Still Enrolling for the 2024-25 School Year click here
Still Enrolling for the 2024-25 School Year click here
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One of the main concerns for families considering the switch to cyber school is how their children will socialize. Contrary to many people’s expectations, social interaction in online schools can be vibrant and varied, rivaling the social opportunities provided in a traditional brick-and-mortar school.
Commonwealth Charter Academy (CCA) is a public cyber charter school that provides students with opportunities to collaborate with their classmates from across the state in real-time through virtual class sessions. We also encouraged students to participate in social and educational field trips, extracurricular activities, and dozens of online and in-person clubs to broaden their experiences, meet new friends, and learn new skills.
Additionally, our flexible schedule allows students to arrange their days and evenings to their liking to participate in multiple socialization activities without impacting their academics.
At CCA, we aim to provide our students with a nurturing environment tailored to their unique needs and interests. Our students and their families have numerous opportunities to interact with others and develop valuable social skills.
These socialization opportunities include daily virtual activities like class discussions and study groups to help your kids make friends, learn, and grow with their peers. Virtual interactions help kids connect with their peers so they don’t feel isolated.
We also have a diverse menu of in-person field trips and community engagements that allow them to have fun with other students who share their interests and a chance to touch base with other community members. Other social opportunities students can participate in outside the classroom include clubs and extracurricular activities, which they can attend virtually or in person. Mobile classrooms are another opportunity CCA students can take advantage of to enjoy field trips and similar activities with other students.
Families are not left out either. We host special events for students and their parents at our Family Service Centers.
If you wonder how your child can navigate an online school social life, rest assured that CCA fosters important social connections among all our students.
Our wide variety of socialization opportunities helps ease the transition from traditional schooling to online learning and eliminates feelings of isolation. Over the years, we’ve also witnessed other benefits of promoting socialization for our online school students, such as:
CCA families find many opportunities for their students to be involved in extracurricular activities. One of the many benefits of our flexible schedule is that students can arrange their days and evenings to participate in multiple activities without impacting their academic learning time.
CCA students are encouraged to try different extracurricular activities to broaden their experiences, meet friends, and learn new skills. Some of these include:
CCA’s social and educational field trips are two of the best venues for socialization in online learning. Unlike brick-and-mortar schools, where students might miss classroom lessons to attend a trip, cyber schools have built-in schedule flexibility to ensure students never miss an opportunity to learn online or on a field trip.
CCA offers more than 900 field trips and events per year across the state, and each is a prime opportunity for socialization and hands-on learning. Our itineraries in the past have included trips to trampoline parks, zip line courses, petting zoos, and bowling alleys to name just a small handful. The trips are an opportunity for participants to learn new things through hands-on activities that reinforce what they are learning in their online classroom.
We also host special events at our regional Family Service Centers, such as game and movie nights, back-to-school bashes, monthly birthday parties, and picture day.
At CCA, we have dozens of clubs every school year and refresh these club offerings every year to reflect students’ changing interests. If you don’t see a club that reflects your interest, you can apply to start one that does!
We offer students the opportunity to enhance their online school social life in groups geared to their interests, be it science experiments, writing poetry, or any other interest students might want to explore. We also encourage our students to branch out and try a brand-new activity, which is easy with our flexible scheduling.
Below are some of the popular club categories at CCA:
Most club meetings are virtual to ensure convenience and to accommodate our student’s flexible schedules. However, some meet in person for competitions and at CCA’s regional Family Service Centers.
CCA is the only public cyber charter school in Pennsylvania to offer multiple fully equipped mobile classrooms. We are always looking for ways to build new connections with our students and families, and we find that mobile classrooms are perfect for enhancing online school socialization.
Our mobile classrooms are on the road the entire school year, serving CCA families statewide with hands-on indoor and outdoor educational activities using the technology onboard.
CCA’s mobile classrooms travel from 10,000 to 20,000 miles a year — from Philadelphia to Erie and everywhere in between — to bring learning opportunities to our families.
The mobile classrooms have all the necessary amenities, including wireless internet, smartboards, and a fully stocked science lab to ensure our students enjoy a unique avenue for socializing in cyber school.
Activities that CCA students can participate in through the mobile classrooms include:
Enrolling at CCA not only provides you with a customized education, but it also provides you and your family with access to education at a time that works best for all of you – wherever you are. That inherent flexibility makes it easier for CCA students to pursue activities that interest them inside and outside school.
CCA students learn through:
These learning options mean that if students cannot participate in a real-time virtual class session, they can work through the lesson content or view the session recording at a time that works better for their schedule. With so many ways to pursue a customized education at CCA, students will find continuous opportunities in their online school for social interaction.
The flexibility also allows students to take advantage of the many clubs offered at CCA, participate in sports, take up a new hobby, or sign up for extra lessons in any pursuit, be it dance, a musical instrument, or precision sports training.
CCA even provides a community class reimbursement to families for approved activities they want to pursue that are not offered at our cyber school. It also allows students to pursue a part-time job, internship or job-shadowing opportunities during times when students in traditional schools must be sitting in a classroom. It respects the family’s time, making it possible to spend more time together in family activities.
With such flexibility in scheduling and so many options for activities inside and outside the virtual classroom, socializing in online school is an everyday part of learning at CCA.
When studentschange from a brick-and-mortar school to a cyber school, our staff, and family mentors offer ongoing support to our new families.
At CCA, education is a team effort centered around the family. It’s why we provide the means to build strong foundations for support through family relationships. Through our Family Services Department, which houses several non-academic resources, we help new students and their families during and after the transition to cyber school. The Family Services Department includes:
We host informational sessions for interested families to learn what online schooling is like, and student clubs use the centers for physical meetings sometimes. Locate the nearest Family Service Center to you.
CCA offers students a customized education designed to reflect their interests, abilities, and needs. With the flexibility for students to learn at their own pace at a time that’s convenient to the family, CCA makes it easy for students to be involved in extracurricular school activities and community ventures.
By offering so much more on top of virtual lessons, including hundreds of field trips, dozens of clubs, opportunities for hands-on learning, classroom collaboration, internships, and college- and career-readiness activities, socializing in online school is a daily occurrence for CCA students.
Contact a CCA parent to learn more about how our social and educational programs impact students at CCA. Or, enroll today!
