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Students excel in online school
Students do schoolwork via the Internet
By Denise Dick
AUSTINTOWN
Sumeera and Zameer Murad, ages 13 and 12, respectively, study trigonometry, a class generally tackled by high-school students.
The siblings are students at Ohio Connections Academy, an online public school for kindergartners through 12th-graders.
Their mother, MaLinda Murad, said the family selected the academy because it was more suited to the children’s abilities than traditional public school.
“They’re way too advanced,” she said of her children. “They needed something that was tailored to them.”
The online school allows students to work at their own pace, she added.
Both Sumeera and Zameer have been enrolled in Ohio Connections Academy since they started school.
“I like that I can work at my own pace and I can do it anywhere,” Sumeera said.
Zameer, the quieter of the two, agreed.
Their mother said the online school allows them the freedom to venture outdoors for a lesson if they choose. Sometimes they go to Mill Creek Park if they’re working on a lesson that fits it.
“I wing it,” she said.
Though the online school allows her children to do the advanced work, they wouldn’t be able to do that so easily in a traditional classroom, Murad said. They might struggle socially because of the age difference.
Sumeera and Zameer get their lessons from a teacher online and can communicate both with the teacher and other students. Each has a computer provided by the online school.
Their mother plans to sign them up for classes this school year that will earn them dual college and high-school credit.
Murad said while some people assume taking classes online at home deprives children of socialization, the online schools offers regular field trips for students to get to know one another.
Zameer and Sumeera both listed a trip to the Kalahari Waterpark in Sandusky as their favorite from last school year.
Sumeera also attended Medcamp at Northeast Ohio Medical University in Rootstown.
“I held a brain and worked on a case study,” she said.
The patient suffered from high blood pressure and had an infection that started from a cut in his mouth and spread throughout his body. She enjoyed the camp and has been accepted to the nine-month program at the campus beginning in September.
She plans to be a doctor.
“I want to be either a neurologist or a cardiologist,” Sumeera said.
Zameer’s career goals are just as lofty.
“I want to be president,” he said.