Mid-Semester Start Frequently Asked Questions
Overdue Assignments
Why am I seeing overdue assignments in my classes if I just joined? The overdue assignments show from the beginning of the semester. Teachers cannot erase these, so you will see them. However you may only need to complete a few of those assignments. Most will be exempt.
Am I responsible for completing overdue assignments? Only some of them; Email teachers to find out which ones. The rest will be exempt. We will learn how to email teachers during New Student Boot Camp on Tuesday of your start week.
Orientation Week
How do learning coaches log attendance for orientation week? For orientation week, just enter 70 minutes for each of your student’s 6 subject slots so that they meet the 7 hour daily minimum. We understand they won’t actually spend that much time on orientation, but that way they will get counted and nothing will show as missing. If you have only one or a couple slots to enter just make sure that your total adds up to at least 7 hours. So if only one slot shows up (this will happen if the rest of the classes haven’t been assigned yet) then enter “420” minutes in that slot.
Is New Student Boot Camp required? Yes. All sessions listed as ‘required’ are required. If you have a reason why you need to miss during your first week that would be considered an excused absence, please contact your advisor immediately.
How do I find my live class schedule? To access your Class Connect schedule: Login to student account, click the button that looks like a chain-link, and click Class Connect. This will be how you get to your live classes each day.
What’s the ORN course? It’s called ORN 010 Welcome to Online Learning. This is a course designed to teach you about the online school and what you can expect at our school. It’s set up as a course, although the whole thing only takes an hour or less to complete. Login, click Classes, and click the ORN course. The course is due Friday of your start week. So you need to read through all the slides and take the 5 question end quiz before Friday. Here’s a 2-minute tutorial video on how to get to your ORN course if you are struggling: http://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/cbjwFgIenD
Attendance
Do learning coaches have to log attendance every day? Yes. We understand that learning coaches often work during the day. I recommend students keep a paper log of how many minutes they spent on each subject, then give it to their learning coach at the end of the day so they can log that in their learning coach account.
How much should I log daily? However many minutes your student spends on each subject. And the minimum daily total needs to be at least 7 hours. Some/most days, students will spend a lot longer than the minimum on school-related work in order to be successful. You can log time spent online in live classes as well as time spent offline working on homework, studying, reading, writing a paper, etc. Anything related to their classes counts.
Does my student spend the same amount of time on each class daily? No. Generally it will look a little different each day. As long as they meet the 7 hours minimum, they are good.
Credits and class schedule
Who do I talk to about credits, class schedule, transcripts, electives, credit recovery, and my student’s course to graduation? You should talk to your student’s guidance counselor about these issues. The guidance counselors are assigned by grade. Here is a chart to help you:
Who do I go to with general questions or for support while figuring out some of my questions as a new student? While most all of our staff would love to hear from you, the best point person for new students when they are getting started for general questions or support is your advisor. Advisors are listed by grade band below:
What is ‘New Family Orientation’? When is it? New Family Orientation is a requirement for all new families to MGLVA. It is an hour long, live session with our Family Engagement Coordinator and other new families joining our school to welcome you and help you to learn a bit about our school. Once you attend once, you are all set. If you see if on your class connect schedule multiple times, there are just multiple attendance to accommodate a variety schedules. If you would like more information, to confirm that you have already attended, or to see a schedule, please contact our school’s FEC, Ms. Patterson, at [email protected].
Learning Coach Account
Can I monitor what my student does in my learning coach account? Yes, you can and we highly encourage you to check on them to hold them accountable. Here is a great site that will show you where to look in your account: https://www.help.k12.com/s/article/Introducing-the-Learning-Coach-Course-Page
As a learning coach, what am I expected to do? You should attend New Family Orientation, check your email daily, respond to communications from our staff, log attendance daily in your learning coach account (that is a separate account than the student account), make sure BOTH the accounts are set up and have been logged into before Friday of the first week, and offer support and accountability for your student by monitoring them and checking in with them.
Week 1 Tasks
What things do students have to do their first week? New Family Orientation, New Student Boot Camp, ORN Welcome to Online Learning course (lessons and end quiz), log into their account, be ready to complete USA Test Prep diagnostics when teachers send info, and anything else your teachers have asked you to do (example: contact sheets).
Materials
I’m having a technology issue. Who should I talk to? If you are having an issue with the online school, your time zone settings, Blackboard Class Connect, your computer, your printer, can’t login, don’t know your password, or any other technology related issues, the best people to speak with is the team at Tech Support. Tech Support is a no-cost, 24 hour, 7 day a week that is available to students and learning coaches for student’s accounts. There may be longer wait times at times, so calling at odd hours may help. It is best to write down your help ticket number so that staff at our school can know you are getting helped and potentially look into the issue as well. You can reach them at 866-512-2273.
My supplies haven’t arrived yet. What should I do? The materials are sent through the K12 warehouse- not through MGLVA. Your materials should arrive during the first week, but in some cases may take longer. You can contact K12 Customer Care at 866-512-2273.
