Blog Challenge "100 posts in 100 days" Post #42 This video made me laugh so hard! I just had to share it! Enjoy! Blog Challenge "100 posts in 100 days" Post #41
I love my Ipsy bag! $10 a month gets you a cute little makeup bag and 5 products. Some of them are sample size, some are full size. It is a great way to try new things without paying full price for them. Check it out! Blog Challenge "100 posts in 100 days" Post #40
I love learning more about myself which means I have taken pretty much every assessment out there. One of my favorite's is Myers Briggs. My type is INTJ, if you are curious about your type you can take this free online assessment! Blog Challenge "100 posts in 100 days" Post #39
We decided my dad needed a surprise carnival for his 70th birthday! It was so much fun! Blog Challenge "100 posts in 100 days" Post #38
I'm having trouble coming up with a logo that I love. This is what I have right now, any thoughts? Blog Challenge "100 posts in 100 days" Post #37
I made this shirt all by myself with my awesome Cricut!! Blog Challenge "100 posts in 100 days" Post #36
Today I thought I would just share one of my favorite places online to shop and look for great deals! Woot.com Blog Challenge "100 posts in 100 days" Post #35 So proud of Chandler for participating in Circle the State with Song at Owasso High School on February 2nd! He did such a fantastic job! Here is a video of one of the songs they did! Special thanks to Amanda at Foyil Music Studio! Blog Challenge "100 posts in 100 days" Post #34
Many of my recent posts appear in support of charter schools but to be honest, I'm on the fence about it. It is a lot of work on the parent and the child, and they are learning in a vacuum, not to mention the lack of social interaction. It is hard to navigate all the different requirements, assignments, due dates, systems that you need to be proficient with to be successful. We haven't committed one way or the other but my hope is that Chandler goes back to public school next year. He misses his friends, he misses the activities he was a part of and I miss my sanity. I don't regret our charter school experience, in fact I would do it all over again because I think Chandler was forced to learn a new set of skills. Now he has a much better understanding of the importance of doing his homework, and he has figured out how to be resourceful and self-sufficient. I think with the new skills being a charter school has taught him will serve him well going back to brick and mortar public school. Blog Challenge "100 posts in 100 days" Post #33 I came across this video that hit home for me. I needed to hear what Cy Wakeman was saying. My favorite quote from this is “Everyone knows what great looks like, unfortunately, we use it to judge other people by, instead of calling ourselves up to greatness." Blog Challenge "100 posts in 100 days" Post #32
I serve on a non-profit board, and I recently expressed my interest in taking on a more significant role which sparked the need for the board president to have a conversation around professional development with me. My opinion, feedback is a necessary component of life, especially at work. I don't want to walk around like a dummy blissfully ignorant that everyone around me knows this thing that I need to work on, but no one has told me. Still, I have this whole process that I have to follow to receive the feedback. I care about my development, and I always want to be working to become a better version of myself, and that means I need to be able to take criticism and feedback constructively. I haven't always been good at receiving feedback, but I have improved over the years thanks in large part to being prepared to have hard conversations. I know that it's going to be uncomfortable and awkward and I'm not going to love the feeling in the pit of my stomach and as bad as I want to defend myself, try to explain or make excuses, that is not going to get me to the results I want. That is playing the short game and success is in the long game. So instead of taking it personally, I think of it as a skill that is not currently in my toolbox but that I am capable of learning if I'm willing. Blog Challenge "100 posts in 100 days" Post #31
Great article that came out about Accountability not being an issue with Oklahoma Virtual Schools (schools like Epic) Point of Views: Accountability not an issue with Oklahoma public virtual schools Blog Challenge "100 posts in 100 days" Post #30
The last few weeks it seems like you can't pick up the paper without reading a headline about charter schools. The most recent Tulsa World article is probably my favorite one so far: A study in contrasts: Most Tulsa County districts lose students while virtual school student numbers soar I love the message from Websters principal, and I honestly believe that if more schools followed the same strategy, enrollment numbers wouldn't be such a concern. What I don't understand is how TPS doesn't already understand how and why families are deciding to leave. It is all over Facebook and probably every other social media platform. All it would take is a few simple conversations with the parents of the kids who are leaving. I digress, I will only speak for myself. We were desperate for a change, something different. A positive school experience. One where Chan didn't come home every day with tears in his eyes. Or scared to death of the trouble he would be in at home for something that happened at school, terrified to get on the bus because of the way some of the other kids treated him or completely and utterly defeated by the system as a whole. I would love not to have a child in a public charter school. I would like for him to go back to Catoosa and hope to make that a reality as soon as possible. Deciding to transfer a child to public charter school, more specifically in our case, Epic is hard. It is far more work than public school. It requires a significant commitment from the student and the parents. There is no blending in with curriculum specifically tailored to each student and their individual learning needs. Chandler has learned more this year than in previous years. He has become so resourceful and self-driven. The downside is the lack of social interaction with his peers. Sure, we try to supplement as much as possible by signing him up for activities, taking him to extracurriculars, keeping him active in Taekwondo, etc. but it will never match what public schools have to offer. I hope that our public school systems don't wait to implement strategies to bring some of the individual development opportunities that charter schools already offer. Most parents want what is best for their children. I know that I do and every day I work to make the best choices and decisions possible for my son. Somedays it feels more like choosing the lesser of two evils. Other days I just know that I've forfeited my entry into the mom of the year contest, but hey, we all do the best we can and hope that it is enough, that we have prepared our children with enough tools and a big enough toolbox for them to go out into the world and find success. Blog Challenge "100 posts in 100 days" Post #29
