Mary: 11th Grade
REASON FOR ONLINE SCHOOL: MORE OPPORTUNITIES FOR COLLEGE PREP
About Mary
Mary is an 11th grade student at Oregon Charter Academy. She has been attending online school throughout high school after finding that her local school did not have the resources to offer her the academic opportunities that she was looking for, like AP classes. She enrolled at Oregon Charter Academy and loves her classes, clubs, and online classmates.
Mary’s Schedule
Mary is enrolled in 4 Core courses and 2 electives at Oregon Charter Academy, which is standard for her age. Some of these courses meet live multiple times per week; others meet only once per week. When Mary is not attending Live Class, there is other assigned work for her to complete asynchronously.
In addition to her standard courses, Mary is also a part of the Art club, an optional club that she joined to explore her interest in art, and AVID, an optional college readiness program designed to close gaps and prepare all students for success after high school. Mary is also enrolled in courses for Counseling, Advisory, Career Ed, and the HS Principal’s Corner. These are not classes which she must attend and complete work for—they are spaces Mary can visit for resources. Mary’s live class schedule is below.
A Typical Day
Live Classes are only a part of a student’s day at Oregon Charter Academy. In our program, students complete much of their work asynchronously, on their own schedule. They can reach out to their teachers for one-on-one support whenever they need it. Continue reading to see what Mary’s daily schedule typically looks like!
DAY OF THE WEEK: TUESDAY
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Mary wakes up at 7:30. She gets dressed and makes herself a cup of tea and breakfast, which she takes back to her room for her first class.
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The AVID live class is at 8:15. Mary will be the first person in her family to go to college, so she is enrolled in the AVID program to learn more about the college application process. The AVID classes are short, and she appreciates that they’re easy to fit into her schedule.
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Mary doesn’t have another class until 11, so she spends a little time working on her college applications while the AVID information is fresh in her mind.
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There’s a test due by the end of the day in her Honors Government class, so Mary completes it before the live class. She likes the format of tests at ORCA - they don’t rely on rote memorization like many of the tests at her local high school, but assess understanding of the topic.
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Mary’s Honors Government class has their live class meeting at 11. They talk a bit about the test at the beginning of class, and then start a new module.
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At noon Mary’s AP Environmental Science class meets. She’s getting hungry, so she migrates to the kitchen and makes herself lunch with the camera off. She loves that she can eat during class, especially on Tuesdays when she has several classes right around lunchtime. There are also recordings available of every live class, so she knows that if she misses something she can go back and rewatch.
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Next up is Mary’s AP Language and Composition class. Today they’re talking about memoirs and analyzing an author’s use of language, and at the end of class they discuss the AP test and their practice schedule for the rest of the year.
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Mary’s a little tired after three classes in a row and waking up early for her AVID class, so she decides to take a nap. She loves that with ORCA she has the flexibility to rest when she’s tired and work when she’s energized.
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She wakes up, grabs a snack, and gets back to work. There’s an essay due soon for AP Lang, so she devotes about an hour to working on that, and then does some reading for ENVS and finishes up her AP Calculus homework.
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There are a few assignments left that Mary could work on, but she has a much lighter class day tomorrow and she’s met all of her deadlines, so she decides to save it for later. Instead, she takes out her sketchbook and does some drawing, which she loves to do.
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