Great Hearts Online

In October 2020 was hired by Great Hearts Online to be its Director of Learning Design with the plan to design the school, hire all teachers, recruit students, and launch in January 2021. While the Great Hearts charter network was well established in both Arizona and Texas, serving 20,000 students across both states, as classical school, it had little experience with using educational technology and almost none operating online.

 My responsibilities were to:

  • Research, Develop, and Design a GH Online Lab School

  • In Partnership with the Headmaster, Stand Up and Execute a best-in-class GH Online Lab School

  • Partner Closely with the Technology, Data Strategy, and Student Information Systems Teams to Create Solutions

  • Build capacity of GH Texas-wide instructional leaders and faculty in effective online teaching and learning practices

  • Codify online teaching and learning best practices and disseminate across GH Texas

Quotes from Colleagues

While most of the work I did was proprietary, and thus can’t be shared here, I think the following quotes illustrate the quality of work I delivered and (as or more importantly), the quality of the relationships I had there. 

administrators

it has been my great pleasure to get to se the world through your eyes – with wonder and joy! Thank you for sharing your wisdom, your wit, and endless curiosity! Thank you for pouring into our school – into our students and teachers. Your creativity and out-of-the-box thinking has helped shape our school and made us so much better.

  – Heidi

We have all loved your adventurous spirit…you embrace challenges with a joyful, can-do attitude…. You have inspired me to step out of my comfort zone in multiple ways, and to be more purposeful in finding ways to stop and “smell the roses” Thank you for that!

  – Jamee

This road we have traveled has rarely been easy, but it’s so gratifying to see how far we have come. You were a large part of our growth and I so appreciate every day I have had the opportunity to work with you.

  – Raquel

Where to begin. I am simply just grateful to have known you. Thank you for absolutely everything you have done for GHO and the support you offered throughout your time here. 

– Emilie 

Teachers

Thank you for the hard work you poured into paving the way for GHO. You always inspired us, and helped us see and understand the “bigger picture”. 

– Julie

It’s been a pleasure and an honor having the opportunity to work with you. Good times, good times! Good memories will be cherished and thank you for those lesson planning sessions when we first began GHO, al our training sessions, profound knowledge given, all your hard work (blood, sweat and tears poured into our learning design and our platforms) and most of all your listening ear.

– Monica 

Thank you for the work you did to build the learning design. for GHO TX and AZ! Thank you for valuing and seeking teacher input into every decision you made for the learning design of our online school. 

– Tana