The Maynard, Mass.-based Virtual High School Global Consortium, or VHS, a nonprofit organization that provides virtual courses to 15,000 high schoolers worldwide, has gone further during the last half-decade; it offers a five-course series for both online and face-to-face teachers on elements of virtual or blended instruction. The courses can be taken as a series or à la carte, and can also count for three graduate-level credits each through participating universities.

But while VHS has as thorough an online professional-development offering as any virtual school’s, its leaders say their next focus is creating more-targeted offerings that focus on very specific sets of skills.

That’s to take nothing away from the quality of the five courses, they say, which each run for six weeks, require eight to 10 hours of weekly “in class” work, and are approved by the National Education Association Academy, the online-professional-development arm of the nation’s largest teachers’ union.

“While some teachers really want that and need that, some teachers who are veteran teachers want smaller, more marginalized, targeted PD offerings,” said Colleen Worrell, the manager of professional development for VHS. Through government and private grant funding, the school is exploring ways to meet that demand, Ms. Worrell said, though it is not yet offering any such service publicly.

For the rest of the article, go to Virtual Schools Offer PD Programs for E-Teaching

THUMBS UP to the Fall River mother and daughter pair — ages 46 and 23 — who came to the aid of an 88-year-old man who was the victim of an attempted robbery as he walked home from a neighboring Brayton Avenue store. The women not only stopped the thieves from stealing the man’s wallet, but also provided police the information needed to arrest the suspected robbers. While it is despicable that some people would target an elderly man like that, it is good to know that these women had the common decency to stand up to evildoers and the good people prevailed in this one.

THUMBS UP to University of Massachusetts President Robert Caret, who visited the UMass Dartmouth campus Wednesday. In his first year as UMass president, this was Caret’s second visit to the UMD. Caret offered some updates on plans to replace retiring Chancellor Jean MacCormack and also demonstrated familiarity with UMass Dartmouth and many of its initiatives. He offered some promising commitments to making tuition and fee hikes an option of last resort and spoke about the importance of relationships between UMass and the surrounding communities, a hallmark of MacCormack’s tenure. Dartmouth may be a long way from Amherst, but it looks like Caret has his thumb on the pulse of the outlying campuses.

THUMBS UP to Robert Pacheco, the South Ender who has made it his mission to rehabilitate a crumbling memorial to Alvaro Rodrigues, an Azorean immigrant who died in a French battle during World War I one year and two days after he enlisted. Pacheco hopes to raise $2,000 for the restoration, and his efforts have gotten the attention of Mayor Will Flanagan, who has committed money and resources to the restoration. It’s important as the years pass that such memorials are cared for, and it’s good that people like Robert Pacheco call attention to them.

THUMBS UP to Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School, which has partnered with the Virtual High School Global Consortium to allow students to take online distance-learning classes that are not offered at the Fall River school. The program allows students to collaborate with a broad spectrum of other students from across the country and around the world and get instructional programs they otherwise would not have access to. That’s a winning proposition.

For the rest of the article, go to OUR VIEW: Superintendent’s information blackout is irresponsible

The Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School senior has a full course load including honors level English and history along with math, chemistry and physics, leaving no time for electives. But now there is an option for students like Kelsey to broaden their horizons.

This fall Diman is partnering with the Virtual High School Global Consortium, offering its students the opportunity to take classes such as web development, music theory and zoology. According to Diman Dean of Students Elvio Ferreira, because students split time between their vocational studies and academics they are required to take heavy concentrations of English, math, science and social studies during their classroom cycle.

“These are courses we simply don’t have the ability or time to offer here,” said Ferreira. “Our schedule is locked in pretty good. We don’t have study hall or free periods. When they come in at 7:45 a.m. they are in class until 2:30 p.m.”

Last year, Academic Coordinator Michelle Letendre explored various alternatives for expanding course options and determined that Virtual High School was the best fit for Diman.
“It is in the superintendent’s strategic plan to offer more diverse options for our students,” said Ferreira. “The opportunity came up with Virtual High School. It’s a large consortium of schools. There are students in Europe living on Air (Force) bases taking advantage of this opportunity.”

For the rest of the article, go to Diman partners with Virtual High School Global Consortium