November 2, 2025 ā¢ 45 mins
What happens when you're thrown into a college classroom with zero preparation and told, "You start tomorrow"? Dr. Albert Bramante faced exactly this scenario when he unexpectedly became a psychology professor overnight. His remarkable journey from panicked novice to confident educator reveals powerful lessons about authenticity, intuition, and finding your teaching voice.
For educators battling self-doubt, Dr. Bramante offers practical wisdom: reconnect with your "why," surround yourself with positive colleagues, and prioritize self-care. He emphasizes that teacher mindset dramatically impacts classroom outcomes - expect greatness and you're more likely to experience it. His advice on integrating AI into education is equally pragmatic, suggesting we make technology a collaborative tool rather than forbidden fruit. His creative assignment, having students "interview" historical figures through AI, demonstrates how educators can harness these tools ethically.
Whether you're an experienced educator feeling burned out, a new instructional designer seeking direction, or simply fascinated by the psychology of teaching and learning, this conversation offers refreshing perspectives on finding joy and purpose in education. Let's make this academic year a "smashing success" together!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jackie Pelegrin (00:01):
Hello and welcome to the Designing with
Love podcast.
I am your host, Jackie Pelegrin, where my goal is to bring you
information, tips, and tricks asan instructional designer.
Hello instructional designersand educators, welcome to
episode 60 of the Designing withLove podcast.
I'm thrilled to have Dr AlbertBramante, a veteran talent agent
(00:24):
, coach, and college professor,with me today.
Welcome, Albert.
Dr. Albert Bramante (00:29):
Thank you, Jackie.
Thank you so much for having me.
I'm really happy to be here.
Jackie Pelegrin (00:33):
Yes, I'm happy to have you here as well, thank
you.
So, to start, can you tell us alittle bit about yourself and
share what led you to focus oneducation and psychology?
Dr. Albert Bramante (00:41):
Well, I've always been interested in
knowledge and interested inlearning.
I had a strong love forlearning, I was always a book
reader and I think teaching iskind of and education is kind of
in my blood and DNA, because mymom was a teacher, an
elementary school teacher, firstgrade for 30 years, and my
(01:03):
father and oldest brother, whilethey weren't in formal
education, they were coaches,you know, physically, athletic
coaches.
So I think the combination ofcoaching and teaching kind of
just was in my DNA and I alwayshad a daydream, even when I was
in like middle school or highschool, that I'd be in front of
the classroom and teaching and Icouldn't wait to receive my
(01:28):
master's degree because I wasgoing to finally be able to
teach at the college level.
I didn't, incidentally enough,I had really no interest in K-12
education.
I mean, you know I don't wantto brag, but having a mom in the
system, I probably could havegotten a job over a traditional
(01:48):
candidate very easily.
I didn't want to.
You know, that was not my.
I don't think I would have hadthe patience or the you know,
the ability to work withchildren and teens, but I wanted
to teach.
After I received my master'sdegree, I put my resume into
community college in myneighborhood for adjuncts in all
(02:12):
different disciplines.
It wasn't specific, so I put infor psychology.
I didn't hear anything for liketwo years and it was after
Labor Day weekend.
I was looking for a job becauseI was working in the social
service sector for a couple ofyears and I was in a
grant-funded position after 9-11, and the grant ended.
So I was in my position.
(02:32):
So I was looking for a job and Iremember getting a phone call
the day after Labor Day in 2003.
And they had asked me you knowif I'm available, you know, to
come and have a conversation.
I didn't know what it was.
I was like sure, you know.
I was like I wasn't doinganything.
So I went down the same day.
It was like an hour early and Iwas there.
(02:57):
They asked me you know what myavailability was?
I said you know I'm fairlyavailable.
I said we call it the win yearbecause two adjunct faculty
members backed out on us thelast minute, the day before
classes begin.
We need someone to fill in.
Lo and behold.
I said I'm available.
(03:18):
They didn't even ask what mybackground was.
They didn't ask me anything,they just said great.
Next thing I hear I see her,the secretary, printing stuff
off the computer.
Not knowing anything, she goesoh, here's your class list.
You start tomorrow.
Oh my gosh, albert.
Wow, now I was just likewalking out of the in the right
(03:44):
home asking myself what justhappened, because now I had four
classes, not just one, but four, Not just one, but four, Three.
You know there were threesections of one class and then
one section of another class.
There were three sections ofchild psych and one section of
psych 101, which is the 102,where you teach at to work at, I
(04:06):
should say so 102.
So it was 101.
Well, okay, what do I do Now?
I had no formal training ineducation.
So what I did?
I said, okay, let me channelthe teachers I liked.
I made a list of all theteachers I liked and I said,
(04:30):
okay, what are the qualities?
What do they do?
Why do they like them?
And then I made another list ofteachers that I wasn't crazy
about.
What were they doing?
So I don't do that.
So I didn't sleep that night out.
I mean, I was a nervous wreck.
I walk into the college, I walkinto class and I just started
(04:52):
ad-libbing like crazy andbrought them.
So improvisation was reallyvaluable here.
Yeah, I'm sure, because Icouldn't.
I couldn't tell the students.
You know, hi, my name isProfessor Vermonti.
I have no idea what I'm doing.
But here we go, because thatwas the truth.
(05:12):
I have no idea what I'm doingand for the whole semester it
was pretty much I have no ideawhat I'm doing, but in a sense I
did because it was like more myintuition, I've always wanted
to be at that moment what I'mdoing.
But I, in a sense, I didbecause I it was like more my
intuition and when I, you know,I've always wanted to be at that
moment, I think that was likethe one thing that didn't like
like cause me to totally freakout, because I said, you know, I
(05:33):
waited my life to get here.
And here I am, I'm teaching, Iget to do what I love and you
know, and I think that kind ofpropelled me forward.
And then I realized how much Ilike it and how much I was just
enjoying myself up there,talking and having conversations
with the students and justimmensely enjoying it.
(05:56):
And at the end, towards the end, as the semester was wrapping
up, a lot of students werecoming up and saying this is my
favorite class, keep it up.
You know you're doing great.
I love this class and you knowI'm like, you know, keeping it
calm and cool in front of them.
But of course I wanted to jumpup and down and, you know, and
(06:18):
swing from the chandeliers,right, because I was so happy.
I was so happy and surprised,but happy.
And then once you know at theend, like you know that, because
at that time I was, I was a lotyounger well, um, they had said
to me like you're really young,you you must have been teaching
for a while.
And I went, yeah, and I lied, Iwas like no, this is my first
(06:43):
semester really.
So that was fall 2003 and I'vebeen doing it ever since now,
2025.
So what I like about it is Iget to share a passion of mine
(07:03):
and I get to share knowledge, Iget to have conversations and I
learn from my students, and Ithink one thing that really goes
, really helps with learning asubject, is being able to teach
it, because I can tell you Ilearned probably just as much
about psychology from teachingit than I did during my formal
(07:27):
education.
Jackie Pelegrin (07:28):
Yeah, I would agree with you on that.
Dr. Albert Bramante (07:29):
Yeah, so important yeah it's so important
to be able to teach you know,because so I mean, that's the
one thing I would say is thatreally helped me.
I think you would appreciate iteven more because how much I'm
learning each time I'm teaching.
I'm like this is amazing howmuch I know about you know,
about my field, and I'm stilllearning and I'm still, you know
(07:51):
, evolving.
So the important thing, I think, for any educators to have a
growth mindset and to keeplearning.
Jackie Pelegrin (08:40):
Absolutely.
Yeah, that's so important.
Yeah, I love that Because youknow you don't want to become
stagnant, right?
And yeah, I noticed that when Istarted teaching almost four
years ago in the field that I'min, in instructional design, it
really opened up my eyes todifferent things and it helped
me deepen my knowledge and myskills and I feel like I'm
(09:02):
better at my full-time job as aninstructional designer because
I teach and I'm able toempathize, I think a little bit
more than I used to, and Iunderstand the faculty, what
their issues are, because Iworked with subject matter
experts every day that arefaculty teaching, not in the
same discipline but a differentdiscipline.
But yeah, it makes such a?
(09:22):
huge difference when you can do,and I like what you said too,
about how you learn from yourstudents and they learn from you
.
It's a two way street and I, Ilove that because I don't want
to be the one and we both don't.
We want, we don't want to bethe one teaching at them, we
want to be teaching with them,with them I, I think there's.
Dr. Albert Bramante (09:43):
We can even add a third element, which that
sounds I mean, not only they,I'm learning from them, but
they're learning from each other.
So it's like a trifecta, youknow, they're, they're, I'm
obviously they're learning fromme, but I'm learning from them
and they're learning from eachother.
So, and that was a big thinglike for me.
You know, on all my classes Ireally emphasize participation
(10:06):
and class participation.
So that is so important, youknow, for me is to um really
bring that in there, um, theimportance of participation,
because, again, we're runningfrom each other, we're not, and
I want to hear what they have tosay.
And I think, you know, I'vealways been a proponent of you
(10:27):
know, we're adults and if I wantmy, you know, and every faculty
member, I'm sure, wants theirstudents to respect them.
But if you want them to respectyou as a teacher, you as a
teacher need to and shouldrespect the student.
Jackie Pelegrin (10:50):
Right yeah, absolutely so important.
Dr. Albert Bramante (10:55):
That is so important and I don't want to
turn turn this into a you knowum, a trash talk.
