Passion for Educating Students and Teachers Through Technology and Inclusivity

Narrator 00:02
Music. Welcome to Talking Technology with ATLIS, the show that plugs you into the important topics and trends for technology leaders all through a unique Independent School lens, we'll hear stories from technology directors and other special guests from the Independent School community, and provide you with focused learning and deep dive topics. And now please welcome your host. Christina Lewellen,

Christina Lewellen 00:25
Hello everyone, and welcome back to Talking Technology with ATLIS. This is Christina Lewellen. I'm the Executive Director of the Association of Technology Leaders in Independent Schools.

Hiram Cuevas 00:33
And I'm Hiram Cuevas, the Director of Information Systems and Academic Technology at St Christopher school in Richmond, Virginia. Hello, Hiram. It's

Christina Lewellen 00:42
just you and me today. How are you doing?

Hiram Cuevas 00:44
I'm doing well, but I'm a little sad without Mr Stites.

Christina Lewellen 00:47
I know. What are we going to do? I think we should give everybody a little view to the back end of the pod, which is that our recording platform has a chat, and we use that chat to make sure that we don't step on each other's toes, because three co hosts can be a little bit to manage, right? But I was just saying, you know, like, are we even going to need that without bill, with just you and me, I think we could probably play pretty nice in the sandbox. We may not have a lot of chat today.

Hiram Cuevas 01:12
Yeah, I'm more than happy to share my bucket and shovel.

Christina Lewellen 01:17
So it's that time of year where we are moving into the end of the school year toward the summer. I know that that's always a big project time for technology leaders. Hiram, tell me a little bit about that. Is it as busy as you all indicate it is. It would seem counterintuitive for people who don't understand the dynamic of a year round employee at school. You would think, you know, summertime teachers are gone. Big sigh of relief, or a big breath right where it's not as much. I need you to fix this. I need you to troubleshoot this. But you guys get all your major work done during the summer. So tell me a little bit about that.

Hiram Cuevas 01:52
No, absolutely. And actually, we're already embarking on summer work right now. Started onboarding some new employees that are coming on that work strategically in the school, and we're getting a lot of test scores back, so we're having to post those of course, APs are going on right now, but we're gearing up. We're getting our deliveries in already for the summer to deploy and make sure we have all of our consultants in place for the upgrades that we need to do during the summer. It's a busy time, and it doesn't slow down.

Christina Lewellen 02:22
When do you take off? When do tech leaders get to take a break? This

Hiram Cuevas 02:26
is where I'm very poor at this. So I tend to let everything, all my other meetings, fall into place. We've got a very busy family life with my daughter graduating high school, this actually in a couple of weeks. So I usually wait for everything else to pan out, and then, you know, plan around all of those different things, because we have two adult children as well, which makes trying to do anything family related a little bit more challenging, but we always squeeze something in

Christina Lewellen 02:51
That's awesome. Well, we are welcoming to the podcast, another director of technology, one who is very well respected in our space. Hello and good morning. Felix. Jacomino, hello and welcome to the pod.

Felix Jacomino 03:03
Good morning. Good morning. Christina and Hiram, thank you so much for having me. This is quite the honor.

Christina Lewellen 03:08
It's awesome to have you, Felix. You have a soft spot in my heart because you were one of the first places I visited. You know, before the world shut down, I landed in Miami at your beautiful school. You were such a gracious host, helping me get to know this incredible community that I had walked into. But for those people who may not know you, you work at St Stephen's Episcopal Day School in Miami, and you've been there for a while, so tell everybody a little bit about your school.

Felix Jacomino 03:34
Okay, so it's in the coconut grove area of Miami. So it is the city of Miami. It's in Coconut Grove, one of the oldest spots in Miami. I've been there since 2008 and I've seen the school completely transform. It's an elementary school, so we started in the three year olds, and go through fifth grade. We are an Apple Distinguished School. We have one to one iPad starting in kindergarten through fifth grade. It's

Christina Lewellen 04:01
really incredible to me, and that's what struck me when I visited your school, is that for the little humans that are running around, there is a lot of technology at your school, and so you always bring this unique perspective to conversations at ATLIS, because you do represent an elementary school exclusively and its technology challenges and interests. So that's kind of cool. We're going to get into that a little bit today. But before we go down that path, what is your background? Tell me a little bit about how you came to be the Director of Technology at St Stephen's.

