We invite you to enjoy life, life with Luigi, a new comedy show created by Cy Howard and starring that celebrated actor Mr. J Carol Nash with Alan Reed as Faswale When Luigi Basko left Italy to start his new life in America, he promised his mother that he would write and tell her about his adventure So now let's read Luigi's letter as he writes to Mama Basko in Italy Dear Mamma Mia, you know how in the old country some places don't have electricity? Well here in America it's different, everything is run by electricity They've got electric clock, electric fan, electric heater, electric blanket They even have got electric chair But this must be very expensive because I never see it and nobody's out Another great thing is the television Television is a wonderful new invention for showing all the moving pictures It's a funny thing about American people, while they enjoy themselves they like to eat They go to baseball again, they must eat the peanuts They go to the movies, they must eat the popcorn And they go see television, they must drink a beer Mama Mia, if they ever stop making the peanuts the popcorn is in a beer America's gonna have no place to go but a Turkish bath But Mama Mia, today is a bad day for me Because this morning when I open up the store under the door I find a letter First I think maybe inside is a cash because on the outside it's a say register Then I open up and inside is a say violation of a fire department Also there's a lot of big words I don't understand So I think I go to my night school or class and ask them I teach you Mrs. Baldwin All right class, all right, I'll call the roll please Mr. Basko? Mama Mia Mr. Howard? I'm here Mr. Olson? I'm here Mr. Schultz? What else? Mr. Schultz, please in the future when I call the roll just say present Now we'll begin with our history lesson Who made that famous speech beginning four score and seven years ago? Mr. Schultz? Present Present No, no Present Lincoln? Huh? It's right, yes? Yes You see I'm right, I'm always correct All right To tell you the truth was a lucky guess I'm a spolving I'm a spolving Yes Mr. Basko? Please a spolving I'm in a terrible trouble with the government And I need advice Well class I was going to devote this hour to discussing good citizenship So we might as well be practical and learn a lesson from Luigi's problem Thank you Mr. Spolving Well this morning the fire department was in my store Hey, golly, your store was on fire, Luigi? Luigi, I bet now you got a lot of hot stuff to sell Will the class please come to attention? Mr. Basko, what were you trying to say? I'm worried, because today I received this letter from the fire department No, give me it Luigi, let me see that Red deal You know I won't get a notice from the health department about my delicatessen Now you all eat there, the food is so good, the place is so clean Well what happened to Schultz? They condemned the salami Luigi my fellow pooper, you are in terrible trouble Please, please Mr. Spolving I don't like to make trouble with the government I like to be good American Maybe you tell me what to do Well let me see that letter Luigi Basko, 21 North Hall St. You are hereby cited for violation of Fire Regulation 14 Civil Code 72 Statute 562J And failure to comply with the necessary regulations within two days May impose upon you severe penalties and punishments as set forth in the penal code Now class, can anyone explain to Mr. Basko what this means? Sure, I'll cut us Please, please Mr. Spolving, I don't want to go to jail What I should do? Mr.  Stop, don't tell me I know every man in my district You're at Mr. Garibaldi I'm a Luigi Basko Basko, that's right, married, got eight kids Please, I'm not the married What happened to the eight kids? Maybe you better ask Mr. Garibaldi I don't ask anybody, everybody asks me, I take care of everybody I'm the Dutch uncle of this neighborhood Then please, Uncle Adachi I'm going to get a problem, is it worry me, Andrew? Oh, you've come to the right man, your problem is my problem I never turned on a voter in my district You did vote for me last year, didn't you? No Now I'm going to get out the side to how that happened I think I was pushed Mr. Johnson, the reason I'm a no-vote is I'm not the citizen Oh, that's different, but when you do become a citizen, how do you intend to vote? I'm going to look up at the records of all the candidates And I'm a voter for the best man This time I'm sure he pushed me Please don't miss the old man, Mr. Johnson Miss Spaulding, she's ascending me here Oh, Miss Spaulding, wonderful girl Glad to help you out, what's your trouble? Well, you see, I'm going to see Violationer from Fire Department And I know I can understand Old stuff to me, Basko, I'll phone the commissioner J.G. is an old buddy of mine Have your problem ironed out in a minute J.G. will help you out Hello, want to speak to J.G.? Just tell him it's old J Basko, it's in the bag In the bag? He doesn't remember Tell him, Oswald Johnson Don't worry, it's in the bag In the bag Yeah Alderman Oswald Johnson All so duff All so duff Hello, J.G. Ah, he's not in I'm back in the bag again Well, who's next in charge? All right, let me speak to Lieutenant McEever Busy, huh? Any of the firemen around? Oh Playing pinocchio Tell you what Let me talk to the kid who shines the pole Now, listen here This is Alderman Johnson I'm speaking for one of my constituents Luigi Constituent I mean Basko He received a notice of fire violation Huh? Oh, hello, J.G. What did I tell you? The minute I mention my name, he's on the phone I'll sew it up now All right, Mr. Alderman Please, just take me out of the bag before you sew it up J.G., what's the idea of sending one of my constituents to notice a violation? This is not a threat, but if I don't get action in the next election, you'll be out What?  What's it to say here? I'm going to wear my glasses Please, Baskoale, put on your glasses and read Help me, Arthur All right, all right Baskoale, why don't you see Italian awards? I'm just a translator so I can understand what I'm reading Baskoale, please hurry up and finish I've only got 24 hours Oh, now is the whole thing clear to me, Luigi? You were in a bad trouble You is what the fire insurance company is called a bad risk A bad risk? Why?  Sure, you never see those big signs the fire sale Baskoale, all this is not to help me with my trouble Please sit down and help me What's going to happen if I'm going to get thrown out?  Sure In my house, there's a kitchen there's a parlor there's a bedroom for me and my wife for Theresa other bedrooms are for you What are you doing, Rosa? She's asleep in that bedroom Luigi, she don't mind if her husband's asleep in the same room But I'm not married to Rosa This can be arranged What are you saying, my son?   Mr. Fire Department I'm having a store next door at Luigi Basko's shop I'm understanding you give him 24 hours to fix up his place I think you give him too much time Huh? Well, I'm in no like to squeal but I passed his store a minute ago and I smell a smoke Life with Luigi continues in just a moment but first these days when the word democracy is spoken a lot it's a good idea to examine the definition of this word Democracy is government by the people collectively by elected representatives of the people government by the people by you yourself by every adult individual who is an American citizen you are the government and it's up to you to take an active part in governing according to the meaning of democracy vote regularly and thoughtfully on all issues large and small take an interest in the affairs of your local community it is a fact that freedom democracy is everybody's job and now for the second act of Luigi Vasco's adventures in Chicago we turn to page two of his letter to his mother in Italy I saw Mamma Mia I don't know what the Pasquale has to do to fix the things up before me all I know is that when I come home from a walk I find a fire engine that's coming up to my store I open up my door and I say please come in but American a fireman they got their own way of coming in and they break it through the window then they look all over the place and they knock it down everything and they spray the store full of water and then they say pardon me you got a fire in this place but now I'm in a real trouble because I only got six hours left to find a place to live so I'm going to buy a newspaper and I'm looking for a room rooms rooms Luigi my fellow boob hello Schultz Luigi how you made out what is doing with all the water in the store there was a lot of trouble with the fire department Schultz all of my antics and the statues they're still wet well I see Lincoln's beard is still soggy and Washington looks like he's still trying to cross the Delaware and the statue of my uncle Pietro is a broken in a half and one uncle became two the place is sure so I'm looking at another pepper trying to find a place to live although I help you a classified ass yeah and here are some places for you here rentals I'm going to have a live in a rental what is it like a trailer Luigi stop talking like that you're getting me all for shimmers here you leave for yourself and leave all right huh that's absolute fridge hey what the kind of writing is it this that's a really age go ahead and read that's absolute fridge got a stool so I suppose you know I suppose you that's the preference there's a trend and a chitchat rent by you are more 225 dollars how you like that everything is abbreviated but the price here here's some more places 300 a month 315 200 175 this is a look like it's not the possible to sleep unless you're a millionaire wait wait here's a good one three bedroom apartment overlooking a lake show drive beautifully furnished the parquet of floors across the ventilation brand new stuff in the refrigerator 40 dollars Luigi that's wonderful where you see that right here under wanted Luigi that means nobody wants sure that's right I wanted believe me Luigi you ain't gonna get it but I like to help you but I gotta get back to my stool now well thanks anyway Schultz you're real a friend right goodbye Luigi and stop looking so worried be like me Luigi smile my chromatism is killing me I wish I could have been like a Schultz always laughing but I'm gonna cry if I'm gonna have to find a place so soon hey that's a big guy looks wonderful marriage salon seventy-five dollars assure you of a permanent home my problem is the sound why I have to live in this the whole when I gotta move over there he's a funny looking place a real estate officer like this someone never sees with a big canopy out the side here this one must be the place find a safe one the payment that covers everything well I'm going inside come in friend I'm gonna see your eyes on the paper I'm gonna like it to take advantage of what you offer it's certainly you've had a misfortune recently yes I would have fired the fire department you have my deepest sympathy who was the unfortunate one Juan Capietro he's a broke his neck well that's one way to go and where is the