Working in an Online School

Before hearing of Mr. Stanek being our presenter this week, I had never heard of an online high school. I thought "Really? This can't work. Online colleges work, but that's because people have already had proper instruction in a classroom setting." It was a real eye opener that you could actually do this. I figured students would not be mature enough to complete such a task in an online setting. I was wrong, for many of his students succeed in his mathematics classes. The only class, which I had predicted, that didn't really work at all was calculus. The reason I thought this was because no online collegiate course at Ball St. had calculus involved in the class. He basically used files for them to download which had specific instruction. I liked how he had online class sessions where he did teach and create inquiry, though it may not be live. The site they used, which I forget, is very similar to the blackboard program we use. To me, it seemed almost identical to blackboard, just a few different colors, but the options for it were the same. I did like how he used a program to conduct his class that was similar to ours. I feel like the adobe office works very well in conducting an online class every Thursday. I also liked how he had office hours, more like a collegiate professor rather than a high school teacher. This gave students a chance to bring up questions that could not be understood through email or technological applications. I specifically liked his precalculus example of polynomials. This, to me, seemed like an activity that we are doing for our technologies. It had complete instructions and good questions that can be answered. Also going to the online high school website was very eye opening. I thought his high school was an exception, and yet there are many online high schools throughout the country and world. I think this really applies when people are in a family where a student has to work in order to keep up with bills. This also works for those students who wish to leave the school a half-day early to go to jobs. Here they can go to school in the morning, still work, and take a few online classes that would be equivalent to the classes they will be missing by leaving a half-day early. Honestly, I don't think I would want to work at an online highschool. The main reason I wanted to become a teacher was because how much I love to interact with the youth of the world. I still feel just like an older kid to this day. Online school seems to me that there is little to no interaction between the teacher and the student. I think face-to-face is the best way to teach because you can ask more precise questions and answer them more fully when face-to-face. Some things you cannot answer in an email or in a short office hour time. I just feel that I would never want to teach in an online high school and hope that in the future I do not have to teach at one.