Teaching Made Human: Piedad Gutiérrez on the Magic of Story
Piedad Gutiérrez, a veteran Spanish teacher and CI consultant now teaching in Israel, shares her inspiring journey from grammar-heavy lessons to joyful, story-based communication through Comprehensible Input.
Want ready-to-use CI lessons, stories, and activities that make language learning effortless? Grab the CI Survival Kit today at https://imim.us/kit and start transforming your classroom with powerful, comprehensible input.
The CI Story Series celebrates language teachers around the world who are redefining what it means to teach for proficiency. Each episode features real educators sharing authentic stories, classroom breakthroughs, and practical insights to help you make language acquisition natural, human, and fun.
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#ComprehensibleInput, #SpanishTeacher, #CITeaching, #WorldLanguage, #TPRS, #LanguageAcquisition, #StorytellingInEducation, #ProficiencyBasedTeaching, #LanguageLearning, #ImmediateImmersion
Transcript
Hey welcome good morning everybody and
Speaker:why is my camera all wacky?
Speaker:There we go fix it up there.
Speaker:Hey how's everybody doing on this
Speaker:wonderful Sunday morning? Here we've got
Speaker:some great information
Speaker:today. So imagine this you're a Spanish
Speaker:teacher in New Jersey
Speaker:surrounded by grammar charts,
Speaker:verb drills and students who think
Speaker:"Predder it is a TikTok
Speaker:filter." Then one day you decide,
Speaker:"Nope this can't be the whole story." And
Speaker:it turns out it isn't.
Speaker:Because today's guest,
Speaker:Pia de la Gutierrez, is living proof that
Speaker:language teaching can take
Speaker:you absolutely everywhere.
Speaker:Literally and intellectually. She's been
Speaker:a university professor
Speaker:of Latin American history,
Speaker:a trainer of world language teachers
Speaker:across the USA, Colombia, Argentina,
Speaker:Uruguay, Israel and the
Speaker:Czech Republic and a Spanish teacher from
Speaker:high school down to third
Speaker:grade. This woman has taught
Speaker:more levels than most of us have had
Speaker:coffee mugs. And here's a twist, as much
Speaker:as she loves teaching,
Speaker:she may love learning even more.
Speaker:Cognitive sciences,
Speaker:neuro linguistics, pedagogy,
Speaker:she dives into it all like it's a beach
Speaker:read. After retiring
Speaker:from institutional teaching,
Speaker:she jumped into healing centered
Speaker:education with the Acosta Institute,
Speaker:continued developing Spanish
Speaker:curricula and even returned to
Speaker:researching 18th century regional history
Speaker:in Quindillo, Colombia.
Speaker:Because why not add historical researcher
Speaker:back into the resume? But
Speaker:since we're all more than
Speaker:our job titles, Pia de la is also the
Speaker:kind of person who gardens, paddle
Speaker:boards, hikes, crochets,
Speaker:cooks, practices yoga and reiki, goes
Speaker:boating, makes jewelry,
Speaker:meditates and because of course,
Speaker:reads and writes nonstop. So grab your
Speaker:coffee, settle in and let's
Speaker:talk with someone who proves
Speaker:that storytelling curiosity and a whole
Speaker:lot of heart can take
Speaker:language teaching far beyond the
Speaker:classroom. So let's give a hearty welcome
Speaker:to Pia da after this
Speaker:short message. Ever feel like
Speaker:you're clinging to the edge of your
Speaker:teacher planner, just hoping today's
Speaker:lesson magically appears?
Speaker:Enter the CI survival kit, a monthly
Speaker:membership made for teachers who love
Speaker:comprehensible input, but also love not
Speaker:reinventing the wheel every Sunday night.
Speaker:Each month you get fresh, ready to use
Speaker:lessons, time saving tools
Speaker:and just enough structure to
Speaker:keep your teaching life together. No
Speaker:stress, no guilt, just monthly help from
Speaker:someone who gets it.
Speaker:Sign up at mm.us slash survival and let
Speaker:the survival kit do the
Speaker:heavy lifting for once.
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
Speaker:Pia da. How are we doing today?
Speaker:Thank you. Thank you for having me here.
Speaker:It is a pleasure to see you.
Speaker:It is. It's been a long time.
Speaker:It's been a long time. Yeah, for many
Speaker:years and it's been a long time since
Speaker:we've seen each other.
Speaker:So I'm so happy that she's here with us
Speaker:today. Is there anything
Speaker:you want to tell us about
Speaker:yourself that I didn't
Speaker:already kind of give in the intro?
Speaker:That I like life and I like to dance and
Speaker:that we need to live
Speaker:our lives every day. Like
Speaker:we can have energy and we can become, but
Speaker:we need to be fully
Speaker:present wherever we are.
Speaker:And that's what I'm going to invite all
Speaker:of us here today. Just
Speaker:let's be present. Let's enjoy
Speaker:being here with each other for these
Speaker:minutes that we are going to share.
Speaker:Absolutely, absolutely. It is so
Speaker:important that life is so
Speaker:short and that we can actually be
Speaker:present and be 100% involved in whatever
Speaker:that we're doing and
Speaker:enjoying what we're doing. I think
Speaker:that is a very important message,
Speaker:especially these times.
Speaker:We've got so many things going
Speaker:around around the world that just don't
Speaker:put a little depression
Speaker:in all of us. So we need to
Speaker:just enjoy what we have and take any kind
Speaker:of joy that we can out of whatever we
Speaker:have do it going on.
Speaker:So I think that's a really good message.
Speaker:So let's go ahead and
Speaker:start at the beginning and
Speaker:tell us how you got into using
Speaker:comprehensible input.
Speaker:I was very lucky Scott, because I was a
Speaker:professor of Latin American
Speaker:history and I had the brilliant
Speaker:idea to get divorced. So then I had to
Speaker:start exploring ways to
Speaker:really be a mother and support
Speaker:myself. So I started doing translations
Speaker:and editing and then
Speaker:just by chance they needed a
Speaker:teacher at a private school. Of course I
Speaker:wasn't certified. My first
Speaker:route was not education at a
Speaker:lower level. It was education at a higher
Speaker:level. So I started and I
Speaker:went to this school and then
Speaker:they gave me, I had three classes and I
Speaker:was like 10th grade 11th and 12th. Three
Speaker:different textbooks.
Speaker:Three different levels. And then I said,
Speaker:okay, so then can I
Speaker:visit one of your classes?
Speaker:I know how to teach, but I have never
Speaker:taught Spanish before. I said, no, it's
Speaker:okay, you can do it.
Speaker:So then when I started seeing these
Speaker:books, I said, no, who is going to learn
Speaker:a language with this?
Speaker:So I asked if I could deviate a little
Speaker:and they said yes, but they
Speaker:need to know this vocabulary
Speaker:for each unit or each chapter. And I
Speaker:said, okay, I can't do that.
Speaker:So then from the very beginning,
Speaker:I couldn't do this thing of writing 40
Speaker:words in the blackboard as
Speaker:the students to copy them
Speaker:and then quiz them the next day. So that
Speaker:makes absolutely no sense to me.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:So then I just started in a very
Speaker:intuitive way. Like, okay, the chapter
Speaker:was about driver's license,
Speaker:chatting with the students. Okay. We have
Speaker:here this list and I
Speaker:started very intuitive from the
Speaker:beginning. Chapping words that were not
Speaker:important, that were not
Speaker:common and just keeping like the
Speaker:basic things. But then I was told I
Speaker:needed to tell the parts of
Speaker:the speech, like the verse and
Speaker:the nouns. So then we made a chart and I
Speaker:started doing that and it
Speaker:was really cool. I taught for
Speaker:two years. But the second year, I was
Speaker:told that my contract wasn't
Speaker:going to be renewed if I didn't
Speaker:go into improvement professional plan
Speaker:because my students didn't
Speaker:talk too much and because my
Speaker:students didn't know how to conjugate and
Speaker:because my grammar exams
Speaker:were take home exams. Because
Speaker:for me, the idea of grammar is something
Speaker:that wasn't important
Speaker:thing. So end of the first job.
