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. We're excited
to have you join us today. We sincerely hope
that you enjoy the show. Hey there, listeners.
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Eduskill, transforming education one student
at a time. Welcome to another podcast with myself,
your host, Dr. Kelly Ford with Cultural Connections
Lab. It has been a while since we have been together
and I am excited to come back for this new season
with some very dear friends of mine with us right
now. We have Alicia Blair, Tracy Hoover, and
Stephanie Skidmore. Alicia Blair, she is an educational
consultant, advocate, and co -founder of Sustained
LLC and is deeply committed to empowering students
and equipping educators with the tools that they
need to succeed. Throughout her career, she has
championed the use of innovative educational
resources, including emerging technologies like
artificial intelligence, to create inclusive
and dynamic learning environments that inspire
both students and teachers. At 15, her perspective
was forever altered whenever she began. went
from regular education into needing significant
medical support overnight through emerging educational
technology and very dedicated educators she was
able to overcome challenges and graduate these
experiences fueled her compassion for accessible
and inclusive education utilizing tools such
as AI. With many years of experience as a principal,
instructional leader, and teacher, she's been
honored by her ability to foster collaboration,
drive student achievement, and implement impactful
strategies that improve educational outcomes.
And her passion lies in breaking barriers, learning
to ensure every student and educator, regardless
of their abilities, has access to opportunities
that help. them thrive. We also have another
guest with us today. There are three total. The
next up we have up is Tracy Hoover. Tracy Hoover
is originally from Southern California, sunny
Southern California, I should say, and proudly
called Oklahoma her home for the past 18 years.
Her journey into education started with a passion
for science and a love of animals. At one point,
she even dreamed of being a veterinarian. That's
what I wanted to be as well. However, she discovered
her true calling was in education, and she has
had this opportunity to ignite curiosity and
inspire lifelong learning in others. She holds
a bachelor's degree in biochemistry and molecular
biology and a master of science in teaching,
learning, and leadership. With over a decade
of experience as a middle school science teacher
and instructional coach, an amazing one at that,
she specializes in creating innovative student
-centered learning environments and helping educators
reach their fullest potential her work focuses
on on utilizing data -driven student -centered
strategies fostering collaboration through professional
learning communities and teaming and empowering
both students and teachers to thrive she was
honored to be named teacher of the year during
her third year in the classroom a recognition
that still inspires her to bring the best to
every opportunity she's a firm believer in continuous
growth and enjoying leading professional development
sessions that help educators easily implement
evidence -based practices. She's especially passionate
about connecting classroom content to real world
experiences, ensuring that learning is both engaging
and meaningful. and last but not least we have
stephanie skidmore she's a dedicated educator
and brings a wealth of experience to students
and teachers achieving their fullest potential
originally from colorado the great state of colorado
she came to oklahoma for her college and began
her career teaching her yeah her teaching journey
in moscow russia a transformative experience
that cultivated her passion for building meaningful
relationships and fostering student growth now
while she initially thought that she'd teach
second grade or english language arts she found
herself in the middle of the math classroom where
she spent over a decade creating engaging instruction
and helping students develop critical thinking
skills driven by the belief that better teachers
create stronger outcomes for students she transitioned
into instructional coaching to amplify her impact
in this role she empowered educators by designing
innovative systems providing personalized support
and leveraging data to drive growth her work
focuses on improving teacher effectiveness and
longevity creating stronger and more sustainable
learning environments for all and she's particularly
passionate about being helping educators in navigating
the rapidly evolving landscape of educational
technology. Such as AI, these tools become increasingly
prevalent in life and in education, and she works
closely with teachers to develop practical strategies
for integrating these tools effectively, which
I've experienced side by side with her. She's
incredible at this. And so whether that is using
AI to streamline lesson planning, provide personalized
feedback for students, or create differentiated
learning materials. Her approach emphasizes maintaining
authentic teaching practices while leveraging
technology to enhance rather than replace teacher
expertise. That is a big introduction, but it's
a big introduction for three big, amazing educators.
And I have to admit, incredible, amazing, best
friends of mine. I'm so grateful to have the
three of you here. Thank you so much, Alicia,
Tracy, and Stephanie for being on Cultural Connections
Lab. Thank you for having us. So excited. Well,
I'm happy that we get to be here today. Listeners,
just so you know, these individuals are people
and we will have their consulting information
linked at the bottom of the description of this
episode. But the company is called Sustained
Impact. And if you need any help or support,
I promise you these three leaders in education
are more than able and willing to help support
you, your district, your... yourself personally,
any of your needs at all with true, not only
research -based, but evidence -based practices
that help with our desired outcomes for our students.
So again, I'm glad to have you all here today.
And I'm excited to have a conversation around
culture and the role that it plays in providing
this equitable education for all of our students
and how things such as artificial intelligence
can help support us in doing that, considering
the roles that you all have occupied yourselves,
such as principal, instructional coach, classroom
teacher. and also consultant as well. So again,
welcome and thank you for being here. I'm really
excited. We had, yeah, we had discussed a little
bit ahead of time. What are some of the things
that you are most passionate about in education?
And how does that relate to what you all are
doing today and how you help support the greater
landscape of education? Would anyone like to
go first? Stephanie, I saw you. I can. I was
pointing to somebody else, but I didn't know
that. You know, you mentioned I love being an
instructional coach because I get to support
teachers and great teaching matters. Like I truly
believe in our education system with great teachers.
That's what helps our students become great.
And education is just so constantly changing
and evolving. And that support has as well, whether
it's knowing the difference between what our
students need now versus when we were back in
the classroom and that. that is not just interchangeable
it can't just be i learned this way so my students
will learn this way and knowing who our students
are to also navigating technologies like artificial
intelligence and that how does that change how
we teach what we teach and kind of informs how
it can be a help to us and how we can respond
to something that is changing so rapidly for
our students and for teachers. Yeah, I think
that you talk about how great teachers matter
and they definitely do matter. And the big thing
that our great teachers need all the time is
the gift of time. And so it is true that that's
the one other big takeaway is that whenever you
leverage this, it helps save a whole lot of time,
a whole lot. Tracy, how about you? What are some
other things that are really important to you
in the field of education and how did it get
you to where you are and what you're doing today
with Sustain? Oh, that's a big question. I think
that one of the things that I try to focus on
the most as an instructional coach when I work
with other teachers is being able to empower
them in the sense that they have the autonomy
in their classroom and they are capable of making
decisions that need to be made in real time.
