STUDENT ORIENTATION

WELCOME!

Our mission is to help you succeed. During the next few minutes you will learn how to earn a high school diploma, while keeping hope alive to reach your personal dream in life!

Before we show you how this High School is different than other schools you have previously attended, I want to ask you a personal question: If you knew that you could not fail, what career would you like to enter after graduation from high school? Take a moment to think about that question.

Later, we will discuss numerous interview questions about your previous success and disappointments that led you to inquire about attendance at this campus. The questionnaire’s design is to help you and school staff to understand your current life situation and dream.

Every student has a dream. We want you to keep your dream in focus as you watch this presentation, and later, as you work toward your diploma.

Some students may think that their lofty dreams are out of reach because of past or present circumstances: broken homes, physical limitations, challenging finances, failed classes, lost hope, or shattered relationships.

You may be one of a group of students who have had to face some pretty tough life situations that have almost crushed your dream. But this school is designed especially to help you have a fresh start in life….a new beginning!

This learning system and curriculum are not like programs at regular schools.

You are watching this presentation because you are at least curious to discover whether our school is a good fit for you. Hundreds of students just like you have enrolled in schools like this campus to discover that dreams do indeed come alive in an individualized learning system and personalized education plans that let you make up failed courses rapidly or allow you to accelerate toward your target graduation date – while learning how to live!

In regular schools, students sit in desks and listen to teachers, who control how fast students complete courses based on the school calendar, according to the skill and knowledge of teachers. You will notice that this campus does not look or operate like other schools.

Rather than being assigned to classrooms, you will be assigned to a learning center, where you will sit in a cubicle, sometimes called your office or carrel, where you have the privacy you need to focus on academic assignments without distractions.

While in this school, your private office becomes your personalized place to forget about other life issues and to pour your energy into concentrated learning from individualized study units. Most of your studies will be in printed learning packets, sometimes called Chapters. Some courses will involve computerized lessons. Periodically, you will join other students in tutorials to help you gain the skills and knowledge needed to master content that will be measured on state exams.

In this school, you will be guided and encouraged to set your learning pace on Daily Goal Cards, so that courses can be completed as rapidly as you apply energy and commitment toward daily academic goals. School Staff will help you outline your graduation transcript planner and will guide your studies through prescribed courses required to earn a diploma.

You will learn how to set and attain daily academic goals, which you will enter on an Academic Goal Card. Students have the responsibility to complete specific pages\lessons in prescribed courses as outlined on your Academic Contract. This school is designed to help you focus on course completion according to your initiative, rather than based on the number of days you sit in a desk, and listen to a teacher or other students.

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Learning is reading based.

This individualized learning procedure allows students to recover lost credits rapidly. Some students complete as much as two years of work in one year! That can be you!

A typical school day involves an opening exercise, in which your learning center supervisor makes announcements, leads students in the pledges of allegiance to the US and state flags, calls for a moment of silence so that you can pray or meditate on your responsibilities for the day, and issues Congratulations Slips to students who passed quizzes and tests during the previous day.

After the opening exercises, you will check your Goal Chart to identify the books and precise pages/lessons or quizzes which you will complete that day. You do not need to wait for staff to tell you what to do. You simply check your Goal Chart, select the correct learning unit (book, software), and go to work.

If you need assistance, you post a flag on your cubicle divider. Do not waste time until help arrives. Simply select another study unit and begin working on the pages you have set on your Goal Chart. When a teacher arrives, state your need, and follow instruction to complete the pages on your Goal Chart. This efficient use of time is the key to completing courses.

Periodically, you will be required to score or grade the pages you complete. Scoring is done at a Score Station in the Learning Center. You post your flag to indicate that you want to score. A staff member will glance over your work to make sure that all answers are appropriate. Then, you will go to the score station, select the correct Answer Key, and grade your answers with a red pen.

When you complete the specified pages/lessons of academic work, you cross off those pages/lessons on your Goal Chart, and enter the exact pages/lessons you will complete the following day. By the end of each day, you should have completed and marked off all the pages/lessons you entered on your Goal Chart. Each Friday, you will receive a new Goal Chart for the following week. Before you sign out from school on Friday, you will enter the precise pages/lessons you will work on Monday.

Each week, you will take quizzes over specific sections of academic work to help you measure how well you are performing. Quizzes are taken at the Test Table. Your academic grades are compiled from scores on the quizzes. Students who work rapidly, earn more grades than students who work slowly.

When you pass a quiz, you receive a Congratulations Slip and star to post on your Progress Chart. This Progress Chart is your visual evidence that you are fulfilling your responsibilities to earn a diploma.

Your weekly schedule may include a combination of activities, such as tutorials, seminars, career enhancement assemblies, breaks, lecture classes, and visits to local college campuses.

You are mature enough to realize that schools must have rules and guidelines that assure students the opportunity to complete courses in a pleasant environment.

The Board of Trustees has established a Student Handbook and Code of Conduct that define how students dress, when they attend school, what they study, and how they behave on campus. These printed policies define the strengths which make this campus a place where you can succeed, and stay focused on your dreams.

Let’s get started on your quest to reach your dream to graduate!