Ixchell Reyes
The DIESOL podcast

Brent Warner
Digital Integration in English as a Second or Other Language.

Ixchell Reyes
Episode 22 Flipgrid for ELLs.

Brent Warner
Welcome to DIESOL Episode 22. We are your hosts, I am Brent Warner.

Ixchell Reyes
I’m Ixchell Reyes

Brent Warner
Hi, Ixchell, how are you?

Ixchell Reyes
Pretty good. What’s going on what’s going on?

Brent Warner
My semester is starting. And we are running right into things. And so my head spinning right now.

Ixchell Reyes
I just got done coordinating a webinar for Tex TESOL two. And that was amazing. It was really good. And one of the topics that was like super popular was flipgrid. Yes.

Brent Warner
So we are here. And we have we have yes to talk about flipgrid. Now we’ve talked about flipgrid on the show quite a few times, like in passing and little bits of it. But But today, with the new announcements and everything. You know, big, big new launch for flipgrid. Lots of new things coming through and, and I’m sure coming down the line too. We have with us Ann Kozma and Luis Oliveira. And let’s start with you. How are you?

Ann Kozma
Hey, so glad to be here with you. Thank you for inviting us on the podcast.

Brent Warner
Yes. Thank you exciting.

Ixchell Reyes
You guys are the first guest of the second year of DIESOL.

Brent Warner
That’s true.

Ann Kozma
Oh hey that’s cool.

Brent Warner
So hey, that’s good. And Luis, how are you?

Luis Oliveira
I’m doing really well. Thank you so much for having me.

Unknown Speaker
And then can I ask is it LUIS or Louie? Louis?

Unknown Speaker
I’m Portuguese. So it’s Luish. But the only person who eesh is my mother. No.

Luis Oliveira
trouble. So I just go with “Louie”.

Ixchell Reyes
Okay, perfect.

Brent Warner
Great. And so let’s just clarify. It just makes sure that we understand your roles. So we’re having an open conversation around flipgrid and everything. But you know, we’ve got, we got to I think this is actually the first time we’ve had two proper guests on.

Ixchell Reyes
Yeah, this is the first time we’ve had more than one. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker
yeah. So So let’s start with Ann then. Ann what is your role and tell me what you know about Flipgrid? Tell me everything you know about Flipgrid!

Ann Kozma
I was gonna say two guests means double the fun. So I’m so excited today. Um, so I actually work for Flipgrid. My role is called an educator innovation lead. And what that means when I explain to people is I’m a teacher helping teachers. So I spent 17 years in Southern California as a classroom teacher and a teacher on special assignment. And a couple years ago, took this new role with flipgrid getting to share, celebrate, and showcase and help others as they’re using flipgrid to empower every voice in their learning community. And I love to say I’m a teacher helping teachers. So I work alongside Jess, voice and jornais Armand, and we are an educator innovation leads on Team Flipgrid.

Brent Warner
Awesome.

Ixchell Reyes
So, cool. So cool. I’m like starstruck right now.

Unknown Speaker
Ann, you and I actually know each other from before you started working at Flipgrid, through CUE…

Unknown Speaker
Yeah, we go way back up more than a handful of years, I’d say because of CUE in California, and have had some epic conversations over the years about ed tech and tech integration and how you can shift the teaching and learning and I know we’ve even shared a pretty epic hamburger too.

Brent Warner
Oh, yes. So I stole Ann’s hamburger at CUE very late one night. And she was very gracious in I’m like, I’m so hungry. It was… I’ll admit that I had a drink or two. And I was like, I’m so hungry, and Ann just walks by with his hamburger. And I’m like, Are you gonna eat that? It took me a year or two. But I did finally pay you back and got you something else in the future.

Ann Kozma
And I remember sitting in laughing and we had an awesome time. And I mean, we’re better together. So why not have epic conversations and epic hamburger shares?

Brent Warner
Yes, indeed. So, and Luis, tell us a little bit about your, your background and what you do too.

Luis Oliveira
Well, so I am one of those teachers that are helped by and in the rest of the crew effort, but I actually have a couple hats. My official title at Middletown High School in Middletown. Rhode Island is director of unified arts, which basically means I’m in charge of most of the electives at the high school. But I also work with English language learners. So part of the day I’m doing some administrative stuff and the rest of the day I’m doing what I love most which is working with the international students. I’ve also you know, I coached soccer for 28 years and army technology. Integration coach at the district as well. Awesome.

Brent Warner
So perfect fit here. Because, of course, you know, what we do is we talk about yells and how we can help use tech tech to support all of them. And so, so Luis, I think you’re probably going to have a lot of really good insights for us. Because this is particularly what we’re looking for is a lot of times people talk about like, this is cool tech, right, like flipgrid, and all of these things. And, and as I mentioned, we’ve talked about flipgrid. And anyone knows, I kind of do ups and downs, like I’ve got like, Okay, this works really well. And then I’m like, I want this other thing to go on. And so like, but sometimes I’ll have little issues, and sometimes things go really well for me. And so I’m really interested to hear, especially from like the high school perspective to working with students. How, how everything goes so. So I think we should just jump into it. Luis, can you tell us a little bit about like what you’re doing or how you might use? When you start thinking about flipgrid? and using it with your, with your iels? How are you customizing it? How are you working it for them?

Luis Oliveira
Alright, so that could be an hour and a half.

