Kat's POG

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ATTENDANCE
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Texas statute requires all public schools offer a minimum of one-hundred-eighty (180) days of instruction. Additionally, TXVA requires an average of 6 hours of instructional time per day. For a student to receive credit,

This means that you can DO school work WHEN EVER, WHERE EVER, HOWEVER you want. you can do it in the kitchen, in the backyard, at the beach, on a boat, with a goat, on a chair, in your lare. you can go on a field trip, take a family trip, you can do it standing on your head. HOWEVER. The state PREFERS that you enter the attendance M-F, so humor them by 'BANKING' your hours and entering them on those days and everyone is HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY.

Attendance is COMPLICATED.  If you want the ISP reimbursement check each Semester, then you must get 6 hours a day / 30 hours a week. FINE. how?

ROUND UP: well say you complete an assessment, without the Lesson, I call it Credit By Examination. it takes you 10 minutes. the 'default' time could be 20 minutes (spelling) or 50 minutes (social studies) or 1 hour (Science) take the default.

UNLESS: it is a really difficult and it takes you 2 hours and 17 minutes and even then, you are about to give up and quit. take the full time spent and mark it and then crack a beer. There will be days like this.

REASONABLENESS: you could very well do 12 hours of school in a day, we have been to NASA or the MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCE and we have done A LOT. but if you log in 12 hours of school they are not going to look fondly on it, so 

BANK YOUR HOURS. I have a daily limit of 8 hours. if I have more hours than that to 'spend' I find a day that was 'lean' and only say 4 hours, and I account for them there.

TIME TRAVEL. once you enter in your attendance, you can edit it all day long, but at midnight, like the  pumpkin, it is final. HOWEVER only for those courses that you had at least a minute. If you never entered in any attendance for that course for that day, you can always to back and add some at a later date. Why is this important? Remember that P.E. has to be 3 hours a week, well if you are going to the Grand Canyon, you can easily get three months worth in a week, BANK your hours, and make sure by the end of the semester that you had 1620 MINUTES or 27 hours or in the end, it will not be a neat and tidy in a package with a bow. I like bows. Bows mean that I do not have to justify anything.

Attendance is mandatory at all TXVA testing events. Parents must ensure that students participate in all required state and local testing.

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TESTING
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STAAR STATE ASSESSMENTS:
1 time a year, 4 hours, on location
CLOSED BOOK, STATE PROCTORED

BENCHMARKS ASSESSMENTS: SCANTRON
3 times a year, 4 hours, at home - ACHIEVEMENT SERIES
ADAPTIVE, they keep going until you get 5 wrong in a row
CLOSED BOOK, MOM PROCTORED

WORKSAMPLES:
4 times a year, 4 hours, at home - STUDY ISLAND
OPEN BOOK, Collaborate, Do Your Best

SKILL CHECKS:
36 times a year, 30 minutes, at home - STUDY ISLAND
OPEN BOOK, Collaborate, Do Your Best

K12 Online Assessments
daily, 5 minutes, at home
OPEN BOOK, Collaborate, Do Your Best

STAAR PREP: take the released tests  a month in advance to get familiar with the format and the style of testing: http://www.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessment/staar/testquestions/

Benchmarks:
Benchmark tests are administered throughout the school year to track students' progress. Benchmarks are designed to ascertain if students are reaching academic goals and if areas of the students' curriculum need special attention. 


The first set are at the beginning of the year, the second are before Christmas break, this is an indicator of what is the forecast for STAAR, the third and final are in May to see what progress has been made for the whole year.

Work Samples and Assessments are not grade critical, they are demonstration that the students are doing the work, so Open Book IMO is perfectly acceptable.  This teaching method is called you are evaluated on understanding rather than recall and memorization.

TXVA issues formal report cards every nine weeks. The final report card will be issued in July. The final grade in each content subject, English/Language Arts, Mathematics, Social Studies,
and Science, is determined by OLS progress from each reporting period, participation in all required school assessments, attendance to Class Connects, and work samples. If students do not participate in the assessments, they may not receive credit for the course, and promotion to the next grade level may be impacted.

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PROGRESS
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Many people see 'AT YOUR OWN PACE' and think, oh, well we have all year long to get done. that is still within the parameters that IF YOU WANT TO COMPLETE a GRADE in a school YEAR. There is an inherent pace that you do have to at least maintain.  So yes, you can go at your own pace, but that does not mean 1% per week for 36 weeks, see how that is not going to work for you? So how many weeks and how much progress? well we have 36 weeks to complete at least 90% to complete the course with an "A".  now your favorite process MATH:
90% divided by 36 weeks = 2.5 % HOWEVER... how you budget that over the year is up to you but the hard cold fact is that you have to do a minimum pace or your looking at multiple years to complete the grade.

My own schedule is based on what works for my kids, we do not want to have to do lessons on weeks that we have STAAR exams or Benchmarks because those are so mind numbingly draining.

PE is the only course that has a minimum time requirement.

Here is where the 3 hours a week or 27 hours a quarter must be accounted for. It really does not matter what you do for P.E. the course lessons are SUGGESTIONS.

If your student is a professional athlete, whatever training they are doing, count it towards P.E. If they are in Soccer, Swim Team, or simply working on a Swimming, Hiking, or Biking Merit Badge, count that work towards the attendance for P.E.