Ep. 16: SLAyyy Playful Learning with Amanda Beck

Gaslight
Judge, Jury, Executioner
What Are Our Goals?
Time Investment

Gatekeep - Amanda Beck, Central States Languages for All Regional TOY 2024
How We Invest Our Time
Guessing Games
Games as Scaffolds for Learning and Social Interaction
Games Provide Structure for Listening and Reading
Have Backups

Girlboss
Level Your Games
Use Templates
Novelty Makes People Curious
Predictions
Winning!
B I N G O

References

Joint National Committee for Languages (JNCL)

Gimkit

Breakout EDU

The Unfair Game by The Comprehensible Classroom

Wheel Decide

Trashketball by The Comprehensible Classroom

Pop Up by Annemarie Chase

Quick Draw by Annemarie Chase

Text us about how you’ve Gaslit, or Girlbossed your language classroom.

Email us at [e-mail]

Episode Transcript

Bryan (00:00):
Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of SLA,
Second Language Acquisition forEveryone.
So today, we are going to bediscussing the topic of games
and play based learning in theworld language classroom, and
we've got a very special guesthere with us none other than the
amazing Amanda Beck who will besharing her insights about it.

(00:22):
This topic, and we will bediscussing what we do that is
you know, kind of girl bossyand, or perhaps gaslighting.
And

Amanda (00:32):
Okay.
Okay.
I'm

Bryan (00:41):
So there is a teacher of Spanish and German that is
recruiting or seeking materialsthat represent or include
representations of LGBTQ

Amanda (00:53):
to

Bryan (00:55):
Specifically for the world language classroom.
So if you have developed anymaterials like that, or are
there any materials that you usein your instruction, or even if
you just wanted to talk abouthow you approach this topic, in
your classroom please go aheadand send those things by email
to the following email address.
It is pagarcia at ku dot edu.

(01:17):
So, those materials are going toPaul Garcia, and once again, it
is pagarcia at ku dot edu.
It would be great if you couldsend those things

Amanda (01:25):
Let's

Bryan (01:28):
and, yeah.

Amanda (01:29):
I'm going to let my stuff up there.
Awesome.
And And Yeah, so I'll go aheadand put that in a little bit.
Yep.
It's great.
I really appreciate it.
That was excellent.
So, the first thing that I wantto do is to go ahead and set up
the team.
And so, we have a world ofdifferent partners, different
departments, different teams,but we also have you know, a
very, very small community of Iguess maybe 25 or 30 people

(01:52):
We've asked them a lot ofquestions.

FishRod (01:55):
States languages for all regional teacher of the year
in 2024, made her a candidatefor actual teacher of the year
in 2024 in November.
This, another shout outhighlight your colleagues who
are doing great things throughthis process.
It is a great way to meet othersand on your own accomplishments
and for others to reflect ontheir accomplishments.

(02:15):
So all that being said, Amandaback to the podcast.
How are you doing?

Amanda (02:21):
Wow, thank you for having me.
It's been big kind of a longweek.
We are heading into spring breakand everyone's a little tired
and burnout and ready for abreak.
So I'm excited to to be herebefore heading on to vacation.

FishRod (02:34):
Yay! And what better topic to get over the Spring
Break blues than talking aboutplaying just a little bit.
Amanda, tell us a little bit.
How did you become a teacher?
How did you become the teacherand in the position that you are
now?

Amanda (02:49):
Well, it was kind of a early on thing I knew probably
fourth or fifth grade that Iwanted to be a teacher.
At the time I thought I wantedto be a middle school teacher.
Haha, joke's on me, that was notgoing to be happening.
I like, I have a middle schoolerright now and I love, love,
love, interacting with her, butI could not handle a classroom
full of that.
And so, That was already kind ofon the radar for me, and then by

(03:11):
the time got into high school, Itook German for the first time
as a freshman, and wasimmediately in love, was like,
have to do something with this,went on a trip, like just one of
those old school EF tours, like10 cities in 6 days type of
things, and while I was there, Ijust loved it.
I fell in love with Germany.
I fell in love with German and Iknew, I knew when I got back, I

(03:32):
was going to do something withGerman.
And my dad looked at me andsaid, well, you can do something
with German, but you better beable to make like, you know,
money and support yourself.
And he, I was like, well So Iwent to Valparaiso University in
Northwest Indiana, a couplehours from home.
I loved it there.
They had a fantastic and stillhave a fantastic German program,
a little smaller than it wasthen.

(03:53):
But I just, I, It just lit thisfire in me, and I loved the
studying of language and, and,and linguistics, culture,
literature, all the things.
I did a study abroad, I wantedto do a full year, couldn't fit
it in, so a semester it wasbecause I wanted to graduate in
four years and not take on anymore debt than necessary.

(04:13):
So while I was there I also gotto live in the German house.
they have a an academic, it wasthe only one on campus at the
time.
And the first floor of thebuilding is just like academic
rooms and the second floor is adorm.
And you pledge to speak Germanthe whole time that you're
there.
We ate meals together fournights a week.
It was so incredible and it kindof gave me the immersion

(04:35):
experience I didn't get becauseI didn't have the time to study
abroad for a full year.
So graduated from Belpo, took ajob kind of on a whim.
West Lafayette, Indiana atHarrison High School, and I was
like, oh, in a couple years,we'll move back to Michigan
because I'm originally from theDetroit area, and that was 18
years ago, and I'm still in WestLafayette, Indiana at Harrison

(04:56):
High School.
I'm one of those teachers that,like, found a home really
quickly, and I, I just love itthere.
The, you know, students aregreat, the family's great, the
community is awesome, and yeah,now my own kid is gonna be a
freshman next year.
She's taking German 1, which ispretty cool.
But I'm so excited because like,you know, I get to, she's into

(05:17):
my turf now and in my space.
So it's been a bit of a journey,but it's been really amazing.
You know, not only teaching,I've gotten involved in a lot of
leadership within Indiana, and Ijust got elected to the central
states board.
So lots of things as far aslanguage goes, it's really
originally when I, I feel likewhen I first started teaching
German was my passion and itstill is, but I feel like the

(05:39):
longer I've taught, Teaching hasreally become my passion and
those two pieces together.
So, that's a little bit about myjourney, kind of long winded,
but, you know, it's, it's allpart of the, part of the story.

FishRod (05:50):
when you were speaking about graduating with a degree
in German, I really felt that.
So what am I doing?
What do we got going on here?
So no, I appreciate that.
I love that.
Bill, you wanted to highlightsome of Amanda's

bill (06:00):
Yeah,

FishRod (06:01):
state of Indiana.

bill (06:02):
yeah.
So that we got a fellow Hoosierhere today.
And if you are listening fromIndiana you've probably seen
speaking up very loudly forlanguage education in the state
of Indiana, along with.

(06:23):
a wonderful group of advocatesfrom the Indiana Foreign
Language Teachers Association.
and you've spoken up for theCertificate of Multilingual
Proficiency.
The version of the Seal ofBiliteracy that we have here in
Indiana.
You've went up to bat.