Speaker:Then I went to a second school. Also
Speaker:because I needed a teacher.
Speaker:I needed a Spanish teacher.
Speaker:It was something very interesting because
Speaker:the school didn't have that plan.
Speaker:They needed a Spanish teacher now who
Speaker:could teach without a
Speaker:textbook. Oh, that's good.
Speaker:Give it to me. So the first year I
Speaker:thought something that the
Speaker:school never had, it was called
Speaker:conversational Spanish. Very much I could
Speaker:do whatever I wanted. I
Speaker:just needed to fulfill the
Speaker:school, needed to fulfill the eighth
Speaker:grade foreign language or requirement. I
Speaker:love it. And then one
Speaker:day the supervisor came and said,
Speaker:"Piedad, this looks like you. This is
Speaker:called TPRS and it's a
Speaker:training in South New Jersey, in Mayland.
Speaker:Would you like to go?" And
Speaker:then I checked the scene.
Speaker:It was like six or seven weekends through
Speaker:the year and I needed to
Speaker:go from Friday and Saturday
Speaker:to be there. And I said, "Sure, but then
Speaker:how do I do this?" And she said, "We will
Speaker:pay for everything."
Speaker:The language teachers don't use
Speaker:professional development. So I have
Speaker:budget. If you like this,
Speaker:I will pay for you to do this. So wasn't
Speaker:I lucky or what? In my
Speaker:intuition, that's how you teach
Speaker:languages. And then I got trained very
Speaker:early. Like it was in
Speaker:2001. So I got to meet Blaine,
Speaker:Jason Fritz, Susan Gross, Julie Blair,
Speaker:and learn how to put like, well, for me,
Speaker:we were like stars in the sky. I did most
Speaker:of those things, but I
Speaker:didn't know how to put it
Speaker:together. So it was like, they gave me
Speaker:the constellations. They
Speaker:gave me the method. And then
Speaker:I love and I love it. Absolutely. That's
Speaker:great. So you had the
Speaker:national intuition right away to
Speaker:teach like human beings. I think it's so
Speaker:funny that we all as human
Speaker:beings, we know how to teach
Speaker:languages. It doesn't matter whether
Speaker:you're a teacher or not.
Speaker:Everybody knows how to teach
Speaker:languages. We pass it on to our children
Speaker:without even thinking about
Speaker:it. But then we go to school
Speaker:and they teach us an awkward way to teach
Speaker:kids language, which is
Speaker:anti-natural. It's not what we
Speaker:do naturally. And so then we forget how
Speaker:to teach naturally and our
Speaker:kids become stunted in their
Speaker:growth. We focus on the grammar and the
Speaker:grammar doesn't make sense.
Speaker:The grammar, the rules for
Speaker:grammar came out hundreds of years after
Speaker:the grammar already
Speaker:existed. They're trying to explain
Speaker:something that really isn't easily
Speaker:explainable and doesn't make
Speaker:a whole lot of logical sense.
Speaker:It's the language, how it works. But you
Speaker:have that natural instinct
Speaker:to stick to the way that you
Speaker:teach languages to kids in their first
Speaker:language. And then you found
Speaker:the method that matched right
Speaker:with it. That's kind of backwards on how
Speaker:we do it. We normally
Speaker:like, for me, I started with a
Speaker:textbook, but I learned in 2001, just
Speaker:like you at TPRS, I started with a
Speaker:textbook, realized it
Speaker:didn't work and was looking for something
Speaker:different. Where you were a teacher
Speaker:looking for a method.
Speaker:You're already teaching it and you just
Speaker:needed the method to
Speaker:organize your thoughts, which is
Speaker:kind of an interesting approach to that.
Speaker:So yes, you were
Speaker:definitely lucky in that way.
Speaker:I was. I was very lucky. But then the
Speaker:next year in that
Speaker:school, they gave me a book.
Speaker:Now you have to teach it was via haemos.
Speaker:I will never forget
Speaker:because I transformed the book in
Speaker:TPRS. Yeah, I took one of the chapters
Speaker:made up stories and through
Speaker:stories. And then same thing
Speaker:happened at the end of the year. They
Speaker:told me we are not going to renew your
Speaker:contract. You don't fit.
Speaker:You don't fit in the department. So I
Speaker:said, OK, let's find
Speaker:another school. And then I was
Speaker:extremely lucky again. And I found a
Speaker:school where I was for 17 years. That's
Speaker:awesome. That's awesome.
Speaker:Yes, it's so funny. It's changed a little
Speaker:bit in the United States
Speaker:here a little bit more,
Speaker:where it's a little bit more accepting
Speaker:with CI now that Actful's
Speaker:gotten on board and such like that.
Speaker:But it's still in many, many schools.
Speaker:Those of us who use CI are
Speaker:the outliers are the outliers.
Speaker:And so it's unfortunate that way. But
Speaker:like I just got an email from
Speaker:one of my students from years
Speaker:ago. I had him as a seventh grader about
Speaker:10 years ago. And he sent me
Speaker:a message on Instagram is what
Speaker:he did. And he was saying, thank you for
Speaker:teaching me goes. I'm a nurse
Speaker:right now. And my Spanish is
Speaker:far from perfect, but I can use it. I can
Speaker:get by in my nursing job
Speaker:every day. And he goes, I took
Speaker:two more years after you in high school.
Speaker:And I don't remember
Speaker:anything from those because that
Speaker:was all the grammar classes I remember
Speaker:use because I remember the
Speaker:songs that we did and I remember
Speaker:all of these things. And it's so much
Speaker:more powerful because, you
Speaker:know, America is, you know,
Speaker:unfortunately, a monolistic country. We
Speaker:just there's not many
Speaker:bilingual people. Most of the
Speaker:bilingual people in America are
Speaker:immigrants who've come from other
Speaker:countries. And they want so
Speaker:desperately America wants to become
Speaker:bilingual, but they just
Speaker:don't know how to go about it.
Speaker:And so I think CI is a way to do that
Speaker:because it, it makes class
Speaker:less like class and more like
Speaker:actually being immersed in a language,
Speaker:which is how everybody
Speaker:acquires language anyway. And if we
Speaker:were more good at approach, because that
Speaker:grammar just does not the grammar
Speaker:approach does not work.
Speaker:We've done it for 3040 more than that.
Speaker:It's probably about 50
Speaker:years we've done that grammar
Speaker:approach and how many bilingual students
Speaker:have we made from that
Speaker:approach and keep doing the same
Speaker:thing over and over again and expecting
Speaker:different results is just
Speaker:ludicrous. So I think it's so
Speaker:important that we look for ways that
Speaker:actually connect with
Speaker:students and get them to actually
Speaker:be able to use and love the language that
Speaker:they're learning. Because
Speaker:you are saying the magic works
Speaker:is called is like we teach is to get a
Speaker:relationship with this
Speaker:because we want to create learning
Speaker:communities. So then if it's not to get
Speaker:to know your students, what
Speaker:at least that was always for
Speaker:me. I wanted to be in the classroom
Speaker:because I wanted to get to know my
Speaker:students. Like if they're
Speaker:learning Spanish, even better. I said
Speaker:many times I teach life. And
Speaker:I thought my 17 years was an
Speaker:elementary. So then it's like a beautiful
Speaker:big responsibility that
Speaker:they give you this little
Speaker:people and you want them to become nice
Speaker:human beings, decent human
Speaker:beings. So then it's through
Speaker:relationships. It's not through grammar.
