At the dawn of the social media era, Belle Gibson became a pioneering wellness influencer - telling the world how she beat cancer with an alternative diet. Her bestselling cookbook and online app provided her success, respect, and a connection to the cancer-battling influencer she admired the most. But a curious journalist with a sick wife began asking questions that even those closest to Belle began to wonder. Was the online star faking her cancer and fooling the world? Kaitlyn Dever stars in the Netflix hit series Apple Cider Vinegar . Inspired by true events, the dramatized story follows Belle’s journey from self-styled wellness thought leader to disgraced con artist. It also explores themes of hope and acceptance - and how far we’ll go to maintain it. In this episode of You Can't Make This Up, host Rebecca Lavoie interviews executive producer Samantha Strauss. SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't watched Apple Cider Vinegar yet, make sure to add it to your watch-list before listening on. Listen to more from Netflix Podcasts .…
Welcome to The ESL Teaching Podcast, a place for K-12 teachers of English learners who are looking for simple and easy-to-implement ways to engage their students and for inspiration and empowerment in their day-to-day teaching. Whether you need a boost of confidence in reaching ESL/ELL newcomers, students in mixed proficiency level classes, or clarity in how to help them access content in the mainstream classrooms, this podcast will quickly become your go-to spot for inspiration and support. ...
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The ESL Teaching Podcast
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I am very excited about today's episode because I know it will bring so much value to you. I've talked about lesson planning before, but today, I wanted to share a process that has been very helpful and, honestly, is truly a great way to plan for our EL students. So in today's episode, I will be sharing all about backward design and lesson planning…
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The ESL Teaching Podcast
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I don't know about you, but I love a good behind the scenes moment. In the world where we always see the final product, whether it's a great lesson plan, an engaging activity, or heck, someone simply looking amazing and put together, it is good to remind ourselves that the road to that result is not always very linear. Have you ever wondered what i…
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The ESL Teaching Podcast
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One of the themes that keeps coming up in my teaching and that of many other teachers who work with English learners is this: How much work should we give EL newcomers and any EL student? What can we expect from them? Today, I wanted to revisit the topic of classwork and homework our ELs have to do and about how we can make it more manageable and e…
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The ESL Teaching Podcast
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Episode 139 - How to Prepare for State and Proficiency Tests Part 2: Reading and Writing Practice
20:34
Midwinter and early spring is the season for state and language proficiency testing, and I am dedicating a couple of episodes to help you prepare your students for them so that they can show off all of the great things they've learned so far. Last week, I talked about peculiarities of listening and speaking tests and what activities you can incorpo…
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The ESL Teaching Podcast
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Episode 138: Preparing Your English Learners for State and Language Proficiency Tests. Part 1 - Listening and Speaking Practice
15:57
The testing season is upon us. I wanted to talk about a topic that every teacher working with English learners faces each year, preparing your English learners for state testing and language proficiency tests like ACCESS, TELPAS, and others. These tests play a crucial role in measuring student progress and shaping future instruction. However, prepa…
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The ESL Teaching Podcast
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Have you ever made an assumption about a person before truly getting to know them? As teachers, whether we like it or not, we tend to operate on a lot of assumptions which come from our education, practice, and experience. What I found though is that most of the time, many and any assumptions stem from lack of information. And sometimes it's diffic…
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Teaching EL newcomers is by far one of the most popular subjects among all teachers at the beginning of the school year, middle of the school year, end of the school year, all the time. So much so that I have created quite a few episodes on what to teach them and how to help them in the regular education classroom. In today's episode, I am revisiti…
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The ESL Teaching Podcast
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The holiday season can be hectic both at home and at school. Besides you being tired and over it, the students are tired and over it. And it shows. No matter the age group you teach, it can be an added stressor trying to figure out how to teach and manage everything around you. But just like we can restart a computer when it is glitching and someho…
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As I'm looking back on 2024, there were challenges and opportunities as well as a lot of growth. And as we know, it doesn't happen in a calm and peaceful environment when everyone is content. It happens through storms and sometimes chaos and most of the time through pain, whether big or small. The good thing is, I wouldn't change any of it. Well, m…
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What is social-emotional learning? And why it is crucial to address it daily with your students, including, if not especially, English learners. SEL or social-emotional learning is the buzzword nowadays, but it is very near and dear to my heart. As an educator, I, and I'm sure many of you, see firsthand how important it is for students to learn not…
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The ESL Teaching Podcast
