00:00.45 Gary Gray Sorry, all set. 00:01.50 R.Cardoso Sounds like you might be. yeah 00:03.48 Gary Gray Awesome, awesome. All right, I am so excited today for two special guests. We had a little, you know, trouble getting on through through email and I'll say that's my fault. I apologize. 00:14.11 Gary Gray But I was super excited to have our guest today and we'll hop right in with the first question. 00:14.42 Andy Thank you. 00:18.36 Gary Gray So um I've heard so many amazing things about both of you and how much you center your classroom around helping students see themselves in their learning. so My question is like, what does that look like day to day and how do you make sure students' languages and cultures are not just included, but also celebrated? 00:39.66 R.Cardoso um So we were kind of talking about this before, but it's just like at the beginning, it starts at the beginning of the school year, being able to do like a little questionnaire, find out where our families are from, 00:46.49 Andy Thank you. 00:50.73 R.Cardoso what the parents do for a living and kind of trying to link that to like figure out how we can best support that in the classroom and how those students can see like either their flag represented, their parents flag represented or something that their parents do if they're like, um they're really good with like plants and you know, just being able to kind of bridge that over to like science, social studies, to their writing, to their reading and kind of just branching off of that throughout the whole school year. 01:14.20 Gary Gray who 01:16.54 R.Cardoso So really just start on day one whenever we meet the parents. 01:17.14 Gary Gray love 01:19.98 Andy day one 01:21.11 Gary Gray I love that. I love that. 01:22.59 Andy Yeah. 01:22.58 Gary Gray Andy, you want to add anything? 01:23.33 R.Cardoso Yeah. 01:23.64 Andy Yeah. And I think, ah yeah, I just, I want to add that it's it's also like on a day to day, it's like with books, with stories. If we gather all that information from the beginning of the year and then we know, okay, well, this parent had, you know, chickens in whatever part that they lived in, whatever. 01:40.80 Andy so okay, well, what books can we gather around that have that in there so the student can relate to it and make those connections with them? 01:43.91 Gary Gray who 01:48.05 Gary Gray I love that. 01:48.39 R.Cardoso yeah 01:48.92 Gary Gray what What can I ask? 01:49.66 Andy like 01:49.56 Gary Gray What grade do you guys teach? 01:51.69 Andy First. Both. 01:52.94 R.Cardoso Yes. 01:52.91 Gary Gray First grade, lower elementary. Yes, let's go. 01:55.66 R.Cardoso Yes. 01:55.82 Andy Yeah. 01:55.96 R.Cardoso Yes. 01:57.86 Andy Yeah. I did kinder prior. I did kinder for three years. This is my first year in first grade. So it's it's been it's been so amazing. 02:02.88 Gary Gray Awesome. 02:04.64 Andy The change has been amazing. Yeah. 02:06.64 R.Cardoso yes i 02:06.58 Gary Gray I love that. i've I've always taught third grade and it's my first year in like a very long time doing second grade. And I, love them so much, but so much. 02:17.69 Gary Gray It's something about early years, like really early years that I think they, I mean, they just think you're super funny. 02:18.42 Andy ah 02:23.46 Andy of 02:23.75 Gary Gray I don't think I'm a funny person at all, but they just think anything you do is super funny. 02:28.22 R.Cardoso Yeah. 02:29.12 Gary Gray And I think they're so open to conversations like the ones that you guys just talked about. 02:33.74 Andy Yes. 02:33.72 Gary Gray um i think that it's so important to do things like get parents involved in their journeys early on. 02:34.09 R.Cardoso yeah 02:39.37 Gary Gray And I love that that's something you're doing in your classroom. 02:41.54 Andy Yes. 02:42.59 Gary Gray um 02:42.90 Andy Yeah, I actually had on Thursday, no, I don't even know what day it is. I think it was on Monday. i had parents over in the classroom and and we read some books. that I don't know if you've you you've read them. 02:53.71 Andy probably have like the salsa and the guacamole and there's like a couple of books on like recipe making and I also read a poem about maize and 02:59.42 Gary Gray Mm-hmm. 03:02.16 Andy actually had parents come and make tortillas in the classroom, and we made salsa in a molcajete, and so the kids got to, I had, like, five parent volunteers, and we made guacamole and everything, and Miss Cardoso has done that, too, so, like, yeah, that's, 03:15.30 R.Cardoso Yes, but like all three of you is very brave. 