Episode 15

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Published on:

14th Dec 2025

Episode 15: “Tech That Doesn’t Suck the Life Out of CI”

If you've ever wondered which tech tools actually support CI and which ones slowly drain your will to teach, this episode breaks down the essential truth about “Tech That Doesn’t Suck the Life Out of CI.”

Take the CI Proficiency Quiz and find out your level at https://imim.us/ciquiz.

In this episode, we unpack the wild world of edtech through real teacher stories, rage-quit confessions, and practical examples of tools that genuinely help acquisition without overwhelming your classroom.

Grab the CI Survival Kit at https://imim.us/kit to get monthly resources that actually support comprehensible, low-prep teaching.

#comprehensibleinput #CItech #languageacquisition #worldlanguagepd #CIteaching #comprehendthispodcast #teachlanguages #CIstrategies #edtechtips #teacherlife

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Host: Scott Benedict — Immediate Immersion

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Transcript
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(upbeat music)

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Good morning, everybody.

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How's everybody doing today?

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Welcome to the "Comprehend This" podcast.

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So, okay, picture this.

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You're all set for your CI,

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beautifully planned lesson,

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compelling input, clear

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targets, all the good stuff,

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and then your tech

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decides it's auditioning

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for a horror movie.

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If this feels

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personal, welcome to the club.

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Today's episode is all about tech

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that doesn't suck the life out of CI.

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And I brought in two

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fantastic humans to help.

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First up, Noemi Rodriguez-Grimshaw,

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award-winning educator, tech whisperer,

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and the only person I

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know who can make AI sound

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like it's not about to sabotage us.

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And joining her, she's

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not with us just yet,

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but hoping she'll join us

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later on, is Amina Thornton.

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She's a middle school CI

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warrior, conference hopper,

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and living proof that if your tech

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survives sixth graders,

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it can survive anything.

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We're breaking down

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which tools actually help,

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which ones deserve the recycling bin,

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and why we've all rage quit

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at mid-lesson at least once.

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Let's get into it

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after these short messages.

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Ever feel like you're

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clinging to the edge

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of your teacher planner,

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just hoping today's

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lesson magically appears?

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Enter the CI Survival

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Kit, a monthly membership

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made for teachers who

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love comprehensible input,

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but also love not reinventing the wheel

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every Sunday night.

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Each month you get

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fresh, ready-to-use lessons,

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time-saving tools, and

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just enough structure

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to keep your teaching life together.

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No stress, no guilt, just monthly help

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from someone who gets it.

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Sign up at mm.us.survival,

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and let the Survival Kit do

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the heavy lifting for once.

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Welcome to "Comprehend This,"

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real talk for real language teachers.

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No drills, no dry

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theory, just honest stories,

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practical ideas, and a

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reminder you're not alone

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in the CI trenches.

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Let's dive in.

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And welcome everybody, welcome back.

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I'm sorry I was just

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emailing with our other guests

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who's having trouble logging on,

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so I appreciate your patience.

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So right now we've got Noemi on.

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Noemi, go ahead and tell us

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a little bit about yourself.

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Hi everyone.

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So my name is Noemi Rodriguez.

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I hail from the great,

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amazing state of New Jersey,

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born and raised here with

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family roots in Galicia, Spain.

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I've been teaching now

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for over 20 years, Spanish,

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in particular the high school students,

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and then prior to that middle school.

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And I've also dabbled in elementary,

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also English language learning as well.

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So a little bit of everything.

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I'm at team_logramos on social media,

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and just happy to support

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world language teachers,

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both near and far.

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Awesome, we're so glad

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to have you this morning.

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And we've been talking behind the scenes

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before we started about

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tech and AI especially.

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So let me know, what's your first,

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your go-to tech tool that you go,

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your go-to one?

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So I am a big fan of designing

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and customizing your own GPTs.

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So I've been doing that now

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for about a year and a half,

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where I'll log into chat GPT,

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and I will use one of the

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custom GPTs that I've created

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for my own planning and

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resource creation purposes.

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But the custom GPTs, which is great,

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I create them, I do pay to have chat GPT

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help me create these,

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but they're accessible to anyone

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who has a chat GPT account for free.

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So the custom GPTs that

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I have that I love to use

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are the acquisition driven language

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instruction assistant,

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the novice text creator, the

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authentic resource locator,

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because I love using authentic resource

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and making it comprehensible

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and breaking it down for students.

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So these are just a few

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that I've dabbled with,

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that I've created with the intention

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of not only supporting myself,

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but also supporting

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other language teachers

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that are out there.

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And they're super easy to

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find if you use chat GPT,

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you go to the custom GPT bar,

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and then if you type in my name,

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a whole bunch will pop

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up that are just public

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and accessible for anyone to check out.

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So that's been my primary go-to

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with lesson plan

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resources and image generation.

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And I've been dabbling a

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lot with Google, Gemini,

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and Nano Banana, and that technology.

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So just trying to keep it

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light, fresh, comprehensible,

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and also really

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engaging for the students.

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Awesome, awesome, awesome.

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And we've got Amina on with us.

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How are you doing this morning, Amina?

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I'm doing well.

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I have to use my phone.

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I don't know why I

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can't get on with my laptop,

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but can you guys hear me?

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We can hear you perfectly, yes, awesome.

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Okay.

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Tell us a little bit about yourself

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since you're here with us.

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Hi, my name is Amina Thornton.

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I've been teaching middle

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school Spanish since 2002

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at the school that I went to school with.

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I have been doing CI for about 10 years.

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So I still consider

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myself new with the CI.

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I do have two colleagues who

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were kind of getting on board.

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So it's little things here and there

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that starting to work with them.

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So we are, as I say, a work in progress.

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Awesome, awesome, awesome.

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So glad to have you.

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And I hate to put you

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on the spot right away,

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but what's your go-to tech

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tool that you like to use?

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So I don't use chat GPT.

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My colleague does.

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Because we are Microsoft, I use Copilot.

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So I throw things into

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Copilot to see what ideas come up,

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how to make games, or

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not games, but lessons.

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More entertaining, not entertaining,

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but more not so boring

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where their eyes roll back

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in the back of their head

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and it's not always stories.

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Yep, great, great.

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And I'll tell you mine.

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I do use chat GPT a lot and

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we'll talk more about that.

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But where I wanted to talk about was

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something that I use.

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I've been using it for years

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and I've now even using it even more.

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I used to use it only for quizzes

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and now I use it for

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everything possible under the sun.

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And that is formative.com.

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So here's the link to it, formative,

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there for everybody who wants to see.

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I love this.

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It is designed as an assessment tool,

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but I use it for everything.

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I use it to replace

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Canvas in my thing and Google,

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what's it?

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Google Classroom, I replace everything.

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I put my warmups in there.

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I put all my practices in there.

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I put in reflection questions in there.

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Exit tickets are in there.

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And I do that now because

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it tracks everything for me.

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I can assign a standard to it

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and I can go through

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and look at by class,

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which standards are being hit or not.

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I can look at it by student

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to see which standards

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are being hit or not.

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And it's got so many different ways

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that kids can put their information in.

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So our school pays for quizzes.

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And I don't really like quizzes.

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It's a little bit limited compared to

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what formative can do.

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And it seems everything is more gamified.

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It's kind of a little bit

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more like games for everything.

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And it's great for that.

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But I want formative to be

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a little bit more serious

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where I can do it and I have

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more ways I can use formative.

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I can do drag and drop.

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So I do for songs, I do close activities.

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So there's a word bank

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and they just have to drag

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and drop right on in there.

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We used to use, now I'm

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gonna forget the name.

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Microsoft took it away.

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What was it called?

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Flipgrid.

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They took it away.

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I couldn't find a

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reasonable replacement for it,

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but formative allows them to upload

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videos of themselves.

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They can record right with informative

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videos of themselves.

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So I can put a question in there

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that they have to

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answer verbally in that way.

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They can do audio, upload audio.

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There's short answer.

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There's essay questions.

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There's multiple

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choice, true and the false.

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There's matching.

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There's all these different ways that

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they can put things in.

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They can upload files if they wanna,

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if it's a PDF or something.

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So everything I can

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see, and I have a record,

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it saves it all in there.

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I have it in there.

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If it's a multiple choice question

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or any type of question, and I say,

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oh, these four kids

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got, they put this answer

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and it's a wrong answer.

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I can click on all four of those kids.

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I can type out one response why that

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answer is not correct.

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And it sends it all to them right away.

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If they have a question

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during a quiz or any assignment,

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they don't have to get

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up and out of their chair,

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announce the whole

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question to the whole class,

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which invariably gives away the answer.

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You know how that works.

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They can type it right in there.

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It pops up on my screen.

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I can answer it privately for them.

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If it's something like,

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oh crap, I made a mistake

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in like the key or

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something, then I can just,

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I can fix it right there.

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And instead of regrading everybody,

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I just fixed the answer key.

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And guess what?

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Everybody gets regraded automatically.

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It also has, you know, you can,

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if you keep putting the

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same kind of feedback back,

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like this needs to be in Spanish,

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or I need this in a complete sentence,

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or any of those things,

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you can pin those comments.

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So you just have to click them.

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You have to keep typing

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them every single time.

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So I love it.

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You can build rubrics in there.

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So on a speaking assessment,

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I just create a assessment there.

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I'll make a speaking

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rubric as they're talking.

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I just click the buttons

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on the rubric, which ones?

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Bingo, it's done, instant.

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It has saved me so much time.

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And using AI, which I love about this,

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is if it's a multiple

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choice or anything you have,

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let's say you have a

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worksheet and you have it,

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you can upload it to it

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and it will try to convert it

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to one of their assessments off the bat.

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So I can create a,

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if I already had a paper

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version of a closed activity,

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I can take a picture of it, upload it,

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and it will transform it

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into its own closed activity right away.

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Or if it's multiple choice questions,

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it will put all the questions

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along with all the answers in for me.

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It won't let me, it

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won't select the answer key.

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I've got to go back and

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put the answer key in,

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but it does let me do

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that right off the bat.

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So it saves me a heck of a lot of time

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of having to type up

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things that used to be on paper.

