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Meta's AI Chatbot Nears 600 Million Monthly Users, Zuckerberg Says
Jerry Yang didn’t speak English when he started school at L.A. Nelson Elementary. Now, as a Guyer High School sophomore, Yang is a budding teacher, and among 18 Denton ISD students qualified to advance to nationals from their work in Texas Association of Future Educators contests. Yang and his peers are also eligible for the Educators Rising National Conference. How did the high school student go from being a Mandarin speaker in an English as a second language program to a competitive aspiring teacher? Yang credits Denton ISD’s Teach Denton and how it channeled his enthusiasm for learning in elementary school. “I believe it’s because I was not a native speaker,” he said. “And I usually excel more, like faster than others. So then I helped others, and then it clicked for me at the same time.” Guyer High School sophomore Jerry Yang qualified for a national competition for future educators. Yang is a member of both Teach Denton, a Denton ISD program that offers training and development for students who want to be teachers, and his campus chapter of Texas Association of Future Educators. Yang said his ESL teacher nominated him for the program. “I was like ‘OK,’” he said. In elementary school classrooms across Denton ISD, teachers notice when some students help their classmates out. They might explain part of a small group activity, or help a friend stand in the right spot. They are eager to learn, too. Since the 2016-17 school year, teachers have tapped those students to join Teach Denton, a program that introduces students — some of them as young as prekindergarten — to teaching. Since its founding, Teach Denton has fed campus chapters of the Texas Association of Future Educators, a three-year education training program at LaGrone Academy that certifies students to work as classroom aides. Teach Denton is also a pathway to LaGrone’s teaching internship, a program that gives students professional development and student teaching experience ahead of college programs. Since the program was founded, 88 of Teach Denton’s alumni have returned to Denton ISD in full-time teaching positions. Denton ISD leaders are proud of that number, and officials from the Texas Education Agency have visited campuses to meet Teach Denton students and the school leaders who are shepherding them toward a career in the classroom or administrators’ offices. “We’re planting these seeds; we’re planting Christmas trees,” said Leah Zavala, the coordinator of Teach Denton. “We’re not going to have all of our vacancies and spots filled tomorrow. But this is that long-term goal. It’s building Rome, you know?” Leah Zavala, Denton ISD’s Teach Denton coordinator, speaks at a event for Teach Denton students in February. Zavala said the program has attracted attention from school districts across the country. The program grew out of a campus improvement plan, a sprawling project that the leaders of each campus complete regularly to align classrooms with everything from state standards to the needs of the regional and national labor market. Zavala said a deputy superintendent likened the initiative to planting trees that would bear fruit generations later. District leaders routinely consider the challenges that face public schools. Texas has been dealing with a teaching shortage for more than a decade, a situation worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic and political upheavals. Denton ISD has fared better than other Texas schools. It’s a destination district, and boasts an 81.8% teacher retention rate. But the program isn’t about filling vacancies, Zavala said. It’s about connecting students who excel in the classroom and who show leadership traits to a vocation that makes an impact on lives, and on a granular level. Texas public schools act on a 2019 mandate from state lawmakers to make sure students can graduate from high school ready for college, a career or the military. Denton ISD has the typical pathways for students to pursue those outcomes. LaGrone Academy, the district’s advanced technology complex, offers certifications in longstanding trades, such as cosmetology, nursing, auto mechanics and welding. The campus also has a menu of newer certification programs, such as commercial photography, animation, law and forensics. Zavala said the campus improvement plan process sparked conversations about teaching. Every teacher and administrator knows students who are clever, curious and willing to lead. “The questions came up: Why are we not marketing our profession?’” Zavala said. “We have the career-tech complex. We have law enforcement, we have health science. All of these were feeding into a profession. And education is feeding into that same profession, but there was this disconnect with students dropping off and not going into education [in their] postsecondary [education]. And so we started asking, ‘Why are we not doing this?’ “It was really just an idea from [a Denton ISD deputy superintendent] of, like, ‘Hey, why don’t we?’ And if we are in the business of education, why are we not marketing for education?” Zavala said elementary school students and even prekindergarten students who demonstrate empathy can be considered. The youngest students can take part in activities that develop empathy and positive interactions. When they get into kindergarten, Zavala said, they can start attending monthly Teach Denton meetings. Middle and high school students in the program can join their campus chapter of Texas Association of Future Educators. Student in the Teach Denton program at Denton ISD are set on education and career paths in teaching, with the ultimate goal of returning to Denton ISD for their careers. Among their peers and with their faculty advisers, those students drill down on teaching and focus on things like differentiation in education, which prepares them for a typical classroom and its varied students and abilities, to classroom management. Yang will compete in the Area 10 TAFE Conference at Texas Woman’s University over the weekend. The conference at TWU, hosted by the College of Professional Education and the Educator Preparation Program, includes students from Cooke, Denton, Erath, Hood, Johnson, Palo Pinto, Parker, Somervell, Tarrant and Wise counties. Staci Scott, one of the two coordinators of the LaGrone Academy education internship program and campus TAFE chapter, is helping guide 85 students through the internship, which offers dual credit to students who plan to become certified teachers. The program, separate from Teach Denton, starts with five weeks of preparation, and then interns travel to Denton ISD campuses, where they do hands-on work and student teaching with younger students. “The more that I meet other teachers from other districts, I feel like our district is leading the way with this program,” Scott said. “So many districts want to get it going, but they’re not where we are.” Scott is in her third year sharing the helm of the internship, and she said she’s seeing some important things happen for the interns. “I think starting at an elementary level, keeping kids engaged and excited through their entire [school] career matters,” she said. “I think the fact that they are in classrooms actually teaching — it’s not for everyone, right? Teaching? I tell them, ‘This is such an opportunity for you to spend $75 to take this course and get to do what juniors in college do.’ “Because let’s be real, some people make it that far in college and then they do their student teaching and they’re like, ‘Oh, maybe this is not the route that I want to take.’ So the opportunity to be able to try it out and see is huge.” She also sees that the internship puts students in the classroom, a challenging place that is changing fast, early. By the time alumni are in collegiate teacher preparation programs, they’ve seen how students learn and interact. They’ve had a front-row seat to the challenges and the triumphs that students start experiencing the moment they start school. Scott said she sees room for growth in Teach Denton. “I think the earlier we can get kids in TAFE, and keep building that, we’ll be even better.” Students as young as pre-K can enter Denton ISD’s Teach Denton program. Many times, teachers notice certain characteristics, like helping others and a passion for learning, and recommend them for Teach Denton. An event in February honored the hundreds of Teach Denton students in the program. Yang is two years from graduation from Guyer High, but he’s already considering teacher preparation programs at the University of Texas and University of California. He’s also thinking of a career teaching high school biology and perhaps trying his hand as a public school administrator or college professor. And when he thinks of the future, he imagines teaching in a public school. Until then, Yang said, he’s going to mentor new TAFE students and continue competing while studying honors courses. As a Teach Denton student, Yang is already thinking about what the classroom will be like when he starts his career. “Our world is changing right now,” he said. “Technologies are more advanced, and new generations are coming up. We have to adapt to like the ever-changing present. I believe we should use resources, like AI, to help us, because that’s becoming a big thing. And I know ... teachers think that AI is cheating or something like that. But I think that in the future, AI is going to become like a useful resource.” Yang said both Teach Denton and TAFE have created a community for its members. Just like in team sports, Teach Denton students forge friendships. The students have built a support system for one another. And Yang said the skills students develop in Teach Denton don’t have to stay in classrooms. “I think a lot of people think that you’re in the program, you’re going to be kind of teacher and stuff, but I don’t think that I think that you’re in the program just to become a teacher,” Yang said. “You can do [work] in the program just to build your relationship with others, and basically strengthen your skills.” Zavala said Teach Denton has attracted attention from districts across the country. “Dr. [Robert] Stewart used to be our assistant superintendent of human resources, and he used to tell me all the time, ‘We’re going to take Teach Denton on the road, we’re going to take Teach Denton on the road!’” she said. “And we essentially have. We have gone to several different states in the U.S and talked about Teach Denton, and helped other education agencies in different states develop their grow your own program. Teach Denton is an exemplar for other districts.” Success! 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People are fleeing Elon Musk's X in droves. What's happening on Threads and Bluesky?
US President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to demand control of the Panama Canal be returned to Washington, complaining of "unfair" treatment of American ships and hinting at China's growing influence. Here are five things to know about the waterway connecting the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The 80-kilometer (50-mile) interoceanic waterway is operated by the Panama Canal Authority, an autonomous public entity. The Central American nation's constitution describes the canal as an "inalienable heritage of the Panamanian nation" that is open to vessels "of all nations." The United States is its main user, accounting for 74 percent of cargo, followed by China with 21 percent. Panama's government sets the price of tolls based on canal needs and international demand. Rates depends on a vessel's cargo capacity. "The canal has no direct or indirect control from China, nor the European Union, nor the United States or any other power," Panama's President Jose Raul Mulino said Sunday as he dismissed Trump's threat. All vessels, including warships and submarines, are given a Panama Canal pilot. Panama's independence from Colombia in 1903 is linked to the canal. Following the failure of French count Ferdinand de Lesseps to open a channel through the isthmus, the United States promoted the separation of the province of Panama and signed a treaty with the nascent country that ceded land and water in perpetuity to build it. After 10 years of construction and an investment of $380 million, the canal was inaugurated on August 15, 1914 with the transit of the steamer Ancon. Some 25,000 deaths from disease and accidents were recorded during its construction. The canal "is part of our history" and "an irreversible achievement," Mulino said. Washington's establishment of a "Canal Zone" -- an enclave with its own military bases, police and justice system -- gave rise to decades of demands by Panamanians to reunify the country and take control of the waterway. In 1977, Panamanian nationalist leader Omar Torrijos and US president Jimmy Carter signed treaties that allowed the canal to be transferred to Panama on December 31, 1999. "Any attempt to reverse this historic achievement not only dishonors our struggle, but is also an insult to the memory of those who made it possible," former president Martin Torrijos, the general's son, wrote on social media. Under the treaties, supported by more than 40 countries, the canal is deemed neutral and any ship can pass through. The only conditions are that ships must comply with safety regulations and military vessels from countries at war must not pass through at the same time. Unlike Egypt's Suez Canal, the Panama Canal operates using freshwater stored in two reservoirs. A drought led to a reduction in the number of transits in 2023, but the situation has since normalized. The canal, which has a system of locks to raise and lower vessels, transformed global shipping. Crafts can travel between the two oceans in about eight hours without having to sail all the way around Cape Horn, the southern tip of the Americas. The canal allows a ship to shave 20,300 kilometers off a journey from New York to San Francisco. Five percent of world maritime trade passes through the canal, which connects more than 1,900 ports in 170 countries. By the early 21st century, it had become too small, so it was expanded between 2009 and 2016. Today, the canal can accommodate ships up to 366 meters long and 49 meters wide (1,200 feet by 161 feet) -- equivalent to almost four football pitches. It generates six percent of Panama's national economic output and since 2000 has pumped more than $28 billion into state coffers. More than 11,200 ships transited the canal in the last fiscal year carrying 423 million tons of cargo. jjr/fj/dr/mlmPM looks to ‘brighter future’ at Christmas and ‘wishes for peace in Middle East’
NoneClimate finance's 'new era' shows new political realities
