Definitions of school types - virtual, home, hybrid

In various conversations I've had over the last few years, I've noticed that everything seems to come down to definitions.  How you think of something makes the difference as to how you work with it.  So, I thought I'd lay out some of my definitions of the types of schools in an attempt to help clarify things.

1- Home School - A parent (family) that chooses to adopt their own curriculum and teach their child the material they feel appropriate.  Now, the curriculum can come from various providers online, both free and paid, or from your local school supply.  It can have religious context or not.  You can unschool your kids, or simply teach them the "normal" material at your pace and your preference of method.  To be able to home school, you have to first file a declaration of intent with the state and then follow all of their rules.  For more information on this, you might start here:  http://www.ghea.org

2 - Virtual School (or schooling from home) - In this case, the parent becomes a helper to the teacher, but isn't the primary teacher themselves.  The school involved (for example, Georgia Cyber Academy or Georgia Connections Academy) provides materials and teachers for the students.  They will follow all state regulations for requirements for materials to be learned. You will follow all state requirements for testing as well.  The advantage here is that the student stays home.  This is an excellent way for medically fragile kids to be able to get their schooling without having to attend.  It's wonderful for families that are involved in their student's education but who do not want the responsibility of the primary curriculum.  In many cases, the families will supplement with additional material (religious or otherwise) and field trips.

3 - Brick & Mortar (B&M) school - Your traditional state/county schools.  Students ride a bus (maybe) to school, are taught at school by teachers, then return home at the end of the day.

4 - Hybrid school - (example - Gwinnett Online Campus) 
This is one that combines your virtual school with your brick and mortar.  Majority of the learning is online via the computer.  The student will go in to a fixed location on some form of schedule for additional teaching or labs with teachers.  It must still follow all requirements as given by the state, but has many of the advantages (and disadvantages) of each of its parents.

School Comparison update (GOC v. GCA)

Now that we have made it through the first few weeks of school, I feel that I can give more of a comparison between the two schools. I find it somewhat funny that I find the advice I give to new parents at Georgia Cyber just as appropriate to give to me this year. I can't expect to have everything under control the first few weeks of school. In fact, it's taken a good month of school for me to figure out how things are going to have to work for me and the kids. New school, new system, new teachers, etc. The catch, though, is that I have less leeway when it comes to grades. GOC doesn't give as much adjustment time before jumping into assessments. That has made it that much harder to figure out and made the scramble to get things in place that much more difficult.

Given that GOC is a new school with a new system, the teachers have given some amnesty in certain areas to help out the students. I can only hope we can take full advantage of it.

To give a comparison, though, you have to first consider the interface that the schools are using. GCA uses K12's interface. For a parent, it is very straight forward putting everything together for you to see what your student has done and needs to do. True, they use multiple web sites for different tasks, which can be confusing (ie: Study Island for progress tests and CRCT review), but it's manageable.

GOC, on the other hand, uses Desire 2 Learn and does not have an easy interface for the parents. You have an auditor's account to look at grades, but you can't see what your child has or has not done. You can't see their upcoming task list. for that, you have to log in to the student's account and go digging. There is one link for the student's assignments and another to check if they've turned in their assignments. I'm not used to having to dig for my kids' coursework.

It took my kids some adjustment to figure out the system as well. I think they'd rather do GOC with the GCA system. The big thing they've enjoyed is going onto campus twice week for the hands-on labs. The school has had their first in-house field trip recently and has their first off campus field trip later this week. They've also had their first day of intramurals. The "extras" are what my kids have wanted most, they're having to decide if the switch was worth it.

End of School week 2

I have done something this week I don't normally do. I haven't posted anything on my blog. I've been busy with work (first week of school with GCA) and my kids (GOC and regular activities). Most of the week, I've felt very over loaded. I hit a 'melt down' point Tuesday and just had to decide that if it didn't have to be done, it wasn't going to be done. This was for work as well as for home.

So, we've survived another week (both and work and with school). Work has been a zoo. I'm not the only one on my team to feel a bit stressed. Luckily for me, my kids help me stay balanced. If nothing else, their activities force me to shut down my computer at a certain point, so that I almost CAN'T over work.

Last week GOC issued the kids watches that measure physical activity. This is to make sure they get at least an hours worth of "play" or such each day. They'll use them to upload to the teachers on a regular basis. Yes, they're graded on it. We're still having some issues with making sure work gets finished, the school has been relatively flexible up to now. Monday the kids will have to make certain work gets turned in on time. We'll see how well that works out.

