The Bilingual Homework Hotline: Five Years of Learning Together

A collaboration between Denton ISD, the University of North Texas, and Texas Woman's University

In 2020, as schools shifted online and families navigated unprecedented uncertainty, a group from the University of North Texas, Texas Woman's University, and Denton ISD began meeting weekly to ask a simple but urgent question: How can we help bilingual families and students succeed during such difficult times? From those conversations, a virtual space emerged, one where university students dedicated their time to support K–12 emergent bilingual learners with homework, language, and confidence. That space soon became known as the Bilingual Homework Hotline, a collaborative effort built on care, connection, and the shared belief that learning is most effective when we learn together.

The idea was simple yet transformative. Each week, pre-service teachers from both universities logged in to virtual sessions via Zoom to provide one-on-one and small-group tutoring for students in Denton ISD. These university students were not only helping children complete their homework, they were also putting theory into practice, applying strategies for bilingual and ESL instruction that they had learned in their coursework. The hotline quickly became a learning laboratory, where emerging educators developed real-world teaching skills while offering bilingual students academic support and encouragement in both English and Spanish.

Over time, the project grew beyond its original mission. What began as a way to help emergent bilingual learners during the pandemic has evolved into a homework hotline for all students, regardless of language background. The program now welcomes volunteers from a range of academic disciplines — not only future teachers but also university students who wish to give back to their community. Together, they offer guidance across subjects, share their own academic journeys, and inspire younger students to see themselves as future college graduates. Through this collective effort, the Bilingual Homework Hotline has become both an educational support system and a pathway that promotes equity, mentorship, and college-going aspirations.

What Tutors and Families Tell Us

Now entering its fifth year, the Bilingual Homework Hotline continues to grow, with multiple sessions taking place each week and an ever-increasing number of students and families benefiting from its support. What began as a response to the urgent challenges of remote learning during the pandemic has evolved into a lasting community effort that continues to make a real difference in the lives of bilingual learners and the university students who work with them.

For pre-service teachers, the hotline has become far more than a volunteer opportunity; it is a formative space where theory meets practice. Week after week, they refine their ability to communicate complex ideas clearly, adapt explanations to different language proficiency levels, and build the cultural awareness essential to serving diverse classrooms. Many have described how these tutoring experiences have strengthened their confidence and shaped the kind of teachers they aspire to become.

For students and families seeking help, the hotline represents connection, care, and hope. What may begin as a question about fractions, reading comprehension, or a science project often becomes a moment of reassurance and a reminder that someone is there to listen and guide them. Parents frequently express gratitude for the chance to receive academic support in a language they understand. At the same time, students describe feeling more confident and capable because of the relationships they've built through the hotline.

At the school district level, the program has helped weave a strong network between K–12 schools and local universities, reinforcing college-going aspirations among students. The tutors' shared linguistic and cultural backgrounds allow them to connect deeply with the younger students they support, creating a bridge between two worlds: the classroom they once knew and the professional path they are preparing to enter.

Together, these experiences have transformed the Bilingual Homework Hotline into something much larger than a tutoring program. It has become a sustained ecosystem of learning, mentorship, and community engagement.

How We Got Involved

In 2021, while serving as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Bilingual Education and ESL instruction at Texas Woman's University, I was invited by my colleague Dr. Jorge Figueroa, who had been involved in the Bilingual Homework Hotline since its creation, to collaborate with my students and integrate them into the initiative. Very quickly, a clear pattern emerged during conversations with my students and other university helpers about their experiences supporting K–12 learners. Many shared how challenging it can be to respond to specific questions (particularly in math, science, and physics) that require not only accurate content knowledge but also the ability to explain it in ways that match each student's language proficiency. Even those with strong academic backgrounds sometimes needed quick access to refresher explanations, formulas, or visual examples to help them guide students effectively.

