Telling our friends and family about our decision to allow our daughter to attend cyber school was a bit of a challenge. People don't understand the concept or what it's all about. Most of family, at first, was neither supportive or against it but once they listened to our spiel and realized how many positive aspects there are, they became supportive. We had to really educate people about it. But there will always be people that won't agree and won't support any decision that just a little "out of the norm". If you're going to make the decision to send your kids to cyber school you're just going to have to accept that not everyone is going to agree with your decision. Here are just a few of the questions/comments you may want to prepare yourself for:
Why would you want to keep your kids cooped up in the house?
You're de-socializing them. Do you want them to be anti-social?
Kids are supposed to go to school everyday and be around the same kids everyday. School is an experience from kindergarten to college.
Are you qualified to teach?
How do you know they're getting a good education?
What about sports, school band, trips, prom?
We have one family member that gave us a pretty hard time about sending our daughter to cyber school. We tried to explain that it is not home schooling (although we have nothing against home schooling), we, the parents, are not the teachers, she is being taught by qualified teachers and we are very involved as parents, she still gets about 18 hours a week of other structured activities with kids her age and that's not including unstructured time with her friends, that school should not be a one size fits all and that in public school our daughter was being deprived of a good education and now her needs are being met. All the explaining in the world is not going to convince everyone. And cyber school is not for everyone but if after doing your research you decide it's for you and your family don't let well meaning but uninformed friends and family convince you otherwise. You should be proud of yourself for taking control of your children's education.
Google's privacy policy
Friday, October 7, 2011
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Pro's and Con's of Cyber School
Well there so many pro's and only a few negatives. Sometimes it just depends how you look at it and what works for you personally but I'll share my thoughts..
The negative aspects would be the reactions of others, it may not work with your schedule if no one can be with the student during the day, the student needs to be somewhat self motivated, lack of social interaction, lack of extra curricular activities. But I believe there are ways to overcome the negatives..
I find that once people hear/learn more about it, they become less skeptical. The students schedule is often very flexible, for example, with my daughters school, she doesn't have any particular hours that she has to attend her cyber classes as long as she logs in everyday (for attendance) and completes all assignements on time. So the work can be done in the evening, on the weekends, it can be broken up throughout the day, ect. Learning to be self-motivated is not such a bad thing, as that is a great life skill to have! Really do your homework on the school because the one we chose offers several opportunities for students to meet eachother and meet the teachers in person. There are class trips, school picnics, proms, ect. Our school also offers a performing & fine arts school that is 2 days a week, in person. That's an entire other conversation though! They also offer a two day a week program for gifted students. Plus there are plenty of other activities kids can get involved in outside of school to ensure the social interaction aspect.
So they don't really sound like negatives or con's afterall, do they?
As for the pro's.. I feel much more involved in my child's education with no extra effort. I'm copied on all correspondence between my child and her teachers so I know every single grade and exactly what is going on. The flexible schedule is a bonus of course. You can do double the work one day and no work the next day as long as work is up to date and the child logs in everyday. There is no wasted time with lunch, recess, study halls, the class being held back while kids are diciplined, snow days, ect. The school year is much shorter because of this. They don't have to deal with all the drama that often comes along with attending school everyday, they can just focus on what they are supposed to.. learning. My daughter is learning so much about technology and time management which I believe will really help her with college readiness! She is getting real school credits and will get a real diploma no different than any public school student. Last but not least, as I mentioned in a previous post, this is a free option in our state! Check with your state/location. The school even supplies the necessary equipment!
Of course each cyber school can be a little different so again, if you are considering it, you really need to research which schools to look into. It's also been brought to my attention that many public school districts are offering cyber programs as part of their curriculum. So you can choose to do all cyber or part cyber and partial in-school classes. Then you can still participate in the school extra curricular activities, proms and graduation. There are lots of options! Don't discount it because of pre-conceived ideas! We dismissed it at first but finally agreed to give it a chance and we never looked back!
google's privacy policy
The negative aspects would be the reactions of others, it may not work with your schedule if no one can be with the student during the day, the student needs to be somewhat self motivated, lack of social interaction, lack of extra curricular activities. But I believe there are ways to overcome the negatives..