Speaker:It's not through rules. It's
Speaker:using the language to get to
Speaker:know them. And that's what I did. And
Speaker:when you were saying that before, two
Speaker:things are funny. One,
Speaker:like even in elementary school, I have
Speaker:parents coming to me after
Speaker:the winter break to thank me
Speaker:because their fifth grader was the one
Speaker:who saved them in Spain
Speaker:once they left Toledo.
Speaker:Once they left Toledo, they were in in a
Speaker:small places in small
Speaker:towns, they rented a car
Speaker:and there is no English anymore. And they
Speaker:were so happy and so
Speaker:thankful that this little girl was
Speaker:the one getting the best that they
Speaker:wanted, getting the rooms that they
Speaker:wanted, asking for whatever
Speaker:they needed. And that was for me like
Speaker:that is that is better
Speaker:than the paycheck. Yes, I did
Speaker:something for someone. And then the other
Speaker:thing that came to my mind, you are
Speaker:talking about grammar.
Speaker:So I'm in Israel and I want to learn
Speaker:Hebrew. I really want to be able to
Speaker:express myself in Hebrew.
Speaker:What do I get? The best program in the
Speaker:country. Full grammar
Speaker:based oriented. We have learned
Speaker:conjugations. I know very well about 57
Speaker:verbs. They start with
Speaker:present, now with the past.
Speaker:Today we were learning the imperative and
Speaker:some future. No nouns, no
Speaker:adjective, a few other verbs.
Speaker:And it's just pure like congruent
Speaker:translation. This is how you say it in
Speaker:English. This is how
Speaker:you say it in Hebrew. Translate. Yeah, I
Speaker:always say when you do
Speaker:that way, it just sits on the
Speaker:surface of your head right here. All that
Speaker:grammar stuff sits right here, but we
Speaker:need it to be inside
Speaker:where it becomes instinct. And so I may
Speaker:know all the conjugations of a verb,
Speaker:present, past, future,
Speaker:subjunctive, passive, junctive. I might
Speaker:know all of those, but if they
Speaker:can't come naturally out of my
Speaker:mouth when I need them, then what was the
Speaker:point? And I know that with
Speaker:in German, when I took German
Speaker:in high school, we only had one German
Speaker:teacher and she had one
Speaker:German class for German one, two,
Speaker:three and four. And so she had a sit in
Speaker:rows. German one was in the
Speaker:first two rows. German two
Speaker:is in the second row. German three was
Speaker:the first two seats of the
Speaker:third row. And then German four
Speaker:was like one seat in the fourth row. And
Speaker:all she had time to do is to
Speaker:teach us the grammar and then
Speaker:move on. There was no interaction. And I
Speaker:knew how to conjugate all those German
Speaker:verbs, but I couldn't
Speaker:put them together in a sentence in real
Speaker:life practice. And so
Speaker:when I first went to Germany,
Speaker:the typical thing happens. I went to
Speaker:Germany. I spoke to them in my
Speaker:German and they spoke back to
Speaker:me in English because they knew that I
Speaker:was an American and that my
Speaker:German was, I mean, I could
Speaker:understand them, no problem. But I didn't
Speaker:have that experience of
Speaker:actually speaking in a fluent
Speaker:way with them. So they resorted. And I
Speaker:remember the second time I went to
Speaker:Germany, I was so proud
Speaker:of myself because I went to Germany. I
Speaker:spoke in German and they
Speaker:spoke German back to me. So they
Speaker:didn't do the English. And that was only,
Speaker:you know, about a year apart
Speaker:from each other, but I worked
Speaker:on that oral proficiency. And then when I
Speaker:went to France for the first
Speaker:time, the first time I went
Speaker:to France, I went for the Agin Conference
Speaker:and I took French. The last
Speaker:time I took French was 1992.
Speaker:And this was 2018. 2018 was the first
Speaker:time I went to France. So I went in
Speaker:there. I land in Toulouse
Speaker:airport. And they told me that everybody
Speaker:told me, said, this is how you have to
Speaker:get to Agin. You have
Speaker:to get out of the airport. You have to
Speaker:take a bus to the train station and you
Speaker:gotta take the train
Speaker:station and get off to Agin. Okay. So I
Speaker:go into the airport
Speaker:information booth and she's got a
Speaker:little button that says, I speak English.
Speaker:So she's got all those
Speaker:languages there. So I go to her in
Speaker:my broken French because I hadn't spoken
Speaker:French in over 30 years. So, and my
Speaker:French wasn't good to
Speaker:begin with. So I go in there. I say in my
Speaker:broken French, I don't speak
Speaker:French. I can speak German.
Speaker:I can speak English and I can speak
Speaker:Spanish. Can you please tell me in one of
Speaker:those three languages,
Speaker:how to find the bus that takes me to the
Speaker:train station. And so she
Speaker:proceeds to tell me in French
Speaker:and I'm like, Oh my gosh, I just told you
Speaker:that was the one language
Speaker:that I did not know. I understood
Speaker:what she said. So I go to the bus
Speaker:station, I go to the, where the buses are
Speaker:and it's all electronic.
Speaker:It's an automat you had to do and I
Speaker:couldn't find the right ticket. I kept
Speaker:going to the dry goes.
Speaker:It's the wrong ticket. I'm like, can you
Speaker:come and show me which
Speaker:ticket I need? All in French,
Speaker:my broken French. I get to the bus
Speaker:station, take the bus to the
Speaker:airport, to the train station.
Speaker:And then the train station, I had to pick
Speaker:the ticket. At least they
Speaker:had there. I could switch
Speaker:it to English so I could find the right
Speaker:ticket. But then I didn't
Speaker:know if I was going to miss
Speaker:the stop because they're all making the
Speaker:announcements in
Speaker:French. And I can't tell like,
Speaker:how do you pronounce a gen in French? I
Speaker:didn't know if I was
Speaker:going to be able to hear it.
Speaker:And it's a small town if I'm going to
Speaker:miss it. So I'm like, hyper
Speaker:vigilant on everything to make
Speaker:sure I get off. Then the next year I go
Speaker:to Paris and I was only in
Speaker:Paris for two days because I
Speaker:heard negative things about Paris. I
Speaker:forgive me French people, but I heard
Speaker:negative things about
Speaker:Paris. They don't like tourists. You
Speaker:know, they're really mean to
Speaker:American tourists and stuff.
Speaker:So I heard all of that. So I said, I'll
Speaker:just do two days there on my
Speaker:way to Agin. I was going to
Speaker:take the train from Paris to Agin. So I'm
Speaker:there and I speak my
Speaker:French is a little bit better at
Speaker:this point. I'm speaking my French and
Speaker:they were nice. And they
Speaker:spoke back to me in French. They
Speaker:didn't insult me. So it was really,
Speaker:really interesting. I was
Speaker:there at Karen Rowan and
Speaker:Karen Rowan, we took French classes
Speaker:together and she's like, how is this
Speaker:French rolling off your
Speaker:tongue? I said, I have no idea. I don't
Speaker:even know if I'm saying it
Speaker:correctly, but apparently they're
Speaker:understanding me and they're speaking
Speaker:back to me in French. So that
Speaker:communication is so important
Speaker:and building relationships. Because I
Speaker:think as foreigners, when
Speaker:we go visit another country,
Speaker:we are an ambassador for our own country
Speaker:and we can embrace their
Speaker:culture and show that we appreciate
Speaker:who they are as a people and a culture,
Speaker:or like many Americans do,
Speaker:completely ignore them as
Speaker:people and culture and expect them to
Speaker:speak English and do things
Speaker:the American way. And then
Speaker:that's why a lot of people just have a
Speaker:different taste for
Speaker:Americans because of that experience.
Speaker:So I think we should be ambassadors. And
Speaker:I think that, and I opened
Speaker:my mind to Paris. I really
Speaker:enjoyed it. I wish I had stayed there
Speaker:longer. I need to go back so
Speaker:I can go do some more stuff
Speaker:there. But it was just that communication
Speaker:and building
Speaker:relationships really does make
Speaker:the purpose of learning a language
Speaker:because it's not just to pass a test.
