Educator Edition
Interview Tips: Knowing When to Stop Talking
By Guest Blogger on April 11th, 2014
Your palms are sweating. Your knees are shaking. You feel like you’re rambling. You probably are. STOP.
Job interviews can be incredibly intimidating. You sit across the table from high-level executives and try to prove your worth. In behavioral-based interviews, you are asked several specific, action-driven questions. Your interviewers want to know the details of specific instances when you applied your natural talents and learned skills to unite stakeholders, lead teammates, and solve challenges.
The first problem you face is you’re drawing a blank. Funny, I can’t think of a single time I ever spoke to a single customer or solved a single problem… Continue reading
Can a Caveman Teach Kids to be Healthier?
By Guest Blogger on April 4th, 2014
Can a caveman teach kids better eating and exercise habits?
The team at Florida Virtual School is betting he can. They’ve defrosted Cave Bro as part of an entertaining new game concept designed to teach kids how to make better nutritional choices. Cave Bro has been frozen for more than 30,000 years, so needless to say he’s hungry and will eat anything. It’s up to players to decide what he eats, how much, and how often. Good choices win. Bad choices create one really cranky caveman.
The concept originated as part of the new Health and PE course development, but after working with Fablevision to develop a playable prototype and testing it with kids, the team quickly realized this amusing game could teach good nutrition and exercise habits in ways teachers and parents never could. Continue reading
Instructional Coaching the FLVS Way
By Mary Mitchell on April 1st, 2014
How does instructional coaching work in a virtual world? Have you heard about the Vir-structional coaching program at FLVS?
The Vir-structional program is designed to help those using a virtual platform to train, teach, and inform participants. The goal of the Coaching Program is to deliver high quality technology-based education by increasing customer/student learning through engaging and interactive live lessons.
Instructional coaching provides a venue for instructors to share teaching ideas and strategies with each other. The coach is someone who has expertise and knowledge in developing highly effective and engaging lessons that will lead to increased participant learning. The coachee is someone who would benefit from a coaching relationship by being open and receptive to learning new tools, techniques, and strategies to increase participants’ attendance and understanding. Continue reading
Standards, Grittiness, and the Underdog
By Guest Blogger on March 27th, 2014
In his book, “David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants,” Malcolm Gladwell argues that the people we traditionally considered to be underdogs might actually have unique advantages created by the very adversity they had to overcome. Gladwell uses the allegory of David and Goliath to dramatize how David’s victory may not have been as unlikely or extraordinary as we are led to believe. Perhaps, David relied simply on an unconventional approach and his own audacity to blindside Goliath. His experience as an underdog forced him to view the situation differently and discover a creative solution to his problem. David didn’t view Goliath simply as an indestructible giant. Rather, he saw a slow opponent, dragged down by his armor, and unprepared to battle a swifter, more prepared adversary.
Gladwell continues his theory by describing a seeming disadvantage, dyslexia, as a “desirable difficulty.” Continue reading
The Truth Behind Conceptual Learning
By Guest Blogger on March 22nd, 2014
If It Breaks…I Can’t Fix It
I’ve never been one who has been good with his hands. I’ve always had the hardest time putting things together. This is one of the reasons I pay the extra money to get my child an assembled bike at Christmas, as opposed to one I have to put together, seeing as how I’d like the family to have an enjoyable holiday. The other day, however, I found myself tasked with having to put together a walker-like toy for my 4-month-old daughter. The box read “easy to assemble,” so I naturally thought it would take no time at all. I found myself looking at the directions over and over again, trying to figure out what in the world was supposed to go where. In my desperate attempt to complete the project, I finally threw out the directions and went off the picture on the box. A few hours later, as opposed to the 30 minutes the directions indicated it would take, I had a completed walker. I was so excited to see it fully assembled and felt accomplished. Continue reading
Random Acts of Kindness
By Amy LaGrasta on March 12th, 2014
Recently, a mother took her two young boys to the grocery store. As she shopped, she helped them to put back their “fun finds” and stick to their list. She explained that since daddy had passed, they could not afford all of the things they used to and that they needed to stick to their budget. She told them they could now only purchase the necessities. What mom didn’t realize was that someone had overheard their conversation. This person picked up every item she put back on the shelves. As the family finished shopping, this woman followed them to the line, but managed to get ahead of them. She purchased all of the “fun finds” and left money with the clerk for mom’s shopping. When mom checked out, she was notified that her groceries had all been paid for, a cart of goodies was left for them, and they even had money left over. Tears streamed down her face as she tried to chase down the mystery woman to thank her. She never caught her, but contacted the local news to share her story. She hoped the mystery woman would hear and know how grateful she was for her gift of kindness. Continue reading
Communication is Critical
By Guest Blogger on March 7th, 2014
The Importance of Effective Communication between Teachers and Parents
I have been teaching for almost nine years, most of that time being in the traditional classroom. When I came to FLVS last year, I was seriously impressed with the level of care and importance that is placed on effective parent communication.
Regular communication, however, does not necessarily equal effective communication. Whether meeting face-to-face, virtually, or by phone, misunderstandings can happen. I wanted to share with you some insights and tips I have found useful as a teacher to keep communication with parents effective: Continue reading
Stop, Collaborate, and Listen
By Guest Blogger on February 26th, 2014
Doing Virtual Doesn’t Mean Doing it Alone!
When people think virtual, what do you think comes to mind? Prior to my experience at FLVS, I thought of sitting alone in front of the computer, reading lessons, responding to discussion boards, and checking email. The common denominator behind all of my thoughts was that you do it alone. While virtual education primarily places responsibility on the learner, there is a debatably larger need to collaborate to be successful.
At FLVS, students are required to collaborate with one another at least one time within each segment/semester. Many families, at first glance, think this is a demanding request or an off-the-wall requirement, because of their initial thoughts about virtual education. What they find is that they wonder why they didn’t start collaborating sooner. Continue reading
Why Black History Month Still Matters
By Darcey Addo on February 15th, 2014
I can’t remember a time that my heart hurt as badly as it did the day my 6-year-old biracial son told me that he didn’t want to be Black.
He said that people are not kind to Black people, so he wants to be “tan like Mommy.” My heart ached for my son, for my daughter, and for anyone who has ever felt the sting of discrimination. I am a product of relative privilege; I grew up in middle class suburbia and never experienced marginalization or felt a sense of “other-ness” the way my children do and likely will as their lives unfold. Their story is not my own, but as any parent knows, there are few things that spring a mother into action as when her child is in pain. The day my beautiful, precocious, chocolate-skinned little boy told me that he doesn’t want to own the skin he’s in, my understanding of the importance of identity, cultural sensitivity, and diversity education forever changed.
Ode to the Unabridged Dictionary in a Digital World
By Dr. Jeanne Giardino on February 13th, 2014
Do you remember what it was like before we had computers? No?
Well, I do. It was tough, real tough…especially if you needed to spell a word.
I remember from a young age asking my parents how to spell a word and they would tell me to prepare to write. I would grab my fancy yellow pencil and lean into my paper awaiting their wisdom. They always spelled the same exact word no matter what. Really! They would spell the same exact word for years and years. I would ask them how to spell government, and they would be all smiles as they carefully spelled out the word d-i-c-t-i-o-n-a-r-y. It was the same every time and became a silly game growing up. I knew very well they would never spell a word for my older brother or me if we could grab our unabridged Webster’s dictionary and learn how to spell the word on our own. To this day, when my daughters ask me how to spell a word I will always spell “dictionary.” Continue reading