Speaker 1: OTAN, Outreach and Technical Assistance Network.

Rusanna Hernandez: Hi, everybody. So it's going to be very interactive today. So like every two or three slides, you'll see, I'm going to ask questions. So get ready to type and share. I'm trying to make it as interactive as I can with this setup.

So the session is on getting started with computers. Right off the bat, I'm going to tell you this is an in-person class because we had some major problems with our demographics. We have students-- a lot of students-- who have never turned a computer on, who don't know how to use a mouse, who don't know how to double click. So those aren't things you could teach them online.

We found that the best way was for them to come on campus in small groups and do this with us online. So that's what this presentation is going to cover. We've already done three sessions like this since November. And we're going on the fourth one in one week. We just finished our last one.

So basically what you're going to get out of the session today is it's like a hands-on computer class. It's only five times. It's a workshop setup. And it helps students with level gains. I'll talk about that. I'm going to tell you how it leads to their success and our success.

So I just want to tell you a little bit about me. I used to think that no one cared. But they do. People always want to know who it is that speaks and presents. So we actually immigrated to the United States in 1989 from Armenia because it was part of Soviet Union, and we were trying to get away from communism.

And then we came to the US. I did pretty well with schooling. I went to Cal State LA, got my bachelor's degree from there. I worked in the public sector-- I'm sorry, private sector. I was doing accounting, financial insurance stuff right out of college. And I even had my own small business, which still exists, but very, very small scale. But ultimately, I found that it wasn't for me.

So I ended up applying for jobs, specifically at public schools. I got a clerical job. I was a clerk typist. Then I became secretary and then a bookkeeper at Fontana High School. And then I decided that I had a really good thing going with high school students. So I got my teaching credentials, and then I became a teacher.

So by day, I was teaching high school math at the high school. And then in the evenings, I was coming to adult school, and I was teaching adult school classes, which is why when we had an opening for an assistant principal position, since I had my admin credentials at that time, I went ahead and applied. So it's been three years that I've been assistant principal here at the Adult School.

And that's my family. I have two young children. And my husband and I have been married about 17 years. It will be 17 years coming up soon. That's me teaching to a GED students, GED math. And then I actually won a big award when I was a teacher, high school math teacher. So that's the picture you see with our superintendent and the county superintendent. And that was a big honor for me. I'm really proud of that moment.

Holly Clark: Rusanna?

Rusanna Hernandez: Yes, ma'am?

Holly Clark: We do have one question in the chat that just says, did you do this online or in person?

Rusanna Hernandez: In person, all in person.

Holly Clark: Perfect. Thank you.

Rusanna Hernandez: You're welcome. So at Fontana Adult School, our biggest program is ASL. Majority of our students are here to learn English. And as soon as we get them in, we try to have them go into the GED program, maybe the diploma program, citizenship. Our CTE programs are office occupations, interpreter-translator, paraprofessional, cottage foods is like when they make foods at home and then they sell them, and the medical classes, pharmacy tech, medical assistant.

So a couple of fun facts. So this is where you get to share. If any of these apply to you, then if you could just say, yeah, me too, to say something in the chat, I'd appreciate it. So I'm left handed. But I guess my parents said that it wasn't proper to be left handed. I don't know if it's a Soviet Union thing. I don't know. So they taught me to try to do as much as I can with the right. It didn't work except the writing. I write with the right, but I do everything else with the left.

I've not dyed my hair. This is my natural hair. I'm waiting for it to go gray until I do it. I bite my nails like crazy. I've done it ever since I was young. So if you bite your nails put something in the chat so we could connect. I love Seinfeld. I like-- well, I love I Love Lucy. In fact, my daughter is named Lucy because of I Love Lucy.

I love watching The Office. And I have a website that's called efficiencyandorganization.com, where I put how you could be more efficient in life and stuff. And I'm seeing some chats. Let's see what people are saying. So this is the part. Holly, what are they saying?

Holly Clark: So what we have is that the South also does the left hand thing. We have Rusanna, we are twins separated at birth. I like Seinfeld. Me too with the left handed. I love Lucy.

Rusanna Hernandez: Oh, good.

