{"id":549,"date":"2014-04-09T09:05:27","date_gmt":"2014-04-09T14:05:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/linode.siwko.org\/wordpress\/?p=549"},"modified":"2014-04-09T09:05:27","modified_gmt":"2014-04-09T14:05:27","slug":"queen-of-heaven-academy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.siwko.org\/wordpress\/?p=549","title":{"rendered":"Queen of Heaven Academy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When you&#8217;ve decided to educate your children at home, there are many choices to make.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What&#8217;s the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/holy_father\/pius_xi\/encyclicals\/documents\/hf_p-xi_enc_31121929_divini-illius-magistri_en.html\">goal<\/a> of your school?<\/li>\n<li>What subjects will the children learn?<\/li>\n<li>What resources, like textbooks, will you use?<\/li>\n<li>How will you measure success?<\/li>\n<li>How will you provide a transcript?<\/li>\n<li>How will you schedule school activities?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Regina Coeli Academy is well known in home schooling circles for delivering on line education to families. \u00a0The school began in 1995 and has developed a model which is fairly close to the familiar brick and mortar Catholic system. \u00a0Classes are at scheduled times. \u00a0Each class has a teacher and students who are together for the year. \u00a0The school year is divided into quarters with exams and major essays. \u00a0Homework has deadlines. \u00a0Each class has an experienced teacher.  How do they do all that?  The students are divided into classes based on subjects and time zones and each has an instructor. \u00a0Classes meet on the computer using <a href=\"http:\/\/www.adobe.com\/products\/adobeconnect.html\">Adobe Connect<\/a> (they use to use\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.webex.com\/\">WebEx<\/a>). \u00a0These technologies allow for students and teachers with cameras and microphones to hold video conferences. \u00a0The teachers share their materials as presentations and shared whiteboards. \u00a0The students interact live or through a chat. \u00a0It&#8217;s just like I do at work! \u00a0All the tools of modern business collaboration are at the disposal of the educators at this on line school.  Homework (assignments) and tests are managed in a system from an educational startup named <a href=\"http:\/\/www.populiweb.com\/\">Populi<\/a>. \u00a0The system is a web based school management system. \u00a0Each student logs in and has a dashboard with links to current assignments and class meeting rooms. \u00a0There are discussion boards and a calendar. \u00a0Most exciting for me as a parent (and programmer), there&#8217;s an API which I can query for live information. \u00a0Let&#8217;s pause there for a moment. \u00a0I am able to get a list every morning of all assignments which are due for my children. \u00a0I choose to look 10 days out just in case there&#8217;s a big test coming up which needs extra study, or a biology lab which need time for the radishes to grow and can&#8217;t wait until the night before. \u00a0As a father, I can be engaged in the management of my children&#8217;s workload in a much more intimate way. \u00a0I can pull reports on grades&#8230;. in real time. \u00a0I choose to generate a report card every morning. \u00a0I get an e-mail every time an assignment is graded. \u00a0Does that mean I micromanage my students&#8217; work? \u00a0There&#8217;s a real danger there. \u00a0The benefit is that the students learn to manage their own time and I can step in before something goes wrong. \u00a0For example, on the rare occasion of a missed assignment I can take the time to teach my child how to contact his teacher to ask for another chance. \u00a0This is one of the benefits of an assignment driven system. \u00a0If a student is not doing well in a class, I can see why. I can tell whether the problem is in homework, quizzes, or class participation and can reinforce changes in behavior. \u00a0The school also uses external testing systems including\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.mathxlforschool.com\/home_school.htm\">MathXL<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.quia.com\/web\">quia<\/a> when it makes sense. \u00a0It is inspiring to see technology used for such a good purpose as assisting in the education of children.  What subjects are taught?  My freshman is enrolled in:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Mass and the Sacraments<\/li>\n<li>HSAlgebra 1<\/li>\n<li>HSEnglish 1<\/li>\n<li>HSPhysical Science<\/li>\n<li>HSHistory 1<\/li>\n<li>HSLatin Text A<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>She has already completed the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.classicalliberalarts.com\/courses\/trivium\/grammar.htm\">CLAA Latin Grammar<\/a> and was registered in a higher Latin class after a simple test. \u00a0I&#8217;ve been impressed with the flexibility offered by the school to place students where they fit based on their experience.<\/div>\n<div>My sophomore is enrolled in:<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>Catholic Morality<\/li>\n<li>HSGeometry<\/li>\n<li>HSEnglish 2<\/li>\n<li>HSBiology<\/li>\n<li>HSHistory 2<\/li>\n<li>French 2<\/li>\n<li>Philosophy for Biology<\/li>\n<li>Latin Text<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div>Note that the biology class is split into two parts. \u00a0The second is a philosophy class. \u00a0My impression is that this exposure to philosophy joined with the science is a good step toward healing the break between science and philosophy which has come about over the centuries. \u00a0My son has also completed the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.classicalliberalarts.com\/courses\/trivium\/grammar.htm\">CLAA Latin Grammar<\/a> but really wanted to learn French. \u00a0The school was very flexible and registered him in the Latin Text at the college so that he could take the French which was offered at the same time.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>What about sports and all that?<\/div>\n<div>That&#8217;s up to you. \u00a0We&#8217;ve got Boy Scouts, the Richmond Kickers Recreational Soccer, the An Cor Rud school of Irish Dance, Little Sisters of The Poor Hospitality club, and a great piano teacher who comes weekly. \u00a0<span>The schedule allows for integration of many activities.<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\n<p>Why is the title of this post Queen of Heaven and not Regina Coeli?<\/p>\n<div>That&#8217;s an interesting story. \u00a0The school was founded in 1995 as Regina Coeli Academy. \u00a0The school is accredited and has a time tested curriculum. \u00a0If you&#8217;re worried about going to college, there&#8217;s a list of colleges which have accepted students from the school. \u00a0 See #14 on <a href=\"http:\/\/queenofheavenacademy.org\/page\/13-FAQ\/\">this FAQ<\/a>. \u00a0Once in a while an opportunity that&#8217;s too good to be true comes along. \u00a0Imagine if a Catholic College with an on line program wanted to develop a school where you could complete your senior year of high school and your freshman year of college at the same time. \u00a0Brilliant! \u00a0In 2013 Regina Coeli partnered with <a href=\"http:\/\/fishermore.edu\/\">Fisher More College<\/a> in Texas to provide a program under the name Fisher More Academy. \u00a0The program flourished and all seemed well for a time and there was great hope and joy in this new thing. \u00a0The experiment only lasted for a year and with the closing of the college residential program, the principals of Regina Coeli have separated from the college and now the program is called Queen of Heaven.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When you&#8217;ve decided to educate your children at home, there are many choices to make. What&#8217;s the goal of your school? What subjects will the children learn? What resources, like textbooks, will you use? How will you measure success? How will you provide a transcript? How will you schedule school activities? Regina Coeli Academy is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siwko.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siwko.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siwko.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siwko.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siwko.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.siwko.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siwko.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siwko.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siwko.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}