103. 3 Smart Strategies to Master Stress-Free Multiple Prep Teaching with Special Guest Khristen Massic

Hey, Kristen, I am super excited to have you on the Resilient Teacher Podcast.

I am so excited to be here. It feels like we've been waiting forever to finally make this like like face-to-face connection.

Yes, official, like make it official. We've been talking about it for at least a year. It could be a lot longer than that.

But I am super excited to have you here on the show.

Kristen, for those people who just don't know you, can you share a little bit about who you are, what you do, all of that good jazz?

[0:46] So I am Kristen. I have been in the education world. This is my 16th year officially in education.

I still work in education. So I am at the district office and I have worn a lot of different hats, 10 years as an engineering teacher and then as a middle school administrator for four years during the pandemic.

And then now I am serving as an instructional and curriculum coach.

And part of the reason that I started my podcast and my work online was the gaps that I was seeing with support for multiple prep teachers.

And I am a former engineering CTE teacher.

And there were just a lot of things that were assumed about us knowing how to do our jobs that are not really being supported.

And I decided to help support teachers.

I'm also the mother of almost five.

So I've got four, but by the time you listen to it, I could have five.

And then my husband also is an educator, so he teaches high school welding.

And so we are definitely an education family through and through.

[1:58] Through and through. And I'm really excited because when we're recording this, you've got a little more slash less than a month away from giving birth.

And I say we have five kids, but I didn't birth five kids.

So I think you are a super mom for doing that since we have a blended family. We've got three and two.

So I just think you're amazing. You have a lot on your plate and you just really do it with ease. You mentioned multi-prep.

For those listeners out there who are like, she said multi-prep.

What does that mean? What is a multi-prep teacher?

[2:33] So the easiest or simplest definition would be someone who teaches multiple subjects or multiple classes, which in the secondary world could pretty much be anyone.

But I feel like there's a little bit of kind of a different scale or range.

So sometimes people don't realize that they're multiple prep if they are teaching the same subject over and over again.

Like if you are teaching math and you're teaching math seven and math eight and math nine, you may not see that as multiple subjects.

But then on the flip side, where you could be teaching elective classes.

So with CTE, I was teaching robotics, CAD, architecture, careers, a bunch of different things that were somewhat related, but not really.

And so they did require a lot more planning and prep.

And that is how I started.

[3:33] I at least defined multiple prep. Yeah. You know, like, okay.

So I taught special education and I was in seventh and eighth grade, but I was a co-teacher in ELA and math for seventh grade and then for eighth grade.

But then I also had my, which we called it academic support class, academic seminar class, which is kind of like a resource class for seventh grade and then for or eighth grade.

So if you think about it, that's a lot of preps too.

[4:03] And so I was thinking that could be considered multi-prep, but then also for elementary teachers, like think about those teachers who teach first and second grade, who probably teach math, ELA, science, social studies, you know, like that's a, that's a lot of preps too.

So I'm, I'm kind of thinking these are all kind of connected.

Would you agree with that?

Yes. And I think one of the issues that we have with multiple prep is, at least that I've found, is that we silo them.

And so we look at them as being so different.

And then we have to switch our brains and our planning and everything.

But I've learned over the years that we actually don't have to do that.

There are some strategies that you can do.

And I know you are really big into AI and also into automation, but there are are some things that we can do that will help it make it easier for us to transition from subject to subject or content area to content area and make your life a lot easier.

Yes. So tell me about some of those strategies that you have for planning for multi-prep maybe with AI.

My favorite one is repurposing. A lot of times we look at some sort of protocol or discussion protocol or routine procedure and think that it's specific to one subject area.

This can only be used in ELA, for example, which isn't true.

So you could actually, if your students find that.

[5:31] This is a successful protocol for them and it's for you as well.

What you can do is you can go to chat GPT.

This has been my favorite thing to do.

One of my favorite things to do is I go to chat GPT and I say, hey, I want to be using this protocol.

Let's say fishbowl. I want to use the fishbowl discussion protocol.

This is what I'm teaching next week in these three subject areas or these three classes on this day, give me some ideas.

And it just takes that cognitive like load, lift, that brainstorming.

They may not all be great, but at least you have something to start from.

And then the best part is, is that you only have to prep for one thing.

So if you need to rearrange your class so that it's in a certain, to meet that like fishbowl criteria, if you need to have your desks or chairs in a certain area.

You don't have to switch and go back and forth between every class period.

You just know that you're using that strategy every single class period for that day.

And all you're doing is you're just monitoring or just switching up a little bit the prompts that you're giving your students.

[6:40] Right. Oh my gosh. I love that. I love that so much because think about how stressed and how I would love to know the statistics for this, like how burned out multi-prep teachers get because they are siloing and they are not thinking how can we repurpose these different things within these that is amazing i love that just trying to find an easier way to do it there's got to be an easier way and one of the things that has always bugged me and it still kind of bugs me even with my my district job is that a lot of times as instructional coaches we are being told that you need to switch it up because the kids are going going to get bored.