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I can put them right in there.

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If I need to copy a textbook activity,

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I take a picture of the

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textbook activity on my phone

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and I upload it to the formative

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and it will convert it

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to a digital assignment

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so I can get it done, grade

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it right away much more easy.

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I don't have to worry about lost papers.

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I don't have to worry about a copy quota.

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I'm going over my paper limit.

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I don't have to worry about

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any of that kind of stuff.

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It's there.

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Kids go, where's the next assignment?

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What assignments am I missing?

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Go to formative.

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It tells you what

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assignments are open for you

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that you still can work on.

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So I just absolutely love formative.com

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as a great use tool for

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everything and anything

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because I get quick

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feedback, exit tickets,

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really easy feedback.

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We do warmups, really easy feedback.

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I can look at the whole

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screen and I can see it live too.

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If I'm watching it as they answer,

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I can see if it gets right or wrong.

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So I can see where my kids are doing

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and what they're working on

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and I can get an overall feel.

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Do they understand this

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concept or not right away?

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So they have paid version?

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Yeah, they have a free

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version with it just,

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it limits the types of

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questions, multiple choice.

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And I forgot to mention,

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I pay $15 a month for it.

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I cancel it during the summer,

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so I don't pay it for the summertime,

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but then I bring it back

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up again for the thing.

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So I pay what, $150 a year for it

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and it's well worth my $15.

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My school does not pay

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for it for me at all,

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but $15 for all the time

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that it saves me a month

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is well worth it.

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I was introduced to

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Go Formative years ago,

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thanks to Meredith White.

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And just a very low

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prep, but yet meaningful way

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to engage students is to have

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the drawing tools available.

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So having an open one, two,

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and three as an exit ticket,

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or as a warmup, that way the students

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have to draw, right?

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What it is that they hear you share.

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And it's just an easy

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way that you can use it.

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I would have to look

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into whether it's the paid

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or not paid capabilities.

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I think the draw is paid.

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I think it's very limited.

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I think it's like true

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and false, multiple choice

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are the ones that are the free ones.

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But I said $15 is so much the drawing.

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I didn't even think about

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that, but that is great.

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I even do conversations I'll do.

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So I'll record, like our

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final exam is coming up

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on Wednesday.

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And so I've recorded,

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they have to answer six

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out of the 10 questions

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that we did, and it's random.

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So I already used chat

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GPT to randomize my kits.

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So I've got them

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randomized and they have to answer

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six out of the 10 questions.

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So I said, please give

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the number of the question.

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Each one has to have six of them.

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So give them that, so

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it's all randomized.

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I record the question in Spanish,

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and then they have to record the answer.

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So it is like a

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conversation, but I'm not having to pull

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all the kids up and doing it that way

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where I can't actually

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monitor my kids doing the test

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at the same time.

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So this way they can do

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this, they can record it.

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Everybody's got different questions.

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They are hearing the

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question, they're not reading it.

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So it's actually a conversation.

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They're hearing the

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question, no textual cues,

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and then they have to answer it,

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they have to record the

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audio, and I can go back.

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So if a kid goes, why did

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I get this on the rubric?

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I don't understand.

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Well, how am I gonna remember?

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It was like, they're

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asking me about it a week later.

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So I can go back and we

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can listen to it again.

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I can say, this is what the thing was,

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that if a parent

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questions or administrator,

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I have it all recorded.

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So it works really, really well that way.

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And I'm telling you, $15

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a month is so worth it.

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In fact, let me just see, formative,

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let me see what they tell

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us about the free versus the

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plans, yes.

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And then do you convert that to your LMS

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because we're Canvas?

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I don't, we don't, we're backwards.

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We have, some teachers

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use Google Classroom,

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some teachers use Canvas,

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but our grades go

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into what's called Aries.

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So, and they don't

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all talk to each other.

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Canvas will talk to Aries.

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And there is a plugin

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that you can get for Chrome

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that will take your formative grades

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and put them into Aries.

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So I pay for that too.

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I think it's like $30 a year.

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And I do it that way to help that.

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That works really, really well for

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putting the grades in

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there, but normally it doesn't.

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But even before my old

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school, there was no conversion.

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I had to type it in manually.

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It wasn't too hard.

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I would have, you know, on my phone,

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I would see the grades and

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I would just copy the grades

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manually, type them in on the computer.

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It worked really, really well.

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Okay, so here's the free one.

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The free one you get multiple choice,

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multiple selection, short answer,

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free response, true or

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false, and you do get the drawing.

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So for the free one,

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but you don't get audio,

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you can't record

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something and put audio in there.

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You can't, but you can

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embed, put images, slides, text,

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and video you can put in there.

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So you can kind of get around the audio.

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If you just wanted to

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record a video with sound,

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you can do that in there.

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And it will do some auto grading for you.

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So it works pretty well.

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But the paid one is where I'm at

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and I get all the features

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except for the high end features.

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Common assessments we don't get

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and we don't get the IP features

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where you can put in

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different levels for each kid.

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So there are different

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accommodations you can't put in there.

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I get around the common assessments

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because you can copy a

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link to your assessment

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and then give it to your

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front, your other teachers

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and then they copy it

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and it will copy right into their plan.

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So that's how we get around the common.

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One of us will write it

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and then the other ones

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will just share the link

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and it adds it to our own.

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But I would like the accommodation ones

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but it's prohibitively

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expensive for me to pay into that.

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It's gotta be a school

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or a district license

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so it's not worth it to me.

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So it's one of the

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things I give up on there

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but everything else for my $15 a month,

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and they say it's $13 a

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month if you pay it annually.

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I pay $15 a month and just

Speaker:

cancel it for two months.

Speaker:

And it works out well.

Speaker:

And I'm telling you, I absolutely love

Speaker:

this particular app.

Speaker:

It has saved my life countless.

Speaker:

It's probably my number one followed.

Speaker:

My number two would be chat GPT.

Speaker:

That's interesting.

Speaker:

I feel like my teacher books go to Padlet

Speaker:

which has some similar capabilities

Speaker:

but not on that individual scale

Speaker:

that you were sharing with GoFormative.

Speaker:

So that's really interesting.

Speaker:

Yeah, I just look,

Speaker:

because I get the feedback

Speaker:

and I catch it to standards.

Speaker:

It's got the California standards

Speaker:

or I used to work in an IB school,

Speaker:

the IB standards plus the actual ones.

Speaker:

So whatever ones you are tied to,

Speaker:

you can attach the

Speaker:

standards and I can go and look.

Speaker:

And so I can see exactly which stands.

Speaker:

The only standard that I

Speaker:

don't have it usually do

Speaker:

except on the final

Speaker:

exam is the writing one.

Speaker:

Because I don't usually

Speaker:

have them write normally

Speaker:

on a computer.

Speaker:

I only do it on the final exam part

Speaker:

but you can have it put the accents in.

Speaker:

It'll have, you can click it on

Speaker:

so it does the accents for

Speaker:

them that they, not for them

Speaker:

but they have the little

Speaker:

buttons to click the letters

Speaker:

for the accent marks, the

Speaker:

upside down question marks

Speaker:

and such like that.

Speaker:

So that works well for them.

Speaker:

But every other standard,

Speaker:

listening, reading, speaking,

Speaker:

everything but the writing one,

Speaker:

I have multiple

Speaker:

assessments all on my formative.

Speaker:

And I can look at it for

Speaker:

anybody, any kid, any class.

Speaker:

It works just wonderful.

Speaker:

And what's even better is,

Speaker:

oh my gosh, it saves them.

Speaker:

So I don't have to

Speaker:

recreate them year after year

Speaker:

after year.

Speaker:

So I have all, I might not use every

Speaker:

assessment every year

Speaker:

but I can go back, oh, I had an

Speaker:

assessment about that

Speaker:

like seven years ago.

Speaker:

Here it is.

Speaker:

I can pull it right

Speaker:

back up, right back up.

Speaker:

So I love it.

Speaker:

And I do my listening, not my quizzes.

Speaker:

My listening quizzes,

Speaker:

they hear it with me.

Speaker:

I play it loud.

Speaker:

I record them anyway, but I play them.

Speaker:

I control them.

Speaker:

But on their listening

Speaker:

practices that we do classwork on,

Speaker:

I'll record it just

Speaker:

like I do for my quizzes

Speaker:

but I'll embed it into the activity.

Speaker:

So whenever they do the activity,

Speaker:

they have access to the

Speaker:

audio right then and there.

Speaker:

So it really helps out there.

Speaker:

So that's my really big go-to.

Speaker:

I'm gonna have to look into that one.

Speaker:

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker:

Cause our school years ago,

Speaker:

we are always trying to find ways

Speaker:

to simplify the grading process.

Speaker:

Cause Scantron machines went out,

Speaker:

the schools don't buy

Speaker:

the Scantron machines.

Speaker:

So we found one that did the,

Speaker:

it was the, it made the Scantron bubbles

Speaker:

and you bubbled them in

Speaker:

and then you took a picture on your phone

Speaker:

and then you took a picture,

Speaker:

you scanned on your

Speaker:

phone all the kids answers

Speaker:

and it would grade them right away.

Speaker:

But it was still cumbersome

Speaker:

cause sometimes they wouldn't scan right

Speaker:

and you have to do it two or three times

Speaker:

for it would work.

Speaker:

Then we found another one that we liked

Speaker:

that was free and it

Speaker:

worked a little bit better

Speaker:

than the paid one.

Speaker:

But then when we found

Speaker:

formative as a school,

Speaker:

we found formative,

Speaker:

it used to be called Go Formative,

Speaker:

now it's just called formative.

Speaker:

That was the winner.

Speaker:

That absolutely

Speaker:

positively was the winner.

Speaker:

I will tell you

Speaker:

though, two things I noticed.

Speaker:

If you type text in as

Speaker:

text, like a story reading,

Speaker:

they will copy and paste

Speaker:

it and try to translate it.

Speaker:

So what we've done is we've

Speaker:

typed it up on a Google doc,

Speaker:

then taken a screenshot of it

Speaker:

and added it as an

Speaker:

image rather than text.

