The Last Day of School

Congratulations to the 100 students and  parents served by the Clovis Online School this year.  Whether you are staying in the online school or moving to another school, we wish you every success in you educational journey!  More than anything else, remember the relationships you have built with other students, the staff, and teachers along your journey of learning.

Learning happens to people every day in everything they do, whether walking to the store, choosing a TV show, browsing the web, posting on Facebook, or text messaging a friend.   The way “school” works is different for different people.  Overall, school is a partnership between students, teachers and parents.  If any one of these partners does not want to have a relationship with learning, then it is very difficult for a student to learn.  This is true in the face-to-face world and this is true in the online world.

I will most remember the faces of the Clovis Online School.  The faces of students and parents as they interviewed to enroll in the online school,  the faces of students at the leadership summits, the face of a teacher who is just learning how to be an online teacher, the faces of our teachers at our staff meetings, and the faces of our office staff, Kelli, Chai and Mary, who provide the backbone and infrastructure of support for our students and staff.  Finally, I will remember the face of our very first graduate.  I look forward to seeing the faces of many more graduates in the future!

Have a great summer and when you feel like it,  send an email to your teacher or one of our staff members to thank them for something they may have done for you or just to let them know how you are doing.  The most important thing we do is develop relationships of learning between teachers and students! Because learning leads to a high school diploma which is your key to future success in college and high paying jobs!

 

End of 12 weeks and Summer School

Hello COS Students and Parents.  Just a reminder that this Friday, April 15, is the final day of the 12 week progress report for the second semester.  Progress reports will be mailed home the week of April 25, which is after Spring Vacation.

Summer School information has been emailed out to all students.  Contact our office if you have any questions.  These forms must be returned to the COS office by April 15.

A New Semester Begins

We are now entering the fourth semester for the Clovis Online School.  We have come a long ways from the first seven (7) students who were enrolled grades 9 and 10 in August 2009.   Our enrollment is now more than 75 students in grades 9-12 and more students are enrolling each day for the new semester.  The increase in enrollment is thanks to the teachers, students and parents in the online school who are sharing about the school with others as well as the number of school counselors are sharing about the advantages of attending the online school.  With each new student who enrolls in the online school, we learn more about how we can help student transition from face-to-face learning into online learning.  In addition, students at the last leadership summit also offered their suggestions for ways to help students to be successful in the online school.

Effective with this semester (Jan 2011), there are some new procedures that are now in place to help students to be successful.

• First, all new students must complete  a list of competencies during the first two-weeks of being enrolled in order to continue in the online school (click on this link to see the competencies).
• Second, there is now a parent verification form that students need to help their parents to complete.
• Third, any student who does not log in and complete assignments for more than two days will receive an automated phone call from COS.  If the same student does not log in, there will be a follow up meeting with the principal and if the lack of work continues, then the student may be dismissed from the online school.

We have a variety of support systems in place in the school…and all of us are happy to help at any time.   First, remember to email or Instant Message your teachers with any questions at any time.  The computer lab is open Monday-Thursday from 8am-12 noon with our computer lab aide Mary Miranda.  Online, you can always Instant Message with Chai who can help direct your questions.  Kelli, our office manager can also answer your questions over the phone or via email as well.   If your questions are not being answered or you’re not sure about something in the online school, you can always email or call Dr. Rob Darrow, the principal.  Remember the “15-minute rule” – take 15 minutes to figure something out and then ask for help via email or in person and move on to a different assignment.

I subscribe to the “Positivity Blog” and the quote shared recently was:   “Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.” Maria Robinson. I thought this applied well for the start of our new semester!

I look forward to a great beginning of the second semester with all students completing assignments on time, logging in every day by noon and communicating with their teachers whenever something is confusing.  Put your organization plan in place and stick to it and remember, your parents and other caring adults want you to be successful, too…and can help if you have questions. The links on the right side of this blog can help get you to the variety of resources available to you in the online school.

Leadership Summit on Thursday/Finals

The next COS Leadership Summit will be Thursday, January 13 from 12:30-5:00 here at COS.

Our schedule that day will be as follows:
12:30-2:00 – Awards Ceremony
2:00-3:30 – Finals Period 1 (math)
3:30-5:00 – Finals Period 2 (science)

See you then!

Welcome to 2011…Do you have a plan?

