Have you noticed your children daydreaming more? Are they unreasonably restless or more easily distracted than usual? These are sure signs that spring fever has planted itself in your school day. Today, my daughter announced it was a beautiful day and she couldn't wait to get outside. It was obvious she would rather be outdoors instead of working inside on a Geometry lesson. Luckily, at this time of year, the flexibility of being in a virtual school definitely has advantages!

The challenge is to find a way to let springtime and learning time share the same space. These 10 ideas have helped our family over the years, and may give you some ideas on tackling this blooming situation. 

• Start early in the day and finish your lessons before it gets warm enough to tempt you outdoors. Or take a mid afternoon break and return to lessons later in the day. Isn't this flexibility great!
• Finish an extra lesson Monday-Thursday, and make Friday an outside learning adventure day. 
• Set a good example. Yes, Learning Coaches, this means that you need to finish your chores before you can go out and play, too! 
• Grab the books and study outside. 
• Plan a regular break time to go for a walk, play catch or just breathe fresh air. 
• Enjoy lunch outside. 
• Bring some greenery from outside into the house. 
• Add bright colors to the learning area with colorful pictures of flowers, or even better, a few fresh picked early blossoms. 
• Encourage daydreaming...

My kids are great procrastinators because I've taught them well. Right now, I'm staring at a 43 pound suitcase filled with years of good intentions. It's filled with photos, news clippings, programs from dance recitals and awards my kids have received. I would love to have these items organized into easy to view photo albums or scanned into digital albums, but it's easier to come up with reasons why I can't do it, such as, "I don't have time", "I want this to be a family project", or my favorite, "They’re safer in the suitcase because I can grab it quickly in case of a fire."

Procrastination for virtual school students comes in many shapes and sizes. I see procrastination typically rear its ugly head during lessons that my students are working on independently. A little procrastination is something we are all guilty of every now and then. When it happens regularly, though, it presents a real challenge. Throughout this month I will be writing about different reasons I think most students procrastinate and offering my suggestions for what you can do about it.

One reason why our students procrastinate is due to weak study habits.

I can usually spot when this is the problem because it sounds like this: (in a whiny tone)

"I can't do this" , "It's too hard", "This wasn't in the lesson", "It's boring", "I don't understand it".

So what is the first line of defense for this? Watch your student study a complete ...

Looking for a fun way to warm up a winter virtual school day?  Me too!  I love getting forwarded emails filled with suggestions. I'm almost always ready to try something at least once. 

It was only natural that when I received an email about making homemade popcorn in a brown paper lunch bag, I was enticed by the promise of a wonderful, inexpensive, different, simple, nutritious snack being ready in a minute (be still my heart)!  It also gives my daughter and I the opportunity to use all those great reasoning skills she's learning in her courses.

I did a search for "brown paper bag popcorn" and found many people that said making popcorn in a brown paper bag would work just fine, there are even some references to it on some well known cooking sites.  Some of the directions given suggested stapling the bag shut  so that the popcorn doesn't pop out while microwaving.  I had some lunch bags and popcorn kernels and decided to give it a try. 

Suddenly I started thinking about whether or not a staple in the microwave was a good idea.   So, once again I headed back to my trusty search engine and rethought the questions that I was typing in.  Instead of searching for "brown paper bag popcorn", I searched for "microwave food containers safety". This second search led me in a whole new direction!

It wasn't the popcorn or the microwave that could be a problem, it was the brown paper bag! 

The Popcorn Board explains on their Web site: 

"Plain and/or recycled papers ...

One of the many comments on the post "Answering the Socialization Question" raised by Steph C. warrants it's own post. Here's the issue that was raised: 

Steph C asks: "Can anyone please address the concern that has been voiced to me by my father... that it is beneficial to remain in a bricks and mortar school because it promotes learning about how to deal with mean people who will be forever present in life, beyond the school environment?  Do the sheltered, home-schooled children learn how to skirt left-handed and under-handed social attacks, remarks, social power plays, and the maneuvering of cliches (cliques) of people against an individual?  These activities do repeat in the workplace and in other environments of adult life.

If the children are not provided with the examples and experiences that are given in the brick and mortar school social microcosm, then how do they develop coping techniques for their adult lives?  This is a concern of mine.  This is an aspect of socialization that has not been addressed on this page.  It has only been referred to as "negative socialization" without addressing the benefit of learning how to deal with it.

Any remarks?  Can someone please help me come to terms with this issue? Thank you for your help!"

Steph C raises an important question, and one that I have had asked of me, as a parent of homeschooled and virtual schooled children. In answering your question, first, I'll assume that you don't mean kids ...

This was the simple question I posed to my daughter. Little did I know the reasons she started rattling off would totally stump me.  Imagine that, me speechless. All of her reasons for not calling her teacher for help sounded...well...reasonable. 

Time to call in the reinforcements!  One of my best supports this year has been my dear daughter's English teacher.  So I sent out a distress email: 

Dear Mr. Plummer,

Help!  You said, "CALL ME, CALL ME, CALL ME!!", if I ever needed your help. Well, I really need it now!  My daughter needs help with her school work, but she refuses to pick up the phone.  Even worse, she's come up with some great excuses as to why she shouldn't and she has me stumped!  What am I supposed to say to these? How can I get her to call? I've attached her list of reasons and can't wait to see what you suggest.

Sincerely,
Baffled Learning Coach

These are the reasons I sent and Mr. Plummer's responses:

Reason #1: "If I knew what the problem was, then I could probably figure out the answer."

