Posts Tagged ‘home schooling’
Facts about Socialization and Online Learning: Conclusions and Reflections – I
posted by admin @ 8:00 AM
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Online public schools are experiencing rapid growth across the country,” said Dr. Jay Sivin-Kachala, Vice-President of IESD, who led the research project. “Yet some concerns have been expressed that students enrolled in online public schools may suffer from a lack of opportunities for socialization, and
consequently may fail to develop important social skills. The results of this study provide substantial evidence supporting the conclusion that typical, mainstream students enrolled in full-time, online public schools are at least as well socialized as equivalent students enrolled in traditional public schools.”
As a person who has spent over 30 years educating in the public school system, I feel that my reflections of value. As a new teacher starting out in 1979 (OMG), behavior issues were few and far between. We had them but they didn’t take over the class. There was a lot of collaboration; parents and teachers worked together to solve the issues. In the mid ’80′s there seemed to be a shift; each year there were more students that had behavior problems, parents were less supportive – not wanting to deal with the problems as they were the schools. Every year a little worse until finally in the early ’90′s teaching became less of the academics and more of the behaviors. Discipline, rather then learning, became the way of the classroom. It is not a surprise that teacher burn-out also increased. I didn’t become a teacher to be a baby sitter or a disciplinarian. The joy of teaching left and so did I.
I left the classroom but not education. I began to discover and investigate the technology that was developing at the time; the most influential being the Lexile. During this time I worked with severely disabled, multi-handicapped children. This was a wonderfully rewarding experience but I was drawn to those children whose learning was being interrupted by the behaviors and kept thinking that there was a better way.
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Facts about Socialization and Online Learning: Results
posted by admin @ 8:00 AM
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
When rating social skills of the online learner, parent ratings of their children were significantly higher than the national norms in all elementary grades in every grade/gender category. Likewise, student self-ratings on social skills were also significantly higher across the grades and most categories. The one area student self-ratings were lower was in Self-Control. Teacher ratings, on the other hand, rated Self-Control significantly higher but did not differ much in the other sub-scales from the national norms.
When addressing problem behaviors, parents ratings of student enrolled in full-time, online public schools were significantly lower across in most sub-scales. This was also true for the teacher ratings.
The study compared students who had been enrolled in full-time, online public schools for a year or less to whose who had been enrolled for more than one year. There were no major differences in the parent ratings for either social skills or behaviors except in the area of self-control where more gains were made for students enrolled for a longer period then a year.
In addition to these findings, the study highlighted reasons parents most often choose full-time, online public schools for their children. For the most part they sought a home-based environment that was consistent with their family values and allowed them more involvement with their children’s education while continuing to have the support and structure of a public school.
The study also showed that students enrolled in such a program were actively engaged in activities outside the school day, some of which involved peer interaction and some not.
Finally, parents noted that their children showed improvement in a variety of areas including the use of technology and better balance of development of skills across many areas of learning, and academic progress in subject areas.
Facts about Socialization and Online Learning: Survey
posted by admin @ 8:00 AM
Monday, July 12, 2010
Virtual Education continues to grow as both an alternative to traditional education and support to the public schools. Virtual Schools have the ability to offer classes to fit the students individual needs and learning styles at times that optimize their learning at a pace that best fits them. Education their way which leads to greater success.
The one thing, however, that continues to be questioned is that these students may lack opportunities for socialization, stagnating the development of necessary social skills. In a research paper presented by iNACOL (International North America Council for Online Learning) dated May of 2009, “IESD Comprehensive Technical Report: Evaluation of the Social Skills of Full-Time, Online Public School Students” this issue was addressed in depth.
Interactive Education Systems Design (IESD) Inc. collaborated with staff from The Center for Research in Educational Policy (CREP) with the purpose to compare parent, teacher, and student self-assessments of socialization skills of students attending full-time, online public schools to national norms for the same assessments. The study was conducted from February through August of 2008 and included students attending grades 2, 4, and 6. The rating scale used was the Social Skills Rating System (SSRS).
A brief summary of the common core standards for mathematics include:
* Assuring that students in the K-5 grades have “a solid foundation in whole numbers, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, and decimals.”
* Kindergarten students will focus on numbers, , how they correspond to quantities and how to put numbers together and take them apart.
* Teachers will have “detailed guidance” on how to teach the k-5 students difficult topics such as fractions and negative numbers.
* “Conceptual understanding, in addition to procedural skills, will be essential.”
* Once K-5 students have a solid foundation as described above then they should be prepared for such content as geometry, algebra, and probability and statistics.
* High school students will be expected to apply mathematical ways of thinking to real-life situations.
* “Mathematical modeling” (“use of mathematics and statistics to analyze empirical situations, understand them better, and improve decisions” will be emphasized.
The Focus of the Core Standards: English and Language Arts
posted by admin @ 8:00 AM
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
A brief summary of the English and language arts components of the core standards include:
* The recognition of the importance of skills as they relate to media and technology.
* Students mastery of increasingly complex material through a “staircase” model.
* Reading content the standards mandate include classic myths, stories from around the world, foundational U.S. Documents, seminal works of American literature, and the writings of Shakespeare
* Sample texts are included as examples to help districts and states determine appropriate curriculum. (If we are making the standards common, then why are we throwing it back to the districts and states?)
* Starting at the earliest grades (meaning?) students will learn to develop a clear written argument.