Do you make New Year’s Resolutions? I know that mine are almost always the same…to exercise more, to eat better and to get better organized. And then the year begins and I forget my resolutions. I heard someone on TV say that it is not good to make resolutions because most people don’t keep them. It is better to identify one thing you will do different and to just do that one thing. Or identify what you want to do but then be realistic about how often you will do it. For example if you say you want to exercise more, rather than saying you will exercise every day, just say you will exercise twice a week and then, if you end up exercising more than twice a week, you will feel better at what you have accomplished.

The one thing that should not simply be a yearly new year’s resolution is your education! For some, learning is hanging out with friends and doing whatever. For others, learning is a planned direction towards a goal. I hope yours is the latter!

Those who do well in the online school have a plan and a goal. Working that plan every day is what makes progress towards that goal. Students who have a plan do things to work the plan such as writing down a list of what work needs to be accomplished, Instant Messaging with other students or teachers about assignments, and asking for help as needed. Once the list is written, they set a schedule and get the work completed.

Your education and learning is critical in order to graduate from high school with your diploma so you can go on to do the things you love to do in college or in the work force. You can do it! But it all starts with your plan, your list and your schedule to complete the work.

Happy New Year from the staff and teachers in the Clovis Online School!

Successful Leadership Summit

Congratulations to the students who attended the leadership summit last Friday.  Your contributions to both the goal setting and the science labs caused it to be a very successful leadership summit day.  Thanks also to the science teachers for putting together the exciting and informative science labs.

Students in health, science 1, biology, chemistry and physics all participated in science labs.  Students experienced squid dissections, plant cells, and motion.  The pictures and descriptions below show the various activities that occurred.

Students utilized microscopes to look at cells, veins and plants.

Students had to examine, ponder and analyze for their lab write ups.In Chemistry, the weights of different forms were estimated and then weighed.

6 weeks to go – you can do it!

We have just finished the Thanksgiving vacation week.  For those students who were on pace with your online school work, you should have had some time off to enjoy your friends and family.  For those students who may be a little behind in their school work, this was an opportunity to get caught up.

The beauty of an online school is that the school never closes – even during vacation time.  Teachers may be on vacation but students can always complete and turn in school work.

The key for any student who is feeling overwhelmed by the school work or is feeling behind in their school work is to first make a list of work to complete.  Then, show the list to a parent or other caring adult and work out a plan to complete the work.  Right now, there is plenty of time to get the work completed to earn a passing grade in all courses, but it is important to set a schedule and stick to it.  Get started today!

Know that we can help as well – we have an open computer lab on Monday-Thursday from 8am-12 noon staffed by a teacher who is there and can help.  We have a counselor on staff who can help discuss strategies.  All of the online teachers are happy to work with students as long as work is being completed.  All of us want each student to be successful and pass all of your classes and we know you can do it!

I subscribe to a blog called “The Positivity Blog“.    Some of his recent thoughts may help get you started:

“Everything is something you decide to do, and there is nothing you have to do.”
Denis Waitley

“If you wait to do everything until you’re sure it’s right, you’ll probably never do much of anything.”
Win Borden

Perhaps the most important thing you can do to improve your life is simply to do things.  To take action and learn along the way.

Fall enrollment ends

Our fall semester enrollment period has ended.

However, if you are interested in enrolling for the spring semester, you may begin learning about the online school to determine if you want to complete the enrollment process. Complete the online activities below, attached or online at:  http://clovisonlineschool.pbworks.com/w/page/16042780/StudentInterview.

The spring semester begins on January 24, 2011 but interviews will be in early December and January.

For students interested in enrolling for our spring semester, the enrollment process is as follows:

• Student completes online work (listed below)
• Student/parent call the office and schedules a principal interview (559-327-4400)
• Student decides if online program will work or not
• Parent/student completes enrollment paperwork
• Student completes one week face-to-face online training

For students interested in enrolling, please complete the following:

1. Create an iGoogle page and subscribe to this school blog at http://clovisonlineschool.wordpress.com .
2. Get a Fresno County public library card (if you live in a different county, then get a public library card in that area).  See:  http://fresnolibrary.org/.
3. What is your learning style/intelligence?  This survey is anonymous but asks for your first name and age.  Please do not use your real name, but use your real age.  Copy and paste your results to a word document and print:  http://www.ldrc.ca/projects/miinventory/miinventory.php
4. What are your career interests? Create an account at – http://www.californiacolleges.edu/

• Click on the “career” section and complete the “My Interest Finder” inventory in the “Interest” section on the left side.

