Hacienda La Puente Unified Technology Teacher on Special Assignment (TOSA) Ricardo Recinos has been named an Adobe Creative Educator Innovator (ACE) and will join a select group of K-12 educators worldwide who are using creativity to lead change in education as part of Adobe’s 2025-26 ACE cohort. 

Recinos has spent the last seven years as a Tech TOSA after nearly two decades teaching high school Spanish. As part of a Tech TOSA team with partner Teresa Magpayo-Castro, Recinos helps teachers to navigate platforms such as Aeries, Parent Square, and the Canvas Learning Management System, and supports student and parent technology education.

“It is an honor for Hacienda La Puente Unified to be part of the Adobe family,” Recinos said. “As Tech TOSAs, Teresa and I are responsible for finding emerging technologies that can even the playing field for our students, then assisting our teachers while they build their technological capacity, supporting them as they implement the new tech into their classrooms.”

Under the leadership of HLPUSD Director of Data, Research and Innovation Lilia Picado, Recinos and Magpayo-Castro were instrumental in bringing an Adobe Creativity Institute professional development seminar led by Adobe digital technicians in July 2024. Nearly 200 District teachers received an opportunity to brush up on their tech using new digital tools and apps, including starting a digital creative action plan and timeline for the 2024-25 school year.

“Congratulations to Ricardo for being named an ACE Innovator and providing an opportunity for our entire District to learn and use the latest technology and programs to support our students’ learning,” Hacienda La Puente Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Alfonso Jiménez said. “We are grateful to all of our teachers and staff for taking the initiative to merge innovation and learning to ensure the success of our students.”

Recinos’ interest in using tech as a teaching tool has been motivated in large part by his teenage daughter “T-Rex,” who struggled with reading as a kindergartner.

T-Rex was already falling behind in her studies when the pandemic hit in 2020, and soon after she lost confidence in school and reading, refusing to read the books her father gave her.

Employing Microsoft Immersive Reader, Recinos began writing his own stories to share with his daughter, creating characters like dinosaurs and unicorns, to keep T-Rex’s interest. When Recinos started running out of ideas for stories, he discovered Microsoft Reading Coach, an artificial intelligence program that creates stories uniquely tailored to the student’s interests after the young readers select their own characters, settings, and reading levels. Students read the story aloud while Reading Coach assesses their pronunciation and notes which words the students are having trouble with.

T. Rex immediately embraced Reading Coach, which she said boosted her confidence and made going to school fun again. Now in middle school, T. Rex is looking forward to entering high school in the fall.

Seeing the impact that it made to boost his daughter’s love for reading, Reading Coach was made available for a trial run at Baldwin Academy during the 2024-25 school year, and has been incorporated Districtwide for the 2025-26 school year.

“Reading Coach allows our students to have a say in what they are reading,” Recinos said. “It’s a fun way for them to work on their fluency without realizing they are learning, because they feel like it’s a game. They are earning badges and getting awards. As they unlock their potential, it makes me excited to see where it will lead. But we couldn’t do this without our amazing teachers, who are just as eager to learn.”

Recinos has come far since emigrating from El Salvador with no English language skills and being placed in a remedial reading class. In his long career in education, Recinos has worked tirelessly to ensure his students never have to go through a similar experience. 

“When I came from El Salvador, I didn’t understand a word of English. As a teacher I have seen students with the same struggles, and have dedicated my career to giving them all the tools they need to succeed,” Recinos said. “As an ACE Innovator, I will have access to a wealth of new software, applications, and teaching tools, and can connect with other ACE Innovators at any time.”

PHOTOS

 

HLPUSD Tech TOSA Ricardo Recinos (in white shirt) is one of a select group of K-12 educators worldwide who have been named Adobe Creative Educator (ACE) Innovators.

 

Recinos (right) and his daughter “T-Rex.” Using Microsoft Reading Coach, Recinos fostered a love of reading with T-Rex.

 Hacienda La Puente Unified educators received an opportunity to enhance their tech skills, while discovering new digital tools and apps that will help them to initiate creativity in their classrooms during an all-day Adobe Creativity Institute professional development seminar, held on July 29.

Nearly 200 HLPUSD teachers attended the seminar, making it the biggest cohort to ever attend an Adobe Creativity Institute event. The participants who completed the seminar received a certificate of achievement for completing six hours of accredited professional learning and earned Adobe Creative Educator Level 1 and Level 2 badges.

“What is so impressive with Hacienda La Puente’s record-breaking Adobe Creative Institute cohort is that a very large percentage of teachers in the District will be able to implement their training on the first day of school,” Adobe engagement manager Jackson Shaad said. “When teachers are collaborating with their colleagues, they can speak the same language. It brings critical mass to the District and the potential to positively impact students.”

The seminar was divided into four sessions, covering creative curriculum, creative processes, digital portfolios, and easy assessment strategies. Each session included a digital task for educators to complete, including creating graphics, videos, and websites, using Adobe Express software, led by certified Adobe digital technicians and teachers.  

The Adobe webpages that HLP teachers created displayed work completed throughout the seminar, including identifying learning goals for the 2024-25 school year, creating an identity graphic and corresponding video, and starting a digital creative action plan that details what the teacher will do in five days, five weeks, and five months into the school year.

The District began its partnership with Adobe in August 2017 when it purchased licenses to integrate its software into technology-based high school courses and utilized by District office staff. In February 2023, the partnership was strengthened at the Adobe Headquarters in San Jose when Superintendent Dr. Alfonso Jiménez reconnected with the software company during a presentation on the benefits of students using Artificial Intelligence to prepare for the workforce led by Adobe Education Leader Martin Cisneros.  After the keynote, Jiménez connected with Cisneros to discuss training opportunities for Hacienda La Puente Unified teachers and administrators.

