TwoEdgedSword Posted October 28, 2016 Share Posted October 28, 2016 (edited) Please don't quote my text that follows. I may be deleting later. Thanks. One of my kids, J, recently dual enrolled at the local h.s. so J can play sports. J is a very smart kid with top grades and a solid athlete, but since becoming dual enrolled, J has a couple online state provided classes that J is floundering in. When J submits work, it's a high grade. J is reading online and logging in, but not submitting work rapidly enough and is very far behind. The classes seem poorly organized and dull, and quite unlike the high quality private online offerings J has done and excelled in. J is working hard, trying to get caught up. J got a late start bc the school counselor added J a week late, and J hasn't been able to access the course videos on campus bc of general filters. We're working on fixing this, but it is what it is for now. Not putting the blame elsewhere, but that stuff just didn't help J get off to a running start. Because no grades are issued until the end, J has been able to play sports at the school with no problem. But if J isn't cutting the mustard, my view is J shouldn't be playing sports. If J isn't playing sports, J shouldn't be at the school-bc that was the reason for dual enrolling. Plus continued sports practices and games might preclude J from ever catching up. What to do? J wants to try to withdraw from those online courses if the school will allow it, and join different in progress classes at the p.s., doing all of the classes on campus (J's getting all A's in the on campus courses right now). But we had planned on this being an experiment with the p.s and we do not want to suddenly stop homeschooling J altogether. Also, this would cause a huge disruption in the family for homeschooling the rest of the fam, bc J is not driving yet. J has homeschool classes too, but I'm being pretty flexible for now on these so J can get up to speed in the online classes. Other options are to withdraw J from the school entirely, or have J gut it out and hopefully pass with an average grade, if J can buckle down. If J withdraws, I could see this hitting J very hard...no sports there, no more social connections there J was enjoying. J could probably play sports at a private h.s. that allows homeschoolers to play without taking classes there. The local homeschool team is rec only and not competitive. Our current local h.s. where J is has a great sports program that would assist kids' in their goals of playing college sports. I welcome your thoughts. Please no quoting. Thank you. ETA: I hate the thought of these online courses wrecking J's gpa of course. J's smart enough, but I recognize there is a motivation problem. J's either socially motivated at the school to excel or its just easy for J there. ETA if J can survive this year, next year J can take community college courses through the h.s. that are very well done. Edited October 28, 2016 by TwoEdgedSword 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted October 28, 2016 Share Posted October 28, 2016 Is this something that he could guy through given a weekend of concentrated and supervised work? As in cancel outside activities and just get through the backlog? Have you talked to the coach or had J talk to the coach? I had to do this with competitive swimming at one point freshman year. I sat down with the coach to explain where ds was academically and ask which practices were most important if he had to cut back. A few days or weeks out of practices might give J the time needed to get back on track. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwoEdgedSword Posted October 28, 2016 Author Share Posted October 28, 2016 Hadn't thought of that. Here if a student isn't "making grades" they can't play in the game that week. There hasn't been such a determination for J bc it's online and the grade issued at the end. But I know J isn't cutting it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yvonne Posted October 28, 2016 Share Posted October 28, 2016 It sounds like the public online classes impose way too much administrative overhead, more time & energy managing the online process than learning content. Is there any advantage to the online classes? They aren't providing the same level of quality as private online classes, but, if they're equivalent to the classes at the high school, I'd let him drop the online stuff and take the classes at the brick & mortar. Classes that he gets done and even enjoys doing might be better than dealing with the mess that the public online classes seem to be.It sounds like he's doing them from the high school campus? If that's the case, would it necessarily impact your schedule for home schooling the other child/ren? He'll be on campus whether he's doing the public online classes or whether he's doing brick and mortar classes, right? It doesn't mean he has to do all his classes there next year. Now that you know that the public online classes aren't the best fit for him, you could let him know up front that you plan to go back to using private online classes next year in addition to some DE classes at the public high school or CC or whatever it is you want to do next year. It would be such a shame to pull him out of the sports situation that he really enjoys & looks forward to just to get through some poorly-organized, boring public online classes! It doesn't sound like they're worth it! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwoEdgedSword Posted October 28, 2016 Author Share Posted October 28, 2016 J does the public online ones at home mostly. One of the courses has the videos blocked at the school. The other one J does at home and also works at it in between classes while on campus. As for as the venue, I'd prefer less time there bc J already has lots of time there for practices and games. There's some not great influences there. J is super brainy, but can can pick up the negative social influences a bit too readily. I agree with all you are saying. But it would be lots more driving than I'm already doing and I wouldn't want J parked there from 8 to evening everyday with practices after school. Also, I wonder if it would be a struggle to reintroduce any homeschooling for J next year if we plow through this year with J doing everything on campus. But yes, J is excited and motivated about the classes on campus. J's very social. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yvonne Posted October 28, 2016 Share Posted October 28, 2016 :grouphug: That's a hard spot to be in. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkT Posted October 28, 2016 Share Posted October 28, 2016 I have heard this before about some PS online classes. Why torture the student? You need to have a heart to heart with your student. Maybe a simple after-schooling program once a week as a supplement (for literature, or whatever) could be a possibility. Pulling your student seems like a big mistake. On friends, reinforce your concerns about bad people. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwoEdgedSword Posted October 28, 2016 Author Share Posted October 28, 2016 We just a good heart to heart the past hour. Quite a few tears on J's part, bc J knows this is not how we envisioned it going at the p.s.,...not this much stress. I don't want to see J fail, yet I don't want to totally bail J out, since much of this is J's lack of motivation due to J disliking these two online classes so much. But persisting in the way things are is in my opinion setting J up for a pretty big failure. I was thinking maybe a compromise. If the schedule is doable and the school allows it, maybe subbing one of the online classes for an on campus one. And keeping the other going, even though J doesn't like the online format, bc hey, you have to do things in life you don't always like. And then next year avoiding these courses entirely. J likes that idea, and promises we won't be having this same convo about how J is slacking in the one remaining online class weeks and months from now. What do you all think? There will be more driving on my part until J is hopefully driving soon, but I don't want J miserable, stressed and headed for failure. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwoEdgedSword Posted October 29, 2016 Author Share Posted October 29, 2016 Thinking more that subbing one on campus class for the online one is the way to go. But what about the inevitable "W" that will most likely be on J's transcript? It's an elective, but how are these viewed and explained to colleges? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkT Posted October 29, 2016 Share Posted October 29, 2016 I don't think HS has "W" especially if you sub for a similar/equivalent course Obviously you need to contact the B&M school to see what is doable and the process 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwoEdgedSword Posted October 29, 2016 Author Share Posted October 29, 2016 Thanks. This is well after the add/drop period. We are almost 1/2 way into the semester, so I assumed there'd be a "W" for sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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