FLVS Celebrates Teacher Appreciation Week!
By Guest Blogger on May 1st, 2015
Teacher Appreciation week is the one week per year where the focus is on what an important role our teachers play in the lives of our students.
We hope you take time this week (and every week) to reflect on the awesome ways in which teachers influence the future. Our virtual teachers at FLVS may receive virtual flowers and gifts of thanks, but I hope all of our instructors know that their impact on lives is very real.
At FLVS, our instructors use instructional strategies to personalize learning every day of the week, all day long. From the first Welcome Call where teachers establish the important bond needed to motivate and inspire, to the final call where encouragement and the password are given for the last assessment, our teachers personalize learning for students. Continue reading
What It Was Like To Break A World Record
By Guest Blogger on April 28th, 2015
As published on HerAgenda.com
17-year-old journalist Pavlina Osta set a new Guinness World Record for most radio interviews in 24 hours. Here’s how she did it.
Throughout elementary school I remember going to the library and checking out American Girl books, but on the way to the check out counter, I’d always pass the open book in the reference center of Guinness World Records.
It wasn’t possible for me to even think of myself someday being in the book. I mean, a World Record? Me? Doing what? What could I do better than anyone else in the world?
I wasn’t thinking negatively – just realistically. Continue reading
FLVS Attends SpaceX CRS-6 Cargo Launch Mission
By Guest Blogger on April 23rd, 2015
On April 12-13, 2015, FLVS had the privilege of going on a behind-the-scenes tour at Kennedy Space Center and sharing the experience with our students.
During the virtual field trip, followers of our FLVS Twitter account were able to tune in live for video streaming made possible with the new social app, Periscope.
While anyone can watch streams broadcasted via Twitter on their desktop or mobile device, users with the mobile Periscope app were also able to post questions in real time. We were honored to have viewers from around the world engage with us throughout the event! Continue reading
Cash in on this Advice!
By Guest Blogger on April 21st, 2015
When I was a teen, my parents didn’t talk about finances with me, my twin sister, or older brother.
While my parents instilled values that prepared us for life after high school, financially we weren’t prepared. I had no clue how much electricity, water, food, and basic living expenses were. I made a car payment every month and paid my insurance, so I had that down. The rest was lost on me.
I’m no financial planner. Parents, you don’t have to be either to share financial knowledge with your student.
Students, your parents have a lot of experiential advice to offer.
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
Say No to Car Payments
By Guest Blogger on April 9th, 2015
Did you know that less than half of high school seniors qualify as financially literate?
With student and household debt soaring, it’s time to help change that statistic. High school students can change the way they look at money forever with Dave Ramsey’s Foundations in Personal Finance, now available through Florida Virtual School.
Through this curriculum, nearly 2 million students have been empowered, equipped and entertained while building confidence in their own financial decision-making. Topics covered include saving, budgeting, debt, life after high school, consumer awareness, bargain shopping, investing and retirement, insurance, careers and taxes.
Continue reading
Spanish Lip-Sync Challenge
By Guest Blogger on April 7th, 2015
Challenge your peers to a Spanish Lip Sync Battle!
The FLVS Spanish Club, Spanish Nuts at Play (SNAP) is sponsoring a creative virtual contest for students to practice their Spanish vocabulary skills.
All you have to do is post a video of yourself lip-syncing a song in Spanish that’s 30 seconds or less on social media! Your video might be chosen to be featured by Florida Virtual School or the SNAP club.
You don’t have to be a SNAP member (or even a student!) to participate and join the fun.
What is Physical Science?
By Guest Blogger on April 2nd, 2015
Most parents are familiar with biology, chemistry, and physics.
I like to think of physical science as a bridge to these courses. In the Physical Science course at FLVS, we take the concepts that students have learned from previous science experiences and prepare them for the higher-level science skills needed in future science courses and beyond.
The Florida Virtual School Physical Science course offers interactive activities and virtual labs to help students build science confidence. The course nurtures the science literacy the current generation will need to fix our next set of problems as a society. Continue reading
Writer’s Block? What NOT to Do
By Guest Blogger on March 24th, 2015
We all can relate to the moment when you’re writing – or sit down to write – and then boom, you have no idea what to tell your fingers to do; you’re just blank.
It’s the writer’s worst enemy and can be the hardest, and rarely the easiest, thing to get over. We would do anything to get back on track and out of this torturous, uncreative state. We stare at blank sheets waiting for things to happen and bang our head into the wall repeatedly thinking our brain just needs a kick start. If you’ve done these things, we’re not judging, but…maybe it’s not the best way to handle the situation.
Here are some do-nots that, if you resort to them, could resort to the demise of your story; but he’ll most likely live, I promise. Continue reading
Getting Past the Fear of DBAs
By Guest Blogger on March 19th, 2015
This article is based on student work published in the FLVS student newspaper, News in a Click.
If discussion-based assessments make you nervous, these tips from FLVS students may help!
DBAs are verbal assessments and are often the most dreaded assignments for FLVS students. Instead of comfortably typing essays and worksheets on their laptops, students communicate with an instructor one-on-one over the phone.
But why is this so terrifying? Surely the verbal component of the DBA is not intimidating, especially when the assignments are approached by the instructor as a conversation instead of an oral exam.
TIP: Did you know that DBAs can be completed in a live lesson setting or over a video call? Ask your teacher about this option! Learn more in this post about mastering the DBA.
However, if you compare talking on the phone for twenty minutes to being the only student called on to answer random questions for 20 minutes in a classroom, you can see why students are reluctant to dial their instructors’ numbers. Continue reading