A summer message from Mrs. Alcodray

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yiCOz1XWkQdg7w5LR1olibadZlx8auS-/view

Well, we finally made it! The last week of school is always memorable and a bit stressful, but for reasons I need not mention, this year more so than usual.  For those of you that were submitting assignments in iLearn over the weekend, thank you for letting me know you did so and I expect to have all grades updated by 9 am this morning. Many of you will still be sleeping then! I would like to have all assignments submitted by the end of the day tomorrow (Tuesday). I will again update the grade book Wednesday morning and check it again Thursday morning just before I must submit grades.  To receive an A for the class, you must show a minimum of 14 assignments.  To pass with a G the magic number is 11. For those of you still working on catching up, remember to do only the assignments that were given in weekly blocks with a decimal title. Those are at the bottom of the column where the assignments are listed. Those are the easier ones for me to check.

Nothing has been decided for the start of school next year. The link below is to a survey that will provide information to our district when it comes time to make important decisions. Please share it with your parents.

https://forms.gle/DNx3eN8hcRpXsfSs5

            Feel free to email me with any questions you may have about assignments. Again all you need to do is add up your total submissions by the end of the day tomorrow, and you can easily calculate your own grade.  Have a great summer!!!

There are two small changes that occurred in the last 24 hours that I wanted to make you aware of , if you are not already. First, this will be the last week that we will have virtual class meetings.  We will not have any the week of 6/8. Second, all work is due by the end of the day on the 6/9, not 6/11 as originally stated.  The reason for this is teachers need time to calculate ‘grades’ or no credit for class. Teachers must submit grades by 3:00 pm on 6/11.  All along, we have been telling students do not wait until the last minute! If you have not read how to figure out what assignments you owe or what your grade, G or A, might be, please reread yesterdays blog and email. Please do not email me and ask ‘what do I owe’?  Follow the instructions and look at student connect as you would any other time.  If you submitted work since Monday, it will not show up yet. I plan to update the grade book this Friday. Looking through submissions in iLearn is very time consuming. I would much rather be looking at a piece of paper or something that you created with your own two hands!  J

Only eleven days to go!  I know that both of us cannot wait for this year to be over with.  We both got cheated.  You didn’t get to learn by actually doing things in the shop with your friends and I didn’t get to teach you in the manner I would have been more comfortable with.  Honestly you can learn knowledge about something from a book or a video, but you can’t really learn how do it well without real world  hands-on experience. I think all of you would agree with this!

I sent out an individual email about how to calculate your grade right up to the last minute.  I tried to make it clear to understand.  It was written at 7:00 am yesterday morning before I had too many thoughts swirling around in my head!   Speaking of grades, I will again be sending out emails to parents and students that I feel are way behind in their work and are in danger of not passing.  I made a bunch of phone calls to parents  last week and need to make some more this week.

All assignments you want counted for credit (again read email) are due by 6/11 and yes, we will have class meetings for the next two weeks for those of you that care to attend them.  Have a good week and hang in there!

Only three more weeks to go!  While many of you did contact me during the make-up week to get started on assignments, I was disappointed that I did not see more assignments submitted in iLearn.  I updated grades today so check out student connect just as you have in the past. Again the assignments are shown in decimals to match the week and the number of the assignment.  Even though you may see a zero, you can make it up. I will be posting assignments for 5/26-5/31 by the end of the day.

You will notice that I am combining two related but different topics this week, brazing and resistance spot welding or RSW.  Class meetings will resume today after a week off. I will send out a reminder email shortly with the code on it for those of you who might be attending for the first time this week.  While not mandatory, these meetings count toward participation and have the capability to bump you from a 60% (G) to a 75%(A).  Speaking of grades, I will again be sending out emails to parents and students that I feel are way behind in their work and are in danger of not passing.  A lucky few may even get a phone call!

By now you should have received a remind message that teachers may not be available until next Tuesday to respond to emails, so I wanted to remind you of a few things so that all of you, especially the seniors, end your year on a positive note. I updated the grades in student connect this past Wednesday. Please check to see that you have a 1 or 2 for assignments you submitted through iLearn or emailed to me. A blank or zero can be made up.  Many of you did a fantastic job catching up last week so some grades may not be in yet. I will update grades again on Monday the 25^th.

  All assignments for seniors are due no later than 5/28 as I must inform the administration of senior grades and credit. All other students have until 6/11.  For those of you making up past work, only work on assignments from 4/20/20 to the present. I will be posting 3 new assignments every week for the last three weeks, starting next Tuesday the 26^th.  Virtual class meetings will also resume until the end of the year. Your attendance in them does count as partial credit toward work accomplished.  Have a great weekend!!!