But I've seen, both as a studentand even as a faculty member,
other colleagues of mine thatwere like, what are you doing?
Yeah, and a lot of times theywould have students that were
comfortable enough that wouldcome to me like crying speak to,
(11:15):
said this to me is the resultof that to me, and I know who
they're talking about.
Of course, I'm not going to saytrash the teacher in front of
the student, but in my head I'mlike I believe the student that
was there, but I believe thathappened.
It's sad, but I believe thatthat happened.
So I think the important thingagain to be an effective
(11:37):
educator is we also need andshould demonstrate respect and
empathy and compassion for ourstudents Now, having said that,
also holding them to academicstandards, because there's a
fine line between showingcompassion and empathy but at
the same time, being a pushover,which I have to be honest,
(12:00):
again, to be self-reliant andcritical, I probably was, in my
first, you know, four or fiveyears of teaching, a bit of a
pushover, you know, or easygoing, laid back a little too much
that's how I was at first.
Yeah, yeah and that's the sameway.
And then when I had a heard andand what really woke me up to
(12:23):
it was hearing other students,you know, say that you know
about me, that oh, thisprofessor, a lot of students,
and they get advantage of them.
And I had a couple studentseven coming with me, you know,
even anonymously, send me emails, you know where I know it was
like you need to be tougher withsome of your students in the
(12:44):
class and I was like, okay.
So I think that there's a fineline between empathy and respect
and compassion, but also beingfirm with standards.
And the past nine years havebeen kind of.
I've been like that.
I will be empathy if a studentis going through a tough time.
(13:09):
The one thing I will not beempathy and I tell this the
first day of class if you stopcoming to class and then all of
a sudden give me a sob story atthe absolute last day of the
semester about why you were not,why you were absent and I
should still pass you right.
Yeah, I'm like don't, do noteven.
(13:31):
And I tell students I'm likeyou might as well not.
And I have found myself in thepast nine years very rarely
changing grades, unless I made aslight clerical error, that
would be once or twice in thehundreds of students I've had in
the past nine years.
Other than that, I will notchange, you know anything.
Jackie Pelegrin (13:56):
Right, Because you're you're wanting to set
them up.
We do.
We want to set our students upfor success so that they can go
on to career.
There's a reason they're goingto school, it's not just you
know, you have an undergraduateschool.
It's not just a party, butthey're actually wanting to get
a career and things like that.
Dr. Albert Bramante (14:13):
Yeah, and things like that it's preparing
them for the real world.
And that's the real thing,because if I'm late on my rent
or on my, landlord and I comeand say, well, I'm having these
family problems, please grant mean extension or please wipe off
the rent, I'm going to getlaughed at.
(14:33):
I'm saying to people if I don'tpay my bills, if I come to the
your company and say you knowhardship, they're going to be
like well, tough luck.
Or the same thing with any job.
If I'm in a real job, if I'mnot doing it, I'll fall on my
way, I'm going to be let go.
Jackie Pelegrin (14:47):
Right, absolutely.
Dr. Albert Bramante (14:51):
That's why I think you know part of it and
I kind of even say like, look, Iam showing up as being
compassionate by doing thatBecause I'm, you know, preparing
you for the real world.
Now, if you do work and you'reprofessional and you do have
some genuine hardship, I willwork with you.
Jackie Pelegrin (15:10):
Yeah, I do the same thing too.
Dr. Albert Bramante (15:12):
And, yeah, I will work with you if you have
a you.
You know you reach out to meprivately while it's happening
about what you're doing.
I will work with you.
Like you know, I had somestudents during the pandemic who
uh, is it a mom of themselves?
You know we're head covid andwe're in the hospital.
Obviously they're not.
You know their priority is notgoing to be logging into the
(15:34):
zoom class or into the secondclass and doing the work.
But they reached out to mewhile it was happening and I
worked with them.
You know I was like, ok, we'llcome up with an alternative,
because it's all aboutprofessionalism and I think you
know it's a saying.
You know, if you show merespect, I'll show you respect
(15:56):
and that's the way it should be,would be true yeah, that's so
true.
Jackie Pelegrin (16:00):
Definitely, yeah.
So what's one piece of adviceyou would give to someone who
feels overwhelmed by self-doubtin a creative field like
education or even instructionaldesign?
Like what, what I do and whatmy list some of my listeners are
going into?
Dr. Albert Bramante (16:14):
well, the the main thing is to always take
stack of the accomplishmentsthat you've already.
You've already done.
So you have the training you,you know.
Now maybe you might not havetraining in formal education,
like you know I didn't have, butI knew what I was doing, you
know, and I had a trust inmyself.
(16:34):
So main thing is, like you knowyou can do this and really you
know, I would probably sit downwith someone and say, why did
you become a teacher?
Like, let's talk about that.
Most likely it's because theywant to share their knowledge or
to inspire.
Okay, so let's look each daythat you go into that classroom
or that you design thatcurriculum, you're there to
(16:58):
inspire your students, One ofthe things that and I'm going to
use a little bit of researchhere they've done studies that
demonstrate it.
Even before the class, theschool or the semester, school
year and semester began, theteacher's attitude and mindset
made a whole world of adifference.
So if I walk in like, let's say, at the beginning of the
(17:19):
semester, I'm going to have somany great students and I'm
going to have a great time,there's a high likelihood that
that's going to happen.
On the other hand, if I saythese darn students and I start
cursing them out they're so lazy.
I'm going to have such a roughtime.
That'll happen too.
So the main thing I would sayis try to get energized.
(17:45):
So the big thing about me withany type of work is taking
breaks A lot of times.
That's so important.
That's why they call it asummer vacation for a reason, or
(18:11):
a summer break a summervacation for a reason or not
focusing so much or stressingout over you know the upcoming
year or how you're going toapproach it.
Take time off because sometimesa lot of times burnout burnout
is very easy in this profession,unfortunately.
(18:33):
Right, it's very easy to getburned out and it's harder
sometimes to stay inspired.
So the important thing is to setboundaries and like even set a
schedule before the school yearbegins or the academic term
begins, like what you know,obviously your key, what your
teaching schedule is and whatyour design schedule is and what
(18:56):
your work schedule is.
Obviously that's going to takepriority, whatever your schedule
is.
But then schedule time in yourweek for a long time self-care,
family time.
If you have kids, children or afamily, spend time for family
time and then alone time.
Try to aim to do at least onething a week.
(19:17):
That's great that you enjoy.
Jackie Pelegrin (19:20):
I love that.
Yeah, that's that reminds me ofthat self care wheel right when
there's each part of the selfcare wheel that you know we
should practice and you know,yeah, so I love that.
It reminds me of that, becauseI've been to counseling before,
you know, during tough times,and so, yeah, I actually have a
copy of the wheel and I'll referto it and I'll think of my
(19:41):
counselor that helped me throughthat time and so, yeah, and I'm
sure that that's used inpsychology too, yeah, I mean
self-care is vital in this typeof work, because that's the
biggest factor, factor why weburn out because there is a lack
of self-care.
Dr. Albert Bramante (20:00):
We don't.
We're so focusing on, you know,am I helping my students, am I
helping other people that we'renot helping yourself?
Jackie Pelegrin (20:08):
right, right, that's true.
Yeah, it can happen in thehelping profession quite a bit,
and so so, yeah, that self careis so important?
Absolutely yes, definitely yeah, and that segues into a good
part about self esteem.
So you introduced techniquesfor raising self esteem in your
book.
Could you share a couple ofthese techniques and maybe a
success?
(20:28):
Story of someone who's applied.
Dr. Albert Bramante (20:31):
Well, well, the main thing is to you know,
first thing is to connect backto the reason, the why, and kind
of look at every behavior as apositive intention.
Remain, you know, reallyfocused on the main reason why
you want to become an educatoror teacher and, you know, having
(20:54):
a genuine care for others.
Now, another thing that'simportant is the company you
keep.
So really hang out with peoplethat are going, or associate
yourself with people that arepositive minded, people that are
all about improving themselvesand just not about negative
negativity.
About negative negativity,unfortunately, sometimes can
(21:18):
happen when you're in school oryou know whether in second you
know, secondary school or mentalschool or high school or even
college.
Sometimes you might find thatyou, you know, certain faculty
circles might vent a lot or kindof moan and complain, and I
would say just those aresituations as much as possible
to remove yourself from it's agood idea, yeah absolutely,
(21:42):
because it could easily you canget easily sucked into that
right and easily that couldeasily rub off on you and suck
you in yeah, and then it's hardto break away from that right
once you, once you get suckedinto that.
Jackie Pelegrin (21:57):
Yeah, that's so true.
Yeah, absolutely yeah, that's.
That's a great, great benefit,you know, benefit and technique
that we can, we can do aseducators, and I think even, um,
you know, in the creative areaof like instructional design,
curriculum development, it's uh,that happens too, and the job
(22:17):
that that we do as curriculumdevelopers, instructional
designers, where I work, it's uhwe're constantly just.
I mean, we do have a little bitof downtime in between the
semesters, but uh, you know,during the off semesters, right
During fall, you know, cause wehave fall and spring, but during
those off, times we have towork on their curriculum because
we have to get ready for thefall or for the spring.
(22:40):
So it's uh, you know we do have, so we work on a quarter system
, kind of like what you saidwith uh, you know where you've
been to school with Walden.
So we work on a quarter system.
So every three months we have aset of courses that we we work
on.
We either new development orrevise it, but it's a yeah, it's
(23:00):
so important.