In reality, you don't need to switch it up.

Students, so you can't do like a fishbowl every single day or a gallery walk every single day.

They would get bored, but they're actually going to enjoy having that consistency of knowing, hey, we've done this before.

I know what the expectations are. My teacher, I know what he or she is going to do.

I know how this will work. I know that I will need to be turning and talking.

It just makes them feel more comfortable.

[7:50] And it just kind of came together that way. So I don't know if it was just like an epiphany.

I'm in a lot of classrooms all the time.

And I know right now, since I'm not currently in the classroom, but I'm supporting, I know if I went back to the classroom, I would just have so many other skills just from observing other people and looking and seeing, hey, that teacher used this strategy and that teacher used the exact same strategy, but the content was very different, or at least the subject area, the objective that they were using.

Why would I not think about using that same strategy over and over again?

[8:27] Right. I love that part of coaching, too, is being able to see all these different ways.

And I really think that's a huge, huge thing that is missing in a lot of schools that they just don't have the time or the procedures to be able to offer other teachers to observe other teachers in their classrooms, because that's where a lot of great ideas come from.

You can see what's working for other people and then adapt them into your own classroom. So I really like that, too.

With ChatGPT, are there any other specific things that you like to use when it comes to making multi-prep easier and less stressful?

[9:05] So one of the things with multiple prep teachers is, unfortunately, depending on your circumstance, a lot of times multiple prep teachers tend to be in rural schools or, like I said, CTE, let in an elective, and you're going to be asked quite frequently to teach a new class.

And it has nothing to do with like whether or not you're a good teacher, but it just is the general cycle of life, especially if you're at a smaller school, you won't be able to teach a full load of a certain subject because you just don't have the student population for that.

And so recently, my favorite thing has been to come up with curriculum maps.

So using really good prompts to come up with curriculum maps that will support either classes that you're currently teaching and you feel like you're an expert in, but just want it all laid out for you.

[10:00] And then on the flip side, to teach classes that you may not feel like you're super qualified to teach or you're underqualified to teach, but yet you're being asked to teach this as a new new class, using that same format and structure, those same prompts to then get you the same.

[10:18] Curriculum map, unit plans, just having that structure there has saved a ton of time.

And I've tested out with other teachers. I've introduced them to ChatGPT and they let me know, hey, this works for computer science.

Your prompts did. We tested it out. It does work.

We can use this. So that is one of my other favorite ways to really help with multiple prep teachers is to have it all mapped out.

You can get so specific with AI and ChatGPT specifically.

And I keep referencing chat GPT because I know Brittany, you use it a lot, but I do love it because I can just keep having that conversation, but you can get so specific in asking it like you are teaching an 86 minute class period.

You want 10 minute increments of topics, engaging activities, and it will take your ideas and really just map it out and lay it out for you so that most of the big lifting is over, which reduces you going to Pinterest or TPT and searching for other people's lessons.

You can at least get that done and then fill in the gaps.

Right, I completely agree. And I like how you said chat GPT.

I know that there's Claude and all those other different ones and they all are good on their own.

I really feel like a lot of teachers need to get.

[11:43] Like comfortable just using ChatGPT. And I honestly think that over the summer, if teachers make an effort just to play around with it a little bit more and just get comfortable using it, some of those prompting techniques come really easily once you have some practice with it.

I know that there are teachers who are like, oh, I'm going to be on Magic School and I'm going to be on Almanac and all these different ones.

I still feel as if ChatGPT or a basic chat bot that has not been programmed is the best to use because it hasn't been programmed.

You are you are in charge of really the responses that you're going to get. yet.

So do you have like a list or anything that you kind of have like a freebie or something like that, that you give out for like different prompts for multi-prep teachers?

[12:32] Yes. So I have ChatGPT for Busy Teachers, and it has some of my favorite prompts that are very Mad Lib style.

So it is giving you the majority of the prompt and you're just filling in information, but also in that resource, it's helping you train the bot.

Because like you said, it's really raw.

And I like to think of ChatGPT as a student.

You need to give it explicit instructions. You need to set up your parameters.

And if you're not getting the right responses, you've got to tap into your teacher sense and think, okay, why was it that I didn't get the right or the response that I wanted?

It, just like when you're in the classroom and you're formulating your questions.

And if we think about it that way, then it's less intimidating, but that resource, so ChatGPT for Busy Teachers will help just introduce how to use ChatGPT, get you comfortable.

Because like you said, it's all about getting comfortable and knowing that you can use it as a resource, but then also Also kind of identifying the misconceptions, the struggles that it has, just like your students.

[13:47] Yeah, I really like that analogy that you used right there when you said, train it like a student.

Like you want to give it explicit instructions. I love that.

