...and I'd advise anyone considering it not to even bother. I'm talking about Georgia Virtual School. I thought about waiting until I had cooled down but decided the post would be more powerful if I wrote while fired up. I enrolled Andrea in Math 1 B at Georgia Virtual School this summer because she struggled with and eventually passed Math 1 A back when she went to Miller Grove High School. Andrea isn't the sharpest math pencil in the box and neither was I. Holiday who took calculous in high school and majored in math for a while was able to help, only after spending almost an hour researching how to do the problems. I'm not making excuses, Im stating a major frustration, one you should be aware of if you enroll in a course at Georgia Virtual School.
The system is limited. There are a few, and I do mean few online pages explaining each concept. There are even videos showing a teacher working through examples of the work. You Think you understand it. WRONG. The problems assigned for practice and for a grade have nothing do to with the examples the teacher in the video worked. The teacher's examples are much easier than the practice and graded work. To Andrea and Me, they had nothing in common. The teacher holds help sessions twice a week which is well and good for what it is. The bigger issue is assignments are due every day. If we call the teacher we get her voice mail, so we have to wait for a response. Same with email. YouTube videos do a much better job explaining the concepts than the videos from Georgia Virtual School. Her teacher explains things well in the help sessions. If they examples matched the problems we wouldn't need the help sessions.
Graphing calculators are another issue. We were told we wouldn't need one. Thank Goodness. There are problems best solved by using a graphing calculator and the teacher shows how to use an online version. I asked if graphing calculators will be provided at the end of course test. EOCT> She referrs me to a lady at the Georgia Department of Education. By the way the Georgia Department of Education is the owner of Georgia Virtual school. I contact this lade, from the Georgia Department of Education and this is her reply. Graphing calculators are not allowed. No calculator which stores information is permitted to be used on
the EOCT. You may bring your own but it cannot be a graphing calculator. Excuse me, but what had they been studying? What had the teacher taught them how to use?
I am also angry about the location of the EOCT. This is supposed to be a statewide school and they only have a handful of testing locations. The closest to me is in a small town called Marietta, at Kennesaw State University. Now what kind of logic is that? With ATLANTA so close why in the world is there not a test site in ATLANTA? I was told about another test site at Chattahoochee Technical College. What, a site at a dinky place like that and not one in the Capitol? This is ridiculous. Andrea's regular school, Georgia Cyber Academy, had test sites all over the state. They even had one in Decatur.
With the cost of the classes so high at Georgia Virtual school and the way they do things I wonder if it's deliberately geared for students to fail. We were so frustrated after the first day of class I was looking for their refund policy. Unfortunately, even though this was her first day of classes she had access to the course more than three days. Made me mad. Never again. Take my advice, find another place to take classes.
Sunday, June 30, 2013
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Riding With Andrea
I was so glad the day came when Andrea got behind the wheel and drove. It was a long time coming. Before Andrea got her permit there were quite a few people willing to teach her how to drive. After I told them Andrea had her permit and now she is ready to learn, no one was willing. One couple went as far as scheduling a time to teach her. When the time came they had something to do. We rescheduled. They even called saying they were running late. They never came. I didn't seek them out again. Others recommended driving schools.
I contacted my home teacher at church who in turned talked it over with the Elders Quorum. A mam called me with lots of questions. How old is Andrea? When does school start? You do have a vehicle available to you? Whose name is it in? Is it insured? When can she get her license? When I told him she had to keep her permit a year and a day he said something about having plenty of time. I knew I had to keep looking.
To satisfy the Joshua's Law requirement I found online classes for the thirty hours of classroom work at all kinds of prices. I found a parent guided driving Manuel to satisfy the six hours behind the wheel requirement. requirement.
