(bright upbeat music) - Stay tuned for "On Q".

For KSMQ Public Television, I'm Eric Olson.

This is a special edition about an Austin woman worked extensively in the Austin Public School District for 15 years now, now a sought after public speaker, author of education books and talking about unconventional leadership, innovative learning environments and self care for educators.

Plus she's the new online high school principal, that's what's coming up "On Q".

♪ Local ideas that matter to you ♪ ♪ Sharing our region unique point of view ♪ ♪ Telling the stories that you never knew ♪ ♪ On Q ♪ ♪ On Q ♪ ♪ On Q ♪ Welcome to "On Q", we're going to take this entire episode to talk about education and not only in Mower County in Austin but around the state.

Today our guest is gonna help us learn how to keep our life in balance and how she works with young people in Austin Public Schools.

Educator, author, public speaker, Jessica Cabeen, welcome.

- Oh, thank you, it's a matter to be here.

- Coming up on 15 years, I think with the district.

So you have a wide range of experiences that I wanna talk about relating to young people at various ages and the state of education, really.

How are we doing?

Let's start out a little bit though with your career background.

Give us a little bit about where you were.

- Yeah, absolutely.

And I mean, we have the connection of music in our background so I took a very unconventional path to where I am today.

I actually graduated with my undergrad in music therapy from UW-Eau Claire and worked with adults with disabilities in Clear Lake, Iowa.

And then recognized that, I met my husband of course, and found out that I really felt a passion to working with students at a younger age.

So I became a music therapist in the St. Paul Public Schools.

Did that for a few years and then I ended up going within a program in which I got my master's degree in teaching and in turn taught in the St. Paul's schools and the tuition was paid for.

So I ended up becoming a teacher through a very non-traditional route.

I became an autism teacher for about four years and then moved into administration which led me to Austin, Minnesota.

So my first two years here, I was the special education supervisor for students through middle school, through age 21, which was an incredible experience to get to see the different pathways and really experience Austin.

And then I crossed over from special education to general administration and became the middle school assistant principal.

And so that was back in the day before cell phones and Snapchat.

- That was Ellis Middle School.

- Yeah, when it was six, seven, eight, early years.

I mean, I started when I was about 12, so this puts me about 30 years old now.

And then after three years of that, Mr. Kranz who we both know very well- - [Eric] David Kranz, a former superintendent.

- Came to my office over spring break and said, "We have an opening because Gene McDermott "was gonna move to IJ Holton, "we think you'd be a great kindergarten principal."

And I thought, well, how hard is that?

400 five year olds.

I was schooled very quickly.

So spent six years there learning so much about the power and importance of early learning and engagement with families and then took the leap to go back to the middle school with Snapchat and Facebook and cell phones and technology.

So I've been there for the last four years.

- [Eric] As principal?

- Yes.

- [Eric] Yeah.

- Yep, so I went back and the best part, I mean, there's so many great parts about living and leading in a middle school but I think having my kindergarten students as middle school students to see that change from five to 14 was really special.

And so now I've graduated eighth grade and I am moving up to the high school and now I'm the principal not only of the online school here in Austin, Minnesota but I get to get my hands into a lot of different things including our summer programming, our after school programming and helping our students at the high school make the connection to post-secondary specifically with the Austin Assurance Scholarship.

So I'm excited to branch out a little bit and to try something different.

So I can actually honestly say, I've had the K12 administrative experience now after his year.

- Literally, yeah.

- Yes.

- And it's such a breath of fresh air, ray of sunshine to see positive people working in schools because frankly, and I'm the last person to blame the media for things but when you see school stories like any new, it's negative things, bad things do happen in schools.

A couple months ago, some researchers at St. Thomas have a book out about school shootings and I had them on, it was compelling information about how to try to get in front of these problems by knowing the young people.

But those things do happen but it's not the everyday occurrence in schools.

And you can vouch for that.

- Absolutely, that's the exception not the norm.