I have to admit that the highlight of my week was going to the Braves game last night.. more about that another time.

#WW History speaks for Itself @KingCenterAtl

Charter Schools & Legislation

Given my support of charter schools (especially since my kids attend one), I have to speak out against HB 797 (which has already passed, but is pursuant to the constitutional amendment for charter schools being passed) and HR 1162. I'm not sure that those that support the bill have thoroughly read it through or thought about the implications.

"(b) The commission shall be appointed by the State Board of Education and shall be composed of a total of seven members and made up of three appointees recommended by the Governor, two appointees recommended by the President of the Senate, and two appointees recommended by the Speaker of the House of Representatives."

If I'm going to have a commission that oversees part my child's education, I want them elected, not appointed. It's too easy for posts to be given as a political favor, or for it to be divided on political lines. We live in a democracy which has too much bad bureaucracy already. Adding in this is not a good idea. We are having enough issues with making sure our kids are properly educated without having to worry about a commission that doesn't have to be transparent or be held accountable by their constituents.

I'm all for charter schools and would love to see more created. There has to be, though, a point where the people in a district have a voice in when/where/what for their schools. What most don't realize, though, is that the state ALREADY has the right to create 'special charter schools'. There is no need for a constitutional amendment to create a charter commission. --

Ga. Const. Art. VIII, § V, Para. VII

PARAGRAPH VII. Special schools


(a) The General Assembly may provide by law for the creation of special schools in such areas as may require them and may provide for the participation of local boards of education in the establishment of such schools under such terms and conditions as it may provide; but no bonded indebtedness may be incurred nor a school tax levied for the support of special schools without the approval of a majority of the qualified voters voting thereon in each of the systems affected. Any special schools shall be operated in conformity with regulations of the State Board of Education pursuant to provisions of law. The state is authorized to expend funds for the support and maintenance of special schools in such amount and manner as may be provided by law.

(b) Nothing contained herein shall be construed to affect the authority of local boards of education or of the state to support and maintain special schools created prior to June 30, 1983.

So, why is it that we need a commission to handle what's already there? So, in effect, HR1162 is just proposing a change to something that doesn't need to be changed.

Then there's always the question of finance. The economy is bad, we all know that. Just look at DeKalb and what they're going through because of bad management of money. I could wish there were an easy way to settle that issue, but there's not. In the mean time, we don't need to fix something that isn't necessarily broken. It just needs to be utilized appropriately.

So, I won't be voting to change the constitution of our state. I'd hope that you'd consider the above, as well as fully read both HB 797 and HR1162 before you vote next week on the democratic straw poll. Vote on the amendment is in November.

Going to a Virtual School

There's something I've noticed pretty consistently when I talk with new parents. It's that they didn't realize just how
much work there actually is when their child is attending a virtual school. They tend to think that they'll have their kids sit down and log in, then they can go do whatever around the house needs doing. Or they can go to work while their kids "attend school". Not so. Unless you have the world's most perfect responsible child (and no child is completely perfect), then they'll get distracted, or get lost, or just not want to work. It happens to all of them. So, it becomes the parent's responsibility to make sure their child is actually doing the work they're required to do. The parent has to check in with the teachers to make sure the child is on track. The parent, occasionally, has to grade the work so that it can be virtually turned in. At GCA, the parent has to enter the attendance hours based on the work the child has completed that day.

For the most part, it sounds fairly easy and straight forward. It also seems very self evident, especially for the younger kids. It's a gray area for most parents of middle school kids. The kids are older, they're more responsible, they need just as much monitoring (though perhaps a bit more leeway is given).

A BIG thing that parents discover is just how much their child really DOES NOT KNOW. Many don't seem able to handle that. Many struggle with finding out how to get their child to learn. They have to find out what methods do and do not work for their child. They have to find out ways to help their child succeed. Teachers are there to help, but the onus is on the parents for the bulk.

Parents that are enrolling their children in a virtual school have to realize it's not as simple as it sounds. It's more hands on than you expect, but the rewards of the process can be huge.

Chattanooga's Discovery Museum

Last week after the kids and I finished our tour of the Chattanooga Aquarium, we decided to finish the day out at the Discovery Museum. It worked for me to finish a long day in Chattanooga and make the drive worth the time. I "lost" my two here for around an hour playing with the water. This area has a climbing structure as well for the kids (5 and under need someone older with them). The kids went up a couple of times, but came back to the water table each time.

They had an area to explore music and instruments. The girls got the giggles while here.

