Since this unusual school year started a couple of weeks ago, my two kids – a freshman and a junior at a large Portland Public high school – have been staggering out of bed in the morning, riding TriMet buses in oversized jeans, and hastily dropping their loaded backpacks upon return in the afternoon. They’ve also been liberally sharing their ideas about how the experience of high school might be improved. I imagine they’re not alone in having and sharing these ideas. My kids are not policy wonks or aspiring educational reformers. They’re kids, and they have to go to school, and they, like all kids, have ideas about their lives.
Love the feedback from the Davis kids. Except for spending a lot of "in-person" time with classmates at school, they can get most of the things on their checklist from a full-time online school like Connections Academy. Sleeping in, longer lunch, class outside, no homework, no packed hallways, and backpacks only for extracurricular activities like sports.
Students also decide how long they want to spend on an assignment each day, live webinars with teachers are usually not more than an hour, and each student's learning is personalized to their needs. Connection’s students often socialize before live classes, chat over social media and text like a lot of teens, but have plenty of friends IRL-in real life.
Love the feedback from the Davis kids. Except for spending a lot of "in-person" time with classmates at school, they can get most of the things on their checklist from a full-time online school like Connections Academy. Sleeping in, longer lunch, class outside, no homework, no packed hallways, and backpacks only for extracurricular activities like sports.
Students also decide how long they want to spend on an assignment each day, live webinars with teachers are usually not more than an hour, and each student's learning is personalized to their needs. Connection’s students often socialize before live classes, chat over social media and text like a lot of teens, but have plenty of friends IRL-in real life.