Podcasts about vista unified school district

In this episode of AUHSD Future Talks, Superintendent Matsuda interviews Dr. Matthew Doyle, Superintendent of the Vista Unified School District.  During the talk, Dr. Doyle discusses his journey, a Framework for the Future, the Learner/Adult/Systems Portrait, building a culture, a career superhighway, the architecture of an apprenticeships program, and advice to other educational leaders.Dr. Doyle has spent 34 years in education as a teacher, site administrator, district administrator, and county administrator. Dr. Doyle has extensive experience supporting English language learners and students with special needs. He is responsible for leading the design and implementation of the district strategic plan, the Blueprint for Educational Excellence and Innovation, in response to the State of California Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) provisions. Dr. Doyle's primary focus is to create the conditions for transforming a traditional educational organization into a scalable, sustainable personal learning environment. The Personal Learning Challenge project won the Golden Bell Award from the California School Boards Association. Vista Unified was recently awarded the California Department of Education 2022 Pivotal Practice Award for demonstrating innovative practices in response to the global pandemic. 

Dr. Eric Chagala is the founding principal of Vista Innovation Design Academy (VIDA), a Vista Unified School District middle school. Eric is an inspirational educator with incredible energy and an impressive shoe collection! As VIDA's 10th year draws to a close, Eric sits down with Rachel to talk about VIDA's transformation, his work as Principal and as Director of Social for VUSD, and why middle school is the most important three years of your life. We discuss the good, the bad, and the "happy honks" of middle school. Want to feel inspired and encouraged about the future? Check out this episode today! Show Notes Vista Unified School District VIDA The Anxious Generation Southwest Airlines UCLA Rapid Fire Thank You for Being Late Little Miss Magic - Jimmy Buffet Big Jim's 395 Follow us at @velocityvistapod on IG and Facebook. (www.vistachamber.org) Advertising inquiries can be sent to ceo@vistachamber.org. Velocity is produced by A Different Day Radio. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/velocityvistapod/message

Martha Alvarado is a Marine Veteran, an educator, and a mom. Her background and passion for students led her to run for VUSD School Board of Trustees in 2018. She now serves as the President of the Board. Join Rachel for a conversation with Trustee Alvarado about the role of a Board Trustee, the latest happenings in Vista Unified and what is next for the District. If you are interested in education in Vista, this episode is for you! Check out Vista Unified School District! https://www.vistausd.org/ Rapid Fire Book: The Glass Castle (https://www.amazon.com/Glass-Castle-Memoir-Jeannette-Walls/dp/074324754X) Song: Rapper's Delight, Sugarhill Gang (https://open.spotify.com/track/7sZDbHZiuHEzS00vzCuhqS?si=b09dfa0713e74a19) Business: The Chiropractic Wellness Center (http://www.crwellnessmassage.com/) Follow us at @velocityvistapod on IG and Facebook. (www.vistachamber.org) Advertising inquiries can be sent to ceo@vistachamber.org. Velocity is produced by A Different Day Radio. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/velocityvistapod/message

Today - As classes in the Sierra Vista Unified School District gear up for a shift in timing, we explore what this change means for its students.Support the show: https://www.myheraldreview.com/site/forms/subscription_services/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When it comes to the district's teachers putting their best foot forward, Sierra Vista Unified School District's best of the best just got even better.Support the show: https://www.myheraldreview.com/site/forms/subscription_services/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Yao Du is a Clinical Assistant Professor in Speech-Language Pathology at the Caruso Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California. She is a bilingual Mandarin-English speaking speech-language pathologist who has worked with pediatric and geriatric clients in schools, private practices, hospitals (inpatient and outpatient), skilled nursing facilities, and home health. She conducts research in areas of assistive technology, telepractice, and bilingualism, and also provides consulting for digital health and assistive tech startups. Deanna Hughes, PhD, CCC-SLP is a clinician and researcher who tries to improve accessibility to technology for individuals with communication disorders.Currently, she is a speech-language pathologist (SLP) with the Vista Unified School District in Vista, CA with a focus on early intervention and AAC. Claire O'Connor, B.S., is a second year speech-language pathology graduate student at Monmouth University, NJ. Her research interests include the implementation of assistive technology in communication and cognitive intervention and its efficacy on how it can be used as an effective therapeutic tool to facilitate independence among those with complex cognitive and communication needs. The virtual voice assistive technology (VAT) training is currently enrolling adults with cognitive and communication disorders (18 years old above) and caregivers to join 12-week audio and video recorded Zoom sessions, in which you will receive a FREE Amazon Echo Show device (per participant-caregiver dyad) and training on a variety of voice commands on topics such as setting reminders, selfcare/medical needs, meal preparation, news and facts, and entertainment in their daily activities. At the end of the training, our team will engage in a 1.5 hour long debrief interview where team members and caregivers will share their thoughts on the training and the device All participants are encouraged to have their family members/ caregivers present during the training. Contact us (yaodu@usc.edu) for your availability, and we look forward to enrolling you and/or your loved one. You can listen to this episode wherever you listen to podcasts or at: www.3cdigitalmedianetwork.com/telepractice-today-podcast  