Brent Warner
Ann, you can go take a break now!

Luis Oliveira
As simple as possible, I actually use flipgrid not only with my high school ELS but I also I teach a technology course, a Roger Williams university with that is designed for future teachers, it’s technology for secondary teachers. So I use it with quite a range of age groups and in many different ways. So that’s why, like I said, it could go on for a week, because there’s so many different ways. But there are some general ways and general reasons why I use flipgrid flipgrid. The most important for me is it doesn’t matter the age of the student, it gives them a voice. It doesn’t matter if they just arrived in the country as a newcomer, or if they’ve been here for four or five years or more. It gives me the flexibility of having the students respond in their first language or respond in English at whatever level they happen to be at at that moment. And the reason I use it is because it does give my students that voice, but but a comfort level because they’re able to use the app and you know, go in the hallway, or use the laptop and go in the hallway, go outside if the weather is okay, do it at home, wherever they’re comfortable. Having been an English language learner myself, I remember how difficult it was in the beginning to get up in front of a class and have to perform in English, when I would, you know, when they talk about that silent period. It’s not it’s not a myth, it’s real. There isn’t time that students need to feel comfortable enough to put themselves out there. And what I found that flipgrid is that it’s pretty much shortens that silent period, because the students have the ability to record themselves as many times as they want. Some of them are perfectionist, they want it to be perfect before they let it out to the world. And they can record and rerecord and, you know, if they’re shy, there’s all the tools that allowed them to, you know, pixelate, or use emojis and cover themselves or not even show their face at all. So it gives so much flexibility into, you know, being able to have the students give their voice. So I use it from introductions to former students giving, letting us know how they’re using English in the real world, to, you know, simple things like we just read a book or we just read a short story. Tell me what you thought of it. What would you do differently if you were the author? We’ve done things from connecting, trying to connect with authors around the world to very simple things like we just came back from vacation. What did you do? It’s Thanksgiving is coming up. What are you thankful for? What are you thankful for? So like reflection is a big piece. reflection is a huge part of flipgrid. Because I’m able to get student thinking student responses at their comfort level. And we can’t I can’t forget to say all the accessibility features. You’ve heard Immersive Reader in flipgrid, as long as it isn’t many products is one of the main reasons why I use it because they can translate things into the language they can. You know, they can use the picture dictionary and see what’s going on. If they don’t. It’s just it’s absolutely incredible.

Brent Warner
The Immersive Reader part is amazing. Yeah.

Ann Kozma
I was gonna say there it is, because That, to me is one of the most powerful tools I have ever experienced in my life. And I love that it is fully embedded throughout flipgrid. It’s just there if anybody wants to use it.

Ixchell Reyes
Yeah, so yeah. And we’re all over here nodding our heads together.

Luis Oliveira
Yes, English is a second or third language, we are so jealous that we wish we had it.

Ann Kozma
When you bring up like the flexibility piece, I think that’s one of the things I love so much about flipgrid. And I talked about this all the time, they’re learning pathways. So if you’re an English learner, or you’re acquiring a second language, or you’re developing your own language, fluency in anything that looks different compared to the learning modalities we all have as individuals as learners. So those created, you know, all of the creativity tools built into the camera, and you said it, you said it, you said it is a brilliant point, the flexibility provided, because considered those different comfort levels. And I just love that the ability for folks to use this in any way, whether it’s, you know, gaining a new skill or boosting confidence. So, I loved hearing what you said, Luis?

Ixchell Reyes
Yeah, Luis and I love that you mentioned that you allow your students to respond in their first language because as you said, that silent period is very real. And I I’m an English learner, I’m still learning a lot of stuff. My first language is Spanish, and and, you know, allowing students to build that confidence first, you know, because recording your voice. This is a scary thing, right? And I’m wondering, how do you see that your students will then transition into having more confidence in trying something out in English or how do you see that growth over time?

Luis Oliveira
Oh, I’m so glad you asked that because I wanted to make sure because I didn’t mention it in my first response. I wanted to make sure that I that I spoke about mixtapes, I see it in stages. Yes. Are you familiar with the mixtapes

Brent Warner
I am not familiar. So I want to I want to break down

Ixchell Reyes
Our audience may not know what our mixtapes are. So please tell us I’ve

Brent Warner
seen the tab and I’m like, I haven’t I haven’t clicked on it yet. So so I get a whole whole introduction right now.

Luis Oliveira
Alright, so one of the amazing things that I find every day is how people use the tools within flipgrid and all other digital tools and make it their own the way I use mixtapes and they can jump in please, if you have other thoughts, but I use mixtapes as a oral proficiency portfolio. So I use, you know, lots and lots and lots of flipgrid topics. And my students respond throughout the year. They come in in September, or possibly August this year, we’re not sure yet. And they do an introduction, they introduce themselves, they jump in and they they respond to the messages that last year students left for them both to help them get around a school but also giving them some advice on and as they do these different topics, you know, they’ll do the Thanksgiving given thanks to Martin Luther King Day, though, you know, we do a little, a little bit, a little topic on that as well. And throughout the year, we’ll do topics. Each time they do one, I just have created a mixtape for each one of them, just like in the old days when you put all the songs together, together and it’s become so easy to do. Now that it’s like the minute you look at a student video, you can just add it to the mixtape, and it’s super, super simple. And what happens is, over time, I’m able to see what they did in September, October, November, all the way through the end of the school year in June. And not only can I see the growth, more importantly, the students can see the growth because one of the things that they lack is confidence in their ability to use the language. When they can jump in to their own mixtape and see that in September, they were speaking, they were recording in Arabic or Spanish or Portuguese, or whatever the language happens to be. And then by, you know, December, they’re already starting to dabble with the English and by June, they actually are communicating pretty nicely in English. That gives them a confidence boost. That is almost impossible for me to do by myself. I can tell them 1000 times that their English is improving. And

