Steven Helmer Publications

I've been out of college for a long time, and I've reached a point where I'm working toward retirement and no longer looking to further my career or start a new one. However, it never hurts to learn new things when you can, especially when you can do it for free (thanks to a partnership our local library has with Universal Class) so I took a Film Appreciation course. I am happy to say I passed it today with an A+. The class was a little more challenging than I had expected. It wasn't just learning about filmmaking history, I had to write essays about era-specific movies and a biography of the director of my choice (I went with Tod Browning). However, I made it through the 9-hour course and even got some extra credit for teaching the professor a couple things. I'll just add my certificate to my achievements while deciding what class I am interested in taking next.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we decided to pull my oldest daughter out of high school and, instead, home school her using an online virtual school. Today is the last day of her first week and, so far, this is looking like it was a great choice. Image Courtesy of Pixabay There is a night and day difference between this year, her sophomore year, and her freshman year last year. Last year, we had to practically drag her to school and she was stressed and grumpy all the time. This year, she's up and ready without a fight and full of energy. She's also participating in her classroom discussions (done via a chat room) and group projects, two things she pretty much avoided like the plague last year. And, outside of school, she's a completely different person, laughing, talking and seeming to enjoy life. In fact, the only real drawback we're seeing so far is she's got a lot more free time than we're used to her having. The virtual school is structured...

Work hard and take advantage of a free education that isn't available in many countries. Kind of a strange morning for me today. For the first time in four years, I'm not taking my oldest daughter to school. Since she's homeschooling via Wisconsin Virtual Learning, she's just going to take classes from our kitchen table today. Eventually, that will change a bit. My wife is also going back to work (she's a substitute teacher's assistant) and, on days when she's working, I'll need to drop my daughter off at my mom's house. But, for today at least, it's definitely not what I'm used to and is completely throwing off my school morning routine.

School starts in a couple of days and, while it will be business as usual for our youngest daughter, her older sister will be doing something new, homeschooling. OK, technically, she is still attending school. She'll just be doing it via a virtual (computer) environment. But, for all effective purposes, she is learning from home with my wife, my mom and I sharing her educational responsibilities as she starts her sophomore year of high school. To tell you the truth, there was a time when I thumbed my nose a bit at people who homeschooled their kids, mostly because I couldn't see the point when public schools seemed perfectly adequate. Now, I am apologetically confessing and admitting they might have been right all along. Both of my daughters are bright and talented kids and were on the school district's gifted/talented list. But, while her younger sister seems to be thriving in a traditional school setting, my teenager has had her share of issues. In elementary s...

Of course, my first reaction (jokingly) was "why do I need to go to the orientation, I already graduated high school." But, I must admit, the informational meeting was pretty informative and I did come out feeling a lot more confident about my oldest daughter starting her freshman year next month. The thing I found I liked best about their setup is how they have a class period that is set aside to either "enhance" or "intervene." In other words, if a student is doing good in all of his/her classes, they can participate in an additional activity but, if they are struggling in a class, that period is used for extra time with the teacher. This was something my daughter actually needed last year, when she was struggling in algebra. She knew she needed help but her teacher never seemed to be available to help her. I'm glad, at least at the high school level, they are recognizing this is a need. I'm still not a big fan of the fact they allow studen...