Ixchell Reyes 0:01
The DIESOL podcast,

Brent Warner 0:02
Digital Integration in English as a Second or Other Language,

Ixchell Reyes 0:06
Episode 50: Reflections.

Brent Warner 0:23
Welcome to DIESOL. This is Episode 50. Yeah! We are your hosts I am Brent Warner.

Ixchell Reyes 0:30
And I’m Ixchell Reyes. Episode 50.

Brent Warner 0:33
Huzzah! We made it.

Ixchell Reyes 0:35
Huzzah! Hooray! What else would people say?

Brent Warner 0:39
Bonzai!

Ixchell Reyes 0:40
Congrats. -bonzai (laughter)

Brent Warner 0:43
Yeah, that’s I mean, it’s uh, it’s, you know, it’s a pretty big milestone. 50. Right.

Ixchell Reyes 0:48
Yeah. And we.

Brent Warner 0:49
How did you feel when you turned 50?

Ixchell Reyes 0:52
What? (Laughter) How did I feel when I hit over the hill, or the what is what are we at the peak of the hill?

Brent Warner 0:58
We – no, you’re over the hill at 40, Right? So now it’s just downhill from there.

Ixchell Reyes 1:03
Who’s hill?

Brent Warner 1:05
Are you not familiar with this?

Ixchell Reyes 1:07
No, you

Brent Warner 1:08
over the hill.

Ixchell Reyes 1:08
Over the hill is 50 or 60.

Brent Warner 1:11
Hmm.. The new generation has redefined it

Ixchell Reyes 1:14
What kind of limit limiting beliefs do you have Brent?

Brent Warner 1:18
It’s not a limiting belief, It’s just a it’s an expression. So you’re over the hill at 40.

Ixchell Reyes 1:22
We’re changing these these are like old idioms.

Brent Warner 1:26
OK, So what’s what’s the new hill? You get over the hill and now there’s a mountain behind that right. Got it! 50 episodes is a pretty big deal, right?

Ixchell Reyes 1:40
It is

Brent Warner 1:40
Statistically speaking very unlikely for podcasts to get to 50 episodes.

Ixchell Reyes 1:46
I did not know that.

Brent Warner 1:47
Yeah, they’re like 10. Most most podcasts fail before 10. So. So we’re like 5 times out

Ixchell Reyes 1:55
One thing I’m pretty proud of is that we’ve mostly been able to coordinate. I mean, this really kind of has started since I’ve moved from California. So given the circumstances and the challenges that we have with time zones and different schedule conflicts, we’ve pretty much made it to 50.

Brent Warner 2:15
Yeah, well, and we’ve been consistent, too. So we’ve always gotten that first and third week, so I don’t think we’ve ever had any like, well, that’s not true for drinks with DIESOL. But like for the for the the proper episodes. I don’t think we’ve missed a launch date the entire time.

Ixchell Reyes 2:34
No, I think that’s right, with uh, I mean, just the drinks with DIESOL has been the one where it’s really a bonus episode, kind of, you know, kind of, uh, but no, we’ve we’ve done pretty well, I would say,

Brent Warner 2:46
yeah, yeah. Congratulations, Ixchell, Good job.

Ixchell Reyes 2:50
Congratulations, Brent.

Brent Warner 2:51
Yeah, so let’s, so thinking of 50 episodes and all of that, we are going to be talking about some reflections. So let’s jump over and, and see what reflecting means.

All right, so reflecting reflections. Have your mirror ready? Yes. You’re good enough. You’re smarter? Like you. Um, yeah. So we thought we’d maybe do things a little bit different. We’re still gonna kind of keep some of the structure where we’re talking a little bit about some research on brief, brief research on reflections. But then I think we’re gonna just gonna kind of, we’re gonna go into like a little therapy session. Ixchell, I think that’s the plan for the episode, right?

