k12/Virtual Academy Winter 2009 - Page 4

[elanorh]

Oooh, that doesn't sound good. I'm not sure when the foreign language options become available here .... I'd been thinking about seeing if I could find someone in the community who would be willing to just teach their language instead .....

We ended up skipping most lessons today. I've got 60 dinner rolls made for dinner Thursday (and leftovers afterwards ) - need to make two pies yet tonight, and pack, and so on. We'll do the k12 lessons on our way up, and more while we're there. I'm from a large family, thus the large number of dinner rolls.

[GinaRae]

I thought we'd get a ton of stuff done this week on break and we haven't touched anything. Honestly, I've been enjoying not doing it, and so has he, so I guess we'll just keep delaying.

Originally Posted by elanorh

Does anyone feel bad about skipping some of the hokey things that they have you do - the "collect a bunch of stuffed animals, and label them each with their names, then put them in a circle and ....yadayada" stuff? For those with K kids.

Glad to hear some others skip this too. I was wondering if it was just me being lazy, but what a pain. In 3rd grade there aren't a TON of those, but there's enough for me to shake my head about it regularly enough

Originally Posted by eclipse

CAVA families - are any of your kids doing the science fair? We didn't do it last year, but both of my kids want to do it this year. Anyone else?

Sounds like we're going for it.

Originally Posted by eilonwy

Bean started PowerSpeak French this week. He's excited, and having a blast with it.

I was told to do Spanish next year with my now 8yo.. but Bean's 7?? Hmmm..wonder why she said no.

[eclipse]

Originally Posted by GinaRae

I was told to do Spanish next year with my now 8yo.. but Bean's 7?? Hmmm..wonder why she said no.

It sounds like there's some unofficial policy (or official, maybe) within CAVA not to let kids start it until 3rd or 4th grade. I wasn't able to let my DD do it last year in K, but my teacher last year went ahead and signed DD up for it for this year anyway. Part of the issue is that after they do two years of a language, they will not let them move on to middle school language until they are actually in middle school. My kids will just do another language if we're still with K12.

[eilonwy]

Originally Posted by GinaRae

I was told to do Spanish next year with my now 8yo.. but Bean's 7?? Hmmm..wonder why she said no.

Bean's odd. (I say that with all the love in the world-- he's my very favorite dimpled seven-year-old boy. )

[Satori]

Something ugly came across our CAVA group today, the admin may start making elluminate's mandatory? Anyone else heard anything about this? This would be a deal breaker for us no matter how much we may like k12's materials.

[eclipse]

I've been told so many conflicting things about this. It will absolutely be a deal breaker for me if they try to force us into them.

[Satori]

Originally Posted by eclipse

I've been told so many conflicting things about this. It will absolutely be a deal breaker for me if they try to force us into them.

Tell me about it, they have dd assigned to decimals and fractions right now. Yeah, kid was doing 5+ (3*5) - 6(1*3) a year ago when tested and they want her to spend an hour a week learning 1/2 + 1/2 = 1? (in graphic format no less!) Unless there planning on doing 1 on 1 exactly where the child is working no way.

[Satori]

I'm going though what we need to take with us this week and I'm wondering, is there audio available for the Classics for young readers 3A and 3B?

[Satori]

I just heard back from our teacher, CAVA is making them mandatory. I suggest everyone call the administration*and make your feelings known! If they insist on this we will be leaving CAVA K12 is not something we can afford but I'm not going to put up with being forced into having to be at x place at x time every week and having that time change every few weeks no less. We HS in part because we NEED extreme flexibility and the public school schedule just does not work with our scheduling needs.


ETA: I just called admin and they also verified its now a requirement but you have the option of listening to the recorded session. I expressed my concerns and why and she is going to ask if they will be making exceptions. I can see making a student struggling attend but for one who's not? That's crazy, I'm not going to make my kid sit though a 1 hour class for a concept that 1) she already understands and 2) is painfully slow to learn, she masters stuff in minutes and doesn't need it drawn out over hours. One of the main selling points of K12 is allowing your child to move at there own pace, unless there doing 1 on 1 Elluminate's specifically tailored to that child at the childs learning pace on a flexible schedule then they are not meeting the very benefit that is there #1 selling point!

[eclipse]

Originally Posted by Satori

I just heard back from our teacher, CAVA is making them mandatory. I suggest everyone call the administration*and make your feelings known! If they insist on this we will be leaving CAVA K12 is not something we can afford but I'm not going to put up with being forced into having to be at x place at x time every week and having that time change every few weeks no less. We HS in part because we NEED extreme flexibility and the public school schedule just does not work with our scheduling needs.
*

That's exactly my feelings on it, too, Satori. I'm lucky that we have a lot of other charter/home school options if it comes to us having to leave - options that allow a lot of choice in curriculum (and the ability to possibly use some k12 curriculum) and pay for extra curriculars. You and I are not the only people unhappy enough to leave over it. Frankly, considering how low CAVA's standardized test scores can be, I think they'd want to bend over backwards to make sure that kids like my son who test well stick around.

