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Dakota “Cody” Strike
Cody is a 12-year-old sixth grader at Texas Connections Academy @ Houston (TCAH). He lives in Spring, Texas. He has been a virtual student at TCAH since it's inception in 2008. His mother tells his story below.
"Cody is a student with Aspergers, which sometimes can affect the learning environment. However, for Cody, this has been a blending of the best educational practices available. His responses to the typical question are often out-of-the-box and not the norm, but it just goes to prove the complexity of students minds.
When I asked why he likes to attend Connections Academy, Cody said that he feels that he "learns more with Connections Academy because he has less distractions and less exposure to pandemics". While typically this might not be a benefit for a school, this year it certainly has been. While others were concerned about outbreaks of the flu, our family was able to be comforted that our exposure to the flu was relatively small.
When asked about his favorite outing, he stated that "the field trips are always at interesting places and he learns lots of new facts!" He also stated that he "can’t just pick one because each of them is so much fun." He loves that he is "able to go all over the state and meet new TCAH friends".
Cody says that he "loves the fact that TCAH has lots of supplemental programs like the Live Lessons, streaming videos, and teachlets, that help him and other students learn too". During one of his recent history assignments, he was asked to research a famous person. As a parent, I was amazed that he chose to study famous mathematicians and scientists. Later, he discovered that many of them were diagnosed with Aspergers just like him. During this research, he revealed how grateful he was to share his information from the vantage point of a student with special needs. He now tells his family, that he wants to speak with other students about Aspergers and Autism and encourage other students like him how much success they can have when given the opportunity, such as a virtual education through TCAH.”