So our department does a goodjob of that self-care and
connection and collaborationwith each other, because it's so
important, and especially whenyou feel like you're siloed and
isolated, working from home,that can, that can be so easy
yeah, yeah and that's a bigthing too, that I was going to
say it was connection.
Dr. Albert Bramante (23:20):
Connection is so important, especially when
raising self-esteem, beingconnected to, to something is so
important because, again, wecan get lonely lonely and we
found this especially during thepandemic during 2020.
You know, a big thing that wasso that was really effective was
our mental health, and ourmental health was a lot of times
(23:41):
affected because of theloneliness that we were
experiencing, and that's why wesaw, unfortunately, a lot of
substance abuse and alcoholismon the rise.
Because, again, the isolationand connection is important.
So one thing I would say is tryto definitely find
organizations, even online, youknow.
(24:01):
Try to find support groups orteachers and other instructional
designers, because they're outthere, and if they're not out
there, start one.
Just, you know, once a week,check in, you know, because it
can be lonely, but it doesn'thave to be Right.
Jackie Pelegrin (24:18):
Yeah, you just have to make the effort right
and reach out Of course.
Absolutely.
Yeah, I love that.
That's great.
So we know technology is justit's huge right now.
So what do you see as some ofthe benefits and drawbacks of
integrating different types oftechnology, including AI, into
the curriculum?
Dr. Albert Bramante (24:36):
Because we know AI is, it's not going
anywhere, it's staying AI ishere to stay and it is
developing at a lightning speed,which, again, is both good and
bad.
You know, a bit of a concern.
I don't want to say bad, but aconcern.
The good thing is is like I'mreally liking what I'm seeing
with the medical breakthroughsand all that and some of the
(24:59):
tech.
You know, just the automationstuff.
So maybe it could help witheducators or like lesson
planning and filing and all thatand just make the you know.
So we'll be more focused on theteaching is that you can be
more focused on the teaching andthe and, rather than so being
bogged down in paperwork.
And it also gives you an amountof research so you can get the
(25:22):
amount of answers you can get tocommon issues.
Now, the drawbacks areespecially if you're dealing
with chatbots, which are what wecall orange language models,
like ChatCBT, claw, gemini,perplexity.
They're all orange languagemodels and they have some great
capabilities, but they also havea tendency to hallucinate.
(25:47):
What do we mean by hallucinate?
It's not giving you entirelyaccurate information, right?
So this is why, when we'reusing it and I definitely think
it's good to use this, that youknow these things, but to do it,
you know, with a healthy senseof skepticism and not relying on
(26:10):
100.
So, you know, if, if you're aneducator, I wouldn't have AI, do
your entire lesson plan.
Now, what you could do is say,you know, here's what I'm doing,
here's my lesson plan, here'swhat I want to do.
You know, help me, come up withsome brainstorming ideas of how
to do it differently, what canI add, and then take it from
(26:34):
there.
But I would not, you know, dookay, design the lesson plan and
cut and paste it and then, youknow, submit it, because one it
doesn't.
Ai is again a language modellike Jad, cbd and Claude.
They're not, they don't havecreativity, they don't have the
(26:55):
intuition, they don't havecreativity, they don't have the
intuition, they don't have theexperience.
So, um, the other day I'm justgiving you a thing I was like,
um, I wanted to create, you know, my, like an intro class.
I was just wanting to see whatit can do.
So, give me an intro lectureand it was telling me what to
say, which had some goodinformation.
(27:16):
But then it was telling me youknow, use these different hand
gestures to mention rapport and.
I just was reading.
I looked like I was pantomiming.
You know I'm like this, wouldlike students wouldn't feel.
They'd be wondering if I'm okay.
Yeah exactly.
Jackie Pelegrin (27:33):
You know if I did that.
Dr. Albert Bramante (27:35):
So I think it's important to go to grain of
salt.
It's great again, give you ids,creativity, brainstorm, amplify
what you're doing, but itshould never replace what you're
doing now.
Another danger comes in,especially for the teachers and
instructors is the studentsthey're going to be using it?
There's no way around that.
(27:56):
We could lecture all day longand maybe force them in a
classroom setting if you'reactually in a physical classroom
setting, maybe turning yourWi-Fi off so they can't use it.
That's the only way you'regoing to get around with them
not using it Right Now.
What I would do I'd look for ifthe language is robotic,
(28:23):
repetitive and if it sounds likea and I don't like you know.
I know this may sound a littlediscriminatory, but if it sounds
like it's written slightlyabove the student's intellect, I
would start to question.
Jackie Pelegrin (28:38):
I would too.
Yeah, absolutely.
Dr. Albert Bramante (28:40):
Because I remember, you know I do a lot of
thought papers where I havestudents reflect on things and I
could automatically tell whensomething was chat TV.
Yeah, I really.
You know, this reading was suchan eye opening, I have such a
fond appreciation.
I'm like, yeah, um, this soundslike gemini, this sounds like
(29:04):
chat tbt, this sounds like, youknow, claude.
Now we can't.
The thing about what makes itchallenging when I because in
the past we could tell, we couldgo right to the source.
You know when students wouldplagiarize.
Yeah, that's so true.
Now we can't, because you and Icould do the same prompt in
something and write the promptthe exact same way.
(29:25):
But we and I are going to getdifferent answers because it
just depends upon the how theyou know the way the model works
at the moment.
We're going to get a completelyoriginal response.
You know, technically original,because it's not, but it still
is.
It's hard to prove Right.
The one thing you can do is askstudents to explain something
(29:48):
more, you know to you and do itverbally Like oh, I saw, you did
this, said this and this.
Tell me me, you know why you,you know what.
I'm just curious, what made youchoose it?
You know?
Statement.
It's very interesting yeah andif they really wrote the
material that we easily answer,they go, you know, because, okay
, great, then you can move on.
(30:10):
Um, if they can, you know, then, um, you would have to.
Then that would be a thing toquestion about.
Okay, this is about academichonesty, uh, but yet there's no
way you can stop them from doingthat, right?
there's no plagiarism checkerfor ai, yeah, and even so
(30:31):
because even that, even when wehad now, when I I mean it's
still there now, but when I wasfirst teaching and when I was in
grad school, we had serviceslike TurnItIncom.
Now it was good, but it reallyonly it didn't.
It would tell us, okay, all itwould tell you is how original
this paper is.
Right and very would rarelytell me that.
(30:54):
You know, because if I use,let's say, a same sentence that
was in some Right.
What I found humorous over theyears is some students were lazy
cheaters.
When I make my lazy cheaters, Iremember one time I used turn
(31:21):
on thecom and it brought meright to the article that they
used.
But when I felt what I laughedabout it was that they didn't.
They didn't just use thearticle like okay, they put copy
and paste to the entire article.
Oh my gosh, Wow, wow.
And one incidence which isreally comical was they cut and
(31:42):
paste the article but didn't, Iguess, change the formatting.
So I got the hyperlinks so whenI clicked the hyperlink I put
right up to the article.
So I I pulled this studentaside and both of these
instances, and I had the articleon my and I said I don't think
you're Jackie Smith PhD, are you?
And they would turn all theseover.
(32:04):
I didn't fail.
I said look, I'm going to askyou to do it again.
I'm going to definitely take apenalty.
You're going to get a penaltybecause, technically, this is
why I think the maybe you couldargue I know it was in my I
could have filed them andreported them to the
administration.
Yeah, I did, um, but I did ask,you know, or?
(32:28):
I think sometimes I might havejust given like zero for the
assignment which was almost, youknow, a third of their grade,
so obviously the grade was goingto go significantly down right
exactly um, but the the truth isis that I would just kind of
talk, and I I openly talk aboutChatGPT.
(32:49):
I'm like look, I know it's atool.
I know I don't even say it,even if you want to just use it
for this, you know, go ahead,because there's no doubt in
hiding it.
Because even when I wasteaching brick and mortar, a lot
of faculty members were soupset with students texting in
(33:12):
the classroom.
Now, yes, it is, it is a little, not gonna lie, uh, to have a
student texting in the classroom.
I'm like cell phones are secondnature, so I started having,
you know, do research.
I'd be like, okay, by the way,you may want to look this up on
your phone, but let your phonelook this up while I'm talking.
So my philosophy is like ratherthan looking at this as an
(33:36):
enemy, how can we use this as acollaborative tool?
Right, right, because when youmake something forbidden, you
make it more attractive.
So if I started walking withlike you better not use every
day, you better not use tags,hey, what are students going to
do?
They're going to naturallystart using it more and more.
Jackie Pelegrin (33:58):
Right, instead of policing it, let's yeah,
let's make it a collaborativetool.
Yeah, yeah.
Dr. Albert Bramante (34:03):
Yeah, let's make it a collaborative tool
and let me know what you think.
Like this semester, I'mteaching the class in theories
and personality, so I'm going toactually have you know where
you learn different theorieslike freud, young skinner, and
there's actually dpts and chatdbt that are these figures.
So part of the assignment, apart of a credit assignment, is
(34:26):
going going to be.
I want you to go on TaxEBT andhave a conversation with Freud
about what we've been coveringin GLAAD.
I love that and let me knowwhat you think and then write a
reflection on that, on what cameup, show me the chat and what
you did.
And it's like I said, as amatter of fact, most colleges,
(34:51):
at least the college I'm at, isreally aiming for how do we
implement this?