Felix Jacomino 04:32
I've always been in schools. What I mean by that? I mean since I was three years old, I've always been as I've never not been in school. So from high school, I went to college, I went to university, and then I got a teaching job. But a lot of people don't know that my first teaching job was as a music teacher in a high school. Then I moved to a chorus and guitar teacher at a middle school. Those were both very challenging. It's. Experiences. They were public schools that needed anyone. I got hired, I suppose, for a couple of reasons that maybe weren't ideal, but nevertheless, I got the job. I became a music teacher, but a couple of unfortunate things happened, and I had no support from administration on things that were happening. And I, you know, early on in my career, I said, What did I get a degree in education for? Why do I owe so much money now in student loans? I went to the University of Miami for a job or a career that you get treated like this, like I said at the very beginning, it was very unfortunate. So I thought I was done with teaching. I said, I'm getting out of education. During that time, there were commercials on the radio saying that, are you interested in computers? Career In network administration? You can make up to $50,000 a year. I'm like, Whoa. My gosh, I could double my teaching salary. I always like computers. My dad always had computers around. You know, Tandy Commodore 64 is all the way from back then, I was always interested in tinkering with that. And then, you know, the possibility of going into that realm, I thought was kind of interesting. Somebody asked me to go and interview for a position that was available at another Episcopal School, one of our sister schools to St Stephen's. And I said, Well, I'm not really interested in teaching. The only experience I had was where I had been. So I said, I'm leaving teaching. I'm going more into the technology world. And they said, You know what? You should really check out this place and the rest of his history. I went there and I saw what it could be. It was an independent school that was had the resources, had the funding, had the support. It was just complete night and day. And I said, Okay, this I can do. And I got hired as their computer teacher. I had a computer lab, and I did a lot of teaching, and, you know, Microsoft and the office products and stuff like that, like you would have done at the very beginning of the 2000s years later, they were looking for a director of technology. Where I am now. So I've been at St Stephen since 2008 as the director of technology.

Christina Lewellen 07:16
I think Felix, what's really interesting about your story, and I appreciate you opening up about it, because I can tell you're sort of stumbling of stumbling. You don't ever want to be disparaging to a situation that was a time and a place in the past, but it's interesting. I want to go to that for just a second, because obviously you had a rough start with teaching, and I think a lot of teachers are struggling right now, whether they're in the beginning of their career or later in their career, because things have gotten intense. So given that you had kind of a shaky start in your teaching career, are you recognizing that or seeing that in this post pandemic space? I would imagine that you have some amount of empathy and understanding for teachers who are really struggling, because teaching isn't just strictly teaching anymore. Is it

Felix Jacomino 08:00
not at all, not at all? And I mean, gosh, it really, really does come to leadership, and that was really what lacked. It wasn't the students. I loved my students. I still have recordings of them doing their concert at the end of the year, and since you're okay with me going to the negatives the day before one of my concerts, some students pushed the piano off the stage. Oh no, the apron of the stage was good three feet above the auditorium, and it crashed and basically destroyed the piano. Then they win, and they it was a holiday program, so they took all the lights down, but the show must go on, and I wasn't going to let my students be punished for these kids having vandalized what we had set up. So the show went on and we recorded it, and to this day, I've got some of that footage, and it warms my heart, so it pains my heart that they got the short end of that stick. So let's go to when I went to my principal's desk, who sat there never looked up at me, except for after I explained everything that happened, he looked at me and said, make sure you file a police report. That's it. No sorry, no empathy, no nothing. And you can understand that the ripe old age of probably 26,28, I must have been at the time. I said, Yeah, this is for the birds.

Christina Lewellen 09:20
I'm out, not what you signed up for. No,

Felix Jacomino 09:22
no, not at all. But then, of course, I ended up where I did, and I saw, what a contrast, and that's hard to watch continue to happen sometimes. Hiram, I

Christina Lewellen 09:33
know you have public school experience as well.

Hiram Cuevas 09:35
Yes, absolutely. So Felix, it's interesting. We had some similar starting places. So I had a grant to work with underachievers in science education in three different middle schools. And it was fascinating to me when you start looking at curricular expectations and where your department heads and or the principal of the school, whether or not they were going to support different initiatives that you had brought to the table. Yeah, but you were limited based on what the district wanted you to actually teach. These were kids that just needed some basic life skills. They could really care less about some of the things that I was trying to teach them. And I really wanted to be a public school educator. I got certified to teach in public schools, and then I happened to come across St Christopher school here in Richmond in 1991 and I remember going through that interview, I was sitting with the head of the middle school, and I said, where are all the students? It's so quiet. This is a boys school. I couldn't understand it, because in the large public middle schools that I was involved in, it was a very challenging environment. And I know in listening to many of my friends who are still public school teachers, the challenge has only gotten so much worse because of the layers of the bureaucracy that had taken place since we started, I totally empathize with what you went through, and also love the joy that you're currently experiencing right now, because I'm in the same position. It's been a wonderful journey. And independent schools definitely have a place in the education of our young people to bring out the very best in them,

Felix Jacomino 11:06
absolutely. And I think the word bureaucracy, that's what it was. It was always there. And there's so many people answering to other people, other people, and a lot of the well, we can't do that. We can't do that in order to do what you're suggesting. There's all these things you've have to go through, whereas where I am now, my head of school, I said, Sylvia, I'm thinking of taking us to the moon. And her answer would be, how much fuel do you need? It's always been like that from the very beginning, but unfortunately, she's leaving us, so I'm sad about that.

