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
No comments:
Post a Comment