Beyond the Test: AI, AVID, and the Evolution of Learning

What does it take to lead a modern high school while paving the way for the next generation of educators? In this episode of The Hope Table, host Erin Brinker sits down with Yvette Roman, the dynamic principal of Bloomington High School in Southern California. Roman shares insights into how Bloomington High—a PBIS Platinum and AVID National Demonstration School—is fostering an inclusive, safe, and academically rigorous environment for its 1,700 students through specialized pathways like business, engineering, and criminal justice (COPS). 

The conversation dives deep into the evolving landscape of education, highlighting how the school responsibly integrates AI tools like Google Gemini and Notebook LM while maintaining a core focus on critical thinking and face-to-face collaboration. Drawing from her own upcoming doctoral dissertation, Roman also discusses the critical role of the "AVID Tutor Experience" in shaping professional identity and strengthening the teacher retention pipeline. Tune in for an inspiring look at applied learning, educational evolution, and what it truly means to serve with purpose. 

Transcript

Erin Brinker: 0:04

You're listening to The Hope Table. I'm Erin Brinker. I'm so excited to be sitting down with the incredible principal of Bloomington High School here in Southern California, Yvette Roman, soon to be Dr. Yvette Roman. Yvette, thank you for joining me today.

Yvette Roman: 0:21

Thank you for having me.

Erin Brinker: 0:23

So, so tell me about Bloomington High School. Tell me about yourself and kind of the work that you're doing there.

Yvette Roman: 0:30

Yeah, so I am a product of Colton Joint Unified School District. This is my fifth year as the principal here at Bloomington High School. It's just been an amazing opportunity to lead wonderful school site. We have about 1700 students here at Bloomington High School. We also have three pathways: we have the COPS pathway, the business pathway, and the engineering pathway. We're also an avid national demonstration school, which is very important to me as well. And we also offer the early college program, and many of our students also are coming in from our feeder elementary and middle schools with the dual immersion program, and so a lot of our students are also earning the syllabi literacy, so it's an overall amazing opportunity for our students, and we are a PBS platinum school, so this is our second year earning the platinum status, so we're super excited about that. Thank you very much. So that's a little bit about Bloomington High School, and you know, as I mentioned, I'm a product of CJ USD, so I've loved working for Colton, and have had a 21 year career here with Colton in various positions.

Erin Brinker: 1:32

So, what is PBIS?

Yvette Roman: 1:35

So, PBIS is Positive Behavior Intervention Systems, and so it's our tiered intervention systems to support our students. We do a lot of work in our Tier One, which is for all students, just to create a welcoming environment for all our students. Share our expectations with them. Our expectations here at Bloomington High School is be responsible, have respect, and stay safe. And so we really do a great job of sharing that with our students, not only in our expectations assemblies throughout the school year, but also in the classrooms, and then just reminding them about those expectations, rewarding them for all their positive behaviors and things like that. In fact, this morning I was out delivering donuts to all the students who had the top attendance for period one and period two, and so outstanding, got rewarded. Yeah, so wonderful, just things, just recognizing students for doing the right thing and creating a positive school culture, so that students feel respected, they feel safe, and they feel welcomed in our school site.

Erin Brinker: 2:31

So, so talk to me about some of your career pathways. I know that you have a COPS pathway, an engineering pathway, a, you do Vapa, which is Visual and Performing Arts. You have AP, that's that is offered there, NJ ROTC, that's Navy Junior ROTC, all kinds of things going on. Talk about your COPS pathway.

Yvette Roman: 2:55

Yeah, so our COPS pathway is a wonderful opportunity for our students to learn more about some of the service industries, as far as cops, being a police officer, military, or being in the FBI, things like that. So, we have a criminal investigation class that the students take. They also can take a forensic science class. They can also take you in the law, and then the students in all pathways have an opportunity to also go into the community through various field trips and just make those connections with our community members as well, so recently our Cops Pathway participated in the UN the Law Day, and they had an opportunity to go down to the courthouse and just see just different things and connect with the real life experiences that are within the profession.

Erin Brinker: 3:41

Wow, how fun for them. And do they have a model? You not a model, you end, but a what do they call it for the model modeling the court? Oh my gosh, what do they call it? You do

Yvette Roman: 3:55

have, yeah, we have, we have a like, they do have mock trial here, first trial,

Erin Brinker: 4:02

that's what I was thinking of.