Today - In an innovative, up-to-date way for parents and community members to gain quick access to emergency alerts and school events, the Sierra Vista Unified School District has launched a new app for mobile phones.Support the show: https://www.myheraldreview.com/site/forms/subscription_services/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Devin is a wealth of knowledge and a source of inspiration as he reveals the 4 C's that lead to high levels of trust. We also dive into the importance of relational trust and social capital as well as why connectedness is essential in our learning communities. Shoutout to Learner-Centered Collaborative's Chief Impact Officer, Katie Martin, and the entire LCC team! Transcript available here. About Our Guest: Dr. Devin Vodicka is the CEO of Learner-Centered Collaborative, author of Learner-Centered Leadership, and former Superintendent of Vista Unified School District. Website: learnercentered.org Twitter: @dvodicka Instagram: @lccollaborative About Lainie: Lainie Rowell is an educator, international consultant, podcaster and TEDx speaker. She is the lead author of Evolving Learner and a contributing author of Because of a Teacher. Her latest book, Evolving with Gratitude, was just released. An experienced teacher and district leader, her expertise includes learner-driven design, community building, online/blended learning, and professional learning. Learn more at linktr.ee/lainierowell. Twitter - @LainieRowell Instagram - @LainieRowell Evolving with Gratitude the book is now available! Purchase here! You can also get bulk orders for your staff (10 copies or more) at a discounted price! Just fill out the form linked below and someone will get back to you ASAP! bit.ly/ewgbulkdiscount

