Episode 9: “Equity & CI: Why This Matters”
Comprehensible Input isn’t just about language—it’s about equity, access, and giving every student a fair shot at success in your classroom.
🎯 Take our free CI Proficiency Quiz and find out your Comprehensible Input teaching level at https://imim.us/ciquiz.
In this episode of Comprehend THIS! we’re diving into Equity & CI: Why This Matters with two powerhouse guests — Adriana Ramírez and Jackie Deming-Plunk. We explore how comprehension-based instruction breaks down barriers, supports all learners (especially the ones traditional methods leave behind), and helps teachers advocate for equity without burning out. You’ll walk away with practical routines, admin-friendly talking points, and a mindset shift that’ll change how you see your classroom forever.
#ComprehensibleInput, #EquityInEducation, #LanguageTeaching, #WorldLanguageTeacher, #SpanishTeachers, #TeachingStrategies, #CIClassroom, #TeacherPodcast, #ComprehendTHIS, #ImmediateImmersion
Hosts:
- Scott Benedict - https://www.instagram.com/immediateimmersion
- Adriana Ramirez - https://www.instagram.com/@veganadri
- Jackie Deming-Plunk
Resources & Links:
- CI Survival Kit: https://imim.us/kit
- Webinar Club: https://imim.us/club
- Adriana’s YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/@learningthroughreading
- Adriana Ramirez - https://www.adrianaramirez.ca/
Join the Conversation:
Got thoughts or your own story? Share it in the comments or tag us @ImmediateImmersion!
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Connect with Scott:
Host: Scott Benedict — Immediate Immersion
🌐 https://immediateimmersion.com
📧 Scott@immediateimmersion.com
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Transcript
Good morning and welcome this morning.
Speaker:How is everybody doing this morning?
Speaker:I know it's early on a Sunday morning.
Speaker:Can't remember what day it is.
Speaker:So, if you ever had one of those moments
Speaker:where you realize, "Oh wait, this isn't
Speaker:just about language teaching.
Speaker:It's about giving every
Speaker:single kid a real shot at success."
Speaker:Yeah, that's the vibe today.
Speaker:We're diving headfirst into equity and CI
Speaker:and before you roll your eyes and say,
Speaker:"Great, another buzzword. Hold on,
Speaker:because this one actually matters."
Speaker:Joining me are two absolute legends who
Speaker:prove that equity isn't a slogan.
Speaker:It's a daily practice. First up, Adriana
Speaker:Ramirez, Colombian author, teacher and
Speaker:professional heart warmer,
Speaker:whose passion for her students and her
Speaker:culture basically radiates
Speaker:through every story she tells.
Speaker:Seriously, she could probably make verb
Speaker:conjugation sound like poetry.
Speaker:And then there's Jackie Demingplunk
Speaker:holding it down in West Tennessee,
Speaker:bringing CI magic to her
Speaker:students since year one.
Speaker:She's a teacher who reminds us that this
Speaker:stuff works, even when your Wi-Fi doesn't
Speaker:and your principal still thinks input
Speaker:means an email suggestion box.
Speaker:We're talking about real equity here, not
Speaker:the fancy PD Sly version.
Speaker:How CI helps the kids who usually get
Speaker:left behind, how to explain it to that
Speaker:skeptical colleague, and how to keep your
Speaker:sanity while doing it all.
Speaker:So grab your coffee or like me, your Diet
Speaker:Pepsi, or whatever keeps you
Speaker:alive during grading season,
Speaker:because this episode is all about
Speaker:teaching with heart and keeping it real.
Speaker:We'll be right back
Speaker:after the short messages.
Speaker:Ever feel like you're clinging to the
Speaker:edge of your teacher planner, just hoping
Speaker:today's lesson magically appears?
Speaker:Enter the CI Survival Kit, a monthly
Speaker:membership made for teachers who love
Speaker:comprehensible input,
Speaker:but also love not reinventing
Speaker:the wheel every Sunday night.
Speaker:Each month you get fresh, ready-to-use
Speaker:lessons, time-saving tools, and just
Speaker:enough structure to keep
Speaker:your teaching life together.
Speaker:No stress, no guilt, just monthly help
Speaker:from someone who gets it.
Speaker:Sign up at mm.us.survival and let the
Speaker:Survival Kit do the
Speaker:heavy lifting for once.
Speaker:Welcome to Comprehend This, real talk for
Speaker:real language teachers.
Speaker:No drills, no dry theory, just honest
Speaker:stories, practical ideas, and a reminder
Speaker:you're not alone in the CI trenches.
Speaker:Let's dive in.
Speaker:Good morning, ladies. How
Speaker:are we doing this morning?
Speaker:Doing great.
Speaker:Good. Still like waking up.
Speaker:Aren't we all? Yeah, it's early Sunday
Speaker:morning, especially for us on the West
Speaker:Coast, because it's just eight o'clock
Speaker:here on the West Coast.
Speaker:So it is early on a Sunday morning. I
Speaker:welcome you both here. Jackie's been here
Speaker:before. It's our first time having
Speaker:Adriana, and it's a special time, because
Speaker:as I was talking to her
Speaker:just before we started,
Speaker:one of my favorite books I love to read
Speaker:with my level twos is Me Perdia in
Speaker:Medellin. I got lost in Medellin, and I
Speaker:was explaining how great
Speaker:the culture is and how she explains the
Speaker:culture through the eyes of, it's a
Speaker:Canadian, not an American for once,
Speaker:it's got a Canadian kid and a Colombian
Speaker:native, and how they explore the city and
Speaker:the culture as it comes out naturally is
Speaker:just a really amazing book.
Speaker:And she's written so many books. And why
Speaker:I love her and other authors like her is
Speaker:because she's written the books, exposing
Speaker:the culture from her own perspective.
Speaker:So unlike a typical and forgive my lack
Speaker:of a better term, but from a white
Speaker:perspective, from a North American
Speaker:perspective, we're getting a actual
Speaker:person who's experienced the culture,
Speaker:writing about their own culture, and it
Speaker:gives a whole different perspective on
Speaker:the world and worldviews. I remember the
Speaker:first time that I was working with
Speaker:Adriana in one of her courses,
Speaker:and she had a big idea about ecotourism,
Speaker:which really hit home for me and made a
Speaker:lot of sense with me. And we talk about
Speaker:it in our classes now.
Speaker:So I guess can't highly recommend. So
Speaker:it's an honor to have Adriana here with
Speaker:us. And Jackie, as I said, she's been
Speaker:here multiple times.
Speaker:We love her every time she's here. She's
Speaker:got some great ideas. So
Speaker:welcome to both of you.
Speaker:Thank you. Thank you. And nice to meet
Speaker:you, Jackie. Nice to
Speaker:meet you too, finally.
Speaker:So today we're talking about equity and
Speaker:CI. And I know it's a big deal,
Speaker:especially with the American
Speaker:administration that's going on right now.
Speaker:It's not exactly a nice topic. And what I
Speaker:love at the school district, one of the
Speaker:reasons I picked the school district that
Speaker:I'm working at right now is we have
Speaker:equity in our slogan.
Speaker:It's something that is not just spoken
Speaker:about. It's shown throughout everything
Speaker:that we do from our superintendent all
Speaker:the way down to our custodial
Speaker:staff and our kitchen staff.
Speaker:We have people of every color, every
Speaker:race, every nationality, every religion
Speaker:exposed. Our
Speaker:superintendent is African-American.
Speaker:We have so many different cultures
Speaker:represented. Usually schools boast that
Speaker:because the student body shows that.
Speaker:But not only does our student body
Speaker:reflect that, our teachers and our
Speaker:custodians and our
Speaker:administration all show that as well.
Speaker:So I think it's a really big deal. We
Speaker:have been taking the stance of equity
Speaker:long before this term.
Speaker:But with this term, we've taken a better
Speaker:stance. We prepare what to do if, you
Speaker:know, ICE comes into our
Speaker:classrooms or our schools.
Speaker:We have safe harbors for parents. We cut
Speaker:out emails letting them know that if you
Speaker:have an issue with you or question,
Speaker:you've got a safe place to come.
Speaker:And we have, I think we said we have 53
Speaker:different languages
Speaker:represented at our schools.
Speaker:And we translate most of our stuff into
Speaker:at least the four big common ones.
Speaker:English, Spanish, Arabic,
Speaker:Mandarin. I guess there's five.
Speaker:And Russian. So everything that we get
Speaker:sent out, every email to parent,
Speaker:everything. And we have a system in our
Speaker:school that if we don't speak that
Speaker:language, we can
Speaker:submit our work beforehand.
Speaker:Our lesson plans, our worksheets and
Speaker:someone will translate them for them into
Speaker:the language the kid needs.
Speaker:So it's a really big deal for us. And
Speaker:that's one of the reasons I like the
Speaker:district that I'm in, because we are.
Speaker:So it's not just a word saying equity and
Speaker:that we treat all kids equally. We
Speaker:actually put our
Speaker:actions behind our words.
Speaker:So I really appreciate that. And right
Speaker:now, as I said, in America, at least with
Speaker:the atmosphere that we currently have, it
Speaker:seems like it's us against them.
Speaker:And it shouldn't be that way at all,
Speaker:because, you know, they always said
Speaker:America was the melting pot and it
Speaker:doesn't seem like we're that way lately
Speaker:in the last year and a half or so.
Speaker:So it is a great. Sorry, it's not even
Speaker:been a year and a half. That's what's
Speaker:scary. It's only been a half a year. Oh,
Speaker:my gosh, that's been terrifying.
Speaker:So so we're going to try to stay not so
Speaker:political here, but it's
Speaker:something that's really important.
Speaker:I know it's important to me and I know
Speaker:it's important to
Speaker:Adriana and Jackie as well.
Speaker:So let's start off by saying, when did
Speaker:you first connect those dots that
Speaker:teaching for
Speaker:comprehension was really about equity?
