Her students at CAST Tech High school seemed to all agree, the GOAT is easily their teacher, Lisa Jones.
SAN ANTONIO — Standing before her classroom, Lisa Jones pointed to a projector screen where a little goat icon popped up. She then jokingly asked her class, “Who’s the Goat?”
Her students at CAST Tech High school seemed to all agree, the GOAT is easily their teacher, Lisa Jones.
“Ok I have to ask you guys who do you think the GOAT is?,” asked KENS 5 Anchor Sarah Forgany addressing a group of Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors, “Well it’s Ms. Jones,” the students doubled down, “Definitely Jones, Jones for sure.”
Maybe it’s the way Jones teaches IP Addresses, routers and troubleshooting commands, or maybe it’s how she teaches computer symbols, or perhaps it’s the many after school clubs she heads like the CyberPatriot club, Jones seems to be exactly what her students need.
“The fact that she has stood up for her clubs like our Patriot team and she has helped us tremendously with our other competitions,” One student said.
Jones, however you break it down, is not your average teacher, “She’s like the cream of the crop teacher,” one Sophomore told us about Jones, “The ideal teacher,” He added.
The once electrical engineer, now teaches these kids Networking and Cybersecurity at SAISD’s CAST Tech High School,.
“Basically how to protect themselves from being attacked, then we look at different case studies,” Jones said.
Real life cases that have made national news headlines are some of her best examples, like hacks on insulin pumps, “Students were like I didn’t realize someone could die from their device being attacked,” Jones said, adding “We looked at an attack on Jeep and the kids were like, we didn’t realize cars could be attacked too.”
They look at why a company is hacked, the security measures in place and what could have been done to prevent it.
Jones says the health industry and banks have been a big topic in her class. She says her lessons are meant to open their eyes and make them more vigilant to things such as “That could’ve been my credit card,” Jones said, “It changes their thinking so they’re now more aware.”
To drive her point home, sometimes Jones resorts to games. even lets them play, “It takes those principles of attackers, antivirus and it turns it into a card like game where we defend ourselves, we attack others,” one student said.
“Sometimes they look at things as being a fun tool then they realize those fun tools can be dangerous if they’re not used in the correct way.”
Other students say Jones takes what could be a complicated class and makes it interesting with a style that’s hands on.
“Her style is very interactive. It’s very like, get to know you,” said Sophia who’s a Senior at CAST Tech, “It’s also very self-paced.”
Seniors like Sophia are one of the reasons Jones is passionate about education.
“One of the things that I wanted to try and change by teaching is getting more females to look into finding a career in Stem.”
Jones recalls her seven years as an Electrical Engineer in San Antonio, where she says she was the only female in that field at both the companies where she worked.
Two decades later, she feels little progress has been made. In her classes now, Jones says there may be only three girls in a class of 25.
“It’s probably a lot of females don’t think they can do it.,” Jones said, “They need someone to tell them that they can and to build their confidence.”
She hopes to see more girls in STEM classes and careers, starting as young as elementary school, “If they start at a younger age, they’ll be able to accept a challenge.”
One of her former female students has recently accepted an internship with the NSA, thanks to Jones’ local partnerships with businesses and letter of recommendation. Now, Jones is inspiring one student at a time.
“They’re capable of doing what they want as long as they put their mind to trying every opportunity. “