All-Star Cheerleaders That Do Virtual School?

[aubreysheffield]

PLEASE don't take this decision lightly. I did online schooling one year of high school when I lived at the beach. I was cheering about as much as you were. Because I had no one to keep me on task I would continually put off my work. I would barely make deadlines and procrastinate everything until the very last day. I would screw around online ALL DAY. If you do this be sure you have the motivation to get it done. I fell into a pattern where I would not do any work and simply tell my parents it was getting done. We moved back to Columbia the following year and I rejoined public school and I had to bust my butt to get all my school work done by an August 15th deadline. It was awful. I would never do it again. It was no fault of the school, it was me. I couldn't handle it. I am in college now and I have been able to do a couple online classes but no more than 1 at a time. I've come to terms with the fact that if I have no one to hold my accountable I will put everything off.

Not saying this isn't for you, it's just something to think seriously about. I rushed into the decision because it sounded nice to sleep in and focus more on cheerleading. Maybe look into getting a good tutor a couple times a week to keep you up on things or keep your parents very involved. Good luck with your decision.

Thank you! I will definitely consider that

 

[cheerisloving]

I am lucky enough to go to school in a neighboring state with a much better public school system. I take 3 AP, US History which requires me to take a quiz every class and I am on a block schedule. Then Spanish Lit and English which are basiclly the same class in a different language. Tons of writing. On to of that i cheer everyday for HS in addition to prepping for the school musical. I get home super late, but I time manage the crap out of my life. Time is part of the reason I am no longer doing AS. My advice is that you keep in mind your schools AP policies and how it fits your lifestyle. My school let's you drop, but I don't take certaint APs because it would kill me. Its great to have APs but what's the point if you're not doing well? Online school may be better to replace easier classes so you'll have more time to study APs, but not replace it completly.

My town has HS alternative schools that allows you to do local HS activties, but its not where AP students go.

 

[Just-a-Mom]

Oh that was another con. Like cheerKT said, my daughter would log on to do her school work and end up spending the whole day online. Online school can be difficult to stay on task for even the most dedicated student. The Internet has a TON of distractions.

Just something to keep in mind if you do decide to do this. Make sure you have a way to stay focused. My daughter used a timer. It would go off (loudly) every half hour. Just a little something to jolt her back to reality that a half hour had just zipped by. It just helped her realize how quickly you can lose time.

 

[12stepCheermom]

Oh that was another con. Like cheerKT said, my daughter would log on to do her school work and end up spending the whole day online. Online school can be difficult to stay on task for even the most dedicated student. The Internet has a TON of distractions.

Just something to keep in mind if you do decide to do this. Make sure you have a way to stay focused. My daughter used a timer. It would go off (loudly) every half hour. Just a little something to jolt her back to reality that a half hour had just zipped by. It just helped her realize how quickly you can lose time.

As someone in a hybrid doctoral program I've discovered a whole new level of ADD when I'm online. It's crippling really because I waste as much time online as I do working, and I'm a motivated and dedicated student.

 

[cheerisloving]

Oh that was another con. Like cheerKT said, my daughter would log on to do her school work and end up spending the whole day online. Online school can be difficult to stay on task for even the most dedicated student. The Internet has a TON of distractions.

Yes!!! I retook Bio this summer and i would fall onto Twitter and tumblr all the time. But had to get it done in a few weeks, so I really disiplined myself to focus.

 

[SmileCat]

Last year I took one online class to see how I would like it instead of diving right into it & failing. I'm so glad I took that one course because I really hated virtual school. Idk if it was just my situation because I still had a packed schedule, but I always had to drag myself to the computer to do my work & the assignments really didn't help me at all in the class (marine science) I ended up spending almost 10 months on just one semester because honestly at times I just forgot about it...
It takes a lot more focus and dedication than regular school but with you being an AP student, I'm sure you'll be fine with finishing them efficiently.
I'm all for it, I mean, virtual school is there for people who don't work well with a regular school schedule, but you should definitely try taking one class to see how you work with it & see if your school lets you take one in class period off. That's what my school did so I didn't have a first period & it was great sleeping in!

 

[MakeYourMark]

I honestly think you need to prioritize. I'm cheering right now at least 7 hours a week, plus my job, plus my school classes. Yes its a time crunch, but you need to really consider whats important. Cheerleading will soon just be a childhood memory while your education will last you forever and directly effect your future.

 

[SmileCat]

I honestly think you need to prioritize. I'm cheering right now at least 7 hours a week, plus my job, plus my school classes. Yes its a time crunch, but you need to really consider whats important. Cheerleading will soon just be a childhood memory while your education will last you forever and directly effect your future.