Yvette Roman: 4:03

Yeah, but that's a club for us here at our school, and that's not necessarily tied to the pathway, so you don't have to be in the pathway to be in mock trial. But we do have a simulation of a courtroom and a lab, basically it's a lab that allows for students to go in there and simulate a courtroom, but also they simulate crime scenes, so that's the wonderful thing about those classes, is it gives kids an opportunity to kind of have their investigation skills honed in on throughout their time here at Bloomington High School.

Erin Brinker: 4:34

Well, and that's got to be really fun. You think about young people love escape rooms, they love these puzzle games, they love, you know all of that, and that's what all that's what forensics is, right? I mean, it's it's down to the little tiny detail things that you might miss, and they're they're looking for it, and they're analyzing it, and they're using science, and that sounds like a lot of fun.

Yvette Roman: 4:52

Oh, yeah, it's great. It's wonderful when I conduct some walkthroughs into the classrooms, I get to see the students having these hands-on engaging activities. And they're just building on each other's knowledge, really trying to think critically about, you know, who is the possible suspect. So, sometimes they have these kits where they pull out all the evidence and they start analyzing it and making determinations on, you know, the best way to go about solving the crime. And so it's a wonderful opportunity for them. And then we have a lot of other pathway experiences and just amazing teachers on our campus, and great students. So, it's great that they get to build these connections with one another too.

Erin Brinker: 5:28

So, I'm very interested in the Avid program. Avid's been around for a long time. I think people have an idea that you, it takes kids who are who wouldn't necessarily go to college, and kind of gets them prepared, so they, you know that could you know maybe first gen kids gets them prepared to at least go through the process of applying to schools and getting, doing their FAFSA and all of that, but it's more than that, right? So, tell me about AVID.

Yvette Roman: 5:51

Oh yeah, AVID is something that's just really dear to my heart. I was an AVID student, and you know, AVID actually started in for the Inland Empire within CJ USD at Colton High School with Vivian Shah. She was one of the first teachers to offer that program, and I was within the first few graduating classes for her. And so it was a wonderful experience. Avid has been around for about 45 years now. I currently was doing my dissertation on AVID tutor experiences, so I have a strong background and knowledge about AVID, the AVID program, but it's a great opportunity for our students to have the support systems that they need to have access to second, you know, to college and career readiness skills. So, since we are an AVID national demonstration school, that means that all of our teachers receive training and Avid strategies, and they implement those Avid strategies in their classroom, and it's considered WICR, which is Writing and Career Collaboration Organization, and reading, and so we really focus on, we have been focusing this year on writing, so in our walk-through data, we're seeing a lot of our students, our teachers using writing in the classroom, and then, of course, the inquiry and collaboration is key, right? That's part of the Common Core standards. We want our students to be engaged, we want them to be prepared for the careers that are out there, we want them to be able to work collegially with their teammates and things like that, and that's one of the things that we're doing to prepare our students.

Erin Brinker: 7:20

So, WICAR is I've not heard that acronym before. I love it, and I, and you know, I'm, I'm.. if you've never, if you've never had anybody in your family go to college, there's nobody to help you prepare to remember that there's deadlines coming up, to remember, or to know what the process is. You say FAFSA, what's that? I go to fill it out. Well, I need information for my parents. Well, maybe they don't understand what it is, or maybe they don't want to give up their personal information for this application. Or I don't know what the deadlines are for applying for schools. I don't know what the deadlines are. What with the schedule is for taking the SAT or the ACT, and AVID kind of helps you through all of that. Yeah, that's

