Welcome to Cultural Connections Lab. I'm your host Dr. Kelly Forbes. We are here to talk with educational professionals around the world to impact and influence the education system as we focus on cultural connections and the education of multilingual, diverse students.
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Welcome everyone to another podcast episode with myself, your host, Dr. Kelly Forbes. I am incredibly excited to be with three amazing master level students from the University of Central Oklahoma. I have had the honor and privilege to learn alongside these amazing individuals, and I'm so thankful that you are here to be guests today on Cultural Connections Lab.
So to start off, we have Ms. Aya Iwamoto. We also have Eva Ala Torre, and we have Genevieve Simmons. And so we are excited to be here today because we want to have a conversation centered around our multilingual learners in our school system and the utilization of technology and how we can help create digital classrooms for our students. So welcome. How are you all doing today?
Doing good.
Well, hey, I'm really, really thankful that you're here and I'm excited just to dig in and have a fun conversation together about this topic. So, but before we do jump in, I would like you all to take a moment to introduce yourselves and brag about how amazing you are. Listeners, these are amazing individuals. So here we go. I hope you have a great time with us. Aya, would you like to start?
Hello, konnichiwa. My name is Aya Iwamoto. I'm so glad to be back here. And then thank you so much for having me today. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.
Thank you so much. Yes, I'm glad that you're back too. We have another friend of ours who was here at a previous podcast, right? And so we have Aya, but we also have Genevieve Simmons.
Hello, my name is Genevieve. I am currently a teacher at the Language Company on the University of Central Oklahoma's campus. And I currently teach English to adults.
Listeners, if you have not listened to the previous podcast with these students, I encourage you to go back and do so. It's absolutely wonderful. But Genevieve, congratulations, because the last time that you were on the podcast, you were a substitute teacher, correct? Yes.
And now you are working and helping adults, right? Yes. So I have students from all over the world. They're coming. They're trying to go into university here in the US, but they don't have the language skills yet.
And so I help build those skills up. And then we also have people who are residents learning English and wanting to improve their English that I'm teaching. Excellent. Excellent. So they are acquiring those skills needed in English.
That is wonderful. Well, thank you for your service. Truly. And we have a new friend with us today. She is an incredible teacher, and I will let her introduce herself, Ms. Eva Alatorre.
Hello, hola. Mi llamo Eva Alatorre. My name is Eva Alatorre, and I am a fourth grade teacher at the Pendam City District in Oklahoma City. I am a general education teacher, so I teach all students in all subjects.
Excellent. I'm so good that you're here today, and thank you so much for all of your service in the field of education, especially in elementary school. I love elementary school. I was an elementary school principal also in a one-way immersion school in Tulsa, and I just love elementary. I have a great heart for it. So thank you so much. Thank you.
So I'm excited to be here today and to have this conversation. We are in such a wonderful field. We get to serve so many amazing students, a very diverse community of students, and in our respective course of study right now, we have been focused on digital age teaching for English learners.
This is a book, listeners. That is a wonderful, wonderful book written by Heather Rubin, Lisa Estrada, and an upcoming guest in March. So you'll be hearing from her in March or in April from Andrea Honexfeld, and I am so excited that we're going to be able to jump in and have this conversation because we recognize that in our classrooms that we do have a variety of languages and cultures represented, and there are many teachers that are always wondering what they can do to help their students.
Not only acquire content and learn the content, but how do we do that also acquiring language, the language other than our native language perhaps, plus the language of content, and we have been going through and studying through this book and through this course about how technology can help us in that area.
So, Ava, I actually would like to start with you because you are boots on the ground right now as a fourth grade teacher in an elementary school, and you actually have boots on, right? Yes. There are literally boots on the ground right now, and today you served your students in your classroom.
And so I'm really curious, just from at least your own experience and your own perspective, what you've learned in this course and what we've been discussing and talking about and I wanted to share with our listeners and other educators out there who might be hearing this.
What is your perspective of the reality of how technology is currently being used and integrated in our classrooms to support our multilingual learners?
Thank you for that question. It's a really good one. In the sense where, yes, we go to school to be teachers or some people just do not, and that's okay, but we just don't understand how we can provide our EL students with the resources that can be beneficial for them.
So taking this class specifically has showed me many different websites that are there to support us as teachers and support our students, as well as apps where students can use and different techniques that we can do in the classroom, which being by trans
languaging or by figuring out how much information that we need to give them at one time and understand just the whole variety of not expecting them to do a whole lot, but understanding that they do know a lot and that their language is a superpower.
You just have to figure out what ways we can use technology to better find a resource for them. So with that being said, yes, I definitely have learned a lot of more websites and apps that I can help my students.
And let me tell you, there has been a grand difference. There has been, and I feel like they understand it and now they feel more comfortable writing in their language on the board. And for some reason, now we speak three.
But just one, we understand each other and it's that consistency of not being shy with it. And you know what, let's get our app if we need help or let's pause the video to talk about it. How can we understand this video better or understand this information better?
I think that oftentimes we get a curriculum, for example, and it gives us the ideas of what to do leveraging technology in that classroom. And then we kind of get in the routine of maybe just staying within that, that kind of limited space, perhaps.
And we've been able to explore so many other options and ways in which we're able to engage students through, like you said, some translanguaging practices, leveraging the multiple languages that might be represented in our school because the teacher might not be able to speak or understand all those languages.
And so we've been discussing ways where we can really teach grade level content and also not have any language barrier because we do recognize the assets that our students, our multilingual students most specifically bring to the classroom, not only with their cultures, but with their languages.
And so we can build upon that. I'm curious also just to go a little bit deeper into that question. What is something new that you have come across in leveraging technology, whether that be in helping yourself prepare for a class?
Maybe it's something that is AI. Everyone's really into artificial intelligence right now and how you were leveraging that perhaps. But what is something maybe new that you have found and considered going through this course and considering all of the new options that we have really, you know, been studying and discussing about ways to not only teach content, leveraging that, but how language is no longer a barrier because you have that technology.
Is there anything that kind of stands out?
I can think of one memory last week where we of course, like you said earlier, we have to follow our curriculum, which is an expectation for us, of course.
Now it's how we utilize the curriculum. When we're watching a video, instead of just playing the video like I would used to do, just play the video. I realized that some of my students were really confused and they were wanting to understand what the video was talking about.
So I took a pause. I looked at them and I asked them, you know, nothing happens if you don't ask. Nothing will improve if you don't ask. So I asked like, how can we understand this? And they thought, you know, I need words. I need words to follow along. Can you put the subtitles on? And I said, you know what? Yes, I can. Can we slow down the video?
