This past Friday, Victoria ISD’s Office of Innovation hosted an Innovation Celebration that officially kicked off our community education of the District's CHOICE campuses.
Choice in VISD was born from the District Strategic Plan developed by the community. VISD is committed to inspiring teaching and empowering learning.
Before we dive in, you’ll need to know a little about what it means to be a CHOICE campus in VISD.
VISD currently has nine choice campuses: Smith STEM Academy, STEM Middle School, personalized learning campuses Shields Elementary and Patti Welder Middle School, personalized learning and math innovation zone campus Hopkins Elementary, personalized learning and dual-language campus Crain Elementary, O’Connor ACE Elementary, and Victoria East and West High School P-TECH.
STEM -science, technology, engineering, and mathematics - campuses provide an educational instructional model fostering design-based thinking while supporting fluid, flexible, creative, and innovative problem-solving.
Personalized Learning campuses exist to prepare every student to pursue a college and/or career program in high school with the academic and social knowledge and skills to succeed.
A technology-enhanced instructional strategy further allows students to choose the path, pace, time, and modality in which they receive instruction.
P-TECH, Pathways in Technology Early College High School, offers students a no-cost pathway leading to post-secondary credentials and is an experience that encourages students to continue their post-secondary education.
Ok, now we can talk about the Innovation Celebration!
Last Friday, several local elected officials and community partners joined to sit in on a P-TECH panel and tour a STEM campus.
We started our day at the VISD Connections Center. This newly opened (repurposed) facility is already becoming a crown jewel for our community as the place for deep connections between our families and our schools.
Attendees heard about P-TECH Healthcare from P-TECH Administrator Dionne Hughes, our. Currently, four P-TECH programs are available: Healthcare, Education & Training, Computer Science, and Engineering. P-TECH Healthcare was our first pathway to launch in VISD. Students in our 2024 Healthcare cohort shared their experiences and future goals. Our P-TECH programs now serve a total of 120 students.
Principal of Shields Elementary Kelly Gabrysch shared “The Case for Change,” sharing what Personalized Learning looks like on the Shields Campus. With academic growth being a central focus on their campus, Gabrysch stated the success she has seen in both academic and social-emotional intelligence since implementing the Personalized Learning model.
Data-Driven Instruction is key when meeting students at their current level of academic success and growing them. “It is all about being intentional and celebrating both small and large accomplishments along the way,” Gabrysch shared. Aside from Data-Driven Instruction, the heart of Personalized Learning comes from educating the child in its entirety. She explained the importance of educating the whole child and stated how the students of Shields begin each morning with Strong Start routines.
At Smith STEM, attendees were able to observe and participate in a campus-wide “Design Time,” during which teachers and students took an everyday Fairy Tale and turned it into a Project Based Learning Unit, complete with cross-curricular learning skills and challenges.
Smith STEM Academy Principal Absher highlighted the students’ application of the Engineering Design Process and their 21st Century Career Skills as they planned and designed a home that could withstand the "huffs and puffs" from the “Big bad wolf.” Students tested their designs and identified ways to improve them. Smith STEM students not only thought like professional engineers, but they also dressed the part.
Within the Victoria ISD’s “Leadership Definition,” we have three strands, 1) Connecting to Genius, 2) Growing in Genius, and 3) Reaching for Genius. Under our reaching for Genius strand, we define what is important for us to create pathways for all, analyze situations, ignite innovation, and achieve results. Our innovation celebration was a celebration of some of the genius happening within VISD!
Ashley Scott is the executive director of communications and public relations for Victoria ISD.