My name is Branwyn, an educator in Phoenix, AZ, and I'm current taking a course in teaching grades 9-12 in the online setting. For my assignment this week, I am supposed to interview an online teacher, yet I personally don't know any, so I figured I would turn here. This week we have been studying the various types of activities that can be done in the online classroom (individual tasks, group activities, simulations, labs, reflections, discussions, etc.). Please help by answering the following questions:
1. What types of activities have worked well with your students?
2. What activities have not worked well?
3. Are there any of these kinds of activities you have been reluctant to use with your students? Why or Why not?
4. What advice would you offer a new online teacher who would like to incorporate some of these kinds of activities into his or her online teaching practice?
Thank you in advance for any help or advice you can give.
Hi! I'm thinking of moving from classroom to online teaching. I'm tired of trying to manage rooms full of middle schoolers who really want to chat and/or be on their phones. I still love helping the light bulbs go on, but I'm worn out by the management piece. Any advice? Pros and cons of online teaching?
1. Add your classes to Jot. Invite students and teachers to collaborate with! 2. Add Notes, Assignments, Tasks and Grades. 3. Add video notes from YouTube or upload your own to Jot. 4. Post in "class boards", chat with other students/teachers one on one or create chat groups for project work. 5. All your assignments, class times, exams etc are added to your Jot calendar that is sync'ed to your device calendars. 6. State of the art mobile apps (phone and tablet) that bring information to you via smart notifications.
What are the benefits for six years experience and a M.Ed? I'm leery of the no salary scale. (salary, insurance, 401k,etc.) Are years of service with Connections Academy counted?
Work condition...See MoreConnections Academy has a non-compete clause which means if you leave (quit, non-renewed, laid-off, whatever), you can't teach anywhere for 12 months...
Pay varies by your state, but expect it to be less than the public schools. They are a for-profit business, so they're interested in paying as little as possible.
Work conditions are decent if you want to work at home, but be prepared to work outside of school hours. A lot of Connections Academy teachers need to be available in the evenings.
You also need to look at why you love teaching. If you love interacting with students, then you probably won't like teaching online. You're frequently trying to call them and get them to answer or get them to reply to an email.
There are a couple types of online high school students: The ones who are pretty bright and just trying to get high school over with as soon as possible without all the nonsense of a brick-and-mortar school. And then there are the kids who aren't that bright and basically can't hack a regular school. Neither is particularly keen on dealing with you more than the bare minimum.
On 10/05/15, MrsTeacher wrote: > The items in this group are pretty old. so I wanted to > get an update on Connections Academy. I was looking into > distance learning in Georgia. I'm been teaching for six > years and I love every minute of it. Every year I'm being > pressured to move out of my classroom. My Principal wants > me to prepare for an administrative career path that I do > not want. The politics are a bit much for me. I just want > to teach! > > What are the benefits for six years experience and a > M.Ed? I'm leery of the no salary scale. (salary, > insurance, 401k,etc.) > Are years of service with Connections Academy counted?
With that being said, I also get money from Prop 301 (pay-for-performance) which adds up to about 10&37; of my total salary twice year plus about an extra 150.00 monthly from the same funding.
The company also reimburses for employee expenses for things such as telephone, mileage....
More importantly, I almost always get to go to work in my pajamas and I don't have to worry about rushing to shower if I wake up a little late one day. The benefits are pretty good (I have a 401K, not our ASRS), the daily schedule is flexible, and the staff (at least at my school) are absolutely amazing.
I used to think that for-profit education was the devil; now, I'm quite confident it's not all bad... my school is really REALLY dedicated to student wellness and achievement. I told my director recently... I've completed two graduate degrees, am working on a doctorate, have worked in four different school systems and several other occupations (nursing, law), but this is honestly the first place I've ever been where I could still see myself in five or ten years.
On 5/09/12, Georgia teacher wrote: > Anyone here teach for K12 Online Public Schools? > > I've read the salaries tend to be $40-50K. Is that > accurate? > > Can years taught with them go into one's teacher retirement > system in their state? > > Thanks!!
simonsOn 8/19/14, jme wrote: > I'm feeling like I'm not worth very much. > > I don't want to put any information here, but I sure could > use a couple of cyber hugs.