Holly Clark: I don't use hair dye anymore. I love Seinfeld and I Love Lucy. I love Seinfeld and The Office. I like Seinfeld-- well, love. And hair dye-- really bright for COVID. And former nail biter.

Rusanna Hernandez: Former! I know how they did it. I get them done because of that, but, yeah, I'm going to go tomorrow. Some questions, if you are an administrator or if you're not in the classroom, like let's say you work for a company and stuff, if you could show a reaction. I just want to gauge to see who's what in the group, because we have 28 right now. So I'm just trying to see who's what. So if you go to the reaction and put it. I think this is something I could actually see.

Oh, good. I found one person. Second person, third. Now, if you work at a school site, can you react? Because this is probably-- I see some thumbs ups. And then if students-- are students allowed to come back? As far as I know, things are changing rapidly, especially with the law that was passed. If they are-- are students allowed to come back to your school site? Do you know, yes or no? So if you want to do thumbs up or some kind of a reaction. Oh, good some people are typing too.

Holly Clark: Yes. In the chat we have started to come back case by case. And then for one-on-one testing and for testing only. And then now we have out of the classroom. But not administrator working with all programs. Yes, for enrollment and testing. For testing only. So it looks like they're coming back. One says we're going to be face to face in April.

Rusanna Hernandez: Yeah, which is like right around the corner. So here's the thing with us. The testing, I'm glad that came up. Our CASAS testing we've been doing in person since May. So our district said if I submit a step-by-step protocol and convince them that it's going to be safe, they would let us do it. So since May, we've been doing it. We have a room that's really big. And we measured with a tape measure to make sure. We wanted to see the square footage, and we learn now from Corona-Norco actually. They're the ones who taught us how to do this.

Even know the room could fit, like, 48 people, we only do 14. That's how spread out it is. So since that was kind of like a trial for us, we saw, OK, it's working. Nobody's really getting sick. Upon walking in, we're checking temperature. We're giving them a wipe so they have to go in and wipe their station.

We do it where in between sessions, we schedule the appointments so that way when they come in the custodian has enough time to go clean. But even then, see, it's all about like them feeling that it's safe. They don't see the custodian cleaning, right? So what we do is we give them a wipe upon entry. We go, you know what? Just wipe now and wipe before you leave, just in case.

So it's been working out well. This was since May of last year. And then we saw that that was going OK. We started doing our Pearson VUE testing. So we've been doing GED testing and stuff all this time. So this is how the Getting Started With Computers came up. When we registered students, especially in August, we were noticing that they were coming, registering, but they weren't attending.

It's like, what's the point of registering if you're not going to attend? Then we found out that it's because they didn't have computers, number one. And when they did have computers-- let me close this-- it was that they didn't know how to use it. I'm telling you, they were they never even knew how to turn it on.

So we were like, if they don't even know how to turn on a computer, how the heck do you teach a class online? They used to be able to open up their Zooms on their phones. But then they were coming complaining that they couldn't see. The phone was too small.

So that's why for us, we said, no, we're going to do this in person. I'm going to be honest with you. We had a very hard time getting teachers for it. So guess who did the first sessions in November? I did. I did morning and night. I'm the assistant principal, but I'm still a credentialed teacher.

So I did the classes. It's three hours, 9:00 to 12:00 in the morning, 4:30 to 7:30 at night. So we offered it to the students. They have to wear masks. And we are doing it in the MPR.

Now, look at the picture that you see on the screen. Look how much space there is between the students. It's a lot of space. It's the big cafeteria. And there's only 15 students in there. So of course it's going to work out. The desks are spread apart.

Now, here's the thing. I do walk around, and I go and show them things. I'm wearing my gloves. I change them frequently. Like every five minutes or so I'm changing my gloves. Because if I go to this guy, I'm touching. I'm showing him what to do. Obviously, I might take his germs to the other guy when I go. So I change the gloves frequently.

And then sometimes I don't wear the gloves, but I have the hand sanitizer that I use. So that way I can make sure I'm cleaning as I go. So MPR, 15 students, I have a computer cart in the back. That's where they go grab the computers and use it.

