This podcast highlights the Verizon Innovative Learning Program. We currently have 12 Middle Schools involved in the comprehensive program as well as 6 secondary schools in the hotspot program. On the podcast is Sara Crawford, Deputy Director of Professional Learning, Verizon Innovative Learning Schools. Also on the podcast is our very own Catherine Arellano, Verizon Innovative Learning Coach at Coleman Middle School, and Tiffany Bonfiglio, Production Control Supervisor in our IST Department.
To learn more about Verizon Innovative Learning visit: https://verizon.digitalpromise.org/
This podcast highlights the Verizon Innovative Learning Program. We currently have 12 Middle Schools involved in the comprehensive program as well as 6 secondary schools in the hotspot program. On the podcast is Sara Crawford, Deputy Director of Professional Learning, Verizon Innovative Learning Schools. Also on the podcast is our very own Catherine Arellano, Verizon Innovative Learning Coach at Coleman Middle School, and Tiffany Bonfiglio, Production Control Supervisor in our IST Department.
To learn more about Verizon Innovative Learning visit: https://verizon.digitalpromise.org/
You have no idea because we're talking about one of my favorite topics in the district, the Verizon Innovative Learning schools program. And I will tell you this one is a whole lot of magic in 12 buildings. You know, we have some super friends with us here today. Rob, should we introduce them?
Rob Dickson:Absolutely.
Dyane Smokorowski:All right, we're gonna start with Katherine Ariana. Hi, Catherine.
Catherine Arellano:Hi. Yes, my name is Katherine Ariano. And I am one of the villas coaches at Coleman Middle School. So this is my second year in bills.
Dyane Smokorowski:Next up, we have Sarah Crawford. Hi, Sarah.
Sara Crawford:Hi, everyone. I'm Sarah Martinez Crawford. I work with the Verizon Innovative Learning Schools Team. I'm the Deputy Director of Student Impact and been with this program for almost seven years now.
Dyane Smokorowski:That is awesome. And Tiffany Bonfiglio from our own district.
Rob Dickson:Welcome back everyone. Rob and Smoke here with What the EdTech. This is our second episode of our podcast. And we have a great group in front of you today. I'm super excited smoke. Are you excited?
Tiffany Bonfiglio:Hello, I am Tiffany Bonfiglio, the supervisor of production control here centrally at Information Services and Technology.
Dyane Smokorowski:Rob, like I said, we rounded up the Superfriends to talk about the good things that are happening. What would you say makes you most excited about the VILs program in which schools?
Rob Dickson:You know, I'm so excited just because there's such a holistic approach to transformation. And I got exposed to the Verizon Innovative Learning program while I was in Omaha Public Schools as a part of cohort five. And now in Wichita, we're part of cohort eight. And Sara will kind of highlight what those cohorts look like. But what I love about today is there's a lot of intentionality and how to transform schools. And there's a definitely a very much how do we support that program. And, and there's some district supports that we'll talk about today, as well as some program supports from Verizon Innovative Learning. And so, you know, I guess how we start, Sara, you want to kind of give us a history of Verizon Innovative Learning, and how Digital Promise, you know, brought the program to districts like ours.
Sara Crawford:Yeah, so I can give you thank you for that introduction, Rob. So we have, you know, as we know, millions of under resourced students in America lack access to technology, and then the skills that they have to be successful in today's digital world. So they may not have that exposure to connectivity and technology. They also struggle to keep their schools interested in STEM subjects, and teach those different STEM related topics. So as part as Verizon its commitment to digital inclusion, Verizon Innovative Learning, provides free technology access, and innovative learning programs that transform learning experiences in school and then can also transition into the home. It enables students to have what they need to thrive in a digital world. And so what that means in like regular terms is we give schools access, so data to connect at school, and then also at home, because that's where we see the biggest need is once students get home, they don't have access, to connect and to get the resources to support them in their learning. We also have, you know, complete, you talked about it a little bit earlier, Rob that that wraparound support. So not only do we say hey, here's here's a device that can help to support your learning. We supply the data so they can use them, the devices at home, they can use them at practice, after school in places where they may normally not have access to the internet. But then we also support all facets of the program. We have professional learning that supports the teachers, we have full time funding for a full time coach at each campus. We have IT systems and supports that we provide to the school as well. So really want to make sure that we're supporting schools to be to create systems and processes and to embed that learning into every day so that they can take that knowledge and be sustainable without us. The program is a it's a first two year program. When you get the initial grant or the initial project the funding is for two years and then it renews on an application basis for the next two years. So you could have a total of four years of support and access throughout the program. So I just talked a lot, I can give you some quick numbers and then transition back. So in this, we've been around since 2012. And during that time, we've reached over 480,000 students. And this fall, we just welcomed in 183 additional new students. So school wise that looks, we're reaching a total of 511 schools. And just this last year, we added an additional 246 schools, one of our biggest cohorts since we started, those are some amazing statistics.
