1 on 1 Accelerated 9th & 10th Grades Home High School Full Curriculum: Part 1 of 2 (By Request Only)

This class is taught in English.

■ English I & II: 

Functional Texts, Expository Texts, Persuasive Texts, Literary Nonfiction, Fiction, and Essay Writing.

■ Social Studies: 

Government, Civics, US History: Revolutionary War through the Depression, US History: World War II through Modern Times, World History and Political Systems, Economic Foundations, Economic Events in History, Economics in the Twenty-First Century, Geography and People.

I have a double BA degree in Social Sciences with Education Concentration and in Criminal Justice, a MA degree in Education with Curriculum Specialty, and a Doctorate in Philosophy.

I have taught home high school for grades 9 through 12 for over 11 years live online via Skype, and asynchronous messaging on a discussion board, at a private online high school for all of the subjects listed. All students were taught English, Language Arts, Writing, Sciences, Social Studies, and Mathematics plus elective classes by me (like elementary school). All of my students made above-average grades, had fun and a good time, graduated from their state's approved home education laws, and have successfully gone off to college. I enjoy helping students learn, maximize their potential, and help them to go in-depth and think critically to become successful adults in life.

How I teach:

These classes have taught me how to teach using education-based constructiveness, humanist, realism, and idealism theories as well as brain-based learning. As a professional educator, I do the new approach of teaching as it has been thoroughly studied by scholars and based upon statistics and has been extremely successful for brick-and-mortar schools as well as virtual schools. This is also how we are taught to teach in my master's and doctoral programs in higher education. I use differentiated instructions for each individual student and help them to learn based on their abilities and needs. I am very kind, accommodating, friendly, compassionate, understanding, and flexible. I do a "flipped classroom" model where students do assignments first, and then the student becomes the "teacher" in the live meeting by sharing what new things they have learned, things they found interesting, and things they feel are important. I also interject comments with important and additional information while the student is sharing, so I am also actively participating. This is all known as the "open classroom" method where we're in this together, with a common goal: learning and having fun while learning. We discuss what has been learned, analyzed, and concluded from the assignments together in the live meeting. Finally, I give a brief introduction and guidance for the next week plus homework, which is the next chapter in each subject, to be completed by the following week.

As professional educators of academia, we no longer give long lectures or "teach" in live meetings which is an older style of teaching. We discuss the material and more with our students by having a conversation. Students don't assimilate much information during long educator lectures, they prefer interaction. We educators are taught to be more like coaches, guides, and mentors to our students, individually and as a whole class. We sometimes help to facilitate meaningful discussion by asking particular questions of a student in the live meetings to share their new knowledge. I ask the right questions at the right time during our discussions to make it a great teachable moment.

This semester's class with two subjects is a bit advanced and accelerated and students will need to practice good time management skills and be very motivated to learn. I not only teach the material through homework such as the chapter questions, projects, but also through videos, and instruction, and discussion in our live meetings, but I also teach students how to learn. Sometimes when I am asked a question, I will ask a student to do some internet research to find the answer. I help them to find answers using legitimate online resources. I sometimes do the same thing when students turn in their homework I may ask them a few more questions that aren't found in the textbook, but by doing light internet research. By teaching using these methods I have found that it strengthens students' ability, and desire, to learn and how to learn as adults. They have control over their education- which is a great power if taught how to use this power correctly.

If a student must miss either a live video meeting or needs to turn homework in later due to illness, family situations, or other causes, I understand. I just kindly ask that the parent send me a direct private message at least 2 hours before the live online class if possible, please, and I can still post their homework for the day(s) they miss. Per Outschool's policy, there are no refunds for a student missing a live meeting. If the student does not show up within 10 minutes of the live meeting the meeting will be canceled for that day. I do not do a make-up day if the student misses the live meeting, but homework will still be assigned in the Outschool classroom for them to complete by the due date. Since this is homeschooling, a lot of homework will be assigned and parents will need to be very involved.

Students will receive instruction, guidance, coaching, learning, and homework assignments from me live online. I will also post weekly guidance and homework assignments in the Outschool Classroom. Full participation in the live video meetings and in the Outschool Classroom are necessary requirements for the student to learn. 

This is an accelerated semester class. The student will be working independently from me most of the time reading the textbook, writing essays, making videos or other projects, and doing the lesson reviews for both subjects. ✨ Heavy parent involvement is absolutely needed, to help students manage their own homeschool schedule for homework and to be available to help their teen with homework. ✨

Weekly Assignment Homework: 

Even though I am available 7 days a week via private message to help your teen by answering questions, giving extra guidance, coaching them, and more, parent help and involvement aren't only allowed and welcomed, but it is actually required because this is homeschooling and by most state laws the parent is legally responsible. Parents will need to help their teen plan out their own schedules to get their homework completed on time, help them with their homework, and be sure all of the homework is completed each week. Homework consists of the following: 

All Homework and Reviews are OPEN BOOK.