I think a lot of times, unfortunately, interrupts
start to reduce our teachers and also our students
into a number. They just become data points on
a large plot and you're kind of losing that human
aspect. And teachers oftentimes don't feel like
they have the ability to do what's best for their
students in the moment because they have this
long list of items that have been given to them.
that they're supposed to accomplish every single
day. And so I really like to work alongside them
and let them realize it's okay to take a step
back to really get a survey of what's happening
in front of you in the moment. And what do we
need to do for our students in regards to that?
And it's not always academic. Sometimes we need
to take a step back in what's going on in the
world right now, and we need to be cognizant
of that, and we need to be able to prepare our
students to be citizens and functioning citizens
and someone who can go out and represent themselves
and their community and their background in such
a powerful way. That can look very different
for a lot of different people. I know that one
of the schools that we work with is really focused
on those multilingual learners. And everything
that they do for them is going to help every
student in the entire building. And so I really
like to just let teachers know that they have
the autonomy to make those decisions that are
appropriate for their students. And obviously,
I'm going to give them tools to do that with
all of the evidence -based strategies that we
can find for them that are going to fit their
personality. Because that's another big thing
I believe in is that we have this huge platter
of strategies. that we always provide for our
teachers, but it doesn't always match their personality.
And so trying to make them become someone they're
not is never going to work, ever. Kids are going
to see right through that. So really trying to
figure out who they are as a person, who they
are as an educator, and building upon their strengths.
That's what I like to do. And you're good at
it. You are. You're both incredibly good at it.
But I think that's like an important message
to remember in a good through line is that the
teachers have to feel very comfortable and confident
in what they're doing. Like, because the way
that I would present something and implement
the strategy or do something would be very different
because anyone who knows me personally knows
that if there's a box, I'm probably way out of
that box. I would do it in a whole different
way. But I can still use that same strategy that
just suits who I am and my personality in the
same way that teachers can do that. Right. However.
That's going to be the same for our students
as well. They're going to be different ways that
they're going to be able to show their mastery
and their understanding because it's going to
be more based on kind of who they are and from
where they're coming from. And so I think that
leveraging all of this also helps with this concept
of differentiation that we often discuss and
talk about, but don't always necessarily define
or not necessarily define, but maybe just show
in such a way where a teacher could articulate
back what that means for them and how they're
going to be differentiating just in the same
way that we want teachers to be able to. to differentiate
for themselves. All this comes back to Hattie's
research of teacher collective efficacy and self
-efficacy and what that means for us whenever
we have autonomy in what we're doing and we can
actually be practicing within that realm of that
efficacy that's needed for us to be the best
educators possible, to help our students with
the best outcomes possible. Now, we also have
Alicia here, and I'm excited because we have
learned from Stephanie and from Tracy. their
passions and education and what has brought them
here and why they're doing what they're doing
and i'm excited to hear from you as well because
you come at this as we all do from a very unique
experience but as in your bio there was an educational
experience that happened personally as well that
has impacted i'm not only how you taught but
i'm sure of course how you also lead Yeah. So,
I mean, I have several passions. I've been very
fortunate to work in several different environments
that were quite different from each other. And
so I just feel like it just keeps building. But
I became disabled at 15. So obviously I have
a soft spot in my heart for disabled students,
disabled teachers, et cetera. But and then I
started as a para. And so then I became a teacher.
And I think throughout all that, I've just really
come to really believe that student learning.
is teacher, sorry, teacher work environment affects
student learning. And so if your teachers are
overburdened, stressed out, not in a position
that is sustainable, then that's going to affect
student learning outcomes, student learning in
general, student behavior in general. And so
we have to focus on, you know, if your teachers
cannot experience joy in their job then it's
going to affect your student learning and i think
that gets lost in the sauce of all the things
and there's so many things we just laugh more
and we forget like there should be fun there
should be downtime there should be time to connect
there should be you know things that make people
want to come to work want to come to school and
that gets and push us in an upward trajectory
on student learning, but then also allow for
it to be enjoyable for everybody. Now, I think
that is one of the big components is that everyone
forgets that things can still be fun. It doesn't
have to be. I mean, you can still get the job
done. as the principal i would always say like
i can be the cruise director and we can still
be on a cruise ship but we're going to get to
every port very very soon we're going to make
sure that we get everything done that we need
to get done and it's going to be safe doing it
we're all going to have a good time in the meantime
so yeah don't forget to have a good time um there
was something that was brought up though that
i i want to just touch on real quickly and i
think so the idea of culture and culture that
is relevant in our schools and this is culture
whether it be um geographical location it can
be linguistic it could be just different groups
and identities of people right so there's culture
within culture but we think about how important
that is for us to have in our schools and to
be present and so we do leverage ai in ways to
help support that but then we come back to this
whole aspect of what at least you were just talking
about the principles are dealing with so much
and the tracy you mentioned this too that the
teachers never feel so much and it all feels
like it's so much like one how do we balance
this question of i want to maintain like an institutionalized
cultural knowledge at my school and have it be
ever relevant, prevalent, according to the students
that are right there and also to teach about
cultures around us. But I'm also stuck in this
time constraint of all of this testing that we
have. And I think I even wrote here this note,
testing consumption. I don't know, Tracy, if
you said consumption or not, but that's what
I was getting from what you were saying about
how sometimes like all the testing time. can
take away from you. So what are things that you
hear from teachers and what are any potential
solutions that you have? And then in this case,
maybe leveraging AI to help balance still doing
what you need to do with integrity, but having
cultural relevance in the meantime, throughout
that balancing with. this time constraint that
we have, having so much to have to do centered
around specifically testing. That's open to anyone.
Wait time is so awkward, y 'all. Good strategy
also for the classroom. See, it takes some time
to be like, what? I'm going to pull out some
popsicle sticks right here. Oh, no. I think that's
kind of... There's nuance to it all, right? That's
been one of my buzzwords within education. You
need nuance when it comes to AI. I don't like
AI in a creative space. Like I will always want
to honor artists and the work that they do and
not use like AR art in that. But when I look
at a teacher and what we look and everything
that is on their plate and everything they are
asked to do, and then we take away time for testing
and we say, but we need it to be exactly X, Y,
Z. Sometimes it's overwhelming. And then that
use of AI as a think partner of, hey, I need
this. How could it work? to start sparking some
ideas, I think is a really powerful tool. To
just alleviate some of that pressure and allow
us to focus on the more human aspect of teaching.
