First, remind yourselves and your students that we will be patient and understanding as all of our students and teachers are learning and trying to click all the right links!!

Our office staff is working to address all of the phone and email messages in the order that they were received. To ensure your concerns are addressed, if you’re not sure who to contact you can always email Dr Mitchell and he will forward your concern to the appropriate person. 

Second, we do NOT expect kids or teachers to spend their entire day in front of their screen. Teachers will post the week’s expectation in Unified Classroom on Monday morning. Although some days will have group work planned, the typical expectation is that kids will log into Unified Classroom or TEAMS for instructions for the first 15 minutes of each Block. In order to encourage appropriate screen time habits, students will follow a modified block schedule which will include 4 classes per day. Teachers will take attendance during the first 15 minutes of each section and be available for questions and individual support throughout majority of the remainder of the period. (Unified Classroom will always have the most up to date and accurate information, so check there if you aren’t sure!) Teachers will be available for questions and help throughout the scheduled Block.

Block 1 – 8:30

Block 2 – 10:49

Block 3 – 11:53

Block 4 – 1:45

• For the first quarter, Monday and Thursday will be A days.
• For the first quarter, Tuesday and Friday will be B days.
• Wednesday will be C day.

Third, in order to ensure that we are working from the same resources, remember that students have a Unified Classroom Log in and a Microsoft Office Log in. For new students those usernames and passwords are the same. For returning students, if you are struggling to log in to Office, the new username and password is firstinitial lastname @student.artsacad.net The password is case sensitive and will be AAWfirstinitial lastinitial student number.

Using these criteria, Dr Mitchell’s would be:

mmitchell@student.artsacad.net

AAWmm1609

• For Microsoft Office, there is no need to access an Arts Academy page. Just go to office.com and log in. (If your password doesn’t work, email Ms. Allen callen@artsacad.net)
• For Unified Classroom, you must access the Arts Academy Unified Classroom. There is a link on the top of our homepage at artsacad.net, but you can also Click this Link (if your username or password doesn’t work email Mrs. Sziopjak cszopjak@artsacad.net)

For families who were unable to attend New Student Orientation, we are scheduling individual appointments. Please submit your preferred days using this form

We have prepared a presentation for Parent Orientation. You can view the presentation by clicking this link

We are planning a Town Hall for Wednesday 09/02 at 2:00 pm. There is an overview of the presentation at this link

Finally, for families who have submitted technology requests, we have completed the review of requests and prioritized needs. We will be reaching out to schedule pick up times over the next several days.

Technology 

If your family needs access to technology, please complete the  Technology Request survey by clicking the link. We are hoping to be able to provide laptops on Friday, but we will continue to work with families until all of our students needs are met. 

Scheduling Questions 

Schedules are available in Unified Classroom.  For returning students, you can use your username and password from last year.  In order to request schedule changes, please complete the Schedule Request Form   

In order to ensure that we have options for all of the potential scenarios, we had to build and name courses a little different this year. All courses are based on our typical 7 period day, but we had to arrange them so we could implement an A day with half of the periods, a B day with the other half of the periods, and a C day with all periods. We will use C days when we return fully to face to face instruction. 

For the first quarter, Monday and Thursday will be A days.   

For the first quarter, Tuesday and Friday will be B days. 

Wednesday will be C day.  

In the PowerSchool app, students will be able to select ‘Schedule’ to view their schedule after school starts.  

Until then, you can view schedules in Unified Classroom.  

To understand your schedule in Unified Classroom, you will have to know that periods are assigned a day and a number.  Each student should have 7 classes. (Unless you are Dual Enrolled or participating in Early College.) Each class has a period number assigned to it.  

For Period 1, the number is 1 A, C, meaning that it meets during Block 1 on A and C days. 

Period 2 is 2 A – C, meaning that it meets during Block 2 on A through C days (all days) 

Period 3 is 2 A, C. It meets during Block 3 on A and C days. 

Period 4 is 4 A, C, Block 4 on A and C days. 

Period 5 is 1B, 5C, Block 1 on B days and Block 5 on C days 

Period 2 is 2 A – C. It meets during Block 2 on A through C days (all days) 

Period 6 is 3B, 6C. Block 3 on B days and Block 6 on C.  

Period 7 is 4B, 7c. Block 4 on B days and Block 7 on C. 

Student schedules will be posted in Unified Classroom for returning students on Monday August 24. If you don’t remember you log in information, you can email Mrs. Szopjak cszopjak@artsacad.net  

New students will receive their usernames and passwords for Unified Classroom during new student orientation.  

In order to request schedule changes, please complete the Schedule Request Form  

In order to encourage appropriate screen time habits, students will follow a modified block schedule which will include 4 classes per day. Teachers will take attendance during the first 15 minutes of each section and be available for questions and individual support throughout majority of the remainder of the period. 

Online learning will follow this schedule: (Block two is the same on all days and is about half the time of the other blocks)  

Color PDF of Daily Schedule

Please click the link to view the Parent Orientation Presentation

We are working to ensure a safe and quick orientation for our new students this year. We have 3 goals for orientation: 

1. Students will have pictures taken for school ID and Yearbook. 
2. Students will get support accessing communication tools for virtual learning. 
3. Students will be able to pick up technology if they need it. 

In order to ensure appropriate social distancing, we will be asking families to select a half hour window for their students using the Orientation Scheduling Survey We will ask that you provide your top three choices and we will assign them accordingly. 

If your family is unable to attend the Orientation, we will make appointments available during the first week of school. We will have a better idea of how many appointments times will be needed after orientation. 

We will schedule a brief session in one of our computer labs to ensure that all of our students have the opportunity to get support logging into our communication tools for this year. We will be using Microsoft Office 365 (each student will have an artsacad email), Unified Classroom, and Edgenuity schoolwide. There will be one username and password for all three tools. Any other resources will be directly linked within Unified Classroom and will not require a separate log in.  

On Friday August 28, students will be assigned to small groups to get their school picture taken and access the computer lab. Those who need to can also arrange to pick up a laptop.  

We will be able to provide internet capable laptop for all students who need one. If your family will need to borrow a device, please complete this Technology Request survey  

• If your family is considering purchasing a laptop, we recommend laptop’s or desktop’s that have Windows 10 or Apple Mac with a minimum of Intel I3 processor, 8 GB Ram and have a web camera will be able to handle almost all of the Office 365 applications.  

• Chromebooks will provide access to most class resources, but may not be able to fully use Microsoft TEAMS and will likely not work for Multimedia classes.   

• Multimedia artists will likely need a more advanced computer with a faster processor, more memory, and a dedicated GPU (graphics card).  We recommend at least an i5 processor and 8 GB ram, 500 GB memory. a Nvidia or AMD video card and a ssd hard drive. 

2020 School Picture Day

This year, we will have Picture Day on August 28, 2020

To order pictures, please visit mylifetouch.com

The Academy’s Picture Day ID is EVTF9DQT4

Picture retake day will be in October.