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Virtual school holds information session in Horry

May 14, 2012 By admin Leave a Comment

S.C. Connections Academy, a K-12 virtual public charter school, will host a free information session in Myrtle Beach for families interested in learning more about the online public school program. Enrollment for the 2012–13 school year is under way, and students in grades K–12 from anywhere in the state can enroll.

The session will be held Tuesday, 6:30–8 p.m., at the Clarion Hotel Myrtle Beach, 101 Fantasy Harbour Blvd., Myrtle Beach.

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Virtual school to host info sessions

April 16, 2012 By admin Leave a Comment

Families with students in kindergarten through 12th grade can learn more about the state’s virtual public charter school, South Carolina Connections Academy, at information sessions this week.

The school has opened enrollment for next school year.

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Filed Under: Home Page, Online High Schools Tagged With: South Carolina Connections Academy

School Choice: A Tale of Two Sons, Two Schools

April 2, 2012 By admin Leave a Comment

The biggest obstacle to the parental choice movement in South Carolina has been the lack of understanding of what School Choice is and the rhetorical terms of the debate. School Choice should be for every family. Independent education choices should also be available for every child, not the privilege of the economic elite. Representative Rita Allison’s passionate defense of the bill on Wednesday was particularly insightful. She explained how the school choice debate is not a zero-sum argument about choosing public “or” private schools; it’s really about “and.” To reduce inequality, to increase parental engagement and to raise student achievement, Allison insists every parent in the state deserves to have real choices for their own child’s education. That means public and charter and private and magnet and virtual and home school; whatever works for the specifics of that pupil’s learning needs.

Representative Eric Bedingfield, another bill sponsor, reiterated Allison’s points at the podium. He stressed that school choice was an issue of how lawmakers set the field for parents to make choices, rather than a micromanagement of specific school policies and programs. “Parents have the most information and best motivation to make decisions for their own children,” he insisted, noting that even the best classroom in an absolute sense might not be the most appropriate for each specific student seated in it.

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Filed Under: Home Page, Online High Schools Tagged With: virtual schools

Proposed bill must beat the clock to benefit home-schoolers

March 20, 2012 By admin Leave a Comment

Home-schooled students and others educated outside of traditional school districts could be allowed to play sports at public schools, if state lawmakers work fast enough to pass a proposed measure that would change the current rules.

The Equal Access to Interscholastic Activities Act would permit home school, charter school (including virtual charter school) and governor’s school students to participate in the interscholastic activities of the district where they live. The bill, yet another attempt at this type of measure, currently is in a Senate subcommittee and will die if not passed by the Senate and House of Representatives by the end of the legislature’s session in June.

“The only risk to this is the clock,” said Sen. Luke Rankin, R-Myrtle Beach, a member of the Senate’s education committee who said he supports the bill.

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School Board will hear update on alternative learning, construction

February 28, 2012 By admin Leave a Comment

Through this process, the Pinecrest Center was renamed the Center for Innovative Learning at Pinecrest. The facility now offers a short-term program for assigned short-term students to try and transition them back to their home school. Additional personnel were hired to provide more counseling opportunities for students.

The long-term alternative school for all grade levels now provides more virtual learning along with traditional learning – as well as therapeutic counseling and career counseling. The school district has also expanded its collaborations with at least eight social service, faith-based and law enforcement programs.

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Filed Under: Home Page, Online High Schools Tagged With: virtual learning

This Week at Mauldin High School – Feb. 19-25

February 20, 2012 By admin Leave a Comment

Greenville Tech Application Day will be March 2nd
Greenville Tech is offering their placement (ASSET) test to Mauldin High Students on March 6th, please sign up in guidance.
Greenville County Virtual School Summer School Information
Greenville County Virtual School (GCVS) will begin accepting applications for summer enrollment beginning March 5, 2012. Students will be enrolled on a first-come first-serve basis (due to budget limits) and classes are free of charge (graduating seniors for summer 2012 will be given priority). Students who know that they must take a course this summer should see their counselor as soon as possible. Spaces are expected to fill rapidly because all students in Greenville County high schools are eligible to enroll.

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Filed Under: Home Page, Online High Schools

Virtual classes find home in real classrooms

February 19, 2012 By admin Leave a Comment

More Beaufort County students could be taking courses from the comfort of their bedrooms or kitchen tables next year.

The district plans to increase the number of courses it offers online from three to 11.

Cory Tressler, the district’s director of virtual learning, said that expanding the offerings will give students a better opportunity to take high-level courses. Often these courses are not offered at each high school — too few students are interested in taking them to justify the cost or there’s no teacher available for them.

Currently, keyboarding, advanced placement physics and advanced placement calculus BC are offered. About 150 students are enrolled in the courses. Keyboarding is the most popular.

Next year, AP courses in world history, environmental science, Spanish and French will be added. Classes in creative writing, art history and contemporary music also are planned.

Teachers of each virtual course record their lectures and notes and post them to Moodlerooms, an online space where students can watch the videos, submit assignments and interact with the teacher.

Bluffton High School teacher Kevin Sandusky, who teaches the AP physics course, said teaching virtually can be challenging. Physics is visual, hands-on subject, he said, and doesn’t lend itself to teaching via computer.

He also realized how much he was energized by being in front of his pupils.

“I can’t teach without an audience,” he said. “I would go for about five minutes and then get tongue-tied. And I’ve been teaching for 15 years.”

Only practice has made him better, he said.

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Filed Under: BestOnlineHighSchools.com, Home Page, Online High Schools Tagged With: Online Courses

Virtual schools, brick-and-mortar challenges

February 16, 2012 By admin Leave a Comment

How many ways can we improve on our public education system? Chartered schools, home schools, Catholic schools, private schools have all been attempts to improve how and what children learn. Alternatives abound, yet the state controled K-12 schools dominate the average American childhood. Now add to the list of suitors for your education dollar – virtual charter schools.

A box arrives at your door, filled with the school supplies your daughter Sally will need for the year. On your home computer, she logs in to her classes, gets lessons from her teacher, completes her homework assignments. No more school bus, cafetaria, gym, bully, favorite teacher, crush on the boy who could draw.

This approach to schooling is picking up steam. In fact, every state that borders North Carolina has a virtual charter school. Yes, even South Carolina.

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Charter school offers educational choice

January 29, 2012 By admin Leave a Comment

The school day will run from 7:05 a.m.-4:55 p.m. Monday through Thursday and Friday morning. There will also be an optional half day of instruction on Saturday, Wicks said.

“The first 45 minutes and last 45 minutes of each day will be used to work on individualized things. There won’t be any homework because the children will have spent the day being very physically and mentally active and when they leave they should be able to be children again,” she said. “And the teachers won’t have a lot of homework, either. People forget teachers also have a lot of homework.”

Seeking students

With the beginning of the 2012-2013 school year, the school will be one of seven new public charter schools, joining the 13 schools operating within the South Carolina Public Charter School District. Program emphasis varies among the schools and includes a Chinese immersion curriculum, creative arts, gifted and talented, and several virtual schools that provide online instruction.

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