Teacher Certification Online

March 20, 2011 by Leave a Comment

With some areas of the country experiencing teacher shortages, emergency certification has been one way to get someone into the classroom. This certification doesn’t last long and is given in hopes that the person plans to work towards an actual teacher certification. But teaching takes up a lot of time. When you are holding classes for kids you don’t have a lot of time to attend a class for yourself. Today professionals can receive their certification online.

If there are several teachers all emergency certified in the same school or even school district, they may want to work towards their certification together taking online classes. Fit in the reading, assignments and tests outside of the work week and it is possible to take classes while maintaining a full time job. Depending on your experience and level of expertise, you may be able to take a few classes at a time to get your certification quickly.

Read through the class instructions as soon as it starts to find out what is going to be expected of you. Check to see if you are going to need to write out lesson plans that show a certain skill or even plan a class project with a set of students. You may be able to work this into your current teaching curriculum and be able to write about it for your own class.

No matter where you take classes towards a teaching certification you will need to participate in some type of practicum. If you are already in a classroom under and emergency certification you can use these hours spend for those assignments. You may also be able to waive the student teaching portion of the certification process if you can send in documentation.

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Charter Schools and Their Benefits

February 8, 2011 by Leave a Comment

In recent years, Charter schools have been a source of heated debate. The charter school movement roots go back to the 1970s, but it did not truly get hold of the American consciousness until the 1990s when states, beginning with Minnesota and California, began passing charter legislation. Charter schools are in essence an educational movement that encourages changing existing educational standards and creating new schools with independent charters or guidelines that they must meet in order to maintain existence.

Typical public schools are only held accountable for maintaining the standards of the local school district. Charter schools are held responsible to the mandates stated in their charter plan which outlines the charter schools’ principles, structure and how they are accountable for the students’ academic progress. Many proponents of charter schools state that this accountability and responsibility for the results of the academic welfare of the student is an innovation which specifically challenges the segregation that still exists in our public education system.

Another added benefit of successful charter schools is increased property value around many charter schools across the nation due to community interest in education. One of the most important aspects of property value is the standard of schools around the property. While charter schools have open enrollment policies, many areas where charter schools have been established has increased property values. One such example is one of the oldest charter schools in the country. The Charter School of San Diego can trace its roots to 1986. San Diego property management claims that the addition of the school significantly raised property value for the community.

Today, there are almost 3,000 charter schools. For advocates, they are used as a tool to increase choice in education for students, parents, educators and policy makers. For opponents, they are a waste of taxpayer funds. Regardless of anyone’s opinion on the matter, this topic is sure to be a hotly debated concept for decades to come.

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Making Time for School Work

February 3, 2011 by Leave a Comment

When you take classes online, time management may be something that you struggle with. Because there is no set class time and no teacher to hold students accountable, some people struggle. Independent study has so many benefits and makes school possible for so many people that just may not have the available time to go to a school and sit through a class. However, it is important to make sure that you set aside time specifically for school work.

Even though there is no “class” that you are going to be attending regularly, you need to set up a time that is going to be “class time.” Choose a time of day that you are going to read the textbook, work on the lessons, or even watch some of the seminars online. This time is not negotiable. Turn the cell phone off, don’t answer emails or instant messaging. Just work on your classes. Remember, if you were sitting in a room listening to a teacher lecture, you wouldn’t be able to play games or check out your latest social network post, so don’t do it at home during school time.

Let others know about the time that you are setting aside. If you live with friends or family, they may not realize what it takes to get a degree online. They don’t realize that you need to work on school at specified times to make sure that you are getting your work done. Talk to them about it. Explain that you have set aside time for school. They would not be able to come in and ask you to please help them find the remote while you were in the middle of class at school and so they shouldn’t do it at home either. You can always help them when you are finished. You don’t want to waste you money by not completing the school work assigned, so set some time apart just for school.

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Communicating with a Teacher for Online Classes

February 1, 2011 by Leave a Comment

One of the most difficult parts of taking classes online is the lack of interaction between student and teacher. There are, for the most part, no face to face meetings or discussions about the class or the material. In order to communicate it is necessary to speak with an instruction online through email or other postings on the class web-page. While this is nontraditional, it does have its benefits.

When you email a teacher with a question or comment, the computer saves the email that you sent as well as the email that you receive back. In this way you have a complete documentation of all of the conversations between you are your teacher. You can ask for specific information or answers and have them stored in case you want to go back and reread them or reference them again for another assignment. Make sure to save all of these interactions until the course is completed and you have received your grade.

If you were going to a traditional school you would have to wait for office hours to talk to someone about an issue that you are having with a class or assignment. Now, if you are up studying in the middle of the night and run into an issue, you can just send off an email and work on something else. You have done your part and you can just wait for a response. This makes communication easy and convenient for you no matter what time you choose to complete assignments.

Because there is some lag time between sending an email and getting s response you don’t want to save anything until the last minute. It is important to ask questions early and before you run into a problem. If you even think that you are going to need an extension or clarification on some of the directions, send the email right away to make sure that you get the answer in time.

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