Leading schools in the 21st century can be overwhelming. More is being added to our plates while our resources and time feel depleted.In a highly complex world, a framework for leading schools is needed. Devin Vodicka, author of Learner-Centered Leadership, offers “A Blueprint for Transformational Change in Learning Communities.”We talk about this topic, including:why trust is foundational,how schools can see the whole child, andwhy both teachers and students need to be empowered for this work.A 20th century education model still exists in too many schools. This episode introduces a pathway leaders can follow toward true success for all learners.Relevant ResourcesAudio + TranscriptPurchase Devin’s bookCheck out Devin’s article on trust (Principal Leadership)Learn more about Devin’s work here and here.Also listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts (and give us a rating!)Full TranscriptMatt Renwick:Welcome Devin Vodicka. I came across your work through your article through, I think it was the Principal Magazine. Is that right?Devin Vodicka:Yes.Matt Renwick:A summary of your dissertation on trust. I'm interested in learning a little bit more about that as it relates to the book that I have coming out. But you also have a book out Learner-Centered Leadership: A Blueprint for Transformational Change in Learning Communities through IMPress. Welcome Devin. If you just say little bit about yourself, your work, what you do for schools.Devin Vodicka:Well, it's great to connect. I'm Devin Vodicka. I'm the CEO of Learner-Centered Collaborative. We partner with schools and districts to help them make the shift to learner-centered education. For us that's all about beginning with whole learner outcomes and designing meaningful learning experiences and creating the enabling conditions to bring all of that to life.Devin Vodicka:We're working with 130 something school districts across the country. Seeing lots of great innovations during this interesting time. Before my current role, I used to be superintendent of Vista Unified School District which is where I live, San Diego County. School district of about 25,000 students. Then prior to that, I had a whole bunch of admin roles and I was a teacher in LA Unified at the beginning of my educational career.Matt Renwick:What a time to be in this business. Supporting that shift. I mean, not surprised you're that busy. Why did you pick trust as a topic for your studies and dissertation and the frame that you came up with the 4Cs?Devin Vodicka:At the time that I was working on my dissertation, I was a principal. I was fortunate to open a new elementary school and a new middle school. I was really interested in organizational development and how you measure the progress of an organization.Devin Vodicka:I looked at a lot of different models, a lot of different frameworks and ended up becoming really interested in the field of social capital. Social capital essentially says that, there's a benefit from connections that we have. Because they enable the exchange of resources and expertise.Devin Vodicka:There's a lot of research in many in fields that shows that when you have higher levels of social capital, those resources flow more freely and you end up with higher levels of effectiveness. I had this hypothesis that social capital could be a way to think about organizational development.Devin Vodicka:I got pulled into a research study that was through SRI International. It was funded by The National Science Foundation. They were looking at the feasibility of using this social capital lens to look at school reform and technology integration. Sure enough, it turned out where you have a lot of connectedness, you have the space for a diffusion of innovation and reforms and change efforts stick.Devin Vodicka:That led me to then wonder, well, how do you create social capital? If that's a way to think about the readiness of an organization. What does it take to build it? When you really start asking the question about how do we build connections? It quickly leads you to trust and relational trust more specifically.Devin Vodicka:I became then very interested in, well then as a school leader, how can I create higher trust in this environment? How can we create relational trust? There's a lot of research in this area and that all led me to develop this synthesis which says it really takes four elements that have to be in place.Devin Vodicka:Consistency, compassion, competence, and communication. It's the interplay between those four elements that creates relational trust. If you have relational trust, you're then generating social capital. If you're generating social capital, you're creating the conditions for more meaningful change. That's a quick fly through of my intellectual journey.Matt Renwick:I remember that article too. I remember you, I think writing you can't have just compassion or just consistency. You have to have all four. It's a layered approach to building that foundation.Devin Vodicka:Totally right. Well, I give the example of sometimes when we talk about trust, we generalize it. But it is highly situational.Devin Vodicka:My wife and I have been together since high school. We have a very high level of relational trust but she knows what I'm good at and what I'm not good at. Competence being one of those four elements for example. If our car was broken and needed repair, she would not trust me to fix it because she knows I'm not competent in that particular area. But if she needed a bill to be paid or she needed one... there are lots of things that I can do.Devin Vodicka:It's important to remember that it's very situational. It's dynamic. It's two parties that go into it. I can do everything that I can to try to build trust but ultimately it's the interaction between two or more people that really generates that social connection.Matt Renwick:Communication's going to be a huge part of that as well.Devin Vodicka:Communication is huge. It cuts across the three other dimensions. Your consistency, your compassion and your competence are all influenced by how you communicate. The research in this area really reinforces the importance of receptive communication. Are we able to be a good listener?Devin Vodicka:That tends to be a higher predictor of trust than your ability to express yourself? As it relates to leadership, school leadership in particular, I think we're always confronted with the myth of the charismatic, eloquent leader who carries a message and inspires people through that.Devin Vodicka:But when you really look at the research, you find out people are often more inspired by someone who cares about them as a person, listens to them, understands their perspective, is able to balance consistency with compassion to get things done. Communication is huge.Matt Renwick:I saw that throughout your book too, in the learner-centered leadership in your blueprint. Speaking of communication, you talk about a... you introduced the book by telling a short story about Diego and just how you were able to find out about his situation. Can you just describe that just briefly and how it led to this concept?Devin Vodicka:Yeah. The story in the book is about Diego which is not his real name. But he didn't want to be identified. We'll call him Diego. He was a student at the school where I was an elementary principal. We knew each other when he was really quite young.Devin Vodicka:Then I ended up going to the district office. Moved to a neighboring district to be superintendent. He ended up at a high school in the district where I was superintendent. I made it a priority to be in schools a lot as the superintendent. I would wander through the schools and every time I saw him, it was a sense of reconnection. It was just great to see how he had grown over time. We had, I'd say a friendly but not super close connection.Devin Vodicka:Then I got a call from his mom one day who shared with me that his dad had passed away. She was very ill. He was a senior at that time. He was working to support his family and falling behind in school. I went and checked in with him. It turned out that he was carrying a lot.Devin Vodicka:As soon as we knew about it, there was a whole team of people, the principal, the counselor, the teachers all sort of sprang into action and set up all kinds of supports and interventions. He ended up graduating, going to college. He's doing quite well now. But it was shocking to me that he had been in school and none of us knew about his situation.Devin Vodicka:His story to me is just such an important reminder of how relationships have to be first in everything we do. Because with that relationship, we can understand the whole person and how we can be most helpful for them. That's the story. That's the takeaway. That's part of why I think we need just more humanity in our educational approach.Matt Renwick:Relevance seemed to come up for me too as I was reading your book. Your own story is not the same as Diego's but you were also a first generation citizen. You talked a little bit about that too with how you viewed school coming through in the United States. How did that form your philosophy where you are today?Devin Vodicka:In the book, Learner-Centered Leadership, I also share the story being from an immigrant family growing up in a small town and just how strange it was. I noticed it at a young age. I was probably seven, maybe eight years old that I had these very distinct cultural differences that were completely unrecognized in the learning experience.Devin Vodicka:Not just culture being unrecognized as a form of individual difference but I had friends that picked things up quickly or slowly or had different interests. It just struck me as very strange as a very young person that we would be getting sort of one size fits all treatment. When it was really clear to me that