You’ve got moxie! Veteran teachers say tech changes the game

Even after working in education for 38 years each, Beatriz Llano-Scherker, a Verizon Innovative Learning School Coach at Hammocks Middle School in Miami, and Lois Seaman, Verizon Innovative Learning Lab Mentor, show no signs of slowing down.

The two educators meet with the rising sun several times a week and strategize the best ways to benefit the school and community with digital resources provided as part of Verizon Innovative Learning. “This program empowers students,” Llano-Scherker says, explaining why she devotes so much time and energy to her students and Verizon Innovative Learning. “I have found children who never found success in anything else and now they are technology leaders.”

For Seaman, giving students a chance to thrive is what school is all about. “I look at a school as a place where students have the opportunity to be successful,” says Seaman. “Any way that I can help them to gain success — however they define it — I'm going to help them on that path.”

Hammocks Middle School became a Verizon Innovative Learning school – part of Citizen Verizon, the company’s responsible business plan that aims to help move the world forward for all – in 2019, and the Lab was constructed in 2021. Verizon Innovative Learning provides free technology, internet access, lesson plans and apps to engage students and transform their learning experiences while encouraging them to become lifelong learners.

Reflecting on the benefits of adding one-on-one devices and next-gen tech to their school, Llano-Scherker says, “I really love how it doesn't matter what background [students] come from or what they thought of themselves before coming into this technology lab; they all are coding. It's not the exception; they are the rule in that class.”

When asked why both teachers continue in education, despite the fact that they could have retired years ago, Llano-Scherker and Seaman share the same reason: a love of teaching. The Verizon program, moreover, has brought them renewed energy. “I enjoy the innovation that this program has brought to us,” says Llano-Scherker. “I'm getting just as much out of what I'm doing as I'm giving to the students. Every single day is something new — and it's all been because of Verizon.”