Again as an ally, right, but ofcourse, totally you know we do
have to put guardrails on it.
You know.
There's no doubt absolutely.
Jackie Pelegrin (35:02):
Yeah, we're doing that too at gcu.
Where, uh, we're we use thatstoplight method, where we're
trying to say red is no, youshould not use it for this
assignment, like quizzes, thingslike that, right, and then the
yellow is yes, but only incertain aspects, and then green
is like yes, you use it, goahead.
Dr. Albert Bramante (35:20):
Yeah.
Jackie Pelegrin (35:21):
Yeah, yeah, I agree.
It's because I thinkuniversities don't use it and
they shy, like you said, theythey ban it.
Then students are going to finda don't use it and they shy,
like you said, they ban it.
Then students are going to finda way to use it.
Dr. Albert Bramante (35:33):
Well, they're going to find a way
either on the phone or whenthey're not looking, because,
especially if it's an onlinequiz and you're not policing
them in the moment, in theface-to-face moment, who's to
say they're not going to use,you know, chat, tbt or look up
the answers elsewhere?
Jackie Pelegrin (35:51):
right, right, exactly.
And then they, yeah, they endup online.
Dr. Albert Bramante (35:55):
Or we've seen our quiz, our quizzes end
up online I remember a couple oftimes that I had to change mine
up, one of the when we used tohave blackboard.
Now we have a bright space butwe used to have blackboard as a
learning management system and Iused to put the quote you know
it was a quiz that would tell mehow long it would take.
(36:17):
You know the student, how manyminutes the students take to
take the quiz.
Now I, when I, when I firststarted using blackboard, I used
used to have 10-questionquizzes, you know, like 10
questions, and I gave them likean hour time limit, an hour and
a half time limit.
When I started seeing thestudents that were answering 10
(36:40):
questions in 90 seconds, aminute, two minutes, I couldn't
even answer that on my own intwo minutes and I wrote the quiz
.
You know, sometimes I couldn'teven answer that on my own in
two minutes and I wrote the quizsome time I couldn't even
answer that in that amount oftime.
So I knew something was up.
So the way I came around it iswhat I now do is I put an entire
(37:04):
bank of questions up and let'ssay, if I want to have a 20, you
know, 15 questions was for eachchapter or to examine, you know
, but the four chapter exam, youknow I might have like 12
questions per chapter, like tomake up 50.
But I'll have a bank of 60questions per chapter and it
(37:26):
randomly generates 12 questionsfrom that bank.
That's a great idea and Iscrambled the answers choices so
, like it may be the samequestion, the answer may be B,
but in another version thatchoice moves to C, so it
(37:46):
scrambles the choices up.
Yeah, I still think they'regonna find a way.
There's no way around it, butI've prevented a lot of that.
Jackie Pelegrin (37:56):
Yeah, at least you're kind of taking some
techniques and trying to atleast reduce, right, the amount
of cheating, yeah, as much asyou can yeah yeah, that's's so
true.
Yeah, I like too how youmentioned that example where you
know you ask them to have thatconversation and then they have
to give you that what the chatwas.
(38:16):
You know they have to producethat, so they have to show the
work, basically, yeah.
Dr. Albert Bramante (38:22):
And not you know, because it would be like,
well, I had a chat with Freud,it was a great discussion in the
end, but did you really Right?
And sometimes I would you know?
Because what I used to do and Istill do, I still implement a
lot of podcasts.
Incidentally, I love podcast.
So one of the things I still dois I have students listen to
(38:46):
podcasts, but I learned to startsaying, okay, I still do, is I
have students in a podcast?
But?
But I learned to start saying,okay, I need to see some direct
quotes from the podcast, cause Iused to say summarize the
podcast and say a reaction, andI could tell they were just
looking at the iTunes Spotifything of the podcast and just
putting it on words.
Jackie Pelegrin (39:06):
Oh, like looking at the transcript.
Dr. Albert Bramante (39:10):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Not even transcript, or evenjust the show notes or something
.
Oh right, a lot of hosts, ofcourse, like these old show
notes in there and right thenI'm like, no, no, do the do the
right thing there, yeah yeah,kind of reminds me of cliff
notes when we were in school andthey we used to.
Jackie Pelegrin (39:25):
You know, remember those yellow books with
the cliff notes.
Dr. Albert Bramante (39:28):
Well, it's the same thing, cause I was, I'm
not gonna, I'm not gonna lie, Iuse that all.
Yeah, you know, when I was onlysix, I mean I, I'm not also a
problem.
You really honest here.
I mean I, I you long time agobefore, chat gbd and ai, yeah, I
(39:52):
don't know if I wouldn't, youknow.
I mean, of course, now I wouldsay I would never know again.
I can't really say that, youknow, I, I can't really say that
.
Um, so if I can't say it, howcan I stop my students from from
from doing that?
When we stop our students, wecan't right.
But what we can do is teachethical usage.
Absolutely, yeah, it's like thesame thing with, like, teaching
a parent, you know, to parents,teaching their kids about drugs
(40:14):
.
You know, do we shy away fromher?
Do we actually have honestcommunication about drugs and
alcohol?
Right, because what we found is, you know, if you have those
honest communication with yourkid, you know with kids about um
drugs and alcohol, they're lesslikely to use it.
Right, same thing goes, I thinkwe have honest discussions
(40:35):
about cheating and a atransparent discussion yeah, and
what those boundaries are.
Jackie Pelegrin (40:41):
yeah, that's yeah, and I think, I see, I
think students appreciate thatright when're upfront, honest
with them and transparent.
Say here's what it is and I'mgoing to be here to help guide
you along the way.
So come to me.
And that's great.
You have that open, honestcommunication with your students
too.
(41:01):
So, yeah, that open door policyis so important.
Yeah.
Dr. Albert Bramante (41:06):
Oh, of course, 100%.
It's really important to havethat open door policy because it
shows like look okay, I knowthis is going on, let's talk
about it.
And I've had a lot of studentsbelieve it or not.
That surprise me when we haveconversations about AI when I
brought up especially the ethicsside of things, because in my
(41:27):
psychology class we talk aboutpeople turning the chat box to
therapy and what's the ethicsbehind that?
Jackie Pelegrin (41:34):
Oh, right yeah.
Dr. Albert Bramante (41:36):
Yeah, and then we talk about social
dynamics, how a lot of peopleare alarmingly turning to AI for
companionship Right Now.
That's my concern.
Both of those cases are highlyalarming.
Now, like personally, like Isaid, I use, I do utilize ai
daily for like content, researchand, you know, iteration, but I
(41:59):
think it's heavily concernedwhen we start turning it to for
therapy or for a companionship,because even sam alton and the
owner, the founder, of Tad TVTsaid this is not what we should
be using Lawrence Langley'smodel for.
Jackie Pelegrin (42:12):
Right, absolutely.
Yeah, it kind of goes beyondthe scope of what it was
intended for.
Absolutely.
Dr. Albert Bramante (42:19):
Yeah.
Jackie Pelegrin (42:20):
Yeah, so true, yeah, that's great advice.
I love that, albert.
So, as we wrap up, what areyour top tips or advice for
listeners who are looking totransition I'm going to say
education or instructionaldesign, because we've talked
about both or just starting outin the field?
Dr. Albert Bramante (42:34):
Well, the one thing is get connected to
people that are that are doingthis work.
Network.
Don't be afraid to askquestions.
There's plenty of tools tonetwork, whether in person,
online.
Always have the always belearning, you know, always in
person online, always belearning, always learn new
things, try new things out andjust stay connected to people.
(42:56):
And remember be gentle onyourself and self-care is
extremely important.
Do at least one thing a week.
That's for you all and for yourbenefit only, and it's okay to
be selfish.
I'm not.
I'm giving you that permissionto yeah do something once, at
least once a week.
That's for you, right yeah,that's great.
Jackie Pelegrin (43:18):
I love that.
I have a co-worker that has herdoctorate in psychology too,
and she did a professionaldevelopment that says self-care
is not selfish yeah, not.
Dr. Albert Bramante (43:28):
Not at all.
Not at all Because, if youthink about it, how are you
going to be effective in workingwith other people and educate
and inspiring others If you'renot taking care of yourself?
I mean it goes like if you evergo on an airplane when they
tell you, you know, put youroxygen mask on first before you
go on to help a child you knowor your family member.
(43:50):
So that's the important thingis put your mask on first,
meaning look out for yourselffirst yeah, so important.
Jackie Pelegrin (43:56):
Absolutely, yeah, I love that.
Uh, is there anything else youwanted to mention before we
close out today?
Dr. Albert Bramante (44:04):
no, I, I, I .
I would just say, you know, we,you have all the resources
within um, let's all vowtogether to make this, the
2025-26 academic school year, asmashing success.
We can all do it.
I'm caught, I'm claiming itwill be and it will be, you know
, and if I can do it, we can alldo it right, yeah, we're in
(44:26):
this together.
Jackie Pelegrin (44:26):
I, I love that.
Yes, yeah, great.
Thank you so much, albert, forsharing your insights today.
I know your experiences, tipsand expertise are sure to
inspire my listeners, so Igreatly appreciate it.
Dr. Albert Bramante (44:37):
Well, thank you.
Thank you so much for having me.
Jackie Pelegrin (44:40):
Anytime, I'm looking forward to having you
back sometime soon.
Dr. Albert Bramante (44:48):
I'd love to come back and I'd love to hear
from all the success stories,from your listeners, who made
this year a great one.