Rob Dickson:Now, I've been a part of Verizon Innovative Learning prior to COVID. And after COVID, what does that look like from a VILs perspective, you see districts across the nation going one to one at a rapid pace? And so are you seeing some differences between the cohorts that were before the pandemic and those that are after the pandemic?
Sara Crawford:Yeah, that's a great question. And if I may take it back, just to when the pandemic first started, we have our had our Ville schools and, you know, you're very familiar with, with what that looked like. Our build schools really had the strategies and the the supports to be up and running when they got the call that everything was shutting down, right. So I would say on one of our schools that we have here in Tucson, Arizona was the principal was telling me, you know, we're about two months ahead of where everybody else was, because of what we already had in place, we had the systems, we have procedures for supporting students, we had ways for them to connect with their teachers at home. So this is kind of really sharing the knowledge that they had with other schools around them in their district. So now we saw the need. Districts are now getting equipment, right, there's funding for them to purchase equipment, what they may not have is the connectivity. So we have adjusted a little bit, and now we have a hotspot program where they can get a hotspot which allows them to connect to their device, and they can have access to their their district funded device or supported device. And then we've also seen our professional learning change a little bit in that teachers have a pretty good idea of that they love what they need to do. But now it's kind of digging a little bit deeper into how to actually make that learning meaningful. So everybody has heard before, pre pandemic, people thought that it was a great idea to give your students something to do but now everybody has access. And now they want to dig a little bit deeper into actually meaningful and engaging learning and trying to actually transform what that learning looks like in the classroom.
Rob Dickson:So here at Wichita public schools, we have 12 middle schools that are in the bills, comprehensive program. And then we have six other schools that are in the in the MiFi program. And so we have the opportunity to have an amazing coach on this podcast today. And Smoke, you want to introduce Katherine and kind of go into, you know, your perspective smoke on on how you get to help these VILs coaches grow and what that looks like here in Wichita Public Schools.
Dyane Smokorowski:I would say we're very fortunate that we have so many VILs coaches, as a group to be a wonderful cohort. And I am so lucky that every Friday during Friday Learning Lab, these women come to IST. And we deep dive more into what is authentic learning look like what is student agency, what is Teacher agency? And still how do we meet the standards? By putting in the level of deep thinking the rigor of not not meaning tons of information. Rigor is in helping students to think deeper and more critically about the content so that they can show demonstrations of understanding with variety of tools and resources. So I get to be the lucky one who gets to hang out with amazing people like Ms. Katherine and Katherine, why don't you talk to us a little bit about what you do at Coleman.
Catherine Arellano:So I get the best job there possibly is I get to work with our teachers and give them different ideas, different tech tools of how they could use the iPads in their classrooms. So a lot of what I do is I work with our MTSS facilitator or our instructional coach to help deliver the information that comes from the district by adding in different tech tools to her presentation. So, for example, we did a Data Dive a couple of weeks ago, and we turned it into an amazing race. And so we showed what that looked like to gamify a lesson. So it's always my intention to help provide and show them those tools that they can use in their classrooms.
Dyane Smokorowski:And with that, I think it's important Catherine to also share that some of the professional learning that you've done to help bring that in has maybe not been what most people would describe as traditional professional learning what's different about what we do.
Catherine Arellano:So we get to share different ideas of like how to give students voice and choice in their learning. It shouldn't be about a one size fits all, teachers should be able to give their students different opportunities. So maybe if I want to share that I know how to do a specific target, I show through a Nearpod. So maybe I create an Nearpod. Or maybe I participate in Nearpod. Maybe I use flip, which was previously Flipgrid to explain my learning. So being able to show the different ways that students can actually show their learning rather than just like I said, a one size fits all, maybe I just take a test, we kind of want to show more engaging ways. And with the student agency portion. And my favorite part of all is that because these students have devices with anytime, anywhere learning at connectivity, we can take students outside to explore essential questions, writing and doing some photography kinds of challenges, we can take them to the zoo, we can take them anywhere, and the students still can create, and then research and explore in real time. So is that in place based learning works great with the Verizon innovative learning system. And I think I'm really excited about that as well. Being able to go outside, we're getting ready to be an environmental magnet. So I think the possibilities are endless when it comes to different things that our students will be able to access not just in our building.
Rob Dickson:You know, you've highlighted something that's so unique when you look at digital equity and access our 12 VILs Middle Schools that have both staff, and students with a device with internet really does kind of unplugged them from the space that they're in, and where learning can happen. I think, you know, for us, it's that uniqueness that we can show how things can happen outside of the classroom. And so when you when you look at supporting something like that, our district shifted to a one to one faster than I've ever seen like it was in a matter of months. And so supporting that type of model is difficult. And you as a part of Verizon Innovative Learning, one of the things that I'm so that I love so much about the program is creating those student tech teams, and we have students that help us in those tech teams. Catherine, can you give perspectives of what students do at Coleman around?