(06:44):
and spoke for the graduationrequirements that ended up
getting changed, and now forstudents in Indiana, like you
told us before recordingclarified that an honors diploma
is the only one that requireslanguage, and it's only two,
which it was four three for anhonors,

Amanda (07:07):
Three for an honors diploma, and, two of two, and
now it is two years only for thehonors track, which is college
bound.
So it's really unfortunate.
Other students can take it as aas an elective.
And I think that that is stillgoing to be the case for a lot
of students.
But I it's worrisome for numbersand enrollment.
So, yeah, I have a big mouth.
I really have a hard time beingquiet when it's stuff like that.

(07:29):
And I and I also have anincoming freshman, like total
transparency.
It was also a little bit selfserving own child.
But, you know, like what's goodfor my child is good for.
everyone else's children tohopefully you know, we wanted to
fight the good fight and I don'tknow that we fully got
everything we wanted.
But, you know, we were reallyvocal.
The language teachers showed upbig.

(07:49):
It was really awesome.
It was a little disheartening tosee the other electives not
really making an impact.
So, you know, language teachers.
We got the gift of GAP.
It's what we do.
So, make it happen.

bill (08:00):
yeah, and it was like were trying to do something even more
extreme, weren't they, the, wasit getting rid of the
requirement altogether or

Amanda (08:10):
to scrap old language altogether.
And we we thought that that wasa really terrible idea for
obvious reasons, but also forthe simple fact that kids need
language and we needmultilingual citizens.
And that was a fight that Ithink most of us were not
willing to let go quietly.
And, and they heard us, youknow, I think that there was a

(08:30):
lot of, a lot of interest inwhat we had to say.
And we told stories frommultiple angles.
Some people kind of told theirpersonal journey with language.
Many people talked about theirstudents, and then the students
that have come back.
We had a teacher, and then theirstudent who became a fellow
language teacher again, tellingtheir stories.
And I think that those arereally important pieces to kind

(08:51):
of hammer home that what we doreally really is important.
So, it was a lot bigger than Ianticipated, but it was awesome
to see so many, so many languagepeople show up.
And I know a lot of credit goesto Megan Worcester.
She is really involved with JNCLreally involved on our IPLTA
team.
She's currently the president ofIPLTA and and a good friend of

(09:14):
mine, Spanish teacher.
And we just love her.
And she, she really does a greatjob of inspiring people to get
more involved with advocacy.
I mean, that's really kind ofwhere I got my start.
She was like, Hey, Hey, they'redoing this stuff with the
diploma.
You need to show up and speak.
And so I was like, good, I'm onit.
Let's do this.
So, you know, she's, she's beenreally an inspiration.
And it's, it's also really greatto just see how many different

(09:36):
language teachers showed up.
We had teachers from all kindsof languages.
In fact, this past Monday to getrid of the dual language
immersion funding for ourdistricts here in Indiana.
And so that's also a stressor.
And of course, I had just beengone for central states.
I was like, I can't really takeMonday off.
I'm not sure my principal willbe super thrilled with me
missing like six days in thelast, like, 10 school days, so

(09:59):
maybe not.
But we did manage to find the,actually, the superintendent of
Lawrence Central.
I believe that's who it was.
But he won an award at CentralStates and we asked him at
Central States to, well, Ishould say we I didn't ask him.
Megan asked him to speak to thecommittee hearing on dual
language immersion programming.

(10:20):
I don't know if that's, thejury's still out on that one,
but, you know, there's a lot of,a lot of strikes being put
against language programming inIndiana, and I feel like when
things happen here in arelatively conservative state,
they oftentimes get replicatedelsewhere.
It's like a little testingground to see If these types of

(10:40):
legislative ideas are going tobe palatable to the public and
I'm, I think it's important whenwe show up and we say, no,
they're not palatable.
We need to do what's right by weneed you right by students and
do what's right for for ourfuture.

bill (10:52):
yeah and then just on that as a call to action, a really
easy call to action is to befollowing the JNCL

FishRod (11:02):
We'll

bill (11:02):
on their website

FishRod (11:04):
for sure.

bill (11:05):
just put in your information and it will send an
email to your representatives onyour behalf.

Amanda (11:11):
It's a really easy way.

bill (11:13):
30 seconds.

Amanda (11:14):
It's a really easy way to get involved.
that doesn't involve having totake time off school and go to
meetings because, I mean, whilethat may be fun and you can
treat yourself to lunchafterward, taking those days off
in the in May at the end of theyear was a little bit rough last
year, so choose carefully.

FishRod (11:31):
Thank you so, so much for your advocacy.
I mean, it's so, it's soimportant.
And I think, you know, it canfeel like there is so much
happening all the time that youdon't know where to start.
And I think having places forlanguage teachers to start, it
can be really powerful and helpbuild our kind of collective
thrust towards, you know,something better for our
students better for.

(11:51):
Language education and educationin the United States.
So cool.
Thank you for that.

Amanda (11:55):
The last piece on that, just a little addition would be,
make sure you're in touch withyour state organizations or your
regional organizations,

FishRod (12:03):
yes.

Amanda (12:04):
because I know we, in Indiana, Megan does a great job
of keeping our website up todate with and it's super
important to just at least beinformed.
If you're not showing up tothese things, at least be
informed.

FishRod (12:15):
Yeah.
Huge.
You know, waffle throw down forwaffle Washington, huge fan
follow all their stuff, having agood time.

Bryan (12:22):
I was curious, what is the situation in Washington in
terms of requirements and thingsfor world language?

FishRod (12:28):
I believe it is that each kid has to take two years
of the same language.
But there are other alternativepathways like CTE career and
technical education where thelanguage credits can be replaced
with CTE credits of thatgraduation pathway, but by and
large, most students at myschool, I would estimate that

(12:50):
it's almost all students at myschool are taking at least 2
years of the language.

Bryan (12:55):
Yeah, because it's really interesting in California
because it is not required totake a language, but you can use
language, like 10 credits ofworld language for your, one of
your elective credits.
You either have to do 20 of artor 10 of world language.
So but the difference is, if youwant to get into the University

(13:16):
of California system, you haveto take two years of language,
and they recommend three, and somost students who are thinking
of applying to college take atleast two to three years, and so
it's like, interesting that it'slike this university system that
kind of controls Thanks.
Oh, that's not like really muchgoing on at the state house, but
yeah, I just was curious aboutthat.

FishRod (13:34):
of Washington, University of Washington is
similar in that, you know, wehear we hear rumblings that
admissions officers see 2 yearsand then scrap the application
immediately.
Right?
That they're looking for 3 ormore years for kids to be
competitive.

Amanda (13:46):
It took Purdue University's president speaking
up in August to get thingschanged.
Like, they changed therequirements to two years pretty
much after Mung Chiang decidedthat he was going to finally say
something.
And even then, Purdue and IU,our major flagship universities,
are still requiring three years,and I think that in my community
in particular, I'm five minutesnorth of Purdue University.