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Helping English learners access the curriculum of the Language Arts class, which is geared towards native speakers, is one of the challenges many teachers face. There are many linguistic demands that are not easy even for students for whom English is the mother tongue. And for English learners, those demands add extra layers, which require the teac…
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The ESL Teaching Podcast
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In order to learn something, we need tools that address the way we learn as people as well as help us develop ways of thinking. In recent years, terms like neuroscience and neuroplasticity have become very popular in all fields, including education. What do these terms mean exactly? Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system, includ…
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Over the past several weeks, I have been sharing with you three simple accommodations every classroom teacher can make to reach ELs, even newcomers. We talked about why using visuals is essential when working with ELs, as well as what types of visuals to include. We dove into simplifying our language for directions, lesson delivery, and feedback, a…
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The ESL Teaching Podcast
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Episode 129 - Why Simplifying Your Language for ELs Leads to Effective Higher Order Thinking
17:16
I am bringing you a series of episodes … 3 simple accommodations every classroom teacher can make to reach ELs, even newcomers. They are very targeted and easily digestible so that the tips you hear today and in the previous and coming episodes, you can implement right in your next lesson. We have identified 3 very simple, yet extremely effective a…
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The ESL Teaching Podcast
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How can I help an English learner in a regular education classroom? This question is right there at the top of all questions asked by teachers along with what to teach EL newcomers. We all know that teaching is complicated and consists of a lot of moving parts that are sometimes hard to juggle. And since my mission is to bring you EL teaching tips …
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The ESL Teaching Podcast
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Episode 127 - When to Use Professional Interpreters vs. Bilingual Staff for Communicating with EL Families
19:50
Let's talk about translation in the world of multilingual teaching. It is a bigger topic and covers both the translation of materials in the classroom and translation of school communication with EL families. Today, I wanted to focus on the other side of translation, namely best practices for communicating with EL families of our students who do no…
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The ESL Teaching Podcast
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I work closely with content area teachers, and I frequently receive questions from them about how they can help English learners in their classroom. The questions about teaching ELs, frankly, are the same every year. How to help a newcomer? How to assess EL students in the classroom? What activities work well with ELs, especially those at lower pro…
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The ESL Teaching Podcast
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Teaching grammar can be a topic that raises many questions for teachers of English learners, but it doesn't have to be. And as we discussed last week about how to teach grammar to younger English learners, we talked about strategies that work with that age group and answered questions about why we need to teach grammar in general. Today, I wanted t…
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Whether you teach young English learners or teenagers and even adults, teaching in language involves teaching the grammar of that language. At the same time, it raises many questions for us. What is grammar exactly? Do we need to teach grammar explicitly when working with English learners in English speaking settings? Or do we let the students abso…
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The ESL Teaching Podcast
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Today we're diving into a crucial topic for every ESL teacher as we approach a new school year—how to set the stage for success during the first five days in the ESL classroom. In this episode, we'll explore essential strategies for building trust, setting expectations, understanding student backgrounds, establishing routines, introducing content, …
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The ESL Teaching Podcast
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Recently, I talked about the roles of the EL teacher, what our jobs entail, and how we can explain, in short, about what we do to our colleagues and administrators. Today, I wanted to go a step further and talk about a mission statement. This short, clear statement packs so much information and might be just the ticket for EL teachers and departmen…
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The ESL Teaching Podcast
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Episode 121 - 3 Reasons Hiring an EL Educational Consultant is a Must for Your EL Teaching Needs
12:35
With the new school year kicking off, energy is buzzing through the hallways as teachers set up their classrooms and dive into mandatory trainings. Today, we’re addressing a fundamental question: Why should schools consider hiring outside educational consultants for English Learner (EL) professional development, especially when they already have in…
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The ESL Teaching Podcast
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With the number of English learners constantly rising and permeating not only large urban areas but also spreading into suburbs and rural towns, there's a serious need for all involved in the education of those English learners to understand the role of an ESL, ELL teacher in their district. This podcast episode was inspired by observations of both…
