>> I love that I learn letters and my numbers in allo, and I learn how to spell and read.
>> So Killeen ISD is the 24th largest district in the state of Texas and one of the fourth most diverse. We are unique in that we serve Killeen and we serve Fort Hood and the largest military installation in North America. We are super proud to be one of the bilingual campuses in the district. It is a huge part of our culture. It brings a lot of diversity, and it really impacts who we are.
>> When you start to look at moving into a dual language and teaching in two languages, it's critical that we have the right resources in place. So our main platform here in Killeen ISD with Learning A-Z is Raz-Plus. Then just recently we have added Raz Espanol, and we also have the Raz ELL Edition.
>> In Learning A-Z you have comprehension packs, close reading, shared reading, and these things are in Spanish and English, so it's a whole lot easier as a bilingual teacher to have these tools and be able to present them in the classroom. When they're reading, they're learning to read, it gave them the opportunity to record themselves.
>> For them to be able to hear it and then go to the teacher and say, "Well, how do you pronounce this?" and listen to the way they're pronouncing it is huge for bilingual students.
>> With the bilingual parents, you have parents that don't know the language, the English language. So when you send a tool like this and you explain all the different features, it's easy for them to say, "Okay, they feel at ease." They're like, "Okay, I can help my child." >> We have the Raz-Kids, which is really good. How you can tell the difference when they began school at the beginning, they didn't know anything. I mean, not English, not Spanish, but they start learning a little by little. I mean, watching those programs, those apps, and she gets so excited, like, seeing those stars and seeing the empty room and the rocket, and she goes like, "Hey, I want to decorate this room!" And then she goes ...
>> Even we get excited! We're like, "Aay!"
>> One of the things I hear a lot about is that, "Wow, being a bilingual campus is so much fun because we do know how to party."
>> We love our family nights. You've seen our hallways. We're getting ready for Black History. We have huge participation. We did a Cinco de Mayo last year, and we had over 900 people attend. They want to be here, and that's what's going to help us be successful is if we can work together with the families, with the community.
>> It feels good. I wish I could be [Indistinct] when I was a kid, but it was different. Right here, you can feel that comfort over there with that.
>> One of the benefits of that is realizing when we learn two languages, how that can just move us forward in so many avenues, the impact that it can have for an individual student, for an individual campus, but for a community.
>> I think we are in the right place.