We are in 2024. We can definitely slow down videos for them to understand it a little slower. So that's one thing. Another thing was the words. Another thing was they asked me to give like gestures. So I was up there showing them like from one point to the other point using my body language for them to kind of understand where the teacher or whoever was talking was talking about.
So a lot of gestures, I or AI. I. Yes, I use that occasionally in the sense where I will ask, like, how can I ask my Afghan student or how can I ask a student without always going back to Spanish or how can I ask her for her to understand?
For instance, I didn't necessarily know that a thumbs up in her culture was bad and I wouldn't have known that if I wouldn't have used the Internet and asked, like, how can I communicate with her to know that she's understanding me or I'm understanding her?
It was simple, you know, do not do a thumbs up. Instead, lock your first index fingers to understand that you're communicating with each other or yes, or things like that.
And with that being said, going with my Afghan student, there are certain websites or apps that we assume will have all the languages, but do not.
So it doesn't we're like, you know, just Google it. OK, well, Googling it can work, but you have to keep diving in to see what kind of other options you have there.
So that has helped me a lot in the classroom to find a good app to communicate with her or to communicate with my other students or playing at puzzles videos where I will have a video playing with the subtitles and with slowing it down and then pausing it to check for understanding.
No, I think that's fantastic. And, you know, it's such a simple thing that we don't always consider, but literally putting on the subtitles. Well, first of all, thank you for asking your students. I think that's that.
Let's just take a moment for that. I think that's the best thing that we can do. We can learn so much from a textbook and through our conversations.
But whenever we stop and ask the children that we're serving, what do you need? How can I help? And then they can better teach us of how to better teach them.
So thank you for doing that. I think it's fantastic just to do small things. Sometimes we're looking for these big, miraculous things that's going to happen all of a sudden. Sometimes it's just as simple as putting on the subtitle, slowing down that video.
But then you were incorporating some total physical response and having having this movement happening where they were able to act and that was happening. Were they able to understand you more?
I also really appreciate that you touched on the fact of using AI to inquire more about some culture that your students represent and that they share in that space with all of you.
And so I think that's such an awesome way of using AI. Now, of course, as a side note, make sure that you always go back and do your research and assume that everything is correct on AI.
But what an awesome tool to use as a resource to go in and to try to understand more of the cultures that are represented in your classroom.
And I think if we can reflect and consider the bright questions to ask, then that can give us some really great information.
So as we're in our classrooms and we're observing our students and we become curious, I encourage you to get to the point of being fascinated where you want to know so much more about them and their culture from where they come and then have that be displayed
in the classroom as well. Now, Genevieve, question for you, because we also have parents in our schools who want to learn English as an additional language as well.
And you're currently working, I believe, with professionals, correct, that are here for a job purpose or maybe for a university purpose to gain a certain level of proficiency in English.
How have you seen technology used with the adults that you serve?
So, I mean, if I'm being honest, I haven't seen as much because there aren't a lot of resources for adult learners out there.
But with this course, I have started to take more, like the websites Ava kind of mentioned, the different apps we've explored and how I can use them with my adults because even though they're an adult, they're also a kid at heart.
So you can still use some of these fun resources with them and they enjoy it too.
So even with my adults, I use there's like a website like Lookit and it's literally a gaming app and you put in the questions that you're wanting them to practice and they can play against each other.
They can play by themselves, but they're practicing the language this way.
And I will typically like stop and pause on the questions too and have us go over the questions as a class.
And they've seemed to really enjoy it using videos to explain concepts or using videos like Ted talk.
Ted talk has lots of videos online and so I'll use those to have them listen and take down dictation notes or, you know, just see compare compare contrast what they're able to hear to test their listening.
Their listening skills as well and it's usually higher level content for the adults as well.
So it's staying with their where they need to be academically as well.
Okay, excellent. Now I'm really curious about this next question.
Maya, this is for you. So what is the biggest difference that you've noticed between Japan and the United States in the school systems from your experiences and what you've learned in both different settings?
But what are the big differences in the utilization of technology in just the school system in general, even if it's not necessarily for multilingual learners, but maybe also for any multilingual learner?
Yes. So I grew up in Japan and then I graduated university in Japan too.
So I kind of know how it works both here in the United States and Japan.
But the biggest difference is, is that the Japanese school, like in general elementary to university, they think that utilizing the technology is like a treat.
So usually you do learn like language, other academic contents without technology.
But sometimes we have visual, but doesn't mean it's always helpful.
But then sometimes like five lessons, maybe one lessons at the end of the class, they have like, like, let's play video, let's watch videos about the regarding to the topic that we learned.
But other than that, I don't remember the use the technology to especially learn something.
I remember I learned computer how to use it, but not utilizing to learn academic contents or language.
And in here, in the United States, a lot of schools have one to one technology.
Yes. Or they have a classroom set and every student has their Chromebook or iPad or something else all the time.
Almost. I think the budget wise too.
Oh, yes. Maybe this is the time as well where I didn't grow up with having an iPad or Chromebook in class.
We had one computer lab and we would alternate.
We would have a computer lab and you were just kind of like alternate what class is going to have come have the computers that day or.
Well, we did have like a like a whiteboard for the teacher.
But I mean, like time has changed. Right. Yes.
And now, now we see it a lot more often in the classrooms.
Well, and like growing up, I was there when smart boards became the thing and they were being integrated.
And while they're still in classrooms now, it's why I feel like they still use smart boards.
It's now considered like older technology when you have the computers and the iPads at your fingertips.
And now you can move where you can still have it on the screen with a smart board, interact with it this way.
But you can have them each pull up on their own on their own screen and they can then work at their own pace as well.
So if you have those students who are faster, like higher language levels, they can work a little bit of a head.
So and you're not holding them back.
But then if the slower the lower levels need more attention, more time, they can take that time.
Whereas with the smart board, even you're just like, all right, we're going at the speed because that's the speed that I'm I'm teaching it at.
And but you're just using it technology that way versus just the regular whiteboard.
Yes. I'm glad that you meant like mentioned that we could be presenting something and they are seeing it on their iPad as well at the same time.
And they're interacting.
That's why I really like like a puzzle and near pod, because you have it displayed on the board.
No one can see what what you see, but they themselves are able to type in their answers.
So they can go in their pace.
Right. And as well as with our pace as a class.
But I never like remember that I don't remember any like day that I typed to do like something.
It was always handwriting, like especially before the college.
