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Allied Online High School Blog To subscribe to the High School Blog News, click here
Building Lives Through Online Education. Your future depends on creating a solid academic foundation. Let Allied National High School provide you with a better online high school option. This is "Education on Your Terms!"
By JAQUELYN SANBORN,
Dean
of Instruction and Accreditation
Coordinator,
Allied National High School The phrase “21st Century skills” is one of the more common buzzwords used in the education industry today. What does it really mean, though? At Allied National High School, it means providing students with skills that are relevant to the school and occupational standards that they will face in our ever-changing, global society in the 21st Century. Partnership for 21st Century Skills elegantly illustrates the requisite skills and outcomes in its "Framework for 21st Century Learning" graphic, shown at right:
Historically, a gap often exists between the skills students learn in school and the expectations they will have to meet in the real world after they complete school. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills framework graphic represents how schools, including ANHS, are rising to the challenge of properly preparing students for their post-secondary goals and careers. ANHS is a 21st Century school that truly embodies the spirit of this framework and educational movement. Our vision and mission statements closely reflect these desired outcomes. Furthermore, our students do not just take technology classes; they use technology every day to perform scholastic tasks. Along the way they are perfecting proper email communication with their instructors, as well as other forms of “netiquette.” Furthermore, they are interacting with a global student population through discussion boards. The scheduling and enrollment policies at ANHS make students responsible for their own learning through time management and goal-setting, two more critically important 21 Century skills. You can make the argument that the best way to prepare students to be 21st Century learners is to send them to a school that operates in this 21st Century paradigm, and ANHS, as an accredited virtual high school, does precisely that. To learn more about the 21st Century educational movement, please visit the Partnership for 21st Century Skills website. To learn more about the ANHS outcomes, please visit our Expected School Wide Learning Results page on our website. Labels: 21st Century skills, accredited online high school
By Jacquelyn Sanborn, Dean of Instruction and Accreditation Coordinator, Allied National High School All high school students need to take math courses as part of fulfilling their graduation requirements. For some, this is just another course requirement; for others, it is a daunting yet inevitable task. This scenario remains the same for online high school students, and taking a math course online comes with its own set of challenges and advantages. Having to show your work is a bit more challenging online, and usually requires a student to scan or fax their work. On the other hand, a student has more time to work through problems at their own pace in an online setting. Luckily, Allied National High School students also have the advantage of an awesome teacher, and he holds weekly office hours to offer them real-time assistance using virtual whiteboard technology via Blackboard. His office hours are currently on Tuesdays from 2 to 3 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. He can also host private sessions upon request for students who cannot make that time. There are also many online resources available for all math students to ensure they get the help they need, when they need it. There is a free online tutoring service, TutorChatLive.org, where tutors volunteer to offer free math assistance, using whiteboard technology, to any student that needs assistance. They currently have about 50 tutors, and they post their tutoring schedules on their website. Students can also volunteer to be a tutor, and they offer many subjects other than math as well. Another great free resource is Kahn Academy. You can search for instructional videos by subject and topic. The videos are very helpful, and often very creative and entertaining as well. Math topics covered range from basic math to calculus. They also have many other subjects besides math. Lastly, another similar resource is HotMath, where specific video tutorials linked to certain math books are available for students to choose from. This is an excellent opportunity for students who actually use one of the textbooks they support, from publishers such as HOLT, Glencoe/McGraw Hill, and Prentice Hall. If you think you just found a work-free homework solution, not so fast: they only work through the problems with solutions already presented in the back of the books. However, it is a wonderful resource for any student because even if you do not have one of their math books, the tutorials offer step-by-step problem solving that can be applied to any math course. With more resources likes these coming in to the online word daily, there is no excuse for math students to procrastinate any longer. If you need help, it is only a click away! Labels: Homeschooling, online high school classes, online school
Over the next two months many students across the country
will be shopping for an online summer school experience. There are several reasons why students choose
online summer school over traditional “brick and mortar” experiences. For
starters, you can still enjoy the summer, and meet your academic goals at the
same time! It also gives students the opportunity to get ahead, squeeze in that
extra college preparatory course, or retake a course they failed without
overcrowding their fall semester. There are a myriad of online summer school options
available, ranging from the simple correspondence course, to accelerated full
course options. The price of a course also varies greatly from school to
school, but you usually get what you pay for in terms of support and curriculum.
Once a student selects a school, program type, and course,
they now need to take the course, and succeed, while trying to make vacation
plans and filling their schedule with beach days. Okay, take a deep breath! Many students quickly become overwhelmed with
their choice, which can all too easily turn into a summer long procrastination
habit; and no one wants to sign up for that. Here is how to avoid this slippery
slope; simply plan ahead. It is okay if your plan includes math in the morning
and the concert in the evening, because that is the beauty of online summer
school! However, the online summer
student needs to plan diligently, and stick to their plan daily to avoid having
the summer slip away before their eyes, without completing their course.
Here is some easy to follow planning advice. To start your
online summer school plan, first you will need to carefully read orientation
documents and syllabi to gain a clear understanding of the course expectations,
and deadline dates you will be responsible for meeting. Then, use those
parameters as a road map for your success by setting up daily and weekly goals
for your course. You should find a very accessible place for your schedule,
such as a planner, on a white board near your study area, or in your computer
of smart phone. Make it a habit to check your schedule daily, and adjust it as
needed. You will probably need to make
adjustments, because your friends cannot take that road trip without you, or
perhaps it just takes longer to read a book on the beach than it does inside during
the winter.