Hiram Cuevas 11:37
Oh, Felix, I I had a similar experience when I first arrived, I got pulled into the office, and my head said, By the way, Hiram, we got a problem. You spent your entire science budget in the first week of school. And I was like, I spent $300 What are you talking about? And he's like, Well, what did you buy? I said, I bought an eyewash station. I bought alcohol thermometers to get rid of the mercury thermometers. Wow. And I bought a fire blanket. I said, you don't have any safety equipment. And he's like, buy what you need. I'll take care of the rest. So it's just the supportive environment that you end up with when you have the independent school model. And to be honest, there are some great principles out there in the public schools that are doing as much as they can. It's just, if that bureaucracy above them. Could hold them back, it makes it that much more challenging environment, correct? So,

Christina Lewellen 12:25
Felix, you have now been at St Stephen's for a while, and you've seen some of this technology unfold. Right the way that we support education with technology today. You've been there and had this front row seat, and you've been driving some of this change at your school. So tell us a little bit about what it was like when you first started and kind of your philosophy how you brought the school along. Because I think a lot of elementary schools could just sort of wash their hands of the tech role, or just say that's for when they're older, but that's not really how you've approached things. So share with us a little bit about how you think about little people using technology, and how that's kind of evolved over time.

Felix Jacomino 13:05
Oh my gosh, you just asked my favorite question of all time. Okay, great, yay. I could definitely talk on this. So when I got there and again, you could always find exceptions for everything, right. Like, here we are talking independent school versus public school. And, gosh, I can name so many great public schools in the area that was a very broad brush. So with that, said, I got to the school and they needed an IT person, or so they thought. And I had that I had just gotten my MCSE, so that's Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer for my networking. But I was an educator. They didn't know they really needed that part. When I got there, I was taking care of the Exchange Server and outlook and sending emails saying, Please empty out your mailboxes. Those Exchange servers getting full again. You know, that was right around the time that Google Gmail was coming around and schools could sign up for that. And I took us in that direction, and so on and so on. With a lot of tools, I found that, wow, there are all these new IT tools that I can now shift things over to so I don't have to have my it hat on as much as my educator hat. So the most fortunate part that I feel about my career has been, is I straddle both sides of that fence? You're

Christina Lewellen 14:25
a unicorn? No, because almost always somebody comes in from it or edtech, and we have to help bridge that gap. It's a huge reason why ATLIS exists. You're a very weird unicorn in that you were a teacher who said, One day because of a radio ad, hey, I'm going to go get it certified in this space, man, that school is lucky to have found you when it did.

Felix Jacomino 14:48
Thank you, and to have been able to marry the two is just been perfect for me, because it's two passions, right? I became a teacher because I wanted to become a teacher because I wanted to be. The type of teacher I wish I always had growing up, I was a difficult student. I was the one who experienced some great teachers, and I wanted to be like them, and I experienced some really bad ones, and I wanted to make sure that I wasn't like that. But now I also get to weave these cool new skills about getting computers to talk to each other. This computer knows what that computer said, and that was just so thrilling to me to learn about networking and all that. So this goal kind of needed, really it. But then I was in all the academic conversations, curricular stuff and all that as well. So the one thing that came out of that, as I was on that journey, is my speaking point today, which is, I believe St Stephen's. What we pride ourselves in doing is making sure that technology is being used appropriately across the board, for every level, for every kid, for every grade, for every subject, for every moment. Sometimes, if you want to know if the moisture of a plant is correct, you got to get your hand in there. IPad is not going to do that for you. You got to know when to leave the tech aside. But then you also know the moments where it can make all the difference, which is why I fell in love with the SAMR model when I learned that a good 10 or plus years ago, and that was just like, wow, this is great. Couple that with somebody encouraging me to speak on web 2.0 okay, at FCIs one time, I think it was Google Earth at the time, when that was kind of new. I did some speaking at a conference, and I loved it. I loved the feedback. I loved the energy I loved teaching teachers that became my new thing that I like to do. I feel like throughout my journey at St Stephen's, it's been about that. It's about getting the teachers to understand why, when to use it, when not to use it. There is never a quota. Nobody's gonna pass by and say, Oh, you were using your smart for very good. I think you're on hour nine out of 20 that you're supposed to use it for this. You know, never like that. So it's about intent. It's about purpose. You know, where are you on that samur model? And there you have it.

