[AUDIO LOGO] SPEAKER: OTAN, Outreach and Technical Assistance Network. 

HILARY ESTES: We're from Torrance Adult School, as Anita said. Our core team who flies up to Sacramento, Ryan Whetstone, our principal, Meredith Tait, a TOSA and teacher in ESL. And I am Hillary. I am a TOSA teacher in ABE/ASE, what you all call academic, depending on the school. 

We want to give a shout-out to our extended team, our Director, Wayne Diulio, and our resource teachers. For us, that's like our department head kind of thing, Ryan De La Vega, an ESL, and Armando Chavez an ABE/ASE. And a shout-out, of course, to our DLAC coach Susan. Hey, Susan. 

For a little bit of context, we are in Southwest Los Angeles. We have three sites, a little bit more than 2,000 students, 70% of it is ESL, 20% ABE, and we have a little CTE program in medical and office. So we wanted to just give a little bit more context as to why did we apply for DLAC. How did we get here? 

So we were looking at our life about a year ago, as many of you were. And we were a little concerned that as we came back to in-person after the pandemic, we might just forget everything we learned during the pandemic and go back to carving things on cave walls. So we decided to ask you all for help, ask OTAN for help to maintain that momentum that we had forward with digital integration literacy and skills, get some expert guidance, and learn from you all, which I feel like has been wonderful so far today. 

What were our goals? Have computers still used, kill fewer trees throughout our school, and build our resilience in our staff, and our students, and everyone around so that we don't just give up on technology when something goes wrong. We added this focus on doing that through the Northstar Digital Literacy curriculum. That's been our star. 

And we're also doing some HyFlex. Our ABE department is all HyFlex. We're considering doing a pilot with some ESL people and starting to work on Canvas. It has been lovely working with all of you in our DLAC program, working on the plan, and developing our collaboration skills, and keeping up this strengths-based focus. And so Meredith is now going to tell you about some of the things that we have done so far. 

MEREDITH TAIT: Thank you, Hillary. OK, so our was continued digital integration. And we feel that we've made really good progress with that. We have maintained the momentum. 

And in our ESL classes, for example, as you can see, we're all using technology. All the classrooms in ESL, all the teachers are using presentation software. Students have access to laptops. 

And with instructional aide's help, we have two online classes. We have distance learning for ESL and citizenship, and we have an almost blended class as well. And the photo is showing, people are engaged using the technology. 

In the ABE/ASE realm, it's all HyFlex and has been for a year. And so that is really great. You can see Hillary up there in action doing her thing. 

And then, we also have an ESL/IET child development class where the ESL part is HyFlex. And then, the academic part is with our consortium college partners. So that's a very fancy class. Once again, Hillary is involved in that. 

We are also schoolwide making progress as well with going paperless. We have a digital time card. And we're just doing a lot of things in that regard as well. 

OK, as far as Northstar goes, we, as Hillary said, it's been our star. It didn't start out to be the star, but it has become that for us. We started out last year with doing it publicly, a schoolwide professional development. And then we decided to really get into it. 

And so, in winter, with OTAN's support, help, we became an agency. So that means that we can now do all the assessments and lessons in a proctored, organized environment. And so we actually-- I'm just going to go backwards and forwards a little bit. 

We implement it in winter and then carried through in spring weekly tech cafes where staff can choose from a couple of sites, go for two-hour sessions and do lessons and assessments in a proctored environment. And that has worked out really well. And it's schoolwide. All the staff are involved. 

So they're getting to know the program, and ultimately, they will be able to help students when they use it as well. So it's truly schoolwide. And it's really great to do something that touches everybody. 

Just to go back a little bit. And so, through Northstar, we can gather a lot of data about ourselves. And we will be able to get this for our students as well. We can see who's using what, and who's passing what, and to what rate. 

And we can also see that we've got 16 staff. That's almost half the teachers in the IAs who have done the proctor training. So they'll be able to help out in the classroom as well. And so we've got almost 100% staff participation. There are always a couple who are not quite into it yet, but we're planning on getting there. 

So in the HyFlex realm, we are continuing that with ABE/ASE. And we are planning some PD along those lines to also pull in some ESL teachers who are going to offer to do it. We've got groups of interested staff in both departments who want to continue with that and want the extra training. 

With Canvas, with our Canvas goal, we're making progress there too. We have 550 Canvas licenses, the first 50 free from-- through OTAN, and the rest we bought. And we are not using too many yet, but we plan to. We do have a Canvas class pilot with UC Scout. And like I said, training is being planned for that. 

So when it comes to the leadership program that we've been involved in, it's been really helpful for us. It's given us really valuable insights into team building, collaboration skills, time management, conflict management, and resolution. And as a team, we're very aware of our strengths and our similarities and our differences, and our basements. 

And so working out how to work with each other, and then to apply that to the extended team, as well as the school going forward. And also our regular, formal and informal conversations amongst ourselves, our staff, our director, and our coach, that's also been really helpful, I think. OK, let me go back here. 

And then, of course, we have challenges, and that's managing the expectations and communication with the staff. And so that comes down to our PR efforts and how we present things. And I think today we've gotten-- we've got some good ideas about how to have a bit of fun with that. Thank you, superheroes. 

We also have to work on balancing the needs of the more reluctant staff with those who are very enthusiastic about taking off with the technology and making sure they don't run away too fast. We also had to decide how to manage the Northstar, Canvas, and the HyFlex projects altogether. So we ended up just focusing really on Northstar right now. That's the focus, and then we'll simultaneously work on the others, but sort of slightly different timing. 