(14:08):
My kids are going to likely takethree years.
It was kind of an odd thing, butthey're allowing a third,
students to count a third yearof a language course as a world
cultures credit, as a kind of acrossover social studies.
They can either take worldcultures through social studies
or by taking a third year ifthey're in this like university
bound path.
Or I don't know if it's in theuniversity bound path or in any
of the paths.

(14:28):
I, that one is not quite asclear to me because we're
making, we're building theairplane as we're flying it.
So, that's a good time.
We're not really sure whatcredits everyone needs and how
it's all gonna work out.
So, so that's why we play inclass.
It's, it's still a pain offiguring out what all of this is
supposed to mean.

FishRod (14:44):
education in the United States renowned for its clarity
and uniformity on a more playfulnote, perhaps we we Amanda
reached out with an absoluteawesome list of ideas that she
could talk about and is clear itis absolutely spot on to hear
her say that she has grown apassion for teaching based on
this list that we saw.

(15:04):
I was like, Oh.
This person really likesteaching so, but we're here to
talk about play and games, whichI really love and appreciate.
So So, playfulness in class, ingames we usually start by
gaslighting.
Where, where has this gone wrongfor us?
Where have you, where have youtried to play a game or tried to
incorporate playfulness intoyour curriculum and it has
fallen flat?

Bryan (15:25):
I'll start.
When I was a young, youngteacher back in L.
A.
I made my games way toocomplicated because I was
thinking like, if I just do thecorrect formula to get the
students to use the grammar, butpretend that it is fun, it will
work.
And I found that like, You justhave to keep it as simple as

(15:46):
possible, like, of course youstill want them to have it be
communication but I just lookback at some of those materials
I created and I was like, man,what was I thinking?
But, you know, we live and welearn that's my advice to you,
just keep it simple

bill (16:01):
you ever end up with Cones of Dunshire?

Bryan (16:04):
You want to explain that?

bill (16:06):
I,

FishRod (16:07):
Me

bill (16:07):
Amanda is laughing hysterically because

Amanda (16:10):
We

bill (16:10):
I

Amanda (16:10):
just watched like all the seasons of Parks and
Recreation because honoraryHoosier in me is like, Yes,
Indiana highlighted in a fun andkind of wacky way.

bill (16:22):
In one of the later seasons Adam Scott's character
creates a game called Cones ofDunshire and it's like Risk, but
much more complicated.
And there's like three footcones involved.
It.
Yeah,

Amanda (16:40):
love it so much because it, because it's so complicated
and unnecessarily, like, youknow, all these things that you
have to do.
It's beautiful.

FishRod (16:49):
too complicated.
Too complicated games.
I think for me, what I like,trying to charge through a game
or game moment because it waspart of my plan and not having a
backup, even if The wheels werecoming off.
I think like I don't know whenyou're like trying to know
program retention is a realthing We want kids to stick with
the program because they'rehaving a good time and because

(17:10):
they're you know It's social andall that sort of stuff And so
sometimes I would play in gamesand I'd be like the plan for
today is the game and then thegame was either Not going well
from like a gameplay perspectiveof the kids were being you know
Poor sports or just making itvery not fun very quickly And
not me, not as the teacher, nothaving a backup of, like,
something we could do to replacethat.

(17:31):
And get the same sort oflanguage into their brains and
get them interacting with it.
I think that was a fatal flaw toa lot of my early game attempts.
And I think the first time thatI cut off a game in the middle
of the game, was like, I am the,like, I am the evil witch of
this school, actually.
And everyone hates me nowbecause I cut off the fun game
that we were

Amanda (17:52):
Okay.
very much.

bill (18:10):
I don't know, I

Amanda (18:12):
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.

bill (18:31):
and sometimes, oof.
Working on ways to make surethat they stay, you know,
engaged and actually learnsomething.

Bryan (18:42):
Bill, excuse me, I raised my hand first, why didn't I get
a teleport?
And then, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha,ha, ha, ha, ha.

FishRod (18:51):
I

bill (18:51):
exactly.

FishRod (18:55):
Yeah, you end up to, yeah, you're

bill (18:56):
Oh.

FishRod (18:57):
I'm the referee, I guess, for some weird
arbitration that you didn't signup for.
I, my, my student teachingadvisor, my mentor teachers JJ
Melgar a former Southwest coldteacher of the year and also
German, excellent Germaneducator.
She said she would always callherself judge, jury and
executioner.
And I started stealing that linebecause sometimes.

(19:17):
He's got to cut it off.

Amanda (19:19):
If that's the case, like we're, we're, we're going too
hard here.

FishRod (19:22):
Yeah, we need to, we need to do a quiet activity now.
I think Brian kind of touched onsomething too, related to games,
which is like, what, what werewe doing with the games?
Like, what were we pretending tolearn with the games?
Or like, what was the kind oflike, subliminal or goal behind
the game?
If like, You know, it was justlike, oh, like, can I do the
correct ending is the game?

(19:43):
Like, like, I don't, I don'tknow, man.
I don't know if that contributesas much to their language
acquisition as I would want itto, and there are other ways to
get more out of a game in termsof comprehensible input or in
terms of, you know, a moreauthentic interaction within the
context of the game.
And also, you know, like whodoesn't play a vocab game of

(20:04):
just like, what's the definitionof this word, this word, click
on the correct definition,correct points, you know, that
sort of thing.
I think, you know, in

Amanda (20:12):
Okay.
Okay.

FishRod (20:24):
days too, it was just like, like Brian said, how can I
get this grammar form?
But, but game and

Amanda (20:31):
Okay.

Bryan (20:55):
if you're interested and you're listening, reach out to
us.
GimKit, I love, because theyhave the ability for students to
submit their own questions.

Amanda (21:03):
Okay.

Bryan (21:04):
And so often what I will do is I will give students a
text that we've looked attogether during class and I ask
them to, for homework, you know,create three different kinds of
questions that requireunderstanding the context of the
language that is used in thattext.
And, I mean, it's like anupgraded version of the, you
know, what does this word meankind of game.

(21:24):
Where like, you can still, itcan still be pretty fast paced
and fun, but like it stillrequires like reading and
understanding the input thatyou're getting.
And so, and also I don't have tomake it because the students are
the ones doing it.
So, if that sounds interestingto you, I highly recommend
GameKit.

bill (21:40):
yeah, like you said, like making them meaning based rather
than just just recall, like,which I still do because I want
to.
And, but like also like, I likeWho said this so like maybe
you're or who did this kind ofquestions so like you have to
read the statement and based onsomething else that you've

(22:04):
Already read or talked about inclass Decide who of the four
choices did the thing

Amanda (22:10):
I'm a little bit more translating time.

(22:31):
very much.

bill (22:38):
and do like sentence matching.
So like I give a I

Amanda (22:43):
Okay.
Okay.

bill (22:56):
This person has this problem, which, what do you
recommend?