we were unique as individuals. As a learner, what it made me feel like is that I was unseen or invisible.Devin Vodicka:When I connect that back to Diego, I think about why didn't he tell somebody about his situation? But when you feel like you're not seen in the educational experience, you don't feel compelled to reach out. You withdraw is the natural tendency.Devin Vodicka:That happens to so many kids in our school system. It's one of the reasons we've had almost 20% of our students not graduate from high school for 50 years. It's not that they're not capable. It's students disengage and they withdraw. It's often because we're not seen as people. We don't have those connections that will help us to really flourish.Matt Renwick:Your blueprint talks about some of the elements that will help us meet every kid's needs for learner-centered leadership. Could you walk us just through each element? I think there was four, should leaders be looking for to help guide their teachers in their community toward a more responsive experience.Devin Vodicka:Well, part of it is the context. That context is really important that it is characterized by high levels of trust, social capital as we go talked about. I encourage leaders to be deep listeners. No matter what your role is, we can all learn from one another in that listening mode.Devin Vodicka:If you have a high trust environment that's characterized by really trying to understand one another, leaders need to have a strategy to move forward. I define leadership as an intersection of purpose, participation and feedback.Devin Vodicka:The way that you get to that is by aligning what I call a framework for the future. What's your vision? Where are you going? What's your mission? How are you going to contribute to achieving that vision? What are your values? Which is how you'll behave. What are your goals? So that you know if you're making progress towards your aspirations. Then roles and responsibilities. Who's going to do what.Devin Vodicka:Then lastly, you need a plan of action. In communities where you have alignment of vision, mission, values, goals, roles, plan and you have high trust, incredible things can happen for learners.Matt Renwick:With this framework you encourage leaders to constantly reexamine it and adjust it to your local, like you said, situation instead of context. I just wrote it's personalized learning for ourselves too. It's not just for the kids but we have to be learners along with them.Matt Renwick:Sometimes districts or schools will be told, no you need to follow this curriculum or you need to follow this framework. Somewhat, I would say rigidly. But you don't advocate for that. You actually advocate for personalizing it to of your context. What are the benefits to that?Devin Vodicka:Yeah. For sure. Well, it's a really hard change because we're conditioned by these industrial era systems that do promote compliance where I think what we need today in the world is much more agency which is part of personalization. That agency is really purposeful action that each of us can take individually.Devin Vodicka:If we want to see that for our students, it needs to also be in place for our teachers, for our school leaders. It needs to be we have integrity in the system. Having gone through the experience of moving towards more personal learning for all students, you have to align those outcomes, the experiences and the conditions. The conditions need to reflect the outcomes you want to see. If you talked about empowering learners to drive their own future, you have to promote that for everyone in the system.Matt Renwick:You have to give them space to make decisions.Devin Vodicka:Correct. Well, the flip of this is some people I think worry that if you take this empowering approach where you're promoting agency and choice and flexibility, that you're going to have chaos and that it will be unstructured. This is where having strategy, vision, mission, values goals, the elements I talked about, are important to put guardrails around the process and establish some expectations about how we're going to coexist together.Devin Vodicka:Where you have that balance of structure and flexibility, you get tremendous growth. But that requires ongoing feedback which is why listening continues to be important. Because just when you think you've found that balance... we're dynamic people. We exist in dynamic context. We need to be listening in this kind of inquiry mode to make adjustments. Sometimes adding more structure. Sometimes removing structure. But keeping those boundaries in place to have purposeful action in the direction of what we're trying to achieve.Matt Renwick:It takes time. I mean, I'm in my sixth year now. We're still, exactly what you said, just trying to re-examine why we're here? What we're doing? I almost got a sense just reading your book too that, it's not just maybe changing what you currently have but almost not to throw out what we've done but like you said, it's a pretty substantial shift to go here.Matt Renwick:Any specific strategies? You mentioned deep listening which I 100% agree with. Any other strategies a leader might take to start accelerating that shift so that we can get there sooner just for our kids right now?Devin Vodicka:Yeah. I mean, the way we start with most of our partnerships is talking about what are we really trying to achieve? What do we really want for our learners? If you engage in that conversation, you say, what does success really look like for one of our students?Devin Vodicka:Invariably, they talk about we want them to be knowledgeable. They need to be literate. They need to have foundational skills in math and science and social studies. Those things are necessary but they're not sufficient because we also want our students to have a sense of purpose.Devin Vodicka:We want them to know how to interact well with others. To be empathetic. To be effective communicators. We want them to be creative. We want them to be problem solvers. We want them to contribute in their communities. Once you start getting into that conversation, you just say, well, how would we know that that's actually happening?Devin Vodicka:It leads you into a very important and urgent conversation around what are the metrics of success that are going to tell us if we're making progress? As soon as you start anchoring on the whole learner as what you're trying to achieve, you recognize that all of these other things must shift if you're really serious about achieving those ambitions.Devin Vodicka:It starts and ends with the learner always. But outcomes is a great way to get started quickly to do the urgent work that needs to occur.Matt Renwick:It can't be just test scores. There has to be other ways to measure this. Correct?Devin Vodicka:Yes. Test scores are not bad but if you think of a different setting like healthcare, imagine if the entire industry focused only on your weight. That was the single measure that was the exclusive focus of all of your health efforts. We would end up being less healthy than if we also incorporated other inputs like, what's your blood pressure? How well are you sleeping? What's your emotional state? These are all things that are important.Devin Vodicka:It's critical to have multiple measures to guide progress. I will say along those lines, when we started shifting schools to more personal learning, we often saw initially that academic achievement would go down. But we were tracking multiple metrics and measures like attendance and discipline, attitudes about school.Devin Vodicka:Those were going off the charts in a positive direction. It gave us the confidence to say, well, if we're seeing higher levels of engagement, ultimately that should translate into more academic achievement. Sure enough, it did. When the academic metrics bounce back, they went to higher levels than we had ever seen before. But we wouldn't have persevered through that if we weren't oriented to more than one input. Very important to have multiple metrics.Matt Renwick:The multiple measures not only gave you feedback on how you were doing, but it also helped you sustain that journey so that you stuck with it.Devin Vodicka:Completely. Just like in the health field, if you optimize around one metric, you might suboptimize around other things that are also important. We do the same thing in education. There's a lot of great research that says that countries that do really well with improving test scores have students who are disinterested in the subject or not motivated.Devin Vodicka:We need to be thinking about the holistic effects and impacts of what we're doing. Just like I was talking about trust and how there's these competing dynamics, it's similar in this respect. We need to be thinking holistically and globally if we really want to better serve one another as humans.Matt Renwick:Well, this is complex work but in your book Learner-Centered Leadership, you nicely frame it. I think leaders can read it and they start to do this work and feel confident going forward. Devin, where can we find more about your work online?Devin Vodicka:Well, the good thing about having a name like Devin Vodicka is there's not many of us. I'm pretty easy to find on Twitter or LinkedIn, social media. But I also have a website called learnercenteredleadership.org. I try to do pretty regular blog posts. Then the website for our organization is learnercentered.org. Learnercenteredleadership.org gets to my website, learnercentered.org is our company's website.Devin Vodicka:We look forward to staying connected and eager to learn from all the great things that others are also doing to better serve kids.Matt Renwick:Devin Vodicka, it was great to talk to today. Thank you.Devin Vodicka:Appreciate it. Thank you. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit readbyexample.substack.com

