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Hello, everybody, and welcome to another great episode of My EdTech Life.
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Thank you so much for joining us on this wonderful day.
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And wherever it is that you're joining us from around the world, as always, we appreciate all the likes, the shares, the follows.
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So thank you so much.
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And we can definitely talk about that as the new year is filling up.
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But I am excited about today's conversation.
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Uh, I have been following our guests for a while now and going back and forth on LinkedIn.
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And it's just been a pleasure to see his uh progress, his growth, working from companies and now a freshly minted doctor.
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And I am excited to welcome to the show Dr.
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Mendoza, and that's Dr.
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Joey Mendoza.
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So, how are you today, Joey?
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Good morning, Doc.
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Thank you for having me, Dr.
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Mendoza.
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I'm doing well uh here in Corpus Christi, Texas, so not too far from where you're at.
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But yeah, thanks for having me on the show.
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I like you, been following me on LinkedIn, some of the episodes, and I was like, you know what?
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I like the topics that they're relevant.
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You do the English and the Spanish, and I'm like, yeah, let's do it.
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So yeah, thank you for having me.
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Yeah, no, excited to have you here.
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And also, it was a pleasure to have met you in person at ISTE this past year.
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You know, I'm just walking by there, the booths, and then all of a sudden it's like, hey, it's Joey, and and it's fantastic, you know, getting to meet in real life and making that connection.
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And like you said, just uh the proximity to one another and just you know, knowing this region very well.
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And it's always great to highlight educators here from our Valley region, Rio Grande Valley, this area, South Texas, and everything.
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And that's just fantastic.
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So thank you for being on the show today.
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So I'm really excited about today, uh, Joey, because again, like I mentioned, freshly minted doctors.
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So I'm really excited to learn and having our guests learn a little bit more about your dissertation topic because I thought and I found it very interesting.
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We'll talk about that, and of course, we'll talk about a little bit about your education background and the work that you're doing now with this great company, and we'll get into that in just a second.
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But before we dive in, just so our audience members know you a little bit more, can you give us a little brief introduction and what your context is within the education space?
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Sure.
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Yeah, I'm currently working for a company called YeAZ in the ed tech sector, CTE, STEM space, right?
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And prior to that, I was with another company.
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Prior to that, I worked for an education regional center here in Corpus.
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And then prior to that, I was an administrator, teacher, coach, substitute, all that good stuff, right?
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So I I've been through uh the K through 12 system on the ed tech side um now.
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And so having a blend of both worlds, I think it's unique, and and we can dive into that.
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Uh you're in the same right kind of row where you have a foot in both, right?
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And so it definitely shaped my thinking, my experiences, and then definitely shape my uh doctoral program or my dissertation um that's gonna get published here soon.
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So yeah.
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Excellent.
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Well, I'm excited about that.
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So let's talk first about just uh your experience because well, before we dive into the dissertation, I know that I knew you from a previous company, and let's talk a little bit about that that STEM world too as well.
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So uh that's something that has always been of interest to me.
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And so I wanted to ask you about yourself and in your experience in the STEM field and STEM-related uh, you know, companies that you worked for and that you did, you know, what what drove that passion into the STEM field and to dive in and kind of you know get yourself started in that before, you know, going into your dissertation?
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You know, I I fell into it accidentally, and I say that with like excitement, right?
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Because I look back at when I was teaching and my mindset that I had as an administrator, it was very STEM focused.
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I just didn't know it at the time.
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And so I taught social studies in inner city here, Corpus, for about seven years, and the way I approached it was a little intraditional, right?
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I always tied it into careers, and it that's very difficult to do from a social studies, government history side of things, and so I've always had that lens.
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Um, and then when getting into the administration, I was exposed to more CTE side, right?
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And so I dove into there and then I went to the service center, and then um I got to work on a tremendous project called High Impact Cuterie, right?
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That's from my dissertation basically on, and so I was exposed to these ed tech companies that were delivering online instruction in 2020, right?
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And so their programs they were they were kind of self-paced, but they would remediate in real time and they would accelerate their learning in real time as students would go through that.
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And those terms I never heard of at the time.
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That's interesting.
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Like, how does that happen?
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Because coming from the non-techie world at the time, I was like, what do you mean?
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Like they're just gathering data points on students and then like telling them to go back on a problem or forward on a problem, okay, right?
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And it started getting into automation and things like that, and so I worked on that project and that exposed me to STEM and ed tech companies.
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It's like I can do something like that.