Ixchell Reyes
now I was just gonna say, oh man, the times that students will say but I don’t really feel like I’m improving. I don’t have it. But it’s you know, when you are able to measure by looking at your own work well, how powerful is that to have a curated timeline of your language acquisition or growth. Yeah, language growth

Luis Oliveira
definitely fit in for us. educators, it’s also not a nice easy way to you know, as part of the evaluation system, we have to show what we’re doing. I have one of my stewing students are of proficiency. So when I sit with my evaluators, you know, during the evaluation cycle in my, my goal for the year has increased my student’s oral performance, I don’t really have to say much during that meeting, all they do is give him the videos, let them click on it and see the students growing as the year goes on. So it’s pretty cool to use it that way as well. I was

Ann Kozma
gonna say this is like a perfect example of what a mixtape is, it’s that highlight reel, it’s those moments that you document. So everything that you just said, Luis, it’s like, documenting growth over time, and having students have the ability to go back and see this is where I was at the beginning of the year, mid year check in end of the year, it is that epic highlight reel. So whether it’s oral language, you know, proficiency or even fluency. Brent, you said, What is it click that button, my friend. Because of mixing, it can be anything, or a language, it could be reading acquisition skills, I taught first grade 87% of my students were English learners. So going back and listening to a reading oral reading in in August or September and compare it to the end of the year, during a parent teacher conference during a goal setting or review. Tons of possibilities to document and celebrate the progress, right.

Brent Warner
Yeah, I love that idea. I mean, this is a little bit selfish on the teachers part of your point of view, but like unselfish, but like when you have to go through those, those observations and those things, it’s like, you sometimes you get to the end of the semester, and you’re like, oh, they’re better, I believe me, but like, you don’t have to even say, believe me, it’s like, you can blast it up on the big screen TV in front of your administrators and just, like lead you into them, right? That’s

Ixchell Reyes
you can be more specific about certain things. I know sometimes. In my institution, they might ask, okay, what give me very specific evidence as to their growth. And you know, when you’ve got a class, a lot of students or a lot of other tasks, you it’s often you generalize, and you don’t want to do that for an individual student if they’ve been able to grow in an area. But having that there, again, it’s curated, and you can take a look. And you can also see over time, if there are patterns or within different groups, and so I think as an instructor, that’s just such a powerful feature to have. Yeah, it’s also reflected for the for the teacher, I know that I go in there, and I look at to see how my students are responding. And sometimes I pick up on, on things that I might have missed otherwise, that oh, you know, five of the students made the same, the same error. So I need to address this, something’s going on here. So it’s also a good way to reflect on what we’re doing as educators.

Ann Kozma
We really like the the brilliant nature of the flexibility, it could be a play to learn, let’s have fun, this first opportunity is going to be for you to you know, explore the language use the sentence frames, document vocabulary, progress, anything, but when you talk about that success criteria, if you’re paying attention to the listening, the reading the speaking, you know, there the text tool within within flipgrid as well. So, for writing, you could have play based fun, silly, you know, topics for that experience, and then have topics for the assessment piece or the documentation piece. So it comes back again to just those the flexible nature of how you can use it and make it work for you in whatever way you want it to.

Brent Warner
Yeah, so I just want to make sure that I’m following up on this too. So when Luis when you’re saying that you’re watching those students growth with mixtapes, then you are creating a mixtape for each student. So there’s like, is that like Joon Soo, here’s your mixtape and then here’s the thing, here’s my favorites of what you’ve done over the semester or whatever it is, or is that how it works for you?

Luis Oliveira
Exactly. So I have in this if you go into that section that says mixtapes in your says, create a mixtape, you just create one for each one of your students. And you just put in the videos as you receive them, you put them in, and it’s literally a click of the mouse to get them from, you know, where he lives into the mixtape. So it’s super, super easy. One of my happiest days, with flipgrid was when they created the ability to do that because I used to literally create a folder for each one of my students, and download each one of the videos.

Ixchell Reyes
I used to do that to

Luis Oliveira
hours and hours to get it done. And then, like magic, it became a simple click.

Ixchell Reyes
Yeah, and it’s There’s so many so many cool features with flipgrid. So many areas to explore. I wanted to follow up on something that you mentioned earlier. With your high school students, you said that sometimes you read books and you you want to maybe connect with authors around the world or writers? How, what does that look like? How do you can you speak more about that?

