“Concentric circles” power Superintendent Kelly May-Vollmar’s drive to connect with all of her stakeholders in California’s Desert Sands Unified School District.
She concedes the difficulty of meeting one-on-one with every resident, so she conveys her message via school board members, other administrators, teachers, parents and students who can reach the full community, May-Vollary says on Intricacies of Communication,” the latest episode of District 91心頭istration’s “A Good Lesson” podcast.
“Listening is just as complex as communicating,” May-Vollmar tells hosts Amy Dujon and Dr. Quintin Shepherd. You have to allow time for processing.
May-Vollmar says she first learned this lesson before the COVID pandemic, when the district was among the first to build its own LTE broadband network and she was serving as chief technology officer. Desert Sands leaders had to communicate that the district’s goal was to enable all students to connect district-provided Chromebooks to the internet.
Now, the message has shifted to artificial intelligence to ease anxieties caused by the technology’s rapid advancement and its incursion into schools. Desert Sands is in year three of an AI initiative that began with training administrators and central office staff to experiment with the technology and then serve as champions for its proper use in the classroom.
“We called (the training) ‘the playground’ to demystify it, to make it fun and casual,” she points out.
The educator then recruited a group of middle and high school students to find out how they were using artificial intelligence and help shape the district’s AI policy. Desert Sands has created an .
“We need teachers to hear students voices, saying ‘I need AI skillsnot to cheat,'” May-Vollmar says.
Listen to the full A Good Lesson podcast with Kelly May-Vollmar:
This podcast is also available on and .
