Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Mastery based system
K12 uses a mastery based system of progress.... what does this mean? It means that as soon as the child masters the material you can move on. So .... spelling ... I give each of my boys a spelling test on Monday ... they review the missed words every day until they can spell them correctly ... in my rising 4th grader this may take several weeks but for my rising 2nd grader we rarely have any words to go over on Tuesday so he gets to take a day off of spelling or move on to the next set of words ... Math ... we watch the video presentation of the material ... if my son appears to have a firm grasp from the sample questions online I will let him take the assessment ... if he passes it he moves on ... if he doesn't have a firm grasp of the sample questions online we review w/the worksheets before taking the assessment
We are still reading ahead so that literature time during the school day is just going over the discussion questions. ELA has gotten much harder for the boys and I find the composition part taking much longer than the allotted time but that's ok. We just work at it each day and get it done.
I hope this will help some new parents in understanding that they don't have to do every little worksheet or problem if the child understands the material. Why give them busy work? The object is to master the material not to make them do busy work and become bored w/the material.
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Block Scheduling
How we do block scheduling. This helps us get ahead before a vacation or get back on track after an illness. It is doable even w/two children in LaVCA.
Every day will have a spelling lesson (maybe 2 one after breakfast and another after lunch)
These are 6 hours per day not number of lessons unless the lessons are an hour each
Mondays - 6 Math
Tuesdays - 3 literature and 3 ELA
Wednesdays - 3 literature and 3 ELA
Thursdays - 3 Science and 3 Music
Fridays - 3 History and 3 Art
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Helpful tips from another virtual school mom
http://www.learningonlineblog.com/2011/11/16/tips-for-catching-up-or-doubling-up-in-k-8/
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
a couple of tips for this year
A tip for parents with more than one child in K12 ... I know this works with science and math ... may work for history depending on the grades ... while you are waiting for classes to load in the OLS ... go through and find all of the units that cover the same material ... for example ... if your second grader is learning time ... chances are your kindergartener will be learning time too at some point ... you can jump ahead in one grade and do them both at the same time ... each will have their own level of understanding and their own assessment but it's nice when you can combine units for multiple grades ... i did this last year with science and math and it made all of the difference for my boys
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
End of the year thoughts
As we approach the end of the first year of LaVCA I sit back and reflect on the past year. I was a traditional home school mom for three years before starting the K12 curriculum. I used a mixed bag of curriculum not just one publisher.
So how do I feel our year went? I had a child entering 2nd grade a year ago and a child starting Kindergarten. I feel like my children learned a lot and enjoyed it for the most part. I have one child that just doesn't like school no matter what. We are re enrolled for next year. I feel like the curriculum is worth the trade off of the very few things I dislike.
Let's start with the second grader. He began the year not reading. He started out in Language Arts 2 but was quickly moved back to LA 1 and Phonics 1. He completed them and moved back into LA2. After several phonics and reading programs he just hadn't learned to read. He can now read. Is he proficient? No. Is he more self confident in his reading and able to read things without help? Yes. The phonics program in K12 was great for my son. It could be a combination of the program and his maturity and readiness to learn. Is it perfect for everyone? No. My second grader is great in math and picks up math facts quickly. He was able to finish second grade math and move on to third grade math. I loved the ability to let him move ahead and challenge himself. The history and science curriculum were both excellent and my child loved them. The art was good too. It combined art history and technique that followed along with the history program. It was an excellent supplement for the history course. The music lessons left a lot to be desired. As a mom that is completely tone deaf, I found this the most trying part of my day.
My kindergartener began reading at three years old. He hated the phonics. He said it was boring. He hated the math because it was boring. In his defense, he wanted to do math last year in PreK so I let him do the Primer level of MathUSee. He had done most of the math already last year. This was all very boring for him. About a month into the school year or more I found out that the children may take the assessments and skip all of the other work involved in the lesson if they have previously mastered the material. We finished K phonics, language and math and moved onto first grade in all three of these subjects. He still doesn't care for math but he is at a point now that he is being challenged with it. He has completed first grade phonics already is almost finished with first grade language. He enjoyed the history, science and art as much as my second grader. The music was an even bigger issue with this little one. He doesn't enjoy "baby" music as he calls it.
