Parents and Guardians,
I want your student to succeed in this class.
This page is to best help you help your student. 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 year 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.
Outside of class, all questions/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). Occasionally, a more detailed answer is posted the Daily Class Announcements. Before posting a question, students should 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 usually can be available M - Th from 2:45 - 4:30 for extra help. Please note that this is NOT a drop-in session. Have students please make arrangements with me ahead of time. If I'm not expecting anyone, there's a very good chance you will not find me in the classroom.
As the name implies, the Daily Class Announcements (DCA) are updated every school day. A link to the Daily Class Announcements is located on the home page of this site. Here are the key points:
Announcements should be posted no later than 8:15 a.m. each school day.
Students will read the DCA each school day as part of that day's warm-up activity.
Students should have read the announcements and completed any prep work PRIOR to class starting on days when we are having live instruction.
The announcements detail what students should be doing for class each day. It is also a great way for you to know what your student is doing (or is supposed to be doing) for class.
Students should expect to put in about 5-6 hours per week on this class - this includes time spent in the classroom. If students use their class time wisely, they should be able to complete most of their coursework during class time. Only rarely will they have assigned homework. Their standing "homework" is to complete anything that they did not finish during the class period so that they are fully prepared and ready for the next session.
Students will need a traditional spiral notebook for this class. Generally, speaking students should be adding material to their notebook nearly every school day. As a parent, you should be able to check Daily Announcements and check your student's notebook to see if they are staying up with the course material.
Check out the Materials page for more information about additional class materials.
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. Ignore any grades you might find in another location. Only look at what is in Infinite Campus. It is the only grade that matters.
Most of the daily work that we do in this course, and most of what goes into the gradebook does not directly affect your student's grade. It is practice work in order to get ready for our assessments (those assignments that DO count towards the semester grade).
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 two hours per school day to this course (or about 10 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 must time they waste checking the most recent text that pops up or selecting their music playlist while they are working. If you have a 30-minute assignment and every two minutes you are interrupted - and each of those interruptions last for a couple of minutes, or more - 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 10 hours of time quickly turns into 20.
Using time efficiently is a must. This is true for live class sessions as well (at school OR online).
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 effort than is usually required.
most students think they are good at multitasking.
When we don't give ourselves enough time for our work, we either submit incomplete work, late work, or the work doesn't come in at all.
When we multitask, we usually don't do a good job in either of those 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 better help your student (like having a dedicated working space at a table/desk free from as many distractions as possible) and other locations tend to introduce more distractions (like trying to work from the sofa while the TV is on).
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. 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 be better advocates for their own education. They will be more successful in the long run if they can develop these habits.
Here are some suggestions:
Help teach them to ask questions - both during live sessions and via the Question Parking Lot.
Encourage them to attend an office hours session. Office hour sessions are usually on Mondays (dates/times will always be in the Daily Class Announcements)
If a tutorial session is offered, encourage them to attend (again dates/times will be listed in the Daily Class Announcements)
It is important that students understand the benefits of clearing 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 this school year, I'll post additional resources here]