Christina Lewellen 17:13
So I would imagine that you've had to bring the educators along with you on this journey, because it is tough to learn another new tool. Tell me a little bit about the faculty at St Stephens. Are they generally pretty receptive to learning a new thing and integrating technology into what they're already doing? Yes,

Felix Jacomino 17:32
our head of school and our assistant head of schools have always valued professional development, and it's not just training, because, yeah, when you get a new tool, yeah, you got to train the person how to use an iPad or how to use this new software, and that's training. But then there's professional development, where you're seeing it from that curricular perspective and how it's going to get integrated. So yes, it's always been very strong. Our teachers are always encouraged to go get professional development, or we bring it in house. So for example, when we went one to one iPads, we brought in Tony Vincent, who was doing some of the best things we knew back during the first generation of iPad. And we were the first elementary school to get a one to one iPad program, at least that we're aware of. And I did a talk for what was called Assa at the time. Now it's called amisa, the Independent Schools for South American schools. And I guess there was a lot of interest. And people were contacting me afterwards said we'd love to come see what's happening at St Stephen's. Okay, welcome to people from Venezuela. And then another week. Welcome to people from Colombia, Curacao from here. And people were visiting all the time, and that was getting a little bit and I thought to myself, You know what? Why don't we choose a date and invite anybody who has a request to come during that date? And that's what led to the professional development event that I created. Yeah,

Christina Lewellen 18:56
let's talk about that, because I can see now how all these puzzle pieces were clicking into place. You enjoyed going out and speaking to peers. You had success, and clearly it was resonating with people. And then you had folks who wanted to come to your campus anyhow to see the work you were doing. So let's go there. Let's talk about this incredible PD event that you have framed up, and it has become quite a staple in some folks schedule. So let's talk about that. Yeah,

Felix Jacomino 19:21
so in between when I started speaking and what we're leading up to here, I always like going to conferences, and I would go to a lot of conferences, and I'd learn a lot towards 2012 and 13, not only myself, myself and my partner Inga wassman, who is our Director of innovative teaching, learning, and other teachers and other leaders at our school, we found that we were going to some of these events or these conferences, and we weren't learning as much, not because it wasn't something to learn, but things that were being presented as new we had already been doing, and we. Sometimes turn to each other, like, can you believe they just said that? Oh, look, this is the newest, latest tool. We've been using that for two years. And I got to thinking, what do you do when that is, what happens at conferences? You go, I says, Well, puts us in a leadership position, right? We're blazing that trail. So around that time, we have all these people visiting. I said, Why don't we choose a date, have them visit, and what we could do, since Tony's going to be on campus, we could make sure Tony's there, and maybe we could bring a second person in. And it grew, it grew, it grew. And before long, I went to Sylvia, pitched her this idea, and at the time, it was called Miami Device, she said, go for it. Let's do it. Let's do an event, and let's invite everybody. The other thing that I had going was a list two sides, things I like about conferences, things I don't like about conferences, and I just listed them unapologetically. These are the things I don't like. These are things like. These are things I'd really like to see that hasn't existed. I think that informed a lot of the decisions for that conference. Now I was in a the position that, I mean, and, you know, putting on conferences, what are the two most expensive things? Is the place, the venue and the food. Yep, venue and food. So I got slick to sponsor, so that didn't cost us anything. And we did have to pay for the venue, because it's happening at our campus. So our campus, that gave us the ability to use the sign up money that the people were paying for to get the best of the best speakers. So the lineup for that first and second shows were just outstanding. Was we were like, if that person is hot in edtech or in education in general, we're bringing them. And we did, and we had a very successful first run. Quick numbers, we had about between 350 and 400 on the first one, I believe, was about 370 in our tiny school, and the representation amongst those 370 were across 13 countries, across four continents and 26 of our 50 United States were represented in that small number. That's incredible. Dr Ashley Cross could tell you about that because she was there during that time.

Christina Lewellen 22:12
Exactly Ashley, who now works at ATLIS, was in some of those early events too, and it evolved over time. It was no longer called Miami Device, although those of us who are old enough to remember the 80s definitely appreciate that play on words right

Felix Jacomino 22:26
in 2015 I took a position of Director of Innovation and Technology at Gulliver schools. So when I left St Siemens, which is a very difficult decision to make, because it was just so near and dear to my heart. I had been there for so long, had so much support, but I felt like it was time to grow. So I left, and Ashley, along with Inga and the other people on the EdTech team, felt that we could definitely keep the event going, but the name was almost anonymous, with Felix, and there's a couple of other things, they really had a global vision. So Miami was very local. And while the name Miami device is a play, of course, on Miami Vice we all know that it's not about the device. They while they were rebranding, it wanted to make it clear that it's really about the teaching and learning. We didn't want to have a focus on the technology itself, so that was part of the evolution, and now it's called shift in edu. That happened while I was at Gulliver, but two years later, Ashley got this amazing position at ATLIS. And then when I found that out, and it was asked if maybe I had an idea of who might want to come back, there's no place like home, so I clicked my Ruby Slippers came back, and it's been great ever since. So shifting into you has happened already about three times since I've been back, and it's happening this October again. So

Hiram Cuevas 23:50
Felix, what I find absolutely wonderful is you have this tremendous innate growth mindset. And I worked with Darlene Duran during the ALI program. Love her, and she's a huge fan of yours, as I am of her, and was so grateful that you were able to be her mentor during that her early stages of her career. So I want to know, I mean, I gain a sense of what drives you, but what drives Felix to do all this wonderful work with the schools that you're coming in contact with,