I find that once people hear/learn more about it, they become less skeptical. The students schedule is often very flexible, for example, with my daughters school, she doesn't have any particular hours that she has to attend her cyber classes as long as she logs in everyday (for attendance) and completes all assignements on time. So the work can be done in the evening, on the weekends, it can be broken up throughout the day, ect. Learning to be self-motivated is not such a bad thing, as that is a great life skill to have! Really do your homework on the school because the one we chose offers several opportunities for students to meet eachother and meet the teachers in person. There are class trips, school picnics, proms, ect. Our school also offers a performing & fine arts school that is 2 days a week, in person. That's an entire other conversation though! They also offer a two day a week program for gifted students. Plus there are plenty of other activities kids can get involved in outside of school to ensure the social interaction aspect.
So they don't really sound like negatives or con's afterall, do they?
As for the pro's.. I feel much more involved in my child's education with no extra effort. I'm copied on all correspondence between my child and her teachers so I know every single grade and exactly what is going on. The flexible schedule is a bonus of course. You can do double the work one day and no work the next day as long as work is up to date and the child logs in everyday. There is no wasted time with lunch, recess, study halls, the class being held back while kids are diciplined, snow days, ect. The school year is much shorter because of this. They don't have to deal with all the drama that often comes along with attending school everyday, they can just focus on what they are supposed to.. learning. My daughter is learning so much about technology and time management which I believe will really help her with college readiness! She is getting real school credits and will get a real diploma no different than any public school student. Last but not least, as I mentioned in a previous post, this is a free option in our state! Check with your state/location. The school even supplies the necessary equipment!
Of course each cyber school can be a little different so again, if you are considering it, you really need to research which schools to look into. It's also been brought to my attention that many public school districts are offering cyber programs as part of their curriculum. So you can choose to do all cyber or part cyber and partial in-school classes. Then you can still participate in the school extra curricular activities, proms and graduation. There are lots of options! Don't discount it because of pre-conceived ideas! We dismissed it at first but finally agreed to give it a chance and we never looked back!
google's privacy policy
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Is Cyber School like Home School?
The most common reaction I get from people when I tell them my daughter attends cyber school is first a confused look then they ask "you home school?" or "what is cyber school?" So let me start by saying that cyber school is definitely NOT the same thing as home schooling! I do not have a teaching degree, am not smart enough to teach and would not trust my kids future with me being their teacher! As a cyber school mom I am a "home facilitator" which is a far cry from being a "teacher". Let me explain..
I have never home schooled so I really can't comment much on that but I believe that you as the parent would have to come up with a cirriculum, lesson plans, ect. You would be the one to grade papers, give lectures and such. With cyber school everything is done online. Your child attends an online school. They are just doing it from the comforts of their own home. There are teachers, there are assignments, there are due dates, there are report cards, there are progress reports, there are text books and attendance is taken. In our case, there is a different teacher for each subject. She can contact her teachers by several different means-she can call them, email them or instant message them. They are available during normal school hours (more about that later) and there is even someone available after school hours for "homework help". There are optional live chats for every class about once a week or so where the students in that class login to the chat room along with the teacher, they have web cams and microphones so they can actually participate in the chat. They even have show and tell believe it or not. Each class has it's own web page with the assignments posted along with due dates. Some assigments are right there online and some refer to the text book/workbook. Assignments that are written instead of typed are scanned in and sent to the teacher for grading. Foreign language assignments are often to make a recording and sent it to the teacher. As the home facilitator I don't grade any of her assignements, I just track her grades just like I would if she were attending public school. My job is to make sure she is completing her assignments ontime. And if I need to, I can also contact the teachers anytime. All of her grades are emailed to me on a daily basis for each assignment.
