♪ (bright upbeat music) ♪ ♪ Yeah, the simple things in life ♪ (playful horn music) ♪ Learn with me ♪ ♪ Todos aquí ♪ ♪ Come on, come on, come on ♪ ♪ And learn with me ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ Barry the Bell, ring, ring ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Eddie, I'm the teacher teaching ♪ ♪ Spanish to English ♪ ♪ It's easy to see ♪ ♪ Aprende con migo ♪ ♪ Learn with me ♪ (playful horn music) ♪ Learn with me ♪ ♪ Todos aquí ♪ ♪ Come on, come on, come on ♪ ♪ And learn with me ♪ ♪ - My guest is Ted Alejandre, San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools.

Ted, welcome and thank you for joining us.

- Thank you, Lillian.

It's wonderful to be here today.

- So, let's talk about the Learn with Me project and how KVCR and the county schools are working together.

- Oh, this is a tremendous partnership and program that we have for our communities, you know?

When you look at San Bernardino County vision, which is to make our county the best place to live, work, and play, literacy is a key goal.

The first vision was vision to read.

And, to have literacy at the forefront so that every child can reach their potential, this project, being a transmedia project, really enhances that so students can get involved in such a wonderful program and continue their skill achievement in language arts, and literacy.

- And, how did Learn With Me first come about?

- You know, it really has been a partnership and many people have been involved with connecting KVCR to education in San Bernardino County.

KVCR is a tremendous partner and we saw that immediately.

Once we hit COVID, students were sent home and many of them didn't have devices or connectivity to access their curriculum online.

And so, KVCR put their programming that tied into the instructional standards of California into their daytime broadcast.

- As schools and districts in Riverside and San Bernardino counties suspend classes to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, your local PBS and NPR station, KVCR, will follow the lead of our sister stations to support at-home learning for students in our region.

During this time, we will provide a new weekday television schedule with educational content.

We will also provide free digital learning resources accessible from home.

This new schedule will begin March 23rd.

The new 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM schedule includes curriculum-based programs for pre-K to third grade from 6:00 AM to 9:00 AM.

Programs like "Sesame Street," "Curious George," "Wild Kratts" and more.

The county's educational offices are working on supplemental educational materials for the upper grade levels.

Grades 9 through 12 and community college programming will air from 9:00 AM to noon, and will include "NOVA", "American Experience," plus more.

Grades 4 through 8 program will air from noon till 3:00 and will include "History Detectives" and "Huell Howser's California Missions".

This programming will cover various subjects including English, language arts, social studies, science, and math.

- [Ted] To have that available to students anywhere was a tremendous resource for COVID.

And, as we started to work as a team, and the county schools, KVCR, their partners, we said, "We really gotta bring literacy to the forefront."

And so, we started with the pilot, as you know, to bring teachers in our county to be able to present language arts and literacy to students to engage them through the media.

- Hi.

I'm Miss Summer and I'm so happy you could join us today.

One of my favorite things that impacts my day in a positive way is to go on adventures.

And, one way to do that is to open a book, see where it takes you.

I wanna share one of my favorite books with you today!

- And then, our partnership with Footsteps2Brilliance, which was a literacy platform we've already provided to residents in the county, was a perfect partner to add to it.

So, we could have all the content that is so rich and wonderful in Footsteps2Brilliance to be available through this transmedia project to students in our county.

- So, you're right.

When the COVID came and we, KVCR, pivoted for both Riverside and San Bernardino County to be able to provide at-home learning, right?

And, that's why we were showing some of our children's shows, some of our documentaries and stuff, and using it for grades K through 12, and then it built from there.

But, Learn with Me was a huge endeavor for our station and for the county.

First, share a little bit what Learn With Me is, the whole project, and then we'll break it down a little bit more.

- Absolutely.

You know, it's a program on TV, on KVCR, public television, that's available to all of our students.

And, like any other show, it reaches to engage students in literacy efforts whether it's activities, whether it's working with stories, whether it's working with anything that connects to language arts and building those skills.

And, making it interesting for students so they can then move forward and be excited about reading new materials, about publishing writing.

And, to see teachers in our county present that in a transmedia mode just enhances it because we're doing it from our teachers to our students, making this really a community effort.