Speaker:Who would like to go first? Are you going
Speaker:to assign? No, it's
Speaker:just where I want to start.
Speaker:I'll let you go first, Adriana.
Speaker:That is a very hard and interesting
Speaker:question. I think I cannot pinpoint a
Speaker:specific date, but it's a journey.
Speaker:Definitely when I was teaching with more
Speaker:grammar, traditional approach, it didn't
Speaker:feel equitable at all,
Speaker:but I didn't know better.
Speaker:So that is what I was doing when I knew I
Speaker:was failing a lot of my students, because
Speaker:just a few of them would actually acquire
Speaker:the language or learn the
Speaker:language if it's that way.
Speaker:And the joy was not part of the class.
Speaker:Hope was not part of the class. Success
Speaker:was not part of the class.
Speaker:So when I started incorporating my
Speaker:methodologies into my practice, I started
Speaker:seeing a switch in the students.
Speaker:Happiness, hope is what is most important
Speaker:to me right now, hope of learning.
Speaker:And that also changed when I changed my
Speaker:grading system, because first I started
Speaker:using the methodologies first, but I kept
Speaker:a traditional grading system with
Speaker:percentages and average and everything.
Speaker:So still, even though the methodology,
Speaker:the approach was more equitable, the
Speaker:grading system kind of like cut a lot of
Speaker:the good things that I was doing.
Speaker:But when I changed my grading system for
Speaker:a proficiency scale, then I realized, OK,
Speaker:now I think this is
Speaker:equitable because it doesn't matter.
Speaker:I'm not going to punish you for mistakes.
Speaker:I'm not going to
Speaker:punish you at an average.
Speaker:It's not going to ruin your mark. I'm
Speaker:going to honor the journey
Speaker:and the end of the journey.
Speaker:And the end of the journey is going to
Speaker:reflect your final mark. Unfortunately,
Speaker:we have to give marks in an ideal world.
Speaker:I wouldn't have to give a mark. We're
Speaker:just learning and having fun and enjoying
Speaker:and getting to know each other.
Speaker:We have to do it. That's part of what we
Speaker:do as teachers. So is the hope.
Speaker:So a lot of kids, I love seeing this
Speaker:every year. I tell them this. I'm going
Speaker:to honor your learning and your final
Speaker:mark is what you show me at the end.
Speaker:It's the progress of the end. You need to
Speaker:have bad days. It's OK not to know.
Speaker:So if you don't know today, you don't
Speaker:know. Eventually, well, you have to show
Speaker:me somehow that you know.
Speaker:So work towards that. So I see a lot of
Speaker:kids that the
Speaker:proficiency scale has four points.
Speaker:So which is emerging, developing,
Speaker:proficient and extending.
Speaker:Very simple, very easy to use.
Speaker:A lot of kids start with developing,
Speaker:which is fine, but they have hope. And
Speaker:they ask me, do you think
Speaker:I can end in a profession?
Speaker:Of course, Mia, more. Of course you can.
Speaker:But so they actually do. They actually
Speaker:end in a profession or some of them even
Speaker:end in an extending.
Speaker:And I also realize and I tell them this,
Speaker:that is a process that is it
Speaker:takes more than a semester.
Speaker:I see them a semester every day. We are
Speaker:in a semester system, not in a year long
Speaker:system, but semester system.
Speaker:So it's a process that takes more than a
Speaker:semester. So you might start with the
Speaker:developing or even right now and finish
Speaker:with the developing.
Speaker:It's fine. But maybe the following year,
Speaker:because your brain is cooking and you
Speaker:have to let your brain cook and some of
Speaker:us cook faster than others.
Speaker:So when you come back to me the second
Speaker:year, you actually might be a proficient.
Speaker:And when you come back to me the third
Speaker:year, you might be an extending. And I've
Speaker:seen the journey for the journey for
Speaker:everyone looks different.
Speaker:But that is a
Speaker:possibility. And it gives me hope.
Speaker:Something that I tell them a lot is the
Speaker:cooking process. I am neurodivergent. I
Speaker:am dyslexic. So I am a slow cook.
Speaker:I cook slow. I cook languages very slow.
Speaker:I love languages. Give me time.
Speaker:If you give me my time and respect my
Speaker:cooking time, brain
Speaker:cooking time, I will get there.
Speaker:And I will get there as good as any other
Speaker:people that is going
Speaker:through the same process.
Speaker:So I share that. Don't compare yourselves
Speaker:with any other person in the class.
Speaker:No, whatever other people are getting or
Speaker:the way they're
Speaker:producing, it doesn't matter.
Speaker:We could just think of the way you cook
Speaker:and respect that way. Maybe you're a
Speaker:microwave microwave brain
Speaker:like two minutes and boom.
Speaker:Like you're good for you. And they learn
Speaker:Spanish to some of them.
Speaker:So good for you. But
Speaker:guess what? I am a crockpot.
Speaker:We're producing food, so it's OK. So I
Speaker:love saying that because they start
Speaker:comparing to each other.
Speaker:Like we just have different brains.
Speaker:Embrace that. You're here because you
Speaker:want to learn the Spanish,
Speaker:learn more about this culture.
Speaker:We're becoming a family and just diving
Speaker:through the process.
Speaker:Absolutely. I love that family.
Speaker:I love the analogy with cooking. I think
Speaker:that really is a really important thing
Speaker:because it is everybody does it.
Speaker:It is like I always say, it doesn't
Speaker:matter how you get to the destination,
Speaker:whether you fly or you
Speaker:drive or you walk or you run.
Speaker:We all get there. That's the point is
Speaker:that we all get there and how we get
Speaker:there or how fast we get
Speaker:there doesn't really matter.
Speaker:The point is that we all get there. And
Speaker:so I think that's a really
Speaker:good analogy. I love that.
Speaker:What about you, Jackie? So I part of why
Speaker:I got into education in the
Speaker:first place was because of.
Speaker:Diversity and equity and social justice.
Speaker:I remember being in my undergraduate
Speaker:teaching program and
Speaker:one of the first days,
Speaker:I think it was either an intro to
Speaker:education or intro to special education
Speaker:foundations, one of the two.
Speaker:You know, talking about like, OK, well,
Speaker:what kind of school do
Speaker:you want to teach in?
Speaker:And I remember hearing student after
Speaker:student after student say, oh, I want to
Speaker:go back and teach in the private school
Speaker:that I went to or whatever.
Speaker:And, you know, I want to teach in a
Speaker:really good school. And then there was me
Speaker:who went to public school just outside of
Speaker:a major city and was like,
Speaker:yeah, I would really like to teach in an
Speaker:inner city urban kind of difficult
Speaker:school, probably one with a lot of
Speaker:academic struggles and stuff like that.
Speaker:And just the side eyes I got from all of
Speaker:these 18, 19 year olds
Speaker:going like, what is she on?
Speaker:Like, what? Who do you think you are? So
Speaker:that's kind of always
Speaker:been a thing for me.
Speaker:The first school system that I taught in
Speaker:was not inner city, but
Speaker:it was a very rural school.
Speaker:Had a lot of inner city type problems.
Speaker:This is a school district that back in
Speaker:the day, a lot of people from Memphis
Speaker:sent their kids to go live with family
Speaker:there so that they wouldn't get involved
Speaker:in gangs in Memphis.
Speaker:And so there's like many gangs there that
Speaker:are basically like parallels to Memphis
Speaker:games at this point.
Speaker:You know, so it had a lot of those inner
Speaker:city type of problems, a lot of special
Speaker:needs, a lot of literacy
Speaker:issues and stuff like that.
Speaker:And so part of the reason why I switched
Speaker:to CI in my first year was because the
Speaker:traditional method wasn't it wasn't
Speaker:meeting the needs of my students.
Speaker:They weren't learning the material and I
Speaker:it was just frustrating for everyone
Speaker:because they didn't have the skills in
Speaker:English with grammar
Speaker:and they didn't have the foundation they
Speaker:needed to be successful in
Speaker:a grammar focused format.
Speaker:So I was in a district that was very into
Speaker:promoting equity and, you know, helping
Speaker:all learners succeed.
Speaker:So it just kind of made sense. And so I
Speaker:switched. I found a lot more
Speaker:success for all of my students,
Speaker:but particularly for my students who
Speaker:would not have been successful
Speaker:that first semester teaching.
Speaker:Awesome. Yeah, it makes a really big
Speaker:difference, I think. And let me speak to
Speaker:it a little bit here.
Speaker:I've got so I'll say for me, I want to
Speaker:talk about two things that came up.
Speaker:My second or maybe it was my third year
Speaker:of teaching, I was the
Speaker:only CI teacher going on.
Speaker:And in fact, I knew it was
Speaker:called CI. It was only TPRS.
Speaker:It's all that we had back
Speaker:there in the early 2000s.
Speaker:And I started noticing that all of the
Speaker:special needs students, the 504s and the
Speaker:IEPs, I was getting more
Speaker:than the average teacher.
Speaker:I was getting a lot more of those
Speaker:students being placed in my classroom,
Speaker:almost to the point where I
Speaker:was about to ask for a parapro
Speaker:because I had so many in a class that it
Speaker:was really hard to attend
Speaker:to each one of their needs.
Speaker:And what one of my what the counselor
Speaker:told me, I says, why am I
Speaker:getting so many of these?
Speaker:I mean, most teachers get maybe one to
Speaker:two in a class at a time, but
Speaker:I'm getting six, seven, eight.
Speaker:I've had 12 in one class out of 30.
Speaker:Almost half of my class is on the 504 or
Speaker:IEP, which I didn't have a problem with.
Speaker:But I was wondering why I was
Speaker:getting a larger percentage.
Speaker:And I didn't understand at the time until
Speaker:the counselor said, well, we're finding
Speaker:that when we look at these kids and what
Speaker:their grades in Spanish are,
Speaker:the kids are successful in your class and
Speaker:they're not in the other classes.
Speaker:So we're finding that whatever you're
Speaker:doing in that classroom is more
Speaker:successful for the way that they think,
Speaker:the way that they learn.