Ixchell Reyes 3:40
Oh, gosh, we need therapy. Initially, second year of pandemic, yes, bring it on. Alright, so

Brent Warner 3:48
let’s have you start. What did you find? So I looked

Ixchell Reyes 3:51
at an article that you provided Brent, it was learning, thoughtful reflection and teacher education by Louisiana, more Tari I hope I pronounced that correctly. If not, forgive me. And this is a 2021 article. And a quote that grabbed me is a little bit long, but I think there’s value in reading it out the whole thing. So here goes. professional expertise should be conceived of as the ability to construct experiential knowledge on the basis of a reflection on experience. a necessary condition for the creation of experiential professional knowledge is the activation by the subject of the mental discipline of reflection on his or her experience. This reflection should be continuous and regular through time. To this end, practitioners need to be given preparatory experiences specifically aimed at increasing their reflective capacities, so that they can learn to think not only about what they are doing, but also about what they are thinking. If reflection plays a crucial role in improving professional expertise for teachers, F reflection is not a natural ability, but also has to be enhanced through education, it is clear that educating to practice reflection must be a main topic for teacher education. So, you know, a lot of what this quote talks about is mirrors, mirrors exactly what I talked about in a lot of our episodes on evaluation and self reflection and assessment and growth and all of that. So I just thought, you know, what a good time for us to reflect on our growth, as you know, and in many areas, of course, as podcasters, and also as professional development providers and as teachers.

Brent Warner 5:41
Yeah, well, so reading through that, and kind of hearing you speak the quote to, you know, I mean, part of our selfish value of the podcast is that we are reflecting on what we’re actually doing in the classroom every day. And so we’re able to take these ideas and either put them into practice, or we’re able to try something and then bring it back onto the show to reflect on. And so I think, doing this show allows us for so much more reflection than maybe a lot of other people might get. And of course, we hope that you know, anyone who’s listening along is also doing that same practice with us, whether they’re listening, getting ideas and trying it and then thinking about it, or if they have tried something, and then listen to us talking about it on the show, and you know, agreeing or disagreeing with us as we as we kind of share through. But I love that that part about or basically it says that the reflection needs to be kind of a continual process, right? Like, it can’t just be okay, at the very end of the semester, I’m going to look at her and just say, what went well, and what didn’t go well, this semester. It’s like, yeah, that’s not really going to get you where you’re trying to go. And so almost every day, like, again, these days a little harder, but I would often take like the car drive home to kind of think about things, to figure it out. Look at those types of things. So that’s, that’s something that maybe people can look at about here, too. Now, we’ll talk a little bit more about kind of our experiences, but I was going to share a different quote, on reflecting on reflective practice by Linda Finley. And this quote said, in general, reflective practice is understood as the process of learning through and from experience toward gaining new insights of self and or practice. This often involves examining assumptions of everyday practice, and I really like that one there. It also tends to involve the individual practitioner and being self aware and critically evaluating their own response to practice situations. The point is to recapture practice experiences and move them over critically in order to gain new understandings. And so improve future practice. This is understood as part of the process of lifelong learning. So I like this definition that kind of the way that she put together you know, the, the way of considering this and thinking about it, because it really, it doesn’t just kind of say, Oh, just think about it, but it kind of says, Hey, hold on a second, you have to be self aware, you have to understand not only what you did, but how your reactions were to certain things, right. So like, why did I get upset about this? or Why did I, you know, why did I make a change, all of a sudden, in the middle of this practice one, you know, really, it felt to me, like the students were taking forever. But actually, if I check the clock, it was only one minute, you know, something like that. And so I really liked that idea of like, kind of getting out of the headspace of reflection, which we’ll talk about, and that is important, but also kind of moving into, I guess, the heart space of reflection as well there too. Yeah. So Ixchell, we’re gonna jump over and we’re gonna just talk a little bit. We’re gonna share just some of our thoughts on on what we’ve been learning over the last couple of years since we started the shop.

Ixchell Reyes 9:21
Alright, so how have we evolved? The last two years personally, professionally? Shall I start? Yeah,

Brent Warner 9:32
you start…

Ixchell Reyes 9:35
You’ve been doing podcasting for a while. So I don’t know how you’ve evolved in terms of that, except that you’ve taken on more podcasting projects. And so you’re, you’ve just multiply.

Brent Warner 9:47
Yeah, but I think like, when we talk about that, it’s so for me, yes, podcasting has been a form of reflection, but, but I guess we’ll I’m gonna let you share it with bit about what you think you’ve changed in the last couple of years. It can be specific or it can be kind of broader. But But yeah, there, there are certainly changes. I mean, I hope that after two years of teaching it anyone, like is not still doing everything the exact same way. Right? And especially over the last two years. Yeah.