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And so 2021, the high-impact tutoring grant that I was on was grant funded, and so it was coming to an end, and so I had to find another job, right?
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And so I wasn't ready to go back into the school districts and start started looking into these ed tech companies and found the STEM one that you're referring to.
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Um, Pittsco education of mine saying that doing great work in the STEM field.
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Um, and so found them, landed there and worked with them for three years across the state of Texas, um hosting STEM events, uh CTE events, competitions, you name it, they they probably do it.
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Uh very hands-on hardware.
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Um, and so that was my introduction to the STEM space.
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But again, looking back on it, I was always doing STEM, we just didn't call it that for whatever reason.
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Yeah.
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No, you know what?
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It's so interesting, uh, Joey, because though I'm hearing you and listening to your path and your trajectory in this area and this first part of uh you know our conversation today and talking about STEM-related fields.
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But you know, it's a very similar start to the way that I did.
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Now, number one, like you said, you you you fell into it, you know, on accident, but gratefully you did because you've been doing some great things and you continue to do some great things.
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Uh, also, like myself, I I tell, you know, and many people have heard this on the show, like, you know, I I fell into teaching, but then I absolutely fell in love with it.
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And then when I moved to elementary, like you said, I had no idea I was doing STEM.
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I just went to, you know, TCEA one year in 2000, I believe it was like 2016, 17, one year.
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And then I came back and I was like, all right, everybody, we're gonna start using this.
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And I started doing donors choose grants, and I was like, all right, we're gonna do robots, we're gonna do this, and but really integrating it into the current curriculum and finding creative, innovative ways to make those ties with the standards and still be able to cover our standards, but make the learning, like you said, very like hands-on, very engaging.
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You know, students are the ones that are in control, they're the ones that are creating the learning and so on.
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And then so that led to uh just starting a little robotics club in in my on my campus, you know, and saying, okay, we're gonna do a little robotics club.
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And then that turned into like a summer STEM camp for like the district for three years, you know, continuously and uh helping the robotics programs and you know, the the young ladies also to learn how to do the coding, get into robotics and so on.
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But then of course, COVID hit, and then of course things changed.
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But uh it was just something that is fantastic, you know, just being in there and being hands-on with the robots and working with students and in a very hands-on manner.
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And a lot of those students have gone on to, you know, graduate and uh follow pursuing, you know, computer science or engineering.
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And uh it's just been fantastic to hear the work that they're doing now when we first started many years ago.
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So it's it's amazing.
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And I love the way that that kind of transitions into the following conversation, which is really the world of CTE, which now you're finding yourself immersed in.
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So tell us a little bit about that, you know, new, new um, I guess, new leap into this world with this ed tech company and uh working with CTE and uh pathways too as well.
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Sure.
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So YayZ is a C K through 12 CTE company that wants to get students into digital skills, right?
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And so when we think about digital skills, we think about digital marketing, right?
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Digital media, arts, visuals, uh, computer science, as you mentioned, cybersecurity, um, I mentioned computer science, Python, scratch code, all that good stuff.
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Uh in the the way I see it, right?
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So we we have a standard curriculum that we created, and um we have our own LMS that students kind of go through the courses there.
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But the meat and potatoes of it, as you know, is is the the teacher, right?
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And so we can either put a teacher fully in place to teach those CT courses because those industry folks are hard to find, um, especially in some rural spaces in Texas, but also we can um zoom in a CT instructor to kind of take students through those pathways in order to get um certifications to get into those higher paying wage jobs, right?
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That everybody's talking about.
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But the the missing piece that that I don't think it's talked enough about with Yates is we're creating kind of these digital nomads, right?
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Where you're creating these digital skills, but for students, or right now they're gonna be adults going into the workforce where those young adults can work from anywhere in the world, right?
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Not that everybody wants to do that, but as a South Texas kid, I was like, I want to see everything, I want to get out there.
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How can I craft my profession to be able to do that, right?
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And so that was a leap into the tech sector because it it right.
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I work remotely here in corpus, I get to travel a little bit.
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I get my wife in her job, she gets to travel, and so I get to go with her sometimes, and vice versa.
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And that works for us, right?
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But that's a part of YeAZ that it's we're creating these digital nomads where that work is already here and it's just going to get bigger and bigger, right?
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Where people can work from anywhere in the world with internet access and and things like that.
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So yeah, we're we're big in the CTE space, about all about credentials, but going back to the most important piece, as you know, is the instructor, right?
