Mentor Teacher Assignments

VLAC mentor teachers provide primary support for instruction and serve as the main contact to the VLAC program. Mentor teacher assignments for the start of the school year will be temporary until final student enrollment is complete. Permanent mentor teachers will be confirmed by mid-September. Your child’s Mentor Teacher will contact you during the beginning of the school year. Your mentor teacher is looking forward to getting to know you and your child this school year.

Required Weekly Interactions with Mentor Teachers

Each VLAC student is REQUIRED to have a weekly interaction with their mentor teacher throughout the school year. Your child’s teacher will initiate this weekly contact via a Google Classroom post every Wednesday. Every student must respond to his/her teacher by noon each Friday to complete the weekly interaction. The response to the email must be from the VLAC student. Parent responses do not apply toward this requirement.

Required Learning Guide

All VLAC students are required to appoint a Learning Guide. Learning Guides will deliver the curriculum from home and guide the child through his or her learning. Learning Guides are typically a parent or a caregiver.

Student Count Period

Twice a year, in October and February, the state audits interactions between students and mentor teachers. During count periods, students who fail to complete all interactions will be removed from the program. The fall count period is October 5 – November 1. Detailed information will be emailed to you in the fall and sent via VLAC Family News.

State of Michigan Student Required Assessments

VLAC students in grades 3-11 are REQUIRED to participate in all testing required by the State of Michigan. This varies by grade level but does include tests such as the M-STEP, PSAT, SAT, and WorkKeys, all of which will be administered in spring of 2023. VLAC will provide families with testing dates and locations in early 2023. The VLAC office will communicate with you if your child is eligible to take a test. Please contact the VLAC main office at 248.209.2071 or reach out to your mentor teacher with any questions.

Academic Honesty

Learning Guides support their students in home learning by assuring that all submitted work is the student’s original work and by proctoring tests. If a student fails to follow this policy, they may lose credit.

Educational Development Plan (EDP)

EDP’s are required by the state for all virtual learners. This is a fun, beginning of the school year goal-setting activity. Your mentor teacher will email you more information the first week of school. Students will be using a program called Xello to complete their EDP lessons. Your mentor teacher will provide assistance at the beginning of the school year.

You will login to Xello using the following link: https://login.xello.world/