Ixchell Reyes 10:19
So I just want to start as a, I’m constantly thinking of how I’ve evolved as a podcaster. I mean, that now I can say, Yes, I’m a podcaster. and own it. Where before, when I first started, I didn’t really even have a voice. I didn’t know what my co host voice was, right. I know how to present in front of people. I know how to be a presenter, I don’t know how to be, I didn’t know how to be a podcaster. So I think that that’s really helped my confidence. It’s also helped me to pause and listen to what other people are saying, especially when we have guests and think about how that applies to me as a professional. Because, yes, we’re doing this for our audience as well. But there’s always something that I can take away from our guests. And I don’t know if that’s something that you experienced in your early podcasting days, or, I mean, I don’t know what your experience has been there. But I see that. Now in my approach of listening to my colleagues, for example, I often I don’t see myself as necessarily immediately needing to respond to them and give them a solution or give them my experience, it’s more of like, pause, listen, try to identify what need they have, if they’re coming to me for help, or if they’ve got a frustration and then see if they if you can lead them to a solution that they come up with, rather than me throwing it out there. So that does that make sense? Yeah, um, I don’t know if I’m explaining that correctly. Because before I was, so you know, I was, I like to help people, but I also, it feels good to, you know, give them the solution, and then hope that that solution that you give them is what they take. Right? Right. But that’s not always what needed. Sometimes they already have a sense of what a solution might be, whether it’s in tech, or an approach to a lesson plan or an approach to a student and and meeting the students needs. And they may already sort of know, but might need just, you know, to be to have that drawn out as well. And then they’ve come up with it sort of you just helped them to find it to connect to their, you know, to their own expertise.

Brent Warner 12:33
Yeah, that totally makes sense. I think sometimes, you know, when we’re dealing kind of as in it, you know, if people look at us as some sort of experts in the field or using something, it’s many times, it’s not exactly that they want to be told what to do is that they want to be reassured that what they are doing is, right. Yes, I think that’s so recognizing that is a little bit of a different thing, right? Being being able to be in that moment and recognize that they’re just looking for validation, rather than and especially, you know, there there are people, it’s always a little weird to me, but there are people that are like, Oh, you’re an expert on this, and like, I really value your opinion on this. And then when you can just turn around and say like, you don’t need my help this like you, you already have this. I think it’s you know, that can be empowering for for people in a certain way as well.

Ixchell Reyes 13:34
Oh, absolutely. I think that i think that’s exactly what I was trying to get at that. Personally, I feel some I don’t like necessarily being called the expert or the techie all the time, because then there are expectations that come with that title. And the thing is, I’m I’m not an expert. I do like to troubleshoot. And I do like to find solutions. And so that by nature makes me more knowledgeable on something. But the reality is that I also don’t know, and this is why, you know, I poke around and I asked colleagues, or I asked you or I go to Twitter, but a lot of the times I like you said empowering others to help them to just reassure them that, hey, you’ve also been doing this for a long time. And even if you haven’t, you don’t have to depend on someone else, you can find those avenues. And I think that that is one thing that has shifted in the way I approach just the workplace in general. And podcasting has really helped because I have to shift, you know, out of my own shoes and being like in front of the the spotlight. It’s not about me, right. It’s about our audience.

Brent Warner 14:45
Yeah, that’s interesting. So one thing that’s changed for me here is the well, it’s actually for me, I view it a little bit differently because when I’m podcasting I kind of have to talk and present right and like For me, for me, I, I have to anticipate and answer the questions as we’re going through the conversation. Right. And so that that, to me is, it’s something that I’m aware of, but I look at that, you know, or I have, and I’m glad you said that, but I have always kind of looked at that as a little bit of a different way, that maybe to the way that I teach or interact with people, because, because then I don’t get that feedback directly. It’s just like, here are all the assumptions, the things that I these are the assumptions that I’m making, and I’m presenting them to you, as compared to the back and forth that we can get when we’re working with other people. So, so I might maybe understand that a little or process that in a little bit of a different way. But I really do think that that it has been valuable for me in interacting with people and, and teaching to, I realized this semester, I’m getting better and better at not great but better. Like using more kind of Socratic methods for student questions, because so many times this semester, especially with online, it’s like, there’s so many questions of things that I already gave the answer to, right. And and it’s written down all over the place, right. And so what I kind of caught myself doing, which is good, was responding positively to the student, but not giving them the answer and saying, Well, what do you understand of this? What did you read in the, what did you read? And what what of what you read, tell, give helps give the answer to that. So right, putting that work back on the students so that they are considering and move. And, you know, they’re doing that reflection there in that moment and going Oh, actually, I already knew that. And the hopefully the longer term results is that fewer questions come back, because they recognize that the information is already out there and available for them. So that’s kind of one way that I’ve maybe I don’t know, do you think like that’s different than from what you’re saying?

