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.

Tuesday, January 22, 2019

How to Catch up on Credits and get back on Track to Graduate?

What are credit recovery programs?

Credit Recovery programs are mainly crafted to include different strategies that can be customized to suit each student’s individual academic needs. No two students have the same capabilities and grasping powers. Thus, the course material needs to be tailored in the best interests of the student. This type of customization can maximize learning and improve retention as well.

Usually, the most common form of delivering Credit Recovery programs is via online summer school programs. From a traditional perspective, students can take Credit Recovery courses during regular school hours, after school. They might even take such special courses during vacation breaks or during the summer.
Today, there are many online schools that are offering Credit Recovery programs. Thus, students now have multiple options to make good on their credit score. Thanks to online platforms, the students can now work with a variety of learning styles, creativity, and communication skills.

Need for Credit Recovery Programs
In the present times, the level of competition in the job market is really high. Also, the globalization is increasing rapidly. A high school diploma is never sufficient. It is pretty much the first step toward building a solid and secure foundation for the present-day students.

A high school diploma is a big asset for any student, in whichever field he is opting to go. It is all the more essential for those seeking to go on to college or applying for a job providing a fat salary.

Most of the summer courses can also be taken for credit recovery. These courses are pretty much instructor-led. The students make sure to follow a weekly schedule. Courses need to be NCAA affiliated.

It is important for students to understand the importance of having a high school diploma. Students need to understand the value of a high school diploma right from the very beginning. Such programs usually prepare the children for the upcoming college-level or job-level work environment.

It is required for students to approach online learning with a new mindset. Online courses can do much more than just to help you recover your credits! Most of these online courses offer you an exclusive platform with new learning methodologies. These modern methods make use of learning processes in order to maximize retention.

This helps students to improve their overall learning process.

Here are the top benefits of enrolling for credit recovery programs:
  • It offers a good deal of flexibility and convenience
  • It provides engaging course content that can be personalized as per the student learning needs and objectives
  • It helps the student to develop good retention skills
  • It helps the student to build better synchronization of time schedules
  • It helps the student to overcome geographical limitations as well. They have good access to the online teaching faculty.
  • The system can speed up the process of delivering results and feedback
  • The timelines are optimized strategically, maintaining an unwavering focus on the structured and accelerated curriculum

Most of the online courses tend to give your child the edge needed to deal with these and other credit recovery issues. The best part is that your student will have the scheduling flexibility to retake courses to bring up his or her GPA. You can even catch up to classmates and get the credits that are way important to graduate in a timely fashion.

Core Credit Recovery Courses
The core Credit Recovery Courses usually include English 9, English 10, American Literature, British and World Literature, Pre-Algebra, Algebra I, Integrated Mathematics I, Geometry, Integrated Mathematics II, Algebra II, Physical Science, Earth Science, Biology, Chemistry, World History, Modern World Studies, Geography, U.S. History, Modern U.S. History, U.S. Government and Politics and Economics.

Most of the online credit recovery courses are affordable, convenient, and flexible. These are importantly self-paced.

You can have immediate access to your course. You can start as soon as you are ready. These are free one-on-one online tutoring. These include a writing center, scheduled, or drop-in. Your degree plan usually consists of full course credit for courses. You might experience easy credit transfers.

Most of these courses provide live support to get the technical, membership, or course support. Go for full course credit for courses within your degree plan. Always remember that high-quality degree programs and commitment contribute largely to your educational success.

Many individual schools determine credit eligibility these courses. Students who enroll in a credit recovery course are not really dependent on their school. They are pretty much responsible for determining whether their school will grant them the credit.

Thanks to online learning, online homeschool programs have access to a platform that can be customized to suit their personal needs. They usually have complete control over the way they learn without having to deal with conventional pressures. These pressures mostly include coping with their peers and finishing off their assignments within set deadlines.

In online learning, the students have the freedom to browse through their content at their own self-generated pace. They can spend as much time as they need to in order to learn it thoroughly.

The online school programs have deadlines as well. However, these courses are pretty much flexible than traditional schooling programs. Most of the online summer school. Students are more open to asking questions and understanding their course material when they are not subjected to the possibility of public ridicule by their peers. Online learning platforms allow them to do that. They are free to interact with their teachers and their classmates online. They can exchange info and ask questions without being laughed at.

Thanks to online learning, students have easy access to a number of different opportunities in the virtual environment. Many online courses can be used to earn extra credit, enroll for electives, Advanced Placement courses, Dual enrollment courses, and other advanced ones.

Thus, it can be stated that online platforms provide a feasible option for imparting education. Most of these credit recovery courses can be rigorous to test the true mettle of the students.

Monday, March 14, 2016

Why Choose Forest Trail Academy?


While online home schooling isn’t a new concept to people in the United States, the technology currently being used is definitely a lot more advanced and is moving forward at a rapid rate. Adapting to new technology has never been an issue with the young generation, which is something we need to take advantage of, especially when the technology being embraced is all set to benefit them in a huge manner. Forest Trail Academy has always embraced change and it is one of the key factors we focus on when imbibing in our students the values and skills they need to be successful in the real world. As most of you may be aware, there are a number of schools in the country conducting online K-12 courses. So, why should you choose to enroll with Forest Trail Academy?

For starters, Forest Trail Academy is regionally accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges & Schools Council on Accreditation and School Improvement (SACS CASI), and is also nationally accredited by MSA-CESS. We provide our students with a course curriculum that is aligned and articulated to the Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards. Moreover, our integrated online learning platform offers our students access to some of the best online facilities one could ask for. For those of you who may be new to the concepts of online education and distance learning, we’ve even come up with an online demo facility, available at www.foresttrailacademy.com, to help you browse through and know more about the kind of online environment you would be studying in.

Studying online is now an option for students across the country and across different grade levels too. While most parents are aware of online high schools, there are online middle schools and online elementary schools as well in the country that are helping groom students for the future. Online learning isn’t just for high school students but also for lower grades and working professionals as well. In addition to helping working professionals get back to school and further their education, online environments have also been employed by companies to impart training to their workforce in an endeavor to further their competencies while keeping costs low. From the perspective of imparting education at the school level, online schooling certainly seems to be the way forward in delivering high quality education at a fraction of the costs of traditional methods.

Helping our children gain back their advantage over their global counterparts is of prime importance and the adoption of online education and distance learning is one sure way to help them get there. Online K-12 courses run by online high schools, online middle schools and online elementary schools in the country have opened up so many new possibilities and opportunities for students to pursue their different interests without compromising on their current education. They have been given the opportunity to explore subjects that may have been out of the purview of their traditional education course curriculum without any real hassles. All they need to do is log in to their computers to access their course material, thereby making it a very viable and feasible alternative to traditional education.

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