How to Develop Leadership Skills in Virtual School

In small towns, in urban centers, and around the globe, Connections Academy students are making an impact with the time and commitment they are showing through volunteering. As these outstanding contributors find their passions by giving back, they are also finding their paths in life as they shape their days around volunteering and school.

Isabella Advocates for Water Safety

After a harrowing white water rafting trip where she nearly drowned, Ohio Connections Academy student Isabella D. used her experience to advocate for water safety. Isabella learned that Lake Erie, near where she lives, had the most reported drownings of all the Great Lakes. This spurred her to take action. She volunteers with children, teaching them about basic water safety, and gives swim lessons. In addition to promoting this lifesaving skill, she believes that knowing how to swim provides a foundation for self-confidence, healthy living, and a lifetime of enjoyment.

Madison Smashes Stereotypes in STEM

Georgia Connections Academy student Madison K. found her passion through STEM activities. Now, she spends her time volunteering with her local YMCA, coaching girls with their robotics projects. By giving back to other girls who also love science and engineering, she is helping to pave the way for the next generation of women in science. Madison has her sights set on a degree in mechatronics engineering, which combines computer science and mechanical and electrical engineering.

Gracie Uplifts Hospitalized Children

Gracie learned of the fear, pain, and unknowns that can come with hospital stays after she was diagnosed with a brain tumor at age three. That’s why she decided to start her nonprofit organization, Gracie’s Toy Drive Campaign, with Riley Hospital for Children. Her charity’s mission is to spread hope to children who are undergoing care at Riley. Gracie started her charity in kindergarten and is still going strong, now in the seventh grade at Indiana Connections Academy. Her goal this year is to collect and distribute 15,000 toys.

Bryan Promotes Fitness and Healthy Living

Bryan W. turned his passion for exploring the outdoors into activism for healthy, active lifestyles for kids. At age 11, Bryan was named a Buddy Bison Ambassador by the National Park Trust. This role allows him to connect with other schoolchildren and advocate for land conservancy, park usage, and fitness. His goal is to end childhood obesity and prediabetes on the reservation where he lives. He attends Arizona Connections Academy.

Wyatt Raises Funds to Save Animals

Fifteen-year-old Michigan Connections Academy student Wyatt L. hopes to raise $10,000 for the Stage Nature Center to help rehabilitate five owls. The nature center has been a refuge for Wyatt where he can walk the trails and see wild turkeys, and participate in educational programs about nature.

Carlie Spreads Kindness in Her Community

Carlie S. started her nonprofit at age 9 to spread kindness in the world through many different types of charitable giving programs. She has done toy drives, has organized fund-raising races, and has delivered meals to first responders. Carlie enjoys giving back and having a schedule with Oregon Connections Academy that allows her to integrate Carlie’s Kindness Campaign into her school day.

Feeding Refugees Is Jakayla’s Focus

INSPIRE Idaho Connections Academy senior Jakayla W. spent two months biking 4,000 miles from Seattle, Washington, to New York City. Her ride raised $4,500 to feed refugees from Southeast Asia and to raise awareness of issues affecting migrants. With online school, Jakayla was able to keep up with her studies while she pursued her passion.

Ava Spreads the Arts in Underserved Communities

A Day of Ballet is the brainchild of Ohio Connections Academy student Ava M., and its purpose is to raise scholarship money for disadvantaged students to study ballet. She raised $1,500 for a dance student to continue studying. And her work has inspired other dance companies to help fund the scholarship in the future.

These outstanding student volunteers are motivated to succeed in the classroom and beyond when they are able to include their volunteerism as an important part of the day. Connections Academy online school gives students in grades K–12 the opportunity to learn at a pace and schedule that works best for them. Your child can benefit from such an opportunity too. Read more about Connections Academy students.

October is National Bullying Prevention Awareness Month, making this a great time for families to take a stand to help put an end to the damaging behavior of bullying. Once thought of as a rite of passage, bullying is a serious problem that can have a long-term negative impact on the victim, the bully, and the bystanders. As a parent, you have the power to make a difference by encouraging your children to treat others with kindness and by making sure they are well-informed and know what to do if bullying occurs.

Whether it occurs online or in person, bullying is defined as unwanted aggressive behavior that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. A child who is being a bully uses this power, whether it be physical strength, popularity, or the possession of embarrassing information, to control or harm his or her target. Various types of bullying can be challenging to overcome, and some families enroll their students in online school to give them a safe learning environment in which to regain their confidence.

Whether your children attend online public school, online private school, a local bricks-and-mortar school, or homeschool, you owe it to them to talk about bullying. The resources listed below can help your children take a stand against bullying:

• Encourage your children to treat others with kindness and compassion.
• Try prompts to help you begin the discussion.
• Check out bullying awareness resources for parents to educate yourself.
• Share stories of real people who have overcome bullying.
• Talk about how to respond to bullying, including how to help someone who is being bullied.
• Direct your student to bullying awareness and prevention websites for young children and for teenagers.
• Talk to your children about safe cell phone use.
• Encourage your kids to practice internet safety as smart digital citizens.
• Discuss how to respond to cyberbullying and online bullying.

While you make your children aware of bullying and cyberbullying, you may also want to consider ways that you can model kindness toward and acceptance of people who are different. Your actions and an honest discussion about avoiding and responding to bullying gives children the tools they need to feel confident in what has become an all too common situation for how to help your children take a stand against bullying.

To learn how you can educate your child from home and be more involved in your child’s learning through online public school, visit the Connections Academy website. Or to learn about online private school, visit Pearson Online Academy ’s website.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised when an online school takes a completely innovative approach to an old school tradition. But I confess that I’m completely blown away by both the execution and implications of Connections Education’s latest take on the school yearbook. Call it the next generation of the digital school yearbook.

New Features of the 2014 Yearbook

While we have produced digital yearbooks in the past, this year the Student Experience Team is using a new platform from iYearbook.com that enables every student across the country to play an equal part in creating this traditional record of school memories.

With parents’ permission, students can:

• Create a personal page reflecting their interests and accomplishments.
• Contribute photos and videos to pages covering school field trips, events, and national clubs and activities.
• Respond to polls and surveys.
• Even sign one another’s yearbooks digitally.
• Have easy access to the yearbook 24/7 from any device.

Each of our Connections Academy schools will have its own yearbook and a staff member trained to ensure appropriate content. (Parents or caretakers can choose to exclude images and information about their students.)

Yearbook Access and Benefits of a Premium License

To contribute to or view the yearbook, the student will access it through a single sign on (SSO) in Pearson Online Classroom, which authenticates his or her school login credentials. This means that no outsiders will ever gain access to the digital yearbook.

Anticipated to “go live” next month, the new yearbook will allow students to upload photos, videos, and even artwork at no charge through July 31, 2014. After July 31, students can continue to access their own pages for free, but they will need to pay a onetime fee of $25 for “perpetual access” to the entire yearbook. With this everlasting license, students will also be able to print or download the yearbook in a PDF version.

Of course, there are loads of practical advantages to the digital yearbook. All photos can be in color. There’s no page limit, practically speaking. Parents and students can access the yearbook from anywhere with an Internet connection, making it much easier to share with family and friends. And, because there’s no printing deadline, these yearbooks can include graduation events without any delay.

Individualized Student and School Pages

But here’s what really excites me. This method of yearbook production actually empowers every student to reflect his or her own individualized school experience and memories rather than settling for some committee-curated version of that experience. Each student gets to tell his or her story in his or her way, adding his or her own school “artifacts”—while still contributing to the school’s overall story. That is a major transformation of an old school tradition. And isn’t that what online schooling is all about?