Felix Jacomino 24:20
oh my gosh. What drives me inspiring teachers to inspire their students, watching those aha moments, I really like introducing new tools. I try to, every Tuesday, do Tech Tuesday Tip where it's like, oh wow. I didn't know I could do that. So where that's quick and short, I like the larger version of, Oh, wow. I didn't know I could do that. So I get to deliver these really cool things, things that I didn't invent or come up with. But it's nice to find something really cool, give it to the right person and have them have those aha moments. I also love connecting. Sometimes all I do is say you need to meet. Me this person, just because I know enough about those two people, I put them together, and I step back and I just feel that that's something I've been fortunate to have, is that ability to make connections between people and have that go so that definitely fuels me. And the more people I meet, the more three dimensional it becomes and start seeing those connections. So that's exciting. That must

Hiram Cuevas 25:23
be your superpower, because I feel that's one of my superpowers as well. Perhaps it has to do with the Latin background that we have. We just like, bring your people together. Absolutely,

Felix Jacomino 25:31
absolutely, I think so now that you said that, that triggered a couple of things. So going back to the event, like I said, the list of things I didn't want bad food is one of them, or mediocre food was one of them, right? Of course, we had a great caterer, so that came but I said, I do not want people to forget and this is true through shifting E to you, so if you come in October, you'll see what I'm talking about. We want people to not be able to forget that they're in Miami like we are serving Cubanos lechon, paella, pasteelitos and all that. And I just wanted to make sure we hit all the senses. Okay, so there's music playing in between the sessions earlier, we made sure that people had other things that they could do while they're here, like a culinary, walking, historical architectural tour of South Beach or Little Havana, and just wanted it to be an event that they remember everything. And of course, putting the right people to do the presentations and the workshops and all that is key, and they'll take care of that part. Felix,

Christina Lewellen 26:35
if folks want to come to shift in edu This October, can anybody come? Can they just go look it up and go to the website, which, of course, we'll put in our show notes. But let me ask you this, who is the event a perfect event for who should come? All

Felix Jacomino 26:50
right, so I will say that what informs the main topics and the main people we bring starts first and foremost with our faculty now, our needs are as diverse and across the spectrum as I think any school, so there's that. But who could come anybody who embraces evidence based, innovative practices? And these could be leaders. It could be anybody in a school we explore current trends, best practices, design, engaging, relevant and transformative learning experiences, environments, the latest tools, anybody and everybody. It really will not focus on technology. But of course, technology will be part. I mean, what can omit technology completely? Not much these days anymore. And of course, what's the number one thing on everybody's technology mind right now is AI. So there's definitely going to be that conversation as well. So truly shifting to you.com. Have a look at it. We've already announced our keynote speakers and some of our other speakers, so you're welcome to join us. Check it out, and it should be a great time.

Hiram Cuevas 27:56
So Felix, do you happen to have a student section or Lane within the conference, we

Felix Jacomino 28:02
are going to have a couple of students present this year for the first time. But as far as students in general, no because our students are off. So it happens on our campus, but the students have those days off because this is just considered professional development for our teachers and for the visiting teachers, and we like keeping it that way, although, because some of our speakers speak on digital safety, and our parents are always wanting to learn from how to keep their children safe, and when is the appropriate time to give my child their first cell phone, and how do I protect them from the scary internet at home and stuff like that, because we have people who can speak to those things, we tend to have a parent event the day before, cool. We fly them in the day before, and then we'll come in and learn about student safety and stuff like that at home. But yeah, it's open to everyone, and everybody's welcome to come.

Christina Lewellen 28:56
That's awesome. That actually leads into a question that I have for you, because, speaking of AI student safety, etc, and in particular, you're focused on elementary aged kids, let's go there for a minute. Let's talk about how you're feeling about AI, what concerns you might have, like, what is the right role for elementary age students when it comes to AI, tools and resources? But also, what protections are you keeping a very close eye on?

Felix Jacomino 29:23
So by the way, because we came from shift into that question, shift is for K through 12. Don't think that it's focused only on elementary I will say that the role so far, we have been focused on the AI tools to help teachers. I can't really think of anything we've used that the students have touched via their devices that are AI in nature. So it's

Christina Lewellen 29:52
interesting, because as I've been traveling around, I get the questions sometimes, either from educators or administrators to ask about. About the use of AI with younger students, and all I've really heard so far is that some teachers model it and use it because, of course, kids are not supposed to be using chat GPT if they're not 13 years old with approval kind of thing, so at least that's the rules as they stand at the moment. So I've been hearing that some teachers are modeling it and trying to, quote, break chat GPT with their classrooms if they try to challenge it and find errors in it. So there's a certain amount of like aI literacy that teachers are baking into some of their lessons, but I think that that's teacher by teacher. I don't think that that's necessarily a school wide philosophy at this point for a lot of

Felix Jacomino 30:38
schools, right? And for us again, I think it's only teachers using it, and not even student facing it's teachers using it for their lesson planning to come up with ideas. You know, my partner was just coming up with questions for Kahoot or bloke it, or stuff like that. And it's just so nice to explain to chat CBT or even magic school what you're working on and have it do all this work that would take you a long, long time. Now it's doing it for you. You get to edit it and check it out, but then spend more time executing in front of the kids and doing that. So that's where we are at our school with anything AI related. And yes, we trailblaze, but we don't want to crash and burn without any safety. Guardrails in place and AI, I think, is something we need to be very proceed with caution, especially when it comes to the students.