If it can help me plan the X, Y, Z that I need
to do, that I can also weave in culture and make
sure I'm honoring my students and where they're
from and their backgrounds and what they are
bringing to the classroom and integrate that
into my lessons. And AI can do that for me really
quickly. And then it frees me to see my student
for who they are and be like, hey, I saw you
struggling. with this and allow for that moment
of connection because I have that bandwidth because
it wasn't spent figuring out exactly like down
to that minutia that we need to have figured
out that our teachers need to have that planned.
But if we can lean on AI as a tool, an aid and
to help us kind of rethink, I know everybody's
really scared of AI in the classroom and like,
well, it's just going to do the work for our
students. And there's definitely that possibility.
if we're not asking them to do high quality work.
I love the idea like if they can cheat with AI,
we probably need to ask a better question so
that we can be teaching them higher order thinking
skills and critical thinking versus just how
to get to an informational answer. Could be happening
for us and not to us, right? Make us push our
thinking about how to ask better questioning.
Yeah, like people talk about the research paper,
right? And I don't like outside of an academic
setting, how much research papers do we write?
And I would argue not a lot. Like outside of
the academic setting? Yeah. But what if instead
of saying, hey, I want you to write a research
paper that, yes, AI can write for your student.
What if you said, hey, pick your topic and have
two different large language models write it.
And I'd like you to compare and contrast and
find the inaccuracies. Then they are leveraging
AI. We are teaching our students how to be responsible
for it. But then we're also asking them to. Use
it in a way that's going to benefit them and
help them to be critical thinkers and prepare
them for the real world. Right. Like Tracy talked
about that. Like, how do we bring our students
not just like in school as a school setting,
but give them these real world opportunities?
And I think there is space for AI to help with
that. and one there are going to be people out
there they're going to write articles and publish
them in newspapers and in magazines and things
of that nature and blogs online and so yeah we
need to make sure that we can learn how to write
and do that and not just lean on ai for that
however though i think you know and we forget
sometimes that like reading makes us better writers
And so coupling that idea with the idea of going
ahead and leaning into AI, because I feel like
the more that you become engaged with AI when
it comes to considering how you can leverage
it to help in your teaching practices, one, it
becomes not as scary. So you kind of demystify
some of the perceptions or the preconceived notions
that maybe you had before. But two, you realize
how much it can be a tool. And then three, since
you start to play with it so much, you could
recognize that someone in your class is cheating.
Because you know what the AI response already
looks like. And so I feel like if you just jump
in and play with it, one, it'll demystify a whole
bunch of those worries that you had before. But
then two, at the same time, it really is going
to help you create these different spaces where
you can build upon the tools that you already
have in your toolbox to leverage those strategies,
but just to do so in a way that can be maybe
linguistically and culturally responsive, or
if nothing else, just more fun and entertaining.
for the kids and for yourself. I feel like every
time a new tool comes around, just in general
society, like pushes back, right? So calculators,
when they had the speaking programs that typed
for people, I was one of the first users of that
program. And people freaked out. It's not fair.
She doesn't have to type. I'm like, I can't type.
My hand doesn't work. And they were like obsessed
with me having to do that. So it's just weird.
People were obsessed for a long time about not
using calculators in math class. You're not going
to have a calculator in your pocket. Remember
your teacher telling you that, you guys? Yes,
we do. 100%. Yes, we do. Society changes and
grows. And I feel like there's always this lag
in education to try to keep up with that just
because there's like this idea of, well, I had
to do it. So that's not fair that you don't have
to do it. And so I really do think like that's
at least half of what's pushing the narrative
of like. resisting AI. I mean, there are definitely
other issues with AI that we can totally get
into, but I do think at least half of it is just
like that quote unquote fair. I had to write
in cursive. These kids need to write in cursive.
I had to write essays, you know, with just my
brain and some books. You need to be able to
write essays with just your brain and some books.
And it's like, well, if we have tools that make
things easier, obviously people are going to
use them. So why would we not want to make our
kids more proficient with? tools that are going
to be available. Do you mind repeating that last
part that you just said? I don't remember. Well,
there was just a little lag. It'll record all
together. I bet it was super smart and thoughtful.
Everything you say is always super smart and
thoughtful. I think I said, if there are tools
available, like why would we resist that so heavily
using a tool that is going to be available? This
idea that that tool is like a fad that's going
to like come and then now it's not really going
to be available. I just don't think that that's
ever been the trajectory. No. And I think on
that, though, you want people to use tools well,
right? I am not like somebody that uses a lot
of like. power tools and saws. So you would need
to teach me a lot before I could use it effectively
versus like, hey, here you go. But with AI, sometimes
we do that. We say it's here. Our kids are using
it. It's on their phones. We use it all the time
for things. But I think there's a lot of importance
on how do we use it? Are we using it well? Are
we teaching our students to use it well? You
know, we're from the generation that you couldn't
use Wikipedia as a source. Check all your sources
that I feel like we our students don't experience
that same rigor and source checking. But it needs
to be shifted to, well, what questions are you
asking? What biases are coming through? Because
it is trained on a system that has biases in
the data that I was using. So we have to equip
both teachers and students with. the tools and
the whereabouts to be able to recognize that
and assess that and say like, this is a good
output or to challenge an output because AI is
not perfect and AI will hallucinate. And when
you're taking it, it's not like Google. It's
not just an index of information. It's giving
you what it thinks is the next right word. So
it's very easy for it to hallucinate, which I
think is an interesting thing as a teacher. It's
great for ideas, but if you're using it as a
source of something, like make sure to check
those sources. Well, yeah, because it still thinks
I'm a girl because my name is Kelly. So go back
and double check. Speaking of all of those, things
that we were saying before um this is like all
tools before that people thought we're gonna
like mess up education i was gonna sum up real
quickly the chalkboard everyone was worried about
that because thought that it would distract students
from making individual um recitation obsolete
and that also film projectors and the radio fear
that movies and radio might replace teachers
and make learning too quote -unquote entertaining
overhead projectors were there calculators personal
computers the internet smartphones and social
media all the way to learning management systems
and then now we have artificial intelligence
so i think that just goes to prove the point
that there's always going to be something that's
going to be happening The question is no longer,
how am I going to just be afraid of it? How do
I just lean into it and leverage it and utilize
it? Knowing that there's more advancements along
the way, just leaning into it. How do we get
rid of that fear for some teachers? Do you think,
or even parents out there as well, or even people?