Luis Oliveira
Sure. And, um, for example, we read the outsiders. And, as the head is one of my favorite authors, and so we read the book, and we do all the activities that we normally associated with it, you know, the reading comprehension, the making sure they understand the theme, and, and, you know, the plot and the sequence, and, and all of that. But then what I had the students do was, again, that reflective piece was, tell me what you thought about the book? What did you like about it? What would you have done differently if you were the author, and then we actually reach out to sex, because I found her on Twitter. And, you know, I shared the students responses about the book with her. And unfortunately, she did not respond, which was kind of disappointing. There are authors that do and authors who who don’t, for a variety of reasons, but it doesn’t make a difference to me, because it was the students, we’ve been able to put out their thoughts and put it out to the world and have another see what they were thinking. And the fact that they were comfortable enough to put it out to the world was a big piece. For me, that was what was most important to me, we have a graduation requirement, which we call the capstone, and part of that requirement as students have to present their topic to a group of judges who sit and evaluate them. And this is a graduation requirement. And you know, what part of the rubric is going to talk about eye contact and, and presentation skills and all that. And whether my students realize it or not, throughout the year, as they’re recording these footprints, they’re working on their presentation skills, they have the confidence to get up in front of others. And, you know, it’s easy for me to say, Maria, do you notice that your eye contact needs a little work, you always look down or you always look up, or you say the word like an awful lot. I can also use my videos to show them that it’s, it’s a work in progress, that as a Second Language Learner myself, I also have things that I work on constantly, I’m going into my 30th year and sometimes, like I just started yesterday, so it’s important for us to reflect on and show the kids that hate mistakes are part of life.

Brent Warner
I really, I love all this, you know, it’s funny that you’re this idea about the author thing. I we read a book called funny in Farsi, by Firoozeh Dumas. And she’s a she’s from this area, but she’s also an Iranian immigrant and all these stories, but in the past, I’ve tweeted out some of the I did like have my students do some art around their understanding and I tweeted it out and she was highly responsive. She’s like, She’s like, calling out my students name she’s like, go for it, keep on going, you know, and so like when when you can find someone like that who is responsive on top of that, too. I hadn’t thought about doing like a video and having having the students describe their there are on a video or something like that, but I’m definitely going to do it this semester. Now that you’ve you mentioned it as a as a flipgrid idea because then it’s like just open that up make it clickable for the author and or whoever might be interested in and see the whole thing that’s really cool. That’s a (unclear) great if they don’t get the

Ixchell Reyes
work is done. They had an audience it they gave it was an authentic experience either way.

Ann Kozma
Yeah. And I my brain is thinking like, okay, now like, what is an extension from that it’s designed a new book cover, talk about like a like a, whether it’s a cultural celebration or something from your family, or your geographic location and design that using the elements within flipgrid. Or, like, I know, another educator in Brooklyn, you’re in Soviet v. Java is doing like record covers from lightning, a CD. Cool. Yeah. So but you think about it, it’s the oral language fluency. It’s the expression, it’s the academic language, or the descriptive language, and so much opportunity to practice in these creative ways. I love that.

Brent Warner
And we this is a perfect opportunity to talk a little bit because we wanted to, we want to talk about the new things that are going on with flipgrid. I mean, just like huge rollout huge new things, like all sorts of all sorts of changes going on making things better. And, you know, one thing we always have to say about flipgrid is how responsive you guys are to like, Listen.

Ixchell Reyes
It’s like they’re listening and listening. The work is going On behind behind the scenes.

Brent Warner
Yeah, so and please share with us a bit about like, what you’re excited about what you’re seeing going on. And if you can tie it for us for elf and everything else, that’s even better.

Ann Kozma
Yeah, so I was just gonna say like, the feedback we get from the community is so meaningful, and it’s so valuable. And we’re thankful when people share the success stories, we’re thankful when people share it pain point, because we want to continue to build forward to support you, we’re inspired every single day by the incredible things we see educators doing. Um, and specifically, like, for English language learners, you we see examples of the way you’re using flipgrid to boost confidence or practice that oral language fluency, whether it’s for one of those, you know, those state tested language proficiency exams, practicing speaking and listening, I’m developing wait time responding to like, a specific skill or strategy. But Luis said it at the beginning the pathways the flexibility. So some of the new features that I’m just I’m like, over the moon excited about as an educator. Um, of course, I love the fun nature of the frames and filters, that breaking news frame, you can add any custom text box to

Brent Warner
Oh, I didn’t know that was in there.

Ann Kozma
You can just have it as a text overlay to individualize the topic. So it couldn’t be a specific area of focus you’re working on. I of course, am obsessed with emojis and the power of an emoji in my first grade classroom as a K eight Tosa. I said, don’t discount emojis because why it’s descriptive language, its language, its visual support for an English learner or language acquisition, um, that text tool within flipgrid. And, of course, tons of creative fonts for everybody to choose from. But that’s just an additional visual support, right? But come back to some of those lesser known features. There is under the dot dot dot some like mirror options where you can mirror the effect. So almost like you’re conducting an interview, or yourself. Play. Oh, yeah. So yes.

Brent Warner
So while you’re recording, flip it. So you’re like kind of facing this way. Click and then you’re kind of facing that way type of thing.

Ann Kozma
Yep, exactly. So that could be practicing language while you’re interviewing yourself. I’m just

Brent Warner
like doing it live while you’re recording and just tapping it and flipping. That’s Yeah. Okay.

Ann Kozma
Something the power of the pause button. I mean, that could be stop motion video, a paper slide video tonight,

Ixchell Reyes
I had not thought about stop motion.

Ann Kozma
Yeah. And don’t discount that split screen.

Brent Warner
I do want to talk about that, For sure. Can you can you tell us a little bit about that, so that people can understand what’s going on with the flip screen, split screen and how it might be used.