In this episode we have the pleasure of hearing from Cathy Williams. Along with Jo Boaler, Cathy co-founded Youcubed, an organization within Stanford University that is dedicated to inspiring mathematics success for all students through growth mindsets and innovative teaching. I think of Cathy as being the silent partner to Jo, but trust me, she's anything but silent! Cathy has a long history of excellence in mathematics - from high school math teacher to Director of K-12 Math at Vista Unified School District, to professor at Stanford University.  Cathy walks us through her pathway as a math expert as well as the evolution she is seeing in teaching and learning in math. We learn about Youcubed - its origins and its future in supporting math instruction. She then dives into data science - a passion shared by both Cathy and Jo. Cathy describes how data science can inspire all students to be engaged in learning math to solve real world problems, not only in the math class but across subject areas and in an interdisciplinary approach to learning. We are inspired by the examples of best practices Cathy has observed in schools and districts. For more opportunities to learn from Cathy and other thought leaders in education and beyond, check out the Knowledgehook Signature Leadership Portal at www.knowledgehook.com/leadership.

In this episode of Velocity (recorded just after school began in August), Vista Chamber CEO Rachel Beld sits down with Dr. Matt Doyle, Superintendent, Vista Unified School District. Dr. Doyle shares how he became an educator and what inspires him. Join us for a discussion about the important work of educating students with a focus on equity, navigating the COVID-19 pandemic, connecting students to a Career Super Highway, and how local businesses can get involved. Show notes/links: Vista Unified Equity Project Vista ARPA fund allocations Career Super Highway Vista USD CTE Nuance: Why Some Leaders Succeed and Others Fail - Michael Fullan What a Wonderful World Big Jim's 395 Peppertree Frosty Follow us at @velocityvistapod on IG and Facebook. Watch the video version of this episode on YouTube. Advertising inquiries can be sent to ceo@vistachamber.org. Velocity is produced by A Different Day Radio. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/velocityvistapod/message

