Connections Academy Blog, Virtual Learning Connections

I just read a new study by Harvard Professor Nancy Hill concluding that parents’ helping children with their homework does not help them do well in school (article by Deborah Blagg, 2009). Wait a second, I thought, that is what good parents do! My wife and I take turns working with our three children on their homework because we assumed that our efforts would help them succeed in school and beyond. I guess if the world always worked as we expected, we wouldn’t need research.

So if “homework help” isn’t really helping, what should we be doing to ensure that our children are successful in school and in life? According to Professor Hill, volunteering (e.g., PTA, helping out in the classroom) helps a little, and educational activities (e.g., trips to the library or a museum) also can’t hurt, but what really can make a difference is our ability to connect children’s schoolwork to their life’s work. Hill writes, “Our study shows that helping children understand the value and utility of education correlates well with higher achievement levels in middle school and high school.” Children need to understand that mastering their times tables, reading Shakespeare, and learning the state capitals all have a connection to higher education, meaningful work, and ultimately a good life. If you can convince them of that, then they will get their homework done on their own—and you will just need to get out of the way.

So how do you do this? Hill’s analysis ...

Have you ever wondered what it's like to be a high school student in an online school?  The best way to find an answer is to go to the source.  Hannah Berquist has been kind enough to share her thoughts on the experience and a few of the surprises she had along the way!

Hannah Bergquist, MTS Minnesota Connections Academy High School Graduate 2010

Like many seniors across the state, I am celebrating the completion of high school and looking forward to beginning college next fall. However, my route to graduation was somewhat nonstandard. I completed my freshman year as a traditional high school student and to all outward appearances was very successful. I was involved in choir, made the junior varsity tennis team and doing well academically. Yet, over the course of the school year I had become increasingly frustrated with several things. First, despite having good grades, I all too often left my classes feeling confused about the homework making it difficult to complete. I often felt as if I was teaching the material to myself or relying on help from my parents. Second, the lack of discipline in all too many of my classrooms made it difficult to learn or enjoy the class time. Third, I was frustrated by not having as much free time as I would have liked in order to pursue other interests. This led to my decision to pursue other alternatives for completing my high school education

With help from my parents, I settled ...

The final day of virtual school lessons ushers in those “lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer.” An unstructured schedule and change of focus can provide a much-needed break after a busy school year with an online school. But it can also provide the perfect conditions for spending too much time on the couch and sleeping till the crack of noon. Learning loss and summer inactivity have gained the attention of many in the news recently when First Lady Michelle Obama spoke out about the “Let’s Read. Let’s Move.” initiative to support parents and communities with resources to help kids stay on a path for success.

So, how can you keep kids from being too sedentary this summer? Here are 10 quick ideas for an active summer.

• Create a backyard scavenger hunt.
• Learn to play a good old-fashioned game of jacks. 
• Jump rope.
• Create an obstacle course, time how long it takes to complete, and work to beat your record.
• Running errands? Make exercise part of the day.
• Start a garden.
• Create an activity calendar.
• Map out a family walk, bike ride, or hike.
• Learn and practice nine different swimming strokes.
• Look for volunteering opportunities.

What activities did you enjoy during your summers as a youth?  Your kids would love to learn about what you did.  Think back to your younger days, create a list and share with your kids and with us too!

Virtual school graduates continually tell me how the skills they learned through a virtual school experience better prepared them for life after high school. Aaron Ridenour, Ohio Connections Academy’s valedictorian, picked up on this point even before graduating, so I just had to share his amazing graduation speech:

Aaron Ridenour, Graduation Speech, 2010

Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished faculty and administrators, friends and family, and, of course, the Ohio Connections Academy class of 2010: I would like to thank you for giving me the honor to speak on behalf of the class of 2010.

My fellow classmates, we’ve all made it through high school. Not just any high school, but Ohio Connections Academy—a school that has given us the opportunity to reach our goals and maximum potential: to be the best that we could be. We were pioneers on the forefront of a new and innovative form of education, and we encountered many obstacles. We made it through semester and interim deadlines.

Along the way, we became independent and self-motivated students. Our teachers taught us how to write a research paper, apply the scientific method, and use the Pythagorean theorem. What I believe they taught us the most was to think creatively, have confidence in ourselves, be responsible individuals, have goals, and have the fortitude to achieve those goals. When our social studies teachers were teaching us about the past, they were opening our eyes to what our future could hold. When our English teachers were teaching us about other ...

Summer is officially here! I love having my daughter in a virtual school, but I also take delight in seeing her turn in her final assignment for the year. I am also aware that summer is a time when kids experience learning losses if they don’t engage in learning activities, so for some ideas, I checked in with Connections Academy Vice President for Curriculum Dr. Patricia Hoge. She reminded me how simple it is to create opportunities for summer learning.

Dr. Hoge says that “When it comes to summer learning, a little goes a long way. Investing an hour or even 30 minutes each day in educational activities will give your child a big advantage come September. Educational opportunities are all around, but sometimes you just need to know where to look or how to look at the things around you.”

Knowing where to look is a great start, so here are 10 creative free learning ideas for summer to kick-start a season of learning fun!

1. Play Ball!
   Let America’s favorite pastime give your kids a mental workout this summer. The Science of Baseball is a free Web site that offers fun and interactive games (Fastball Reaction Time and Scientific Slugger: See What Makes a Home Run) as well as some great historical information (The Girls of Summer). An entertaining alternative when the game is rained out!
2. Drive Home Math and Spelling Skills
   Yes, a 15-minute car trip is just enough time to get your NPR fix, but … ...

