| Educator's Corner |
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The Learning Springs CurriculaEducators will appreciate the strong “teacher” voice in the TLS curricula and the fact that each and every question in our standard (non auto-graded or AG) courses includes a teacher feedback component. This feature of student-teacher interactivity makes our courses dramatically different from other distance learning models. We have incorporated a personal touch, teacher-to-student, into our educational offerings, so that students experience coursework as a maintained dialogue between teacher and student, rather than as an isolated series of questions with answers marked right or wrong.
Teacher RelationshipsOur mastery-based learning model allows teachers to make corrections and suggestions to students within the lesson, to ask for re-do’s of substandard work, so that students may improve and resubmit work; students are actively encouraged to aspire to a high standard of performance as a result of their one-on-one relationship with their teacher. The intriguing paradox of our personalized distance learning program is that, no matter how many students a teacher has, each relationship remains personal, one-on-one. Our courses are constantly being audited, updated, improved and aligned to the newest and highest educational standards. Our approach to education is dynamic, including innovative learning activities, multiple authentic assessment opportunities, diagnostic, standards-based proficiency testing and graphically enhanced tutorials that focus on building specific skills and knowledge in various subjects. Students who utilize the full range of TLS offerings will be well equipped to progress through the testing process in any district and any state. AssessmentsThe regular occurrence of culminating authentic assessments—milestone assignments—throughout our curricula and the inclusion of assignment-specific grading rubrics not only makes the teacher’s job easier, but gives students clear instruction on specific academic expectations for each milestone assignment. We have found that the use of rubrics has significantly improved student performance in our courses. Learning Management System- AuroraAnother teacher-friendly aspect of our Learning Management System (LMS) is the inclusion of answers (on the teacher interface) for each question, a feature that shortens correction and response time for teachers and gives them the option to copy and paste correct answers from the answer key directly into the comment box for the student. Teachers will also appreciate the ability “view other answers” when responding to student work. This feature of our LMS significantly reduces plagiarism and sharing of answers among students. The Aurora LMS also functions as both a record-keeping and messaging program, providing everything the teacher needs to teach one or more courses to any number of students. |
