[audio logo]

Announcer: Otan, Outreach and Technical Assistance Network.

Nichole Middleton: Welcome to Grossmont Adult School's Uber ride, a whirlwind tour of our tech integration plan starring--

Barbara Van Dyken: Barbara, the tech-savvy adventurer.

Nichole Middleton: Nikki, the objective-obsessed dynamo.

Jennifer Owens: And Jen, the recruitment wizard.

[laughs]

Barbara Van Dyken: OK, so three people are squeezed into an Uber car at the Sacramento airport.

[audio playback]

- Hello, ladies. What brings you to Sacramento?

[end playback]

All: We're going to DLAC.

[laughter]

Nichole Middleton: So I feel like our tech integration plan is pretty impressive. At least first, I think what's really important and what we're working on is that we're able to identify our learner's prior knowledge and skills. And I think the way that we're doing this best is by modifying orientation and making sure that our transition specialists are part of it.

Jennifer Owens: Yeah.

Barbara Van Dyken: Yeah, it sounds impressive.

Nichole Middleton: You guys like that part?

Barbara Van Dyken: Yeah, it sounds really good.

Jennifer Owens: We totally do.

Nichole Middleton: Because as far as integrating language and digital literacy, bridging our ESL and CT courses is becoming a big part of what we're doing as well.

Jennifer Owens: Yes, for sure.

Barbara Van Dyken: And that's very exciting to be able to do that. So we're not just teaching ESL, but we're combining it with another skill that they learn.

Jennifer Owens: And we also want to foster that learning environment where we include students and teachers in their progress.

Nichole Middleton: And technology, Barbara, you're leading the way as far as all of those pieces go.

Barbara Van Dyken: Yeah, charge. Let's go.

Nichole Middleton: So as we've got Canvas-- and Barbara will talk a little bit about that in orientation, and then our open labs, and then where we're going as far as HyFlex. I'm really excited about that. That's going to make a big difference as far as students being able to show up when they're able and still show up when they can't get there.

Jennifer Owens: Right. And Barbara is our leading teacher to do anything like that.

Barbara Van Dyken: Yeah, we get them into that computer lab. And we teach them how to go into Canvas. And then the ones that know absolutely nothing about computers, they're getting a very good education.

Jennifer Owens: Yeah, and that's the large part of duty.

Barbara Van Dyken: Yeah, they're getting a really good indoctrination into the world--

Jennifer Owens: Of technology.

Barbara Van Dyken: --technology. Thank you.

Jennifer Owens: You're welcome.

Barbara Van Dyken: Yes.

Nichole Middleton: And just as far as-- I mean WASC really demanded that we increase our community for both teachers and students. So I know that's going to make it possible, the Canvas piece and then just following them throughout.

Barbara Van Dyken: Yeah, I really like that part where we have an orientation for our students that-- it's a two-week orientation to figure out what levels they are. And then they're using the website to access resources, and they're introduced to that in the orientation so that when they wind up in the computer lab, it's familiar because they're using that same website to access the resource. So it's very familiar to them.

Jennifer Owens: And that was great, great planning on your part too.

Barbara Van Dyken: Yeah, thank you.

Jennifer Owens: You're welcome. [laughs]

Barbara Van Dyken: Yeah, I was thinking of you. I knew you'd like it.

Jennifer Owens: Yeah, I do. I do a lot. Thanks.

Barbara Van Dyken: Great. So absolutely, we're going to dive into this plan head first. And I'm so happy that we did DLAC because--

Jennifer Owens: Oh, yeah. For sure.

Barbara Van Dyken: I think if we did not do this, I don't think we'd be where we are today in--

Jennifer Owens: Not even close.

Barbara Van Dyken: --terms of identifying and making a plan.

Nichole Middleton: For sure.

Barbara Van Dyken: So I just-- god, if I give Netta, and Dr. Porter, and their whole staff a big hug, I would.

Jennifer Owens: Yeah, but we're going to be there soon. As soon as we get out of the Uber, we're going to be there. So you can do that then.

Barbara Van Dyken: I'll hug them all at once.

[laughter]

Yeah, so that's just a way of saying thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Jennifer Owens: Absolutely.

Barbara Van Dyken: Yes.

Jennifer Owens: Absolutely.

