Towards the end of last semester, teachers Chad and Keyesy Logan announced their decision to move to the mainland to their students.

Keyesy Logan, however, would continue to teach her Spanish 3 class online from St. Louis, Missouri. At the start of this school year, she decided to split her Spanish 3 class into two different classes, Spanish 3 and Spanish 3 Hybrid. The difference between the classes was the way students used class time. In Hybrid, class time had fewer lectures and allowed students to practice speaking Spanish in a less structured setting.

In this new online arrangement, both Spanish 3 and Spanish 3 Hybrid students do much of their work online through Finalsite and VHL Central, a site that hosts online learning material. Class time is treated like an independence period so there is no instructor present during that time. Students schedule weekly thirty-minute Facetime session with Keyesy Logan to ask questions and receive information about upcoming tests and assignments.

There are many students that like the new way of using class time, because they say it gives them time to work on homework that isn’t for Spanish. Junior Rachel Nakamoto says she likes that class time is more independent, but adds, “Some challenges are that now we only get to meet with Señora Logan once a week and can only then ask her questions about the lesson we are learning.”

Like Nakamoto, Nicolas Caballes enjoys the freedom of the new class, but admits it comes with more responsibilities. “Since she is not here ,we have to be on task with everything rather than be reminded,” he says.

For Keyesy Logan, she’s had to adjust to not being able to see her students in person and working in a time zone that is four hours ahead of Hawaii time. She does not know what the administration has planned for next year’s Spanish class but appreciates the connection she still has with her students now. “I like that I still get to see my students every week,” she says.