Mentor+Meeting+Week+1

The first meeting with my Georgia Virtual School mentor took place on March 8th 2012 through Adobe Connect. I was very impressed with her exuberant attitude toward the online method of learning. My preconceived expectation of an online teacher was that of a cold-hearted face-to-face teacher that got tired of dealing with students in the regular public school and this method of teaching would allow them to put distance between student and teacher. After I met Corrine, my mentor, I realized that I was dead wrong with my preconceived notion. Corrine expressed similar concerns about her students that many of my face-to-face colleagues express on a regular basis. Corrine appears to still have an abundant amount of love for teaching high school students.

Corrine assured me that I could not mess up anything in her virtual classroom. She told me to have fun and explore whatever I felt compelled to explore in the online Math 4 class. The first week we agreed that I should spend time looking through the content and reading anything in the course that I wanted. We decided to meet again in a week to discuss more of what I explored.

Here are a few questions that I asked Corrine, along with the answers: How often do you expect your students to login to the course? everday

What is the maximum number of students per course? 50

What are the total maximum numbers that you like to keep? Corrine has had anywhere from 125 to 175 students per semester

How much control does she have over the assignment content? Corrine said that she can change assignments based on where students may be having more difficulty. She has the ability to change the news announcement section as well.

Can you change other aspects of the course? She said that she has changed discussion topics before.

Corrine is a full-time teacher and department chair of math with GAVS. I asked Corrine how often does she meet with her faculty? She said that they have faculty meetings every 3rd Tuesday through some type of online medium. GAVS also has staff meetings twice a year face-to-face.

Corrine mentioned that there was an online blackboard tool where students could write their problems and she could work problems for her students. I asked her what technology do they use for this? They use a special pen tool for the virtual board, much like a Mobi pad.

What are the requirements to become an online instructor at GAVS? state certificate, apply, interview, training course

Do you ever have discipline problems in your courses? She said that surprisingly she has a few students every year post inappropriate words to the discussion board. She said that she has had to restrict one student from using the discussion board.

Corrine sent me links to many resources that she utilizes in her courses and some that she said that she would like to utilize. brightstorm.com purplemath.com regentsprep.org