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We we have a great way of vetting our teachers, of getting our teachers certified through our own proprietary system um and making sure that's aligned with the district's goes and the campus goes that they're looking for.
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So whether in person or online, you can have the best curriculum or the best LMS in the world, but you need to have somebody to deliver that and get students to buy into you and the content.
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Yeah.
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And I think, you know, you mentioned a couple of things that I do want to unpack that really got me excited.
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Like you said, number one, you know, also with CTE, like you mentioned, digital nomads, the the ability for our students to now be able to be equipped with the knowledge of just computer literacy altogether.
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Now, of course, right now, you know, artificial intelligence, generative AI is huge.
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And, you know, talking about AI literacy and all of that, but uh, you know, just being able to use hardware, software to be able to, you know, learn a little bit of coding and all of those things.
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But not only that, Joey, I think like you mentioned too a little bit about those certifications.
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One of the things that I have seen oftentimes is that there is a list, for example, here in Texas.
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We know that in Texas that the there is a list for CTE certifications.
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And many times a lot, a lot of districts may not be able to cover a lot of those certifications based on obviously the programming that we have within our campuses and so on.
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So I think having a platform that might be able to offer something, like you mentioned, being able to get a student on a pathway, and like you mentioned, this is this is K-12, correct?
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Um, or is it I would say fourth grade and up.
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Okay, fourth grade and up.
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Perfect.
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I mean, and that's a great age, fourth grade and up to be able to kind of put them on this path, and then they start kind of discovering like, hey, what are some of my interests?
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What are the things that I really enjoy doing?
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And then that way, from such a young age, the the young child can kind of start having an idea and start, you know, getting equipped with those tools to be able to continue to move forward into what it is that they desire.
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And I think that that's something that is huge.
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That oftentimes, you know, kind of like with CTE, like I mentioned, sometimes I feel like those conversations might fall a little bit on the wayside and are not upfront and, you know, in front of all our stakeholders to have them see the potential that is there for our learners and for them to come out equipped with an industry certification that they might be already be able to obtain a job as soon as they graduate and maybe during that time be able to hop into a university program or something, but at least they are already working and maybe they don't have to get into some major debt, as we know with college education being so high.
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So I think that that is something that is fantastic to be able to start at such an early age.
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So now getting back a little bit to the CTE conversation, now with your experience and and what are some things that are maybe some persistent myths or misunderstandings that educators or even uh parents might have about CTE that you can think of?
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Because for me, I'll tell you, for me, it's just really like, well, CTE is just gonna be like uh cosmetology, uh, ag and welding.
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And that's it, like those three programs, and maybe like uh like uh EMS.
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And so that's the misconception that I see that I'm like, well, it's only three programs, like what else can we do?
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What has been your experience, or maybe some of the misunderstandings that you see are still out there, or maybe that you yourself had prior.
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I think some of the misunderstandings is that folks, the parents, even educators, think that it's designed, CTE is designed for a subset subset of students, right?
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Like, hey, if you're only doing if you want to go this pathway, you have to go, you're a CTE student, right?
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They define them and they put them in a box.
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And and parents do too, right?
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They say, oh, well, we're a blue-collar family, we do XYZ, you're gonna go down this way, but if you're not, then you're gonna go to college or whatnot.
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But there's this other path, right?
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When we talk about digital skills, that it's exposure to to be frank with my answer.
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I think it's a little misconception on what is CTE and what all it can provide.
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Now the shifts coming, whether parents or educators are ready for it, that CTE is the future, or right?
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These certifications are gonna become a premium if they're not already.
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And I say that because there's universities that are offering these certifications, Google data analytics certification, Google cybersecurity certifications.
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If you come to their university, you can take these for free, right?
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And so they're stacking them on a college degree.
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And so, what does that tell you, right?
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That they're that important in the workforce.
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And so I say that because when I'm when I make a move into the CTE world heavily, it that was part of it.
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I'm seeing the shift kind of move towards that way.
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You're starting to see people talk about more CTE, right?
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And open discussions like this, and that is needed.
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Um, but yeah, it's just parents don't know what they don't know about CTE.
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It's uh I tie you back to the tutoring, right?
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About my dissertation because tutoring has this um kind of negative connotation to it when it says, hey, if you're going to tutoring, then it's bad.
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No, not necessarily.
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Tutoring is to catch up, it's to get ahead, it's to stay on path, right?
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And CTE is kind of the same way.
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Oh, if you're you're a CTE student, then you must be going into the trades.
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Not necessarily.
