Breaking Down the Barriers

I am so excited about the opportunities that students are going to have with the introduction of Online and Blended learning at the high school level.  For years I have taught and worked in small districts that worked hard to give students as many opportunities as possible, but in my opinion, still came up short.  Small schools have their benefits, don't get me wrong, but they also are very limiting when it comes to academic variety.  Many times there would not be enough interest in a course to have it offered.  This was a barrier to students being able to learn about things such as Marketing, Computer Programing, higher level sciences, or maybe even foreign languages for example.  However, with distance learning this barrier can be removed.  Distance education would give us the ability to offer one section of a course online and have students from multiple schools participating with the same teacher.  So if there were 3 students at one school that were interested, and 7 at another, then you would be able to offer it to the 10 students.  This will begin to give curricular options to these students of smaller schools that they haven't had access to before.

Another exciting aspect of this new learning method is it's ability to make flexible scheduling a reality.  The traditional 8am to 3pm school day doesn't work well for many of todays high school students.  Some need to be at work to help support their families.  Others want to be getting on the job experience or volunteering to help them to grow as individuals and learn about their interests.  And some may not be physically well enough to participate in the traditional school setting. All of these situations that used to be a barrier for students wanting to get a Core 40 diploma or Honors diploma, now can be handled much more easily with the addition of online classes.  Student can log into these courses when it's convenient for them and complete their assignments.  The content is available for them when they need it, and the communication takes place via email at the convenience of the student and teacher.  

I am excited.  I'm excited to be able to provide students with the best curriculum possible.  I'm excited to see students be as successful as they can possibly be no matter what their circumstances.  And I'm excited to be a part of this new endeavor that will forever change the way our children will be educated here in Wabash County.