Miami High School

Luis Curiel, Dennis Davis, Josephine Klindt and AnnMary Terrence attend a presentation at the conference. Photo: Rhiannon Oldfield Miami delegation: Front – AnnMary Terrence, Josephine Klindt, Dennis Davis, Luis Curiel; Back – Councilman Michael Sosh, Councilman Dan Moat, Councilman Michael Black, Mayor Sammy Gonzales. Photo: Rhiannon Oldfield

Four Miami High School students and their teacher, Rhiannon Oldfield, attended the annual Arizona League of Towns & Cities conference in Phoenix. Held at the historic Biltmore Hotel, the conference brings together more than a thousand mayors, council members, appointed officials and guests.

Each year the Town of Miami hosts student leaders to accompany the Miami delegation. Students attending this year were Luis Curiel, Dennis Davis, Josephine Klindt and AnnMary Terrence. The Town’s support permits students to observe municipal leaders in action and to understand the complex issues facing rural communities.

In a year that has seen a pandemic, fires and floods, the students at Miami High School are grateful for the continuing generosity of Mayor Gonzales and the Town Council.

Longtime aides Lisa Schiefert and Leslie Mora have completed their teaching degrees through EAC and ASU, and are heading up a new computer coding program at Miami High. They recently completed the first round of training with TechSmart and are implementing the first year of coding with our sophomores, who will be learning Python, Java and HTML. Thanks to a Computer Sciences Professional Development grant from the Arizona Department of Education, along with donated curriculum from TechSmart, Miami is now able to offer coding training that leads directly to industry credentials and job placement. The program is based on three main principles:

Computers don’t teach. Teachers do. Knowledgeable teachers are essential to learning. TechSmart gives educators the knowledge and confidence of a software engineer through intensive coding bootcamps, complete curricula, a platform that scaffolds and supports them, and live support.

professional. A single course can’t give students the depth of knowledge they require to compete for jobs in the coding industry. Students will immediately have the chance to take three full years of coding, and the program will eventually roll out to include students beginning in second grade.

Coding powers the future. No one should be excluded. Computer science is the great equalizer. We accommodate and engage students of all backgrounds with full differentiation across our curriculum to ensure every student has the opportunity to learn to code, and make their mark on the world.

The skills and credentials Miami students are acquiring are important for every student – for the student who wants to stay in Miami after graduation, for the kid who wants to pursue advanced studies in the computer sciences, and for the graduate who will take these advanced coding skills into other 21st century pursuits.