Posts Tagged ‘blended learning’
The choice to homeschool is not an easy one. The responsibilities are gigantic but the benefits can be fantastic.
Reasons for deciding to homeschool vary greatly from religious convictions to dissappointment in the public schools to families, because of parent’s work, having to move around a lot. Homeschooling means there is minimum interruption in learning because lessons can continue regardless of family situations.
Homeschooling is not easy. You are responsible to provide your child with an excellent education. And you must be careful you are not selecting this option to further some personal agenda.
The advantages are huge: it allows you to build strong, positive family relationships, provides a setting for teaching and sharing ideas and develops strong bonds of trust and open lines of communication that are so important with today’s children.
You have more flexibility in the curriculum you use and the school hours you keep. You are not limited to 1 or 2 field trips a year; you have the freedom to take full advantage of all the wonderful places to visit as well as cultural events taking place in your area. You never have to worry about snow days, swine flu, school violence, inappropriate peer pressures, etc.
However, many parents will sometimes have problems developing curriculum especially for their child as they get into upper elementary school and beyond. They may need more support in the teaching. Onine programs can help by offering you the support you need. They can deliver and monitor your child’s curriculum, process the academic portion of your portfolio, and free you up to work on the field trips and socialization aspects of your child’s education. It is a win, win situation.
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USA Today: May 2, 2010 “The Obama administration estimates that as many as 300,000 teachers could lose their jobs unless Congress steps in with emergency money.” The hardest hit states appear to be California, Illinois, Michigan and New York. Education also is loosing staff at the state level that is suppose to be assuring that standards are being met and rules are being followed.
Florida is trying to scale back the 2002 class-size amendment as Republican lawmakers say current class-size limits are “impossible to fund”. (Currently their constitution limits class sizes to 18 students in grades pre-kindergarten through third, 22 students in fourth through eighth and 25 students in high school.)
It appears that once again our children are in the middle of a tug-of-war. The recession has seen many things get bailed out; the banks, car companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and more. In fact, if you search “Eye on the Bailout” you will find where all your tax dollars are going. Where they aren’t going is to our children and their education.
For this reason, virtual schools are gaining popularity. Public schools are looking for creative ways to deliver better education at a lower cost. And that is the foundation of the blended educational model. Virtual schools are able to offer high quality education to public schools at a low cost.
We can’t afford, can’t allow, our children to be the latest victims of this finical crisis. We must all work together to assure that they will have the education necessary to be leaders in the future. Yes, the situation is dire.
Today’s educational landscape is constantly in flux, and there are constantly new teaching methods and theories being developed and tested. This profusion of information can make it difficult for parents to stay up-to-date with the last happenings in education. I know that my wife and I had to ask the question “What is blended learning?” when we attended a recent PTA meeting.
As you can probably guess from the moniker, blended learning combines several teaching methods to help students reach their full potential. This typically includes a mixture of face-to-face interaction and online or computer-based courses. Not only does this allow for specialized teaching, but it also exposes students to a variety of technologies, which is essential for success in the modern world.