In recent years students started taking advantage of online classes and share time classes.
“I’m not sure when the State of Michigan first offered students the opportunity to take online courses but 2019-2020 was the first year I personally had students that took advantage of it,” counselor Thomas Versele said.
The school currently offers Law Enforcement, Small Engine and more recently French as share time classes. Courses become share time classes when a select few students in the district are interested in the class. In turn, the district offers opportunities to every student in a variety of areas. They bus all the students taking the class to one high school in the district where the class is taught.
“I think sometimes [share time] students find it challenging because they might miss lunch and a little bit of class to go to another school, so I don’t know that they’re quite happy with that, but I think the benefit of actually just taking the course they like and getting the experience outweighs that,” counselor Maura Ahlborn said.
Junior Lily Newman agrees that there are difficulties with the time split between school and transportation. Other students like senior Merna Jazrawy opted to take an online class instead of a share time class.
“I decided to take AP French online because we don’t have a French teacher anymore and I’ve been looking forward to this class for years,” Jazrawy said.
AP French is one of the 3,422 21F classes that are offered through the school and provided through a variety of different platforms.
“I honestly love that the school is offering online classes to students because it gives us so many more options, especially if the school isn’t able to provide it for us in person,” Jazrawy said.
The 21F classes are online classes that students can choose if they have a scheduling conflict or are interested in an elective related to their potential career path that the school doesn’t teach in person. They involve a lot of self-teaching and include a pace guide to help students stay on track with course material.
“Some students aren’t good at working independently all the time which could be a con for choosing an online class. On the flip side other students might prefer to work alone, which works out pretty well for them if they are taking an online class,” Jazrawy said.
Even though it’s up to the student to manage their time they do have a district mentor and a teacher checking in and supporting them as they move through the course. If interested in 21F or share time classes, talk to your counselor to see what options suit your schedule.
“It [share time and 21F classes] are definitely opportunities we have in case there’s something that we just don’t have for a student that they are looking for,” Ahlborn said. “So, it’s a great opportunity for the reasons I mentioned but we caution students because online classes work great for some but not for others.”