body the body's into the store but the head is into the backyard what? who was the attending physician I'm gonna have a call with the doctor if I cannot fix it with a glue I throw him in an incinerator well I'm reduced to like the shoulder so you have a loss to laugh manic depressive type tell me who was responsible for your uncle's demise please my uncle never have a demise he's a keeper cat oh I'm gonna miss it at the broken statue of Uncle Pietro statue? oh why didn't you say so immediately for a moment I thought you were peculiar yes now who did you come to see about me you aren't you a little premature coming in when you're alive well then I'ma come in when I'm a dead okay buddy it's your funeral we'll be glad to reserve a spot for you well that's a finer when can I move in well whenever you're ready we are that's a finer I move in at tonight what? oh is there something else very important I'ma know like a decode is it got plenty of heat in the displacer depends on which direction you go no for all record your name Luigi Bosco a height 5 feet to 4 and a half inches and no half sizes 5 feet 5 now would you like pine, redwood or mahogany it is all the same to you I'ma like a wall of paper Luigi my friend hello hello hey why you look so white it's a long story Pascuali I thought I was a get an apartment and I find I'd join a cemetery oh you're big and stupid a boba you've got a lousy brain it's a pleasure Pascuali that's no way to talk to a corpse and what's your plans now little cabbage head I'ma know got the plans Pascuali any minute a man from five apartment he's a walk in and throw me out of my store Pascuali is all over with the Luigi I think I'ma gonna go to the river Luigi which would you rather do commit the suicide or marry my Rosa well don't answer besides you in an opposition a bargain as soon a man is going to come from a fire department and even though I'ma your landlord I'ma gonna have to throw you out of your gonna sleep in a park alright Pascuali I'ma marry Rosa Luigi I knew the day would have come for you to fall in love well and a happy bride is waiting outside I gotta call her Rosa Rosa Rosa say hello to Luigi hello Rosa Rosa there's two men that stand in the hair just for which one is to say he's gonna marry you but Papa you're already married to Mama who shut up your face now Luigi let me see your kiss to the happy bride I promise to marry her and not to kiss her then Rosa you kiss the Luigi Rosa how you expected to kiss the Luigi if you stand there with a big pail of water in your hand put it down but Papa I was just washing the floor hello is Mr. Basko here I'm Lieutenant McKeever of the fire inspection department hello Mr. Fireman he's alright Lieutenant Mr. Fireman I'ma take care of everything yeah absolutely I'ma gonna close up at the starting to move out Mr. Basko it's not necessary for you to move out we just want you to comply with the fire regulations and I see you've already met one of our requirements because then we're gonna get the marriage I don't know about that but I see you got a pail of water handy I'll get yourself a pail of sand and an axe and the law will be satisfied come on money and that's all right well not exactly there's a $50 fine which has to be paid $50 I'm no god to the money I'd pay the fire to Mr. Fireman I'm his father-in-law you don't have to pay it the landlord is supposed to pay it the landlord to pay to the fine that's right Basko Ali yes my son hello landlord goodbye father-in-law and so Mamma Mia everything has ended up pretty good and I'ma learn other lessons in America fire prevention this isn't important to Mamma Mia it saves millions of lives millions of dollars of a property so I, Luigi Basko because I want to be a good citizen and I do my share you should see what I'ma do to my store now Mamma Mia it's not only got a pail of water and a sand but also I got an axe to fire extinguisher I'ma take down the paper window shades I'ma throw away the paper plates and even a wooden Indian that's standing in my door where smoking a pipe I'ma buy him an asher tray also when I'ma get enough money I'ma buy a sprinkler system it's wonderful and new intervention so men that can put out the fire and take a shower at the same time you're lovin' a son of Luigi Basko the little immigrant son Life with Luigi is a shy Howard production and is written by Mack Benhoff and directed by Mack Benhoff J. Carol Max is starred as Luigi Basko with Alan Rita's Pasquale and Conrad Schultz, Mary Schiff is misfolding and Jody Gilbert as Rosa music is under the direction of Len Murray on most of these same CBS stations you'll hear Norman Corwin's latest hour-long radio drama Citizen of the World we believe that as Luigi's friend you'll find Citizen of the World an inspiring account of the world today you'll hear how men of many nations are working quietly and well to combat plagues discover new medical techniques straighten out international misunderstandings you'll hear the voices of Marlena Dietrich Admiral Nimitz, Carl Sandberg the presence of citizenry in the world Citizen of the World will star Lee J. Cobb, the noted Broadway actor and you can listen to this drama of hope good cheer, hard work and honesty in just about an hour Paul Masterson speaking stay tuned now for Earn Your Vacation which follows immediately over most of these same stations this is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System


The first Super Mario Land was a launch title for the Game Boy when it was first released alongside Tetris in 1989, and this was a big deal, not just because it was a new Mario game, but because it was a fully fledged, fully realized, scrolling platformer on a handheld system. A game like Tetris seems like a natural fit for a handheld from the late 80s because the gameplay happens on one static screen, but a freaking Mario game that runs on four AA batteries that you can play in the car? It almost seemed too good to be true, and honestly, it kind of was. The game still looked like this when you played it. Mario is absolutely tiny and the game is a bit of a bleary mess, but our imaginations were able to fill in the blanks and make the game seem like a much better experience than it probably actually was. Fast forward three years to October 1992 and Nintendo cranks out another Mario game for Game Boy, Super Mario Land 2, Six Golden Coins, and as you can see from the footage, this is a massive leap forward from the previous game, and it looks, sounds, and plays like what you'd normally expect from a Mario game, which to me is still slightly insane because I mean, from a text standpoint, the Game Boy was never the most advanced or cutting edge thing. Stuff like the Sega Game Gear and Atari Lynx danced circles around the Game Boy, but when it came to getting the absolute most out of the hardware, Nintendo did not mess around, and this game is proof. What's really interesting about this game is that it's a Mario game that did not directly involve series creator Shigeru Miyamoto, which sounds like it might be a bad thing, but instead Mario Land 2 is full of original ideas and characters. For instance, this is the first game to feature Wario. There's no Bowser in this game and no Princess Peach either for that matter. Instead, it's Wario that shows up and steals Mario's castle. Wait, what? Mario has a castle? Or is he just subletting from Dr. Wily or something? Well, either way, Mario's got to get Six Golden Coins to get it back, so you gotta visit six different worlds, and what's really cool here is that you can play them in any order you'd like via the world map.  The worlds here are clearly influenced big time from Mario 3, but it's not at all derivative. Each world is distinct and unique to this game in particular. You get six lives and it's A to jump and B to, uh...  I will say there's two power-ups in this game, one is the Fire Flower and the other is a carrot that gives you rabbit ears and the ability to float. Yeah, this is a Mario game, alright. I remember when I first played this, I thought the carrot was a turnip like in Mario 2 and you could just chuck them at enemies, but nope, that's a carrot. There's a few other things that make this game stand out as well, like how each stage has two exits. One is a regular door that's just to complete the level, but there's also a bell near the exit. And if you're able to ring it, you'll go to a bonus game where you can win extra lives and power-ups and other good stuff. The bosses are also something different from Mario game.  The final boss fight in particular against Wario is really fun because he uses the same power-ups as Mario, and this fight is actually pretty tough. Man, it'll never not be weird to see Wario in rough draft form like this compared to what he looks like now. It reminds me of what the bots from Mystery Science Theater looked like back in the KTMA days. There's a few other minor touches this game has as well, like the coin counter that goes to three digits, along with a goomba counter, and there's all sorts of enemies that only show up in this game, like these dudes wearing Jason masks with knives in them? The hell is that? One obvious thing that Mario Land 2 has going against it is that it's, you know, an original Game Boy game, so it's only in black and white. And yeah, if you're not into that, I get it, but there is a ROM hack out there created by Torres called Super Mario Land 2 DX, and it essentially converts the game into a Game Boy Color game, which is pretty dang cool. It also adds Luigi as a playable character, and it's compatible with the Super Mario Land 2 Randomizer. Yes, that's right, there's a Mario Land 2 Randomizer. Oh, those crazy kids, what'll they think of next? My point is, if you're avoiding this game because it's not in color, or maybe you're just tired of Mario stuff from that era, that is not an excuse anymore. But even in its original incarnation, Mario Land 2 still stands out as something different despite all the Mario stuff that came before, and has arrived since. Mario's jump in range of motion still feels immediately familiar, and this one still maintains the pick-up-and-play accessibility that made Mario popular in the first place. It's easily a Top 5 Game Boy game, and it's in the conversation for best original Game Boy game ever, and if nothing else, it's proof that Nintendo took the Game Boy very seriously. First-party games on the Game Boy were just as polished and fun to play as their NES counterparts. Just look at Link's Awakening, Donkey Kong 94, and Metroid 2, in addition to Mario Land 2, and in many ways, the Game Boy served as a natural extension of the NES. These games weren't made just for the sake of throwing them out there, they play like companion pieces that measure up just as well as any other game that was made in their respective franchises up to that point. Or in the case of Mario Land 2, they created one of the most inspired handheld games ever made. Alright, I want to thank you for watching, and I hope you have a great rest of your day!