Speaker:

So then they can't copy and paste

Speaker:

cause that was a

Speaker:

problem with using Google,

Speaker:

Google Forms as a quiz,

Speaker:

cause kids could take that stuff

Speaker:

and some kids were savvy enough to look,

Speaker:

they could go in behind the form

Speaker:

and see the answers in the

Speaker:

programming language behind it.

Speaker:

And other kids would just

Speaker:

copy and paste this stuff

Speaker:

into Google Translate

Speaker:

and get the translation.

Speaker:

So we found this way to work much better

Speaker:

by taking images of that

Speaker:

type of thing on tests.

Speaker:

So they really couldn't

Speaker:

do that translation piece.

Speaker:

It worked really, really well that way.

Speaker:

Anybody have any tech full pause,

Speaker:

any tech pieces that they've

Speaker:

tried or apps they've tried?

Speaker:

That absolutely they said,

Speaker:

nope, does not work for me.

Speaker:

We're dabbling right

Speaker:

now with virtual reality.

Speaker:

Head sets, but we've

Speaker:

not yet found a program

Speaker:

that is easy for the students to use,

Speaker:

but we're still, we're kind

Speaker:

of in that experimental phase

Speaker:

in my district.

Speaker:

So it's exciting to

Speaker:

see these technologies

Speaker:

and have access to them in the classroom.

Speaker:

But as you had shared, it's really,

Speaker:

it's hard to go forward,

Speaker:

not trusting that the

Speaker:

technology is gonna work

Speaker:

in the way that you need it to work

Speaker:

in the moment with all of

Speaker:

the teenagers staring at you.

Speaker:

So we're dipping our toe right now

Speaker:

in the virtual reality waters.

Speaker:

And I'm excited to see how

Speaker:

this can be an immersive language

Speaker:

experience for the

Speaker:

students to really hopefully use

Speaker:

the language in a real life setting.

Speaker:

Immerse me as a tool

Speaker:

that we had dabbled with

Speaker:

a few years ago before we

Speaker:

had access to the VR headsets.

Speaker:

So I'm curious to see

Speaker:

if that's maybe a road

Speaker:

that we're gonna go down,

Speaker:

but don't know yet, we'll see.

Speaker:

Yeah, I had that,

Speaker:

that no tech was working,

Speaker:

kids staring at me

Speaker:

just happened last week.

Speaker:

So that was the disaster.

Speaker:

Back in the day,

Speaker:

probably what 10 years ago,

Speaker:

we delved into, it's

Speaker:

not anywhere near as good

Speaker:

as what we can do now with virtual,

Speaker:

but we used Google cardboard,

Speaker:

where you can make

Speaker:

your own little glasses

Speaker:

and you stuck your phone in them.

Speaker:

And we didn't use it.

Speaker:

It wasn't really good

Speaker:

for language type stuff,

Speaker:

but we used it for

Speaker:

culture, like to explore a city.

Speaker:

So we would put in like Madrid or Paris

Speaker:

or whatever city you want them to explore

Speaker:

and they could go through and explore.

Speaker:

And I just remember one

Speaker:

kid, it was hilarious.

Speaker:

He was off task and

Speaker:

he looked up manatees.

Speaker:

And so he was watching

Speaker:

some video with a manatee

Speaker:

and all of a sudden, I

Speaker:

guess a manatee came from over

Speaker:

his shoulder and he wasn't

Speaker:

expecting it to come from

Speaker:

over his shoulder.

Speaker:

And he jumped and screamed

Speaker:

like a baby and fell over

Speaker:

out of his chair.

Speaker:

And we were all laughing like,

Speaker:

what made you jump like that?

Speaker:

We're supposed to be

Speaker:

looking at Barcelona.

Speaker:

What were you doing?

Speaker:

He's like, this

Speaker:

manatee came over my shoulder

Speaker:

and I wasn't expecting it.

Speaker:

It was so big.

Speaker:

And I just jumped.

Speaker:

And we just laughed and laughed.

Speaker:

And then I bought a stuffed

Speaker:

manatee for the next class

Speaker:

and on Amazon.

Speaker:

And we had fun with that story.

Speaker:

So it was a fun little thing.

Speaker:

What about you, Amina?

Speaker:

Well, our school is

Speaker:

subscribing to Magic School.

Speaker:

So we've been watching videos

Speaker:

and looking at Magic School.

Speaker:

It's a form of AI and

Speaker:

you can put stuff in there.

Speaker:

I just feel that it's not for languages.

Speaker:

When you try and put the

Speaker:

prompt in and you're like,

Speaker:

they're novice level, the

Speaker:

things that they're like,

Speaker:

oh yeah, let have them try this.

Speaker:

And it's like, yeah,

Speaker:

that's way, way to advance

Speaker:

for the students that I have right now.

Speaker:

And it's taken up a lot

Speaker:

of my time to research

Speaker:

and look and watch the

Speaker:

training videos that we have.

Speaker:

And I'm just like, okay, this is it.

Speaker:

I go, no, we're just gonna stick with

Speaker:

CoPilot for right now.

Speaker:

I don't have the time to

Speaker:

delve into the Magic School.

Speaker:

Although it's supposed

Speaker:

to be school friendly.

Speaker:

Yeah, they just, I can't

Speaker:

remember which one they,

Speaker:

we just kind of training on one,

Speaker:

starts with a B, I can't remember.

Speaker:

It was a school friendly AI.

Speaker:

I can't remember what it was.

Speaker:

Yes, Brisk, that's the one.

Speaker:

Yeah, Brisk, I haven't

Speaker:

really tried much then.

Speaker:

Yeah, I was gonna share

Speaker:

Amina that absolutely like

Speaker:

keep living in that CoPilot lane.

Speaker:

I feel as if when you

Speaker:

get really good at using

Speaker:

these large language

Speaker:

models and you're comfortable,

Speaker:

it's hard to then

Speaker:

jump and then essentially

Speaker:

transfer those same skills

Speaker:

and then learn a new platform.

Speaker:

But Brisk teaching,

Speaker:

what's cool about it is

Speaker:

it's a Chrome extension

Speaker:

that follows you around.

Speaker:

So no matter where you are online,

Speaker:

you can create resources

Speaker:

based on whatever Brisk

Speaker:

is looking at that's on your screen.

Speaker:

And a cool feature that I

Speaker:

stumbled upon this summer

Speaker:

with Brisk is the podcast creator.

Speaker:

So it can take, let's

Speaker:

say you have a story

Speaker:

that you created on a Google

Speaker:

Document or a Google Slideshow.

Speaker:

It can take the content from that story

Speaker:

and then create a

Speaker:

podcast of one to two minutes

Speaker:

between two people and

Speaker:

then you can edit the podcast.

Speaker:

So when you were saying before,

Speaker:

like sometimes it

Speaker:

doesn't give you what you want,

Speaker:

that's where we as the teachers, right,

Speaker:

sitting in the driver's

Speaker:

seat, we can use the AI,

Speaker:

Scott and I were

Speaker:

chatting before about this

Speaker:

as our teaching assistant,

Speaker:

but then ultimately our eyes

Speaker:

and our thoughts are going to make tweaks

Speaker:

and modifications knowing

Speaker:

the learners in our space.

Speaker:

And if we need to change certain words

Speaker:

or make it even more

Speaker:

comprehensible, right,

Speaker:

but at least giving us

Speaker:

like a nice first draft

Speaker:

of what we're creating,

Speaker:

I always appreciate that.

Speaker:

But Brisk teaching is one of these,

Speaker:

like I call them Swiss

Speaker:

Army Knives for teachers

Speaker:

because it can do so

Speaker:

many things under one login.

Speaker:

Yes, Notebook LM is another one.

Speaker:

I'm actually doing a

Speaker:

lunch and learn tomorrow

Speaker:

with my colleagues all about Notebook LM

Speaker:

and the many capabilities that it has.

Speaker:

In addition to creating podcasts,

Speaker:

they can create

Speaker:

slideshows, video overviews,

Speaker:

it can create a mind map for you,

Speaker:

which can serve as an infographic

Speaker:

and it can create infographics too,

Speaker:

depending on how you prompt it.

Speaker:

So Notebook LM, you can

Speaker:

upload up to 300 sources now

Speaker:

and they can be links,

Speaker:

it can be things that

Speaker:

you already have in Google,

Speaker:

but Notebook LM is really, really cool

Speaker:

also then sharing it within your

Speaker:

community of learners.

Speaker:

Students can then access the Notebook

Speaker:

and interact with it and

Speaker:

learn from whatever content

Speaker:

you've uploaded into it.

Speaker:

So you really do determine

Speaker:

the student's learning journey

Speaker:

through what's put into Notebook LM,

Speaker:

which is really cool.

Speaker:

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker:

And I'm gonna give you

Speaker:

another idea too, Amina.

Speaker:

I have found that all

Speaker:

of the language models,

Speaker:

whether it be Google

Speaker:

or Copilot or Chat GPT,

Speaker:

or I just lost what

Speaker:

the other one is called,

Speaker:

the big competitor of Chat GPT

Speaker:

and I forgot what they call it.

Speaker:

But they don't-- Claude.

Speaker:

Claude, that's the one, yeah.

Speaker:

I'm horrible with names

Speaker:

and I'm getting older.

Speaker:

I mean, I even forget brand names.

Speaker:

I'm like, I drink Pepsi all the time,

Speaker:

but sometimes I'll

Speaker:

forget what it's called.

Speaker:

I mean, I don't know,

Speaker:

my brain is working.

Speaker:

I blame COVID.

Speaker:

So anyway, they don't

Speaker:

understand the actful

Speaker:

delimitations of the

Speaker:

different degrees of proficiency.

Speaker:

They understand so much

Speaker:

better the European ones.

Speaker:

And actually I prefer

Speaker:

the European ones anyways.

Speaker:

So I tell them to do,

Speaker:

I need an A1 or an A2,

Speaker:

which is your novice.

Speaker:

I'd B1 or a B2, which is your mid.

Speaker:

And then a C1 or a C2,

Speaker:

which is your advanced.

Speaker:

So that's what I use and it

Speaker:

comes out a lot more accurate.

