Showing posts with label Recordkeeping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Recordkeeping. Show all posts
Thursday, September 20, 2012
MediaWiki as a tool for High School
This school year, I've been using MediaWiki to track my work, and it's been going very nicely. Anybody on my local network can see what I've been up to in school, and there are no papers to lose.
Last year, my mom had me use a special paper that I would use to record my work. However, I didn't really like it, there wasn't enough room to write everything I wanted on it, and because each paper looked the same as the next, they were easy to lose and hard to find. So, this year I decided I was going to find a solution.
MediaWiki has not failed me yet. It's great for saving any kind of information in a way that it is accessible from any computer on your local network, or if you want, just accessible from your computer.
I use the category "9th Grade" to set my school-related pages aside from the other pages on my wiki (the one I'm using now has been set up for a long time, and I've done a lot on it). I still need to make a schoolwork index page, where you can find links to all the important pages related to school.
Since about half of my schoolwork requires some level of computer use, it's nice to have everything in one spot. I'm working on making a special page for myself (not on the wiki, but still on the same server) that will give me convenient links to all computer-based work.
Throughout the year, I don't doubt that my Wiki will change a whole lot. Right now, it looks almost nothing like my first concept for a LAMP-based schoolwork tracker, and I'm always making slight modifications.
Monday, June 4, 2012
Applying Summer School Leaning Toward Your Academic Year
| Jump into summer! |
This post is about why and how we are applying summer school learning toward our 2012-2013 academic year.
Thoughts on why:
Philosophy. Consider that homeschooling is an all-day every-day life style (24/7/365), not something we do for 180 days a year and forget the rest. It just so happens that states require 180 days of record keeping. One of Jennifer's favorite quotes is, "class is always in session and we are tested every day."
Value. Worthwhile learning does indeed happen every day. The summer months are a good opportunity to focus on a summer reading program, improve a skill like spelling, or develop a new interest. If we are going to be intentional about it, we should be getting credit for the effort! "We" includes both parents and kids.
How:
What constitutes a school day? Number of hours? Completing that day's schedule? Just getting through the day with your sanity intact? Or is sanity optional? There is no right or wrong answer, it depends on the family (the beauty of homeschooling). We decided that for summer purposes, 5 hours of effort would equal "one school day."
Those 5 hours would not necessarily have to be in one 24 hour period. For example, math on Monday takes an hour. Spelling on Tuesday another hour. Wednesday night youth group is 1 1/2 hours. Another 1 1/2 hours on Thursday. 5 hours in, 1 day's credit earned.
Use a form to track progress. Our form is inspired from the book Senior High: A Home Designed FORM + U + LA by Barbara Edtl Shelton (published by Homeschool Seminars and Publications, Longview, Washington - www.ourhomeourschool.com
Its design:
Course: Summer School 2012
Classmember: Ryan
Description: Participate in various activities during the summer to stay sharp
Value: 5 hours = 1 day
Requirements:
- Finish Apologia Physical Science Course
- Participate in Carmel Clay Public Library Young Adults Summer Reading Program
- Algebra 1 – 1 lesson or systematic review or test or honor lesson per week
- Guitar for Dummies
- Physical Education – 30 minutes per day
- Rockin' the Grove (our church's Youth Group - future posts about the value of youth group coming soon)
- Writing as self-directed, post to blog as appropriate
| Come out with school days in the bank! |
As the student completes an activity, time is logged. At the end of the summer, add the number of hours, divide by 5, and you have school!
It does help to have good self discipline to be successful. This is the first year we're trying this. Wonder how it will go.
What are you doing to stay sharp this summer?
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