Policies and Expectations

• Both Ms. Williams and students will use language appropriate for a professional and academic setting. This includes all written and spoken communication (e.g. email, phone, and Zoom).

• While on Zoom, make sure that anything shared over microphone, video feed, or chat box on Zoom is school-appropriate.

• Communicate with Ms. Williams as soon as you know you need to (e.g. needing help with work, having a health or personal issue). If you email me after school hours, I will get back to you the following day. (Remember - because we are not in the same room, I can't tell if you need something unless you tell me. Strong and consistent communication is appreciated).

• IF transfer grade is passing (60% or greater): that grade goes in for all previous assignments, student starts with current weeks work.

• IF transfer grade is failing/non-passing (below 60%): 

The transfer percentage is used to calculate the equivalent number of points earned.

• Those points are used to "fill in" passing scores for as many previous assignments as possible.

• The student will start further back to "make up" assignments so they can earn the points they were missing when they transferred. (Ms. Williams will determine the best assignment for you to start on).

• Ms. Williams will tell you how many assignments you will need to complete each week to get caught up.

• Late work can still be turned in with no grade penalty (you won't lose points just for turning it in late).

• However, students can be dropped from the Virtual Instruction Program for lack of progress and not maintaining grades. 

• Most regular class assignments can be redone and resubmitted without having to ask first. The main exception is discussion questions. These cannot be edited after posting - this discourages students from trying to read other students’ answers before providing their own.

• Quizzes may be retaken a second time if the student has satisfactorily completed the work up to the quiz. Tests may be retaken with the same requirements, or after having satisfactorily completed a review activity (e.g. scoring high on a practice test, completing a study guide with good answers, etc).

• Extra Credit is rarely offered, as there is no grade penalty for late work, and students may redo assignments.

•  When extra credit is offered, it is posted in Google Classroom with the label "EXTRA CREDIT" in uppercase letters.

• All submitted assignments should be the students own, original work. Student work that has been plagiarized will receive a zero until the assignment is redone to the teacher’s satisfaction.

• Because of wide-spread plagiarism issues, all written assignments must be typed on Google Docs and turned in on Google Classroom, so that document history (aka "time stamps") can be checked. At no point should there be any copy-pasting of text.

• Final drafts of longer writing assignments will be turned in through turnitin.com.

• A.I. is very prevalent through apps and extensions on the internet. Here are examples of acceptable and unacceptable ways to use it:

  1. 1. OK: brainstorming (e.g. ask it to generate ideas for a project), tools for studying (e.g. ask it to summarize, simplify, or outline a reading), accessibility features (e.g. A.I. voice reader, translate to a different language).

     2. NOT OK: having A.I. generate anything you actually have to turn in (answers, essay outlines, essays, etc).

• Be prepared to answer any questions about your written work.

• VIP teachers and staff reserve the right to require students to attend meetings in person if they have reason to believe that a student is not acting with academic integrity.