Yvette Roman: 8:01

an amazing thing about the AVID program. I know, for myself, being the first one in my family to go to college, it was so pivotal for me, because I remember there was a point in which my dad said, if you want to go to college, you have to figure it out yourself, and you know, being a little ninth grader, 10th grader, who had these dreams of going on to school. I was so thankful to have the AVID program, because really, my coordinator, she made sure that I took the right classes, that I took, you know, four years of Spanish, four years of math, four years of science and English, and everything that I needed, you know, more than what was needed, but it gave me all of the opportunities to be admitted, have you know, a guaranteed admission, even, and even some opportunities to take college level classes at different times, so they really just helped, you know, not only guide me but advocate for me to have these opportunities and experiences, so the AVID program really does that for our students, it just gives them these deadlines, these timelines, but also the skills that they need to be successful. I remember when I was a freshman in college, looking around in some of my lecture classes, all the students were taking notes and just writing down every single thing that the professor was saying, and I remember thinking that's really not important to write down, because I had four years of training in the AVID program of taking copious notes and really looking and listening for the intonation that my professor was using, the repetition that they were using, writing things down on the board, and so I felt very confident in the skills that I had learned as a student and a scholar to be able to thrive at the at the UC level, so yeah, great for our students too to have those opportunities,

Erin Brinker: 9:47

indeed. And I'm thinking, you know, so AI is a great tool. I use AI every single day. It helps me, I may I have to say something out loud or write it down to kind of think it through, and AI. Really helps me with that. It's a great tool, however, if I, if I, if I.. so I'm sitting here taking written notes as we're having a conversation, because it helps me think things through, and it helps me remember, and you know, go back to it if I have to ask, you know, a different kind of question. But, but I've had lots of training, you know, I've got master's degrees, I have lots of training on how to do that, kids don't, and then there's AI that'll do a lot of that work for them, or so they think, and what they're missing is the is is making those mental and you know neurological connections that teach you how to do this work, and it's not only going to school and being successful, but you'll need it in whatever job you have, whatever you decide to do, you'll need that ability, so that's got to be a new and different kind of challenge for schools, and you know, I think Abbott specifically, because you're already teaching those skills. But how has that impacted your school?

Yvette Roman: 10:55

Yeah, so I mean, we are very much focused on the focus note taking, right, that is what is a key component for Avid, and our students. We've had opportunities in which they've transitioned to digital note taking as well. So we know that sometimes students, especially because they have the one to one Chromebooks, that might be the most efficient way for them to take notes. A lot of times, too, most of the teachers are using Google Classroom now, so they're able to just take notes directly onto PowerPoint presentations and slides, so note taking has changed and evolved in that way, that it's not, it's no longer just the Cornell notes, where you know you're writing on a hard piece of paper, but you can make comments on slides, you can add highlights, you can interact with it, and that's the key, right? For retention is interacting and allowing for them to be able to recall that information later is is important. So that interaction is really what the key is, whether you're writing it down, which we know writing is a great skill as well, but they can also do that digitally, and so AI has allowed for some of those things, as far as the involvement technology, and then, of course, we are seeing, you know, the use of like chat GTP and all of those different AI components, and we are encouraging our - we have a an AI policy in our district, so we are encouraging our staff to utilize AI to help them with enhancing their lessons, so whether it's taking a current lesson that they have now and adding it into an AI generator to try and include opportunities for additional structured engagement, right, because that's what we want to see in the classroom, or making sure that it's aligned to the skill sets that are needed to meet the standard. Those are great ways for our staff to utilize AI. And then we're also, I know, at the university level, what I experienced is that the professors are now giving you a scale of whether or not you can use AI in certain activities, and it'll say no AI used some AI used, or like, and the specific ways in which you can use it appropriately, and so we want to provide those opportunities for our students too to learn how to use it responsibly, to know whether or not the information they're attaining is credible, and we also want our teachers to use that information to help make their lives easier, because the job of the teacher nowadays is so robust and complex, right? It's, it really is an art, and it continues to evolve every day,

Erin Brinker: 13:32

you know. It's think about Chat GPT, and I actually stopped using Chat GPT because it hallucinates a lot, because it just kind of goes out to the internet and grabs things that may or may not be true, and I'm sure that will get better as it, as you know, it continues to work, but you know, if I were, if I were writing a paper and I'm pulling down data, and we've seen this, like they've heard stories about people like attorneys writing briefs where they cite cases that don't exist, you know, and, and you know, if a presumably they've had training where they would learn how not to do that, but you know, our, our students, our young people don't have that frame of reference. Are you finding that, I mean, as you're kind of navigating these brand new waters, are you finding that students are relying too heavily on AI? Are they learning how to balance that. Are they being challenged beyond what the AI using the Socratic method or another method? Are they being challenged in the classroom to think beyond the AI? What does that look like?

