Communication

Communication is essential to the success of your student, especially in online school. Teachers don’t get the opportunity to see your kids face-to-face, so long-distance communication are the only options. Going back to the three-legged stool analogy, it is important for all of the legs to communicate with each other. Students need to communicate with their teachers and Learning Coaches, teachers need to communicate with students and Learning Coaches, and Learning Coaches need to communicate with both the students and the school. Without consistent, effective communication between the three legs, the stool will wobble.

Communicating with your student

Regular and consistent communication with your student is important to their success. Whether it’s setting goals, discussing struggles, praising efforts, or having discussions about areas where your student needs to improve, communicating with your student is essential. Again, you know your student best, you know what they’ll respond to, but here are some tips for communication with your teen.

- Talk with your student about everyday things, not just their grades or school

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- Praise their efforts, even if there is still room to improve. Knowing that any improvement they make is valuable to you helps to motivate them to keep improving.

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- Don’t force them to respond in the conversation. Talk to them, it may not seem like it, but they hear you. Eventually, if you talk enough about how proud you are, how hard you see them working, how difficult you know this may be for them, or that you value their input, they will begin to respond.

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- Be patient. Teenagers are dealing with a lot and are trying to find their way. Give them time and space but let them know you are there.

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- Set goals. Try to get your student to sit down and set goals for the week with you. Let them know the goals you have for yourself, that the goal-setting skill isn’t one that goes away when they graduate.

Communicating with the school

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While you need not communicate with your student’s teachers daily or weekly, you should keep an eye on their communications. All emails sent to your student from their teachers will automatically be forwarded to you as Learning Coach. These emails will include weekly progress reports from the Homeroom Teacher, missed session notices, communication regarding falling behind in class, and also positive emails praising efforts.

Every Monday, your student’s Homeroom Teacher will email your student’s progress report. This will include their grades as of that morning and whether they are SAT or UNSAT. SAT means Satisfactory Progress in which your student is doing well. If your student has a full caseload of classes (4 content courses and Homeroom/Advisory), they can be failing only one course and still be SAT. Failing is a grade lower than 60%. If your student started in a later cohort that Trimester, they will have only one or two content classes plus Homeroom/Advisory. In this case, they need to be passing all of their courses to be SAT.

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UNSAT is Unsatisfactory Progress and means that your student needs some extra support to get caught up. If they have a full caseload of classes (4 content courses plus Homeroom) and are failing two or more of those courses, they are UNSAT. If they only have one or two content classes plus Homeroom, they are UNSAT if they are failing one or more.

Here is the information in an easier format:

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SAT

4 classes plus Homeroom – passing all or only failing one

2 classes plus Homeroom – passing all

1 class plus Homeroom – passing all

UNSAT

4 classes plus Homeroom – failing 2 or more

2 classes plus Homeroom – failing 1 or more

1 class plus Homeroom – failing 1 or more

Make sure you read these emails each Monday so you know exactly how your student is doing. If you see that they are UNSAT, there may be a note from the teacher about getting caught up. You may also want to check your student’s courses to see where they are behind and help them come up with a plan to get caught up. It may also be a good time to email your student’s Homeroom Teacher or the content teacher for the class your student is failing to see what can be done to help the student catch up.

Homeroom and content teachers enjoy hearing from Learning Coaches on what is working and what is not. Let your student’s teachers know when you see your student struggling and work with them to come up with a plan to help your student. They are the experts on the content and the course, you are the expert on your student. Work with them to help see your student succeed.

Don’t limit your communications to when your student is struggling. Share with your student’s teachers when your seeing your student engaged and working hard. Teachers get limited time with your student and often that is spent with many other students. Hearing first-hand from a Learning Coach that they are seeing improvement and engagement is appreciated and valued by the teachers.