Spotlight on LOOLA

As you all know, our district recently began the first cohort of the Lexington One Online Learning Academy, otherwise known as LOOLA. In response to the global pandemic, we created an online academy in which students can receive all of their studies virtually in grades K-12. We opened with about 7,500 students, many of whom are taking a World Language. In an effort to learn more about how this process is going for World Language teachers, I interviewed several LOOLA teachers. I asked what have been the benefits to students and what have been the challenges. Here's what they said.

Dana Robinson at WKHS said that it helps some students who like to be self-paced to be able to move through the modules at their own pace. Some kids also prefer being home, to avoid some of the social drama that happens at times in a face to face setting. Kids can also schedule one on one time with the teacher, and they are getting individualized attention. One of the challenges for Dana is that she misses the face-to-face interaction with students.

Bonnie Tucker, also at WKHS said, "Benefits for students that I have seen through online teaching is that teachers are much more accessible for individual help sessions.  Students have been scheduling Zoom help sessions with the teacher by booking appointments." She also added, "A challenge of moving to online teaching has been trying to give students as much 'live' interaction in the target language as possible. 

Finally, I spoke with Jessica Kelly at LHS and she said, "A benefit is that students can take more time on subjects they are struggling with and move faster if it is easy. The teacher is more available to meet for tutoring, and kids have more autonomy than usual." She also stated that a challenge is, "Missing the sense of community with students and students hearing a lot more language from each other and the teacher. It is more of a challenge to build relationships."

While all of you have had to adapt your teaching for the hybrid model, we thought you would enjoy hearing from the all virtual World Language teachers about the benefits and challenges of online teaching.

Pictured here is Bonnie tucker using her new monitor so she can better see her students through Zoom meetings.