Speaker:And they do better and have less stress
Speaker:than they do in a traditional classroom.
Speaker:And I really hadn't
Speaker:thought about that before.
Speaker:But then as I started thinking about it,
Speaker:well, I can see why we
Speaker:do multi learning style.
Speaker:We are doing kinesthetic. We are doing
Speaker:audio. We are doing visual.
Speaker:We're using images. We're coloring. We're
Speaker:doing all of these things that are not
Speaker:just good for IEP or 504 students.
Speaker:They are good for all students.
Speaker:And when you teach to your 504s, your
Speaker:neurodivergence, your IEP students, you
Speaker:are not just teaching to those students.
Speaker:You are just being a good teacher for
Speaker:every student in the classroom.
Speaker:And so I think that was
Speaker:one of the big things.
Speaker:And then another thing that always stuck
Speaker:with me was, you know,
Speaker:they say that only 4 percent.
Speaker:I don't know where they got that number.
Speaker:It's just been quoted
Speaker:year after year after year.
Speaker:Four percent of students can actually
Speaker:learn from the traditional method.
Speaker:And that four percent, most of them turn
Speaker:into language teachers.
Speaker:They're the ones who just love the
Speaker:grammar rules and can soak up every
Speaker:single one of the hundred vocabulary
Speaker:words that they have
Speaker:to teach in two weeks,
Speaker:because we only have a
Speaker:semester to teach a whole book.
Speaker:And when I did the math and I'm not a
Speaker:math person, but I did the math, that's
Speaker:less than one student in
Speaker:the classroom out of 30.
Speaker:When you go four percent,
Speaker:it's less than one student.
Speaker:And if a principal or administrator knew
Speaker:that the methodology that you chose to
Speaker:instruct your kids only really hits one
Speaker:kid out of the classroom,
Speaker:they would tell you, uh-uh, you can't do
Speaker:that. That's bad teaching that only
Speaker:addresses the one kid in the classroom.
Speaker:And so teaching with C.I. is so much more
Speaker:broad and it hits more kids than a
Speaker:traditional teaching.
Speaker:It's because it's how we
Speaker:actually learn languages.
Speaker:It's not trying to reframe learning
Speaker:languages into an academic course, which
Speaker:is really learning about languages, not
Speaker:learning the actual language.
Speaker:And when kids tell me that they can't
Speaker:learn a language, I
Speaker:say, no, that's wrong.
Speaker:You can't learn a language. That's true.
Speaker:But everybody can acquire a language
Speaker:unless you have some severe brain damage.
Speaker:Even, you know, the most mentally
Speaker:challenged students can
Speaker:communicate in some way.
Speaker:They have a way of
Speaker:communication and acquiring language.
Speaker:So everybody has that ability.
Speaker:But learning language, memorization of
Speaker:grammar rules and memorization of tons of
Speaker:vocabulary, hasn't worked for nearly
Speaker:anybody in the history
Speaker:of doing it that way.
Speaker:Because if it did, because we've been
Speaker:requiring languages here in America, two
Speaker:years of languages in many schools for
Speaker:decades, and we still have
Speaker:not created bilingual students.
Speaker:So what we're doing is wrong.
Speaker:And so I think it's really important from
Speaker:what Adriana said and Jackie said about
Speaker:hitting every student.
Speaker:It's really, really important.
Speaker:And my experience, because until I taught
Speaker:at the school that I'm teaching at now,
Speaker:mine were all, you know,
Speaker:mostly suburban schools.
Speaker:So we didn't have a great mix of
Speaker:ethnicities, a great mix of religions, a
Speaker:great mix of educational abilities.
Speaker:These were generally higher
Speaker:end middle class students.
Speaker:And so we didn't have those problems.
Speaker:The school that I'm in
Speaker:now, it's not inner city.
Speaker:It's right next to the city.
Speaker:But we have a lot of the like Jackie was
Speaker:talking about a lot of
Speaker:the inner city problems.
Speaker:And so I'm now experiencing a lot more of
Speaker:the issues other than just 504s and IEPs.
Speaker:I've got behavior issues.
Speaker:I've got gang members.
Speaker:I've got kids who've been in and out of
Speaker:jail or parents have
Speaker:been in and out of jail.
Speaker:I've got drunk parents
Speaker:coming to parent conferences.
Speaker:We've got all those kinds of issues that
Speaker:I didn't have before.
Speaker:And this is the best way that I know how
Speaker:to address that and make it equal for
Speaker:everybody, regardless of your background,
Speaker:regardless of your
Speaker:economics, all of that stuff.
Speaker:Does it matter in my classroom?
Speaker:Because I'm teaching from a perspective
Speaker:of comprehensible input and everybody has
Speaker:the ability to understand.
Speaker:I think that's just so very important.
Speaker:So that's when I first noticed that
Speaker:second or third year when that counselor
Speaker:was telling me that's why they were
Speaker:putting those kids in my classroom.
Speaker:Because they were just being more
Speaker:successful in that type of an atmosphere.
Speaker:And I really appreciated that.
Speaker:Never had thought about it before.
Speaker:And it really wasn't me
Speaker:doing anything special.
Speaker:It's just the methodology
Speaker:that I've chosen to use.
Speaker:But it really helps all kids learn better
Speaker:than the traditional method.
Speaker:So I think for your
Speaker:perspectives, everybody.
Speaker:What would you think
Speaker:would be the benefit?
Speaker:What do you think is the key thing that
Speaker:CI gives students that a
Speaker:textbook only approach doesn't?
Speaker:Anybody want to go for that one?
Speaker:I'll go first on this one.
Speaker:So in the textbooks that I have looked at
Speaker:and had to work with, one of the
Speaker:challenges is always,
Speaker:OK, why does this matter?
Speaker:Why do I need to know the difference
Speaker:between "el la los en las"?
Speaker:Why is that a thing?
Speaker:Why do I care?
Speaker:Because it starts off with-- and Scott,
Speaker:you said this before-- it starts off with
Speaker:things that are really easy to teach,
Speaker:but really hard to master.
Speaker:Kids always want to
Speaker:know why something matters.
Speaker:So when we're doing a story in my class,
Speaker:OK, well, why does this matter?
Speaker:Well, because I need to know the story
Speaker:because Profay's going
Speaker:to test me on it later,
Speaker:is the very base level of why it matters
Speaker:to pay attention in my class.
Speaker:But a lot of the kids, they develop it.
Speaker:I want to know what happens.
Speaker:Why is this character doing this?
Speaker:What's going to happen next?
Speaker:Where are they going to go?
Speaker:And so it's more equitable
Speaker:because it matters to them.
Speaker:And then they're getting to apply that
Speaker:language to their own lives and talk
Speaker:about things that matter to them and
Speaker:share their opinions.
Speaker:And so it matters more.
Speaker:Whereas if we're just talking about poor
Speaker:and para, they both mean "for."
Speaker:So why do I care?
Speaker:This is hard because I have to memorize
Speaker:stuff and I don't want
Speaker:to memorize anything.
Speaker:What about you, Adriana?
Speaker:I don't think honestly approaching a
Speaker:language through the lenses of a textbook
Speaker:is not equitable at all.
Speaker:A textbook is a cold, soulless thing.
Speaker:And languages are the
Speaker:essence of humanity.
Speaker:This is how we
Speaker:communicate with each other.
Speaker:Like we are humans as long as we can
Speaker:create relationships with others, share
Speaker:our stories, know how you're doing.
Speaker:Your relationships, we cannot or we could
Speaker:not build a
Speaker:relationship without a language.
Speaker:Any kind of language, sign language, like
Speaker:any way of me sharing with you how I'm
Speaker:feeling, that's what makes me human.
Speaker:So how am I going to pretend to put that
Speaker:humanity in a textbook?
Speaker:The only way to resemble that humanity in
Speaker:my classroom is exactly doing what we do
Speaker:when we're learning our native language
Speaker:and it's building relationship with our
Speaker:students, connecting with them.
Speaker:So I already forgot the question, so I
Speaker:don't know if I'm answering or not, but
Speaker:the textbook will never ever resemble
Speaker:anything close to acquiring a language.
Speaker:I've used it.
Speaker:I've used the textbook years ago and it
Speaker:was dry and soulless and I
Speaker:felt a miserable teacher.
Speaker:And I was like, I cannot.
Speaker:When I started, when I used it, it was
Speaker:like, I don't know, 70 years ago and I
Speaker:had 70 years ahead of me before retiring
Speaker:and I cannot picture
Speaker:myself doing this for years.
Speaker:This soulless job, what is happening?
Speaker:And then when I found CI,
Speaker:I'm like, OK, this is it.
Speaker:Now I have my people, I
Speaker:have my family in class.
Speaker:They are my kids.
Speaker:I am their Spanish mother.
Speaker:We get to know each other.
Speaker:We can manage.
Speaker:So there is nothing like those teachers
Speaker:that haven't done the shift or
Speaker:are afraid of doing the shift.
Speaker:Just just do it.
Speaker:Take the plunge is
Speaker:scary at the beginning.
Speaker:Very scary.
Speaker:We all have been there.
Speaker:I always tell people like I used to wear
Speaker:black a lot at the beginning because I
Speaker:would sweat my butt off out of the stress
Speaker:of standing in front of the students.
Speaker:Telling a story.
Speaker:I could really feel me dripping.
Speaker:But if you wear black,
Speaker:no one knows who cares.
Speaker:Wear black for the first
Speaker:three years that you are doing CI.
Speaker:And then once you have to do this thing
Speaker:that you can't wear any other color.
Speaker:Now I'm impairment of all.
Speaker:I have to wear black
Speaker:again because I get really.
Speaker:So but yeah, no, like the textbook.
Speaker:No, this is this is languages is humanity
Speaker:and you cannot put humanity in a textbook
Speaker:and you cannot reduce humanity to rules.