I don't know that the fear is always teachers.
I don't, and some of it is, some of it is teachers
and some of it is districts and some of it is
states. I mean, yes, but. The teacher that is
worried about using the prompt that's provided
to them. They can just copy and paste, just get
in and just like try to play around for a little
bit on your favorite AI platform. I think you
go back to the why, right? Like it's not. Here
to replace you as a teacher, you are still the
expert in the room. You need to be that expert.
Like I need you, if you are a social studies
teacher, to lean in on what you know on social
studies. But if it gives you space to create
connection with your students and that human
aspect of teaching, right? We hear like AI is
going to replace teachers. And it's never going
to be able to replace that true human connection
and human. touch that teachers have and that
is so necessary in the classroom. And if we can
shift that mindset for them to view it as a tool
to create that more, it lifts this part. So I
have more space for this connection. Or maybe
you even have more space because it helped you
with some feedback for students, like to spend
time with your family, which then gives you that
energy to be more present the next day because
you were well taken care of. because you used
a tool to help leverage and lift that. I think
one of the activities that we've done before
with teachers that I think kind of helps like
segue their thought process with AI is twofold.
The first one, it sounds very silly, but you
give everyone a paper plate and they literally
write down on this paper plate what is on their
teacher plate. And then we can take these items
and we can place them on a continuum of like,
which of these really require that human element,
that relationship building, and which of these
are more sometimes busy work that you could get
assistance with. And that assistance being something
like leveraging AI to build, take that lift off,
right? And then really honing in on that 80 -20
rule where AI can do 80%. of this background
work for you but you still need that 20 of that
human impact that's going to be able to bring
the strategy and the creativity and the nuance
and the expertise and all of the things that
give that human element to what you were doing
in the classroom because again it comes down
to being authentic and if you are relying too
much on ai you're gonna come across as being
kind of robotic it's just like factual and you
lose that fun touch that we talked about like
how do we bring in the joy into the classroom
and then i just think of working with middle
school students all the time kids are funny yes
that's why i love middle school it was immature
enough to laugh but mature enough to you know
yes there are times where you really have to
like censor yourself and try not to laugh in
front of the entire classroom when someone says
something that You realize that we're not that
different than we were in middle school sometimes.
I very much have that middle school mindset.
Like, you know, bring in what you're doing, like
incorporate their interests into the classroom.
And sometimes that's where AI can't help you.
It can't help you build a relationship with someone
that has to come naturally or, you know, you've
put in the work to harness that. And we will
be right back. At Kelly B's Consulting, we understand
the unique cultural and linguistic needs of your
diverse student population. Our team of experienced
educators will work alongside you, tailoring
strategies that transform your multilingual programs.
Don't miss out on this opportunity. Visit www
.kellybeesconsultingllc .com today to learn more
and schedule your consultation. Kelly Bees Consulting,
shaping the future of K -12 multilingual education
across the nation. Your success is our commitment.
Contact us now and let's start building a brighter
tomorrow together. And now back to the show.
hiking, nature, whatever these things are. How
do I incorporate that somehow into whatever I
am teaching? Now that's where you can really
leverage AI because you had that personal connection.
You can do that not only with their interests,
but also with their own cultures, like linguistically,
traditions, celebrations that people have. No
more math word problems about 80 watermelons.
Right, right. It starts to now. change that whole
dynamic, right? And we've had conversations before
just about how teachers have leveraged someone's
culture and what they were doing when it came
to a certain assignment that was based on a certain
standard in language arts, math. social studies
etc it's just so interesting like what are you
all seeing or experiencing or what like or what
recommendations would you have whenever for example
i'll put it in context got a phone call from
a director in a school district um asking for
an understanding of some way to help teachers
understand more about how to leverage what was
happening linguistically in their classroom but
also culturally and so i tried to send some some
prompts or some ideas that they could actually
use but there's a lot of teachers out there having
these questions about how do i incorporate like
how do i teach what i'm supposed to be teaching
but how do i incorporate this and i try to tell
people i need to teach you how to fish and not
just give you the fish because there's going
to be so many people busy but you can always
lean on ai and if you know the right questions
to ask that can help get you there what are some
recommendations that you have for that the three
of you and your perspectives leveraging ai again
to help make those connections between their
experiences their interests and also their languages
and backgrounds and cultural backgrounds. I think
the starting point is how you're going to prompt
whichever LLM that you are going to be working
with. You have to give it a role. I need you
to be a third grade teacher who is currently
focusing on prepositions during the month of
October. And we want to celebrate, you know,
Hispanic heritage. and incorporate this into
our lesson. How can I, you know, marry these
things together so that my students feel heard
and seen in the work that we're doing together
as a class? So sometimes our prompting, it is
an art form, right? If you give a very basic
prompt, you're going to get a very... basic output.
So what we are asking it to do or asking it to
kind of take on the persona of is really important.
So it's, yeah, I feel like that would be my recommendation.
That's a great first start though. Yeah. Because
a lot of people probably just go in like it would
be for Google. sometimes and just say hey i'm
looking for this and there's not like but they're
like i don't like like what's your context what's
your area which is i want to shout that out like
understand how ai like basic large language models
work it is not a it's not google you are not
asking a question and getting an index of answers
you are working with large language models which
are literally going through and filtering what
they think the next word would be to create the
response so if i said mary had a little lamb
lamb you like think that that's what it's going
to be that's what the large language model is
doing So like having that understanding. And
I love what Tracy, I was thinking the exact same
thing. Give it a role in your prompt. Be very
specific. Give it background without personal
information. But if you are in an urban district
or a rural district and who you're working with,
who are your students? The other thing I would
recommend is don't, I am all for the large language
models, but make sure you're trying multiple
ones. So, you know, big ones with ChatGPT, Google
Gemini, Claude, Perplexity. There's so many of
them. There are various ones out there, not promoting
any of them. Not promoting any of them. But what
I would say, make your prompt, once you've crafted
a good prompt, it's very easy to have multiple
tabs open with those different large language
models. And put the same prompt in and compare
the responses that you're getting. Because and
how is that different? Because you have explained
that to me before. Some of them are going to
be predicting what they're all doing. They're
all a large language model. So they're all doing
that. But they've all been trained differently.
