00:00:01 [Music]
00:00:07 from the dark web to your radiator you
00:00:10 were listening to cyber talk radio on
00:00:13 1,200 the
00:00:17 [Music]
00:00:20 welcome to cyber talk radio I'm your
00:00:23 host Bret Pyatt a 20 year internet
00:00:25 security veteran I'm joined this week by
00:00:27 a high school principal and if you're
00:00:30 new to cyber talk radio one of the
00:00:32 frequent areas we cover here is
00:00:34 workforce development and this is tied
00:00:38 in to actually keeping everything safe
00:00:40 so there's already hundreds of thousands
00:00:43 of cyber security job openings all
00:00:44 across America and over the next few
00:00:47 years it looks like we're gonna go from
00:00:48 hundreds of thousands potentially to
00:00:49 millions and less folks in the education
00:00:52 system like our our guest today can help
00:00:55 get those high school students through
00:00:57 interested in tech and capable of
00:01:00 filling these roles that are getting
00:01:02 created out there in industry so Melissa
00:01:04 thank you for joining us and can you
00:01:08 share with our audience a little bit
00:01:09 about your background your high school
00:01:12 you're at now and what we're gonna talk
00:01:13 about today well Brett first of all
00:01:16 thanks for having me it's a pleasure to
00:01:17 be here with you right now
00:01:18 so I'm at Cass Tech High School located
00:01:22 strategically here in downtown San
00:01:23 Antonio off of Flores and the focus of
00:01:27 our school is business in technology and
00:01:30 we are an in-district charter with San
00:01:33 Antonio Independent School District in
00:01:35 part of the framework of our design as
00:01:37 half of the students come from inside
00:01:39 the district and the other half outside
00:01:40 of the district so we truly are a school
00:01:43 for all students in San Antonio in the
00:01:46 surrounding area that have an interest
00:01:48 in business and technology but what
00:01:50 makes us unique or different as we're
00:01:52 working to make the learning relevant
00:01:53 and meaningful in real world while
00:01:56 giving students ample exposure and
00:01:59 experiences with industry and knowing
00:02:02 exactly what kind of opportunities are
00:02:04 out there and careers with technology
00:02:06 and so for those that are used to just
00:02:10 having their kids go to the school
00:02:12 that's assigned to their neighborhood
00:02:14 there's different options out there now
00:02:17 cast here is one of them and this is a
00:02:18 charter program and versus a magnet
00:02:21 program just to help get everyone
00:02:22 educated on the different languages and
00:02:25 what their options are there so magnet
00:02:27 program you have to my understanding
00:02:28 fill out an application they go through
00:02:30 and review those applications and they
00:02:32 select a set of kids so
00:02:33 for a charter program like Cass Tech you
00:02:36 said half of the students from in SAISD
00:02:39 district half of them from out of Si I
00:02:41 Steven how does this application process
00:02:43 work for a charter program so the design
00:02:46 of our charter is we are actually open
00:02:48 lottery so what that means is for us
00:02:50 during the recruitment process we have
00:02:52 information sessions going on at the
00:02:54 school and then we're at various venues
00:02:56 and we're sharing what our school's
00:02:58 about and the course pathway and part of
00:03:00 the premise of our work as educators is
00:03:02 any student that's wanting to achieve at
00:03:05 high levels we can help make that happen
00:03:06 if we have the parent and student on
00:03:08 board and they want to be there and
00:03:10 we've got teachers that have an extended
00:03:12 contract so they can give additional
00:03:14 interventions or enrichment during the
00:03:16 summer to help push kids forward with
00:03:19 whatever level they're at but we just
00:03:21 have to make we have to be upfront with
00:03:23 parents and students about the premise
00:03:25 of our work and what our goals are for
00:03:26 our graduates and the outcomes and just
00:03:28 to make sure that's the right fit in
00:03:30 something the student is interested in
00:03:31 and the parent sees that their child has
00:03:33 an interest in that as well
00:03:35 yeah so if you wanted to be a concert
00:03:38 piano player cast is not likely the
00:03:41 place for you right and so party that's
00:03:42 just being upfront with parents about
00:03:44 what the focus of our program is which
00:03:46 is business and technology and just
00:03:48 being upfront with parents you know the
00:03:50 best school for your kid is the one
00:03:51 where there's something your students
00:03:53 interested in so if they're a theater
00:03:56 major probably we're not the best place
00:03:58 for that yeah but if they're interested
00:04:00 in technology business something in the
00:04:02 STEM fields that's more of what we have
00:04:05 but we do have some extracurriculars and
00:04:07 we can share those with you parent but
00:04:09 that's this is what our school is about
00:04:11 yeah and so this is new for San Antonio
00:04:14 this you are going through your first
00:04:17 year right now with a class of freshmen
00:04:19 that is correct so we accepted where we
00:04:23 have a hundred fifty freshmen and the
00:04:27 teachers were hired this summer and
00:04:28 there was lots of pre design work done
00:04:32 before the school was open your in
00:04:34 advance with lots of industry input
00:04:36 about the design of the school the
00:04:39 infrastructure of just how the building
00:04:40 looks it looks more like a team or work
00:04:42 environment but then also about the
00:04:45 curriculum and how we're going to
00:04:47 provide into
00:04:47 within the school so a lot of the
00:04:49 premise of our work is teaching teamwork
00:04:51 and how to work within teams and how to
00:04:54 have some professional type discourse
00:04:56 and it's impressive that that's already
00:04:58 going on with freshmen that are 14 years
00:05:00 old and are learning that to help
00:05:02 develop those skills as they go on to
00:05:03 college and career after high school
00:05:06 graduation yeah so with a class of of
00:05:10 all freshmen this year you'll now double
00:05:13 the size of your school next year so I
00:05:15 find it as in the tech world we're
00:05:17 always running startups but in then
00:05:19 startups want to double their size
00:05:21 year-over-year you're running a startup
00:05:23 school yeah it's actually exciting so
00:05:25 the teachers that were hired so actually
00:05:28 we have nine teachers right now and then
00:05:30 we have our administrative team I call
00:05:32 them the Trailblazer team and that was
00:05:33 part of the look for and the hiring is
00:05:34 that we just need true leaders and
00:05:36 startup type people that are willing to
00:05:38 forge ahead and create a path and help
00:05:40 create a school so you're right next
00:05:42 year we'll be adding sophomores in each
00:05:44 subsequent year we'll add another grade
00:05:45 level but what's been exciting and
00:05:48 tiring it's all at the same time is we
00:05:51 get to create new systems and structures
00:05:53 about how do we want to do it because we
00:05:54 don't have to stay in the box
00:05:56 and we get to truly go back to our
00:05:58 mission and how are we going to make
00:06:00 that happen because the district's been
00:06:01 great about giving us autonomy about how
00:06:03 to make that happen there's so much
00:06:05 industry support downtown but across the
00:06:08 city to really make the school a unique
00:06:11 experience for kids but meaningful in
00:06:14 really help be sure that we're creating
00:06:16 a future pipeline of employees here in
00:06:19 San Antonio to address the needs yeah so
00:06:22 out there the education across America
00:06:28 schools are having a difficult time
00:06:30 hiring computer science educated
00:06:32 teachers that can teach computer science
00:06:34 classes we've had congressman Hurd on