And, bringing in the partnership with Footsteps to Brilliance, because we had already had that platform available to students online, not in the transmedia- - Right.

- but just for them to go online to access the materials, to publish, to read books, to build their language arts skills, they have a rich library of incredible literacy material and programming that's available to students through that platform.

To bring that into this now gives us all the content to really connect it with students in this mode.

So, it's a wonderful partnership.

Many people involved.

And, the creation of just people in our county offices, our language arts team, our innovation engagement team, working together to really come up with solutions that motivate students to build literacy skills.

- I wanna describe the show a little bit because I play a part in it, so I can speak a little bit to that.

The show is a 30-minute show.

It'll be aired once a week, and eventually five days a week.

But, what's so unique about it is the fact that it's both in English and in Spanish, right?

- Yes, yes.

- So, just having the English part-- everything takes place in English.

And then, we kinda repeat it... (rolls tongue) and we go into-- do the exact same thing with the Spanish part.

(playful music) - Oh!

Hey, kids.

Come on in.

I'm Miss Summer.

Welcome to my classroom.

I was just playing hide and seek with a really big word (playful music) and it keeps changing its location.

The word is preposition.

Do you see it anywhere?

(twinkling sounds) Is it under the desk?

(boing!)

No.

Inside the trash can?

(twinkling sounds) Hmm.

(twinkling sounds) Beside the bookshelf?

(high-low sound) No.

(twinkling sounds) Around the globe?

Huh.

♪ Oh, there it is!

On the smart board!

I told you it was really big!

♪ Now, let's go in Español!

♪ ♪ Oh (oh), Oh (oh) ♪ ♪ Roll it back and we go ♪ ♪ Una vez mas en Español ♪ ♪ Roll it back and we go ♪ ♪ Una vez mas en Español ♪ (school bell rings) (playful music) - [Señora Jojo] i¡OH!

i¡Hola niños!

i¡Vengan!

Soy la señora Jojo.

i¡Bienvenidos a mi salón de clase!

Estaba jugando a las escondidas con la palabra del día.

Es una palabra muy grande y sigue cambiando de lugar.

La palabra es PREPOSICIÓN.

¿La ven por algún lado?

¿Estará debajo del escritorio?

¿Qué tal dentro del bote de basura?

No.

¿Al lado del estante?

Tampoco.

Mm!

¿alrededor del globo?

Mm, no.

i¡Oh, ahí está en la pizarra!

Te dije que era una palabra muy grande.

- [Lillian] Now, the unique thing about this show and I don't think it's being done anywhere in the country or other PBS stations.

Two things is that it is in English and it is in Spanish.

But, more uniquely, it's using teachers, educators from the San Bernardino County schools throughout, right?

So, just having the teachers be involved in it.

Share a little bit about that and some of the teachers' experience.

Or, what do you hear?

- Oh, I tell you.

The feedback I've got is tremendous.

Teachers are excited to do this.

They want to be on this TV broadcast so the students can see them.

But, also showing students their love for language, their love for literacy, their love to teach.

And, that comes across in the broadcast.

And, sometimes it's a little bit challenging for them.

They're not kinda used to being in a studio.

They're not used to being an actor, an actress.

- Mm hm.

- And yet, once they get there, just being their normal selves.

Because when you see them in the classroom, they are dynamic.

When we first started to look at our first group of teachers, we said, "Let's get dynamic teachers "that are engaging with students, that are exciting with students."

And so, in the classroom, they're phenomenal.

When you get them in front of cameras, it's a little bit different!

- Definitely!

- And so, they have to make that transition and they've been able to do that well.

And so, it's wonderful.

Again, just to have their presence 'cause we're not bringing in an outside professional actor from Los Angeles or some other area.

We're bringing in our own teachers from this county who have a heart for students and they have a passion to want them to build skills and achievement in language arts and literacy.

- So, you're right.

I've been on the set when we have the teachers come in.

And, they're very comfortable reading their stories and talking about it.

But, suddenly when the cameras are there, the crew's there, and they're very conscious of people staring at them.

And, wanting to get everything perfect and their ups and their downs, and their smiles, and when they're going left and when they're going right, and when they're staying put.

So, it has been a challenge.

But, I have to say the teachers have all adjusted so tremendously and they really do enjoy it.