And I think, I really and I read that book and I followed their research too and I really firmly believe it's about building relationships with kids.

Probably my favorite activity was to greet kids off the bus and coming in parent drop off, not only at Woodson but at the middle school 'cause you can read a kid right away as they're coming into the school.

Did something bad happen at home?

Did they not get breakfast?

Did they have a fight with their family?

Are they having a great day?

Just being able to start the day and set that foundation of building those solid relationships.

And I learned so much from watching the interactions and actions of the staff at Ellis Middle School, by far they're the best middle school educators I've ever met or worked with and just taught me a lot about building those authentic relationships with middle schoolers because they can be a little bit more challenging than kindergartners to get in with.

But a lot of times when I see students that are now at the high school or since graduated, they can always come back to a positive experience in their middle school years which I mean, at least for myself, wasn't always positive as a middle schooler.

So it's neat- - It was bad time.

- Right?

So it's neat to see that students had positive connections here at Ellis with an adult.

- And you know, how it's changed so since I was in school and the term lockdown when things are bad outside, is that still the best what we know about it, I'm thinking back to this program we just did where we gotta fortify these buildings and lock 'em and everything and I guess that's where we are at as a society.

I mean, schools can only do so much as far as what's out there in society.

- Well, I think there's a lot of education and awareness too and so when things happen nationally and social media is a huge play in this 'cause kids can see things going on in a second, in a moment, they can see things.

And sometimes what we have to work on too as adults is to help them learn what's fake news and what's real news and how to decipher that.

But all that being said, it's helped us to really become more aware and advocate and help the students understand here are why we put some practices in place in our school to keep you safe and not just from big events such as a school shooting but just having adults in the building that maybe don't belong there.

Or students that aren't our students, you know?

We just really wanna make sure that we have people in the right places and that everyone feels safe.

And so having some of those practices is very different from when you and I went to school but I also feel like the kids themselves feel more comfortable especially coming back after the pandemic having a few extra measures in place.

- You know, that's true.

The whole pandemic thing changed the landscape.

Can we blame that for changing your career in a positive way because of the- - [Jessica] Yeah, I think so.

- Explosion of online education.

We're gonna talk about that, it's a wonderful opportunity.

Did that come about or was pushed forward because of when we were all stuck inside this online education.

- Well, I think so and I'm very new into it.

So I'm only about six months into the learning work and probably about what?

15 days into the actual official position.

But one of the pieces that I found in talking with families and meeting other online schools across the nation is the flexibility and the independence that students have with online.

They no longer have to just sit in one class for 44 minutes, get up, go to the next class, get up, go to the next class.

Wait for everybody else to get done with a unit before they move to the next.

If a student's very self-determined organized and motivated, they can pace out their courses and just keep going and going as they progress, not necessarily as everybody else progresses.

So I think that's been really, really insightful, the individualization of the courses that kids can take and when they take them too.

We make the assumption that all kids learn best from eight in the morning to three in the afternoon with a 30 minute lunch in the middle of the day.

That's not necessarily the case.

I even think for myself, I'm much more of a early morning learner than not late at night and some people are the reverse.

And so I think this gives kids an opportunity to figure out how they best learn and to own that as they get older and move into adulthood too.

- So as parents, wherever you live in Minnesota in this day and age, you can make the choice when my son or daughter is ready to go to high school, they can sign up and go to the Austin- - Online Academy.

- Online Academy.

- Yeah.

- And get their education there.

So we're beyond it being a fad or just because it's becoming inculcated into the curriculum of the school districts.

So you're not competing with Austin Public Schools With this offering.

- No and I would definitely say that to families that are listening that online learning isn't for all.

That online school isn't for every student, not all students would benefit from being at home or being in a different location learning.

Some students learn best in person, in seat, five days a week so I definitely appreciate that you said that.

There's no competition here but for students who are online learners and we had talked before we got on air that there's about 40 to 50 students that live in Austin that are going online elsewhere.