FishRod (23:11):
Lucky us.
We invited just the woman to askall about all this game based
inquiry, game based learning andplay in the classroom.
What effects it has and whatare, how can we girlboss into,
not into the sun, girlboss awayfrom the sun girlboss towards
success.
So Amanda, we are ungatekeepingyou for our listeners.

(23:33):
Share with us what have youlearned about using games in the
classroom that you think isworth sharing with others?

Amanda (23:46):
when it comes to games, and I when I first started my
career I think I've got a reallike, I like to win streak in
me.
Yeah.
And I think, for me, when Istarted learning a language, we
did a lot of games, and theywere really decontextualized.
And that's not a knock on myteacher, I think that that is,
that we as a profession havegrown in how you know, how we

(24:09):
structure instruction forstudents.
For me, a lot of, really what Ilike, my credo as a teacher is
work smarter, not harder.
And I like to have you know, forme, having games in place allows
my students to have some fun toloosen up because that is where
kind of my in is to pump them upto the next thing.

(24:31):
I, when, when my classroom feelskind of like a homey space where
they know, like, I'm going toget to laugh with my friends
today.
I'm going to get to talk withpeople.
You know.
They get to be a little bitsilly.
They get to be a little bit likeelementary age children.
I don't necessarily think thatthat's a bad thing.
I think in a world that puts aton of pressure on young people
today, they need an outlet wherethey can come to a place and do

(24:55):
something fun and walk out.
That's, that's what I hear a lotof my kids say is, man, I really
had fun today.
For example, they did ageocache.
I teach dual credit.
I have to use a specifictextbook.
To take some less enjoyableactivities and make them a bit
more enjoyable they had varioustasks that they had to complete,

(25:16):
and then they come over, I lookover what they've, what they've,
and there are a variety oftasks, there were some true or
false, there were some wherethey had to kind of yeah, as you
mentioned, Bill, where I had thesentence start, and they had to
Pick the logical ending.
If they had the right ones andthey had all the pieces in the
right places, they gotcoordinates and then they got to
look at a map and I had hit somegeocaches around the building

(25:36):
that they got to go and searchfor.
it took something that wouldprobably been pretty dry and
boring.
That's required really for mydual credit curriculum.
And I don't knock that I don'tsay that to knock my dual
credit.
You know, school that I partnerwith.
Those are just things we have todo.
And making them fun, making themplayful, made my students, they

(25:56):
were like, can we finish thistomorrow?
Because they didn't finish themtoday.
And I said, well, tomorrow wekind of have some other things
we need to work on.
So they're like, where are allthe caches?
And they were all into it.
They were so engaged.
And I think that that is a big.
piece of the puzzle for me isthat when I was a beginning
teacher I wanted to, I knew thatgames engage me and I wanted to
engage my students and get themexcited and pumped up.

(26:18):
Which I use, for example, I'mreally big on, okay, the Monday
after break, I know I'm going tohave to plan something that gets
that energy flowing becauseotherwise they're all going to
be like, So I anticipate March31st, we'll be playing some
games at my school simplybecause I know that that will
bump that energy back up and getthem.
Oh, yeah, this is what we dohere and how we do things.
I love to do we were talking alot about keeping things simple.

(26:41):
And I think that that's areally, really important piece
of it, because it should not putso much work on our plate for a
20 minute activity, it shouldnot take us.
It takes, you know, an hour anda half to put things together.
I will admit a geocache took mea little bit longer, but I have
materials now that I can recyclefrom year to year, and I do,
obviously, adjust them.
I, I notice problems thatstudents have, and I try really

(27:02):
hard to make sure that, youknow, okay, next year I'm going
to do this and make those notes.
Because the time you invest inputting these things together
should ultimately recouped whenyou're able to use it again down
the road.
I also really like to use thingsthat I can use multiple times.
As you, as you guys weretalking, I was taking, taking
some notes and I do a lot ofguessing games students guess

(27:25):
what comes next.
Or I, I will take a video kindof like a movie talk and I'll
take some still shots.
Like for example, there's areally great series called Easy
German.
then I'm guessing you're prettyfamiliar with easy German, maybe
a little bit.
And there was one I just didwith my German ones.
We were talking about describingyourself.
And there's literally, the topicis, how would you describe

(27:46):
yourself?
And it took still shots of thepeople.
And I had my students write,anticipate using target
language.
What do you think they're goingto say about themselves?
then I play the video and they,they watch and they got all
excited when they're likechecked.
I got it.
She was going to say she hadblood.
He was going to say he's old orhe has a beard.

(28:07):
I'm going to switch languagesalready.

FishRod (28:09):
About

Amanda (28:09):
but that's kind of that kind of engagement.
They were engaged in a task thatotherwise would have been pretty
boring.
And it was a pretty high amount.
of language being discussedamong them, being the input that
they were getting and I justlove that they, and the buy in
is so much higher than it's,than if I'm just like, okay, you
know, match this description.
Getting them to create with thelanguage is really ultimately

(28:31):
what I want them to do.
Some other things I was thinkingabout as you guys were talking
that I love to do, I mean, Iknow it's, it's, It's a pretty
low impact as far as I havesometimes students make a bingo
card in anticipation of whatwill they hear, what will they
view because I think it helpskeep their attention more.
And I mean, it's so dumb ifyou're like cross five and I got

(28:52):
a bingo, little bit of, and eventhe upper level, my third and
fourth year students will stillbuy into that because I think
it's, it takes something thatwould otherwise just be so meh.
And it's just, you know,listening and it just gives it a
little bit more.
a little bit more something tolisten for.
I mean, obviously we want themlistening for the language, but

(29:12):
it gives them a little bit moreof a kind of behind the scenes
task that engages them just thatlittle bit.
And for me, it's a reallyimportant piece because I think
otherwise, you know, if I'm juststanding up there talking at
them or if they're justlistening to something or
viewing something or readingsomething, you know, if they're
really motivated go getters.
I know for me, I have noproblem, you know, sitting down

(29:34):
and reading a big, long task inGerman, but, or a big, long text
in German, but I want them to dothat, and I gotta find a way to
pull them in without it feelinglike this is a big, long task,
and I'm gonna have to write agiant essay, like, if we set
them up with kind of thoselittle scaffolds that help them
gather their thoughts and putthose pieces together that That
generally results, yields greatresults, and for me, it's helped

(29:58):
a lot with retention, because Ithink kids are like, this class
is really enjoyable.
We get to play and in fact, I'veeven started incorporating
German board games into mycourses now kind of after we
have a big assessment or kind ofan end of unit assessment.
We do a game where they, a daywhere they play board games.
And we've been working on how doyou communicate during board

(30:19):
games?
Because I think again, in theage of post COVID where kids
don't have kind of theseconnections to each other, it is
just language class can be sucha great vehicle for helping kids
build those social skills.
Because let's face it, if theyare going to theoretically talk
to somebody, or if they actuallytalk to somebody from the target
culture, they're going to haveto be brave enough to be like,

(30:40):
Hello, guten tag, my name isblah blah.
They're going to have toactually feel comfortable enough
to actually talk to somebody.
And, and that starts even in ourown classrooms in kind of a
casual sense.
They have to break down thathigh level of anxiety about
talking to people because I'm, Idon't know about you guys, but
do you see that kind of, thatkind of hesitance to interact

(31:01):
with even their own peers intheir own school?

