Well, I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. I know my daughter was enthusiastic about starting cyber school, and I hoped it would turn out to be a positive learning experience for her … but I was not prepared for such a transformation.
First, she is incredibly happy. All of a sudden, her school commitments are not ruling her sleep patterns. Like most adolescents, she has a night time brain, and simply can’t wake up early in the morning and function. By about mid-morning, she finally comes to life and then truly hits her stride late in the day and continues until late at night.
Second, she determines what she’d like to work on, when, and for how long. I called on my way home to work and asked about her day. “I decided to do a week’s worth of German,” she announced happily. Concerned with how rapidly she’s progressing through the material, I nervously contacted the school. “Remember,” they calmly reminded me, “she’s able to get a lot of work accomplished because she doesn’t have to wait for class to start, for other kids to get ready, for the teacher to explain assignments … etc.” In other words, once she hits a groove with a topic, she’s at liberty to keep working according to her own interest and stamina. This self-paced environment is certainly more suitable for her learning style.
I’m still waiting to see how this will all turn out – it’s certainly early days here. But so far, so good …
Fascinating to hear about your new venture with cyberschool. I too am discouraged with my children’s own experience in their brick & mortar school. My wife and I put so much thought into planning for our children. When we would have them, how we would raise them, how we should prepare for their arrival. We moved into a disrict that would provide them a good education. Their journey through elementary school was great but as soon as they entered junior high, everything changed and high school has been a disaster. At first we thought it was just the awkward, hormonal changes our children were going through. But it’s become quite clear that this is not the whole story. It just seems that traditional schools have not kept up with our changing society, the needs of families, and certainly are not in tune with the needs of adolescents. I keep hoping that things will change but it’s obvious that good teachers aren’t enough anymore. School leadership desperately needs to change before our schools can catch up to the needs of our kids.
That said… I am impressed that your family has the courage to try a non-traditional approach to preparing your daughter for success. I have questions for you:
1. Does your daughter interact and participate with other students online?
2. Do her teachers stay in contact with her and understand her strengths, weaknesses and personality?
3. Your daughter sounds pretty self motivated. For children that struggle setting goals, staying organized and focused, do staff provide additional support?
4. How do you replace the social environment (either F2F or virtual)?
Thank you for sharing your experiences… I will enjoy following your journey.
very cool… love that i can follow along this venture..
thank you for sharing..
Thanks so much for your comment, Daniel 🙂
In answer to your question:
1) Yes, my daughter is extremely social online, both for completing work and collaborating, as well as purely social interaction. That was one indicator we used to decide if she would be a good online learner.
2) I am truly impressed with the accessibility of the teachers online. Cory can work on her own, but at any time during school hours (9 – 4, 6 – 8), she can contact teachers for assistance or support. The teachers also have office hours when they are available in the virtual office and any number of students can “hang out” virtually chatting with the teacher and each other. That was very eye-opening for me – the amount of interaction that occurs in the online environment.
3) I would heartily agree that not all students are cut out to be online for their entire education. In fact, we are considering this semester to be an experiment – if it doesn’t work out, Cory will go back to brick and mortar school (but isn’t it a shame there isn’t another option?). The cyber school does a tremendous job supporting the kids with staying on pace and staying organized. Each student has a learning coach, the guidance counselors are always available, and the principal provides the discipline piece. But I agree – this isn’t necessarily for every student.
4) The F2F social environment is a big issue for us. Fortunately, attending a charter means that student still have access to the brick and mortar school’s extracurricular activities. For Cory, she’ll continue to attend clubs and play with the jazz band. But we are supplementing that with her activities at rock school and doing martial arts. This insures that she’ll have a wide range of F2F interactions on a daily basis.
Great questions!
Entirely forgot that kids can continue extracurricular activities at their B&M school. Great!
I love the idea of a “learning coach”. The title itself is so wonderful. Can you tell me more???
The learning coach is not a regular teacher, but a facilitator, guide, and mentor – similar to the advisory system that is used in many middle & high schools. Cory’s learning coach helped her through the orientation week and now provides feedback and guidance any time she needs. I like the fact that she can touch base with someone who isn’t a content-area teacher!