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I want to hear TL's opinions on Virtual High School. In Florida, where I live, we have Florida Virtual School. To learn about what this is, this is what their website advertises:
+ Show Spoiler +What is FLVS?
We're glad you asked! Florida Virtual School is a public school but, as you can probably tell, we're not just any public school. We're online. This means no matter where you live you can access more than 120 courses, from Geometry to AP Art History and everything in between. What's more, our courses are just as real as the dedicated, certified teachers who teach them. FLVS is where you go to learn on your time and on your schedule, no matter what kind of student you are. Public, private and homeschooled students, from kindergarten-12th grade, can take our virtual courses whether they live in Florida or not.
I, being a freshman in high school that spends 99% of his time outside of school on the computer, finds this to be an awesome alternative to highschool, but because of my age I know I can't have formulated an unbiased opinion seeing as I am currently waking up at 5am every morning to trudge to school that starts at 7:20am, sit through classes with the most annoying people in the world in my opinion, before I get home to start doing things on the computer.
If anyone here has taken virtual school in highschool, your thoughts on this type of thing as a whole would be greatly appreciated.
If anyone cares, this is why I'm interested:
+ Show Spoiler +I really want to learn how to code, and I hate being surrounded by people that crack your mom jokes and judge everyone that walk by you just because they're different from your current clique, and I hate being in a classroom where talking to the teachers (that usually don't care anyway, at least at the school I go to) is hard to do as they teach over 150 students across 7 class periods, and don't have every subject they teach memorized.
I care about my grades. I really do. But I make really shitty grades, because when I get home, everything about school instantly leaves my mind. Not on purpose, but all day I can think about reminding myself to do homework that was assigned during school afterwards, but the second I walk through the door, that thought is out of my head. The main reason I don't make good grades is due to the fact that I don't do my homework because I just don't think about it. Which is entirely my fault, and I could leave alarms and stuff to remind myself to do it, I just don't.
The reason I want to know people's opinions on Virtual School as a whole is to gather information, especially from the people that have done it before, and have a discussion with my parents about me possibly doing it. I really hate school.
Well, I don't hate school. I hate the people at school. I hate how staying after class to make up a test is something that is laughable by the people around me. I hate being picked on as a tiny white boy who sucks at sports, and everything that requires physical skill. I hate the fact that I get up at 5am to go to a place with a bunch of people I hate, sit there all day, and then get home to escape to being on the computer. I like being alone. I don't like to go out and spend time with people if I don't have to. At every social gathering I go to, I think to myself "why am I even here, I could be at home, playing games, redditing, learning korean (rosetta stone ftw), learning to code, and if I had more time maybe I could even program something significant.
Anyway, to get back on track, I think that virtual school would be great because I can call/email/skype teachers at ANY time (weekends) to explain something to me that I don't understand. It would also provide more time for me to learn Korean, and to code.
I don't know if I've been talking in circles. I'll summarize: I realize how important school is, but I hate going to a physical school as I feel it is not the most optimal way to learn things, time-efficiently . I like doing things at my own pace, I like being able to talk to the teacher at any time to understand things better, and I hate getting picked on, which happens at school. For what it's worth, I also hate waking up very early^^. If there was a positive alternative to going to physical school. I want to have a discussion with my dad about allowing me to do it.
Leave all input below ^^
 
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There are two questions here with a virtual high school. First, can you pick up the needed content? Second, can you pick up the necessary social skills?
Looking at content, I think a virtual school may or may not be the best answer. When I took an online advanced accounting class, I got a "B" even though I had no idea what I was doing. I personally find it much easier to learn from lectures, exercises, and group activity than from an online lecture. I tend to "multitask", which really means that I web surf and do not pay attention to the material.
You may be different, and be able to absorb the content while taking the class online.
Looking at social skills, I appreciate what you are saying about high school being awkward. There were several points during my high school experience that I wish I were more popular, that I had asked out girl X instead of girl Y, etc. I did not enjoy it very much, and I sympathize with your feelings about being picked up.
However, high school is social preparation for college, and both of those are social preparation for the "real world." What I mean is that, almost wherever you eventually work, you will need to learn how to hold up a conversation, how to be funny, how to convey that you are trustworthy. These are social skills that are developed in high school and college.
I think it is clear that online high school will not teach you these soft skills that are so important for later in life.
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High School is all about socializing and learning to deal with a mini society that is presented to you physically in the form of peers and superiors and respective responsibilities.
Some of this cannot be learned online where you can simply dick off all you want.
