The Santa Fe New Mexican
Sunday April 21, 2002
Focus E-1

Agnes Chavez's SubeConnects
By Virginia Clark for the New Mexican

(photo caption)Agnes Chavez teaches Spanish instructor Beatriz Echeverry how to use Intel create-and-share software, which the Anansi Day School second-grade class uses To send photo postcards to a second-grade class in Chihuahua, Mexico

TAOS- The partnership of technology and desire is erasing the border separating the twin hearts of the southwest. Cultural links between New Mexico and Mexico, some reaching back 800 years or more, are being re-forged, thanks in large part to an Internet program and the Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque.

SubeConnects is a free, live video Internet-exchange program that allows children in schools in the United States and Latin America to see and hear each other through their classroom computers. Agnes Chavez is the Taos artist and educator who developed a new approach to teaching Spanish as a second language.

In 1995, with an eye to her son's education, Chavez created Logic Dream Productions in Taos to produce a multimedia language program called "Sube: Spanish through Art and Games," and to be the launch vehicle for SubeConnects.org.

"I saw that the children needed someway to practice what they were learning," said Chavez, who, with the help of computer guru Stewart S. Warren, SubeConnect' technical director, developed a cyberspace classroom for the pilot schools.

Located in a refurbished Ranchos de Taos adobe, Logic Dream Productions is awash in a gallery of natural light. Chavez's fine-graphic aesthetic is echoed in the clean lines and reflective surfaces of her Spartan office, acting as a soothing container for the passion she brings to Sube

."Sube is a conjugation of the verb subir, "Chavez said. "It means to go up, as in to the next level. We like to take it one step further to imply going high enough to reach your dreams and goals in life. SubeConnects connects children, connects communities and connects countries."

Since the completion of the free training of New Mexican and Mexican teachers at six pilot schools in November, pictures of the electronic pen pals, e-mails and Web board postings have become as routine as technology and training allow.

What Chavez hadn't anticipated was that the teachers needed more computer and Internet training than she had originally surmised -and she didn't know where the money was going to come from to provide it.

Enter Shelle Luaces, director of education for the Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque. Luaces asked Chavez to join in meeting one of the center's primary-educational outreach goals.

"Agnes is already doing exactly what I wanted to do, and doing it well," Luaces said. "The Hispanic Cultural Center's mission is to preserve, interpret and showcase Hispanic arts and lifeways. Her international exchange using the Internet is exactly what we want to do."

Because of the partnership with the center last February, SubeConnects can continue to provide free training, tech support and workshops with the participating pilot schools at the center's state-of-the-art computer lab.

The Center's lab is the result of a $2 million grant from Intel Corp., part of Intel's community involvement efforts directed at "promoting positive social change through technology." "We like to support things that demonstrate the flexibility of technology, especially things that support distanceeducation," Intel's Community Program Director Rod Sanchez said, regarding the Center's Internet exchange program. "The Cultural Center has probably one of the most sophisticated computer Labs in the country."

Chavez was born in Queens, N.Y., and raised in the bilingual Hispanic environment of her Cuban-born parents. The same Latin rhythms that captivated her as a child now captivate English-speaking children through her multimedia teaching programs, available in two levels, K-2 and 3-5 grades.

"I love Sube," said Stephanie Stevens, a Taos charter-school teacher who has been using the K-2 program for a couple of years. A local Hispanic group recently donated the second level for grades 3-5, she said, to further encourage the reintroduction of the Spanish language in Taos.

"I remember people who grew up here when Spanish wasn't taught," Stevens said. "Most are native Hispanics who couldn't speak to their own grandparents because they weren't taught Spanish in school.

"Stevens admitted that another reason she's excited as a teacher is because the programs have lesson plans that go all the way through the fifth grade. "I can open a book and it's all there, with games and art and music. I can spend more time teaching.

"Science and social studies naturally integrate with core knowledge curriculum," Stevens said, such that, in the third grade, core knowledge of the geography and culture of New Mexico automatically works with SubeConnects bilingual Internet exchange.

"Habitat Chat" is one of SubeConnects lesson units dealing with Mexican and New Mexican ecology. The Bureau of Land Management, New Mexico International Program, sponsored SubeConnects first international training workshops, held in Chihuahua and San Francisco del Oro, Chihuahua, Mexico, last fall.

Another bonus of the SubeConnects- Hispanic Cultural Center partnership is the addition of four more pilot schools with Mexican partners. The new schools selected for the pilot are Dolores Gonzales and Duranes Elementary schools in Albuquerque, Taos Elementary in Taos and Chaparral Elementary in Santa Fe.

Chaparral Elementary is the first pilot school in Santa Fe to be included in the internet exchange. Approximately 25 Chaparral fifth-graders will soon be online with Mexican students.

"We get to have conversations with people from Mexico," said Christiana Sisneros, Chaparral principal. "Having the kids speak to another country teaches understanding and tolerance about each other's cultures. That's what we think is most exciting.

"Sisneros said SubeConnects dovetails with Chaparral's consideration to offer a dual-language program, or "emerging" school, where classes are taught in both English and Spanish, starting with kindergarten and eventually working up to sixth grade.

On May 10, all participating SubeConnects schools in New Mexico will receive stipends to attend a forum at the center.

Chavez said the forum will provide an opportunity for participating New Mexico teachers to meet or see each other for the first time.Teachers who have been online with SubeConnects will be able to share their experiences with the new teachers.

This fall, SubeConnect plans an international workshop at the center. The workshop will include in-depth training in video-conferencing, sending video e-mail, trouble-shooting video conferencing problems, Web-board use and advantages, digital archiving of student material and Website navigating.

"It's information and training that will enable the teachers to work with their partner classrooms in Mexico more effectively and consistently, while collaborating cross-culturally on lesson plans," Chavez said.

Ultimately, Chavez said, she hopes that partnerships and global strategies will emerge to empower and enrich the cultural experience of children everywhere. Such a "logical dream" implies that one day all children will be able to communicate with each other, and discover they are united more by commonalities than differences.