Taking an Online Class For the First Time

So are you thinking about an online class but you aren’t sure if it is right for you? Well, no worries. Here are some basics you need to know.

First off, online classes can be scary when it is new, but remember that they are just like taking a regular class, only with internet.

Most of the time, you will be given a link through email that once clicked upon, takes you directly to the online class. Other times, you will be given a phone number so that you are able to see the class happening online but you hear the audio over the phone. Whatever their set up, you should receive several emails once you register for the class that walks you through how to take the class, where to click, and who to call if you get stuck or have questions.

Once you are in the class, you will participate just like if you were in a classroom. You will be able to ask questions, and you will be able to hear and see what the teacher is talking about. Sometimes you are able to see the actual teacher, but that is not always the case.

Whenever in doubt, though, get a contact. Talk with someone else who is signed up or contact the people hosting the online class. There is nothing wrong with questions, and reputable people will love helping get you the answers you need so that you can be just as comfortable in an online class as you would in a traditional classroom.

Technology can be new and sometimes challenging, but it is also a great way to bring great minds from all over the world right into your living room.

Enjoy your classes!

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More than a distributor, we have our own curriculum

AskDrCallahan lists itself as offering a “curriculum” because we are not simply a distributor of Harold Jacobs’ material. We have used his textbooks in a couple of our courses, but what we do at AskDrCallahan is we take a textbook and we build a course around it.

What this means is that we have taken the textbook and we assign homework, assign certain weeks in which to complete that homework, as well as make up our own test, test grading guide, teachers guide, and several other materials that we provide for you to use.

In this way, AskDrCallahan is a curriculum (with our own method for teaching) as opposed to just a distributor.

If you have questions about our products, or need any clarification, you can reach us at support@askdrcallahan.com

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Looking For Feedback

Have you taken an AskDrCallahan course? Did you like it? What would you change about it?

We are putting together some customer comments and we would love to know what you thought about our homeschool DVD math courses.

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Explore DVDs For Teaching Home School Math

When you sit down to teach math to your home school student, you probably reach for all the helps and resources you can get.

To help things run smoothly, many parents turn to DVDs. But what are you really getting with a DVD education? Well, let’s take a brief look at teaching homeschool math with DVDs.


DVD instruction is essentially where a teacher is filmed teaching each lesson from a textbook. All of this information is recorded onto a DVD which parents can show to their students before their students study their lessons for that day.

A typical day with a DVD education system might look like this:

  • Open DVD
  • put DVD in player
  • navigate to section being studied that day
  • watch clip, following along in the textbook
  • Read textbook section
  • work practice problems
  • work homework problems as assigned
  • Review DVD as needed.

Click Here to view some sample video clips of DVD lessons by AskDrCallahan

Parents/Students who might want to use a DVD course include (but certainly isn’t limited to) those who:

  • haven’t studied math in a while and need some help remembering the concepts
  • independent/ teach themselves
  • want a classroom experience, but who want to customize the pace for what makes sense for them
  • enjoy/require visual preparation and review resource
  • things just make more sense when you can watch someone else work the problems on a board before attempting them yourself

There are many reasons and benefits to getting a DVD course. You can probably think of others that I didn’t list above. If you have a DVD course, why did you decide to go that route? Would you recommend DVD courses to other homeschooling families? Why?Why not?

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Online Classes and Tutoring This Fall

THIS FALL (August 2010) Tim and Cassidy Cash (“the homework help people” for most of you) will open the first AskDrCallahan Homeschool Class and Tutoring Center. We are so excited to finally be able to offer these great AskDrCallahan college prep courses to students “on the ground” and in-person. The classes will be held in Alabaster, AL, but students may also take any of the classes offered as online courses too. This gives you direct access not only to a live teacher for your class experience, but you’re getting hands on help and attention from the people who created these courses. PLUS! the Homework Help staffers that help students over email, will be on hand to offer in-person tutoring services to anyone who might want to take advantage of that. Right now the specific location is TBA, but subject, times, teacher information, as well as information on the online classes are listed below. Find the subject you are interested in and contact us about it to get started. :)

Things To Know Before Taking an AskDrCallahan Course

Classes Available:

Math Classes:

Pre-Algebra

This course will be focused on covering the pre-requisite material for Algebra 1. Students completing this course will be able to move smoothly into Algebra 1. This class is designed for students grade 7-8th.