Welcome back to my chair. Hey, I'm just excited ever seen you do and I'm gonna try to get through this video You did Where bad you're a mess over there.  You went to practice and came back insane. Yeah, what is one thing you like least about your social media job? How I pushed through I feel like over the years If this has changed like my answer for this every year has probably changed I would say now in my life a few things that can be difficult and one I'm kind of like always on my job is kind of 24 hours. There's no real work life separation so it's kind of just like a constant stream of sharing and posting and When I'm not sharing and posting planning my content for the months to come planning my ads planning my own brand stuff So I guess that I just like never really feel off the no work life separation thing and like with that There's some days that I like don't always want to share and that I don't really feel like being seen or like having to Share anything I do because it's my job and because actually Whenever I feel that way in the morning and then I end up sharing or creating content I usually end up like feeling better about my day and You're good at separating like you actually don't take long to make your your content unless it's like a YouTube video Like it's not like we're like stopping and like doing a whole ass photo shoot Like I feel like you like keep it on the really quick and it just yeah makes it really quick and easy I think maybe like a year and a half ago. I would say my hardest part the hardest part of my job was Trying to find the balance of privacy and sharing and then with that Listening to and reading negative things about myself that are being said and false narratives and rumors and those things That's not really a problem for me anymore I don't really get hate on my platforms besides on tiktok on Instagram when I block someone It blocks all of their accounts and then they can't make another account to comment So I actually get like zero hate on Instagram I also know like the same people the same like Handful of people are hating on me because they're not they're not able to comment on my Instagram anymore But tiktok doesn't have that feature anymore.    I don't know I also think the older I've gotten and the more good I've gotten with myself the less that that has been an issue I also feel like I'm not insecure anymore about my relationships and about Really obviously I have like my own personal insecurities But like I'm just like not as insecure of a person and I'm not as reactive of a person I'm just like grown up most fulfilling thing in your life right now. I Would say there are multiple things that are really fulfilling in my life Like there's not really one specific thing that's super fulfilling. I would say like I'm really proud of where I have come like personally my own mental health and Balancing that with my work Honestly like the small things in my life give me a lot of fulfillment like I really love to cook I love my horse. I love my boyfriend, you know working on my brand. I don't have one thing that gives me fulfillment What do you feel like your purpose is I do feel like I'm supposed to be doing what I'm doing like making content and stuff Just because like I've naturally done that pretty much my whole life Whether it was like making videos or taking photos with my friends have always been like a very visually creative person I think that if I wasn't doing this I would be working like brand strategy or creative strategy Advertising for the brand side. So I really do feel like I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing But in general I do feel like my purpose is to like be a mom Like in the grand scheme of things in life is being a mom and being a good partner and being successful and My purpose like my job. I do feel like I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing. Am I in any credit card debt? No What's my fitness background? I Was a ski racer, which a lot of you know I don't want to be really repetitive with people who've been following me on YouTube for like four years But I was a ski racer without getting into like the whole skiing story I had to work out like two times a day when I was ski racing and I was ski racing my whole life so I like just worked out and Trained a lot when I was younger and I feel like I always had like an athletic build. So that's my fitness background I used to actually work out like quite a bit after I quit ski racing I used to do Pilates a lot in New York and like Just I did a lot more like workout stuff and went to SoulCycle a lot Occasionally, I'll maybe do like a YouTube app workout for me personally in my body and this is like completely what this works for me It's like really more about what I eat I don't really like limit myself to anything like I eat everything I feel like saying being in a calorie deficit like triggers some people, but I do find that to be like the most effective I'm not like on a crazy calorie counting Regimen, but like I'm definitely aware of what is going in my body and how much I'm eating I found that when I've gained weight for example This time last year in LA. I was the same size I am now and then after I left LA I'd gained like 15 10 pounds and I was eating really good food I was eating at Erewhon almost every day. I was eating really nutritious food But I was eating just like a lot of food and I was consuming a lot more calories than I had Previously and it wasn't like I was eating unhealthy at all I was eating like very healthy, but I was just like consuming more calories and at the end of the day I didn't matter how healthy I was eating. I was just eating Too much food for my body and that caused me to gain like 15 pounds So now I just like don't really restrict myself I'm just aware of how much I am eating and how much my body actually needs I would say it's like intuitive eating, but I also like kind of hate that I also like don't do high-impact workouts anymore. I for me personally high-impact workouts Just like don't work for me. I feel like it makes me bigger and puffier and more bloated and it's like not good for me I feel like I actually like gain weight when I do high-impact workouts What's your approach to dating where and how to find people you're compatible with? So I can't deny that my social media has definitely helped me Meet people and date people. It's like an online dating app It really is so Yeah, I feel like for me putting myself in social Situation going to places that I love bars that I love like when I would go out going out to places that I would like Like you're gonna attract people who like similar things to you for me I hate clubs and night clubs and anything of that sort So like I know that I'm not gonna meet like my soulmate in the night club I feel like putting yourself out there is really important also ask around ask friends for like like ask to get introduced How did you like Nashville? I liked Nashville. I honestly like didn't really See a lot of Nashville. I saw like a very certain side of Nashville and like Honestly never spent time on Broadway at all never really spent time downtown, but I did like it It's a really nice place really beautiful. I definitely like I'm glad that I Left Nashville and like got out of there. It was cool to see I definitely want to go back and do it like on my own terms But when I was living there, I did drive my car there So I had to drive it To Nashville and then when I left I had to like drive it all the way back crazy drive I just like got in the car. It's like how to deal with mean girls. Just don't deal with them I honestly don't have drama in my life anymore and I don't deal with mean girls And the only like mean girls in my life are like trolls online But I dealt with a lot of mean girls when I was living in Toronto, especially from girls who like didn't know me But they're like real people. They're not internet trolls It was just like girls being actually just really fucking mean and I would like react and like try to deal with it And I feel like that actually ended up like hurting me a lot more So just like don't deal with that hints on new dairy boy products as some of you guys probably know I am in the process of Making denim probably one of the hardest things to make in the fashion space And I have like found that out through doing it, but I'm really excited and it's a work in process and we're sampling Denim and hopefully you guys will see it soon, but coming soon. I am launching candles Uh, I'm launching a dairy boy candle and I'm really excited about that. So you guys will see that soon. Do you hang out with other girls on tour? Yeah, I do hang out with girls on the tour We're definitely all here for our boyfriends and it's like not really like a social thing I think we're really here. I'm here to support Tommy and like get my work done and explore Wherever it is we are That week it is really nice to have girls to hang out with and explore with especially because some of the other girlfriends are Content creators. So that is really nice. Are you ever insecure in your relationship? I have a really Good amazing boyfriend. So that's definitely really helpful I've definitely been insecure in my past relationships just because They did things that Made me insecure and they acted in ways that didn't make me feel comfortable and for me um, so I had been through like a few kind of bad relationships and moving forward and like how I feel like I Not like found Tommy But like wanted to date him is because I knew that we were on the same page And I really don't feel insecure in my relationship But I