LH uses summer classes as practice
Students taking algebra during the summer school session at Laurel Highlands High School weren’t only learning math, they were teaching a math teacher. High school teacher John Sharp used his summer school students to get feedback on the online curriculum that will be used for the district’s new cyber school.
“I’m a traditional teacher. I wasn’t sure how effective online teaching would be,” Sharp said.
Sharp built a library of algebra lessons that he narrated. Three high school students signed up to take the class this summer, and even though they were using cyber school lessons, they still had to show up at the high school each day and sit in a classroom from 9 a.m. until noon to view the lessons on laptop computers.
“This is a test where I can see what’s going on. They can tell me what’s good and what’s bad and I can address it,” Sharp said. “In an online environment, we would set up chat rooms.”
Sharp said his three summer students have done well in the self-directed class, even though some of them have not done well in math classes in the past.
One student, Bekah Hoxter, said asking questions in a traditional classroom can be intimidating.
Randy Miller, the district’s curriculum director, said the online summer school classes in Algebra 1 and English are just the start of converting the district’s core curriculum for the cyber school.
“We wanted to pilot it in the summer to work out the bugs,” Miller said. “Starting 2010-11, we will have our own Laurel Highlands cyber school.”
Miller said the goal is to have more students stay in school and to reduce cyber-schooling costs for the district, which doesn’t receive state reimbursement for students who attend other cyber schools even though the district pays tuition to those schools. Miller said that if a student who lives in the Laurel Highlands School District opts to attend any cyber school, then drops out of high school, it goes against the district’s dropout rate. Laurel Highlands has traditionally had a graduation rate of about 93 percent, Miller said. That figure dipped to 83 percent last year. Miller said the district is hoping that offering its own cyber option will help reverse that.
“The district is losing money and doesn’t have control over attendance and grades,” Miller said of the other cyber schools.
With Laurel Highlands having its own cyber school, students will be able to move seamlessly between the traditional classroom program, cyber-schooling, or homebound education needed for medical reasons. The online instruction also is available free to anyone on the Internet, Sharp said, so students in his traditional classes and their parents will be able to review lessons as needed as his summer school students have done.
“They are not shy about touching up on a subject, which is something you never get in a traditional classroom,” Sharp said. “This, to my mind, has really worked well and I’m thinking of incorporating it into my regular classroom.”
Miller said the district has about 60 students enrolled in various cyber schools, with 12 currently registered to attend the Laurel Highlands cyber school in the fall.
Parents and students interested in previewing the program can find Sharp’s algebra class online at http://lh.blended schools.blackboard.com as a guest, and looking for Laurel Highlands under the “Classes” tab.