OK, that's important. I am not promoting any
which one, but it is important to know like who
is behind it. Right. So chat GPT is open AI.
Gemini. is google so i if you are a google school
district gemini might be very easily accessible
There's also Anthropic, which is behind Claude.
And they're going to operate with different things
behind them. I really like ChatGPT in a lot of
ways because I like that it remembers who I am.
I work a lot with multilingual learners. For
anything I ask now, it gives me multilingual
scaffolds. And I love it because it remembers
that about me. At the same time, sometimes I
might put something in I don't necessarily want
it to remember and I want a higher focus. on
privacy and i from my experience anthropic and
claude is is better for that anthropic and claude
is not going to remember that i work with multilingual
learners so when i go back in there i have to
say i i would have to remember to do that but
from my experience claude is a little bit more
empathetic emotional like So you need to feel
good in getting the feedback? Yeah, it's a different
emotional intelligence. And Google gives me so
much information that I often like comb through
and pull out what I want. But sometimes that's
what you want. So I really love, like I said,
putting in the same prompt in multiple ones.
And then you can be like, oh, this was a good
idea. But what if I married it with this? And
that would be my other thing. Don't put in one
prompt and just accept the output. Assess your
output and make sure there's no bias in it. Like,
is there, you know, we've talked about this with
some things like if you talk about emergency
certified teachers, a lot of times it will put
out outputs that have high African -American
population. Like we assume they are our emergency
certified teachers, which we know is not true.
There will definitely be some bias in it. So
making sure, like if I ask for an image for something
like, are all of my students white? Because that's
not reflective of who's in there. So like that
you're careful with those and you're assessing
your output for bias. And also like, is it like,
do you know your standard? One thing I will always
say is put the standard in full that you're working
with. If you are working with Oklahoma academic
standard in number sense, 4 .1, that has to do
with. positive and negative integers. I don't
even know if that's it. But make sure you're
actually saying what the full standard is, not
just the numbers. There's definitely space for
hallucination in that with the AI. It's important
to take all of that information. And if you are
leveraging a platform like the Sponsors Edge
of Skills, for example, or anything else, the
point is, though, is go find a platform or a
management system that has the information of
the students who are represented in your classroom.
And you can pull from there. And then also, of
course, just by observing and seeing who's in
your classroom. but i think whenever you can
like write down that information again not personal
information but just kind of those backgrounds
copy and paste add that into a prompt or something
it at least just gives you more accessibility
into trying to consider and think outside the
box of what's typically represented are we talking
about just this one certain type of a family,
or are we bringing in different perspectives,
even different words and different languages
and someone who might be standing and someone
else who might be in a wheelchair? Like what
images are we bringing to the forefront to really
be inclusive of the conversations? And you can
leverage AI in so many ways for that. So it just
goes back to that adapting to managing and institutionalizing
that cultural knowledge throughout everything.
AI does such a great job at helping facilitate
that. Alicia, I think you had something that
you wanted to say. I was going to talk about
edge of skills too. Like if you are, Utilizing
an AI platform, it's so great that you can just
copy and paste, for instance, like Edgeskills
has its own ELAP form with goals. for every kid
where they're at, what they need. And if you
have a majority of the students who are in your
class that are English language learners, you
could take a goal that's pretty similar for all
of them, put that into the AI with the standard.
And you're looking for a way to teach that. You're
looking for a way to bring culture. And that's
like a great way because the goal's already there.
It doesn't even have to make it for you. Same
thing with IEPs. If you wanna take, if you have
an overarching goal that a lot of your students
have for math and you teach math and your nine
students on an IEP or whatever it is has a similar
goal, you could, copy and paste that into your
language model and ask, you know, what's the
best way to teach this? Or I'm going to make
a small group around this goal or whatever. And
so utilize those things that a lot of places
have already and just use those to prompt. I've
never had a prompt too long. I've never had it
like cut me off because I had too big of a prompt
because I copy and paste. So much in there, into
a prompt. So, I mean, the more information that
you give it, the better. You know, and not every
state has an English language acquisition plan
like we do here in the state of Oklahoma. Some
other states do have them and they're already
embedded within standards. They take the standards
that are from that language assessment and then
they couple them with their state standard. Every
state might be a little bit different or maybe
more. more similar in other ways. But however,
no matter where you are in listening to this,
I would encourage you just to go and look at
that language assessment and see what those standards
are. And so you can just copy and paste those
standards right in next to your state standard
and then generate that through the prompt. And
that will at least help you. And even ask, again,
this is about feeding. like teaching the right
questions, like teach how to fish and not just
give the fish. And then think of questions to
ask it. Like, hey, I have students within these
different language proficiency levels on here.
And so, you know, that might help guide and facilitate
the conversation. All of that with a little asterisk
next to it. Don't forget about some of our friends
that we've had that have come in and that they
are reading at a first grade level in English
because they're just not going to be English,
but they read at the 13th grade level in Spanish
or... mandarin or tagalog or any other language
all right so just remember that we have readers
out there and that this is the big takeaway language
proficiency does not equate to cognitive ability
so sometimes whenever you're looking at those
different proficiency levels just know that that
is just one small piece of a larger puzzle of
helping teachers and students guide themselves
into their language acquisition and mastery through
those content areas but it's asset -based lens
they're bringing in all the language that they
need it's just us helping transfer those skills
between two different languages and i think ai
has that like me as a monolingual teacher ai
has been really helpful in that to say like i
know that they have like they know this how do
i incorporate this with in a way that's uh accessible
while also honoring them and everything that
they know and bring to the table. And it's been
really helpful with translanguaging, finding
cognates, even some of that stuff of like, I
have this. What does this look like for my students?
