Schole teacher recommendation LFC A

[mamafin08]

Who has used Schole for Latin and used either Mrs. Chilbert, Ms. Scheidegger or Mrs. Weaver? Any recommendations ? Did you like the three day a week schedule over twice a week? 

[SoCal_Bear]

This was my review from last year from the master online class thread.

We are nearing the end of my son's Latin for Children A class at Schole Academy. He has been engaged and interested throughout the year. Mrs. Chilbert did take a maternity break so Mrs. Gerard (sp?) subbed in. Both teachers are enthusiastic and encouraging. He is a bit sad to not continue on with them because the schedule does not work for us in the fall, but he enjoys enough Latin so we will be using Wilson Hill in the fall solely because of scheduling reasons. I though Mrs. Gerard did do a better job of creating practice resources for the students to use on quizlet. It wasn't an issue for us as I already had quizlet set up for practice as well as a subscription to Headventureland. Both teachers are continuing to teach for Schole Academy for 2018-2019 and are teaching at least one Latin course. My son liked both of the teachers.

Please be aware that Schole Academy is distinctly Christian so the classes do follow a liturgical model and have prayer, devotional time and closing prayer. This is fine with me because it is consistent with our faith, but I did want people to be aware of this. The class is live video where you can see every student as well as the teacher. She controls whether or not a student can speak. There's no class chat box which does make the class a little less interactive, but it also removes that distraction from the students as well. The platform used is Schoology which seemed to be quite stable and was easy to use. Assignments were always posted and any homework that needed to be submitted was able to be scanned and uploaded pretty easily. At least for the Latin class, there are no recordings posted for the classes. If a student is absent, you can notify the teacher and a recording will be provided. Schole's guidelines do state that students may not miss more that 6 live class meetings. Class grades are given using magna cum laude, sum laude, satis, and non satis. Assignments that are graded on the Schoology are done via point value so the platform will generate a percentage grade based on those graded assignments.

When Mrs. Chilbert had to cancel a class due to illness, she did set up a make up class time and offered several options for parents to vote on. She selected the one that accomodated the most students. A recording was provided for students who could not attend. The maternity leave transition off and transition back was handled very smoothly and with very little disruption to the class. All in all, we would recommend this class. My goal was solely to keep my son in interested and engaged. He was able to learn Latin from teachers who actually love Latin and that showed in their instruction. He was motivated to do well because of the "competition" that a class environment provided.

Please also note that it appears that Schole is switching LFCA and LFCB to meet 3x a week for 45 minutes instead of the 2x a week when it was meeting for approximately an hour.

 

[SoCal_Bear]

FWIW, he did LFC B with Mrs. Songer at WHA this year. That class was considerably smaller so I think he got to participate more. It's also longer 1 1/2 hours twice a week. He wants to stay with Mrs. Songer (I think because she is a goofier teacher.) next year rather than switch back to a completely different teacher. Plus 3x a week is not very workable for our schedule. It is useful though because repetition helps with foreign language and getting in enough exposure and practice is important.

I probably should add that another consideration why we are going to go back to WHA for Latin is that she is allowing my son to go right into Latin 1 (Latin Alive) even though he is below the age/grade range due to how he has performed in her class this year. I think it will be important in making that big jump to stay with a familar teacher who knows his abilities.

 

Edited January 31, 2019 by calbear

[mamafin08]

I was hoping Mrs. Songer taught LFC A based on your recommendation but it looks like she is just doing C this year. I am trying to decide if three days a week will work for us or if two days is better. I agree the repetition of three days could be beneficial but that's just another day to be online.