FLVS
Keeping the Student at the Center
By The Virtual Voice on April 10th, 2019
The 2017-18 school year marked the 20th anniversary of Florida Virtual School (FLVS). The 20-year anniversary of FLVS was not only a historic occasion for the first statewide Internet-based school in the United States, but also a significant and positive milestone for virtual education.
When founded in 1997, FLVS consisted of six teachers, four support staff, 77 enrollments, and six courses. The use of online education tools was still new for the high schoolers of 1997. Continue reading
FLVS Activity Sheets & Printables
By Marissa Draeger on January 30th, 2019
Did you know that coloring repetitive patterns can help the brain focus and build new connections? The simple act of coloring can improve your mood, reduce stress, and help young children develop fine motor skills. Combine the benefits of coloring with fun facts about FLVS with any of the following printables.
Geared for students of all ages, these worksheets are a fun way to show your virtual school spirit. Stick them up on the fridge, bring them along on your next extracurricular activity, or print them off at your local school, library, or community center. You can even create a bookmark or a paper airplane to fold and fly across the room!
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
Exciting Changes at FLVS
By Guest Blogger on April 29th, 2016
FLVS is a Florida public school district of choice.
We are not guaranteed students and our students change from year to year. We are legislatively mandated to help spread the word to students and parents that FLVS is an option available to students in Florida and around the country.
Traditionally, marketing has been primarily known for the creative process, including captivating visuals and clever messaging to communicate to a specific target audience. Today, marketing is much more science-oriented in its approaches. More decisions are made based on customer feedback and trends using real-time analytics and data. With this in mind, earlier this month we shared some exciting new FLVS marketing initiatives based on customer feedback. Continue reading
FLVS Offering Free Driver Education Permit Exam
By Guest Blogger on August 17th, 2015
This article was written and published by a Florida Virtual School student for the FLVS student newspaper, News in a Click.
Florida Virtual School students will now be able to take the Florida learner’s license exam for free online after completing the Driver Education/Traffic Safety course!
FLVS has partnered with DriversEd.com to grant students a waiver for one free permit exam, worth $24.95, along with 50 practice exams.
Additionally, the course, which is also free, fulfills the state’s Traffic Laws and Substance Abuse Education four-hour course requirement, awards high school students a half credit elective, provides possibility for insurance discounts, and offers “behind the wheel training” for Orange and Polk county residents. Continue reading
Getting Past the Fear of DBAs
By Guest Blogger on March 19th, 2015
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
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
Teach Me With Minecraft: Contest Winners
By Guest Blogger on July 25th, 2014
The votes are in!
We are so excited to announce the winners for our “Teach Me With Minecraft” competition. Our goal was to learn more about what can be taught from games like Minecraft and how we can use similar interactive elements in our FLVS courses.
We had hundreds of amazing submissions and have learned so much from your Minecraft builds!
Congratulations to all the winners, and to everyone who submitted a build…YOU ROCK!
The Promise of Prescription in Education
By Guest Blogger on July 8th, 2013
I see many requests from school districts looking to find the magic pill to make learning tailored to the student. Prescription of learning tends to be a common first step that schools are willing to make into the world of personalized learning environments. In prescriptive learning, a path through the learning content is prescribed for each learner based on a criterion-reference pre-test, and sometimes performance on a post-test. This is a common answer to remediating students who need to make up credits, exempting items they know and remediating on items where mastery has not been gained. Continue reading