching game. And we used to
Speaker:play it. We used to play it on the board.
Speaker:It was fun. It was fun.
Speaker:Well, Formative has it. So and unlike
Speaker:Quizlet, Quizlet used to take like the
Speaker:top 20 or 30 questions.
Speaker:If whatever set you have in Formative,
Speaker:it's the whole set. It would take 12.
Speaker:Quizlet would take 12.
Speaker:12 is that what it did? Okay, whatever it
Speaker:was. This will do the whole
Speaker:thing. And so they've got to go
Speaker:as quickly as possible and they put as
Speaker:you clear them out, it adds new words
Speaker:that you haven't done
Speaker:yet, which I like. It also puts
Speaker:tricksters in there. So you might be
Speaker:looking for he or she says,
Speaker:but it's not on the screen yet because
Speaker:it's coming up later. So it's got the
Speaker:little tricksters in
Speaker:there. But it gives them points and time
Speaker:and creates a
Speaker:leaderboard. So they can see against
Speaker:other kids who are playing privately in
Speaker:my formative. So I like
Speaker:that. I use that. I do assign
Speaker:bookets for sub work too. I'll put that
Speaker:in my formative assignment.
Speaker:Go to this book it. Here's
Speaker:the link. Click it. Do it there. And then
Speaker:I can see because I like
Speaker:book it. I can go back and see
Speaker:their score. How many they got right
Speaker:versus wrong. You can see how the class
Speaker:did as a whole. And you
Speaker:can see which questions the students
Speaker:like, Hey, everybody in the
Speaker:class, this question only got
Speaker:60% accuracy. Did I write the question
Speaker:wrong or do I need to reteach the
Speaker:concept? One thing I do
Speaker:look at for sub work is I require them to
Speaker:take a screenshot of their
Speaker:when they're done with the
Speaker:game that shows their score. And then
Speaker:they upload that into the assignment.
Speaker:Because then if I don't
Speaker:have time to go into book it and look at
Speaker:the list and figure out who
Speaker:used what nickname, right?
Speaker:Because even though you tell them use
Speaker:your real name, some of them still put
Speaker:nicknames. If I don't
Speaker:have time to go in and do all that, I can
Speaker:just create really fast
Speaker:for my LMS, give them a grade
Speaker:because they did it and they uploaded
Speaker:their screenshot. And so I
Speaker:do that too. But I do have
Speaker:some things that I do that are not online
Speaker:because sometimes my
Speaker:students are not very focused
Speaker:when they have computers in hand. And so
Speaker:if I give them these things online,
Speaker:many of them will spend most of their
Speaker:time on YouTube instead. So
Speaker:I use free voluntary reading.
Speaker:I don't hold them accountable for free
Speaker:voluntary reading on a normal
Speaker:day. Like I don't have an exit
Speaker:ticket from free voluntary reading. I
Speaker:don't have them do a weekly
Speaker:anything. But when I'm out, I
Speaker:will I have a collection of activities
Speaker:that they can choose from.
Speaker:One of them is construct an
Speaker:Amazon review, design a new book cover,
Speaker:turn a chapter into a
Speaker:screenplay, you know, where they're
Speaker:writing the scripts from the chapter. I
Speaker:like that. And I tell them
Speaker:choose the FER book that you
Speaker:enjoyed most this quarter and use that
Speaker:book. And, you know, if I'm
Speaker:going to be out for one day,
Speaker:I tell them to choose one of the choice
Speaker:activities. If I'm going to be out for
Speaker:two days, I tell them
Speaker:to choose two of those activities. And it
Speaker:keeps them off of their
Speaker:computers. It keeps them using
Speaker:the language. It shows me if they've been
Speaker:reading or not, because it's really
Speaker:evident the ones who
Speaker:haven't really been reading, they've been
Speaker:fake reading through FER.
Speaker:And they have no idea what
Speaker:any of the books are about. So it's kind
Speaker:of a nice low tech way to
Speaker:do a sub plan. And I've got,
Speaker:you know, paper in my room, I've got
Speaker:markers, crayons, colored
Speaker:pencils, all of that. And they
Speaker:know where it is. So they can get that
Speaker:out and use it. There's
Speaker:another one that I found that some
Speaker:somebody shared online that I've enjoyed
Speaker:using where they literally
Speaker:like design a cell phone for
Speaker:one of the characters in the book. And
Speaker:that one's a pretty fun one.