 As I mentioned last week in our virtual  class meetings,  this week is to be used  to get caught up with missing assignments, especially if you are senior. I sent out a special email and numerous phone calls to all seniors last week that owed work.  A big thanks to those of you who are turning assignments in.   I am NOT POSTING any new assignments this week. In order to provide more make up time, NO CLASS MEETINGS THIS WEEK ONLY.   I just updated the grade book so check it out to see what I have received and what I have not.  In lieu of class meetings this week, I will be using that time to call the homes of the 9^th, 10^th and 11^th grade students that have not completed any work yet, even though they did enroll in the class.  After Memorial Day weekend, there are only 3 weeks left.  Use this time wisely; don’t wait until the last minute to turn everything in! I will be reminding parents that no work= no credit.

PLEASE READ THE MEMO BELOW ABOUT PICKING UP PERSONAL BELONGINGS THAT YOU MAY STILL HAVE IN THE BUILDING.

If you have items in your hallway or gym locker that you want to pick up, click on this link and fill out the form: https://forms.gle/V8YJweLi19jPGVxk7.
Complete it by this Friday, May 22! 
The scheduled “pick-up” of the items is on June 1st from 10 am-12 pm.*If the form is not filled out, the lock will be taken off (in the gym lockers) and the items in the locker will be discarded. Thank you!

Welcome to a new week!  Seniors you only have two weeks to go!  The rest of you only have five weeks to go.  The reason that is important is that many of you, while you enrolled in the class, and perhaps even had email contacts with me, have yet to complete any of the assignments in the iLearn classrooms.   To clarify, you MUST do 60% of the assignments to receive a passing ‘grade’/credit for the class.   The remaining five weeks is that 60%!  Do less than the remaining five weeks of work, any many of you will be in danger of not getting an elective credit you need for graduation. We have had many good discussions about this in the weekly class meetings.  I will be sending out the codes for the iLearn meetings in an email tomorrow for those of you that don’t have it.  Remember that if you try to join the room, before I get there, you won’t be able to. Just be patient.

Bottom line is to do as much work as you can and to do it well.  We know that everyone has a lot of different things going on in their lives right now.

The videos this week focus on a type of welding that I was really looking forward to having you experience as part of the basketball game project.  Oxy-acetylene or gas welding uses a very very hot and dangerous flame to melt or cut the metal. It is also one of the oldest forms of welding.  You were going to get the opportunity to use the welding torch to braze two parts together on your project. Alas, we need to settle for videos this week and next to provide you with a good overview of it.

I will update grades for the first three weeks either later today or by the end of the day tomorrow (4/12) as I need to report all students that have not done a darn thing yet for this class.  Some of you may be getting a phone call from me !

I just spent the last hour and a half or so updating grades for the first two weeks of required assignments.  Please check the MiStar grade book and make sure everything looks good.  If you see a problem, email me or remind me in our virtual classroom meetings this week.  Please continue to submit your answers using the decimal that corresponds to the assignment as it makes record keeping just that much easier. Remember the credit scale that I use is a 0,1, or 2.

Speaking of classroom meetings, we did have issues last Tuesday with the new chat room in iLearn, causing a cancellation of meetings last week, but those audio issues have been resolved.  I hope to see as many of you as possible at your scheduled meetings this week.

Simply type the enrollment code into iLearn to join the session.  You will not be able to join the session if I am not there yet, so no need to get there early. 

I will be sending the codes to you in a personal email tomorrow morning. Each hour has their own code.

I have reposted the  schedule below. 

Welcome to a new week.  Hopefully you are starting to settle into a daily routine.  I am not there yet! The two topics to cover in this week’s blog are grades and changes to our virtual classroom meetings.

 First off, grades.  I updated everything that was submitted to me through iLearn or by email.  You will see a 1 or 2 for completion of the assignment and a 0 if nothing was submitted.  You can still change those zeros, but you have one more week to do so.  Again, I encourage you not fall behind (so you are not stressing out to get credit) and complete and submit all three weekly assignments at once.  The focus for the next two weeks will be on TIG welding. Based on the fact that 98% of you enrolled in iLearn and our chats during the week, I am very disappointed that not more assignments were turned in. Those of you that turned in stuff, THANK YOU! By following the format of using the decimal number for the assignment, they were easy to check. Instructions for submitting work in iLearn can be found in the 4/20 blog.

As you are probably already aware, we will no longer be using Google hangouts  for our virtual class meetings. The new format will be through iLearn which gives the teacher more control over the chat and also easier to take attendance. I hope to get that set up today without issues.   The meetings will have a different enrollment code for each hour.  Check your email daily for updates on this.

A reminder that if you or someone you know needs to still sign out a chrome book to complete online work,  chrome books will be distributed  today and tomorrow from 12-3 in the staff parking lot on the Horger side of the building. Have a great week and remember to check emails daily.