Rep. Levin hosts a virtual town hall with U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) and distinguished guests Dr. Arcela Nuñez-Alvarez, Co-Founder and Co-Director of Universidad Popular and Cipriano Vargas, School Board President of Vista Unified School District. The panelists share their personal stories, highlight the significance of Latino communities' contributions to our nation, and address opportunities to alleviate the challenges that Latino communities continue to face today.

Vista Unified School District's board meeting got interrupted three times last Thursday when protestors refused to wear masks. The leader of the anti-mask group “Let Them Breathe” was kicked out of the meeting. Meanwhile, a week after the San Diego County Sheriff's Department released an edited video of a deputy supposedly overdosing on fentanyl…. the unedited body cam video was released, leaving unanswered questions. Plus, scholars from UC Berkeley are questioning the legality of the September recall election in California.

Nearly 10,000 students returned to class in person this week at Vista Unified School District as campuses reopened after more than a half-year of remote learning. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/communities/north-county/vista/story/2020-10-22/with-face-masks-and-hepa-filters-vista-students-return-to-school

Student Tech Squad to the Rescue! – The saying, not all heroes wear capes, is true for the National School District Student Tech Squad. Join us to learn how they started a new initiative to help support their teachers with technology. If you are a new listener to TeacherCast, we would love to hear from you. Please visit our http://teachercast.net/contact (Contact Page) and let us know how we can help you today! In This Episode ...What is the Student Tech Squad? How did it come about? How has this initiative impacted how teachers and students approach technology in the classroom? What are the biggest benefits for each? How can other schools replicate this type of initiative? What were the first steps? What does the future look like for the Student T2ech Squad? Follow our Podcast and Subscribehttps://www.teachercast.net/episodes/teachercast-podcast/ (View All Episodes) https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-teachercast-podcast/id546631310?mt=2 (Apple Podcasts) https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cDovL2ZlZWRzLmZlZWRidXJuZXIuY29tL1RlYWNoZXJjYXN0Q2FzdFBvZGNhc3RGZWVk (Google Podcasts) https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/teachercast-podcast/the-teachercast-podcast-network-your-educational-professional?refid=stpr (Stitcher Radio) About Prometheanhttps://www.prometheanworld.com/ (Promethean) is a global education company that improves learning productivity by developing, integrating, and implementing innovative 21st-century learning environments. At Promethean, our goal is to reimagine and reinvent educational technologies that engage and empower the classroom, and we do it all for the love of learning. Headquartered in Seattle, Wash., Promethean is a member of the Net Dragon Websoft Holdings Limited group of companies. For more information, please visit PrometheanWorld.com. Links Of Interesthttps://blog.prometheanworld.com/learn-promethean/camp-promethean/ (Camp Promethean) https://www.facebook.com/PrometheanWorld/ (Facebook) https://twitter.com/Promethean?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor (Twitter) https://www.linkedin.com/company/promethean (LinkedIn) About our GuestsDr. Wendy O'ConnorDr. O'Connor currently serves as a director in the Educational Services department of the National School District. Her focus is Literacies, Educational Technology, and Innovation (LETI). In addition, Wendy works as an online adjunct professor in the Literacy masters program at California State University, San Marcos and the Educational Technology masters program at Concordia University. She previously served as an Early Literacy Coordinator in Curriculum and Instruction in the Vista Unified School District. Prior to working as an Early Literacy Coordinator, she served as a VUSD district leader through the roles of Content Support Resource Teacher and Literacy Coach. In addition to serving as a teacher on special assignment, she has been a classroom elementary teacher, supervised numerous student teachers, served as a site liaison for student teachers from CSUSM, provided support to beginning teachers through Beginning Teachers Support and Assessment (BTSA), served as a district Language Arts mentor teacher. Throughout Dr. O'Connor's entire career, her passion has been to support students, teachers, administrators, and parents in ensuring literacy for all. Social Media Links: email- woconnor@nsd.us; Twitter http://twitter.com/nsdleti (@nsdleti) Nathan BlandNathan Bland currently serves as the District Resource Teacher for Technology for National School District where he provides professional development for teachers, teaches demonstration lessons in TK-6th grade classrooms, and provides technology training for parents. He also is the facilitator for the Junior Tech Squad where he provides training and support for the Promethean panels, Chromebooks, and iPads. He is Google certified and an Apple Learning Academy Specialist. Prior to this role, he taught 4th and 6th grade for 18...

