Back to School with K12

• January 3, 2018
• Nana's Life, Raising Grandchildren
• Sandy

I thought I would give a short update on how our school year has gone up to this point with K12  

The girls have thoroughly enjoyed their winter break and we are ready to get started in our 3rd semester of  Public School Online using the K12 system. 

I will admit, we have had some huge adjustments and it hasn’t all been a  bed of roses!!    TNVA (Tennessee Virtual Academy) is the school that K12 uses for our area.   The 1st semester TNVA did a bunch of changes, and of course the girls were adjusting to learning in a virtual environment.   We had some teacher changes half way through the semester, which was a big adjustment, in addition to some technical changes on how to use the systems they had provided us.  

With our 2nd semester, we had even bigger adjustments.  Our start time was changed and how our days / week was laid out was completely changed.   We began our classes an hour earlier , plus some new systems were added while others were discontinued.   It was rough, but we made it through. 

The girls are getting ready to begin the 3rd semester and we are hoping that things are smooth sailing for the rest of the school year!   The only change I have seen so far, which is a major one, is that my 6th grader has had a complete change of her teachers.   She will be starting her classes next week with all new teachers in every subject.   I am hoping that this is a positive change for her and she is able to adjust quickly and successfully to it.   We absolutely LOVED her homeroom teacher, so we were very sad to see her go.  

One of the biggest adjustments to Public School Online, is learning to work in a virtual environment.  The girls are 10 and 11 years old in 4th and 6th grade, and it is a challenge to get them to stay focused during class time.   I know as an adult, it is hard to just sit and listen to somebody when they are teaching via  a video .  I, as the learning coach, have to come up with ways to enhance whatever is taught each day, and make sure that what they are learning is “sticking” .    In addition, the other thing I have noticed is that the girls tend to want to “rush” through their work, so that they can get on about whatever they want to do for the day.    I have spoke with some other parents in the same school system and apparently this is a common problem with children that are new to a virtual learning environment.  So that is one of our goals this semester, is to make sure that our time spent learning is not rushed.   You can not learn, if you simply have one goal, and that is to “get it done”.  

I will also be working with the girls this semester a little closer, and trying to come up with new ways to enhance whatever they are learning in their classes.  Maybe start doing some additional projects, if time allows.   I will say that I believe that is where the challenge will come in!!   With the systems they use to teach through TNVA, it is EXTREMELY hard to fit anything else in a school day.  The girls are in classes for 4 hours of the day and then have additional off line work that is approximately another 2+ hours a day.    I don’t want to work them past the  “normal school day”  of 6 hours in a day, so I will just have to figure out where we may have some extra time during the week.   The way they have things set up, traditionally Fridays are our “make up” days, so I am planning on using part of that time as a recap and additional enhancement of what they learned for the week.  

So that is the plan as we enter into our 3rd semester this school year.   

I would LOVE to hear from any other parents that have used K12 or any other Public School Online as to how you have succeeded with the school!!  Or maybe you have questions for me?? 

Feel free to comment below and I will reply just as soon as possible!!