They went to the high school because I think our society still think that using the AI like make people lazy.
Yeah. So they have a stereotype mindset still.
So when I think I think a lot of people have that that concern, not only Japan.
Yeah. And also, whenever you talk about handwriting, I think that we could do more writing.
Yeah. You know, you're the fourth grade teacher right now.
How is handwriting not great?
Not great. There we go.
Yes. I think I think I have to always be that healthy balance.
But then it's interesting whenever you consider that the reality is, is that technology is advancing so much and all the time and so rapidly that if our students are not learning about technology
and if they're not engaged and not learning how to leverage this technology for content acquisition, to maybe learn another language, et cetera, whatever that is, then they could potentially be behind.
And so I think we're always constantly finding ourselves in that right balance, but also in that right race that that we're in.
Because if we don't do it, who's going to do it?
Yeah. Like if we're not the ones teaching how to use technology properly, they're going to use it the wrong way.
And then eventually, I mean, there are future leaders or at least the little kids I'm with right now.
And our children are future leaders.
So if we don't teach them how to use something properly, they're going to just adapt by their neighbor or someone who is not doing it correctly.
And we don't want those kinds of leaders.
We want the leaders who know how to use it properly and who eventually will teach somebody else how to use it correctly.
Yeah, definitely.
And I mean, and we've discussed this, too, teaching our students how to be digital citizens and what that looks like,
helping them understand what is not necessarily true or accurate, where to find appropriate good resources and sources to find your information
and then to do some extra research and digging to make sure that you are well informed and not just believing anything that you happen to see on TikTok, perhaps, or anything like that.
Right. That you're able to really go through a filter and to understand and to be able to distinguish what is correct, accurate information and what is just misinformation.
Especially because they have so much of that information at their fingertips and anybody can be a news reporter, but doesn't think it's accurate news.
And that happens all the time.
And some people, so Gen A, Gen Z students, we discussed them because those are the students that we serve right now.
So we have our Gen A and Gen Z students that are always connected to their phones and they are finding most of their information through social media platforms,
such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, others.
There's more coming out. There's just, you know, so many places.
And so we need to be able to teach them, one, how to use this technology for their learning, two, how to make sure that they're protecting themselves
whenever they are present online, but then three, how to be able to, again, distinguish between correct information and just blatant misinformation.
Yeah, it's a whirlwind out there for sure right now with technology.
So I want to get back, though, talking about the utilization of this technology in our classrooms.
And it's important to make the statement that using technology in the classroom does not mean just turning on your smart board, perhaps.
Right. And so before we get too deep into it and get into to some of our prepared questions,
what is any way that you all have used technology specifically to learn another language?
I'll just leave it as an open question for anyone.
I mean, so I started learning Mandarin in the spring and I mean, I was using Duolingo.
Still use it. It is great because I can do it at my own pace.
It does practice reading, listening, speaking and writing skills on the app.
And it's just at my fingertips on my phone.
So I am enjoying using it and it's game like.
So you have like little goals you can work towards and it gives you notifications like you haven't done your minutes that you set for yourself today.
And so it reminds me just to take those time that time out to learn.
Yeah, I also use some social media apps to practice Korean.
I'm still keeping up with my Korean skills from when I lived lived over there and I, you know,
I try to follow the new sources that are from Korea and I just practice my Korean by reading what it says there.
But then I have to go back and check because it's using language that I haven't quite learned yet.
But then I'm using that skill of fact checking and practicing.
And so those are two ways that I'm using it.
That is so fun. I didn't know that you were taking on Mandarin.
That is exciting. Look at you go. Polyglot. I love it.
Anyone else have experienced leveraging the technology to help them learn another language?
I've only used Duolingo and I saw that now they have kind of updated it where you can have a phone call with like whoever is on the other side,
which is really cool because that was one thing that I didn't know.
Yes. It will call you and you'll answer, but then you have to like sign up for the weekly plan or whatever it is.
But yeah, I thought it was really cool that you can use a like being a phone call and speaking whatever practicing your language that you're learning.
That's so exciting. Is it to AI or to someone?
AI unless you add a friend who's also learning the same language as you.
Okay. Interesting. So another way that is exciting.
I have one similar to that one, like a phone call, but the app called HelloTalk.
You sign up and then choose the language that you can speak.
And then the other one is I think you can you are studying.
So in that case, for my case, I'll put the Japanese that I can speak and then learning, for example, like English or Korean, other language.
And then you can find the person who has the same situation, but the opposite.
For example, for example, like a Genevieve, she's learning, wants to learn Japanese, but she can speak English.
And then we start like talking on the like chatting.
We can do that, exchange the message. And then sometimes we can do the phone call.
But purposely to improve language through meeting people at the same background.
I did not know about all of those. HelloTalk.
HelloTalk, but I did not know the new feature on Duolingo.
There is a wonderful director of Title 3 in a local school district.
And she has everybody on Duolingo or on some platform to learn another language.
And she always encourages that language. She's around them.
She speaks Spanish, a little Spanish, but it's so much fun.
And it brings people in together a whole lot and they have a great time.
Those are great personal ways that you all have been able to leverage technology.
I know for myself, my cell phone's in Spanish, my computer's in Spanish.
I have Toro en Español. I love it so much.
And then whenever I'm listening to the TV, I'm always thinking about things in Spanish.
So I'll quickly pull up an app and translate it real quickly and make sure that it's right.
Or could I do that in my practice, just interpreting out loud as the TV's going.
I love language so much, so I'm always around with it.
But then I get excited whenever I get to go to school districts
and talk about how they can use the things that we've been talking about.
Again, in this book, The Digital Age Teaching for English Learners.
And then leveraging some of the new AI tools that I figured out to help teachers create lesson plans
around sheltered instruction practices and dual language education practices
like we talked about with metalinguistic awareness and translanguaging.
And just to help develop more resources, even maybe bilingual or multilingual resources, for our students.
So it's really, really fun to be in this work.
And it's fun to be in this work at this digital age that we are in
because there are so many resources and opportunities that can feel overwhelming sometimes for teachers.
Like there are so many things out there to do.
And I just want to encourage everyone, breathe.
Find just one, two, or three that you really like and you feel good at.
And then just start with that.
Do your best, forget the rest, and have grace and compassion for yourself and students.
But just lean into it, right? Just lean into it and have fun.
Well, you could say even for like the ED puzzle, like Ava had never heard of it before this class.
And she's already talked about how she's been using it in her classroom already.
Yeah. And was it scary?
Well, you have to practice on your own first.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely like practice.