5. Write a “personal learning plan”.    Write about yourself, who you are and what you want to do in the future.  Bring this printed to the interview.

6. Go online and test our “Moodle” online platform.

• Go to: www.answerbay.com
• Create an account and complete the 10 lessons (they take students from 2-4 hours to complete).
• Email: robdarrow@cos.cusd.com when you start and finish this.

Make sure you print out the above documents to bring it to the principal interview.

Cyberbullying, Part 2

In the leadership summit last Thursday, presenter Janie Rocheford lead our discussion about Cyberbullying.  We learned that there has been something about cyberbullying in the news almost every day for the past two months (see Google news) and that October is designated as  “National Bullying Prevention Month.”

 

We also learned that cyberbullying is “the willful and repeated harm inflicted through the use of computers, cell phones and other electronic devices” and occurs when someone keeps doing or saying things to have power over another person through cell phones, email or online posts.  Cyberbullying can take place in a variety of ways including texting, stealing passwords, writing negative things about others online, making up fake websites about other people, or changing pictures of people and then emailing them out to others.

If you experience or observe cyberbullying, here is what you can do:

• tell an adult (adults can help figure out how to keep it from occurring again)
• ignore the comments (on email or Facebook, just delete the comments; via Instant Messenger, block the person)
• talk with friends or other people you trust to help stop the cyberbullying
• keep track of the times and dates of when the cyberbullying occurs so you can report it to an adult

If you should experience any form of cyberbullying in the Clovis Online school, you should report it to your parents, one of your teachers or to one of the Clovis Online School staff (Rob Darrow, Kelli Parker, Chai Nakpiban or Mary Miranda).  We work together in the online school to watch out for one another and to keep each other safe!  All of us want to succeed at whatever we want to do in the future.

Some of the websites used in this presentation are as follows:

• Stop Cyberbullying – http://stopcyberbullying.org/
• Teens Against Bullying – http://www.pacerteensagainstbullying.org/
• Cyberbullying Research Center – www.cyberbullying.us
• Striving to Reduce Youth Violence Everywhere (STRYVE) – http://www.safeyouth.gov
• National Center for Bullying Prevention – http://www.pacer.org/bullying/index.asp

After reading the previous blog post, a person emailed me with these “50 posts about Cyberbullying.”

Here is the PowerPoint presentation and note taking sheet used at the leadership summit by presenter Janie Rocheford.

Summit and Cyberbullying

The leadership summit held yesterday was a success by those that attended.  There were two topics discussed during the 5-hour summit: how to help one another in online courses and cyberbullying.

A student panel talked about what they do to keep themselves organized and how they make sure they complete their work on time.  The students shared the following strategies:

• Write down all of your assignments for the week and check them off when completed
• When a new module opens up, look at all assignments and decide which assignments will take a long time or a short time to complete
• Keep a weekly planner or calendar to write down all assignments that are due
• Show your parents that the work has been completed
• Overall, establish a system and stick to it

Students then met in math and science class groups to meet one another and to discuss what is difficult in each course.  Student groups reported back the following recommendations: feel free to email other students in the class for help, search YouTube for the concept being covered to listen to lessons about the topic, search the web about the concept to find other information about the things you don’t understand, email your teacher, and attend the weekly online class meetings offered by the teachers.

Next, speaker Janie Rocheford discussed Cyberbullying with the summit attendees.  Cyberbullying is when “a person keeps saying the same thing or doing the same thing to have power over another person using cell phones, email or online posts.”  Students read articles about cyberbullying, talked in groups about how it occurs, discussed how they were bullied at different times in their lives, and what they can do about it when it happens.  Future blog entries will focus on each of these topics.

Websites used in the cyberbullying presentation, and a place parents and students can get more information are as follows:

• Stop Cyberbullying – http://stopcyberbullying.org/
• Teens Against Bullying - http://www.pacerteensagainstbullying.org/
• Cyberbullying Research Center – www.cyberbullying.us
• Striving to Reduce Youth Violence Everywhere (STRYVE) – http://www.safeyouth.gov

Presenter Janie Rocheford is shown with students at the end of the presentation.