also feel like that has to do a lot with me and like the work that I've done on myself over the years and having my own Job and having my own source of income and my own identity where Us being together is just like adding to our lives. It's not, you know Anything but that like my schedule in my life now revolves a lot of round him But I really do have my own thing and my own passions and stuff that I prioritize. So I feel like I wanted to elaborate on this a little bit just as I was editing I feel like I didn't talk about enough how I have been in relationships where the men that I've been have tried to like Stifle me in a way and didn't want me to Whether it was like reach my full potential or fully succeed because they were insecure and they were intimidated and they Kind of like doled me down Whereas Tommy is like the most supportive of my career. My biggest fan. We like are a team and work together and He's just like roots for me more than anyone that I've been with and allows me to do my job and is like Makes my life my job better. So that like makes me feel so comfortable And makes me know that I don't need to be insecure and that he loves me a lot. So, yeah We both just have like a mutual respect for each other. How am I supposed to trust men? They are chronically damaged live sheet and use us I mean, I definitely get that question. Y'all use us too You think? Yeah I kind of feel like most men go through a like phase in their life where they're like Not most but I would say like A lot of men go through phases in their life where they're not the best versions of themselves and they like allow they're not mature or they're not Confident or whatever it is. Like they're just like literally not capable of making good sound decisions and Understanding like the repercussions of that and how they'll hurt people.   I'm gonna translate what Tommy said He basically said that Like a lot of women when they're younger are ready to like settle down and be super serious Be at the marriage level and a lot of guys are just trying to have fun and don't really know what that means There aren't literally you're not capable Of being at that point yet when like the woman is so it can lead to the expectations being different and lead lying and um Compromising the relationship because you're at different points. You're at different stages problem Is just like because two people are on the exact same page Self-comparison to an ex of your partner Uh, I'm confused about the question. You're confused about the question.  Just don't Yeah, I mean that's not gonna happen. You're never gonna not do you do that as a guy. No, I think guys do it too Yeah I think it's pretty normal and natural to do that The best advice that I can give you is someone who's also been through that is to realize that they're Choosing you and they want to be with you and not that other person and also if you're stalking them on social media I just wouldn't look and if you're feeling really really insecure about it Or you're feeling like your partner is still talking to them or still has feelings for them Then you should just leave that person because They should be making you feel like really important and like the most important person in their life birth control I am on birth control. Uh, I've never really been I've never really been off of birth control. I'm on low low estrin earth control But on it since high school So when did you get into horses and what made you get louis?  There was like a horse in the woods behind my house so I took riding lessons um growing up just because it was like my neighbors and Rode a lot growing up rode English and then I stopped when I started skiing seriously And then I got back into it. I would say like fully got back into it during covid I leased a horse during covid with my sister And then when I left new york city, I finally was like, oh, I also rode an la in malibu And I took a lot of really cool horsemanship classes in malibu. That was really cool But uh, when I finally left the city, I was like, I can finally own a horse Like that's what I've always wanted like literally my whole life Um, and I realized that I could finally do that. So um, I bought louis from the barn that I was riding at It's just like really laid back western barn with a lot of trails near my house So so because I travel so much like the situation worked out perfectly. I actually bought the horse from The barn that I ride at so the horse had been there for like 10 years And was used for trail rides and some lessons He's like more of an advanced horse, but he was used by the barn So I bought him from the barn and my trainer my horse trainer He's been like riding him forever So she actually and some of the girls at the barn will ride him while I'm traveling and my sister rides him And then when I'm home I get to see him and ride him I ride him like whenever I'm home obviously But it's been so cold and miserable riding him in the winter honestly Like I'm so excited for the spring in the summer to ride him more It's just like not that ideal to ride in the east coast in the winter I still do it, but it's definitely like The rides are shorter and like not as fun But I just like love owning a horse and having that freedom to like do whatever I want with him and to ride him Whenever I want and whatever works for my schedule And I also love that my sister can get to ride him. Bye guys. Bye guys Seven say bye


object or class. In this learning activity, we will define the terms class and object as used by computer programmers in contrast to the important differences. As a computer programmer, object-oriented programming is one of the most important tools at your disposal. Understanding what an object is and how classes are used to create objects is a fundamental concept you need to master. In object-oriented programming, or OOP, objects serve as logical models of real-life things. By organizing your code into objects, it is far easier to write code that represents reality. Objects allow the programmer to think about the application in a way that mirrors the real world. For example, in the context of a retail software application, there are likely to be objects created with code that model products, customers, and orders. When first exposed to the world of object-oriented programming, it is not unusual for beginning programmers to confuse the terms objects and classes. They are absolutely not the same thing, and the terms shouldn't be used interchangeably. A simple rule to help remember the difference is a class lives in code and an object lives in memory. Let's start with the textbook definition of an object. An object is an instance of a class. This is actually an excellent definition, provided you already understand the meaning of the terms class and instance. Let's walk through the definitions and roles of these terms, using some examples you are already familiar with. A class is a blueprint for an object. Specifically, a class is code you write that defines what an object is to be. Those definitions describe attributes and behavior. Attributes being characteristics of an object, and behavior being things that an object can do. Let's look at a familiar kind of blueprint, an architectural blueprint of a house. The blueprint for a house describes the rooms, dimensions, the locations of the walls, etc. Behavior is also implied. Doors can open and close, and those behavioral details are also included on the blueprint. However, a blueprint is not a house, right? It defines the house and how it should be built, but it takes a team of construction workers and physical materials to actually build one. The blueprint lives on paper, the house lives in the physical world. So what is an instance? Think about it this way. Can you build more than one house from the same blueprint? Sure you can, and each of those houses could be described as a physical instance of that blueprint.  In the programmers world, the class is the blueprint. Here's what the blueprint for a house might look like in code. In this case, we are using the C-sharp programming language, but the concept is the same in many languages. We see a class named house, a definition of its characteristics, referred to as attributes, and its behavior, defined as methods. Remember, this class is only a blueprint, it is not yet real. To turn a class into an object, we write code that instructs the computer to construct an object in memory. In C-sharp, the new keyword is that instruction. Of course, there is no team of construction workers, and the house object is not created in the physical world, the computer instead creates the house object in memory, allowing the programmer to write code to interact with it. Programmers have a term for this exact thing, instantiation. Instantiation is the process of constructing an object from a class. In C-sharp, using the new keyword. Can you create more than one house object from the house class? We'll sure you can. And each one of those is a distinct and separate thing. Each one is its own instance of the house class. Remember when we said a class lives in code, and an object lives in memory. We also defined an object as an instance of a class. Now that we have looked at what it means when we say instance, we see that each instance of our house class is indeed an object constructed in memory. In this activity, we defined a class as a blueprint written in code, from which instances of objects are created in memory. With a solid understanding of this fundamental concept, you are now ready to begin thinking like an object-oriented programmer. You have completed object or class.