FishRod (31:03):
I had a student once who said something that I was
just so baffling to me, but themore that I thought about it, it
kind of made sense, which wasjust like, I had seated him next
to a student and they just werenot like when I would be like,
Oh, turn and talk and ask yourpartner about this or like
whatever.
And then like, you know,whatever, you know, talk about
your weekend or something,whatever it is just like, you
know, a little structured kindof quick chat before we do it

(31:25):
all together as a class.
They just like wouldn't.
And I was like, Hey, like,what's with that?
Like, what's happening?
And he was like, Well, I just,like, I just don't know her from
my other classes, and I waslike, the way you get to know
somebody is by asking themquestions

Amanda (31:41):
Talk to them.

FishRod (31:42):
yeah, it's by talking.
And that's what I've becomeincreasingly convinced that,
like, Yeah, we need to teachkids how to deal with, like,
difference in social situations,and then, you know, have an
appreciation for diversity andcuriosity about it.
And I think that really doesstart immediately in the
classroom with the people intheir own community.
And I can see games as a way ofkind of breaking that initial
social

Amanda (32:02):
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.

FishRod (32:18):
Okay.

Amanda (32:22):
is that I want them to interact and to, to gain some
friendships.
I had a girl who went on my gapexchange.
had met a kid, she was brand newto our school as a sophomore.
And she had met a kid who was afreshman in my class.
And because of the nature of ouractivities, they became friends.
And by the time she graduatedlast year, she was like, I'm so
grateful for German classbecause it's where I met my best

(32:42):
friend and I thought to myselfThe kids need this space to be
able to form relationshipsbecause how can we ever expect
them to want to communicate withother people in other parts of
the world in a whole?
other language If they don'tfeel confident enough to even
talk to the kid next to them,who theoretically speaks the
same language, or at least inour classroom space, they have,

(33:03):
they share that common language.
And I think that that, that theteam building aspect of it that
kind of that SEL aspect of it,of like, you know, this is a
chance to unwind and to takesome of that pressure off
ourselves is a really, is areally important piece of, of
why I like to bring games in myclassroom.
And like I said, I thinkengagement is a huge, huge piece

(33:24):
of it as well.
That, that for me is a great wayto just, to just get kids to
want to be there.
Because I think for a lot ofkids, school is such a white
knuckle experience.
They are everything about it.
The social aspect, theeducation, like the, the
academic aspect can feel.
So overwhelming and I don't wantthat for my classroom because I

(33:46):
don't want kids to be scared.
I of German.
I don't want them to be scaredof learning language because
there is a real fear.
I notice it every single year.
I always do a survey at thestart of the year, kind of just
gauging attitudes about languageand language learning their
experiences.
I have a lot of students who'vetaken other languages and there
are a little, are a littleTurned off by some of the

(34:07):
approaches of other teachers andand I mean that a mean way to
knock my colleagues.
I just find that that means forme, I have to do something that
sets my class kind of on adifferent path so that it's not
a similar white knuckle,uncomfortable experience.
And I, I want kids to, to feelfree to be silly and goofy
because that's what I am.
I'm a giant nerd and goofball inmy class.

(34:29):
And, you know, I think that thatalso sometimes sets the tone
that, that lets them know, like,this is a safe space to be a
little bit silly.
Like, it's okay.
Okay.
we'll color something and that'snot weird in this space because
I always remind them like,you're like a preschooler,
learning, like, you know,you're, you're learning, you're
learning basics and you're goingto grow and we're going to move
past that preschool stage prettyquickly, but I still want this

(34:51):
to be a place where you can, youknow, where we will occasionally
color things or we will playgames and we will do, yeah, fun,
silly things that, that aremeaningful, yeah.
that help us build our Germanskills, but that also, I mean,
fun is never, for me, fun is notthe primary reason we play
games.
We play games to work on ourcommunication skills.
Fun happens to be a byproduct.

(35:12):
Is really my approach.
If they have fun, great.
I don't plan it with fun inmind.
I think just the tasks in and ofthemselves, when you, especially
when you're using something,like I said, even as silly as a
bingo card, when you're usingsomething that gets you to go,
Oh, I won.
It mean you're really actuallylistening and paying attention.
That's what I wanted you to do.
And that's what you did.
They happened to win.
Cool.

(35:32):
Great.
Usually, usually it's like, do Iget a prize?
I'm like, the pride of knowingyou won.
And sometimes that's goodenough.
Other times I give out candy.
Sometimes I give out stickers.
And just things that, and, andthey get excited for those
things.
Because again, it's that, thatidea of like, you know, German
class doesn't have to be likeall my other classes.
It can be a little bit.
Yeah, a little bit silly.

(35:53):
and I think too, games can be agreat way to wind in culture.
I was thinking about this aswell.
I use a lot of pictures and Iwill have kids, you know, we
will do either, what do you see?
Sometimes I'll have a selectionof cards and they have to pick
up the vocabulary items thatthey see.
And then I use that as a vehicleto talk about.
What's really happening in thepicture and the cultural aspect

(36:14):
but that gives them a little bitof structure of the vocabulary
in place first, so that theyknow kind of where we're driving
the bus on this one.
and I think it's just importantfor them to pull their attention
to things that they mightotherwise not notice.
And and games can even gamifyingit a little bit can make it give
us that like little in road tomake that connection or to bring

(36:35):
them to that connection.

bill (36:37):
I have a lot of thoughts on a lot of what you said there,
Amanda.
I especially liked the partsabout like, starting back from a
break with a game to just remindstudents of what our, what our
class is about.
I think that's really great.

(36:58):
You said something aboutcreating this big geocaching
activity and just also a shoutout, like, you know, we like to
keep things simple, butsometimes you just have to put
in a little extra and that'sfine because it sounds like you
had a great experience with thegeocaching thing.

(37:20):
And like you said, like, You nowgot it for forever to use and
that's great.

Bryan (37:27):
I was gonna say, I really love that idea of geocaching.
I've like, I've like heard ofit, and like, heard of people
doing it not in a schoolcontext, and I never really
thought about doing it in aschool.
I do use like, Breakout EDU,which I don't know if any of you
have heard of that, but it'slike, basically you get like a,
a huge box with different kindsof locks on it, and the

(37:51):
activities that you havestudents do give them.
Essentially the codes for thelocks and so you can do a lots
of really versatile things withit And I like to go really hog
wild and like make it super likeI don't want to say complicated
but like engaging, where theyhave to go to different
locations on school campus andlike talk to different teachers

(38:12):
and like look for clues and likedo things that, you know, still
require them to use thelanguage, but like are not just,
you know, sitting in the roomlistening to me or whatever.
So love that.
Gonna steal it.
It is a lot of work, but justlike you, I've saved, like I've
laminated everything now and soit's like I can just pull it out
whenever I need it.
So, highly recommend doing thatkind of thing.