Speaker:It's not just to get
Speaker:into college. It's to be able to get to
Speaker:know more people and
Speaker:learn about them as a people,
Speaker:them as a culture, and we can all
Speaker:experience things differently that way.
Speaker:Yeah, you are totally right. And also
Speaker:like when we make the effort and we try
Speaker:to speak the language,
Speaker:they really feel it. And then they really
Speaker:embrace you and help you.
Speaker:And that also, as you said,
Speaker:it expands because if I only speak
Speaker:English here and I only
Speaker:find people that are speaking
Speaker:English or Spanish, I'm not going to be
Speaker:able to expand my
Speaker:social life with Israelis.
Speaker:Absolutely. And that's why I love just a
Speaker:plug out to the Ajaan
Speaker:Workshop conference that comes
Speaker:every end of July. If you get a chance to
Speaker:go, you don't have to speak French.
Speaker:Ajaan, the city is a
Speaker:small city. You can get by very easily.
Speaker:It's all walkable. But what
Speaker:I love about this conference,
Speaker:and it's unlike any other conference that
Speaker:I have been to, is number
Speaker:one, it embraces the French
Speaker:culture. So we have two to three hour
Speaker:lunches. So you have the
Speaker:morning sessions and then you have
Speaker:a two to three hour break. Then you have
Speaker:the afternoon evening
Speaker:sessions. So because you
Speaker:cannot do lunch in France in a half an
Speaker:hour. That is an American
Speaker:thing. You cannot do it.
Speaker:But what's great about this is we have
Speaker:people from all over the
Speaker:world. We have Asians, we have
Speaker:Africans, we have Europeans, we have
Speaker:Americans. We have all these
Speaker:people that are coming together
Speaker:and we're having conversations
Speaker:simultaneously in three or four languages
Speaker:at once. All sitting
Speaker:together. We're not trapped in a hotel
Speaker:because the conference is held in a
Speaker:school. And then we all
Speaker:spread out to the city. It's the largest
Speaker:suburb of Toulouse, but it's
Speaker:a tiny, by American standards,
Speaker:it's a really tiny, very walkable. You
Speaker:can walk from the train
Speaker:station to your hotel and we walk
Speaker:all around. We don't use Ubers. We don't
Speaker:do any of that stuff. We
Speaker:just walk around. They have
Speaker:scooters if you really want a scooter,
Speaker:but I've never needed a
Speaker:scooter. And just being able to
Speaker:communicate. I'm having a conversation
Speaker:over here in French. I'm having a
Speaker:conversation over here in
Speaker:German. I may have a conversation over
Speaker:here in Spanish, having a conversation
Speaker:over here in English.
Speaker:And we're all multilingual and we're all
Speaker:embracing that and we're
Speaker:flowing back and forth. That is the
Speaker:best experience we have in the, you know,
Speaker:the NTPRS conferences,
Speaker:which I've been to many,
Speaker:many times. They used to have the
Speaker:immersion dinners where
Speaker:you'd go and, you know, speak the
Speaker:language you want to speak during that.
Speaker:But that was a whole
Speaker:different and seemed very artificial
Speaker:way of doing it. I love them. I used to
Speaker:do the German one every
Speaker:time because I like German food
Speaker:and like speaking German. So I love doing
Speaker:that, but it was much more of an
Speaker:artificial construct
Speaker:than how natural it happens in Agin. And
Speaker:I just love that experience.
Speaker:So if you ever have a chance
Speaker:to do that, it's the end of July every
Speaker:year. I highly recommend
Speaker:doing that. You'll meet so many
Speaker:great people. You have opportunities to
Speaker:learn other language,
Speaker:observes other teachers from other
Speaker:cultures, from other countries. It's
Speaker:really a great, great, great
Speaker:experience. And Judy does an
Speaker:awesome job putting that together. She's
Speaker:tireless on that. It
Speaker:exhausts her every year. But I just
Speaker:want to say it's a really good experience
Speaker:if you get a chance. You
Speaker:know that I am mentoring right
Speaker:now a teacher from the Czech Republic.
Speaker:She teaches English. And I've been doing
Speaker:this since I retired.
Speaker:I have been doing one-to-one. I coach or
Speaker:mentor a teacher through the
Speaker:whole year or two in how to
Speaker:use all the strategies and the skills
Speaker:from TPRS because as you
Speaker:know, and as I know, it's like
Speaker:it's overwhelming at the beginning for a
Speaker:person when they get to
Speaker:know TPRS. Oh my, how I do that
Speaker:and this and that and the sitting and the
Speaker:movie talks and this and
Speaker:that. So then I've been doing
Speaker:that. And for me, it's also like a gift
Speaker:to myself that I have been
Speaker:able to share one-to-one with
Speaker:another teacher. So I met Mila in
Speaker:September through one of our
Speaker:groups, the Facebook group.
Speaker:She asked for some, like she needed some
Speaker:professional
Speaker:development, but she couldn't go.
Speaker:I don't know if she went or she couldn't
Speaker:go to the one that you were
Speaker:talking about, but she knew
Speaker:about TPRS and CI and she wanted to learn
Speaker:more. So I've been doing
Speaker:that with her. She teaches
Speaker:English. It's the first time that she's
Speaker:in a school. She used
Speaker:to have like the little,
Speaker:after a school private program, but she
Speaker:used to teach English and to
Speaker:young kids. Now she's doing
Speaker:that and it's so, it's sort of rewarding
Speaker:to me to see how I can help somebody
Speaker:understanding all the
Speaker:pieces of our methods, of what it is to
Speaker:stay about, to be, to teach
Speaker:nationally. And I also did it
Speaker:for RIFLA, the Rhode Island Foreign
Speaker:Language Association. I did
Speaker:a little conference just a
Speaker:few months ago. It was a talk. It was a
Speaker:presentation on becoming
Speaker:a comprehensive teacher,
Speaker:because it is a process. It's not that
Speaker:overnight you become a good
Speaker:TPRS or you become a natural
Speaker:teacher. It's just you create your own
Speaker:style. Like we have these
Speaker:parameters, we have these
Speaker:strategies and you develop yourself as a
Speaker:teacher. And I have become
Speaker:like now my very own Hebrew
Speaker:teacher. So after classes, I take the
Speaker:vocabulary that they taught
Speaker:us and I made up my stories.
Speaker:That's awesome.
Speaker:And I teach myself is like, this thing is
Speaker:not just boom, boom, boom.
Speaker:No, it's like what's going
Speaker:on here? They went to the market. He
Speaker:bought a computer because we
Speaker:were left those expressions
Speaker:and then connected and it doesn't work.
Speaker:You have to check it.
Speaker:But they teach these things
Speaker:as like this jaunty. So then I just
Speaker:create and you know what this is really
Speaker:is 22 years of experience
Speaker:making up stories. So I can make my
Speaker:stories in second and then spend two
Speaker:hours teaching to myself.
Speaker:And as you said, we don't learn only with
Speaker:our mind. I need to
Speaker:draw. I need to act it out.
Speaker:And then it's not to turn like it's live
Speaker:not in Hebrew. No,
Speaker:it's live not live. Yeah.
Speaker:And it's very interesting. I'm doing this
Speaker:in zoom and it's five
Speaker:hours looking at the face of a
Speaker:teacher and she shares the screen and
Speaker:write down the words and what
Speaker:they mean and how to say, how
Speaker:do you say, how do you say, and we know
Speaker:congruent translation doesn't
Speaker:go to the back of the brain.
Speaker:Absolutely. You are so right with that.
