Youth attendance trackers have student’s medical, allergy, and contact information. Go to the current sessions tab to find your course, and check Column Q for student medical and allergy details. Check the allergen information columns after the first day of class, as updates may be added.
ARTICard will deliver students’ ID cards to the classroom on the first day. Any students who do not receive an ID need to be taken to the ARTICard Office (SP204) on the first day of class to get their picture taken and ID printed.
Bathroom breaks for minors on a college campus can pose a safety risk for our young students. There are a significant number of individuals who enter the SAIC buildings without requiring a background check. In order to mitigate these risks, we have a number of policies around bathroom breaks that should be followed.
Group Breaks:
In order to reduce the need for solo bathroom breaks, faculty should try to add group bathroom breaks into the schedule as often as it makes sense. Any time the class is transitioning from one location to the next is a great place to add a stop at the restroom as a group.
Rule of Three:
When a student does need to go to the restroom outside of a group bathroom break, the “rule of three” should be followed. The student should go to the bathroom accompanied by both a buddy and a TA or a faculty member. The adult and buddy can wait outside the restroom. If the buddy needs to use the restroom, they can enter as well.
Alternatives to the Rule of Three:
Some students might find the Rule of Three policy discomforting. For example, some of our trans and gender nonconforming students may feel uncomfortable choosing a binary restroom in front of others. Be aware and ready to direct your students to the nearest gender-neutral restrooms to your classroom to reinforce autonomy of choice.
Students should be informed by faculty and TAs that this policy is in place for safety reasons, and is not designed in order to monitor them. It is our responsibility to inform our students of how the institution operates so they are aware of our safety protocols.
*If students are insistent on not following the Rule of Three policy due to any need for privacy, we are able to be flexible.* Students can go to the bathroom while a TA stands in the hallway near enough to the restroom to be available in case of an emergency, but around the corner or down the hall from the actual restroom doors. Students are also able to leave the classroom independently and the TA can follow a moment later. This should only be done as a last resort.
Each MSP course is assigned a Teaching Assistant. TA placement decisions are based on TA applicant skill sets, experience with the curriculum, and work samples. TAs are current undergraduate or graduate students. TAs are responsible for attendance, class documentation, and assisting the faculty member. TAs also watch over lunch and snack breaks.
It is the TAs' job to document class and student work. Allow TAs to have their phones or DSLR cameras out during class to do documentation. TAs should also be given time to upload and label images (often during studio time, lectures, or clean-up time).
TAs should include a variety of photos and label each file with students’ names. Faculty should ensure time for TAs to document student work. Documentation must be good-quality photos with attention to lighting and composition.
We require:
5 photos of finished student work, labeled with students' first and last names
5 images of classroom activity or museum trips
Rovers and TAs play a role in Day 1 check-in for students, so they will not be able to help you with classroom setup. Students also often arrive late on the first day, due to trouble finding the right building, parking, traffic, etc.
Please let us know about any field trips ahead of time!
If you have planned a field trip for your class, please email saic-youth@saic.edu so that we can note that your class will be in a different location. It is important to know where your class is at all times in case of emergencies.
In the Fall and Spring, snack time occurs midway through the class meeting. In the Summer, lunch break is one hour in the middle of the day. Teaching Assistants watch over students during lunch and snack break.
Both lunch and snack take place in the Leroy Neiman Center Cafe on the second floor of the Sharp Building.
Please note that our campus is tree nut and peanut-free.
Drop Off:
TAs meet students in the Sharp building lobby in the morning and will bring your students as close to the class start time as possible. TAs stay in the lobby until either all students arrive or until 9:10-9:15 if there are late-arriving students.
Pick Up:
Please send your TA and students down to the lobby 10 minutes before class ends. When the majority of students have been picked up, we will send the TA back to the classroom to assist with cleanup.
If MSP students' caregivers have filled out an Unescorted Dismissal Form, the student may leave the building independently at dismissal without checking out with an SAIC staff member. Unescorted Dismissal students are designated by a star-shaped punch in their ARTICard ID.
Please note that MSP students are not permitted to leave campus unescorted without an Unescorted Dismissal Form on file. Parents and guardians who do not give permission for unescorted dismissal will be required to park, enter the building, and pick their children up from the Sharp building lobby.