HLPUSD Director of Data, Research and Innovation, Lilia Picado followed up and initiated the Adobe Creative Institute and worked with District Technology Teachers on Special Assignment (TOSA) Ricardo Recinos and Teresa Magpayo-Castro to bring the professional development seminar to the District. According to Picado, there is a proactive need for teachers to keep up on the latest in classroom technology and learn what artificial intelligence (AI) can teach them.

“AI has a huge role to play as we think about the future of education by preparing teachers and giving them the tools that they need to succeed in a changing world,” Picado said. “The turnout was tremendous, and it is amazing to see so many teachers come together for a common goal. Thank you to Adobe learning advisor Martin Cisneros for helping to bring this program to Hacienda La Puente Unified.”

The large turnout for the Adobe Creativity Institute reflects the Districtwide enthusiasm for learning new digital programs and narrowing the technology gap, not just between teacher and student, but also teacher and teacher. Throughout the day, veteran educators and newer hires collaborated with each other to best understand the new technology, using trust and teamwork to guide them through their lessons.

“Thank you to our dedicated and diligent Hacienda La Puente educators for making this such a successful professional development day. Our teachers have an unquenchable thirst for learning new techniques and methods that can spark innovation in the classroom,” Jiménez said. “We are looking forward to an exciting and productive new school year as we continue to provide transformative learning experiences for all students.”

Photo Captions

HLPUSD_TECH1: From left to right: Hacienda La Puente Unified TechTOSA Teresa Magpayo-Castro, HLPUSD Director of Data, Research and Innovation Lilia Picado and TechTOSA Ricardo Recinos support educators as they focus on creating with AI during the Adobe Creativity Institute seminar on July 29.

HLPUSD_TECH2: Hacienda La Puente Unified educators collaborate while creating a graphic using Adobe Express digital tools during a collaborative all-day Adobe Creativity Institute summer seminar on July 29.

HLPUSD_TECH3: Adobe Creativity Educator supports Hacienda La Puente Unified educators through an AI workshop during a summer seminar on July 29.

 

Fifth-grade students at Baldwin Academy are benefiting from Microsoft Education’s public preview of its latest Artificial Intelligence (AI) learning tool, Reading Coach. The free immersive experience harnesses generative AI to help learners produce their own stories and independently practice reading-aloud content that gets them excited about reading. 

In addition to generating engaging stories from characters and settings selected by students in real-time, Reading Coach also tracks each student’s progress to help educators gauge their growth, find areas of opportunity and earn badges to track their amount of time, proficiency and reading level. 

“We’ve been using the pilot of Reading Coach for a few months now and I love it and think AI is so cool,” fifth-grader Kayleen Torres said. “I like to select a cat as my main character and then choose the setting to be in space, and you don’t have to wait at all; AI creates a story for us to read within seconds and afterward gives me feedback on which words I should practice.”

The progress tracker works to identify the five words each student struggled with the most and presents them again with tools to support the learner in practicing independently. Based on educator preferences, tools available to students can include text-to-speech, syllable breaking and picture dictionary.

“I’m able to quickly look over their shoulder and see on their screen how accurate they were, progress areas and badges they earned, which show me how much they are reading,” teacher Ana Ruiz said. “Just as quickly they can create their story, I can get the feedback. Reading Coach is so important because before this tool, I would be in a class with 36 students, and trying to hear each student read would have taken a long time. Now, within a single day, I can assess the reading progress of all 36 students.”

Baldwin Academy students, Ruiz and District Tech Teachers on Special Assignment (TOSA) Ricardo Recinos and Teresa Magpayo Castro were featured on Microsoft’s Digital Transformation News for their efforts and success using the innovative application on Jan. 24. 

“When Microsoft approached me about initiating this exciting pilot program at our District, I knew it was the perfect opportunity for our Baldwin Bulldogs, as our students are avid learners who consistently thrive on exploration and creativity,” Recinos said. “At HLPUSD, we truly are at the forefront of technology in TK-12th-grade education and we look forward to what’s to come.” 

On Feb. 15, KTLA-TV Channel 5’s tech report Rich DeMuro visited the school to learn more about Reading Coach by interviewing students, Ruiz and Superintendent Dr. Alfonso Jiménez. During his time on campus, students showed DeMuro how the application works by selecting their character components, reading stories and checking their results together.

“On behalf of the entire Board of Education I want to thank Microsoft for providing us with this amazing opportunity that is helping our students develop reading fluency and become proficient readers,” Jiménez said. “As you may know, each program at HLPUSD begins as a pilot model, which means we implement a new initiative to a small group to see how it best works for our students and teachers before moving forward. The Reading Coach pilot has exceeded all our expectations. It is wonderful to hear first-hand from our students that they feel more confident and are enjoying reading more than ever.”

PHOTO CAPTIONS:

 

HLPUSD_READINGCOACH1: From left to right: District Director of Data, Research and Innovation and immediate past principal of Baldwin Academy Lilia Picado, Tech TOSA Teresa Magpayo Castro, KTLA Tech Report Rich DeMuro, Superintendent Dr. Alfonso Jiménez, fifth-grade teacher Ana Ruiz, Tech TOSA Ricardo Recinos and students celebrate the generative AI learning tool, Reading Coach, during an exclusive interview on Feb. 15.

HLPUSD_READINGCOACH2: Baldwin Academy Principal Kelly Arena watches a fifth-grade student read aloud a story generated by Microsoft’s immersive learning tool Reading Coach.

HLPUSD_READINGCOACH3: Baldwin Academy Teacher Ana Ruiz helps students track their reading progress during a Reading Coach lesson on Feb. 15.