Ixchell Reyes 17:07
Yeah, I think I think to a degree, it’s a little different for me only because in the last year, I, I’ve mostly been doing teacher training, rather than working in the classroom. So I think that certainly, my perspective has been influenced because of that. And I’ve been, you know, working with teachers mostly.

Brent Warner 17:27
Yeah, I think that that can certainly be a change too, right. So that that for you, though, you Ixchell I would imagine, there’s just a ton of stuff that you learned through that process about, you know, yourself, your future goals, you know, what you’re trying to get done? profession professionally, etc. So, I’d be interested to hear a bit about that.

Ixchell Reyes 17:49
Well, well, number one, I always thought that I’d want to be a tech coach of some sort. And I still think that I would like to be in that role, where you’re coaching, you’re actually working with someone over time, but I just missed working with students so much. And I think it’s, again, it’s the coaching type of I mean, I see myself as a coach, when I’m in the classroom, I’m there encouraging my students, I’m not there to, you know, try to catch them or trap them or make sure they, you know, I’m not that type of instructor. So I really missed that interaction, even on zoom, even when we were at during the pandemic, or I mean, we’re still going through that pandemic. But even when we were teaching on zoom, I, I just missed that exchange with other language learners. And I think part of it definitely is because I myself, I’m a language learner. So I can, to a degree still connect with my students in a different way that maybe native speakers count because they, you know, they grew up learning English. So it’s completely different. Even if you’ve learned another language. I just, you know, I think that, that that’s something that I’ve come to appreciate during the pandemic, that there were so many layers and still are, because there’s new layers of factors that are influencing our students, and how our students are coming and showing up in the classroom, whether it’s virtual or face to face. I mean, right now, the biggest thing on my mind is our, our Afghan refugees. There’s just so much there, that and the middle of a pandemic still, right. So those kinds of issues now. take precedence for me, rather than can they pass the quiz on Friday. Are they better for me? Yes, of course. That’s my job. But there’s that human factor are my students feeling safe in the classroom? Are they here? are they feeling like they can share what’s going on at home? Or at least that they’re in a place for that moment? And for that time that they’re with me? Can they break away from whatever’s keeping them to the best of their ability so that they can learn language so that they can learn culture, etc? That’s kind of where my perspective has has shifted a lot. And I think it’s because of the pandemic.

Brent Warner 20:29
Yeah, for sure. So, I think I mentioned I can’t remember if I did mention this, I think it did in a previous show, where I talked about the idea that I’m going towards upgrading, right. And yeah, and I’ve had, you know, mixed feelings and kind of gone ups and downs with it. And I really love parts of it. And I’m also really kind of like, stressed out and frustrated by other parts of it. And so this has been a super interesting experience. And I’m gonna keep pushing forward with it for a couple semesters and see how I go with it and see how that goes. But but kind of looking back on it, it’s like the reasons and the reason that I would even be expected or, sorry, the reason that I was interested in this idea came from this pandemic learning, right? where it’s like, Okay, I’m sitting there, and I don’t really have a direct, you know, I have whatever level of relationship with you, but like, I’m just judging you on these numbers, right. And like, I felt like, I felt like I started to feel like graves over all of these things are like, basically just a judgment, right. And it’s like, good, bad, good, bad, right. And as compared to this idea of like, showing me that you’re working on skills, mastering those skills, building up, you know, your abilities, and all of those types of things. And so I think all of this came out of so much time to staring at screens and less time, maybe interacting and kind of seeing how people and how human how human everybody is, right. And so I’m like, I want to get back to that humanity level. And so then I started processing through and trying to think of different ways to, to make that work, and to make it be where I’m dealing with people and helping those students as people rather than, as, you know, a statistic to get through the system that’s going to get a, an A or a B, or a C, or an F, or whatever it is. And so, so that’s been a big shift for me in terms of like, how I’m dealing with students and how I’m understanding the relationship with students, but, and I’ll be interested to hear your response on this too. So one other thing that, you know, I think you and I both love all the work that like Denise, by Julie Williams are doing, and they’re doing all this online stuff in there, like I love online teaching, and they’re super into it. And I’m like, I’m sitting there just like, just for myself, I’m like, I enjoy certain parts of this, there are some parts that are amazing, but I love in person teaching. I really, you know, I am feeling personally. And again, I know this is shifting for different people, right, we’re starting to see, we’re starting to see students, or sorry, we’re starting to see teachers shifting towards like, I want to do more online teaching. And some of them are like, I want to do kind of a hybrid, and some of them are like, I’d want to go back completely in person, right. And they’re recognizing where they kind of fit on that spectrum, I think, which is great, because we want people in all of these different modalities, and we want to have those skills. But I’m also realizing for myself how much I really do want that in person experience, that kind of charges me up a little bit more than then maybe the online experience personally. And so I you know, I’m still kind of trying to figure out what that means and what it’s going to look like long term and you know, what students are going to want and all of those types of things. And I I’m interested to hear what your thoughts on on those shifts are because you’ve been you’ve been in person you’ve been