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Today we're diving into five practical tips for newer EL teachers. Whether you're transitioning into EL teaching, getting your certification, or supporting multilingual students in your regular classroom, this episode is packed with actionable advice to help you succeed. Show Notes: Episode 119 - 5 Tips for Newer EL Teachers Simply Ieva Offers: Acc…
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The ESL Teaching Podcast
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Every day, I receive several emails that share your current biggest struggles as a teacher who works with EL students, whether you're exclusively with multilingual students or you have ELs in your regular education classroom. I read every single email, and although I don't always have the time to respond to you personally, I take all things you tel…
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The ESL Teaching Podcast
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As EL teachers, we need to possess a variety of skills, and not all of them are clear cut. Besides the obvious ones, such as being knowledgeable in teaching methodologies, standards, and educational psychology, as a teacher of multilingual learners, one must also possess acute cultural awareness. And that goes not only for EL teachers, but for all …
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The ESL Teaching Podcast
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As the summer break is nearing, it seems that time flies faster and faster. Between all of the award ceremonies, field days, final exams, and graduations, there's no space to even breathe. In this season, the desire to put off paperwork and lesson planning for next year is sometimes irresistibly strong, and I'm saying this because I've been there. …
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The ESL Teaching Podcast
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With the school year almost at the end for many of us, or even finished for some, I wanted to revisit one of the episodes I recorded a while back because I know that it will really come in handy. Either now or at the start of the new school year. Honestly, anytime. What I'm talking about is how to use choice boards in your El classroom. What they a…
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The ESL Teaching Podcast
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When I ask teachers: if you could have a magic wand, what would you wish for you in your teaching situation, I get so many requests for a scope and sequence for newcomers and for a newcomer curriculum. So in today’s episode, I wanted to go back to the basics and talk a little bit about the scope and sequence for English language learners. I will be…
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The ESL Teaching Podcast
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Technology has increasingly become an integral part of teaching, and honestly, I cannot imagine teaching a lesson without it. Of course, I would if I needed to and I would have to adapt, but it just makes things so much faster and easier. From pulling up an image to complement the topic, to checking the correct MLA format, to grabbing precise defin…
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The ESL Teaching Podcast
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When it comes to teaching English learners, some things come naturally for EL teachers, while regular education teachers might be wondering how they can reach their multilingual students. I have several episodes about teaching all ELs, but I wanted to distill this information into even more practical and really actionable advice that all teachers c…
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The ESL Teaching Podcast
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I don't know about you, but every year around April, I feel like my energy is drained. I can no longer focus, and the feeling of inadequacy begins to creep in. The students have absorbed as much as they could. We all are just counting the days until that summer break when we all can recharge and look at things from a different perspective. But we h…
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The ESL Teaching Podcast
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In education, hard skills such as the academic knowledge of the subject and the know-how of teaching in general, the strategies, the methodology, the assessment are the focal point. But today, I wanted to talk about the soft skills that are much more difficult to define and quantify because they are less concrete, but have been proven time and time…
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The ESL Teaching Podcast
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Welcome back to another episode of The ESL Teaching Podcast. Today we're tackling an issue that's close to the heart for so many of us educators: the challenge of negative self-talk. As teachers, we navigate not only academic pressures but also the emotional and mental weight of our personal lives. Recognizing our humanity is crucial to maintaining…
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The ESL Teaching Podcast
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Welcome to Episode 108 of The ESL Teaching Podcast! In this episode, I share my go-to activities for those "I can't even" days, when exhaustion and lack of inspiration make lesson planning a struggle. I candidly discuss my own experiences with feeling tired and bored while teaching, and offer practical, low-prep activities to reignite the classroom…
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Episode 107 - The Heart and Art of Teaching ELs in Regular Education Classrooms with Zach Camenker
45:05
My guest Zach Camenker, and I explore the challenges and joys of teaching English learners in a regular classroom. Zach, an English Language Arts teacher, shares his struggle with the repetition of the curriculum and his passion for reading instruction. The importance of adaptability, feedback, and collaboration in setting up a successful classroom…
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The ESL Teaching Podcast
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We talk a lot about instruction of English learners, how we can accommodate our lessons, how we can scaffold, and what to teach them in general. But today, I wanted to bring to light another aspect of working with English learners that is just as important for all teachers to know as the instructional strategies. It is the social emotional aspect t…