We received a laptop (or other equipment) that is broken. What should I do? Call K12 Customer Care at 866-512-2273 for assistance.
Miscellaneous
What do I do if we are going to take a vacation during the school year? Before you leave for vacation, you need to fill out a vacation contract and email it to your homeroom teacher and Abby Brown, our high school principal, for approval. It’s easiest to get approved BEFORE you leave. Access the vacation contract here: http://mglvahs.weebly.com/forms.html
What should I do if my student is sick and can’t attend? Please let your student’s teachers and homeroom teacher know by emailing them. If your student goes to the doctor, please email the doctor’s note to your student’s homeroom teacher. Any documentation is helpful in order to verify that it can be an excused absence.
Do we have breaks and holidays? Yes. Please bookmark this academic calendar to refer to it when needed: http://mglva.k12.com/community-and-events/academic-calendar.html
How do I contact my student’s teachers or find their information? Have student log into student account, click Classes, click on a class, and you will then be on the class home page. Click “Content,” “Course Materials,” and then “Teacher Contact Information.” It will either be there, or in the syllabus (which is also under Content and Course Materials).
Is MGLVA homeschooling? No. We are a Michigan Public School and we follow the Michigan Merit Curriculum. While students work from home, our school still needs to follow the guidelines set by the Michigan Department of Education and our school’s authorizer, Manistee Area Public Schools.
Is MGLVA “work at your own pace”? No. Class times are structured, and students need to be in their live classes at the designated times on their Class Connect schedule. To learn how to access the Class Connect schedule, refer to the Class Connect Schedule questions above.
Is Class Connect attendance required? Yes. Students must attend live sessions in order to stay enrolled with our school. Each session is marked “Required” or “Optional.” If it a required session, they must attend it.
Where are assignments located? Generally they are located in the class home pages under the Content and Plan tabs. You will also see projects due in the Dropbox (which is under the Tools Tab) in the class pages. We will talk about this during your New Student Boot Camp session on Tuesday of your start week. If you are having a hard time understanding the Dropbox system, we highly recommend that you watch this video: Link to Teacher Grade Assignment Tutorial: Dropbox Tutorial: Teacher Graded Assignments
Why am I seeing overdue assignments in my classes if I just joined? The overdue assignments show from the beginning of the semester. Teachers cannot erase these, so you will see them. However you may only need to complete a few of those assignments. Most will be exempt.
Am I responsible for completing overdue assignments? Only some of them; Email teachers to find out which ones. The rest will be exempt. We will learn how to email teachers during New Student Boot Camp on Tuesday of your start week.
Orientation Week
How do learning coaches log attendance for orientation week? For orientation week, just enter 70 minutes for each of your student’s 6 subject slots so that they meet the 7 hour daily minimum. We understand they won’t actually spend that much time on orientation, but that way they will get counted and nothing will show as missing. If you have only one or a couple slots to enter just make sure that your total adds up to at least 7 hours. So if only one slot shows up (this will happen if the rest of the classes haven’t been assigned yet) then enter “420” minutes in that slot.
Is New Student Boot Camp required? Yes. All sessions listed as ‘required’ are required. If you have a reason why you need to miss during your first week that would be considered an excused absence, please contact your advisor immediately.
How do I find my live class schedule? To access your Class Connect schedule: Login to student account, click the button that looks like a chain-link, and click Class Connect. This will be how you get to your live classes each day.
What’s the ORN course? It’s called ORN 010 Welcome to Online Learning. This is a course designed to teach you about the online school and what you can expect at our school. It’s set up as a course, although the whole thing only takes an hour or less to complete. Login, click Classes, and click the ORN course. The course is due Friday of your start week. So you need to read through all the slides and take the 5 question end quiz before Friday. Here’s a 2-minute tutorial video on how to get to your ORN course if you are struggling: http://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/cbjwFgIenD
Attendance
Do learning coaches have to log attendance every day? Yes. We understand that learning coaches often work during the day. I recommend students keep a paper log of how many minutes they spent on each subject, then give it to their learning coach at the end of the day so they can log that in their learning coach account.
How much should I log daily? However many minutes your student spends on each subject. And the minimum daily total needs to be at least 7 hours. Some/most days, students will spend a lot longer than the minimum on school-related work in order to be successful. You can log time spent online in live classes as well as time spent offline working on homework, studying, reading, writing a paper, etc. Anything related to their classes counts.
Does my student spend the same amount of time on each class daily? No. Generally it will look a little different each day. As long as they meet the 7 hours minimum, they are good.