Ixchell Reyes 24:07
tossed in and out. Ping Pong. Yeah, no, I

think and this is probably going to be again, you know, shifting as as we continue and seeing what this pandemic, and lessons that we think we’ve learned through the pandemic, what what it brings, but I almost think now because I do love the I love the flexibility of what a proper online classroom gives you. But again, many of us were not given that support. We were just thrust as this, you know, thrust into the digital world as as the pandemic hit us and some of us were maybe better prepared to handle that stress because we were a little more knowledgeable and already had an inclination toward using technology but that was still emergency teaching. Really Emergency distance teaching. And I think that if I were given maybe what what, Denise, and Daya who’s a doctor nowadays mudra. If I were given that same setup, I would love to have a couple of days online. And then three days, you know, three days a week or something like that, because I do I get energy from my students, and I love you know, I get many ideas from being there face to face. And that’s exactly how how I felt when I transitioned back to face to face, it’s almost like, you know, I was bogged down with the technology bogged down by having to teach the same, you know, same topic for, you know, the TOEFL course, for this many weeks. And then suddenly, we met again, for six weeks face to face, and it’s like a brand new class. And, yes, there were longer hours, and we didn’t have the same breaks. And we had to constantly be, you know, we’re in a full class a real classroom again. But the ideas that sparked from that, from seeing the students from listening to the students conversations face to face without having to say, Wait, I didn’t hear what you said, Wait, hold on your mic is muted, wait, that constant pausing, and actually

Brent Warner 26:15
a symbol of just tapping my ear, like you’re muted, you’re still Yeah.

Ixchell Reyes 26:20
And Yep. And then also not have, you know, when you suddenly everything isn’t working, or you’re not sharing the screen and having to say, Oh, hold on, I’ve got to share my screen, it’s constant interruption of your stream of thought, and whatever is being shared. So you’re not having that richness anymore. And then what I found is I was constantly now being back at school having to get up super early, to avoid traffic. And all of that became minimal. I didn’t really care because I knew that at the end of the day, I would feel so creative that I’d want I’d have the energy to plan for the next day, and now have these great activities that actually my students ended up saying that that was one of the best things that happened was that we went back face to face, even though they knew they now had to come to class earlier and their lunches, maybe were a little shorter, and always had the same time everything was synchronous. But create a lot of the creativity came from them, like my sparks come from them. So if it were a blend, I would love to have that with the proper setup.

Brent Warner 27:25
I am piloting that for for myself, Well, I think we’re actually going back into school, maybe maybe in October, it seems like we’re getting, we’re getting results, like, you know, hey, maybe it’s gonna happen, we’re gonna go back, which would mean I’ll be piloting a class that will be meeting on Mondays in person, and on Wednesdays online, still synchronous for me. But it’ll be interesting to see. Because I think that’ll be, you know, maybe maybe a nice balance of the two. But as you were talking, you know, one of the things that I was recognizing, and I’ve thought about this in different ways, but I don’t think I’ve quite put it together, in the way that I started thinking is like, all of those little interruptions, right? Like, hey, you’re muted. Can you answer a question? Are you there? You know, oh, yeah, you read, you know, can you hear me? Oh, and then like, straight up, like, you know, you can see their screens are glitching in and out or whatever, they can’t get there, connections, all of those things. So, you know, when we talked about that in language form, we talked about that as code switching, right? And we say like, hey, every time you’re, you’re doing code switching in your language back and forth, like, there’s value to it, for sure. But also, you’re slowing yourself down in major ways. And it takes a long time to get your brain back into, you know, into the flow state. And so, I’m wondering, now, I think I’ve been out of flow for a year and a half.