Cathy Williams is the Co-Founder and the Executive Director of YouCubed, a platform lead to inspire, educate and empower mathematics teachers from Stanford University. Cathy was the Director of K-12 Mathematics at Vista Unified School District. Her projects include the book and program, Math Language that Works and the virtual math teacher support program Getting Ready for Algebra. Originally aired on 03 March 2018 at KZSU Stanford. 

Episode 19: Cyber Awareness  In the last five years access to mobile digital devices has increased exponentially at home and at school. Vista Unified School District is dedicated to supporting students and families navigate this digital landscape in a safe and responsible manner. This podcast is meant to accompany the VUSD Cyber Awareness Parent Night provided on April 26 at Vista High School. Today we will provide you with information on how the district is providing a safe digital environment at school and efforts to provide education on making good decisions online. We speak with Jon Moffat, local cyber education consultant, and the district's Marc Schroeder, to provide tips for the family to manage digital life at home, set limits and become more aware of usage trends for children and teens.

Episode 18: Music Round Table With Dr. Linda Kimble Today’s episode is a round table discussion led by Dr. Linda Kimble, Superintendent of Vista Unified School District, on the topic of music education in public schools. Dr. Kimble was part of a recent gathering of teachers and administrators in North County San Diego exploring the expansion of music education across the 78 corridor.  The gathering took place at the national headquarters of the National Association of Music Merchants, knows as NAMM, a site which also houses the Museum of Making Music. It was a perfect location for Dr. Kimble and her guests to share the vision and steps to broadening music education in Vista and the surrounding communities.  We hope you’ll find this conversation informative and inspiring, and that you’ll learn more about the ways you can be involved in bringing music education to every student in Vista Unified.    

Episode 16: School Safety Roundtable Today we have a special episode: a roundtable on school safety. With so much of the nations’ attention focused on this topic, we wanted to take some time to hear from a few of the many people working daily to maintain safe school environments. We’ll hear from Dr. Linda Kimble, Superintendent of Vista Unified School District, Dr. Kyle Ruggles, Executive Director of Student Support Services, Jeff Geyer, the district’s safety and Environmental Manager, as well as members of the Oceanside Police Department and the San Diego County Sherriff’s department. They’ll share information as to how the district trains and equips teachers and staff in safety practices, how school facilities are optimized for safety, the many social and emotional support services available to students, as well as the importance of fostering kind and trusting cultures on school campuses. We cover a lot of ground on the topic, and hopefully that helps you, our listeners, to have a better sense of the breadth and depth of care and expertise that the district invests in when it comes to school safety. And listed here are a few of the details mentioned in the episode. Regular Drills - Fire Drills: K-8 monthly; 9-12 twice a year- Earthquake: twice a year- Intruder/secure campus or lockdown -- twice a year The podcast also includes brief comparisons of Secure Campus vs Lockdown, and how those terms help to identify what sort of situation may be happening. Recent Facilities Modifications To School CampusesAdditional perimeter fencing has been installed at:Beaumont ElementaryBobier ElementaryBreeze Hill ElementaryCalifornia Ave. ElementaryCasita Center Elementary Empresa ElementaryGrapevine ElementaryLake ElementaryMadison Middle SchoolMission Meadows ElementaryMission Vista High SchoolMonte Vista ElementaryRancho Buena Vista HSRancho Minerva Middle SchoolVista Academy (VAPA)Reconfigure school entrance to single point of entry at:Alamosa Park ElementaryBreeze Hill ElementaryLake ElementaryMission Meadows ElementaryRancho Minerva Middle SchoolVista Academy (VAPA)Installation of security cameras at all schools and district facilitiesUpgrade of District wide Emergency Radio system