1. We do one full chapter per week in both subjects. Each chapter has anywhere between 3 to 7 lessons and students must complete each lesson review for every lesson. The lesson reviews consist of vocabulary words, skill practice, skill review, and sometimes writing practice. There are typically 8 to 15 questions per lesson. This can be completed by writing answers on notebook paper or a word document. You can also print out the lesson reviews from the PDF of the textbook that I provide to you and they can write their answers on that. Your teen will read off their answers in our next live meeting, which means these are due in one week. Again, it's for both subjects. These are graded. However, if we encounter issues with doing homework in this particular manner we can turn some of the lessons into projects instead (see #3 below)

2. The Chapter Review at the end of each chapter must also be completed either by writing answers on notebook paper, on a word document, or a printout of the material from the PDF textbook. Your teen will read off their answers in the next live meeting, which means this is due in one week. Again, it's for both subjects. This is also open book & graded. 

3. Most weeks, but not all weeks, your teen will also be assigned a project to do such as writing an essay a short story, or a poem (on a word document), making a video slideshow (via Canva or Adobe Express), or a digital photo collage. This allows for creativity and fun. Only Canva or Adobe Express may be used for video slideshows. Both programs are free to use. Google Docs and Google Slides are not permitted. You can find free document programs such as Open Office, Libre, and more by doing a Google search. This is graded. See the Supply List section for more information.

After reviewing the answers to your teen's completed homework verbally, we will then discuss the chapters completed in depth. I will ask questions of your teen and vice versa. This greatly helps with fully assimilating new knowledge and putting it together with prior knowledge. It also aids in full comprehension and analysis. I will then proceed to introduce the next chapter, the new homework, and if time permits, I will do the first lesson with them.

Part of my philosophy of teaching is to help students how to learn. In many of the assignments, students may be asked to answer a few extra questions based on their original answers which will require them to do their own research on the internet and share their findings.

A final semester exam will be given for both subjects during the final week. This will account for 20% of your teen's final grade, but the exams are open book and can be given to your teen in a variety of ways to accommodate how they learn and show their learning. This is only to gauge their abilities to comprehend, analyze, infer, discuss, and come to educated conclusions on and about the material. 

I send grades for this class every week through private messaging to parents along with comments so that parents can monitor their student's progression. I value and appreciate feedback from the parents every week. Parents must at least acknowledge the educator back that the grades were sent and received. Parents and students may reach me at any time by direct message and I'll reply the same day if not the next morning 7 days a week except holidays.

I give 2 full-year high school credits for English and 2 full-years high school credits for Social Studies and an overall grade for both subjects for this class with four certificates of completion (2 certificates for each subject showing 1 credit each for 4 certificates) via private message to the parent towards the end of the class. Depending upon your homeschool laws or charter school requirements you can use this class as 4 year-long credits since the class is accelerated and chopped full of information and education. The overall grade is based on the following:

1. Amount of participation in the discussion of their weekly lesson reviews, chapter reviews, the information and discussion of the chapter read, bonus projects, and essays in the weekly live meetings. 

2. The number of correct answers on their lesson reviews and chapter reviews while keeping their learning abilities and needs in mind.

3. Amount of participation and thoroughness of their work and research on projects and essays (if assigned).

4. A final semester exam will be given for both subjects during the final week. This will account for 20% of your teen's final grade, but the exams are open book and can be given to your teen in a variety of ways to accommodate how they learn and show their learning. This is only to gauge their abilities to comprehend, analyze, infer, discuss and come to educated conclusions on and about the material. 

The certificate of completion will have the student's first name, "Outschool", the name of the course, the end date of the course, my full name and title as the OS teacher, and a final letter grade between A and D-. I do not fail any students because regardless of how involved or not involved they are in the class I know they have learned something from it. 

A = Excellent
B = Great
C = Satisfactory
D = Needs Improvement

For your homeschool portfolio teacher evaluation for your state, I highly recommend that you keep the PDFs of the textbooks to show ALL of the subjects learned from each textbook and your student's work that has a grade on it from me. These are important items to keep including their written textbook material on word documents, videos, projects from the Outschool classroom, and all of the saved assignments on your student's computer plus the saved PDF's of the textbooks themselves.  I HIGHLY recommend that your teen saves EVERYTHING to a Flash or Zip drive instead of their computer. When the class is over I will not be able to send you any of the material.

2 hours 30 minutes per week in class, and an estimated 4+ hours per week outside of class.

All sources are independently scholarly peer-reviewed, based on truth and facts, highly researched by the teacher for truthful evidence, secular, and unbiased. This especially includes the GED textbooks. The textbooks from McGraw-Hill are from the revamped and more challenging Adult Basic Education classes for the GED along with other sources.