Amanda (38:32):
I've done a number of breakout boxes both in person
and virtually.
I've done a lot.
There are a lot of really greatones out there that work.
great tips out there for how youcan use them with Google Forms.
And actually last year I was atCentral States when this
geocaching thing kind of fitinto my schedule.
So I turned them all into GoogleForms and the students had to

(38:53):
enter their answers into theGoogle Form and it gave them the
coordinate and then they had tostill go out and find it.
So I charged a colleague withplacing all of these things, but
it still was engaging.
The kids were like, What?
You left us something like thatto do?
That was so much fun.
We didn't have enough time tofinish it.
And I'm like, I, to me, whenkids are asking for more time to
finish things that they'rereally engaged in, then I know

(39:16):
that that is the type of, andBreakout EDU is the exact same
way.
Every time I've done one, Imean, it is a beast to set one
up, but once you have it,especially if you plan all the
games really well, I mean, it'sjust a treasure you can enjoy
then for, you know, a coupleyears to come until you have to
change it all again, and thenyou're like, well, shoot, none
of these will work anymore.

(39:37):
But you know, that's kind of thenature of teaching, I feel like.
And even some of the, kind ofthe games, When I first started
really using a lot of games inclass, I split them into teams,
and it was, it was funny, youwere mentioning managing
behavior, and it was really,truly like, I'm the referee,
what I say goes and it was a lotmore stressful, so for me, I've
kind of evolved to doing thingsthat are, the whole group is

(39:59):
responsible for the answer andthat helps a lot, so I'll a lot
of times give out, if we'redoing, I love to do group work.
The unfair game, and I mean, tomake it really unfair, I'll have
each kid write their answer on apaper, and they, they have the
option to talk with theirteammates, and they should,
because they want to make surethey all have the same answer,
because then I'll roll the die,and one of them will have to

(40:19):
bring up their answer, and thenif they get it right, then I
rolled another die, and they getpoints, or whatever it is that
it is that day.
Sometimes we use cards,sometimes it's just like, you
know, I, we'll, we'll decidenumbers, whatever, but I find
that that can be a really, Evensomething as simple that we
played trash get ball and we didthat as well and my kids were
and I mean we're in basketballcountry here in Indiana right

(40:43):
now like I anticipate Thursday.
Everyone's just going to want towatch basketball all day Friday
for sure and with that said, youknow, if I can get them to I
give them a question aboutsomething that we read.
come up with the answer.
They get the right answer.
They get to shoot a basket.
You know, it's silly, butthey're engaged.
They asked me, I was like, canwe play trash get ball?

(41:04):
Because they have so much fun.
And I mean, it gets a littlerowdy.
I will admit I don't haveneighbors on either side
anymore.
Cause I'm on an end classroom,which, and then one next to me
is a former lab that doesn'thave anyone in it right now.
So it's probably good because ittends to get a little bit rowdy,
but I think.
That, you know, and, and, and Iwant to put out there that I
play a lot of games, but I alsotry to balance that with calmer

(41:26):
activities, individualactivities, because there's kids
that grit their teeth and getthrough the unfair game or trash
pit ball or something morerowdy.
I had a girl who, when we did abreakout EDU box, she had an an
emotional handicap and it.
It set her off.
It was way too much because itwasn't easy to find the answer.

(41:46):
She had to struggle and thatstruggle was too difficult for
her.
And I knew that.
And I had, I had given her adifferent task that was, I
think, and she and I had talkedbeforehand.
This wasn't like a, you know, Ididn't be like, Hey everybody,
you know, this student isstruggling.
But that really helped.

bill (42:02):
Bye.
Bye.

Amanda (42:04):
of comes with backups.
I think that that's important,is to have, is to have backups
for those kids who, you know, Iwant all of those kids, even the
ones who are a little morehesitant to participate to be,
to be a member of their team,but I also recognize that
sometimes students, especiallyif they're having an off day or
a bad day, that they need aseparate space, and that's, and

(42:24):
that's okay too, and I, I Ithink that that comes with being
a flexible teacher, with payingattention to your students needs
and interests and wants and likeI said, changing it up.
We don't do game based thingsevery day, but, but they do
feature pretty prominently forme, but, you know, and I think a
lot of times I try to keep themreally simple and sometimes it's

(42:44):
even make a list of words thatyou think are important.
That think you're going to hearor encounter in this text or
hear in this, in this thing.
And, and that can be enough forsome students.

FishRod (42:56):
I love it.
I think we've, we've kind oftransitioned into girl boss
territory, which is like thekind of our best of, you know,
best thinking on this as I waslistening to you.
And I was thinking, okay,there's some content in my
classes that I think comes upevery, like, is generated with
the students every year, liketalking about people's
individual hobbies, or if wecreate stories as a class, or if
we talk about people'sexperiences over the weekends,

(43:18):
over the breaks or whatever itis.
And I think for that sort ofmaterial, I do want kids to have
another pass at that language.
But I need to have a repertoireof very, like, low to no prep
games to get that language back.
Because if I set up a wholething that I spent, you know, 20
minutes making, it's usable onetime, and then that time was
spent.

(43:39):
And so you need to have those,like, kind of low threshold for
you as a teacher planningmechanisms to get The
information back, that languageback.
So I think of things like the,the pop up game by Anne Marie
Chase even the quick draw gameis a good one.
Unfair game you can kind of dowith anything.
That can, I whipped up an unfairgame today like real fast.
Just like certain low thresholdplanning ones.

(44:00):
But then stuff that is likeyearly content that you know
you're gonna go back.
Like if you teach the same novelat, you know, at the same time
in every level.
Or if you are certain you'regonna show a video.
Yeah.
If you want to extend thatlearning quite a bit, then you
can invest that time intosomething like a breakout or a
geocache or something more.
So that's just a good, I think,planning principle to have in
the background too, is thatlike, sometimes you can throw

(44:21):
down and make something, butmake sure you're picking the
content that it's going to payoff for.

bill (44:27):
Something that's been to me to make games quicker is
figuring out some ways to makequestions quickly.
Because a lot of my games arequestion based.
I'm going to ask a question,students have to answer to do
whatever, action they need to doto earn a point.
So, something that I have doneis, like, a really one to do is,

(44:52):
like, find the target language.
So, like, you give a word or aphrase in your shared language.
Use sparingly, but, like, it'snice in a pinch.
And if students have a readingthey just have to go through the
reading and find language.
So find the translation ofwhatever it is that you tell

(45:15):
them.
Some, another one that I did.
Recently was made all of thestatements about the articles
that we read false and had to gothrough their readings, to find
why it was false.
And the kicker was.
Multiple things in the sentenceswere false, but I only required

(45:39):
them to one and find onecorrection.
But, something to keep in mindwith that is I don't know how
well that would work for lowerlevel classes where, like,
because I think what makes thefalse statements.
questions work for me in myopinion was that had to like

(46:04):
think a lot about where theywere gonna find their answer in
their text because this wasbased on like a chronological
brief history of something andso they had to think like oh
when did this happen and findpart of the article to find out
why it was false rather thanlike a short sentence which true

(46:25):
or false, but it says instead ofsister.
That's kind of more wordrecognition.
Which is great for the lowerlevels.
That's what we need to do isfind and produce like words
before that we move them ontophrases.
And so, and so I don't know, Iwould have to think about that
more, but doing something with atext that you already have.