This is not directed towards just you but i'm just going to post it as a reply so..
I'm not sure why people are saying virtual school will ruin her education.. She'll still be in school it's just a different kind of learning. She still learns the same things (actually sometimes harder) just not in a classroom with students. It's more independent so it actually makes it more challenging with assignments.. (which is why I hated it so much because I always had to do labs by myself -_-). She's an AP student so clearly she's used to all the tough work & self commitment to her schooling.

 

[cheermomforever]

How could you be on a school dance team with out attending classes at the school? I do not think sports comes before education! As someone else said something's gotta give and it should not be school.

 

[njallday]

i went to physical high school all 4 years, so i really can't weigh in on that, but i can weigh in on the skills it takes for online learning.

My freshman and sophomore year of college, i was on campus in classes mon-fri. my junior and senior years, i took as many online classes as possible to "free up" my time so that i was still able to work (for money) and intern (for no money). Attending class mon-fri didn't really allow for this. so while i technically freed up my schedule, i really didn't. luckily, i had all of those qualities 12stepCheermom listed. you truly will be teaching yourself everything. sure, there's ways to get help, but it's all on you. if you have time management issues now, you'll only need to manage your time even more wisely when you are responsible for your own education.

getting into college is something very important to consider as well. I recently saw first hand an example of why you'd want to go to a physical campus school: at my job, there were two awesome candidates up for a job opening. they both had master's degrees in the same field. one was from college with a campus and the other was from Walden (completely online college.) the one with the "real" (i know, both are real) degree got the job. as much as it shouldn't, the online degree makes people look at you differently. when i asked the CEO why he chose one over the other, while there were other reasons too, he said the difference in degrees made a huge difference.

now i don't know you or your circumstances, so this is just some friendly advice: if i were you i would either: 1.cut back to one cheer team. use those extra hours to devote to school. or 2. give up the dance team. i don't know the circumstances, but i know you mentioned you aren't actually dancing on the team currently. so quit. normally, i don't advocate quitting, but school comes first in my world. period.

i know it's not an easy decision, so i truly wish you the best... and while it's hard for most of us to admit, when it comes down to it, it's only cheerleading.

 

[JayySoFierce]

:banghead:

Pick a team, your gym will survive.

 

[cheerKT]

I also meant to add that I feel like I learned nothing. Since I had to rush through the material that I procrastinated I didn't really get to absorb it. I made good enough grades but it was still like I missed an entire year of school. I was still lucky enough to get into the school that I wanted but some people may not have been as lucky. Like I started German on virtual school and then went into German II in public school and was SO confused because their curriculums were entirely different.

 

[TheVipersMom]

My step brother was in 10th grade in March. He lived in Tennessee with his mom. Well his dad and my mom moved to Merritt Island, Florida.

He didn't want to stay with his mom any more and wanted to move with his dad. My step dad was a professional moto-cross racer back in the day. He is also the current representative for Fox Racing/ Shift for the southeast area of the United States. Anyways his son wanted to follow in his footsteps as far as racing. A couple years ago he won the Mini-O's in his division. (Like a dirt bike racing Worlds) lol

Well now that he is older a lot more training goes into that. So by moving with his dad he could work on it. So they withdrew him from regular public high school and he did school online. My mom and his dad couldn't stay on top of him because my step brother took our RV and was living on someone else's property in the RV quite a few hours away. The person's house he lived at had a lot of land and a dirt bike track and the owner of the property was my brothers coach/trainer. So when my brother wasn't training he was suppose to be doing his school work. It didn't happen and he missed home (Tennessee) to much so as of last month he gave up his dream even though he was so talented to move back home. He struggled with the work and put it off. So when he went back home found out he didn't get credits for what he left unfinished last semester (when he left in march) and is having to start over. He is doing credit recovery and if he does summer school maybe he can graduate with his class but I doubt it. If you aren't going to seriously motivate yourself it will be hard. He really missed meeting new girls (when he was in school he had a new girl every week) lol

Just thought I would share, good luck!

 

[AllstarObsession]

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.

lol we're like the same person! This was my exact situation for my junior year, and I went back to public school for my senior year. I begged to go back because I was seriously turning in to a hermit.

To the OP, online school is nice for about 3 weeks. Then it gets boring. Like really boring. Depending on the class, it might be harder to help yourself learn things. For my online school, we had a collaboration class once a week, and the rest of the week, youre essentially on your own. My SAT scores in math were incredibly low because I completely taught myself geometry and didn't retain any of it. It's so easy to get off track or behind.

I understand wanting to get away from public school and the stress, but I promise you will miss it. Maybe drop one of your teams instead.

 

[Leithal Weapon]

Sorry to sound harsh but if you dropped your dance team (which you said you haven't been dancing in lately) and one of your cheer teams, I'm sure you'd be fine.