Hiram Cuevas 31:31
So Felix, when covering the students, is there more opportunity you think, for the student involvement, we're in pretty much the same boat as you are. Our teachers are experimenting with it, and we've got some Lower School instructional tech support using AI or trying to model it. So the kids are asking questions, but it's the teacher that's actually pushing the questions into the AI. Is that what you all are also doing as well with your smallest students? I mean, our lower school is our challenge, you know, going up to fifth grade, and then the strange spot for us is sixth grade is that bridge between your 12 or year 13, and so it's not even an option in many instances for those students until perhaps later in the school year. But you may have somebody who's was born much, much later, right? And

Christina Lewellen 32:20
it's interesting, because I would think that as we go down this path with AI, there will need to be some kind of scaffolding that starts in elementary when it becomes more prevalent, and it's in all the tools that we use, and it's kind of hard to block it, because it's everywhere, right?

Hiram Cuevas 32:36
Absolutely,

Christina Lewellen 32:37
I think that we'll have to, like, push it sooner into the elementary school experience of digital citizenship, because they're going to have to be ready for when they head into sixth and seventh grade and beyond, right because there's a certain amount of education, but maybe we don't even know what we're supposed to be teaching right now, so I would assume that you guys are kind of just keeping a watchful eye on it and wondering what this is going to do to evolve your You know whether it's computer science and or coding curriculum,

Felix Jacomino 33:03
right? And this isn't the first time this has happened, yes, AI, and that came out of like, seemingly like, out of nowhere, and it's exploded, and it's so fast. But let's rewind back to when we went one to one, and now everybody has a device with them. Let's go back to before that, when even you can go to the computer lab and Google something or whatever it was back then I'm not going to date myself with the older search engines. Ask Jeeves, yes, jeez and all that. That's what it was. Dog pile, yeah. Dogs Yes. So again, it's one of those that you just keep your eye ahead, learn from others, try not to make too big of mistakes, but also stick within, you know, the guidance. But ATLIS has a great resource for all of that as well. So the leaders organizations like ATLIS and such, they're doing a lot of that work so that you're seeing it through that lens, through that filter. There's kind of like, check boxes, some things I've I know that I've been like, Oh, let me try this, and all of a sudden I say, Oh, I never thought that that might be in conflict with this guideline. So proceed with caution.

Hiram Cuevas 34:11
I think one of the challenges that schools are experiencing in general is the recognition that the use of AI is rapidly becoming a life skill for our students, and we can't ignore it. You just can't put your head in the sand. Because if we don't instruct our students and prepare them for even within the 12 years that they may be with us in a standard JK to 12 environment for you know, in your case, with the three year old all the way to fifth grade, there's opportunity there that could be missed that is not something that we should be doing,

Felix Jacomino 34:44
right? I just recently saw something that threw me back maybe 10 years. About 10 years ago, Wired Magazine, undercover, it said, end of coding question mark, right? Because everybody's pushing towards coding, coding, coding and the whole the. Point was, eventually we'll get to a point where, instead of coding it, you just kind of tell the thing what you want it to do, and it'll do it. But here we are with AI, so you got to create the correct prompts, right? So you have to prompt engineer. And guess what I saw two days ago, the end of prompt engineering. So it was basically the exact same idea where it's like. Now you don't even have to engineer these prompts so carefully anymore. It'll know, it'll there's gonna be a little more intuition that these things have and and be able to get you to where you're going much quicker and much easier. I have a little personal side pet project right now that I'm working on. And yeah, it's got JavaScript and PHP, and there's coding, and there's all this stuff, but with chat GPT there by my side, asking question by question, it's coming together. It's coming together. And if you come to Miami, I'll share it with you, because it is specific to something in Miami.

Christina Lewellen 35:59
I love it. So I would love to talk for a second about the role that technology can play from a diversity leadership perspective. We at ATLIS have been talking for a couple years now about how tech leaders generally the dasl data from nais indicates that tech leaders are among the most diverse teams at independent schools, in terms of the adults on campus that technology leaders are often bringing tools and resources into the classroom that help with a sense of belonging and help students feel included, et cetera. And then, of course, with AI, there's resources to adjust teaching tools in a way that suits different types of learners and kids from different backgrounds. And so I thought I would just sort of frame that up and see what your thoughts are. Because not only are you a tech heavy school for an elementary school, but also you being in your leadership role. What are your thoughts about how technology can support a feeling of belonging among little people?