Don't just show up in the classroom and be like, all right, here we go.
Whatever happens, happens. Yeah, you got the point.
Yes, I was actually very thankful.
Like I said before, there's so many different resources out there that we don't know about unless we're told
or we do our own research.
And sometimes as teachers, we're just so tired at the end of the day.
We don't want to keep looking up for things.
Yeah, that's a that is a truth and a reality.
But that's why everyone out there listening is listening right now.
So they get all the good details from you all, right?
You're the masters at this.
And we will be right back.
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And now back to the show.
I want to go ahead and start with some of the questions that we had.
And I want to start the conversation around the flipped classroom.
This is a very wonderful model that teachers can leverage in their classrooms to help students learning things before they even come to school sometimes.
And of course, always be aware and conscious of the students that you're serving and if they have technology at home to be able to do this.
So this could be done in a classroom in a hybrid setting, asynchronously, however that looks.
So thinking about a flipped learning classroom, what in your opinion, from what you all have learned and experienced,
what are the advantages of flipped learning for multilingual and multicultural learners?
And then also, how can it be designed for equity in our classrooms in this digital context?
So again, the advantages of a flipped learning classroom for multilingual and multicultural students.
And then how does that help support equity in a digital context in our classroom?
Well, for starters, it allows students to work at their own pace because if you're giving them the content at home before class,
they can look at it on their own.
So that way they come into class and they already could they can already have questions.
They already have a little bit of that background knowledge so you can you can kind of dive in a little bit more.
And they can preview all this in whatever language also.
Yeah, if they need help, they need help with the content because they're not understanding English,
then hopefully whichever way that you're presenting the information to them, they have access to it in their own language as well.
Because here's the other point. We can do all this at the same time.
And it takes a whole lot of work and practice and planning.
And it is hard. This is a very hard job.
But we can't wait for students to acquire language in five, six, seven, whatever years and then say,
OK, now that you have that, now let's start doing content.
So whenever you are in this flipped classroom, digital context,
there is this opportunity where students can preview the content, the topic in whatever language.
They can leverage the other websites and resources that help with translation or even looking up different videos
or even different images to help understand that.
And that way, whenever they're back in the classroom, they can focus more on the English
and not have to be worried about missing out on the content.
Yes.
Right?
Yes. I think that goes really along with how language is a superpower,
where they take the information, the teachers giving the information to the student,
and they get to understand it and learn and research or read or whatever it is that they need to do at home in their language.
Right? Just because a student is not at grade level in English doesn't mean that they're not at grade level in their language.
Exactly. Or if not above grade level from other students that are monolingual.
Exactly. So they get to study it and understand what they're going to go into school and talk about and discuss.
But now they're focusing on the targeted language.
And I think it's kind of like giving students homework, which apparently now we don't really necessarily do as much.
But it's only if you see it in that way, where if you're flipping and you're like, you know what,
you have the opportunity to learn this in the language that you desire and then you come to school
and you're ready to conversate in English and practice the language with us,
rather than having to learn the language, learn the content, learn the content objective,
and learn the language objective all at the same time with the language as well.
Well, and it's not so much. I mean, yeah, because I do understand that it does feel like a quote unquote homework thing.
But I think it's different having homework, which is a worksheet that was sent home.
They have to go do. Of course, there's, you know, there's different types of homework.
But this is kind of different in the aspect of more like an extension of how you're connecting home to school.
I mean, there are a lot of good opportunities for this where they're previewing, previewing that content.
But it can be done in fun, creative ways. It doesn't have to be the stereotypical.
Just read this, answer five questions to check your comprehension and then come back to class and we'll see how you're doing.
This can be engaging, interacting. You could have students working together,
having a conversation, perhaps working on their speaking skills and their listening skills as they had already read
maybe a short article or watched a quick video or something.
And then they can have that conversation and even maybe record a video that they submit to you.
And that's something that's a whole lot more fun.
And like what we're doing now, all getting to be together, have a conversation about this.
But it's not like I'm sitting down doing necessarily the quote unquote stereotypical homework.
So I think it's a great opportunity for extension.
But this also allows for parents to be involved too.
So you have those parents who don't who might not know English as well.
And they're able to be involved with their students, academics at home because if they have access to it in their language as well,
then they can be more involved with their child and they're learning.
I'm so glad you said that because I was thinking it too.
Yeah. So allowing allowing them to do it at home in their language, it gives them that opportunity.
And, you know, you hear about how parents will learn English with their child when they're at home doing that homework as well.
Well, the teachers see them logging in at 11 something at night sometimes and they're thinking, oh, my gosh, the kids up this late and come to find out
it was a parent that was leveraging that same platform of technology that the student was learning so that way they can learn as well.
Yeah, I think it's really fantastic.
Lots of opportunities. I have experience.
I think I told you, like, share it with you my experience, but it was in my English class at my high school.
The reason, like I can't remember why, but I remember that class and what I learned.
Like they're using the flipped classroom.
Yeah, using the videos and the movies.
I remember still. So I think that remains longer.
Yeah, it sinks in more than.
Yes, because you and then also I felt so prepared.
So and then the increased moment.
Oh, yeah.
The classroom compared to like a original classroom way.
I think I think that's wonderful.
I know for myself and I am fluent in English and Spanish, but whether if it's in English or in Spanish, if it's a very high level text
and maybe around a topic that I'm not 100 percent familiar with, I need extra time.
And so I think it's really great for students because they therefore also have that extra time.
It's that wait time that we're always waiting.
Yes, exactly.
But they even though we know that they need more in school, we don't have those those two minutes for each question or whatever it is that day.
Yeah, yeah.
So with that comes this other component.
We have always talked about language domains, right?
And we always talk about four of them, listening, speaking, reading and writing.
I often just like another great educator, another consultant and a friend that I get to see.
I call him a friend whenever we're at conferences.
And then before Dr. Jose Medina has that plus one.
So it's the listening, speaking, reading and writing plus one, which is that metalinguistic awareness of trans languaging.
Right.
But then there's there's two other domains that are presented in this book and they are viewing and visually representing.
And so I'm curious, how can educators and especially Aviv, I mean, you're you're in that elementary setting and you are working with adults, Genevieve.
And you have your your own experience from Japan.
But so to my point, though, how how do educators from all these different perspectives that you all bring?
And thank you for bringing your personal and professional perspectives here.
How do educators effectively balance all those domains, listening, speaking, reading, writing, viewing and visually representing within this digital age curriculum or within the prescribed curriculum, perhaps?