There is so much to share on this subject and I will try to add more content everyday (or at least every couple days). Here is just a few of the topics I plan to talk about:
*Pro's Vs Con's of Cyber School
*Dealing with the reactions of friends & family once you make the decision to Cyber School
*Schedule flexibility is a bonus but you need time management skills
*How to ensure they are socializing enough/Extra curricular activities
*Tailoring to the individual needs of the student/family
*Special needs and honors students
*Specialized education
http://www.blogger.com/privacy
I have never home schooled so I really can't comment much on that but I believe that you as the parent would have to come up with a cirriculum, lesson plans, ect. You would be the one to grade papers, give lectures and such. With cyber school everything is done online. Your child attends an online school. They are just doing it from the comforts of their own home. There are teachers, there are assignments, there are due dates, there are report cards, there are progress reports, there are text books and attendance is taken. In our case, there is a different teacher for each subject. She can contact her teachers by several different means-she can call them, email them or instant message them. They are available during normal school hours (more about that later) and there is even someone available after school hours for "homework help". There are optional live chats for every class about once a week or so where the students in that class login to the chat room along with the teacher, they have web cams and microphones so they can actually participate in the chat. They even have show and tell believe it or not. Each class has it's own web page with the assignments posted along with due dates. Some assigments are right there online and some refer to the text book/workbook. Assignments that are written instead of typed are scanned in and sent to the teacher for grading. Foreign language assignments are often to make a recording and sent it to the teacher. As the home facilitator I don't grade any of her assignements, I just track her grades just like I would if she were attending public school. My job is to make sure she is completing her assignments ontime. And if I need to, I can also contact the teachers anytime. All of her grades are emailed to me on a daily basis for each assignment.
There is so much to share on this subject and I will try to add more content everyday (or at least every couple days). Here is just a few of the topics I plan to talk about:
*Pro's Vs Con's of Cyber School
*Dealing with the reactions of friends & family once you make the decision to Cyber School
*Schedule flexibility is a bonus but you need time management skills
*How to ensure they are socializing enough/Extra curricular activities
*Tailoring to the individual needs of the student/family
*Special needs and honors students
*Specialized education
http://www.blogger.com/privacy
Monday, October 3, 2011
Considering Cyber School
When our 11 year daughter first brought up cyber school we were skeptical to say the least. We are in a decent school district and couldn't understand why she suddenly didn't want to go to public school anymore. She is an A-B student, has plenty of friends, insisted she wasn't being bullied, so why cyber school? I guess there could be many reasons.. private schools closing, tuition going up, not happy with the school district, kids being bullied, kids with special needs, ect ect. None of these seemed to apply to us.
Her reason, she was bored in school, felt that the class wasn't moving ahead quickly enough, too many trouble makers in the classroom causing the entire class to fall behind and get in trouble. I can say that there were many times I'd pick her up from school only to be waiting and waiting because the entire class was made to stay after school when only 1 or 2 kids were stirring up trouble. Well after a few months of having a miserable, almost depressed child after school everyday, who was otherwise always very happy go lucky, we finally agreed to look into cyber school.
Pro's Vs Con's
Well first of all I found out it was FREE!! Yes free! In some states, PA included, part of our school taxes we are already paying are redirected to pay for the cyber-charter school. That was the first of many pro's! I'll share more of those later. Of course my main concern was that she would be cooped up in the house instead of going out in the world and being around other kids her own age. I'm sure that is the main concern for many parents and rightfully so. Many of the cyber schools, ours included, have many activities to help overcome that but as a parent of a cyber school student you do have to make sure your child is getting enough interaction with other kids. As the mom of a cyber school student, there is a small amount of work on my part but it's well worth it as my daughter is ahead of where she would have academically and she is happy and well rounded! Anyone considering cyber school as an option, I'm happy to answer any questions but I will post more about this later so stay tuned!!
http://www.blogger.com/privacy
Her reason, she was bored in school, felt that the class wasn't moving ahead quickly enough, too many trouble makers in the classroom causing the entire class to fall behind and get in trouble. I can say that there were many times I'd pick her up from school only to be waiting and waiting because the entire class was made to stay after school when only 1 or 2 kids were stirring up trouble. Well after a few months of having a miserable, almost depressed child after school everyday, who was otherwise always very happy go lucky, we finally agreed to look into cyber school.
Pro's Vs Con's
Well first of all I found out it was FREE!! Yes free! In some states, PA included, part of our school taxes we are already paying are redirected to pay for the cyber-charter school. That was the first of many pro's! I'll share more of those later. Of course my main concern was that she would be cooped up in the house instead of going out in the world and being around other kids her own age. I'm sure that is the main concern for many parents and rightfully so. Many of the cyber schools, ours included, have many activities to help overcome that but as a parent of a cyber school student you do have to make sure your child is getting enough interaction with other kids. As the mom of a cyber school student, there is a small amount of work on my part but it's well worth it as my daughter is ahead of where she would have academically and she is happy and well rounded! Anyone considering cyber school as an option, I'm happy to answer any questions but I will post more about this later so stay tuned!!
http://www.blogger.com/privacy
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)