Ann Kozma
Okay, so under the board feature, you have all of these creative boards. You know, there’s solid backgrounds, a whiteboard, a blackboard, a galaxy rainbow, these this.in paper graph paper lined paper. So any academic content area, you in the creation tool, while you’re using the flipgrid camera can choose that board feature and then toggle the split screen. Even on a mobile device, you just pull down from the top on mobile and side decide on that web based tool. And so the split board could allow you to be on screen for video or any other element. And then using the board feature, the text, the emojis, all those other effects. There’s a live drawing tool you can annotate all over the screen. So not only for teaching or instructional videos, documenting how to solve an equation the steps for something, but I think about in in English learning, what if there is text on the screen or a sentence frame or a prompt? And then you have that speaking skill that you’re addressing. I know, things like talking about a scene or a picture, you can use that picture upload, discussing information speaking and sharing your opinion. I mean, retelling narratives, any anything that you’re doing, to work towards those specific skills, you know,

Ixchell Reyes
very, very cool. Very exciting. There’s a lot

Luis Oliveira
I cannot wait to use the split screen I’ve been playing around with it. A little while ago, Portugal won the World Cup For a long, long time, when you have the ability to do your own news broadcasts you can make happen.

Ann Kozma
And that’s a great point, though, utilizing a real life event, a sporting event, a musical event, a breaking news story. So if we think about how those trigger creative ways to engage with language, I mean, it’s all about To me, it’s creating its pathways. And it’s, it’s, it’s, I saw the transformation in my own classroom, it’s when students invest in a completely different way, the ownership for learning, the engagement for learning, the retention of information, all of that is transformed. When we give them the opportunities to create, right, yeah,

Brent Warner
yeah, you know, what I’m thinking right now is you’re talking about all these things, especially, I love the the breaking news, one because it allows them to shift out of their role, right. And so they, they suddenly I’m not a language learner, I’m a broadcaster, or I’m a, you know, and and it’s it’s inside of their head. But it’s, it’s, it’s an important shift, because then they don’t get necessarily as caught up on some of the issues that they might otherwise. And then I’m thinking now, students could read it. So we do Newsela in my classes, and so students could read a news ela article, make sure that they understand it. And then they are responsible for doing the broadcast version of that article and showing me through through a breaking news, a story that they had picked up from a PR writers or whatever it is, right. And so then they could have the double the multiple processing on understanding that news, because a lot of my students now we’re just like, I want to talk about things that are happening now in the world. Just like it’s there’s so much stuff that they are not getting the chance to process or to talk about. These are great chances.

Ann Kozma
Yeah, and so talking and processing from the perspective of somebody else, that levels up the challenge immediately, right. But with these effects, one of the coolest things I’ve seen shared was, of course on Twitter by Kemal Preet, who is an awesome educator out of India, and she has her daughter, who’s an elementary, older elementary age student use all of the new filters, the new features, they get these inside of foot as well. And she in her first recording became an artist, a disco dancer, a scuba diver, a peace Princess, a news reporter. videogame character, a Lego character, a ninja, a fashionista, a fairy in a magical garden, a jungle explorer and a unicorn. So no matter what elementary school says secondary, post secondary. I mean, the possibilities are endless. And sometimes that might feel overwhelming to hear. And I just come back to encouraging folks play to learn push all the buttons, there is no right or wrong way to use flipgrid. And you can make it work for you in any way. And, um, I just have to say, of course, not only because I work for them, but as an educator who loves free stuff. flipgrid is 100%. Free, right? It’s also completely unlimited. We’ve never had an educator reach. You know, this is the max grids max topics. It’s unlimited. So

Brent Warner
this got so many of my teachers this semester, because now, of course, we’re coming, we’re coming back, and we’re completely remote. Right? And so I’ve got all my teachers coming up and saying, print, have you heard of flipgrid? And, yeah, I’ve heard of it. And we need to sign up for it. And I’d say no, no, I mean, you need to put your make an account, but you don’t need to sign up and all of these things. And so they’re like, Oh, I can just start using it. And that’s a big deal for a lot of people. I mean, it really changes what they’re, you know, it’s it’s a it’s a roadblock for a lot of people when they go, I have to pay or I have to figure out a way to pay in my school. If when we pay for something, it takes six months or eight months to get that whole thing processed, right and get it like Okay, now we’re ready to go or a semester at least. And so. So yeah, the free option is a free option. The free isn’t an option. It must be free.

Ann Kozma
I come back to thinking and this is actually written and I haven’t and I’ll share it for the show notes. Omar Lopez, who’s an incredible educator in southern Texas has this sketch note. empower your English language learners with flipgrid and he has in the bottom corner. You know, not only the reminder that every voice matters, but flipgrid allows the opportunity to provide multiple opportunities for success and do overs are okay. In life. What happens if I mess up? I just keep going right? What happens if I sneeze while I’m talking? Keep going, what happens if I don’t know the word for it, I try and describe it. So as we think about all these ways to level up, like the opportunities for our students to share, I just always come back to this overwhelming sense of happiness, and hope. Because of those pathways, right. And I was a visual learner, give me a picture, and I could write about it for days. But listening, and just the auditory piece is so powerful as a component. But man, if you ask me to listen for five hours to something, I’m going to barely remember any of it. And the repetition and the do over and the practice and the fun, that can be included. When you create something. I talked about this as a Tosa, all the time, students don’t emotionally invest in worksheets, but when you give them the opportunity to create something,

Ixchell Reyes
everything is transformed. And there’s a connection, a personal connection. And I’m so glad that you mentioned again, you mentioned pathways, you mentioned the ability to do over and you know, the power that you have with that pause button, no rerecord. And so this question maybe is for both of you, Brent, and I both work with adult learners. So oftentimes, we might, at least my experience has been like, no adults aren’t gonna want to use that or No, it’s too hard for us. We’re not the generation for that. And of course, we’ve seen it change because we introduce it, but what would be maybe your approach to you? What’s your approach to using it with adults? And how do you see you know, the over time that this indeed does work for any age group,

Luis Oliveira
I’ll jump in on adults are just big kids.

