All new NorthStar Academy and NorthStar HIS students will receive the video orientation resource called, "NorthStar 101", which will help you understand how we "do" online learning here in NorthStar. "NorthStar 101" comes on a DVD which you must watch on your computer (not on your tv), and presents the orientation topics in an outline format with each outline heading and/or topic being a hotlink 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 parent 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 NSA parents and supervisors will receive your own personal email account within the FirstClass system, and this account will be for the purpose of communicating with the teachers, administrative staff, and other parents in NorthStar and for the purpose of providing you with access to the parent-and-supervisor-only area of the "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 email the answer sheet, from your parent account in FirstClass preferably, directly to the teacher. Teachers will communicate with the parents/supervisors and students via direct personal emails and via formal progress reports which the teachers will send out once every two weeks via their grade management software of IG Pro.
For NorthStar HIS parents/supervisors:
This step is for parents who want to download the tests, quizzes, and answer keys which we provide in addition to the lesson bundles. Parents and supervisors, you, too, will receive an online FirstClass account which 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.
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.