Speaker:I make that an option. Because
Speaker:sometimes you just don't need them on the
Speaker:computers. No, yeah,
Speaker:I need them to not be
Speaker:distracted. Your sub has to make sure
Speaker:that they don't have their
Speaker:computers out and they don't
Speaker:have their phones out. Yeah, because I
Speaker:because I used to do that
Speaker:kind of stuff. Like, you know,
Speaker:sometimes I have to give a speech for a
Speaker:student scholarship down at
Speaker:the Rotary Club or whatever.
Speaker:And so I'll miss first period or
Speaker:whatever. And I think the students want
Speaker:to take the path of least
Speaker:okay, it's not that they want to cheat,
Speaker:it's that they want to do
Speaker:it the easy way. And so I was
Speaker:having them do like, Oh, here's your free
Speaker:voluntary reading. Do this thing. I
Speaker:didn't think about the
Speaker:skit is a good one. But the sub has to be
Speaker:on them for put that
Speaker:computer away, put that phone away,
Speaker:because we don't want them going to
Speaker:general to AI. While they're
Speaker:supposed to be like using their
Speaker:but honestly, I can tell if they go to
Speaker:generative AI, I can tell if it's a
Speaker:contract. Yeah. You know,
Speaker:and, and I call them out on it. I will
Speaker:write on their sheet to you
Speaker:get a 64 for this assignment,
Speaker:because there is clear evidence that you
Speaker:used non approved
Speaker:resources for this assignment.
Speaker:And if somebody asks me about Yeah, yeah,
Speaker:if somebody asks me, how can you tell?
Speaker:I can highlight 15 examples. Usually,
Speaker:they do not know how to say
Speaker:that they've never learned that
Speaker:term. Yeah, they're using grammar that I
Speaker:had to look up to figure out what
Speaker:exactly. Right there.
Speaker:Their grammar is so efficient to me right
Speaker:here. Yeah, I tell them
Speaker:that AI will either make you
Speaker:look really smart, like a college
Speaker:educated native speaker, or it'll make
Speaker:you look really dumb. When
Speaker:they're not so smart, they're not so smart. So it's like, yeah, I have a kid. And we're
Speaker:supposed to have a kid who doesn't know
Speaker:the difference between
Speaker:the 32 different uses of
Speaker:run that we use in English. So I talked
Speaker:about those things. And I
Speaker:had a kid just last week,
Speaker:try to fool me. I asked, what do you have
Speaker:for your art class, we're
Speaker:working with school supplies,
Speaker:so they're just supposed to list that
Speaker:right? He's like, well, I
Speaker:have my colored pencils that my
Speaker:teacher always asks me to
Speaker:bring to class every day.
Speaker:Oh, subordinate clauses.
Speaker:And I'm like, you are amazing.
Speaker:I highlighted him in front
Speaker:of the whole class and go,
Speaker:this kid is a superstar.
Speaker:He has gone from novice low,
Speaker:skipped over novice mid novice high,
Speaker:skipped over intermediate low,
Speaker:and is an intermediate
Speaker:mid with our AP students.
Speaker:(laughing)
Speaker:I'm like, really?
Speaker:I'm not that dumb.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I am really not that dumb.
Speaker:And I have a go-to analog activity
Speaker:that I'm doing too as well.
Speaker:Oh, finally it's switching.
Speaker:I'm like, can I get my screen to switch?
Speaker:My buttons aren't working.
Speaker:This is always my default one.
Speaker:You can't use it at the
Speaker:beginning of the year for level one,
Speaker:but now in where we are now
Speaker:in level one, I can do it.
Speaker:All the sub has to do is
Speaker:know how to do a timer.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So give them seven
Speaker:minutes to write a story
Speaker:in the target
Speaker:language, like a quick write.
Speaker:Okay, seven minutes.
Speaker:Timer goes off, put them in groups,
Speaker:divide the class into
Speaker:how many groups you need,
Speaker:four or five kids in a group.
Speaker:Each kid now reads their
Speaker:story to the other ones.
