Jillian Domingo and Elizabeth Vallaire, two teachers at Woodland Public Schools’ alternative high school, have amassed enough qualifications to teach more than 150 classes covering varying subjects.
TEAM High School, where the duo works, offers students a pathway to a high school diploma that accommodates full-time work, challenges with traditional school schedules or family responsibilities.
To become qualified to teach the different subjects, the educators must get endorsements and approval from the school board.
Vallaire recognizes the need for the program, which provides more opportunities to students and increases accessibility to their education.
“We have this program in our district because we just have a really high population of kids who either work full-time or want to get ahead on credits and graduate early, or sometimes kids who are credit-deficient and need to make up more than one semester of work,” said Vallaire. “Other kids have family obligations, have health concerns, and a lot of other different things. We just try to meet the needs of as many kids as we can.”
Vallaire said the TEAM staff has crafted a successful program that helps kids who have low attendance or have to take classes outside of regular school hours. Students can go in eight hours a week to get help from teachers, take tests, and take courses online through Apex Learning. Apex offers a wide variety of subjects that can either be done at TEAM High School or at home. Courses include psychology, geography, business, principles of health, and college and career preparation. For more hands-on classes like band, wood shop, and art, Vallaire said students take those classes during regular school hours, since TEAM does not have the facilities to host those classes. There are also advanced placement and honors versions of the classes available on Apex as well.
Although Vallaire teaches biology primarily, which is a subject she is endorsed in, she said the school board votes every year to decide if she and Domingo are able to teach outside of their endorsement. She said that the students already come into the program with a grasp of the material, but need help navigating the topic as they aim to gain some clarification on the subject. Between both Domingo and Vallaire, the teachers are qualified to help the students learn over 150 subjects. According to a news release from the district, the teachers have certifications for each class and the list of classes is 30 pages long. Washington state allows educators to teach certain classes without certifications with school board approval, but the duo was determined to learn as many subjects as possible to better prepare students.
“It’s not like they need help learning it. They just need help figuring out how to use Apex to learn further,” Vallaire said. “The good news is by teaching them how to learn, I can save myself some time by just showing them how to use Apex itself.”
Domingo said TEAM High School has helped students reach their goals ahead of schedule.
“(The students) come into the building, but they can work at their own pace and get different kinds of support, or just a different learning environment that works better for some kids,” said Domingo. “The great thing about that is we end up having several kids graduate more than a year ahead of schedule, so they’re able to not only work at their own pace but excel in the program and get that done a lot sooner.”
Domingo said TEAM also aims to help and accommodate kids with disabilities as well.
“I think that as we grow as a society, we’re learning that so many students have learning disabilities and just different ways of thinking than previously thought,” she said.
Domingo said her dad, who is dyslexic, was placed into regular classrooms where he often received failing grades back in the 1950s. Now, schools take a different approach.
“There wasn’t really any support or anything for him, and nowadays I think we’re really good at recognizing all the different types of learning that students have and putting supports in place to really help those students thrive in the classroom, so that they don’t just come out of school thinking, ‘well I’m bad at this,’” Domingo said. “We give them strategies to be successful and meet them where they’re at.”
Teaching approaches at TEAM High School vary, Domingo said. Educators can utilize videos, pictures or interactive activities, so the lessons are adjusted to every student’s learning style.
According to Vallaire, a third teacher has been hired at the high school who will focus primarily on math and will start at a later time.
