English 1 Student Handbook
28 DAY GRACE PERIOD
You may drop the course with no penalty within the first 28 days of FLVS courses. If you decide to drop after the 28 day grace period you may earn a failing grade on your transcript. I must speak to parent/guardian to confirm a student’s decision to drop. Parents please contact me as soon as possible if withdrawing from the course is a possibility. Additionally, you must be through Module 2 and be working in Module 3 to avoid being withdrawn at the end of your grace period.
· E-mail me if you need an answer within 24 hours. Please be specific in the subject line. Be sure to include your first and last name on all emails; and if you are the parent, be sure to include your child’s name as well. [email protected]
· Call or IM me if you need an answer more urgently. If you reach my voicemail please leave a message containing your full name, the reason for your call, a phone number where you can be reached, and the best times to call you back.
ORGANIZATION AND TIME MANAGEMENT SUGGESTIONS
· Create an electronic English folder on your computer desktop for saving your computer files of class assignments and information. Every time you submit an assessment you should keep a backup copy saved in this folder on your computer. If you need help learning how to create a folder on your computer, please contact your teacher.
· Create an English portfolio/folder for all of your printed course materials. Keep a copy of your pace chart here too. You will be able to use all printed materials on your quizzes and tests so hold on to everything!
· Create a weekly schedule for yourself. Identify your current time commitments (school, family, church, extra-curricular activities, etc.) and identify 4-6 hours that you will dedicate specifically to working on this course.
· Post your course pace chart in a prominent location. Next to your computer, on the refrigerator…wherever you and your parent will be sure to see it. I suggest you cross off the assignments on your chart as you submit them.
REMINDERS FOR SUBMITTING WORK
· Be sure to click on the “Submit for Grading” box and then the “Submit” button when turning in assessments. If both of these are not checked or clicked the assessment stays in your Gradebook and will not be submitted to me for grading. It will not enter the Instructor Gradebook and you will be displayed as behind pace.
· Do NOT save your filenames with a period in the name. The Educator system will delete your file if there are extra periods in your filename. (Example: 2.01 – please change to 2_01 OR 201).
WORKING AHEAD
· You are encouraged to work ahead on your assessments in the course as long as the quality of your work is not compromised. I encourage you to work at least one week ahead in case of something unexpected like computer problems, illness, injury, etc.
· There is no limit placed on how many assessments you may submit in a week. Again, just be sure that the quality is on par and that you are learning the material.
· If you complete the assessments ahead of pace, you may complete the class in less than 16 weeks.
FALLING BEHIND PACE/VACATION/ILLNESS
· If you do not submit assessments within a 14 day period we will initiate the withdrawal process for the course. You will receive a phone call as a warning. If you do not submit assignments within another 7 day period, you will be emailed a warning letter called a “No Contact Letter”. After that point, if you still have not submitted work or contacted your teacher, you may be dropped from the course with a failing grade.
·If you are going on vacation or will not be working in the class for other reasons, you must either work ahead on your assessments prior to your absence or notify us that you would like to use your “floating vacation weeks.”
· If you become ill and will not be able to submit work for more than a week, you will be required to submit a doctor’s note to avoid being penalized for being behind pace.
COMPUTER PROBLEMS
· Computer problems are not an acceptable excuse for late assessments. If your computer goes down you are responsible for locating an alternate computer to work from. The public library offers free Internet access so this is always an option.
· Contact the FLVS help desk for technical issues: You will need to use the following address to submit problems to the help desk: http://help.flvs.net
·BE SPECIFIC with your problem. Do not just say, “I cannot log in…”
COMMUNICATION REQUIREMENTS/ORAL ASSESSMENTS
· When I leave a phone message for you I expect a response within 48 hours. You may be temporarily suspended from the class for failing to respond to my e-mails and phone calls.
· If your e-mail, phone numbers or other contact information changes please be sure to update your information in the FLVS system. Click on “Edit Your Profile” after you login to www.flvs.net. It is a blue link that is located on the left of the screen.
· Students are required to complete oral assessments (Modules 1, 3, 4, 6, and 8). You are responsible for scheduling this exam through the online link or initiating a phone call to me to complete these assessments. I prefer that your parent/guardian be present for this phone call (like your welcome call.) We will talk about your course progress, your grade and upcoming assessments. Please do not skip your oral components or you may be temporarily suspended from the class until we complete it.
· Parents: Please be certain to set up your guardian account and keep your e-mail and phone number information current. You can setup a guardian account by going to www.flvs.net. Click on “Students & Parents”, then click the “Guardian Account” link. Simply follow the directions to setup an account.
Please log in to the course on a weekly basis to stay informed. You will receive a monthly progress report by the 15th of each month via the FLVS e-mail. You may access your child’s Gradebook at any time by logging in with your guardian account or using your child’s username/password. Click on the GRADEBOOK icon in the class.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
Here is a copy of the Academic Integrity Policy with FLVS. After speaking with you, we feel certain that this will never be an issue, but we are required to include it to make sure that you are aware of consequences if something should arise:
Each student enrolled in an online course will adhere to the academic integrity policy outlined below. Any violation of this policy will result in disciplinary action and may jeopardize the student's continuation in the course and any award of academic credit.
What is Academic Integrity?
Academic integrity is a concept used to address the many facets of authenticity within a student's work. A student who upholds a high standard of academic integrity maintains that the work he or she turns in is authentic and true to the knowledge he or she has acquired. The technology age has certainly helped people have fast access to any and all information on the web. Because of this, you will see Academic Integrity becoming more of a standard in educational institutions as they begin to hold students to higher accountability measures. It is important that as you take courses online, you are equipped to appropriately utilize technology. The Internet can be a powerful research tool. The key is to know how to use it and what is appropriate.
Academic Integrity means...
· Your work on each assignment will be completely your own
· Your collaboration with another classmate on any assignment will be pre-approved by your instructor
· You will not practice plagiarism in any form
· You will not allow others to copy your work
· You will not misuse content from the Internet
Plagiarism is mentioned above. What is plagiarism exactly?
Plagiarism is copying or using ideas or words (from another person, an online classmate, or an Internet or print source) and presenting them as your own.
Some examples of plagiarism:
· Buying or copying a paper from a research service or term paper mill.
· Turning in another student's work with or without that student's knowledge.
· Turning in a paper a peer has written for the student.
· Copying a paper from a source text without proper acknowledgment.
· Copying materials from a source text, supplying proper documentation, but leaving out quotation marks.
· Paraphrasing materials from a source text without appropriate documentation.
· With the Internet, another type of plagiarism needs to be listed: "Turning in a paper from a "free term paper" website.
Please be aware that all FLVS instructors utilize a myriad of technologies to check student work for authenticity, including but not limited to the upload of student work to TurnItIn.com. In order to maintain the integrity of all FLVS grades, instructors may choose to facilitate random oral assessments and/or face to face exams. If an instructor confirms that a student has plagiarized work in any manner, the student will be subject to consequences determined by FLVS administration and may be removed from the course with a failing grade.