They are nervous, and by a couple of minutes-- 'cause it takes about two to three hours, sometimes four hours, to get three minutes worth of video of the teachers, you know, doing this.

So, it has been an exciting opportunity for them.

They all say when they leave, "This was so much fun.

This was so great."

They're loving the experience.

And, the first thing they say, "When's it gonna be on the air?"

(chuckles) That's one of the first things they share with us.

So, I wanna talk about some of the episodes and the themes.

I mean, when we see TV shows, there's usually-- whether it's public television or Disney or any of the others, there's usually a theme to them or a learning lesson.

Are you able to share some of those?

- You know, just in general.

From a perspective of connecting students with literacy, you wanna get good stories that reach students and connect with them.

And, when students are able to do that, then they can build the activities, they can build the theme, they can build the relationships with students so that students are actively attentive and interested.

And, once that intrinsic interest comes out from students, then they just want more and more.

In addition to just exposing rich literature, students are also gonna learn language arts specific skills, grammar skills.

Things like prepositions and nouns and verbs.

And then, we'll be covering content that's interesting to them like science and the environment.

And, we even address the things like special education and other diverse celebrations so that we can really be inclusive of all students' backgrounds and groups.

- I know the Noun Town with which you'll see.

- Today, we're going to explore the wondrous land of Noun Town.

- [Voiceover] Noun Town!

- You know, just like Eddie, I also went on a vacation this summer.

I went to a super exciting place called Noun Town.

- [Voiceover] Noun Town!

- [Señora Jojo] Empecé aquí en el Museo de los Sustantivos.

i¡Había tanta gente, lugares y cosas adentro que apenas podía creer lo que veía!

- [Lillian] Just some of the animation that goes into this project has been wonderful for us because we know it's just gonna make it very engaging for the children to watch and hopefully for the parents to watch, as well.

One of the things I'm seeing is that I'm learning-- I don't speak Spanish but I'm learning Spanish by watching the show!

And, I'm hoping that our English speakers will learn some Spanish and our Spanish speakers will learn more English.

So, that it's a collaboration of language and that the parents are watching along.

- I just wanna reinforce what you said because having multilingualism celebrated and promoted in our county is really important.

We have many students that become very adept and skilled with English and Spanish and other languages too, like Hangul or Mandarin.

And so, the more that we can expose children to languages, they really bring that up and develop it.

- What have been some of the challenges?

Are you able to share some of the challenges that have been part of this?

'Cause this is a first go for both KVCR and the county schools to do a children's animation series.

- In terms of challenges, probably the biggest I can think of is that we have to be accommodating to teachers.

You know, they're working every day with students Monday through Friday and that's probably the best time to bring them here in the studio!

(Lillian laughs) So, I know on some occasions, we've had to use weekend times and try to look at different hours that they can accommodate the scheduling.

Because, we do want our teachers involved but we also respect the needs for them to be in the classrooms and don't wanna pull them outta classroom with a substitute teacher, for example.

So, that's probably been the biggest one.

And, I kinda mentioned the other one.

Teachers have to develop the comfortableness of working in front of cameras and microphones and those kinds of things.

And, like you mentioned, they've done a great job.

(school bell rings) - Are you a teacher in San Bernardino County?

Have you ever wanted to be on television and teach on camera?

Well, now is your chance!

Together, KVCR and the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools are producing a children's series called Learn With Me.

We're searching for education professionals, teachers, principals, counselors, secretaries, anyone who wants to make an impact beyond the classroom and be part of our educational TV show.

The show is 30 minutes with the first 15 minutes in English and the second 15 minutes in Spanish.

So, we're looking for teachers or education professionals who speak English and/or Spanish.

Now, no television experience is needed, just the enthusiasm and excitement to be part of the project.

Come on and Learn with Me!

To learn more about the project, go to kvcr.org/teachers.

We hope to see you in the KVCR studio.

(school bell rings) - [Lillian] Now, the teachers actually had to do an audition tape, right?

So, they had to record some.

We asked them to send in, read a story.

And, some of the audition tapes were so fun and so wonderful.

One gal was a teacher.

She went to the Starbucks and she read, and she did all the acting with it.

So, there's been some fabulous-- So, it was an audition process.