Speaker:

So when you're using those other tools

Speaker:

and they say it's a

Speaker:

novice and it ain't a novice,

Speaker:

you tell it, I always tell mine and go,

Speaker:

I need mine to be a level A1 student

Speaker:

with no language experiences,

Speaker:

like at the beginning of the school year.

Speaker:

So they really

Speaker:

simplify it and keep it down.

Speaker:

Then I read through it and I go,

Speaker:

this is still way too difficult.

Speaker:

I need it dumbed down even

Speaker:

more so that they'll do that.

Speaker:

I have found that works

Speaker:

out a little bit better

Speaker:

than saying novice mid,

Speaker:

novice low, novice high.

Speaker:

I don't think it understands,

Speaker:

it's not programmed to

Speaker:

look at the actual standards,

Speaker:

but the European framework,

Speaker:

which I like so much better.

Speaker:

It doesn't have as much nuance in it

Speaker:

because what I always

Speaker:

laugh in where it says,

Speaker:

novice low, they can copy down words.

Speaker:

One novice low of any

Speaker:

language that I can see on the board.

Speaker:

I might not put the Chinese characters

Speaker:

in the right stroke order,

Speaker:

but I can make my picture

Speaker:

look just like that character.

Speaker:

So I'm technically novice

Speaker:

low in writing for Mandarin,

Speaker:

Russian, any of them that I can copy.

Speaker:

And I don't think that's

Speaker:

as accurate of a depiction

Speaker:

because is that really what we wanna use

Speaker:

as a novice low they can copy?

Speaker:

Because anybody can do that.

Speaker:

The European framework, I

Speaker:

think is a little bit more,

Speaker:

it's a little bit more descriptive

Speaker:

and it's a little bit more progressive.

Speaker:

And I don't think they

Speaker:

stay at the intermediate

Speaker:

as long as they do in the actful one.

Speaker:

That one's like the stagnant one.

Speaker:

You stay in intermediate for years

Speaker:

before you get out of intermediate.

Speaker:

And I think the ABC is simpler.

Speaker:

It's simpler for kids to understand.

Speaker:

It's simpler for teachers to understand.

Speaker:

And it's simpler to

Speaker:

delineate when they move

Speaker:

from one to the next.

Speaker:

So I like that one.

Speaker:

And I find that AI

Speaker:

understands that one a lot better.

Speaker:

Do you have the same experience, Noemi?

Speaker:

So with the custom GPTs,

Speaker:

I've been training it using

Speaker:

the actful proficiency levels

Speaker:

and also my New Jersey state standards.

Speaker:

So I've found that it

Speaker:

does a pretty good job

Speaker:

with understanding I would like this

Speaker:

at the novice mid level,

Speaker:

or my students are currently

Speaker:

at the intermediate low,

Speaker:

intermediate mid level.

Speaker:

When I first started using chat GPT,

Speaker:

I was referencing those European models

Speaker:

to make sure that I had an alignment

Speaker:

between what the model really

Speaker:

understood to be proficiency.

Speaker:

But I think that in

Speaker:

designing these custom GPTs

Speaker:

and training them with

Speaker:

these specific standards,

Speaker:

these specific proficiency levels,

Speaker:

these are the documents

Speaker:

that I want you to reference

Speaker:

first and foremost,

Speaker:

before you go out into the worldwide web

Speaker:

to like determine

Speaker:

what you're gonna create.

Speaker:

I also find, and I

Speaker:

mean, maybe this is just me,

Speaker:

but chat GPT does a

Speaker:

really good job with emojis

Speaker:

and to make things that the

Speaker:

students are interpreting,

Speaker:

whether that's

Speaker:

something that they're reading.

Speaker:

If it's a question that they're reading,

Speaker:

if I have sentence starters for them,

Speaker:

if I have a short

Speaker:

story that they're reading

Speaker:

as a class community,

Speaker:

I find that the emojis

Speaker:

that it'll just insert

Speaker:

makes the text even more comprehensible,

Speaker:

which is just like a simple

Speaker:

little like just add emojis,

Speaker:

and then all of a sudden

Speaker:

it breaks it down even more

Speaker:

for the kids and gives

Speaker:

them that additional support.

Speaker:

And I don't know why.

Speaker:

I consider myself

Speaker:

pretty proficient in chat GPT

Speaker:

and I never even dawned on me.

Speaker:

I upload other things to chat GPT,

Speaker:

but never dawned on me to actually upload

Speaker:

the actual standards to chat GPT.

Speaker:

Never thought of that.

Speaker:

I would have thought being

Speaker:

based in the United States

Speaker:

that that's where it would

Speaker:

have gotten its language model

Speaker:

for that aspect of it from,

Speaker:

but I never even thought of doing that.

Speaker:

I just used the A1, A2, C1, C2.

Speaker:

You are in control, right?

Speaker:

Like you are

Speaker:

determining who or how it acts

Speaker:

and what it understands

Speaker:

based on you training it.

Speaker:

So that's like, I've taken CI articles

Speaker:

or CI based presentations

Speaker:

and added it behind the scenes.

Speaker:

So then that way it has

Speaker:

additional reference points

Speaker:

because as we were saying to before,

Speaker:

it's less about the tool,

Speaker:

it's more about the user.

Speaker:

So the user is really the one determining

Speaker:

how CI friendly or how ADI

Speaker:

based the technology can be

Speaker:

based on what you want it to understand.

Speaker:

Absolutely, and I upload everything else.

Speaker:

I put all kinds of stuff in there.

Speaker:

And I just never thought to put that

Speaker:

particular thing in there.

Speaker:

Noemi and I were talking

Speaker:

before that we started today

Speaker:

and I upload pictures of things and

Speaker:

screenshots of things

Speaker:

and all different

Speaker:

kinds of things in there

Speaker:

to get what I want out of chat GPT.

Speaker:

I just never thought about,

Speaker:

something's just escape you.

Speaker:

And that was one,

Speaker:

uploading the actual

Speaker:

standards would have been

Speaker:

a really good thing in there.

Speaker:

I'm not a real fan of

Speaker:

the California standards.

Speaker:

So I don't usually do those ones,

Speaker:

but California thinks it knows better.

Speaker:

I mean, when the national

Speaker:

standards first came out,

Speaker:

we completely objected to them and said,

Speaker:

no, we're not doing them.

Speaker:

We came up with our own.

Speaker:

And then I'm like, why would

Speaker:

you want to reinvent the wheel?

Speaker:

And so then they did it,

Speaker:

we revised them about

Speaker:

what, seven, eight years ago.

Speaker:

And they kind of took

Speaker:

some from the national,

Speaker:

but then they added other ones.

Speaker:

They have grammar standards and

Speaker:

vocabulary standards.

Speaker:

And I'm like, that was the whole thing

Speaker:

that Actful is trying to

Speaker:

get away from that you can,

Speaker:

the standards shouldn't

Speaker:

apply to a specific textbook

Speaker:

or a specific curriculum.

Speaker:

It should be very generic and,

Speaker:

but they've got all

Speaker:

the different vocab lists

Speaker:

that you're supposed to cover

Speaker:

and stuff like that they put in there.

Speaker:

And you can use New Jersey's,

Speaker:

New Jersey's are good.

Speaker:

They don't subscribe to

Speaker:

any particular textbook

Speaker:

and they're modeled off of Actful.

Speaker:

Yeah, most states model after Actful.

Speaker:

California has to be

Speaker:

different, has to be different.

Speaker:

So I usually use the Actful or the IB

Speaker:

because I used to teach an IB school.

Speaker:

So the IB ones worked really well too.

Speaker:

And IB got better at theirs.

Speaker:

Cause the first time they did them,

Speaker:

when I first started

Speaker:

at IB, they were really,

Speaker:

they were vocabulary and all these

Speaker:

different kinds of based.

Speaker:

And then they just went

Speaker:

down to four standards,

Speaker:

listening, reading,

Speaker:

speaking, and writing, that's it.

Speaker:

So that made it much more logical

Speaker:

when they switched over to that.

Speaker:

That was probably

Speaker:

maybe five, six years ago

Speaker:

when they switched that one.

Speaker:

So that made it much more better.

Speaker:

So much more better.

Speaker:

That's my English really for

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speaking for us this morning.

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But yeah, that worked

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out really well for me.

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Any other favorite tech

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apps that you like or use?

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If I can share, I have a few, of course,

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but another one that I so appreciate

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is it lives in the land of Google Gemini.

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So if you are using Google Gemini,

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there's a gem that Google

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designed called the Storybook gem.

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So I've done it where,

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and this is gonna sound

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a little like too techy.

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So I apologize, but I've created a story

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or I've used a story,

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let's say I've

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already written or designed

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and has worked well with my students

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based on the

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structures that I want repeated.

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And then I've popped

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it into Gemini Storybook

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and it creates this narrated Storybook

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for my kids to view.

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So we're able to do the

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pre-reading, during reading,

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after reading strategies

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based on that

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potential comprehensible text.

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And I just, as we were

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chatting a little bit before

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about how neat it is that

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you have any image come to life

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based on what you're looking for.

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So in this case, the

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fact that in no time at all,

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Gemini Storybook

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created this beautifully,

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visual representation of

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this story that has now,

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it can read to the, so

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the text comes to life

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where it gets read to the students,

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which is the audio component.

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So you have the

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audio, you have the visual,

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you have the written story,

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and then you can

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download it as a PDF as well.

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So if you wanted the

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students to actually have the story

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in their hands, you can download it,

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print it as a PDF file, which is nice.

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So this is one of those

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ones where it didn't exist

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a few months ago and now that it does,

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I so appreciate that it's

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so easy to create stories

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and it's free for anyone

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who uses Google Gemini.

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That's awesome, awesome.

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Awesome, I didn't know

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about that particular one,

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but there's so many uses

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that AI can make our job

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so much easier and Naomi and I were

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talking about it in the,

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I use it as a teaching assistant.

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So coming up with questions,

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because I might not

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think of all the questions

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I could possibly have.

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So I'll come up with, it'll

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come up with the questions.

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I need some DOK3

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questions, it'll come up with that.

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I need some inference questions.

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It'll come up with that.

