Omaha Virtual School is a unique educational experience for students, parents, and teachers. First of all, we call our parents learning coaches. Our learning coaches work with their students and OVS teachers facilitate our students' education. Our students spend more time with their learning coaches than with our teachers, which is why the learning coach role is so vital. Equally as vital is the communication and connection between teachers and learning coaches. These conversations need to be student-centered on student's skills, strengths, areas of concern, and interests. There are so many research studies that support the importance of parent connection with the school in traditional, brick and mortar schools, but this importance is triple in our at OVS.

The biggest barrier we face as a school community is how to connect with learning coaches to support their efforts at home. Our main forms of connection are through our weekly newsletters and emails. It is imperative that learning coaches arm themselves with this information. Additionally, we offer learning coach trainings while students are in class with teachers, once per week. These topics range from educational technology resources, CommonSense Media digital citizenship trainings, and more. This semester we will make the shift to provide trainings that will support our learning coaches in the area of educational strategies and practices at home with literacy and math strategies. 

One way we are working towards making that shift this semester is with our Math Clubs on Monday afternoons at 1:30, where we will work with students on math skills while we train parents on math instructional strategies. However, we need to ensure that learning coaches are engaging in these trainings in order for our efforts to have an impact on student math growth. We will continue to strategize on how we can better coordinate training efforts for learning coaches, whether it is during different times of the day or online. Either way, the key  to our student's success is parent engagement. 

If you are interested, here is a link to a variety of studies about the impact of parent engagement on student achievement: https://www.familiesandschools.org/blog/the-importance-of-parent-engagement/. ​

Last week we had learning coach trainings in which teachers shared a preview to the semester. Thank you to those who were able to attend. Those who were not able to attend were to have received an email with a summary of what was covered. Our word for the semester is CONNECTIONS. In order for us to build connections in our community to support our learners, it is imperative for teachers and learning coaches to connect and engage with one another. We will continue to host events that will inform and engage learning coaches. Please connect with us during those events!

​These connections could be regarding a pacing guide or portfolio question, concerns about a learner not understanding a concept, and/or advice on how we can meet the needs of your student. Sharing about what works at home and sometimes, what doesn't work, is powerful information for teachers to be aware of so we can continue to connect with your student. The most powerful aspect of our school is the learning coaches' involvement and investment in their students' education. We value your perspective, feedback, and experiences.

We know learning coaches are working hard to develop schedules, routines, and supports to guide their students through their education. Our staff is working to create learning experiences for you and your student. Oftentimes, we don't know what may work best for a learning coach to be successful with their students. We are all unique in how we learn, even as adults! If there is a question or concern or a suggestion in which we can help support you support your student, PLEASE let us know. More often than not, your suggestion will help all learning coaches. Your perspective and input is valuable.

One of the benefits of being a new, small program is that we can adapt. I prefer to use the word adapt instead of change, because what we are doing is trying to adapt to the needs of a variety of learners (adults and children). That is our job! We not only teach our students to have a growth mindset, but we aim to model a growth mindset as well. We will continue to grow and adapt as our school community learns and grows more about what we need to ensure student success, because that is at the center of what we do.

Thank you, learning coaches for your engagement and encouragement so far this semester. We appreciate you!