• Mr. Plummer says: "Albert Einstein said that If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it? I think we could all agree that, besides forgetting to comb his hair, he was a pretty smart dude, and even he didn’t have all the answers. Don’t think of them as problems; think of them as questions you just haven’t answered yet. And when you call us, we ...

My name is Michelle Mueller and I am currently the principal of Wisconsin Connections Academy (WCA), Wisconsin’s first virtual school (and one of the first Connections Academy schools) that opened in 2002. Over the years many people have asked me if Connections Academy would be a good school for their child. What will the experience be like? Can he really learn without being in a traditional classroom? It’s never a simple answer, because students come to Connections Academy for so many reasons. So, how can you know if virtual schooling is for you? One way to help learn about a virtual school is to visit one. Since I can’t transport you to WCA’s offices, let me take you on a virtual tour.

Wisconsin Connnections Academy operates from a central office in Appleton, Wisconsin, though we serve students throughout the state. When you walk through the doors the first thing you see are teachers working with their students. But instead of being at the front of a room full of kids, they are at their desks instructing students by phone, email, and in online classrooms.

Peek into the elementary classroom. That's Mrs. Yahnke, one of our kindergarten teachers, doing a letter and sound assessment. Over there is Mrs. Kammer, the third grade teacher, reading with Matt, one of her students. Matt enrolled in WCA because he suffered from migraines that made him miss school regularly. As a result, he really struggled to keep up with his academics. At our school, ...

In a breakfast rut? Got the cold cereal blues? Or do you dole out breakfast bars like a Vegas card dealer? Never fear – I’m here to shake things up!!

Whole grain cereals and low-sugar breakfast bars offer a bounty of nutrients, but nothing screams COMFORT more than a hot breakfast on a chilly morning. Problem is, most people think a hot morning meal means setting the alarm 30 minutes earlier. Not so! And breakfast doesn’t have to be traditional either. I think outside the box for ALL meals. I serve eggs dishes for dinner and dinner meals in the morning. Just because it’s 6:00 A.M. doesn’t mean I’m hungry for waffles. Why not have chicken egg rolls with leftover chicken from last night? Put shredded chicken in a flour tortilla with salsa and shredded cheese, roll it up, zap it in the microwave for 20 seconds and you’ve got a hot, hand-held breakfast! You can also assemble the egg rolls the night before, wrap them in plastic wrap and in the morning, just micro-and-go! A few more ideas to inspire you…

Be Creative: Don’t relegate pasta to P.M. meals. Toss whole wheat pasta with cubed melon, sliced strawberries, blueberries, red grapes, and low-fat yogurt for the ultimate fruit-pasta salad. Add fresh mint or cinnamon for a twist.

Serve “Snacks” for Breakfast: And choose what you crave: some days you want salty, other days a sweet treat is in order. Some fabulous ideas:

• Oat bran pretzels dunked in peanut butter ...

Sometimes I wish my utterances came with a reverse button.

The other day I had one of those “wishing I had a reverse button” moments while I was trying to motivate my daughter to complete a lesson for Biology. The words were,“You know how to do this, so why don’t you just do it already!” Yes, it was said with the exclamation point at the end. As the words went from my brain and through my lips, I could see by her body language that those words didn't do anything to motivate or help her with the task at hand.

So why did I choose those words? Because at that moment my motivation tool box was empty.

Motivating your student doesn’t mean that you have to make sure your student is always excited about what they are learning. Even with the best curriculum, students may have dips in their desire to learn, but the right motivater can help get him or her across the finish line.

Later when I felt motivated, I came up with these ideas for quick motivation tips to put into my Learning Coach journal:

1. Ask your student how you can help. Listen to both your child's words and actions. You know your child better than anyone. What are they telling you?

Notice how your student is feeling at that moment and encourage a change that will improve his or her learning mood:

(Copy the text in the box below to share the image above on your ...

I admit it.  I love snack time during the day—even more than my kids do!   To me, there is nothing better than a snack that is already made and requires nothing more than to open the door of the fridge, reach in and hand it out.  

Here's a quick tip to help prepare healthy school day snacks while you prepare dinner the night before.

Next time you are chopping up vegetables or cheese for supper, dice up a few extra and toss them in a plastic bag.   As you can see in the photo, we had green pepper stew for supper, (brown a pound of hamburger, slice an onion and a few green peppers, chop up a couple of tomatoes, top with grated cheese and voila! dinner).  After I cleaned and sliced the peppers I put a few pieces in a plastic bag.  Next I cut off a few chunks of cheese and tossed those in another plastic bag.

Now you are ready for that quick pick-me-up snack the next day.

Snack happy & I'll see you online!

Are you excited to kick off this new semester?  You should be.  There is no better feeling then the chance to start fresh and a new semester provides just that opportunity.  It's easy to fall into the habit of looking back and thinking about what went wrong and feeling bad about it.  Don't get sucked in, shake it off now!  Growth is about learning and moving forward, so don't let anything hold you back. 

Here's how to launch a great new virtual school semester.

For the Learning Coach:

• Refresh your focus - Remind yourself of the reasons you chose a virtual school setting.
• Revisit success stories - Chances are, you did more right last semester than you realize. Identify what went right and write it down.  You can also read about others’ success stories for an extra shot of motivation. 
• Build your support network - Reach out to other Learning Coaches via social networks or school message boards.
• Reflect on growth - In addition to information gathered from state testing, report cards, and lessons completed, talk about what your student has learned and how this gets them closer to their individual goals.
• Picture change - Schedule some time with your teacher to get their input on how the semester went. Find time to chat with your kids openly (not in an accusatory way) about what worked or didn't work during the previous semester.  If they aren't in a chatty mood, create your own list for reference. What would you and your ...