Allied National High School has a great summer school option
that allows students to complete up to two full year courses in just 12 weeks.
All you need is your schools approval, so make sure to contact us before school
gets out. To learn more about our summer
school program, call our Admission Department today at 800-968-4034. We’ll help
you select the right program type to meet your schedule, and give you the
permission form to bring to your school. It’s that easy! So don’t waste your
summer away again this year, be productive and enjoy the wonderful online
summer school experience!
Allied National High School uses social networking to
connect with our students, parents, and larger school community. We do so using
Facebook and Linked In. It makes sense
for an online school to reach its community where they are comfortable; online
of course!
Facebook has been especially popular among students, and
prospective students. Information about our accreditation visits, student
achievement, links to our newsletter, and even riddles and jokes are shared
using this forum. It is easy to connect with our students on Facebook because
they are already so comfortable using the website, so it is natural for them to
also communicate with their school this way.
Social Networking allows us to connect with our school
community in an informal setting. It
also helps to strengthen our sense of school community and awareness about the
different programs offered. Student and parents often post on our Facebook wall
to share their positive experiences, or ask for more information on our
program.
We hope to continue to cultivate our social network
presence, and use it as a quick and efficient means of communicating with our
school community. We invite you to join the fun by connecting with us on Linked In and liking our Facebook page. Labels: Online High School, online high school classes
ANHS an accredited online high school is in the process of conducting a schoolwide writing
prompt activity. As part of this activity, all students are submitting a
persuasive essay to the Dean of Instruction. Students select from three prompts
to address in their essay. This year’s
topics include social media, violence related to traditional media and the
value of learning from failure.
The essays will be graded by the Dean using a standardized
rubric, and data from those scores will be analyzed by the Administration and Leadership
Team to determine our students’ writing abilities and identify trends in
relation to last year’s scores. This valuable information will be used to
supplement curriculum, and provide additional instructional aides to help
improve our overall writing as a school.
In addition, participating in this type of activity is
excellent practice for students that will be applying to college, as most
schools require an essay as part of the admissions process. Even if students
aren’t applying to college, it will certainly help them to be persuasive
communicators in the future, which is one of our expected schoolwide leaning
results for ANHS graduates. This annual writing prompt is just one example of
how ANHS is preparing our students for success! Labels: Online High School, online high school program
All parents want to see their children succeed in life, and
the first step towards sustainable success occurs at school. All types of schooling including high school online as well as traditional schools. There has been
many studies conducted that conclude that parent involvement is one of, if not
the most, important factors in a child’s academic success. Academic success can
mold the type of person a child becomes, and parents can directly impact the
probability of success by simply getting involved.
The Michigan Department of Education published a parent
involvement fact sheet titled, “What
Research Says about Parent Involvement in Children’s Education” in 2001. While many other departments of education
have published similar literature, this particular document is especially
compelling, and provides ample supportive statistics that prove parent
involvement equals academic success. Among the many resounding statements made
on this fact sheet, there were two that stood out from the crowd:
“The most effective forms of parent involvement are those, which
engage parents in working directly with
their children on learning activities
at home.”
“Decades of research show that when parents are involved students have:
·
Higher grades, test
scores, and graduation rates
·
Better school attendance
·
Increased motivation,
better self-esteem
·
Lower rates of
suspension
·
Decreased use of drugs
and alcohol
·
Fewer instances of
violent behavior”
If there are so many statistics that highlight the vitality of
parental involvement to academic success, why don’t more parents get involved?
There is no easy answer to this question because many factors have to be
considered such as, relationships between children and parents, the parent’s
academic ability to assist with school work, schedule limitations, and the list
goes on. One thing is clear, if parents can make the time to get involved in
their children’s education, it will undoubtedly directly benefit their child’s
future.
To read the full fact sheet, and to find citations for the
quotes provided in this article, please visit the Michigan Department of
Education website fact sheet page. http://www.michigan.gov/documents/Final_Parent_Involvement_Fact_Sheet_14732_7.pdf Labels: Online High School, online high school classes, online school
This is the second year that ANHS has
conducted our schoolwide writing prompt activity. This allows us to analyze how online high school students are improving in their writing skills over time and across grade
levels. As part of this process, we used a scoring rubric to have a consistent
baseline on which to assess the basic components of writing. These components
included grammar, organization, focus, support, and style. We also used a
four-point scale in order to assess the proficiency levels of our students that
correlate to the No Child Left Behind proficiency ratings. Below is the overall
rating per grade level of the average scores. Grades 9-11 ranked as Proficient
with increasing scores. Grade 12 ranked as Advanced. We also analyzed each of
the basic writing components separately. Through the analysis of each writing
component, we found positive trends in all of them! This provides hard evidence
that ANHS teachers and curriculum prepares students to become advanced writers.
This skill set will serve our graduates as they enter into colleges and train
for their careers. We are looking forward to sharing this information with our
school community and having an even more successful schoolwide writing prompt
activity next year.
 Labels: Online High School, online high school classes, online school |
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