00:06:37 cyber talk radio who sponsored a program
00:06:39 here over the last summer if you're
00:06:41 listening to this on 1200 W AI right now
00:06:44 we archive all of our episodes on
00:06:46 podcasting services iTunes Android
00:06:50 pocket casts and others you can also
00:06:52 find us on YouTube we have a YouTube
00:06:54 channel there and you can listen to
00:06:55 those past episodes and programs if
00:06:58 you're listening to us on one of those
00:06:59 services thank you for
00:07:01 online and on the Internet and you can
00:07:05 learn more all about cyber talk radio on
00:07:06 our website at wwlp.com so going through
00:07:11 from this education perspective joining
00:07:15 a start-up you have I think a great
00:07:18 group of teachers and you were able to
00:07:21 get a top-notch someone who can teach
00:07:24 all of the advanced computer science I
00:07:26 understand with a PhD that's correct and
00:07:29 so actually our teacher his name happens
00:07:31 to be dr. Donald Davis because coming to
00:07:34 us from a neighboring School District
00:07:35 but we were just very fortunate to have
00:07:37 him and I think what attracted him to
00:07:39 Cass Tech that was very helpful was the
00:07:44 direction our school was going and to
00:07:45 really get out of the box and do what's
00:07:47 best for students and help be part of
00:07:50 creating that cybersecurity computer
00:07:53 science program so yes he is well-versed
00:07:56 but what's unique about him is he's able
00:07:58 to bring it down to a level that
00:08:00 interest students but also builds
00:08:02 capacity one thing that's unique about
00:08:04 Cass Tech is every incoming freshman
00:08:07 must take pre AP Computer Science and be
00:08:10 introduced to coding and understand how
00:08:12 that works even if that's not their
00:08:14 focused course pathway with the
00:08:17 direction of being real-world ready for
00:08:20 the future students need to understand
00:08:21 programming and coding
00:08:22 he was just yesterday at a workshop and
00:08:26 interfacing with industry he was at
00:08:29 Cyber USA in was participating in the
00:08:31 workshop via cyber Texas and it was an
00:08:34 industry and academia together trying to
00:08:37 determine how to craft computer science
00:08:39 education to help fill the needs here in
00:08:42 the future yeah so computer science is
00:08:45 not a normal freshman course you have
00:08:47 some other maybe not normal freshman
00:08:49 courses as well so how is this going
00:08:51 with the the different class selection
00:08:53 and how how are freshmen coming through
00:08:55 with this change in the curriculum
00:08:57 scheduling from what you would see in a
00:08:59 traditional school what's really gotten
00:09:01 the students bought into the program is
00:09:02 what's called project-based learning and
00:09:04 that's where students are given a
00:09:06 real-world issue and asked to come up
00:09:08 with a solution
00:09:09 so at Cass Tech students are required
00:09:12 their freshman year to take an
00:09:14 introductory business class
00:09:15 the computer science course I mentioned
00:09:17 and then also all high school students
00:09:20 Nina Fine Arts credit so we're doing
00:09:21 that through digital media and that's
00:09:24 where students are learning ui/ux
00:09:25 platform and actually we have in that
00:09:28 class that fine arts class and they're
00:09:30 learning Adobe and so they'll be taking
00:09:33 the certification exam in March for
00:09:36 Adobe certification so it's all about
00:09:37 making it relevant and getting that hook
00:09:39 because you have to remember these are
00:09:41 teenagers and so in cybersecurity I know
00:09:45 dr. Davis started the class with hacking
00:09:47 and when is it ethical to hack let's see
00:09:51 if we can break into your teachers
00:09:52 Facebook's accounts so it's all about
00:09:54 figuring out meeting the kids where they
00:09:55 are and finding their their interest in
00:09:57 going that way and so of course he had
00:09:59 them hooked from the get-go and then
00:10:02 getting industry in there and
00:10:04 interfacing with him so then he had
00:10:06 people from USAA come out and share
00:10:09 about encryption and do a lesson with
00:10:10 them about passwords and how to have
00:10:14 secure settings and so on and having the
00:10:16 kids go back and go tell teachers what
00:10:18 they found out about them and so forth
00:10:20 because the kids think that's cool so
00:10:21 it's about making it a relevant real
00:10:24 world but they're making those
00:10:24 connections it was a great way for them
00:10:26 to get to know their teachers now the
00:10:27 teacher dr. Davis did one of the
00:10:29 teachers hey we're gonna be doing this
00:10:30 so you check what you know post it
00:10:33 double-check your security settings
00:10:35 right and so on so but anyway those are
00:10:39 the kind of things that get kids hooked
00:10:41 in and that's why you need the right
00:10:42 kind of teacher in the classroom to do
00:10:44 that but also teachers that are secure
00:10:47 enough to be able to go talk to industry
00:10:49 and be able to ask you know what is it
00:10:51 y'all are doing and having that kind of
00:10:52 confidence to be able to do that and
00:10:55 work hand in hand with someone and
00:10:57 sometimes that's something that teachers
00:10:58 don't get the opportunity to do but here
00:11:01 that's something that's expected at Cass
00:11:03 Tech and that's what helps bringing the
00:11:04 learning alive yeah then that's
00:11:06 interesting as you mentioned USAA who's
00:11:08 not a p-- they're not a cyber security
00:11:10 company but they have folks coming in
00:11:12 talking about encryption because there's
00:11:14 an insurance company and all the other
00:11:16 lines of business they have in keeping
00:11:18 the data and the information they have
00:11:19 safe is important to them and it's
00:11:22 important to all of their customers so
00:11:24 these technology careers are going to
00:11:27 span every industry and have
00:11:28 some understanding and capability across
00:11:32 the basic computer programming and basic
00:11:35 digital design to understand what is
00:11:37 possible in these systems even if you're
00:11:39 not gonna be the one executing it is
00:11:41 gonna be from my perspective very
00:11:43 important for the next 50 to 100 years
00:11:46 of with a workforce out here everyone's
00:11:48 gonna have to be versed in these things
00:11:50 some what I mean there's a start-up here
00:11:52 in our building helping the construction
00:11:54 industry and dump trucks get more
00:11:57 advanced with GPS navigation and dynamic
00:12:00 routing and all sorts of other things to
00:12:02 make the the some even something like
00:12:04 that much more tech enabled and
00:12:05 efficient than it is today and we're
00:12:07 seeing this across I mean every business
00:12:09 it's Insurance USA so they're doing lots
00:12:14 of very interesting things nearby the
00:12:15 the Cass campus as you said
00:12:17 strategically located so for folks that
00:12:19 have not been downtown in San Antonio in
00:12:21 a while we have a tech district down
00:12:23 here and Cass Tech is right in the
00:12:26 middle of that tech district so USA's
00:12:30 committed to 1,500 employees in an R&D
00:12:32 group less than a mile from there the
00:12:35 building with geekdom 1,700 plus members
00:12:38 now and hundreds of companies started
00:12:41 out of that building and here all across
00:12:43 this area so as you mentioned as well
00:12:45 industry coming to visit campus industry
00:12:47 collaborations how does this go through
00:12:51 as the kids get to their junior and
00:12:52 senior years what's the the head of
00:12:54 vision for the future of the students
00:12:56 interacting with industry so a couple of
00:12:59 things so first of all industries
00:13:00 involved from the get-go when we hire
00:13:02 our staff so we were fortunate to have
00:13:04 jungle disc with us during the interview
00:13:06 process and some of our other business
