ARISE and Shine

October 2020

 

Message from Dr. Parr

Dear ARISE Families,

Thank you so much for your patience and flexibility as we strive to meet your expectations for your students’ online learning needs.  Taking a school from about 250 students to over 3,000 students is no easy task.  As new enrollments begin to slow, we hope that you are also settling into the flow of online learning.  Your child’s education is of utmost importance to us and we are working everyday to make this a great experience for your family.  Please continue to reach out to your teachers when you are in need of support.

Dr. Parr

Conferences 10/21 & 10/22 8am-7pm

It is important to be informed about your student’s education.  Please reach out to your child’s teacher to schedule a conference!

STAR Assessment

We have begun STAR testing for all AVA students that are enrolled with us for English and Math courses.  The STAR Assessment gives your student’s teacher important information about their educational development and where they need help.  Please see the email sent by Dr. Parr with important STAR Assessment information.  For help with logging in to the STAR Assessment, please check out this  tutorial or call 608-743-6125 M-Th 9am-3pm.

Physical Education 

Physical Activity is important to your child’s well being.  At AVA we believe it is important to get up and GET MOVING daily!  Please make sure your 1-12 students are completing their Physical Education Logs!  Here is an example log you can copy!

• Middle & High School: Students are required to complete 72 hours of physical activity for the semester and write 2 paragraphs about incorporating physical activity into their daily life and how it made them feel.  

  • MS-Turn in to your teacher

  • HS- Dr. Parr dparr@janesville.k12.wi.us 

• Elementary 1-5: Students must complete 60 minutes of physical activity per week.  PE Logs should be turned in to your teacher. 

• Kindergarten: Keep doing your PE course.

Breakfast & Lunch for AVA Students

Did you know you can still get a school breakfast and lunch?  Families can pick up meals from 11-1 at Franklin, Marshall, and Edison.  You will receive lunch and breakfast for the next day.  Check out the menu here.

Attendance

If your student has a total of 7 assignments or more missing, they will be marked absent in Infinite Campus.  It is important that students are working daily in order to be successful at ARISE.  

If you need to report your student’s absence, please call 608-743-6110 and press 1 for attendance.

Grading 

The first quarter ends 10/29 and Semester I ends January 14th. All work (assignments) must be completed prior to students taking their Semester I exams. 

Semester exams are not allowed if students have not completed all required work. Please work with us to make sure your child is in a position to complete their semester exams. (Does not apply to Elementary)

The SDJ Referendum

Check out this link for information on the referendum

 

What should I do if I need help?

Communication is vital in online learning.  Teachers won’t know you are struggling if you do not reach out to us.  Check out your teachers’ welcome pages to find out how to contact them.  We are here to help you!!!

Important Dates

• 10/21 & 10/22 Conferences (No work due for students, great time to catch up on work!)

• 10/23 No School

• 11/26-27 Thanksgiving Break

Tips for Success at AVA

• Please make sure you have added all of your teachers’ email addresses to your ARISE folder and make sure you have shared it with your teachers.  Some of your teachers may have changed since you first shared, so double check this.

• PLEASE READ- Landing Pages & Welcome Pages.  

  • The landing page is located at the top of each lesson page- this will give you information about the teacher.

  • Welcome pages are located in one of the folders near the beginning of the course, possibly in ¨Getting Started: For Students.¨

• You need to take notes while reading text, viewing video and doing interactive activities- you can use these notes on all assessments including the FINAL EXAM.  You must pass the final to pass the class.

• Check your email daily.

• Check our Facebook page often. 

 

Newsletter ARISE Virtual Academy November 23, 2020

Message from Dr. Parr

Dear Arise Families, I cannot believe it is almost December. We appreciate the hard work your children have put in so far this year. We know that the switch to virtual learning has been an adjustment for most families, but we hope that by now you have gotten into a rhythm and will finish out the semester strong. Your child’s education is of utmost importance to us and we are working everyday to make this a great experience for your family. Please continue to reach out to your teachers when you are in need of support.

Dr. Parr AVA

Upcoming Important Dates

• 11/25-27 No School Thanksgiving Break
• 12/23-1/3 No School Winter Break
• 1/14 End of First Semester
• 1/18 No School MLK Day

Counselor’s Corner

Please check out the resources for Remote Learning.

