Hi Friends,
We are super excited to begin planning for the 22-23 SY! AND we also want to honor all the amazing work that we have witnessed during this school year. I am sure you have had some similar experiences with your school and your teachers! Let us hear about what good happened in your school this year.
Lauren joined me to talk about all the great stuff that has happened this year at the WOL!
First, we had some great new offerings and new districts join us this year:
ASL - launched in Tyrone, Mifflin County, and Hershey High School.
Elementary Spanish - “My Kindergarten students look forward to our virtual Spanish lessons each week and they are excited on our lesson days! We have integrated using Spanish during our calendar time when saying the days of the week and counting. They enjoy greeting each other in the mornings with their Spanish vocabulary and using it again at the end of the day when saying goodbye. My students (and I) have truly learned a lot throughout the year!” Seneca East Elementary Teacher
Life-Skills Spanish - listen to our past episode with Bald Eagle Teacher, Amy Brooks
We worked with schools in Ohio, Massachusetts, and New Jersey.
Lauren also finished her first year as a Virtual Learning Specialist!
Here are some of her insights:
Lauren was a Virtual Learning Facilitator - she worked with 10 district schools when teaching with us. Knowing the culture of each district and who the contacts are was super important. It lead her to centralize that material for all the teachers so they could easily know about what was important to each individual school.
A LOT goes on behind the scenes to get a student enrolled and connected to their learning. There is so much to get the asynchronous courses prepped, the students in the right classes, and the right facilitators connected to the right teacher. Every August we have lots of folks who want virtual instruction - so trying to encourage our district partners to help us with getting our schedule complete is a balancing act.
Nothing is static. We use student and teacher feedback to make our courses and systems better for the learners and the district. Ask us about what is new in our course building! We are starting to storyboard our content. It is so exciting to see our teachers get creative.
We value the human experience at the WOL - no one learns, grows, or gets things at the same pace. We get great feedback from our students. “Teachers know we are learning…, my teachers care about me…, the teacher gives me more time to really understand.”
And then there are all the great kudos we have received from our students and districts.
Our students are prepared to study language at the college level. One said of their teacher “I couldn’t have done this without YOU.”
Seneca East HS was so grateful for our Long-Term Sub service - they said, “we are equally grateful for all that you have provided for us this past school year when we were in a severe pinch. You all have been so good to work with and have given us exactly what we needed in the face of our being without a live teacher physically in the classroom. Thank you for all that you have done. If things change, I will certainly reach out again, and, too, I would certainly recommend you all wholeheartedly if another district finds themselves in our situation.”
Don Voigt, Seneca East HS
Ying-Fang, a Chinese teacher, received this feedback in CHINESE!! (we had to translate it).
Christina at CCA passed this along about Michiyo, a Japanese teacher: “ [I] wanted to pass along a sweet message that was shared this morning from [a parent].” Her mom sent the following: “[My child] LOVES your class and the culture as a whole. She just keeps talking about how much she is enjoying your class and you as a teacher.”
The North Middlesex, MA Principal said this, “Our middle school has had a positive experience working with the World of Learning Institute for Spanish instruction. Their instructors are engaging and flexible and their administrative team is highly supportive. Highly recommend WOL!”
We are so grateful for our teachers and district partners. It has been a great school year, even though it may have been a little tricky. And, as you consider what you need in the coming school year don’t hesitate to reach out as you think about adding opportunities (Arabic, Japanese, Chinese, Latin, Chemistry, Calculus) and might not have a teacher. Or, if you just want to talk through how we manage a virtual environment. We are here for whatever you might need.
The 2021-22 Year - So GOOD! #15