(46:49):
And something with kind of withlanguage in mind or vocabulary
in mind.
Or even if it is like a lot ofdialogue, like who would say
this, go through and find it.
So for me, that was been thebiggest thing to help me make
games on notice.
And sometimes like withpractice, you can do it on the

(47:10):
fly.
Like I've already got thereading in front of me.
I'll just go through it andtranslate on the fly.
So

Amanda (47:18):
I'm big on templates.
I make a lot of templates forthings.
Copy, what I need to change.
That has been a real time saver,especially with games, because
they can be such a timeinvestment for, for me, that's,
that's, like I said, I like tosay I work smarter, not harder,
and those templates have savedtons and tons of time, and it's,

(47:38):
it can be questions sometimes I,I did, my students little
biographies about familymembers, I think these are first
years, and I printed them, Ihung them up, and I had, of
course, some very simplequestions, and I gave them not
enough time to answer all ofthem.
that intentionally because thenthey got together with their
team and the goal was to see whoand which team they could

(47:58):
compare all their answers andwhich team could get the most
answers.
And it was kind of interestingbecause they had different
strategies for handling that andthere was some negotiation that
had to happen in there.
And I think there were 31questions and I had one team get
29 of them, which I thought waspretty great in like 10 minutes
of time.
And I mean, they weren'tcomplicated questions, but it

(48:20):
was a way to kind of check theircomprehension and for them to,
to check with each other oflike, did I get this right?
And then, then I didn't have tointervene.
But if I turned it into a gameof which team gets the most, you
know, they got a jolly rancher,which was enough motivation for
them to.
To discuss and it was reallycool to be walking around
listening to them going, Well, Ithink this one said this.
No, no, it's definitely saidthat like just getting the fact

(48:43):
that they were kind ofnegotiating that meaning it
turned out to be a game, but itwasn't really a game because
ultimately they were they wereworking through what they had
comprehended and for me that wasreally that was what it was all
about.

Bryan (48:55):
I for the listeners who can't see our chat box, I just
said that, like, from my currentschool, the first time I was
setting up a game, and I waslike, Your prize is candy! They
all just, like, startedlaughing, and I was like, okay,
I guess they want somethingelse, and it's not gonna be
extra credit points, so, youknow, gotta think of, be a
little more creative.
Heh heh heh heh.

Amanda (49:14):
Yeah, I think my school generally kind of went anti,
anti food prizes during COVIDand we were allowed to come out
of that.
And I don't know if all thatmany people really ever came out
of that.
But it seems to, you know, it's,it's a silly little thing for
the first year.
I don't do it as much for theupperclassmen, although today
when they did bring back thatbring back little like

(49:34):
certificates that they have goneto the geocache because I wasn't
about to put candy out among thegeneral population.
I figured it would be, you know,disappeared.
By the time my kids got to it,so they had to bring me back
these little certificates andthey were, they were excited.
I think it was a matter of prideof like, we solved this problem
and we figured it out.
And you know, that time I letthem form their own teams it

(49:55):
really depends on the type ofactivities.
I knew on that one, there wouldbe some kids who wanted to work
by themselves because theywanted to challenge themselves.
Other.
Other students who maybe needmore support or scaffolds able
to kind of band together.
And I liked the flexibility ofthat.
My room, my classroom is set upin pods of four, which kind of
lends itself naturally toconversation and interaction.

(50:17):
And, and so for me that, know,putting them, putting them in
that situation where theyactually have to interact with
people and negotiate thosethings, I think is, is, yeah,
that's the big piece.

FishRod (50:27):
By way of girl bossing, to victory with games, do you
have any absolute banger gamesthat you're like, absolutely
everyone should be playing thisgame all the time?
You've kind of dropped the, the,you know, the unfair game we've
talked about a little bit.
And so we can put links into theshow notes for listeners about
like, what is that game?
We'll send you to the, the bestresources on these ones.

(50:49):
So the unfair game is a greatone.
Even just gamifying these prereading activities has been such
a great way.
I've done that withinfographics, like, you know,
looking at this, you know, wordlevel.
of things and the kids are likeglued to the screen trying to
see if their predictions arecorrect.
And so I think predictions feelslike a game.
And so that is a great way tobuild that positive, affect for

(51:09):
that.
What are some other games thatlike our listeners absolutely
need to be playing with theirstudents or things that we need
to be doing to gamify, I guess,the rest of the material.

Amanda (51:20):
I love cards.
I feel like you can do so manythings with cards with, I mean,
yeah, it seems like discretevocabulary, but for me, I work
in thematic units.
haven't quite abandoned thatyet.
And I, and I can't because I,there's multiple teachers.
We kind of have to stayrelatively similar.
So I, you know, I try to buildin where they can create

(51:42):
sentences with them, or theyhave to ask each other.
You know, about those specificitems or they describe them.
I do a lot of, you know, tabooor even scattergories.
I do a lot of scattergories withpictures.
If you're not doing that, youshould getting them looking at
things and thinking about what'sthere and describing what's
going on.
Today we did a little bit in myfirst year class we've been

(52:03):
talking about like birthdays andfamily.
And so I tied in some seasonsand, and months of the year
'cause you know, obviouslybirthdays, that that also ties
in.
And you know, it was we did acategories with what can you do
in this picture?
'cause we've been working on thephrase I can.
And so they all had to come upwith a phrase of I can do
something and I did it.

(52:25):
I guess herd mentality stylewhere they had to have the same
answer.
So I had like four teams thatwere like, I can play soccer in
the scene.
Because they again had to likelook at it, they had to think
about it, they had to apply allthe things we've been working
on.
They had to negotiate it.
And then of course they werelike, Oh, I knew you guys were
going to write that.
And, and you know, for me, whenI see those kind of, not only a

(52:46):
little bit of, you know, theproductive skills, but, but the,
the buy in I think is, is reallyimportant.
And it gives me a chance then toalso assess Do they understand,
know, are they, are they writingthings the way they should be?
Do they understand what I'masking them to do?
Because a lot of times thosethings, for me, kind of give me
a gauge of like, okay, I seethat there's some

(53:08):
misunderstanding on this point,and we need to spend a little
bit more time.
I need to give them more input,is usually what it tells me,
that they need more experiencewith this before they're able
to, to move on to it.
I don't know that I have anygames that have, like, specific
names.
I just find that I'm, like, onthe fly, I do a lot of stuff
with pictures and makingobservations and making
predictions.
And because I think that thatbrings a bit of novelty into the