Nichole Middleton: And our backgrounds are all different. And I feel like we all have pretty different personalities so as far as learning about our strengths and where those came in has done a lot for us just as far as trusting each other, building our team, and then also being more sensitive to what kind of support our teachers need as we go through these changes.

Barbara Van Dyken: Absolutely.

Jennifer Owens: Right, because I never knew you two were woos.

Barbara Van Dyken: Yeah, we were wooing all over the place.

Jennifer Owens: Yeah, I see that now.

Barbara Van Dyken: Yeah.

[laughter]

Jennifer Owens: And I think that helps us strengthen our teachers too when we start to learn to identify the strengths that they have as well.

Barbara Van Dyken: Yeah, it certainly helps with the buy-in.

Jennifer Owens: Yeah, for sure.

Barbara Van Dyken: Because many teachers are afraid to say that they have digital illiteracy. [laughs]

Jennifer Owens: Well, they're afraid.

Barbara Van Dyken: Yeah, they're afraid. They don't want anybody to know that they don't know what--

Jennifer Owens: They don't know.

Barbara Van Dyken: They don't know as much as they think they know. And so, it really helps to have the lab where the teacher can bring their students and also learn alongside with them, how to use it.

Jennifer Owens: Yeah, it's been beneficial.

Nichole Middleton: So as far as our site plan, I know all of us have an ESL background, including Jenna. So that's really our focus. And I think that's exciting because that's where our need is greatness right now.

Jennifer Owens: And it's a good place to start for sure. And it also is enabling us to bridge from ESL into academic and our CTE pathways too. That's a big component of our site plan.

Barbara Van Dyken: I like it that we're giving the students from-- even our PreLit students who come into the lab, they're getting a great orientation into computers. Many of them have-- lived in the hills of Afghanistan, and they were barely literate in their own languages. So now they have this opportunity to use the computer in a real situation and to learn how it works in this world that they're stepping into in the US.

Jennifer Owens: And you were great about instrumenting that and helping them get logged on. And you and a few other teachers have been really good about that.

Barbara Van Dyken: Yeah, we worked together. It's a great-- I've looked at it like an experiment. And it's been a wonderful experiment working and collaborating with the teachers and their students.

Nichole Middleton: Well, and it's going to help us too on the data side as far as being able to dispel those myths about what students can't do. And I think that will ultimately spur our teachers on because students will be more ready than they believe they are.

Jennifer Owens: Yeah, that's true. Can you make this go away?

Nichole Middleton: Let's see. Can I move this toolbar?

Barbara Van Dyken: Yeah, what was it something eight?

Audience: [ INAUDIBLE ]

Nichole Middleton: There we go.

Barbara Van Dyken: There you go.

Nichole Middleton: So IET is what I'm most focused on. And I won't say "kinda."

Barbara Van Dyken: Oh, OK.

[laughter]

It's very important to be very to be focused on it, not "kinda," but yeah.

Nichole Middleton: I'm actually very focused on IET. And we have in-class time. That was really our first model. But we realized that really wasn't enough, especially in these early days when teachers are still in the push and pull of figuring out how they can peel back their curriculum and make space for somebody else. So we're implementing technology in three different ways with IET.

So first, we'll have sessions before and after class for students. It can be at their school site. It can also be in their community.

And we're looking to make this HyFlex for the fall because if we say, have a phlebotomy class that's Tuesday, Thursday, and students have organized childcare for Tuesday, Thursday, but Wednesday at 10:00 is when students can make it for a session where they can look at contextualized material for both literacy and their program, we want other students to be able to join in, no matter where they're at or what their need is. We'll complement these sessions with Canvas modules tailored for about 8:00 to start medical courses.

And what that means is we'll have our promise is at least 10 activities, literacy-based activities that will take material from the syllabus and ask for listening, writing, and speaking activities for every student so that our EL learners are having their needs met, but also our students who haven't written in a while, who are going to be caught off guard by that 250-word triage essay and those kind of things can really utilize both Sessions in Canvas modules. And then, we'll have BurlingtonEnglish as supplemental for students that are interested. Any IAT student can access it.

I wish Jenna was here, though, to talk about what we're doing with distance learning.

Jennifer Owens: I know. We miss her being with--

Barbara Van Dyken: Was she vacationing in the Bahamas?

