What a wonderful and new experience Shared Journeys High School has been for me. I have spent most of my career in elementary education as well as working as a reading teacher. This past year I applied for and became the School Age Parent Teacher for the West Allis/West Milwaukee School District, where I have taught for my entire 24 year teaching career.
I now work with high school students who are pregnant or parenting. I absolutely LOVE what I do each and every day. These students work so hard to overcome the many barriers in their lives in order to be good parents and to achieve academic success.
The vision for Shared Journeys is academic and parenting success. The mission is to provide expectant and school age parents an opportunity to complete a high school education, encouraging strong parenting, healthy lifestyles and building post-secondary skills through supportive community and innovative learning environments.
Since many of my students have a difficult time getting to school due to day care or quite possible being placed on bed rest, we are developing all the courses on the Moodle platform so that students can take a laptop home and continue their coursework from home. In the past I was taking work back and forth to their homes. This will ensure that they will be able to witness first hand information such as podcasts and virtual tours as well as feel connected to what we are doing in class.
With the coursework being placed onto the Moodle platform, I need to learn the skills necessary to be able to work with my students in this role. I am so excited to be learning about google docs and see that as a way to receive permission slips, to create quizzes and materials from anywhere. This will be such a benefit for me when I am traveling to many sites throughout the day and can access my materials at anytime! I have created two blogs. One I am going to use as a weekly newsletter to inform students and parents of our classroom happenings. The other one is this one for my own personal use...a journal opportunity to reflect on my learning.
Welcome to my Shared Journeys!
Wow! I didn't know we had such a program! I think it is really great that the district has such a program, and what a perfect use of Moodle!
ReplyDeleteI wonder if there is a way for you to create a safe online support community for the young mothers. It has to be hard for them to find time to do their coursework and figure out how to care for a child. It might be nice for them to lean on each other as they go through the journey together or even mentor other young ladies going through the same journey they went through. Maybe we will learn about something that you could use!
Hi Lori,
DeleteGreat idea about the safe online support community. Our classroom is such a safe zone for our students and I am hoping to make the online work the same. I do hope I can make it that way. We are also starting a mentoring program this year and students will have the option to skype with their mentor.
Your teaching position sounds amazing! That is an area of education that I would love to be in someday. Do you have to have a special certification or license? I have an elementary 1-9 license but in the future I would consider additional coursework if it gave me the skills to have a position similar to yours.
ReplyDeleteI can easily see how the skills and technology of this class will make learning more accessible for your students. I'm really impressed to hear that our district offers this sort of programming!
How exciting that you would consider this type of work. I LOVE what I am doing. It is so challenging and yet so rewarding. I have an elementary education licensure, masters in education, health k-12 minor , reading licensure and alternative education licensure. My alternative education work has really helped me to expand my horizons. You are welcome to come and visit anytime. My new website is www.sharedjourneyswawm.com It is a work in progress as all websites are, but check it out :). You can also check out my family center site at www.morgangrovefc.org .
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