Irvine Virtual Academy IVA

marie

New member
I am really curious if anyone here has chosen this route. I'm not sure if what we are experiencing is just happening to our freshman. There's just a ton of waiting, taking attendance, wasted time more for formality vs real learning. What has concerned me is the Honor roll Science teacher who shares WAY too much of his personal traumas that he's facing at home about his disabled child, recently injured wife especially when we are all dealing with our own challenges. They assigned a substitute for few weeks and then when he returned instead of reviewing material knowing the kids had a sub, he shared updates about his unfortunate situation at home and then administered the test that they were to study for( which he almost had to be reminded it was time to start the test) as my kid needs more time to test. Anyone in this situation? Also anyone having trouble understanding "The Parent  Observer Account" . We are still in the dark about that since help desk has been ZERO help.
 
Hi! We are in IVA too, but my daughter is only in 2nd grade so I'm not sure how helpful I will be.

Not sure if this is an IVA issue or an individual teacher issue, but yes I've noticed that during the live Zoom lessons, there is an awful lot of chit chat, sharing news, procedural stuff, etc. Maybe the IVA administrators have told them to emphasize this stuff for social emotional learning and to allow the teachers and students to build a connection with each other.

However, I totally agree that I would rather they spend more time teaching and less time on the chit chat, especially given how much independent time is already built into the program.

I felt like the Irvine Unified Board presentation sold IVA as really high quality, and I'm pretty disappointed in the execution. Our neighborhood elementary school shared with me that they already have a waitlist for families wanting to switch models, but haven't shared how long the list is. I'm still torn as to what to do; I do feel that schools might close down again in the winter.

 
My daughter went back for in class person learning and said the learning experience was much better than online. So hoping they don?t shut down again but I do think they will when people start coming down with colds/flus. It will be interesting the impact masks and distancing will have on cold/flu spread
 
Winterblues thank you for sharing your experience. There's definitely some obvious similarities in our experiences even with the BIG age difference. I was  asked by my sons advisement teacher to forward my concerns to the assistant principal at IVA which honestly I am not sure if that's going to change anything other than get the poor teacher in trouble. I just wish he wouldn't share so much negative news on a regular basis. I hope he stops soon or decides to take a medical leave so the kids can have someone more present. The same wasted chit chat are taking place in other classes too but not with so much negative, heartbreaking announcements so I just feel that this virtual program was hyped up just like you said in order to redirect some the traffic elsewhere and take the burden and responsibility off the actual school sites. There are many free homeschooling options where parents can make better use of their student's time. We chose this route only because there will be a spike in cases and it will take just one person to test positive to send everyone back to distant learning.
 
@marie, hoping for the best for you. Hopefully that teacher receives a bit of gentle feedback and adjusts accordingly.

@qwerty, glad to hear in-person is going well for your daughter. Mine is highly sensitive and keeps saying she doesn?t want to go back to school because she doesn?t want to wear a mask all day. However, she?s young enough that she?d probably get used to it (I hope). In IUSD we have the option to switch to in-person toward the end of November, it will be interesting to see if schools close down around then.

 
winterblues said:
@marie, hoping for the best for you. Hopefully that teacher receives a bit of gentle feedback and adjusts accordingly.

@qwerty, glad to hear in-person is going well for your daughter. Mine is highly sensitive and keeps saying she doesn?t want to go back to school because she doesn?t want to wear a mask all day. However, she?s young enough that she?d probably get used to it (I hope). In IUSD we have the option to switch to in-person toward the end of November, it will be interesting to see if schools close down around then.

My daughter likes the surgeons type masks vs the cloth masks. So we bought of bunch of those in kids size. We also bought kids face shields as backups. You can get them on Amazon for about $2-$3/each. They fit well and are easier to breathe with than a mask
 
Regarding IVA, the best place to share a valid concern could be the IUSD School Board. The emails are posted on the IUSD website and it?s an election year for a few of them. If your child?s education is not a concern now to them, then it won?t be. IVA is brand new and was definitely oversold. Nothing can be established overnight. I?d support smaller classes, either in-person or online to give students more individual support by Irvine teachers who are using their own lessons. It?s a shame the district chose to outsource its academy to Florida Virtual curriculum. Other districts have well established online programs worth exploring...
 
marie said:
There are many free homeschooling options where parents can make better use of their student's time.

This is true.  If you homeschool through a charter, you also get a couple thousand dollars to spend on curriculum/extracurriculars/classes/etc.
 
bones said:
marie said:
There are many free homeschooling options where parents can make better use of their student's time.

This is true.  If you homeschool through a charter, you also get a couple thousand dollars to spend on curriculum/extracurriculars/classes/etc.

How do you collaborate with other classmates when you're homeschooling?
 
paydawg said:
bones said:
marie said:
There are many free homeschooling options where parents can make better use of their student's time.

This is true.  If you homeschool through a charter, you also get a couple thousand dollars to spend on curriculum/extracurriculars/classes/etc.

How do you collaborate with other classmates when you're homeschooling?

Most homeschoolers take classes with other kids.  Lots of homeschool programs out there... STEM, outdoor education, foreign language, all the traditional subjects, book clubs, writing programs, etc.  Some do co-ops with other families.  Plenty of options. 
 
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