An open house at the start of the school year is customary at traditional brick and mortar school districts. How do cyber schools conduct open houses, though? The answer: the same way traditional schools do!
Students and their parents have the opportunity to visit the school, see their student’s work on display, and interact with their teachers and other students. Although the setting is an office suite instead of a typical school building, the concept is still the same.
PA Distance Learning holds an open house for their students each year. All of the students are invited to attend, but for those living a distance from the office, visiting the open houses may not always be possible. Last year, the school decided to make open house available to every student by adding a virtual component. On October 17, 2011, PA Distance Learning Charter School held their annual open house in their office as usual, but this time put up webcams in various locations. Students who were unable to attend in person could log in to the different webcams and see the activities that were going on in each location. They could also interact with the teachers via an online chat session in the virtual classrooms in which the webcams were being broadcast.
The theme of PA Distance Learning Charter School’s open house last year was Pennsylvania. The staff set up stations around the office where the students and their parents could learn about their home state while completing fun activities. Each student was issued a passport when they arrived at the open house and the passports where stamped as they completed the activity at each station. At one station, students conducted a lab in which they tested the pH level of products manufactured in Pennsylvania. At another station, they were able to investigate Pennsylvania animals by completing a scavenger hunt and creating paw prints using stuffed specimens borrowed from the Carnegie Museum. Students also had the opportunity to contribute to a Pennsylvania poem and to study a map of the state displaying various cultural activities relating to the world language classes offered at the school.
Even though cyber schools do not have physical classrooms, and even though the student population is spread across the state, open houses are still a reality. The teachers and students of PA Distance Learning Charter School all enjoyed the open house, whether they attended it in person or virtually.
