Newport-Mesa schools go online

Jeff Benson

Teachers, students and parents are raving about the district’s first

online classes, according to a presentation by the district’s three

online teachers at Tuesday’s board meeting.

The school board unanimously approved the final draft of its

five-year strategic plan last week, and with it, the incorporation of

online course offerings into the curriculum.

It won’t take five years to get connected, though, since several

of the district’s high schools began offering online classes over the

summer.

Teachers and district officials praised the ease, one-on-one

instruction and parent involvement of online courses.

And if the positive trend continues, more course offerings will

soon be on the way -- possibly as soon as next semester, board

members said.

“Our hope down the road as we create more courses is to be able to

make that leap; we’ll allow kids to take these courses districtwide,”

Assistant Supt. for Secondary Education Jaime Castellanos said.

Three high school teachers -- Estancia’s Kent Williams, Corona del

Mar’s Bob Hiles and Back Bay’s Dan Morris -- comprised the entire

teaching staff for the online program in its infant stages.

Hiles commended the program for its high level of parent

involvement.

“I was sending e-mails to parents every other week on how their

children are doing,” Hiles said.

“We’re developing relationships with parents as well as the

students.

“They feel like they’re in the loop, and they can share in what

their students are doing.”

The three teachers told administrators at the Tuesday board

meeting that they were thrilled about the feedback they’ve received

so far from students and parents of students who were enrolled in the

summer’s online classes.

Williams’ students were able to check their grade point averages

whenever they wanted to from the comfort of their own homes.

In addition, the classes limit the amount of paperwork he has to

grade.

“Students can turn in each assignment two to three times and I’ll

regrade it each time,” Williams said.

“I’m not used to teaching online, but I found this very useful.”

Corona del Mar High School student Roxana Mehrfar said she enjoys

the lessons she receives on how to use a computer, the challenge that

the class provides in comparison to more traditional classes and the

interaction she has with her teacher and with other students online.

There’s actually more student-teacher interaction than in other

classes because she gets e-mail replies to her questions within

hours, she said, even on the weekends.

“In an online class, I get back a grade, and if it’s not perfect,

Mr. Hiles lets me know how to improve,” Roxana said.

“In a traditional class, more often than not the student says,

‘OK, I’ll try harder next time,’ but in an online class, it really

inspires you to learn.”

Steve Glyer, the district’s director of educational technology,

said he attended a virtual conference last November to examine

districts across the country that offer online courses.

Last year, Glyer helped form an online task force that selected

the Florida Virtual School Easy Start model, which includes basic

courses in American government, U.S. history and economics, because

it was highly credible and used by other districts in California, he

said.

Director of secondary curriculum Barry Barowitz said the district

is looking into adding a second online course to Corona del Mar High

School in order to get a jump-start on the high school redesign phase

of the strategic plan.

“Our charge is to develop online courses for students within our

district and to share our expertise with teachers from other

districts,” Barowitz said.

“The key elements here are time and space.”