Rules & Expectations

1. Communicate with me! In an online learning environment, you must be willing to open up and share in order for us to build a good relationship. All I know about you is what you and your parents tell me.
   
   
2. Be engaged! This is an intense college-level course which moves quickly and deeply. Lengthy readings are assigned nightly. Students are expected to arrive at class daily prepared to discuss.
   In an online learning environment, your voluntary participation is essential to success! This means:
   
   logging into Google Classroom daily and following the latest directions in the classroom stream
   
   adhering to the semester schedule without falling behind or working ahead
   
   keeping up with readings, research, and projects; studying vocabulary; watching videos; and performing other asynchronous tasks on your own
   
   participating in daily live instruction including joining online discussion threads and collaborating with classmates in small group work
   
   reading everything thoroughly for detail!
   
   submitting work in the proper location; if asked to turn something into Google Classroom, don’t send it through Remind or email. Don’t make me hunt your work down.
   
   
3. Polite, civil behavior is expected! Practice good netiquette. This includes but is not limited to:
   
   Use respectful language in voice and text conversations. Profanity, racist, sexist, homophobic, and other offensive or judgmental comments will not be tolerated.
   
   Please mute your microphone when joining meetings, unless asked to do otherwise. You are not required to have your camera on, although I would appreciate it if you did. Our communication will be greatly improved if I can read your facial expressions! 
   
   This is a school setting. Use formal academic English language when writing, including proper capitalization, punctuation, and spelling to ensure your message is communicated effectively. Avoid online slang and acronyms when typing messages.
   
   Answer messages within 24 hours or less. If it you will take longer to compose a reply, send a brief response to the sender to tell them that.
   
   DO NOT TYPE IN ALL CAPS! This is the online equivalent of screaming.
   
   Remember the human and don’t hide behind a screen! If you would not make a potentially offensive comment to someone in person, don’t share it digitally. The people reading your messages are real people with real feelings.
   
   Avoid toxic sarcasm. Without the tone-of-voice or facial expressions that accompany it in person, sarcastic statements in text are easy to misinterpret.
   
   Attempt to find your own answers before asking others.
   
   Share, but don’t overshare. All WCPSS rules regarding inappropriate content apply to remote learning.
   
   Respect others’ privacy. Don’t forward sensitive emails or share private pictures or videos. Use BCC (blind carbon copy) on large group emails to hide recipients’ addresses.
   
   Be mindful of posts you make public and be inclusive. If you have a joke or comment for one or a few individuals, send a private message.
   
   Fact-check before reposting! Before you share controversial information, verify it with Politfact, Snopes, FactCheck.org, OpenSecrets.org, or another fact-checking website.

Grading

​Grading scale:
​
A: 100-90%
B: 89-80%
C: 79-70%
D: 69-60%
F: 59-0%

Quarter Grades:

​50% = Exams
20% = Essays
15% = Quizzes
15% = Projects

Course Grade: 

​40% = Q1
40% = Q2
20% = FINAL EXAM

1. ​​Assignments that are submitted on time and meet minimum completion requirements will receive no less than a 50%.
   
   
2. Assignment submissions are timestamped digitally. Assignments will only be accepted late for 60% credit up to one week past the deadline.
   
   
3. All students will have the opportunity to recover grades by submitting late work and/or completing test makeups/retests.
   
   
4. Students with a score of 69% or below on a test may retest one time for a maximum test score of 70%.
   ​
   
5. Extra credit will not be offered.

Typed Assignments

​Typed assignments must conform to MLA standards.

• MLA paper format
• MLA formatted essay example
• Microsoft Word directions MLA for formatting ​

Honor Code

Academic honesty is essential to excellence in education and is directly related to the Board's educational objectives for students to promote integrity and self-discipline in students.  As all schoolwork is a measure of student performance, academic honesty facilitates an accurate measurement of student learning.

Each student, parent, family and staff member has a responsibility to promote a culture that respects and fosters integrity and honesty.  Academic integrity and honesty requires that all stakeholders share responsibility in the fulfillment of this policy.

In fulfilling these responsibilities:

• students will collaborate with their peers to foster a culture of academic integrity; refrain from participating, either directly or indirectly, in any form of cheating or plagiarism; and adhere to the honor code;
• parents and family will actively support the honor code by encouraging their child(ren) to foster and uphold a culture of academic integrity;
• staff will establish and annually teach expectations regarding academic integrity and honesty; and promote the honor code.

A. Prohibited Behavior

1. Cheating:  Cheating is an academic deception where a student intends in some way to receive or attempt to receive credit for work not originated by the student, to give or receive unauthorized assistance, or to give or receive an unfair advantage on any form of academic work. 

Cheating includes, but is not limited to:

• copying from another student’s examination, assignment, or other coursework with or without permission;
• allowing another student to copy work without authorization from a teacher or administrator;
• taking an examination, writing a paper, or completing any other assigned academic task on another student’s behalf;
• using notes or resources in any form, including written or online, without authorization;
• sharing or accepting from another, without authorization, any examination content, questions, answers, or tips on an assessment or assignment through the use of notes, scratch paper, social media, or any type of written, oral, or electronic communication.

2. Plagiarism: Plagiarism is using passages, materials, words, ideas, and/or thoughts of someone or something else and representing them as one's own original work without properly crediting the source.

Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to:

• copying text, images, charts, or other materials from digital or print sources without proper citation;
• intentional misrepresentation of work as your own by paraphrasing of items from digital or print sources without proper citation;
• using translation tools or resources to translate sentences or passages without permission;
• using a thesis, hypothesis, or idea obtained from another source without proper citation.

3. Falsification or Deceit: Intentional acts of falsification or serious deceitful misconduct that threaten the health, safety, or welfare of others, or that cause a substantial detrimental impact on school operations or other individuals are prohibited. 

Falsification or deceit includes, but is not limited to:

• falsifying another person’s name on a school-related document such as a test or report;
• buying or selling test questions or answers;
• copying secure test materials and providing the materials to others;
• paying for or receiving anything of value to complete a school assignment.