We wanna make sure that they know that we not only have a program here in Austin but it will be one of the best in a very short amount of time based upon the resources our districts allocated and the staff that are working in that school.

It's gonna be by far one of the most exciting parts of my professional career to be a part of this process and journey.

- We're speaking with Jessica Cabeen from Austin Public Schools talking about her career and the new online academy, the high school.

This is not required by school districts.

School districts do not have to provide this opportunity for their students.

So this is a school district saying we wanna take a lead role in this and there may be some fits and starts but we're on our way.

- And it's been really fun in the last couple weeks to plan the elective courses and what we're calling essential courses.

And so you have your core academic classes, your math, your language, art, your social studies, your science, you have your elective classes, the art, the music, the business and some of that.

We also have what we call essential classes.

So they're required classes by grade band that are gonna help our kids exceed expectations outside of that academic learning.

So for example, your freshman year, you're taking critical thinking and study skills.

You're learning how to be a student.

Your sophomore year, it's about career readiness.

How do you write a resume?

How do you interview for your first job?

Because a lot of sophomores that's about the time they're gonna start to work to look for summer employment.

Junior year and I might actually take this class as a refresher is a financial literacy class.

And so it's a semester long class that's gonna help our students think about financial planning, savings, checkbooks, all those things that we've kind of lost throughout the years and wanna bring that back into a setting so kids can have those supports.

And then finally, our last class, our senior classes is that career in college readiness.

So how are you applying for colleges or post-secondary.

What are you thinking about vocationally?

And so when I've been talking to families and telling them these are required electives, I think I'm gonna get pushback like I don't want my kid taking that.

Oh, no, they're like can my kid take all of these?

Because I think we've also in education, we've lost some of those essential skills that aren't really directly related to a core curriculum.

So in Austin Online Academy, we're gonna bring those classes into our curriculum and then also find other ways to maybe support.

So if we have businesses or partners that are interested in maybe mentoring or tutoring students in financial planning or in career readiness or resume writing.

The nice thing about volunteering with Austin Online Academy is it's virtual.

So you could volunteer and hook on a Zoom and connect with the kids.

So I think there's gonna be some really incredible partnerships that only Austin can do.

- And those classes that you mentioned, they would not be offered at the brick and mortar.

- [Jessica] Correct.

- So that is a point of distinction are some of these unique programs.

- Yes, yep and I think because of, and we talked about that off camera too, is the program we're using is based off of the Florida Virtual Schools.

And so we're moving away from Odysseyware and Edgenuity which are some popular programs that other big nine school districts are using.

We're using FlexPoint Florida Virtual School and we modeled it after one of the largest and most prominent online schools in Arkansas who's been running since 2016.

And so it's really helpful because their platform as we grow and expand, offers AP classes, honors classes, NCAA classes certified which makes them eligible for athletes as they go on to college.

And so we really are thinking four or five years ahead starting day one, August 23rd.

- Speaking with Jessica Cabeen, will continue our discussion about education in Mower County and the state of Minnesota, right after this.

(soft upbeat music) Welcome back, continuing our discussion with Jessica Cabeen.

Sometimes when we have young people coming in for internships, a day on the job, we bring them in and you have to say things like, okay, when I ask you a question, you need to look at me.

You know, just basic things because it's here, it's the device, I'm looking at this.

That whole learning about, I don't know what you call socialization or social cohesion or something like that.

Do we lose even more of that if you're in an online environment where you're not dealing with anybody?

- Yeah, I think that hidden curriculum or the soft skills- - [Eric] Oh, is that what you call?

- Oh the soft skills, the hidden curriculum of interacting with others is definitely an area that then because you're lacking that in person experience, we just have to think creatively of how do you build that for kids.

And so, even though kids can learn at their own pace in Austin Online Academy.

We have office hours and virtual drop ins.

So the kids four days a week can drop in and talk to a teacher, we can have small groups going.

