>>Announcer>> This program was made possible with the support from Midland Education Foundation, Community National Bank, Diamondback Energy, ConocoPhillips and Lissa Noel Wagner.

<<John>> The internet has transformed education by providing unlimited access to information, personalized learning tools [soft piano music] and flexible remote learning options, all while fostering collaboration via digital platforms.

However, with new technology comes new and challenging obstacles which were significantly brought to the forefront during the Covid 19 pandemic in March of 2020.

Schools were closed and students and teachers had to pivot quickly to online learning.

Lesson plans were altered to fit the new challenge.

Families had to set up designated schooling areas in their home, and everyone had to adjust what quickly became obvious.

What is known as the digital divide inequity to the internet.

This created significant academic gaps and increased distractions.

Midland ISD and their community partners thought outside the box created hotspots for the students, but knew the best way to reach the student body was to get them back in the classroom.

Educators worked hard to figure out how to bring the students back safely, but something else changed, [upbeat intro music] technology.

[upbeat intro music] Midland ISD is as diverse as they come.

There are over 50 different languages represented at any given time.

Classrooms have changed from pencil and paper to chalkboards to smart boards to laptop computers, and educators are faced with the challenge [piano music] of not only keeping up, but staying one step ahead of the ever changing landscape of the classroom.

Midland's economy directly affects the enrollment numbers with MISD, the economy, which was originally based on farming and ranching, and the railroad has changed with the discovery of oil.

As companies move in, so do their families.

But Midland is unique.

There is many families moving in and out as there are those who have stayed.

Midland is a multigenerational community with deep roots and Texas pride.

<<Beau>> Education is MISD in this district.

We encompass all and we are preparing those students for, um, the next chapter.

<<Dr Howard>> So what makes public education different is, you know, the the fact that we accept all students, you know, in public ed we we can't turn any student away.

You know, anyone that shows up to our doorsteps, we're going to welcome we're going to educate.

Um, that's different from from other education systems.

Um, but it's also one of the things I like about the work that we do because, you know, every student deserves an opportunity.

And there's a place for every student, you know, to be in our schools and and to get what they need.

[music] <<Courtney>> Education is the backbone of every single community.

It's the backbone of our growth.

It's the backbone of our economy.

It all begins and ends with education.

<<Renee>> I think just like Midland ISD is growing, I think my campus is growing as well.

Um, we're bringing in, um, a larger cohort this year, uh to try to provide more opportunities to more students to be a part of our program, which is exciting.

Um, I think our partnership with Midland Colleges is is exciting as well.

Um they welcome our students on their campus in every facet of their day, um and so I feel that what's exciting about me is, is in for my kids and my campuses.

When I got there, we had 67 graduating seniors.

And we've we've moved that up every year by ten.

So this year we're going to be at 89, which is it's a growth, um, and so we'll have um a new cohort of, of seniors next year.

And so my goal for Early College is is to continue the excellence of the campus and to and to be a part of how great that that school is, but also to be a part of continuing the growth mindset and, and um continuing to grow students who are ready for their next step in life, whether that is to take their associate's and go straight into the workforce, or to take that associate's degree and transition it to their next four year university.

So we have kiddos at different levels within themselves.

Not every student at Early College goes on to a four year school, and that's okay.

But they're ready to go into the workforce and they're ready to take that associate's degree and to and to utilize it in a in a professional setting.

<<Wes>> When you have such a I mean, we're a school district.

Our size is you have experts in each field, and we have an incredible, um technology department that's led by Fatima Muniz, and she does an incredible job and every time I hear her speak or she presents to us or is helping us with the I'm like, man, this lady is on top of things.

And and so I just you've got to have the right people in the right places.

Um.

Can't be complacent because of the, you know, technology's ever every anything I just say, but it's it's ever evolving.

And so I think you've got to have the right people in the right place.

<<Yvonne>> Well, the whole um mission of MISD is to be CCMR, and that is Career College Military Ready.

Uh, military isn't normally something that our students pursue.

Uh there are a lot of criteria for, um whatever branch of military are higher functioning students.

You know that if that's something they pursue and we help them with that, some of them are enrolled in like ROTC, um.

So we do have programs within our schools that that prepare them.

Uh, I don't know the, you know, numbers of our students that actually enlist in the military.

But it's, you know, we do provide programs.

We don't just because a student is enrolled in special education, we don't tell them, no, you can't cannot do that.

Our, uh mission statement is to have students be College Career or Military Ready.

And I think all needs to be understood.

But the access to the understanding that you can be educated and you can have an education, regardless of any circumstance.