Episode 8: Looking Into Infrastructure, with Donna Caperton, Assistant Superintendent, Business Services This month, December 2017, we’re going to be talking about infrastructure, addressing both the physical structures of schools as well as changes and innovations in teaching and curriculum. On this episode we speak with Donna Caperton, Assistant Superintendent for Business Services for Vista Unified School District. She oversees the remarkable number of projects around the district, from large scale projects to smaller upgrades and improvements. You’ll be impressed by the process and thoughtfulness that go in to all of these decisions.

Listen in as Art Barter, SLI's founder and CEO talks with Devin Vodicka, Superintendent of Vista Unified School District in Vista Ca. Devin has been working to equip his leaders in the district with servant leadership skills. You'll be fascinated by the story of the districts’ performance improvement in attendance, behavior and academics among other measures. You won’t just hear the facts; you’ll hear the heart of these leaders. Enjoy!

You might not have any idea what the California State Board of Education does. I didn't. That is, until we talked to Trish Boyd Williams, a member of the board. Williams lives in San Diego and has a major role on the board and she explained it to me for the latest episode of Good Schools for All. It was that board, of course, that is the reason Common Core was adopted in California so we took the opportunity to break down how it's going and how the board determines its standards. My co-host Laura Kohn was screaming at the TV during a recent Republican presidential debate as they went on about Common Core. Take a listen to hear what she says they got wrong. Williams said it's having a major impact in the state. "What’s different about the Common Core state standards in English, Language Arts and Math over the previous standards in English and Math is that it shifts the focus. There’s less memorization of isolated facts, and there is more focus on bigger ideas, and on discussion, analysis, arguing from evidence, and critical thinking skills," Williams said. Williams is also spearheading the adoption of new science standards for schools. What’s Working: Devin Vodicka, the Superintendent of the Vista Unified School District, and was named Superintendent of the year by the California Association of School Administrators in 2015. Devon and his team are making thoughtful but ambitious changes in the schooling system. They are working from a “blueprint for educational excellence,” and are creating a very positive impact. Numbers of the Week: The achievement gap refers to the difference in educational achievement between different races or demographics. 72% of Asian students read at grade level last Spring, and only 30% of black students did. In 8th grade math, 73% of Asians students met grade level standards, and only 22% of black students did.

You might not have any idea what the California State Board of Education does. I didn't. That is, until we talked to Trish Boyd Williams, a member of the board. Williams lives in San Diego and has a major role on the board and she explained it to me for the latest episode of Good Schools for All. It was that board, of course, that is the reason Common Core was adopted in California so we took the opportunity to break down how it's going and how the board determines its standards. My co-host Laura Kohn was screaming at the TV during a recent Republican presidential debate as they went on about Common Core. Take a listen to hear what she says they got wrong. Williams said it's having a major impact in the state. "What's different about the Common Core state standards in English, Language Arts and Math over the previous standards in English and Math is that it shifts the focus. There's less memorization of isolated facts, and there is more focus on bigger ideas, and on discussion, analysis, arguing from evidence, and critical thinking skills," Williams said. Williams is also spearheading the adoption of new science standards for schools. What's Working: Devin Vodicka, the Superintendent of the Vista Unified School District, and was named Superintendent of the year by the California Association of School Administrators in 2015. Devon and his team are making thoughtful but ambitious changes in the schooling system. They are working from a “blueprint for educational excellence,” and are creating a very positive impact. Numbers of the Week: The achievement gap refers to the difference in educational achievement between different races or demographics. 72% of Asian students read at grade level last Spring, and only 30% of black students did. In 8th grade math, 73% of Asians students met grade level standards, and only 22% of black students did. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.