00:13:08 partners to give that industry
00:13:09 perspective as we look for the right
00:13:11 kind of teachers for a fit in our school
00:13:13 because we've got to have that
00:13:16 collaboration with industry and the
00:13:18 faculty and working together and the
00:13:20 right look for us to make that happen
00:13:21 but as we're moving forward in our
00:13:24 program so what's exciting is we had a
00:13:26 mentor coordinator that just started in
00:13:28 January and internships and mentoring is
00:13:31 something unique for our campus where
00:13:33 every student will have an adult mentor
00:13:34 a one-to-one relationship with that
00:13:38 person and interaction with the hopes of
00:13:40 moving towards once a month
00:13:42 and so right now he has just started and
00:13:44 he's already worked to help facilitate
00:13:46 for example this Friday at Cass Tech the
00:13:50 entire freshman class is going somewhere
00:13:52 for a job shadow experience and I do
00:13:54 have to get a shout out for San Antonio
00:13:55 works for working with us I'm hand in
00:13:57 hand to make that happen for every
00:13:59 student to have an opportunity so we've
00:14:01 got students going all over the city to
00:14:03 have an experience and then come back
00:14:05 and share that with the rest of their
00:14:08 freshman class in a presentation style
00:14:09 how that went and each student is
00:14:12 getting an experience with either a
00:14:13 focus on business and/or technology or
00:14:15 some blend of both so when you say
00:14:17 they're gonna go ahead and share with
00:14:19 the rest of the class as you talked
00:14:22 about the building design how is that
00:14:24 gonna work are they gonna go into a
00:14:26 gymnasium and there's gonna be a big
00:14:28 screen or how is the campus set up to
00:14:30 facilitate that type of sharing with the
00:14:33 rest of the students so some nice
00:14:36 foresight about the building when it was
00:14:38 designed is we do have something called
00:14:40 a learning staircase and it's a place
00:14:42 where students can gather and it's
00:14:43 tiered there's a nice big projection
00:14:45 screen sound system wireless mics and so
00:14:48 on and so that's where we tend to have
00:14:50 big grade-level presentations and we're
00:14:52 also working of course on the students
00:14:54 communication skills so we saw this as a
00:14:56 natural opportunity for kids to come
00:14:58 back to the campus go to their advisory
00:14:59 room debrief they're going to be taking
00:15:01 pictures and they're going to be sharing
00:15:04 different facets of some simple things
00:15:07 that they noticed as far as building
00:15:08 design attire and then what kinds of
00:15:12 experiences they had that day and some
00:15:14 of their takeaways whether it's
00:15:16 something they think they're interested
00:15:17 in or not there's just a take away from
00:15:18 that but also to expose the others that
00:15:21 didn't have that experience but had a
00:15:22 different one to help the whole mindset
00:15:24 about what the kinds of careers are out
00:15:26 there and opportunities for kids
00:15:27 currently as they're trying to figure
00:15:30 out their gifts and talents because
00:15:31 we're all very aware I think industry is
00:15:33 aware as well our students they're only
00:15:36 14 and a lot of us in high school still
00:15:38 didn't know what we wanted to do so
00:15:40 we're just trying to give them different
00:15:41 experiences to figure out their gifts
00:15:42 and talents and work in that direction
00:15:45 but we have some students that are
00:15:47 already showing high levels of skill set
00:15:49 already and interest is there a mentor
00:15:52 coordinator for a couple of students has
00:15:54 our
00:15:55 acquired informal internships and what's
00:15:57 interesting is one student was already
00:15:59 offered two paid internship but he's not
00:16:02 able to work yet and get paid because
00:16:03 he's too young and then we had a female
00:16:05 student offered the same opportunity and
00:16:07 they said we know what we'll figure out
00:16:08 a way to scholarship you didn't figure
00:16:10 out scholarship dollars and they're both
00:16:13 doing two different things once more
00:16:15 towards the cybersecurity side and for
00:16:17 the female its coding but also with
00:16:20 graphic design and actually one of her
00:16:22 images has made it for the finalists for
00:16:25 the Methodist Hospital 20th anniversary
00:16:28 new logo design so it's just neat that
00:16:30 kids are having these experiences and I
00:16:33 think students say it best when you ask
00:16:35 them what they like about the school or
00:16:36 what can we do to even make this school
00:16:38 better but this one female student said
00:16:40 what I like is a student this I'm
00:16:43 actually getting real-world experience
00:16:45 there's no doubt that I see the value in
00:16:47 it and I'm interacting with people these
00:16:48 people have come to meet with me in our
00:16:50 huddle rooms which are like little
00:16:52 office spaces we have here at the school
00:16:53 to give me specific feedback or how they
00:16:57 took my idea and adapted it and I'm
00:16:59 learning from them and they're
00:17:00 interacting with me and I would never
00:17:02 give that anywhere else yeah so as you
00:17:04 you talked about that sharing that
00:17:05 learning staircase for folks that
00:17:07 haven't seen pictures of the school
00:17:09 online you can go on there there's a
00:17:10 good number of videos up and posted
00:17:12 about it but it's much more of what I
00:17:14 would consider a business style
00:17:15 professional auditorium setup than it is
00:17:18 a high school gymnasium but you may
00:17:21 think where kids are doing a grade level
00:17:22 type presentation so it's all of this is
00:17:25 setting them up for real-world business
00:17:27 success getting them comfortable with
00:17:29 presenting in the type of environment
00:17:30 that they might be presenting in front
00:17:32 of 150 people in a business setting
00:17:34 instead of again the High School
00:17:36 gymnasium piece so it's a lot of work
00:17:38 for the school districts to make these
00:17:41 changes and I appreciate SAISD taking
00:17:43 the initiative here with cast and with a
00:17:45 number of other animated things they're
00:17:47 doing we're seeing this I mean really
00:17:49 all across the districts in San Antonio
00:17:51 I looking at education innovation going
00:17:54 on here all across our city and county
00:17:57 is pretty impressive to me and it's one
00:17:59 maybe where because of some of the
00:18:02 national stats we as Texas get looked at
00:18:05 as not innovative or not
00:18:06 forward-thinking education and I think
00:18:08 the folks that
00:18:09 looking at some of those numbers at
00:18:10 these these bucket levels are not
00:18:12 looking at the demographics of our
00:18:14 students the progression with what's
00:18:16 going on and then what's actually
00:18:18 happening inside of all the schools so I
00:18:20 mean Melissa thank you for what you all
00:18:22 are doing and I think for folks that
00:18:24 just look at some macro level stats
00:18:26 spend a little bit more time dig in and
00:18:29 I think you're gonna see amazing things
00:18:30 where you have high school freshmen
00:18:32 capable of getting into this logo
00:18:34 competition final because my assumption
00:18:36 and when I'm hearing that from you is
00:18:38 this is just a graphic design logo
00:18:40 competition it wasn't for high school
00:18:42 students correct it was other marketing
00:18:44 firms that were competing that she made
00:18:46 one of the finalists and we're just
00:18:48 excited to hear that and then she had
00:18:50 done another design actually for King
00:18:52 Ranch is doing a new logo and her design
00:18:54 was it used but it sparked the idea of
00:18:56 someone else within the marketing firm
00:18:57 and so they met with her how they took
00:18:59 that idea and branched off into
00:19:01 something else for a learning experience
