Curriculum
Growth Knows No Limits
By Guest Blogger on April 26th, 2018
Continuous improvement isn’t just for those who need to work on specific skills.
Continuous improvement is for every professional, every teacher, every student, every person. At Florida Virtual School, we engage in professional learning because we never want to stop growing, expanding our “good enough” to our greatest potential. Continue reading
Project-Based Learning in Online Education
By Guest Blogger on February 12th, 2018
Project-based learning is a teaching method in which students gain knowledge and skills by working to investigate and respond to an authentic, engaging, and complex question.
The benchmarks of high-quality, project-based learning opportunities include a challenging problem, sustained inquiry, authenticity, student choice, and reflection or revision. In a project-based assessment opportunity, the goal is not just to bubble an answer choice. Instead, the student needs to process through a complex scenario and apply what was learned from the content to produce a unique sample demonstrating understanding. Continue reading
Practical Problem Solving
By Guest Blogger on December 15th, 2017
It’s happened to the best of us: you push the power button on the remote and nothing happens. What’s the problem? Does it need new batteries? Is the TV unplugged? Is the power out? To figure it out, you need some problem-solving skills.
Problem-solving skills are important in our everyday lives, our careers, and in learning. Problems may be frustrating, but they can also be opportunities. By helping our students develop strong problem-solving skills, we can help them look at problems differently, do things in a different way, and think critically. Continue reading
FLVS…How Does Your Garden Grow?
By Dr. Jeanne Giardino on June 13th, 2017
Have you ever stopped to think just how FLVS finds such incredible leaders to drive instruction and promote online education? These talented individuals do not always just appear. Many are educated through carefully developed professional opportunities.
In April 2017, a new professional development program was launched by the executive team to provide faculty and staff the chance to engage in hands-on leadership experiences.
The Aspiring Leaders Program is an intensive, 10-month cohort-based institute that will take state-certified educational leaders from within FLVS and provide in-depth exposure throughout the many departments across the organization. Participants will learn alongside mentors in the areas of human resources, finance, curriculum, and more!
FLVS Instructional Leader Gisela Delgado is a very strong advocate for empowering her team of more than 50 instructors in her schoolhouse. Continue reading
The Future of Learning
By Guest Blogger on May 17th, 2017
What’s so great about sci-fi and fantasy?
These genres allow us to explore complicated ideas in an intriguing way, and both students and adults love them.
Take The Hunger Games and Harry Potter.
Aside from the excitement of these blockbuster hits, they also tackle real-world issues like poverty, oppression, love, death, and war.
To hook students into the learning process, FLVS tries to find ways to incorporate these types of imaginative elements into our courses to teach and captivate them.
From gaming to virtual reality to medical advances, the FLVS curriculum team is always searching for new and innovative trends that can inform course development. Continue reading
When Will I Ever Use Math?
By Guest Blogger on April 21st, 2017
No matter what subject we face, the FLVS Curriculum Development team strives to connect complex concepts with everyday examples to motivate student learning.
This commitment to real-world connections is particularly helpful for anyone who has ever struggled with math.
What may have felt like a boring lesson in the past is now power-packed with exciting FLVS approaches to mathematical concepts!
Every click in an FLVS mathematics course answers the question, “When am I ever gonna use this?” Continue reading
Making Connections for the Future
By Elizabeth Fulcher on April 13th, 2017
Life is about the connections we make. Sometimes these connections come from people we’ve known our entire lives, friends next door, colleagues, or even classmates at school.
Because fitting in is a big part of a student’s success, especially during the teenage years, making these connections and collaborating with others can help students grow and learn. Studies have demonstrated this, but I learned it firsthand when I was still in school.
Transitioning from middle to high school was difficult for me, so the 9th and 10th grade years were a trying time in my life. Luckily, I had some excellent teachers who helped me adjust. One particularly important moment was the day my 11th grade computer teacher encouraged me to attend a Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) meeting.
When I finally relented and decided to go, I didn’t yet realize I’d made one of the best decisions of my life. Continue reading
Meet the Team Blog Series
By Dr. Jeanne Giardino on December 28th, 2016
Have you ever thought about becoming an FLVS instructor? Or wondered what it’s like to be a lead teacher or principal at a virtual school?
Maybe you want to know more about the different staff members that support our instructional team. From counselors to learning coaches to curriculum specialists, our team has some amazing talent!
To celebrate the 2016-17 school year, we have been sharing posts all semester long featuring FLVS faculty and staff. Everyone on our team is passionate about delivering a high-quality, technology-based education that provides the skills and knowledge students need for success. Want to learn more? Browse the following posts to meet the creative and dedicated individuals who make every day a great day at FLVS.
Let us know who else you would like to see featured in the comments below! Continue reading
Catching Up with a Computer Science Expert
By Guest Blogger on December 9th, 2016
To get a better idea of what Computer Science Education Week and Hour of Code is all about, FLVS Content Writer Irene Pynn-Cunha sat down to chat with Amie Ross, FLVS Computer Science instructor.
Mrs. Ross looks forward to Computer Science Education Week every year. In the past, she’s worked with students both online and face to face. She loves watching mental light bulbs go off all around the room as, one by one, students who thought they would never learn to code begin solving programming puzzles.
“When something works,” she says, “the excitement on their faces, that’s really cool.”
This year, she’ll be helping students with one of her favorite puzzles: a storybook about Santa’s missing socks. It may seem like a simple exercise, but by the end, students discover they’ve just worked through a challenging computer science concept: the binary search.
Mrs. Ross says one of the great benefits of Computer Science Education Week and Hour of Code is that participants “tackle very complicated concepts without even realizing it.” In many ways, this is the key to showing students that programming actually is for anyone. In fact, she says, programming is a heavily creative field. “I’ve watched a lot of students really surprise themselves,” she says. “There isn’t just one type of person who gets into programming.” Continue reading
Meet our College Recruiting and Diversity Staffing Specialist
By Dr. Jeanne Giardino on November 29th, 2016
We are celebrating the 2016-17 school year with a blog series featuring FLVS faculty and staff. Meet the creative and dedicated individuals who make every day a great day at FLVS!
Did you know that FLVS has a college internship program that draws in students from all over the state of Florida who are looking to become virtual educators? Well, we do!
The College Recruiting and Diversity Staffing Coordinator serves as the guru for the FLVS Intern program, all college recruiting, and assists with diversity recruiting efforts. The Coordinator identifies and targets colleges and their teacher-prep programs, and organizations to improve the diversity of FLVS recruiting pipeline. The Coordinator also develops and leads a strategic instructional internship program designed to grow FLVS talent into the digital future.
The FLVS guru who leads this program has made a name for herself over the years. Dawn Towle is known for her rapier wit and brilliant smile. In past years, she has performed at the FLVS Talent Show demonstrating her penchant for stand-up comedy that is inspired by her love of education.
It is my honor to introduce you Dawn Towle, College Recruiting and Diversity Staffing Specialist. Continue reading