Thursday, March 29, 2012

Helping Low-Performing or At-Risk Students with Their NCVPS Course


If parents or Distance Learning Advisors find that students are falling behind in a North Carolina Virtual Public School course, they should know that they do have options available to help. Here are some suggestions that will help the students pass the course.

1.) Students can contact their instructors during office hours.
2.) Students can set up a time for one-on-one tutoring with their instructor through Wimba, Pronto, or the phone.
3.) The DLA of the school can create peer tutoring sessions with other successful NCVPS students.
4.) The DLA can have EC students meet with the school's EC specialist to help them.
5.) NCVPS has an extensive list of assistive technologies such as text to speech, visual, mobility and Math tools at http://goo.gl/eryLQ.
6.) Students can attend review sessions at the school.
7.) Students can also attend tutoring sessions at the school if they are available.
8.) If the student is not logging into the course on a regular basis, the DLA might consider creating a time that the student works on their course at the school.
9.) If the student has an EOC in the course, the DLA could place the student in an EOC Reviews at the school.
10.) I send out progress reports to the DLA’s every two weeks.  I include the NCVPS teacher contact information (email and phone) in the Excel spreadsheets so that the DLA’s can contact the teacher.
11.) The parents can log into Blackboard with the students at home and supervise their work. 
12.) The parents can also communicate with the NCVPS teacher.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Study Jams is a Math & Science Resource for Students

Study Jams http://studyjams.scholastic.com/studyjams/index.htm has over 200 topics/resources available for students to use to help them learn Math and Science content. Some of the more popular Jams are: Creating Equations From Word Problems, The Universe, Volcanoes and Photosynthesis. The Jams include videos, key vocabulary terms and a test. Related Jams are shown below the selected Jam.