Speaker:They vote on one that they
Speaker:like the best out of their group.
Speaker:So now we've got
Speaker:writing, we've got reading,
Speaker:and we've got listening.
Speaker:Listening, not speaking
Speaker:yet, not speaking yet.
Speaker:Oh, they're reading a lot?
Speaker:Yeah, read a lot.
Speaker:And then they
Speaker:illustrate, they make a comic strip
Speaker:with no words, no text, no
Speaker:numbers, no digits, no symbols.
Speaker:Of the story that they picked,
Speaker:one frame for every student in the group.
Speaker:So if there are six kids in the group,
Speaker:you have six boxes, if
Speaker:there are four kids in a group,
Speaker:you have four boxes.
Speaker:And then they go up to
Speaker:the front of the class,
Speaker:and from only those illustrated boxes,
Speaker:they tell the story to the class.
Speaker:I love this idea.
Speaker:Then at the end, after all the stories
Speaker:had been presented,
Speaker:the class then chooses
Speaker:the best story that they liked.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:Okay, then the kids put their,
Speaker:put all the kids' stories,
Speaker:they're what they wrote, into a packet.
Speaker:The story they chose is on top.
Speaker:The picture that they
Speaker:drew is on top of that.
Speaker:Staple that packet together.
Speaker:The sub puts it in order,
Speaker:first, second, and third place.
Speaker:Puts a star on the first place.
Speaker:Puts that as a packet, and that's what I
Speaker:will grade afterward.
Speaker:And I give the kids something special
Speaker:for being the top group.
Speaker:But now they got listening, reading,
Speaker:writing, and speaking,
Speaker:and all the sub had to do was keep time
Speaker:and collect the papers.
Speaker:I adore that.
Speaker:That was to be a great project.
Speaker:Yeah, it is.
Speaker:But if you have a really good student,
Speaker:you can have them be the timekeeper too.
Speaker:I always have a backup.
Speaker:Yeah, see, my students
Speaker:are not reliable enough
Speaker:in the sub in the room to
Speaker:actually work through that.
Speaker:That's a problem.
Speaker:They just wouldn't do it.
Speaker:So, I mean,
Speaker:realistically, for some of us,
Speaker:we have to have very independent work,
Speaker:but I love that.
Speaker:Like, I could do that with
Speaker:my class while I'm there,
Speaker:but they don't have any
Speaker:self-control and desire to learn.
Speaker:See, I've not had a problem with that
Speaker:before with my kids.
Speaker:They've always done it,
Speaker:and the kids who don't do
Speaker:it, they get that bad grade.
Speaker:So-
Speaker:I would bet that if we do
Speaker:it twice with our students,
Speaker:they know the routine,
Speaker:that the third time
Speaker:they do it with the sub,
Speaker:they'll be invested in it
Speaker:because they'll have fun
Speaker:and they'll know what to expect and
Speaker:they'll know how to do it.
Speaker:So it probably just
Speaker:takes a couple of times
Speaker:doing it with you facilitating it
Speaker:so that they would know how to do it
Speaker:with the sub in the room.
Speaker:I'd be willing to try that, but-
Speaker:Yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker:I sub in enough classrooms to know,
Speaker:and the culture in my
Speaker:building is not a culture.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Education is important.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And absolutely, the kids will walk in
Speaker:and they'll see the sub and
Speaker:they'll say, "Hooray, sub day."
Speaker:And yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I threaten my kids with an
Speaker:end to their life about subs.
Speaker:I tell them if there's a sub in here,
Speaker:you've got to treat them 100
Speaker:times better than you treat me.
Speaker:I said, "I do not play.
Speaker:I do not play.
Speaker:If you have a problem
Speaker:with the sub, that is okay.
Speaker:Do not take it up with the sub,
Speaker:take it up with me when I get back.
Speaker:And we'll take care of it together,
Speaker:but do not take it up with the sub
Speaker:because the sub will
Speaker:always win that fight.
Speaker:So don't even try.
Speaker:Just take it up with me.
Speaker:You know I'm fair.
Speaker:I will listen to your side of the story,
Speaker:but don't fight with the sub.
Speaker:Don't give my sub problems
Speaker:because I will make
Speaker:your life by living hell
Speaker:when I get back.