Speaker:Just have to connect with the students
Speaker:and interact with them.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:See, I have so much fun
Speaker:and the kids love that.
Speaker:Like I have so many kids every year who
Speaker:are like, profane,
Speaker:your class is my favorite.
Speaker:We have so much fun in here.
Speaker:You know, and it's just
Speaker:because there is that humanity.
Speaker:Like you're talking about Adriana.
Speaker:You know, I have so much fun with my kids
Speaker:and I call them my kids all the time
Speaker:because that's like, you know, I wouldn't
Speaker:go so far as to say I'm their Spanish
Speaker:momma, but I'm
Speaker:definitely their Spanish auntie.
Speaker:Like, you know, and it's mainly just
Speaker:because it's like, I
Speaker:don't want to be your momma.
Speaker:Like, I'm not your mom,
Speaker:but I will be your aunt.
Speaker:Like, let's let's have some fun, you
Speaker:know, and then I will send you home to
Speaker:your real momma, hopefully.
Speaker:And hopefully she will pick up and have
Speaker:fun with you as well.
Speaker:But then they go to like their math
Speaker:classes and they go to their English
Speaker:classes and it's just textbook, textbook,
Speaker:textbook, you know, which they're all on
Speaker:the Chromebooks now.
Speaker:But like they just get so bored from it
Speaker:because, like you said,
Speaker:there's no life in it.
Speaker:There's no there's no love.
Speaker:There's no play in a textbook.
Speaker:And that's one of the best things about
Speaker:the eyes that they get to play.
Speaker:And so a lot of my kids with five of
Speaker:course and with IEPs who have attention
Speaker:issues, they get to be silly in my class
Speaker:and then they get to
Speaker:and they get to have fun.
Speaker:And it's and it's honored and it's
Speaker:rewarded a lot of the time.
Speaker:And sometimes we have to rein it back in.
Speaker:But like they get to play
Speaker:and they get to be themselves.
Speaker:And that's part of what brings that
Speaker:equity in, because when they feel seen,
Speaker:they feel honored, they feel respected.
Speaker:They're more willing to put forth the
Speaker:effort when it is hard
Speaker:because it isn't always easy.
Speaker:But, you know, they know that they're
Speaker:supported and cared about.
Speaker:So then they can have the
Speaker:motivation to try and succeed.
Speaker:Absolutely. Absolutely.
Speaker:And it's funny that you.
Speaker:I just lost my thought. I
Speaker:have a thought. I just lost it.
Speaker:I'll probably come back to it. Let me
Speaker:just talk about what I wrote some notes
Speaker:down as you guys are talking and I didn't
Speaker:write the little note
Speaker:that I wanted to say about.
Speaker:But for me, for the textbook, what I see
Speaker:that is it's already out of date.
Speaker:By the time it's published, you know, the
Speaker:references that they make and stuff,
Speaker:because it takes so long to get from
Speaker:conception to publishing on a textbook.
Speaker:It's out of date. I remember when, you
Speaker:know, the first textbook I
Speaker:used reference Michael Jackson.
Speaker:But Michael Jackson was already kind of
Speaker:passé by that time.
Speaker:Nobody was really listening to Michael
Speaker:Jackson. And by the time we got rid of
Speaker:that book, Michael Jackson
Speaker:had been dead by three years.
Speaker:So, you know, it's already passé. And I
Speaker:like, Adriana says, it's very cold.
Speaker:There is so much as human beings. One
Speaker:thing that does not work well for us as
Speaker:human beings is memorization.
Speaker:Memorization is like a hamster wheel. And
Speaker:as long as you keep running and keep
Speaker:studying it, it will stay in your brain.
Speaker:But the moment you stop, it
Speaker:starts to leave your brain.
Speaker:Very few things actually get stuck into
Speaker:permanent memory through memorization,
Speaker:flashcards and that.
Speaker:And textbooks generally give between 50
Speaker:and 100 vocab words per chapter.
Speaker:And I'm like Adriana, we
Speaker:teach a semester in a year.
Speaker:So a year worth of Spanish in a semester.
Speaker:That's a lot to cram down kids brains.
Speaker:And just because they're in class for 90
Speaker:minutes, five days a week doesn't mean
Speaker:you can cover the same thing that you
Speaker:would cover in an
Speaker:hour class in two weeks.
Speaker:And they have to memorize because we have
Speaker:two weeks to complete a chapter and they
Speaker:can't memorize all that
Speaker:vocabulary and make it useful.
Speaker:And then on top of that, that vocabulary,
Speaker:most of it is not practical. It's not
Speaker:high frequency vocabulary.
Speaker:When is my kid going to be
Speaker:able to need to know? Paperclip.
Speaker:Once they graduate from high school,
Speaker:unless they turn into an office job,
Speaker:they're probably never going to have to
Speaker:ever say the word paperclip
Speaker:for the rest of their lives.
Speaker:But that's a word that I have to teach.
Speaker:And so that kind of stuff is in there.
Speaker:And I always equate the textbook to the
Speaker:sports. We are not an academic class, not
Speaker:to put us down by saying
Speaker:that we are less of a class.
Speaker:But when I think of an academic class,
Speaker:you're really studying and you're trying
Speaker:to get higher in that.
Speaker:And I think of us more like a performing
Speaker:art or a sport where we can't you can't
Speaker:give someone a book and say, read this
Speaker:book and then you'll be able to play the
Speaker:violin or read this book and you'll be
Speaker:able to show up to football
Speaker:on Friday and win the game.
Speaker:You can't do that. Can you read? Can you
Speaker:learn about the rules and
Speaker:the history of all of that?
Speaker:You absolutely can from a book, but the
Speaker:actual doing of it, you
Speaker:can't learn from a book.
Speaker:And so I equate it like that. You can't
Speaker:learn football from a book. And so the
Speaker:textbook is similar in that way.
Speaker:And I think where it really hits home
Speaker:where CI completely kicks the butt of a
Speaker:textbook is in personalization.
Speaker:There is nothing personable. It's like,
Speaker:as I'd rather say, it was
Speaker:cold. The textbook is cold.
Speaker:There's nothing
Speaker:personable about the textbook.
Speaker:The kids don't look at that textbook and
Speaker:see themselves in that
Speaker:in any way, shape or form.
Speaker:And I adapt my class to it. I know every
Speaker:week what I have to teach. I know that.
Speaker:But what I don't know is the stories I'm
Speaker:going to use to teach that because I have
Speaker:different kids in
Speaker:every class every semester.
Speaker:And so I write stories based on those
Speaker:kids. And that's the stories
Speaker:that I use in my classroom.
Speaker:We have conversations, not about some
Speaker:generic things. We have conversations
Speaker:about what mattered to kids.
Speaker:What did you do over the weekend? What's
Speaker:your favorite music?
Speaker:It's not what my favorite music or what
Speaker:the music in the
Speaker:textbook is talking about.
Speaker:I'm asking about your music, your groups,
Speaker:your TV shows. It's about you.
Speaker:And I write stories when we do our
Speaker:readings. We do two readings a week.
Speaker:And every week I write two new readings
Speaker:based on stories from my kids
Speaker:that I make up about my kids.
Speaker:From something they said that was funny
Speaker:or something I know that they do.
Speaker:Like they have a really big hobby. I have
Speaker:one kid who like to go on Facebook
Speaker:Marketplace and buy antique
Speaker:computers and stuff like that.
Speaker:That's what he like to do. And he told us
Speaker:a story about he went with his uncle to
Speaker:this really strange guy's house.
Speaker:And it was a really uncomfortable
Speaker:situation. Well, I
Speaker:wrote a story about that.
Speaker:And I wrote a story, lots of stories
Speaker:about him searching for weird things on
Speaker:Facebook Marketplace.
Speaker:And one of my students said to me, which
Speaker:really hit home last year, he was an
Speaker:average student, probably a
Speaker:C student in most classes.
Speaker:He got a B in my class. But he said, he
Speaker:goes, "Profit, I hate reading. I
Speaker:absolutely hate reading.
Speaker:But I come into class on Thursdays and
Speaker:Fridays and I'm
Speaker:excited to read our stories."
Speaker:And I knew what the answer was. And I
Speaker:said, "Well, why is that?"
Speaker:And he couldn't figure out why, what the
Speaker:difference was. And one of their kids
Speaker:goes, "It's because the
Speaker:readings are all about us."
Speaker:And that makes the big difference.
Speaker:Because I can teach anything through a
Speaker:reading about one of my students.
Speaker:It doesn't have to be a boring, cold
Speaker:reading about, you know,
Speaker:using, I got to use these verbs.
Speaker:I got to find some boring reading about
Speaker:that as that. I can take those verbs and
Speaker:put them into any story
Speaker:if they're high frequency.
Speaker:I don't have to stretch to do that. And I
Speaker:can make the stories about my kids and
Speaker:that's what gets them engaged.
Speaker:And heck, I know they're going to teach
Speaker:Romeo and Juliet in
Speaker:ninth grade English class.
Speaker:That is not an ancient distance story. It
Speaker:is a real life and it's living and
Speaker:breathing today, every
Speaker:single day in our classroom.
Speaker:We have one kid who is going out with
Speaker:someone whose parents
Speaker:don't agree with that.
Speaker:If you turn Romeo and Juliet into that
Speaker:story, now it's relatable.
Speaker:And now they understand it and now they
Speaker:see the power and potential of reading a
Speaker:story that's hundreds of years old.
Speaker:Because it still has
Speaker:importance today. It has value today.
Speaker:And so I think that's the thing that the
Speaker:textbook is never going to be able to do.
Speaker:Because they can never publish enough of
Speaker:it and update enough of it for every new
Speaker:set of kids that we have.
Speaker:I may have to have a different story for
Speaker:first and second and third period because
Speaker:I have different groups that are so
Speaker:different that I can't use a similar
Speaker:story to get them involved.
Speaker:And that's where I think we excel. Even
Speaker:the textbook that my school officially
Speaker:uses, we have a physical version and an
Speaker:online version of it.