Felix Jacomino 36:58
You know, we're in Miami, so you're speaking to somebody where we have everything and everyone. But I will say, if we're going to go there and speak things as they are, our school might be diverse culturally and in other ways, but not quite as diverse socioeconomically. And that's just the nature of an independent school with tuition at the level that it is, and although we try to diversify that as much as possible, we would like for it to match Miami across the entire spectrum three dimensionally. That's a challenge in itself. So how can technology help that? Well, that's where I would come to you guys and say, this is a good question that I have. So this is a conversation that I think is a good one to have, but not one that I feel confident saying. Here's where I think the solution is, yeah.

Christina Lewellen 37:53
I mean, I think that, for example, I've seen elementary schools focus on empathy, if that's one of their core competencies, that technology can give you a picture of someone else's life, or help you understand a different culture or speak to people across the globe, you know, that kind of thing. And also, obviously, technology can support the actual learning experience with things that look 3d and virtual reality or augmented reality. There's a lot of cool things that can happen with little with little humans who are just coming up through the world, and they only have their little community that they're a part of. And so as these young students are starting to understand that they operate in much larger systems in the world, it's cool how technology can help them get a little peek into that window.

Felix Jacomino 38:40
And one of the things I love talking about when they talk about the SAMR model, is that R, that redefinition, the M and the R, right, the modification and redefinition, that's where you could leverage the technology to make connections with others. So I think, as you said, you could see differences elsewhere, but now you can interact with other children, not just in Miami or the US, but anywhere. So pairing students up and learning about others, but directly from those people. Rather than saying, look, there's people who live like this, you're speaking to people who are just completely different. And it doesn't necessarily need to be based on socioeconomic it could just be completely different altogether. I went to Japan this past summer, and, my gosh, it's different over there, and I learned things I wish I would have learned beforehand. So that opened my eyes into how we can use technology to connect these students with others around the world, just to get different perspectives. So Felix,

Hiram Cuevas 39:41
what's interesting when we're talking about, you know, some of the equity issues that schools face today, different access models provide different challenges. So we're bring your own laptop model, and so there are some equity issues that you have to take into consideration when dealing with financial aid students, etc. You always want to foster a sense of. Belonging. I think what's wonderful in your case is, because every child has an iPad, there is a level playing field right out of the box, starting at its youngest ages. Have you seen any additional challenges outside of access? Model is it relates to technology and providing resources to families that other schools should be conscious of.

Felix Jacomino 40:23
I think there's a lot out there that people just need to be aware of, so that if there is a need, there's probably an organization or a governmental something or a grant that you may not be leveraging. I don't think any family could say I have zero access to anything, because nobody's available to help me. So perhaps finding where you go to find those things should be something that should be easier. I feel for people to find where they can get the access, like, for example, if I don't have Wi Fi at home, you know, where can I get a hotspot? Exactly? I think things are definitely improving.

Hiram Cuevas 41:05
That's when you need to take into account the mission of your school as what are we doing in order to provide for our families? And you've got your device, you've got your access the other pieces and parts. How about the warranty issues and all those other things that often go unnoticed as part of the non tuition components of a child's education. Yep,

Felix Jacomino 41:26
that's definitely something I've learned a lot about over the time that I've been there. You know, at first you buy these devices, and you kind of start at the bottom, and then they start to break, and then that starts to happen. Right now, we're actually at the cycle right now where we're getting new iPads for everyone, but I always get it with the Apple Care Plus. So that covers breakages per device per year of the lease. That's eight times that one iPad could go in, times the 270 that we're buying. So like, that's something you have to build in. We did increase our technology fee at one point. Now it's all rolled in, but once upon a time, we increased the technology fee. But we did it after buying the one to one and doing some upgrades so that when you increase the fee from, I think it was like 50 bucks to 300 they don't ask, What's this for? They'll say, Ah, okay, I see what this is for. You have something to show for it. We had something to show for it ahead of time, knowing that that money would be coming in and we'd be able to cover the costs. That's

Christina Lewellen 42:26
awesome. So to circle back to where Hiram and I started this conversation, we're wrapping up school year heading into a summer, and it sounds like the event this fall is going to probably take up a lot of your time. But what are some of your goals for your summer transition period between school years. Okay,

Felix Jacomino 42:43
so my summer probably started in January, and believe it or not, I mean, we're actually looking to hire somebody for the marketing part of shifting edu, because right now, it's like Inga and I are ping ponging it off each other between everything else we're doing, but we need somebody to be able to do some email campaigns and send out emails and such and advertising and get on social. So if anybody's out there interested in that, please contact me. But the rest of the stuff I've got for the summer is not too thrilling, very important, but not too thrilling, and that is access control. So you've been on our campus, Christina, and you know that we're an open campus. We're in Miami. Everything's outdoors, but that means that we're also outdoors and we're exposed. So we're gonna put access control on every door push button, like lockdown, so safety. And we also just hired a director of security, a former FBI agent, great guy. He's overseeing that, and our director of maintenance. So obviously it's the three of us really working together, where he says, I want the camera there, which means Felix, get the cat six cable there. And Javier says, open a hole so that the cat six get you know what I mean. So the three of us are going to be very busy doing several big projects like that this summer.

