Educational opportunities at LM are by no means limited, but when course selection rolled around last year, I felt a bit restricted by the course offerings. As a sophomore, I had felt unchallenged, and wanted to try something new. After I was finished complaining about my lack of choices, I decided to do something about it.
I talked to some teachers, and one of them pointed out the signs that were hanging all over school. It’s strange; I never miss a “Ginger Snaps: made for dunking” or an “Oliver Garden” poster, yet the important ones never seem to catch my eye. This particular poster was advertising Virtual High School (VHS) courses. I went to talk to Mr. Piotrowski, who is the Virtual High School coordinator at LM. He told me how easy it was to apply, and asked me to peruse the online course catalog. I did as he requested and was immediately impressed with the choices.
Virtual High School (VHS) has everything—Bioethics, Zoology, Forensics, Foreign Policy, Psychology, Econom¬ics, Number Theory, Statistics, Engineering, Caribbean Art, Music Composition, Animation, Creative Writing, Portuguese, Mandarin and more. The list is endless. And it’s all free. The only restriction is that you cannot take a class that LM offers, such as AP Literature, or Anatomy and Physiology.
I looked long and hard, and finally decided on “World Conflict: A United Nations Introduction.” It was a mix of history, philosophy, and foreign policy: perfect for me. The course started out with an introduction to the website, which uses Blackboard, also used by many universities. Black¬board is a software program, which incorporates lessons and grades. At first, it was hard to navigate, but once I got the hang of it, it became second nature. The VHS “school week” is Wednesday to Tuesday, with most work due on Tuesday. This schedule has its pros and cons; there’s no cramming on Sunday, but it’s sometimes hard to remember to turn in work on Tuesday. The site has discussion boards with the teacher, and a place to talk to your classmates.
The whole virtual classmates thing is very interesting. My class started out with 14 students, but by the end the number had dwindled down to 11. The gender ratio was extremely female-heavy: ten girls and one boy. The ma¬jority of the students came from New England; there was one girl from Reading, Pennsylvania, and one girl from Australia! It was neat to be able to talk to her and compare our educational experiences. Once or twice, the “student lounge” emptied out and I felt a bit alone. It’s strange not being able to ask the person sitting next to you what they got for #12.
According to Mr. Piotrowski, “the district joined VHS to give students the opportunity to expand their academic opportunities to take courses that currently don’t exist in the building and to give students the opportunity to take courses online, which is becoming very popular at the college level.” VHS courses go on your transcript, but are not incorporated into your GPA. There is a grade tab on Blackboard, a lot like Powerschool, where you can check how you are doing. The grading (at least in my class) was not challenging.
An online class does not incorporate the same kind of interaction between students as a traditional classroom course, of course, but the “student lounge” area provides a place where students can talk amongst themselves. We talked about our favorite classes, hobbies, and hopes for the future. We all had similar interests
The work was relatively easy compared to my LM classes (no real quizzes or tests, and obviously everything was “open notes”, with the internet at my fingertips), but it was OK. My VHS class gave me a chance to go outside the boundaries of a conventional classroom and pursue the things I am most interested in. The lessons and assignments were not demanding, but they required thought and Google skills. Most of the time there was no teacher there to pat me on the back and say, “Great job, Sarah!” I learned to learn for myself, which is really the most important lesson of all.
Sarah Zimmerman
Class of 2011
