So my head is full of all of the carefully thought out details of the Omaha Public School Virtual School’s orientation.   Yet, even with the many details to process both my son and myself are so excited to begin.

The orientation morning began with of course a bagel for him to fortify for the exciting journey ahead!  When we went upstairs friendly and helpful Virtual school workers checked us in, gave him the laptop he will be using and pointed out the donuts and water to enjoy before it started.

Wendy Loewenstein, Director of the Virtual School, highlighted the student handbook, various procedures including drop off/pick up, explanation of how the stations would work and next steps in the process.  One of the important things she noted is that because students only meet face to face once a week, it is vital to make every effort to be there. Therefore she defined excused and unexcused absences and explained Virtual School’s expectations for families.  In addition, she broke down the learning hours and made clear the suggested amount of learning time to provide for learning engagement.

If students are taking only 2 -3 courses, then the suggested engagement per day is about 3 to 3.5 hrs but if a student takes up to 6 -7 courses than daily engagement would be up to 6-7 hours.  The good news is that as long as a student is offline and is doing an on topic learning to one of the courses they are enrolled in than that time offline (whether coming directly from the curriculum or the Learning Coach) counts as learning time.   For example, if my son is enrolled in Science and he is doing a project from one of his Magic School Bus kits then that learning time can count or say a field trip the Learning Coach takes the student on even if not suggested by the curriculum.   To me, this is very reasonable and the software of the K12 website makes it very easy to enter.

And in addition, to no extra cost to us, there will be further training provided to the Learning Coaches (parents, caregivers etc.) next session on the K12 website and on the assessments that will be given to the children in order to best map out their learning plan.

Although there was much information shared in a short amount of time, I found the experience helpful, organized and focusing on just the right details for us as Learning Coaches and students to be successful.

After her informational session, by age groupings students and parents were encouraged to sign up and create an account at the K12 website company, the curriculum company, and the individuals were patient, helpful and quick.

The classrooms are going be very small and it was exciting to meet my son’s new teacher.  My son is in the 4th and 5th grade grouping.  The teacher modeled on the white board an “about me” activity that the students did at the end.  It was fun and interesting to learn about him.

Then one at a time individuals from  the K12 curriculum company, Microsoft 365 and from Common Sense Media presented on their role in the program.

K12  explained and took questions to on logging in, what the lesson plan looks like on the screen, how the Learning Coach can input time and other important details.

Common Sense Media is a wonderful not for profit organization that enables parents to not only use it’s review system for determining which media (movies, songs, books etc.) are appropriate for their children but also has many resources on their webpage for engaging and determining appropriate boundaries, topics and issues of raising a child in the digital age.  I am excited that they have deep convictions and resources to help parents help children and families make healthy and appropriate choices in use of technology.

Personally while they are fantastic ways of connecting and enabling learning, I believe all technology needs to be balanced with in person human connections as well as needs to serve our needs rather than become a master of what we do.  So I can’t wait to explore the forums, the articles about cyber bullying, screen time or use the various other resources on their site such as device contracts that can be printed and discussed and agreed upon by the entire family.

It is important to be a good digital citizen and I love the thought and care that OPS has chosen to partner with organizations such as K12, Common Sense Media, Metro Community College and the Do Space.  They have chosen well and wisely and it will be exciting not only that our children benefit from this collaboration but as our students are expected at times to collaborate with one another, they see  their own learning community practicing it in the way they are taught.

Microsoft led the students through installation of office 365, connecting to the cloud, creating document in the cloud and features of office 365.  My son loved creating his first document.

Leaving the Do Space, our heads were full but my heart was even fuller of gratitude to the hard work, massive coordination and wonderful workers of this new Virtual School.  Of course we have homework too, my son needs to fill out a fun “What learning personality Am I?” sheet.  In addition, we realized that to ensure our responsibility as a family for the device we need to work on his room.  We need to make good digital decisions to on where to charge his device, what kind of work space does he need and what expectations on it’s use.

I am very excited that he got to create his own cloud document and I have visions of exciting writings and collaborative projects in his future.  Apparently, sometimes he will be working on a document the same time another student in their house will be working on the same document,  which is very exciting that he will get used to working so collaboratively so early in life.

So immediately that night and all day Friday and Saturday we have been hard at work purging and rearranging his room and work space to create a place that will be uninterrupted yet allow for responsible care of his device.  Especially a space where our ever curious cat will not find the device for Ash our cat loves to lay or step on computers.

Yesterday my son was very excited  to open his lap top and start on the curriculum and I am thankful that I see now today the introductory lesson in his K12 account.  It is wonderful when a device can excite students to learn.  He took the personality test today, his homework, and found the he is Green.  It will be interesting to see how his teacher teaches him to know himself to be able to learn better.    I also look forward to watching his development in collaboration and digital citizenry, including but not limited to backing up every file.

I am also grateful that while he and I will be here mostly doing things at home, that the online learning he does will be monitored and noticed by his teacher even while he is here at home giving them chances and opportunities to help and advise us in supporting an area of struggle or enhancing an area of interest and strength.

I love that the program in K12 not only does the assessing for us but can tell us whether he has mastered the concepts or not.  This can be useful in offline ways I can help him or additional things we can do.

And I am excited that while the learning responsibility is mostly his that I play a vital role, not only in entering time and encouraging good digital citizenship but especially in cheering him on, building on the curriculum and encouraging him to keep at it or ask for help when things feel hard.  I have been reminded recently that learning for students is never separated from their emotions and for him to achieve his best will mean I need to be that safe space to listen to his fears, his concerns and draw him out and give him room to grow.

I am a little nervous myself of the unknown in terms of what time or energy or encouragement he might need from me but I am confident that with good clear communication, regular reflection and a sense of fun and hard work that this can be a really exciting time.

I am especially interested to see if some special friendships both between my son and peers and myself and other Learning Coaches can develop into a safe, peace making and productive community.

I am now looking forward to training for myself as a learning coach on Thursday and excited to see him apply himself but enjoy it and am grateful for this opportunity.  Especially that meeting only once a week still allows me to do my his other homeschool needs and yet connects him to other students who love to learn.

Tune in on Friday for our next adventure in Virtual Schooling!