And maybe we should actually back up for just one second.
What is viewing and visually representing?
Let's let's let's define that and explain that.
OK, so viewing is whenever a student is just watching or, you know, visually just seeing things and visual visually representing is kind of where they are presenting instead of representing their presenting what they are understanding.
Based off of based off of the information that they've been learning, based off of the listening, the reading, the viewing, the speaking and the writing.
So, yeah, so we have we have our receptive skills, right?
We have our listening, our reading and then our viewing.
So if we have a chart, if we have a graph, we're looking at that, we know what does that mean.
We talked about symbols as well. There are different symbols in different cultures, right?
That can mean different things. And so we have to understand what those things mean.
There are there's a viewing that we see in math a whole lot. There's like I said, the charts and graphs.
And so we have to understand what does that mean?
And when it comes to viewing, I also think about when you go to different countries, for example, the signs for driving are going to be different sometimes.
And so we're viewing that right. But then you also have your expressive skills.
OK, you have your speaking and you have your writing.
But then we also have visually representing.
So you might have, for example, the water cycle and what does this visually represent?
And then therefore, how do I present on that? How do I explain that?
How do I bring that into the conversation as well? And we forget about that.
So whenever you do have those six domains of listening, speaking, reading, writing, viewing and visually representing,
social interaction goes up in our students because they're able to have more conversations around that in the effective filter.
Therefore, it goes down. And this is what helps all of us with our communication, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking and culture.
And in the book, it defines this as the five C's for 21st century English learners.
And I love this. I love how it talks about how this can really promote and support authentic communication and have that contextually rich language classroom.
Right. So, again, how do educators balance all of this within the curriculum?
I'll give one example. Yeah. Well, I try my best to use a curriculum and make it exciting and to fit all of my students, which I have a classroom of 26.
Sixteen of them are Yale students and two of them are already proficient. So that's the grand majority of them.
The other students are, you know, sped or normal or in peak or whatever you would call it.
So there are a grand majority and a variety of them.
And the last thing that we that I'm going to talk about hit about right now is we were learning about Native Americans and the content that we were supposed to be just teaching is all of the five regions,
which is a whole lot for fourth graders to learn and understand the huge breakdown of every single group, much less five of them in two weeks.
So we did a lot of they were listening to me, right?
Of course, as we're reading, they did a lot of reading and listening and viewing videos and being pictures and seeing all that stuff.
And then they were writing what they were doing.
So as I am speaking and they are watching these videos, they're also trying their best to write their notes so they can because I gave them a little I was like,
just keep in mind, try to write as much information that you can if you need help with spelling out here, but write as much as you can because there's a whole purpose for it.
There's a huge purpose for it.
Like, OK, OK. And now whenever I broke them in, we got all the information that we did with viewing and seeing and viewing using yet puzzles or my near pod or whatever it was.
And then reading the curriculum that we're supposed to be using.
Then it led to speaking where they're broken into their groups and they're conversating about the notes that they had all gathered.
They're talking about the notes that they gathered throughout this time.
They were able to add on to their own notes about, OK, maybe I didn't think about it in that way.
So they're writing it.
And now visual representation representing is I realize that in our classes we could have something on the board, but we don't know what it is.
Right. Same thing as we need of Americans. I could put up a picture and they don't even know what it is.
So I explained that, you know, and then they were able to understand and research using their iPads correctly what that material, what that artifact was and what they were using.
It for. Then they made this huge presentation, which was actually really cool because they had a whole poster board and using all the notes that they collected and all of the pictures that they were able to collect together.
And I think that was really a positive and good reinforcement for them because they felt comfortable instead of speaking in a whole class and talking about it.
I gave the opportunity for small groups for students to kind of talk within their level and come up with their notes and come up with a presentation.
So when they were able to present, they felt so much more confident and did so much better on their test because they were making those memories.
They were using their languages. They were writing as much as they could.
They were really trying their best and understanding the language and the content together.
I think it's incredible how we can get so focused on just four language domains. And the reason why we're focused on those four language domains is because of assessment, because since we don't have viewing and visually representing as part of that assessment, and therefore we're not necessarily focused on it.
And I have to admit, I have thought about it and considered it, but not in this way. And this pushed my thinking to consider that there is a lot of visually represented material that you may not know exactly what it means or what it is.
And then we see, and I say this often, we see things the way that we are, not the way that things actually are sometimes. And so we can take things for granted and assume something, right?
And I think this is a great, great reminder to not assume that and to really teach to everything, even beyond any language assessment that we have to give, but teach beyond that and to make sure that we remind ourselves to include the viewing as a receptive skill and the visually representing
Yes, as an expressive skill. I think when I was teaching that those lessons, this was a couple of weeks after we had just read the beginning of this book, and we're talking about Bloom's Techtonomy and how we flip it.
And so in school or in working on my bachelor's, we learned how to go with the flow, go with it, right? Starting with the remembering and understanding and applying and analyzing, evaluating and creating. And for what the content was, I felt like I had to do it that way.
So I did. And then I brought that project where they're using that visual representing, then I flipped it where they were able to create and evaluating the information that they gathered, analyzing what they got, applying it to their poster.
Then they were understanding because they're working together. Then remembering what it was and their performance was a lot better.
I love that the book brings that up, how you take Bloom's Techtonomy and flip it upside down. And one great thing that we have learned and discovered from that is that we learn so much more about what students already know.
They can build upon that prior learning and learn more about them and their backgrounds and build upon that as well. Because again, we come at this with an asset based lens. They're bringing more information than what we think.
Language proficiency levels do not equate cognitive ability. Dr. Oky Lee on another previous episode talked about that and I love that she said that. And that's good for us to remember that as we're looking at any language proficiency level, and it has a few words here or a sentence of what they might be saying, students have more than that.
They already have a language. They come with this full linguistic repertoire. We're just adding to it right now. I love that you bring up that flip of Bloom's Techtonomy and I'm glad that you saw some positive results of that as well.
I would like to share my experience. Actually, last week I'm working as a coordinator of the Japanese language course for the nonprofit organization here in Oklahoma. So we have eight teachers in different levels teaching for local communities every week, weekly classes.
So and then I went to each classes, not observe, but just to see how they're doing. And then one teacher was using like visual, like videos and then sometimes like physical and the game and everybody was standing up, even adult.
This is adult class. But the other class was the teacher was just popping up the textbook picture on the white projectors. So like almost no visual. They can see it.
But then they were talking about how to like, they're talking about the phrase when they take a bus in Japan. But for me, I was like, not a lot of people here, you know, knows about like taking a bus because they don't really use it here.