Nichole Middleton: --at her daughter's graduation.

Jennifer Owens: Graduation, yeah, something like that.

Nichole Middleton: Oh, wait a minute.

Jennifer Owens: What?

Nichole Middleton: She's calling.

Jennifer Owens: She's calling right now. How lucky for us that she's calling while we're in the car.

[laughter]

[audio playback]

- Hello, everyone. My name is Jenna Hanson, and I am part of this amazing team from Grossmont Adult Education. I am sad that I can't be there today with you all. But I know that Nikki, Jennifer, and Barbara will do an incredible job on our presentation. I have a joke for you all.

[laughter]

Why is the math book so unhappy?

[end playback]

Jennifer Owens: Why, Jenna?

Nichole Middleton: Tell us.

[audio playback]

- Because it is full of problems.

[end playback]

[laughter]

Audience: Woo!

[laughter]

[audio playback]

- Our team has come so far in how we think and work together. Dr. Porter has taught us to focus on our strengths and how we can use those strengths to work together successfully as a team by remembering that failure and success are not opposites and that strengths are not about what you do, they are about how you do it. It is obvious that focusing on our strengths and not our weaknesses makes us happier and more productive people. One more joke. Why did the teacher wear sunglasses to school?

[end playback]

Jennifer Owens: Why, Jenna?

Nichole Middleton: Tell us.

[audio playback]

- Because her students were so bright.

[ends playback]

[laughter]

Barbara Van Dyken: It looks like Jenna had a face-lift.

[laughter]

Jennifer Owens: She looks super relaxed on vacation-- at her daughter's graduation.

Barbara Van Dyken: Yes. [laughs]

Jennifer Owens: And I think she sent us one more video from her student.

Nichole Middleton: Yeah, she did. And I think it's going to be really important to be able to see what her student has to say because she's making some important updates to the program. She uses Ellie but really wants that to be part of students working in Canvas as well. And just working on aligning it with our in-person classes will be really important so students are prepared either way. Let's see what her student has to say.

[audio playback]

- Hi, my name is [ INAUDIBLE ] I am from the United States. This class helped me a lot because I can practice my lessons every day. I request my teacher to send me a lesson that I want and make my own study schedule. And I can do it from home.

I like the distance learning course because I have children. I have a very busy life. Based off my normal schedule, I can make my own schedule to do my homework.

Thank you very much, my teacher. God bless you. Bye.

[end playback]

Barbara Van Dyken: That's nice.

Jennifer Owens: She has the best students, she really does.

Nichole Middleton: She really does. Sorry.

Jennifer Owens: It's OK.

Barbara Van Dyken: I thought mine were the best.

Jennifer Owens: Oh, yours are the best, too. They're all the best.

[audio playback]

- Hello, everyone.

[end playback]

Jennifer Owens: There, Jenna. She's Back.

Nichole Middleton: And we know that all of this is hinging on what we can do with recruitment.

Jennifer Owens: Yeah, and so I don't know if you guys know this, but all of the managers, we hired a outside marketing agency to do an assessment of our website, how we look to the outside world. And we've taken all of their feedback and are implementing it. And we're highlighting to recruit mostly for the medical classes, and just to get the word out that there's English support in those medical classes so students feel like they can participate.

Barbara Van Dyken: That's great.

Nichole Middleton: And, again, being able to bring in student services so that we can understand our community is really key. Not everybody works one-on-one with everybody. And certainly, our staff that we're counting on at the front desk really needs to feel like they're part of it.

Barbara Van Dyken: That's true.

Jennifer Owens: Recruitment intake are key. And we're working on automating our registration, creating a more student-centered process, and understanding our students' skills and the goals with the guided placement. Our diverse community deserves support and access in all that we do.

I don't know. We were just looking at data at our annual data meeting, just looking at our student demographics and just reevaluating where we're at and the students that we serve. And still, mostly the predominant or Arabic speakers, followed not-- pretty closely by Spanish speakers, Farsi speakers, Pashtu speakers, and then--

Barbara Van Dyken: It's a rich diversity.

Jennifer Owens: Yeah, it's getting-- and it's getting more and more mixed, which is exciting.

Nichole Middleton: I'd like to see that in a table.

Jennifer Owens: Yeah, well, I just happened to have one right here for you.

