My name is Tracy Ostwald-Kowald (my students call me Mrs. O.K.), and I’m a teacher at the virtual school Wisconsin Connections Academy. Flat Stanley, an educational character, arrived through snail mail from my friend Mrs. K., a teacher in the Dallas, Texas, area. Flat Stanley loves to see new places and make new friends. In fact, he took a tour of Lambeau Field to see the Lombardi Trophy from last year’s Super Bowl! Then I brought Stanley with me to show him how a virtual school works. He shares his photos and impressions of his visit to our virtual school below—take it away, Stanley…
I went to work today with Mrs. O.K.
Mrs. O.K. is a teacher in a newfangled kind of school; she teaches online!
Mrs. O.K.’s students (and those of the school) live all over the state of Wisconsin. There’s a map in the school offices showing where the students live. Wow! They’re really spread out.
Mrs. O.K. took me around the online high school side of the school. I met the social studies teacher, and we fooled around with Google Maps. He was looking for Westminster Abbey.
The high school language arts teacher has a cubicle full of posters encouraging reading—everything from Shakespeare to (be still, my flattened heart) the Cat in the Hat.
Ah, high school science. I look forward to biology and earth science. I have a little more math to learn before starting physics. It’ll take more than just knowing how to add, or so I’ve been told.
Back in Mrs. O.K.’s cubicle, she taught me to use a rubric to grade writing projects.
She looked over my first one and decided to grade the rest herself. I guess teaching writing isn’t my strength—yet.
Well, science is still one of my favorite subjects, so Mrs. O.K. logged me into a virtual class in middle school science.
Cool. Very cool. The teacher called on students and then let them “write” on the virtual whiteboard to connect vocabulary words with their meaning. This would be a great way to learn, at least for a flat geek like me. I could keep on traveling, as long as I had Internet access!
I looked over Ms. W.’s shoulder as she worked on lesson plans.
Then I moved once again to middle school language arts. They write a lot of essays. Wow!
We couldn’t stay away from Mrs. O.K.’s desk for long, so I offered to help her make phone calls.
A fifth grader needed help with her math. Ooh, those multi-step problems. They rock my socks off! Wait. I don’t wear socks. Never mind.
Mrs. O.K. and her co-workers were great hosts. They told me that if I want to teach online like they do, I need to have my teacher certification, a working knowledge of computers—and a talent for making coffee.
Thanks to Flat Stanley, visitor from Irving, Texas, for the guest post today.