Peekskill High School Offers Online Courses through BOCES Program

Last year the Peekskill City School District joined other local school districts and Putnam Northern Westchester BOCES to pioneer OC21, a program offering online blended courses to all the consortium’s students. This year 15 Peekskill students are participating.

“Blended online learning means that students do most of their classwork online, but still have the opportunity to meet with their teacher,” explained Technology Teacher Assistant Millie Rivera, who serves as the OC 21 site coordinator at Peekskill High School.”

“As a result of the program,” she continues, “students are becoming familiarized with new skills that aren’t available in a typical brick and mortar classroom setting.”

“OC 21 was developed by school districts to be able to offer students experience using the Blackboard platform as well as other digital tools that will help them in college classes,” explains Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Joseph Mosey, who supported the program.

Of the six OC 21 elective classes on offer this year, one is taught by a Peekskill social studies teacher; Anita Prentice teaches Introduction to Anthropology, a semester-long course offered both in the fall and spring.

The workload of Prentice’s online course is comparable to a regular high school class and requires between three and four hours of online class time each week. Next semester ten online classes will be available for students to choose from and will include opportunities for them to earn elective credits in social studies, science, English, art and technology.

“Every teacher builds their own curriculum so the courses are unique to OC 21,” explains Prentice. She cites the time flexibility of these online courses as a huge benefit to students, especially for those who might engage in extracurricular activities or work after-school.

The class is very flexible for students,” Prentice said. “They are free from the normal physical restraints of building classes. Students can post an assignment online at 2:00 a.m. or engage in a video chat at 10:00 p.m. if that’s what their schedule allows.”

The OC21 class is not void of any personal interactions though. Those who enrolled in Prentice’s Anthropology class last semester had three days of face-to-face contacts; one in the beginning, one at the end, and one in the middle of the semester for a field trip to the American Museum of Natural History. Outside of these meetings, students are encouraged to interact with each other over the internet.

Those who take the class will utilize various forms of media and numerous digital tools to help them with their tasks throughout the course.

For their final presentations students from last semester’s Anthropology class used online resources to build websites, create slide shows, film video, and even make three dimensional presentations. Students earned their grades for the course by successfully completing these assignments and presentations, which took the place of traditional classroom tests.

“I really enjoyed the experience,” said Peekskill High school junior, Jacobi Clarke, who recently completed Prentice’s OC21 course.

Clarke first heard about the online courses through an information session hosted by the High School’s Assistant Principal for Guidance, Margie Daniels.

“I liked the added responsibilities and learning how to do everything online,” Clarke said. “I know that in college I’ll most likely be taking at least one course online and having the foundation for that is critical. Before everyone else, I’ll have that stepping stone.”

Clarke has also taken the knowledge she’s gained from her OC21 class and incorporated it into her other course’s assignments.

“All of the tools you learn to use through this course you take with you to other classes,” Clarke added. “You always have to do presentations in other classes and this taught me creative ways to do that.”

Clarke noted that in addition to the freedom of time constraints, her favorite part about taking the OC21 course was being able to reference online sources simultaneously while she worked on her projects.

“It was great to be able to have online resources open side-by-side while I worked on assignments,” Clarke said. “I really appreciated having that kind of accessibility to information.”

Prentice’s Anthropology class, like others in the OC21 program, are designed for students who can work independently; Prentice says that those students who are unfamiliar with technology might find it more challenging than others who are already well-acquainted with computers.

“A technological beginner might find it more difficult because there will be two steep learning curves” Prentice said. “Students are learning both anthropology content and the functioning of Blackboard software.”

Both Prentice and Clarke agreed that while the OC21 program has many perks, it may not be for every student.

“The challenge for the teachers and students in an online course is building a relationship with those you don’t see” Prentice said. “I felt like I was able to do this with the class through email, phone calls, using Adobe Connect,  and I had a few students that liked to text. I love technology, but teaching is a relationship business and it’s critical to accomplish that, online or off.”

“I appreciate and understand the value of taking courses online, but there are some kids that who need that extra nurturing of having a face-to-face relationship with their teachers” added Clarke.

For more information on the OC21 program, as well as a complete list of course offerings and a chance to “meet the teachers” who will be leading them, click here.