About Us

The Language Learning Cooperative is a worker cooperative, co-owned and operated by all employees.

Our mission is to provide student-centered language lessons using communicative, cooperative, and collaborative methodology, as well as to create an equal and just environment for teachers and students, while becoming a leader in the language teaching industry.

Our Philosophy

The educational philosophy of The Language Learning Cooperative is based on problem solving, critical thinking, inquiry, and direct experience. We believe that education should be accessible to all who want it, and that teachers and students should work collaboratively, not hierarchically, by removing the traditional power dynamic that exists in many forms in the current education system in the United States.

Problem solving, critical thinking, inquiry, and direct experience are some of the main tenets of experiential education, which developed in the United States in the 1930s. It is a method of education that places emphasis on direct student interaction with the subject matter. Students retain more information and have more meaningful learning experiences when they learn this way. Instead of taking a test, which we understand is sometimes necessary to prove competency in a certain skill, students may complete a project or use the skill in a “real world” situation. In language classes, this could take the form of writing, performing, taking an immersion course, or any other kind of project, in order to demonstrate mastery of the language.

We feel that all types of education should be accessible to all who would like to educate themselves. There should be no financial, racial, gender-based, or sexuality-based barriers to any students.

In forming as a worker cooperative, we are trying to remove hierarchy from our organization. This also applies to how our teachers interact with students. Education is a collaborative process. Teachers teach what is most useful to students, and students are equally responsible for their learning. Our methodology is communicative interactive and depends on the full participation of teachers and their students.

The Language Learning Cooperative’s principles of are ones of inclusion, equity, and justice, and these are reflected in our philosophy of education. We feel that experiential egalitarian education is a way to make languages, and learning in general, accessible to all.

Meet Current our team

Stacy Reynolds

Stacy thinks the world could benefit from individually handed out baskets of puppies, or if one prefers, kittens. She has been teaching for a very long time, which makes her experienced, if nothing else. Teaching ESL has taken her to Russia and Chile and learning French and becoming a French teacher brought her to France and Belgium. She has yet to visit all seven continents, but she is young-ish enough that it could still happen. Stacy is great at creating a comfortable learning environment and encourages mistakes of all kinds. One of her favorite sayings about language learning is, “If you want to speak French, you have to SPEAK FRENCH.”

Teaching Qualifications:

Master of Science in Experiential Education, Minnesota State University – Mankato
Bachelor of Science in Education, Northern Arizona University
Certificate in Teaching English as a Second Language
Common European Framework of Reference for Languages C1, DALF certified
Experience teaching IB French B test preparation
Experience teaching IELTS and TOEFL preparation

Shreya Naik

Shreya moved to the U.S. about a decade ago from India. She is an MBA graduate from a premier institute in Twin Cities and has extensive experience in the Consulting Industry. She loves to travel the world. Her love for travel sparked her interest in learning about different cultures, cuisines, and languages. She enjoys hiking, kayaking, trying a new recipe, and keeping up with TV shows and movies from 3 different languages in her free time.

Jody Kovalick

Jody combines his technical theatre design and production background with his über-geek technomancer character class to help with the information and technology needs of the co-op. Jody is an avid traveler and enjoys trying new foods, as long as they’re not filters–examples being oysters and mushrooms. If you run into any problems with the site or classes, please email support and they’ll be sure to get back to you as soon as they’re back in country. (Ha! like any of us can travel right now).

When not working in the background of The Language Learning Cooperative, Jody spends his days designing theatres.

Ripley

Team Member at Large

Ripley specializes in Micromanaging Things That Do Not Need to Be Managed. She has a particular penchant for shouting at others and making everyone Very Uncomfortable. All who approach must provide a DNA sample, a blood test, and all forms must be completed in triplicate. Ripley responds to French and English and has travelled across the United States and Chile.

Teaching Qualifications:

Loud
Sheds a lot