From a mom's perspective.
Overall it was a good year. The boys enjoyed the curriculum as much as any other we've done if not more. They loved the science and art more than what I had been previously using. The curriculum is free and while I didn't have quite as much freedom as I had previously, I still had quite a bit. I felt some things were disorganized in the beginning of the year and for the most part they have gotten straightened out. I had a great second grade teacher all year. She was a veteran of K12 in other states so she could help me figure out what I had to do and what was optional. I think if I had had a newer teacher it would have been harder. My K teacher quit after the winter holidays and we got a new one. They were both good but also both very new.
The testing was the big trade off. I had planned on testing the oldest when he was in third grade. I hadn't planned on doing it in second grade and was initially told they didn't test until third grade anyway. Louisiana changed that and implemented ITBS testing for second graders this year. The testing site was very unorganized and chaos was abundant especially for the second graders at our test site. The problem was with the proctor not the school so I won't go into it here.
What do they expect from you on a daily/weekly basis? They expect you to log six hours per day. It's not as hard as you think.
Weekly for second grade we had to do 5 math, 5 language arts, 3 history, 2 science, 2 art, 2 music and 1 PE lesson. Each math is one hour but sometimes they only take 15-30 minutes. Each language art lesson is two hours. The key to these for us was I would make a list of all the books and stories we had to read for the upcoming week(s) and we would read them at bedtime or on the weekends when we were having some down time. This meant when we got to that part of the lesson we could just do the discussion questions and move on. History was also an hour lesson but they rarely took us more than 30 minutes. The science lessons are an hour and depending on how long the hands on part took it may take us up to 90 minutes to complete. Science is one lesson you need to prepare for. There are hands on tasks almost every lesson. Art and music lessons are 45 minutes and sometimes take longer if they are very creative in their assignment.
Weekly for kindergarten we had to do 5 math, 5 language arts, 5 phonics, 1 social studies, 2 history, 2 science, 2 art, 2 music and 1 PE. Language arts and phonics were both an hour. Everything else was 45 minute lessons. Language arts I did the same as for the second grader. We read books at bedtime and quiet time so that the lesson went quicker. Phonics is very intensive and for some might be too much. I found the activities my boys enjoyed and we did those. I did phonics with both because my second grader wasn't reading when school started. The other subjects were similar to the second grader time wise. Some took the full time others took much less. In Kindergarten you also get one hour supplemental hours for a nap.
How do you log hours every day? You can log them from your computer or your smart phone. There is an app for attendance. Log the greater of these two: the actual time it took or the time they allotted for the lesson. If your child was sitting in a classroom and finished his work in 10 minutes he'd still have to sit there for an hour and get the credit for the time. What if you do more than six hours in a day? You can "bank" it. What if you are sick or the child is sick? You can either use banked hours or let them watch an educational movie or read to them and use it as supplemental. What if you go to the doctor, dentist, eye dr or other medical appt? You put it under health. Field trips are put under supplemental as well as anything else you do that is educational, for example, cooking (science, math), gardening (science), and just about anything else you do. Any sports activity including team sports, active play, even wii fit or other like games that get you up and moving and increases your heart rate count as PE.
What are "banked" hours? How do you keep track of them? Let me see if I can explain this well. When you begin school, get a notebook to use as your bank. Each day as you complete lessons you log them into the OLS as completed. IF you do more than six hours that day write down the course and number of hours or lessons you completed OVER the six hours. Then when you have a day that you can't do school work for whatever reason you go to your notebook and take hours out. Mark them in attendance (you have already marked them in OLS) and scratch them out of your notebook. Does that make sense?
If you have any questions or want to know more don't hesitate to ask.
So how do I feel our year went? I had a child entering 2nd grade a year ago and a child starting Kindergarten. I feel like my children learned a lot and enjoyed it for the most part. I have one child that just doesn't like school no matter what. We are re enrolled for next year. I feel like the curriculum is worth the trade off of the very few things I dislike.