Speaker:Lynn, how big is your school?
Speaker:It's about 1600.
Speaker:But we are past the 80% point of kids
Speaker:that qualify for free and reduced lunch.
Speaker:So the entire building gets free lunch
Speaker:and free breakfast every day,
Speaker:regardless of their socioeconomic status.
Speaker:And the schools reflect their communities
Speaker:and the community right
Speaker:now is not valuing education.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's not a priority.
Speaker:I think that's a trend, unfortunately.
Speaker:No, it is.
Speaker:It's becoming a big trend.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We actually pretty much
Speaker:stayed on topic this week.
Speaker:(laughing)
Speaker:So we got some really good ideas.
Speaker:We got some good ideas.
Speaker:We got some digital ideas.
Speaker:We got some analog ideas.
Speaker:We got lots of things.
Speaker:And we got some good
Speaker:about thinking about ourselves
Speaker:and our wellbeing and
Speaker:our mental wellbeing
Speaker:that if you need to take the time,
Speaker:we've now got some
Speaker:other activities or ideas
Speaker:that you can do to help you plan that.
Speaker:And what I suggest for everybody,
Speaker:even if your school doesn't require it,
Speaker:that you make some
Speaker:generic sub plans in advance.
Speaker:Just in case.
Speaker:Yeah, so that when you're sick,
Speaker:that you don't have to go and go,
Speaker:oh, I gotta write them.
Speaker:Don't have a couple pre-made already,
Speaker:just swap the date and send
Speaker:them out and be like that.
Speaker:And I see teachers--
Speaker:And the other thing I
Speaker:would suggest, Scott,
Speaker:is to make a sub folder.
Speaker:Oh, I have one too.
Speaker:Right in your classroom.
Speaker:That has your class rosters.
Speaker:It has school procedures.
Speaker:It has classroom procedures.
Speaker:And it's just all in that folder.
Speaker:Because then all you have to
Speaker:do is add in your lesson plan
Speaker:and you're done.
Speaker:You don't have to create
Speaker:that every single time.
Speaker:Exactly, I have the same thing.
Speaker:And I list it with all
Speaker:my special needs students,
Speaker:my 504 students, and my
Speaker:health plan every year.
Speaker:I update it and then I put
Speaker:it in there in the sleeves.
Speaker:Like you said, it's my red sub folder.
Speaker:It's always on my desk.
Speaker:It's always there.
Speaker:So yes, I have that and just
Speaker:the plans get added to that.
Speaker:And I see teachers, and I do not
Speaker:recommend doing this,
Speaker:who roll their butts into
Speaker:school when they're sick
Speaker:to write their sub
Speaker:plans and then go back home.
Speaker:And then go home, yeah.
Speaker:Why?
Speaker:We live in a digital age.
Speaker:You can email your sub plans.
Speaker:Someone will make the copies for you.
Speaker:Someone will print the sub
Speaker:plan and give it to the sub.
Speaker:You don't have to do that to yourself.
Speaker:But you can have--
Speaker:But in your department
Speaker:that you can swap with.
Speaker:Yeah, just plan ahead.
Speaker:Plan ahead, have some generic ones
Speaker:that aren't for a specific day
Speaker:or after a specific
Speaker:chapter that you can actually do.
Speaker:And then keep a collection of these
Speaker:that you can rotate through.
Speaker:So if you make one that is
Speaker:specific after chapter two,
Speaker:then label it as after chapter two.
Speaker:And then if you're sick
Speaker:again after chapter two,
Speaker:you have one in there.
Speaker:So that will just save a lot of time
Speaker:and a lot of stress for you.
Speaker:And we've already
Speaker:talked about self grading
Speaker:and the key thing that you want.
Speaker:If you can make your
Speaker:things as self gradable
Speaker:or as easily gradable as possible,
Speaker:that also will help
Speaker:because that's one of the burdens
Speaker:I have is like, I gotta
Speaker:grade it when I get back.
Speaker:So even when I'm coming back and I'm
Speaker:still not full 100%,
Speaker:I've now got this stack of work
Speaker:that is just sitting there
Speaker:waiting and glaring at me
Speaker:right then and there to do.