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Reflection questions, sometimes like,

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my reflection

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questions get very repetitive

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and I want something else.

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So I'll ask it to give me

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some reflection questions

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or some exit tickets

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that I can do that are fun

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and still give me the

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information that I want.

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Brainstorming, we talked about using it

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to brainstorm things.

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How can I come up with

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an extension activity

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for this particular activity?

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What can I do for that?

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Put in different problems.

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I have done where I've had kids,

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I've got behavior issues

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that I'm having troubles with

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and I'll put them into the chat GPT and

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ask for suggestions.

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I've got this kid who I

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asked to answer a question.

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They refused.

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They say, I'm not answering questions,

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I'm not speaking out loud.

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I've got a kid, the same kid, won't sit

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in their assigned seat.

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I've got a kid who refuses to do work.

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What can I do to help engage them

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and bring them back into the classroom?

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And it gives me some ideas.

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And sometimes they'll give me the ideas,

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they're like, you

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already know about that.

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Yeah, I've already done those.

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I've already done that.

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I'll say, I've done

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one, three, five, and seven

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that you gave me, Liz, can

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you give me some more on that?

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Or I'll put in that I've

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tried this, this, and that,

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and it will give me

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some other ideas on that.

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Or we use PBIS at our school.

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I'll ask for some PBIS type activities

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that will help me brainstorm that.

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And another thing I talked with Noemi

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that I learned about

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just about two weeks ago

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and it's the most amazing thing ever

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is using chat GPT or

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any type of AI chatbot

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to do seating assignments.

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So I upload a picture of

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my seating arrangement.

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I upload the first name only

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of all my kids in the class.

Speaker:

And then I say, okay,

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Johnny can't sit next to Sarah.

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Leo needs to be near

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the front of the room

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because he's got poor eyesight.

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Matthew needs to be

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near me because of his IEP.

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And I put all of this stuff in there

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and then I hit enter

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and it scrambles them up

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and puts them in the right spot.

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And it does a much better

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way because I invariably,

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I have these things

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in the back of my mind.

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I think I made them

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all pretty on my screen.

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And then I print out my

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sheet and I put my kids out there

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and like, oh crap, how did

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I not see that, that, that,

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but chat GPT does a much better job.

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I even had an impossible

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one because I have 18 kids,

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three boys, I mean, sorry,

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three girls, the rest are boys.

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And all the boys know each other.

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They are all good friends.

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They grew up all together.

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So they've been together for nine years.

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What the heck am I gonna

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do to keep the chatter down

Speaker:

and the effectiveness?

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And it gave me some ideas

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and it put things around

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and it found combinations that work.

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Cause I would say, yeah, Max

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can't really sit next to Eddie.

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That doesn't work.

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And so then it would

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rearrange the list again.

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And it really did a

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really, really, really good job

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with that.

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So that's another great

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way to be able to use AI

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in ways we didn't

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even think about before.

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What about you, Amina?

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I like Copilot.

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It remembers, I guess

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because our school was Microsoft.

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So it remembers things that I did.

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And I was like, oh crap,

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what was that thing that I took?

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And then I can look on

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the left and it has a list

Speaker:

of things that I've

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done already with Copilot.

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So I can go back in and

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say, okay, let me tweak this.

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Let me tweak that.

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So I have used that.

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I really haven't

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dabbled with chat GPT a lot,

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but I do know one of my French

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colleagues, she loves it.

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So I don't know if

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she has the paid version

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or the free version, but she's a chat GPT

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and I do Copilot.

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So sometimes I come up

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with things that are similar,

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but sometimes it's

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like, ooh, yours is here

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and mine is over here.

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Yeah, I do chat GPT and

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I do pay for my chat GPT.

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And I don't use Google

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Gemini, although I have it

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just because I've trained

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chat GPT for so many years now

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and Google Gemini came out afterwards.

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And when it was Bart, it

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wasn't that good at the time.

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And so I've just got

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unlocked into chat GPT.

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It's kind of like the

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Android Apple thing.

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I'm Apple everything except for the phone

Speaker:

because they blocked me from using it

Speaker:

because they were on AT&T

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the first couple of years.

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You had to be on AT&T.

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I'm like, I am not going to AT&T.

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And so they lost me as a customer

Speaker:

because now I got hooked onto Android

Speaker:

and I'm not about to switch.

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So, you know, that kind of a thing.

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So I'm probably not

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gonna switch off chat GPT.

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I might add in Google.

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I am not a Microsoft person.

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We're a Microsoft school.

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We're a Google school

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on Microsoft computers.

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And I do not like Windows.

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I got out of Windows in 2004

Speaker:

and I have not looked back.

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I am an Apple person.

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I can't get into the Windows at all.

Speaker:

And it screws up my Mac use

Speaker:

because I'm the control

Speaker:

copy to the command thing.

Speaker:

It messes me up all the time.

Speaker:

So I won't be using Copilot,

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but I do need to go more into Gemini

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as Gemini is starting

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to catch up and surpass

Speaker:

in some ways, chat GPT.

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I use Claude for a while too.

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Google is doing a lot

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of things in slideshows.

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If you use Google Slides,

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where on the right hand side,

Speaker:

there should be some new capabilities

Speaker:

that have popped up with image generation

Speaker:

and even prompting it

Speaker:

to create infographics

Speaker:

or slides through their

Speaker:

nano banana technology

Speaker:

that's now embedded on the slideshow.

Speaker:

So Google, I mean, we use Google Drive,

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we use Canvas like in Amina's district

Speaker:

and then we have all Apple products.

Speaker:

So like we also dabble

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in the menu tag layers.

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But I do wanna also just

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very quickly shout out Canva

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because it's a free tool.

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I use Canva.

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And with resource creation

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and also

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collaboration between the students

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and like sharing out

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templates for the kids to then use

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and create their own projects with,

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Canva has become another

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one of my like easy go-to,

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you know, modify this template,

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change it into the

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language that I'm looking for,

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creating game boards,

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creating this or that activities

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with my students, you know,

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to get them moving around

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the room, things like that.

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Canva has been a lifesaver

Speaker:

because there's so much on there already

Speaker:

and then I can either

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prompt it or tweak it.

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And I've so appreciated

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the many beautiful letters

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that is Canva.

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So I have like certain

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sessions with certain tech tools

Speaker:

and Canva definitely wanna know.

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Yeah, Canva is the top one for me.

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Thanks for mentioning it

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because I would not have

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thought about mentioning it,

Speaker:

but it's a tech tool I use all the time.

Speaker:

Our school pays for Canva for the kids.

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So we have a district wide Canva account.

Speaker:

And one of the things

Speaker:

that we're trying to do

Speaker:

cause kids know how to do Google Slides.

Speaker:

And now I guess businesses are looking,

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don't use Google Slides as much.

Speaker:

They're moving over to

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Canva to make their Slides.

Speaker:

And so we're now forcing our

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kids in certain activities.

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When they're making Slides, they have to

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use Canva to do them

Speaker:

so that they learn another tools.

Speaker:

They already know how

Speaker:

to use Google Slides.

Speaker:

And it used to be PowerPoint

Speaker:

the de facto one and it no

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longer is the de facto one.

Speaker:

Google Slides has kind of gone that way.

Speaker:

But now that Canva does so many things

Speaker:

and businesses under one subscription

Speaker:

can take care of making

Speaker:

infographics, making ads,

Speaker:

making videos, all that stuff

Speaker:

under this one little subscription.

Speaker:

And for teachers, it's 100% free.

Speaker:

It really works well and

Speaker:

kids can turn things into you

Speaker:

and stuff like that,

Speaker:

share things with you.

Speaker:

It works really, really well for that.

Speaker:

So that's another great tool.

Speaker:

So they have a ton too

Speaker:

of training resources

Speaker:

on their library.

Speaker:

So they have very

Speaker:

specific Canva for education uses

Speaker:

and the folks who never works at Canva,

Speaker:

they're just the nicest.

Speaker:

They're so generous with their resources

Speaker:

and their creations.

Speaker:

So.

Speaker:

And a good thing about

Speaker:

Canva too, they just,

Speaker:

well, they purchased last year,

Speaker:

but they just came out

Speaker:

with now how they're using it.

Speaker:

There used to be, because

Speaker:

you have Adobe who does Adobe,

Speaker:

it has Adobe Photoshop and Adobe InDesign

Speaker:

and Adobe Illustrator to make, you know,

Speaker:

photos, illustrations,

Speaker:

and then text-based things

Speaker:

like magazines and

Speaker:

newspapers and stuff like that.

Speaker:

Well, they bought Affinity years ago

Speaker:

and now they came out just a month ago,

Speaker:

they announced how they're using it.

Speaker:

So now you get Affinity for

Speaker:

free with a Canva account.

Speaker:

You can use it with a free Canva account,

Speaker:

but you don't get the AI

Speaker:

abilities with the free.

Speaker:

If you have paid

Speaker:

Canva, you get the free AI,

Speaker:

you get the AI

Speaker:

abilities free in these two,

Speaker:

these three apps.

Speaker:

But you can use them to do things

Speaker:

that you would do

Speaker:

Photoshop for or do, you know,

Speaker:

creating different illustrations for.

Speaker:

You can use all those

Speaker:

tools like Adobe does

Speaker:

without having to pay for them

Speaker:

because they are 100% free minus the AI.

Speaker:

So if you want the AI,

Speaker:

you have to pay for

Speaker:

the Canva subscription.

Speaker:

As teachers, we get the Canva

Speaker:

subscription for free,

Speaker:

so it's covered.

Speaker:

But if you're not a

Speaker:

teacher and you want to use it,

Speaker:

Canva's not that expensive.

Speaker:

It's not, I think it's like

Speaker:

a hundred and some dollars

Speaker:

a year and you get a lot for

Speaker:

that hundred and some dollars

Speaker:

a year and it does a lot of things

Speaker:

that you don't even suspect it can do.

Speaker:

Have you dabbled with

Speaker:

Canva's AI capabilities

Speaker:

where you can create

Speaker:

games or flashcard activities

Speaker:

for the students?

