It is with pride that I look back over the 2011 calendar year at Ignite Christian Academy. During this year we tested and implemented online classrooms, the Six Traits rubric, a new student information system, and our first ever ICA Winter Cele-break-tion consisting of two online parties and a Wii party. It has been a year of great progress.
Many begin each new year thinking about change, a difference in direction. Here at ICA, we look at 2012 with some positive changes in mind.
- Project Grading and Test Taking: Projects will be graded in the order they are received. Projects must be completed and submitted before the test is unblocked. Students who submit blank projects in order to test will receive an academic penalty and will not be allowed to test in future units until all projects within that unit are completed and graded.
- Ignitia students now have only ten attempts to meet the pass threshold of a lesson. After ten attempts, they will have to request an additional attempt from a teacher or keep the grade they have earned.
- Ignitia students now have a pass threshold for quizzes. Student must make a 64 or higher on the first attempt at a quiz or will be required to take the quiz a second time. Students will no longer be allowed to retake one quiz per unit to improve the score if they have not had to utilize an automatic retake. Students may request an alternate quiz (if available) to be averaged with the original quiz score.
As you look forward to the 2012 calendar year, ICA has some suggestions on how you can benefit the education of your child.
- Take an active interest in your child's school work. Check at least once a week to see what they have been learning. Ask to see their notes at the end of each school day. Ask questions about the concepts within the notes. Have your child present a concept to you at the end of each week; check for understanding of that concept as they present.
- Ensure that your child is utilizing academic support. Here at the academy, we offer four methods of academic support for your child: online classrooms, phone support, live chat, and messaging through the curriculum.
- Online classrooms: Invitations for the following week’s online classrooms are sent to parents via email each Friday. If you are not getting these emails, check your spam filter to make sure these emails are not being prohibited from arriving in your inbox. If you are not receiving these emails, call the academy and ask for an invitation to be sent. Online classrooms provide the benefit of direct teacher instruction on difficult concepts. Additionally, they offer the opportunity to get to know teachers and classmates on a personal level.
- Phone support: When your child is struggling with a concept, have him pick up the phone and dial 877.543.0148 to talk to a teacher who can support his learning over that concept.
- Live chat: Ignitia and Switched-on-online students have the opportunity to chat live (via the Internet) with a teacher during scheduled hours of the day. Check the schedule and make sure your child is interacting with teachers on a regular basis.
- Messaging: All students in computer-based programs have the opportunity to message their teacher through the messaging (email) system within their curriculum. Students should be messaging with their teachers on a consistent basis.
- Provide extracurricular academic activities for your child. Visit a museum or a monument. Watch an educational movie or TV show. Take a walk through a historic neighborhood and discuss the architecture.
Join ICA in our efforts to make this the best academic year possible for your child.
Best wishes!
Dr. Deb Secord
Principal