Yvette Roman: 14:33

Yeah, so we are a Google district, so we use Gemini, which is great because it does allow for some parameters there, where it's not necessarily pulling everything from every source. We also have been exploring notebook LM in our district, which means that you're able to bring in specific sources and references. So we're working through that process of supporting our students through that. One of the things. Things that you know, with all the technology and all of that, is that our teachers are able to use something called Go Guardian, which allows them to monitor what the students are accessing on their Chromebooks, and so you know the teachers put on these parameters on what they can do in an assignment, but we are really focusing on, you know, being an avid school and using that Socratic seminar, those skill sets and philosophical chairs, and just structured engagement and opportunities for collaboration, that person to person, you know, those interactions. So, yes, students can use technology for different activities, but we're really wanting them to learn how to engage with one another, that's something that is key to their success in their future, is knowing how to hold a conversation, knowing how to build on each other's thinking, and to work collaboratively. So we're really focusing on a lot of that, and at our school.

Erin Brinker: 15:56

Excellent, I love that. I mean, it's, it's the wild wild west, right? I mean, AI is really new at this level, and are really new in general, and we have to interact with it, so you can't, you can't ignore it and pretend it doesn't exist and be working in a completely analog world, it's there, and so, How do you, how do you teach people how to think around it, because you know, with, with AI being able to do so much kind of the work, the grinding work in the workplace. I'm not even thinking about schools. The challenge then becomes for the humans is, how do you, how do you visualize the workflow? How do you think about the end, what you're trying to achieve, and then think backwards of what, how you want the AI, just how you want that structured. You know, it becomes really how to think becomes more important than what you're thinking about, right? You know, yeah. And

Yvette Roman: 16:47

that's why a lot of times you see it in the writing process, right? So maybe the students will create their drafts, and then because we have other programs that we also work with that we contract with, where it helps students to gain a better skill set on their writing abilities, things like that, and so just different platforms. I won't go into all those now, just because of, you know, because of time and time as well, but those are some things that the teachers are able to use to help the students understand, like what is appropriate. Can you use those those platforms to help refine your writing? Right, so it's not necessarily inventing your writing, but it's helping you to become a better writer through helping you choose precise wording and being concise or well organized, things like that, looking at the flow of your writing, and so those are great ways and that you can use the tools to enhance your skill set.

Erin Brinker: 17:43

Excellent, I love that. Now you are almost finished with a PhD, right? Yeah, my

Yvette Roman: 17:50

coursework - it's a doctorate, it's an EDD, and from San Diego State. And so I'm really proud of that. And yes, I just am waiting to defend some going back and forth with my chair right now, and that's the process for those of you who are not familiar with it.

Erin Brinker: 18:05

That's, that's wonderful. So, you did your, your tell us about your dissertation. I know that you're, you're doing, you, the research that you've done has been in the AVID program, so eager to hear about what that's all about.

Yvette Roman: 18:17

Yeah, so I was an AVID tutor prior to becoming a teacher, and I really felt like that experience solidified my understanding of what it meant to be a teacher. It helped me to know different classroom management techniques, instructional strategies, and just I felt like I didn't feel like a first year teacher. And when I got hired, there was about 17 of us, and there was significant turnover. There was only a few handful of us that made it after the first year, and so my dissertation is my problem practices on teacher retention, and we know that teachers are leaving the field at high rates in the state of California and across the country, and so this dissertation really focused on the experience that AVI tutors have and how that shapes their professional identity, and so the data shows that when someone has a strong professional identity they are able to remain in the profession despite all the challenges and they are more prepared for the role and so this avid tutor experience really does help teachers, prospective teachers gain a deeper understanding of what's expected in the role, and learning the soft skills of how to navigate and form relationships with students and colleagues, and so it's, it's a great, it was a great research study, and I loved it all the way through to the end, and I'm excited to see how the data is used to support the teacher pipeline.

Erin Brinker: 19:50

What surprised you in your research?