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I can go into the digital skills part of it, learn how to code, right?
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Learn how to digital market and learn uh entrepreneurship, um, business and marketing, all those good things.
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So I think it's us that are we that are in the CTE field can do a better job of just having that microphone and and speaking to a broad audience and say, hey, if you haven't thought about CT, check this out and here's why, right?
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And sharing a little data and research to back it up, right?
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Instead of just standing on your your podium and saying here's why you should do it, but bringing the data and saying, hey, here's what the jobs are saying that are needed in the next 10 years.
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Yeah.
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And you know, one thing that I do like about that that you did mention is, you know, the certification talk, I think we're missing out.
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And I don't know if it's just me, but I'm pretty sure, like, I mean, at least hearing you uh talking about that certification uh aspect, I think that we may be missing out on some great opportunities for our students.
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And like you said, it's all about parents not knowing what they don't know yet, and like being able to offer student or parents that information of the advantages of being able to obtain a certification while you're in high school to again be able to readily jump into a job, or maybe that employer might say, you know what, with this certification, you are already showing that you can handle this task and this task and this task.
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And you know what?
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Because you're already working for me and the work that you're doing, I can pay for maybe your next level certification or the following certification.
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Where now I to me that in the long run, I'm seeing things in the long run as far as expenses, you're minimizing expenses for number one parents.
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You know, you I know that we talk about yes, four-year university, four-year university, but I think in the last for for me, at least in the last four years, I've seen a lot more talk about you know, the trades, being able to get those certifications, hearing and seeing how um young men and women are obtaining these certifications at an early age and not going into debt, but they are already, you know, making profit and not having to worry about paying back loads and loads of debt debt, excuse me, after uh four, yeah, loads and loads of debt after a four-year, you know, university um certificate or a diploma.
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And I'm not saying that going to university, you don't go to university.
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I'm not saying that.
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I'm just saying that there are different career paths.
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And I think oftentimes what has happened is there's just been this kind of negative connotation.
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I was like, oh, you're CT, you're going into trades.
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Like you're seeing that uh in kind of like, oh, you know, what what is that?
00:21:48.490 --> 00:22:01.210
But now I think that this is coming around where it's like, you know what, man, if I would have known, and and I've had this conversation with many professionals such as yourself and many others thinking, man, you know what?
00:22:01.210 --> 00:22:12.569
If I would have known this, I would have just gone into these trades or would have gone into this and spent, you know, lead and and things might have been different, but you know, that this is the path that we chose.
00:22:12.569 --> 00:22:22.170
Now, the other thing is too that I like that you said is I, for example, in my master's program, they stacked, you know, certifications on there.
00:22:22.170 --> 00:23:08.490
So not only did you get your master's in educational technology, but while doing those courses, you also got a certification in technology leadership and you know, all these other things, which is kind of great and see, and it's a value add, you know, but it is that value add to that, you know, first four years now, it's another 18 months in a master's program to get those additional certifications, where maybe something like that now, you know, through a program like um Yezy, like, you know, being able to come out, imagine coming out of high school already with two or three certifications because you've tested and you were successful with those tests, and now you're immediately workforce ready because you're honing in on those skills that you need for that specific job.
00:23:08.490 --> 00:23:16.009
But I think that even then you are already picking up other skills, you know, going through a platform.
00:23:16.009 --> 00:23:18.490
So I want to talk to you a little bit about that.
00:23:18.490 --> 00:23:22.009
Can you tell me a little bit about how YeAZ works?
00:23:22.009 --> 00:23:26.970
So let's say I'm a fourth grader and you know, uh it's my first day.
00:23:26.970 --> 00:23:28.970
This is my first year with YeAZ.
00:23:28.970 --> 00:23:37.769
And if I continue that trajectory, what what might I see and what would the end uh result be for that, for that student?
00:23:38.089 --> 00:23:40.410
Yeah, so let's go with the fourth grade example.
00:23:40.410 --> 00:23:44.009
We'd probably put them in the STEM pathway, maybe computer science.
00:23:44.009 --> 00:23:49.289
So they'll get introduced introduced to coding at a very foundational level, right?
00:23:49.289 --> 00:23:50.809
Maybe some bot coding.
00:23:50.809 --> 00:23:57.609
And then as they transition in the middle school, um, those would be self-paced courses at the elementary level, right?
00:23:57.609 --> 00:24:01.769
Um, or a hybrid approach, however the school district wants to approach that.
