Houston School District Employs Online Teachers for Bilingual Classes

HUNTSVILLE, Texas, Dec. 3, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Proximity Learning Inc. (PLI) is proud to announce a new partnership with Huntsville Intermediate School located in the Huntsville Independent School District (HISD). Huntsville Intermediate began partnering with PLI at the start of the 2019-2020 school year. PLI has provided them with three high quality, certified educators to teach English, social studies, and science for 5th and 6th grade through real time, live, online teaching instruction.

One of these online teachers is Lizette De Luna who has been with PLI and the school since August teaching 5th grade. De Luna is able to speak both Spanish and English with her students to help them successfully understand the content.

"For me," said De Luna, "the most important thing is that I am able to teach and reach and inspire and motivate kids that aren't in the Austin area. Kids that are in need, in need of a good teacher, in need of a bilingual teacher."

PLI teaches 13 bilingual online classes at Huntsville Intermediate. These classes consist solely of about 113 English-language learners (ELL) for the first time at the school. In the past, these students had class alongside students who spoke English as their first language and were taken out in small groups to receive more specialized instruction. With this change of environment, the school has seen significant growth in the common unit assessments of their ELL students.

PLI ensures that the students participate in a learning environment similar to their other classes at Huntsville Intermediate School — just online. These classes take place in the school's classrooms, follow their bell schedule and grading policy, and utilize the tools of the school.

On her experience with online education, De Luna said "I forget the computer is there, it's like I am in the classroom… it's like [the students] forget I am not physically there."

Next semester, HISD will be implementing an online program called Flipgrid into all of their schools that will improve the efficiency of class time. The flexibility of PLI will allow for Huntsville's PLI teachers to also learn about and integrate the program within their online classrooms.

Recently, three 5th and three 6th grade students taught by PLI instructors at Huntsville Intermediate School placed in the top ten percent in the first round of their recent spelling bee on November 7th, creating a new record at the school. Two of these 5th-grade students are taught by De Luna. Due to their success in the written portion of the competition, these students will be moving on to compete in the second round of the spelling bee on December 12th. Additionally, De Luna said she proudly awarded them with a certificate.

For all her students at Huntsville Intermediate School, De Luna said: "I won't stop giving them quality education they deserve just because I am not physically there."

Proximity Learning Inc. is an Online Education Service company catering to students ranging from kindergarten to high school. Proximity Learning has served over 150 school districts and instructs over 50,000 students annually. Proximity Learning has been rated as one of the top K-12 online education services in the nation, boasting the highest quality teachers, most innovative virtual classrooms, and the reputation as a flexible learning solution to both public and private school districts. Written by Christina Peebles. Learn more: https://proxlearn.com/.

SOURCE Proximity Learning