Surviving NTI While Wearing an Essential Worker Hat

We know how hard it is to juggle the essential worker status and help kids succeed at school at home. Here are some tips to make the best of our 2020 situation.

Sometimes called a learning pod or social bubble, families have been joining forces to lessen the individual load of helping their children learn. In some cases, parents might take turns watching one another’s children and helping them throughout the school day. In others, children might go to a designated space in one family’s home or backyard and receive instruction from a tutor.

Some families that have students enrolled in online school will form co-ops. This allows students who have full-time working parents an alternative place to study where there is supervision. And parents who are home during the day may find that their own student is more productive with studying when another student is at their house as well.

Another option of full-time working parents may be to either hire a tutor or to ask a grandparent (or other adult family member) to supervise their child during the day -- even if it's for only part of the day. Success in an online school format can be difficult for students who don't have the additional support available to keep them on task or to help them with a difficult assignment.

Finally, there may be some flexible options available to the student. Online school does not always need to be completed during the traditional school day, so check with the school to see if completing homework in the evening is an option. Some online schools also allow students to complete a portion of their course work at the online school site part time. This option gives the student the flexibility of an online school, and it gives the student some supervision during the day. There are also blended programs offered at some school sites where the student completes some school work at home and part of it in a brick-and-mortar school with face-to-face instruction.

February 27, 2016 | By Christi Wilson, Onlineschools.com

The Courier Journal has published Kentucky and Indiana’s response to the fall semester with JCPS. You can read the full article here.