Wednesday, February 13, 2019

How Parents of Online High School Students Should Prep for Success?

Parent engagement is pretty important in helping online high school students succeed. The extent of parental intervention depends on multiple factors, such as the qualifications of the parents, whether or not the student is an independent learner, whether or not the online school provides proper teaching support, how busy the parents are in their professional lives and many more.

It is up to the parents as to how much involved they want to be in their child’s education. Even if they have a busy schedule, they need to take out some time to monitor their children’s growth and attendance. 



Here are some of the most prominent ways parents of online students can prep for high school success:


Prepare a proper learning space

You, as a parent, need to zero in on a proper study place. It might be an entire room or just a little corner of a room. You must consult your kid, before preparing his/her study space. After all, you must have an idea as to what suits him well and helps him keep focus.

Usually, setting up a simple study space works really well. You must keep a notebook, pencils and other needed supplies that your child might need. Keep in mind that finding a learning space that works for your child may take some trial and error. However, certainly, it worth the time to find dedicated space. Space should be with zero or minimal distractions. There should be proper light and space. The place should be relatively quiet, as compared to the other rooms of your house. It should be maintained clean and organized.

Separate study space is more important for your kid than you think. Taking a plunge into online high school education can be highly baffling for any first-time online student. So, you need to give efforts to create a working environment that will ensure your student’s success. It should allow them to finish off their daily coursework, without fail.

Thus, the workspace needs to be designed for productivity.


Prepare a weekly schedule

Without a proper schedule, a student is likely to proceed in a directionless manner. In this case, there are high chances for the kid to get deviated midway in the online high school course. So, for everything to fall in place, the starting point needs to be a definite one. Preparing a proper schedule is equivalent to marking the starting point!

Parents must help their children to set up a weekly schedule. Doing it all alone might be is time-consuming. Even better if you come up with a weekly routine for your child. This is believed to be more effective. You can make changes whenever and wherever required, as per your student’s learning pattern, style, and pace.

A weekly schedule must be very detailed and feasible. Never keep it too loaded. Else, there are high chances for your kid to get disappointed when he/she will not be able to live up to his/her schedule. Thus, balance is key.

Your student needs to set a start time, daily, and their day should include times for short breaks.
The catch here is that you need to help your child not just block out time for each subject but also set certain personal deadlines to complete course-related tasks. This will help him/her to submit assignments and projects in a timely fashion. Above all, you must be engaged in your child’s learning. You should follow up with them. Make them realize that they need to stick to their learning schedule, no matter what!


Encourage your children to communicate with their teachers

Communication is truly vital in any learning environment. In an online learning environment, communication plays a major role because there is no face-to-face interaction here. It is impossible for the online teachers to get any visual cues in case something wrong has happened with a child that might be hampering his/her learning. So, children need to voice out their queries and worries openly, to their online instructors.

While many kids will be self-initiators right from the beginning, certain kids might need a special kind of “push” to express their issues in front of their online instructors. This is where parents need to get involved and help their introverted children. Parents need to play a huge role in opening the lines of communication between the instructor and the child.

As a parent, you must also communicate with the online teachers, especially who teach your child and monitor him/her. Try to find out how you can support your child in better ways. Ask the teachers whether extra help sessions are available.

An online learning environment can be thriving and success-driven for your child only when he/she communicates with the online teachers.


Setting certain limits

Now, too much freedom can lead to too much comfort. And, getting too comfortable is not a good sign! Parents must set ground rules for breaks. You should make sure that your student is avoiding gaming, videos, or any other technology during break time. These breaks are created to give your student a short time away from the screen. It should be a relaxation time for your kids.


Create pacing guides

You must create pacing guides for your children to learn in the most systematic manner. These will help your student understand what to achieve in each subject area. Accordingly, they can plan out their weekly schedule. This will also help them to complete their courses on time. Keep in mind that pacing guide length and the amount of work will vary on a daily basis. You can ask your student’s teacher for help for creating pacing guides.


Be open to learning

You need to be a good learner yourself, in order to teach your children well. You must be aware of the tools and services available to your student. When you are pretty aware of the online learning tools and resources, you can help your children in their learning, more effectively. Thus, your student can successfully navigate the online world of education.

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