I always say Amelia Bedelia because I think of that book and how you had to like give explicit instructions and say, you know, not just flip the pan, but, you know, or fold in the cheese, if you will, that sort of thing.

Um, what's interesting though, like what you said, I love the, I love to give teachers like almost templates like that.

Um, because that kind of gives them that comfortability of like, oh, okay, this is how you do these things and how you can implement them.

Have you tried any of the other AI tools?

And do you have like one that you kind of go to time and time again?

[14:32] Well, so I'm still a little bit into the raw.

Every once in a while, I'll go to Gemini and I'll experiment and see, okay, is Gemini going to give me something a little bit different?

And then I have used some of the school ones.

So our district is looking at adopting an AI tool district wide, which I'm really excited about to help train teachers.

But there are some that I have used that have, what I found is that most of them have a planning component.

And just like when I was teaching CAD, I wouldn't necessarily teach students how to use the exact software, but how to troubleshoot or find things within the program they're using.

So if your school district or school is giving you something, so we have used School AI and EduAid, there's always a place.

So this is the workaround if you're not comfortable with ChatGPT.

But there is a workaround. Most of those have a way where you can do like a freestyle or you can input just like you would ChatGPT and have that conversation back and forth.

But then a lot of those have those great resources where you can just plug in the standard and it will will populate a unit plan for you.

So with those, it's already that the prompt has been put in there.

[15:58] And I know I listen to your podcast. I follow you a lot. And I know that the big hang up with a lot of those is there is a paywall.

But if your district is paying for it, then that alleviates that paywall.

And so figuring out how to use that is a huge advantage.

I agree. And I think that a lot of schools are starting to look into some school-specific specific plans so that they can get those premium features for different things.

The one that I am loving right now, I love EduAid. I love that it's created by a teacher.

But the one that I think works really well in workflow is Brisk.

Have you tried Brisk yet? I haven't. I'll have to look. Oh, my gosh, it is. It is amazing, because it's a Chrome extension.

So it's basically right there in your field of focus.

So you're less likely to get distracted because you're having to go into another, you know, window to do this and copy and paste into another one or go to it's just all right there in your normal workflow into Google Docs into Google Slides. I'm obsessed with it.

[17:06] I ChatGPT. It's one of the best. And if teachers can get into it, then they're golden.

Do you have any other tips or tricks for multi-prep teachers that you want to share today?

I think my last tip would be to trust yourself.

So this isn't AI or anything related, but you can spend so much time searching for the best way to produce or to teach this thing.

But ultimately, you have to experiment. You have to try it out.

And what will save you the most amount of time is trust that first idea.

You've got to try it out. So instead of wasting hours and hours on one class, because that's what happens is you get sucked into this hole of one class period.

And then the next day, this has happened to me several times, the next day I'm planning during my class periods.

So I've got students, I've got five minutes, they're working on their own.

Let me hurry and look up something that I have to teach second period.

[18:11] That's what you want to avoid. void. So by trusting yourself, you're freeing up time when you do have your planning and your prep time saying, Hey, this is, I'm just going to go with it.

I don't know if it's going to be the best, but just trust yourself, your students, you're going to learn things from it. Your students are going to learn things from it.

And then always the next time that you present it, which unfortunately might be a year or two down the road, just make a note and let yourself know no, this worked, this didn't work.

And trust yourself as the expert.

[18:45] Yes, I love that. I love that because it's kind of bringing in that whole resilient teacher thing.

Like you have to make the mistakes in order to learn from it.

And because we are resilient teachers, we can learn from every mistake or opportunity or experience that we have.

And I really like that. I like that a lot. it.

So Kristen, thank you so much for taking the time out to be with us today, especially given your short time span before you have baby.

Would you like to share a little bit about where teachers can find you, other things that you offer, anything like that?

So I hang out the most on Instagram. So it's Kristen Masick, spelled K-H-R-I-S-T-E-N-M-A-S-S-I-C.

And then I also have a podcast.

It's a secondary teacher podcast. It comes out with a weekly episode.

They are shorty episodes, So usually like 10 minutes to make it really quick to consume.

[19:41] And then the other thing is to watch out for some of my workshops.

I've got some workshops specifically about planning using AI and ChatGPT where I walk you through, give you all of the templates, show you which prompts to put in, let you experiment with things, have resources for you to take the responses that ChatGPT gave you and instantly add it into a curriculum map. So watch for those as they are coming.

And then once again, grab my freebie at or chat GPT for busy teachers.

And that will get you on my email list so that you can hear about all the new things that are happening.

Yes, I love it. I love it. So I'm going to put all the links for those down in the show notes.

That way teachers can go and grab them and get on your email list and go follow you because you are fantastic.

Thanks again, Kristen, for being a part of the show. It was a long time coming, but I'm glad we got to do it. Yes. Thanks for having me. Thank you.