Speaker:And there's a point I
Speaker:was going to make you say
Speaker:something and I would just escape me
Speaker:about that. But I think it's very
Speaker:important to get to be able
Speaker:to, oh, that's not gonna say, you know,
Speaker:that grammar and you
Speaker:talked about having to mesh that
Speaker:grammar teaching with the book and stuff
Speaker:in the beginning and you weren't
Speaker:reelected. I have to
Speaker:currently this current school that I
Speaker:went, I left middle school and I went
Speaker:back to high school.
Speaker:So this is my second year back in high
Speaker:school. And it's very
Speaker:different from when I left high
Speaker:school, because when I left high school,
Speaker:what now it's 14 years
Speaker:ago in 2012 was my last year
Speaker:teaching in high school before I started
Speaker:back up. It was before the
Speaker:pandemic and after pandemic,
Speaker:it was a very different, it's a very
Speaker:different ballgame. But like you, I'm
Speaker:finding a way to mesh
Speaker:that the textbook with CI because I
Speaker:don't, I can't teach from the
Speaker:textbook. I tried it for three
Speaker:months at the beginning of my career and
Speaker:I sucked at it and I couldn't
Speaker:do it. So what I do like you
Speaker:is I take the vocabulary and I pick the
Speaker:most important because each
Speaker:chapter has like a hundred
Speaker:words and most of them are useless. You
Speaker:know, who cares if my kid
Speaker:knows thumbtack in Spanish? It's
Speaker:not a, it's not a high frequency word,
Speaker:but I take those, that vocabulary and
Speaker:then I make up stories
Speaker:about the students in my classroom. So I
Speaker:have a template that I use
Speaker:about what my lesson plan is
Speaker:going to look like. We do conversations
Speaker:on Monday. We do stories on Tuesday,
Speaker:Wednesday. We do readings
Speaker:on Thursday and Friday. So I have that
Speaker:template, but what I have to do every
Speaker:year is come up with
Speaker:new stories because I've got new kids in
Speaker:my classroom. So I come
Speaker:up with completely new
Speaker:stories about my kids or something funny
Speaker:that they say or what, and then I use
Speaker:that grammar and the
Speaker:vocabulary that we're working on in those
Speaker:stories. And that's what works really
Speaker:well and the kids love
Speaker:it. Last year I had a kid, a freshman
Speaker:kid, he's like, why do I
Speaker:look forward to these stories? I
Speaker:hate reading, but I like reading in
Speaker:Spanish. And I'm like, so I asked, I
Speaker:already knew what the answer
Speaker:was, what, what the difference was. And I
Speaker:kept going, okay, so why? What is
Speaker:different between the
Speaker:stuff you read in English and the stuff
Speaker:that you're reading in Spanish? And he
Speaker:couldn't figure it out.
Speaker:And another kid goes, these stories that
Speaker:are about us and they're
Speaker:funny stories about us. You're
Speaker:taking things from our lives and you're
Speaker:putting them in it. It's
Speaker:just so true. And one of my best
Speaker:stories I came up with in, I've been
Speaker:teaching now 24 years was one
Speaker:because a kid made an error,
Speaker:not an error, but he, um, he was
Speaker:circumlocuting to the best of his
Speaker:ability. It was the Spanish two
Speaker:class. And I teach at a section of our
Speaker:school where they are
Speaker:learning a career at the same time.
Speaker:So it's called career tech, uh, career
Speaker:tech education. So, um,
Speaker:this kid was in the culinary
Speaker:program. So he takes half his classes are
Speaker:in culinary and then he's
Speaker:taking Spanish. So he takes,
Speaker:he's at my part of the school two periods
Speaker:a day. So I asked him, do
Speaker:you want to be a chef? He goes,
Speaker:yes. I go, do you want to have your own
Speaker:restaurant? He says, yes. I said, and
Speaker:this is all in Spanish
Speaker:and I'm saying, so what kind of
Speaker:restaurant do you want? Do you want an
Speaker:elegant restaurant? Do you
Speaker:want a fast food restaurant? He goes, I
Speaker:want an elegant restaurant. Okay.
Speaker:Perfect. What do you
Speaker:want to serve? Like what type of food?
Speaker:Well, he didn't know how to
Speaker:say, um, steak. So he said,
Speaker:bucca cow. Now I knew what that meant. I
Speaker:knew what he was going
Speaker:at. Stirkum locution, right?
Speaker:It's perfect. That's what you want kids
Speaker:to be able to do. And they
Speaker:can't use a word. He didn't
Speaker:go to English. He took any other word
Speaker:that he already knew and
Speaker:he took it, but I twisted it
Speaker:and made a whole story about him being a
Speaker:chef at a elegant
Speaker:restaurant, but they don't serve steak.
Speaker:Their customers are cows. And so they
Speaker:serve all this other kind of
Speaker:food. They serve grass pizza
Speaker:and all this other kind of food that cows
Speaker:would like to eat. And
Speaker:so it came from that,
Speaker:his circumlocution mistake, they're not
Speaker:knowing the word be steak.
Speaker:And if he had said, if he knew
Speaker:the word be steak, then we would not have
Speaker:gotten that story out of that. But
Speaker:because he made that
Speaker:circumlocution, it gave me a whole nother
Speaker:idea to write a story. And
Speaker:it was hilarious. And the
Speaker:kids liked that. And that's how you make
Speaker:those connections and
Speaker:build those relationships. And
Speaker:they make some want to learn the
Speaker:vocabulary because they want
Speaker:to know how the story ends.
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know what you just
Speaker:reminded me Susan Gross, we
Speaker:don't teach the book. We teach
Speaker:the students. Yes. If the students are
Speaker:the center and we really want to do that,
Speaker:like, yeah, we don't,
Speaker:but that's the sad part that grammar
Speaker:teaches the book. That's the students
Speaker:don't need to be there.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly. And I know my life would
Speaker:be so much easier if I could
Speaker:just reuse the stories year
Speaker:after year after year, as I can less than
Speaker:plan really quick. But,
Speaker:but it takes me so much time
Speaker:and people say, why do you keep writing
Speaker:the stories over and over
Speaker:again? I write the stories
Speaker:because I need to connect with the
Speaker:students that are in front of me. And I
Speaker:do make my work a little
Speaker:bit easier. I write a story for level one
Speaker:and I write a story for
Speaker:level two and I write a story
Speaker:for level three and I mix my kids. So I
Speaker:might have a couple of kids
Speaker:from period one in there and a
Speaker:couple of kids from period two in there.
Speaker:So I don't have to write one
Speaker:story for every class period,
Speaker:but still it's time consuming, but I
Speaker:think it's well worth it
Speaker:because the benefits I get from
Speaker:that and what my kids can learn from that
Speaker:is so much more
Speaker:incredible. Like for me that is like
Speaker:now that I'm retired and I feel sad that
Speaker:I never publish my
Speaker:collection of stories, but that was
Speaker:like what always stopped me from
Speaker:publishing because every
Speaker:year I came up with a little
Speaker:different story with some modified
Speaker:something here. And I
Speaker:wanted the teachers to know that
Speaker:if I publish the stories could be good
Speaker:for reading, but not for
Speaker:teaching because then it's,
Speaker:it's like, it's not your story. It's not
Speaker:your students. And as you
Speaker:said, I did the same thing.
Speaker:I do remember once in one of my classes,
Speaker:I was teaching, it was
Speaker:maybe about the body. And so
Speaker:then it was about cleaning and washing or
Speaker:whatever, but those
Speaker:were like the words, like
Speaker:being dirty and having to clean. And then
Speaker:I was asking that the
Speaker:students, because I know that most
Speaker:of them had pets. So then if it's
Speaker:somebody went with a pet for
Speaker:a walk and the pet came back
Speaker:totally dirty. So they had to clean the
Speaker:dog and the dog didn't
Speaker:like to be cleaned. So the dog
Speaker:beat them, something like that. And then
Speaker:I said, okay, in the same as
Speaker:you also, I wanted to say that
Speaker:that we learned so early in TPRS is
Speaker:called that we need to have
Speaker:routines. I was like that too.