I love, um our local universities that partner with us.

They give like Midland College giving the legend scholarship that you can go into community service hours <<Karen>> Very helpful - and get your college paid.

- is another one - The Falcon Free that students can go to the university - Yup - and they can go there knowing that they don't have to pay a cent, that they have to just make sure to maintain that, that, um, application and eligibility, um that the, the university creates.

[inspirational music] - The great thing about public education is it evolves as the workforce evolves.

And so I think in Midland ISD, we do a great job of making sure we stay ahead of the curve and that that's what that's what, um the world's coming to like.

That's that's how it operates.

- Like, there has to be a standard.

And what we are teaching kids, [laughter] they have to be able to have a high standard of that.

- Employment opportunities, training opportunities.

Uh.

Like this program rolling baristas.

I mean, this is specifically for our two high schools on, um MISD.

Uh Project Search is another training transition training opportunity, uh for our students So we've been able to provide, uh training opportunities and employment opportunities for our students that are in because these are programs that are specific to students and special education.

<<Kristi>> So going out now into the community and able to try to be as precise as we can to support where we can, uh, to build, of course, we're looking to build our a workforce.

We want to build a pipeline into our industry, but we want to build a pipeline into industries and into, um kids feeling well supported in technical schools, kids feeling well, well, ready to go into programs and departments and, and colleges and universities and for them to find value in the community in which they live in.

- You know, I've always said at some point, yeah, you may you may be the boss, but if you've never been around people that are different than you, how are you going to work with those people that aren't like you?

Because there's very few industries.

You can just go in and have a whole team of people just like you that doesn't work so well.

And um so I do think that that truly sets kids up to be successful after high school.

<<Michael>> We have amazing teachers in MISD.

I went to ninth grade in Midland Freshman, uh Dr Howard is current superintendent.

She was my principal.

Yeah.

So she was my principal.

Full circle.

Never know who you're going to raise and where people will end up in life.

So treat everyone with kindness.

And Dr Howard was amazing as a as a principal.

So I love her too.

She's amazing.

- You know, so seeing my own kids go through through various public education systems, whether that be a school district as small as 480, at Plains to a school district the size of ours.

Or ECISD, when I spent time there, um, what they learn by being around people that are different from them, you know, we can all we tend to gravitate to people like us.

You know, we tend to gravitate to people who look like us, think like us.

You know, have the same family situation that we have, um, the same goals and aspirations.

We navigate ourselves naturally to people like that.

But what we don't do always, is get accustomed to being around people that are very different from us.

And I don't think you can be successful in the real world until you can understand that there are people that are different.

It's not good or bad.

Um, you know, you may have a great working relationship with them, and, and you don't have a lot in common.

And I think that's something you learn in public education that you may not learn in other places.

And, and I say that I haven't been in other places, so I really can't speak to anything other than public ed.

But I do know that, you know, both of my girls, you know, I've had such a diverse population of friends.

Uh, they've also, you know, you see things that that you might not want to replicate.

And I think that's real world, too, that you're going to be around some, some, um, you know, classmates that they may make decisions you aren't going to make.

And you we can learn as much from that as we learn from what we do need to do.

- Technology has changed how we [upbeat music] teach, how we learn, and how we interact on a daily basis.

This generation has its own language.

Just look at their text messaging threads.

But with new technology comes new opportunities.

It's easier now more than ever for students and teachers to collaborate with other students from all over the world.

Technology is created more connection.

It has fueled the advancement to open an avenue of unrestricted learning for our community.

<<Yuki>> If I wanted to just stay in mechanical or just engineering engineering, probably aerospace engineering.

Um, through MISD I was able to participate in a program called Higher Orbits.

Go for Launch.

Um, it's a yearly program.

They come like three times a year.

They bring an astronaut, and you get to design an experiment to send to space or the chance to send space.

And I participate in that program, I think 4 or 5 times.

And then through that program, they open up a couple of different opportunities for students that I've taken a part of it.

And this past summer, I was selected to go to the International Science School in Australia as one of five Americans with, uh Higher Orbits.

- I think there needs to be a good combination of, you know, learning how to use the tools that you're going to use out in the workforce, because that's important.

That is extremely important to um stay ahead of the curve and making sure we're, um [smacks lips] equipping our students to be prepared to be viable options for employers when they get out in the community and after they graduate high school and in college.

I do think, um books are important physical books.

I think writing is still important.

You know, I think that, um a balance of each right of the technology side, but it has helped kids.

[music] <<Mary Ann>> So I think thinking about education generationally, we are at a time right now where education needs to focus on career technical education.