Ixchell Reyes 28:51
You know, I bet that with all again, you and I, we feel like we were pretty fortunate to troubleshoot and be you know, we have patients for troubleshooting, we kind of use our computers regularly, or we did before and we know kind of how to get things to work, but it is draining in terms of energy, because you’re spending energy on these other things that you normally wouldn’t be doing. Like it’s it’s akin to, you hear a little knock on the door in your classroom, right? And then you sort of pause Did you hear that? You hear another little knock? Did you hear that? We’re here was that you was that so it disrupts the flow of things. And if your brain is constantly used to that, then you’re not going to get you’re not going to internalize internalize things the same way. You’re going to remember little snippets here and there and maybe not in the same order. And it’s also draining to have to recollect all that information. Right?

Brent Warner 29:46
For sure. This is big to me right now. Like as we’re talking. So I’m glad we’re reflecting on this because I’m like, I’m realizing so if I’m thinking about that for myself as the teacher who’s preparing everything right and I’ve already got my information ready to go You know, how the students then are also losing that flow, right, they’re losing, you know, they’ve got their distractions, and each of them is, you know, exponentially. So out every single house and every single one of them that has a doorbell ringing, or a kid running by or a dog barking or whatever else it is right, all of those things are minor individual distraction, but also can pick up and they can become class wide distractions per person, depending on how many things might interact with that moment there, too. So it’s really,

Ixchell Reyes 30:34
and then just, you know, I’m fortunate enough that I have my students all day long, every single day for five days a week. So they get to learn my style, right, they get to learn my little quirks and my little, whatever expectations I set, or we set together and routines that we have set, but then imagine the student who somewhere else that’s got three teachers a day, and I are switching back and forth. And now that forces you to not to now get used to that personality and quirks online, which is much different than what it would be in a face to face classroom. So that is draining that is hiring. And I’ve heard it from my students who switch from having the same teacher and they get used to me, then they go to someone else and have to get used to a completely new set of I’m going to call I keep calling them quirks, because that’s just behaviors or whatever it is online. But now imagine having to do that three times throughout the day, and maybe four times throughout the day. Like that’s just so much energy. And then the teacher who might say, Can you turn on your camera? Are you there? Are you there, and then you constantly have to reaffirm that you’re there, either through voice or an emoji or, you know, waving or whatever it is. But that takes energy. We don’t have to do that face to face.

Brent Warner 31:48
Yeah, that’s so that’s just, it’s fascinating. And again, it’s not to discount the value of online learning. There’s so much great, so much amazing stuff. But it’s also like, Okay, I think that maybe some of these things we never really thought about, or we took them for granted before when we were in person. And now it’s like, Oh, hold on a second, we see real value over here for these purchases, we see real value over there for those purposes, right. And so now I think we’re, we’re really and I mean, I’m truly saying we’re in baby steps, we’re like, we’re just starting to get out of the like rolling and getting into the baby crawl here of understanding what that true online teaching and and expert experience might end up being. But it’s really valuable to recognize, like, what are the shortcomings of this site for this and the upsides of that for this.

Ixchell Reyes 32:40
And I think, Brent, it’s important, again, to emphasize that we’re talking about emergency, online teaching is definitely not the people who are set up with the platform’s with the equipment, because for the majority of us, we didn’t have that we, I mean, think of our students who didn’t have a Wi Fi connection at home, or a stable Wi Fi connection, and also devices, devices with the same programs loaded onto it. So I know we’ve talked a lot about that. But it’s important to, to reflect also about how that ship how that forces us to shift in our approach. Because now we also recognize or again, like you said, baby steps toward beginning to recognize that, hey, maybe this type, of course, does very well, with very little prep, I would want to sit here a little prep a fair amount of prep online, and let’s shift that to online. Because we also have learners who prefer that it’s better for their schedule, etc. And let’s not, you know, be so rigid. And I think that’s the thing that has changed for me personally and professionally, is that rigidity, and I considered myself to be quite flexible before all of this with a pandemic. But I feel like now I’m even more in tune to just different energies and diff and the way that people approach anything, really. But I’m more also taking time to pause and decide, is this really, really important for me to try to control right now? What’s the return on the investment? And is the world going to be okay, if we don’t worry about that right now? Is my student going to be okay, is it Do I have to mark them down for this thing? Because Oh, my goodness, you know, it. There’s just a lot of that now to me is I’m gonna use the word trivial. It just, there’s just so much more now that I take time to pause before I react. And that’s, again, personally and professionally.

