IRPCV and IDLA

Idaho Veteran of Foreign Peace

The Idaho Returned Peace Corps Volunteers held their annual send off party last Friday evening at the Idaho Botanical Gardens.  Of the 40 or so people there, about 10 of us are leaving soon.  I'm the only one going to China.  Most are going to Africa, including 2 going to Benin, a small country between Togo and Nigeria (I had to google it).  I imagine they are heading into a classic Peace Corps experience of village life, living in a hut, and killing chickens.  My PC experience should be much different since my job is teaching English as a foreign language at a university and I get on campus faculty housing.

I enjoyed meeting and talking to several volunteers who had served, some as long as 40 years ago and some who have just returned.  They are very proud of their time in the Peace Corps, and I came away feeling very inspired.  As a parting gift, each nominee was given a IRPCV tie-dyed shirt.  Sweet!

My last Idaho Digital Learning Academy class ended Friday afternoon.  As a second job, teaching for IDLA has been great because of the flexibility: how many classes to teach, what classes to teach, and when to log-in or make calls.  Online teaching is not the same as face-to-face teaching, and online learning is not the same for students either.  Online classes are great for many self-motivate, independent students, especially from small, rural school districts with limited class offerings.

However, Idaho's new legislation mandating online classes as a graduation requirement is ill-informed and misguided because not all students are equally motivated or capable.  And, there's a huge issue of how to get them all online with reliable access to computers and the internet.

It will be very interesting to see what happens with the "Luna Laws."  Maybe I'm relieved that I will miss all of the fireworks from these contentious laws.  



Does he really understand education?