Parents and Guardians,
I want your student to have a successful year this school year.
This page is to best help you help your students. Below, I've collated a quick parent cheat-sheet of information - the most common information that parents request/ask me during the school year. While you can always contact me (email is best: jcross@guhsd.net), most of the time you will be able to immediately find the answers you need in the information below.
With our ever evolving community health considerations, the 2022-2023 school could still present some unique challenges. However, we can overcome these challenges and still provide a solid learning experience if we all work together.
The first order of business is to understand how your student can get help if they ever feel they are struggling with what we are doing in class. Here's a quick summary:
Ask questions during class.
When we are not together in class, questions or comments should be posted via the Question Parking Lot. Quick responses are posted to the spreadsheet (found on the home page of our class website). When warranted, a more detailed answer will be posted in the Daily Class Announcements. If students have questions, they should also check the spreadsheet to see if the question has already been asked (and answered). It will save them the time of going through the process of asking the question.
I am generally available for extra help during period 7, or after school. HOWEVER, students need to make an appointment with me ahead of time if they are coming in for extra help. If I'm not expecting anyone it is unlikely that you will find me in my classroom.
As the name implies, the Daily Class Announcements (DCA) are updated daily. A link to the Daily Class Announcements is on the home page of this site. Here are the key points:
The DCA should be posted no later than 8:00 a.m. each school day.
Students should read the DCA as part of their daily warm-up each day.
The DCA will detail what students should be doing for class each day, when assignments are due, as well as tips and reminders to make sure students stay on top of their work. The DCA is also a great way for you to know what your student is doing (or is supposed to be doing) each day in class.
Students will need a traditional spiral notebook for this class. There are special notes that we put on specific pages of the notebook throughout the school year. Their CS Notebook is the only thing they are allowed to use on their assessments. Additionally, most of the students' PREP work for our big class projects will be written in a student's notebook.
Generally speaking, students should be adding material to their notebook nearly every school day. As a parent, you should be able to check the Daily Class Announcements and check your student's notebook to see if they are staying up with the course material.
You can find out more about the CS Notebook on the CS Notebook page of our class website.
You can also check out the Materials page for more information about additional class materials students should have for class.
Grading in this class is different than most classes. We have a different grading scale, different categories, and different assessments. Here are the highlights:
Infinite Campus is the grade of record. Any other grades you see posted anywhere else are irrelevant. Ignore them. Only look at what is in Infinite Campus. It is the only grade that matters.
Much of the daily work that we do in this course, and some of what goes into the gradebook does not directly affect your student's grade. We don't do lots and lots of little 10 point assignments. We do a handful of larger assignments that directly affect a student's grade.
When reviewing assignments in Infinite Campus, look at the category. Anything listed in the EXPLORE category does NOT directly affect a student's grade. The EXPLORE work is to get students ready for the actual assessments. If they are missing assignments in the EXPLORE category, they are not likely to be best prepared for the actual assessments.
Don't let your bias with traditional grading scales (90% = A, 80% = B, etc.) influence how you interpret your student's current percent in the class. Due to our "rubric" grading, these traditional scales don't work. We have to use a different scale for our letter grades. The Grades page has all the details.
Below are the FOUR MOST COMMON reasons why students struggle. Making sure your student corrects these behaviors will give your student the best chance to be successful in this class.
As stated above, class announcements are posted daily. There is a strong correlation between the fidelity in which a student reads the daily announcements AND that student's overall course grade. Those who read the announcements (with fidelity) almost always earn an A. They are in the loop and always know what they are supposed to be working on and when things are due. Those that repeatedly fail to read the announcements struggle to pass the class. It's really that simple.
If your student is struggling, make sure they are carefully reading (and understanding) the daily announcements.
Students should really need to dedicate no more than one hour per school day to this course on average (or about 5 total hours per week). If they are spending more time than this, they are probably not using their time appropriately.
Most students don't realize how much time they waste checking the most recent text that pops up or selecting their music playlist while they are working.
Say you have a 30-minute assignment. Every two minutes you are interrupted (text, social media post, music, etc.) - and each of those interruptions last for a couple of minutes, or so - what was originally a 30-minute assignment could easily turn in to a 1 hour assignment pretty quickly. If you extrapolate that over the course of the week, your student's 5 hours of time quickly turns into 10.
Using time efficiently is a must.
For struggling students, these are the two big problems I see most:
most students think they can complete their work faster than they usually can . . . and with less effort than is usually required.
most students think they are good at multitasking.
When students don't give themselves enough time to complete the work, is usually shows up as incomplete work or late work . . . or worse: the work doesn't come in at all.
When most students attempt to multitask, they usually don't do a good job at either tasks. Or, one task gets the most attention (text from friends, choosing music, etc.) and the other task (school work) gets relegated to the background.
While at home, I strongly encourage you help your student create a dedicated working space for "school." An advantage to a device like a Chromebook is that is allows you to work from anywhere. A disadvantage is also that it allows you to work from anywhere. Some locations help your student to focus (like having a dedicated working space at a table/desk free from as many distractions as possible). Other locations introduce more distractions (like trying to work from the sofa while the TV is on).
If needed, encourage your student to silence their phone while they are working (or leave it in another room). Just like at school, separate school time from personal time. If they develop good habits, they will find that they spend less time on school each day and they will have more free time to enjoy their personal activities.
When time starts to become an issue, many students start to look at the EXPLORE assignments and question why they should put in work time on something that isn't even going to be graded. Help them to see that's the wrong way to view these assignments. These assignments are their chance to learn, grow, and even fail (with no grade consequence). They should be learning a little bit from each of these assignments and refining their skills and knowledge. All these assignments are designed in such a way to best prepare students for the assessments.
The assessments are not meant to be difficult - especially for a student who is well prepared. They could end up being very difficult, however, for any student who is ill-prepared. Assessments are meant for students to showcase what they have learned - and they will be best able to showcase their knowledge and skills if they learn from the practice material.
The best advocate for your student should be your student (not you).
Some students are very good at this. For others, it is a skill they need to practice in order to become better at it. Please, as their parent or guardian, do not rush in to rescue them when they appear to be struggling. Instead, help guide them and teach them some skills so that they can advocate for themselves. Here are some suggestions:
Help teach them to ask questions - both during class and via the Question Parking Lot.
If a tutorial session is offered, encourage them to attend (again dates/times will be listed in the Daily Class Announcements)
It is important to clear up any questions/confusion as quickly as possible so that things don't snowball into bigger and bigger problems.
[NOTE: As I get the time, I'll post additional resources here]