Interesting Lee. One area my daughter did well in was in our local Community College.
Our successful method was — talking to students about the professors; getting recommendations about them in conjunction with RateMyProfessor.com. I found the latter to be highly accurate.
One course was full already because it was known she was excellent.I emailed to ask if she would take one more student as I heard she was excellent, and not an easy A. My daughter couldn't take an easy A course as writing was related to her career choice and she needed to develop in that area. So I told this prof that and she let one more in. By the end, she was impressed with my daughter's above average writing skills and helpful critiques on other students work the she offered this glowing letter for colleges and scholarships as well as signatures to enter the Scholastic Writing Contest.
My daughter had one bad experience, but it was incompetence by the teacher not an affront to our values. An abstract expressionist was teaching a classical drawing class (Representational art aka realism) and she felt like she didn't learn what she wanted since she chose the course based on the description. It was the one teacher we were not able to bet any information on before enrolling.
Did you know some local public schools will allow a homeschooler to enroll for one or two classes only? Well, I did that for Physics because I couldn't deliver that let alone supervise it. Nor did I have a lab. I could not find a tutor for it either. I did not think my daughter would do well using Virtual School Online as she needed a person when there was any math being done.
However, that turned out to be a horrific class. Most of the kids got Fs during the year, the teacher could not lecture well at all and spent most of his time talking about his stint in Vietnam. He was in his 70's. She however, got 95's because she was a good reader and it turned out she learned most of it on her own reading the book and using You Tube for some real world demonstrations. But the other kids learned hardly anything, but in the end he gave them As and Bs to pass them. Just terrible.
She at least got to see what a public school was like and her other peers. She thought a lot of them were unethical. Cheating and forging parental signatures even. She never was in a school with a bell system either and her reaction to that was pretty funny when the bells went off. So she got some exposure to public school.
Anyhow, hope my tips can help you or anyone out about how to use your CC. BTW I taught as an adjunct at the college level in the past.
Lois
Sometimes as homeschool parents we panic, and wonder if the grass is greener in another school or classroom. Sometimes other classes ARE good. But you know what? Sometimes your homeschool classes are great too! The grass is NOT greener on the other side.
If you would like some encouragement on facing high school physics, please see my YouTube tip here: Teaching Physics in Homeschool
For more information and stories about Community College read my article here: Facing the Community College Fad
I would love for you to share your stories about community college too! Please leave a comment and let me know your opinion.
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