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For example, the teacher was observed discussing a family vacation experience with a child during a phone conference, and making connections for the child to the curriculum activities, which he had previously accomplished online.  These activities tied in very nicely with the curricular unit of physical health that some of the students were taking
The nature of communication between parents and the teacher encourages the online teacher to be a reflective decision maker
Quote from Jolene’s journal on Professionalism for #1….. “Each month, we have Professional Development days where we learn new techniques and deal with situations arising or at hand.  This is a great way to bounce ideas and even difficult situation off our peers.  I enjoy other perspectives and it makes me realize how much I miss the camaraderie of my fellow teachers.  This has been probably one of the hardest adjustments to make going from classroom teacher to virtual teacher.  The casual smiles, sharing of a new idea, feedback (email is so emotionless), and laughter just isn’t the same in the online environment.  It is a challenge to keep the camaraderie going in a virtual school and build a sense of community within the virtual classroom.” 
Another strength of this online program, as per the TIR’s journal and the mentor’s observations, is the parental involvement in the educational process.   However, the worry about neglected children hiding behind this environment is a scary issue leading to the investigation of these research questions:
Testing results have been tentatively good, but will that bear out over time?
 The social activities, and community building that occurs in this environment is very encouraging, but the research question that needs to be answered is whether collaborative activities are occurring during instructional activities since research (Cifuentes, 2001; Dringus, 2000; Gokhale, 1995) demonstrates that higher level thinking occurs when students collaborate and create new materials.
This herd of questions points to the fact that this field is a quickly growing steed that may gallop out of control if not guided by a research base, thus being an encouraging one for researchers to enter.