[laughter]

Barbara Van Dyken: There you are.

Jennifer Owens: Look at that. And another important component that we were talking about is really in the student tech survey. What are students really telling us about their access to technology? And these are some of the key things that we have to keep in mind as we're planning. We need to recognize that 20% of the students said they don't have a quiet place to study.

Nichole Middleton: And we have student centers on two of our campuses, but we don't have one at ESL. So that's really something I hope we can work on.

Jennifer Owens: Just magically make more buildings.

Nichole Middleton: And then as far as having a device, I think we talked about it yesterday, students are working on cell phones. You always mention that, Barbara.

Barbara Van Dyken: Yeah, oh, that's their primary point of access with the hybrid class. And we're going to revive past projects like student councils and build a strong community. We're going to have Canvas forums and in-person events to connect with our students and reconnect students and teachers, and embracing technology for collaboration and support.

Nichole Middleton: Yeah, and I think that's really great because all of that, especially if we lead in with the orientated and with the solid onboarding, that's going to make a big difference for our students, I think holistically.

Jennifer Owens: Because last year, in July, we started that two-week orientation class. Barbara, you taught it in the evening.

Barbara Van Dyken: Yeah, I started with it, yeah.

Jennifer Owens: And it's just been progressing and developing. And in my vision, we have teachers rotating through to just make it richer and enhance it as-- every semester.

Barbara Van Dyken: It's a great way to build community, especially rotating the teachers in. And everybody gets an idea of what that orientation is.

Jennifer Owens: And how to make it better each time.

Nichole Middleton: And we mentioned in our objectives that we're really working to bridge our higher level students into other programs. What did you do at orientation when you encountered students that were either too advanced for the classes that we offer?

Barbara Van Dyken: Well, I would hook them up with their transition services right away so that they could have a discussion with them and make a plan for college or career training.

Jennifer Owens: Yeah, that was very good planning.

Nichole Middleton: And I also believe that what, we've been doing at DLAC, with IDEAL, too we're able to, with a balanced mind, and all the team members we've met at DLAC who are going through the same things, take a look at our challenges. As far as some of what Wast has asked us to do, aligning levels, aligning assessments in ESL, I know we've tried to launch that through PLCs, so teachers really feel like they're driving that process. And so that hopefully will cultivate the community for with our teachers, but also that teachers, in that process, will say, hey, technology is actually going to help us do all of this.

Barbara Van Dyken: That's what we hope.

Jennifer Owens: And we always need more teachers. So if there's anybody that can hear me that was interested in working for Grossmont, we're always looking to hire--

[interposing voices]

Barbara Van Dyken: I'll get the word out for you.

[laughs]

Nichole Middleton: We've done a lot of good stuff, too, in this last year. A lot has worked well, especially starting with the digital literacy lab. That's [ INAUDIBLE ]

Barbara Van Dyken: Oh, yeah, the computer lab has been just wonderful. And I'd like to see it grow. And I would like to see us get even better equipment in there.

Jennifer Owens: We're working on it. I hope that next month that we'll have new computers.

Barbara Van Dyken: Some really good ear phones.

Jennifer Owens: We're working on it.

Barbara Van Dyken: Beef up the RAM.

Jennifer Owens: We've had other successes, too, like your hybrid beginning low-high class that was two days on Zoom, two days in person. That's been a great option.

Barbara Van Dyken: Students love that, being able to come in and play games in the classroom.

Nichole Middleton: Yeah, and then restructuring our ESL classes, I'm super excited.

Jennifer Owens: That's is great step.

Nichole Middleton: I've waited a long time for this. And it's going to be many of those students that are really demanding these new HyFlex and distance learning option.

Jennifer Owens: Yes, OK.

Nichole Middleton: Yeah, so despite our challenges, we've made progress.

Barbara Van Dyken: Yeah, it looks like we're pulling up to DLAC now. What?

Jennifer Owens: I see The building now. It looks vaguely familiar.

Barbara Van Dyken: Yes.

[audio playback]

- You have arrived. Good luck with your tech revolution. I want to go to your school.

[end playback]

Barbara Van Dyken: Thanks, Nelson.

All: Thanks, Nelson.

Jennifer Owens: All right.

[applause]

Barbara Van Dyken: Thanks.

[applause]

Good job.

[applause]