|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Winning an award for the first time in her 18-year career, Valley View Elementary teacher Lourdes Luy is also Pleasanton’s first-ever recipient of the county’s inaugural Bridging the Distance Award.
“It definitely has been really rewarding to feel the recognition of the parents, of the families,” Luy told the Weekly. “There has been a tremendous amount of work from educators to prepare for this challenge, distance learning.”
Luy, along with six other teachers across Alameda County including Huong Giang of Sunol Glen School, received the inaugural honor in a virtual ceremony earlier this month also featuring all county districts’ 2020 Teachers of the Year.
The Valley View veteran of six years was commended for keeping her Spanish dual immersion kindergarten class engaged in distance learning while schools remain closed by public health orders.
Parents, colleagues and other community members nominated public school teachers throughout Alameda County who “have demonstrated innovation, creativity, compassion, care and a commitment to equity during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said the Alameda County Office of Education, which issued the award.
“I never imagined I was going to be doing (distance learning), especially with this group of young kids,” Luy said. “Also, another layer is teaching them in Spanish, teaching them another language — movement, modeling, gestures to convey meaning for them to understand. We’ve had to adapt to this new mode of teaching.”
“The kids seem to be doing very well, actually,” Luy added. “It’s a lot of different components that have come into play to make this work for my little ones.”
Creating structure, establishing a routine and setting expectations from the beginning of the year were critical, “and also the support of the families,” according to Luy.
Live online instruction in varying lengths three times a day have been essential, but also “reading to them, they look forward to coming to the Zoom sessions because that’s something they enjoy,” she said.
Virtual office hours also give Luy dedicated time to meet with individual students for extra support. Meetings usually last 10 to 15 minutes but can go longer if needed.
“It’s a good opportunity to connect one-on-one with the kids,” Luy said.
To enhance learning offline, Luy adds daily journal activities for her students. She also takes care to acknowledge their growth and changes.
“At that age, they really want their teacher’s attention and to feel special,” she said. “I notice when somebody gets a haircut or they tell me they lost a tooth last night. Those things are important for building community and relationships.”
Before coming to Valley View six years ago, Luy taught child developmental psychology in the regional occupational program (ROP) at Foothill High School. Prior to joining Pleasanton Unified School District, she taught in Fremont.
Like many teachers thrown unexpectedly into virtual instruction this year, Luy said, “We have been down but then we have gotten up and kept going. Right now it seems to be going fairly smooth.”
Luy added, “It definitely has been an eventful year, challenging times, but together we have made it work and we’re going through this together, and all for the kids.”
Parents-in-law accused of killing Dublin man, New York Times staffer at sports parkSeptember 27, 2026 5:51 pm
Its great to listing about Valley View dual immersion kindergarten teacher honored for efforts during remote learning. I must say you doing a great job and I really appreciate your efforts. Also want to say that if you can get amazing food recipes and ideas you can visit https://www.unwedhousewifeblog.com/ website.