Speaker:But even the online version of the book,
Speaker:they can't update it fast enough for us
Speaker:to adapt to all the different kids.
Speaker:And they still have tons and tons and
Speaker:tons and tons of vocabulary.
Speaker:And we just had a training on it a couple
Speaker:weeks ago for our PD and he was showing
Speaker:us this culture, which
Speaker:was really wonderful.
Speaker:All the cultural resources they have.
Speaker:They have videos and
Speaker:newscasts and stuff like that.
Speaker:But he said, "Okay, here's level one."
Speaker:And I went and looked at it.
Speaker:I'm like, "There is no way a level one
Speaker:kid can understand this."
Speaker:Could they get the basic idea?
Speaker:Yeah, I could say, "Okay, we're going to
Speaker:listen to this." And yeah,
Speaker:you can tell me the basic idea.
Speaker:But that's all I can do with that as it
Speaker:stands because you wrote it way too big.
Speaker:Why not just limit it down to something a
Speaker:kid could understand?
Speaker:So even the textbooks don't really get
Speaker:the kids that we have in our classroom.
Speaker:And so I think that's where it really,
Speaker:really hits home there.
Speaker:And can I say something that you made me
Speaker:think of when you were
Speaker:talking about the textbook also?
Speaker:I can say most of them, I don't know all
Speaker:the textbooks, but most of them, the ones
Speaker:that I know, they are written
Speaker:with a very wide perspective.
Speaker:The approach is more a
Speaker:touristic approach of the culture.
Speaker:Like as a tourist, you will travel to
Speaker:these places, mainly Spain, maybe some
Speaker:Peru, maybe some Mexico.
Speaker:So because we have to bring the equity
Speaker:conversation also to the
Speaker:things that we use in the class.
Speaker:It's not the relationship, I mean the CI
Speaker:relationship that we
Speaker:built with the students.
Speaker:Of course, it is. We've talked about it.
Speaker:But also what kind of materials do I
Speaker:bring to the class at the kids?
Speaker:Either there are different things.
Speaker:They see themselves reflected, like we've
Speaker:heard different times or several times,
Speaker:there's the mirrors, the
Speaker:windows and the sliding doors.
Speaker:So they see themselves reflected in those
Speaker:stories that we bring
Speaker:or those situations.
Speaker:Or authentically, I'm opening a window or
Speaker:a door so they can actually peek in in
Speaker:the culture and learn from the culture.
Speaker:So the textbooks tend to cater to a
Speaker:tourist audience, assuming those kids
Speaker:will be able to travel
Speaker:and go to these places.
Speaker:But the tourist places, which are, I
Speaker:mean, we all have been tourists in a
Speaker:place, are the tip of the iceberg.
Speaker:But what is the culture behind and below
Speaker:that iceberg that informs those places
Speaker:and those traditions?
Speaker:So also, I don't want to focus on the
Speaker:touristic approach that tends
Speaker:to be the textbook approach.
Speaker:I want to go to the culture.
Speaker:So it's not about eating
Speaker:tacos or doing day of the death.
Speaker:What is the meaning
Speaker:of death for Mexicans?
Speaker:Why do they do the day of the death?
Speaker:This is a deep meaning that when I
Speaker:learned about it to be able to bring it
Speaker:into the class deeply, I was like, oh my
Speaker:God, this is so beautiful and profound.
Speaker:It's not coloring a Katrina.
Speaker:It goes beyond that.
Speaker:Or when we're eating a taco or eating an
Speaker:arepa, it's not just,
Speaker:oh, I ate the arepa.
Speaker:What's the meaning of corn for us?
Speaker:For arepa made of corn, the meaning of
Speaker:corn as a staple food for us is a
Speaker:resistance food that
Speaker:has survived colonization.
Speaker:500 years, we still eat
Speaker:arepa in Colombia and Venezuela.
Speaker:So I want also to go beyond
Speaker:from the equity standpoint.
Speaker:It's not this
Speaker:superficial approach to culture.
Speaker:I want to go beyond the culture that I am
Speaker:teaching and I want my kids to connect
Speaker:with that culture and also make cultural
Speaker:comparisons and bring the
Speaker:interculturality as a
Speaker:huge piece into the class.
Speaker:So this is what we do.
Speaker:What do you do in your culture and show
Speaker:them that we are different but equal at
Speaker:the same time because we share things.
Speaker:So this week I was sharing.
Speaker:I like with my second year students.
Speaker:I do picture talk
Speaker:using pictures of myself.
Speaker:This is something that I do with my
Speaker:second year students, not
Speaker:with my first year students.
Speaker:I do it a lot to stay in the past tense
Speaker:in context because I talk
Speaker:about me when I was little.
Speaker:I showed the pictures of me
Speaker:in the 80s in high school.
Speaker:I showed them pictures of my wedding.
Speaker:They figured out how old I
Speaker:am and they're like, what?
Speaker:What is this?
Speaker:So I was showing them a tradition in
Speaker:Columbia for New Year's Eve, which is all
Speaker:the things that we do.
Speaker:Like we burn and we run
Speaker:around the block with a suitcase.
Speaker:We wear yellow underwear.
Speaker:So I was sharing with them those
Speaker:traditions and trying
Speaker:to make connections.
Speaker:Okay, so yellow for us.
Speaker:It's the lucky color.
Speaker:What is the lucky color for your culture?
Speaker:So my Chinese students were saying red.
Speaker:Okay, let's have a discussion.
Speaker:Why red?
Speaker:What does it mean red for you?
Speaker:But this is all in the target language.
Speaker:Target language coming from me.
Speaker:And it's another equitable point that I
Speaker:want to bring to the forefront.
Speaker:Target language for me.
Speaker:But I allow translanguaging from them.
Speaker:So if they can say that in a Spanish
Speaker:grade and I will prompt
Speaker:them to say it in Spanish,
Speaker:but if this is what they
Speaker:can use is "banglish grade".
Speaker:And if this teacher wants to participate
Speaker:and he can say what he
Speaker:wants to say in English,
Speaker:go for it.
Speaker:Because that means any ways you're
Speaker:proving me that you're engaged, that
Speaker:you're listening to me.
Speaker:I am in the target language.
Speaker:You're understanding what I am saying.
Speaker:You're not there yet in
Speaker:the Spanish production.
Speaker:Fine, say it in English.
Speaker:So they were complaining about red and
Speaker:what it means red and when
Speaker:they use red in their culture.
Speaker:And then I went back to the
Speaker:tradition and then I asked them.
Speaker:So it was pretty neat to
Speaker:connect with them as well.
Speaker:So it's not just this superficial
Speaker:approach to culture.
Speaker:It's going deep and understanding what
Speaker:informs these traditions and these
Speaker:celebrations and these places
Speaker:and connecting with their cultures.
Speaker:So their cultures become also as
Speaker:important as my culture or the target
Speaker:culture that would be.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:I love that idea of the iceberg that
Speaker:you're talking about because it's true.
Speaker:Most of us only cover the
Speaker:very tip of any culture.
Speaker:The stuff the kids already have some
Speaker:familiarity with or
Speaker:that's going to excite them.
Speaker:The food, the parties,
Speaker:those types of things.
Speaker:I like to focus because before I worked
Speaker:as a teacher to get
Speaker:myself through college,
Speaker:I worked through airlines.
Speaker:And one of the things we had to learn
Speaker:about was how to approach
Speaker:people of different cultures
Speaker:so not to offend them with our American
Speaker:ways of doing things.
Speaker:And I'm a lefty and so I had to learn
Speaker:that I like people of Muslim faith.
Speaker:I could not hand them anything with my
Speaker:left hand because the
Speaker:left hand is the dirty hand.
Speaker:Well, I'm left handed.
Speaker:So my natural thing is always to hand
Speaker:things with my left hand.
Speaker:So I used to have to tuck my left hand in
Speaker:my belt behind my back.
Speaker:That would remind me
Speaker:not to use my left hand.
Speaker:I would be using my right hand so I
Speaker:wouldn't offend these people.
Speaker:I wasn't intentionally trying to offend
Speaker:them but by learning about their culture
Speaker:and what was important to them,
Speaker:I'm bringing that humanity.
Speaker:I'm valuing what they believe in and
Speaker:making them feel better as human beings
Speaker:in a culture that's not their own.
Speaker:And I learned also like with Thai kids,
Speaker:Americans, we like to pat
Speaker:little kids on the head.
Speaker:Well, for Thai kids, that's their
Speaker:connection with God.
Speaker:And when you put your hand on their head,
Speaker:you're breaking that connection.
Speaker:And so we learned a lot of these cultural
Speaker:things that I think are much more
Speaker:valuable than learning
Speaker:about the Chinese New Year
Speaker:or that the Chinese eat this food or the
Speaker:Hispanics eat this food.
Speaker:I think those kinds of things are much
Speaker:more authentic to learn it because it's
Speaker:not just superficial what
Speaker:you can see from the outside.
Speaker:And I like to call my feet these.
Speaker:I like to teach the culture that makes us
Speaker:look less ignorant as
Speaker:Americans because Americans,
Speaker:what you can always pick an American when
Speaker:you go to a foreign country,
Speaker:you can always take an American because
Speaker:they're speaking English or they don't
Speaker:know enough of the language.
Speaker:They don't even want to learn like even
Speaker:the basics like hello.
Speaker:Thank you in that.
Speaker:And I'll see the kid
Speaker:going, I want a chicken.
Speaker:And they're like they're making the
Speaker:motions of a chicken to try to get the
Speaker:restaurant guy to understand that that's
Speaker:what he wants to order.
Speaker:I want my students to understand that
Speaker:there are different ways of doing things
Speaker:and we want to make
Speaker:ourselves less conspicuous.
Speaker:We want to understand where people are
Speaker:coming from a little bit better.
Speaker:That's the culture that
Speaker:I want to teach my kids.