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On February 21 2013 12:51 Random_0 wrote:
There are two questions here with a virtual high school. First, can you pick up the needed content? Second, can you pick up the necessary social skills?
Looking at content, I think a virtual school may or may not be the best answer. When I took an online advanced accounting class, I got a "B" even though I had no idea what I was doing. I personally find it much easier to learn from lectures, exercises, and group activity than from an online lecture. I tend to "multitask", which really means that I web surf and do not pay attention to the material.
You may be different, and be able to absorb the content while taking the class online.
Looking at social skills, I appreciate what you are saying about high school being awkward. There were several points during my high school experience that I wish I were more popular, that I had asked out girl X instead of girl Y, etc. I did not enjoy it very much, and I sympathize with your feelings about being picked up.
However, high school is social preparation for college, and both of those are social preparation for the "real world." What I mean is that, almost wherever you eventually work, you will need to learn how to hold up a conversation, how to be funny, how to convey that you are trustworthy. These are social skills that are developed in high school and college.
I think it is clear that online high school will not teach you these soft skills that are so important for later in life.
basically this. high school might be miserable at times but it really helps you prepare for adulthood.
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What would you say to virtual school + an extracirricular activity? Wouldnt that add to the socialization? Plus there are a few people on my block that do it that I can hangout with. Or is it learning how to act in a structured strict environment?
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Also, about learning.
Essentially; the way I tend to learn things is if Im interested in it, I will scrounge up all information on the topic, digest it ASAP, memorize it, and then use it in as many conversations as possible. Like Korean, i devote an hour a day, and directly
afterwards ill talk to my dad in it even though he doesnt understand, Ill explain it because the language means something to me. I also have him test me on it, like vocab tests. He'll write words and Ill have to translate them, or vice versa.
Im taking Spanish in school. Spanish doesnt mean anything to me, so i forget everything ive learned pretty much the second i walk out the door of the class, and am making shitty grades because I cant bring myself to study it as it is unbearingly dull to me.
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Yeah, you sound like my dad. I'll be honest with you, being a (psuedo-)intellectual in highschool with no social skills won't get you anywhere. That is the ultimate downfall of FLVS, you lose all that social awkwardness that you learn from. I'll be honest, NO one is born a social butterfly, everyone who seems that way emerged from awkwardity at a certain point in time. The way you sound, you just sound like an introverted nerd, but you have to be honest and say that you enjoy spending time with other people doing certain things. That may not be parties, but it sure as hell is about shmoozing. I'm serious here, everything you learn is worthless without the social skills to implement it. It doesn't matter how good you are at coding if no one wants to hire you because you can't do a job interview without falling on your face. Highschool might suck sometimes, but you learn valuable lessons that no one holds against you later in life, like the social exploration and mistake you make in there.
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I pretty much agree with what everyone else has been saying, if you find all the people around you to be obnoxious, then that's probably even more reason to go to school, as you have to learn to deal well with people who you don't like.
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Hm. Well put. Im going to sleep on it :D
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Katowice25012 Posts
I don't have much else to add but if you're having trouble with school because you can't motivate yourself on your own to do things like homework outside the classroom, this is infinitely worse for you. It's a situation where 100% of the work is now placed on you, it's not going to do anything but aggravate the problem and make it much larger.
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I took APCS with FLVS. The assignments were so mind numbingly boring and had no real world application. It was much worse than a normal class. As a student in Florida these courses were free for us (btw if you're not in Florida be ready to shell out a hefty fee to enroll), and it was really only utilized by the high-achieving students who wanted to pad their GPAs with easy AP's or if you failed a class and needed to retake it with an easy pass.
Overall I wouldn't recommend it, especially if you actually want to gain knowledge. Imo if you really want to learn suck it up and work hard in high school (it really isn't that hard if you have a decent work ethic) and make kickass grades. College is where the real learning begins.
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I feel like a huge thing that impacts my not doing homework nor studying due to just not remembering that I have to is the disconnect buffer that is the bus that I take to and from school. Full of tired, grumpy kids my age+ discussing weekend plans and such cause general school things I need to do to fade from my mind.
If you were referring to the whole Spanish thing, I find my core classes interesting enough. In school, I try to learn, but if I dont understand something, talking to the teacher is hell. I have 3 teachers that just go "if you dont understand, ask people by you". If I do, I usually get yelled at for disrupting class. If I try after school, they usually give bullshit excuses like "i forget lol".
I find Algebra, Biology, Human Geography, and English fascinating. Its things like electives that I usually dont. Where I go, you can not choose your elective. After you recieve it, you can go to the counselors office and try to change it, but only if you've taken the class before.