So as you and I sit here, we don't know what our society is going to look like in 20 years.

But what we do know is that the way that we were educated is likely not the way that the workforce needs to be educated for 20 years from now.

So for the biggest example right now is data centers.

We need people coming out of high school who know how to work in data centers.

We didn't even know what a data center was when we were in high school.

Right?

So, uh, you need an education program and atmosphere that is constantly thriving toward the new workforce so that those kids come out and they have the ability to be productive members of society.

If you have that, the boom and bust, uh cyclical, um system that we live in really won't be all of that tumultuous for them because they'll always have a skill set.

- The future of education is limitless.

I think that we are making such great strides in public education, especially in Midland.

The things that we have done over the last couple of years, I our test scores are going up.

Um, the school choice that we have that's now available to all of our students, I just really think it's limitless.

But in order for it to be limitless and sky's the limit, we have to support public education.

We have to have companies like ExxonMobil that are part of this community to be the fabric of public education.

It can't be supported only by the state with funding, there's not enough funding.

We send back funding to the state.

So there's a whole, you know, case to be made about that.

But even if it wasn't, we have to have volunteers in our public schools.

We have to have extra dollars for those specialized pieces of equipment and all those hands on Stem centers and activities that might not necessarily fit into a public education budget.

So if the sky's the limit, it will have to be with partnership.

[Music] <<Katie>> Love Midland is a local nonprofit, um we aim to connect volunteers with the need that is in Midland, whether it be with our school district, with other organizations or, um churches.

Whoever needs those volunteers, we try to connect to them, and it's fun.

We have we always have both of our high schools out there together, volunteering together, um, just interacting together is fun.

We know that they had a football game the night before and there was probably a rival, but that day they come together and just serve together and have fun together, and it's a good time.

- So many of our Diamondback people inside of our schools and they are a priority to us, and we want that support them to feel like they can come to us, say what they need, um, and that we can respond quickly and um with um, very thoughtful, um mindful programing.

- So I think part of this is having teachers who are excited and teachers who are influenced by modern culture, and maybe even some adjunct teachers who are out in the workforce, who want to come in to bring our students along into what they do every day so that we're bridging the gap between career, technical and student led education, that there needs to be a marriage of these two things so that it doesn't feel like we are educating kids with a system that was built outside of the system we currently live in, and that is sort of what it can feel like.

- Work through the Midland Education Foundation and help to support them.

ExxonMobil supports the Education Foundation with teacher grants so teachers get to write a grant for something that they want in their classroom.

Um usually we support something around Stem, and it's sometimes $500 in a classroom that makes the difference for a teacher and some of the curriculum that they want to bring in the classroom.

So our teachers are key to education, that then, is the growth and the future of our community.

<<Anita>> At the foundation, we offer teacher grants where any teacher can apply for funding, that they may need.

Two different programs we have of something innovative where a a campus budget or the curriculum may say to teach it this way, but they have an idea to teach it this way, and sometimes you need some funding for that.

So having been in the classroom, I saw firsthand how some teachers go above and beyond to bring education to life.

You went through school, you know who that teacher was in your life, who really sparked your imagination and taught you something that you held on to, that you could really learn.

Those are the kind of teachers that usually seek out a grant because they want to do something great.

We love to support them because it just brings education to life.

For all the students who learn in multiple different ways.

As a partner to come alongside us, um and pour into programs that the district may have or teacher grants that we're offering.

But we always want to start with that conversation of how they want to invest and see MISD succeed.

- More girls are entering the math, science, and engineering fields than ever before.

Midland ISD's focus is on college career military readiness, and they have partnered with some of the brightest minds in the industry.

So not only think in the now, but the future.

Not all students continue their educational career after high school.

Here, many students will enter the workforce and Midland ISD make sure to prepare them for their future endeavors.

Foundations and corporations have partnered with Midland ISD, Midland College, Odessa College, University of Texas Permian Basin to offer our students the opportunity to train and work right here in the Permian Basin.

- It starts at MSD, so one of the reasons for the Stem plus M program is because the Scarbauer Foundation is also partner in the Beacon, and we want to see Midland students become Midland doctors at the Beacon become Midland nurses at the Beacon.

So the quickest way to do that is this sort of grow your own mentality, right?

Rather than spending all this time on recruiting and selling Midland, let's start growing our own medical professionals here, sending them to either UTPB or Texas Tech.

And then they would come back and do their residencies at the Beacon or, you know, give back to their community in that way.

Scarbauer Foundation is funding a program called Stem plus M, and we all know what Stem is.