Brent Warner 34:52
Yeah, yeah. So I think we’re still kind of in the middle of this all it’s like, there’s so much to wrap our heads around here and really understand, you know, like, so many awesome things have happened through the online teaching through all of this and then, and then so many stressful things have happened at the same time, right? So I think we’re kind of, we’re trying to sort all of that out and figure out, like, you know, amongst all of these things, what are anomalies? And what are going to be permanent changes, right? Like, we’re, we’re having these big conversations on campus about that, like, how, what is the future of enrollment going to look like? What are students going to be asking for? What are they actually going to sign up for? You know, these things are just so you know, it’s like,

Ixchell Reyes 35:44
the movement really like a cultural shift, right? It’s not, that’s what I think of it now is like, it’s a cultural shift. In many areas.

Brent Warner 35:54
Yeah. So to me, it’s like, you know, you’re, you’re throwing out a bag of m&ms. And it’s like, well, you know, tell me where all the blue ones are. It’s like, they’re all there somewhere. I’ll grab a couple of them. And like, here they are. But like, there’s so many, there’s still so much more. And like, you know, I don’t know. So there’s just a lot to it. But I’m glad we had this talk is a little a little different thing. But it’s a it’s a valuable way to kind of recognize what’s been happening and what we’re trying to shift to and, and how, and then again, remember, we might change our thinking about this by episode one. Yeah.

Ixchell Reyes 36:34
But hey, but that’s but that’s good, right? Because that’s the only thing that happened that’s constant is change. And when we change we know that we’re alive. When we don’t change something has been set in stone and fossilized, and then pretty much you know what happens, right? A fossil means you are dead and extinct, and you’re doing things the way you used to do them, because that’s the way they used to do them. And I think that that’s just a good thing. It’s good that

Brent Warner 37:03
if you’re sorry, if your teaching has fossilized, that means you are dead.

Ixchell Reyes 37:10
Hey, I didn’t come up with that term. Okay, fossilized, that people laugh at me when I say hey, that’s real, real language term.

Wait, people laugh at you? Yeah, they’re like, Why? Why did you call them a fossil? That’s horrible, like, wow.

Brent Warner 37:27
Anything else to reflect on before we kind of shift out?

Ixchell Reyes 37:31
Mmm hmm. Well, my taste for coffee has not improved. I still get the cheapo.

Brent Warner 37:43
We’ll talk about coffee.

Ixchell Reyes 37:47
(laughter) And anything on your end my mic still?

Brent Warner 37:50
Yes, let me reflect on this. Phone is I don’t know why you don’t just buy the microphone that I told you to buy two years ago.

Ixchell Reyes 37:59
I still don’t have a proper desk or proper recording area. Well, so some things. I’m still doing them the way I used to do. I haven’t changed very much

Brent Warner 38:10
Your podcast setup has fossilized, for sure. All right. So yeah, these are some some, some good shares some good things and I am looking forward to processing it all a bit more.

Ixchell Reyes 38:26
Alright, it is time for our fun finds. And this time I have a book recommendation. It is called You are the placebo by Joe Dispenza. He’s got several books out there. I don’t know if you’ve heard of this one. But it’s it was a recommend it’s I’m in a book club. And so this was the book it’s the book we’re reading and it’s about shifting your, the way you think in order to he talks a lot about healing and just the I guess what we call the self fulfilling prophecy if you have negative thoughts and you’re going to change the chemistry of your body and then that leads to maybe illness or a manifestation of something so pretty interesting. I don’t know where I stand on the whole placebo effect. But it’s because it talks about the brain and it’s very much research based in terms of the brain. I’m interested so I would it’s a good recommend a good read to have just you know, just to have that information. So You are the Placebo by Joe Dispenza.

Brent Warner 39:32
Nice. So speaking of your terrible tasting coffee

Ixchell Reyes 39:38
You’ve only changed to be snobbier

Brent Warner 39:41
Yes. I’m moving up the snob ladder here which is I got myself a belated birthday get person self birthday gift. Oh wow. Have a coffee roaster. So I’m actually going to be roasting coffee beans at home.