Jackie Pelegrin (44:52):
Great, I love that.
Wonderful Thanks again, albert.
Appreciate it.
Dr. Albert Bramante (44:56):
Thank you.
Thank you, Jack.
Jackie Pelegrin (44:59):
Thank you for taking some time to listen to
this podcast episode today.
Your support means the world tome.
If you'd like to help keep thepodcast going, you can share it
with a friend or colleague,leave a heartfelt review or
offer a monetary contribution.
Every act of support, big orsmall, makes a difference and
I'm truly thankful for you.
Hello and welcome to the Designing with
Love podcast.
I am your host, Jackie Pelegrin, where my goal is to bring you
information, tips, and tricks asan instructional designer.
Hello instructional designersand educators, welcome to
episode 60 of the Designing withLove podcast.
I'm thrilled to have Dr AlbertBramante, a veteran talent agent
(00:24):
, coach, and college professor,with me today.
Welcome, Albert.
Dr. Albert Bramante (00:29):
Thank you, Jackie.
Thank you so much for having me.
I'm really happy to be here.
Jackie Pelegrin (00:33):
Yes, I'm happy to have you here as well, thank
you.
So, to start, can you tell us alittle bit about yourself and
share what led you to focus oneducation and psychology?
Dr. Albert Bramante (00:41):
Well, I've always been interested in
knowledge and interested inlearning.
I had a strong love forlearning, I was always a book
reader and I think teaching iskind of and education is kind of
in my blood and DNA, because mymom was a teacher, an
elementary school teacher, firstgrade for 30 years, and my
(01:03):
father and oldest brother, whilethey weren't in formal
education, they were coaches,you know, physically, athletic
coaches.
So I think the combination ofcoaching and teaching kind of
just was in my DNA and I alwayshad a daydream, even when I was
in like middle school or highschool, that I'd be in front of
the classroom and teaching and Icouldn't wait to receive my
(01:28):
master's degree because I wasgoing to finally be able to
teach at the college level.
I didn't, incidentally enough,I had really no interest in K-12
education.
I mean, you know I don't wantto brag, but having a mom in the
system, I probably could havegotten a job over a traditional
(01:48):
candidate very easily.
I didn't want to.
You know, that was not my.
I don't think I would have hadthe patience or the you know,
the ability to work withchildren and teens, but I wanted
to teach.
After I received my master'sdegree, I put my resume into
community college in myneighborhood for adjuncts in all
(02:12):
different disciplines.
It wasn't specific, so I put infor psychology.
I didn't hear anything for liketwo years and it was after
Labor Day weekend.
I was looking for a job becauseI was working in the social
service sector for a couple ofyears and I was in a
grant-funded position after 9-11, and the grant ended.
So I was in my position.
(02:32):
So I was looking for a job and Iremember getting a phone call
the day after Labor Day in 2003.
And they had asked me you knowif I'm available, you know, to
come and have a conversation.
I didn't know what it was.
I was like sure, you know.
I was like I wasn't doinganything.
So I went down the same day.
It was like an hour early and Iwas there.
(02:57):
They asked me you know what myavailability was?
I said you know I'm fairlyavailable.
I said we call it the win yearbecause two adjunct faculty
members backed out on us thelast minute, the day before
classes begin.
We need someone to fill in.
Lo and behold.
I said I'm available.
(03:18):
They didn't even ask what mybackground was.
They didn't ask me anything,they just said great.
Next thing I hear I see her,the secretary, printing stuff
off the computer.
Not knowing anything, she goesoh, here's your class list.
You start tomorrow.
Oh my gosh, albert.
Wow, now I was just likewalking out of the in the right
(03:44):
home asking myself what justhappened, because now I had four
classes, not just one, but four, Not just one, but four, Three.
You know there were threesections of one class and then
one section of another class.
There were three sections ofchild psych and one section of
psych 101, which is the 102,where you teach at to work at, I
(04:06):
should say so 102.
So it was 101.
Well, okay, what do I do Now?
I had no formal training ineducation.
So what I did?
I said, okay, let me channelthe teachers I liked.
I made a list of all theteachers I liked and I said,
(04:30):
okay, what are the qualities?
What do they do?
Why do they like them?
And then I made another list ofteachers that I wasn't crazy
about.
What were they doing?
So I don't do that.
So I didn't sleep that night out.
I mean, I was a nervous wreck.
I walk into the college, I walkinto class and I just started
(04:52):
ad-libbing like crazy andbrought them.
So improvisation was reallyvaluable here.
Yeah, I'm sure, because Icouldn't.
I couldn't tell the students.
You know, hi, my name isProfessor Vermonti.
I have no idea what I'm doing.
But here we go, because thatwas the truth.
(05:12):
I have no idea what I'm doingand for the whole semester it
was pretty much I have no ideawhat I'm doing, but in a sense I
did because it was like more myintuition, I've always wanted
to be at that moment what I'mdoing.
But I, in a sense, I didbecause I it was like more my
intuition and when I, you know,I've always wanted to be at that
moment, I think that was likethe one thing that didn't like
like cause me to totally freakout, because I said, you know, I
(05:33):
waited my life to get here.
And here I am, I'm teaching, Iget to do what I love and you
know, and I think that kind ofpropelled me forward.
And then I realized how much Ilike it and how much I was just
enjoying myself up there,talking and having conversations
with the students and justimmensely enjoying it.
(05:56):
And at the end, towards the end, as the semester was wrapping
up, a lot of students werecoming up and saying this is my
favorite class, keep it up.
You know you're doing great.
I love this class and you knowI'm like, you know, keeping it
calm and cool in front of them.
But of course I wanted to jumpup and down and, you know, and
(06:18):
swing from the chandeliers,right, because I was so happy.
I was so happy and surprised,but happy.
And then once you know at theend, like you know that, because
at that time I was, I was a lotyounger well, um, they had said
to me like you're really young,you you must have been teaching
for a while.
And I went, yeah, and I lied, Iwas like no, this is my first
(06:43):
semester really.
So that was fall 2003 and I'vebeen doing it ever since now,
2025.
So what I like about it is Iget to share a passion of mine
(07:03):
and I get to share knowledge, Iget to have conversations and I
learn from my students, and Ithink one thing that really goes
, really helps with learning asubject, is being able to teach
it, because I can tell you Ilearned probably just as much
about psychology from teachingit than I did during my formal
(07:27):
education.
Jackie Pelegrin (07:28):
Yeah, I would agree with you on that.
Dr. Albert Bramante (07:29):
Yeah, so important yeah it's so important
to be able to teach you know,because so I mean, that's the
one thing I would say is thatreally helped me.
I think you would appreciate iteven more because how much I'm
learning each time I'm teaching.
I'm like this is amazing howmuch I know about you know,
about my field, and I'm stilllearning and I'm still, you know
(07:51):
, evolving.
So the important thing, I think, for any educators to have a
growth mindset and to keeplearning.
Jackie Pelegrin (08:40):
Absolutely.
Yeah, that's so important.
Yeah, I love that Because youknow you don't want to become
stagnant, right?
And yeah, I noticed that when Istarted teaching almost four
years ago in the field that I'min, in instructional design, it
really opened up my eyes todifferent things and it helped
me deepen my knowledge and myskills and I feel like I'm
(09:02):
better at my full-time job as aninstructional designer because
I teach and I'm able toempathize, I think a little bit
more than I used to, and Iunderstand the faculty, what
their issues are, because Iworked with subject matter
experts every day that arefaculty teaching, not in the
same discipline but a differentdiscipline.
But yeah, it makes such a?
(09:22):
huge difference when you can do,and I like what you said too,
about how you learn from yourstudents and they learn from you
.
It's a two way street and I, Ilove that because I don't want
to be the one and we both don't.
We want, we don't want to bethe one teaching at them, we
want to be teaching with them,with them I, I think there's.
Dr. Albert Bramante (09:43):
We can even add a third element, which that
sounds I mean, not only they,I'm learning from them, but
they're learning from each other.
So it's like a trifecta, youknow, they're, they're, I'm
obviously they're learning fromme, but I'm learning from them
and they're learning from eachother.
So, and that was a big thinglike for me.
You know, on all my classes Ireally emphasize participation
(10:06):
and class participation.
So that is so important, youknow, for me is to um really
bring that in there, um, theimportance of participation,
because, again, we're runningfrom each other, we're not, and
I want to hear what they have tosay.
And I think, you know, I'vealways been a proponent of you
(10:27):
know, we're adults and if I wantmy, you know, and every faculty
member, I'm sure, wants theirstudents to respect them.
But if you want them to respectyou as a teacher, you as a
teacher need to and shouldrespect the student.
Jackie Pelegrin (10:50):
Right yeah, absolutely so important.
Dr. Albert Bramante (10:55):
That is so important and I don't want to
turn turn this into a you knowum, a trash talk.
But I've seen, both as a studentand even as a faculty member,
other colleagues of mine thatwere like, what are you doing?
Yeah, and a lot of times theywould have students that were
comfortable enough that wouldcome to me like crying speak to,
(11:15):
said this to me is the resultof that to me, and I know who
they're talking about.
Of course, I'm not going to saytrash the teacher in front of
the student, but in my head I'mlike I believe the student that
was there, but I believe thathappened.
It's sad, but I believe thatthat happened.