00:24:01.769 --> 00:24:16.650
But then as they get into middle school, then we would like to have our CTE instructor either zoom in with that um student or students, group of students, um, for six weeks, nine week course, semester course.
00:24:16.650 --> 00:24:20.329
They go through the platform, very project-based learning platform.
00:24:20.329 --> 00:24:24.730
Um, they spend about 60% of their time just building, right?
00:24:24.730 --> 00:24:31.690
When for this specific uh example, they'd be building um something with computer science, right?
00:24:31.690 --> 00:24:41.849
And so they would spend 60% of that, and then they'll have about 10% of peer-to-peer kind of feedback on their project, right?
00:24:41.849 --> 00:24:44.730
And then they would go through that progression.
00:24:44.730 --> 00:24:55.129
Um, and then once they get into high school, they have an idea, okay, under the computer science, what am I what am I most attracted to?
00:24:55.129 --> 00:24:58.089
Where do I see myself getting a career into?
00:24:58.089 --> 00:25:00.170
Is that software development?
00:25:00.170 --> 00:25:02.730
Is it um cybersecurity?
00:25:02.730 --> 00:25:11.210
Um, and so we would put them on that trajectory in high school to prepare them to take the test um junior senior year.
00:25:11.210 --> 00:25:12.329
That is great.
00:25:12.490 --> 00:25:20.890
You know, and that's something that is wonderful that you already have something that is already aligned for those students and as they go through.
00:25:20.890 --> 00:25:31.609
And I think oftentimes, you know, as as in my experience, I've heard of other programs, or maybe there are programs that are just really siloed and say, well, this is just for computer science.
00:25:31.609 --> 00:25:35.930
So let me show you what computer science can do, or let me show you what this can do.
00:25:35.930 --> 00:25:42.730
But also having a program that can offer, you know, variety, I think is something that would be very beneficial.
00:25:42.730 --> 00:25:47.769
But I want to ask you, Joe, and these might be some of those tough questions that maybe in your experience.
00:25:47.769 --> 00:26:20.410
I know I've seen in my experience what might occur, but in your experience, and just overall, you know, what might be some of the barriers that school districts may have with implementing not just a program like Yazy, but just implementing CTE programs because I have seen uh from other districts and other colleagues of mine that are working in other districts where you know sometimes things don't come through the way that we think they would, and their programs kind of just start kind of fizzling out.
00:26:20.410 --> 00:26:22.650
What do you think some of the barriers would be?
00:26:22.890 --> 00:26:28.170
You know, I think it takes uh a CTE-driven leader, right?
00:26:28.170 --> 00:26:34.650
Whether that's a superintendent, whether that's a campus principal, to really build the culture around CTE.
00:26:34.650 --> 00:26:40.730
Right now that your campus has to neglect star math and reading, that's never gonna go away.
00:26:40.730 --> 00:26:55.769
Um, but somebody who has an idea, and that's what I'm finding when I'm having conversations with um director, superintendents, CT director, campus principals, is that their CT is their own little world, right?
00:26:55.769 --> 00:26:59.369
Like, hey, their CT director handles all that.
00:26:59.369 --> 00:27:08.410
And so I think that's one of the barriers is not having that synergy as a campus to say, hey, CTE is all of us, right?
00:27:08.410 --> 00:27:12.490
And we all have a hand on how these programs move forward.
00:27:12.490 --> 00:27:16.490
One, because we need to know where the funding's coming from, right?
00:27:16.490 --> 00:27:25.529
We need to uh vet some of these programs to say, okay, which one's the best fit for um your campus, your district.
00:27:25.529 --> 00:27:33.210
And then once you decide on that, how do you measure academic return on investment from that program?
00:27:33.210 --> 00:27:34.329
Right.
00:27:34.329 --> 00:27:42.970
And so you're in the data world now, and so you're you're I'm sure you're tasked with doing that, but though those three that I just mentioned, right?
00:27:42.970 --> 00:28:03.690
Having a CT-minded driven leader, um, obviously finding the funding and having that synergy between departments, um, and then vetting and finding if the program is bringing that academic return are all three things that are hard to do at scale.
00:28:03.690 --> 00:28:14.170
And so that's why to answer your question, I think that there's there's some barriers there to establishing a well-oiled CTE program.
00:28:14.170 --> 00:28:19.450
Um, and the ones that are doing well are the traditional ones that we had in the 80s, right?
00:28:19.450 --> 00:28:27.930
That are just kind of embedded in the culture of the school, and we're known for having a nice welding program and a good uh welding program.