[Satori]

Originally Posted by eclipse

That's exactly my feelings on it, too, Satori. I'm lucky that we have a lot of other charter/home school options if it comes to us having to leave - options that allow a lot of choice in curriculum (and the ability to possibly use some k12 curriculum) and pay for extra curriculars. You and I are not the only people unhappy enough to leave over it. Frankly, considering how low CAVA's standardized test scores can be, I think they'd want to bend over backwards to make sure that kids like my son who test well stick around.

I didn't even think to check other charters! The only one I know of is one we tried and hated, I just did a quick google search and there are several that cover my area now and at least one offers k12 materials as an option. I'm going to look into all our options.

[eilonwy]

Originally Posted by eclipse

That's exactly my feelings on it, too, Satori. I'm lucky that we have a lot of other charter/home school options if it comes to us having to leave - options that allow a lot of choice in curriculum (and the ability to possibly use some k12 curriculum) and pay for extra curriculars. You and I are not the only people unhappy enough to leave over it. Frankly, considering how low CAVA's standardized test scores can be, I think they'd want to bend over backwards to make sure that kids like my son who test well stick around.

That's so depressing. Bean has one Elluminate each week, and it doesn't take him long at all to finish it or the Scantron quiz he does afterward. Boobah's been doing "Monday Funday" sessions each week, but they're completely optional and she *loves* them. There's no way I'd bother with a mandatory session designed for students struggling with a curriculum that's two years behind what my child is doing! That doesn't even make sense.

[EXOLAX]

Originally Posted by eilonwy

That's so depressing. Bean has one Elluminate each week, and it doesn't take him long at all to finish it or the Scantron quiz he does afterward. Boobah's been doing "Monday Funday" sessions each week, but they're completely optional and she *loves* them. There's no way I'd bother with a mandatory session designed for students struggling with a curriculum that's two years behind what my child is doing! That doesn't even make sense.

I was under the impression the elluminate sessions were optional for us as well but recently heard from our teacher that they are not. I have to message her back and find out what to do with the fact that we are then way behind on them. There are only on average 7 kids in her weekly class so it doesn't seem people are taking it too seriously.

FWIW YDD does the 1st grade elluminates and not the K ones, though she is in K. She would have the same teacher next year and I can't imagine her asking DD to do the same ones again. As it is we constantly hear "does anyone else other then 'YDD' want to answer this question? No, Ok, go ahead.".

I wonder if attending another optional elluminate each week would suffice? Has anyone looked into that?

[Satori]

I received a call back from the admin this afternoon after talking to them this morning, they changed there tune and there now only required for those who are behind/struggling.

I was pretty ticked off when I called, maybe they realized this was a bad move when angry parents started calling.

[eclipse]

Well, that's good to hear. I'm still keeping other options in mind.

[elanorh]

Hmm, at least here in WY, the Elluminate Sessions are simply during the teacher's biweekly phone call - she does one of the lessons for that day with Ina. This week it will be math. Two weeks ago, it was history.

I can't imagine that it makes any sense to make sessions mandatory and including a large group of students, given that students are all working at different paces. We are a couple months ahead in math, a little behind in history and science, etc.

I wonder how much is a k12 policy, and how much is an external mandate from a school district or state education board ....

[Satori]

Originally Posted by elanorh

I wonder how much is a k12 policy, and how much is an external mandate from a school district or state education board ....

My guess would be the really crappy 2009 STAR test scores.

Yes I know all about the scores but they live and die by the scores and I'm guessing thats whats driving it.

[mykdsmomy]

I have to jump in here regarding the crappy state testing scores. The reason many of us choose homeschooling (and K12) is because our children don't learn well in a traditional school setting. Many of them are struggling academically but maybe not enough to warrant an IEP.
I hate that the kids' progress is measured by state testing. It seems like such a waste of time and money!
I realize K12 needs a way to track progress (considering we the parents are just "learning coaches" and not "teachers"....we apparently don't have the same magical powers that brick and mortar teachers have to track our students progress on our own).

(sorry...I'm just beginning to resent so much govt control over my child's education....and yes I realize I could pull the kids out....I just needed to complain a little...lol)

[eclipse]

Yeah, we know why the test scores sometimes suck. And I would hope the CAVA knows why, too. Unfortunately, the people who decide if CAVA can renew it's charter either don't know or don't care. So CAVA is trying all this crappy desperate stuff to boost test scores.

[Satori]

Originally Posted by eclipse

Yeah, we know why the test scores sometimes suck. And I would hope the CAVA knows why, too. Unfortunately, the people who decide if CAVA can renew it's charter either don't know or don't care. So CAVA is trying all this crappy desperate stuff to boost test scores.

Yep, I emailed the teacher back and told her what admin said and that we will not be doing the sessions.