00:19:02 for her
00:19:03 yeah so you've hired a mentorship
00:19:05 coordinator now and you have mentors
00:19:09 coming in for the the students if
00:19:12 someone wanted to be a mentor and get
00:19:14 involved is there an application process
00:19:17 for them so actually if you go to our
00:19:19 web page there's a way for you to be a
00:19:23 friend of Cass Tech and get in our
00:19:24 database but some other things we're
00:19:26 gonna have coming up and we'll be doing
00:19:28 more media blasts about it so now that
00:19:29 he started so y'all are first to know
00:19:32 so February 23rd we're looking for we're
00:19:35 gonna have an event called chips dips
00:19:36 and mentorships and we're inviting
00:19:38 everyone has shown an interest in being
00:19:40 a mentor at Cass Tech because some
00:19:41 people signed up a year ago wanting to
00:19:43 work with our students and they haven't
00:19:46 been reached out to to come and formally
00:19:50 come see the school and get an idea of
00:19:52 what that means at Cass Tech so we're
00:19:54 gonna be having that event and we'll
00:19:56 have breakout rooms for them to come and
00:19:59 go but to get an idea to make sure they
00:20:01 still have that passion or energy so we
00:20:04 can get that going and we're looking at
00:20:05 a soft rollout this semester where some
00:20:07 we would have two mentors or guests
00:20:09 together with a group of six kids and
00:20:11 the teacher there because with freshmen
00:20:13 we've got to work on our social skill
00:20:15 development and how you you interact
00:20:17 with an industry partner or guest versus
00:20:20 another friend from down the hallway
00:20:22 and that's something we want to coach
00:20:25 our kids on so we'll have the teacher
00:20:26 there for a bit giving kids feedback
00:20:27 after the guests leave but also we
00:20:30 understand for adults sometimes that can
00:20:32 cause them to be a little nervous coming
00:20:33 in talking to kids and they're used to
00:20:35 dealing with adults or computers all the
00:20:36 day and so forth so his name's Amir
00:20:39 Samantha your mentor coordinator so he's
00:20:41 working on giving them basically a
00:20:44 foolproof document like if you just go
00:20:47 off this if you don't have any questions
00:20:48 or how to start then we've got it for
00:20:50 you you don't have to even prep ahead of
00:20:51 time but as you you know as you know as
00:20:54 we all get to know each other it just
00:20:55 gets a little more easier to to continue
00:20:58 with conversation and so on but we just
00:21:01 want kids to get real-world perspective
00:21:02 and have some mentoring role models some
00:21:05 of our students may not have that at
00:21:08 home or some of them their parents do
00:21:09 something the exact opposite of what
00:21:11 they're interested in and something they
00:21:13 can have some dialogue and some
00:21:14 professional coaching and guidance along
00:21:16 the way and I think that's well we all
00:21:18 know that's what's going to make it
00:21:19 meaningful for the kids and help guide
00:21:21 their future yeah so if you're
00:21:23 interested you can just go search for
00:21:26 cast C ast tech high school and in your
00:21:31 favorite search engine it will show up
00:21:33 there on that website you can look and
00:21:35 learn more about that event coming up
00:21:37 there at the end of February where you
00:21:39 can volunteer some time to be a mentor
00:21:42 and help these kids see what the
00:21:44 different tech options and technical
00:21:45 rears there are here across the city of
00:21:48 San Antonio Barre County and uh maybe
00:21:50 use your company might have offices
00:21:52 elsewhere as well it's like where could
00:21:54 this take them from San Antonio has many
00:21:56 of the the folks growing up here see the
00:21:59 jobs in their neighborhood they see the
00:22:00 jobs in there they see the jobs their
00:22:02 parents have or maybe their friends
00:22:03 parents have but they don't necessarily
00:22:05 see all of the options that are
00:22:08 available even in their own city so your
00:22:11 involvement and help whether it's with
00:22:13 Cass Tech or your neighborhood school
00:22:15 can help broaden the opportunity for
00:22:19 kids by just showing them what's
00:22:21 possible and what's out there well on
00:22:23 another shout out for mentors kisum it
00:22:25 may not be their thing to work directly
00:22:26 with kids or to have that kind of
00:22:28 commitment but even just how many people
00:22:30 come in to be a guest speaker whether
00:22:31 they would like to speak to a whole
00:22:32 group of 150 and some or like whoa that
00:22:35 is not for me
00:22:36 but they may want to do a small group
00:22:37 and that's fine too because then we can
00:22:39 just record it and then broadcast it in
00:22:41 the classroom to repeat so that all
00:22:43 students get that experience and we've
00:22:45 already had a few Skype in and do
00:22:47 conversations that way because sometimes
00:22:48 people aren't able to physically be
00:22:50 present and then of course we've had the
00:22:52 flip where we've had a handful of
00:22:54 students go to that place of employment
00:22:56 and we have that kind of flexibility in
00:22:58 our design and we just tailor the
00:23:00 audience based on what the guest feels
00:23:02 comfortable with in their capacity so
00:23:05 you're listening to cyber talk radio on
00:23:07 1200 w ai I'm your host Brett PI and I'm
00:23:10 joined by Melissa kala the principal of
00:23:12 Cass Tech High School here in San
00:23:14 Antonio it's a brand new start up high
00:23:17 school this year in its first year with
00:23:19 a hundred and fifty students doubling to
00:23:21 300 next year if you're just joining us
00:23:23 on the air on 1200 W ai you can listen
00:23:26 to the full rebroadcast and replay of
00:23:28 this it'll go up online on our website
00:23:29 on Tuesday February 13th @ww cyber talk
00:23:33 radio comm during this first segment
00:23:36 here Melissa was able to give a
00:23:37 background on the school some of the
00:23:39 programs they have going on we're gonna
00:23:41 continue talking about education tech
00:23:43 transformation maybe do a little bit of
00:23:46 a deep dive into project-based learning
00:23:48 because we all had projects as kids in
00:23:50 school but looking at the way we all
00:23:53 actually learn there's better ways to do
00:23:55 projects now so I might dig in with
00:23:57 Melissa a little bit on that and you can
00:23:59 see and hear from her here on the air
00:24:02 but if your your kids are in a
00:24:03 project-based learning environment you
00:24:05 can see the difference and engagement
00:24:06 you get out of the students when you you
00:24:09 tackle these things in a different
00:24:10 direction so bear with us here for a
00:24:13 news traffic and weather update at the
00:24:15 bottom of the hour and then
00:24:17 and I will be back to continue talking
00:24:19 about caste tech and innovation in
00:24:20 education
00:24:21 [Music]
00:24:41 [Music]
00:25:05 welcome back to cyber talk radio joined
00:25:09 this week by Melissa caller the
00:25:11 principal of task tech high school here
00:25:13 in San Antonio it's a technology and
00:25:16 business focus to high school though
00:25:18 right now it's a start-up this year
00:25:19 they're almost through their first year
00:25:21 heading into your first Spring Break
00:25:23 here pretty soon Melissa
00:25:24 so in our cyber world we've had on folks
00:25:28 from the cyber Texas foundation we've
00:25:30 had a number of a cyber Patriot coaches
00:25:32 on that that CyberPatriot season is
00:25:34 wrapping up and my understanding is even
00:25:36 with a you had some all freshmen
00:25:38 CyberPatriot teams this year yeah we
00:25:40 were very excited and our sponsor our
00:25:43 teacher sponsor was excited as well we
00:25:45 actually were able to comprised four
00:25:46 unique CyberPatriot teams for cast tech
00:25:50 so that means the students are learning
00:25:53 how to compete together but technically