I've been posting about our experience enrolling and getting started at Epic Charter School. This post picks up from being assigned a teacher. First, your teacher will set up a time to meet with you. Chan's teacher always comes to our house to meet with us, and the first meeting was no different. She arrived and walked us through what we could expect and coordinated a day and time for Chandler to do map testing. MAP (Measure of Academic Progress) testing is a way to precisely measure student performance and growth. The way I understand it is, NWEA (Northwest Evaluation Association) created the MAP assessment and partnered with Edmentum (creators of Study Island) to offer a fully integrated solution that takes the results from the MAP testing and creates learning paths using the Study Island curriculum. The way it works is, at the beginning of the year, you do MAP testing and get your results. Your teacher uploads the results into Study Island where specific learning paths are automatically generated based on your scores from particular areas of the assessment. You spend the semester completing your assigned learning paths. When that semester ends, you retake the MAP assessment. The system generates a new report from both sets of MAP test data that bridges the gap between testing cycles identifying remaining skills to master before state testing. Blog Challenge "100 posts in 100 days" Post #28
Recently there was another news article that came out about Epic Charter School in the Tulsa World titled: EPIC charter school now recruiting teachers by boasting pay as high as $106,000 I personally like the idea of bonuses for a job well done, my employer does it and I don't see why teachers should be excluded but I don't know what the long term effects of a system like that hold. I would love to hear your thoughts? Blog Challenge "100 posts in 100 days" Post #27
I can and will talk about our experience with Charter school but I thought I would first provide some of the resources that I've used to prepare for writing more blog posts on the topic. I wanted to make sure I had my facts straight before blasting information that may or may not be accurate, aka "fake news" haha! So here we go: Oklahoma State Department of Education - Charter Schools Program Oklahoma Public Charter School Association National Alliance for Public Charter Schools While I feel like I have put forth quite a bit of effort to educate myself, I still don't know everything and most of what I write about is still my opinion, so please consider that when reading anything on my site! My hope is to clarify some points that I think have misused or confusing and start a conversation about how to improve the current state of education in Oklahoma. I also have tons of questions that I'm hoping someone out there can help me answer!! Blog Challenge "100 posts in 100 days" Post #26 The actual process of transferring to Epic Charter School was so easy I was concerned that I didn't do it right. It took about 5 minutes to fill out the online enrollment, if you are interested here is the link: https://epiccharterschools.org/enroll. The first thing that comes up is this disclaimer: After submitting the enrollment application, it took about three days to get the email that advised we were officially enrolled. It took another week before Chandler's teacher was assigned and then our first meeting with her took place a week after that.
In the next several posts I will walk through the rest of the process and our real-world experience so far with Epic Charter School. If you have questions, comments, concerns, please feel free to comment below or reach out to me via social media (use pink buttons below), and we can message back and forth or set up a time to meet or chat one on one. Blog Challenge "100 posts in 100 days" Post #25
When we left public brick and mortar school, we chose Epic Charter School. Recently I have seen several news articles aimed at Epic and some of the information they shared left me with questions, so I did some research on my own. Here's my disclaimer: I base my opinion on the experiences my family has been through with public school and now with Epic charter school. I love that we have a choice when it comes to school but I'm not blind to the fact that nothing is perfect and since online charter schools are still relatively new to the education space, I'm sure many areas have room for improvement. That being said, here are links to a few of the news articles: Skyrocketing student enrollment nets Epic Charter Schools nearly $39 million more in midyear adjustments to state funding for public schools Tulsa World editorial: Time to scrutinize funding to virtual charter schools Legislation calls for stronger oversight of virtual charter schools This next article is probably my favorite and aligns closely with how I feel and what I think: Student needs matter more than school delivery model I am in full agreement that there is a need for a credible review. I hope that if an investigation takes place, the report itself focuses on improving education without losing the innovative advances achieved in the virtual school space. We decided to transfer to Epic because we were unhappy with our public school experience. I could go into more detail, but I think the critical thing to remember is that the fact that so many are transferring to charter schools tells a story. The numbers say that having an alternative to brick and mortar school is needed. Blog Challenge "100 posts in 100 days" Post #24 Blog Challenge "100 posts in 100 days" Post #23 I thought I would try making a YouTube video for this post rather than write a blog post! Let me know what you think in the comments! |
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