The Digital World Behind MaCES and Beyond
By Maywood Center for Enriched Studies (MaCES) 12th grade students: Alanis Cruz-ASB Digital Citizenship Champion, Melissa Gonzalez-ASB President, Matthew Heredia-Senior Class President, and Dr. Christine Corpus-Instructional Technology Facilitator, Board District 5, Maywood/Cudahy Community of Schools
Throughout the years, Maywood Center for Enriched Studies (MaCES) has positively leveraged social media, not just to communicate information, but to also connect with students, staff, and the community. Initially, social media was used by MaCES staff to promote meetings to parents and students, but when school went virtual in 2020, digital tools and social media were used to bring the community together.
The 2020-2021 leadership class set out to bring the community together in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic through Instagram polls, fun and interactive voting forms, and student-made and staff-made videos that were shared through social media and Schoology. Workshops were held through Zoom to bring awareness to 6-12th graders about the importance of the five competencies of Digital Citizenship and the importance of being safe online.
It was the mission of the student leadership class to create a sense of community among MaCES students even when they couldn’t physically see each other. Since then, students have modeled the five competencies of digital citizenship by respectfully engaging with diverse perspectives online, by carefully evaluating the accuracy and perspective of the content before posting on social media, by modeling a balanced and positive use of digital tools, and by leveraging social media and computer science to positively impact the school and its local communities.
MaCES Leadership students advertising and volunteering at the census drive-by, 2020-2021 MaCES Leadership students advertising and volunteering at the census drive-by, 2020-2021
Our MaCES Leadership students advertising and volunteering at the census drive-by, 2020-2021.
Many of these efforts were initiated by the 2020 leadership students during the Covid-19 pandemic. One way the leadership class initiated the efforts toward leveraging social media for good was by having the Census drive-by to bring awareness to the importance of completing the Census. Parents drove up to the front of the school so that leadership students could assist them in accessing the Census. Leadership students also gave out goodie bags to those who completed the Census. None of this would have been possible without the use of social media to bring the community together for this first in-person event at MaCES since we went virtual. This event proved that social media can be leveraged for civic engagement.
Melissa Gonzalez (middle) ℅ 2023 VP
Leadership Instagram takeovers:Uriah Rodriguez. 2021-2022 school year.
Subsequently, in the 2021-2022 school year, the leadership class was hard at work in creating a sense of inclusivity and belonging at MaCES since it was the year we transitioned back to full time in-person instruction. Even after a year-long hiatus from being in the classroom, social media was still utilized by leadership students as well as other MaCES students to create a positive school environment. Social media was leveraged by MaCES leadership to advertise the importance of attendance at school, the grand reopening of MaCES, and other upcoming events to bring back the sense of school spirit.
Melissa Gonzalez (middle) ℅ 2023 VP Lucia Langaney (right) ASB VP
Leadership Instagram takeovers: Melissa Gonzalez (left) ℅ 2023 VP.
Lucia Langaney (right) ASB VP. 2021-2022 school year.
Throughout the year, posts were created to advertise and reveal dance themes, to showcase spirit weeks through student made videos, and to show the day in the life of a leadership student so the school community can know their student leaders and also see examples of positive role models. Over time, social media accounts increased at MaCES as teachers, student athletes, coaches, and student-led clubs began to leverage Instagram to celebrate student achievement and bring awareness to important issues and events. As a result, attendance at sporting events, club participation, overall school spirit, and access to important schoolwide information increased.
The Maces instagram account promoting sports, events, recognitions, and CS activities.
The Maces instagram account promoting sports,
events, recognitions, and CS activities.
Digcit committee posing in front of the DigCit Week posters
Our MaCES Digcit committee posing in
front of the DigCit Week posters that were
found around the campus halls 2021-2022
The L.A. Unified 2022-26 Strategic Plan outlines five pillars that represent critical areas the District will focus on for the next four years. MaCES has leveraged social media and their digital presence to engage their school community in alignment with Pillar 3, Engagement and Collaboration, of the Strategic Plan. Pillar 3 calls for educators to model for students and community what collaboration and respect for others looks like by creating transparent and empowered systems of engagement to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to contribute. The growing and constant use of social media to engage students in civic engagement, recognize student accomplishments, increase school spirit, and bring awareness to community events and important issues resulted in the creation of the Digital Citizenship Committee in 2021-2022, which became an Image Caption: Our MaCES Digcit committee posing in front of the DigCit Week posters that were found around the campus halls 2021-2022 officialASB position for the 2022-2023 school year. The Digital Citizenship committee planned and facilitated many learning activities for Digital Citizenship week: (1) a physical scavenger hunt that encouraged students to interact positively with others throughout campus and awarding the top ten students with certificates; (2) a dress-up spirit week that represented the five competencies of digital citizenship; (3) Edpuzzle workshops facilitated by the digital citizenship committee that included Common Sense for Education Digital Citizenship lessons; and (4) a collaborative DigCit virtual assembly with Maywood Elementary School which was facilitated by student leadership.