(53:30):
situation.
And novelty, you know, it makespeople curious.
They want to get invested.
is this?
What can I do here?
And those are kind of my, thoseare some of my go tos.
Like I said, I mentioned bingosheets, which sounds, again, so
dumb and so simplistic, but findthat I bring in a lot of
authentic materials that keepwinding all of these things in

(53:51):
there, so we get a lot ofmileage out of them.
For example, with food we did,You know, I was okay bingo
sheet.
Yeah, we play playing normalbingo because that's the only
thing we're going to do with itAnd then I bring up grocery ads
and they have to pick out all ofthe things in the grocery ads
Then we talk about prices and wedescribe the food.
Do you like that?
Do you not like that?
They talk about theirpreferences and they engage in
those things you know with eachother with me and I can do a lot

(54:13):
of stuff Circling that way,which I think really lends
itself well to some, to, toadding input.
We did I just did this with mythird years, we've been talking
about obscure sports.
That's where geocaching came in.
This kind of, the close of thisunit about obscure sports.
And I found a video in Germanabout the, the top same It was
the top 10 craziest.

(54:34):
craziest types of sports in theworld and so I gave them the
names of the sports and I hadthem create a list of what do
they think they need to be ableto play that sport and then we
watched the video and theywatched clips of these people
doing these things.
The one that weirded them outmost was probably toe wrestling.
that, which weirded me out too.
They're like, what do you needfor that?
but they were, you know, reallyhaving to Think about, and it

(54:56):
was of course working withvocabulary, but it was like that
predictive piece of like, what'sgonna come up?
Are we right?
Are we not?
Right?
they were really, they boughtinto it because then, you know,
that lent it to kind of l lentthe dis led the discussion to
our next little piece of the, ofthe chapter we had to work on.
Because again, this is my dualcredit class.
It makes it a lot moreinteresting than what's.

(55:18):
It's just in the textbookbecause that's so dry.
I call it, I call it the toastbook.
It's dry like toast.
No butter.
And it's kind of sad.
So that's my way to try andlike, you know, teach in the
spirit of what's in that chapterand make it so that kids, you
know, like I always tell them,you may never, you never know.
You might find your next hobby.
You like, you know, kunstrad, isartistic cycling.
If you want a new sport, lookthat one up.

(55:40):
That's real special.
Hobby horsing has come up.
That's a big one.
And, and, you know.
They also, like, they'll alsobring some in, and I know when
they're bringing things to methat they're invested, and it's,
it's a quick, like, that fiveminute activity that required
zero prep for me, it gave them abuy in, so I don't know if I
really answered your questionof, like, what are my go to

(56:00):
games but I think for me, when Ican get them to predict stuff,
or to notice stuff that thenultimately leads to some sort of
winning and, and I, really dotry to keep it simple, and the
rules are usually, you know,Yay, you guessed correctly.
Congratulations.
I think that I try to go a lot,like, obviously things in

(56:21):
groups, but also as individualsbecause I want them to also have
a sense of pride of like, Iguessed correctly.
I knew what was going to happenhere.
And I think that that.
they're engaged, they've boughtin and I, you know, a lot of
that comes with building therelationship of trust that I
tell them, like, I'm not goingto give you something you can't
do, and I'm not going to set youup to fail in here, so, you

(56:42):
know, I feel like that, that'sthe underlayment of it all, and
I think games can be a real partof that relationship building
because it can, can take some ofthe, as I mentioned before, some
of that, like, overarchingstress of like, oh my gosh,
there's a teacher and she'slistening to me speak and I
sound really weird.
I don't know these words.
I'm gonna mess it up.
And it takes it kind of takesthat off of it when the task is

(57:03):
to focus on this other thing.
And I just happen to be walkingby listening to their discussion
and listening to what they'redoing.

FishRod (57:09):
about the content versus the language.

bill (57:11):
Yeah I think my biggest takeaway here is like kind of
that framing of making thequestions or making the game
some part of something like aprediction because I've just
been thinking a lot recentlyabout into our classes not only

(57:32):
into a different language, intoa different style of class,
probably, but like, you know,Getting them to actually to like
activate prior knowledge, youknow, like, what do I already
know?
Like, I'm going into this thingand maybe I already know some
things that I could say to talkabout it.

(57:53):
and I think that's probablyreally motivating.
And so I am think about how toincorporate that into everything
now, so thank you.

Bryan (58:02):
Yeah, like a super fun thing that I, well, I think it's
fun.
Yeah, it's fun that I do, like,every, back to school, because,
like, I have my students for,like, five years, so they don't
need to hear the this is mybackground, and this is my
likes, because they alreadyknow.
So what I do when I come back Toschool is that I, I do a bingo
about what I did over thesummer.
So like I have like a huge listof different activities that I

(58:24):
could have possibly done andthey have to predict about which
ones they think I have done andthey like create their own bingo
sheets with like numbers that gowith the sentences and they just
go through and check like, whichones did they correct guess
correctly.
As I, you know, then talk aboutit.
And I don't know, it's always ahit.
So I recommend you steal thatand do it if you are in a
similar situation.

Amanda (58:46):
I absolutely love doing that because then you turn
yourself into the content, itlets them get to know you a
little bit more, and sometimesthey, you throw them a real
curveball, and they're like, Idid not expect that from you,
and I think it also helps kindof it also kind of helps
humanize you.
It also helps build a little bitof camaraderie because sometimes

(59:07):
I'm like, oh my gosh, I did thattoo.
Or like, oh, that's reallyweird, but maybe I'd be
interested in that.
And I, I love doing that on aMonday after a weekend.
If I'm looking for somethingdifferent for weekend chat,
it'll be like, predict whatFrobek did over the weekend.
And sometimes.
Yeah, they come up with weirdstuff.
They really love to like puttheir teachers into strange
scenarios and situations.

(59:28):
And, and I, I feel like that isreflective of the kind of
relationship that you build withthose kids, right?
Like they, you know, they, theyaren't going to put you
somewhere that's hopefullyinappropriate or anything crazy
like that, but you know, big,funky sense of humor.
And the more you can lean intothat, I think the, the better
that class can be

bill (59:46):
And additionally, they can see first person forms of
everything

Amanda (59:52):
indeed.

bill (59:52):
a hopefully really interesting way, because I think
a lot of times, at least for me,I don't think I give my students
enough first person input, sothey get a lot of like TNAs,
what have with the S at the end.
But they don't get a lot ofTengo from or it's like, or

(01:00:14):
really quick in dialogue.
So great way to like, just addthat in for me as well.
Great stuff.
Once again want to say thank youAmanda for being here with us
tonight.
It was such a playfulconversation.

Amanda (01:00:30):
Thank you for having me.
It was a great time.
I really enjoyed being with youguys.

bill (01:00:33):
Yeah.
And I'm glad again to haveanother in state Hoosier with us
today.
So for everyone until next time,go out and slay.

FishRod (01:00:48):
Bye!

bill (01:00:49):
Bye.

Bryan (01:00:50):
Mm-hmm