All-Star Cheerleaders That Do Virtual School?

[aubreysheffield]

I've been considering going into virtual school due to the demand of my classes being that I'm double teaming and now practicing 8 hours a week with barely ever time to study. Any suggestions? Any cheerleaders' that are in virtual school? Ups and downs, do you miss public/private school?
Please let me know! Thank you.

 

[IzzyFierce]

One of my coaches actually was a certified teacher, and helps the homeschooled kids at my gym. Their parents all drop them off in the mornings and they are there ALL DAY. Dunno if you are lucky enough to have this, but you could look into it. :]

 

[UEAcheerchick]

I feel like 8 hours isn't that much but I obviously don't know your entire situation.I will say, think about an idea thoroughly before you carry it out. You don't want to regret missing out on a certain experience later on in your life

 

[aubreysheffield]

I thought that too, but it's just been adding up /: I practice Monday and Wednesday for both teams so I drive straight to the gym after school and I'm there until 11pm. Being on an A-B block schedule at school I don't get time to do homework or study for those classes. Not to mention I'm in all AP classes and on my school dance team.
But I appreciate this, thank you!

 

[aubreysheffield]

One of my coaches actually was a certified teacher, and helps the homeschooled kids at my gym. Their parents all drop them off in the mornings and they are there ALL DAY. Dunno if you are lucky enough to have this, but you could look into it. :]

My goodness that sounds wonderful. I also ponder how often I could be at the gym if I did choose virtual school! Thank you for letting me know this!

 

[NJ Coach]

I thought that too, but it's just been adding up /: I practice Monday and Wednesday for both teams so I drive straight to the gym after school and I'm there until 11pm. Being on an A-B block schedule at school I don't get time to do homework or study for those classes. Not to mention I'm in all AP classes and on my school dance team.
But I appreciate this, thank you!

Something has to give, and I'm not sure school is it.

 

[xo sarah]

I did online schooling for my junior year of high school, but not because of cheer, but rather because my public school was horrible and made me repeat classes when I moved and it was a hot mess, so I did it to get back on track (and even ahead). I did like online schooling here vs. my public school because I was able to take more classes, but when I went to school in NC, I would have preferred that (they were on a 4 period block schedule, here we're on a regular 8 period schedule).

I did end up going back to my public school for my senior year (I wanted to), but since I was so far ahead, I ended up only having to take 2 classes (I only needed 1.5 credits to graduate). My parents say now they should have put me in private school due to all the problems with my public school here, but I guess you live and you learn. But I do think it all depends on what you think would work best for you personally. I really didn't have to "give up" anything, I was already struggling in my school here due to some things going on, but I don't know if I would have given it up for a year if things had been different within my school system.

 

[aubreysheffield]

I did online schooling for my junior year of high school, but not because of cheer, but rather because my public school was horrible and made me repeat classes when I moved and it was a hot mess, so I did it to get back on track (and even ahead). I did like online schooling here vs. my public school because I was able to take more classes, but when I went to school in NC, I would have preferred that (they were on a 4 period block schedule, here we're on a regular 8 period schedule).

I did end up going back to my public school for my senior year (I wanted to), but since I was so far ahead, I ended up only having to take 2 classes (I only needed 1.5 credits to graduate). My parents say now they should have put me in private school due to all the problems with my public school here, but I guess you live and you learn. But I do think it all depends on what you think would work best for you personally, and you can always go back to your "regular" school without a problem.

Thank you!
Yes it is part that current school has had trouble accepting credits from my last high school witch is very frustrating! I appreciate this.

 

[12stepCheermom]

A few things.....1) virtual school requires a lot of motivation and personal responsibility. There's not anyone calling home or breathing down your neck to turn in your stuff. 2) Check your learning style, if you're a hands on learner, virtual school will be tough. You really need to be strong in linguistic and visual learning styles and be a strong reader. There won't be a lot of hands on lab, demonstration sort of things, more reading, analysis, answering and collaborating online with others virtually. If you learn well by reading and listening you should be okay. 3) Weigh what's important. Do you like football friday night with the marching band? Prom? basketball games? school musicals? clubs, dances, graduation ceremonies all the extra little things that make high school cool (let's face it no one remembers "class" at their reunion....they remember all the extra stuff that made high school fun). Last and most important, what's your future goal? If youre looking to go to college (especially a D-1 school) you'll want to be careful about virtual school. Is that going to be competitive on a college application? Is it an accredited school? will you still have a class rank etc to fill in. You don't want to make things "easier" now and shoot yourself in the foot for later.