Yvette Roman: 19:53

Oh, wow, you're preparing me for my defense. So, I love this. Some things that surprised me was I. So some things that surprised me were that I did, there's a lot of data on mentoring, and so I did think about how the assigned teacher that's that works with the Avid tutors serves as a mentor in an unofficial capacity, and data shows that when you have mentors in as an educator, you feel connected, you feel like you have supports and things like that, and it does help you help with retention, but what I was surprised by was the fact that other avid tutors serve as mentors, so the veteran tutors serve as mentors to the new tutors, and that was something that was very prevalent in the data, and so a lot of them mentioned feeling like they knew they weren't by themselves in this experience, that they had one another, and they also checked in with each other and saying, "Hey, did you remember to register for your classes today, just small little things, or hey, do we want to form a study group for this, these tests, and whatever it might be, whatever finals they're coming up on, because obviously the Avid tutors are attending local universities, so a lot of them attend the same university, so it created this secondary safety net for them. So that was awesome.

Erin Brinker: 21:15

Yeah, I'm sure it was an Avid tutors are like they're undergraduates, that's 1819, 20 years old, 2122 in that, in that range, and so you know it's one thing for an old person, and when you're 1825, or up, or 27 or up is old, so it's one thing for an old person to be telling you what to do, but these avid tutor, these, these people who are more seasoned tutors mentoring you is a whole, just enough to be, you really believe them, you think that they're going to understand and feel, know what you've been through. It is a whole different ball of wax, slightly older than a peer, but still young enough to be able to relate, and that's that's a great model.

Yvette Roman: 21:54

Yeah, that's what a lot of the data also showed, that that because the tutors are coming in, you know, straight out of graduating high school, they really learned about building their professional boundaries and confidence as well, so that was great to see in the data, and I think that really a lot of them spoke to the fact that that helped them to transition more easily into the classroom and having a stronger foundation for classroom management, so there's a lot of great things that came out of the data, way too much to be able to put into one dissertation, but it's exciting, and I hope that you know there's very few studies out there on the Avid tutor experience. Most of the studies relate to the Avid students experience, and you know it providing access for students to have to remove barriers to the higher education, so I'm excited. I hope that more individuals study about the Avitude or experience to try and create opportunities to make build awareness and maybe change some policy around giving them credit for conducting this, you know, and serving in this role, because they're in the classroom three days a week, multiple years. Most of the AVI tutors had four years of experience or more, and so in that process they're really getting hands-on learning experiences and opportunities that even supersede what you would normally get in the student teaching experience, but currently they're not receiving credit for that, and so I think it would be a great way to change some of the policy around that. Yeah,

Erin Brinker: 23:26

you know, so you see there's on social media, on TikTok, or whatever, you see videos of people, oh, I'm done being a teacher, I.. it's, you know, it's not what I expected. At the discipline is so hard, and very often it's people who they graduate, they go through student teaching, which there's varying qualities of student teaching, depending on the quality of the student teacher and the support from the school, and there's so many things, but, but largely, what it seems like is that the people, these people have been really ill-equipped, they don't know what they're getting into, and you know, kids are kids, they're going to test their boundaries, and they're going to, you know, they come from various home experiences, some good, some not, with various structures, some good, some not, and, and learning how to manage all of that is really tough, and a lot of teachers, I think 50% of of new teachers, and maybe that number has gone up, but at one point it was 50% of new teachers quit within the first five years, and it sounds like that this kind of avid tutor experience is is really prepping young people who want to become teachers on how to do that, and what that, you know, what the classroom actually looks like, classroom management actually looks like, and that gives them the confidence to be able to manage their classrooms better, because I really wonder how much of this is a real confidence game for being able to handle classroom discipline. Is that fair?

Yvette Roman: 24:50

Yeah, that's that's so true. You know, the data for teacher attrition rates is high, we're less than 50% because they've done a lot of work. Up over the last few years with some legislation to help prepare teachers and also to create opportunities to bring in teachers into the profession as well, but yes, that hands-on classroom experience is really pivotal in shaping educators' understanding and knowing, like, what to expect, and I think a lot of times the student teacher experience is not long enough. In some ways, it does give them a foundation, but if they haven't served as an instructional aide or an avid tutor, or been on a classroom in a classroom other than their own experience as students, they have this mindset of what they expect, right, a classroom to look like, and education, just like every field, is always evolving and changing. The nuances are changing, obviously. We just talked about the technology, the evolution of technology in the classroom, and so what happens in the classroom when you're a student versus what happens in the classroom when you become a teacher could be completely different dynamics, right. And every day and every period, kids come in with different mindsets and different challenges, different needs, and the same student that came in thriving yesterday is now facing different challenges, because whatever happened over the course of the last 24 hours, they're coming in with something different, and so as a teacher, you really have to be able to adjust, you have to be able to know your students, you have to be able to anticipate and plan accordingly, so that they can have access to the content, so you're really serving as lots of different roles, wearing lots of different hats in that one hour period, or all day period, if you're an elementary teacher, right? So this experience really does prepare them,