My name is Elena Silva. I'm a senior director in the education program here at New America. My pronouns are she, her. I am not going to use the term middle age because I feel as though it's been overused. But I'm a 51 year old Latino woman and I'm joined here by my four exceptional guests who again are going to introduce themselves and share as we go through the panel about their experiences in the classroom teaching and learning. So to introduce yourselves, if I could start with you, Emmy. Hi, I'm Emmy. I'm an eighth grader at Rocky Run Middle School at Fairfax County. Hi, my name is Alice Wright. I am an assistive technology specialist at Montgomery County Public School. My pronouns are she, her and I'm an African-American female, but I'm not going to refer to age. Hello, I'm Raja Kushnagar. I don't know how to pronounce my name, and I don't think the interpreter does either. So we have there's apparently lots of different ways to pronounce it. However, what I care about is actually the actual spelling because my first language is a written English and so I say this because there are many different ways of communicating and learning and it's not only through audio or speaking and signing. You know, the writing and captioning and you know, they all have their benefits or plus and minuses. So I toggle back and forth and it depends on the context. So I have well, I'm both a student and a teacher here. I'm a professor at Gallaudet University. We're right around the corner from here. The only university in the world that's a bilingual written English and American Sign Language. I also have gone to many different schools as well while growing up and teaching as well in various different environments. And I am an Indian male and middle-aged. And I'm wearing a black jacket. Good morning, everyone. My name is Dion Young. I'm a learning disabilities teacher in Fairfax County Public Schools at John R. Lewis High School, which was formerly known as Robert E. Lee. My pronouns are she, her, hers, and I am in my mid-20s and I'm an African-American woman. Thank you all and welcome again. We heard from the last panel a lot of conversation about the definition of accessible ed tech, what it is and what it isn't. There's some official terms and some official definitions. There's even the definition in the folders that you all have. But I want to know from you, from your experiences, what it means to you. So what does the term accessible ed tech mean to you? And again, I'll start with you, Emily. So what accessible ed tech means to me is leveling the playing fields for me and other students in my class, because I've been taking a lot of advanced classes this year that I didn't take last year. So now the workload is getting harder and the curriculum is getting more advanced. It's nice to have all of these tools to help me get through the classes. It means the definition of an inclusive education. So if we have ed tech that's accessible, it means all our students are going to be able to access and learn at the same time and not have to wait to be able to get their own education that they need. For me in my role, it's hard in a district our size to get that equality across the board. But advocating and making sure that everybody is aware and making it part of a universal design in terms of how we learn, how we educate, and how we design materials. Thank you, Alice. Raja. My ex, it's a part of a big picture for access technology. Everything in the classroom in terms of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. The process. So I'm old enough and I grew up prior to the assistive technology, you know, when it became prevalent in the field and it was prior to ADA, it was before IDAA, and all that. And so my parents put me into a small private school with the same teacher and I had the same group of friends and there was a one one kind of access process and it was making it easier to understand and understand people and so I started to pick up writing and using interpreting and that was later on and and I had more technology access down the line including so it's a huge process and it's part of the part of the whole classroom environment. This is Dionne speaking again. I think this is kind of tough to answer as we've heard quite a few individuals share what accessible ed tech means to them. For me as a special education teacher, it truly means creating an inclusive environment and if you've worked in the education space, you've been a special education teacher, you hear the word inclusion a lot, right?  But I think beyond that someone who has served as a special education teacher and has even taken on the role as a mentor and taught general education curriculum as well is really differentiating and scaffolding instruction the same way I do with my learners who have disabilities in the same concept with my individuals who do not have disabilities, whether they're identified or not, or have IEPs or in my mentorship groups, but really making sure that when students come to school, when they come to my classroom, they understand that they have a place where they're learning needs or their areas of areas of need or growth as we call them in IEPs, that they will be met and that they have access to the tools that they need to excel in the classroom environment. So Dionne, thank you. This is Alana speaking. Could you let me follow up with that if I could and could you tell us a little bit about the experiences that you've had in your classrooms with accessible ed tech, your students and what tools you're using and how it might be helping their experience? And this is Dionne speaking again. I think it's varied. I started teaching during the pandemic. So what a way to start my career in education, but it's been a blessing and each year has been significantly different. So I've taught sixth grade learning students with learning disabilities. I've taught general education, sixth grade math. I've taught kindergarten and first grade enhanced autism and this year I'm teaching 10th through 12th grade economics and personal finance government in English 12 learning disabilities. So over the past few years I've had quite a bit of experience with working with different age groups as well as working with individuals with different disabilities. And I think one of the things that I use most or the most experience I've had with assistive technology was last year with my kindergarten and first grade enhanced autism class. So quite a few of my students were not able to speak. So they had speech devices and I know Dr. Silva and I have had this conversation that was challenging that although I had probably out of my eight students, five students who did not have language and needed a speech device, only one of them received one. So when you're thinking about having to communicate with a student who does not have speech, what does that look like? And then it gets into a space where I as an educator had to be creative and not having access to someone teaching me, hey, here's the tools that you can use, but really having to dig into my own knowledge base and research on my own. So using speech devices, one resource that we use, I don't know if anyone's familiar is called Natural Reader. And it's programmed in a lot of computers on Fairfax County public school system. So a lot of my students who have learning disabilities use that you can highlight your text and it'll read the text aloud for you. One of the problems my students have with that is they didn't like the voice. It's very like, hello, this is Marcia. Marcia is going to the store. So it's really hard when you're looking at students who have issues with the coding and fluency. And you're hearing this robotic voice talk to you about a story that very much might be interesting. It's hard to keep them engaged. So they preferred my voice instead. I have a student this year who has, who's hearing impaired. So she has a device and this is new to me this year actually where I have to wear like a microphone around my neck. And I just click the microphone button and it turns green. And as I'm talking, I know that she hears me. And she has an implant in her ear. And that's how she receives our lectures for the day. So Alice, I'm going to have you jump in here because you oversee assistive technology for schools across Montgomery County, which I also know it's a large county. It's the largest one in Maryland. Can you just riffing off of what Dionne's saying? Can you jump in and share your experiences in Montgomery County? So Montgomery County has over 200 schools. And it's a very big county. And our assistive technology team in terms of size in comparison is very small. We do have two that works on different levels of assistance. And I have a colleague here who's with the other team, Shawnee, that works with our low incidence students. And then I work with students who are high incidence, which means I work with the students that have disabilities that are more prevalent. So like dyslexia, you know, learning disabilities of different kinds and figuring out our assistive technology that's going to work with those students. A lot of times it comes back to having accessible materials. Does the district really try in the procurement process to have materials that are accessible? Yes, that's true. But like I said, it's our large district. And teachers do have the wherewithal and schools do have the wherewithal of purchasing in the building of something that they feel is going to work and accessibility when they make those purchases are not always top and center. So us as a assistive technology team, we're out there doing professional development, working with individual students to try to figure out what those needs are, figuring out what's the best match using the set process. I was happy that Cynthia talked about that earlier in trying to make that match and remembering that in every IEP meeting, if we have any parents in here, assistive technology needs to be discussed. And part of that discussion should be how it's going to be implemented in the classroom and in the environment in which we're talking about. And so that's also part of the coaching that we do as our team is trying to make sure everybody understands how we can make that better match and then figure out how that match can work in each individual environment regardless of level. So whether we're talking elementary or we're talking high school or if we're talking about the level of device, like the speech devices that my colleague here was talking about or thinking about the actual materials and whether we have access to Bookshare and publishers making sure that they do send the information. So it's a very, very big issue that could happen and there's a lot to coordinate and advocate for. Thank you, Alice. I'm going to turn to you in just a moment, Amy, but I want to use moderator's privilege to say that in a district as big as Montgomery County or Fairfax as well, which is also a large county, when you have these big standardized systems and you have IEP meetings, many, many IEP meetings that are happening all the time, we could use some accessible ed tech within our IEP meetings as well. Just the process alone of the IEP could be more accessible. Turning to you, Amy, tell us about your experience in your classroom, how it's evolved, what is your story? So I was diagnosed with this lexio when I was in third grade and, you know, I didn't really know what that meant. I thought I was just weird. So my first tool that I got was natural reader and, you know, I wasn't really the biggest fan of it because the robot voice wasn't my favorite, but it did work for me then, but it doesn't work for me now. And the next tool I got, I figured out what immersive reader was by me and my mom watching made by dyslexia videos. So then I got learning ally, which is just a platform with like a bunch of books that you can listen to. And then I got inspiration. I didn't really use that one that much because it's just an essay builder and elementary schoolers didn't really use essays that much. So then I got orbit note, which is like a PDF reader. No, wait, PDF, yeah. A PDF reader and screenshot reader, which is a screen reader, and then read and write, which is a screenshot reader. But wait, screenshot reader, you can snag any text on the page and it will read it aloud to you. And so it sounds like you're an expert on all the readers. So one thing is that one potential outcome of this, if we could have someone make a list of all the readers and eventually the world needs to somehow have a way of rating quality because there are so many, I think this was referenced on