Like it can lift some of that load for you. And
it's it's difficult for teachers to understand
all of these different concepts and like for
everyone to be a master at everything. And I
feel like sometimes and I feel like this for
myself, like I feel like I need to know everything
and I just can't know. everything and so now
i have a i have i have a classroom that has a
student with a 504 and also an iep and an english
language acquisition plan and the general education
student and the other you know behavioral issues
that are going on and i also have um our norm
reference test uh window that we're going to
be in and i have the and like it becomes so much
i love you all you teachers i love you we all
do we are like is overwhelming it is overwhelming
but there really are some really nice ways that
we can try to eliminate some of that extra work
while still being totally inclusive. And so I
really consider what it means to look at our
classes as a whole and then just work backwards
from there. And then if you just come with that
mindset that everyone is a language learner.
at some level, no one is that native born speaker
of academic language. And we all learn better
whenever we're exposed to each other's backgrounds
and experiences and cultures, we all get better.
So if that just becomes the lens, and then we
can leverage that with that utilization of AI,
it really makes the teaching process a lot more
accessible in many ways, hopefully. Yeah, the
teaching process and hopefully the learning process,
right? Like I think when we elevate every learner
like you're giving multiple opportunities to
every learner like you mentioned all the different
learners that we have in our classrooms and it's
hard as a teacher to remember each and every
individual student that you have but that's also
the task right like we learn best when we're
seen when you are recognized as an individual
and who you are and so the more tools that we
can give teachers to help them do that for their
students I think the better. It alleviates a
little bit off of them, but also gives them that
power of connection and really allows them to
elevate every learner. And that's always my experience
is that every time I'm with teachers, they are
just always gung -ho and so excited about what
they can do. Like whenever we start having these
conversations, I mean, 9 .9 times out of 10,
they are excited. Like they want to learn too.
These are different ways. Like this is what makes
it so engaging. It's so much fun. And I know
it changes me. as a person even, but I've learned
more about the students because I've always talked
about how they are the best professors that we
could ever have. What are some ways though, and
connecting back just to like you all personally,
it doesn't even have to be on the professional
level, but how has leveraging the work that you've
been doing in schools and education, your own
past experiences, and then starting this company
of Sustained to leverage AI to help in schools
change or impacted you as a person now in your
view and your mindset, helping all students to
the best of your ability? How have you grown
in that process? I think for me growing up and
then just being in school as a student and then
as a teacher, I always felt like I had to do
everything perfect and that I had to be the best
all the time. And I feel like I've been able.
to observe so many different environments and
talk to so many other people that I've been able
to take that step back and really be comfortable
in not being the smartest person in the room
and knowing that like Everyone has so much to
offer. Not that before I walked into a room and
I was like, but really being open to having those
conversations and seeing other viewpoints into
things. I felt like I kind of had tunnel vision
almost in a way of X, Y, and Z is what's going
to get you to the top. Like if you just do this,
it's going to get better. And I feel like I have
more of a holistic. viewpoint of everything when
I walk into a classroom and I can see the teacher
for who they are and I can see the students for
who they are and I can find these connections
I almost feel like beautiful mind background
where there's like things going on my connections
of how we can put all of this together and make
it work and not force anybody to be someone that
they're not or make someone feel uncomfortable
in their space. I feel like one of the most important
questions that I ask a teacher when I'm working
with them is, how do you like to receive feedback?
Would you prefer if I gave you this information
up front and you took time to process it and
then we had a conversation? Do you want me just
to shoot it to you straight and give you bullet
point, you know, factual things? Do you need
a more gentle approach? And I feel like just
knowing yourself as a person and then being able
to build up that relationship with whoever you're
working with is imperative for you both to be
able to grow through that process and through
that journey. And I know sometimes it can be
hard when you're delivering like one professional
development. It's like you have one hour or one
day with a group of very diverse learners and
you have to figure out like how can I try to
meet the needs of everyone? And I feel like for
me, when I am kind of like going through the
information we're presenting, that's where I
use AI a little bit more just to make sure that
I'm not leaving anyone out, that I'm trying to
make sure that I'm being as inclusive as I can
when, you know, going over these different strategies,
knowing that some of them are going to be. you
know, like a home run and some are just going
to be like, right now, like there is not going
to work all the time for everyone in every situation.
So I feel like I have been able to have a broader
view and really be more respectful of everyone
in their individuality because teaching is hard.
The difference between when I was in the classroom
and now it's very different. It's constantly
changing, which is like, On one hand, so beautiful,
right? Like that we're constantly evolving and
new things are coming in and we're just getting
better. And on the other hand, it makes it difficult
for someone who's not actively in a building
or a classroom to easily lose touch with reality.
And I feel like a lot of times when you see that
happen, they default to just data. Like you're
no longer a person or a building or like your
community that you're building up. You are this
point on this data. wall and you know you have
to get better like that's always the bottom line
you have to get better but being able to really
take that step back and remembering like we're
all human I'm going to make mistakes I make them
all the time and that's why I love working with
other people like Alicia and Stephanie like call
me out be like nay nay that's wrong like let's
try that again I thought you were going to say
they make more mistakes than me Let go. I'm not
a perfectionist. I also developed ADHD as an
adult, so I have too many tabs open in my brain
at any given time to be able to sort through
all the information. All of us on some level
are just a little bit of a mess, but in progress,
right? But we're all in progress. We're all getting
there. I think it's nice that how you take a
step back and you ask those considerate questions
about how they want to receive feedback. That
was... That was really nice to hear. That's really
kind. I think it was important to me because
when I started out in teaching, no one ever asked
me that. And I, having that perfectionist mentality
of just the way I grew up and the experiences
that I had, when someone would even tell me like,
hey, you could be doing this, I automatically
take that in as criticism. And I'm like, I'm
the worst. I can't do this. And I there's part
of me mentally that just starts to shut down.
And so knowing that if they had been like, you
know, a little more gentle with it, like maybe
I needed more of a positive sandwich as a new
baby teacher. We can work on this and then this
is going great. I would have been like, yeah,
I can totally work on that part because I can
get it up to par with everything else. I got
to tell you, though, being a new teacher, though,
or a new person in any situation, it does not
matter your age. It is one of the most loneliest,
intimidating spaces to be in. And you just the
more love and support that you can have around
you and just compassion, empathy and understanding.