End of Semester Information

Semester I ends January 14th. All work (assignments) must be completed prior to students taking their Semester I exams. Semester exams are not allowed if students have not completed all required work. Please work with us to make sure your child is in a position to complete their semester exams. (Does not apply to Elementary)

Time Management

Virtual Learning can be hard if you do not manage your time well. Below are 7 tips for managing your time while learning virtually from Northeastern University. The tips here are great for all levels of education. You can view the full article here.

1. Plan Ahead- Use a calendar to plan your daily and weekly assignments.

2. Don’t Multitask- Focus on one task at a time and arrange your tasks in order of importance.

3. Set up a Virtual “Office”- Make sure that your space is comfortable with good lighting, close extra tabs, and put away your phone.

4. Block Out Distractions- Avoid surfing the web, stay focused and stay away from social media during your work time.

5. Reward Yourself- Celebrate your accomplishments.

6. Create a Balance- Find balance between school and your other obligations. Many students are working while participating in online learning. Be sure your hours at work are not interfering with your studies.

7. Get a Good Night’s Sleep- Sleep is so important to make sure your mind is ready for learning.

Zero Policy

All late assignments are now marked as zeros. This will give you as parents the ability to know where your student's grade is when missing assignments are accounted for. Assignments marked as zeros will be reset so that students can complete them and improve their grade. In fact, assignments scored as a zero must be redone.

All assignments still need to be completed (with scores other than zero) prior to taking the final exams (grades 6-12) and completing the course (all grades). All final exams (6-12) must be passed in order to pass the class, elementary students do not have final exams. A student can take the final exam up to 3 times. The first time, they can take the exam when the teacher clears them for the final exam. Prior to the second attempt, they must call the teacher and discuss the final exam before retaking the exam. Prior to the third attempt, the teacher will review all of the student's notes before they take the final exam for the third and final time. Courses (including final exam retakes) must be completed by the end of the semester. Students should aim to complete final exams with time to complete a retake if needed.

Grade	Range
A	92-100
A-	90-91
B+	88-89
B	82-87
B-	80-81
C+	78-79
C	72-77
C-	70-71
D+	68-69
D	62-67
D-	60-61
F	(Fail)

 

TechTools Kami

Many students are already using Kami to open the assignments in Buzz. If you haven’t done so already, add the Kami extension to Chrome and you will be able to open all documents in Buzz and type or write your answers right on the document. Don’t forget to share your Kami folder with your teacher and manually save your work in Kami so all changes are saved!

OpenDyslexic

You do not need to have dyslexia to benefit from adding this extension to Chrome. It will change all of the font you read to OpenDyslexic font. This font style was created to increase readability for people who have dyslexia. The letters are weighted at the bottom to indicate direction and there is also increased letter spacing.

How does it help? 

• Your brain can sometimes do funny things to letters,
• OpenDyslexic tries to help prevent some of these things from happening.  
• Letters have heavy weighted bottoms to add a kind of "gravity" to each letter.
• You are able to figure out which part of the letter is down which aids in recognizing the correct letter.
• It helps to keep your brain from rotating them around
• Consistently weighted bottoms help reinforce the line of text
• The unique shapes of each letter can help prevent confusion through flipping and swapping. 

Co:Writer

This extension should already be added to your district Chromebook. All you have to do is click the icon to turn it on. Co:Writer can help when you are typing with word prediction, flexible spelling, and speech to text.

Physical Education Reminder

Physical Activity is important to your child’s well being. At AVA we believe it is important to get up and GET MOVING daily! Please make sure your 1-12 students are completing their Physical Education Logs! Here is an example log you can copy!

• Middle & High School: Students are required to complete 72 hours of physical activity for the semester and write 2 paragraphs about incorporating physical activity into their daily life and how it made them feel. ○ MS-Turn in to your teacher ○ HS- Sherri Torrison: storrison@janesville.k12.wi.us
• K-5: Students must complete 60 minutes of physical activity per week. PE Logs should be turned in to your teacher.

Breakfast & Lunch for AVA Students

Did you know you can still get a school breakfast and lunch? Families can pick up meals from 11-1 at Franklin, Marshall, and Edison. You will receive lunch and breakfast for the next day. Check out the menu.

Snow Days @ AVA

Parents have recently received information from the district regarding snow days. ARISE does not have snow days because you are all already working from home. Whether you are a full time AVA student or a hybrid student, you will still have work due if the district cancels school due to inclement weather

Bags of Hope Information/ Donation

Box Tops - How to add a receipt if you shop online