* Development of speaking skills in small-group and collaborative discussions with the end result leading to problem solving.
Mistacres School uses a multitude of programs and sites to give them the flexibility necessary to individualize programs for their students and schools. Although we are located in New Hampshire,we serve children from around the United States as well as internationally. We must select material which will meet core standards for all.
For this reason, we have selected the Core Knowledge Sequence as our foundation for building student programs. Core Knowledge offers a coherent, cummulative, well-balanced curriculum allowing for academic excellence for all learners.
We know success in learning new information depends on previous experiences and teachings. Although information is ever-changing, there is a foundation of information that remains consistant which students need to understand to be academically successful. Core Knowledge has identified these fundamental building blocks and sequenced them in a manner which provides a coherent approach to building a knowledge base.
Mistacres chose to use Core Knowledge based on current evidence showing that “it fosters excellence by improving student performance, boosting enthusiasm, and laying the groundwork for future learning.” (Core Knowledge Foundation)
Another reason for selecting Core Knowledge as our foundation is that it not only aligns with the Frameworks for all American schools but, because it introduces academic subjects and rich content in the early years, it also fulfills the international requirements.
Core Knowledge has outlined the curriculum and Mistacres has taken that and developed materials to help individualize and implement it. To further investigate this curriculum, explore the coreknowledge.org website.
For the past three days, my niece talked about how to deal with peer pressure through the eyes of a 14 year old. This was in response to questions parents raised regarding socialization in a virtual school environment.
Bruce Law, head of Chicago Virtual School states, “…not all the socialization in the traditional school is positive. …the sum total of a child’s socialization doesn’t take place in school.” In fact, much of what takes place in the traditional schools now are in the form of bullying as is evidenced in all the recent reports in the news.
Peer pressure is very common from Kindergarten to High school, even college. Regardless of what grade your child is in, they have probably have been subjected to peer pressure and/or bullying by their classmates.
The best way to help your child with peer pressure is to make sure the lines of communication with you are open at all times. As Remi also pointed out, fostering your child’s self esteem is priceless. A child who has a good understanding of self, knows who they are, will be less likely to fall prey or to be preyed upon by their classmates. Through their independence and individuality, they will become a leader and get others to follow them in something more positive.
One very positive reason for homeschooling or using an online school with your child is that you can protect them from other kids that may not get the same love and attention as yours.
Virtual schooling allows students to be challenged academically, not socially.
“For things that can not be changed, such as appearance you should help them â¨realize that differences are good! They don’t want to be a clone! They were born an individual so they shouldn’t let others tear them down or tellâ¨them they don’t look right. They shouldn’t let those people take that away their individuality (appearance or personality)!
Another thing to consider â¨is why a kid would want to be cool and popular. If they just want to fit in then I have covered that. But if it’s something about being liked or getting â¨friends, I have this to say: If they don’t like you for who you are, then changing is pointless! I understand this very well! If a kid changes â¨themselves to fit in with people they don’t fit in with, they are most likely to find themselves lost or just plain bored. They will end up talking about â¨things they have no interest in, listening to jokes they don’t find funny, and doing things they don’t want to do(not necessarily bad things, just things â¨they have no interested in doing).
If anything, kids (especially my age (12-16)) need to realize having a small, maybe nerdy group of friends to have fun â¨with and trust is much better having a lot of friends, maybe popular, that they wouldn’t get along with and would probably not accept them if they changed. â¨Once again, this all goes into the embrace difference thing, but if they fit in with the ‘cool’ crowed then that’s okay too. To all their own, just make sure that no one brings them down.
All this being said, I think a child would be able to over-come peer pressure and exile.”
Thank you Remi – you have answered the question beautifully.â¨â¨ Mistacres School creates an environment that supports the individuality in each child, allows them to be successful, fine their strengths and over-come their weaknesses.
One of the most frequent questions asked at Mistacres School is regarding the “lack of social interaction” with a virtual school. Those watching the trends of students today will tell you schools are no longer the primary place for socialization. Technology is.
One parent brought up the difficulty that children have in dealing with peer pressures. They want to “belong” and so will succumb to the negative demands. So how do they rise above these pressures? Well, I asked my 14 year old niece to tell me what she thought. I share this now with you.
“First of all, from my experience, the “cool” crowd doesn’t make success. If you’re smart than okay thats fine whatever, occasionally you’ll â¨get the ‘ Hey!! lemme copy off a ya!!’ thing, but that’s more annoying than anything else (although it probably differs from one place to another.)”
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.
This weeks quotes come from students who were involved in Project 
Tomorrow’s Speak-up. They refer to technology as it refers to learning.
“By using new technology in our schools kids will be able to participate more and will be more interested in school. Grades can increase if the teachers provide lessons in the form of powerpoints, student’s can review the lessons and be better prepared for tests and quizzes. By allowing students to use technology in school you are giving them the ability to perform in an environment that they are well adjusted to.”
– , Space Center Intermediate, TX
“Technology use is important to me because it’s more interactive than just learning straight out of the book and doing outlines! >:( And then having a test/quiz the next day the outline is due!”
– , CLEAR LAKE INTERMEDIATE, TX
We can have an amazing imagination. Most of the things that you want us to learn we don’t want to do. Were not lazy or trying to rebel, but its all boring. Put some creativity in the subjects we learn and make it fun.”
– 10th Grade Boy, JEFFERSON WEST HIGH, KS