Let's start with the second grader. He began the year not reading. He started out in Language Arts 2 but was quickly moved back to LA 1 and Phonics 1. He completed them and moved back into LA2. After several phonics and reading programs he just hadn't learned to read. He can now read. Is he proficient? No. Is he more self confident in his reading and able to read things without help? Yes. The phonics program in K12 was great for my son. It could be a combination of the program and his maturity and readiness to learn. Is it perfect for everyone? No. My second grader is great in math and picks up math facts quickly. He was able to finish second grade math and move on to third grade math. I loved the ability to let him move ahead and challenge himself. The history and science curriculum were both excellent and my child loved them. The art was good too. It combined art history and technique that followed along with the history program. It was an excellent supplement for the history course. The music lessons left a lot to be desired. As a mom that is completely tone deaf, I found this the most trying part of my day.
My kindergartener began reading at three years old. He hated the phonics. He said it was boring. He hated the math because it was boring. In his defense, he wanted to do math last year in PreK so I let him do the Primer level of MathUSee. He had done most of the math already last year. This was all very boring for him. About a month into the school year or more I found out that the children may take the assessments and skip all of the other work involved in the lesson if they have previously mastered the material. We finished K phonics, language and math and moved onto first grade in all three of these subjects. He still doesn't care for math but he is at a point now that he is being challenged with it. He has completed first grade phonics already is almost finished with first grade language. He enjoyed the history, science and art as much as my second grader. The music was an even bigger issue with this little one. He doesn't enjoy "baby" music as he calls it.
From a mom's perspective.
Overall it was a good year. The boys enjoyed the curriculum as much as any other we've done if not more. They loved the science and art more than what I had been previously using. The curriculum is free and while I didn't have quite as much freedom as I had previously, I still had quite a bit. I felt some things were disorganized in the beginning of the year and for the most part they have gotten straightened out. I had a great second grade teacher all year. She was a veteran of K12 in other states so she could help me figure out what I had to do and what was optional. I think if I had had a newer teacher it would have been harder. My K teacher quit after the winter holidays and we got a new one. They were both good but also both very new.
The testing was the big trade off. I had planned on testing the oldest when he was in third grade. I hadn't planned on doing it in second grade and was initially told they didn't test until third grade anyway. Louisiana changed that and implemented ITBS testing for second graders this year. The testing site was very unorganized and chaos was abundant especially for the second graders at our test site. The problem was with the proctor not the school so I won't go into it here.
What do they expect from you on a daily/weekly basis? They expect you to log six hours per day. It's not as hard as you think.
Weekly for second grade we had to do 5 math, 5 language arts, 3 history, 2 science, 2 art, 2 music and 1 PE lesson. Each math is one hour but sometimes they only take 15-30 minutes. Each language art lesson is two hours. The key to these for us was I would make a list of all the books and stories we had to read for the upcoming week(s) and we would read them at bedtime or on the weekends when we were having some down time. This meant when we got to that part of the lesson we could just do the discussion questions and move on. History was also an hour lesson but they rarely took us more than 30 minutes. The science lessons are an hour and depending on how long the hands on part took it may take us up to 90 minutes to complete. Science is one lesson you need to prepare for. There are hands on tasks almost every lesson. Art and music lessons are 45 minutes and sometimes take longer if they are very creative in their assignment.
Weekly for kindergarten we had to do 5 math, 5 language arts, 5 phonics, 1 social studies, 2 history, 2 science, 2 art, 2 music and 1 PE. Language arts and phonics were both an hour. Everything else was 45 minute lessons. Language arts I did the same as for the second grader. We read books at bedtime and quiet time so that the lesson went quicker. Phonics is very intensive and for some might be too much. I found the activities my boys enjoyed and we did those. I did phonics with both because my second grader wasn't reading when school started. The other subjects were similar to the second grader time wise. Some took the full time others took much less. In Kindergarten you also get one hour supplemental hours for a nap.