03:16.06 Gary Gray Mm-hmm. 03:18.22 R.Cardoso Like in the week, it's very brave. 03:21.38 Andy No, it actually worked a lot better because I had done them separately, like salsa one day. 03:21.73 R.Cardoso A lot. 03:23.97 R.Cardoso Okay. 03:25.99 Andy and But this year I was like, there's not enough time. 03:27.22 Gary Gray you 03:28.82 Andy Like the year's coming to an end. 03:29.90 R.Cardoso I know. 03:30.02 Andy I'm just going to do it all together. 03:30.79 R.Cardoso Okay. 03:31.39 Andy And it worked out really good. The kids were you know had their little stations. They got to see the tortilla being made. I had a student like putting her hands in la masa and everything. 03:40.81 Gary Gray you 03:42.72 Andy and they they were so And the parents were so happy to be here. It was it was such a good event. 03:46.68 R.Cardoso Awesome. 03:47.78 Gary Gray That is so, it's so funny that like I i live in Singapore, I'm in a national school and my kids obviously look very different than your kids, but we are doing similar things. And I think that's so cool. 03:58.31 R.Cardoso awesome 03:58.69 Gary Gray Like we had similar experience in our classroom where we talked about Singaporean food and I mean, we have kids from all over the place, but we focus on Singapore just because that's where we're staying. 03:59.67 Andy Yeah. 04:08.03 Gary Gray And we did similar things. It was just satay, chicken rice, and like a few others. 04:12.28 Andy Wow. but no 04:13.31 Gary Gray It's just so interesting. And it gives me goosebumps thinking about like, we are in totally different parts of the world. But as educators, we believe in the same things. And I think that's so cool. I think that's so cool. 04:24.23 Andy Yes. Yeah. 04:25.11 Gary Gray Yeah, I think that's so cool. 04:26.23 R.Cardoso It's awesome. Like she goes all three in one day, one week and I'm just, 04:29.00 Gary Gray but 04:30.74 R.Cardoso It's awesome. There has to be so much organization. and I used to work with Andy at the same school um and we collaborated a lot. And so um that's really awesome. 04:40.58 Andy a lot. 04:42.72 R.Cardoso And like I don't know, I used to have her old students because she was she used to be in kinder and i and i was for I've always kind of been first grade, so I would get her students. And so I would learn from like what she had learned and then just kind of like try to make more out of it in first grade. 04:56.91 R.Cardoso you know, and so it's been like that's awesome for the kids because that's amazing. 04:57.07 Gary Gray who It's so that's amazing. 05:00.89 Andy Yeah. 05:02.07 R.Cardoso Wow. 05:02.44 Gary Gray That's so amazing. 05:03.78 Andy Yeah. And i like you said, organization, I think it's a lot of times like We want to be intentional with the books that we read. So we're not going to just pick a book that's like, you know, talking about a kid in their own room with their all their toys and stuff like that because we know it's not the reality of our students. 05:20.33 Andy So we have to be very intentional with like, okay, what book do we pick? Like there's a book called Mi Propio Cuartito. So it it talks about like, you know, a girl that's sharing her room with like five siblings and like all this family in the house. And so we, it takes a lot of organization because we have to look at like, okay, what the district is telling us to the teaks that the district is telling us what we're you know the books that they're telling us to read like how can we connect the books they're telling us to read and then add the ones that are culturally relevant and have all that background knowledge that those funds of knowledge that we want in the classroom 05:38.22 R.Cardoso Yeah. Yeah. 05:50.92 Gary Gray Mm-hmm. 05:55.27 R.Cardoso It's a lot. Right. 05:56.09 Gary Gray Mm-hmm. People don't know the work that we do as educators. 06:00.97 Andy yeah 06:01.37 Gary Gray really we ah We are constantly working. And you spoke about this. You said this for intentional. And it leads me right into the next question about, like, uplifting student work and how you're both very intentional about that. Can both of you share a moment where a student... 06:17.12 Gary Gray um saw their brilliance and reflected back and then through something you highlighted within the classroom. 