I put an ad in Craigslist for a driving instructor. We were very fortunate. We found a driving instructor from Los Angeles who's here helping his mother through cancer treatments. So far Andrea has had one two hour lesson. It matched the DMV's guided lesson for the first two sessions. That was impressive. Andrea got to do a lot of meaningful driving as well. She was taught how to back out of the driveway. We drove the neighborhood streets several times. She practiced turning, stopping, going up hill, going downhill, things she'll need to know and all on our neighborhood streets. The average person would had stopped there or kept driving the neighborhood. Next he had her drive on a two lane road with stop lights, more hills and turning lanes. They went into a church parking lot to refined her hand motions while turning. After the two lane road a few times, they moved on to a four lane road. She drove the four lane road about half a mile before making a left turn at the light back into our neighborhood.
Andrea got a good report. He likes how Andrea listened and followed directions. I rode in the back and I was impressed with Andrea as well. She drove very well. On the two and four lane roads her instructor said it's permissible to go five miles under to ten mile over the posted speed limit while driving normally. But always be safe. Andrea chose five mile under. He had to tell her to slow down once while going down a hill. Speed was her major turning issue. her acceleration and slowing down was smooth. Most of her stops were smooth too.
Georgia also requires forty hours of supervised driving. Six of which must be at night. I hope I can get someone or various someones to ride with andrea so she can get her time in. I can't afford a pay the instructor to simply ride with her. Like the driving schools I'm aiming for six hours of instruction.
I contacted my home teacher at church who in turned talked it over with the Elders Quorum. A mam called me with lots of questions. How old is Andrea? When does school start? You do have a vehicle available to you? Whose name is it in? Is it insured? When can she get her license? When I told him she had to keep her permit a year and a day he said something about having plenty of time. I knew I had to keep looking.
To satisfy the Joshua's Law requirement I found online classes for the thirty hours of classroom work at all kinds of prices. I found a parent guided driving Manuel to satisfy the six hours behind the wheel requirement. requirement.
I put an ad in Craigslist for a driving instructor. We were very fortunate. We found a driving instructor from Los Angeles who's here helping his mother through cancer treatments. So far Andrea has had one two hour lesson. It matched the DMV's guided lesson for the first two sessions. That was impressive. Andrea got to do a lot of meaningful driving as well. She was taught how to back out of the driveway. We drove the neighborhood streets several times. She practiced turning, stopping, going up hill, going downhill, things she'll need to know and all on our neighborhood streets. The average person would had stopped there or kept driving the neighborhood. Next he had her drive on a two lane road with stop lights, more hills and turning lanes. They went into a church parking lot to refined her hand motions while turning. After the two lane road a few times, they moved on to a four lane road. She drove the four lane road about half a mile before making a left turn at the light back into our neighborhood.
Andrea got a good report. He likes how Andrea listened and followed directions. I rode in the back and I was impressed with Andrea as well. She drove very well. On the two and four lane roads her instructor said it's permissible to go five miles under to ten mile over the posted speed limit while driving normally. But always be safe. Andrea chose five mile under. He had to tell her to slow down once while going down a hill. Speed was her major turning issue. her acceleration and slowing down was smooth. Most of her stops were smooth too.
Georgia also requires forty hours of supervised driving. Six of which must be at night. I hope I can get someone or various someones to ride with andrea so she can get her time in. I can't afford a pay the instructor to simply ride with her. Like the driving schools I'm aiming for six hours of instruction.
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Remembering The Past
I found a Facebook page called "Your Probably from Pine bluff, Arkansas If......" they took me down memory lane. There people post about things they remember about Pine Bluff when it was a great city. The more I read and posted the more I remembered. Memories of Pine Bluff are bittersweet, though I wouldn't move back as long as it's in its present condition, I do yearn for those long ago days. Now I'm beginning to sound like John Boy Walton.
Here is the full link to the page I mentioned.https://www.facebook.com/groups/148223528591521/?fref=ts click on it or copy and past in into your browser to see the page. I think most of my readers are from Pine Bluff so you'll get a kick out of it. I will re-post some of my memories here. Check out the page for many others from people who remember Pine Bluff in it's heyday.
Here is the full link to the page I mentioned.https://www.facebook.com/groups/148223528591521/?fref=ts click on it or copy and past in into your browser to see the page. I think most of my readers are from Pine Bluff so you'll get a kick out of it. I will re-post some of my memories here. Check out the page for many others from people who remember Pine Bluff in it's heyday.
