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Who should take these courses ?
Homeschool Students - Many homeschool parents want to outsource writing instruction since they find it difficult to teach. In many families, the critical and subjective feedback that students need to become solid writers is better handled by experienced writing instructors.
Students in School - Many families feel that their children are not receiving the personalized feedback they need on their writing or given enough opportunity to develop their writing and critical thinking skills. We provide invaluable extra-instruction and practice.
Students Facing High Stakes Tests with Essay Writing Requirements - The essay has become an integral part of standardized testing programs (FCAT, SAT, ACT) as well as an important component in the all-too-stressful college application process. Time4Writing prepares students for these upcoming challenges.
Our grade school courses are only for children, but we also offer a blogging course for adults called Blogging101 that will teach you how to write an engaging blog that will keep your readers coming back for more.
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Who will be teaching the courses?
Leslie earned a Bachelor of Education degree cum laude from The University of Miami with a specialization in secondary speech and drama and middle school English. Her career began with ten years in the Miami-Dade Public Schools teaching in the classroom and working as a department chair. Following the birth of her daughter, Vogel returned to the classroom as a substitute teacher for two years.
In 1997, she chose another career path when she began to work for The Miami Herald and then South Florida Sun-Sentinel writing many education-based and human interest stories.
The education field once again called when, in 2004, Vogel began to write and edit curriculum for an online education publishing company.
She is now working with Time4Learning to assist in the development of their writing programs.
Kim has been teaching for the past eight years at an International Baccalaureate high school and for the past four years at a cyber charter school. While all genres of literature fascinate her, studying and teaching the novel have always been her first love. With a background in drama, as well, Kim also enjoys being as creative as possible in all facets of her teaching. Kim enjoys helping teenagers foster a confidence in their writing and she periodically scores standardized tests for Pearson.
Jessica obtained her M.S.Ed. from Duquesne University in a record 11 months and took her first job teaching 9th grade English at a large school in Delaware. The following year, she “looped” with her passing 9th graders and taught 10th grade. The majority of Governor’s School honoree’s came from her class. Their writing was stellar. Students who were serious about writing began requesting independent study courses with Jessica so they could learn how to improve and get their writing published.
Many years later, she is a stay-at-home/work-at-home Mom to two lovely little girls who made me give up the brick and mortar school for a less conventional way of teaching writing, Time4Writing.
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What courses do you offer?
We offer courses on basic mechanics of grammar, such as sentence structure, subject /verb agreement, punctuation, capitalization and more.
We offer courses on paragraph writing that focus on creating descriptive and powerful paragraphs using persuation, research and creativity.
We offer courses on essay writing which focus on expository and narrative essays, essay writing for different media and essay writing for testing purposes and research papers.
Click here to view our course listings.
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What is the time commitment necessary for a course?
Each course will require approximately 2 hours per week, at 8 weeks which totals about 16 hours per course.
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What do I need to take a course online?
You will need a computer with internet connection and a desire to learn writing. That's it!
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What do I need to know before I take a Time4Writing class?
Grade school students must already have a solid understanding of the mechanics of language.
Bloggers will need to know the basics of what blogs are and how they work. We offer a free blogging course that can teach you all the basics you'll need before you try to become a Blog Writer.
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When does the next session start?
Many of our courses can be started every Monday. See our course listing for specific start dates.
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How much do these courses cost?
These 8 week courses are $99 for the first student or course and $79 for each additional student or course, which you can pay via paypal.
We offer a two week money back guarantee, so if you decide in the first two weeks that you don't want to continue with a course, let us know and we'll issue a full refund.
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How does communication with the teacher work?
Time4Writing has a messaging system that works much like IMs or email. All student communication with the teacher will be done via the messaging system or via forums (or message boards) within the courses.
Teachers will have parent email addresses and will send any necessary notes to parents via email. Teachers will send mid-course and end-of-course progress reports to the parents via email. Parents may request an email conference with the teacher via the messaging system as well.
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How do you teach writing?
Learning to write well is a long process with many strands. A good starting point is that children should be encouraged to express themselves verbally, artistically and in writing. Separately, children need to learn the mechanics of good grammar, punctuation, word choice and how to structure their thoughts and essays.
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How do you teach writing online?
Our courses are held within Moodle, a learning management system. Moodle is used by many online learning institutions as it allows for a flexible teaching platform with a wide range of excercises from quizzes to interactive web meetings and much more.
Our instructors are able to give valuable feedback through the grading process as well as the "Questions for the Teacher" forum in each Time4Writing class.Click here to take a look at our online campus!
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How do I figure out which course to choose?
First, you'll want to zero in on the appropriate grade range. Knowing that our international visitors may be using a different naming system for the grade levels, we'll lay them out for you below.
- 3rd-5th grade students (7-10yr olds) will generally use elementary courses.
- 6th-8th grade students(11-13 yrs olds) will generally use middle school courses
- 9th-12th grade students (14-19 yr olds) will generally use high school courses.
Next you'll want to decide on what you hope to get from the course.
Students needing help with sentence structure and sentence mechanics will want to use:
- ES: Sensational Sentences (elementary)
- MS: Basic Mechanics (middle)
Students interested in gaining skills in paragraph writing will want to use:
- ES2: Perfect Paragraphs (elementary)
- MS1: Powerful Paragraphs (middle)
Students looking to better their essay writing skills can choose from:
- ES1: Intro to Essay Writing (elementary)
- MS2: Welcome to the Essay (middle)
- HS1: Essay Writing (high)
Students with interest in writing for specific uses can choose from:
- MS3: Writing Today (middle)
- HS2: Writing for Standardized Tests (high)
- HS3: Writing for Research Papers(high)
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Is it safe for my child to take an online course?
Along with providing solid writing help, your child's safety is our top priority. Time4Writing is from the same company that has been providing online education in a safe, secure environment for over four years; Time4Learning.
At Time4Writing, we will be providing a safe environment for all of our students. They will be working within our online campus where only members can log in. There will be no private student-to-student interaction. Private messages between students are disabled and all teacher/student contact is monitored by Time4Wriitng administrators and able to be monitored by parents. Parents can be CCd on any communication from the teacher.
In some courses, there may be peer communication, but it will all be done in an open environment where teachers can and will monitor the activity.
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Is Time4Writing the same as Time4Learning?
Time4Learning provides online curriculum for prechoolers through 8th graders that covers Language Arts, Math , Science and Social Studies. Time4Learning's Language Arts program comprehensively covers the mechanics of language with automated lessons. For parents who want help with the intensive feedback that can be needed to teach sentence, paragraph and essay writing, Time4Learning formed Time4Writing, which is now offering these specialized teacher-led courses.
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Do students receive a certificate of completion?
Students will receive a certificate upon completion of their 8 week course. It will list the student's name, the course name, the month/year, the instructor's name and a percentage score for the course.
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