00:25:54 they're competing against each other as
00:25:56 well the day of competition and so it's
00:25:59 been nice is we actually hosted pep
00:26:01 rallies for them we've made it part of
00:26:02 their culture they're just as important
00:26:04 as a football team so on CyberPatriot
00:26:07 competition days we meet at the learning
00:26:08 staircase and we would recognize them
00:26:11 and pin them and honor them for their
00:26:13 work so that's part of the culture we're
00:26:14 trying to create that this is part of
00:26:16 our school and what we're about so we
00:26:18 need to be sure and honor it and the
00:26:19 kids that are really taking it seriously
00:26:20 yeah for those listening that have not
00:26:23 heard of CyberPatriot before it's team
00:26:25 sports for cybersecurity so you've got
00:26:27 attackers coming in you're defending
00:26:29 your cyber infrastructure you're
00:26:30 figuring all this out and it mat the
00:26:33 game runs for six hours and they keep
00:26:36 score just like in a regular sporting
00:26:38 event you're scored against all of the
00:26:40 other teams that are out there competing
00:26:41 and even teams of freshmen this year
00:26:43 there's only equivalent of varsity
00:26:45 everyone competes all on the same
00:26:47 CyberPatriot level so none of the
00:26:49 freshman teams qualified for the the
00:26:51 national finals this year but I would
00:26:53 not be surprised to see one of those
00:26:55 teams getting there and competing with a
00:26:57 lot of the top teams we have here in
00:26:59 this an Antonio area about
00:27:01 time you gone from startup to to full
00:27:02 high school here over the course of the
00:27:04 next four years
00:27:05 well and that's what we expect for our
00:27:06 kids that's what we want for them so
00:27:08 that they're getting that kind of
00:27:09 training to help move towards that
00:27:12 direction so the season has just
00:27:14 concluded for us we are our teacher is
00:27:17 working to create a local event for
00:27:20 CyberPatriot competition for those
00:27:22 students that did not move on our teams
00:27:24 that did not move on to Nationals and
00:27:25 will be hosting that at Cass Tech we're
00:27:28 looking at doing that the first Saturday
00:27:30 in March and to build some capacity but
00:27:33 helps students actually meet other
00:27:35 students that are participating in this
00:27:37 venue because when you do compete you
00:27:39 tend to just do it at your school or
00:27:41 another venue in isolation because
00:27:43 that's how cyber security is you're
00:27:45 behind a computer a machine but we are
00:27:47 students to also interact and meet other
00:27:49 students with a common interest so they
00:27:51 can see who they are out there and start
00:27:53 making some social connections as well
00:27:54 but also to help spur that interest and
00:27:57 keep it moving forward but developing
00:27:59 capacity in meeting these other coaches
00:28:01 at these schools to to offer support a
00:28:04 create a network or cadre to keep the
00:28:06 movement so if you're a student on a
00:28:09 CyberPatriot team or a coach or an
00:28:11 administrator at a school that has a
00:28:12 CyberPatriot team if they wanted to
00:28:13 attend this event in March where do they
00:28:15 reach out to you so you know what they
00:28:18 can go to our Cass Tech web page and
00:28:21 just reach out to myself I'll make it
00:28:22 simple
00:28:23 melissa kala click where it says
00:28:24 principal and we can reroute you the
00:28:26 correct direction and the actual
00:28:28 sponsors Donald Davis but we don't
00:28:29 expect people to remember that but you
00:28:31 can just call the school and we can help
00:28:32 you with that as well yeah so be great
00:28:35 to see some turnout and then get some of
00:28:36 the cyber Patriot teams getting a chance
00:28:39 to interact in a live venue with each
00:28:42 other and we're excited right now we're
00:28:44 already anticipating I think we have
00:28:45 about a hundred showing up so it's not
00:28:47 like it's a gonna be a small little
00:28:49 crowd and we're excited we got the space
00:28:51 for it in the classrooms and we've got
00:28:53 the network capacity and thanks to the
00:28:55 industry support once again in the
00:28:57 school district for creating that kind
00:28:59 of environment for us
00:29:00 yeah and for some just overall scope for
00:29:04 our listening audience out there San
00:29:06 Antonio has the second most number of
00:29:09 cyber Patriot teams for a metro area
00:29:13 number one is Los Angeles and they have
00:29:15 I think three times as many people in
00:29:18 the Los Angeles metro that we do but
00:29:20 we're second behind that Los Angeles
00:29:22 Metro in the CyberPatriot programs in
00:29:26 middle schools and high schools and and
00:29:28 this is I mean part of what we have
00:29:30 going on here in our economy with all of
00:29:32 the military City USA the military cyber
00:29:36 here that's through the airforce NSA
00:29:38 Texas and and others and then all of the
00:29:41 private sector cybersecurity activity
00:29:43 that goes on here as well in the Tech's
00:29:46 district and startup scenes downtown and
00:29:48 then even out through to was Melissa
00:29:50 mentioned and before the break we're
00:29:51 talking about
00:29:52 she had USAA out at her campus and some
00:29:54 of the folks there talking with the
00:29:55 students about encryption and all of
00:29:58 those cyber jobs that go across all of
00:30:00 the different companies in our area has
00:30:03 set this up to one in high school where
00:30:05 San Antonio is leading the way on this
00:30:09 CyberPatriot surge to get kids into team
00:30:12 sports that are potentially gonna get
00:30:15 you college scholarships is there's a
00:30:17 CyberPatriot equivalent program up at
00:30:20 the college level we've had dr. Greg
00:30:22 white on the program in the past who's
00:30:24 talked about that collegiate cyber
00:30:26 challenge and then cup that's been
00:30:27 hosted at UTSA here in a university with
00:30:31 a great cyber program and background you
00:30:33 could listen to dr. whiter and learn
00:30:36 more about the collegiate cyber Cup or
00:30:38 CyberPatriot on our past programs
00:30:41 available on our website at
00:30:43 www.att.com/biz well you'll get to see a
00:30:48 great still shot of Melissa and I if you
00:30:50 look at that rebroadcast we did not do
00:30:53 video in youtube if we get a whole bunch
00:30:55 of you really asking you would love to
00:30:57 see what it looks like to watch us
00:30:59 record maybe we'll add that so get some
00:31:02 listener demand out there let us know if
00:31:03 you'd like to see some video and maybe
00:31:05 we'll will change that because I would
00:31:06 love to get some of your students at the
00:31:08 high school listening to our program
00:31:10 actually that's a great thought and I'll
00:31:12 be sure and share this with them because
00:31:13 I know they're gonna want to poke fun at
00:31:14 their principal anyway and what her
00:31:16 voice sounds like so and I'm okay I can
00:31:18 take it but anything for the kids and
00:31:21 get them interested and I know there's
00:31:22 some great podcast in there that they
00:31:24 could learn from anyway
00:31:25 so we will certainly do that yeah and so
00:31:28 before the break I teased the audience a
00:31:30 bit that we were going to talk about
00:31:31 project-based learning so when I went to
00:31:34 school we did projects and these
00:31:36 projects were you would learn all about
00:31:39 something and you'd all these abstract
00:31:42 skills you wouldn't know why you were
00:31:44 learning them or why they mattered and
00:31:45 at the end of the semester at the end of
00:31:47 the year you would do this this project
00:31:49 this capstone to show your parents and
00:31:52 your teachers and everybody look at all
00:31:53 these things I've learned over the last
00:31:54 year that you're making the face here
00:31:57 the which they can't see you can't see
00:31:59 my face where I'm kind of laughing and
