ACCESS

Are you a technologically savvy teacher? Do you want to expand your horizons and teach more than those children sitting in your classroom? If you answered "yes" to either of these questions, you would be a good candidate for the ACCESS Program, also known as the Alabama Connecting Classroom, Educators and Students Statewide Program.

Alabama has stepped up and initiated a program where classroom opportunities are opened up to students at schools where certain classes are not offered. For instance, a school that is more rural than another may not have the resources to offer AP (advanced placement) courses to their students, but through the ACCESS Program students can be taught through either web-based or video conferencing learning. This enables students in these rural schools the ability to obtain an Advanced Diploma in the State of Alabama. One draw back, however, is that the students selected for these classes must be organized and self sufficient in keeping up with their own workloads.

ACCESS has also opened the doors for the teachers of Alabama. This program gives teachers the opportunity to use top notch, advanced technology to teach a class, a classroom filled with students in various locations. This also gives teachers a much larger community base than they would while teaching at one single school. In addition, it provides smaller schools with more staff. As with the students, the same is true with the teachers, they must be well organized and well prepared. Furthermore, the teacher must keep this type of learning interesting so as to not lose their student's attention.

As a teacher we should be constantly learning new things and what better way to share your new knowledge than with the ACCESS Program.