Speaker:I know like in Colombia
Speaker:and Venezuela, a lot of them,
Speaker:they point with their lips
Speaker:rather than with their fingers.
Speaker:And so I don't want kids to think that
Speaker:these are how are mentally challenged
Speaker:people because they're
Speaker:pointing with their lips.
Speaker:I want them to understand where this is
Speaker:coming from and why
Speaker:that's important or you know,
Speaker:we a lot of people will make
Speaker:it because I'm in California.
Speaker:So Disneyland is a big thing that a lot
Speaker:of cultures don't
Speaker:queue up, don't line up.
Speaker:They cut line in there and I'm like,
Speaker:well, you're talking about a lot of times
Speaker:it's the Asians and no offense to Asians.
Speaker:But I was explaining, you know how the
Speaker:Japanese they don't have a
Speaker:line up culture in Japan.
Speaker:They have such a small place and so many
Speaker:people that they just have
Speaker:to make room for themselves
Speaker:and they actually have the job and the
Speaker:kids couldn't believe this.
Speaker:They have the job.
Speaker:I don't know what the official name is,
Speaker:but they're pushers.
Speaker:They wear white gloves and they stand
Speaker:outside elevators and train stations and
Speaker:they are there to push as
Speaker:many people in to the elevator
Speaker:and into the train station as possible
Speaker:because there just isn't enough trains
Speaker:and elevator space for people to like,
Speaker:let me get some body room.
Speaker:I need to have my personal space.
Speaker:There's none of that.
Speaker:And I said you now that you understand
Speaker:that's where they're coming from.
Speaker:They come into America.
Speaker:They don't understand that we
Speaker:line up and that we do a line.
Speaker:So we want to learn those cultures when
Speaker:we go to those places when
Speaker:in Rome do as the Romans.
Speaker:So when you go to another culture, you
Speaker:want to assimilate
Speaker:yourself as much as possible.
Speaker:So learning those everyday customs really
Speaker:helps you much better because you
Speaker:probably aren't going to be in Mexico on
Speaker:the Day of the Dead.
Speaker:You're probably not going to be in Mexico
Speaker:on their Day of Independence.
Speaker:You're probably not going to be in Mexico
Speaker:and Spain and the running of the bulls.
Speaker:So it's nice to know those things.
Speaker:But what are the everyday cultures that
Speaker:live and breathe within that culture?
Speaker:And I think that's going deeper like you
Speaker:said in that iceberg going deeper in than
Speaker:just that surface stuff that
Speaker:textbooks and to be honest,
Speaker:most of us do because I have to research
Speaker:when I research the stuff like I want to
Speaker:go deeper in the Day of the Dead.
Speaker:So I go and I do research to learn more
Speaker:about where it comes from
Speaker:because it's really interesting
Speaker:that I am the only white person in my
Speaker:Spanish speaking in
Speaker:our Spanish department.
Speaker:Everybody else is a native speaker.
Speaker:I am not. And most of them are from
Speaker:Mexico, but they don't even know the
Speaker:deeper meanings of the day of the dead.
Speaker:They're celebrating.
Speaker:They're having the kids do "ofrendas" and
Speaker:they're having them color the "la
Speaker:catrinas" and do that to have a
Speaker:celebration for Hispanic month.
Speaker:But they're not going
Speaker:deeper than that either.
Speaker:And some of them don't know and I try to
Speaker:go deeper and learn a little bit more
Speaker:like you have about the significance of
Speaker:death and where it actually came from
Speaker:and why it's celebrated when it's
Speaker:celebrated not just because it's on
Speaker:November 1st and 2nd.
Speaker:There's much more to it than that.
Speaker:And I like I like that idea that iceberg.
Speaker:I never thought about it that way, but I
Speaker:like you like to go deeper into why
Speaker:things are that the way that they are.
Speaker:I think it's just much more impactful and
Speaker:it's much more interesting for them to.
Speaker:it's much more interesting for them to.
Speaker:And allowing the kids in
Speaker:the class to teach us as well.
Speaker:In my class, I have a lot of cultures
Speaker:like I'm very lucky.
Speaker:like I'm very lucky.
Speaker:Lots of cultures in my class, lots of
Speaker:kids coming from different backgrounds.
Speaker:So, for example, when I read my "Perdía
Speaker:Medellín", I pulled out with them the
Speaker:cultural elements of the story.
Speaker:How do you say hi to people?
Speaker:How do you order
Speaker:something in a restaurant?
Speaker:So you clearly can see
Speaker:those cultural elements.
Speaker:I pull out with them and then I tell them
Speaker:the final oral presentation.
Speaker:It's them sharing cultural
Speaker:elements from their culture.
Speaker:So very neat in different ways because
Speaker:first the oral
Speaker:presentation becomes very personal.
Speaker:So they're very proud.
Speaker:It's not like, oh, they want to memorize
Speaker:these to the class and everyone is
Speaker:talking about the same stuff.
Speaker:Boring.
Speaker:They want to teach the rest of the class
Speaker:about their culture.
Speaker:This is how we say hi.
Speaker:This is what if you come to my house, I
Speaker:will offer you this to eat and drink.
Speaker:So you can see the pride of them sharing
Speaker:about their culture,
Speaker:which is pretty neat.
Speaker:And also we are learning from each other.
Speaker:So I've learned so much.
Speaker:How do you order food
Speaker:when you go to China?
Speaker:How do you order food
Speaker:when you go to India?
Speaker:How do you order the bill?
Speaker:If I go to your house and you're a
Speaker:Chinese household,
Speaker:what will you offer me?
Speaker:This is what I will
Speaker:offer you if you go to India.
Speaker:So it's very neat to learn about each
Speaker:other from the same cultural
Speaker:elements and respect each other.
Speaker:Those moments are priceless.
Speaker:I enjoy it so much.
Speaker:And even though maybe some of them don't
Speaker:know why they do this,
Speaker:it's coming from them.
Speaker:So it's authentic and respected.
Speaker:And it's that personalization.
Speaker:And I think that's so important because I
Speaker:have like you have a lot of cultures in
Speaker:my classroom represented.
Speaker:So I like to have to do those kinds of
Speaker:things to compare and
Speaker:contrast along those things.
Speaker:Like when we talk about, you know, the
Speaker:how some cultures in Latin America eat
Speaker:insects, you know, grasshoppers and
Speaker:crickets and ants and stuff like that.
Speaker:And then we talk about how if any other
Speaker:culture does those kinds of things are
Speaker:why does this one culture think this is
Speaker:good and not that one?
Speaker:And so I like a lot of
Speaker:those comparing in there.
Speaker:And I like your idea as well because I
Speaker:follow the same thing about the language
Speaker:that not every kid can
Speaker:express it in the target language.
Speaker:And that's okay because they are showing
Speaker:that they're
Speaker:understanding the conversation.
Speaker:I always say the only
Speaker:language I can control is my own.
Speaker:And so I can speak the target language.
Speaker:But I also use that if the kid does not
Speaker:have there's usually two reasons why they
Speaker:can't speak in the target language.
Speaker:It's either they don't have confidence or
Speaker:they don't have ability.
Speaker:But either way, it's an
Speaker:assessment tool for me.
Speaker:So if a kid's not trying to speak the
Speaker:language, that's an informal assessment
Speaker:for me that they are either lacking
Speaker:ability or lacking confidence.
Speaker:And I usually know the difference because
Speaker:of the other things that they do in
Speaker:class, whether they have the ability or
Speaker:it's the confidence.
Speaker:Like I know they're really strong in
Speaker:Spanish, but they don't have the
Speaker:confidence to use the language or they're
Speaker:embarrassed to use the language or they
Speaker:don't have that feeling.
Speaker:They're going to do it
Speaker:right in the language.
Speaker:So I like that idea as well with you that
Speaker:it's another form of equity because we're
Speaker:not forcing everybody to speak the
Speaker:language because as you said,
Speaker:everybody's a different pot.
Speaker:So they could be a microwave or they
Speaker:could be a crock pot or
Speaker:you know, it doesn't matter.
Speaker:They just aren't where they are.
Speaker:They are where they are right now and
Speaker:we're not pushing to be
Speaker:something that they're not.
Speaker:And I think that is a big equity.
Speaker:I want to take a quick pause because
Speaker:we're almost to the end
Speaker:and I want to do our trivia.
Speaker:It's something new
Speaker:we're going to be adding.
Speaker:So we're going to try something new here
Speaker:and we're going to every week.
Speaker:We're going to start adding a CI trivia
Speaker:question to the show.
Speaker:Just a fun way to keep things light, test
Speaker:your language acquisition knowledge and
Speaker:maybe stir up a little
Speaker:friendly competition.
Speaker:So here's how it works.
Speaker:To play, you've got to be subscribed
Speaker:either to the podcast or on YouTube.
Speaker:And you've got to drop your answer right
Speaker:there in the chat or the comments.
Speaker:And then next Sunday,
Speaker:I'll announce the winner.
Speaker:And if there's multiple people
Speaker:who get it right, we'll do it.
Speaker:I'll just do a little random pick of one
Speaker:of the people that are from the right
Speaker:answers and they're going to walk away
Speaker:with a free one-year
Speaker:subscription to our CI survival kit.
Speaker:And we just added Ask a Story slides in
Speaker:French, German and Spanish.
Speaker:And as of yesterday, we have now added
Speaker:level two and level three lessons also in
Speaker:French, German and Spanish.
Speaker:So that's what they're going to win.
Speaker:We'll announce it next Sunday.
Speaker:So buckle up, grab your Diet Pepsi or
Speaker:your coffee and get ready.
Speaker:It's time for a little CI trivia to make
Speaker:professional development actually fun.
Speaker:Let's put a little sound effect in there.
Speaker:So here's our question one.
Speaker:So let's start easy or
Speaker:at least crash in easy.
Speaker:Which of these is not one of crash ins
Speaker:big five hypotheses?
Speaker:A the output hypothesis.
Speaker:B the input hypothesis.
Speaker:C the natural order hypothesis.