Ixchell Reyes
I agree.

Luis Oliveira
When I first started using a with the university students, I worried about that same thing. And you know, when I mentioned that, on day, one of the semester, they were going to do an introduction flipgrid. So to get to get used to the program, many of them had never seen it before. Some of them were like, oh, but I don’t like to be on camera. And you know, and they went off to do their recordings. And it didn’t take very long before they were all having a wall. It just with adults, especially you just we have to just model like, usually when I do a topic would with adult learners, I begin by in my topic, including a video with me, and showing them hey, there I am. And I don’t love to get up in front of people and make mausolus differently, but I’m a pretty shy person. And that all comes from having learned the language and be forced to speak up before we’re ready. No, it doesn’t. We did.

Ixchell Reyes
Absolutely, I hear you.

Luis Oliveira
So, but if you show them that it’s okay to kind of laugh at yourself. And if you show them that, you know, there are no consequences to mistakes, that we just want to hear their thinking, then they tend to grab it pretty quickly. One of the things that I love about flipgrid is the ability to have on a topic or a group. And I didn’t say grid, I said you know, having having to be as open or as close as needed, I would my English language learners, I have students whose parents say my, my son or daughter cannot be on video, right? I would have password that only, only that student and I see. And what often happens is at the beginning, they are not showing their faces or they just record their voice and it’s totally protected. And little by little, the parents realize this is safe. This is okay, I see my son or daughter is growing I can I can hear them grow with their English learning. And I’ve had students that start out on completely locked grits at the beginning of the year and are fully open by the end and there are some that still they stay in their protected grid do away now I said then protected group the entire time. And now that we can just do topics without having to set up the group and just do individual topics with the new update. That makes it even easier because you could just set up a topic for each one of the students.

Ann Kozma
Yeah, and I was I love that Luis that you’re using, whether it’s video moderation or a private a private topic, a private group. Um, when I think about using flipgrid with adults That’s how I started with it. I was already a Tosa when I had first started using flipgrid in 2017. And so I was using it with the teachers in my district to reflect on professional learning the very first flipgrid topic I ever created. I sent out on Twitter, and it was what what books are you reading right now. But I think about when we use it with adults, if you’re using it in your professional capacity in corporate and enterprise for training, any adult use, we’re modeling what lifelong learning is, right? And as educators, we want to demonstrate a growth mindset as well for our students and hey, I’m, I’m willing to take this risk, I’m willing to try something new too. And I love that you have the opportunity to play to learn and so when I use it with adults, it’s always a play based experience. At first, I put out like a flipmode g challenge. That’s an idea from Kathy Chris now ski who’s an educator and coach out of New Jersey, and she it’s like us all the us all the emojis to create a scene, right? That could be a mad scientist’s laboratory, it could be an outerspace scenario, it could be underwater, but add elements and make it personal to you. And what does that do in the process that allows educators to push all the buttons, but develop empathy, right, as to what their students might be experiencing? while they’re using a tool. And I love again, I’m going to say that word flexibility, because if you don’t want to be on camera, you don’t have to be use the L use the elements, use the filters, use the board’s turn, you turn it around, but a sticky note over the camera. Um, you can even toggle off audio. So again, the possibility for a response, no camera, no audio that’s there, if you if you want to create that way. Um, so I just come back to like, give people choice. And as educators are using it, respect the student voice, and if they wish to start on a private grid or topic, that’s definitely something that can be an accommodation. Um, and again, it’s just the flexibility that, that I absolutely love,

Brent Warner
You know, both of these comments remind me of something I was in a recent training with Denise Julie Williams, who’s a teacher down in San Diego, and she’s a friend of the show. And one of the things she said was talking about flipgrid, she was saying that students might start by sharing a video of a stuffed animal, like their their stuffed animal and like, that’s the thing that’s talking right. And and then they kind of keep going, but as they get more comfortable, like Luis, like you’re saying here, and and like you’re saying, they they start kind of shifting in, and then it’s like, now I’m sitting together with the animal, right? And like, it’s okay for me to show my face and to show the animal, which people have recognized and followed along with that little stuffed animal as like, Oh, that is you? And then it’s like, no, it starts to become actually you as they feel more confident in their own voice as well as like, when she when she had said that, too. I was like, Oh, yeah, you know, like, because we don’t have to lock it down, right? We don’t have to say you must do this. And you must do that there’s a lot of creative ways for people to continue to share their voice without necessarily some of the discomfort areas that they’re not ready for.

Ann Kozma
And when that growth is documented over time and showcased in a mixtape, that’s a celebration, that’s a celebration of the journey that individual went on. And you can see the growth. I mean, there’s evidence of the growth.