Erin Brinker: 26:36

you know. I think people wrongly believe, oh, I was in high school, and that's when they usually remember. I was in high school. How hard can it be? Like, you know, I, we had these lessons, I could do that. They don't realize how much time it takes on the back end to prepare the lessons, and, and really think through what conclusion do I want my students to be able to reach for themselves, and how do I, how do I get them there, so that they understand, and they, you know, they can own and recall. I actually just did. I do board retreats for for nonprofits, and the preparation took longer than the retreat itself, because it's thinking back. Okay, where, where do they want to be? All right, how do I get there? What questions do I need to ask? What activities are going to get them there? Because when I leave, they have to own it, they have to understand it, they have to, you know, it has to resonate with them, and teachers do that every single day.

Yvette Roman: 27:30

Yeah, they're doing that every moment to moment, right? They're always planning and thinking about, you know, how can they make this experience come to life for the students, what connections can they make to help it resonate with the students, and what assets do the students bring into the classroom each day, so that they can actually make it relevant to them?

Erin Brinker: 27:50

Right, that's incredible. So, so you're about to go on your school year, is almost done, graduation is, I think, next week, so it's right around the corner, right? You know, what are your.. what are your hopes for the next school year? What do you.. what do you have a theme for the school year? How do you approach each school year?

Yvette Roman: 28:10

Yeah, so every year we do a kickoff, and recently we started a district-wide kickoff, and so we're excited to see what the superintendent has planned for our district-wide kickoff. It's a great opportunity for all of our staff to come together, start the year off as a team, and this last year was serving with purpose one district, and that's great. That was a great, that was a great theme for us this last year, and so every year we come in with a new theme for our staff and our Bruins, we build off of the theme that the district launches, so that we can tie that together, so that we're aligned with what the district has for us. But just knowing we use our CIPSA and our WASC goals to drive what our vision is for our school and our students. So we recently had our WASC accreditation last year, and so we're in our next year. Congratulations, too. Thank you very much. We got a six year revalidation, which is great. Yes, for those of you who know the WASP world, it's wonderful because it just really does drive what you want to see on your campus, and these are outside visitors that are experts in the field, teachers, principals, administrators, different people that are coming in to view your school and their outside perspective, right, and they're seeing like what are the needs for your students. So we're really going to be focusing next year, we're going to continue to focus on the writing, because we know that's important for our students, and our scores show that we need to focus on that as well. But we're really going to focus on formative assessment next school year for our students, and so formative assessment is real-time adjusting instruction based on student understanding, and so you know it's not necessarily that quiz or the exit ticket, it could be using whiteboards, thumbs up, thumbs down, asking students to share with one another. The teacher using proximity to listen to the discussions, and then determining, hey, the kids are understanding this, or they're not understanding this, and then what do I do now to help them better understand this before they're leaving my classroom for the day.

Erin Brinker: 30:12

I love that, and I know that there was a culture for a while of teaching to the test. Period. And you know, No child left behind, which was from what, 20 years ago, the Bush administration brought in No Child Left Behind, with, I think, good intentions of kind of standardizing what kids were learning, and then assessing based on those standards, but unfortunately it created an environment where they were teaching to the test, teaching to the test, teaching to the test, realizing that that wasn't necessarily the best way, things swung back with Common Core, sort of thinking, teaching, trying to teach how to think rather than what to think, and moving in that direction. What is that? What is the overall trend now? And are you, are you seeing good things ahead?