And we have own like eco card system that you can pay actually, but for just for the bus that's in Japan. So we don't, nobody knows here.
So I thought we need to like include and then especially for visual and then the looking about bus is also different. Looking of the bus is different too. So that was I thought it's good like example.
So after that we all gathered and then we shared like, like conversation, like conversation. And then I create the Google Drive that teachers can upload their own materials, so they can see their others materials each other to take away the good points or you know, and share each other.
But I think it's important to be aware. And then like intentional planning to include all the six domains. Other than that, it's easy to forget and then like, you know, and then usually you're going to be like your own world.
And then you believe this is the best. The keyword right there is planning. We have to stop and be disciplined to actually do that planning because it does take time.
Yes. Yes. But you're right to your point because if I saw the bus from Japan or the system of the payment, right, the system of the payment.
I mean, I know what that means. I haven't seen it before. It's just because it's not my experience on my will house. I love that you did that. That's amazing. Yeah.
That's so relevant for our learners too though because they come from different countries and they don't have that background knowledge. When we're teaching them about Native Americans, for example, like they probably don't call them that in their country.
There's something there's a different interactions between Native Americans and other like the others in the country that they come from. And so they probably see it as a different way than what our experience is. And so we're explaining this is what a new American is.
This is where they were originally and this is where they are now. And they're probably going, what does this represent? Right.
And they're like, what? And so just thinking of like the payment system, you were to say with the bus, that's completely different for us. Yes. Then you just take that and think about your students in that same regard.
Like if you're learning it, you're like, I would have no idea. Yeah. Students are thinking the same thing. I think this makes me consider in our last podcast and Ava, you weren't here for it, but like that cultural bias piece that we have sometimes with the unconscious bias.
And assessment or in testing or even in teaching your class or whatever that is. And I think that like this is this. I mean, again, for me, I guess I'm speaking for myself. It's just a good reminder to connect to that because again, you could have some biased questions, but not think of it all that way.
And it's biased in the aspect that, oh, I didn't think about visually representing this or how they're going to view this, that they might not know what that even means because they've never experienced that or what was the opportunity that I missed to make a connection to that as well.
In my teaching, if they have something similar in their country, right? So we could look at a New York metro system and one in Japan that makes the similarities to even what that looks like in the BTS and Bangkok, right? We can make those connections. But if we don't take time to actually consider that and be intentional about it, like you said, Aya, then that's the missed opportunity that we had. That's a great reminder. I really appreciate that. Thank you. That's so good.
So another question speaking about assessments, how can teachers better leverage this technology to design assessments that are going to promote that critical thinking and creativity when it comes to our multilingual students as they're using their own digital tools and resources?
I mean, one thing is with using technology, you can give them, you have given the opportunity to do maybe a presentation online. And so you're doing an assessment this way where they take the information, they put in a presentation, they record themselves, they put it on this particular app that you're using, the platform that you're using.
And then you can give them commentary, like you can pause and put like a spot, okay, here's some feedback for this particular answer. Here's feedback for this particular answer. And so it's a little bit more intentional. It's a little more, I can't think of where I want to say, but it's better opportunity for feedback.
And students need what? More feedback than they need more teaching. Remember that was one of the quotes in the book, right? Timely feedback. Maybe that's what you're thinking about. You can give it real timely.
Yes, yes. And by having them do also the presentations in that way, you can also allow them to think more critically too, versus just doing the regular pen and paper and multiple choice, which most teachers, that's just, it's the quickest way you can get the test out, quickest way you can have them give the answer.
And while you can use technology to have that test be online instead of being on paper, so they get that immediate feedback because the system can grade it. It's, you're still losing out on the opportunity for them to maybe explain their reasoning.
Or maybe they can pull up a picture of themselves when they're presenting online so you can see where their thought process was. And you can take that into account versus, well, they just didn't mark A.
Well, and then I think it also on the flip side, it gives the teacher another opportunity to consider how they are giving feedback. And so feedback, we often think of it as written or just in a grade format.
But now you could do leveraging this technology and some of the, whether it be an app like ScreenPal or any other sort of Microsoft. I mean, anything that's going to be flipped, like you can get feedback on a video about something.
Or they're practicing their English and maybe that student does know a lot. They just are really shy in class. Right. They're giving them the opportunity to use what they do know at their own pace, at their own time, when they can.
And I think having the students be able to leverage more of this technology is going to help them with their speaking. Because that's what I see in my experience is that the number one thing that students are really nervous and apprehensive about doing in the classroom, much less on an assessment, is the speaking part.
And here there are so many opportunities to put that into our curriculum and to make our lesson plans designed in such a way where it's required.
But we know that we have a language objective that we're focused on. So now I have technology that can help leverage that language objective. And then me as the teacher to grade this, if that's a long essay and writing, I'm looking for some certain details.
Maybe I can find ways for me to leverage AI. Maybe I can leverage AI with a template that has some specific questions to help generate a lesson plan to give me ideas that will be supportive for my students.
And going one step further, maybe even based off of their language scores that they get.
So, you know, in this moment, I should honestly say a nice shout out to Edges Kills, who's the sponsor for the podcast, because that platform helps with all of that. So listeners, if you're interested, look them up.
You're going to say, well, I just made me think of like, even when they're doing like the video, they could even do some translanguaging. And if like, maybe they can't think of what they want to say in English, but they can say it in their native language.
The teacher can still take that moment to pause or because with AI technology with other things, they can take that video and put it somewhere else to get maybe that translation because maybe the teacher doesn't understand what they're saying.
But technology can now take that video, put it here and it will give the translation. Or you can transcribe what they said and then copy and paste what they said into AI. So then you can see, oh, they got the content.
They just didn't have the language. So you're still assessing them that way. But so you're like, okay, so maybe I need to help with the language here with maybe the vocabulary, but they obviously understood what they're learning.
And it's so crazy. I notice I don't know if anyone else has that on my iPhone and the update for the teclado, where you're typing that you can have the QWERTY keyboard in English and in Spanish.
And so you can even like in my text messages, I'm translanguaging and even though I'm speaking into it, if I go back and forth, then it goes ahead and puts it in with another language.
I would say. Yeah, it's fantastic. So, I mean, I think again, that's another way because we want students to utilize their full linguistic repertoire.
Right. Because again, whether or not we give our students ourselves or anyone who's bilingual or multilingual permission to translate, which is going to be happening.
But I look at the past and let's tell them the moment. It's also happening on this side.