00:32:01 smirking all at the same time and I'm
00:32:02 thinking of those parents listening out
00:32:04 there where you did the project the
00:32:05 night before and you were up till 1:00
00:32:07 a.m. and then you get upset because you
00:32:09 as a parent made an 83 on the project
00:32:11 like wait a minute what happened but it
00:32:14 my personal bias I think it lost the
00:32:17 whole intent why we even did that
00:32:18 project it was supposed to be self
00:32:20 directed so at Cass Tech we're big about
00:32:24 the design of the project so before we
00:32:26 even implement a project we spend at
00:32:28 least 40 hours planning hours preparing
00:32:31 and how we're going to facilitate it and
00:32:33 then we monitor and adjust as we
00:32:35 implement because it really is a
00:32:37 student-led project where the teacher
00:32:38 turns into facilitator but to make it
00:32:40 work it's got to have a good driving
00:32:42 question or some kind of interest and
00:32:44 that means you have to get to know your
00:32:46 students and your learner's but also the
00:32:48 premise of what your school is about and
00:32:50 mesh the two together so one example
00:32:53 from back in the fall in our digital
00:32:56 media class the teacher was wanting to
00:32:59 institute some community service because
00:33:01 we're trying to also Institute with our
00:33:02 kids hey we're here downtown what a
00:33:04 great opportunity for us to also give
00:33:06 back you've got industry giving to you
00:33:07 their time and their expertise and they
00:33:10 can never get back their time as one of
00:33:12 the most precious gifts you can give so
00:33:14 we need to be practicing that as well so
00:33:16 what can we do for community so the
00:33:18 students were first brainstorming about
00:33:20 doing something for the homeless and so
00:33:22 forth because there is some homeless
00:33:24 shelters and venues nearby but then also
00:33:27 the students realized that the
00:33:29 Children's Hospital of San Antonio is
00:33:30 nearby so after actually they explored
00:33:33 it both and they went out there and met
00:33:35 with the directors of the both
00:33:36 departments and the students got to come
00:33:38 back and they say
00:33:39 you know what we want to focus on the
00:33:40 hospital and see what we can do for the
00:33:42 patient's there so the hospital share
00:33:44 they had a need for the students or the
00:33:46 students the patients and parents to
00:33:48 have something to do because they sit at
00:33:49 the hospital a lot when they're going
00:33:51 through treatment since illness and so
00:33:54 the students came up with well in our
00:33:55 digital media class we're learning how
00:33:57 to do design in Adobe Illustrator so we
00:34:00 could create coloring books so the
00:34:02 students have the opportunity to speak
00:34:04 with what kinds of things are the
00:34:05 patient's interested in what kind of age
00:34:07 groups do you have and so that led them
00:34:10 all to create a design with the purpose
00:34:13 of trying to make it meaningful for a
00:34:14 patient through the lens of a child and
00:34:16 you need to be thinking about what a
00:34:17 child you're trying to serve or meet
00:34:20 their needs and so each student created
00:34:22 a unique design using vector art and
00:34:25 industry standard art that they were
00:34:27 learning so it was a semester long
00:34:28 project and then it culminated in the
00:34:32 business class with them figuring out
00:34:33 how to pay for publication of this
00:34:34 because we wanted it to be nice and for
00:34:37 this the patient's there to feel
00:34:38 important and special and so we did have
00:34:41 it professionally published like it's a
00:34:42 real color ebook and it looks that way
00:34:45 and so forth but it's a gift and so they
00:34:48 figured out that as well and then also
00:34:51 figuring out the profit margin what do
00:34:53 they need to sell it for cuz now parents
00:34:55 see it and they want to buy it because
00:34:56 it has their child's artwork in it and
00:34:58 they want to be able to show it to
00:34:59 family or give it as now they're wanting
00:35:01 to give it as token Valentine gifts to
00:35:03 Grandma and things like that yeah so
00:35:05 it's turned into this bigger thing we
00:35:07 didn't even anticipate and that's the
00:35:09 kind of project that gets students it
00:35:11 gets their heart on fire in their mind
00:35:13 on fire and that's a good project it's
00:35:15 gonna do both and find a way to resonate
00:35:17 with those so kids were working after
00:35:19 school till 6 o'clock on their projects
00:35:21 to where teachers need you to go pick up
00:35:23 their kids from day care by 6:30 like
00:35:25 okay we've got to close at 6:00 today
00:35:27 because we've got to go get children of
00:35:28 our own yeah but that's the kind of
00:35:30 passion you want and then we we work on
00:35:33 Saturdays we have some professional
00:35:34 development so we would open up our lab
00:35:35 for kids that wanted to come work on
00:35:37 Saturday as well so they could use the
00:35:39 software I mean the difference here is
00:35:43 they they knew when they were learning
00:35:44 this vector art it wasn't today we're
00:35:46 gonna learn to use vector art to make
00:35:48 three-dimensional curves and we're gonna
00:35:50 learn to put one object in front of the
00:35:52 other
00:35:52 then we're gonna learn to embed fonts
00:35:55 into it you're gonna go through all of
00:35:56 these different things that you have to
00:35:58 do to make a coloring book and then at
00:36:00 the end the two weeks to go in the
00:36:02 semester the teacher announces okay now
00:36:04 we're making a coloring book and here's
00:36:06 all these things we learned through the
00:36:07 semester and they're like I didn't pay
00:36:08 attention in that because I didn't think
00:36:10 it was gonna be important to be able to
00:36:11 do curves it's something unique going on
00:36:14 at Cass Tech is something called
00:36:15 personalized learning so to make
00:36:17 something like this happen where kids
00:36:18 can go in their own direction the
00:36:19 teacher really is doing a lot of
00:36:21 pre-planning so she was actually on
00:36:23 YouTube curating YouTube videos and or
00:36:26 creating them herself for students that
00:36:29 needed a little quick lesson on how to
00:36:31 do X because they wanted to create
00:36:33 something that hadn't been covered yet
00:36:34 so that she had a playlist for students
00:36:37 so that she could help students but then
00:36:39 they're not waiting on her they could
00:36:41 catch that video for those that are more
00:36:43 self-directed and able to go in that
00:36:44 direction
00:36:45 and what was so unique is students we
00:36:48 saw on fire academically that we've
00:36:50 never seen before but that also
00:36:52 instilled their self-confidence then to
00:36:54 continue to work harder and even shine
00:36:57 in their other classes where teachers
00:36:58 like what's going on with Johnny like I
00:37:00 haven't seen this before and now he's
00:37:02 wanting to hurt you finish this work so
00:37:03 he can get back to this other project
00:37:04 and so forth so that's been real
00:37:07 meaningful and I think the best part at
00:37:10 the end we actually just delivered those
00:37:11 coloring books last week at the
00:37:13 Children's Hospital and it went to the
00:37:14 crisis center there but to be able to
00:37:17 have the staff there go through their
00:37:20 books and ask them questions and they
00:37:21 got to do a presentation so they're
00:37:23 presenting in front of professionals but
00:37:26 they also had the opportunity to meet to
00:37:27 hospital interns that just started and
00:37:30 they flew out of California for their
00:37:32 College internship over here at
00:37:34 Children's Hospital and so just
00:37:36 impromptu I just asked those two young
00:37:38 ladies I said could you just share a
00:37:39 little bit about your background and how
00:37:41 you got here but any tips you would have