the first panel, there is plethora of new innovations happening and new software and hardware that students and educators are experiencing every single year. I'm married to a high school teacher every year. There's a whole new suite of things that you have to learn to use, some of which are fantastic, I'm sure. Others are not and by the time of year, you're halfway through the year before you realize that whether it is or isn't useful. So we could use your expertise and yours as well. Gabby, thank you for your question on all the readers and which ones work and which ones don't. Raj, I want to give you a chance to jump in. You had mentioned that in the middle-aged world that we live in, that you were in school and had experiences before ADA and of course now, many years later, you're experiencing as a teacher of older students but nonetheless a teacher using all sorts of technology that didn't exist before. So could you tell us a little bit about that evolution and how things have changed? I would say that there's much more access today than there was back in the day and it doesn't show an increase. There's an increase in students with disability in the K through 12 environment and higher ed. Back in the 60s, there were only seven universities that accepted deaf students, for example. So now all of them have to accept them because of the law. But there's still a huge gap between what the law says versus what the institutions can support in the higher ed environment. In the higher ed environment, there's no requirement to make sure the student has services for the students and the student has to self-advocate for a lot of that. And sometimes it's beneficial, sometimes it's not. One surprising thing that happened recently, there's an access technology researcher as was one experiment with captioning that was projected above the teacher as the teacher moved in the classroom and it would follow the teacher around the classroom and it made it much easier for the person to see the teacher in the captioning at the same time. And there was a deaf student in that class, one versus 30 hearing students and the deaf student decided to withdraw from the class. All the hearing students in the class wanted to keep the captioning. They did not want to stop those services and they really appreciated having that captioning to double check and verify those things. So it was the access technology can benefit everyone. So another thing I'd like to add, one of the things that I'm seeing today is services on the individual level and institutional level, I'm finding that and I'm sending students that are deaf that they could pick an institute that has good access services and not compared to those that might not. And they would have to struggle with constantly have to fighting with the university for access. The law says one thing, again, but it's also important for the institute themselves to be committed to providing access, so between what the institutional level and whatever technology is available out there. And thank you. This is Alen again. Raja, to continue, what barriers are you seeing in teaching and providing accessible ed tech in your classrooms? About working with technology services, making sure things are available for use. Some of them goes against security policies, the auto captioning, or image descriptions and stuff. It's the little things like that. Also, yeah, they have offices of student support services or disability support. And working with us, there's a lot of moving parts from a teaching perspective. And sometimes that creates a conflict with my passion or my wishes to kind of adapt material. And one of the last things is the range of information from to communication in the classroom. So everything needs to be accessible, including books, slides. And then there's communication in the classroom, classroom discussions, those little things that you have to prepare ahead of time for. If you have the right support, it becomes much easier to have the accessibility and inclusion and the equity and allowing everyone to work together. And sometimes technology doesn't necessarily cooperate, but if the process itself is embedded, it protects against that non-cooperation. It makes life a little harder as a teacher, and also to flip it on here as a student as well. Thank you. This is Elena again. There's a big difference between something being required and then something being available all the time. So I've spent a lot of time in schools, and there's a lot of requirements, particularly in big districts, but really in any district. And there's a requirement to mean something. You can, as a parent, as a parent myself of a child with disability, you can go into the IP and you can request. You can say, I have to have this. And the schools say, oh, we need to have this. But I think this was mentioned earlier. It could be days, weeks, months. It might be next year by the time you get the thing that you are guaranteed. So I point that out as a barrier that I've experienced personally, but also to pivot back to you again, Dionne, if you could say a little bit about the barriers that you might be seeing in not just what accessible ed tech is out there in the world, but is it getting to your classrooms and is it getting to your students? So one thing, the special education teacher me has to say in case in someone in the room does not know what an IEP is. It stands for individualized education plan. So if a student is found eligible for an individualized education plan, IEP, there's 13 areas of eligibility. So it can range from intellectual disability, learning disability, OHI, ADHD, anxiety, so on and so forth. Put that out there. But aside from that, I think one of the biggest barriers that I've seen when looking at assistive technology within the classroom is looking at this area. So if you are from or live in the DMB areas, we coin it. This is a very diverse area. And it's actually something that I admire about this area is the diversity. But one thing that I've seen as a special education teacher, when you're looking at diversity, I've seen in most instances that assistive technology does not meet the diversity of our students. For example, I had a student last year who was, I think the term was COTA. So both of their parents, it was two sons, both of their parents were deaf. So mom and dad were both deaf. And that was new for me to have parents and sit in IEP meetings where I had to have an interpreter and being able to communicate with mom. So when she came to pick son up from kiss and ride, it's like I'm typing on my phone like, hey, he had a great day or he needs these things. And she's typing back and not having that ability to communicate. I also brought up how last year, same situation, students who were unable to speak only had one student who had a speech device. So for my students who didn't have a speech device, but didn't have language, having to find ways that I could communicate with them or realizing, okay, they have receptive language, but they don't have expressive language. So although they hear and understand what I'm saying, they cannot express their needs. So how can we build their language? Some of them didn't even receive speech and language services, which is another flaw that we might see within our education system. And on top of that, I think one of the most difficult things was seeing that as educators, I felt that, and I don't know if I want to say, you know, put blame on the county, but teachers were not getting the professional development and the resources that they need to be better equipped to assist their students who had needs, who needed assistive technology. I was blessed and fortunate enough, receiving a master's in special education, where I had to take an assistive technology class. My professor actually used assistive technology herself, so I learned a lot from that course. When my student was giving her, given her speech device, I had to go and spend a day at Gates House, which is our central office, and do professional development on how to use the device and how can I customize it and tailor it better suited for her needs. And I kind of made a complaint and they're like, hey, I have three other students in my class who can't speak. How come they don't have? They don't have expressive language. How come they don't have a speech device? And the answer wasn't very fulfilling to me. It didn't give me an answer on why my students' needs were the same, but they weren't accessing the same resources. And then looking at parents, I had a very diverse classroom last year. I had students whose parents were from the Middle East. I had students whose parents were from Africa, Asia. So we're talking about these different continents and countries, and English was not their first language. So again, you're talking about giving a student a device, giving them assistive technology. Teachers are not trained on how to use them, and then we're sending them home to parents. There is no, here's a guide, here's, here's how to put it together, and here's how to use it on a day-to-day. The parents don't have these resources. So oftentimes what we find is we'll send these speech devices home. On the weekend, their charge, they come back, they're dead. They weren't used. Parents don't know how to use them, so it's not that they don't want to give access and help their students or their children, rather, with, you know, their speech or the different areas of need that they have, but they don't have the knowledge, right? They don't have the tool, the tool belts and the tools that they need to be able to use them. So I see that in the classroom as an educator, but I also see the strain that it puts on parents. This year, I work in a school that's 52% Latina. A lot of my students, parents, are undocumented citizens here, so they don't have the knowledge base. They come into meetings, we have to use interpreters to have IEP meetings. So the struggle with them, English isn't their first language, so if we're giving a student who doesn't have speech a device that's in English, and we're sending it home to parents who do not speak, understand, or write in English, how are they able to access these tools and really benefit from them holistically? Thank you, Jian. This is Elena again. I turn to you, Alice, because you work with educators across the county. If you want to jump in on both the question about how that folks are getting access to the accessible ed tech, but also the educator point, how much the educators know about how to use these tools? So part of, there were two things in there that I kind of want to talk about. One about the IEP process, and the assistive technology section of the IEP process, where we have AT service. And having detailed discussion about how that service is going to take place, and educating the parent, and we're inviting training to the parent on how to use the device, or what we need to do to make it, is part of that process that I think sometimes gets glossed over. So I just kind of wanted to bring that up. And then when we think about providing training for our educators, there are so many, you just heard our young lady to my right, saying all these different reading tools. There are so many different tools out there and matches that from an educator perspective, because I was in the classroom for a long period of time, trying to learn all those things, it's almost an impossible task to kind of think about. And then also thinking about the fact that while we're doing all these matches for tools and they're all out there available, training all the people involved is also a massive task, and trying to find the time to make that happen, because our educators are really busy. We have, I couldn't even tell you how many different tools are available, depending on the need for students, and trying to go out and work with our districts, leaders, principals, resource teachers, which would be the managers of content area, and trying to figure out, okay, what's going to be the best match for the student, and how are we going to get the training to all the relevant parties involved, and understanding what that process is. In my role, or in our district's role in terms of our AT teams, that's part of what we do. We try to be a resource for each of our schools. They know that they can reach out, we have a process about reaching out that we could provide training, or we try to reach out to different school buildings to figure out if there is a need there. I was listening to all the different things, and a lot of times our biggest need is that sometimes the materials that our students are using