Pottery, Basketball, and Spanish are things I really dont care about. Especially pottery due to the bitch teacher I have. In flvs, wouldnt I be able to at least choose my courses and be able to talk to the teachers whenever?
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I've taken several high school courses online, including English, Science, Geography, Computer Science, Psychology, Accounting, etc. Not sure if FLVS is suppose to supplement day school or replace it entirely but if it's the former, e-learning isn't meant to replace regular day school. Most guidance counselor will not allow you to take a course through virtual school if that course is offered at your day school or you do not have good grades.
You need to have self-discipline, self-motivated, be a good writer, and manage your time accordingly. If you don't have any of these traits than forget about e-learning.
How a virtual course is taught will largely depend on the teacher. Some teachers treat it somewhat like a regular schooling where you are required to attend an online chat room a certain amount of times a week at certain times. Some will provide video lectures weekly and you can go at your own pace. Some will require you to participate in online discussion forums. Some won't do shit and just let you read the online modules (chapters).
But be assured, most assignments will be written so you better have excellent writing and presentation skills (microsoft word, power point). But since you're interested in taking computer science, you're probably going to be doing lots of mini assignments where you write mini programs using Java or Turing or whatever language you used these days in introductory courses. Since you can easily just copy someone else's code, the exam may be harder than usual (code on paper) day school exam.
Exams are generally weighted more since it's easy to cheat online. A lot of the time, the midterm and exam will determine whether you fail or not, expect like ~50% of your mark devoted to the exams. So if you don't like this sort of grading distribution, don't take an online course.
Base your decision on the teacher. Don't skip out taking a course taught by a passionate teacher at a day school just because you dread waking up in the morning, you'll learn much more with them than taking an online course with a teacher that doesn't care. Lots of virtual high school courses are more basic than their day school counter-part (lacking big projects, presentations, creative projects, etc).
I don't understand where everyone gets this idea of high school teaches you social skills from. Seeing the same people for four years doesn't teach you shit. You may (or may not) become more comfortable socializing with them because they're familiar ... it doesn't prepare you for the real world or College where you're thrown into an environment where you see hundreds of different people a week.
If you dread waking up every morning to go to a place full of retards, you're more likely to dropout. The same is true for a job, if you don't love your job or hate the people around you then you're probably going to quit or get fired unless you want to put yourself through that shit just for money.
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They should change your school's start time since highschoolers aren't meant to wake up that early  .
@skyR Sure you've seen the same kids the past four years, but you have to start somewhere in terms of socializing. Someone who stays at home not interacting all through high school won't magically become a butterfly in college. Body language, how you speak, etc. can be learned even if you've been with them for years.
@OP I'm pretty sure there are more advantages of just staying in regular school over the online one. Other people listed good points that I'm not going to re-iterate. You're not supposed to only learn the subjects you like, I get that you like all those that you put, but sometimes you're just going to have to suck it up (Spanish in your case). In terms of the people, is there a way to hang out with a different crowd or something? Your whole school can't be like that. And why not email your teacher instead of asking after class? It'll make you (sorta) get in school mode while at the computer if you need to get work done.
Btw you say you care about your grades, yet you do nothing to improve them so kinda funny business there. Maybe just a lack of self motivation.
I've never done legit online schooling, but I know a person who does and you can kinda see the degradation of being able to do w/e you want on the computer 24/7. Will your parents be home to supervise that you'll stay on task?
I can certainly see where you're coming from, but it's only 3 - 4 years of your life and you can learn a lot from it. most freshman at any high school are immature because they think they're the kool kids now so it might just be a phase So maybe become friends with the kids like you whether in your grade or higher. Btw a lot of the kids in sports are usually pretty motivated so try there, unless it's an ez sport to make the team on. If you're out of shape just start working out, plenty of time to use dem new testosterone hormones thanks to puberty (I think males hit puberty around now right?). Maybe every hour on the computer do a set of pushups, situps, etc. and slowly increase the number every week. Remember being physically fit also has good mental effects to so win-win. Also helps with the ladies.
Current senior in hs~
=D
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On February 21 2013 13:08 Frostfire wrote:
What would you say to virtual school + an extracirricular activity? Wouldnt that add to the socialization? Plus there are a few people on my block that do it that I can hangout with. Or is it learning how to act in a structured strict environment?
That's not adequate. Hanging out with Starcraft fans or judo buddies is obviously different than school (or real life.) For one thing, the diversity is different. For another, having tasks and goals is something that is in a real job but not in these other things.
