INSTRUCTIONAL OPTIONS

LIVE CLASSES

All Live Classes:

•  All live sessions are recorded and available to students within 24 – 48 hours after the class session was taught.
•  Students attending live classes also have access to the embedded instructional video of Mr. D teaching each section.
• Students are expected to complete the assigned weekly course-work before attending class the following week.
• *Parents purchase the curriculum first and also pay an additional fee for the live instruction.

Full Year Courses:

• Students receive scheduled, weekly live, on-line instruction (55-minute class) from August through May. 
• Students will dedicate approximately 5-6 hours a week to completing their course-work.
• *Parents purchase the curriculum and also pay an additional fee of $29 a month for 10 months for the live instruction.

Semester Long Courses:

• Students complete a full year of math in one semester.  Students will dedicate approximately 10-12 hours a week to complete their course-work.
• Students receive live on-line instruction and attend a 55-minute class twice a week from August through   December or January through May.
• All live sessions are recorded and available to students 24 hours after the class session was taught.
• Students attending live classes also have access to the embedded instructional video of Mr. D teaching each section.
• *Parents purchase the curriculum and also pay an additional fee of $58 a month for 5 months for the live instruction.

Self-Paced Courses

• Students have access to their curriculum for 18 months and can complete it at their own pace. 
• Students learn how to complete their course-work by watching an embedded instructional video of Mr. D teaching one lesson per section.
• Pacing charts are available to self-paced students if they desire to follow the traditional school year calendar.
• *Cost includes curriculum, extra help sessions and email support.

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Live versus self-paced courses

The biggest differences between live instruction and self-paced classes are:

• The way the instruction is delivered
  • Live: students meet weekly with their instructor and other students to receive instruction
  • Self-Paced: students watch the embedded video to receive instruction
• Pace
  • Live: students are expected to complete their weekly assignments before attending class the following week
  • Self-Paced: students can move at their own pace
    1. Students can follow the pace chart available
    2. Students can move at a faster pace
    3. Students can move at a slower pace
• Cost
  • Live: curriculum is purchased and an additional fee is paid for live instruction
  • Self-Paced: curriculum is purchased

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Student Success

Two key factors for student success in our courses are:

•  Doing the course, the way it is designed:
  • After enrolling their student, we ask parents and students to watch the Getting Started Section together. This allows both parties to understand the way the course is designed and how the work is to be completed on a weekly basis.
  • Reading the remainder of this document will also give you an idea of the way the course is designed to achieve maximum student success.
  • Parent involvement:
    • Weekly Meeting
      We encourage and highly recommend that parents have a weekly meeting with their child to check that their student is on pace and understands the material. Parents can spend just 10 minutes once a week and have their student(s) present their work, including quizzes and tests.  During the weekly meeting, the student explains their answers to their parent(s) (which makes learning the material richer). This way the parent knows they have completed the work and mastered the material. If the student is not able to do that, then the parent knows there is an opportunity for the student to go back and redo course-work, re-watch videos, retake quizzes, attend live help sessions, and/or email their instructor to learn the material. The goal is for the students to take ownership for their learning and master the material.
    • Checking grades
      By logging in with their student’s username and password parents can monitor their student’s grades and pace in their course. On the left vertical menu, Click on the “Assignments Tab” and parents can clearly see what work has been submitted, what assignments are due and the grade that was earned for each assignment. You can also click directly on the assignment to see: when the assignment was completed, how much time was spent on the assignment, as well as how many attempts were made on the assignment.
    • Checking Pace
      • For our live classes: To see what assignments are due, log in with the student’s username and password.  On the top horizontal menu, click the “News tab” and parents can clearly see what assignments are due for the week.  If an assignment is not submitted on the requested date, the grade will calculate as a zero until the assignment is completed.
      • For our self paced classes:  Parents monitor the pace of the student’s progress. All parents receive a weekly email that help the students keep pace with the 10 month course.

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COMPLETING THE COURSE THE WAY IT WAS DESIGNED

The following information applies to both live and self-paced courses.

BOOK:

There is no physical book that goes along with Mr. D classes. After purchasing the course, your student will be able to print out the course worksheets. Many families print out the course worksheets by chapter, hole-punch them, put them in a binder with a divider for each chapter, and by the end of the year the student has a completed math book!

COURSE-WORK:

After students receive instruction, via live instruction or via embedded video, they are to complete their course-work sections in order to practice the skills learned during instructional time.

GRADING the Course-work:  20% of the grade

Once students complete their course-work, they will use the available solution manual to grade their assignments. Students are expected to check their course-work, and if a problem is incorrect, examine their error(s) and correct their error(s). If the answer is incorrect and it is a simple error such as incorrect multiplication, doing the problem in the incorrect order, or forgetting a negative they can simply see their mistake, correct it and learn from it. This will help them to see their normal tendencies and be more careful when doing their work.

Students are expected to learn from their errors, correct their course-work, determine their correct percentage and enter their grade online. Our grading system does work on an honor system as the solution PDF links are in the same place as the worksheets and videos.

Quizzes, Spiral Reviews, Chapter Tests, and Semester Exams are all graded automatically by our computer program. Students can have 2 attempts on any of these assessments. Students are permitted to use their notes, course-work, videos and teacher provided resources to complete their exams.

Quizzes: 30% of the grade

Students are asked to take a quiz after completing the course-work section for the day.

Quizzes typically have 4-5 questions and allow students to see the material they have mastered.

Spiral Reviews: counts as a quiz grade

Spiral reviews provide students with the opportunity to practice the material that is particularly important and will be covered in future tests and exams.

Chapter Tests: 30% of the grade

After completing each chapter, students will take a test that reviews the material from the chapter.

Semester Exams: 20% of the grade.  There are 2 per course.

Semester exams are taken after the first half of the course and after the second half of the course.  Exams are not cumulative.

 TIME COMMITMENT:

The daily cycle (3 times a week for live yearly courses) as seen below typically takes anywhere from 45 -75 minutes depending on the learner as well as the topic.

• Instruction and learning
• Completing the course-work
• Grading and correcting the course- work and putting in the grade
• Taking the Quiz
• Completing the spiral review, test, or semester exam (when applicable)

EXTRA HELP: (available to live and self-paced students)

If students did not get the answer correct because they did not understand how to do the problem and they need help, they have a few avenues to choose from:

1.  Re-watch the embedded video (available to all students).

2.  Email their instructor with their question, the chapter number, problem number, and a picture of the work they completed, so that the instructor can see where help is needed.

3.  Attend an extra help session – extra help sessions are available three times a week and are attended by students who need assistance in completing their classwork or grasping a concept. If there is more than one student in the session, the teacher takes turns asking questions to each student one at a time. Once students have received the help they need, they are free to leave. They are also free to return later within the hour if they need more assistance. 

HONORS CREDIT:

Students have the opportunity to earn honors credit in Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II and Pre-Calculus with Trigonometry. In order to earn honors credit, students are asked to complete a special assignment per chapter. All honors assignments are pass/ fail assignments and must be completed with a grade of 100% in order to receive honors credit. Students are provided with specific instructions, an honors template, and a video of Mr. D explaining how to complete the assignment.