How do you log hours every day? You can log them from your computer or your smart phone. There is an app for attendance. Log the greater of these two: the actual time it took or the time they allotted for the lesson. If your child was sitting in a classroom and finished his work in 10 minutes he'd still have to sit there for an hour and get the credit for the time. What if you do more than six hours in a day? You can "bank" it. What if you are sick or the child is sick? You can either use banked hours or let them watch an educational movie or read to them and use it as supplemental. What if you go to the doctor, dentist, eye dr or other medical appt? You put it under health. Field trips are put under supplemental as well as anything else you do that is educational, for example, cooking (science, math), gardening (science), and just about anything else you do. Any sports activity including team sports, active play, even wii fit or other like games that get you up and moving and increases your heart rate count as PE.
What are "banked" hours? How do you keep track of them? Let me see if I can explain this well. When you begin school, get a notebook to use as your bank. Each day as you complete lessons you log them into the OLS as completed. IF you do more than six hours that day write down the course and number of hours or lessons you completed OVER the six hours. Then when you have a day that you can't do school work for whatever reason you go to your notebook and take hours out. Mark them in attendance (you have already marked them in OLS) and scratch them out of your notebook. Does that make sense?
If you have any questions or want to know more don't hesitate to ask.
posts from Facebook
LAVCA
(K12) doesn't send you a supply list. This is what I had for the boys
at the beginning of school and I bought enough to replenish the boxes
at Christmas ... fat markers, skinny markers, colored pencils, 2 boxes
of crayons, scissors, glue sticks, index
cards (LOTS OF THEM), watercolor paints, postit notes, pencils, and
some fun stickers. I had a basket for them to keep these in. I bought
these things for EACH of my boys ... the only thing i didn't buy enough
of was index cards ... postit notes are for me to make notes on the
pages they need to complete that day. We have a crate that holds
hanging files ... each child has a crate ... they have a folder for each
subject and a couple of fun things ... each day's assignment for that
subject is in the folder along w/what is needed to complete the
assignment ... they do a folder at a time and then some folders have 15
min break, snack etc ... we follow the workbox system for getting
assignments done ...see next tip
** as far as liking LAVCA ... let me say this ... the trade off for me is the curriculum is great ... so is it worth the curriculum for me to take my children through CHAOS twice/year for testing and turn in work samples four times/year? yeah it is and it keeps hubby happy ... he wants them in B/M school ... so we compromised and the children LOVE the curriculum and don't seem to get as upset over the chaos of testing as i do
**my best advice is to remember you don't have to do EVERY activity or worksheet. if she gets the material move on or you will both be overwhelmed ... it's a lot of "paperwork" but you don't have to do it all just make it fun and there are tons of online helps for reading as well ... starfall.com is one of our favorites
**My advice to someone starting fresh in August would be
1. Start lessons as soon as you get OLS up and loaded. This could be up to two weeks before school starts. This way you can start off slow and build up your bank - see number 2
2. Get a notebook just for attendance or some kind of record book. Each day write the course name and number of lessons completed. This will be your bank for hours.
3. Record ONLY six hours every day. For example, my son did 2 math lessons today (he gets 1 hr for each so 2 hrs for today), 2 language arts lessons (he gets 2 hrs for each so 4 hrs for today) That's six hours I didn't record anything else, everything else went in his bank.
4. If his lesson only takes 5 minutes give them the full time allotted for it.
5. You can log up to 12 hours of supplemental hours per week. NOTE: If you do this you will more than likely end up behind but they are good for the occasional field trip day or park day.
6. Use your bank hours when you need them to make up time that you couldn't do school ... sick days, emergencies, etc.
7. Log PE hours as often as they do PE. I was told all organized sports count so start banking baseball, football, soccer, etc that they participate in after the end of school this year for next year.
8. Health hours are for doctor appointments, including eye, dental, etc.
Sorry for the long post but it's things I've learned this year thanks to a veteran K12 teacher and friends in other states.
oh and one more thing ... if you have a smartphone download the K12 attendance app so you can log hours from anywhere
SOME CLARIFICATION ON BANK:
Q: A, thx for taking the time to explain the "bank!" so... If you complete lessons 2 and 3 in math, you only mark 2 complete? Or mark them both complete but save the extra hour?