Speaker:

Not so much, not so much,

Speaker:

because I usually, I just have chat CPT

Speaker:

and I usually use chat CPT,

Speaker:

but I need to explore a little bit more

Speaker:

to see what its capabilities are.

Speaker:

It's very cool.

Speaker:

That was something at the AgFo conference

Speaker:

that I was chatting about in

Speaker:

the digital learning lounge

Speaker:

that Carmen was running.

Speaker:

It was so nice to

Speaker:

just spotlight Canva AI.

Speaker:

And this is everything that you can do

Speaker:

through Canva's AI capabilities.

Speaker:

Yeah, that's amazing.

Speaker:

Not to dabble, that's one of my like,

Speaker:

hey, go check this one out.

Speaker:

Yeah, I need to do that.

Speaker:

I need to spend some more time on that.

Speaker:

I mean, I've used it a little

Speaker:

bit trying to generate images

Speaker:

and I wasn't, but it was before their

Speaker:

latest announcement.

Speaker:

So, and I wasn't really

Speaker:

happy with the results I got

Speaker:

in those particular instances.

Speaker:

So I haven't really done a

Speaker:

heck of a lot more with it,

Speaker:

but I need to, cause they did,

Speaker:

they said they upgraded it in

Speaker:

their last big announcement.

Speaker:

They came out, like I said, a month ago

Speaker:

when they talked about

Speaker:

adding affinity to their system

Speaker:

and such like that.

Speaker:

So I would highly

Speaker:

recommend, yeah, using Canva

Speaker:

for whatever you can possibly use it for.

Speaker:

I use it to make worksheets

Speaker:

or like my class syllabuses

Speaker:

are all made in there, all that stuff.

Speaker:

Cause I can make things look pretty

Speaker:

and not just a Google doc, you know,

Speaker:

make it look a little more attractive.

Speaker:

So kids will actually

Speaker:

like want to read it.

Speaker:

Cause I make my syllabus is not linear.

Speaker:

I did it kind of like the old fashioned

Speaker:

Microsoft phone operating system

Speaker:

with those little squares

Speaker:

and they were different

Speaker:

shapes and different sizes.

Speaker:

So depending on how

Speaker:

much text was in there,

Speaker:

that determines the

Speaker:

size of my little block

Speaker:

that I put in there, like

Speaker:

grading would be this block,

Speaker:

but then I'll put like behavior and a

Speaker:

block going vertical

Speaker:

just to make it a little bit

Speaker:

more fun, like a little bit.

Speaker:

So they had to actually work a little bit

Speaker:

to kind of read it, add

Speaker:

some graphics in there,

Speaker:

make it a little more infographic-y like,

Speaker:

but Canva helped me do all of that,

Speaker:

made it much so much

Speaker:

easier than it would have

Speaker:

because before I used Canva,

Speaker:

this is a funny way to use Google Slides.

Speaker:

I use Google Slides to

Speaker:

make documents and workshop,

Speaker:

worksheets and stuff like that.

Speaker:

I would just make the

Speaker:

slides eight and a half by 11

Speaker:

because you could add graphics

Speaker:

where you couldn't add

Speaker:

graphics to Google docs.

Speaker:

You couldn't really put in

Speaker:

graphics and stuff like that.

Speaker:

It wasn't meant to do that.

Speaker:

And I was used to using

Speaker:

whatever apples was called.

Speaker:

I forgot what they called their system.

Speaker:

He was using theirs, Apple Pages.

Speaker:

Apple Pages, I could put graphics

Speaker:

and move it around where I wanted.

Speaker:

I couldn't do that in Google docs.

Speaker:

So I found by cheating

Speaker:

with the Google Slides,

Speaker:

it worked really, really well.

Speaker:

I made a lot of my stuff for

Speaker:

many years off Google Slides,

Speaker:

just changing it to

Speaker:

eight and a half by 11

Speaker:

and then working as if it were a page

Speaker:

rather than a slide.

Speaker:

And it worked so much better that way.

Speaker:

Great ways to use the different tools.

Speaker:

We're almost near the end.

Speaker:

So I know I am horrible at this.

Speaker:

So I'm gonna ask for

Speaker:

suggestions from you guys.

Speaker:

What do you think about screen fatigue?

Speaker:

Cause I know I have my

Speaker:

kids do almost everything

Speaker:

on the screen that they're gonna turn in

Speaker:

except for their quick writes.

Speaker:

It's the only thing they

Speaker:

turn in with paper with me.

Speaker:

Everything else is on the screen.

Speaker:

And with them being on

Speaker:

the screen, on the phones,

Speaker:

all the time or playing video games

Speaker:

or now in my classroom on

Speaker:

their Google Chromebooks,

Speaker:

my kids definitely are

Speaker:

having issues with screen time.

Speaker:

So what do either of

Speaker:

you do to limit that?

Speaker:

Cause I am horrible,

Speaker:

absolutely horrible at it.

Speaker:

I have been using,

Speaker:

I only use the screen

Speaker:

really for when I'm absent

Speaker:

and then everybody has to

Speaker:

look on Canvas to get their work.

Speaker:

So what I have been doing

Speaker:

is creating Canvas slides.

Speaker:

And if it's a story,

Speaker:

then we read the story.

Speaker:

And then I put them in groups

Speaker:

and they have to act out the story.

Speaker:

So they, for some reason

Speaker:

this group this year are like,

Speaker:

do we have another story to act out?

Speaker:

I mean, that seems to be their go-to.

Speaker:

And maybe Fridays will do Charla La

Speaker:

and they love that.

Speaker:

Where they, I give

Speaker:

them a prompt, they draw

Speaker:

and they pick out who the

Speaker:

best is with the drawings.

Speaker:

But I try and limit

Speaker:

it because they do say

Speaker:

that they're on their

Speaker:

books, their laptops all day.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

And see how I know.

Speaker:

I also limit like Amina

Speaker:

was sharing with really

Speaker:

when I'm out having them

Speaker:

go to Canvas using platforms

Speaker:

like this is school to watch videos

Speaker:

and get some feedback about their

Speaker:

listening abilities.

Speaker:

But I try to have

Speaker:

anything that is class-based.

Speaker:

Like we have a notebook

Speaker:

that they have to write in.

Speaker:

I have a folder with papers.

Speaker:

They hang up their cell phones

Speaker:

and the little like cell

Speaker:

phone jail when they come in.

Speaker:

But they do have

Speaker:

access to the technology.

Speaker:

We're very fortunate in my district.

Speaker:

We've been one-to-one

Speaker:

with MacBook errors for now,

Speaker:

I think 15, 16 years, like for a while.

Speaker:

So they're very well

Speaker:

versed in using their devices

Speaker:

for in particular like

Speaker:

presentational writing tasks

Speaker:

or presentational speaking

Speaker:

if I want them to record

Speaker:

themselves doing something.

Speaker:

But the interpersonal and

Speaker:

like just being with one another

Speaker:

and the collaboration and drawing things

Speaker:

or using their hands to visualize

Speaker:

like what it is that we're learning or

Speaker:

creating concept maps.

Speaker:

Those are things that

Speaker:

I try to get them away

Speaker:

from the screen.

Speaker:

I feel like I use the screen

Speaker:

a lot to design everything.

Speaker:

But I try to have lots of manipulatives

Speaker:

or have things like the chat mats

Speaker:

or something that's

Speaker:

right in front of them.

Speaker:

So it's easy to have that support

Speaker:

and they don't have to look

Speaker:

too far to get the language

Speaker:

that they need given whatever the

Speaker:

activity or task is.

Speaker:

And I'm like you, I do have a chat mats

Speaker:

and my kids aren't always on the screens,

Speaker:

but whenever they do something,

Speaker:

that's when they're on the screen.

Speaker:

So we do our stories and stuff

Speaker:

and they're looking at the TV

Speaker:

that's how we do our projections,

Speaker:

but they're not on their

Speaker:

Chromebooks at that time.

Speaker:

But when I do a followup activity

Speaker:

that I want to do

Speaker:

comprehension questions,

Speaker:

you understand my story,

Speaker:

they're on the screen doing that.

Speaker:

I kind of went away from

Speaker:

all that paper during COVID

Speaker:

when we had no choice, but

Speaker:

to get away from the paper,

Speaker:

they couldn't turn in anything.

Speaker:

And that was before I

Speaker:

realized the power of formative

Speaker:

cause I used to do all these weird things

Speaker:

with Google classroom and Google slides

Speaker:

to be able to make

Speaker:

worksheets out of Google slides

Speaker:

where they can drag and drop things.

Speaker:

And it took me forever to

Speaker:

make these types of things

Speaker:

without realizing what

Speaker:

formative could actually do

Speaker:

and save me lots of time.

Speaker:

But for me, except

Speaker:

for their quick rights,

Speaker:

anything they turn into me is digital.

Speaker:

I tried the notebook thing,

Speaker:

but then I got cumbersome

Speaker:

when I wanted to go and check

Speaker:

if they did their warmups,

Speaker:

cause I would collect them.

Speaker:

I wouldn't collect them every day

Speaker:

cause it was a waste of my time to

Speaker:

collect them every day,

Speaker:

but I need to see how

Speaker:

they doing their warmup.

Speaker:

And so on a weekly basis,

Speaker:

I would be checking on

Speaker:

that type of a thing,

Speaker:

but I wasn't getting the

Speaker:

same kind of a feedback

Speaker:

that I wanted, but here

Speaker:

now with the formative,

Speaker:

I get the instant

Speaker:

feedback so I can see it live

Speaker:

as they're doing it.

Speaker:

So I get a little bit more.

Speaker:

So I do for all the

Speaker:

stuff they turn into me,

Speaker:

they do it digitally,

Speaker:

except for the quick rights.

Speaker:

And I do have the chat mats.

Speaker:

We play, you know, fly

Speaker:

swatter with them a lot of times

Speaker:

and they'll have that out there.

Speaker:

The only thing they

Speaker:

used our notebooks for

Speaker:

is to copy down the vocabulary.

Speaker:

Cause they do make them

Speaker:

physically copy it down.

Speaker:

They're like, why don't

Speaker:

you just give us a handout?

Speaker:

It goes, you'll never look at it.