00:37:42 for our students as they get ready for
00:37:44 an internship in a couple of years but
00:37:46 at a high school level and that was very
00:37:48 powerful for the kids because they were
00:37:50 sharing things that our students haven't
00:37:51 even thought about and some things we of
00:37:53 course we haven't even finalized in our
00:37:57 program as a new high school as we work
00:37:58 towards having that junior and senior
00:38:00 year for our kids so it was just a great
00:38:02 opportunity and the kids came back and I
00:38:04 when you asked them what was the best
00:38:05 part of the Hope
00:38:06 project hands down for them it was the
00:38:09 hope presentation piece and that feeling
00:38:11 of doing something to help people you
00:38:13 don't even get to meet and so we relate
00:38:17 that back to so guys we need you to
00:38:19 remember that when people come in to
00:38:21 work with you or you're a guest
00:38:22 somewhere else that's the same feeling
00:38:24 they get but we need to be appreciative
00:38:26 of it as well and continue that work
00:38:29 with paying it forward
00:38:30 yeah and if you wanted to see those
00:38:33 coloring books or follow cast some more
00:38:35 I believe I came across that project
00:38:38 announcement on your Facebook page the
00:38:40 cast has a Facebook page content coming
00:38:43 up but I also see on Twitter when I'm on
00:38:45 there on a regular basis year your PE
00:38:47 teacher is pretty active on Twitter
00:38:50 talking about a lot of interesting
00:38:51 things even in the physical education
00:38:52 side that you're doing to get kids these
00:38:56 days I don't think any of them very much
00:38:59 are motivated and but excited about PE
00:39:01 any more but I see real engagement when
00:39:03 I've been over to campus a few times I
00:39:06 truly think we've got one of the best PE
00:39:08 teachers in the state of Texas so our PE
00:39:11 program is even unique at Cass Tech
00:39:13 because everything goes back to our
00:39:14 mission what we're here for
00:39:16 so business technology integration and
00:39:18 then teaching students how to work in a
00:39:19 team so we actually have co-ed PE which
00:39:22 is not typical for a high school so we
00:39:24 have boys and girls in the same PE class
00:39:26 and I've asked the teacher to focus on
00:39:28 more team-building activities that
00:39:30 promote fitness in activity versus a
00:39:32 unit on football or volleyball and so on
00:39:35 and that's what she's done and I said
00:39:37 and by the way if you could go ahead and
00:39:39 integrate technology which it was a very
00:39:41 apparent in her interview she was
00:39:42 already dude she was already using
00:39:43 technology so she's been keeping the
00:39:46 school district busy because she's been
00:39:48 wanting heart rate monitors fitbit's
00:39:50 things like that but then also how to
00:39:52 post it in some new apps and so forth so
00:39:56 we can have that for kids she's got her
00:39:58 mentor coordinator working right now
00:40:00 because she saw a new laser tag type
00:40:02 thing she'd like to do once a month on
00:40:04 Fridays but invite industry to
00:40:06 participate and how can we make that
00:40:08 happen because it's physical fitness but
00:40:09 interacting with industry but it's more
00:40:11 about how do you keep yourself
00:40:13 emotionally sound during a stressful
00:40:16 week and have some downtime and work in
00:40:18 some play
00:40:19 so she's taking that side of things for
00:40:22 when they're working one day and having
00:40:24 that balance with work life in play life
00:40:27 but then also she's incorporating diets
00:40:29 we've talked about that too because we
00:40:31 are here in San Antonio and we're not
00:40:33 one of the most fit cities overall and
00:40:36 with our student population it's very
00:40:39 representative of San Antonio and so we
00:40:42 do have a high Hispanic rate and so
00:40:44 she's been good about teaching her
00:40:47 students the things they need to work
00:40:48 out with look out and watch out for with
00:40:50 her health so we do have meditation and
00:40:53 yoga being taught to our students we
00:40:55 actually have a circuit training
00:40:58 classroom right now where UTSA one of
00:41:01 our industry partners for higher
00:41:02 education has donated the equipment and
00:41:06 teaching the kids how to use that so
00:41:07 much that now she has sessions after
00:41:09 school for kids that just want to do
00:41:11 that on their own because they don't
00:41:12 have access to that kind of equipment at
00:41:13 home ya know so I mean it's innovation
00:41:16 going across all all of your classes in
00:41:19 areas so as I'm thinking through one of
00:41:22 the things we haven't talked about yet
00:41:24 is you say high school you've got to go
00:41:27 through all these requirements so kids
00:41:28 can get into college colleges are still
00:41:30 requiring kids to take foreign language
00:41:32 as well right that is right and Sam at
00:41:35 Cass Tech right now we've got Spanish
00:41:38 our teacher though is also Spanish in
00:41:40 French certified and we realized we've
00:41:42 got students coming to us that are
00:41:44 already fluent in Spanish so next year
00:41:48 we will be offering French for those
00:41:51 that are ready to go that direction of
00:41:54 course being in San Antonio Spanish is a
00:41:57 priority but also French is actually one
00:42:01 of the business languages globally and
00:42:03 so why not offer French since we've got
00:42:05 the teacher that can do it and when
00:42:07 we're actually going to be hiring our
00:42:08 second foreign language teacher to help
00:42:09 continue with the program so now we're
00:42:11 actually looking for someone that's both
00:42:12 certified in Spanish and French we're
00:42:15 confident we'll be able to find that but
00:42:17 it's nice that we're gonna be able to
00:42:18 have those opportunities for students
00:42:20 that want to learn more than one
00:42:22 language yeah sounds like if you're a
00:42:23 teacher that is certified in Spanish and
00:42:26 French and would like to teach an
00:42:27 innovative high school downtown
00:42:29 somewhere on that si SD website there's
00:42:32 going to be some job
00:42:33 biddings coming up here for that role
00:42:35 and for other roles on your staff coming
00:42:38 into this next school year that's right
00:42:40 thanks for pointing that out so each
00:42:43 spring actually for the next two years
00:42:44 we're going to be working to build our
00:42:46 staff as our program continues to grow
00:42:48 we will be a full high school by 2020
00:42:51 the follow 2020 so each year we're
00:42:53 adding the next level of teachers so we
00:42:55 hope to have some job postings up in
00:42:57 February specifically for Cass Tech and
00:43:01 so please get the word out if you know
00:43:02 of any quality instructors that sounds
00:43:05 like this is their their thing their
00:43:07 interest the right kind of teacher is
00:43:09 the one that's already doing these kinds
00:43:11 of things on his or her own without that
00:43:13 kind of direction from their school and
00:43:15 then they're just gonna really flourish
00:43:16 in this environment yeah you're gonna be
00:43:18 a department of two department of one
00:43:21 which is interesting I participated in
00:43:24 some of the interviewing process and
00:43:25 that we would get some questions if well
00:43:27 who's my department chair and what are
00:43:28 the department guidelines and then the
00:43:30 answer is you're the only teacher in the
00:43:32 department so you are the department
00:43:34 chair you get to decide the department
00:43:35 guidelines you're gonna talk to Melissa
00:43:37 some about how this is gonna work from
00:43:40 the administration but there isn't a
00:43:42 department right so this year it's been
00:43:45 we collaborate and create that together
00:43:47 but that's why it was a special kind of
00:43:48 teacher we were really looking for this
00:43:50 year and we had met some great
