The Virtual Classroom, vs. the Physical Classroom

Wow so I forgot I had this. Woot. This is for you Bekah.

As someone who started dual enrollment in 8th grade, with the plan to test for my GED and take the ACT before applying to a college I hadn't yet chosen, I am well aware of both the benefits and dangers that come with all forms of dual enrollment. My situation is unique however, my plan was thrown off the rails when I began enjoying the mainstream high school classes enough, that I decided I wanted to graduate and walk with my friends. I am now making up the credits that I technically don't have because of my home school route. This is where East Shore Online comes in. If you've ever been thinking about this path of education, here are some things to consider:
     1. Motivation. The biggest thing to consider is whether or not you have the self motivation and focus to spend the time working through online courses, packets, or textbooks at home. I was falling behind in my math classes for a while because I lacked the motivation to do... basically anything involving numbers. Now, I'm working double time to make up for it. It isn't impossible, but it's frankly easier and more pleasant to simply avoid falling behind in the first place.
     However, the motivation street can go two ways. I am incredibly self motivated with English, to the extent that I finished a whole year's worth of English in under two months. There are also ways to boost motivation, and focus on these alternative courses. At my high school, there is a "Red Room" in which the teachers' jobs are to help the students in there makeup/earn credits through the packet courses, and assist them in completing them. At home, I struggled with the math and geography packets, however once second semester started and I joined the Red Room period, I began to catch up. I now had a way to learn at my own pace, in an environment that I had already associated with learning and focus.
     2. Time. Some of these courses are very time consuming. That's another benefit of Study Hall and Red Room like classes, where there's allotted time during the school day itself to work on these things. If you're like me, and you enjoy extra-curricular activities, and being busy, then I recommend trying to fit one of these classes into your schedule. The online packet classes have greatly benefited my education, it just took me a while to figure out what the best way of accessing them or me was.
     3. Pacing. The pacing of the packets is one of the biggest advantages they have. You have access to the course 24/7, there's limited "homework," since you're learning throughout the whole day, and the teachers have a grading schedule. You know when you're work will be seen and graded, so you can get your questions answered, and mistakes fixed, fast. Since a lot of automatic grading is done by the computer, the teachers (who are actual people making lesson videos and assignments) have more time to converse with students via email and help them through issues they run into. This point takes us to our next item on the list.
     4. Student-teacher interaction. The teachers at East Shore are great to work with, patient, and have the time and ability to work directly with individual students and answer their questions.Through my online math courses, I have emailed the teacher often, and gotten replies fast. I've never been left confused after discussing my questions and/or concerns with the teacher, and it allowed me to not only move through the courses faster, but earn higher grades than I would have in a traditional classroom.
     5. An inability to fail. This point applies only to East Shore Online, to the extent of my knowledge anyway. My experience has been with home school and the online packets through East Shore. On East Shore, you cannot take the final test without earning at least a 70% on every assignment. Because of this, you have the chance to make sure you are understanding the material well enough to earn the passing grade, before taking the final exam of the unit, which weighs much more heavily on your final grade than the assignments. While this may seem limiting, it is actually just why the communication with the teachers is so important. I have never felt limited because the preparation for the final test has always been a huge deciding factor in my final grade. It also isn't hard to earn the passing grade, because the lessons are tailored to be applicable to all the problems in the assignment. If the goal was to make difficult material easy to understand, it was well accomplished.
     Not everyone fits in the traditional classroom, and not everyone fits in an alternate one. While I do recommend the online schooling, if it doesn't work for you, then it doesn't work. However, I do believe these packets are well created to work for everyone, for whatever reason they find themselves taking them. If you've never heard of East Shore, ask your school counselor about it. It may pull you out of an educational crisis you didn't even know you were in.