Frequently Asked Questions About Online Learning

This week City High Middle resumed school, but instead of walking into classrooms, students are participating in online learning. Like any first day of school, the beginning of online learning comes with its own anxieties and miscommunications, but this time it is an unfamiliar set of expectations for all students and teachers. To make things easier to understand, here are ‘frequently asked questions’ about our current distance learning model, compiled from the anecdotal student experience and confirmed teachers.

Are online assignments required?

Yes

Are online classes (office hours) required?

No, direct video sessions with your teachers, also known as office hours, are not required but are encouraged.

How will this affect my grade?

GRPS has moved to a credit/no credit system for the second marking period. This means that a students final semester grade will be based on their 3rd marking period grade along with participation throughout distance learning. Teachers will be monitoring student participation in the two-45 minute lessons per week. Students that put forth a good faith effort in class participation will receive credit for a given class for semester 2. Credit/no credit course do not impact GPA, however, if credit is earned it does help a student meet the Michigan Merit Curriculum requirements.

Why aren’t I receiving Google Classroom alerts on time?

We are not certain of the cause of this issue, but overload on the Google server may be causing alerts, emails, and pings from the Google Classroom app on mobile devices to arrive up to 45 minutes after teachers hit send. Such announcements will still show up in the stream on time, but only if you are in the Google Classroom app and actively refreshing the page. Until this issue is resolved, it is probably a good idea to manually refresh your Google Classrooms at the times indicated by the online learning schedule so that you do not miss any meetings or assignments.

What is the schedule?

Teachers are allowed to modify their schedules as needed, so check in with your individual teachers for the times of their online meetings. However, teachers have been encouraged to follow the schedule provided by GRPS so different class meetings do not overlap. Your parents may have received a document that contained two tables which appeared to some to represent two different schedules, but in reality these tables represented one schedule. For ease of understanding, we have created one comprehensive table of the GRPS online learning schedule. To be clear, this is not a recommended student study schedule. This is a schedule of when teachers are likely holding video meetings. It does not matter when you do your work, but if you want to talk to your teachers it will likely be helpful to consult this schedule. This is not official, but created using explanations from teachers.