We have had since November four sessions. Our next one, because it's so popular, it's going to start on May 15. And it's only-- let me see-- five times only. So it's Monday, Wednesday, Monday, Wednesday, Monday, and we're done-- five times only.

The reason I did that was because I wanted to see if I could get more of the students to stay if they knew it was short term. And yes, they are staying. In the beginning, I might have 1 student drop out of the 15, but the rest come back. You guys, I think it has a lot to do with it being short term because it's kind of like they see an end in sight.

And each class, they know exactly what I'm going to cover. So they know, oh, yeah, this is the Microsoft Word day. This is the PowerPoint day. This is the Excel day. This is the Outlook day. So I'm going to show you what I do each class session.

Holly Clark: And Rusanna, we do have a couple-- one comment, one question. Mary said, we issued out many of our devices and then also began a computer basics. And then Margaret asked, does a laptop battery last?

Rusanna Hernandez: Yes, because we charge them. So I'm the one who picks them up in the morning. So overnight they had charged. And then what I do is as soon as I'm done, 12 o'clock, the custodian comes, wipes, puts them back in the charger. So, yes, they do last. Good question.

Holly Clark: Thank you.

Rusanna Hernandez: Yes. Any others, Holly?

Holly Clark: No, that is it for now.

Rusanna Hernandez: So the gloves, we have them, but we don't say that they have to wear them. Masks, obviously, they do. But the gloves we make sure we have plenty up on the stage area so that they could pick them up if they want to. They get a wipe at the end.

As they walk in, I check temperature. I give them a wipe just so they could feel better wiping their table, wiping their computer. And then with me, if I can, I have a tutor because it's really hard. They need so much help. It's like my uncle.

My uncle was a welder. He never, ever in his life touched a computer. He didn't have to. So it's like I can just imagine telling him all of a sudden you have to learn from home. He would have a hard time. So he would come to a class like this.

But you could imagine never ever having used it, double click anything before, not knowing what cap lock, is tab is. It's hard for them, right? So that's why what I do is I try to, if it's a big class, like 14, 15 people, and I'm the only person, I try to get either somebody to come with me. Because I had a hard time initially getting teachers to come, I did have college tutors come to help me in the class to circulate and help also.

Holly Clark: And we do have one new question. What kind of wipe for the computer and keyboard? Isn't it bad for the electronics? And also, Clorox wipes aren't allowed in our district, I don't think. Is that an issue for anyone?

Rusanna Hernandez: I don't know if they're Clorox, honestly. All the wipes are from the district. We have a site that we go, and we order the gloves. We order even the face shields and stuff, we put it. I use whatever they give us. And that's a good point. Maybe it is bad for the technology. But we use it, you guys. We've been doing this since May. And it's been OK. We haven't had any technology go bad on us. But she does have a good point.

I don't use the wipes at home, my Clorox wipes on my laptops at home. But here, it's been OK. So far so good.

Holly Clark: And someone else that we wipe down all of our Chromebook and laptops with Clorox wipes, haven't had any problems since August. And we have Clorox wipes from the district. So that's it for now.

Rusanna Hernandez: Yeah, that's a good point. I don't know if it's Clorox, but they're definitely disinfecting wipes. And I'm just using what they gave us. They actually told us, do not buy anything on your own. You must use what we give you. So that's what we're doing. That's from the maintenance department.

Question, are there teachers willing to go on site to work with students at your site? Do you guys know? Are the teachers willing to come back, not come back? Can you guys just kind of share in the chat? I'm just kind of curious.

Holly Clark: We have a yes. Currently no. Sant-Cloth, and we have training to use this product. Some are willing to come back, yes. We're having this discussion next week. Some. They are nervous, and the cleaning as a big issue. We have been working on site since August, small groups, one on one, all teachers.

Teachers are willing, but we have push back from the union. A few, including myself but others, still do not want to. No people on campus yet. No, we are currently doing a six-week all-online computer training class, which has its challenges. Waiting till fall. Los Angeles Unified School District is voting district right this week on whether or not teachers are willing to return without certain conditions in place.

We have choice per our agreement to be on campus or not. We're also doing an online computer class, just started this week. The union is voting. Our teachers just filled out a survey about this. 85% of our teachers said they would return if vaccinated. We are getting our vaccines tomorrow.

