All new NorthStar Academy and NorthStar HIS students will receive orientation and training material called, "NorthStar 101," which will help you understand how we "do" online learning here in NorthStar. "NorthStar 101" comes on a DVD which you can watch on your computer or your TV, and presents the orientation topics in an outline format with each outline heading and/or topic being a menu item to its respective video tutorial.
STEP 1
Students "attend" school through the software, FirstClass®. Once the student has logged on with FirstClass, he/she will see the school graphically represented on the screen.
STEP 2
Each subject area will have its own symbol, or icon, and the student simply double-clicks on this icon to get to his/her classroom.
STEP 3
Within each classroom, the student will see assignment and lesson folders and conferences, complete with classroom discussions and teacher instruction in the form of posted email messages with attached documents.
STEP 4
Each student and Academy parent/supervisor has his/her own personal mailbox for either school-related or personal email. Social Clubs and discussion areas are also available.
NorthStar Academy has a parent advisory committee and a student council, each with their own "meeting place"!
STEP 5
For NorthStar Academy Parents/Supervisors:
All Academy parents and supervisors will receive a personal email account within the FirstClass system for the purpose of communicating with the teachers, administrative staff, and other parents in NorthStar and for access to the parent-and-supervisor-only area of the "Supervisor/Parent Forum" conference wherein you will find the exams and quizzes which you will proctor for your son, daughter, or student. Once your son, daughter, or student has completed the exam or quiz by entering his/her answers directly into the provided answer sheet document, you (not the student) will e-mail the answer sheet, from your parent account in FirstClass, directly to the teacher. Teachers will communicate with the parents/supervisors and students via direct personal emails. Parents and students will be able to check their progress at anytime by logging into PowerSchool through your Internet browser.
For NorthStar HIS Parents/Supervisors:
HIS parents and supervisors will receive an online FirstClass account that will allow you to access the "HIS Parent Forum" conference wherein you’ll find all of the test and quiz banks and answer sheets. However, your parent account is a "shared account," meaning that all HIS parents and supervisors will share this one account whose sole purpose is to provide you with an online location from which you can download the tests and quiz items. Because the parent account is shared, this account does not allow you to send or receive email messages or do any of the other standard functions of a "normal" FirstClass account; the HIS parent/supervisor account simply gives you access to all of the tests, quizzes, and respective answer keys for you to use as you desire in your home school or day school program.
You will also have access to the HIS News where you can read all of the latest NorthStar news.
STEP 6
Students in both NorthStar Academy and NorthStar HomeSchool have access to our "Student Café," which is our online social area where students can interact in such areas as the "Prayer Hall," "Debate," "Writing Aids,, "Creative Writing,, "Chess Club,, "Student Council," and in over 30 other such conferences.