So I think the important thingagain to be an effective
(11:37):
educator is we also need andshould demonstrate respect and
empathy and compassion for ourstudents Now, having said that,
also holding them to academicstandards, because there's a
fine line between showingcompassion and empathy but at
the same time, being a pushover,which I have to be honest,
(12:00):
again, to be self-reliant andcritical, I probably was, in my
first, you know, four or fiveyears of teaching, a bit of a
pushover, you know, or easygoing, laid back a little too much
that's how I was at first.
Yeah, yeah and that's the sameway.
And then when I had a heard andand what really woke me up to
(12:23):
it was hearing other students,you know, say that you know
about me, that oh, thisprofessor, a lot of students,
and they get advantage of them.
And I had a couple studentseven coming with me, you know,
even anonymously, send me emails, you know where I know it was
like you need to be tougher withsome of your students in the
(12:44):
class and I was like, okay.
So I think that there's a fineline between empathy and respect
and compassion, but also beingfirm with standards.
And the past nine years havebeen kind of.
I've been like that.
I will be empathy if a studentis going through a tough time.
(13:09):
The one thing I will not beempathy and I tell this the
first day of class if you stopcoming to class and then all of
a sudden give me a sob story atthe absolute last day of the
semester about why you were not,why you were absent and I
should still pass you right.
Yeah, I'm like don't, do noteven.
(13:31):
And I tell students I'm likeyou might as well not.
And I have found myself in thepast nine years very rarely
changing grades, unless I made aslight clerical error, that
would be once or twice in thehundreds of students I've had in
the past nine years.
Other than that, I will notchange, you know anything.
Jackie Pelegrin (13:56):
Right, Because you're you're wanting to set
them up.
We do.
We want to set our students upfor success so that they can go
on to career.
There's a reason they're goingto school, it's not just you
know, you have an undergraduateschool.
It's not just a party, butthey're actually wanting to get
a career and things like that.
Dr. Albert Bramante (14:13):
Yeah, and things like that it's preparing
them for the real world.
And that's the real thing,because if I'm late on my rent
or on my, landlord and I comeand say, well, I'm having these
family problems, please grant mean extension or please wipe off
the rent, I'm going to getlaughed at.
(14:33):
I'm saying to people if I don'tpay my bills, if I come to the
your company and say you knowhardship, they're going to be
like well, tough luck.
Or the same thing with any job.
If I'm in a real job, if I'mnot doing it, I'll fall on my
way, I'm going to be let go.
Jackie Pelegrin (14:47):
Right, absolutely.
Dr. Albert Bramante (14:51):
That's why I think you know part of it and
I kind of even say like, look, Iam showing up as being
compassionate by doing thatBecause I'm, you know, preparing
you for the real world.
Now, if you do work and you'reprofessional and you do have
some genuine hardship, I willwork with you.
Jackie Pelegrin (15:10):
Yeah, I do the same thing too.
Dr. Albert Bramante (15:12):
And, yeah, I will work with you if you have
a you.
You know you reach out to meprivately while it's happening
about what you're doing.
I will work with you.
Like you know, I had somestudents during the pandemic who
uh, is it a mom of themselves?
You know we're head covid andwe're in the hospital.
Obviously they're not.
You know their priority is notgoing to be logging into the
(15:34):
zoom class or into the secondclass and doing the work.
But they reached out to mewhile it was happening and I
worked with them.
You know I was like, ok, we'llcome up with an alternative,
because it's all aboutprofessionalism and I think you
know it's a saying.
You know, if you show merespect, I'll show you respect
(15:56):
and that's the way it should be,would be true yeah, that's so
true.
Jackie Pelegrin (16:00):
Definitely, yeah.
So what's one piece of adviceyou would give to someone who
feels overwhelmed by self-doubtin a creative field like
education or even instructionaldesign?
Like what, what I do and whatmy list some of my listeners are
going into?
Dr. Albert Bramante (16:14):
well, the the main thing is to always take
stack of the accomplishmentsthat you've already.
You've already done.
So you have the training you,you know.
Now maybe you might not havetraining in formal education,
like you know I didn't have, butI knew what I was doing, you
know, and I had a trust inmyself.
(16:34):
So main thing is, like you knowyou can do this and really you
know, I would probably sit downwith someone and say, why did
you become a teacher?
Like, let's talk about that.
Most likely it's because theywant to share their knowledge or
to inspire.
Okay, so let's look each daythat you go into that classroom
or that you design thatcurriculum, you're there to
(16:58):
inspire your students, One ofthe things that and I'm going to
use a little bit of researchhere they've done studies that
demonstrate it.
Even before the class, theschool or the semester, school
year and semester began, theteacher's attitude and mindset
made a whole world of adifference.
So if I walk in like, let's say, at the beginning of the
(17:19):
semester, I'm going to have somany great students and I'm
going to have a great time,there's a high likelihood that
that's going to happen.
On the other hand, if I saythese darn students and I start
cursing them out they're so lazy.
I'm going to have such a roughtime.
That'll happen too.
So the main thing I would sayis try to get energized.
(17:45):
So the big thing about me withany type of work is taking
breaks A lot of times.
That's so important.
That's why they call it asummer vacation for a reason, or
(18:11):
a summer break a summervacation for a reason or not
focusing so much or stressingout over you know the upcoming
year or how you're going toapproach it.
Take time off because sometimesa lot of times burnout burnout
is very easy in this profession,unfortunately.
(18:33):
Right, it's very easy to getburned out and it's harder
sometimes to stay inspired.
So the important thing is to setboundaries and like even set a
schedule before the school yearbegins or the academic term
begins, like what you know,obviously your key, what your
teaching schedule is and whatyour design schedule is and what
(18:56):
your work schedule is.
Obviously that's going to takepriority, whatever your schedule
is.
But then schedule time in yourweek for a long time self-care,
family time.
If you have kids, children or afamily, spend time for family
time and then alone time.
Try to aim to do at least onething a week.
(19:17):
That's great that you enjoy.
Jackie Pelegrin (19:20):
I love that.
Yeah, that's that reminds me ofthat self care wheel right when
there's each part of the selfcare wheel that you know we
should practice and you know,yeah, so I love that.
It reminds me of that, becauseI've been to counseling before,
you know, during tough times,and so, yeah, I actually have a
copy of the wheel and I'll referto it and I'll think of my
(19:41):
counselor that helped me throughthat time and so, yeah, and I'm
sure that that's used inpsychology too, yeah, I mean
self-care is vital in this typeof work, because that's the
biggest factor, factor why weburn out because there is a lack
of self-care.
Dr. Albert Bramante (20:00):
We don't.
We're so focusing on, you know,am I helping my students, am I
helping other people that we'renot helping yourself?
Jackie Pelegrin (20:08):
right, right, that's true.
Yeah, it can happen in thehelping profession quite a bit,
and so so, yeah, that self careis so important?
Absolutely yes, definitely yeah, and that segues into a good
part about self esteem.
So you introduced techniquesfor raising self esteem in your
book.
Could you share a couple ofthese techniques and maybe a
success?
(20:28):
Story of someone who's applied.
Dr. Albert Bramante (20:31):
Well, well, the main thing is to you know,
first thing is to connect backto the reason, the why, and kind
of look at every behavior as apositive intention.
Remain, you know, reallyfocused on the main reason why
you want to become an educatoror teacher and, you know, having
(20:54):
a genuine care for others.
Now, another thing that'simportant is the company you
keep.
So really hang out with peoplethat are going, or associate
yourself with people that arepositive minded, people that are
all about improving themselvesand just not about negative
negativity.
About negative negativity,unfortunately, sometimes can
(21:18):
happen when you're in school oryou know whether in second you
know, secondary school or mentalschool or high school or even
college.
Sometimes you might find thatyou, you know, certain faculty
circles might vent a lot or kindof moan and complain, and I
would say just those aresituations as much as possible
to remove yourself from it's agood idea, yeah absolutely,
(21:42):
because it could easily you canget easily sucked into that
right and easily that couldeasily rub off on you and suck
you in yeah, and then it's hardto break away from that right
once you, once you get suckedinto that.
Jackie Pelegrin (21:57):
Yeah, that's so true.
Yeah, absolutely yeah, that's.
That's a great, great benefit,you know, benefit and technique
that we can, we can do aseducators, and I think even, um,
you know, in the creative areaof like instructional design,
curriculum development, it's uh,that happens too, and the job
(22:17):
that that we do as curriculumdevelopers, instructional
designers, where I work, it's uhwe're constantly just.
I mean, we do have a little bitof downtime in between the
semesters, but uh, you know,during the off semesters, right
During fall, you know, cause wehave fall and spring, but during
those off, times we have towork on their curriculum because
we have to get ready for thefall or for the spring.
(22:40):
So it's uh, you know we do have, so we work on a quarter system
, kind of like what you saidwith uh, you know where you've
been to school with Walden.
So we work on a quarter system.
So every three months we have aset of courses that we we work
on.
We either new development orrevise it, but it's a yeah, it's
(23:00):
so important.
So our department does a goodjob of that self-care and
connection and collaborationwith each other, because it's so
important, and especially whenyou feel like you're siloed and
isolated, working from home,that can, that can be so easy
yeah, yeah and that's a bigthing too, that I was going to
say it was connection.
Dr. Albert Bramante (23:20):
Connection is so important, especially when
raising self-esteem, beingconnected to, to something is so
important because, again, wecan get lonely lonely and we
found this especially during thepandemic during 2020.
