District’s new online classes allow flexibility

Ferris High School math teacher Jeff Crawford typically does carpentry work during his summer break.

This summer he’s one of six Spokane teachers who are building computer-based lessons for their new online courses.

For the first time, Spokane Public Schools is offering online classes – not just for district students, but for students statewide. Because this is a startup year, the offerings are limited to six classes with 180 slots.

So far, 36 students have registered for 53 course slots.

“It’s becoming common for students to be more computer literate than teachers,” said Sharon Johnston, the online learning coordinator of the Spokane Virtual Learning program. “This is where the students are.”

The program is intended to provide flexibility for students. They can work as fast as they like, or they can repeat a lesson’s examples as often as they want.

For now, the district is offering courses in integrated math and world history and advanced placement courses in statistics and U.S. government, along with two AP courses in English. Next year, 12 more classes will be added.

Crawford said it takes about two days to craft the online materials for a single lesson in his integrated math class. Crawford needs to create about 60 lessons for the class.

The trick is importing the knowledge and experience of a teacher into the online lessons, Johnston said.

One lesson encourages students to look at other Web sites to see brick patterns that demonstrate the 17 different ways to produce symmetric patterns in a single plane.

To help explain the theory of distributive property, Crawford created an animation that begins with the formula a(x+b) = ax + ab. Anyone who clicks on the formula can watch – as many times as necessary – an explanation. “This has a huge draw for some students,” Crawford said.

Some students in a classroom are shy about asking their teacher for yet another example when they’re still foggy about a concept, he said. This way, they can get as many examples as they need, Crawford said.

Johnston started in the district in January. She came from Florida, where she helped start and operate one of the largest online school programs in the country. Florida Virtual School enrolled 21,453 students in 33,767 individual courses last year.

“The teacher is the critical component here,” Johnston said. “A teacher with passion is the most important piece. We can always improve their technical skills.”

The district has been talking about the online classes for about a year, and next month it will launch a radio and newsprint campaign to further spread the word.

Lewis and Clark High School senior Paige Wamsley read about the classes in her school paper. She turned in her application before school let out last spring and is taking the AP English class.

Wamsley thought the experience would help prepare her for college, where no one pesters students for their assignments.

“My mom thinks it’s a really great idea,” Wamsley said. “She takes college courses online.”

For Ferris junior Grace Marie Chapin, it was a matter of scheduling. She had conflicts if she wanted to take five advanced courses. By taking AP English online, she could make it work.

“I get really bored in school. It’s not challenging,” Chapin said. “From what it sounds like, I can go at my own pace.”