Rusanna Hernandez: So my vaccine, the second one is today. So right after I'm done here I'm going to go to Loma Linda and get my second vaccine. But when we started this, we didn't even have the vaccine. It was in November. So I think, yeah, from what I'm hearing, that actually sounds like a lot of people do want to go back. So that's good.

So I just barely got a teacher to join me after she got vaccinated. So that way she could learn how to do Getting Started With Computers and take over. So she's going to be with me. She was with me this last time. She felt comfortable enough. Because she got the vaccine, she said, yeah, I'll come help you. I'll watch you.

She's going to do the next one with me. That starts March 15 because it's only five sessions. And as of April, she'll take over completely. But, yeah, the vaccine helped tremendously in her mind to help herself. Like, she wanted to make sure she'll be OK when she comes and works with the students.

And when she did come back, she goes, oh, my gosh, what a relief because I feel like I'm out of the house finally. She just felt like she was back in her element. It was so cute. Every session she said that.

How about students, you guys? Because I'm talking to students, and they're kind of giving like-- I don't know. Do you think that the students are going to come back? Or what are you guys hearing from the students? Are they willing to come back? And then also are they not attending because of computer issues like the ones I'm describing, where they're welders and they're like custodial, cleaning, housekeeping, and they've never really use the computer before?

Holly Clark: So I'll go ahead and start reading as they come in. Students are nervous to return and waiting for their children to return to school so they can return. Asians no and others yes. The district decides when we return. Our teacher union decides how we return. Our students have mixed feelings.

No, they aren't. Students are holding off on registering until we come back. Many said they would not, but this was in January. Only 20% said yes, and the remaining said not yet.

Students have been mostly able to come in and participate. But many of them enjoy working from home and then come in when needing support. Some are willing to come back. The older students are hesitant.

Our students want to return, but they're nervous. Our teachers want to return, but they're nervous. We have several families who've dealt with COVID in their families, or they are supporting sick family members. My students from older adult programs at SD CCE really like the online format, more accessible to them.

There are those who do miss the in-person interaction, but there are many that would not return yet until the pandemic is under control. Our numbers were cut in half in March of 2020. Students now, less than 50% want to continue online. Some probably stay back. But most of our students are liking the online class and want to continue. They have learned a lot of tech skills, even the older adults. And that's it for now.

Rusanna Hernandez: Got it. So here's how we do the classes. So before they even come in to go in the cafeteria to do any of this, they have to take the CASAS test. And they have to do the application. So that we do right off the bat.

And then here's what we do. In the first session, the application part is already done. But basically I talk to them about hardware, software. Like, they don't know what a USB drive is. So this is like our population here. They don't know what that is.

I talk to him about internet safety, digital citizenship. They don't know how to do online searches. I'll give you an example. We had ESL classes at our local community college, Chaffey College. So the counselor who was trying to help them register, she said she couldn't register them online because they didn't know how to go in the search and type www.chaffey.edu.

She said she had a hard time. So I said, OK, don't worry. I'll make sure in Getting Started With Computers we're teaching the students how to do those basic search skills. So we do 100 searches.

First they have to go in and type www.barnesandnoble.com, target.com, walmart.com. And then what we do is then do the search key, like where they could go and search. And then something comes up, and they click on it. So things like that, that we take for granted that we know how to do, we found with our students was an issue. So I cover that on the first day, like the first session.

Right clicking, left clicking, that's a big deal. They're still having a hard time. So the double clicking is a big deal. Like, they go click, click, and then by then it's like the line becomes blue. I'm telling you, the things that we used to take for granted, they were having a lot of trouble with. So we had to practice on the first day 30 times, click-click, click-click, click-click so that they could learn how to double click.

The monitors, where's the on? Where's the off? How do you control that? So all those things we had to do on the first day. Question again, do you guys have issues like that? Have you seen students come in or talk to you? Do they know how to double click, right click, left click? Do they know the difference?

Holly Clark: While they're typing, we have had a couple of requests for your PowerPoint. And so I've let them know that they can email you and that you will send your PowerPoint to them. And so when you have a chance, if you can either say your email address, and I will type it in here, or if you can type it in the chat.