aren't accessible. So then we have to find things like using the C-Pen, which is great, but mainly because we couldn't get the materials digitally, and so we have to find an access point for a student to be able to read that has that need, and having the C-Pen is an acceptable alternative, but ultimately if our publishers are all putting out our materials, and having it so that we can have it digitally to be able to use with students, that would be the best thing because then we have tools that could work digitally. Talking about access to different curriculum, so we have immersion programs, right? We have Spanish immersion, we have French immersion, we have Chinese immersion, I don't know which specific part of Chinese Mandarin, I can't remember now, but when we have students with disabilities trying to access those programs then it becomes a problem because if you have a dyslexia and we have to figure out how to get reading to you in those, sometimes those materials aren't accessible, so we may have the English materials accessible, but not our foreign language materials accessible. So we're trying to figure out how to manage that whole process, and it's really a big task. This is helpful on so many levels, thank you Alice, and this is Elena again. We have in our education policy program a sub team of folks who focus specifically on English learners, and we've been trying to talk about the connection between this, but it's coming up again and again, the former panel and this panel about language, so I just want to highlight that. So back to the educators and what they are, all of the tools that they're trying to use, all the accessible ed tech that they're trying to adopt, the ways in which they're trying to improve their instruction, their pedagogy. Emi, you've actually, I believe, had to work with teachers, or you've worked with teachers before, which is an interesting flip. It's always good when the students are teaching the teachers, but that's not usually the way we think about things. Could you tell us a little bit about your experience, like why did, what were you showing the teachers and why did you have to show them? Yeah, so when I was in fourth grade, I, like I said before, I learned what immersive reader was, and that very same year, my elementary school, the two amazing tech ladies who worked there, they started a student run, like, tech team to help teachers and students with their laptops, because my school had a one-to-one ratio, like one kid had every one laptop, and so they had this opportunity for kids to start teaching the teachers about a software they've learned about, so I decided to teach my teachers about immersive reader, because a few of them knew what it was, but didn't know it well enough, and most of them didn't even know what it was, and plus everyone had access to it, not anymore, but we did have access to it, so it was good for the teachers to know how to use the software. And what, thank you for sharing that, I mean, what an innovation to have the people that are using it all the time and are having to figure out how to use it and have the students teaching the teachers, so I think it's wonderful that you were able to do that, I don't know how common that is across the counties and across our districts, but it does seem like the folks who are having to, you know, navigate the system should be the ones that are advising us, which is part of the reason we're all here today. I want to turn to what a question that was asked on the first panel, which was, well we need to know what you need, like what would you need, what would you want, so when you think about accessible ed tech and in your classrooms from from higher ed teaching experience to K-12 and then of course as a student yourself, Emi, what would be helpful to you, what do you, you started in on this Alice, what would be the most helpful accessible ed tech innovations that you wish you had, and I'll start with you, Alice. When I was in the classroom, my content area was mathematics and so it's something that is very near and dear to my heart and I would love to have consistency with math being read out loud. For students who need the mathematics read out loud, there is such variability. I would love for our developers to think about, I know we have different languages, MathML, but somehow or the other how, I don't know where the breakdown because I'm not a programmer, but I can definitely tell you that there's great inconsistencies when it comes to doing things with mathematics, so that would be something that I really would like and then when I think I work with students who sometimes have physical, profound physical disabilities and science is another area, they always aren't able to have equal opportunity at access to the labs and it's always in a work around mode as opposed to having the materials available at the labs in whichever way we're able to do it, even if it is a video just readily available and consistently available without teachers having to think about it after, oh we're about to do the dissection, oh I have a student who's not going to be able to do that and now in that moment we can't make it happen, but so thinking about that, so some kind of innovation when it comes to our math and sciences are STEM subjects for that to be more accessible and for it to be a forethought, not an afterthought, so not retrofitting fitting it to make it happen. That would be on my biggest wish list, there are a lot of them, but that will be on my biggest wish list. We'll get to the list, the long wish list soon. Dionne, how about you? Dionne speaking again, this is it's challenging, I think my lens has really expanded again working with such a diverse population, but I really think seeing assistive technology that's more individualized, I think Paul kind of mentioned in the last panel that we need to stop looking at a broader lens, like we really do need to be specific and intentional with the assistive technology that we're creating and that we're giving to schools and to users that benefit from it. Again when even Emmy said, now to readers, it was boring and the robot boy so it's funny to hear her follow-ups, I'm like at least I know that she's validating the thoughts of my students, but really seeing that we've shift to a place where assistive technology does become more individualized for every individual because it does look different for everyone. I've seen natural reader work really well for some students and not work well for others, I see most students they benefit from hearing an actual voice, right, not hearing an automated voice, but hearing the voice of a teacher or a parent or when looking at speech devices, speech devices are pretty similar, most of them, and Alice and I spoke about this before, they're typically iPad based, they're on an iPad and they have these like little cubes and each cube has a picture and if the picture's of an apple you click the apple, but there's been in some instances where I've had speech devices where the picture will be of a rainbow and if you click it it's going to say happy, so it's kind of confusing having to teach a student, okay, you click the rainbow for happy, but what does happy really look like? Happy can look different for every individual, it looks different based on the students, so really making sure that we could see a day where assistive technology starts to become more individualized based on every student's needs instead of something that's one-size-fits-all because it doesn't work that way and if you work in the field of special education or just work with individuals who have disabilities, you understand that. Raja, how about you, what would you hope for or what would you need the most that's not out there right now? The assistive, the listening devices, you know, the robot voice sometimes, yeah I know that's a, you know, it's like needs some captioning, like to make it, it's harder to read, like for instance it's not as exciting or intriguing for, there's no emotion, there's, you know, with the information that's being brought forth and also like captioning, you know, needs to become better, like, you know, with the right punctuation and and, you know, easier to read and understandable, but we still need improvement with also the AI out there, the technology out there for instance, you know, in the past we would have, you know, a captioner sitting there with a device and on my screen I could read it, you know, and I could see the emotion, the tone, but also like you can have glasses that do the similar thing where you can, you know, read at the same time, read the text at the same time as it's coming up. So nowadays students actually are using more of the chat GPT and so they'll type emails or homework and things like that because oftentimes their English is not as fluent or is not up to par and they'll use the chat GPT to clean it up a little bit and, you know, and they facilitate them and they use that amongst each other and that supports them using it and we support them using it and also communication and they communicate with us more clearly doing that. So that's just an example of AI allowing them to be more individualistic and being more empowered actually to communicate. So the process for technology definitely helps, yes, and I feel and to make those individuals feel more connected with learning and communicating in the classroom. Thank you. So, yeah, the risks and the threats of AI or potential AI are potential risks are a lot of what we're hearing about so it is helpful to hear about how AI could be used to help have more adaptations and have tech be not just the tools but it would be baked in and you'd have so much more accessibility because it could in real time change. I mean that's the power that I see in AI not knowing much more about it. Emmy, I want you to, if you could, tell us what you would want because I'm sitting next to you here reflecting on the age comment again and thinking that you do not not just yourself but you represent youth here and folks that are growing up with these tools but are going to be able to live in a world hopefully where they're not just tools they're not just added tools that we're finding a c-pen for you for example or we're finding some sort of reader. If you think about that like the future you can think about right now too but right now and the future what do you hope for like what do you think would would make a big difference what would you like to see? What I would like to see in the future is kids having access to all of these softwares from a young age because when I was younger I would have benefited a lot more but I know these softwares are more advanced for younger kids so that might not work for them but if they could have the access to have these softwares would be more beneficial for them. And how about I'm going to push on the teacher piece one more time how about teachers what would you hope that how would you hope that they would approach a student that has a difference or a disability and a learning need like you experienced in fourth grade I think you said how would you hope that educators might be more prepared? Just understand that it's gonna give them it's they're gonna need more time to understand the concept because I know for me it takes me more time to understand math and English so just to have patience with this student and understand that they're trying their best. Which is thank you which is interesting because technology is like speeds everything up so much and yet you would hope it would have the power to slow things down for all of us since I think we are living in a pretty high-paced fast-paced world that is sometimes good but sometimes it can be too much. I want to get we're going to open up for questions in just one moment. I just want to see if there's anything that that you all since there's developers learners leaders a lot of people in this audience that might want to know if you have some sort of last bit of advice or lessons learned from the classroom that you might want to share. Call this a lightning round before we open up for questions. Alice please. This is Alice just two things one is providing more options for especially for our readers of voices and high quality voices it's not that they won't sound completely human but we have better voices out there that can sound but those are not usually the voices that are sold with our products. Obviously finance comes into it and then the other part is making sure you have accessible training for our teachers as well you know provided with your product that's readily available hopefully not for an additional cost but just