Speaker:I have my students for three days in a
Speaker:row. So they one was the new
Speaker:vocabulary, the repetitions,
Speaker:the personal stories, collecting
Speaker:information. They two was
Speaker:creating the story and finishing
Speaker:writing the story. That was the homework
Speaker:to illustrate the
Speaker:story. And then the third day
Speaker:was writing, was reading and playing and
Speaker:whatever. So then we were in
Speaker:this part where I was fishing
Speaker:and then one is still in board with
Speaker:tears. He had a cat.
Speaker:The cat was always dirty.
Speaker:And cats cleaned themselves. So then I
Speaker:took advantage of that.
Speaker:I have to teach them to
Speaker:clean oneself, not just to clean
Speaker:something. And then we were
Speaker:talking about that. And then
Speaker:it's unusual because cats usually clean
Speaker:themselves. So no, they
Speaker:think that we had two cats.
Speaker:They got one, the female cat and the male
Speaker:cat. But then the male cat died.
Speaker:And the male cat used to clean the male
Speaker:cat. So after the other one
Speaker:died, that cat didn't know
Speaker:how to clean himself. Didn't want to
Speaker:clean himself. And has
Speaker:been there for three years.
Speaker:So then, as you said, like, who is not
Speaker:going to laugh with you in
Speaker:class when you are fishing
Speaker:and creating this story that is about
Speaker:this specific cat? It's
Speaker:only that cat. So then
Speaker:I think that that's also the joy of
Speaker:teaching the way that we
Speaker:teach. We teach in the,
Speaker:we create this relationship. They are
Speaker:important. Their
Speaker:experiences are part of our stories.
Speaker:We validate them. And then they remember.
Speaker:One, because it's
Speaker:theirs. And second, because,
Speaker:as we know, we need to make, I never
Speaker:thought about making
Speaker:anything bizarre or ridiculous,
Speaker:but funny. Yes. Yes. And the Latin
Speaker:American culture has
Speaker:things that are so bizarre that
Speaker:you don't need to create. Yeah. Our
Speaker:culture has everything
Speaker:in it. Pick any country.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely. And I think it's so
Speaker:powerful because when
Speaker:we're teaching to those kids,
Speaker:like I just asked as a reflection
Speaker:question last, was it last week? I can't
Speaker:remember. It's really
Speaker:recently. I asked them what their
Speaker:favorite story was of the year so far.
Speaker:Because we at my school,
Speaker:we teach a whole year in a semester. So I
Speaker:lose my kids in three
Speaker:weeks. So at winter break,
Speaker:they go, you know, after winter break,
Speaker:they go to a new classes so they don't
Speaker:have Spanish anymore.
Speaker:So I asked them, so we've done, you know,
Speaker:17 weeks of stories. And so
Speaker:I asked them and every kid
Speaker:wrote the story. They knew the story
Speaker:about themselves and it
Speaker:may have been their story
Speaker:came way at the beginning of the year,
Speaker:but that's the one that
Speaker:stuck with them the most.
Speaker:And, you know, like if I wrote the
Speaker:stories 10 years ago, TikTok
Speaker:would not have been a thing.
Speaker:But what's in a lot of my stories now,
Speaker:TikTok, because a lot of my
Speaker:kids are on TikTok. They either
Speaker:watch TikTok or they are making videos
Speaker:for TikTok or they're doing
Speaker:their dances for TikTok. So you
Speaker:can't, it's like a textbook. When a
Speaker:textbook gets published, at
Speaker:the moment it got published,
Speaker:all the information in there was current.
Speaker:But we keep textbooks for
Speaker:seven to 10 years and it's
Speaker:no longer current anymore when they're,
Speaker:you know, the stuff that
Speaker:they're talking about is not as
Speaker:popular. So that's another thing. When I
Speaker:adapt our stories to our
Speaker:kids, we can update them with
Speaker:the current culture. And although you
Speaker:might not be able to, if you
Speaker:want to kind of make it a little
Speaker:bit easier for yourself, you can keep the
Speaker:same skeleton of a story
Speaker:and then just adapt it to
Speaker:the kids that are in your class. That
Speaker:also works. But I just have
Speaker:so much fun. I truly enjoy
Speaker:writing stories about my kids and my kids
Speaker:just like them. We just
Speaker:made one the other day.
Speaker:We did. And this is why I love chat GPT
Speaker:for. I use this for
Speaker:chat GPT, which is amazing.
Speaker:I came up with a story about the terrible
Speaker:date because we were teaching, let's see,
Speaker:going to the mall, you know, and
Speaker:activities, playing the
Speaker:clarin, playing music,
Speaker:singing and dancing. So we made a date.
Speaker:They went to do an open
Speaker:mic and the date was horrible
Speaker:at the stuff. And so it was just a funny
Speaker:little story. But we put
Speaker:kids in this, in that story and
Speaker:kids, my kids are freshmen and sophomore,
Speaker:so they're all in that
Speaker:dating thing. So they
Speaker:kind of know what that is. And so it was
Speaker:really fun and
Speaker:interesting. But then I took my story
Speaker:because I had my skeleton of a story in
Speaker:my brain and my skeletons
Speaker:always are five steps. It's
Speaker:characters, problem, failure, success. So
Speaker:it's four steps because the
Speaker:fifth one is oh no, oh no,
Speaker:I own Problima. That's the fifth one. So
Speaker:there's four steps. So then I had chat
Speaker:GPT make comic strip
Speaker:pictures of each part of that story. So
Speaker:the characters, the
Speaker:problem, the failure, the success.
Speaker:And I took pictures of my kids from my
Speaker:class pictures. They know
Speaker:their pictures they took
Speaker:in our attendance program. It's got their
Speaker:little faces. I didn't put
Speaker:their names in there. So they
Speaker:didn't know, you know, they didn't know.
Speaker:It's not like chat GPT is memorizing my
Speaker:kids. But I uploaded
Speaker:their pictures in there and made cartoon
Speaker:versions of them. And I put
Speaker:that into a story. So we've got
Speaker:this girl and this boy going on a date
Speaker:and their kids in my
Speaker:classroom and they look like kids in
Speaker:my classroom. And last year we had a kid
Speaker:who liked Elmo for whatever reason. And
Speaker:the other kid wanted
Speaker:his Elmo. So he was going to steal his
Speaker:Elmo. So I put the story, I made the
Speaker:story up about the kids
Speaker:with stealing the Elmo and I put it in
Speaker:chat GPT to make the pictures and it
Speaker:looked like the kids
Speaker:they could tell right away who it was.
Speaker:And he's sneaking in the
Speaker:boy's bedroom while he's sleeping
Speaker:with his Elmo and he steals it out. Chat
Speaker:GPT made these pictures for
Speaker:me and it was really a fun
Speaker:experience. And again, it's another way
Speaker:of personalization. You
Speaker:know, I can draw, but I
Speaker:like to draw animals. I draw realistic. I
Speaker:don't draw comics. So it
Speaker:would, I could not have ever done
Speaker:it. And in the olden days I used to have
Speaker:kids do it. I would say,
Speaker:here's my story for Spanish too.
Speaker:And I'd give it to my Spanish one kid and
Speaker:say, who is a good artist and
Speaker:you draw the picture for me.
Speaker:And that's what I would do. And I would
Speaker:scan them so they were
Speaker:digital and I could keep them.
Speaker:But chat GPT is so much more efficient
Speaker:and I can make really good
Speaker:pictures for it. And it's funny.
Speaker:And sometimes the pictures that chat GPT
Speaker:comes up with are funny.
Speaker:Like one girl knows, goes,
Speaker:why does she have four fingers on one
Speaker:hand and three fingers on the other?
Speaker:And we just made fun of that.