Ixchell Reyes
And I think I want to mention something really important to hear that as English learners and you know, having the when we talk when you know, flipgrid, empowering student voice, right, and if you really think about it, when students have the power to pause, and rerecord oftentimes, especially ELS, they don’t yet have developed, or they don’t have they haven’t yet developed a voice of their own in that language. So as they’re repeating, repeating, repeating, they’re also internalizing certain messages. And how great is it to see or one shy student who couldn’t stand up for himself or herself, to now be able to do that? Outside of flipgrid? Because I’ve had students who are just extremely shy in the language needed someone to go with them to the office to talk to the counselor did and these are adults, right? So these are adults, and perhaps in their own culture, it’s also a difference in a cultural difference, but to then see that student who said, Oh, well, you know, I practice on flipgrid. And now I don’t need anyone to go with me to talk about you know, my transcript or a doctor’s appointment or something that that is empowering students voices.

Ann Kozma
What Michelle Luis knows this about me, but maybe you and Brent, don’t I cry happy tears every day when I see the examples that educators are sharing on Twitter. So Case in point we’ve seen folks share about You know, I introduced flipgrid, that students spoke, it’s December and I had never heard their voice. We’ve seen tweets people have shared about students who might have selective mutism, who have never seen voice before. And now they’re gaining confidence and sharing their voice and oh my god, okay, I just,

Ixchell Reyes
I know, I feel like I’ve got the goosebumps, too, because it’s happened with me. And it’s like, powerful, powerful, where someone can have that voice and their voices heard and there and before, they didn’t have a pathway, they didn’t have a way to do that. And, um, I’ve had, again, adult students who had very severe social anxiety. And the video at the end of the semester was like, wow, and they’re just pouring their heart out to you. And they’re okay, sharing it with that class. How empowering is that?

Ann Kozma
Yeah. tears in my eyes, again,

Luis Oliveira
not a session if you don’t cry at least once.

Ixchell Reyes
Heart to heart with DIESOL and flipgrid.

Luis Oliveira
That’s a really good transition to another really important reason why I use flipgrid? Because, yes, have my students practice, the oral language is my number one goal, because, you know, that is what I need to do is, is give them the skills to be able to function in all of their classes. But at the same time, I’m also worried about them, I’m worried about their social, emotional, you know, how things are at home? How, how things are going in their other classes? Are they are they socializing? Are they able to? Are they adapting well, integrated into the school? Are they getting the most out of the school, and a lot of times, students are not comfortable sharing those sort of things in front of a group, right? They’re teachers, but I use flipgrid. As a dialogue journal, I have one of each week, they, they tell me how their week was, how things went, it’s all how things went outside of school. And it’s unbelievable how much they share that I never would have known. Yeah, now with remote learning, to see the students face as telling you about their week is so important, because we don’t have too many ways of gauging how they’re really doing. So being able to see that they are okay, or that, you know,

Ixchell Reyes
that is so important that it’s

Luis Oliveira
what’s going on and then being able to communicate with that student individually. It just gives them the opportunity to share if they want to share and of course, they have the option.

Ixchell Reyes
Mm hmm. And of course, as you mentioned, um, I think part of it is very important right now is that we we teach them a way to process certain things. And if they’re doing reflections, that’s the way to process what maybe they can’t at home or you know, with the class the way that we normally would have because they’re not in the school building anymore, so we don’t have that chance to, to help them through it. Those are wonderful stories.

Brent Warner
I hate to be the taskmaster here, because I feel like we’ve only been going a couple minutes, but we’re almost done. We’re coming up on an hour here. And there’s like we said, this is like scratching the surface, there’s so much more to talk about, you know, but we are going to have to shift so so we’re gonna come back for sure. So let’s do a little shift out here and we’re gonna go into our fun fine, so hold on. Okay, so we are moving. We’re, we’re getting towards the end. So it is time for fun fines and we’ve got a shell, we’re gonna have you start off what is your fun find?

Ixchell Reyes
Okay, this time, it’s kind of a big fun find, because of course, I’ve been in front of my computer for almost six months now. And I’ve gotten to play a lot with my mobile devices a lot more than usual, and I have a lot more time to experiment. So I’ve been doing a lot of video editing and media editing, and I thought it would be the perfect time to get a gimbal stabilizer. Oh, and so it was my birthday a few weeks ago. So I decided to go ahead and try that and I found a very affordable model. It’s a 59 $69 with the little tripod Stan it’s a handheld it’s very portable. it’s small enough if you don’t want to carry a bulky one. If this is a starter gimbal for you a stabilizer I recommend it it is a G Yun it’s ZHIYU n stabilizer. So if you look them up, they’ve got various models but it was affordable. It was something that I could play with and carry in my bag if I needed to. And that’s just been so much fun right now.

Brent Warner
You can record you can record your flip grids on the walkie walking down the street.

Ixchell Reyes
Yeah, they can be –. That’s the thing. They it works with anything. So if it’s video again, and that’s another thing, you could definitely use it for flipgrid. Absolutely.

