Posts Tagged ‘online education’
Goshen/Lempster and Mistacres Schools Working Together
posted by admin @ 8:00 AM
Monday, September 13, 2010
Mistacres School is located about 14 miles from the Goshen/Lempster School in South Acworth. It is a K-8 school, just as Goshen/Lempster. The difference is that it delivers the curriculum through the technology of the Internet – virtually.
These two schools are joining together to form a blended approach to learning.
The International North America Council for Online Learning (iNACOL) defines blended learning as one that “combines online delivery of educational content with the best features of classroom interaction and live instruction to personalize learning, allow thoughtful reflection, and differentiate instruction from student to student across a diverse group of learners.”
This means that Mistacres School will be delivering specially targeted instruction to students who either need to increase their reading and math skills to be more successful at grade level or to those students that have mastered grade content and need enrichment.
The staff at Goshen/Lempster and Mistacres School are reviewing recent testing, report cards, and observations to determine which students will be receiving supplemental education from Mistacres and in what areas. These students will then have numerous times throughout the week to work within Mistacres School as well as having the school available to them at home 24/7.
If you would like to find out more about Mistacres School and what Blended Learning is, click on Educational Resources.
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As a virtual K-8 school, our goal is to insure each student is successful by developing individual programs that match the students learning style and current level of achievement. So often, they
have feelings of helplessness. They believe that they are incapable of learning. No amounts of extrinsic rewards are going to overcome their perception.
What will motivate them is success. Success breeds success. Slowly their perception of being a loser or dumb falls away; they get excited about learning. We actually have the student chart their progress. Seeing their improvement becomes a further motivation. And, perhaps this is why we have seen as much as 2+ years growth in just one school year! Individualized learning programs make it far easier for each student, parent and teacher.
Millions of kids have, or are about to start a new school year. According to an article in Kids Health: Although every day isn’t great, 65% of the 965 kids asked said they liked school a lot. That leave 35% of the students that disliked being at school. That is a large group of children that are not happy.
Interesting is that girls were generally happier then boys. 30% of the boys surveyed said they disliked school a lot as compared to 14% of the girls.
Why are so many kids unhappy with school? Often it is because of low grades or problems with their peers. Sometimes it is related to home issues. And students, by their own admission, will not seek out the help that is offered them through the school. If they aren’t seeking help then they are less likely to problem solve the issues successfully causing them to just get worse.
Having more personal contact with their child, control over the educational environment, more productive quality family time are just a few reasons why families decide to home school. With a good support system that assures the child’s academic needs are being appropriately met, home-schooled students are less likely to have the challenges that face many of the students in the public schools.
Paying Students Disregards A Quality Education
posted by admin @ 8:00 AM
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Part2
As a teacher of over 30 years, I have seen all kinds of fads used to modify students behaviors none
that were overly successful. If we were to give children checks, what do we cut so there is money to do that? Should it by Gym, Art, and Music? Those programs have already been hacked just as Languages have. Most after-school sports programs have to be self-supporting as well. That leaves just the basics: Reading and Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies. The big push by the federal government to improve STEM education (science, technology, engineering, and math), means paring down childrens education elsewhere. When there is a bloated bureaucracy within school administration, less and less is available for teaching.
Such a proposal to pay students assumes that the students have the capability to do the activity in question for the rewards to be influential. Monetary rewards to students do not address the fact that most students do not choose to do poorly in school. I believe that once schools learn to teach to the student, students will learn. For students that attend classes at Mistacres, each child receives an individualized learning plan that takes into account the different ways children learn. A blended learning environment gives students the best of in-class learning along with virtual learning. Parents who want the best education for their kids have turned to our homeschooling programs, and use our virtual classrooms and curriculum to successfully home school their children.
Part 1
Have you heard the latest key to learning that schools are coming up with? Schools across the country have decided to pay students for good grades, high test scores, attendance, and so on. According to a recent poll taken by CBS, 56% called it a bad thing and 37% said it was good.
I stand with the 56% who see this as not a good thing. As a taxpayer, I wonder when the tax revenue allocated to education will ever have the right priorities. I watch taxes and school budgets go up while staffing is cut, class sizes grow and scores drop in the public schools. At Mistacres School, a virtual learning academy for K-8 grades, there are no staff cutbacks or problems with class sizes. And yet, without receiving tax revenues to operate, the school delivers a higher quality education at a fraction of the per student cost of the public schools.
