Episode 506: Effective Questioning: Getting Students Thinking Deeper

Can we ask you a question? Are you interested in strategies to get your students to think critically? Join us in conversation with Dr. Misty Givens of Henry County to learn how effective questioning can get your students to think about subjects on a deeper level.

TRANSCRIPT

Ashley Mengwasser: Hi, educators. Thanks for tuning in for another intriguing episode of Classroom Conversations, the platform for Georgia's teachers. I'm Ashley Mengwasser, host of this hybrid work. It's one part Georgia Department of Education and one part Georgia Public Broadcasting. Coming up is an interview I'm feeling very inquisitive about. The best descriptor for today's topic is thought-provoking. As a career interviewer, I savor a question, and there are some very famous, profound questions found throughout history on which so much truth rests. "Wherefore art thou Romeo?" William Shakespeare. "Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?" Abraham Lincoln. On confronting ourselves, Maya Angelou prompted this: "Do we like what we see in the mirror?" In the learning environment, there are effective questions. That's our topic today. I have a two-part question about effective questions. What makes a question effective? And a follow-up, what makes a question effective in the classroom? Wait until you learn what effective questioning does for a classroom climate. Without question, my guest today is an expert effective questioner. She's worked as an educator in some capacity for more than a decade. Part of Woodland Middle School's Woodland Wolfpack in Henry County is engineering technology and computer science teacher Dr. Misty Givens. I'll do my best not to interrogate her with my own line of questioning. We welcome to the show Dr. Misty Givens. Hi, Dr. Givens.

Dr. Misty Givens: Hello, hello.

Ashley Mengwasser: How are you?

Dr. Misty Givens: I am good. I'm excited to be here.

Ashley Mengwasser: I'm excited to have you. You look lovely in lavender, Madam.

Dr. Misty Givens: Thank you.

Ashley Mengwasser: And I also want to point out to our audience that you are the 2023-2024 Woodland Middle Teacher of the Year, right?

Dr. Misty Givens: Yes. And also I was blessed to be the Henry County School's Middle School Teacher of the Year this year.

Ashley Mengwasser: Incredible.

Dr. Misty Givens: Yes.

Ashley Mengwasser: The strand of pearls that you're wearing, does that come with that title?

Dr. Misty Givens: It does.

Ashley Mengwasser: Yeah. They should give you one, I think. That must have felt really affirming.

Dr. Misty Givens: It did.

Ashley Mengwasser: Yeah.

Dr. Misty Givens: It did. It was a great experience. There's a lot of educators out there, great educators in Henry County. I was very pleased to be selected. Grateful for the experience.

Ashley Mengwasser: I know you were honored, and you so deserve it. We're going to hear more about the great work that you do. I love how your name plays into the concept we're going to talk about today because in your classroom, nothing is a given, Dr. Givens. You really ask great questions to make your students think for themselves.

Dr. Misty Givens: Mm-hmm.

Ashley Mengwasser: That's what you're all about.

Dr. Misty Givens: Yes.

Ashley Mengwasser: We're going to get into that. What grades and courses do you teach at Woodland Middle?

Dr. Misty Givens: I teach sixth grade engineering and technology, and seeing technology at this level makes me feel like it. I need to take another class.

Ashley Mengwasser: Welcome to our world. Yeah.

Dr. Misty Givens: But I also teach seventh grade invention and innovation and eighth grade computer science.

Ashley Mengwasser: And what's your favorite?

Dr. Misty Givens: Oh. All of them.

Ashley Mengwasser: That's right.

Dr. Misty Givens: Because we get to do ... We engage in every single class, and there's something different in every single class that I enjoy doing and helping the students.

Ashley Mengwasser: That's why you're teaching such a panoply of classes and for all the grade levels. To kick off our conversation, I was hoping you could help me answer a quartet of questions. So these are just, I would say, four key probes into how you landed where you are today in the field of education. Shall we begin our investigation, ma'am?

Dr. Misty Givens: Yes.

Ashley Mengwasser: Okay, let's do it. Take us back to the place in time where you were first able to answer these questions and answer them for me. The first one is, why should I become a teacher?

