Online Math and Science Instructional Service Offers Hope to CA High School Students

The online teaching company PersonalProfessors.com connects highly qualified math and science teachers with California high school students.

Portland, OR (PRWEB) August 12, 2006 -- In the past, online learning consisted of mostly text content that required students to spend hours in front of the computer clicking through page after page of content. Now students in California can get expert instruction from superbly qualified math and science teachers, online. Their courses cover critical subjects such as Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, Trig/Precalc and Biology.

PersonalProfessors.com (www.personalprofessors.com) hires math and science instructors with Master's and Doctoral degrees in math subjects and biology to teach students. They use a unique technology that allows the instructors to prepare and deliver online lectures using a revolutionary online voice and standard dry erase board. The experience is personal and immediate.

The company archives hundreds of these short lectures, created directly from the California standards for each subject so that students can learn from anywhere they have a computer and Internet connection. The instruction is available to students anytime, and can be viewed as many times as the student needs.

Perhaps the most innovative part of the PersonalProfessors learning model is the 'office hours' in which their teachers are available 2 hours per week for drop-in small group instruction. Students pop in to a virtual classroom, complete with dry-erase board, voice, live chat and interactive graphics. The powerful effect of these office hours on student comprehension is clear. Dr. Michael Hosking, a former biology professor at Davidson College and founder of PersonalProfessors.com adapted this approach from the office hours he held while teaching college. He notes that "personalization of learning is essential in these higher level math and science subjects. No computer algorithm, no text content can replace the real-time, adaptive instruction that our knowledgeable subject experts can deliver in our archived lectures and live online office hours".

PersonalProfessors has recently become associated with the California Association of Personalized Learning Services, a group of Independent Study charter schools and curriculum providers that is reimagining the standard schooling model. The schools personally arrange curriculum for their families, consulting with them regularly to chart their learning and measure their success. The families have the benefit of a curriculum personalized to their student's needs, guidance from the school staff, and expert instruction from PersonalProfessors' teachers. Indeed, as Dr. Hosking points out, because PersonalProfessors hires only Ph.D. and Master's level expert teachers, the instruction the families receive, at home, is by any measure higher quality than they could receive in almost any standard high school.

As attention continues to focus on the poor state of math and science learning in our high schools, PersonalProfessors offers a simple and powerful way for California high school students to get instruction they need to succeed, in precisely the subject areas that schools have difficulty staffing.

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