Speaker:

So this way you kind

Speaker:

of get some, you know,

Speaker:

eye hand coordination, you kind of,

Speaker:

you're getting some

Speaker:

interaction with that.

Speaker:

But I just use a so much more digital.

Speaker:

I save on that paper, but they,

Speaker:

my kids don't complain about

Speaker:

being on the computer so much,

Speaker:

but I worry about that,

Speaker:

that my kids are doing that.

Speaker:

But I don't know if I want to go back

Speaker:

to all that paper either.

Speaker:

I also use whiteboards.

Speaker:

Yes, I have whiteboards too.

Speaker:

That's a good idea too.

Speaker:

That's a good idea.

Speaker:

The notebooks too, Scott.

Speaker:

I do, I don't collect them,

Speaker:

but I'll do notebook checks.

Speaker:

So I'll ask the kids on,

Speaker:

let's say December 14th,

Speaker:

what was the answer to number two?

Speaker:

And they'll have to, so I

Speaker:

do that like about like one,

Speaker:

separate two, three weeks, I'll do a

Speaker:

notebook check quiz.

Speaker:

And that's my way of just

Speaker:

keeping them accountable.

Speaker:

Because I don't want to collect anything.

Speaker:

Because that's also

Speaker:

really for some, right?

Speaker:

For me to go through a

Speaker:

hundred of those notebooks,

Speaker:

like no thing, so then notebook check.

Speaker:

You want to hear how I do that?

Speaker:

They have to do their morphemes.

Speaker:

I forgot their

Speaker:

vocabulary and their morphemes,

Speaker:

they write in there.

Speaker:

So every four weeks, this is how I do

Speaker:

that notebook check.

Speaker:

Please take a picture

Speaker:

of your page of morphemes

Speaker:

and upload it to Formative.

Speaker:

So they're back on

Speaker:

the screen again though,

Speaker:

but they're back on the screen again.

Speaker:

But that's how I do the note,

Speaker:

because I don't want to

Speaker:

check those out either

Speaker:

because they're a huge stack.

Speaker:

And I don't want to deal with that.

Speaker:

Where am I going to put that stack?

Speaker:

Number one, is I gonna fit on my desk?

Speaker:

And I've got, I don't

Speaker:

know how many kids I have.

Speaker:

It was just cumbersome.

Speaker:

I know teachers

Speaker:

who've done notebook checks

Speaker:

and that's a major

Speaker:

grade in their classroom.

Speaker:

I'm like, I don't know what you're doing.

Speaker:

Because it really doesn't,

Speaker:

if it doesn't benefit

Speaker:

language acquisition,

Speaker:

I don't want to put it in the grade book.

Speaker:

So, but I--

Speaker:

It's an ideally upgrade.

Speaker:

So it's just, it's a spot check.

Speaker:

That's how I look at it.

Speaker:

It doesn't

Speaker:

necessarily, it doesn't hurt them,

Speaker:

but it can help them.

Speaker:

I guess that's what they need to do.

Speaker:

But Amina was sharing about whiteboards

Speaker:

and I'm all about to like

Speaker:

index cards, post-it notes,

Speaker:

the large sticky

Speaker:

paper we use often as well

Speaker:

for like gallery walks.

Speaker:

So I do like them to use

Speaker:

their hands as much as possible.

Speaker:

And then to hopefully with the use of

Speaker:

spontaneous language,

Speaker:

keep building on those

Speaker:

interpersonal skills.

Speaker:

I had a conversation with a

Speaker:

parent like a few weeks ago

Speaker:

and they were like, do

Speaker:

you guys talk in your class?

Speaker:

I'm like all the time.

Speaker:

Like I don't want them to not talk.

Speaker:

Like we're always talking.

Speaker:

We are the new class.

Speaker:

That's just, that's the nature of it.

Speaker:

Absolutely.

Speaker:

So go ahead, Amina, tell us

Speaker:

more about your whiteboards

Speaker:

and the things that you use

Speaker:

that are not digitally based.

Speaker:

So if we do a story, I might

Speaker:

do true or false questions.

Speaker:

We were doing descriptions.

Speaker:

And so I purchased from

Speaker:

Amazon the colored markers

Speaker:

and then the kids would, I

Speaker:

would read a prompt and say,

Speaker:

draw all the dots and

Speaker:

the kids would draw.

Speaker:

And then they would look

Speaker:

at each other's drawing

Speaker:

and compare and they're like,

Speaker:

oh, I thought Largo

Speaker:

meant big and not long.

Speaker:

And so they're learning from each other

Speaker:

by looking at each other's pictures.

Speaker:

So we've done that.

Speaker:

The kids like that, we've

Speaker:

done also with the other day,

Speaker:

like you said, I wanted to do hands-on.

Speaker:

So they had the vocabulary for a bit.

Speaker:

So they all had a

Speaker:

little, and thank you, copilot.

Speaker:

So it came up with 20 descriptions.

Speaker:

So they were to partner.

Speaker:

So they had to read their description

Speaker:

and their partner drew

Speaker:

it and then they reversed

Speaker:

and they did it.

Speaker:

And then they would

Speaker:

check their answers like,

Speaker:

oh my goodness, look at this.

Speaker:

This is how close you were.

Speaker:

This is what you

Speaker:

missed, that kind of thing.

Speaker:

Check in to see if they had that.

Speaker:

And so that was something that we did.

Speaker:

And they kind of liked that.

Speaker:

They were like, oh, this is different.

Speaker:

Can we do more of this?

Speaker:

Absolutely good ideas, good ideas.

Speaker:

I have whiteboards, I don't use them.

Speaker:

Like I should use them as,

Speaker:

you always have these ideas,

Speaker:

but then when you get into real class,

Speaker:

you kind of like forget

Speaker:

about all the ideas that you do.

Speaker:

I write them all down.

Speaker:

I have a list of all

Speaker:

these different ideas.

Speaker:

I learn from different people.

Speaker:

Some stick, some don't.

Speaker:

But I guess the bottom line

Speaker:

is try and see what people,

Speaker:

when people share things with you,

Speaker:

try and see what works for you.

Speaker:

And experiment,

Speaker:

because that's where you're gonna find

Speaker:

out what will stick.

Speaker:

And I do need to use my whiteboard.

Speaker:

I got a whole set of

Speaker:

whiteboards in the back room.

Speaker:

I do need to work on

Speaker:

that a little bit more

Speaker:

because kids do love

Speaker:

to use the whiteboards.

Speaker:

They like to roll on my board.

Speaker:

I'm like, stop drawing on

Speaker:

my board, I just cleaned it.

Speaker:

I'm a real neat freak.

Speaker:

I want my board to be crystal clean white

Speaker:

when I'm done with it.

Speaker:

After every class, I clean it off.

Speaker:

But there's different ways

Speaker:

that they can use those things

Speaker:

and they like doing those kinds of things

Speaker:

and like being artistic with that.

Speaker:

The one area where I

Speaker:

do use the whiteboards

Speaker:

is on a speaking quiz.

Speaker:

I'll have kids illustrate a story.

Speaker:

So their goal is, there

Speaker:

are four people in a group.

Speaker:

They will make four, a comic

Speaker:

strip with four boxes in it.

Speaker:

And each kid's response,

Speaker:

we're talking about one of the boxes.

Speaker:

So I'll have them do that.

Speaker:

And I basically have

Speaker:

them use the whiteboard

Speaker:

because I don't want them to waste paper

Speaker:

because all I'm gonna do

Speaker:

is when I see the picture,

Speaker:

the picture is just for them for notes.

Speaker:

They can't write any words

Speaker:

on it, just the pictures.

Speaker:

But normally when they did it on paper,

Speaker:

I would just look at it, you

Speaker:

didn't put any notes on it,

Speaker:

great, go in the trash.

Speaker:

This way it's not

Speaker:

wasteful in the paper area.

Speaker:

So that's the kind of thing on there.

Speaker:

Anybody have any last

Speaker:

final things they wanna say

Speaker:

before we round up?

Speaker:

And I will, before we do

Speaker:

that, let me say one thing.

Speaker:

If anybody watching

Speaker:

either live or after the fact,

Speaker:

if you have any tech

Speaker:

tools that you absolutely love

Speaker:

or absolutely hate,

Speaker:

please let us know in the chat

Speaker:

or the comments so we can

Speaker:

share out with each other

Speaker:

because we can all learn from each

Speaker:

other's experiences.

Speaker:

And with that, let's go

Speaker:

through some final thoughts.

Speaker:

For me, this was very enlightening.

Speaker:

I did go to ACFO and I went

Speaker:

to the brisk little segment,

Speaker:

that 30 minute segment.

Speaker:

I felt like it wasn't enough to explore,

Speaker:

but that gives me

Speaker:

something for a break to look at

Speaker:

because that is pretty good

Speaker:

if it's always underneath.

Speaker:

I am still a Google Slides person,

Speaker:

so I will use Google

Speaker:

Slides, but on ViewSonic,

Speaker:

it doesn't work well

Speaker:

because we're in Microsoft school,

Speaker:

so I have to go back to Canva.

Speaker:

So I'm still learning

Speaker:

the ins and outs of Canva.

Speaker:

I can't make it pop like

Speaker:

I can with Google Slides

Speaker:

where images are sliding in

Speaker:

and coming down and all this.

Speaker:

So for me, those are two

Speaker:

things that I wanna explore Canva

Speaker:

and then look at chat GBT.

Speaker:

Awesome, awesome.

Speaker:

What about you, Noemi?

Speaker:

Well, I'm definitely

Speaker:

gonna go back to Go Formative

Speaker:

or Formative rather and revisit

Speaker:

after learning a little bit more from you

Speaker:

about all the ways that you're using it.

Speaker:

So I'm interested to kind

Speaker:

of dabble back into that.

Speaker:

And they've added flashcards too.

Speaker:

Yeah, yeah, and try now,

Speaker:

I guess keep it simple,

Speaker:

but hopefully like

Speaker:

user friendly for yourself

Speaker:

would be my big takeaway.

Speaker:

So I feel like we've all

Speaker:

talked about tools that help us,

Speaker:

that we've learned to

Speaker:

become comfortable with.