Dr. Misty Givens: Yes. So I was called at a very young age. I was always wanting to be the teacher, and I told this story during my Teacher of the Year speech. But, playing teacher with my sisters, I demanded to be the teacher, and they struggled with me being a student. I just enjoyed learning something. I've always been a learner and love learning, and then being able to give that back to someone else has always been a spark for me. There was a spark there. But I ran from teaching because I looked at the salary in college and I was like, "I don't know. I want to make six figures my first year coming out of college." But that really wasn't realistic, and that was not the purpose.

Ashley Mengwasser: I like your aspirations quite a lot. Yeah.

Dr. Misty Givens: A lot of people even told me, "You should be in education," and I was like, "No." But whatever I wanted to do or aspire to do, it always involved children in some capacity. So I found myself not long after college at a place called Lee County Youth Development Center, and I was working with kids directly on social and emotional skills, and working with them directly. Their school was right there on campus, and I was finding myself in the classroom with them, trying to teach them. Retired superintendent and principal, he asked me, he said, "What are you waiting for?" Then I went back to school and got an alternative degree in education.

Ashley Mengwasser: What did you do first with it? You were not in Georgia to begin with.

Dr. Misty Givens: No, I was in Alabama. I had a degree in biology, so I love science. I first said I wanted to go into physical therapy. I went to physical therapy for observations. I just sat there, and I was like, "This is not as exciting or I can't be creative in this space." Now, no slight to them, I love all of our physical therapists, but it just wasn't resonating with me in the heart work. When I aspired education, I knew, once I got inside of a classroom to do an observation in a classroom, that was where I needed to be.

Ashley Mengwasser: That creativity came alive.

Dr. Misty Givens: Yes, yes.

Ashley Mengwasser: The second question in my interrogation, how did you answer the question: "Where will I teach?" How did you find Woodland Middle?

Dr. Misty Givens: Woodland Middle found me after my husband found me, because he brought me from Alabama to Georgia once, we got married.

Ashley Mengwasser: Oh, so we have him to blame for this.

Dr. Misty Givens: Yes. Once we got married, I moved to Georgia from Alabama, and just searching in the area that we were living in. I found Woodland Middle School, and that there was a lady in my neighborhood that was walking her dog and she said, "Where did you find a job?" And I said, "Woodland Middle School." She said, "You got a good one."

Ashley Mengwasser: Really?

Dr. Misty Givens: Yes. And she was not lying. I love Woodland Middle School, and I've been there ever since I've been in Georgia.

Ashley Mengwasser: How would you answer this question: "What does teaching mean to me?"

Dr. Misty Givens: Teaching means, and I said this word before, is that I have purpose. And I absolutely love my students. I'm a passionate person. I'm a person who loves to love. And I get to love on these little people every day. It's just purposeful to me. I feel like I am doing what I'm supposed to be doing in some capacity.

Ashley Mengwasser: You answered the call and you're right where you belong and were meant to be the whole time, it feels.

Dr. Misty Givens: Yeah.

Ashley Mengwasser: My last question, Dr. Givens, what do I want my impact on students to be as their teacher, my legacy?

Dr. Misty Givens: I want my legacy to be students who enter my class not thinking they can or not believing that they will be interested in it, and they're walking out with a new perspective, that they can do it and that they have a different perspective on learning. I have a lot of students that enter in, "I can't do engineering," or, "I don't want to be an engineer." Well, you're already an engineer. Let me show you how.

Ashley Mengwasser: Wow.

Dr. Misty Givens: Just I want to have an impact on students where even if they don't go into the profession or into a subject era or content that I'm teaching, that they use it in some capacity because they realize it's in everything that they do.

Ashley Mengwasser: I said that this would be an intriguing episode, and that's because you intrigue them. You're not at all robotic, Dr. Givens, but your work is. You have a thing for robots.

Dr. Misty Givens: Yes.

Ashley Mengwasser: What is your connection to robots?

Dr. Misty Givens: With my computer science students, we actually get to build robots and with coding. So they're engineering and they're putting together, they start with these pieces that are everywhere, and they get to put it all together. They are talking to or coding a brain and watching their information get transferred into these little pieces that come alive and get to move.

Ashley Mengwasser: Wow.

Dr. Misty Givens: So, it's interesting to see. They come in guarded, but then they end up loving it. They're engaged. They're wanting to add on to their bills. It's not quite in the lesson plan, but I see this other creation that created. I just let them go with it.

Ashley Mengwasser: They come alive. They're robots.

Dr. Misty Givens: Yeah. They do.

