The PA Budget cutters should read this first before cutting the education budget.

Dear Legislator, 


I have been a distance-learning educator for over ten years. During this time, I have seen many students who have been genuinely helped by this form of education. 
One thing that makes our learning platform different is access to quick responses from a teacher. Our students benefit most from this individual attention that we are able to reassure them with. They use the Open Source Moodle platform, and we communicate with many of them each day.  Our Moodle Platform is equipped with an instant messenger to help students at formative times when they begin to struggle. This access to a learning coach will be greatly diminished by a funding cut. 
I meet with students in groups every day in a multi-media classroom. My students have formed life long friendship with other students through this setting as well as looking to their teachers as mentors. I have been able to conduct these classroom sessions while in Panama, China and Quebec. The opportunity to tutor students in this setting will be greatly diminished. Teachers will have less time for synchronous instruction if funding is cut. 
Over time we get to know our students through their writing and responses in the classroom. We can access their group interaction, as well as their knowledge and skill in academics with the technological tools of multi-media classrooms, internal email, instant messaging and highly interactive lessons.  
If our students use distance education as a form of correspondence school, then they could have been doing this in the early 20th century. While it is true that we could still develop a relationship with them through their writing, it is not a reason to spend this kind of money on learning though the Internet. There is nothing new about correspondence based learning. The Cyber Charter Schools of today use technology to rapidly reach students at critical times of learning. We can catch them at thresholds of learning to ease the transition from one concept to another. We can foster a mentoring relationship with them when we celebrate milestones of accomplishment together, and can correct or redirect them when they need it. Most importantly, we can prepare them for the 21st century in a way that could have never been accomplished in the 1900’s. 
Our students are learning to reason with technological change. This is quite different from traditional education that clings to a process that is based upon rewarding compliant behavior. In a global world of change, someone needs to be testing new methods of learning that will eventually become mainstream. As other countries catch up with our standard of living, the process of preparation for the real world of work must change with it. 
Will we regret the cuts in this funding when other countries do a better job of preparing students to interact in a world where computers are the universal language? Pennsylvania will be rewarded for their leadership in connecting real world change with the skills necessary to face it. Our legislators in Pennsylvania should follow in the footsteps of our forefathers and do the right thing. Our Commonwealth has a stellar record of advocating for woman’s suffrage, homeschooling, equal rights, and family values when they were not popular. Over time our citizens will embrace the principles of educational choice and funding which follow the student instead of the system. Who is to say that this is not the next great revolution in education, and Pennsylvania is leading the way. 
For another point of view, please read this article.http://www.dailylocal.com/opinion/20150226/another-view-defending-cyber-charter-schools

Earth Quake, Los Cangilones, and Dinner with Jose

In these pictures you are seeing some great shots of one the wonders of the Gualaca, Panama Area. It is called Los Cangilones. It is a miniature canyon with cliffs 20 feet high and water over 15 feet deep. After I tested it, some of our braver students were willing to jump off at the higher points. The students really enjoyed this outing, but that is not all what happened today. Today when we were in our final Spanish Class, we felt an earth quake. It was 5.8 on the richter scale, and it is believed to be an aftershock from the large earth quake in Chile last night. We ended our day by having a traditional Panamanian meal in a home of an old friend. The students enjoyed seeing American TV for the first time in three weeks. Jose treated us to a cassava based soup dish and bread. It was muy deliciouso.
Tomorrow we leave for the Beach and three more performances. I hope to talk to you soon.

Spanish Class with Maria in El Explorador

Today we visited The Explorador Garden in Jarmillo. Jarmillo is the mountain side that faces Boquete on the southern side. When you look to the north you can always see Vulcan Baru the inactive volcano that towers over everything.  Today we held our Spanish class in a Japanese Garden. It was beautiful. The students enjoyed the sun and beautiful temperatures.  I enjoyed the flowers. The owner of the garden took a personal interest in us this year. She was very attached to Cierra. She invited us into her house for some fresh avocado. We were greeted at the door by two Yorkshire terriers. One was just a baby and really cute. The garden had swings and home made gymnasium equipment. The lady placed many philosophical signs all over the garden to stimulate interest and the learning of Spanish. If I had a garden, I would make it very similar to this.  It was like walking around in someones dream, and enjoying it with them. She gave us samples of many of the fruits in her garden. We even ate hot peppers.

Later on that day we were able to arrange our return stay in The Panama House in Panama City. We will be there April 5th and 6th.  I was also able to drop off some coloring books to Casa Esperanza. My colleague, Sarah Aungst has done service projects with this private school in the past. They were appreciative, and I hope we will still be able to work with them in the future.

Tomorrow we will go to the miniature canyon of Panama, Los Cangilones to swim. We will have our last full day in Boquete, our last Spanish Class, and we will prepare to leave for San Felix and the beach.  Thank you for following our BLOG! Please feel free to share it on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Tumbler or Instagram.