Rusanna Hernandez: Yeah, I'm going to put it in the chat.

Holly Clark: Many students actually are using tablets only. And Jill said we have the same problems. Hold on. The chat's moving very quickly. Many beginning level students have basic computer issues, mouse clicking. And with Chromebooks, they don't know how to use the touch pad so mouse, monitor don't apply to them. Oh, I'm sorry. So Laura had said, many students are actually using tablets only. So the mouse and monitor don't apply to them. And then Kelly, would you be willing to share your five-session lesson plan for this class?

Rusanna Hernandez: Definitely, I am. The whole thing I'm willing to share. If it's going to help anybody, I'll just give you the PowerPoints, and you do whatever you need to do. You can even change them and make them your own. I'm definitely going to share.

Holly Clark: So here's a couple more. Yes, SS were computer illiterate. So two years ago we used ESL computer basic textbooks. We used to do a popular beginning class. The teacher supplemented with PowerPoints. Even when we were in person, many students, older adults, had trouble with clicking, double clicking, dragon, cutting, pasting, turning on and off, controlling volume. I've dedicated time to teaching these skills and also continue repeating.

We have Chromebooks with a mouse I had for another program. There's some websites that had clicking practice. There's two more comments. We have a basic course for ASL in the past and basically continued this in shorter version. So many students do not know how to type. So many students do not know how to type, keyboard familiar, et cetera. I taught low-level and high-level computers for several years before COVID. So we went online mid-March. It worked, but the students had already learned some tech skills.

Rusanna Hernandez: Oh, my god, who's the person who said that they used to teach? See that's our mistake. [inaudible] little technology.

Holly Clark: Linda-- I hope I'm pronouncing it right, Linda Laymon.

Rusanna Hernandez: That's awesome, Linda. Oh, my gosh, if we knew this was going to happen, we would have really put some effort into teaching them these skills.

Holly Clark: And Beverly said teachers teach typing.

Rusanna Hernandez: Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, I think in the classes, in the ESL classes, they used to do a little bit of typing. They use that as a strategy because they said that some of the students were arriving too late. And so they would have them do 15 minutes of typing in the beginning. But, yeah, that was only in some classes not all of them.

So, yeah, this is the hardware stuff that we teach on the first day, parts of a computer-- so number lock, backspace, enter, cap lock. That's another thing I noticed was every time they had to make a capital, like I want to go, they would do cap lock I, cap lock. So I had to really get them to use shift, what the shift was four. Comma, period, at, exclamation-- so in the beginning, if you remember, I told you that besides the persistence being really strong in the class, I hardly lost any students in either session. The other thing that was really good was the CASAS, you guys.

So how they had to do the CASAS in the beginning before they came to the class? The rate of people going up points on CASAS was like 86%, I think, from the three sessions that I did. The level ups, it's like 65%. They actually went up a level. Because if you add it up, it ends up being like 15 hours, right? It's five sessions. Each one is three hours. It ends up being like 15 hours.

So I do on the last day, the last hour, I have everybody in the class do the post CASAS. And then right away I go and I check and see what the level gains are. 60%, right about. The first class was great. It was like 70%. But after that it's been about 60%. But they get a level gain. So that's why I think a lot of this vocabulary that you're seeing really helps them.

Holly Clark: And Rusanna, Beverly asked, do you use a textbook?

Rusanna Hernandez: No, I came up with all this. You know how? After talking to the teachers, they were like, they don't know how to do this. They don't know how to do that. So that's when I went. And then I was like, OK, so if we do five sessions, what can I cover in each one to make sure that all these things that the teachers are saying that the students need are covered?

And then also from just our experiences with CASAS, like the things that you guys mentioned in the chat that the students are having a hard time, that's why I put those things like the double clicking and then the shift and the cap lock was because it was all as a result of this. That's why I have no textbook or any-- I just kind of came up with that based on what we saw was a need. So that's a good question, Bev.

Holly Clark: And then Jill asked, is this computer class aligned to co-op?