I've taught science to virtual school students at Capistrano Connections Academy for a couple of years now. One advantage of being in an exciting, groundbreaking virtual school is that brick-and-mortar walls don’t define our learning possibilities. So how do we make science exciting beyond the printed textbook? Virtual field trips allow us to overcome limitations of distance, time, lack of access, and money. Want to take an educational and exhilarating virtual field trip to the moon? Here’s how!

By reaching out to the Internet for some great resources, and into your kitchen cabinets for a few ingredients, you can create the moon’s surface!

So put on your virtual space suit and follow along…

The first great resource is Google Earth. It’s free and has these amazing tools for exploring the moon:

• A re-creation of the Apollo 11 landing narrated by Buzz Aldrin
• High-resolution maps of the moon
• A historical archive of the original moon-landing photos
• 360-degree photos to see astronauts’ footprints
• Panoramic imagery of the moon’s surface taken by astronauts—zoom into different areas and rotate the globe to inspect the craters, rays, and maria

Now you are ready to start tracking the moon.

Ask your child to think about those nights that he or she saw a big, beautiful moon up in the sky. Was the moon in the same spot in the sky the next day, week, and month? Tracking the moon is an extremely helpful method to understanding that the moon orbits around the Earth and we ...

Our house has been very busy the past week as my daughter is finishing up math lessons, taking finals, and planning for summer break. Can you believe that the school year is ending so soon? Summer is definitely a time for kids to relax a bit and enjoy being young. That doesn’t mean that their minds need to shut down, though! This year we are taking advantage of every sun-filled moment, but will keep learning alive at the same time.

Here are a few ways to help you plan some summer learning fun.

1. Check for upcoming fairs and expositions in your state using the free fair finder tool at http://www.fairsandexpos.com.
2. Check your local libraries for summer reading programs.
3. Sign up for an online summer school course to keep kids engaged in learning during the summer and earn credits needed for graduation. The great thing about online summer school classes is that they can travel with you wherever you go this summer!
4. Join a summer program at your local community center, or check out the hundreds of activities available at our wonderful state parks:
   http://www.recreation.gov/.

Cherish these wonderful summer days with your kids. Share in their learning and their experiences, take lots of pictures, and don’t forget to wear sunscreen!

Share your favorite summer planning resources with us!

Virtual schooling for a kindergarten student? Yes! Students of all ages, even kindergartners, are learning successfully in virtual schools—and loving it!

These days, kindergarten in any school is no longer equivalent to spending the entire school day playing with sand tables, coloring pictures, and playing house. Little kindergartners are now expected to do much more than in the past. So how do parents keep their young, squirmy children with short attention spans focused in a virtual school setting? This is how it can be done, and is being done, by thousands of parents each and every day in the virtual school environment:

• Kindergarten should be filled with varied learning opportunities, so include trips to parks and museums, craft projects that tie into a math or reading lesson, play dates with other children, singing songs, and other creative activities.
• Lessons that are designed for kindergarten students should have several transitions to break up the lesson. If a kindergartner is spending more than 15 consecutive minutes doing the exact same thing, he or she will not retain the knowledge. When doing a reading lesson, for example, have your child listen to part of a story, then stop to ask questions or do a picture walk to predict what might happen next. This is enough of a transition to keep your child engaged in the story and continuing to work.
• Your kindergarten student is learning to write his or her letters and numbers this year. A fun activity is to have ...

Twelve-year old Koa Halpern, an online middle school student with Colorado Connections Academy, has a challenge for kids (and grown-ups) everywhere. Pledge not to eat fast food for 2 weeks!  Could it really be that simple to make a huge difference? Yes! 

The “Spring into Healthy Eating Challenge” that Koa posted on his Web site www.FastFoodFree.org, kicks off on Earth Day 2010, asking kids to sign a pledge to give up fast food for two weeks. His hope is that by giving up fast food for just two weeks, we can help keep hearts healthier, help the environment and keep extra pounds from developing on kids. If you are a busy virtual school or homeschool family, you may be wondering how to meet this challenge—don't fret, Koa offers some great tips! You can also find ideas for healthy meals on some of these other Virtual Learning Connections blog posts!

 “The mission of Fast Food Free is to reduce the consumption of fast food through education and community awareness, resulting in healthier people and a better world,” reads Koa’s Web site. “Fast Food Free is important to me because of the health risk fast food poses to people, animal rights violations, and the effects the fast food industry has on the environment. Personally, my number one concern is how the fast food industry impacts the world we live in. I don’t want kids growing up obese, I think it's awful for chickens to be packed in ...

I began my teaching career in a traditional bricks-and-mortar setting, and when the opportunity presented itself to me to teach in an online environment at Nevada Connections Academy, I practically beat down the principal’s door in order to get a chance to try something new. For me, online learning presented a highly challenging type of academic environment—one that changed much of what we traditionally know about learning—and shouted, “Let’s try something new!” I love a new learning curve, and this was so far removed from my teaching comfort zone that the brand-new excitement of an innovative challenge to teaching and learning was almost overwhelming. There is so much about online education that is new and demanding—and that excitement is still very much a part of what I do every day. While students of all ages are learning new information and using new skills to demonstrate their intellectual advancements, many of us are simultaneously unlearning old habits and ways of thinking about school.

Instead of having students right in front of me, hearing overlapping conversations and seeing laughter or serious thought evident on many faces, I make phone calls, and I develop relationships over the phone, through WebMail, and during LiveLesson® online classroom sessions. Do I eventually “see” and experience my students’ personalities? Absolutely! While ours is an environment where every stakeholder is invested in a diverse way, there are more robust relationships and there is a significant amount of quality time invested in our students, which reveals ...