Ashley Mengwasser: Speaking of robots, I've been seeing more of those delivery robots on the road.

Dr. Misty Givens: Mm-hmm.

Ashley Mengwasser: Have you seen any of those?

Dr. Misty Givens: I have.

Ashley Mengwasser: That is wild.

Dr. Misty Givens: Yeah, it's fascinating.

Ashley Mengwasser: It makes you stop your car and cause an accident.

Dr. Misty Givens: Yeah.

Ashley Mengwasser: We have arrived at 2050. These robots are delivering our Chick-fil-A.

Dr. Misty Givens: I actually got to see a bomb removal robot last weekend. I had some of my robotics students there, and I was like, "Hey, this is the pipeline. You start here with the VEX IQ kits, and this is something that you can do in the future, taking that real life."

Ashley Mengwasser: You can work. Yes. Keep community safe.

Dr. Misty Givens: We got to see it. Yeah, it was really interesting.

Ashley Mengwasser: What other attributes define you as an individual in your personal life?

Dr. Misty Givens: Attributes that define me as an individual? I guess my future endeavors is to have a STEM academy. So I cannot get away from-

Ashley Mengwasser: So, this is who you are personally and professionally.

Dr. Misty Givens: This it is. This is what you get. So even my husband has to tell me sometimes to stop teaching him like I'm one of his kids, because I'm always finding a lesson in something. It can be spiritual, it can be education-wise, but I'm teaching constantly. So it's just in me, a natural born teacher.

Ashley Mengwasser: You can tell you have a true love of learning. Help us transition into our topic, Dr. Givens, which is effective questioning. What is effective questioning? Can you define that for us?

Dr. Misty Givens: So effective questioning to me is getting your students to think basically on a deeper level. We're taking it from those basic yes or no responses, and they're taking ownership of their learning, and you just getting them to think critically, getting them to think deeper. It is what the word says it is. The question is effective.

Ashley Mengwasser: Okay.

Dr. Misty Givens: That's how I would define it. Just getting students to think on a deeper level.

Ashley Mengwasser: It's really the practice then of questioning.

Dr. Misty Givens: Mm-hmm.

Ashley Mengwasser: Do you find that these questions morph into more questions and more questions, and that's the point?

Dr. Misty Givens: Yes, and it's never ending. Especially in my classroom, we're always building, we're always creating and designing. One question leads to another because they start with the problem, they have to come up with a solution. There's always these issues that they run into. So how can we solve that? And what happened when this took place? And what did you notice? So there's constant questioning going on and even them asking questions themselves, but very open-ended is effective questioning.

Ashley Mengwasser: Open-ended.

Dr. Misty Givens: You leave it open for them to respond and them to take ownership of what they're learning.

Ashley Mengwasser: No yes or no.

Dr. Misty Givens: No yes or no.

Ashley Mengwasser: Tell me more about what effective questioning does look like in your classroom and the positive effects you notice.

Dr. Misty Givens: What it looks like in my class and one of the main things that I teach is the engineering design process. So them getting to see, like I said before, you start with the problem. How do we get to a solution? Everybody's solution may look different and everybody's process may be different, but a lot of it is, when they're in that research phase, what did you find out? And what does the research say? What's already out there? How could you evolve this or innovate this? So in my classroom, that just taking them through those processes, engineering, design. Even the scientific method when we're in our science portion of learning, they're always implementing and experiment and getting to evolve in the phase of finding out whatever their conclusion might be. So constantly, we are asking questions, we are improving. Even in that improved phase, how did you get here and what do you need to do going forward? So they're able to answer for themselves and basically formulate their answers based on what they see the process that they're going through.

Ashley Mengwasser: So that's interesting and unexpected for me, that a lot of the benefit and the positive of this is that it is self-guided, that they can construct and delve deeper on their own. I'm sure this piques their curiosity. What other positive benefits do you notice in your students?

Dr. Misty Givens: So other positive benefits is their confidence. So when they enter the classroom, I try to make it an environment where they feel safe, that whatever they offer, this is a part of learning, this is a part of our class. Failure is okay in here, because this is how you're getting that chair that you're sitting in. Or everything that you see around you, at some point something didn't work and someone had to fix it. So the positive things that I see is students taking ownership of what they're learning, being confident, and then feeling safe to share what they know with their peers and collaborate with each other. So a lot of collaboration, a lot of talking. You got to have a lot of patience because there's a lot going on in the classroom.