And it was happening on this side with the meaning and other law. And so it's happening back and forth for me already.
And so I get to really pull from my language, the repertoire, mobilize all of that to provide what we, you know, as we're still acquiring language, but not having to do that to sacrifice another language.
But that's what we can cross over that threshold to gain access to content and create comprehensible output to our teachers.
So that way you have something that now you can give feedback on to help us in both language and in content.
Well, and I feel like especially since I feel like most teachers are content teachers, more so that they're, you know, they're assessing for that content that they get the content.
So if you take away that language, that barrier there, then you're still then you're getting a more true assessment versus because obviously with time, like they'll get that language and you can address it in class, you know, the next the next day.
But you're not harming the students grade. You're not discouraging them because they obviously already knew the information.
I think that we can use technology to help them express themselves as well.
Where when they are presenting a presentation or whatever it is, you are able to really get to know your student a lot more and what they really like and student relationship.
What is really, really important to understand where they're coming from and how you can better serve them.
Well, speaking of service, how can we leverage this technology to help in our communities to be able to enhance collaboration with everyone.
Because we have diverse communities, multilingual communities.
How do you see us being able to leverage this technology, maybe most specifically AI in this because I'm thinking, for example, Hey, Jen, if anyone knows about Hey, Jen.
And FYI listeners, we're not, you know, promoting, supporting necessarily any of these. These are just ones that we've come across.
And I haven't used any of them extensively. Right.
And I've heard some of this from some other people and have even tried it myself.
But Hey, Jen, for example, they're they're able to take what you are saying.
And so I can record myself saying, Hey, parents, welcome to your Title 3 night.
We're so good that you're here. But then it would also have it in other languages represented that I tell it to do.
And so the AI changes the mouth where it looks like it's saying it correctly and it's in that language.
So imagine families coming in knowing that that principal doesn't speak 27 languages that are represented in that school, perhaps.
But it's so wonderful to be able to maybe visually see that principal there who has taken the time, obviously, to figure out how to leverage AI to be able to write.
And there's a bilingual families podcast with another previous guest that we had, Daniela Pereira.
And she's absolutely amazing. But her podcast came out just yesterday.
And it was eight minutes long, but it was just talking about five minutes and I could make a difference.
And she was just talking about how whenever the teacher took just a few minutes to learn how to say her name, not Daniela or Daniela,
to be able to say that meant so much. So I think about how there are moments like that in people's lives that it impacts them so much.
And that's what made her feel like I'm happy to be here.
I'm happy that this gives me more insight about what Oklahoma is, how people in Oklahoma are, how the U.S. is.
And I feel so much more like I belong. So I thought that message is so powerful.
But now we really have ways where we can implement technology in such a way to hopefully help everybody feel that in whatever way that we possibly can,
even if it's not just face to face, one on one like Daniela's experience, an experience where you're leveraging HeyGen or any other AI, for example,
or has a video where you have the leader of that school welcoming all the parents in multiple different languages.
And what a celebration that is.
Our school uses talking points.
Yes.
And when you like the teacher can send a message in English and the parents receive it in whatever language they decide they prefer.
So it it translates everything on it.
And even like documents that I add on it, it will translate it as well.
So me being myself, as I would take hours making one little newsletter and then translating it in Spanish and then trying to translate it in Persian, it was hard.
And then I realized, oh, it translates. It already translates for me.
It's fantastic. Yes. Yes, yes, yes.
It has all those. I guess I hear to the point that sometimes the parents think that you actually might speak that other language whenever the teacher doesn't always do it.
But their communication had always been.
Yes, but it keeps them open to wanting to talk to me.
Yeah, definitely.
And even if it's in their language, I'm able to at least receive some kind of information back.
Yeah. I'm also thinking about you said newsletter.
It made me think about Notebook LM or LM Notebook.
I can't remember, but it's the one that you can upload documents and they can turn it into a podcast.
And so I even think about if we have so whenever we're sending things home to our parents, we have newsletters that go out.
You know, that's interesting to consider what other languages that could also be done in.
And if parents could listen to something about what's happening at their school, if they maybe themselves don't have that literacy skill.
And that's another way to keep parents engaged.
It's fun.
Well, that's the individual and the auditory learners.
Yes. And also, like I've heard from some principals using it to upload what the next week is going to be, that the principal would send it out to the teachers.
The teachers wouldn't always read it. And so they would just upload it into into that platform.
And then it would create a podcast and then teachers could listen to that little AI podcast on the way to work, knowing what was coming up that week from the principal.
So that was a fun way to even get teachers a little bit more engaged.
So that was fun.
So these these conversations have been really, really wonderful that we've had over the semester.
And I'm really thankful for this one that we are having right now. And we've discussed also a lot about how technology can help us create this holistic, linguistic ecosystem for our students.
And so I just want to hear from you all in your your personal thoughts and feelings on this, as well as your professional ones share as much as you would like.
But because you might have some personal experiences with this as well.
Coming into the university from another country, being someone who taught in another country.
I know that you and I, Genevieve, both share that experience. That's been so much fun.
You as well, Aya. And then also, I know that we get to share Tiendo Bilingüe, Ingles, and Apanol together.
So that's so much fun, Ava. I love it so much.
But then so again, you have these language experiences somehow in your past where you are today.
So I think about our schools and our school districts.
And so the question I want to pose is what steps do you think that our schools and our school districts can take to create that holistic, linguistic ecosystem through this digital age learning ecosystem as well?
To really ensure that we have equitable access to resources for our multilingual students and their families while incorporating all students' linguistic repiters.
Are there some steps that you would like to see school districts take?
Or what are some that maybe they're already taking? Or any ideas that you've thought about during our conversations?
Well, I mean, I know professional development is always needed.
And with how much things are changing, just being trained on or just being informed of the different ones that are out there.
Constantly things that are being created and even things that are going away.
Like one of the things we talked about, there was Jamboard. It went away.
We had no idea, obviously. And then it got it got changed to something new.
So just even being up to date on, oh, well, you could have used this, but here's an alternative.
But just knowing what is available just by itself, but because we don't even have the time to go through every single thing that's out there.
I know that's the hard part. And most districts don't have like one person over this to be able to share that information out with you.
And you're kind of required to kind of do it on your own. And you're like, when?
I think just finding those things, those sites, even if it takes like 30 minutes just to have a conversation with the teachers and being like,
or just collaborating, being like, these are the ones I found. This is what I'm using.
And then you're just sharing it with the other one. Then they can look at it and say, well, actually, I found another one that's better.