00:43:52 applicants but they were more like a
00:43:53 year - or year three teacher and there's
00:43:55 nothing wrong with that it's just
00:43:57 finding people's gifts and what meets
00:43:58 the needs of the school and the team at
00:44:00 the moment so anyway we look forward to
00:44:03 building capacity and I know our
00:44:04 teachers currently are looking forward
00:44:05 to having someone to plan with you know
00:44:07 the math teacher oh I have another math
00:44:08 partner next year and as well as all the
00:44:10 other departments in addition to a
00:44:12 computer science and what's really going
00:44:15 to be neat so we'll be hiring two more
00:44:18 technology teachers so we're gonna have
00:44:19 four technology teachers on this campus
00:44:21 with four labs and I feel like we're
00:44:24 really going to be a powerhouse because
00:44:25 we're making sure we have teachers that
00:44:27 are computer science certified but also
00:44:28 technology ed which means that you know
00:44:30 have how IT works but also Adobe and
00:44:34 some other certifications so those are
00:44:36 kind of unique finds to find but once
00:44:38 you find them they're gems and we work
00:44:41 to to keep them and put their talents to
00:44:43 use to keep them motivated and excited
00:44:46 being in casting some of the things that
00:44:48 are different for you is like you're
00:44:49 teaching certain classes like you
00:44:51 mentioned the AP pre-ap computer science
00:44:53 to freshman and normally that's a class
00:44:55 that's probably taught to juniors or
00:44:57 seniors are gonna take that maybe
00:44:59 sophomores into it a little bit but you
00:45:01 you could come in with some assumptions
00:45:02 that they've had certain other classes
00:45:05 before that some of the the educational
00:45:07 building blocks are there and you've got
00:45:10 to go back and rethink the lesson plans
00:45:12 and curriculums and and so each teacher
00:45:15 is effectively I mean they're running
00:45:16 their own startup because there's not a
00:45:18 playbook to go well where's the other
00:45:19 list of high schools teaching computer
00:45:22 science to freshmen or physics to
00:45:23 freshmen or a different things that
00:45:24 you're doing at Cass Tech they have to
00:45:27 go and innovate this themselves right
00:45:30 and that once again it goes back to the
00:45:32 hiring and making it crystal clear to
00:45:34 the candidates what you're looking for a
00:45:36 bit knowing as the leader the campus
00:45:38 what's needed to make the school evolve
00:45:40 and grow into its purpose but what I
00:45:43 found when you meet people that are a
00:45:45 master in their field whatever their
00:45:47 profession they typically don't want to
00:45:49 be micromanage because they're a master
00:45:51 at what they do they just want to be
00:45:52 supported and given their parameters to
00:45:54 work within and have some autonomy to
00:45:56 make that happen
00:45:57 and I have found if you find those kinds
00:45:59 of people and you you know water them so
00:46:01 to speak with whatever it is they need
00:46:03 they can take things beyond what you
00:46:05 ever expected is more like get out of
00:46:06 their way just get the barriers out of
00:46:08 their way to make it happen and that's
00:46:10 what we have going on at Cass Tech with
00:46:12 some of our projects and things coming
00:46:13 up so it's been a blessing to be able to
00:46:16 see but it's also been busy behind the
00:46:18 scenes for leadership to work to to
00:46:21 facilitate that and make these ideas
00:46:22 come to life but it's been real
00:46:24 rewarding and you know you're doing the
00:46:26 right thing when the kids are telling
00:46:27 you and the teachers we want more
00:46:29 projects like how often do you really
00:46:32 hear that but we gave our students a
00:46:34 survey in December to see how we're
00:46:35 doing and what we could be doing better
00:46:37 and hands-down they said they love the
00:46:39 projects they want more of them why
00:46:41 can't we have them in every single class
00:46:43 all the time the students don't
00:46:45 understand the amount of planning it
00:46:47 takes to make that happen but what we're
00:46:49 looking forward to even more next year
00:46:50 going to the next level is more
00:46:52 integrated across curricular and more
00:46:54 with industry partnership because being
00:46:56 a startup this year there's some
00:46:58 baseline things we need to teach
00:46:59 but seen how this is going to evolve is
00:47:01 really exciting and how it will help
00:47:03 launch them into internships and some
00:47:06 work based study starting junior senior
00:47:08 year and it's it's good to hear you use
00:47:10 the words interdisciplinary and cross
00:47:12 curriculum this in industry projects
00:47:15 have teams that are made up of folks
00:47:18 with marketing and design background and
00:47:21 software development and communications
00:47:24 and business and all of those folks with
00:47:27 that are experts in their area are
00:47:29 working together on a team in order to
00:47:31 to build a and complete a project almost
00:47:34 no projects are made up of teams of sole
00:47:38 single skills single curriculum single
00:47:40 area focus those teams are often out in
00:47:45 the cross curriculum and if students
00:47:47 have not been exposed to working and
00:47:49 thinking about these things together
00:47:51 that way and working on those kind of
00:47:53 teams then as employers we get to spend
00:47:55 years training them so it's much better
00:47:57 for them to learn that from the ground
00:48:00 up they're beginning at high school
00:48:01 writing what's nice is even to make all
00:48:04 this happen the teachers have to model
00:48:05 it in the administration as well as a
00:48:08 faculty we have to work together to make
00:48:10 these projects happen that are cross
00:48:12 curricular and then Institute with the
00:48:15 kids so the kids see it modeled real
00:48:18 world when people come in but then they
00:48:20 realize the faculty and team are doing
00:48:22 that as well so they're seeing cohesion
00:48:24 and but there's they're seeing how great
00:48:28 it can be when that happens they may not
00:48:30 understand of course what it took behind
00:48:32 the scenes to make that happen because
00:48:33 they're not part of that but more
00:48:36 importantly they're getting these kinds
00:48:38 of opportunities and skills being built
00:48:40 into the curriculum so that when they're
00:48:42 going on to college and career after
00:48:45 high school they should be a leg up of
00:48:48 their peers that are graduating and
00:48:49 better ready to either meet the college
00:48:52 expectation as they go into these
00:48:54 courses or if they're going to start
00:48:55 with industry they've already got a leg
00:48:56 up and don't need quite as much coaching
00:48:58 so they give you a role model system the
00:49:01 other new newbies that are starting as
00:49:03 well and they can continue to launch in
00:49:06 their career and
00:49:07 to me with higher-ed later that's the
00:49:08 desire they have you've been listening
00:49:10 to cyber talk radio the host brett pied
00:49:13 have been joined this week by Melissa
00:49:14 called the principal of Cass Tech High
00:49:16 School in district charter in San
00:49:19 Antonio ISD it's a mix of half of the
00:49:22 kids are in district half out of
00:49:23 district they are focused on business
00:49:25 technology if you've listened to us
00:49:28 through the whole episodes you knew all
00:49:29 of this if you just happen to turn the
00:49:30 radio on right now and would like to
00:49:32 learn more the rebroadcast this will be
00:49:34 online on our website on w w cyber talk
00:49:37 radio calm on tuesday february 13th you
00:49:41 can find us on facebook twitter and on
00:49:43 itunes podcasts or pocket cast or any of
00:49:46 your favorite services for you Android
00:49:47 device users out there and thank you
00:49:49 very much for joining us this week
00:49:51 Melissa