Yvette Roman: 30:58

Well, yeah, that's that's a great question, so I can only speak to my school, because you know I'm conducting walkthroughs in my own campus, and but I would hope that that's very similar. We do get out to other campuses within CJ USD as principals, secondary teams, we go to each other's campuses and kind of see what's happening at different grade levels to just try to align and have some vertical articulation as well, and so, yeah, we're seeing a lot of just the academic engagement, right, the collaboration that's really what we want to see, as I mentioned before, and so we're seeing that that higher level critical thinking students using primary sources and secondary sources to really gain an understanding of the content, we see that a lot in the social sciences classes and in the English classes as well. In the math classes, we're using something called BTC Building Thinkin Classrooms, where students are working in collaborative groups and they're rotating on whiteboards or in different groups and sharing their knowledge with each other, solving the problems, and then writing about the steps that they took to solve the problems, and explaining that to their peers, so it really is a focus on inquiry, right, it's a focus on working with one another, and and just building your knowledge based on sometimes what you're learning from your peers, right, because as you mentioned earlier, you sometimes you learn from your peers more than you would from, you know, hearing someone speak for 45 minutes, and we know that students' attention spans, it's just unrealistic to be speaking for 45 minutes, they need to engage with the material, they need to have an opportunity to connect it to their lives, that it's relevant, and that they can see themselves using that in the future as well.

Erin Brinker: 32:48

I think that applied learning is, is especially at that age, as opposed to, you know, university students, that applied learning really grounds that in something, you know, often for me, learning the learning math, when I was in high school, way back when, I often felt like I was swinging from a trapeze in the dark. I didn't know where I was going. I learned the concept, okay, memorize it, but what does it mean? What is it going to do for me? For me, that didn't work. And I got to college and had to take what I very lovingly called bonehead math, because my, my math skills weren't, weren't up to par, and I was in the class, and it was a, an aerospace engineer who was teaching this algebra one class, and all of a sudden it clicked, because I could see what I was using it, what it could be used for, and what its purpose was, and then I realized we used, we do algebra one all the time, if you go to the grocery store with a budget, you're using algebra one, but I didn't know that back then. And so I love that you all are doing giving time for kids to connect what they're learning to what they do in their lives, or what they could do in their lives. And really, you know, I'm thinking about science, specifically math and science. Science is about discovery, right? It's about curiosity. It's about, you know, look what we can do, and isn't it amazing, as opposed to just memorize this thing. Now, memorizing becomes important, and I understand there's a, there's a role for it, but it's, it's, it's connecting the curiosities that that ignites the mind. Now, I'm not a, I'm not a, I'm not an education expert at all, but this is, you know, from my outsiders of observation, I think it's fantastic.

Yvette Roman: 34:28

Yeah, it's really great to see the students. That's one, just like most educators, right? That's the wonderful moments when you get to see the students, those aha moments that they say, you know, you get to see them really gain an understanding, and they start to feel proud about their ability to explain their knowledge to their peers, right. And when you see that in the classrooms, it's just a wonderful moment as an educator. That's a lot of the reason why people get into education, is that intrinsic enjoyment of the classroom, right, and. So you see the students being able to build on each other's thinking and expand, right, and say, or are you, and articulate why they believe it's a different way, right, and sometimes there's multiple ways that you can approach a problem, and there's not always one right answer for many things, and so it's a great opportunity for kids to have that, that experience in their classroom, and it is a testament to our teachers who are planning and thinking about how they're making this applicable for the students and relevant.

Erin Brinker: 35:32

Well, Yvette Ramon, we are out of time. This has been fabulous. Thank you for the work that you do leading Bloomington High School, and congratulations on getting your dissertation submitted, and good luck on your defense. Thank you so much for joining me today.

Yvette Roman: 35:46

Thank you so much for having me. I hope you have a wonderful rest of the day. And we are enrolling right now in Bruin country, so I want to shout that out and make sure everybody knows, like, we're taking enrollments right now for next school year, so we hope that you'll join our Bruin family.

Erin Brinker: 35:58

Outstanding. Do can you give the website.

Yvette Roman: 36:02

Yeah, so you're going to go to www.cj usd.net and backslash bhs.

Erin Brinker: 36:09

Awesome, that's cj usd.net backslash b as in Bloomington Hs as in high school bhs.

Yvette Roman: 36:17

Yes, thank you so

Erin Brinker: 36:18

much. Well, that is all we have time for today. Thank you so much for spending this time with me. I'm Erin Brinker. You've been listening to The Hope Table. Have a great week, everyone.

Unknown: 36:28

Bye.