part of what you do is provided because if we had more on-demand training for our teachers that could be in an accessible format and I do mean with it being captioned a lot of times when we look at products they have captioned videos for students but not for the the teachers and we do have teachers who have a variety of needs and sometimes they're not considered as part of the professional development so being more conscious of the fact that our students do grow up to be part of the profession and the same needs that they had when they were in students they have and making sure that your professional development trainings that you're providing can be more readily available and on-demand so that when you do get a student in the middle of the year with a specific need it'll be a little bit easier for this teacher to be able to rev up really quickly about how to use whatever tool I'm just gonna pig I know it said lightning round but I'm gonna piggyback on that to say that that's also for all educators that professional development needs to be for all educators since every educator is teaching students with disabilities we're all teaching really diverse classrooms of students there's no reason why it would be for some teachers and not all of the teachers that are teaching in our classrooms on the lightning round Dionne or Raja or Emi do you want to jump in I'll just I'll quickly say one thing that and I think from the previous panel it does seem like you all are still well versed but I think my my hope or ask would be that you continue to make sure that you're involved in academic spaces so being involved in an event like this is purposeful but actually taking time to connect with individuals who have needs or use assistive technology I think sometimes there's this large gap between those who make policy and those who need the policy right who benefits from the policy so I know as an educator I get really flustered sometimes because I'm sitting there like who made this policy like did they ever set foot in the classroom oftentimes not being a special education teacher we have people who make our laws and policies and legislation and regulations around individuals who have IEPs and they've never taught or they don't have a family member they have no connection with individuals who have disabilities yet they make these policies so I think making sure that you still stay and remain well versed in these spaces and really take time to do groundwork and work with those who benefit from assistive technology I think that's what truly makes the world a difference Emi do you want to jump in with any final this is Raj I'll just make a quick statement I think overall like teaming between the teachers and the students instructors and all those who work together and listening to what they actually need actually listening and learning about the new tools and sharing that information within each other and getting and receiving those tools and you know that the excitement with the new AI and the apps that we have coming out and internet services or online virtual services there's so many possibilities that students can take advantage of these you know new possibilities and thanks Emi so something I would like to see is having compatible on all devices like an ipad a phone a computer because what I've had to do is like switch between softwares on my laptop and my ipad because it's not all compatible so and if there is like a read aloud that doesn't only read aloud but help you comprehend what the passage is doing and since English classes only get harder from here having like note system so it can help you make notes on whatever your teacher assigned you thank you this this is Elena again that so this is this interoperability question is or point is so important the term that they all should fit together they should all work together and they don't all work together and I know this perhaps means the companies would have to work together but we see this we see this everywhere my my daughter went recently into I'm gonna take a question in just a moment went in to take a standardized test because this is part of schools and she goes in and she's in a room with other folks who need accommodations and one of the you know the person sitting next to her needs speech to text but the computer doesn't provide speech to text but this is the computer that this child has to use for the standardized test so problem I mean it was solved in some way that took extra time but it was very difficult for the student to have to deal with the student should not have had to deal with that and so on and so forth but the the pieces don't fit together and that seems like a prevailing theme here so thank you for raising that I mean we're gonna go to the questions it looks like we have a question from the online audience so we'll go there first this is a this is a question from Dina Phillips with Google Classroom thank you all for coming and sharing your experiences would you mind sharing which tools or technologies you've worked with that have made accessible teaching and learning easier and what about those tools has been particularly helpful conversely what aspects make a tool or technology inaccessible I guess as a teacher as someone who currently this is Dionne speaking currently teaches and I guess I'll actually use Google as an example one thing that was really helpful during the pandemic for my students who are learning disabilities was on Google Slides the speech to text a lot of my students really struggled with writing both handwritten as well as typing and what I noticed was when they when we would ask them a sixth graders hey we need you to write three paragraphs look oh my goodness three paragraphs how can I write three paragraphs like I don't know how to put my thoughts on paper and I would tell them well how about you I'm talk to me talk to me about what you think about this topic and as I would talk they would have these eloquent and beautiful thoughts and the only issue was they didn't know how to synthesize them to actually write them so I would tell them have talk it out so you know fortunately I think you just have to I can't remember off the top of my head where to go to actually get to the speech to text on Google Slides but that's something that I use a lot with my sixth graders and it was very much so helpful again looking at natural reader not my most favorite but it does work giving students the opportunity to be able to hear the text that they're reading I think Emmy made a great point by saying having a tool that also helps with comprehension you know the fluency and the voice isn't something that's appealing to you it's really hard to really understand the text it's one thing to hear it to be able to understand it is something completely different this is Alice one of the things that probably was really useful especially when we moved as a district to Chromebooks was actually the text help so google read and write and it having a variety of tools one tool that could meet a variety of needs instead of having to have seven different products you could have the one product and it had speech to text that you could use you have text to speech that you could use you have highlighting tools you could use you have a screen masking tool that you can use an all-in-one toolbar and and so that was a particular helpful tool it worked pretty seamlessly for the most part across the board and the ability to also to make individual adjustments for students so if we needed the text read a little bit slower the student was able to change the rate of speech if the needed to change the voice they had a couple of different voices that were built in with the product so that that was also a very helpful tool to have as well during the pandemic that we had that rolled out for our students with disabilities across the board so any student who had an IEP or had a 504 plan had it readily available for them so that that was pretty helpful are there other questions good afternoon my name is Shelly Gray I am a principal here in DC public schools and I represent a community of children families and leaders that is also the most marginalized here in our country where I represent children with students with disabilities immigrant undocumented more than 40 percent of our populations are English language learners and then I also consider in our community accessibility for all children so we have our silent learners that are not identified that still have specific needs and then our students that are identified or duly identified I am wondering because of the our students we have an educator we also have a central office oftentimes we are as a school leader we are looking at a variety of platforms for resources that meet the needs of such a diverse community and yet one district may have a platform of resources that are helpful another district may have a platform and there is no systematic approach for us to be able to also access what is good for all children and families at this time is there any conversation in some of our partnering universities as well as counties to start norming and creating a platform where school leaders and educators can access these resources for for our schools that's an excellent question thank you for asking it and especially because this is a DMV mostly a DMV audience here and we have folks represented here why couldn't we do that DC, Maryland, Virginia, you've got higher ed, NK12, sharing all the resources in one clearinghouse or one place that's accessible and that we would easily be able to both add things and and pull them down do other folks have thoughts or do you know if this is happening who's sharing what and how do you all how how might we figure that out I know from an AT perspective we have our assistive tech this is Alice speaking sorry we have our assistive technology work group for the state of Maryland so I know there's a lot of sharing of information and support for all our school districts in Maryland and I know that if I have a question and I know someone who's in Fairfax for example I have no qualms about reaching out but I don't know that we personally I don't know if we have something that goes across in the DMV area I just know that we have that within the state of Maryland do you know Raja if there's um any coordination between Gayeudette or the higher education world and the K-12 schools in DC around this point of sharing resources yes I mean there are actually um many groups that try to establish you know resource center Gayeudette actually has a resource center regional center there's four of them in the U.S. to help actually provide that knowledge sharing practices policies in the in regarding deaf education and also along with that is the national deaf deaf center that has resource that has a resource center there and they have a lot of discussion amongst that about what the specific situations that might help and they'll actually post those online and so and then people can give their comments and feedback so that's really helpful and also access to teaching the different teaching groups that try to provide that kind of sharing those resources all throughout and you know it'd be nice to have a one-stop shop store but yeah I haven't seen that yet so I know that there are we're going to close out now but I'll just note that there's a number of other questions both here and online and we'll try to make sure that there's time in networking online and in person for you all to talk to one another um I do want to note that there are some national resources and national organizations that do have resources cast was up here earlier and there have been other examples that have been mentioned but there's something about this regional community that matters so I feel you on that and and New America we are a national organization but we do try to do that as well connect people it's part of what we do so we bring people together we also try to connect them in other ways that are on an ongoing basis so maybe we could play a role in that that's that's just an idea not a promise but we'll try we're gonna we're gonna stop now because we're gonna take a break we're hoping thank you for your patience and thank you very much to the panelists here for all of their wisdom and wit we're gonna there's food lunch that's out in the atrium we hope that you all will take the time to talk with one another and to exchange more ideas we're gonna come back into this room at 12 50 so we can begin promptly at one o'clock please enjoy your time together thank you again to my panelists here and the panel panel one round of applause thank you