SEQUIM — Jeff Taylor teaches his students in a travel trailer barely big enough for him, his wife and their toddler daughter.
Taylor, who first moved to Sequim in 1996 and considers it his home base, teaches science for Olympus High School, a private online educational institution that allows Taylor and his family to travel throughout the nation.
Olympus gives him the flexibility to teach anywhere his computer can get a wireless satellite or local online connection, even from a mountaintop or the most remote of places.
He takes advantage of it, traveling often and earning regular teacher pay on the road.
“We can hit the best things during the best time,” said Taylor, who along with his wife, Linda, and 2 ½-year-old daughter, Hilina, recently parked their trailer at the Williamson Road home of Verner and Gloria Lenz, Linda’s parents.
Taylor worked this summer as an interpreter for Olympic National Park at Hurricane Ridge and at Glines Canyon Dam, where he talks to visitors about the park’s Elwha River dams removal project, scheduled to start next year.
The Taylors recently returned from Italy, where they spent the past four years.
Born in Tacoma, Taylor, 36, originally moved to Sequim in 1996 with his wife, and he has worked off and on for the national park since 2001.
He also has taught as a teacher at Port Angeles High School and taught science in Arizona for two years.
While Taylor has thought about teaching in Sequim schools, he is not complaining about his current assignment, which makes every day an adventure, especially for his daughter.
Linda also was a teacher, specializing in science, before taking maternity leave.
Taylor uses a Verizon satellite Internet connection stick he places into the side of his laptop computer.
“Basically, everywhere we go, I can go online and teach,” he said.
“The nice thing about this job is I can work not only any time but any place.”
He has taught from remote parts, such as Southern Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante, and has found that mountaintops “work pretty well” for online satellite links.
He said he typically gets online first thing in the morning for about two hours, spends time with his daughter and wife, puts the baby down for a nap, hops online for two hours after 1 p.m., then for two more hours in the evening.
He has been teaching for Olympus High for 20 months.
Not only can he work at his own pace, but so can his students.
Olympus High School, online at www.olympushighschool.net, is a private school operated out of Bellingham, and 11-month full-time tuition is $1,900.
It was founded by Apollo Group, which also founded University of Phoenix — an institution with a 20-year tradition of providing education online.
It is a branch of the Insight Schools at www.insightwa.net.
Insight School of Washington, which operates through the Quillayute Valley School District in Forks, is a public high school.
The two have the same curriculum.
While Taylor never sees his students face-to-face, the computer program allows him to make assignments and grades students’ work.
He is never interrupted by student behavioral problems and teacher-parent conferences are not even part of the program.
“I can see if the students are keeping up or are beginning to fall behind,” he said.
For example, he can read a student’s essay, gives it a grade and make suggestions for improvement by e-mail.
“Plagiarism is a big problem in the Internet world,” he said, but it is carefully monitored.
“For Olympus High School, there are requirements to pass and they must do every assignment that we have to get credit for the class,” he said.
Students have a year to complete their courses.
“We have students of all kinds,” he said, including Europeans who want American high school diplomas so they can apply to American universities.
Student athletes who travel and those to sick to attend high school use it.
Taylor meets fellow online teachers with the program in Bellevue once a month.
The program offers students 24-hour tech support.
“We do a lot of credit recovery, in which a student signs up for one class,” Taylor said. “And it gives the student a chance to graduate early.”
The Taylors next plan to travel to the Black Hills of South Dakota in the fall, then swing down to Arizona when the weather begins to cool, maybe taking a side trip to Austin, Texas.
“We just want to go with the flow,” Taylor said.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