We are gonna work to find one day a week where we can have in person drop ins so kids that do live in the area have an in person meetup.

We talked off camera too that if you live in Austin and you go to Austin Online Academy, you're still eligible for all the athletic events.

You can join a sports, you can go to homecoming, you can go to prom, you can be in a musical and so we are wanna continue to really infuse that for kids but they can also attend those things too.

So within the staff and myself, we're gonna be present at a lot of activities.

So kids can still feel invited and included in.

But I think down the road, I've seen other really high performing programs offer virtual field trips where you all get together and watch a concert or actually in person, maybe once a quarter go to a concert because you don't have that brick and mortar eight to three bell schedule, you could take a whole day and take a field trip and come to the Somerset Theater or do a virtual field trip within the county or across the state.

So I think those are some of the things we're thinking about very intentionally because of what you said.

We have to figure out how we can interact in person even though we're online on a screen.

- So there's no virtual home room?

- Correct, yeah.

That's the other thing too, there's a perception that oh, I have to log into this class from eight to 8:40 and then this class 8:40, we know that that's not how kids learn best when they're online and it's a lot of self pace.

We'll be a available as a guide on the side but if a kid's really excited about a math lesson and they wanna go all day and finish all their math for the week, go for it.

So we're gonna provide different examples and models of schedules for families before school starts so they can kinda pick their pace.

Like do I wanna wanna do all my classes every day?

Or do I wanna focus on two classes a day and go through the week?

Am I more of a lark?

So I'm a more of an early learner morning or am I more of an owl?

Do I like to turn on later at night?

So we're gonna be walking through all those different brain based strategy, sorry about that.

To really help students figure out how they learn best and then help them advocate and then make that learning experience the best we can for them.

- And if I'm a parent and I don't know, I'm thinking about it, maybe this would be a good thing.

Is there a survey 'cause I wouldn't know if my young person is a better online learner than in person.

How would I know that?

- Right, well, I think it's a good conversation for the parent and the child or the guardian and the child.

On our website, we have a couple questions that kinda ask some probing questions that you could have conversations with your child about.

These are some skills that would be necessary to be successful.

You don't have to be perfect at 'em to start but you have to have a desire to kinda learn how to be self motivated, to be organized, to have some of those skills because nobody's gonna be like, okay, get to class, you know?

- [Eric] Right, there's no bell.

- Right, you know?

Or Ms. Cabeen is now walking down the hall in her clicky heels telling you to get somewhere.

So that's some of the skills, that doesn't necessarily mean you have to be perfect at it to start but you have to have a willingness to learn and grow with those skills.

- Yeah, I'd be back in the hallway, I think.

I needed that schedule but that's just me, you know?

But going back to the learning the social skills thing, that's almost, I don't wanna say it's a problem.

Maybe I'm getting my cranky old man hat on here but even employees that you see showing up on time, being punctual, now that's everywhere.

I know my son has reported, he's a senior in college at his job at a restaurant chain, they over schedule young people because they know some of them just aren't gonna show up and they're not gonna call in to show up.

Now that's not the job of the educators to do but I think that is just a different thing and I don't know if it's phones or what the, there's no sense of gee, I have to be in job.

For him, he's getting all kinds of extra hours, he loves it but it's just a strange thing, right?

- It is and I think we've seen that I think anywhere where you see businesses having different hours and wait staff, being short staffed and just employment in general.

And so I think that's where I really appreciate the Austin Public Schools taking a stance on we're really gonna start to look at the profile of the entire child.

And not just their GPA in these core classes but like, what are your passions in helping them find a pathway?

Because I feel like if a student as they go through school or as they exit school, when they're in a position or a job that they really love, they're gonna be invested in it and be on time and be engaged.

And so I think that is the role of us as educators is to really help kids find those sparks early on and encourage them to pursue them.

That's been such a fun piece as I talk to educators across the country is just, how do you plant seeds in kids at early ages?

