Kathleen Pichotta
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I went from struggling in science to now taking a college Biology class with plans to major in the healthcare field of Exercise Science and become a Physical Therapist Assistant.
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– Kathleen Pichotta
Every student is unique in at least one way, including his or her learning style. This is a true fact that can be observed by walking into a traditional brick and motor school. Some students may be struggling to learn while the teacher gives a lecture, others may be raising their hand to answer every question, and still others may be bored out of their minds, only wanting the bell to ring.
I attended my local public school from kindergarten to fifth grade. As I passed through each grade, I eventually started to see problems with the one-size fits all curriculum. My language arts and social studies classes were a breeze for me, and I enjoyed those subjects. The two periods at the end of the day, however, were not enjoyable: math and science. I was never given the chance to have enough time to learn the hard material. I started to wonder why each class period was the same length. I understood the placement of quotations in a sentence, but had a hard time grasping the respiratory system functions, so why was I spending the same amount of time on both concepts?
Online school finally came to my rescue, as it adapted to my learning style of both linguistics and hands-on and I no longer had to follow the one-size fits all curriculum. Towards the middle of my fifth grade year, my parents started searching for alternatives to brick and motor school. Around this same time, cliques began to form along with some distractive middle school drama. I did not want to deal with those distractions for seven more years. I will be forever grateful to my parents for finding the Minnesota Virtual Academy. I became part of MNVA in 2014 and I am now proud to say that I am part of the graduating class of 2021.
Shortly after my first few months of online school, it became evident that my teachers wanted me to exceed. For each subject, I could access the lesson through my daily plan, anytime and anywhere as long as I had an internet connection. I was allowed to spend less time in the easy subjects and more time in challenging subjects.
Additionally, my teachers held a weekly live class session in a virtual classroom to teach us important material and allow us to interact with our classmates. Due to the sessions being recorded, I could also access those 24/7. My teachers all held office hours for each student who needed help. I could log into the classroom and be put into a breakout room to work privately with my teacher. When I could not attend scheduled office hours, I utilized the benefit of Skype messaging. My favorite moment was when I was working on my science assignment at 7 PM and had a question. I Skyped my teacher and she responded within a few minutes. My teacher truly cared about my success by answering my question outside of her work hours.
Eighth grade came to an end and my high school career began in the fall of 2017. Today, I am currently one of six students in our calculus class. I no longer struggle in math or science. In fact, I have excelled in those areas throughout high school. I was placed into Honors English and Honors math during ninth and tenth grade. Last year, my GPA and class rank exceeded the requirements to take dual enrollment college classes, allowing me to earn high school and college credit at the same time. I went from struggling in science to now taking a college Biology class with plans to major in the healthcare field of Exercise Science and become a Physical Therapist Assistant. Without MNVA, I would have never discovered my love of science and the healthcare field. High school graduation is right around the corner, and while I will be earning my high school diploma, I will also have 37 college credits on my transcript. MNVA has allowed me to become a self-motivated, independent learner. For the last seven years, I have not had a teacher tell me that I need to get to work. Instead of being forced to learn, I am learning because I want to learn.
The main difference between a traditional classroom and an online school is that online school has the ability to help students reach their full potential through individualized learning. To be honest, I believe that brick and motor schools waste a lot of time. I still attend public school for concert band and a lot of time is wasted in starting the class. Our class is 45-minutes long, but the first ten minutes are usually wasted by taking attendance and waiting for everyone to find his or her seat. When I log into classes through my online platform, the online system automatically marks my attendance. During live classes, the teacher does not have to wait for the students to find their seat. Instead, we can click a button on our schedule that logs us into class. Technology has already advanced many aspects of our lives, so I believe that online school will change education in the coming years