Virtual Schools Legislation in Wisconsin

I understand the Virtual Schools Legislation in Wisconsin and am concerned about the cap on enrollment.  If students who could benefit from an online mode of education are not allowed to pursue their education in this way, how is the cap helping?  As a public school teacher, I might have some reservations for private schools getting public funding, but a public online charter school should be able to get funds as easily as other public schools and easier than private schools.


I understand the Virtual Schools Legislation in Wisconsin and am excited about the fact that parents are not expected to have a DPI license in order to teach their children.  Parents are their first teachers.  If they are not encouraged to support the education of their kids, apathy will soon grow and then you will have some of the problems you find in some of the brick and mortar schools.

Collaborative Groups

I believe the biggest benefit of collaborative groups is that everyone in the group is able to learn from the ideas and thoughts of the other group members.  In other words, collaborative groups can create something greater than the sum of all the group parts could do separately.  Even in the worst of all collaborative groups, all of the students are able to take something away from the experience even if it is "I don't ever want to work with that person again."

Authentic Assessments

While working on this module I had both success and difficulty while doing something new involving authentic assessments.  I found success in the fact that I was able to figure out how to create an assessment that meets the standards that my students are expected to meet as well as well possibly prepare them for future challenges while in the traditional or blended setting.  My difficulties that I found were to be able to differentiate and create an authentic assessment for the pure online class without causing myself a migraine with the logistics and attempting to pay for all the shipping I would need to do.  I guess I am used to classes where I am the sole source of supplies.  If in an online setting students were able to provide their own material for labs and experiments, I am sure this would be a stress that is greatly reduced.