Speaker:Or D the monitor hypothesis.
Speaker:So once again, which of these is not one
Speaker:of crash ins big five hypotheses?
Speaker:A the output hypothesis.
Speaker:B the input hypothesis.
Speaker:Or C natural order hypothesis.
Speaker:Or D the monitor hypothesis.
Speaker:So put your answers in the chat or in the
Speaker:comments either on your favorite podcast
Speaker:app or right here on YouTube.
Speaker:And next week I will pick from the
Speaker:winning answers one person to get one
Speaker:year's worth of our CI survival kit.
Speaker:So thank you for that
Speaker:and we'll get back here.
Speaker:We're near the end.
Speaker:So I want to finish
Speaker:with one powerful thing.
Speaker:Let's see here.
Speaker:Which one I want to talk about here.
Speaker:Let's do this one.
Speaker:What's one activity that you really enjoy
Speaker:doing with your kids that really allows
Speaker:for the most equity?
Speaker:What's that one activity that is your
Speaker:go-to activity that includes everybody
Speaker:regardless of the level or ability that
Speaker:they're at regardless of the culture the
Speaker:language of their home language their
Speaker:religion their socioeconomic status.
Speaker:What's that one go-to activity who would
Speaker:like to start with that?
Speaker:Oh, you got your on me.
Speaker:I was saying go ahead.
Speaker:Jackie been talking to me.
Speaker:Okay, go ahead.
Speaker:So me.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:My go-to activity personalized questions.
Speaker:No doubt like that space in my class that
Speaker:happens every day and happens in
Speaker:different ways in each year is it's the
Speaker:one that I know I'm
Speaker:sharing a little bit about me.
Speaker:I'm learning a little bit about them.
Speaker:I am getting to know them moving.
Speaker:I tried to do some CPR
Speaker:when we're doing that.
Speaker:Joke her out a little bit.
Speaker:Do some she's made
Speaker:during personalized questions.
Speaker:So it works throughout the years, but
Speaker:it's the one that I know everyone is
Speaker:paying attention and
Speaker:everyone is hooked to that.
Speaker:Right now with my second year students.
Speaker:I'm doing picture talks, but I am the one
Speaker:sharing my pictures and
Speaker:within that picture talk.
Speaker:I am bet the personalized questions and
Speaker:try to get from them what I am sharing.
Speaker:So it looks different from year one, but
Speaker:like I'm learning from them.
Speaker:Everyone wants to pay attention.
Speaker:Everyone wants to share they club.
Speaker:They it's just so fantastic.
Speaker:So personalized questions embedded
Speaker:throughout the class or the
Speaker:activities is my go-to activity.
Speaker:I want to show something
Speaker:really quick and then I promise.
Speaker:Shut up.
Speaker:This this week this past week and I
Speaker:recorded I have videos of that.
Speaker:I was sharing that
Speaker:with my wedding pictures.
Speaker:So I told them how I met my husband and
Speaker:this really good story
Speaker:like she's made super good.
Speaker:This kids were with me last year.
Speaker:So we are very close.
Speaker:15 minutes 15 minutes in the target
Speaker:language me talking
Speaker:about how I met my husband.
Speaker:These kids were all like this and
Speaker:throughout the recording you can hear the
Speaker:like all their emotions.
Speaker:And at the end when I finished they were
Speaker:all clapping and I was and then I came
Speaker:home and I showed my husband the video
Speaker:and he was laughing so hard because
Speaker:everyone at the end when I finished.
Speaker:So so we got married and
Speaker:then it was so powerful.
Speaker:So cool.
Speaker:So but it's again even though it was more
Speaker:on me in this sense
Speaker:because I was sharing my picture.
Speaker:It's still personalized.
Speaker:I'm say I'm sharing with
Speaker:them the teacher in a human way.
Speaker:This is the human that is a standing in
Speaker:front of you with the funny things that
Speaker:we are things crazy things.
Speaker:So yes, that's it.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:I absolutely love that.
Speaker:What about you Jackie?
Speaker:For me, it's somewhat similar.
Speaker:I do a lot of that with our like every
Speaker:just about every day.
Speaker:We either are doing some kind of weekend
Speaker:chat or we're doing like hey what's going
Speaker:on in the school like what's going on in
Speaker:our community and stuff like that and
Speaker:doing that conversational
Speaker:getting to know them asking them.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Oh you had a game last night.
Speaker:How did you guys win?
Speaker:Did you guys lose?
Speaker:Did you have did you
Speaker:make a really cool play?
Speaker:You know like getting them to talk about
Speaker:what's going on in their lives.
Speaker:I think is a really big deal for me
Speaker:because even the really reserved kids,
Speaker:they're stuck going on for them and you
Speaker:know in it and it gives
Speaker:me an idea of like okay.
Speaker:So like I have one class
Speaker:where I've got athletes.
Speaker:I've got one class where I've got more
Speaker:kids and choir parents on like that.
Speaker:So like getting to talk to them about
Speaker:what they're doing and showing interest
Speaker:in them there and giving them
Speaker:opportunities to promote what they're
Speaker:doing like yeah, we've
Speaker:got a concert coming up.
Speaker:Okay cool.
Speaker:Well, you know, what time is the concert?
Speaker:You know, what song
Speaker:are you excited to be in?
Speaker:It's a really good way to get everybody
Speaker:involved and give everyone
Speaker:voice and just feel included.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:It's very true.
Speaker:I'll say for me, I'm going to kind of go
Speaker:on the same thing that you guys were
Speaker:talking about as well.
Speaker:For me personalized questions, I call it
Speaker:conversations because I didn't understand
Speaker:what PQA was for many years.
Speaker:I mean, I knew what it meant personalized
Speaker:questions and
Speaker:answers, but the heart of it.
Speaker:I didn't understand it till I realized it
Speaker:was just a conversation.
Speaker:And so I like to call it what it is.
Speaker:That's one of the ways because
Speaker:everybody's included and we're taught and
Speaker:they become the subject material and the
Speaker:language is just the vehicle
Speaker:that we're using to get there.
Speaker:So I love that and because everybody's
Speaker:already talked about that.
Speaker:I'll talk about the
Speaker:second thing that I do that.
Speaker:I just absolutely love and that is where
Speaker:I write my two stories a week.
Speaker:I actually write four stories.
Speaker:I read two listenings and two readings a
Speaker:week that they do on their own.
Speaker:It's like classwork for them to do.
Speaker:It's my equivalent of the textbook
Speaker:workbook kind of activities.
Speaker:And I write these four stories based on
Speaker:the kids in my class
Speaker:and I have a checklist.
Speaker:I've got to hit every kid in the semester
Speaker:at least three times so that they become
Speaker:the star of that story and they become
Speaker:the most important thing right now.
Speaker:They are the lesson and I they don't
Speaker:realize I'm listening to everything that
Speaker:they say whether it's saying to me or I
Speaker:hear them over here over talking with
Speaker:someone else and I hear a rumor that
Speaker:they're talking about and I pick up on
Speaker:these and I love writing these stories.
Speaker:They're so fun like I'll
Speaker:just give you a couple examples.
Speaker:I've I know I've talked about these
Speaker:before but I love them so much.
Speaker:We had one kid and it was
Speaker:about this time last year.
Speaker:They're talking about homecoming and
Speaker:homecoming is in the gym and
Speaker:they can't wear high heels.
Speaker:And so I was we're
Speaker:doing a now since I go.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:The dance is this front of this Saturday.
Speaker:Remember it's in the gym.
Speaker:So no high heels and one of the boys says
Speaker:dang I was going to wear
Speaker:my red high heels that day.
Speaker:And so I heard that and so I wrote a
Speaker:story about him going to the dance in a
Speaker:red dress and red high heels.
Speaker:But since he introduced it it wasn't
Speaker:making fun of the kid in any kind of way.
Speaker:He was just and he was like that is so
Speaker:funny and he's a football player.
Speaker:So he really doesn't wear
Speaker:heels or anything like that.
Speaker:It was just a funny thing that he said
Speaker:and he's like proffer you heard me when I
Speaker:say I heard it and I
Speaker:made the whole story.
Speaker:About it and then I had another kid whose
Speaker:language was level 2 but our level 2 is
Speaker:because most of them come from textbook.
Speaker:Aren't as strong as the
Speaker:level 2 is I'm used to.
Speaker:So when I asked him what do you want to
Speaker:be said I want to be a chef and he goes I
Speaker:want to open my restaurant.
Speaker:I said well what kind of restaurant did
Speaker:you want to open and he said I want to
Speaker:open a an elegant restaurant and I said
Speaker:what do you want to serve.
Speaker:Well he didn't know the word for steak.
Speaker:He wanted to have a steak restaurant but
Speaker:he knew the word for cow.
Speaker:So he said baka.
Speaker:Well I knew what he was saying that
Speaker:circumlocution I understood that he meant
Speaker:he was going to be serving steak but my
Speaker:twisted CI brain said I am going to write
Speaker:a story that he opens an elegant
Speaker:restaurant that serves cows as customers
Speaker:and all of the food is
Speaker:going to be cow type food.
Speaker:They were going to have grass pizza and
Speaker:oat whatever you know they were going to
Speaker:do all of that and I twisted it and it
Speaker:made it really really funny based off a
Speaker:little full pod that he said and we had
Speaker:one other killers tell one other one I
Speaker:don't think I've told this one
Speaker:before he was wearing a ring.
Speaker:It was a boy who's in the class and he
Speaker:always thought he was all of this to
Speaker:girls know that he was
Speaker:the best looking thing.
Speaker:You know he was the Brad print of his age
Speaker:group and he had a ring on and his ring
Speaker:was on the ring the wedding ring finger
Speaker:and I don't even know if he noticed it
Speaker:was on the wedding ring but I noticed and
Speaker:I said I just interrupted in class one
Speaker:day I'm like class everybody look at
Speaker:Junior everybody look at Junior and
Speaker:they're all looking at you is like what
Speaker:what and they're like
Speaker:Junior's married and he's like what.