Brent Warner
Cool. All right, so mine is, uh, I took a few days off and just completely disconnected. I went up to mammoth. And we did a summer, summer few summer days in Mammoth. And in particular, I think I’m going to recommend convict Lake, if you have if you ever get a chance to go up to the mammoth area in eastern Sierras, convict lake is a smaller, but just incredibly beautiful and easily accessible lake. So it’s just super clear water. Beautiful, great walk around there. And I will also say, you know, for me important that most of the people were very respectful about the mask thing. So they were even walking around, they were still wearing masks, and, you know, just kind of doing their own thing. And so it was a really lovely time to just be disconnected for a few days and, and not really be thinking about the news or anything else. So my fun find is mammoth. And then specifically if you get a chance to get up there to go to convict lake. All right, um, let’s see. Luis, are we saying Luis? So Luis, you’re up!

Luis Oliveira
Well, that’s a good thing, because Ann you’re muted. So make sure you unmute before you give us your, your find. Mine is actually kind of an events going on in the world right now. Like, I’ve started to feel very disconnected from both my colleagues, my students, and we’ve kind of found a new way of reconnecting, and we have this group, a global classroom that has educators from all over the world. And just being able to every once in a while, you know, do a zoom, and see their faces and hear their voices and being able to hear how some of like in Scotland in Australia, how they’ve returned to the classrooms, and how is that going and, you know, learning some lessons from them, but just being able to see those folks and hear their voices and see their faces. It’s been uplifting. And I would highly, highly recommend that to anyone connect with your professional one and network connect with your with the folks that give you the strength throughout the year, but just do it just for the heck of it. Just do it just talk to each other and just to you know, see how everybody’s doing it’s, it’s really good for the soul.

Brent Warner
Absolutely, yeah, there’s a good opportunity to catch up with people. So thank you. All right. And

Ann Kozma
that I love that Luis, you know, I love Okay, so I recently learned about rebounding, which might sound funny, but what it really means is many trampoline workouts

Brent Warner
Oh

Ann Kozma
So, I wanna channel my like best 1980s Jane Fonda vibe and get a mini trampoline to start these rebounding workouts. And I learned about him on Instagram from busy Philips Insta feed. And she takes this trampoline class. But I’ve learned it’s really good for the lymphatic system. Of course, it’s great for cardio. So I’m currently researching because you can buy you can buy an inexpensive mini trampoline, or you can buy one that is almost $1,000 which can be insanely insane. Um, but I’m researching rebounding workouts right now. And I guess I should move the exercise off of Instagram videos to the actual doing of the exercise. Um,,,

Brent Warner
I love watching workout videos.

Ann Kozma
Yeah, while I’m eating some chips or something. Yeah, so I am almost ready to to purchase my mini trampoline. And I just think not only will it be an epic workout, it’ll help me create some balance and self care that mindfulness piece. Um, and there’ll be a ton of fun, so why not?

Brent Warner
Yeah, you’re bringing back the you’ve already got the neon pink tank top, you’re ready, you’re ready to go like I love making it happen. Very good.

Okay, so thanks so much for listening to the show. If you want to get a one of a kind DIESOL pin, please leave us a review. Apple podcasts would be great. And there’s there’s a there are pins available. So keep keep up letting us know what you’re doing. And if you’re if you’re sharing the show, we also have our own DIESOL flipgrid up at flipgrid.com slash DIESOL and if you want to go take a look at some ideas from me and a shell and other people including em and hopefully Luis soon, there will be some ideas there. So go to flipgrid.com slash diesol D I E S O L. And you can, you can look and you can also leave your own ideas on things that you’ve been doing to support your learner’s.

Ixchell Reyes
For more on this show the Episode Notes and other episodes you can find us at DIESOL.org.

Brent Warner
That’s right. And you can find us on Twitter, I am at Brent g Warner.

Ixchell Reyes
I’m at I X Y underscore p ix y, that’s Ixy underscore Pixy. And if you’d like to get in touch with our fabulous guest, um, you can find Ann at.

Ann Kozma
Yeah, I’m across all social at AnnKozma723 A N N K o z m a 723.

Luis Oliveira
And you can find me on Twitter at out at LOliveira55. All right.

Ixchell Reyes
Hit them up, guys.

All right, this month, we have five Mondays, which means our fifth Monday episodes coming up. And that would be drinks with DIESOL. Yeah, we’ve had one already. So drinks with DIESOL is a one hour get together to talk about ESL tag, play some games, win some prizes, have lots of fun with our listeners or other, you know, some of our friends. And so our fifth Monday’s coming up, and we’re going to have a happy hour open that’s going to take place on Friday, August 28. At five Pacific 5pm Pacific 7pm Central and 8pm Eastern.

Brent Warner
That’s right. And this one will be celebrating my birthday a little bit too. So yeah, so so

Ixchell Reyes
gotta celebrate Brent getting wiser Yes, I think one no

Brent Warner
whole percentage point wiser.

So, to sign up for that you can go to DIESOL.org slash drinks. You can put in your name and Twitter handle an email, we’re not selling any of this it’s just to remind you of this the show if you don’t want to give your email out for whatever reason. If you sign up within the the the week of so August 24 to August 28th you can still use that same form and it will just give you a link directly to to the the zoom meeting that we’re gonna be in.

Ixchell Reyes
Yeah, so please join us we’re gonna have a blessed open invite. Yeah, come

Brent Warner
Come on in the parties open.

Luis Oliveira
In Portuguese Thank you is already gaga over you guys for tuning in to the DIESOL podcast

Ixchell Reyes
Thank You