Session notes from our guest blogger, Abby.
Providing Virtual Success for At-Risk Students Julie McIntosh University of Findlay www.findlay.k12.oh.us/fda
Group Questions:
-What experience do you have with at-risk students?
-Have you worked with digital high schools or online teaching?
-What programs have been successful for you?
-What barriers have been in place at your district?Findlay Digital Academy
-2100 students, 30% defined as at-risk
-Defined at risk as meeting one or more criteria:
-failing one or more classes
-low SES
-behind in credits
-social issues/problems
-emotional problems
-health issues
-teenage pregnancy
-OR Traditional Model was not working for student – Gifted & Talented or learn in large blocks of time.Coaches were a huge intervention mechanism. Licensed teacher available as instructional coach for help. Students not showing up. Pressured them. Started coming and increased performance scores.Several Models utilized for remediation
-Continuous improvement model – more teacher driven, not immediate feedback
-Plato – test-mastery, liked instant feedback
-Apex – provide AP course opportunities, work with APEX teacher
-Family Education Partnership Program- parent can earn diploma at the same time.Findlay statistics:
-If student has not logged on in 21 days they are removed
-2006 had 35 students ended with 124
-2007 had 70 students
-GPA prior to FDA .73, during FDA 3.46, GPA after returning to traditional classroom 1.2Session really didn’t go into much detail about how instructional coaches or other methods were specifically used to help at-risk students. Several of her slides went over starting a virtual school as opposed to addressing the issue of at-risk student support, in my opinion.Tags: VSS2007 , NACOL , virtual school , cyber school , high school , education
Virtual Teachers For The Future.
This is a thread that came from a listserve that I am on which I thought may be of interest to my readers (and may be something you’d like to comment on).
— I deal with preservice teachers, most of whom have never taught before (a few are on alternative certification). I’ve noticed that when training inservice teachers to become online instructors, much of the professional development is online so they’re getting online experience that way. However, my students get no such online experience in our traditional stand-alone technology class. My idea is that we’d be doing them a favor if, somewhere in their teacher preparation program, we gave them the opportunity to be online students. In fact, I’m thinking that if the online P-12 virtual schools trend continues, some amount of training in being a virtual teacher needs to be covered in our teacher ed program.
Do any of you work at institutions that take into account teaching new teachers the skills needed for becoming online instructors?
Shelley McCoyPhD CandidateInstructional TechnologyCollege of Education, Health, and Human SciencesUniversity of Tennesee-Knoxville
We at the University of Michigan-Flint have an entire certificate program for middle and high school teachers who want to learn to teach online. It is comprised of noncredit modules that carry State Board Continuing Education Units (SB-CEUs). Our academic students can take these courses for credit by enrolling in a special projects course and selecting modules that add up to 15 SB-CEUs for each academic credit (maximum three credits).Deborah White, Director, Office of Extended LearningUniversity of Michigan-Flint
Dr. Niki Davis, of Iowa State, ( nedavis@iastate.edu ) leads a federally funded project on preparing teachers to teach in online environments. You may wish to contact her.Tom AndreThomas AndreAssociate Dean for Research and Graduate EducationDirector, Center for Excellence in Science and Mathematics EducationCollege of Human SciencesE262 Lagomarcino HallAmes, IA, 50011-3191voice 515-294-7804fax 515-294-7802
Let me add that the project that Dr. Niki Davis is working on is called Teacher Education Goes Into Virtual Schooling (TEGIVS) project, which I mentioned in an entry back on May 9, 2007 (see Virtual Teaching Internships ). So, what do you think?Tags: virtual school , cyber school , high school , education