Rusanna Hernandez: Yeah. So here's what happened. Because I've never taught ESL, I used to be a GED teacher, a GED math teacher. So what happened was when the principal and I talked about it, she was like, if you're comfortable, we could get an ESL teacher with you once they feel comfortable enough to come. And you guys could teach and have them do the civics with it.

So I was like, OK, so that's something that we're going to work on doing. So we could even-- because you're right. In one of the co-ops I saw everything that we're teaching, it's already there. So we're going to try to do that. I'm scared because I'm telling you I've never done civics. I wasn't an ESL teacher. But if I haven't ESL teacher come help me, oh, my gosh, this will be so great because we can actually even do civics and get some payment points from there.

Holly Clark: And then just a couple more. Margaret said, excellent results. Kathleen said, I thought we needed more hours than 15 in between pre- and post-test. Someone else answered that and said, you need a minimum of 40 hours in between.

Rusanna Hernandez: No, we were told 12. 12, and so the class is 15. So we do the pre and post.

Holly Clark: And then someone else said, we aligned hours to co-op 73.

Rusanna Hernandez: Oh, you know what? I think for co-ops you have to have 40 or something. We're looking into that. But no, for CASAS, we checked with Jay. Jay Wright is our CASAS person. And so he said, yeah, as long as it's 12 and more in between, you can do the pre and post. So that's why we've been doing it.

Holly Clark: And then Victoria would like to know if this was tagged as an ESL class?

Rusanna Hernandez: No, it's just tagged as a workshop for now. But I'm submitting the-- what is it called? It's like this big old thing that you submit. And if it gets approved by our district, then we can call it a class. But I know for that what we're trying to do is make it where it would be 40 hours.

I'm just kind of scared. Because if we do 40 hours, then I don't know if I'll have the same persistence. I feel like the students are coming. They're staying with me because it's so short. It's like 15 hours. They can invest five days into the class. I'm not sure if we push it to 40 if they will. It's something I have to experiment with because it's so new.

Holly Clark: And then another one is, would you be-- not your PowerPoint. But would you be able to share your created curriculum with us so we could model our orientation after yours?

Rusanna Hernandez: Yes, absolutely. Everything I have, not just the slides, but even what each class session, how we did it, what I cover and stuff, I'll send it all over. It's not a problem.

Holly Clark: And I'm going to pass over just the comments and just go to the questions for you. So are you using the gains just for your information? Or what program do align it with?

Rusanna Hernandez: I don't know. That's probably our tech guy. So what I do is we do the CASAS test. And then I'm not sure what the tech guy does after that. But I just try to track for myself to see how they're doing, if they're making gains. And so like the first session I was so excited because it was, like, 70% level gains. But then the second one, when it was like 60%, the third one was about 60%, I was like, oh.

But it is what it is. They're still getting level gains. I'm honestly not sure how that's going to affect us in the long run, especially since it's set up as a workshop. But that's why we're thinking, OK, if this is successful, why don't we try to see if we could do 40? Why don't we try to see if we could do co-aps?

So maybe that's something that you could do. If I share my stuff with you, if you want to take it, enhance it and stuff, yeah, that'd be great.

Holly Clark: And that's it for now. Margaret did post a link for the info on Northstar curriculum for learning computers at OTAN in the chat for anyone who's interested. But that's all the questions for now. Thank you.

Rusanna Hernandez: Got it. And we give these tickets out. I used to do the same thing in my high school math classes too. So to get the students to participate and stuff, I give them tickets. So every time they're double clicking, or I go where's, the Shift key? Where's the Enter key? Just for answering, I go around, and I give them these tickets just to get them motivated.

And on the last day of class I do prizes, like school supplies that we have that were donated to us. So yeah, just see the questions you see there? At button, they would always ask me, where's the "at?" Where's is the "at?" Because like some of you are sharing, if they have the tablets-- and on the phone, if you notice, the "at" is there. But if they're using a laptop, they don't know where "at" is. They don't know it's associated with the number 2.

So it's things we have to practice, practice, practice. Where's the tab? Where's parentheses? So all those things are on the first day. Every time they answer I give them a ticket.

