Legislation
Rain Clouds and a Growth Mindset
By Guest Blogger on October 12th, 2017
I’m not a science teacher. But I know that when the dark, gray, thick clouds roll in, it means rain isn’t far behind. Most people see dark clouds as foreboding and impending doom.
When they roll in, they run for cover. Continue reading
Elementary Students Attend FLVS Day at the Capitol
By Guest Blogger on April 17th, 2017
Pictured from left to right: Adriana, Andrew, and Branden with FLVS Communications Specialists Diana Furey & Suzan Kurdak
If you ask me, there is nothing like the rush of sharing with our state legislators the unique ways FLVS serves Florida students, and it’s even better when students themselves get to share their stories.
On April 5, 2017, that’s exactly what happened in Tallahassee.
Florida Virtual School executives, board members, staff, parents, and students walked into the state Capitol with a mission.
It was FLVS Day at the Capitol and we wanted our state Senators and Representatives to know how important access to virtual education is for students of all ages. Right now, students in grades 2-5 wishing to take FLVS courses on a part-time basis have to meet a list of eligibility requirements, with the most problematic being that they must have been enrolled in a Florida public school the entire year prior.
House Bill 833 and Senate Bills 868 and 692 remove those eligibility requirements.
Passing these bills means FLVS Flex Elementary students can continue their education with FLVS, allowing them to learn from the hospital, abroad, and from home without restriction. Continue reading
How FLVS Has Impacted My Daughters
By Guest Blogger on April 3rd, 2017
My family and I are so thankful for FLVS that words can’t express enough how we feel. You see, I went to college to be a teacher assistant and I used to teach Pre-K, so I firmly believe in education through the public school system. Our plan for our first daughter, Riley Marie, was public school, just like all her other friends and family. But in 2015, our whole world changed.
My second daughter, Holly Berlin, was born in January 2015 with a life-threatening genetic disease called Cystic Fibrosis. This disease changed the way we lived, traveled, ate, and even socialized. This disease can progress tremendously overnight with just one simple sickness such as the common cold.
What do most elementary kids have to battle their first year in school? That’s right: colds, viruses, and more.
Even though it was our newborn who was affected with this disease, we had to make the decision to protect her from any of these viruses entering our home, which is why we decided to homeschool our older child to prevent her from spreading these viruses. Continue reading
Supporting Access to Online Education for All
By Guest Blogger on February 23rd, 2017
Today is Digital Learning Day!
It’s a day when the whole nation celebrates all the wonderful benefits of online learning and digital literacy.
You know, everything from the cool and advanced technology of courses and anytime learning, to the digital literacy skills that online learning provides to strengthen a student’s learning experience.
This not only includes finding and learning from digital content, but also creating authentic digital content, and communicating or sharing it in multiple formats.
It also includes valuable soft-skills that today’s employers are asking for – like time management and being efficient in using online resources.
While we are thrilled to be celebrating today with other online learning providers, families, and students, we at FLVS have to admit that we celebrate this stuff everyday!
We can’t help it – our passion for online education comes from our awesome students and families who we serve. It doesn’t take long to see the difference we make in students’ lives, and get excited about what we can do next in order to keep our students thriving. Continue reading
Every Student Succeeds
By Guest Blogger on March 21st, 2016
On December 10, 2015, President Obama signed The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).
The ESSA will replace the familiar No Child Left Behind Act as the federal government’s comprehensive legislation which governs education and, famously, accountability for schools, teachers, districts, and states.
This new collection of laws will certainly usher in a period of change for American schools – but just how much does it change, and when (and how) will that change occur? Continue reading
Benefits of Competency-Based Learning
By Guest Blogger on December 7th, 2015
One of the common symptoms of leukemia is a significant decrease in functional white blood cells.
Which components of nonspecific and specific immunity will be negatively affected by leukemia? Which components of the immune system will remain unaffected?
Can you answer that? My guess is that many of you reading this post cannot answer it AT THIS TIME. That’s because you haven’t been able to learn all of the necessary information to understand the question and process it to result in an answer. In some cases, that’s what happens to students in a brick-and-mortar classroom based on a traditional 180-day school calendar.
Students try learning the preceding information, but the teacher must move on in the lesson to meet the seat-time based school-year plan before each student can master the content, potentially leaving a student without the skills to answer correctly. Continue reading
Flexibility and FLVS
By Guest Blogger on April 17th, 2015
I love Google Alerts.
I’ve got one set up that notifies me any time Florida Virtual School is mentioned on a forum or in an article. I usually start my day sorting through two or three of them, and continue to receive notifications from Google throughout the day.
Some of my favorite alerts are generated by prospective students. It’s interesting to me to see how different each student plans to use FLVS as a part of his/her education. For example, yesterday I received one from a high school student posting on a forum asking if he can take four classes at his traditional school, but then two classes through FLVS. I read it and nodded my head, thinking, “Yes, you can!” Continue reading
Two Big Priorities in America
By Guest Blogger on February 17th, 2015
Health care and education – two big priorities, important to all Americans.
The two often compete for dollars in state budgets. I recently read Turn and Face the Strain: Age Demographic Change and the Near Future of American Education by Dr. Matthew Ladner, Senior Advisor of Policy and Research for the Foundation for Excellence in Education.
I was impressed to learn how the two can work together to secure a better future. Intrigued? Continue reading