Catherine Arellano:Yeah, yeah, so we have a teacher that teaches it. He has taught our students how to go out and help with the different things, the different, maybe even problems that we're having with iPads. So if a student is having trouble getting on our portal, maybe they help them with that process, there's a couple things they can look at. So he's taught them how to do that. There's also we do tech checks. And so if our students have 90%, battery, or higher, they get a punch on their little tech card. So that's really exciting. Then at the end, if they get five punches, they get to turn it in for a prize. So giving our students that student tech team is a leadership team. They're learning leadership skills when they go in there, which is really great as well. And here in Wichita public schools, we take that support one step further, Tiffany, you want to kind of talk about how we support the VILs program and also how we support other buildings with some innovative approaches to technology support.
Tiffany Bonfiglio:Sure. So kind of as a second level support to what our bills team is doing within their student tech teams, and then also utilizing their site technology technicians. We have our product support team. We have our Help Desk team here centrally that supports them a little bit at a higher level and then also creating that engagement and supporting a little bit of training. I mean within those buildings for STS is and and allowing that that collaboration to happen there as well. So our product support team has their own buildings that they support hardware on the hardware support side. And then Rob mentioned some innovative ways that we've created some supports with WSU tech. So we have some WSU tech teams that we've created a partnership with Ennovar. And those students go out and support those team or those, excuse me buildings. Most of them have at least two buildings that they support throughout the week. So that's one way that we've kind of spread our support and, and supportive buildings a little bit different than we've been able to in the past.
Rob Dickson:And we'll highlight in another podcast that WSU tech piece because I think it's unique here in the future, we'll be having some career pathways that our own Wichita public school students will be doing that tech work while getting paid while getting district credit, and dual credit from WSU applied learning. And I think that's a unique program that to see our kids grow and also filled our needs as we accelerated to a one to one so quickly. So this has been such a great conversation. Sara, do you have anything else to add from the digital promise perspective?
Sara Crawford:I want to plus something that Katherine and you Rob, we're talking about what those student tech teams. Really my favorite part of this is to see the impact it can have on students, and giving the students that ownership of their learning and the agency, those are the schools that we really see the most success from. And those districts, when the students are in control, and they're the biggest advocates on the campus, they're, they see their value, and they're part of something that it can be kind of goes beyond them and has a bigger purpose. So I just really want to highlight that piece and show that what an important component that is. Then also thinking about for the teachers, you know, they have the opportunity, especially with the with your high schools, right, to decide their path, and what like microcredentials, they would like to submit for as part of their professional learning. So also giving, we talked about giving students choice and voice, we're also giving our teachers, you know, they're putting their learning in their own hands and having them be able to decide what content they want to pursue, and what fits with where they are in their practice at that time, as well. So I really just do appreciate the opportunity that this program gives. And for leaders like you all on this, on this call here, that support the educators and the students, and really finding out what they need and then pursuing their interests as well. So, you know, just a little plug to say thank you, and also talk about the impact and just how powerful it can all be.
Rob Dickson:Thank you, Sara. I love the VILs program, particularly just because when I look at middle school, as an education, organization, we focus so much on preschool, and we focus so much on high school, that sometimes I feel like middle school students get left out and some of those supports and when you think about a kid their their life changes so much in middle school, maybe maybe the most change that they'll have right? And to focus on that area give exploratory whether that be via robotics or other pieces that just kind of act like a spark for that that learning style, I think. I think it's amazing. Smoke. What do you have that?
Dyane Smokorowski:I would say that my favorite part is hearing the stories of where students are lighting up and discovering what they can do. We have a student at Hamilton Middle School who discovered scratch coding program last year, he was using it in one of his exploratory classrooms. And he began just to launch into great game design on his own. And this is a student who might not have found success in many other areas. But this opportunity gave him a chance to be creative, and really became kind of this small little celebrity, I guess you would say in his own community where like, you know how to do that. And it's, it was just such a big win for that young man. But Katherine, I know you have a story in your building. Tell me a student who's making you're making you smile these days.
Catherine Arellano:Oh gosh, um, I think the ones that it might not be a specific student, but the ones like I've walked into a classroom before where they're playing Minecraft, and you would think automatically like, oh gosh, it's Minecraft. What does this have to do with education. But they were learning about bees pollinating through this minecraft game that they were playing. So they all were in the same world working together to pollinate the flowers. And it was just really cool to see how engaged the students were. And then even taking that outside of their classroom and maybe building a world or creating something that they might not have even thought of before.
Rob Dickson:Well, that's awesome. Well, how can one if a district hasn't gone and looked at Verizon innovative learning, how might they learn more about us, Sara.
Sara Crawford:So you can go to digital promises website, and there is a link right on there for you to explore. And also, right now we are in the process of recruiting our cohort 10 schools. And so there is an actual like application, right on digital promises website. And you can fill out an interest form and find out a little bit more, there's little snapshots and then an overview of our program. We also will share like stories of impact too, if you're interested in just kind of reading some of the impact that the program has had across our schools.
Rob Dickson:Awesome. Thanks so much. Thanks, Catherine. Thanks, Sarah. Thanks, Tiff. Smoke. I think we're out.
Dyane Smokorowski:Until next time friends.
Rob Dickson:See ya