Credits and class schedule
Who do I talk to about credits, class schedule, transcripts, electives, credit recovery, and my student’s course to graduation? You should talk to your student’s guidance counselor about these issues. The guidance counselors are assigned by grade. Here is a chart to help you:
- 9th Grade: Ms. Austin, [email protected]
- 10th Grade: Mrs. Weaver, [email protected]
- 11th Grade: Ms. Mrozowsky, [email protected]
- 12th Grade and Certificate of Completion: Mrs. Showerman, [email protected]
Who do I go to with general questions or for support while figuring out some of my questions as a new student? While most all of our staff would love to hear from you, the best point person for new students when they are getting started for general questions or support is your advisor. Advisors are listed by grade band below:
- 9th Grade
- Ms. Tracey Hoesch ([email protected])
- Ms. Aja Hicks ([email protected])
- 10th Grade
- Ms. Rachel Laurain ([email protected])
- Ms. Yahlanda Boyd ([email protected])
- 11th Grade
- Ms. Melissa Terrell ([email protected])
- Mr. Aaron Lawrence ([email protected])
- 12th Grade
- Ms. Laura Stockwell ([email protected])
- Ms. Becky Lawrence ([email protected])
What is ‘New Family Orientation’? When is it? New Family Orientation is a requirement for all new families to MGLVA. It is an hour long, live session with our Family Engagement Coordinator and other new families joining our school to welcome you and help you to learn a bit about our school. Once you attend once, you are all set. If you see if on your class connect schedule multiple times, there are just multiple attendance to accommodate a variety schedules. If you would like more information, to confirm that you have already attended, or to see a schedule, please contact our school’s FEC, Ms. Patterson, at [email protected].
Learning Coach Account
Can I monitor what my student does in my learning coach account? Yes, you can and we highly encourage you to check on them to hold them accountable. Here is a great site that will show you where to look in your account: https://www.help.k12.com/s/article/Introducing-the-Learning-Coach-Course-Page
As a learning coach, what am I expected to do? You should attend New Family Orientation, check your email daily, respond to communications from our staff, log attendance daily in your learning coach account (that is a separate account than the student account), make sure BOTH the accounts are set up and have been logged into before Friday of the first week, and offer support and accountability for your student by monitoring them and checking in with them.
Week 1 Tasks
What things do students have to do their first week? New Family Orientation, New Student Boot Camp, ORN Welcome to Online Learning course (lessons and end quiz), log into their account, be ready to complete USA Test Prep diagnostics when teachers send info, and anything else your teachers have asked you to do (example: contact sheets).
Materials
I’m having a technology issue. Who should I talk to? If you are having an issue with the online school, your time zone settings, Blackboard Class Connect, your computer, your printer, can’t login, don’t know your password, or any other technology related issues, the best people to speak with is the team at Tech Support. Tech Support is a no-cost, 24 hour, 7 day a week that is available to students and learning coaches for student’s accounts. There may be longer wait times at times, so calling at odd hours may help. It is best to write down your help ticket number so that staff at our school can know you are getting helped and potentially look into the issue as well. You can reach them at 866-512-2273.
My supplies haven’t arrived yet. What should I do? The materials are sent through the K12 warehouse- not through MGLVA. Your materials should arrive during the first week, but in some cases may take longer. You can contact K12 Customer Care at 866-512-2273.
We received a laptop (or other equipment) that is broken. What should I do? Call K12 Customer Care at 866-512-2273 for assistance.
Miscellaneous
What do I do if we are going to take a vacation during the school year? Before you leave for vacation, you need to fill out a vacation contract and email it to your homeroom teacher and Abby Brown, our high school principal, for approval. It’s easiest to get approved BEFORE you leave. Access the vacation contract here: http://mglvahs.weebly.com/forms.html
What should I do if my student is sick and can’t attend? Please let your student’s teachers and homeroom teacher know by emailing them. If your student goes to the doctor, please email the doctor’s note to your student’s homeroom teacher. Any documentation is helpful in order to verify that it can be an excused absence.
Do we have breaks and holidays? Yes. Please bookmark this academic calendar to refer to it when needed: http://mglva.k12.com/community-and-events/academic-calendar.html
How do I contact my student’s teachers or find their information? Have student log into student account, click Classes, click on a class, and you will then be on the class home page. Click “Content,” “Course Materials,” and then “Teacher Contact Information.” It will either be there, or in the syllabus (which is also under Content and Course Materials).
Is MGLVA homeschooling? No. We are a Michigan Public School and we follow the Michigan Merit Curriculum. While students work from home, our school still needs to follow the guidelines set by the Michigan Department of Education and our school’s authorizer, Manistee Area Public Schools.
Is MGLVA “work at your own pace”? No. Class times are structured, and students need to be in their live classes at the designated times on their Class Connect schedule. To learn how to access the Class Connect schedule, refer to the Class Connect Schedule questions above.
Is Class Connect attendance required? Yes. Students must attend live sessions in order to stay enrolled with our school. Each session is marked “Required” or “Optional.” If it a required session, they must attend it.
Where are assignments located? Generally they are located in the class home pages under the Content and Plan tabs. You will also see projects due in the Dropbox (which is under the Tools Tab) in the class pages. We will talk about this during your New Student Boot Camp session on Tuesday of your start week. If you are having a hard time understanding the Dropbox system, we highly recommend that you watch this video: Link to Teacher Grade Assignment Tutorial: Dropbox Tutorial: Teacher Graded Assignments
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