Speaker:And so that just
Speaker:dreading that makes you go,
Speaker:oh, do I really wanna come back?
Speaker:That kind of thing.
Speaker:So finding things that are easy gradable
Speaker:or self gradable is really, really good.
Speaker:And when it comes to,
Speaker:like my activity, I just told
Speaker:you my four skills activity,
Speaker:I'm not really grading it.
Speaker:I'm not reading
Speaker:through all those stories.
Speaker:I'm saying, did everybody do what they
Speaker:were supposed to do?
Speaker:Do I have a story from
Speaker:every kid in the group?
Speaker:Do I have the story that
Speaker:was picked to be illustrated?
Speaker:Do I have the illustration?
Speaker:The sub will tell me if
Speaker:they didn't tell the story,
Speaker:you know, that's on there.
Speaker:And then the sub gave the first, second,
Speaker:and third place winners to the thing.
Speaker:So I'm not giving extra
Speaker:credit for them being the top
Speaker:or the second or the third,
Speaker:but I'm giving maybe
Speaker:candy or something else
Speaker:a little reward for them for doing that
Speaker:or maybe drop a class
Speaker:work assignment pass,
Speaker:something like that, to
Speaker:give them the incentive
Speaker:to try to do the best thing.
Speaker:I look at what my kids
Speaker:really will do work for.
Speaker:One thing they love is
Speaker:drop a class work assignment
Speaker:where they don't have to do one.
Speaker:And they really enjoy
Speaker:doing stuff like that.
Speaker:So find something like that in there.
Speaker:And that's just a
Speaker:really easy one to grade.
Speaker:It literally takes me for,
Speaker:it takes me longer to type
Speaker:the grade in the grade book
Speaker:than it is to grade it.
Speaker:True.
Speaker:I got another analog one.
Speaker:Go ahead, Pamela.
Speaker:Really super easy to grade, okay?
Speaker:In my emergency sub folder,
Speaker:I have a skit for each
Speaker:language that I teach.
Speaker:And there's silly
Speaker:little skits like Tom Alsop
Speaker:has a lot of good Spanish ones.
Speaker:He's got a little book out.
Speaker:He probably translated into French too,
Speaker:but I've got another
Speaker:French, like folk tales
Speaker:that are just kind of silly goofy.
Speaker:And then for Japanese,
Speaker:I've got some folk tales
Speaker:and they're skits, okay?
Speaker:So I just printed out a ton of them.
Speaker:The students can share if
Speaker:there's not enough in the class
Speaker:because it's my emergency
Speaker:sub folder that I've had
Speaker:for 15 years teaching,
Speaker:whatever, 20 years teaching.
Speaker:And so the sub comes in and says,
Speaker:"Oh, you guys have to do a skit."
Speaker:And the students, I email the students
Speaker:and I put it on the
Speaker:LMS so the students know
Speaker:what they're doing exactly
Speaker:like you were saying, Scott.
Speaker:So the students,
Speaker:you've got this class period
Speaker:to work on your skit.
Speaker:You know where the ugly clothes are.
Speaker:You can go grab some
Speaker:ugly clothes if you need.
Speaker:You know where the props are in the room.
Speaker:You could go grab some props,
Speaker:but you are going to perform
Speaker:your skits when I get back.
Speaker:Okay, so they've got
Speaker:the whole class period
Speaker:to work on their skit.
Speaker:They're really invested in it.
Speaker:When I get back, I'm
Speaker:just watching their skits.
Speaker:And if their skit is stinky,
Speaker:then I know they didn't work on it.
Speaker:And that's it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And the key is there.
Speaker:You can't give them
Speaker:time when you get back.
Speaker:Oh, absolutely.
Speaker:You have five minutes
Speaker:to make sure your group
Speaker:is prepared and we're starting.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:And see, I can do
Speaker:something like that with Formative.
Speaker:So I can make a complete IPA
Speaker:where I don't have to be
Speaker:present for them in there
Speaker:because I can record my voice
Speaker:and then they can record
Speaker:their voice in response.
Speaker:And so I've done that skit type of thing
Speaker:where I'll have them,
Speaker:because they can record a video too,
Speaker:that each kid will
Speaker:record a part of the video
Speaker:on their Formative.
