Archive for May, 2010
This was a headline in USA Today (May 3, 2010), as if life isn’t difficult enough for students today. Studies now prove that heavey kids are more apt to be picked on thean peers that are of normal weight. Heck, I don’t need studies to prove that to me. That was a way of life; being picked on, taunted, used and bullied for I was one of those one-third kids that weight too much.
This study was conducted by researches at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. They evaluated 821 incidents of bullying on children 8 to 11. They found that “obese children were more likely to be bullied than to be bullied than normal-weight peers, regardless of gender, race, socioeconomic status, school demographic profile, social skills or academic achievement.” (Pediatrics) According to Julie Lumeng, lead author of the study, “They are viewed as lazy ad lacking in self-control, but we know the reason for obesity are so much more complex.
There are other studies showing that obese children are more apt to be depressed, anxious and lonely. Is it any wonder that they don’t want to go to school? Look what lies in wait for them! Kids can be very mean to eachother. Schools should be focusing on educating but are forced to deal with many more issues. And try as they may, they can’t keep up with the academic demands and financial restraints. Now they must try to also create safe, healthy and happy environments for learning.
Online learning allows these students to learn without fear of harrassment or embarassment. They can focus their attention to what they should be focused on; learning. Here they are accepted for who and what they are without judgement. They receive educational programs that are designed specifically for them. Here they can feel successful and proud. I wish it had been here for me.
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I want to share with you some quotes from inspired people in history and literature. These quotes have made me happy and given me something to think about. They have led me to decide to provide online education to children. I hope you will enjoy them as well.
Always remember to slow down in life; live, breathe, and learn; take a look around you whenever you have time and never forget everything and every person that has the least place within your heart.” ~ Anonymous
Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself.” ⨖ Chinese Proverb
“Education makes people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern, but impossible to enslave.” ⨖ Henry Peter Broughan
What makes virtual learning so different from the traditional method? One thing might be that it is limitless for the learner. The logistics a public school has to deal with: bus schedules, teaching contracts, building maintance, material allocations, budgets, school safety, behaviors, and the list goes on. They are limited as to where students can attend school, what hours they can attend, the materials they use for teaching, even how they teach if scripted lessons are used. All these many limitations which restrict schools also restrict the learners, our children.
Perhaps it is for these reasons as well as the changing way our children learn, online schooling has become much more acceptable over the past 10 years. Where virutal learning was mainly for college students, disabled children or home-schooled students, brick-and-mortar schools are turning to using online learning to supplement their curriculum allowing students to move at their own pace.
In fact, registrations have risen more then 50% since 2007. According to a report by iNACOL, about 44 states are offering full-time virtual schools through their public school system. Programs can be state-led or charter schools. Others occur through school-supplied computers and can take place either in the home or in computer labs within the school.
Susan Patrick, President of iNACOL, points out that “More and More parents and students are aware that we live in the internet age, and they want acess to educational opportunities, whether they’re offered over the internet or not.”
Virtual Schools allow for limitless possibilities by offering courses that can be tailored to the individual student or work to meet the needs of a school district. Students can receive an entire school program or get supplemental help in one or more classes.
But even as virtual education gains in popularity, challenges persist and misconceptions continue.
The criticisms we hears hear most often against virtual learning is that there is no communication between the teacher and student. In listening further, by communication they person means contact. I want lay that perception to rest.
It is true teaching on line is not the same as teaching in a traditional classroom. Having been a traditional teacher for over 30 years, addressing each student’s learning style was one of my biggest areas of concerns. How were we going to address the needs of a visual learner? Did the materials have enough for the auditory learner to be successful? As Mistacres School developed and we worked with students, these concerns quickly fell away.
When we developed the school, we knew we needed to have direct contact with each student both through planned individual/group meetings or spur of the moment meetings as dicated by the student’s need. We enlisted the help of Webex to accomplish this and it worked well, up to a point. We could set-up meetings with groups, they could share and collaborate, we could do direct teaching. All was good.
Then we learned about Skype and how it gave students direct and immedicate access to our teachers. We now are available to them when they need us just as though we were in the same room together. We share screens, have collaborative conferences, are able to see and hear eachother, just as though we sat side-by-side. And, as an added plus, there is no cost to the student or the school. Skype has also allowed us to more easily access our students that are not in the US.
