I had a student with juvenile arthritis a couple of years
ago. It turns out that same year my four-year-old
daughter was also diagnosed with juvenile arthritis. This is a condition that presents itself in
many different ways and every kid has different symptoms and joints
affected. Typically, there is a lot of
inflammation in the joints that is accompanied by pain. My student that had the disease was affected
mostly in her knees and hands. She was
on medication that was an infusion every six weeks. This caused her to miss school days to go for
her infusions as well as her doctor’s appointments. She also would miss school on days where it
was very cold or we were having a lot of rain because (like we have all heard)
the weather does impact how your joints feel, especially when they are already
compromised.
I believe this student would have truly benefitted from the
option of taking her high school classes online. She would have loved to have the ability to
not have to be in a face to face classroom for 7 hours a day. She also would have benefitted from the
flexibility of the schedule of assignments.
And lastly, she would have enjoyed the one on one contact she would have
had with her online instructors.
The fact that online students do not have to be in a
classroom for hours each day would have helped my former student out
tremendously! She would get so behind
from missing classes for doctor’s appointments and infusions. With online learning, she could have done her
lessons when it worked with her schedule.
Also, on the days when she wasn’t feeling well or was in significant
pain, she could have taken the day to rest and then get caught up with her
assignments when she was feeling better; if her work was completed by the
assigned due date. The one on one
contact with her teachers will be invaluable to her.
As with most high school age students, one challenge would
be the self-motivation. When you have
more flexibility to get work done, it is very easy to put it off until the due
date or possibly even miss a due date.
This takes intentional planning on scheduling by anyone but especially
teenagers. Also, it takes a bit of
adjustment time to get used to reading and following the schedule that is
provided. Switching to online classes is
like most new things, there is a learning curve involved. But if the student is motivated to do well
and continue in this educational setting then they will do what it takes to
succeed. For some students this take a
little monger to figure out, but once they do it is very rewarding!
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