Speaker:We let that go and just say,
Speaker:so it was, you know, we just made fun of
Speaker:it and it makes for fun
Speaker:things. So it's another way to
Speaker:personalize. And you know, also Scott,
Speaker:you are bringing another
Speaker:topic that is very important.
Speaker:That is artificial intelligence. We
Speaker:cannot deny it. We cannot leave it on the
Speaker:side. We need to use
Speaker:it. We need to use it in our advantage.
Speaker:So, and I totally agree
Speaker:with you. I don't think that we
Speaker:should have artificial intelligence to
Speaker:write the stories. But it's like to
Speaker:compliment whatever we
Speaker:think that we need to compliment. So
Speaker:yeah, that is perfect. This
Speaker:Czech teacher that I'm mentoring,
Speaker:she did it for Halloween, but it was not
Speaker:for teaching. It was for
Speaker:reading. So she did it with,
Speaker:I think that is with Gemini. She said
Speaker:like, she gave all the names of the
Speaker:students and they were
Speaker:going to visit like a house of horrors
Speaker:for Halloween. And then
Speaker:she gave the vocabulary
Speaker:that they knew and this created for her
Speaker:with images. The kids
Speaker:going from room to room in this
Speaker:house, being terrified by monsters. And
Speaker:the characters were the
Speaker:students and they were
Speaker:moving to one section to the other one.
Speaker:And it was a really nice
Speaker:exercise. And then if we can do
Speaker:it that simply, I think that is okay,
Speaker:because if not, one thing that can happen
Speaker:is that as a teacher,
Speaker:you will have to spend more time
Speaker:correcting what the program that
Speaker:application does for you,
Speaker:because sometimes like not exactly what
Speaker:you want. So then, oh, you
Speaker:need to give so many specific
Speaker:instructions that if you are going to
Speaker:spend that much time doing
Speaker:that better write the story.
Speaker:But we need, since the students are using
Speaker:it and we are working with
Speaker:younger kids that are in,
Speaker:like you mentioned TikTok, we need to go
Speaker:with where they are. We
Speaker:need to meet them where they
Speaker:are, not only the knowledge of the
Speaker:Spanish or the language,
Speaker:but where they are as people,
Speaker:where they are as a person, what is that
Speaker:interest them? What is the data doing?
Speaker:Absolutely. I use it as a teacher's
Speaker:assistant. So it saves me lots of time
Speaker:because when I need to make
Speaker:a quiz, I'm really bad at making up
Speaker:questions because my
Speaker:questions kind of follow the same
Speaker:patterns and the same answers all the
Speaker:same time. So I will type up
Speaker:my story in chat GPT that I'm
Speaker:going to use. And I'll say I need 20
Speaker:questions. I need them not to be, you
Speaker:know, don't give away
Speaker:any answers in the questions, but I also
Speaker:need at least 20% of them
Speaker:to be inference questions.
Speaker:So they have to think a little bit more.
Speaker:I need them at the A1
Speaker:level of language because these
Speaker:kids are low. And so, and I want them in
Speaker:English and then they come up with my
Speaker:questions, my answers,
Speaker:everything. All I do is put that in my,
Speaker:you know, on my test. So like, I'll come
Speaker:up with the stories,
Speaker:but they can come up with the questions
Speaker:because yes, it's so much
Speaker:easier. And I was going to show
Speaker:you, I found some of those pictures that
Speaker:I made. I was going to share
Speaker:with you. So here's one picture
Speaker:with the kids, um, stealing the Elmo in
Speaker:the middle of the night. So
Speaker:it was really a funny picture
Speaker:there. And then we had another story with
Speaker:a girl going on a date. So
Speaker:she was going on a date with
Speaker:um, Big Bird. So this was just like the
Speaker:girl and she was going on a
Speaker:date with a Big Bird. And at
Speaker:the end of the date, she thought, um, you
Speaker:know, Big Bird wanted to show
Speaker:her all to all of her friends.
Speaker:Um, so, um, she's always, so here's the
Speaker:picture of her on her date with Big Bird.
Speaker:And then she was going to go, um, and
Speaker:she, uh, Big Bird wanted to
Speaker:introduce her to all of her,
Speaker:all of his friends, but she chose that
Speaker:she didn't like Big Bird.
Speaker:So she ended up going home
Speaker:with Elmo. So, um, so it's, it's, this is
Speaker:what chat GPT came up with. And I
Speaker:uploaded the picture
Speaker:of the student, Alina in there, and it
Speaker:looks just like her, but we get this fun
Speaker:little story in there
Speaker:that I could do and use with my kids. And
Speaker:it becomes so fun. So as
Speaker:Pia Dada says, don't use it
Speaker:to write the stories, use your own ideas
Speaker:for that, but you can
Speaker:use it to supplement to be,
Speaker:as I say, it's my cheapest teacher's
Speaker:assistant I could ever
Speaker:have. I paid 20 bucks a month
Speaker:and I use it so many times or another way
Speaker:that I use it. It's
Speaker:really helpful. I love, um,
Speaker:uh, now I'm forgetting the names and then
Speaker:I'm to Lori Clark's and,
Speaker:um, Michelle Whaley's idea of
Speaker:embedded readings. Oh yes. So I will have
Speaker:my 300 word reading and I
Speaker:will tell chat GPT, here's my
Speaker:reading. I need four more versions, each
Speaker:one more simplified than the other. And
Speaker:the first one should
Speaker:be just the basics. Put it down to a five
Speaker:sentence story and then build up from
Speaker:there. And then in a
Speaker:matter of minutes, I have got all four
Speaker:total of five now versions
Speaker:and I'll print each of those
Speaker:out on a piece of paper, put it in a
Speaker:packet for my kids. And I'll tell my
Speaker:kids, pick the one where
Speaker:you feel the most comfortable starting
Speaker:for some kids. It's the really
Speaker:easy one. And for other kids,
Speaker:it might be one of the middle ones. And
Speaker:one kid might be able to
Speaker:go straight to the big one.
Speaker:Yep. But that is an assessment for me. It
Speaker:lets me know right away
Speaker:where they are in there. And I
Speaker:didn't have to do it because it would
Speaker:take me hours to come up
Speaker:with those embedded readings
Speaker:otherwise. And my favorite thing with the
Speaker:embedded reading is to
Speaker:take a piece of literature.
Speaker:So I take a section of Don Quixote and I
Speaker:want my level ones
Speaker:because let's be honest,
Speaker:most of your level one kids are not going
Speaker:to go to college and
Speaker:take the class Don Quixote.
Speaker:They're just not going to. Even my friend
Speaker:who's from Argentina, she
Speaker:sweated out that class. She
Speaker:took that class all semester learning
Speaker:about Don Quixote. She goes it was the
Speaker:hardest class she ever
Speaker:did. And she was a native speaker of
Speaker:Spanish. So I take this, the scene with
Speaker:him fighting the windmills
Speaker:when Don Quixote is fighting the
Speaker:windmills. And I take like three
Speaker:paragraphs. And not only is it
Speaker:written in Spanish, but it's written in
Speaker:15th century Spanish. So
Speaker:it's like I call Shakespearean
Speaker:Spanish. It's in old fashioned Spanish.
Speaker:But I'll put that in there
Speaker:and I'll have Chat GPT come up
Speaker:with four or five different versions so
Speaker:that my kids can actually
Speaker:get to the point of actually
Speaker:reading. It's two or three paragraphs in
Speaker:the real book. But they're
Speaker:experiencing the actual piece
Speaker:of literature. It takes us a while to get
Speaker:there, but we can get
Speaker:there and do it. And so I love
Speaker:doing it with things like that. I also
Speaker:have a whole bunch of myths from each
Speaker:country. So I have a book
Speaker:of Latin American myths and there's a
Speaker:myth from every country in
Speaker:Latin America. And they're only
Speaker:two to three pages long. And some of my
Speaker:level two kids could
Speaker:probably read it straight out of the
Speaker:book without a problem. But most cannot.
