What's the difference?

Picture this...you're in your traditional high school setting, standing in front of a class full of students. As you look them over, you start to make initial "evaluations" of them as students. Which ones are sleepy? Who didn't eat breakfast? Who are the dedicated students with the drive to excel? Who are your students with behavior issues? How are you going to manage this group? The experienced educators reading this post are probably already forming a plan for classroom management even with such limited information. How will you transfer those skills to a virtual classroom? You can't see your students to know whether or not they're awake, healthy, or well fed. You can't point out the students with behavior issues because you don't see them acting out.

The truth is, there is some give and take to a virtual classroom. Sure, you don't see the students each day for that face to face connection. However, classroom management in a virtual class is easy - if there's too much talking, just take away chat privileges. Teaching in a virtual setting requires engaging students through different means, but the advantage is that teachers are already using a forum that almost all students relate to - the internet. Teachers aren't faced with lunchroom duty or dress codes in a virtual school, which provides additional time for a personal communication or a quick tutoring session with a struggling student. As you can see, the positive side of virtual education makes it a credible option for many students and teachers.

I often get the comment (often from my own children), "Don't you wish you could be a real teacher again?" I just laugh and tell them that I am a real teacher - I just teach in my slippers. Virtual education is real and it works. It's different, but in this case, different is good for a lot of students.