This is what I do for internet safety. I just go over the things that's there. I talk about pictures on social media, videos, how to be careful with the types of jokes they're putting, how to express themselves properly and not like getting into full-on arguments and fights over people. Because I know they're adults, but they sometimes don't know. And so it's our job to tell them how to just have more digital citizenship online.

What kind of pictures they put of themselves and what that might look like for other people, if it's a public account, and an employer or potential employer sees it. So I just kind of go over all these very informally with them. I ask them about social media, which ones they use. A lot of them have never heard of LinkedIn before. But they have definitely heard of Facebook.

I even ran some statistics. So 76% of them even had Facebook. But only like 12% or 13% had Twitter. A lot of them are not on Twitter or any of the other sites. So one of the big problems we had was the teacher said that when they're learning online, they tend to quit because they don't have a proper workstation. They do it in the dining room, and there are lots of people in the house who are talking and distracting them.

So I just show them an example. I go, look. Look at that desk. It's not even like a fancy schmancy. It's just the normal wooden desk. You don't need fancy equipment. You just need a quiet area to study.

Another example-- I just go over these so that they know because a lot of times they don't know. Another-- I go look at how organized the desk is. That way they could easily find everything. They have a small lamp. They have pencils.

And then I tell them to get a USB drive. So we have USB drives for them so that they could get used to learning how to save on there. But we let them borrow. On the last day of class I pick it back up. And then we clean the memories off of them.

But a lot of-- it's 50/50. 50% of them actually do go and purchase their own USB drive because we do a lot in the subsequent sessions that they could save on there. I let them know how it's only five classes. Therefore they have to attend, and they do. And I tell them that they're going to learn a lot.

I did have two people cry. I'm going to be honest with you. They're older ladies. One of them said that she had worked in retail types of places all her life, so she didn't know how to use a computer at all. So just from the frustration she cried. Another lady cried. She left, and then she came back the next class. It's just growing pains. I'm just really glad that they stuck with it, despite what--

Holly Clark: Rusanna?

Rusanna Hernandez: Yes, ma'am?

Holly Clark: We do have a couple of questions. Laura asked, instead of USB drives, have you considered teaching about cloud storage, like Google Drive?

Rusanna Hernandez: We don't use Google. That's the problem. Our district, we don't use Google hardly at all. I wish we did because I use Google at home, and I love it. But because here we don't, and then it's the cloud and I'm not too used to that, I show them my USP and how I have a lot of things saved on it. And so yeah, that's why I teach them to get the USB.

Holly Clark: And then Margaret said, good persistence. Shelly said, what is the lowest ESL level that can successfully take this class? And Natalie has the same question as that.

Rusanna Hernandez: Yeah, they are level two. So they speak absolutely no English. But what I do is I still speak-- I'm Armenian. I don't speak Spanish very well. I do speak some. I understand it really well. So I help them but all in English.

And I think-- I really think this is why they get level gains because I keep it so English. So think about it, three hours of English, English, English. And then so sometimes there's things they don't know. And then I just go and I point it and I show it, like Realia. You know how they tell us when you're teaching in a class you have ELD kids you have to use Realia? So I think that's one of the things that helps them.

This is the how to log into our computers, because you know how it's the laptops they're using. So this is what I give them. But if you were to use this, you would have to show how they would do it in your class. This was a big deal. The teacher said that they need to know how to go on the district website. A lot of them don't know how to get on. A lot of them don't know how to find their schools.

Our district is composed of 45 schools. They're building number 46 up in North Montana. So we go over them. We focus on their kids' school. They go. They need to see how to find teachers and how to email them. So this takes place in session one.

And then we go into emailing. So the whole first session, besides being able to do the very basics of computers, we spend a lot of time emailing. Now, look at the sample. See the spacing? They don't know how to do that. So this is really good practice.

We get in. They have to, like, capitalization. How to write dear, blah, blah; how to put a dot at the end of Mrs., at the end of Mr., how to put a comma or colon at the end of the name. At the end, sometimes they have a tendency to put-- like let's say they're putting their name, like Maria Jameson, right? They would put a period. And I go, no, you don't have to put up period. It's not necessary.