And then you're just building off of each other that way.
I think that you reminded me that I'm glad that you said professional development because it reminded me that professional development classes
or even talks about our English language learners should be open to all.
Yes. To all. Because I really wanted to go to your PD, but I couldn't because I am not an ELD teacher. So I couldn't go.
Oh, no. Exactly. So it should be open.
Well, it might. To all teachers because we all work with them. We have them in the classroom.
Big shout out to Ms. Sally Diaz also from Putnam City. She's not just for our ELL student, but also our ALL student.
I love her. For all students. For all students. Yes.
Yeah. So that should be open to everybody because, I mean, those who are interested in wanting to help them will be able to go
and have at least the opportunity and decision to make it or not.
And here's the other component to this. And this is something that listeners, you may have heard me say this on another episode as well.
But it's true, though, is that no one is a native born speaker of academic language.
And so even today, whenever I was talking with a fifth grade teacher, they said, why are we not putting this up as the filter that we go through
when we consider language domains, including viewing and visually representing and then taking that that that language assessment kind of mindset
of having to utilize language because language is that vehicle to get access to that content.
So if we would take everyone and go through that process, it would help everybody gain more language,
whether you have one linguistic repertoire or multiple linguistic repertoires.
Well, on technology, we don't while we're focused on multilingual learners, it's useful for the monolingual learners as well.
Oh, yes. So while we're discussing how to benefit multilingual learners, like you're still benefiting your monolingual students also.
And so using technology, even if you don't have ELs in your classroom, which we know is more rare now than before,
you can still use these these resources for your students and make it more entertaining and engaging.
You are saying so many great things because it's reminding me of so many other people that have been on the podcast as well.
Dr. Jobe Lawrence is someone else that was on another podcast episode, and she was talking about that,
but then also making the joke that there are no monolingual English only students harmed in the making of this professional development.
Like it's still going to help everyone like no one's going to suffer like instead all of our boats are going to ride so much better.
And it allows us that opportunity to now make more cross linguistic connections, more cross cultural connections.
And I think that whenever we know that we have all of this technology just at our fingertips and I'm going back to something that you said in the beginning,
leveraging AI to learn more about the culture of your students, we can do that so so easily now.
And so if we're able to really stop and take a step back and say, OK, you know what?
Considering the role that cultural proficiency plays in my profession and in my setting and in my school and in my district,
how can I know who is represented in my community and in my school and in my classroom?
And how can I therefore be able to assess that cultural knowledge to value that diversity and then to institutionalize cultural knowledge within my building?
So we're all getting to share this and we're all getting to learn more about it because we are global citizens and we have technology that can help us do that.
You all are so amazing.
And I'm thankful that I've been able to be with you on your master's degree journey.
And I think what I've been able to learn from you and your experiences.
And I appreciate all all that you all do in your in your personal lives and just incredibly proud of you for what you're doing in your professional lives as well.
And so as we're about to wrap up here, I want to be able to open it up.
If there are any other comments that you would like to share or any other type of closing words or recommendations or celebrations or anything like that to share with our listeners.
Read the book. Read the book.
Yes, I love the book.
Just so you know, we will have a link in the description for this book as well as some of the other resources in this book so you can get some ideas of other apps and websites that were provided in the amazing book called Digital Age Teaching for English Learners, A Guide to Equitable Learning for All Students, the second edition.
So yes, you will have access to that.
So read the book and apart from that, any other comments that you would like to share with us? I think there's going to be a lot of information that you're like, and overwhelmed.
But as Genevieve said, we can share the information and then just start with like a basic, simple, like easy one that everybody knows.
And then you open your own like world and then explore.
Yeah. And that's how we like I think start and then integrate AI to the classroom and then that expand to other people and the community and then then now that we can make the monolingual people jealous so that they can start learning more language and like it's good influence.
Yeah. There was a little kindergarten student that said, that's not fair. She speaks two languages and I only speak one.
And I think, yeah, that's where I want to get into where like, oh, languages too, right? Like make that the fun thing.
Yeah, a lot of benefits that not a lot of people know about.
So many, so many.
My, my thing is don't be afraid of it because I think of like maybe you're an older, older educator who, you know, technology, you're like, oh my gosh, I don't have the time.
Maybe you're close to retiring and you're like, why do I need to learn it?
You, as I was saying, go simple, even just using Google docs and Google slides, which you have access to, you can still use that as a, as technology as a tool to have them collaborate and work together.
So don't be afraid of the technology and everything that's out there with all the information.
Yeah.
Because if you're afraid, then they're going to be afraid to use it.
And then absolutely the AI, using AI will save you a lot of time.
It will save you a lot of time.
More than you think.
Yeah.
Even with some presentations like gamma.
Yes.
So if you want to get a gamma.
That was a good one.
If you can hear it, they got excited.
Yeah, that was, that's definitely a wonderful one.
So look that one up too for sure.
That was an eye-opener.
Yeah, that was the good one.
Definitely come in with an open mind and an open heart.
And open minds, open hearts, and then space and time to be able to listen again to the
best professors that we have, which are our students, listen to our families and let their
voices be the one to help us understand more that now I know what technology exists and
what's out there.
And then I want to hear from them, the ones that I'm serving, how can I best leverage
that based on what you explained to me that your needs and desires are?
And then how can we bring all this together so we're working at this together with a community
and not at anybody, right?
I always tell my students, how can, tell me how I can help you help me help you.
And they're like, what?
And I'm like, how can I help you help me help you?
Help you.
Well, I think that the best question we can always ask is just that, how can I help?
Man, you all are amazing.
It has been a wonderful time with you.
I appreciate you and World, just look out for them because these are three incredible
humans and educators.
And I sincerely mean this.
I just care about you all so much.
I'm thankful for what you do.
I love our time together and I appreciate you being on our podcast today.
So thank you so much.
Thank you.
And with that, I'm going to say thank you to all the listeners out there for being with
us during this time.
Thank you to Edge of Skills, our sponsor for this podcast, for Cultural Connections Lab,
and of course to Mike Overholt, who is our incredible producer, been in the room with
us all this time.
Yeah.
Big round of applause.
He's so amazing.
He makes all of us sound good and when possible on YouTube look good.
So listeners, go look for any of those.
And again, we will have links to the resource of the book and other links for you in the
description.
And I want to say thank you all so much.
And to everyone out there, remember you are loved.
All right.
Adios.
Have a great rest of your time.
Thank you for joining us today.
Don't forget to like, follow, and subscribe.
Adios!