OVS 360: Telling Our Story

“We are returning to OVS because of the inspriration & motivation that the teachers provided at OVS for our Ss.”  -OVS parent.

This summer, we hosted an event where our prospective families could hear from students, parents, and teachers from our pilot year of Omaha Virtual School. We thought this would give interested families a fair, honest, and well-rounded perspective of what our program is about. We chose OVS 360 as the title of this event because of the 360 degree perspective they received during the panel discussion. ​

OVS 360 Event-July 12, 2017

We are fortunate to have a very supportive school community, so when we reached out for volunteers to speak at this event, a 1st grade student and two 8th grade students join us along with their parents (whom we refer to as learning coaches in our program). Our kindergarten-1st grade teacher, Ms. Megan Rogers joined the panel as well. 

​The conversation and insight that took place amongst the prospective parents and our veteran parents/students was so powerful! It was humbling to hear first-hand the impact our school has had on our students and their families. It helped us realize how important it is to give our students and families the stage, because ultimately they are who matter.

​“OVS opened up new opportunities that I would never had before.”
​-8th grade student #ovs360

​Throughout our pilot school year, we continually talked to parents and students and asked how their experience was and we made adjustments and tweaks to our program along the road. But we didn't share our growth and what we learned outside of our school community. So while we will continue to take parent and student feedback to help us make the best possible learning environment this school year, we will also tell our story. The stories of our students and learning coaches. Their voices matter. We will empower them to tell their stories. As we learn together and grow as a community, telling our stories will only make us stronger. And we are stronger together, because, "we are all in this together."

Painting made by Nicole Jensen (OVS parent) for Dr. Wendy Loewenstein, who says this phrase often.

We will use our blog "OVS 360" to share various voices from our school to provide insight on our school and to help us tell our story. We are the first, K-9 virtual school in the state of Nebraska. During our second year, we will share our successes and our failures and how we learn and grow together to make our program work for each one of our students to hopefully inspire others to think differently about education.  ​

​“I felt like the teachers were very accessible & willing to help my student.”
​- 8th grade parent #ovs360