And so far, just about everybody's in because you can just see their enthusiasm.

(teacher humming) ♪ I'm sweeping the floor ♪ ♪ I'm wiping the board ♪ ♪ I'm dusting the shelves ♪ Ah?

Ah?

A-choo!

- [Leo] A-choo!

Vaya.

Debería hacer esto más seguido.

Oh, hola.

Me encontraste en plena acción.

Entra y siéntate.

O ponte de pie o acuéstate en el piso o salta de arriba a abajo.

Porque hoy se trata de hacer algo.

Dame una V. - Give me an E!

Give me an R!

Give me a B!

What does that spell?

Verb!

- I am a TK through 3rd STEAM teacher.

STEAM stands for science, technology, engineering, art, and math.

And, I truly feel like I have the best job in the world because I get to teach something that I'm passionate about every single day with students who I absolutely adore.

I'm very passionate about my job.

And, when I saw that there was an opportunity to work with kids in this completely new platform, I knew it was something I at least had to try.

- Let's talk about Footsteps2Brilliance.

You've mentioned it a couple of times.

In detail, what is Footsteps2Brilliance and that partnership between you and Footsteps2Brilliance?

- Yes, it's been a partnership that we started.

I think it was seven years ago when we, as part of the countywide vision, looked to have a Vision2Read be a priority in San Bernardino County.

And so, to do that, we said, "What can we do with partners through collective impact to really provide a resource to every family?"

You know, prior to that, we had goals of getting a book into the hand of every student.

Well, there's 400,000 students in the county, and from 22,000 square miles is challenging.

But, with Footsteps2Brilliance, it was a literacy platform that was piloted in Snowline by a 30-year kindergarten vet.

And, she loved the application and started using it for her little ones.

And, the data was phenomenal.

We shared it with district superintendents and they were excited that we were pursuing this effort.

Because, districts have students that come in at TK and K but not necessarily have the ability to work with them in preschool settings.

Unless there's a state preschool that has those students going to school.

But, that's not the case in many of our districts.

And so, superintendents love the idea of our partners working to bring in preschools into literacy experiences that are gonna then prepare them for TK and K. And, that was really exciting.

There was a cost to purchase this because we had a license for every single parent in the county.

As long as they had a zip code in San Bernardino County, they could access it at no cost.

And so, to do that, we utilized that collective impact approach where we had County of San Bernardino Preschool Services as a partner, San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools as a partner, "First 5" as a partner, and "Children's Fund" as a partner.

So, by working together, we were able to leverage our resources to purchase the license for every single student, 0 to 5.

And, last year, we expanded it to grade three.

So, right now, any parent can access this and it's an incredible literacy platform both English and Spanish.

And, we've had the Spanish part tested by our bilingual educators who say it's phenomenal!

(he chuckles) Really support this program in the hands of students.

And so, we've been out to preschools.

We developed a partnership with the Catholic diocese of Inland Empire.

We've had partnerships with many other churches and trainees with churches and daycare centers and preschools.

And, the data that we've been able to collect with our preschool students is just incredible.

So, it's definitely been a success.

And, this transmedia project utilizes all of the content in Footsteps2Brilliance that's available.

All that can be accessed and included in these episodes.

So, when teachers read stories, it's part of that Footsteps2Brilliance collection.

And so, it's just a great way to have the content available in this transmedia mode that is so exciting for students to be part of.

- So, I remember when I was a kid, I remember that far back that we used to read what was called SRA.

I don't know if you- - Yes.

- remember SRA.

- But, it was what-- these little two-page things.

We'd read our story and then we'd write about it or answer questions about it.

And, when I first saw Footsteps2Brilliance, it kind of reminded me of that.

But, there are so many books.

How many books would you say or stories are available through Footsteps2Brilliance?

And, it seems like they have it in different levels, like K, and then first grade or third grade.

So, can you speak on that?

- Yeah.

I can't tell you the numbers.

I believe it's in the thousands, but I don't- - Oh!

Is it really?

Yeah!

- But, they have a huge selection of material for students.

And students, as you mentioned, can build individual skills.

They can read all kinds of different literature.

They can write and publish their own books.

They introduced a program called Clever Kids University.

So, it's a sequential program that kids, three-year-olds and four-year-olds, can go through.