The plus M is medicine.

It's through the Baylor College of Medicine.

It is in uh every seventh grade in the four junior highs.

And I have gone, uh to it.

We've had board members go to it.

Um, they these kids are so excited.

The seventh grade program is neuroscience.

They're super excited to show you their eyeballs in a jar of whatever, the liquid and all of these things as they explore whether or not they want to join the medical field.

And we're very excited at the end of this first year, they want to continue on with the program.

They will get their blue coats.

They'll get coated just as though you are joining the medical field, and they will stay in this medicine program that MISD was thrilled to find and partner with us to bring it to Midland.

And there are all sorts of examples of this.

The teachers are excited about it.

The principals are excited about it.

It gets seventh graders engaged, right?

There are all of these examples.

You just have to go and find them.

[music] <<Tina>> Education is too important not to care.

I mean, the kids, um, when I started working, when they when Mr.

VanHoozer, who called me and asked me if I could help him, you know, at least try to reach out to the Spanish speaking community, the Hispanic community, about the bond.

Um, I said definitely.

<<Stan>> Lee High School was built and opened up in 1961.

And all of those main classrooms you will find one at the most two electrical outlets.

- It's just too important.

It's too important.

The kids deserve more.

They deserve to have the best in education.

And not that a building is going to change.

It's the teacher that works hard and and gives that student every opportunity to learn.

Um, but but all that around them is what's going to help.

[light piano music] - I think it's cool that we were able to pass the bond and get all of our kids integrated together like they're supposed to be, have actual middle schools, and have our freshmen on the campus with the high school.

I think that will actually I think it will help the freshmen be better, uh, be better kids, than having to be out on their own and go to a different school to learn it all over again.

<<Kevin>> I really I think that's one of the best things about kind of the new programs coming up is we will actually rearrange how we do our grades again, and I think they'll there'll be a lot of benefit from that.

- I think the new schools are going to really benefit our kids.

And the fact that it's going to be a place they want to be, uh, there's going to be a lot of opportunities for them to express themselves.

And inside those new schools, technology is going to going to play a major role in what they get to do in the new schools.

Class sizes, uh, in most classes will be smaller, uh.

For at the high school level.

And that certainly helps, uh they're going to be in new locations.

So it's it is it was it was way overdue.

And we.

And the people who got excited about it are the people who are going to be in those schools.

And that's what's important.

- I really when all that came up, I said, we've got to pass this bond, because if we don't, it's never going to happen if we don't do it now.

And we were supported by these amazing young adults, these were these 30 year olds who are having children of their own.

And we're seeing everything.

And they were students here.

A lot of them were students here and know what they went through.

And and them getting on board and seeing, you know, eyes opening saying, we've got to change this.

We've got to make these, um [smack hands] this, these schools safer one and then better all the way around for our kids.

We have to do it.

And then the whole thing with middle schools, that to me was like, oh my gosh, if we could get on board with where we're supposed to be 20 years ago, [laughs] you know, sixth, seventh and eighth grade that they're in middle school, those kids need that, and then opening preschool doors for these little pre preschool kids that can actually come to school.

- Kids are with their teacher more than they are with us at home, uh during the school year.

So those teachers are very influential in our children.

And, um like I appreciate teachers very much.

And I've go to fight and go to battle for our teachers any day.

Yup.

[laughs] <<Billy>> It's a big responsibility to be a teacher.

Yeah, we have we have your kids for eight hours out of the day and we're molding them.

And and, you know, instilling spiritual principles and and characters and and characteristics into them and things that need to be successful.

It's a big responsibility.

It is.

But yeah, there's hope.

There's hope.

- So much hope for the future of Midland education.

When you go and spend time in these classrooms with these kids, it is impossible to not be inspired.

They are so energetic.

They are so eager to learn.

They show up every day in order to better themselves.

And that has to give you hope.

- Supporting educators is essential for creating a thriving community as it directly boosts student achievement, reduces teacher turnover, and fosters a positive, safe learning environment.

When community support teachers, they encourage higher job satisfaction, improved morale and better mental health, which leads to more effective, engaged and long lasting teaching.

Our future is bright, and we don't need to look any further than the hall of our schools.

Students are being challenged in ways that were only seen in movies.

Education provides students the foundation to be successful in any path they choose.

Through community partnership opportunities right here are endless.

As educators [outro music] look to the future and prepare for continual growth, students avenues will open up even further.

The sky truly is the limit and we have our teachers to thank.

Thank you for joining us on Teaching for Tomorrow.

[outro music]