06:24.62 R.Cardoso Well, I feel like for myself this year, i had since I'm at a different we had a bilingual author come to the school, to the campus. And it was like the first year in like 20 years that they had a bilingual author. 06:34.31 Andy you 06:38.17 R.Cardoso And so They were so excited for him to be here. it was We had read books from him like since its like the beginning of the square year and it was October. And so he spoke like them. He talked about things that they knew about and represented where they came from, either from grandparents or parents themselves. 06:57.80 R.Cardoso um And so that kind of was just like, oh, my they were so excited because he told them, like, you could be you can be writers, you can be readers. And you can write about everything you want. 07:04.82 Andy Yeah. 07:06.33 R.Cardoso And he's just so inspirational. So like they got so excited. um and it was like a really good moment, like for them to not just hear it from me, but hear it from a person that we've been reading books about and an author um who came to visit them. 07:09.93 Andy Yeah. 07:17.85 Andy Yeah. 07:18.81 R.Cardoso And so they were just very excited to like see that and be able to start writing their own stories in the classroom. And so that's just like, 07:25.77 Andy yeah 07:26.60 R.Cardoso It takes it from like here to like here because then they're just more and they're more engaged. 07:27.10 Andy and 07:30.93 Gary Gray Totally. 07:31.92 R.Cardoso They're so much more excited. 07:31.98 Andy yeah 07:34.16 R.Cardoso really appreciate it. 07:34.56 Gary Gray love that. 07:36.35 Andy Yeah. and And I think you you mentioned the books and their own stories. 07:36.45 Gary Gray ah love that 07:39.95 Andy And I think both of us in our classrooms, we i I really don't do worksheets like that. It really doesn't exist in my classroom. I do like a lot of just blank paper, you know, writing. 07:50.12 Andy And so the kids already know they have a stapler for themselves and they go, they pick three pages, fold the book, staple it three times, and they're creating their own stories. And so 07:58.40 Gary Gray Hmm. 07:58.81 Andy And then actually we got to go share it with another classroom in fifth grade. And so they got to see. And then whenever we were leaving that classroom, all of the the fifth graders, they stood up and they were like applauding. 08:08.95 Andy Like when my students were just like, are they, are they applauding us? 08:09.41 R.Cardoso Thank you. 08:13.50 Andy I'm like, yeah, because the stories matter. Like what you wrote matters in these fifth graders. They're, They're seeing this. But we left and I i heard their little conversation. Did you see that one kid? He like smiled at my book. He liked my story. Did he see my illustrations? but They told me my illustrations were amazing. And so it's like that moment where we can spin it from like, oh, are we just doing a classroom work to like. 08:37.61 Gary Gray I love this. 08:37.93 Andy No, your classroom work matters. Like, it it matters, and the impact that they that you do matters. And actually brought, we were reading about MLK, and one of my students did this at home. He said, don't fight just because of the color of your skin. 08:51.88 Andy And he did a little drawing. It was just a simple pen. 08:53.13 Gary Gray love the 08:54.41 Andy Pen and stuff. 08:54.93 R.Cardoso Yeah. 08:55.65 Andy He brought it to me, and I put it at the and my door. And so every day they come in, and they see this, and it's just like, you know, highlighting what they do. And my classroom has, and I know yours too right now, like they have stuff all over it. 09:09.52 Andy Like I'm running out of spaces to put stuff in my classroom. 09:10.02 Gary Gray he I think it's so cool when students find their own work interesting and then they are like, I think it's so cute that they're like almost surprised themselves. 09:12.97 R.Cardoso yeah 09:23.38 Gary Gray It's like, oh, like someone's actually interested in their work, right? 09:26.79 R.Cardoso Yeah. 09:26.77 Andy we 09:26.90 Gary Gray And then on top of that, the intentionality around like what we do as educators to put them in front of people like fifth graders, their parents, their own peers. to show them like people are really interested in the work that you do, even if it is a poster or story or ah math question that you solve, like whatever the case may be. 09:35.26 Andy Thank 09:44.37 Gary Gray I think it's just so important that we continue to help kids grow in ways that help them also understand that the work that they are doing is really, really incredible. Really, really incredible. 