The students who attend Taos Academy Charter School experience school in a non-traditional setting. We are an online academy where students attend class two days a week. While at school on a regular day, students get a chance to work on their online curriculum where teachers (called advisers) help them to be as successful as possible through note taking, review of specific content, small group learning projects, etc. On their optional days students get a similar schedule of learning, except with even more individual support from advisers, however that does mean quite a lot of time in front of a screen.

Our students traditionally achieve high scores on their standardized tests which can be attributed to the excellent work they do in their online curriculum each day which unfortunately means that they can be lacking the skills for genuine, face to face relations.

With this disparity between their online success and interpersonal success I see and opportunity to help my students become more comfortable and confident with their face to face relational skills.