Ixchell Reyes 39:58
Wait, what’s the coffee roaster

Brent Warner 40:01
A coffee roaster is a machine that turn – that roast your beans,

Ixchell Reyes 40:05
like so you buy the green like

Brent Warner 40:07
the green beans. Yeah, so you buy my green beans and put it into the machine and there’s like all sorts of different ways to do this. So like obviously if you go to like a coffee roaster, like a shop that has their own roaster, you see that machine that spins all the beans…

Ixchell Reyes 40:21
You are moving up the snob, the coffee snob ladder.

Brent Warner 40:24
Yeah, so I got this one called the Boca Boca coffee roaster it’s made in Korea. And the way that it works is most of the a lot of these ones work you put it on a little like a camper propane flame, you know. And so you run it through a little barrel on top of that, but this one is all infrared. It’s all like light based heat. And so you just plug it in and it’ll rotate the beans. It’s a little tiny canister, it’s like it only holds it says 250 grams, I mean to not risk that much that to be totally full, but but you just roast roast a little bit at a time. And so you can maybe get, you know, a few cups worth out of it like not not cup sorry, like a few pots out of it in a single roast. And so I have the machine and I am waiting for my first round of green beans to come in the mail. And so I’m looking forward to it.

Ixchell Reyes 41:20
That is so cool. That’s like one step below brewing your own beer.

Brent Warner 41:25
So one step above brewing my own beer before

Ixchell Reyes 41:32
Of course you have of course you’re

Brent Warner 41:34
trying to Well, it’s hard. brewing your own beer is actually its own challenge because temperature Well, I tried to do it when I was living in Japan

Ixchell Reyes 41:41
I helped I helped someone brew beer. So by association I’m a little bit knowledgeable.

Brent Warner 41:48
Yeah! It’s an interesting, fun process. I’d like to try it here. Yeah, it’s it is tricky. There’s a lot to it. This is actually ultimately this, this, you know, depending on how nerdy you get about it, but just to start, I’m just roasting and seeing how it tastes.

Ixchell Reyes 42:04
So a year from now we’ll be we’ll be…

Brent Warner 42:09
DIESOL beans!

Ixchell Reyes 42:09
Yeah, you’ll be able to be will be able to purchase your own pod.

Brent Warner 42:14
Oh, DIESOL POD!

Ixchell Reyes 42:17
The pod pod

Brent Warner 42:19
DIESOL pod pods. Yeah, so if anybody is really interested, let’s wait a little while to see how it turns out. But I, I’m looking forward to it. It should be a fun little thing. And it only takes about 10 to 15 minutes to roast a little batch. So. So we’ll see how that goes. That’s cool.

Ixchell Reyes 42:42
Thank you so much for listening to the show. Especially for anyone

Brent Warner 42:47
50!! You’ve listened to 50 shows!

Ixchell Reyes 42:50
Yeah, if you’ve if you’ve listened to all those episodes, that that’s pretty cool. That deserves a little digital badge. Anyhow, you could win a one of a kind of DIESOL pin by leaving us a review on Apple podcasts. And if you’re giving us a shout out any other way, tag us on social media, we are on all the platforms.

Brent Warner 43:09
Yes. Hey, let’s do this. I’m gonna make a digital badge and put it on the show notes here. And if you say if you say that you’ve listened to all 50 episodes, you can go download it and share it out on the internet or print it out and put it up on your refrigerator, whatever you like to do. Little badge so we are on Patreon if you want to support the show 50 episodes of shows if you have gone back and listen to everything. If you find that that’s been valuable and you feel like you want to support us that’d be awesome if you feel like hey, I don’t want to support you but I want to keep on listening that is totally awesome too. So we are on Patreon you can find the links on the DIESOL page. We also have Show Notes for this episode. So if you want that digital badge go to DOESOL.org slash 50, five-zero the number and of course you can listen to us on voice said Canada as well. Find us on Twitter at @DIESOLpod and I am @BrentGWarner

Ixchell Reyes 44:10
and I’m Ixchell at @Ixy_pixy that’s I x y underscore p i x y

Brent Warner 44:17
okay and you fell for this last one Armenian so I found a little video that kind of I’m gonna put this into the show notes as well this little video this YouTube video of how hard it is to say thank you in Armenian but give me a second I’m gonna practice one more time and let’s let me see whoa, hold on. In Armenian Thank you Is snorerx caldew turn snorter carry you chillin for tuning in to the DIESOL podcast. Thank you, everybody.