Course Instructor: Cassidy Cash(support@askdrcallahan.com)

Course Time:

Course Location:

Algebra 1

Algebra 2 With Trig

Geometry

Language Classes:

Spanish 1

Spanish 2

Spanish 3

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Where to find Video Samples of Math Courses

If you’ve been looking around at homeschool courses and you like AskDrCallahan, but aren’t sure where to find video samples of our math courses, Look No Futher! :)
Here are the links to the website where you can find video samples of all our homeschool math courses.

Click on the Photo to be taken to

that math course’s video samples.

We’ve even divided them up here by course name, so you can go directly to the course samples you’re after.

Algebra

Geometry
Algebra 2 With Trigonometry

Calculus
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Decide Your Math Course Based on Content, Not Publishing Company

When choosing a math course, many parents decide to go with one publishing company and stick with them throughout their student’s education because math courses are assumed to “build on each other”. And yes, math does build on itself, that’s why we have a typical course sequence, but be aware that some companies play the game of writing courses in such a way that you actually need to take their next course to fill in the gaps, but it shouldn’t be this way.

Math is a very real science and the truths you learn in math are the same for everyone. So no matter what publishing company puts them on paper, you should still be learning math.

There is nothing more significant about a good geometry course from company A and a good geometry course from company B as long as both companies A and B cover geometry well. There might be some differences as far as how each company covers the material; one company might provide more example problems than another. One company may have more real life examples than the second company. Or perhaps you like the number of available homework problems in one book over another. Those differences might make your choose Company A over Company B, but there should not be a requirement to take courses from the same publishing company in order to get a good education.

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Solutions manual and teachers guide are not the same thing.

The Solutions Manual gives answers to all of the Homework Problems (and occasionally the example problems) provided in the textbook. Courses vary on the details of these answers, but typically there are only answers to problems contained in the solutions manual.

A teachers guide, however, provides aid to the teacher (parent) administering the course. The Teacher’s Guide contains tests, test grading guides, sample worksheets, pacing information and a general course overview. The Teacher’s Guide does NOT contain answers to homework problems

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How to check if your math course is covering the key concepts

When deciding on a math course, you want to be sure that all of the key concepts are being covered and that your students are getting the best education they can receive to prepare them for the future.

But how do you tell the difference between eighteen math courses all labeled “Algebra”. Are they all the same course? The answer is that some courses are the same, but many are not.

To evaluate a course’s key concepts, check the Table of Contents. The Table of Contents is the best place to start because it gives you a good overview of what is being covered in that course.  This is the place where you can decide quickly and definitively if a math course is covering all of the concepts a good math course needs. If you scan the table of contents and a key concept is missing, you know immediately that you don’t need that course.

(For more information on identifying the key concepts per course, click here)

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Using Examples, Tests, and Homework Problems to evaluate a math course

When you are deciding whether or not to use a math course, the Table of Contents is the best place to start (link to table of contents article). But once you’ve evaluated the Table of Contents, there are two other areas to consider:

  1. Example & Homework Problems
  2. Tests

Example and Homework problems in a textbook can give you a good idea of how the key concepts will be covered.  Start by noticing the amount of example problems.

  • Are there enough for your student to be able to follow along with the explanations?
  • Do they provide practice problems that align with the examples?
  • If there aren’t very many example problems per lesson, can you tell why?
  • And if there are only a few examples, are there plenty of identical homework problems your student can practice?

Then ask questions about the Homework Problems

  • Are there review sections in the homework, and are there places to get homework answers?
  • Is the amount of homework problems acceptable?
  • Do the homework problems correspond with the lessons?
  • Are your students able to move smoothly from the lessons to the homework?

These are just some of the questions you will need to ask about a course. You can also use these questions to evaluate what is important to you as a parent or student. Maybe you don’t need a bunch of example problems and you like how Book A covers the material. You find yourself enjoying to read it or you can easily understand their explanations. This level of connectivity with the text might override your desire to have tons of examples, so you’re willing to compromise. Then again, maybe you’d rather sacrifice connectivity with the text in order to have many examples. Still some others will wait it out until they find the course that mixes plenty of examples with connectivity.

The second thing to consider is the Tests. Tests give you a good idea of what the course creators feel are the important ideas to take from the lessons. It also gives you an idea of the difficulty level of the course. Some questions to ask about test:

  • How long are the tests?
  • How often are they to be given?
  • What is the grading system?
  • Are they allowed to use calculators on exams?
  • Where do the problems come from?
  • How much material is covered per test?

What matters to you as a parent will vary with each student, with your own experience, and with each person. What course you ultimately get depends on your priorities as a parent, but ask the right questions about Example and Homework Problems and Tests.

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