FLVS

Making Connections for the Future

By on April 13th, 2017

FBLALife 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



FLVS Offering Free Driver Education Permit Exam

By 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.

Driver EdFlorida 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 on March 19th, 2015

This article is based on student work published in the FLVS student newspaper, News in a Click.

DBAIf 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 on February 17th, 2015

facethestrainHealth 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 on July 25th, 2014

minecraftThe 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!

Continue reading


The Promise of Prescription in Education

By on July 8th, 2013

Prescriptive LearningI 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