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Moving Forward With Online Classes: Another Option

The popular education support group, CHESS, is connecting with the virtual world, joining schools in Loudoun, Fairfax, Prince William, Manassas City, and others in Northern VA who have announced that their fall classes will be virtual. 

Unlike many of the public schools, however, CHESS did not miss one week of classes when they moved online in March, and their teachers are continuing to invest and improve their teaching methods with training this summer.

Since 2001, CHESS has helped more than 2000 families equip students for life by connecting students in fourth through twelfth grade with teachers and courses in small-group environments.  

But CHESS also offers learning with a twist, and it is one of the big factors that make a difference for parents: they don’t have to take an entire program; they get to choose which courses they want to enroll their children in. 

While CHESS offers a typical array of classes from traditional lab sciences, math, history, literature, and writing, they also offer some pretty awesome electives, such as criminal justice, introduction to drones, 3-D and studio art, yearbook, career photography, and marine biology. 

Although online learning was not their first choice, CHESS teachers are equipped and prepared to provide the same care and quality instruction that goes into in-person teaching as they have always done. CHESS teachers are experienced—altogether they have 350 combined years of teaching under their belts! Their classes are live video interactive classes, and many teachers will offer Zoom office hours for one-on-one support.

Administrator Tara Taylor says, “We have a distinct advantage over public school or national online courses: we average between 5-12 students to allow for greater teacher-student and student-student interaction—unlike many online programs that have larger class sizes. We’re also a local organization. That means that though our classes will be open to anyone anywhere who would like to participate online, we can still create opportunities for local students to meet together safely, build community, and connect with each other.” 

Classes are enrolling now. To learn more, go to https://chessclasses.org/ or contact Tara Taylor at 703 753-1901.