Cindy  Hill is spending less time handling classroom management and more time teaching this school year.
Hill is a longtime Manteca Unified eighth grade teacher that is part of the inaugural faculty of the district’s online academy.

“It’s less stressful,” Hill said, even though online teachers instead of having 30 students that an in-person classroom instructor has max out at 40 students each.

That’s because there are less distractions, students are more willing to participate in class discussions, and are significantly more cordial toward teachers and other students.

Hill, who estimated there were times in a traditional school setting classroom management tasks consumed 60 percent of the day, believes it is because the peer pressure to act a certain way as well as group dynamics that can make some students shy and others boisterous are greatly diminished with online instruction.

It also helps that — unlike long distance learning thrust onto 95 percent of the district’s 24,000 students due to the COVID-19 pandemic — the 1,100 students enrolled in the Manteca Unified Online Academy along with their parents chose the education model.

“(Some) students are more intimidated in a classroom setting,” Hill noted.

Manteca Unified Online Academy Principal Lisa Goodwin said it is likely that not all of the 1,100 students enrolled did so because it is their preferred learning model.

“It is likely that some parents picked the online academy to avoid the uncertainty of the school year,” Goodwin said of expectations that traditional classrooms will be moving back and forth from remote distance learning to some in-classroom learning depending upon what COVID-19 restrictions dictate.

The district had been planning to offer an online academy utilizing their own professional and certificated educators long before most people even heard of coronaviruses and months before CIOVID-19 became part of our daily lexicon.

It was a concept born from the desire to best serve individual student needs with the understanding an online platform designed using core requirements in math, science, the English language, arts, and social students tailored by the district’s experienced teaching staff would be one way of achieving such a goal. As such, personalized learning as opposed to software driven lessons are at the core of the online academy.

It also incorporates electives that provide the A-G requirements needed for admission to the University of California system.

When the district started work on the online academy in earnest a year ago, there was a robust response from teachers who were interested in being a part of the faculty. That proved critical as what was expected to be a much smaller rollout in terms of initial year enrollment suddenly took on greater importance in March with the declaration of a pandemic. The district decided to increase the size of the initial year’s enrollment to more than 1,000 in the expectation the COVID-19 pandemic would increase interest in a learning model designed as an online academy.

There are no shortcuts as students face the same time commitment to class learning as do those still on a traditional learning track. As an example, a high school student at the Manteca Online Academy is required to be in class 240 minutes a day just like their peers at the Sierra, Manteca, East Union, Lathrop, and Weston Ranch campuses.

Vice Principal Chris Chilles noted parents are much more active participants in the day-to-day education of their children through the online academy.

“I’m constantly texting, emailing, and talking to parents,” Chilles noted.

Parental involvement in the education of their child is a hallmark of the online academy strategy of delivering the best possible education to each student.

“Parent involvement is key,” Goodwin said.

Just like with the traditional on-campus experience, the pandemic has forced modifications to the Manteca Unified online academy model.

One example is the in-person learning sessions for individuals and groups to re-enforce online learning are being held in abeyance due to health orders. But when they are allowed to occur they will take place at the oldest elementary school structure in Manteca built in 1950 as the Yosemite School replacement that subsequently served as the Sequoia School Annex and then the Manteca Community Day School. The West Yosemite Avenue campus is where the faculty is housed.

Students will also be able to participate in extra-curricular activities at their “home schools” — the elementary or high school attendance area where they reside — when COVID-19 conditions allow it. That applies to sports, clubs and such that occur outside a regularly scheduled class. Band, as an example, would not work as an extracurricular activity an online academy student could participate in at their home school.

In many ways, the online academy has many of the trappings of a tradition school.

Just like a new school, students selected a school mascot. The winner was the Owl. They also have school pictures scheduled next month and have activities similar to spirit week.

And while state requirements imposed across the board due to the rapid switch to distance learning some of the flexibility has temporarily been put on hold due to the pandemic.

That said the online academy as designed gives parents and students the freedom to customize their education, thus enhancing each family’s public education opportunities.

The online academy’s website notes, “the virtual classroom gives families the flexibility to schedule school wherever they are, at times that work best for their schedule, and at a pace that works best for their child. Some coursework and live sessions do need to take place at fixed times. Students can learn anywhere, anytime; all they need is a computer and connection to the internet. “

 Goodwin emphasized that the online academy gives Manteca Unified students choices that are the result of district educators understanding that a one-size-fits-all-approach to learning  does not afford every student the best possible results.

“It’s about choices for the individual student’s needs and goals,” Goodwin said of the online academy.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com