The secret to VLACS’ success may be that it does things differently from most virtual schools. It puts a focus on building strong student-teacher relationships. It breaks up traditional courses into specific skills and abilities, called “competencies,” that students master through a personalized blend of traditional lesson plans, offline projects and real-world experiences.
An interesting approach to the limitations of relationships with online coursework. It seems to be working for them, but I’ll need to do more research.
There are two settings I change when I start up Chrome for the first time. Here’s a YouTube Short showing the settings: Turn on sync By signing in to Google Chrome and turning on sync, all of my bookmarks, extensions, passwords, and more sync. This allows me to use my laptop, my desktop, or a…
Using entry and exit tickets is a way for students to summarize and reflect on their learning in the classroom. Given at the start or end of class (or sometimes both!), these tickets are also a way for a teacher to see how the students are learning the material and to see if any changes…
I don’t like to write anything, so when I have to mail something, I want to print out the envelope. Unfortunately, Google Docs doesn’t have the venerable #10 envelope as a paper size. Never fear, the Envelopes add-on for Google Docs will save the day. To get started, open up a new Google Docs document,…
When a class is assigned to do a presentation for a subject, students groan. Maybe screencasts can bring back the magic? Not only do they have to stand in front of the class and present, they have to sit through 25 other presentations of students, done in the exact same manner. What if you mixed…
In the past, I’ve sat in on principal interviews. One of my favorite questions is, “Are you data driven or data informed?” Since this isn’t a common question, interviewees do not have a standard response and have to work through their thoughts. There are usually two routes that interviewees take on the answer. The first…