Ashley Mengwasser: There's a lot of chatter in that class.

Dr. Misty Givens: Yes, but good chatter, I say organized chaos when you walk in the classroom.

Ashley Mengwasser: Yeah. Buzzing bees for sure.

Dr. Misty Givens: Yes, yes.

Ashley Mengwasser: How do you incorporate higher level of Bloom's taxonomy when you're questioning your students? Tell us what that is.

Dr. Misty Givens: So, there's always that base level of the main. There's knowledge that they have to get. There's some core things we have to know. You have to know the steps of the engineering design process. Before we can apply, before you can analyze, before you can come up with a product, you need to know these basic things. So the positive or the perk that I have with my classroom is that we're typically most of the time operating in that higher domain with create, because we're creating.

Ashley Mengwasser: Oh, on the taxonomy, it's at the top.

Dr. Misty Givens: Yes, it's on the top. So, I do give them that base information because things that they have known the vocabulary, but they are working themselves up the taxonomy by just implementing or operating in those project-based learning. We're doing projects all the time. We're designing robots, or we're building a bridge, or we're doing something, that hands-on learning. So it's easy to get to the highest domain of create. It's very easy to get there.

Ashley Mengwasser: Yes. Your phrase, building a bridge, just made me think of that comeback from childhood. Do you know it? Build a bridge and get over it.

Dr. Misty Givens: Yeah. Yeah.

Ashley Mengwasser: I just thought about that and that made me laugh. When there was a problem in class, you got to get over it. You got to build a bridge.

Dr. Misty Givens: Yeah, literally, that was the name of the activity that we did with the bridge.

Ashley Mengwasser: Was it?

Dr. Misty Givens: There's one out there that's build a bridge and get over it.

Ashley Mengwasser: I'm glad that took a more positive spin in the culture today. How are you adjusting questions for your students to ensure that they all have access to the content being discussed?

Dr. Misty Givens: So, a lot of scaffolding. If I noticed that a student is struggling with answering a question, you have to rephrase the question, or ask them something that you feel like they will be able to answer or feel safe answering if you see that they're struggling with that higher level of questioning, and then getting them to hear from their peers. Let's hear what your peer is talking about. Or turn to a neighbor, your elbow partner, and talk to an elbow partner.

Ashley Mengwasser: Talk to your neighbor.

Dr. Misty Givens: Talk to your neighbor. We use a lot of total participation techniques at Woodland Middle School, and this is a way that we get everyone to participate in some of those things that I've been able to do. We have snowball fights where I beforehand will number the paper and know who I'm giving the number to, put their number, hand it out alphabetically. They write a question or a response down, and then they literally throw the paper balls in the middle of the room, not at each other. I have to emphasize that.

Ashley Mengwasser: The middle of the room.

Dr. Misty Givens: They pick up a random one and they get to read it, but I want them to understand I know whose I'm reading. So there's no unnecessary questions. So it's using some of those things. We've done lineups before where they stand in front of each other and they have these one-minute conversations, and then you shift down the line and you talk to two more people down the line after those minutes passed.

Ashley Mengwasser: Wow.

Dr. Misty Givens: So, we had to receive training on that, and that's really helped with getting those students who may be on a lower level if they're not speaking as much to hear and collaborate with those students who might be a little higher on that questioning.

Ashley Mengwasser: And you said those were called total participation techniques?

Dr. Misty Givens: Total participation techniques.

Ashley Mengwasser: What a cool concept.

Dr. Misty Givens: Yes. I know a lot of teachers are familiar with think-pair-share.

Ashley Mengwasser: Yes.

Dr. Misty Givens: That's one of them. We have things like the Ripple where you're thinking about it by yourself, you come together with someone else, and then we share aloud. So I do a lot of modeling with thinking aloud and just probing them beforehand so that they can get an idea of what I'm looking for in their responses.

Ashley Mengwasser: Wow. Here's a concept that I think a lot of adults struggle with, which is the silence, the wait, wait time.

Dr. Misty Givens: Wait time.

Ashley Mengwasser: And as adults, I think our discomfort forces us to rush and fill the space.

Dr. Misty Givens: Mm-hmm.

Ashley Mengwasser: But letting that hang in the air can be really effective for effective questioning. So tell me why wait time is so important when you're asking students questions.

