Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcasting live from Music Row on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – Leahy was joined on the newsmakers line by Thales Academy-Franklin’s principal Rachael Bradley.
Leahy: We are talking with our good friend and all-star panelist Rachael Bradley. She is the principal of Thales Academy-Franklin. Rachael, you said something very important in our earlier segment. And that is the importance of continuity in maintaining the learning going on and not forgetting what’s been taught. I think that’s a problem right now with kids who have been out of school for several weeks now. What’s the best way to address that for parents who are there right now? What’s the best thing they could do?
Bradley: Well Mike, we have a solution. I think everybody has thought about what can we do at this moment to be of service and help our communities. At Thales, we decided what we could do was open up our online courses to new families.
And so what that means is the full scale online learning program I mentioned in the previous segment that is open to our eight campuses in North Carolina. We are going to allow new families to join those courses so their children can continue learning for the remainder of the school year.
Leahy: You mean parents with kids right here in Middle Tennessee, Williamson County today could go and sign up and get this online learning for their kids right now. Is that right?
Bradley: That’s right.
Leahy: Whoah! Tell us about that. How do they do that?
Bradley: They just need to contact me directly at [email protected]. You can find our contact information at www.thalesacademy.org or our Facebook page. In fact, I really want to encourage families to visit our Facebook page for Thales Academy-Franklin. And I posted a quick video of my son and his online learning session yesterday so you can see what that looks like and how amazing it was.
Leahy: What a great idea that is. By the way, you can get to the Thales Academy Facebook page by going to the tennnesseestar.com. We have banner and side ads for Thales Academy. Just click on those links and it will take you to the Facebook page and you can get to Rachael communicating with her that way. And your email address for clarification is [email protected]. Do I have that right?
Bradley: You do. Thank you. Yes. And I want to be clear that this is a courtesy for families. That’s at no cost. It’s simply an opportunity for your child to continue learning during this time. And of course, we hope you will enjoy it and see how excellent our teachers are and consider choosing us in the future.
Leahy: Let me give you that email again: [email protected]. (Leahy spells out email). Question. When you open up in July this will be kids K-3 that can participate in it. Is this open for only K-3 to do online lessons now? Or is it for a broader number of kids?
Bradley: It’s a broader number, Mike. I’m happy to support any children K-5. And if families reach out and they have older children in grades 6-12 we can certainly look at that as well. Again, all eight North Carolina campuses which range from kindergarten to 12th grade started their online learning program yesterday.
Leahy: If you are in our listening audience right now and you’re thinking, oh how do I keep my kid’s education activities going and if you’ve got kindergarten, second, third, or even fifth as you say. If the public schools here aren’t offering online learning you can go to thalesacademy.org or email [email protected]. Or you can go to the tennesseestar.com and click on the link and boom! You can have a conversation with Rachael to get set up to do online learning at no cost.
Bradley: No cost! I would love to talk to any family about it. As I said, I’m really proud to be able to offer that and be a part of it. We have amazing teachers. The courses that I would be opening up to families are led by the teachers at my previous K-5 campus in Apex, North Carolina. I know all of them very well and have led them for the last five years. And I’m really proud of the high-quality lessons they’ve prepared for all of our children to continue learning for the last quarter of the school year.
Leahy: If I’m a parent of a young child here in Middle Tennessee and I’m listening to this program I’m going to run to get lined up. I think parents are running out of things to do with their kids.
Bradley: Absolutely. I’m speaking to you not just as an educator and an administrator but as a mother. And even being an educator it’s challenging to teach your own child. Everybody needs to take advantage of a program such as what we’re offering. There’s only so much you can do on your own.
Leahy: Exactly. I want to hear more about this. We’ll do this next week when you are back here on The Tennessee Star Report. Rachael Bradley, principal of Thales Academy-Franklin and our newest all-star panelist. Thanks so much for joining us today.
Bradley: My pleasure.
Listen to the full third hour here:
– – –
Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