5 Mime skit performances today in Boquete, Panama

Today is performance Day in the Boquete Area. We did 5 performances to over 200 students today. We completed performances in Boquete, Palmera, Baha Mono, and Volcancito. What a surprised look we got from the Ngobe when they heard me speaking their language. It was also very cute when one of the little girls ran to back of the classroom when Keon the Jaguar came out to his lair. Today was a major success!

Visit our Panama Excursion for #PALCSPanama2014. This post is Day 7 but there is much more.

Our crew!

Keon our leader

 

What a group

Our most photogenic member

It is hard to believe it has been one week since we arrived in Panama. So far the trip has gone extremely well. We were able to book 8 performances and we should be able to distribute all 300 coloring books and crayons. We did a team building activity on our day off today. We went zip lining at 8 AM. It was very exciting. One of the lines was the longest in North and South America. The guides had to literally throw us as hard as they could from the platform so we can reach the next station. There were 13 platforms and 12 zip lines.  People would not reach the platform on the longest line because they would use their hands to slow themselves with a braking action. When the students got stuck before they reached the platform, the guides would yell Amarillo into their walkies. Olivia was the first to complete the long zip line without stopping.  She did amazing well for her first time zip lining. Keon led the way and was the first to jump off the platform from the entire group. He is the youngest member of the group, but he showed real courage today.
In the afternoon we visited Caldera and went on a hike on a very rocky road. Our guide, Mr. Parris choose, “the road less traveled,” but unfortunately unlike Robert Frost he got us all lost instead of being, “all the better for it.” We doubled back and earned our right to jump into the naturally hot springs. They were very therapeutic and a number of us felt light headed when we got up out of the water heated by the vulcanism of the earth. It was really nice except for the sulfur smell. Some of the students thought that it was gas, but it was actually the natural smell of geothermal heat.

Time for bed. Tomorrow is our first performance! For more post and to talk to our students post here!

Day 7 Zip line, The Hot Springs, and our dress rehearsal

PA SB 1085's Impact on Cyber Charter Schools

When I first read SB 1085, I was encouraged that the bill attempted to reform Cyber Charter Schools in a way that would reform all schools. Education reform is valuable and is needed in our nation as well as in Pennsylvania. In a recent BLOG post, Ali Carr-Chellman, a Penn State Professor and former critic of Cyber Charter Schools,  suggests that Cyber Charter Schools are not a bad thing,  "I'm very much in favor of  local and district-level innovations. This is really pushing them to do some innovation. That's not a bad outcome." She is, however, against the diverting of monies into corporate non-profits with unethical vendor arrangements. She calls this a "Gold Rush" for these schools. She also thinks that we are currently in a state of detente, allowing local cyber charter schools to develop.

I believe that SB 1085 is meant to correct problems, however, the legislators have added a 5% cut in funding to Cyber Charter Schools. This cut is meant to correct the pension double dip. HB 618 was meant to do this last year. It was not passed because many legislators want school choice, and realize that there is a price for innovation in school reform. This price is never less money at the development stage. Traditional schools who choose to use snow days this year to teach Online would never have attempted that 5 years ago. This year SB 1085 has been revised to include a 5% cut in Cyber Charter Schools to pay for the pension double dip. Here is some of the reasoning from Dr. James Hanak, CEO of Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School, about why HB 618 and the revised SB 1085 are a bad idea. 

1. All charter schools begin with only 70 cents on the dollar from the home sending school district.  Despite this, charter schools are held to higher standards than their traditional counterparts, and Cyber Charter schools are graded with more stringent requirements than their equal brick and mortar counterpart.
2. The bill (618) will hold cyber charter schools more “accountable.”  This argument was a diversion designed to draw attention away from the real purpose of the bill – to cut Cyber Charter funding.  Most of the so called “accountability” factors contained in the bill have already been put in place in law, and all Cyber Charter Schools are already carefully complying with these accountability requirements.
3. The only thing this bill does is further cripple Cyber Charter Schools by 5%.  It cuts cyber schools’ funding dramatically but only saves local school districts .02% of their budget (two tenths of one percent).  It saves the State nothing.

What will happen if Cyber Charter funding is cut by 5%?

1. Those schools that are growing (most of them) will...
1.   simply hold off raises for their teachers / staff.
2.   increase class sizes, or purchase less education software or the like. 
3.  create an environment encouraging staff to look for more stable job opportunities
2. Those schools that are not growing will...
1. make layoffs
2. create an environment encouraging staff to look for more stable job opportunities

Teachers are not entrepreneurs. They generally do not like risk. When Cyber Charter Schools are perceived as experimental, then many teachers will search for safer employment in the brick and mortar world. If fewer teachers choose to work for Cyber Charter Schools, then there will be less innovation. Is a.02% gain in revenue the reason HB 618 or the revised version of SB 1085 have traction? I do not think that this is driving the argument. The enemies of Cyber Charter Schools are. Innovation is needed in education. The enemies of Cyber Charter Schools include the teacher's union, and the school board association. Their gain is their windfall from SB 1085. This could easily result in the tax payer paying more money for less innovation in traditional schools.

Please join us in Harrisburg this year for the PA Families Cyber Day on the Hill on May 6th 2014. The permission slip and BLOG where you can make payment can be found here.