Speaker:And then I just play the
Speaker:little bit of the video
Speaker:and it's kind of funny when they,
Speaker:these two actors are talking
Speaker:and then it goes to the next one
Speaker:and I get them and I can see them,
Speaker:they're in fragments,
Speaker:but at least I can see them in there.
Speaker:Or they could just
Speaker:record it in front of their
Speaker:like little puppeteer and
Speaker:stand in front of one computer
Speaker:and record it for the whole group
Speaker:if they want to do it that way.
Speaker:And they can pause and start back up
Speaker:so they can go pause.
Speaker:Okay, next people get
Speaker:ready for their scene
Speaker:and do the next scene
Speaker:and it's kind of a fun
Speaker:thing for them to do.
Speaker:They can't do any special
Speaker:effects like they could with,
Speaker:what was that?
Speaker:I always forget the name of that app.
Speaker:Flipgrid. With Flipgrid.
Speaker:But they can do some of those things
Speaker:so I don't have to have them perform it.
Speaker:They can do it right then and there.
Speaker:And with video,
Speaker:I can see if they're
Speaker:reading from a script or not
Speaker:or if they're actually acting it out.
Speaker:So it's really key.
Speaker:So I see Pamela's got her vodka,
Speaker:giant glass of vodka this
Speaker:morning to get her going.
Speaker:(laughing)
Speaker:Because that was a big glass.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:You told me the very
Speaker:first episode I was on,
Speaker:you said have a big glass of water
Speaker:because you're gonna need it, yep.
Speaker:Yeah, so yeah, you got one.
Speaker:So, so those are all these different
Speaker:ideas that you can do
Speaker:and digital has made some
Speaker:things a lot easier for us to do
Speaker:with the self-grading
Speaker:and the fun activities
Speaker:because my kids
Speaker:always love doing a look at
Speaker:and now that you can
Speaker:assign them as homework
Speaker:that really makes it really fun.
Speaker:I make sub-activities in my formative
Speaker:so I have listening, reading, speaking
Speaker:and writing activities I
Speaker:can assign so they can do it.
Speaker:And I like doing the
Speaker:interpersonal activities
Speaker:rather than the free write
Speaker:or the free speak on formative
Speaker:where I'll ask questions
Speaker:or they have to read a
Speaker:question then answer it.
Speaker:So they're getting those practices,
Speaker:those skills that they
Speaker:need to actually have
Speaker:to be able to use the language.
Speaker:And so I love doing those
Speaker:but analog works as well
Speaker:for some of those activities.
Speaker:But I hope that we gave
Speaker:everybody some good ideas
Speaker:that they can take away with to use
Speaker:so that when they do
Speaker:need to take that sub-day
Speaker:they can actually take that sub-day
Speaker:and not feel guilty for doing so
Speaker:like you're abandoning
Speaker:your kids for a week.
Speaker:You know, that type of a thing.
Speaker:And if you guys out there, our audience
Speaker:has any really good
Speaker:sub-plans, things that you go to
Speaker:please feel free to
Speaker:share in the comments.
Speaker:We will greatly appreciate
Speaker:and other teachers
Speaker:would greatly appreciating
Speaker:having even more for their toolbox
Speaker:to be able to pull from
Speaker:in those moments of need
Speaker:that we often have.
Speaker:Any parting words anybody
Speaker:would like to say before we go?
Speaker:Take your sick days, they're valuable.
Speaker:Yeah, they are valuable.
Speaker:They are valuable.
Speaker:I plan on taking all 60 of them
Speaker:the last two months of my
Speaker:retirement year right in a row.
Speaker:So I'm gonna retire in April
Speaker:because May and June is gonna be covered.
Speaker:They used to let us do that in my
Speaker:district, but no more.
Speaker:Yeah, no, they don't
Speaker:do that for us either,
Speaker:but we can dream, we can dream.
Speaker:Just, you know, schedule that surgery
Speaker:that you need to have
Speaker:by that point in time
Speaker:for those last two months.
Speaker:Yeah, I know, I need to
Speaker:have double hip surgery
Speaker:and I'm like, they're
Speaker:like, use your summer for that.
Speaker:I'm like, I am not using that for summer.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:We have my- Double hip?