This was the archaeological (or dinosaur) area. My kids decided the sand was soft like silk and wanted to either a)bring it home with them or b)swim in it. You can guess which they did.

This was the rooftop area. The "swing" is a pulley system. You "race" to the top to ring the bell by pulling yourself up the rope.

There was an art area, a 'medical' area and an 'inventions' area. We couldn't get to the tower (under construction) or the changing exhibit area (also under construction). We did, though, spend around 2 hours here. The kids probably would have stayed longer except that a)the museum was closing not long after we left and b)I didn't want to wait too late before heading home.

All in all, the day was an excellent adventure. Thanks to GCA for doing a trip to the Aquarium, giving us the excuse to explore elsewhere too.

GCA Field Trip - Chattanooga Aquarium

This past Monday, GCA set up a field trip to the Chattanooga Aquarium. It was an opportunity too good to miss, so I packed the kids up and made the 2 hour trip. The littlest one in our group is a penguin fan (my guys love 'em too) and was very excited to see these guys.

These are all fresh water rays. Love the colors on them.

We easily spent an hour in each of the buildings out there. I probably didn't take as many pictures as I should have. The ones that we did take, I had to be selective of as most came out blurry or dark. So, I picked the 3 "best" of the rest and present them to you here.

The kids had a blast. We divided it up by doing the first building, stopping for lunch at the Mellow Mushroom and then moving on to the second building. From there we had ice cream at Ben & Jerrys and then went out to the Discovery Museum. I'll show you the pictures from that part another time.

It did make for a great all-day outing, though. The kids were happy but tired when we got home.

Mommy Meltdowns

Yesterday was NOT a good day. I started off well enough. I got me started (shower, feed animals, feed me..), then I got the kids going. I goofed off in the office until time for school to start. I probably had an inkling that things wouldn't go well when none of the kids wanted to get anything done. This, unfortunately, isn't unusual, so I continued blithely on until the first snag.

The 4yo was imitating her sister. Now, don't get me wrong, I think the world of her sister. She's my daughter's best friend. I'm not, however, totally blind to her faults. One of which is disappearing into her own world while sitting next to you. Yesterday was little sister's turn. She "finished" her work, but some of it wasn't actually complete. She just kinda scribbled then hid the work in the stack so I wouldn't see it. Normally I'd catch it a bit later, but I hit snag number two.

My daughter isn't strong in math. That's ok, we can still get by. I've been happy this past week that I haven't had an overwhelming work load to compete with the time she's needed me to help her out with her school work. Yesterday, though, she realized that she needs more time (A LOT more time) than she's willing to spend to get some of it done. Her weakness is her multiplication tables (followed by division). This has been an issue since 3rd grade. I *thought* we'd worked through most of it, but apparently I was wrong. So, she gets frustrated, which gets me frustrated, which feeds back to her, etc etc. After a while I send her with the youngest to go get lunch and to take a break. It gives me time to sit and see if I can figure out an alternative course.

Fortunately for us, yesterday was also parent/teacher conference day. After talking with the substitute (our teacher is out for maternity leave), we're putting all online math classes on hold for a week. We're going to focus specifically on what my daughter needs help with (confidence). To coordinate with that, I found what seems to be a great help site. I signed us up for a 14-day free trial. I'll let you know how that goes later.

At the same time, she was apparently selected by k12 to be part of a research project. It's some sort of math game that may very well help her out as well. I'll stick with the one I found for today. Next week, we'll take time on both of them to see which we prefer. At the end of the week, I'll see which one actually works.

So, I have a temporary patch for part of my troubles for the day. These weren't the only snags we hit, these were just the big ones. After the 4yo went home, I had a talk with both of mine about other issues that had cropped up during the day. So, I don't think any of us are particularly happy with how the day progressed (or at least how it ended). In the meantime, we have the weekend ahead of us to sit back and calm down before we jump in again head first on Monday.

Hidden gem in Roswell

My kids went on a field trip with one of the Social Studies teachers at GCA. We went to the Roswell visitor center, where we learned something about the history of city. The focus for the group was primarily the civil war time frame.

From there we went on a short hike. Behind "The Mills" (and just down from the visitor center) is the old mill machinery shop and a covered bridge. The bridge crosses Vickery Creek.

There are several trails you can follow. We crossed the bridge and followed it back to the dam.

It was a gorgeous day for the hike. We only did a portion of the trail, though I'd like to go back and do the rest of it. We did return back to the visitor center before heading home. I got this shot of my two before we left.