Like it could be kindergarten, it could be elementary, it could be middle school.

I've told many students that I've seen in the last three years that they would make excellent special education teachers or excellent law enforcement or gosh, they could take my job when I retire.

And so often they're like, really?

Nobody's ever said that about me, you know?

And so, I think we too often miss those moments where we can kind of give kids our professional advice or support or just like, hey, we think you'd be great at this to just get them thinking about something past high school.

- And much of this changed like the online education.

There are other things happening in the district.

We have a new superintendent, relatively.

It's been a year or two, sure, Dr. Joey Page.

And so he is helping make some of these changes happen.

And this is not about the online high school but it's something that I heard that one of the ideas is to kind of make all the lower grades the same from an educational standpoint as far as outcomes so by the time they reach the middle school, everybody's kind of on the same page or something.

Is that a new idea?

- No, in larger districts, that's pretty common practice, especially if students are switching schools.

So if they're going from one second grade to a different second grade, you wanna make sure it's easy in consistency for the student that they keep the same vocabulary, the same pace of learning.

But then as they get to the middle school or the IJ Holton where they're all back together, it really helps support teachers because then teachers know okay, this is what all kids know and should be able to do as they enter fifth grade.

And so they there's some great research behind that but I think it just alignment and continuity across the district.

- Okay, well that makes sense that then they know where they're at when they all come together in the same building.

We talked a bit at the beginning about your author books about education.

You have a new book coming out in March of next year.

Talk a little bit about that and your other books.

- Yeah, so I think probably if people are interested in writing, I think I would definitely say, just start writing.

I had a blog and I just started writing and I think my first book was around early learning because back in the, I feel like back in the day, talk about old cromageny.

When I first started at the Kindergarten Center, all day, every day, kindergarten was not fully funded in the state of Minnesota.

It wasn't until I think three or four years into my tenure at the Woods and Kindergarten Center, it was that, oh, now everybody has kindergarten.

And so I wrote that book to help other leaders learn from the masters of the Kindergarten Center here in Austin on how to really implement and incorporate that really well.

And then most of the focus of my book since then have been about thinking about unconventional pathways, really trying to meet the needs of kids.

"Lead with Grace" was all about soft skills of leadership because it's not what you say, it's how you say it.

And then I did an initial book on balance and now my next book is called "Principal in Balance" and it's really taking everything that I've learned over the last five or six years and then combing through a pandemic while being a school leader and a parent of a middle schooler and a parent of a high schooler.

You know how did we build those resiliency skills because I feel like as we're moving forward, if we don't put some boundaries and bandwidth on our time, it's gonna really continue to impact our workforce, probably not just in education but just in general.

- So we're spreading ourselves too thin to a critical point is what you're arguing with.

- [Eric] Yep.

- That's what's coming out in March?

- Yes, yep, my book in March, yep.

And I think I've read other books outside of education that make those connections and one of the books I read talked about burn out, the secret to the stress cycle.

And nursing and educators are the two probably highest stress related fields because they're so person centric.

You're constantly thinking about other people, you're constantly caring for other people and you can't shut that off when you get in the garage at home.

- [Eric] You're on.

- You're on all the time.

And if you're not able to find ways to turn it off or give yourself permission to turn it off, it's really hard to separate and to get that rest so you're ready to go back the next day.

- And we can find those books, these are professional books by and large for teachers.

- And you know, or anybody, yeah.

I think businesses work too.

I know we have 'em at Sweet Reads but you can also get 'em on Amazon as well.

- Okay, Jessica Cabeen, thank you very much.

- [Jessica] Oh it's been a pleasure.

- And thank you for your work in education, we're fortunate.

So I appreciate your time today.

- [Jessica] Thank you.

- Good luck with the online high school.

- [Jessica] Thank you very much.

- That's it for today, thank you for joining us "On Q".

For KSMQ Public Television, I'm Eric Olson.

Will see you next time.

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