Christina Lewellen 44:04
That's really great. And to bring it around, one of the questions that's been stuck in the back of my head since you talked about being a music teacher early in your career, nobody goes and becomes a music teacher unless they somehow have a musical upbringing. So can you tell us a little bit about what was your music of choice. Were you a singer, an instrumentalist? How come you wanted to be a music teacher?

Felix Jacomino 44:26
You know what? I had a great music teacher in elementary school, Mr Nichols. And then after that, it was Ms Clark. Ms Clark taught us the recorder. And then when I got to middle school, I'd said, well, the saxophone. And then Ms cubberly told me how the fingering on the recorder is the same as fingering on the saxophone. So I did that. Fell in love with it. Went into high school playing the sax and the flute, oboe. My parents got my sister a piano because she started lessons, but she didn't care for it as much, and I just sat at the piano and I loved it. So that's how. I became a musician just from exposure and good teachers and tinkering, and to this day, I've got several instruments at home and don't do anything professionally, but you might find me a karaoke is what I'm saying. That's awesome.

Christina Lewellen 45:15
That's exciting. I was gonna say, I hope that it's still a part of your life, whether you're at least absorbing some live music, or going out and participating sounds like we have a karaoke night ahead of us.

Felix Jacomino 45:25
It's an outlet. So here's a little unknown. Something about me my instrument, because when you're a music major, you have to declare an instrument. So my instrument was voice. So singing is what I did, and I was actually in the choir for the Miami grand opera. Oh, so I've been in several operas as one of the choir members and stuff like that, and I've gotten to do some pretty cool stuff. And I recently found because I had this experience, but I had no proof of it, but if you go to my Instagram and scroll far enough, there's a picture of me with Luciano Pavarotti right behind me, because when I was at u m, Pavarotti performed on South Beach and needed a choir, and the University of Miami chorale was selected, and I got to be part of that. So I've had some pretty neat experiences on the music front.

Hiram Cuevas 46:15
Oh, that's fabulous.

Christina Lewellen 46:17
Pretty cool. Music brings people together, for sure. That's very fun. Yeah,

Hiram Cuevas 46:20
I feel quite deficient with this group right here on the music side of the house.

Felix Jacomino 46:27
It's all right, Christina, you play. Well,

Christina Lewellen 46:30
actually, I'm a singer, but not professionally trained. I sing barbershop, acapella harmony. Oh, that's I did know that. And I just came back from I was competing with my kid, my 18 year old, and we qualified to go to our international competition this fall, so we're really excited about that. And it's a family thing. You know, my dad's a singer, my husband, my mom,

Felix Jacomino 46:51
my kids. Oh, nice, nice. Okay, so, yeah, you understand,

Christina Lewellen 46:56
we all do it together, but it's a great thing to have a hobby outside of work, yeah, for sure.

Felix Jacomino 47:01
But you know, it's not uncommon to find musician. Tech leaders, not uncommon. Susan Bearden, you know, she plays the viola. And Gabe Lucas is one of the most talented musicians I know.

Christina Lewellen 47:12
Oh, he's incredible. He's amazing. Leslie Fisher, she

Felix Jacomino 47:16
plays the flute. So there's a lot of us out there. Maybe we should start a band.

Christina Lewellen 47:21
Maybe we need to, like, have some kind of jam session at ATLIS conference. We need to, like, we should figure out what everybody can do.

Felix Jacomino 47:28
You said it. You said it needs to happen now, because, you know, if you put it out, now that you have put it out and the requests are out, oh gosh, we'll be surprised on how many tech leaders have a music background and can play an instrument

Christina Lewellen 47:42
or two. Yeah, absolutely. Well, Felix, this is so great to sit and chat with you for a bit. You know, these podcasts are always incredible because it forces us to kind of sit still for a hot second and get to know like I've known you for years now, one of the first warm, smiling faces I remember as I came into this community, and now I just know so much more about you. I love it, and it's literally my favorite hour of the whole week, is when we get to do these conversations. So so grateful that you joined us.

Felix Jacomino 48:09
Thank you so much. This was great. I really appreciate this time.

Hiram Cuevas 48:12
Thank you so much. Felix,

Christina Lewellen 48:14
well, everybody that wraps up another episode. We'll see you next time

Narrator 48:20
This has been Talking Technology with ATLIS, produced by the Association of Technology Leaders in Independent Schools. For more information about ATLIS and ATLIS membership, please visit theATLIS.org. if you enjoyed this discussion, please subscribe, leave a review and share this podcast with your colleagues in the independent school community. Thank you for listening.