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The ESL Teaching Podcast
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Episode 105 - 3 Misconceptions About Teaching Newcomers in Regular Classrooms (and how to reframe them)
13:00
Welcome to episode 105 of The ESL Teaching Podcast. In this episode, I address three common misconceptions about teaching English learners in regular classrooms and provide practical strategies to reframe them. I discuss the importance of understanding the language acquisition process, the role of subject area teachers in language instruction, and …
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The ESL Teaching Podcast
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Welcome to Episode 104 of The ESL Teaching Podcast! In this episode, I share valuable insights into how you can prepare for your ESL teacher interview. I delve into three essential tips to help you nail your interview: being prepared, being yourself, and asking questions. Through personal anecdotes and practical advice, I hope to provide guidance o…
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The ESL Teaching Podcast
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Guess what? It's Q & A time. I receive many emails from teachers sharing their current biggest struggles, both EL teachers and classroom educators. I read every single email, and although I don't always have the time to respond to you personally, I want you to know that I see you and I hear you. And with that, I also know that if one person is aski…
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Testing season is upon us, and with it, changed schedules, test practice, and new questions about how we can help our students, especially ELs, navigate this time of quite a bit of stress. Any test, whether it's a check-in quiz, a unit test, or a serious state assessment, can be a challenge to an English learner, especially one that is at a newcome…
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The ESL Teaching Podcast
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How many times have you heard this phrase, math is math, it is a universal language. Well, let me tell you, it is not. And that is exactly what today's guest, Odalis Amparo from Illustrative Mathematics, and I talk about. Odalis is a skilled educator who is highly committed to elevating the voice and supporting the achievement of students and teach…
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The ESL Teaching Podcast
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You're listening to the 100th episode of the ESL Teaching Podcast. Can you believe the ESL teaching podcast has been around for 100 episodes? Me neither. This occasion certainly calls for celebration, and I wanted to make it a little different than usual. Instead of interviewing another wonderful educator or giving you teaching tips, today, you wil…
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The ESL Teaching Podcast
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This is episode 3 of the 3-part series called, “You Can't Buy Language at Walmart: 3 Essential but Overlooked Details of Teaching Language to EL Newcomers and Beyond.” In the previous episodes, I talked about the time it takes to acquire a language and about proficiency levels and why they are essential for teachers to know when working with Englis…
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The ESL Teaching Podcast
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Today's episode is episode 2 of the 3 part series, which I called, “You Can't Buy Language at Walmart: 3 Essential but Overlooked Details of Teaching Language to Young Newcomers and Beyond”. In the previous episode, I talked about the stages of language acquisition and the most important aspect of learning any language, which is time. If you haven'…
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Episode 97 - How Teachers Can Harness the Power of Second Language Acquisition Stages when working with ELs
17:43
Welcome to another episode of The ESL Teaching Podcast! In today's episode, I dive into the fascinating world of second language acquisition stages and how they impact teaching English learners. With a focus on the five stages of second language acquisition, I want to shed light on the importance of understanding this process for educators. From th…
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The ESL Teaching Podcast
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In today's episode, I reflected on the wisdom gained and impact made in the past year, sharing valuable lessons for teachers of English learners. From the power of "less is more" in lesson planning to the importance of connecting with student families in a genuine way, I provide insights that can transform your teaching approach. Additionally, I em…
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Being an educational consultant is one of the most rewarding experiences one can have. Through my website and podcast, I hear from so many teachers from all around the world who teach a variety of ages in a variety of places with a variety of experiences and resources. And what's even more exciting is that I get to work with some of those wonderful…
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The ESL Teaching Podcast
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Episode 94 - From Vision to Reality: Intentional Goal Setting for the New Year and Beyond (re-air)
21:23
With the new year right around the corner, we tend to reflect on the things we accomplished and what we can do to improve on the quality of our lives, both personal and professional, in the next year. So setting goals is especially popular this time of year. The hopes are high that in the coming year, we for sure will exercise more, or read more bo…
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Episode 93 - Cultivating Comprehension: The Art of Strategic Questioning for English Learners
17:54
In today's episode, I want to delve into the art of cultivating comprehension through strategic questioning for English learners. Every day, I am amazed at how language intense our students' classes are. Instructions are given in lengthy paragraphs and posted in Google Classroom or any other form your school uses. Students are required to show thei…
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