You know, a big thing that wasso that was really effective was
our mental health, and ourmental health was a lot of times
(23:41):
affected because of theloneliness that we were
experiencing, and that's why wesaw, unfortunately, a lot of
substance abuse and alcoholismon the rise.
Because, again, the isolationand connection is important.
So one thing I would say is tryto definitely find
organizations, even online, youknow.
(24:01):
Try to find support groups orteachers and other instructional
designers, because they're outthere, and if they're not out
there, start one.
Just, you know, once a week,check in, you know, because it
can be lonely, but it doesn'thave to be Right.
Jackie Pelegrin (24:18):
Yeah, you just have to make the effort right
and reach out Of course.
Absolutely.
Yeah, I love that.
That's great.
So we know technology is justit's huge right now.
So what do you see as some ofthe benefits and drawbacks of
integrating different types oftechnology, including AI, into
the curriculum?
Dr. Albert Bramante (24:36):
Because we know AI is, it's not going
anywhere, it's staying AI ishere to stay and it is
developing at a lightning speed,which, again, is both good and
bad.
You know, a bit of a concern.
I don't want to say bad, but aconcern.
The good thing is is like I'mreally liking what I'm seeing
with the medical breakthroughsand all that and some of the
(24:59):
tech.
You know, just the automationstuff.
So maybe it could help witheducators or like lesson
planning and filing and all thatand just make the you know.
So we'll be more focused on theteaching is that you can be
more focused on the teaching andthe and, rather than so being
bogged down in paperwork.
And it also gives you an amountof research so you can get the
(25:22):
amount of answers you can get tocommon issues.
Now, the drawbacks areespecially if you're dealing
with chatbots, which are what wecall orange language models,
like ChatCBT, claw, gemini,perplexity.
They're all orange languagemodels and they have some great
capabilities, but they also havea tendency to hallucinate.
(25:47):
What do we mean by hallucinate?
It's not giving you entirelyaccurate information, right?
So this is why, when we'reusing it and I definitely think
it's good to use this, that youknow these things, but to do it,
you know, with a healthy senseof skepticism and not relying on
(26:10):
100.
So, you know, if, if you're aneducator, I wouldn't have AI, do
your entire lesson plan.
Now, what you could do is say,you know, here's what I'm doing,
here's my lesson plan, here'swhat I want to do.
You know, help me, come up withsome brainstorming ideas of how
to do it differently, what canI add, and then take it from
(26:34):
there.
But I would not, you know, dookay, design the lesson plan and
cut and paste it and then, youknow, submit it, because one it
doesn't.
Ai is again a language modellike Jad, cbd and Claude.
They're not, they don't havecreativity, they don't have the
(26:55):
intuition, they don't havecreativity, they don't have the
intuition, they don't have theexperience.
So, um, the other day I'm justgiving you a thing I was like,
um, I wanted to create, you know, my, like an intro class.
I was just wanting to see whatit can do.
So, give me an intro lectureand it was telling me what to
say, which had some goodinformation.
(27:16):
But then it was telling me youknow, use these different hand
gestures to mention rapport and.
I just was reading.
I looked like I was pantomiming.
You know I'm like this, wouldlike students wouldn't feel.
They'd be wondering if I'm okay.
Yeah exactly.
Jackie Pelegrin (27:33):
You know if I did that.
Dr. Albert Bramante (27:35):
So I think it's important to go to grain of
salt.
It's great again, give you ids,creativity, brainstorm, amplify
what you're doing, but itshould never replace what you're
doing now.
Another danger comes in,especially for the teachers and
instructors is the studentsthey're going to be using it?
There's no way around that.
(27:56):
We could lecture all day longand maybe force them in a
classroom setting if you'reactually in a physical classroom
setting, maybe turning yourWi-Fi off so they can't use it.
That's the only way you'regoing to get around with them
not using it Right Now.
What I would do I'd look for ifthe language is robotic,
(28:23):
repetitive and if it sounds likea and I don't like you know.
I know this may sound a littlediscriminatory, but if it sounds
like it's written slightlyabove the student's intellect, I
would start to question.
Jackie Pelegrin (28:38):
I would too.
Yeah, absolutely.
Dr. Albert Bramante (28:40):
Because I remember, you know I do a lot of
thought papers where I havestudents reflect on things and I
could automatically tell whensomething was chat TV.
Yeah, I really.
You know, this reading was suchan eye opening, I have such a
fond appreciation.
I'm like, yeah, um, this soundslike gemini, this sounds like
(29:04):
chat tbt, this sounds like, youknow, claude.
Now we can't.
The thing about what makes itchallenging when I because in
the past we could tell, we couldgo right to the source.
You know when students wouldplagiarize.
Yeah, that's so true.
Now we can't, because you and Icould do the same prompt in
something and write the promptthe exact same way.
(29:25):
But we and I are going to getdifferent answers because it
just depends upon the how theyou know the way the model works
at the moment.
We're going to get a completelyoriginal response.
You know, technically original,because it's not, but it still
is.
It's hard to prove Right.
The one thing you can do is askstudents to explain something
(29:48):
more, you know to you and do itverbally Like oh, I saw, you did
this, said this and this.
Tell me me, you know why you,you know what.
I'm just curious, what made youchoose it?
You know?
Statement.
It's very interesting yeah andif they really wrote the
material that we easily answer,they go, you know, because, okay
, great, then you can move on.
(30:10):
Um, if they can, you know, then, um, you would have to.
Then that would be a thing toquestion about.
Okay, this is about academichonesty, uh, but yet there's no
way you can stop them from doingthat, right?
there's no plagiarism checkerfor ai, yeah, and even so
(30:31):
because even that, even when wehad now, when I I mean it's
still there now, but when I wasfirst teaching and when I was in
grad school, we had serviceslike TurnItIncom.
Now it was good, but it reallyonly it didn't.
It would tell us, okay, all itwould tell you is how original
this paper is.
Right and very would rarelytell me that.
(30:54):
You know, because if I use,let's say, a same sentence that
was in some Right.
What I found humorous over theyears is some students were lazy
cheaters.
When I make my lazy cheaters, Iremember one time I used turn
(31:21):
on thecom and it brought meright to the article that they
used.
But when I felt what I laughedabout it was that they didn't.
They didn't just use thearticle like okay, they put copy
and paste to the entire article.
Oh my gosh, Wow, wow.
And one incidence which isreally comical was they cut and
(31:42):
paste the article but didn't, Iguess, change the formatting.
So I got the hyperlinks so whenI clicked the hyperlink I put
right up to the article.
So I I pulled this studentaside and both of these
instances, and I had the articleon my and I said I don't think
you're Jackie Smith PhD, are you?
And they would turn all theseover.
(32:04):
I didn't fail.
I said look, I'm going to askyou to do it again.
I'm going to definitely take apenalty.
You're going to get a penaltybecause, technically, this is
why I think the maybe you couldargue I know it was in my I
could have filed them andreported them to the
administration.
Yeah, I did, um, but I did ask,you know, or?
(32:28):
I think sometimes I might havejust given like zero for the
assignment which was almost, youknow, a third of their grade,
so obviously the grade was goingto go significantly down right
exactly um, but the the truth isis that I would just kind of
talk, and I I openly talk aboutChatGPT.
(32:49):
I'm like look, I know it's atool.
I know I don't even say it,even if you want to just use it
for this, you know, go ahead,because there's no doubt in
hiding it.
Because even when I wasteaching brick and mortar, a lot
of faculty members were soupset with students texting in
(33:12):
the classroom.
Now, yes, it is, it is a little, not gonna lie, uh, to have a
student texting in the classroom.
I'm like cell phones are secondnature, so I started having,
you know, do research.
I'd be like, okay, by the way,you may want to look this up on
your phone, but let your phonelook this up while I'm talking.
So my philosophy is like ratherthan looking at this as an
(33:36):
enemy, how can we use this as acollaborative tool?
Right, right, because when youmake something forbidden, you
make it more attractive.
So if I started walking withlike you better not use every
day, you better not use tags,hey, what are students going to
do?
They're going to naturallystart using it more and more.
Jackie Pelegrin (33:58):
Right, instead of policing it, let's yeah,
let's make it a collaborativetool.
Yeah, yeah.
Dr. Albert Bramante (34:03):
Yeah, let's make it a collaborative tool
and let me know what you think.
Like this semester, I'mteaching the class in theories
and personality, so I'm going toactually have you know where
you learn different theorieslike freud, young skinner, and
there's actually dpts and chatdbt that are these figures.
So part of the assignment, apart of a credit assignment, is
(34:26):
going going to be.
I want you to go on TaxEBT andhave a conversation with Freud
about what we've been coveringin GLAAD.
I love that and let me knowwhat you think and then write a
reflection on that, on what cameup, show me the chat and what
you did.
And it's like I said, as amatter of fact, most colleges,
(34:51):
at least the college I'm at, isreally aiming for how do we
implement this?
Again as an ally, right, but ofcourse, totally you know we do
have to put guardrails on it.
You know.
There's no doubt absolutely.
Jackie Pelegrin (35:02):
Yeah, we're doing that too at gcu.
Where, uh, we're we use thatstoplight method, where we're
trying to say red is no, youshould not use it for this
assignment, like quizzes, thingslike that, right, and then the
yellow is yes, but only incertain aspects, and then green
is like yes, you use it, goahead.
Dr. Albert Bramante (35:20):
Yeah.
Jackie Pelegrin (35:21):
Yeah, yeah, I agree.
