Sunday, September 26, 2010

It's been awhile...

It has been awhile since I have posted anything new.  There is a reason for that.  I have started a new job at Florida Virtual School.  It has been a great learning experience to switch gears to a full time online only instructor.  There are many differences.  I do not wish to get into a virtual versus brick and mortar discussion, rather I wanted to discuss some of the differences in case anyone is interested.


The first major difference is that with virtual school there is no "off" position.  My students are constantly submitting work every day.  At my old position when I went home from work I could mentally shut down for the day and relax.  Now, I could theoretically work all day, every day.  There is always something to do at FLVS.


Secondly, I feel a stronger connection with my students at FLVS.  This is hard to believe but I spend more time building relationships with individual students at FLVS.  I really enjoy chatting with my students and helping them with their choices in life and sometimes we just chat.  It is really refreshing for my students to be able to speak to me and not be rushed (that's what they tell me).  The one on one aspect of virtual school is great.  


Lastly, (for this blog at least) I miss co-workers.  At a brick and mortar school I could go and chat with my neighbor.  At FLVS we do have a large list of people on instant messenger that I chat with but it's hard to build a co-worker relationship.  FLVS just had their annual conference and I did get to meet my team which was great!  I hope that I can start meeting up a lot more often.


This is just the tip of the iceberg and I am writing this while I watch the Dolphins v Jets game so I'm a little distracted but I think this summarizes some main points right now.  Ask questions and I will try my best to answer them.