Speaker:Yeah, I have, years
Speaker:ago I had a stomach issue
Speaker:and they did a, I don't
Speaker:know if they did an MRI
Speaker:or they did the other one.
Speaker:I don't know, they did
Speaker:some kind of body scan
Speaker:and they said your hips are only at 60%.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:But they warned me not to
Speaker:hold off as long as possible
Speaker:because I can hear them.
Speaker:You know, I have hip and knee problems.
Speaker:I can hear them crunching.
Speaker:It's like two pieces of
Speaker:styrofoam grinding together.
Speaker:I get, but they could,
Speaker:because hip replacements
Speaker:last about seven to 10 years
Speaker:and I was in my, you know,
Speaker:either I was in my
Speaker:late 40s or my early 50s
Speaker:when I had this done.
Speaker:Oh, you don't wanna go-
Speaker:They said, you know, you
Speaker:don't wanna do it early
Speaker:because then if you do it in your 50s
Speaker:and you're gonna do it in your 60s
Speaker:and you're gonna do it in your 70s
Speaker:and it's not an easy
Speaker:surgery to recover from.
Speaker:So I'm like, well, I'm
Speaker:putting it off as long as I have to,
Speaker:you know, my hips are working right now.
Speaker:And number two,
Speaker:I am definitely doing it
Speaker:during the school year.
Speaker:That is why I have disability insurance.
Speaker:That is why I have over
Speaker:200 and some sick days.
Speaker:You know, I'm good
Speaker:because I am not
Speaker:doing it during my summer.
Speaker:Plus who wants to be
Speaker:wrapped up in a hospital bed
Speaker:or in a recovery thing during the hot
Speaker:months of the summer
Speaker:when it's a hundred
Speaker:degrees outside, not me.
Speaker:Not me.
Speaker:So yes, do take what you need.
Speaker:Don't feel guilty because
Speaker:you have some resources now.
Speaker:And I hope that helped
Speaker:everybody with some ideas,
Speaker:at least to be able to
Speaker:take and take that day off.
Speaker:Don't everybody take off tomorrow
Speaker:because it's the day
Speaker:after a holiday weekend.
Speaker:Though I'm dreading all the sugar highs
Speaker:I'm gonna have to deal with tomorrow.
Speaker:And I do apologize for all
Speaker:the technical difficulties
Speaker:we had at the beginning
Speaker:for the YouTube viewers.
Speaker:Thank you for sticking with us.
Speaker:The podcast viewer listeners,
Speaker:we will have edited that out for you.
Speaker:So it will not be there
Speaker:for you to hear in there
Speaker:or not here because no sound came out.
Speaker:So anyway, have a
Speaker:great weekend everybody.
Speaker:Thank you, Lynn, for joining us today.
Speaker:That is a wrap for today.
Speaker:And I hope that you got
Speaker:some good feedback today
Speaker:and some good information
Speaker:and some good tools to use.
Speaker:And Pamela and I will be
Speaker:back next week with a new guest.
Speaker:Let me see who our new guest
Speaker:is going to be for next week.
Speaker:And we always welcome Ms. Hendricks back.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:She is absolutely amazing.
Speaker:Oh, we're already in November.
Speaker:Yeah, we're already in November.
Speaker:Yes, Adam Brown will
Speaker:be joining us next week.
Speaker:Adam Brown, I don't know
Speaker:this teacher personally
Speaker:but I'm excited to have him aboard
Speaker:and get to know him a little bit better.
Speaker:But we will all see you.
Speaker:Yes, we'll see you next week.
Speaker:Lynn, have a great rest of your week.
Speaker:Same to you, Pamela.
Speaker:And with that, we will say goodbye
Speaker:and hopefully our ending will work.
Speaker:But I don't know.
Speaker:I'm not putting my eggs
Speaker:all in one basket here.
Speaker:Let's see.
Speaker:That's what teaching is all about.
Speaker:It's about being flexible.
Speaker:So let's see if the ending works.
Speaker:Thanks for joining us.
Speaker:Yeah, goodbye.
Speaker:In case it doesn't
Speaker:work, everybody goodbye.
Speaker:And thank you for watching.
Speaker:Let's use a good example.