Speaker:

So staying in that lane and

Speaker:

hopefully like digging deeper

Speaker:

into whichever tool we

Speaker:

really prefer what we like to use

Speaker:

based on what works best for us.

Speaker:

So everybody obviously

Speaker:

has different preferences

Speaker:

and different ideas and

Speaker:

we kind of like gravitate

Speaker:

towards what we like.

Speaker:

And I will say the big thing

Speaker:

cause I know a lot of

Speaker:

people are technophobes.

Speaker:

I am not, I love new technology,

Speaker:

but whenever you finding a tool,

Speaker:

if it doesn't make your

Speaker:

job easier, then drop it.

Speaker:

Just because someone says

Speaker:

it's the best thing ever,

Speaker:

it may not be for you.

Speaker:

So find the tools that work for you and

Speaker:

make your job easier.

Speaker:

If a tech tool makes

Speaker:

your job more difficult,

Speaker:

then it's not the tech tool for you.

Speaker:

So don't feel just

Speaker:

because it's the new thing

Speaker:

that everybody's talking

Speaker:

about that you have to use it.

Speaker:

And I'll give an example, GIMCIT.

Speaker:

When GIMCIT first came

Speaker:

out, I was terrified of it.

Speaker:

I was a Kahoot person, I

Speaker:

used Kahoot cause it was simple

Speaker:

and had to learn something new.

Speaker:

And then I would open up GIMCIT

Speaker:

and look at all these games.

Speaker:

I got to learn how to

Speaker:

play all these dang games.

Speaker:

I have no idea.

Speaker:

And how am I gonna

Speaker:

explain this to the kids?

Speaker:

And I didn't realize that

Speaker:

the kids already figured out

Speaker:

how to play the games.

Speaker:

I didn't have to worry about that.

Speaker:

So then, but at the

Speaker:

beginning, when it first came out,

Speaker:

everybody said it was the

Speaker:

next best thing in the world.

Speaker:

I was, two years, I was two years

Speaker:

before I got into GIMCIT.

Speaker:

After everybody was hyping it up,

Speaker:

because I'm just like, I looked at it.

Speaker:

I didn't, I didn't play with it.

Speaker:

So that was my fault.

Speaker:

But I looked at it and go,

Speaker:

it looks too complicated.

Speaker:

I don't have time to

Speaker:

add another technology.

Speaker:

And I love technology.

Speaker:

I did not have time to

Speaker:

take another technology

Speaker:

and learn another app.

Speaker:

And then they had like 15 games on there.

Speaker:

And I'm like, I gotta learn

Speaker:

all these different games.

Speaker:

What if they want to play this game

Speaker:

and they hadn't

Speaker:

learned how to play this one?

Speaker:

Not realizing that part

Speaker:

of the fun is for them

Speaker:

to explore how to play the game.

Speaker:

And how to learn the game.

Speaker:

And how they work as a

Speaker:

team to play the game,

Speaker:

which is the beauty of GIMCIT.

Speaker:

So, and the same thing with BLOOKIT,

Speaker:

because then my kids say,

Speaker:

I had one class who said, we hate GIMCIT.

Speaker:

We want BLOOKIT.

Speaker:

I'm like, what the hell is BLOOKIT?

Speaker:

I never heard of it before.

Speaker:

So I looked into it

Speaker:

and then I had to start

Speaker:

converting everything over

Speaker:

to BLOOKIT and making things for BLOOKIT.

Speaker:

The crypto hack was quite, yeah.

Speaker:

Yeah, my kids like-

Speaker:

Very heated with crypto.

Speaker:

They fight between

Speaker:

crypto hack and the gold one,

Speaker:

the gold miner one.

Speaker:

They go back and forth.

Speaker:

And before we leave,

Speaker:

I'll tell you my last

Speaker:

little thing about chat GPT.

Speaker:

And I'm sure the other

Speaker:

ones will do it as well.

Speaker:

If you go to both, whether

Speaker:

it's GIMCIT or it's BLOOKIT

Speaker:

or it's CAHOO, whatever thing,

Speaker:

when they have those

Speaker:

templates to add in the,

Speaker:

you know, the answers, so you can do it,

Speaker:

you can type them all in.

Speaker:

I don't.

Speaker:

I upload that blank form to chat GPT.

Speaker:

I say, this is the blank BLOOKIT form.

Speaker:

Here's my list of vocabulary.

Speaker:

I want the questions

Speaker:

to be all in English.

Speaker:

And I need you to come up

Speaker:

with a mixture of answers

Speaker:

and scramble up the answers

Speaker:

and come up with my CSV at the end.

Speaker:

And I just download it

Speaker:

and upload it to BLOOKIT.

Speaker:

Oh my gosh, saves so much time

Speaker:

because coming up with

Speaker:

those different multiple choice

Speaker:

things takes you forever.

Speaker:

Yes, it does.

Speaker:

And it does it for all of them.

Speaker:

Just upload the blank

Speaker:

template that they give you

Speaker:

and you tell it to fill it.

Speaker:

So I'll say, here's my unit 3A1

Speaker:

vocabulary in Spanish.

Speaker:

I don't even tell it

Speaker:

what the translation is.

Speaker:

I just say, I want my

Speaker:

questions in English.

Speaker:

I want my answer choices in Spanish.

Speaker:

You come up with all the different ones.

Speaker:

You choose the correct one,

Speaker:

put it all under one format

Speaker:

and I upload the BLOOKIT and I can do it

Speaker:

in matter of minutes.

Speaker:

I'm telling you, love it.

Speaker:

Nice. Love it.

Speaker:

Thank you for that tip.

Speaker:

I'm gonna be using that.

Speaker:

Yes, thank you for that one.

Speaker:

Yeah, it saves me so much time.

Speaker:

Like when they go, oh, they wanna BLOOKIT

Speaker:

instead of a, I don't

Speaker:

have a BLOOKIT for one.

Speaker:

Give me two minutes.

Speaker:

Okay, it's ready to go

Speaker:

and I can get it done.

Speaker:

Works really wonderful, I'm telling you.

Speaker:

And I saved that one.

Speaker:

So I use that one over and over again.

Speaker:

So the prompts are all there.

Speaker:

I just have to just

Speaker:

upload my new vocabulary

Speaker:

and say, please do it again.

Speaker:

So I love that.

Speaker:

So thank you both so

Speaker:

much for joining us today

Speaker:

and thanks all of you

Speaker:

for joining us today.

Speaker:

And a huge thank you to

Speaker:

our guests, Noemi and Amina

Speaker:

for bringing the wisdom.

Speaker:

I'm so glad Amina was able

Speaker:

to get over her technical

Speaker:

difficulties. Ew, wow.

Speaker:

I mean, it's kind of

Speaker:

funny, on a tech show,

Speaker:

you had some technical difficulties.

Speaker:

And they went and let me in.

Speaker:

Yeah, which is life.

Speaker:

That's exactly what happens to us.

Speaker:

And the honesty and

Speaker:

the tech trauma, bonding,

Speaker:

we all need it.

Speaker:

And if you're walking

Speaker:

away with one big takeaway,

Speaker:

let it be this,

Speaker:

tech should support

Speaker:

your comprehensible input,

Speaker:

not drain your soul, kind

Speaker:

of like what I said earlier.

Speaker:

Use what works, teach what doesn't,

Speaker:

and don't feel guilty

Speaker:

about closing an app mid-class

Speaker:

if it's killing the vibe.

Speaker:

Make sure you subscribe, leave a review

Speaker:

and share this

Speaker:

episode with another teacher

Speaker:

who's one glitch away from snapping a

Speaker:

Chromebook and a half.

Speaker:

I've been there.

Speaker:

You can always watch live on YouTube

Speaker:

or catch the replay on

Speaker:

your favorite podcast app,

Speaker:

ditch the drills, trust the process,

Speaker:

and I'll see you next

Speaker:

time on "Comprehend This."

Speaker:

Goodbye everybody.

Speaker:

Adios.

Speaker:

(upbeat music)

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About the Podcast

Comprehend THIS!
Real talk for real language teachers—because comprehension isn't optional.
Welcome to Comprehend THIS!, the podcast for language teachers who are tired of the same old textbook chatter and want the real talk instead.

Every episode is like pulling up a chair in the copy room or leaning on the hallway wall at your favorite conference — except it’s not awkward, the coffee’s better (yours, not mine), and nobody’s grading you.

Host Scott Benedict sits down with 1–2 guests — teachers, trainers, authors, CI rebels — to swap stories about what actually works in a comprehension-based classroom.

We talk the good, the weird, the messy middle — first wins, facepalms, reading that actually sticks, grammar without drills, surviving department side-eyes, grading for real proficiency (without losing your mind), and everything in between.

It’s casual. It’s honest. It’s LIVE — so you get all the “did they just say that?” moments, unfiltered.

Pull up your favorite mug. Laugh, nod along, steal an idea or two for Monday, and remember: you’re not the only one doing it different — and doing it better.

Watch LIVE: Sunday mornings at 8am Pacific / 11am Eastern, on YouTube at youtube.com/@immediateimmersion — or listen soon after on your favorite podcast app.

Comprehend THIS! — Real talk for real teachers. Ditch the drills. Trust the process. Stay human.

About your host

Profile picture for Scott Benedict

Scott Benedict

Scott Benedict has been teaching Spanish since 2001—which means he’s survived more textbook adoptions, curriculum rewrites, and “revolutionary” teaching fads than he cares to count. He runs Immediate Immersion and hosts the Comprehend THIS! Podcast, where he tells the truth about teaching with comprehensible input: the good, the bad, and the “did that student just say tengo queso again?”

After two decades in the classroom, Scott knows what actually works (spoiler: not conjugation charts) and isn’t afraid to say it out loud. On the podcast, he dives into CI strategies, teacher survival hacks, and the occasional story that will make you question your career choices—but in a good way.

When he’s not recording or coaching teachers, you’ll find him traveling, taking photos, or wandering yet another zoo because apparently, one giraffe enclosure is never enough.

Comprehend THIS! is equal parts professional growth and comic relief—because let’s be honest, if we don’t laugh about teaching, we’ll cry.