That's just what you need, because I can work
a million hours for you if I know that you have
my back and you care about me. But if I feel
like I'm walking on eggshells around you and
you're just always judging me and I'm just never
good enough, I burn out very quickly. Yes. Very
quickly. So I'm glad that you're doing that.
All right, Alicia and Stephanie, there were some
things that maybe you were going to say about
these connections, about things that you've learned,
how you've been impacted, how this has been changing
your perspective and your roles. Well, I think
that I came at this whole thing as like, this
is going to be a service to people. Like I genuinely
don't like PD. It's weird. I always tell people,
don't talk about me afterwards in happy hour
and just invite me if you do, but let's make
it good. Seriously, I need to move all the time.
Like that's why education is a great profession
for me because I cannot stand to be a student.
I cannot stand to like sit there and take in.
So like we all three think it's really important
that the PD that we give is useful and applicable.
There's nothing worse than like trying to teach
math PD to like a music teacher. And they're
just like, cool. I'm here. But we like focus
really hard on like, what can we do to make this
PD engaging, useful, something that they can
use immediately, something that they can interact
with? How can we make it engaging? you know how
can we build in something in the pd where they
can actually walk away with something usable
from the pd that day because i've been to some
amazing pd when i say i don't like pd i'm being
a little bit cheeky like i've been to some great
pd that i loved that i got a lot out of and then
i've also been to the other end of the spectrum
where i'm like i'm crawling out of my skin and
i can't wait to get out of here so we have worked
really hard to make good information you just
are like Right. And I've taken something away
even from what I consider not so great PD, but
it's just difficult for me to just sit there
and I'm just maybe a little weirdo. But I think
there's more people like me in education than
not. We go into this job and like develop ADD.
I think if we didn't have it before, because
we're all, we have so many tabs open, like Tracy
said, we all have to focus on like a hundred
things at once every single day. And so then
when somebody's like, Hey, just sit down and
focus on this one thing. Okay. You're like, I
don't even remember how to do that anymore. So
I think that it's just been eyeopening for me
about how hard it is to really create things
that are applicable and usable for the people
that are going to be in the room and like what
Tracy said, it's been really great to connect
with those people, learn about them, take a step
back and notice that everybody's very, very different.
What worked for me in the classroom is not going
to work for them and giving tools that are going
to be able to be adjusted for any personality,
any type of classroom. Stephanie, want to add
anything? I just agree. I mean, so like I just
in my head, like when we started this, our whole
goal was like, we know what's on teacher's plates.
Like we're in it. We are here with them. And
there is not enough support for teachers that
is great or just education in general. And so
in so many ways, just more and more and more
just continues to get piled on. You are not just.
The teacher, you are the emotional confidant.
You are required to keep them safe. You are required
to teach them critical thinking. You need to
be aware of always X, Y, Z is changing. And then
we're adding in testing and making sense of this
data and pair it with this data. But remember
who the student is, but remember your why. Like
there's just so much. Oh my gosh, I know. Be
a counselor and be a nurse and be all the things.
Be all the things. And so in this process. Teachers
are the heroes. Everyone needs to know this.
Teachers are the heroes. Like our people that
are working with our students every single day.
And I have kids and I am so incredibly grateful
for the teachers that see them for who they are.
My kids have teachers this year that truly like.
have like, I've seen them interact with my kids
and like, no, they know my son and who he is.
And there's nothing that matters more to them
in that moment. And I also know, like, I think
that's also what's driven me in teaching. Like
I very classically, like pretty much always wanting
to be a teacher, like very kind of traditionally
came into this, but with it, I had really great
teachers and I had really bad teachers. Yeah.
And they both had an impact. Right. But the question
is, what type of impact are we going to have?
Is it going to be positive or negative? And the
more great teachers that we can keep in education,
that's the bigger impact, positive impact for
our students in any way that we can help support
that. If it's with a strategy, if it's with an
AI prompt, if it's with a, I see you and I'm
here with you, like, let's figure this out together
because this is hard. Those opportunities is
what have like meant the most to me. And I think
specifically like getting to know you and getting
to work with like the stuff culturally and like
always being aware of that. And I've worked in.
uh multilingual schools with majority and then
i've also not worked in that and recognizing
how much language acquisition really affects
education and i truly believe it's a space that
the more we tap into it the more gaps we're going
to be able to close because as we said academic
language is the second language for everybody
yes um and Also going into the why behind it.
Like, why do we teach kids to write? Like, yes,
you need to pass a test, but I also need you
to be able to advocate for yourself and what
you need. Yeah. I wish that we didn't have to
worry about that test component. Right. But like,
truly. But I also say, you know, and we said
it together, if there's a game to play, you might
as well win. Right. Play to win the game. But
like, why are we doing that? Why do I want to
teach them to think critically? Why do I want
them to be able to write? Why am I doing this
beyond the test? Right. Because our teachers
and our students. um are the people that are
in the communities around us they're the people
that we get to live this life next to and with
and that will lead and um it's a privilege to
walk alongside them in it and many of our communities
and thank you for saying that that's really kind
it is a privilege to walk alongside them you
know and to be invited to these spaces as well
to have these conversations but this utilization
of ai can really help us create these holistic
linguistic ecosystems for students that they
need in their classroom And I was 15 years old
whenever I began learning Spanish. No one else
in my family spoke Spanish. I was exposed to
this. And then one thing led to another. And
then now I can speak Spanish fluently. I'm so
happy and so thankful for that. But our students
also can be exposed to this. And some of them
need that. because it's going to help them with
their scaffolding for linguistic support to make
cross -linguistic connections. And then others
are going to be exposed to that. They're going
to help them become interested in culture and
language as well. And all of this multiculturalism
is just a benefit. And all this multilingualism,
that helps all of us together. This makes all
of our votes rise. And so I just want to make
sure to pause on that for a second, but also
add in, just because whenever we talk about creating
that holistic linguistic... holistic linguistic
ecosystem and we talk about things like translanguaging
and cross -linguistic connections this is just
the touching the bare minimum this is not i i
because there are great researchers out there
who really understand what this means there are
books and books and books written about this
but not everyone can be a master at everything
at all times but i do believe again this is a
good prompt that we can leverage to at least
start those conversations into the understanding
of oh If I ask it this question, this can give
me an idea as an English -only speaking teacher
of how to incorporate a cross -linguistic connection
between these cognates, for example, and what
this means. And AI can help you understand that.