Speaker:So I do the embedded
Speaker:readings. But Chat GPT has helped
Speaker:doing that. And it makes it so much fun.
Speaker:And another thing I'll tell you to
Speaker:recommend with Chat GPT.
Speaker:Again, I have my story. I have a lot of
Speaker:special needs kids. And so
Speaker:having the vocabulary glossed
Speaker:at the bottom of the page or even worse
Speaker:at the back of the book, kids have
Speaker:trouble tracking when
Speaker:a lot of special needs kids can't track.
Speaker:So they'll go, okay, there's
Speaker:this word. It's got a little
Speaker:asterisk. I'll go to the bottom of the
Speaker:page. I'll see. Okay. That's what it
Speaker:means. Now where did it
Speaker:was I? And they can't find where they
Speaker:were back in there or worse.
Speaker:It's at the back of the book.
Speaker:They have to go. So what I like to do is
Speaker:I put the words, the
Speaker:English words that I think kids
Speaker:are going to struggle with in parentheses
Speaker:right next to the word.
Speaker:So I'll type up my story.
Speaker:And then I'll go into Chat GPT and I'll
Speaker:say, can you please
Speaker:boldface the following words
Speaker:and right next to them, put the English
Speaker:translation in parentheses. And then I
Speaker:just read through it
Speaker:and list the words that I want to do. And
Speaker:it does it really easily
Speaker:where it would have taken me a
Speaker:lot longer to go back, boldface all the
Speaker:words and go back and insert
Speaker:translations. And so that's
Speaker:another way to be able to do that and to
Speaker:scaffold some readings for
Speaker:kids so that they can become
Speaker:more accessible. So Chat GPT as a
Speaker:teacher's assistant is so
Speaker:useful. It is because like
Speaker:we didn't have that when I was teaching
Speaker:and with elementary also
Speaker:you need to be more careful.
Speaker:But for me it was the same thing.
Speaker:Teaching to them is like we
Speaker:need to use what they can use.
Speaker:And we need to also allow them to use
Speaker:technology in a good way. So I
Speaker:had always at the end of each
Speaker:unit what I used to call my tech project
Speaker:that it was just an animated
Speaker:slide or create a slideshow
Speaker:where you could link the slides in a way
Speaker:that if it's wrong goes back to the
Speaker:beginning and if it's
Speaker:right you go to the next one. So it is
Speaker:also important for us as
Speaker:teachers to teach them how
Speaker:to use it, how to use these apps that we
Speaker:have now, these applications
Speaker:that are so good not to do our
Speaker:job but to help us doing our job. And for
Speaker:them to do. Exactly. Very
Speaker:very helpful. Okay we're coming
Speaker:close to the end. Oh it flies. I know the
Speaker:time doesn't it? It does
Speaker:fly. I remember that lunch we
Speaker:did. Where were we when we had that lunch
Speaker:together? Oh in Washington.
Speaker:That was the last time that we
Speaker:saw each other in person. Ten years ago.
Speaker:Is it that long ago? Yes.
Speaker:The conference in close to
Speaker:Washington and we had that really great
Speaker:lunch. Yes. I always did that in the
Speaker:conferences. I try to find
Speaker:people like only one or two persons just
Speaker:let's have a really let's
Speaker:get to know each other because
Speaker:we read each other, we use each other's
Speaker:materials, we know who we are but we
Speaker:don't know each other.
Speaker:So then I used to do that always in the
Speaker:conferences, have lunches with one or two
Speaker:people and just okay
Speaker:they're new. Yeah that was awesome. I
Speaker:remember and like you said
Speaker:it went so fast. So let's just
Speaker:we close up here. Do you have any advice
Speaker:for any new CI teachers out there?
Speaker:Yes. It's like when you are learning to
Speaker:swim. We are scared but we do it. So yes
Speaker:it is a little scary,
Speaker:it is a little overwhelming, it's so
Speaker:different from whatever but
Speaker:do it and and the same thing.
Speaker:When you want to learn to swim you don't
Speaker:jump into the deepest part
Speaker:of the pool. You go on the
Speaker:border and you sit with the little kids
Speaker:and you just get wet first
Speaker:and then you walk a little
Speaker:inside and you also hold the border and
Speaker:then you go there. So then
Speaker:just do the same. Take it easy,
Speaker:go slowly, get wet first and then start
Speaker:moving deeper and deeper
Speaker:as you feel more comfortable
Speaker:because I do remember what Blaine always
Speaker:said but comprehensively but
Speaker:communicative teaching
Speaker:languages is better than ground. It's
Speaker:true and he also said that I remember
Speaker:always says anything
Speaker:worth doing is worth doing poorly at
Speaker:first. We don't whatever we do
Speaker:when we're learning something
Speaker:new we're always bad at it when we start
Speaker:but you get better at it
Speaker:because anything worth doing
Speaker:you're going to start badly at it and
Speaker:then you're going to work at it and get
Speaker:better and better at
Speaker:it. I also thought for the new people is
Speaker:like when we started 20
Speaker:years, 25 years ago it was
Speaker:less information in general available. So
Speaker:then we had like mostly
Speaker:it was Blaine and then with
Speaker:Lori and then Maeda we were producing
Speaker:more things and then Karl
Speaker:Gaff but right now is a very big
Speaker:amount of information. So don't get
Speaker:intimidated pick one. And we have a lot
Speaker:more options. We have
Speaker:a lot more options to implement. See how
Speaker:you've got picture talk
Speaker:and movie talk. You got story
Speaker:yeah you know this. But I just try one by
Speaker:one and keep the ones that
Speaker:you feel comfortable with.
Speaker:Like that's the other thing. My really
Speaker:really advice don't think
Speaker:that you have to do everything.
Speaker:Like I used to do movie talk with third
Speaker:graders because I wanted
Speaker:more visuals. I wanted more
Speaker:like these little things very few walls
Speaker:what's going on. I realized
Speaker:that and then in fifth grade
Speaker:I used less movie talk. We read more. We
Speaker:did more theater. They had
Speaker:more language. So don't think
Speaker:that you have to do everything all the
Speaker:time with all classes with
Speaker:all graders. Choose which one is
Speaker:more appropriate for your students for
Speaker:the level that you are
Speaker:teaching for the size of the class
Speaker:and just the only thing is yes master
Speaker:questioning. Yes that is
Speaker:the most important one of my
Speaker:my first presentations was
Speaker:stop talking learn to ask.
Speaker:Don't say anything. Ask questions. Ask
Speaker:questions all the time.
Speaker:Keep those brains engaged.
Speaker:Absolutely. That's some great advice.
Speaker:Great advice. So everybody
Speaker:that is a wrap on today's
Speaker:episode of comprehend this. A huge thanks
Speaker:to Pia D'Ave for
Speaker:joining us and reminding us
Speaker:that teaching languages isn't just about
Speaker:input. It's about
Speaker:curiosity, humanity, history, and a
Speaker:willingness to keep learning long after
Speaker:the lesson ends. If you're
Speaker:walking away thinking wow
Speaker:I want to grow up to be Pia D'Ave just
Speaker:like me trust me you are not
Speaker:alone. Take that inspiration
Speaker:as your micro win of the day and before
Speaker:you run back to your grading
Speaker:pile don't forget to subscribe
Speaker:leave a quick review and share the
Speaker:episode with that colleague who still
Speaker:thinks CI is a trend
Speaker:instead of a brain-based reality. You can
Speaker:catch the full interview
Speaker:live on YouTube or grab the
Speaker:replay on your favorite podcast app
Speaker:whatever fits between your planning
Speaker:periods and your emergency
Speaker:coffee refills. Until next time keep the
Speaker:stories flowing ditch the
Speaker:drill sheets trust the process
Speaker:and I'll see you on the next episode of
Speaker:comprehend this.
Speaker:Bye-bye Pia D'Ave. Bye-bye