So just to summarize the changes we have made. We became a site, a Northstar site, with our professional development. With Northstar, we've expanded our tech cafes to include two sites and three time periods. So we've really tried to make it available for all the staff, to make it comfortable so they can fit in their required modules by the end of June. 

And then, we started our Canvas pilot. And we plan to continue with that. OK, so now Ryan is going to talk about our planned next steps. 

RYAN WHETSTONE: Great. 

MEREDITH TAIT: Thank you, Ryan. 

RYAN WHETSTONE: Thank you. All right. Good morning, everybody. 

AUDIENCE: Morning. 

RYAN WHETSTONE: Take a deep breath. We've been going through some presentations. So planned the next steps for us-- it's been a great journey so far, of course, meeting and working with all of you and learning from each other. 

So for our plan next steps, we're going to continue our Northstar curriculum training. Well, it's we're moving to another phase. So we're going to have, with the support of OTAN-- thank you, Anthony, Belinda, everybody, that we will have a training that's focused on diving into the curriculum of Northstar. 

So those schools that are using it, you already know. But there are already-- the syllabi are there. There are manipulables, actual printouts that you can use in the classroom. And that we'll go through that in a training format with OTAN so our teachers can start to move with that in the classroom. 

So we're learning more about the bells and whistles and the deeper dives that we can do related to student competencies and data on questions to note areas for focus and growth, and also focusing on that, the provision of the certificates and digital badges, to make sure that we're getting those out to the students as well. So our ABE/ASE program is going to integrate Northstar, a Northstar assignment, into their direct instruction, English classes. And again, we're focusing on stressing the importance of digital literacy for our students using that Northstar Online Learning to develop an elective course for ABE/ASE students as well. So that'll be an addition to that integrated project. 

Our plan's next steps-- so all ESL teachers will also incorporate the Northstar computer basis basics into their teacher-directed classes and/or Northstar online learning lessons into their classroom instruction. And we'll continue our professional development on Canvas and HyFlex moving forward in the coming year. And we're going to offer that to all interested teachers from all departments who are interested in piloting next year. So that's how we're going to approach that for now. 

And for support needed, of course, we are leaning heavily on OTAN to support us with the training to augment our activities and to focus on that teaching with Northstar and with our directed classes and online curriculum. We're moving forward with that in all of our areas. And we're also looking at-- the trainings that we do in the summer that will be looking at recording those so that teachers who aren't around can also watch those recorded sessions as well. 

And we'll also be looking at you all, our colleagues. We've been listening really closely to those of you that have been using Northstar, Canvas, in all of your classes, HyFlex, to see what we can learn for the best practices so we don't have to reinvent the wheel and also convince our instructors that, hey, other schools are already doing this and doing this very well, successfully. So you really are a beacon for us right now, and also looking at integrating in our local efforts to support access for wireless for all, making sure that our students can take advantage of those local systems. 

In LA County, one of the major efforts is called Delete the Divide by LA County. And they're working to eliminate those barriers of access for connectivity and devices as well. So it's a big piece for us to plug into. 

For other areas of importance, being vigilant about not losing our technology momentum that was already stated, and finding the right balance of in-person and online and distance learning, blended hybrid learning activities for us. We're really watching and learning for all. Like focusing on Ava, just so many-- they're doing so many great things. 

And Ava's-- LA Unified is so big, but Torrance is in Southeast LA County. So we want to make sure that we're keeping up our efforts as well for our local community and that we're taking advantage of this collaborative space with all of you and doing that more. We were talking as we were getting ready to come here, that we felt like we weren't interacting with you enough, that we weren't getting that kind of information from all of you. So we'll be looking at that as well. 

And in conclusion, just basically that DLAC has really helped us to envision our future, identify our goals, and make progress toward them. For our first year, it helped us to create that plan, clarify it and increase our digital literacy. We started with staff because you all know that your staff are just at all different levels. 

And so Northstar gave us this platform to really equalize this baseline for all of us and also expose all of our staff to that learning format. So when we move forward in it, all of our staff have actually used it. So now it's not going to be foreign to anybody. Everybody's done it. And we can support our students across the board. 

And for our year coming, that we are absolutely focused on that Northstar integration across our curriculum and all of our classes for our students and also moving forward with our Canvas pilots for those areas, really looking forward to that. And thanks again so much to OTAN for those opportunities to buy those discounted licenses and free licenses and all that training for us that we just can't pass up. How can you? And HyFlex as well. 

And it just-- I had to take a second to just thank Veronica and Mandilee for that presentation on the foundations of digital equity. It was just so appropriate and timely. It just framed all of the work that we're doing. 

So we fight for the digitally disenfranchised, that we are really focused on that for the students that we serve. So final thought is that we just will always stay focused on retention, persistence, transition, and being outcome-oriented, especially with the awareness of the new funding model that's coming down from the state. So we are hyper-conscious about how we're recording our attendance across all formats and how we're looking at our outcomes, but also using all that data to inform our instruction in the process. 

So it really forced us to move all of that along. And we just thank you. It's just been a great experience for us so far. Thank you for holding us and letting us be a part of DLAC and meeting you all. So thank you. 

AUDIENCE: Thank you. 

[APPLAUSE] 

MEREDITH TAIT: There's something on the next slide. 

RYAN WHETSTONE: I got one more, sorry. 

MEREDITH TAIT: Two more. 

RYAN WHETSTONE: Sorry, I did have two more. So just to say, DLAC is our compass. DLAC/OTAN is our compass helping us plan, strategize, and navigate our digital future. Thank you, and applaud you one more time. 

[APPLAUSE] 

[LAUGH]