It's because I thinkuniversities don't use it and
they shy, like you said, theythey ban it.
Then students are going to finda don't use it and they shy,
like you said, they ban it.
Then students are going to finda way to use it.
Dr. Albert Bramante (35:33):
Well, they're going to find a way
either on the phone or whenthey're not looking, because,
especially if it's an onlinequiz and you're not policing
them in the moment, in theface-to-face moment, who's to
say they're not going to use,you know, chat, tbt or look up
the answers elsewhere?
Jackie Pelegrin (35:51):
right, right, exactly.
And then they, yeah, they endup online.
Dr. Albert Bramante (35:55):
Or we've seen our quiz, our quizzes end
up online I remember a couple oftimes that I had to change mine
up, one of the when we used tohave blackboard.
Now we have a bright space butwe used to have blackboard as a
learning management system and Iused to put the quote you know
it was a quiz that would tell mehow long it would take.
(36:17):
You know the student, how manyminutes the students take to
take the quiz.
Now I, when I, when I firststarted using blackboard, I used
used to have 10-questionquizzes, you know, like 10
questions, and I gave them likean hour time limit, an hour and
a half time limit.
When I started seeing thestudents that were answering 10
(36:40):
questions in 90 seconds, aminute, two minutes, I couldn't
even answer that on my own intwo minutes and I wrote the quiz
.
You know, sometimes I couldn'teven answer that on my own in
two minutes and I wrote the quizsome time I couldn't even
answer that in that amount oftime.
So I knew something was up.
So the way I came around it iswhat I now do is I put an entire
(37:04):
bank of questions up and let'ssay, if I want to have a 20, you
know, 15 questions was for eachchapter or to examine, you know
, but the four chapter exam, youknow I might have like 12
questions per chapter, like tomake up 50.
But I'll have a bank of 60questions per chapter and it
(37:26):
randomly generates 12 questionsfrom that bank.
That's a great idea and Iscrambled the answers choices so
, like it may be the samequestion, the answer may be B,
but in another version thatchoice moves to C, so it
(37:46):
scrambles the choices up.
Yeah, I still think they'regonna find a way.
There's no way around it, butI've prevented a lot of that.
Jackie Pelegrin (37:56):
Yeah, at least you're kind of taking some
techniques and trying to atleast reduce, right, the amount
of cheating, yeah, as much asyou can yeah yeah, that's's so
true.
Yeah, I like too how youmentioned that example where you
know you ask them to have thatconversation and then they have
to give you that what the chatwas.
(38:16):
You know they have to producethat, so they have to show the
work, basically, yeah.
Dr. Albert Bramante (38:22):
And not you know, because it would be like,
well, I had a chat with Freud,it was a great discussion in the
end, but did you really Right?
And sometimes I would you know?
Because what I used to do and Istill do, I still implement a
lot of podcasts.
Incidentally, I love podcast.
So one of the things I still dois I have students listen to
(38:46):
podcasts, but I learned to startsaying, okay, I still do, is I
have students in a podcast?
But?
But I learned to start saying,okay, I need to see some direct
quotes from the podcast, cause Iused to say summarize the
podcast and say a reaction, andI could tell they were just
looking at the iTunes Spotifything of the podcast and just
putting it on words.
Jackie Pelegrin (39:06):
Oh, like looking at the transcript.
Dr. Albert Bramante (39:10):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Not even transcript, or evenjust the show notes or something
.
Oh right, a lot of hosts, ofcourse, like these old show
notes in there and right thenI'm like, no, no, do the do the
right thing there, yeah yeah,kind of reminds me of cliff
notes when we were in school andthey we used to.
Jackie Pelegrin (39:25):
You know, remember those yellow books with
the cliff notes.
Dr. Albert Bramante (39:28):
Well, it's the same thing, cause I was, I'm
not gonna, I'm not gonna lie, Iuse that all.
Yeah, you know, when I was onlysix, I mean I, I'm not also a
problem.
You really honest here.
I mean I, I you long time agobefore, chat gbd and ai, yeah, I
(39:52):
don't know if I wouldn't, youknow.
I mean, of course, now I wouldsay I would never know again.
I can't really say that, youknow, I, I can't really say that
.
Um, so if I can't say it, howcan I stop my students from from
from doing that?
When we stop our students, wecan't right.
But what we can do is teachethical usage.
Absolutely, yeah, it's like thesame thing with, like, teaching
a parent, you know, to parents,teaching their kids about drugs
(40:14):
.
You know, do we shy away fromher?
Do we actually have honestcommunication about drugs and
alcohol?
Right, because what we found is, you know, if you have those
honest communication with yourkid, you know with kids about um
drugs and alcohol, they're lesslikely to use it.
Right, same thing goes, I thinkwe have honest discussions
(40:35):
about cheating and a atransparent discussion yeah, and
what those boundaries are.
Jackie Pelegrin (40:41):
yeah, that's yeah, and I think, I see, I
think students appreciate thatright when're upfront, honest
with them and transparent.
Say here's what it is and I'mgoing to be here to help guide
you along the way.
So come to me.
And that's great.
You have that open, honestcommunication with your students
too.
(41:01):
So, yeah, that open door policyis so important.
Yeah.
Dr. Albert Bramante (41:06):
Oh, of course, 100%.
It's really important to havethat open door policy because it
shows like look okay, I knowthis is going on, let's talk
about it.
And I've had a lot of studentsbelieve it or not.
That surprise me when we haveconversations about AI when I
brought up especially the ethicsside of things, because in my
(41:27):
psychology class we talk aboutpeople turning the chat box to
therapy and what's the ethicsbehind that?
Jackie Pelegrin (41:34):
Oh, right yeah.
Dr. Albert Bramante (41:36):
Yeah, and then we talk about social
dynamics, how a lot of peopleare alarmingly turning to AI for
companionship Right Now.
That's my concern.
Both of those cases are highlyalarming.
Now, like personally, like Isaid, I use, I do utilize ai
daily for like content, researchand, you know, iteration, but I
(41:59):
think it's heavily concernedwhen we start turning it to for
therapy or for a companionship,because even sam alton and the
owner, the founder, of Tad TVTsaid this is not what we should
be using Lawrence Langley'smodel for.
Jackie Pelegrin (42:12):
Right, absolutely.
Yeah, it kind of goes beyondthe scope of what it was
intended for.
Absolutely.
Dr. Albert Bramante (42:19):
Yeah.
Jackie Pelegrin (42:20):
Yeah, so true, yeah, that's great advice.
I love that, albert.
So, as we wrap up, what areyour top tips or advice for
listeners who are looking totransition I'm going to say
education or instructionaldesign, because we've talked
about both or just starting outin the field?
Dr. Albert Bramante (42:34):
Well, the one thing is get connected to
people that are that are doingthis work.
Network.
Don't be afraid to askquestions.
There's plenty of tools tonetwork, whether in person,
online.
Always have the always belearning, you know, always in
person online, always belearning, always learn new
things, try new things out andjust stay connected to people.
(42:56):
And remember be gentle onyourself and self-care is
extremely important.
Do at least one thing a week.
That's for you all and for yourbenefit only, and it's okay to
be selfish.
I'm not.
I'm giving you that permissionto yeah do something once, at
least once a week.
That's for you, right yeah,that's great.
Jackie Pelegrin (43:18):
I love that.
I have a co-worker that has herdoctorate in psychology too,
and she did a professionaldevelopment that says self-care
is not selfish yeah, not.
Dr. Albert Bramante (43:28):
Not at all.
Not at all Because, if youthink about it, how are you
going to be effective in workingwith other people and educate
and inspiring others If you'renot taking care of yourself?
I mean it goes like if you evergo on an airplane when they
tell you, you know, put youroxygen mask on first before you
go on to help a child you knowor your family member.
(43:50):
So that's the important thingis put your mask on first,
meaning look out for yourselffirst yeah, so important.
Jackie Pelegrin (43:56):
Absolutely, yeah, I love that.
Uh, is there anything else youwanted to mention before we
close out today?
Dr. Albert Bramante (44:04):
no, I, I, I .
I would just say, you know, we,you have all the resources
within um, let's all vowtogether to make this, the
2025-26 academic school year, asmashing success.
We can all do it.
I'm caught, I'm claiming itwill be and it will be, you know
, and if I can do it, we can alldo it right, yeah, we're in
(44:26):
this together.
Jackie Pelegrin (44:26):
I, I love that.
Yes, yeah, great.
Thank you so much, albert, forsharing your insights today.
I know your experiences, tipsand expertise are sure to
inspire my listeners, so Igreatly appreciate it.
Dr. Albert Bramante (44:37):
Well, thank you.
Thank you so much for having me.
Jackie Pelegrin (44:40):
Anytime, I'm looking forward to having you
back sometime soon.
Dr. Albert Bramante (44:48):
I'd love to come back and I'd love to hear
from all the success stories,from your listeners, who made
this year a great one.
Jackie Pelegrin (44:52):
Great, I love that.
Wonderful Thanks again, albert.
Appreciate it.
Dr. Albert Bramante (44:56):
Thank you.
Thank you, Jack.
Jackie Pelegrin (44:59):
Thank you for taking some time to listen to
this podcast episode today.
Your support means the world tome.
If you'd like to help keep thepodcast going, you can share it
with a friend or colleague,leave a heartfelt review or
offer a monetary contribution.
Every act of support, big orsmall, makes a difference and
I'm truly thankful for you.
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