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On February 21 2013 13:14 Frostfire wrote:
Also, about learning.
Essentially; the way I tend to learn things is if Im interested in it, I will scrounge up all information on the topic, digest it ASAP, memorize it, and then use it in as many conversations as possible. Like Korean, i devote an hour a day, and directly
afterwards ill talk to my dad in it even though he doesnt understand, Ill explain it because the language means something to me. I also have him test me on it, like vocab tests. He'll write words and Ill have to translate them, or vice versa.
Im taking Spanish in school. Spanish doesnt mean anything to me, so i forget everything ive learned pretty much the second i walk out the door of the class, and am making shitty grades because I cant bring myself to study it as it is unbearingly dull to me.
This is a matter of judgment. Some people learn well in different formats. If you do try to learn independently, make sure you benchmark yourself to make sure you're not fooling yourself with how well you're doing. For example, take the SAT II Math, or AP Chemistry exams. Make sure that you're competitive with how well you think you are doing.
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On February 21 2013 14:53 LeafMeAlone wrote:
@skyR Sure you've seen the same kids the past four years, but you have to start somewhere in terms of socializing. Someone who stays at home not interacting all through high school won't magically become a butterfly in college. Body language, how you speak, etc. can be learned even if you've been with them for years.
Why is it that most people have this illusion that you are cut off from the world by taking a virtual course? You realize that being home schooled or virtual schooled doesn't isolate you from the world right? You're still going to be going on with your daily life, going out to shop, eat, hang out with friends, and social gatherings. There's been studies done on this and that there aren't any differences in social skills between kids that were home schooled and those that attended day school. If anything, the kids whom are home schooled are better at it and more prepared for college because they are self-motivated and self-disciplined.
Socializing doesn't start in high school... it started since you entered kindergarten, even before that. And you don't need to be a social butterfly to succeed in life so I don't see how this is relevant? Most people aren't social butterflys... and there is nothing wrong with being less sociable than others.
Interacting with someone familiar is a lot different than interacting with a total stranger... I'm not even sure why we're talking about social skills because going to day school doesn't teach you any of it, you can totally just sit through the four years with minimum interaction with teachers and classmates, especially when teachers aren't passionate and you dislike the other kids. You learn tolerance, an important skill to have but I'm sure you already learned that at home, earlier in your education, and other places as well... If you want to improve on your social skills than take initiative and do something about it.
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I feel like a huge thing that impacts my not doing homework nor studying due to just not remembering that I have to is the disconnect buffer that is the bus that I take to and from school. Full of tired, grumpy kids my age+ discussing weekend plans and such cause general school things I need to do to fade from my mind.
Unless you legitimately have a mental disorder that impacts your memory I can't believe this is possible. You don't even have a nagging voice at the back of your head, saying, "Hey, my grades suck, why do my grades suck? Oh, it's because I don't do homework. Wait, so that must mean I have homework! I should do it if I don't want my grades to suck!"
If you have trouble remembering specific assignments, then use a fucking agenda. I don't know about your school but my HS gave us free agendas to use, which I used religiously, because I am a forgetful person who can't remember details of assignments very well. Seriously, you must learn how to get on top of things like this, or you're gonna flop in college.
I don't want to judge, but you sound like someone who simply doesn't have the motivation to do well in school, meaning you're gonna flop in an online course. If you had any sort of motivation at all, after realizing that you always forget to do homework, you'd try various means to correct your behavior, but it doesn't sound like you have.
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I feel like a huge thing that impacts my not doing homework nor studying due to just not remembering that I have to is the disconnect buffer that is the bus that I take to and from school. Full of tired, grumpy kids my age+ discussing weekend plans and such cause general school things I need to do to fade from my mind.
Here's a guess as to why.
You get home and want to relax and unwind a bit. That's allowed, that's human.
But you don't actually unwind, you participate in activities that suspend reality, but as soon as you re-surface you are exactly as you were when you got home. So instead of unwinding, then doing something productive, you get stuck in a loop and all your free time gets blackholed and its already time for another day of school.
In short, your hobbies (playing games, redditing, learning korean (rosetta stone ftw), learning to code) suck. Especially the first two. I recommend a bit more diversity.
Sorry to be so blunt and possibly a little hyperbolic.
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I did all my high school completely online. I ended up with severely stunted social skills and I've had to do a lot of catching up in college. Whether it's the right fit for you is pretty simple; how important is your social life to you, and how much of a social life will you be able to keep without going to school? Do you have non-school friends who you'll still see and hang out with? If you think you can handle the lack of a social life, you'll probably be fine.
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EPT