Your mom went to work at Oak Flooring because they started hiring women
and the pay was $1.40 an hour. This was in the mid 60's. She said that was much
better pay than private homes.
Nickle Cokes were six ounces, dime Cokes were ten ounces and king size
Cokes were sixteen ounces. Don't remember the price. You paid a deposit on the
bottles so next time you wanted a pop you brought the bottle back so you didn't
owe a deposit. You could also earn money by collecting and returning empty pop
bottles. Just about any grocery store or gas station would take them, chain
store or mom and pop.
When Coleman School was grades 1-12.
Taking your kids to Miss Ann's story time at the library. And the yearly
pet show when they could bring thier favorite pets, live or stuffed.
Remember the ice storm of 2000? We lost electricity for a week. Some
relatives came to out house because we had a wood heater, and the shouts for
joy when the power came back on.
If you participated in or listened to The Trading Post or Swap Shop on
the radio. I remember this little kid calling in with a cat to give away. The
kid was in tears the whole time and at the end the kid said, "It's a good
kitty cat." I wouldn't have called even if I wanted a cat.
You remember the Mad Butcher's laugh.
You remember when Irish Maid Donuts was on 6th and they stayed open all
day.
Wanda Merritt Anthony
KOTN when Buddy Dean did the morning Show. Also when they did the top 30
countdown and you could get a copy of the top 30 hit list at most record
departments.
Wanda Merritt Anthony
Do you remember downtown when all the stores were still in business? My daughter saw a picture of Kresses from way back when they have on the old building. She remarked how that building is going to look good once they renovate it.
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Nothing To Prove
Let me say first and foremost, Beazle would never do this. That's Beazle, this is me. I did it and plan to keep on doing, or not doing it. Today I unashamably let others do yard work while I stayed inside. For Shame.
When the kids tore down the deck I helped carry the debris to the curb. My right ankle regretted it for two days. I had to take a left over pain pill in order to get to sleep that night.
Andrea is good at getting others to do work. She got a neighbor boy to trim the hedges. Another neighbor saw him hard at work and came over with an electric trimmer. At first I was oblivious. I heard the sound but didn't know what it was. I was thinking it was a go cart or something like that. When I go outside to call Andrea to find something I notice my neighbor with the clippers. He was trimming to beat the band while Andrea and her friend picked up the clippings. "I should help," I told myself. "No, I'll let the kids do it," I argued back to myself.
It was after seven in the evening and I still needed to fix supper. If I helped pick up clippings it would be after nine before we ate. If I pick up clippings we'll have catch as catch can or order pizza because we're both too tired to cook. I stayed inside and cooked.
Even Kids from up the street came to help. They are almost finished and five, thirty gallon bags of clippings will be at the curb.
I used to do what everyone else was doing. I used to want to prove to others that I could. Today I said no, I have nothing to prove. Nobody expects me to. I know I can but the question now is if I should. Should I have a painful ankle for two days to help get a job done faster?
When the kids tore down the deck I helped carry the debris to the curb. My right ankle regretted it for two days. I had to take a left over pain pill in order to get to sleep that night.
Andrea is good at getting others to do work. She got a neighbor boy to trim the hedges. Another neighbor saw him hard at work and came over with an electric trimmer. At first I was oblivious. I heard the sound but didn't know what it was. I was thinking it was a go cart or something like that. When I go outside to call Andrea to find something I notice my neighbor with the clippers. He was trimming to beat the band while Andrea and her friend picked up the clippings. "I should help," I told myself. "No, I'll let the kids do it," I argued back to myself.
It was after seven in the evening and I still needed to fix supper. If I helped pick up clippings it would be after nine before we ate. If I pick up clippings we'll have catch as catch can or order pizza because we're both too tired to cook. I stayed inside and cooked.
Even Kids from up the street came to help. They are almost finished and five, thirty gallon bags of clippings will be at the curb.
I used to do what everyone else was doing. I used to want to prove to others that I could. Today I said no, I have nothing to prove. Nobody expects me to. I know I can but the question now is if I should. Should I have a painful ankle for two days to help get a job done faster?
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