Individualized learning is the foundation of Mistacres School. Skype has helped us continue to have hands-on, direct contact when it is necessary. Someone from the school is generally available a minimum of 8 hours a day, 7 days a week. That is a great benefit online learning has to offer.
Mistacres School recognizes, in fact designed the school, on the fact that all students learn differently. For this reason, we have aligned ourselves with Metametrics and the Lexile which allow us to develop programs that meed each student’s current learning level. But we also must take into consideration the student’s learning style.
We know there are three basic types of learning styles: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. When we learn, we depend upon our senses. Most of us tend to use one more than the others although some will use two or all three equally. Often our style will change according to the task that we are doing. How do you approach learning how to knit verses how to work a math problem? Do you depend on more styles learning science concepts then reading a book? Understanding your style(s) could help you better understand how you interact with others, how to complete tasks more efficiently, how to study more effectively.
There is a great site that will help you determine what your learning style is and what that means. I encourage you to go here and explore your own style of learning.
Home schooling is fast gaining acceptance and popularity worldwide. This is due to the positive feedback from home schooling parents and the results seen in kids who are being home schooled. If you are interested to learn more about home schooling, you can try looking for a support group in your area. There are also various resources on the web that you may find helpful.
Home schooling takes a lot of creativity, especially on the part of the parent. Because it is not a classroom setup, parents are free to develop their own homeschooling curriculum and to adapt their teaching style to what works best for each kid. Parents may also incorporate kids learning games kids in order make learning more enjoyable.
I want to share with you some quotes from inspired people in history. These quotes have always made me happy and given me something to think about. They have led me to decide to provide online education to children.
“It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot, irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known, but to question it.” ⨖ J. Bronowski, The Ascent of Man
“Education would be so much more effective if its purpose were to ensure that by the time they leave school every boy and girl should know how much they don’t know, and be imbued with a lifelong desire to know it.” ⨖ Sir William Haley
Education is not the filling of a pail,â¨but the lighting of a fire.⨠Wiliam Butler Yeats
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- You do have opportunities to network with other students through the school. However this is done virtually? Do you have a need to be physically involved with classmates? One thing that a virtual school can do is to set you up with classmates from around the world. However, it is all done through the technology of the school.
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Mistacres School has the ability to offer learning your way. However, it is not right for every person. By answering the the above questions, you can determine if you are a good candidate. Answer the questions honestly. A “no” answer does not necessarily mean that you will not be successful as a “virtual” learner but that is is an area you need to be aware of and perhaps need extra assistance to over-come. Remember, the goal of Mistacres School is to see you be a successful independent learner.
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- Pursuing an online education does not mean less work. Attendance is taken by the number of hours that you are in school or working on a school related project or activity. Are you willing and able to spend as much time to your online classes as you would if you were in a regular school environment?
- Do you own a computer, have a web cam and mic, internet access and an email? And are you comfortable using these things? Online learning is made possible by all the technological advances that have been made over the past few years. But this requires that you, or your parent, have basic internet skills. Many programs that you would be using are down-loaded in you school site. Other programs, such as Skype which allows for face-to-face contact, needs to be downloaded onto your computer. As technology continues to grow, so do the educational programs and software applications. You or your parent needs to be willing to learn these programs and make sure they are downloaded for your access.
- Do you know how or are you willing to learn to copy, cut, and paste text/files between programs? This is sometimes how an assignment is delivered and returned and you need to be willing to learn this process.
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Online education is not right for everyone, just as a public school isn’t a match for all. There are question that you need to explore to determine if an online education is for you.
1. Are you an organized person? To do well as an online learner you need to be set a schedule and complete assignments within certain dates. Are you capable of doing this and sticking with it? For younger students, our the parents willing to set this time aside daily for your child to work in school?
2. Are you able to work independently? Some people learn better when they are in a group, others are able to focus on their learning independently without outside distractions. What is your learning style? (This is an issue we will look at at a later time.)
3. Can you self-advocate and ask questions if you don’t understand the material. The myth that students do not have interactions with their teacher is just that, a myth. The difference is that the interactions our student, rather then teacher, driven. Much of the technology that we use at Mistacres will flag the teacher if a student is having diffiuclty with a concept and will then initiate a special lessonl However, students have the ability, in fact are encouraged, to meet with their teacher at any time to receive clarification of an assignment and/or more direct teaching of a concept.