Speaker:I'm like look he's got a ring on his
Speaker:wedding ring finger he's married and so
Speaker:that became a class joke the rest of the
Speaker:semester and we kept making stories about
Speaker:guessing who his wife was and it was just
Speaker:kind of a funny little thing we kept
Speaker:doing multiple stories but these are the
Speaker:ways that I can highlight
Speaker:kids and their cultures.
Speaker:I have a girl soda who came who is a
Speaker:refugee from Afghanistan so I made a
Speaker:story about her escaping Afghanistan in a
Speaker:very polite way and respectful way and
Speaker:she's very religious and it's very
Speaker:important to her that she keeps her
Speaker:culture going so I write stories about
Speaker:that they're not as funny with her
Speaker:stories because she's not as funny of a
Speaker:person but she's an interesting person an
Speaker:amazing person has got so much to offer
Speaker:this world and that needs to be shared.
Speaker:And so those kinds of things is where I
Speaker:get the equity in those two the
Speaker:personalized questions and answers which
Speaker:I call conversations and these stories
Speaker:that I write about the kids and it's the
Speaker:hardest part of my job because every year
Speaker:I'm writing four stories a week.
Speaker:Because I've got different kids in my
Speaker:classroom so I've got to write different
Speaker:stories for every time so I can't reuse
Speaker:the stories I save every single story
Speaker:because I might be able to find a way to
Speaker:bring it in like I have don't have a
Speaker:story let's remember I had this student a
Speaker:few years ago let's read the story about
Speaker:them but most of the time it's just a new
Speaker:story every time but allows me to be
Speaker:personalized with each and every one of
Speaker:them and highlight them and
Speaker:make them the star of the day.
Speaker:So that they become important and valued
Speaker:for who they are what they like and what
Speaker:makes them interesting and I really
Speaker:appreciate that that this allows me to do
Speaker:that where the textbook did not give me
Speaker:that allowance to be able to do that kind
Speaker:of stuff you have to teach all those
Speaker:little activities that are there is not
Speaker:enough time to teach everything from a
Speaker:textbook in the time that I have in this
Speaker:I can teach me to teach.
Speaker:And make it interesting and relevant to
Speaker:the kids in front of me and celebrate who
Speaker:they are as individuals and I think
Speaker:that's what's really
Speaker:important so that's my go to activity.
Speaker:Any final words because we're about 10
Speaker:minutes over any final
Speaker:words that anybody has.
Speaker:It does require some vulnerability.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:You know, it, because it is so important,
Speaker:and it is easy to mess up. It is easy to
Speaker:think that you are being inclusive and it
Speaker:turns out that you do something that over
Speaker:steps, or that you missed the mark and
Speaker:that can feel really like it.
Speaker:I think it's a lot easier for us to be
Speaker:hard on ourselves, and to be overly hard
Speaker:on ourselves, and we don't get things
Speaker:right because it is important and it does
Speaker:matter and it is kind of
Speaker:high stakes in certain ways.
Speaker:But it's a process, it's a journey. It is
Speaker:not, you are going to master equity and
Speaker:then you're done for the rest of your
Speaker:life you are a master of equitable, like
Speaker:you're all, it's always going to be
Speaker:developing and you're always going to be
Speaker:learning new things.
Speaker:So, you know, you do have to kind of be
Speaker:willing to be vulnerable and show grace
Speaker:and still hold yourself accountable.
Speaker:But, you know, it's just, the
Speaker:vulnerability is very important.
Speaker:Absolutely, and just to point out
Speaker:something you said, it's a great teaching
Speaker:moment because if you do make a mistake,
Speaker:we're all humans, we make mistakes, and
Speaker:the kids rarely hear it from adults,
Speaker:especially teachers, but apologize, make
Speaker:it a public apology if you actually hurt
Speaker:someone's feelings inadvertently,
Speaker:and that's something that was, you know,
Speaker:like I didn't realize I used to use red
Speaker:pen to highlight things on my board and
Speaker:stuff. And then some Muslim students told
Speaker:me that red is a really bad color and I
Speaker:shouldn't be using it as much because
Speaker:it's a really harsh color for them.
Speaker:So I said, I am sorry, I didn't know that
Speaker:I and I showed genuine regret for having
Speaker:done something and being ignorant about
Speaker:their culture. But whenever I make a faux
Speaker:pas or I say something and that turned
Speaker:out, it came out wrong or something.
Speaker:I always apologize because they don't
Speaker:expect it from a teacher to apologize or
Speaker:to admit that we were wrong. Like
Speaker:yesterday, I said something and I didn't
Speaker:realize it came out this way, but a kid
Speaker:came up and told me that they were really
Speaker:upset by what I said.
Speaker:So I want to apologize to that student
Speaker:and I want to apologize to the class for
Speaker:anybody else that I may have offended or
Speaker:something because they don't expect that
Speaker:from adults because adults always say,
Speaker:I'm right, do what I do, do
Speaker:what I say, not what I do.
Speaker:And I think showing them it's a teaching
Speaker:moment that everybody can make mistakes
Speaker:and it's okay to make mistakes, but then
Speaker:we have to own up to those mistakes. I
Speaker:think that's what's
Speaker:important there. So I agree.
Speaker:And equity is hard because we have so
Speaker:many cultures and so many diverse people
Speaker:in our classrooms that it's hard to not
Speaker:offend somebody with something that you
Speaker:say it's really difficult nowadays.
Speaker:And so in America is very sensitive.
Speaker:We've gone, I think sometimes to the
Speaker:overboard of sensitivity where we can't
Speaker:even make fun of ourselves anymore. I
Speaker:always bring the culture of Hispanics
Speaker:where they'll take the worst thing about
Speaker:you and make that your nickname.
Speaker:So if you are a little chunky, they call
Speaker:you Gordita, or if you have a big nose,
Speaker:then they name you big nose and that's
Speaker:not offensive in America. We're like, we
Speaker:would never do something like that. That
Speaker:is so horrible. That is
Speaker:bullying when it's not.
Speaker:It's a whole different perspective about
Speaker:that. And so sometimes I think Americans,
Speaker:we go way overboard to the extreme on
Speaker:that. Try not to offend anybody, but then
Speaker:you become like white bread. You have no
Speaker:flavor anymore. You have nothing there.
Speaker:I mean, and it's one thing to make a
Speaker:comment or say something about a culture
Speaker:or yourself as long as it's not
Speaker:derogatory. There's different, like I use
Speaker:the joke. I'll say, I have a thing that
Speaker:says taco emergency call nine Juan Juan.
Speaker:That's what it says. So and the kids go,
Speaker:that's racist. I go, that's not racist.
Speaker:That's not derogatory. That's a pun on
Speaker:words. And there's nothing negative about
Speaker:that about the Hispanic culture calling
Speaker:it nine Juan Juan. It's
Speaker:a it's a pun on on words.
Speaker:It's different than if you make a joke
Speaker:about them crossing the Rio Grande or
Speaker:they are undocumented workers or doing
Speaker:something like that. That's not the same
Speaker:thing. It's not a fun on words. It's it's
Speaker:a very different type of thing. So we
Speaker:talk about those types of things. And I
Speaker:think that is an important thing as well
Speaker:with the differences.
Speaker:And I want to say something based on what
Speaker:Jackie said. I loved it. And when we are
Speaker:doing CI and bringing equity, we're
Speaker:risking more as a person, we're risking
Speaker:more, we're putting ourselves there more
Speaker:than a traditional teacher. So we're
Speaker:going to screw it up more,
Speaker:definitely. And it will happen.
Speaker:Mm hmm. So but those the closer we are to
Speaker:someone, the more mistakes we make and
Speaker:the true relationship and like my husband
Speaker:is my closest friend person in my life.
Speaker:So he knows the real me with the
Speaker:happiness and the beauty of me. So same
Speaker:in the class. I mean, they're not going
Speaker:to know the real,
Speaker:real, real me ever before.
Speaker:Because we don't have that kind of
Speaker:relationship, but they are not going to
Speaker:know me at a different level that they
Speaker:know other teachers. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:They're out there more sharing more
Speaker:things about me, trying to connect with
Speaker:them with those examples that Scott was
Speaker:giving, trying to find the thing that is
Speaker:going to make them pay attention and get
Speaker:more involved with the class. And
Speaker:sometimes we will screw it up. Sometimes
Speaker:like, and it was not on purpose. But
Speaker:again, that that humility.
Speaker:Yeah, I'm sorry. And there is a concept
Speaker:that I learned from indigenous peoples in
Speaker:Canada called cultural humility. And it
Speaker:means you're standing in that class being
Speaker:humble and knowing that you don't know it
Speaker:all, knowing that you will screw it up by
Speaker:having that humility to keep building
Speaker:that relationship. And I want my students
Speaker:also to learn that humility from me.
Speaker:Absolutely. And we'll go ahead and end
Speaker:with that. That was a great conversation,
Speaker:right? So let me give a big thanks to
Speaker:everyone who tuned in today and hung out
Speaker:with us between the grading, the chaos
Speaker:and the endless stack of missing
Speaker:assignments. I know I'm in the middle of
Speaker:grading right now because
Speaker:grades are due on Thursday.
Speaker:You are the real MVPs. And of course, a
Speaker:huge thank you to our guests, Adriana and
Speaker:Jackie for reminding us that equity in
Speaker:language teaching isn't just a buzzword.
Speaker:It's literally the heart of what we do.
Speaker:Now, if you walked away thinking, huh,
Speaker:maybe CI is the great equalizer, then
Speaker:congrats. Your professional development
Speaker:for the day is officially done. Don't
Speaker:forget to subscribe, leave a quick
Speaker:review, answer that trivia question and
Speaker:share this episode with your friends.
Speaker:And we'll see you next week. Have a good
Speaker:bye, everybody. And
Speaker:until next time, bye bye.
Speaker:[MUSIC PLAYING]
