My expectations for you are high. Your expectations for yourself should be high as well. Don't settle for anything less.
In simple terms, I expect you to push yourself every day to be a better student and a better learner. Have grit. Be assertive. Be attentive. Be critical of your own performance and constantly strive to be better. Encourage others to be better. Be helpful. Be supportive. Be kind.
Here are the nuts and bolts of what that means:
Help is always available.
Good students immediately seek help when they are struggling. So, be a good student. Recognize when you are struggling. Recognize when you don't understand something. Act to immediately rectify the situation. Don't let problems build and snowball. Eliminate them as soon as they arise. Be your own best advocate. Be assertive. Ask questions. Get help.
I won't know that there's a problem unless you communicate with me. I have a lot of good skills when it comes to teaching. Mind-reading is not one of them.
The Question Parking Lot is available 24/7. Occasionally, additional tutorial appointments can be arranged.
Help me help you.
Students are expected to read the Daily Class Announcements every day. In a 100% distance learning only environment or a hybrid On-campus Level, the announcements should be read prior to class starting. During traditional classes, time is allotted at the beginning of the period to read the announcements.
Always CAREFULLY READ all of the daily announcements and CORRECTLY FOLLOW any directions listed.
In short, if you miss school, you miss out. No amount of make up work (even for excused absences) can ever replace what you miss in the classroom.
Arrive early. Show up prepared. Be in your seat and ready to work when the bell rings (if not before).
If you are late, be sure to come into class with a pass. If you are late, come in quietly, sit down at you seat. Try to figure out what is going on without disrupting the class. I will get to you as soon as I have a chance.
The school policies, as outlined in the Student Handbook will be followed.
In a hybrid learning environment, traditional attendance is split into two categories:
Traditional physical attendance (when you are on campus), and
Virtual participation (participation during virtual distance learning)
If you are scheduled to be on campus on a school day, you will be marked for (physical) attendance (but not virtual participation). If you are participating in distance learning on a school day, you will self-report your (virtual) participation in Infinite Campus.
This is not an online class or a correspondence course. Attending live sessions is a requirement. Expect to have live class sessions (in person or online) Tuesdays - Fridays (per our Level 2 schedule) at our assigned class time for our period. See the GUHSD our On-campus Level document and the current WHHS Bell Schedule Document for more information. Your attendance and your participation are crucial factors to your overall success.
Our live sessions are conducted via ZOOM. See the Video Conferencing Guidelines page for more information. If you are not logged in by the official start of class you are considered tardy. Live stream sessions will open about five minutes before the official start of class.
If you are absent, or you miss any part of a session (for any reason), be sure to read the daily announcements so that you can stay up with what we are doing in class.
School policy, as outlined in the school’s Behavior Code, will be followed for all absences and tardies.
Your personal time is your personal time. You can use it how you want. However, please treat our live instruction time as dedicated/prioritized school time. Show up fully prepared and commit yourself to fully engaging in all our class activities and be a positive role model for your classmates.
Avoid the following during class ( . . . or, better said, save the following personal activities for your personal time):
Streaming of audio or video that is not directly related to class activities.
Personal electronic devices use that interferes with class activities.
No non-approved game playing on the computers. (Since you will be designing, testing, and creating games in this class, there will eventually be some game playing that happens as part of our course).
Accessing personal accounts
We have very few assessments in this class (work that is actually graded and counts toward your grade). The majority of what we do in class is what I call practice or exploration. This is the work we do to get ready for our in-class assessments.
You are expected to do all your work - graded or not. The practice assignments allow you to build your skills and gain confidence so that you can be successful on the assessments.
Take advantage of every opportunity to make yourself a better learner and a better student.
Periodically, we will have assessments. In this class, assessments do not necessarily equal traditional tests (although those are included in this definition, as well). We use this term to distinguish which "assignments" in the gradebook are scored (and contribute to your overall grades) vs. the other assignments that we do for practice.
Students must do the following on all assessments or the assessment will not be graded:
Name: Students must put FIRST and LAST names on all assessments. Any assessment that does NOT include basic name information runs the risk of not being graded.
Clean, polished artifacts: Assessments are formal assignments. You are expected to produce a quality artifact (paper, model, report, program, etc.). For example, if you are submitting a paper assessment, make sure that paper is free of rips, tears, or doodles. Any paper presented with rips, tears, or doodles won't be graded.
Your final course grade is determined on how well you do on your assessments. See the Grades page for a detailed breakdown on the class grades.
Generally, there are no make-ups for exploration/practice work. You either did the practice work or you didn't.
For most major assessments there are DUE DATES and DEADLINES. The DUE DATE is when the assignment is going in the gradebook. The DEADLINE is the last day the assignment will be accepted. In this case, anything submitted during the grace period between the DUE DATE and the DEADLINE is considered late (but not penalized). However, NOTHING will be accepted after the DEADLINE. Period.
The grace period between the DUE DATE and the DEADLINE varies depending on the nature of the assignment.
Occasionally, assignments only have a DUE DATE (and no deadline). In this case, any assignments received after the DUE DATE will be late and can only earn a maximum of 50% credit.
Bottom line: Do your work - all you work - and get your work in on time.
Students are expected to conduct themselves as exemplary "(digital) citizens" while using any school resource and/or completing any school assignment/project. This includes abiding by the user agreement that each student signed to use the school issued Chromebook and district/school resources.
As an extension of Digital Citizenship, all students are expected to follow the copyright guidelines and fair use guidelines for educational multimedia. Work that does not comply with the educational rights and restrictions of both general copyright, and Creative Commons (if applicable), will be returned to the student for further revision(s) OR, for more serious violations, students could be referred to the school administration for Academic Fraud/Dishonesty.
Academic Fraud/Dishonesty, including (but not limited to) the copying of another person’s code/work and trying to pass it off as your own (or allowing another to copy your code/work), will not be tolerated. School policy, as outlined in the school’s “Behavior Code,” will be followed.
In short, do your own work. Always.
When you have permission to use the work of others in your projects/assignments, be sure to always give proper attribution.
Treat this class as a "learning studio." We want an environment that fosters and encourages creativity and challenges each student to push themselves to achieve personal and academic growth. Everyone is expected to show up on time, fully prepared for class, and ready to work and learn. This is considered “satisfactory” conduct. Students desiring an “O” (outstanding) conduct mark on their report card will go above and beyond satisfactory conduct and positively contribute to the class each and every day.
On the other hand, in terms of your conduct grade, any of the following could result in an automatic “U” (unsatisfactory) conduct mark:
One or more truancies in a grading period
Two or more unexcused tardies in a grading period
Violation of any of the the GUHSD Responsible Use Policies/Agreements
Academic Fraud/Dishonesty (which includes but is not limited to: intentional copyright violation/infringement and/or plagiarism)
One or more behavior referrals in a single grading period.