To bridge this gap, we built a centralized website that served as both a communication hub for tutors and a growing repository of carefully selected materials (charts, formulas, videos, and databases) that supported consistent, high-quality instruction during tutoring sessions.

Around that same time, the first publicly accessible large language models (including early conversational tools like ChatGPT) began to emerge, capturing my attention as both a researcher and an instructional designer. Given my background in educational technology and coding, I saw enormous potential in integrating these tools into educational contexts to help tutors think and teach more effectively. I began working simultaneously on two connected ideas: a broader intelligent tutoring framework I would later name Verónica, and a practical application of those concepts through the Homework Helper chatbot for the Bilingual Homework Hotline.

The Homework Helper became the first working prototype of Verónica's vision, a way to test how AI could model effective teaching rather than simply provide answers. It was designed to guide tutors through reasoning steps, offer scaffolded explanations in English and Spanish, and suggest strategies aligned with bilingual and ESL pedagogy. At the same time, I expanded Verónica's architecture to include a custom database of instructional research and a set of structured prompts and parameters that would later form the foundation of the AI systems I design for schools and universities. The Homework Helper was not a separate project, but rather the first tangible expression of the larger goal that continues to drive my work: using artificial intelligence to enhance, not replace, human teaching.

The Verónica AI Framework

Verónica is far more than a chatbot. It is a comprehensive AI instructional ecosystem. At its core lies a curated database of evidence-based practices in bilingual and ESL instruction, along with strategies for supporting emergent bilingual students. Surrounding that database is a network of instructional logic and task-specific guidelines that shape how each AI-powered tool interacts with users, ensuring that every response aligns with sound pedagogy, cultural responsiveness, and linguistic accessibility.

Together, these components provide both the knowledge base and the instructional framework for the AI assistants I design. The Homework Helper, created for the Bilingual Homework Hotline, became one of the first real-world demonstrations of this system in action, a practical example of how Verónica's approach to AI-guided pedagogy can empower tutors and enhance support for emergent bilingual learners in authentic educational settings.

Even after leaving Texas Woman's University, I have continued to work on the project, maintaining and expanding both the website and the chatbot. What began as a simple text-based chatbot has evolved into a multimodal learning companion, capable of engaging through voice interaction and generating images and diagrams to illustrate complex concepts or steps in problem-solving. With every new generation of large language models, the system grows more sophisticated and responsive, offering richer ways for tutors and students to communicate, visualize, and make sense of ideas together.

Continuing the Mission

After five years of collaboration, the Bilingual Homework Hotline stands as a clear example of how innovation and compassion can coexist in education. School districts continue to face financial constraints, families still need flexible access to multilingual academic support, and pre-service teachers benefit from meaningful opportunities to apply theory in authentic settings. The hotline's ongoing evolution shows that technology, when used thoughtfully, can extend rather than replace human care.

Artificial intelligence allows educators to focus on what matters most: listening, guiding, and building confidence. Well-designed tools can handle routine or technical tasks (such as scaffolding explanations or generating visuals), allowing teachers and tutors to dedicate their energy to genuine interaction and relationship-building. In this way, AI becomes not a substitute for the teacher's presence but an ally that helps sustain it.

Still, the true foundation of this project has never been technology; it has always been the people. The heart of the Bilingual Homework Hotline lies in the people who make it happen every single day. At the center of this effort are the dedicated staff members from the school district who open the virtual rooms, manage the daily sessions, and ensure that everything runs smoothly, allowing university tutors to connect with K–12 students. Their consistency, care, and quiet coordination keep the program alive. Alongside them are the university students who volunteer their time after class to support children with homework, language development, and confidence-building, as well as the families who log in, trusting that someone will be there to help. The success of this project is not measured in algorithms or interfaces, but in the steady rhythm of human dedication — the patience, love, and commitment that make learning possible day after day.

This project continues to thrive because of the collective effort of administrators, teachers, university faculty, and students who give far beyond what is required. At its core, the initiative is guided by a simple phrase that has become its motto:

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