Communication Policy

Office Hours:   M–F   8am–5pm

The best and fastest way to contact me is via email. Since all teachers have a larger-than-normal roster, my day is very full and scheduled to the max. Sending me an email is the best way to get on my to-do list since I am usually where I can address it. If you text me, I make no promises that I’ll remember what you asked me to do! I’m still happy to receive text messages, however! My number is 405-256-3322. If you have any other number for me, please delete it and only use this one.

Epic’s policy is to reply to all inquiries within 24-48 hours (for both employees and families). This is especially important now that my roster is over 50. Please be patient and allow time for me to see, research, and respond to your questions.

Gmail: Everything we do together will be through Google. Please visit the Google Setup page to see how that works (especially important for students). This will allow us to share documents, meet via Google Hangouts, and organize information.

My main form of communication is through email, so it is vital that you have one you check regularly. Please set alarms or tasks on your phones to remind you to check your email daily.

Expectations for One-on-One Meetings

Due to COVID-19 and my high-risk health, all of our meetings will be conducted virtually via Zoom. The frequency of meetings will depend on benchmark scores and daily performance. Please make room in your schedule to prioritize your student’s learning.

Please observe the following expectations so that you are prepared for our appointment:

1. Be on time! In order to provide the best experience for all of my students, I have to carefully plan my schedule. If you are more than 20 minutes late, I may have to cancel our meeting in order to maintain the rest of the day’s plans.
2. If you know you will be late, please text me as soon as you can so that we can make sure we can still meet. Life happens, and that’s okay 🙂 I can definitely be flexible if you will communicate with me.
3. Come prepared! That means that you have all of the following (applicable) items with you! Even though we are meeting online, we will still make use of our physical learning items. We may not use all of these each time we meet, but we need to have them just in case!
   • Chromebook (or whatever device you are using)
   • Pen/Pencil
   • Notebook/Spiral/Binder with paper
   • Calculator (if you are allowed one)
   • Headphones
   • Any offline assignments
4. We will stay focused on the lesson to make the best use of our time. This means that we will stay on topic and silence and put away our cell phones (this includes parents as well if they are involved in the lesson).

Attendance Expectations

Students are expected to complete their assignments in order to receive academic and attendance credit. As long as students follow their assignment list from me, then they will be on track for both academic and attendance progress. Every day that the student does not work is like a day absent from school. The make-up work will pile up.

Only passing work (+60%) is accepted for credit. Anything below that will not be applied toward weekly progress. Students will have multiple chances to re-do those failing assignments, and the resulting passing grades will be counted.

Epic changed its attendance policies at the beginning of the 2020–2021 school year. Please read through the Truancy page for more information.

Pacing Expectations

Standards Mastery

Grade 03–11 will be required to show mastery of standards in the MasteryConnect program. MasteryConnect is also how we will be conducting benchmarks. This program is designed as a “temperature check” to see how a student’s understanding is progressing. It is not intended for learning standards, so students will need to complete their work in all other required platforms before coming to this one.

Grades PK–02 will be tracked through their daily activities and IXL, if applicable.

If you would like a list of the standards the Oklahoma State Department of Education requires for all students to learn, you can visit their standards page. You can also download the OK Standards app for Android or iPhone.

Epic Essentials

Grades KG–11 who do not meet grade-level expectations on their benchmarks are required to participate in 30 minutes of reading practice and 30 minutes of math practice daily. Participation of these programs are factored in as gradable assignments. A student will only receive credit for the work if he/she reaches the weekly minimum of required work for that platform. Please read more about Epic Essentials in the Epic Essentials FAQ.

IMPORTANT: Although the other programs can be broken up into smaller time blocks throughout the day, MindPlay must be completed in one sitting, or else the computer will not report the minutes correctly and the student may not receive credit for work that day. Read more about MindPlay here (especially the last slide).

Similarly, Freckle does not count idle minutes, so make sure that your student is actively engaged in the program during their login time. However, unlike MindPlay, Freckle can be broken into smaller work segments throughout the day.

Parent Participation

Re-read the Parent/School Contract to make sure you are absolutely clear on what Epic’s expectations are for your involvement. You need to be able to devote a significant amount of time to helping your student with his or her studies. This will help you and your student establish a routine and a good work flow each day in order to meet the hours per week to which you agreed in your ILP.

If your student is falling behind, I will create a Parent Progress Report that you will need to print and complete each week. This report will need to be signed at the end of the week and a picture of it emailed to me.

Remember: YOU are your child’s daily instructor. You must be able to spend time every day helping your student since I only see them occasionally.

Testing

Since Epic is a public school, we must participate in all State-required testing. This includes standardized testing and benchmarking. Please take some time to look over our testing policies and procedures here.

You can find benchmark information here. Benchmarks are required and will be given multiple times a year. Please take time to read over the linked page so that you know what to expect, especially since our policies have changed as of the beginning of the 2020–2021 school year.

OAS testing is in April. At this point in time, there have been no modifications to this year’s State testing regarding COVID-19. The following applies until the OSDE publishes new guidelines. Some testing locations may require you to travel for testing since the State regulates how those tests are taken. You are expected to make arrangements for your student to be brought to his or her testing site. The exact testing dates will be assigned closer to time. Please note that weekly pacing is designed to have students completely finished with the school year before State testing begins. State testing is not optional.

You can find more information at any time on Benchmarking and Spring Testing by accessing those tabs on this website’s main menu.

Truancy Policy

You can access information about truancy and re-enrollment after truancy here.

Summer Bridging

Summer bridging is a six-week opportunity for students to work on gaps in their learning. This is determined by Spring benchmark and State test scores. Students qualify for summer bridging if they score below grade level on their Spring benchmarks. Students recommended for the program will work their teacher during July.