So you can be an English -only speaker with no
background knowledge in language acquisition
to still understand, hey, let me just ask my
AI platform, how can I make this lesson accessible
with... this idea of metalinguistic awareness
or cross -linguistic awareness or translanguaging
opportunities or a holistic linguistic ecosystem
or cognates specifically, or what can I do? Sentence
frames and stems. Yes, sentence frames, sentence
stems, things just to help that process because
that skill of reading will still transfer and
they will start making those connections. Because
many times people feel like, I can't do this
because I don't speak another language. And I
say leverage AI. Again, all due respect to all
of our researchers out there who, I mean. There
is a lot of research behind this. But for teachers
that are just in maybe an urban, suburban, or
very rural area and just have no background in
this, and they say, what do you mean how I can
make a holistic linguistic ecosystem? One, it's
just going to be your heart. You just want to
do it. You want to just allow all these languages
to be brought in and to be spoken. And I'm going
to help you make sure you get it to me in English.
But I think this would be beneficial because
we can learn and elevate our vocabulary from
others. But then two, the reality is if you only
speak one language, how are you going to do it?
Again, not all of it will always be 100 percent
correct, but it sure is a great step to leverage
that AI platform to help create multilingual
resources for students. It's fun, too. It is
fun. And I think I this week. In some learning
with some other educators, we talked about scaffolds
and how so often like scaffolds, like you think
like, oh, I need to make this more accessible.
So a lot of times it gets watered down when really
we need to think about scaffolds as scaffolding
up to the level that they need to be at. Like
we don't want to water things down. We want to
give them content grade level appropriate. things.
And AI has been like a huge bridge in that, right?
Like, I know I can do this. I know I need to
do this, but how do I get from X to Y? And even
if it's just to get the thought process going,
I might not use anything exactly that comes out
of it, but it put me on the right track to get
there. Do y 'all have any words of wisdom that
you'd like to add to that? No, I think when I
just want to tell teachers, it is that hard.
We see you. It is that hard. You're not crazy.
I feel like I just needed somebody to tell me
that my first year. And then now it's harder
now than it was even when I started. And like,
please use tools because it really is that hard
and it really is that impossible. So you're not
going crazy. Yeah. I mean, leverage what's available
to us so that you can get back to doing the things
that really matter. And you can invest your time
in getting to know your students, but also. Taking
care of yourself. I know that's such like a cliche,
like self -care, but if AI is going to give you
that hour so that you can go get your facial,
then by golly, go do it. Model that idea. Okay,
real quick, wrap it around. What's one thing
that you've learned from a student and from a
teacher in this past year so far that you feel
like has made you better? Again, one thing that
you've learned from a student or a teacher. that
you feel like has made you feel like you've become
better at what you do? I don't know. Rapid fire.
Okay. I think from a student, and this isn't
like information necessarily that I learned from
them. I learned that not only are they super
observant. And that they're seeing everything
and they're very inquisitive if you give them
a moment to actually ask the questions and kind
of prompt them instead of just giving them the
answer. So really taking that inquiry approach,
like they are so much smarter than a lot of times
we give them credit for. And I mean that in a
sense of like working with preteens in a middle
school. A lot of times they're like, oh, they
don't know. They don't have that. But they do.
They're just. They're shy. They're timid. You've
got to like pull it out of them. But just the
side conversations I've had the privilege of
having with some of the students when we do student
shadows, where we follow a student the entire
day throughout a grade level and just really
experience what it's like. Not only is it exhausting
to be a student, but they are so smart. You just,
you've got to give them. Time. You have to work
with them. And I know that's hard when you have
a limited time with everybody, but give them
the credit they deserve. Like we can learn so
much from them just as they can learn from us.
100%. Alicia, you have anything? It's not new
information to me, but I feel like I have to
relearn it from different students. Like every
year of my career is just that their story behind
their behavior will often just... make their
behavior make so much more sense. But as an adult,
there comes a time where you're just frustrated.
You're just frustrated with them. But then every
single time, every year, it doesn't, every single
time, like, oh, then I found out their story
and now I'm mad at myself for being frustrated
with them. And so, so like I have to relearn
that all the time. It's our human reaction. Seek
to understand, but also give yourself grace and
compassion because it's a natural reaction. But
yes, it's always good to remember that level
of empathy. what is going on there's a root cause
to this somewhere but you also had 25 fires going
out already so you were just like ah yes we get
it happens too much and stephanie just the power
of something fun and silly like teachers will
so often like bring me something that they're
so excited like to see and like i will have been
like in the bogs of data and they're like, but
look at this and look at what it's working in.
Like just the power of consistency and like finding
those little wins in the day that our teachers
are so good at, because again, they're the ones
like walking each and every step and moment and
minute with those kiddos. And it's just been
like, they are the best at like bringing you
back to center and what really matters in education.
Well, I know that you all do fantastic work.
I know that you've been into some places that
I've really appreciated. your services you present
over at conferences there is going to be information
again just so you all know that will be in the
bottom of this bio you can see sustained s -u
-s -t -a -i -n -e -d impact consulting dot com
and again we will have that link in that bio
very last round quick question just to make it
fun all right this is something just to end it
in a little fun way um what is something that
always brings you joy bring it on happy note
Always brings you joy. Stephanie, you go first.
Coffee. Coffee. Alicia, what's yours? The week
of Halloween at school every year. My favorite.
The week of Halloween at school. Tracy? Plants.
And for me, it's the three of you and all of
you out there listening. I appreciate you. I'm
glad that you all are here. And I'm really honestly,
I know that was real fun, but I really appreciate
the three of you being here. Alicia, Tracy, Stephanie,
thank you for all that you do in the field of
education. Thank you for what you do for so many
educators out there. And I'm so excited for you
all and for Sustained Impact, empowering educators,
leading every learner. Thank you for being on
the podcast today. Also, big shout out to our
sponsors. And to our host, we have Edges Skills.
And a big shout out to Mike Overholt, who is
our producer. Thank you all so much. And we all
love you. And we hope you have a wonderful rest
of your day. We'll see you next time on Cultural
Connections Lab. Adios. Thank you for joining
us today. Don't forget to like follow and subscribe
adios.