The DigCit Pins, lanyards <br>and stickers that were handed out during DigCit week.2021-2022 school year.
Our MaCES Digcit committee posing in
front of the DigCit Week posters that were
found around the campus halls 2021-2022
To kick-off 2021 Digital Citizenship week, the committee invited Dr. Merv Jenkins and Ike Ramos from Flocabulary to perform a personalized rap that was premiered to the whole student body through Zoom. To further promote Digital Citizenship, the committee designed DigCit pins, stickers, and lanyards that were distributed to every single student at MaCES. Additionally, posters were created to raise awareness for DigCit, which also nurtured the growing sense of spirit at MaCES. The physical posters, pins, stickers, and lanyards conveyed the message that DigCit is something that is constant in our everyday lives and actions, even when we aren’t using social media.
To keep the spirit of DigCit alive throughout the school year, we created 5th year anniversary posters with QR codes that celebrated major accomplishments each year since MaCES opened. All these efforts led us to being more digitally safe by applying this knowledge to our daily use of technology in and out of school and to MaCES becoming a Common Sense Certified school.
The rise of Digital Citizenship gave reason for an official Digital Citizenship Instagram account to be created for the 2022-2023 school year. The purpose of the account is to promote digital citizenship and highlight positive digital citizens at MaCES throughout the school year. We plan to name “Dig-Cits of the month” for middle school and high school students in hopes of encouraging students to be exemplary digital citizens. Additionally, the account will promote “Tech Tip Tuesday”, a weekly post created by students with the aim to teach their peers, teachers, and parents a new hack or tip that can help students, teachers, and parents to leverage technology to best support their teaching and learning and to help manage their time more efficiently.
CSHS VP, Matthew Heredia, coordinating the robotics workshop
CSHS VP, Matthew Heredia, coordinating the robotics workshop. 2021-2022
At MaCES, our students go above and beyond to not only teach the importance of Digital Citizenship, but we also show how Digital Citizenship is connected to our efforts in bringing equity and access to the vital field of computer science in our school and in the city of Maywood. We have partnered with various computer science organizations and invited surrounding elementary, middle, and high schools in our area to attend various coding and robotics workshops, which were all led by student members of the MaCES Computer Science Honors Society (CSHS). During spring break in the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 school years, CSHS planned and hosted a four-day coding camp for the local elementary, middle, and high schools in the city of Maywood. Students learned the importance of computer science and technology in their community and gained hands-on experience in coding, using tablets, and other technology to create and program robots. For instance, middle school and elementary school students coded their own Sphero sprk+ robots to navigate autonomously through a race track. Middle school and high school students learned to make their own chatbot similar to Siri, Google, and Alexa by using python coding language.
Students also learned the importance of how Artificial Intelligence is used almost everywhere to make daily tasks easier for everyone. The students brought their love for computer science to MaCES and were ready to apply what they learned to contribute to our school and community in a positive way.
As these events were highlighted through social media, more families in the Maywood community expressed interest in having more opportunities to engage with computer science and robotics. In response to the need, the MaCES CSHS, Maywood Elementary and the City of Maywood, in partnership with ITI's #CS4LAUSD, planned and led Maywood's first Computer Science Fair in June 2022. The MaCES CSHS planned and facilitated workshops such as block coding for elementary and Python for middle school and high school. Additionally, 5th graders from Maywood Computer Science Magnet Center planned and hosted the Computer Science playground in the gym where attendees were able to engage with coding and robotics. Educators who attended #CS4LAUSD and families of the 5th graders were able to participate in the various computer science and robotics challenges that the 5th graders and MaCES Girls Who Code facilitated at the playground. This event conveyed the power of social media in bringing communities together in pursuit of providing equitable access to computer science.
Our intentional and purposeful use of digital tools and social media brought together and strengthened our community at MaCES and the community at large. We have seen how impactful we can be as digital agents when we embody the five competencies of digital citizenship. We are excited to expand our involvement in inspiring others to create a safer and more positive digital world by identifying key student leaders and staff members who desire to bring a positive change in their school communities and beyond.