A: I mark it complete in the OLS but save the hour of attendance for a day that I need it. EXAMPLE: Monday I had a funeral to attend out of town. I Kmailed both teachers and told them I was using banked hours until we returned home. SO in OLS I had no lessons for the days I didn't teach but in Attendance I had 1 hr math, 2 hr ELA, 1 hr PE, 1 hr Science and 1 hr History that I had saved from a day that I didn't need anymore hours. Did that help clear up any confusion. When I do this for more than one day in a row I usually Kmail teachers to let them know what's going on
Q: So you had no lessons in ols because you scheduled they day with none planned? Everything else , I get! THANK YOU!
A: IN OLS ... there were things there that morning but we didn't do them ... if you don't do them they roll over to the next day and it just says no lessons for today
what i do is each lesson gets it's own folder ... and we have a chart that has a place for them to mark when they are done ... they do two lessons then have something fun ... either snack ... computer free time ... craft etc for 30 min (this is my time do some one on one w/the other one) ... then repeat until all lessons are done ... i'm hoping to do boxes next year as it will help to keep all of the pages in the workbooks instead of tearing them all out to put in the folders
** as far as liking LAVCA ... let me say this ... the trade off for me is the curriculum is great ... so is it worth the curriculum for me to take my children through CHAOS twice/year for testing and turn in work samples four times/year? yeah it is and it keeps hubby happy ... he wants them in B/M school ... so we compromised and the children LOVE the curriculum and don't seem to get as upset over the chaos of testing as i do
**my best advice is to remember you don't have to do EVERY activity or worksheet. if she gets the material move on or you will both be overwhelmed ... it's a lot of "paperwork" but you don't have to do it all just make it fun and there are tons of online helps for reading as well ... starfall.com is one of our favorites
**My advice to someone starting fresh in August would be
1. Start lessons as soon as you get OLS up and loaded. This could be up to two weeks before school starts. This way you can start off slow and build up your bank - see number 2
2. Get a notebook just for attendance or some kind of record book. Each day write the course name and number of lessons completed. This will be your bank for hours.
3. Record ONLY six hours every day. For example, my son did 2 math lessons today (he gets 1 hr for each so 2 hrs for today), 2 language arts lessons (he gets 2 hrs for each so 4 hrs for today) That's six hours I didn't record anything else, everything else went in his bank.
4. If his lesson only takes 5 minutes give them the full time allotted for it.
5. You can log up to 12 hours of supplemental hours per week. NOTE: If you do this you will more than likely end up behind but they are good for the occasional field trip day or park day.
6. Use your bank hours when you need them to make up time that you couldn't do school ... sick days, emergencies, etc.
7. Log PE hours as often as they do PE. I was told all organized sports count so start banking baseball, football, soccer, etc that they participate in after the end of school this year for next year.
8. Health hours are for doctor appointments, including eye, dental, etc.
Sorry for the long post but it's things I've learned this year thanks to a veteran K12 teacher and friends in other states.
oh and one more thing ... if you have a smartphone download the K12 attendance app so you can log hours from anywhere
SOME CLARIFICATION ON BANK:
Q: A, thx for taking the time to explain the "bank!" so... If you complete lessons 2 and 3 in math, you only mark 2 complete? Or mark them both complete but save the extra hour?
A: I mark it complete in the OLS but save the hour of attendance for a day that I need it. EXAMPLE: Monday I had a funeral to attend out of town. I Kmailed both teachers and told them I was using banked hours until we returned home. SO in OLS I had no lessons for the days I didn't teach but in Attendance I had 1 hr math, 2 hr ELA, 1 hr PE, 1 hr Science and 1 hr History that I had saved from a day that I didn't need anymore hours. Did that help clear up any confusion. When I do this for more than one day in a row I usually Kmail teachers to let them know what's going on
Q: So you had no lessons in ols because you scheduled they day with none planned? Everything else , I get! THANK YOU!
A: IN OLS ... there were things there that morning but we didn't do them ... if you don't do them they roll over to the next day and it just says no lessons for today
Introduction
This is where I'll share what I have learned after using LaVCA, K12's virtual charter school in Louisiana for one year. I have two children. One is in kindergarten and the other is in second grade. This is MY opinion and advice for anyone considering this option of schooling. I don't sugar coat things.
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