09:55.58 R.Cardoso yeah 09:55.50 Gary Gray I have one more question. You you guys are doing awesome, by the way. You're doing awesome. The last question I have is like, what do you enjoy most about working with elementary students? I love this question. 10:06.90 Gary Gray I really, really like this question. 10:09.70 R.Cardoso um I think, like, I like, I really like first grade. I love kinder. Kinder is so cute. And i like it it's such a great time for them to, like, have all this. 10:16.70 Andy I'm I'm sorry. I'm 10:19.40 R.Cardoso And, like, Andy does such a great job. but Like, when she was a kinder teacher, I loved it. 10:21.94 Andy I'm 10:23.72 R.Cardoso Like, you could hear her singing from down the hallway. 10:25.90 Andy I'm sorry. 10:26.23 R.Cardoso But it I loved it. 10:28.94 Andy I'm sorry. 10:29.30 R.Cardoso well Like, the kinder first grade, second grade, I really enjoyed them because it's, like, 10:29.98 Gary Gray Mm-hmm. 10:33.88 Andy I'm sorry. 10:34.40 R.Cardoso part of their formative years you know and so being able to um do all of this like connections with different bugs and having them so seeing themselves represented i feel like is really important in those like those years because then they kind of kind of take it on for like the next years when they're older but and like they're learning how to read how to write how to express themselves how to kind of find their voice um and i really enjoy that like and it they're they i love it like they're so 10:34.74 Andy I'm I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm I'm sorry. 10:47.91 Andy I'm a little bit. I'm a little bit. I'm a little bit. I'm a little bit. 10:58.93 Andy I'm a little bit. I'm a little bit. I'm a little bit. 11:03.57 R.Cardoso They have connections and they want to talk, they want to share. um 11:06.97 Gary Gray I love 11:07.29 R.Cardoso Being able to give them that time and that voice is really important for them. 11:10.62 Gary Gray love that. Okay. 11:13.21 Andy I think for me, um it's like the growth seeing them because, I mean, I think a lot of people are like, oh, you know, you're just like a teacher or whatever. But it's like, no, like I see these kids every single day for a whole school year. Like I saw them in August and now it' it's April. And like, so just seeing that growth, like it's, it's immense, if not just like academic growth, but, you know, social growth and like all that. And you just kind of get to, 11:41.40 Andy be part of their life in a very important moment. Like, I mean, a lot of people, you know, remember their first grade teachers or like the second grade or, you know, they they remember the teachers because it's a very important moment in their developmental skills. 11:45.14 Gary Gray Hmm. 11:55.31 Andy And so like, you they just, I just love seeing them grow and I love being part of that. Like I love being part of of them and and like their interactions with parents and learning so much from that. 12:07.17 Andy I've learned so much from my students. It is something like, 12:09.55 Gary Gray e 12:10.49 Andy Like the but the school that we used to work at before, it was like probably like, you know, Mexican students that we would get. But now here it's Hondureños, El Salvador, Mexicanos, Venezolanos, Colombianos. 12:22.05 R.Cardoso for the full family. 12:23.54 Andy And so, yeah, it's us getting to learn from their culture. 12:24.76 R.Cardoso yeah 12:28.10 Andy Like that to me is the most rewarding thing ever. 12:31.97 Gary Gray i I mean, what a great way to finish this podcast. Like, I think it is so evident that we as elementary teachers gain so much from just like their lives. 12:43.05 Gary Gray We get X amount of students that bring their whole selves, their whole family, personalities, growth. 12:48.65 Andy yeah 12:50.28 Gary Gray We get to experience that across a number of kids and like what an honor it is for us to experience that. I want to thank both of you. I'm sending all my flowers to you. I know that you're doing a phenomenal job. 13:02.49 Andy Thank 13:02.55 Gary Gray The year is very, I mean, we got school left, but we can do it. 13:06.61 Andy you. a 13:07.02 Gary Gray but We can do it. 13:09.04 R.Cardoso Thank you so much. 13:08.88 Gary Gray i appreciate, I appreciate you guys so much. Thank you. 13:12.94 Andy thank you 13:14.55 R.Cardoso guess how much