Just posting to let you know that your message was read and that a cyber hug is being sent. Hope things get better for you.
Has anyone taught a course where you did not get to design the course-- your responsibilitie were just to e-mail and communicate with students, type commentary on their written work, and grade? What was the experience like?
I'm thinking I won't mind it since creating an online course is so much work-- and the pay for this university is VERY low (around $1100 a course)-- but I worry about disliking the curriculum.
It's not independent study-- it's a regularly 8-week college writing course where everyone starts at the same time, has the same deadlines, etc.
I figure I'll try it. Since I have a different full-time job to be creative in, it might be nice to have a pre-designed course anyway, particularly considering its very low pay.
On 11/22/07, where is it? independent study or facilitated? wrote: > Is it independent study where students enroll whenever they want > and then do the work in a certain period of time? Or do you > facilitate discussions and grade their work on a schedule? > > I've done everything in online teaching -- independent self-study > and weekly facilitated courses. Right now I've got one school that > provides all the lesson info and I get to create the assignments. > I have another school where everything is already written and set > up and I cannot change anything. Then my last school is the one > where I wrote the courses I'm teaching. > > These are all graduate and undergraduate college and univ courses > that begin and end on a schedule and students complete their work > on a weekly due date schedule. > > Lee > > > > On 11/05/07, rw wrote: >> In this case I would be in charge of the grading/commenting and >> e-mailing. The student would be all across the country so it >> would be an online constructed course and I'd work from home. I >> think I'm going to try it. >> >> >>> I've not heard of this situation before, but I've seen some >>> math courses that were designed around the self-paced >>> software - the teacher served basically as the tutor - the >>> software did the instruction, practice, and testing. The >>> good teachers did plenty of tutoring, and the poor ones sat >>> and graded papers for regular classes.
Pre-written courses are nice because you don't have to do anything but teach. The flip side is that if there's an assignment you think could be done more effectively in a different way, you can't change it.
What kind of turnaround do they expect with grading? Some schools give only two days, others three, and some give a week. Depending on how many students you have, two days could be very difficult.
Is this your first online class and are you teaching full time and just doing this in your spare time? If so, a two-day grading requirement in a writing class will be very difficult. You should negotiate that with your online dean and just let them know that grading writing takes a LOT of time and you're working a day job too so 2 days won't be possible most weeks. Maybe they'll work with you that.
Do you know yet how many students you will have? I've had as many as 30 students in an online writing class.
Have you seen the course to see how many hours you'll have to put in on facilitating discussions and grading writing?
Will you have to set up groups for peer review (that takes a LOT of time, too).
What are the requirements for grading the writing papers? Some schools require a certain number and/or kind of comments on graded work that you send back to students. For example, one school where I taught Eng comp required instructors to mark writing errors and explain corrections and then write several statements about content for every paragraph of writing and then complete a rubric and then write at least two paragraphs of summary comments. WHEW -- try doing that for 30 papers in two days!!!
But..... the good news is that it can be done. The most important tip is to keep a word document with all the writing comments you make on papers and another document with every content comment you make on every paper for every assignment. Then the next time you teach the course, you have your comments ready to copy/paste - just do a few minor changes to personalize the comments a little bit for each student.
Actually for grading writing I have macros set up so that I can hit one key and my comments are typed automatically in blue bold print. For example, students have trouble with apostrophes and possessive noun forms. So I hit a pre-programmed key on my keyboard and the words "use apostrophe with possessive nouns" is typed right after the error in the paper.
I've taught Eng comp and developmental writing online for several different schools around the country for about 3 years. I finally gave up teaching Eng and writing because the work is double what it is for other subjects and the pay is the same. I just got an offer to teach writing classes for a university that pays 1500 for a 5 week class and caps the enrollment at 12-15 for writing classes. I've asked to see the curriculum before I decide -- it depends on how many and what types of writing assignments they have in the course.
I teach college English/comp but I also have an elementary certificate. Does anyone know of any companies/schools that hire distance teachers for elementary or ESL?
On 11/02/07, marjoryt wrote: > This is a new initiative for the state, in case you are > looking for ideas. > > The only elementary school programs I've heard about are for > home schooled students.