And, if they complete it, with is 15 minutes a day, can really build incredible skills to give them that foundation.

You know, we know that if students meet grade level expectations by the end of third grade- - Mm hm.

- they're gonna have a successful career.

But, if they don't, all the research shows they go into the mode of potential incarceration, dropout, all those things we don't want for students.

And, it happens at TK and K. When students come to schools at TK and K-- I used to be an elementary principal and asked my teachers, "How are the students coming in?"

And, they say, "Oh, some of them really don't have any language experience."

And so, right away they're in a huge deficit that they have to get out of.

But, when students do have those experiences, they can excel and they can really start off strong and then have much more success in obtaining that third grade expectation.

So, this platform has been a great vehicle to do that.

And, again, the districts that really appreciate having that available?

- Sure.

- They use it mostly as a supplemental.

Some of it adopted as part of the curriculum.

But, most of them use it as supplemental; encourage parents to use it at home on the weekends at night.

And, that's why it's been, I believe, very successful because the content too are stories that are interesting.

What I learned as a principal is that you can have a lot of books, but if they're not interesting and if you don't have different levels of access?

If you're behind in literacy, let's say you're a third grader and you're reading at the second grade level, then you need to have more second grade-level material that's interesting so that you can read more often.

'Cause when a student becomes intrinsically engaged and wanting to read, then they'll read more, more, more.

And, pretty soon, that person who's at second grade level but is a third grader now is gonna go up to fourth grade level because they read so much.

- What's also nice about Footsteps2Brilliance is it's written in English and Spanish, but you can also play it.

- Yes!

- So, it reads it to you.

So, you can read it but it plays it to you so then you get to hear it, as well.

If someone wants to hear it being read to them, it's kind of nice to have the story read to you, as well.

- Right.

- So, on September 21st, it's the grand premiere screening that KVCR, Footsteps2Brilliance, and the county schools will be-- This is kind of a cool event.

Talk about the premiere.

- It's a premiere event.

We're gonna be introducing this and engaging our communities.

Special guests have been invited.

Schools and teachers and principals are invited.

We're gonna do it at Rancho Cucamonga at the Lewis Playhouse which is a beautiful place to have this take place.

But, we're gonna be premiering the episode with everybody there.

And, I think once people have a chance to do that, they'll see how awesome this will be for our community to have access to.

And, it's a way to really promote our KVCR partnership.

You know, KVCR is such a great opportunity to really expose our community to community events, to students, to education, to all those things that make our community so strong.

And so, to have this be part of that, it's a wonderful experience to have.

- Yeah.

I'm really excited about the premiere just because so many people now will be able to see one episode of it.

And, I'm hoping there's some kiddos in the audience that can say they love it or share their feelings about it.

I'm really looking forward to that feedback.

And, where do you see the project going further?

What do you see for the future?

- To me, to have this as a template for students to be able to go on to KVCR and see rich educational programming that covers not just literacy but potentially other content areas down the road.

But done so in a way that's fun, that's interesting, that's engaging, that makes them wanna tell their parents, "Hey, can we turn on KVCR?

(Lillian laughs) Because we wanna watch this program!"

And, that program is not only gonna give them that, I don't wanna say entertainment but that "engagement," but also give them incredible increase to what we're trying to develop in each and every one of our students.

And, that's the goal of academic success at all levels.

- Ted, thank you so much for sharing about Learn With Me.

- Thank you so much.

It's wonderful to be on here.

And, thanks to KVCR for helping us transform lives through education.

- My guest has been Ted Alejandre, San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools.

I'm Lillian Vasquez for Lifestyles.

Thanks for watching and bye for now!

- [Lillian] This program was originally produced for 91.9 KVCR Radio.

♪ ♪ Yeah, the simple things in life ♪ ♪ - [Announcer] KVCR and the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools invites you to the Lewis Family Playhouse in Rancho Cucamonga to attend the premiere of Learn With Me on Thursday, September 21st at 6:00 PM.

Tickets are available at learnwithme.tv/premiere or by scanning the QR code on your screen.

(playful horn music) ♪ Learn with me ♪ ♪ Todos aquí ♪ ♪ Come on, come one, come on ♪ ♪ And, learn with me ♪ ♪