Dr. Misty Givens: It's important because I literally witness this every time, if you just give them a little bit more time, you find that they know more than what they will initially say, more than what will come to their mind, because giving them time to process. I am a natural processor, that I process a little slower. I usually come back and say, "Oh," maybe an hour later.

Ashley Mengwasser: Actually.

Dr. Misty Givens: I'm still processing. But they need time to process what they know and to be able to give you a more in-depth response. So wait time is so important because you're going to get the best response from them if you just give them a little bit of time.

Ashley Mengwasser: So, you're just feeling that out internally on your internal clock, giving them a little extra time, letting the question hang there. Or do you have a timer? How do you approach that?

Dr. Misty Givens: I guess naturally from using wait time for so long and being taught. You give them at least 30 minutes, not 30 minutes. Oh god, that's too long.

Ashley Mengwasser: Wow. That is a lot of silence.

Dr. Misty Givens: 30 seconds, at least 30 seconds. 30 seconds is a bit on the long side. But I'm used to the silence, and I may feel it with giving them more to think about while we're waiting. And I may say, so that they know I'm not moving on to someone else while we're waiting for her to respond or him to respond, "Think about this." And then that scaffolding will come into play where I may lead with a question that may be a little on the lower end if a student that may need some better support there or need more support from me. So giving them that ladder, and if they're not able to climb at the highest point, just being there to, "I can hold you up. I'm here to support you."

Ashley Mengwasser: That's a wonderful tool as well because it gets them comfortable with digging and finding the answer and not having that quick reply or response. Because I just think for us, if I were to ask you a question right now and you paused for three seconds, that might feel normal to me. We get to five, eight, oh my gosh, I would be thinking, "Wow." But to your point, that's when the recipient of the effective question is processing.

Dr. Misty Givens: Right.

Ashley Mengwasser: And we have to allow them that time.

Dr. Misty Givens: Right. Even in an interview, I was taught, when you're sitting in an interview, just take your time, slow down, and just think about the question that they're asking you. And it's the same thing for the kids. Just give them that time.

Ashley Mengwasser: You can start training for host anytime here, Dr. Givens, whenever you're ready. What if your students don't know an answer? Do you have any safety nets for them?

Dr. Misty Givens: So, safety nets, like I said, the scaffolding, I may rephrase the question, or I may turn it into a total participation technique. We'll turn to your elbow partner, or most of the time we're always operating in groups, but if I see that student that's just sitting, I may try to go and have a one-on-one with that student. If they're not comfortable sharing out loud, I need to see you write it, you can talk to me about it, but you're going to have to show me in some way your level of understanding so that I can build on that. Even the phoning a friend. Is there anybody else that you want to call on or you can call to help you answer this question? How about we help this person out if we're just not able to get there?

But I want them to feel like whatever they give me, it's okay. I can use some of that or I can turn it. The answer may be wrong, but what's the way that I can shape this? We can work with it to work with what they've given me so that they feel like their response is valid, and they're not feeling because they're not answering correctly.

Ashley Mengwasser: Right.

Dr. Misty Givens: So, I don't ever say, "That's not right," but I give them the information but also try to see if I can find something in what they've me to you so that they feel validated in their response.

Ashley Mengwasser: Dr. Givens, you don't just go, "Wrong. Sorry." You validate what they're saying and you use it as a springboard.

Dr. Misty Givens: Yes.

Ashley Mengwasser: Do your students, do they ever grow weary of the query? Now, do they get tired of the questions? Do you give them a mental break?

Dr. Misty Givens: Well, in our setting though, it's so much going on. When they're working on projects, normally I'm approaching them in a setting. We have those classroom discussions where we're openly asking and answering questions. But mostly, I get to approach the group, "Tell me what you're building. What are you designing? Tell me what's going on here. What was your response?" So they have to give me something. Even if it's just by looking at what they have in front of them, I'm trying to get something out of them. So they may grow weary in the classroom discussion phase. That can be intimidating. And I understand that. I tried popsicle sticks before where I put their name down and you pull a popsicle stick out and you call on that person, but sometimes those students who are shy and timid, they don't want to answer them. That's when we can phone a friend or we can ... But there's some kind of way, even if it's through an exit ticket.

Ashley Mengwasser: Yeah.

Dr. Misty Givens: On your way out the door, what do you know? I need to know where you are so that can support you.