But they learn how to do a proper email format. The reason I did this is because, again, the teachers said they're sending us emails. And they're putting a whole paragraph in the subject line. We don't know what they're trying to say. So that's why I was like, OK, let's help them. Let's help them write this because this is a great college career skill that they could learn.

CASAS packets-- I have four CASAS packets that I give them to take home each of the first four sessions. They're, like, 50, 60 questions each, and they're practice question. So it's just like that. We took them from the CASAS website.

So we made these packets that they get to take home. And they do it, and they're supposed to bring it back the next session. When they bring it back, we grade it, and then we return it the one after so that they could see their mistakes.

I don't know if this has also contributed to the level gains. I honestly don't know. But I do give them these packets to do. We play Kahoot on the first day just so they could practice the parts of a computer. And I didn't create it. I just went and put parts of a computer. I found this great Kahoot. And we play it there.

Are we OK? Can I move on? Any questions, comments up to--

Holly Clark: We just have a couple comments. And if you would like rather than take the time to read them all, I can download the chat and send it to you afterwards.

Rusanna Hernandez: Yeah, that's fine. As long as it's nothing pressing that I need to know.

Holly Clark: And as long as the participants know, if I have missed a question you have asked, or if there is something that you-- a comment that you made that you want read to her, please feel free to retype it. Sometimes the chat moves really quick, and I may miss it. A question did just come in. How did you provide the CASAS packets to students, just when they came to the orientation?

Rusanna Hernandez: No, the CASAS packets, there's four of them. So what I do is the first day before they leave the first session, I give them all a packet. I send it to the district. They print it. It's kind of thick because it's quite a few questions.

So then we print them, and then I give it to them. And then they take it, and then they have to bring it back. To be honest with you, like, 50% do it. They don't all do it. But you know what? 50% is 50%. Sometimes they even ask questions. They go, how come this question I couldn't understand?

And that's the part I love because then I'm actually going over a question. And I like CASAS questions because I feel like they're like real-life scenarios and stuff. So if they're asking a question, I go, OK, this is probably something that they need to know, a life skill that they didn't know previously.

I realized they don't know north, east, west. You know it's Never Eat Watermelon, whatever? They didn't know. And that's one of the questions on CASAS. So an overwhelming majority, when I ask the question, they didn't know how to read the maps that are on the CASAS test. And so I was like, ooh, this is great, because now I could go over it with them.

So another thing I do-- I'm willing to share these. So you know how I'm giving them the packet, right? They take it home. They do it. They bring it back. After the 20th packet, I gave them all to one of the ladies in the office. I said can you go and tally which questions they are missing the most.

We found out reading maps is a big problem with our students. Like, when you go to the YMCA, and they have a sign on the door, this session, this room, at this time; that session, this room, this time. Our students had a hard time reading those. So what we did was we strategically came up with questions. It's like 10 questions. And they're just PowerPoints. There's four of them.

Every class session, besides the packets that they're willing to take home and do, I do this as a whole class. I put it up. I go, OK, what do you think the answer is? They read, and they argue. They argue over, no, it should be B. No, it should be A. And it's such good conversations.

And what I do is I just walk around. Just for participating I give them those ticket thingies. But, yeah, I think that also is what's helped the lot with the CASAS gains because all of a sudden it becomes not just a computer class. But it's like learning life skills, CASAS stuff.

So we create a document together. Now, this is like the second session already. Google images, they have to learn how to save them and then how to put them on, how to insert into their Word documents. So we do a Word document all together. And then they go, and then they have to do a couple on their own. And the entire time I'm walking and helping them while they do this.

So I send them an email just to gauge and see. This is a good skill for them. They have to be able to go into their Outlook. They have to be able to open the email. They have to be able to respond in full sentences. And then they have to be able to send it back. So this is like an email thing that we do, a practice.

And the questions, I just try to see who my students are, like what they do, what they kind of a thing. So this is like an email format I use. So the second session is very heavy on Microsoft Word because our teachers use Microsoft Word. And they said that they want the students to know how to use it when they go in.

We do a letter of introduction. Look at what you see, you guys. They have to do all this. Look at the double-- just the title. The title is bold. That's a skill. Look at the underlying. It's double lined. Do they know how to do that? So we do that together.