I tend to think the greatest education high school gives is the social part. There is nothing you won't meet in real life that's not on some micro scale in high school. Girls stealing boyfriends becomes wifes stealing husbands. Kids cheating and getting away with it will be people cheating on a time sheet or moving up the career ladder unethically. Bullying, that's everywhere at every age. Balancing multiple things at once, that's something you'll have to continue to learn to do.

That's what I think the true benefit of high school is...not so much the academic education but all that other "stuff."

 

[xo sarah]

Thank you!
Yes it is part that current school has had trouble accepting credits from my last high school witch is very frustrating! I appreciate this.

My school gave me the credits and then put me back in all the same classes that I already had credit for and when my teachers found out, most of them were so mad at my school since they had made all of these promises to let me take classes to get ahead (since I already had credit for 4 of their year long classes). I did have one teacher give me an F in a math class that I already had received full credit for from NC.. I'm pretty sure it's still on my transcript from high school even though I graduated over 4 years ago.. just my luck.

 

[aubreysheffield]

A few things.....1) virtual school requires a lot of motivation and personal responsibility. There's not anyone calling home or breathing down your neck to turn in your stuff. 2) Check your learning style, if you're a hands on learner, virtual school will be tough. You really need to be strong in linguistic and visual learning styles and be a strong reader. There won't be a lot of hands on lab, demonstration sort of things, more reading, analysis, answering and collaborating online with others virtually. If you learn well by reading and listening you should be okay. 3) Weigh what's important. Do you like football friday night with the marching band? Prom? basketball games? school musicals? clubs, dances, graduation ceremonies all the extra little things that make high school cool (let's face it no one remembers "class" at their reunion....they remember all the extra stuff that made high school fun). Last and most important, what's your future goal? If youre looking to go to college (especially a D-1 school) you'll want to be careful about virtual school. Is that going to be competitive on a college application? Is it an accredited school? will you still have a class rank etc to fill in. You don't want to make things "easier" now and shoot yourself in the foot for later.

I tend to think the greatest education high school gives is the social part. There is nothing you won't meet in real life that's not on some micro scale in high school. Girls stealing boyfriends becomes wifes stealing husbands. Kids cheating and getting away with it will be people cheating on a time sheet or moving up the career ladder unethically. Bullying, that's everywhere at every age. Balancing multiple things at once, that's something you'll have to continue to learn to do.

That's what I think the true benefit of high school is...not so much the academic education but all that other "stuff."

It won't be any easy decision because all of that is nice, but it also is not worth the stress I'm under now trying to balance cheer, dance team, and AP classes.

 

[aubreysheffield]

My school gave me the credits and then put me back in all the same classes that I already had credit for and when my teachers found out, most of them were so mad at my school since they had made all of these promises to let me take classes to get ahead (since I already had credit for 4 of their year long classes). I did have one teacher give me an F in a math class that I already had received full credit for from NC.. I'm pretty sure it's still on my transcript from high school even though I graduated over 4 years ago.. just my luck.

I'm sorry to hear you had such bad luck!

 

[12stepCheermom]

It won't be any easy decision because all of that is nice, but it also is not worth the stress I'm under now trying to balance cheer, dance team, and AP classes.

won't you be giving up the dance team with it? If you're not enrolled in that school (unless your school has a virtual component), how are you able to participate in your current school activity?

Also, AP classes mean college bound....be careful, especially considering what colleges you want to attend. I wouldn't make any decision until you've talked to the admission offices at the school's youre interested in. Do you even know if the online school you're considering is accredited?

 

[aubreysheffield]

won't you be giving up the dance team with it? If you're not enrolled in that school (unless your school has a virtual component), how are you able to participate in your current school activity?

Also, AP classes mean college bound....be careful, especially considering what colleges you want to attend. I wouldn't make any decision until you've talked to the admission offices at the school's youre interested in. Do you even know if the online school you're considering is accredited?

Yes it is accredited. It's through UT at Austin. And yes I would be giving up dance team, but due to a series of events I haven't been participating in dances for the past month or so.

 

[12stepCheermom]

Yes it is accredited. It's through UT at Austin. And yes I would be giving up dance team, but due to a series of events I haven't been participating in dances for the past month or so.

Accreditation is good, and it sounds like UT Austin would have no issue with the credits and application if that's where you want to go. But, especially if you're considering somewhere out of state, private, ivy league....talk to those admissions counselors first. Some of those higher ed places can be really "old school" about secondary ed (even though virtual schools are growing in number) and can have misconceptions. Currently, the kids we're recommending to virtual school in my district are the at-risk kids we're trying to keep from dropping out officially and give them another option. If an admission counselor has that image in their head, that could be a bad thing. Just do yourself a favor and check with the schools you're interested in. It might be fine.....but it might not and you don't want to find that out after it's too late.