Ashley Mengwasser: I love how the game show techniques of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? are continued in modern society and classrooms everywhere. Phone a friend, that's a wonderful technique.

Dr. Misty Givens: Yes, yes.

Ashley Mengwasser: When you are going through your thought process for this effective questioning, how do you model your own thinking and reasoning to teach them, "Hey, it's important to justify your answers"?

Dr. Misty Givens: Yes. So just for an example, using real life examples helps students to connect with what they're learning with. So just recently, I was teaching eighth grade about wavelength and just talking about the different frequencies and why it's important for us to wear sunscreen and things like that. And I referenced that my mom, she had to go through chemo, and I was like, "What level of this wavelength do you think they would use to kill cancer cells? Would it be higher frequency, lower wavelength?" So I connect with them on real life examples using myself, and then model my own questioning and responses and thinking in front of them, out loud, during classroom discussions and asking those open-ended questions.

Ashley Mengwasser: You show them what your internal processing would look like verbally by talking them through it.

Dr. Misty Givens: Mm-hmm.

Ashley Mengwasser: Do you see them imitating that?

Dr. Misty Givens: I do.

Ashley Mengwasser: Yeah?

Dr. Misty Givens: I do. Now, it takes time when they first get in, but like I said, the more you model and the more I create that space that, like you said, the safety net, the more comfortable and confidence they have in themselves to respond in the way that I've modeled before. So it takes a lot of practice and it's constant of me modeling, even if I have to refresh at the beginning of the activity so they see what I'm looking for and how they should be responding when I'm asking those questions.

Ashley Mengwasser: You told us in the beginning of this episode how beneficial effective questioning is for student confidence, and it's really booing them up. I know that our teachers listening to everything that you've said, which is just so transformative, Dr. Givens. They will want to implement this strategy probably straight away. So what best practices would you like to share that will help them just get started with effective questioning?

Dr. Misty Givens: I think the best thing is wait time.

Ashley Mengwasser: Wait time.

Dr. Misty Givens: Just wait, just give them an opportunity to process. Modeling what you want to see in your classroom. Everyone doesn't have a STEM classroom where they are constantly doing projects or project learning or problem-based learning, but there's something in every single content where you can take and relate it to what the real world, where they can connect to that, and then get them to respond in a way where they're taking ownership. So my best practices I would say is model, give them time, and then be okay with the student not giving the correct answers or finding a way to shift that so that they feel confident about responding. The more they are able to respond and you can use something that they have to offer, the more often they may continue to respond.

Ashley Mengwasser: You are such a good model for this. Thank you for being so illuminating, Dr. Givens.

Dr. Misty Givens: You're welcome.

Ashley Mengwasser: Before we go, would you mind leaving us with whatever your favorite effective question is for your students? Is there one go-to effective question you ask all the time?

Dr. Misty Givens: Really, I often say, "What is going on here?"

Ashley Mengwasser: What is going on here? Yeah.

Dr. Misty Givens: So, what are you designing? Or what is happening here? Tell me what you know. I often use the "What do you see? What do you know?" And then just basically tell me really what's happening. And then they're able to open, and then why do you think that didn't work? And how can you improve that? So it's just as they give me a response, I have a rebuttal to come back, but in order to do that, I have to know what things they might run into so that I can know how to ask those questions.

Ashley Mengwasser: Yeah. You have a rebuttal ready.

Dr. Misty Givens: Mm-hmm.

Ashley Mengwasser: I'm so glad you were called to teaching, but I think the lawyering field really lost a good one here. You are the iconic classroom inquirer.

Dr. Misty Givens: Well, thank you.

Ashley Mengwasser: Thank you, Dr. Givens. I'm so glad to have met you. I feel like you make questions better and deeper, so thank you for sharing this today.

Dr. Misty Givens: You're welcome. Thank you for having me.

Ashley Mengwasser: Final Q, audience, how could you incorporate challenging, stimulating questions into your classroom instruction? As a resource, questioning will unlock new levels of connection and mastery for your students. How did I reach that conclusion? There's an effective question. Because you're a great teacher. Of course, we always say that here. And here's a question I love to ask: Will you join us next week for more Classroom Conversations? Just say yes to more teacher talk. I'm Ashley, and I'll see you then. Goodbye for now. Funding for Classroom Conversations is made possible through the School Climate Transformation Grant.