For a variety of reasons, student may be assigned one or more on-line courses to either work on during a specific class period or at home. The following guidelines apply for these virtual reality classes:
Students through an on-line curriculum format instead of the traditional teacher-led class. Students will be placed in classes according to their individual needs. Plato Courseware is a standards-based online learning program designed to be:
Rigorous: proven to improve student achievement
Interactive: media-rich content actively engages students
Aligned to Common Core and state standards
Students will progress through the course at their own pace, so will have the opportunity to complete the credit before the end of the trimester and begin the next section early. In this regard, students can actually earn credit at a faster pace than in a traditional course. Consequently, if a student does not make satisfactory progress, they will fall behind and risk losing credit.
It is my role as an on-line "mentor" to communicate with you regarding your progress, control courseware permissions such as unlocking tests for you, transfer your quiz and test scores to eschool and assist with any questions you may have, We should schedule a specific day and time to communicate either face to face, over the phone, or via email on a weekly basis. The Plato system gives me reports on the total time you've spent on-task - down to the minute and second. Please make sure you spend at least an hour a day on each course that is assigned to you - that will give you adequate time to complete the course. Attached below on this page are Course Pacing Guides that give specific dates when lessons are due. Those dates correspond with the time frame that I will enter your scores into the gradebook. Please make sure you stay on pace. If you are struggling with a particular lesson or class, please schedule a time to come in and meet with me. I can go over the material and review your tests with you.
Plato Courseware Rules and Regulations
LOGIN: Students can access their Plato courses by logging in at https://ple.platoweb.com with the following credentials:
Account Login: aps8
PLATO Name: first initial followed by last name in all lower-case (i.e. jdoe)
Password: student ID number
NOTES: As you work through your class, you must take adequate notes from each lesson assigned. These notes need to be information learned during the tutorial. Be sure to click into and study all sections within the tutorial and pay attention to key terms, charts, graphs and illustrations. Notes must be printed in your own hand-writing; not typed or copied from on-line sources. All notes should also be dated and titled. Students cannot share notes with others; doing so would constitute cheating. You can use your notes on your tests!!
MASTERY TESTS: You must earn at least an 80% (4 out of 5) to pass each lesson quiz. If you require additional attempts to earn 80%, you must go back into the tutorial and log additional time before the test will be unlocked. You will not be allowed to keep taking the test over and over again. After many years of working with Plato, I can tell you that the fastest way to progress through a class is to take your time studying and learning the material in the tutorial before attempting the mastery test.
UNIT POST TEST: At the end of each unit, students must pass the Unit Test with at least 60%. If you require additional attempts to earn 60%, you must go back into the lessons to study and log additional time before the test will be unlocked.