Feds See Importance of Online Learning in Rural Schools
posted by admin @ 8:00 AM
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
The United States Department of Education has recognized the importance of online learning, especially to 
help rural schools keep pace with more developed districts. The DOE is creating an Online Learning Registry to make historical, artistic, and scientific primary-source materials more available.
At the National Rural Education Technology conference held July 21st, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said, Knowledge knows no boundaries, and we cannot allow distance to stand between students, education, and opportunity. This is great news for a virtual school that also has a physical location, such as Mistacres School.
Earlier this month, New Hampshire received an approximately 11.6 million dollar grant to “support educational innovation in the state.” This came after the legislature lifted the moratorium on creating charter schools.
Charter schools are generally morel flexibility than most public schools. Virginia M. Barry Ph.D., New Hampshire’s Commissioner of Education, said “This grant will enable educators in the state to design bold and innovative educational opportunities for New Hampshire students.”
The grant listed five objectives:
” Increase the number of high-quality charter schools in New Hampshire, particularly those serving educationally disadvantaged students who are most at risk in rural and urban settings.
Offer districts the opportunity to create charter schools within their district to promote innovative practices.
Use federal grant funds to improve student achievement in secondary charter schools and increase graduation rates.
Support the dissemination of best practices developed in charter schools to other public schools and districts in the state.
Empower charter schools to become strong, independent organizations, while ensuring fiscally responsible practices. ” (education.gov/news/charter.htm)
Mistacres School currently provides educational experiences to students, particularly those for whom an alternative approach to learning is beneficial. It is our hope that, with this change in New Hampshire, they can now become licensed as a Charter School, giving them a the ability to reach many more students. We will make sure to up-date our status during the coming months,
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.
Experience is not what happens to you. It is what you do with what happens to you. â¨- Aldous Huxley
A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions. â¨- Anonymous
“…there is something you must always remember, you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think….” Pooh Bear ( I was always partial to Winnie-the-Pooh)
This spring we received a letter from the parent of a graduating student. Her daughter had been in the public school for many years. She is on an IEP and, despite her learning difficulties was able to make a two year gain in our school this year. Her mother wrote:
“I want to thank you for a wonderful first year of virtual learning. I was very concerned it would be more difficult than it was. The programs you used were very user friendly which made learning for” my daughter “much more enjoyable. There is nothing like working from home. No lost days of education due to snow days, no distractions from other students. Virtual learning let my daughter move at her own pace, although you pushed her when she needed pushing. I was also very pleased with the fact that if she needed you for support your were readily available, or it wasn’t long before you were. …. We are looking forward to your continued support through these last 4 years of schooling. I was also very pleased with the amount of growth Kyrsha was able to make, again this is another advantage to virtual learning. There is no box limiting my child “and ” no one moving on with out my child having mastered concepts. I am so glad we made this move to virtual learning. It has been one of the best decisions I could have made for my child’s educational needs….”
A virtual learning environment also has great appeal to parents of children with disabilities
because these schools can provide individualized programs as a pace that best suits their child’s learning, offer extensive opportunities for parental involvement, allow for the use of technology which accentuates existing assisted technology for children with disabilities,
“Technology has enormous benefits for the learning process, and promises to change the nature of schooling and heighten its productivity. Curricula, teaching methods, and schedules can all be customized to meet the learning styles and life situations of individual students; education can be freed from the geographic constraints of districts and brick-and-mortar buildings; coursework from the most remedial to the most advanced can be made available to everyone; students can have more interaction with teachers and one another; parents can readily be included in the education process; sophisticated data systems can measure and guide performance….” (Moe & Chubb, 2009).
In fact, when families were asked to identify what made a virtual learning environment especially effective for students with disabilities, these benefits where listed:
Individualized support and instruction and tutoring,
Ongoing and immediate feedback,
Self-pacing,
Opportunities for students to take control of their own learning,
Promotes students ability to choose how best to access information,
Lack of peer pressures, conflicts or distractions,
Supports alternative means of social interactions,
Equalized the the academic and social “playing field” through new technologies.