GPS Global Academy: Staff Update

Scroll all the way down for: Attendance overview | Our new and improved Global Academy Hub Site: Customized pages for each of our supporting roles | Tableau CFS Data Analysis links for administrators | Summer Session Update and 23-24 course retirement | Big changes for summer 25 for online learning | CFS Teachers: Update document | The Buzz Landing Page: Students' most frequently used (and asked about) tools |

Hello, GPS Staff!

This year, we transitioned GPS Global Academy into a program embedded into each of our brick-and-mortar secondary schools, called an Instructional Time Model (ITM). Because this change has impacted many employee groups across the district, we put together this document to place all of our updates for the new quarter in one place.

Need help? The fastest way to reach us is through our help team email at GAonline@gilbertschools.net.

👉For a problem solving quick guide, click the image to the right.

There are three components to maintaining attendance and enrollment at Global. Above is an image of our current Buzz login screen for reference, and below are the student-friendly instructions we have shared with our families.

There are three parts to Global Academy Attendance:

1. Logging into Buzz every school day: Students will be required to log into Buzz at least once every regular school day by 11:59 pm to register attendance. You can do this from your phone, Chromebook, or computer pretty quickly. You may still make your own schedule throughout the week for your learning, but we need you to at least log in to Buzz on every regular school day for just a couple seconds so we can report you are part of our flexible learning program. It's a little wave hello to us that let's us know you are still with us.
   
   💥For FULL TIME Global Academy students: At noon, students who have not logged in to Buzz yet will get a reminder email (parents get it too) that you will need to do so by 11:59 pm and at 4 pm the attendance auto-dialer will phone and email parents to let them know an unexcused absence has been recorded, but it will automatically be removed if you login by 11:59 pm.
   
   💥For CONCURRENT Global Academy students: We know you have in-person classes during the day, so you may not be able to log in until later in the afternoon or evening. At 6 pm the attendance auto-dialer will email students to remind them that if they have not logged in by 11:59 pm an unexcused absence will be recorded the following morning. At 7 am the following day, parents will be notified via email that an unexcused absence was recorded, if you did not log in by 11:59 the previous day.
   
   💥For CENTER FOR SUCCESS Global Academy students: You won't get an email or phone call, because your physical attendance is recorded by your CFS teacher in class, but you will still need to log in daily and work throughout your class period. You are also able to access your class at any time outside of school as well.
   
   
2. Working 5 hours per week per course: Working in an online class takes dedication and motivation. While we know each student has different responsibilities and availability, to stay enrolled at Global you'll need to be consistently working in each class each week. You can balance that however you like throughout the week, but staying committed to this time is important.
   
   
3. Maintaining adequate progress in your courses-- about 5% per week. We will be uploading course progress regularly as documentation that students are making adequate progress In order to finish on time and demonstrate that you are actively participating in our flexible learning program.

To excuse an absence after it is recorded, or ahead of time-- especially if you know you'll need to be away from your computer on certain dates-- parents may do so 24 hours a day through the Infinite Campus parent portal (super easy!), but they may call in to your brick-and-mortar school's attendance office if they wish as well. If you get stuck and aren't sure what to do, are team at GAonline@gilbertschools.net is happy to help!

💥💥Students who are not logging in, staying engaged, and making adequate progress may be required to return to in-person learning. 💥💥

You'll notice in the image above that we have personalized the GGA Hub site to support those who support us. We know that there is a ton of information that has been shared about Global Academy and we want to make it as easy as possible for you to get what you need.

By clicking the large picture above this text or the smaller one to the left, you'll reach our Information Hub, also located in the Departments section of the GPS Hub, labeled Global Academy. If you find this information useful, you may want to bookmark this site to use as a reference on a regular basis.

On the main page, you'll find an overview of Global Academy's three learning modes, as well as information that may be needed by parents who may have questions or those interested in Global Academy as an option for their student. There are links related to online readiness, transfer processes, course options and some visuals to watch for in IC, among other information.

The Attendance and Registration, Master Schedulers and Center for Success Teacher buttons will take you to pages that keep it simple: just what you need to access for your role.

The Counselors and Administrators button goes a little deeper, with links to live progress data for your concurrent and CFS students as well as Tableau CFS Analysis data. You'll find links to tools for everything from locating your student in the registration process to final exam sign up information, and everything in between to keep our students moving forward towards graduation. Have you looked at your student data lately to see who needs a nudge in the right direction? There is powerful information just a few clicks away.

Coming soon: personalized pages for adjunct and full time Global teachers too!

There will be some big shifts in Global Academy's online summer school this year. While we haven't shared this with the community yet, and there are lots of details to iron out still, we wanted you all to be aware ahead of time. We know that many of you will have conversations with students and parents about this option, and this would be important info to have now.

Here are the details that we will be sharing as we go forward:

GPS Global Academy will now offer on-level, honors, and credit recovery courses as a six week session during the summer for incoming 7th-12th graders. GPS Global Academy courses are self-paced with teacher feedback and support throughout the course. The following details should be important considerations before enrolling in an online summer course:

• Students may plan their schedule to work flexibly during the session, but must be within the United States to access courses.

• Students may enroll in up to two online courses during the summer.

• To finish by the end of the term, students should plan to spend a minimum of 2-3 hours a day, 5 days a week, per online course. However, they may work faster in order to finish sooner.

• Math and World Language courses must be taken consecutively. Students enrolling in both parts of math or world language courses should plan to work longer during each week in order to be on pace to complete both courses by the end of the session. The second course will be activated upon completion of the first.

• Once courses are complete, the student must take the final exam in-person at GPS Global Academy or their home junior high or high school.

• All courses will be completed before the beginning of the new school year.
  

About once a quarter, we reach out to all of the CFS teachers that support our students on our partner campuses with an update document that shares news or reminders that may apply to them. On Friday, October 18th, the linked document was sent to them as well. We welcomed new CFS teachers and also shared these reminders including contacts for the most common student/Buzz issues, a reminder about the CFS student tracker for CFS teachers (this is different than the one administrators and counselors use) and to also let them know we have created a separate page for them on the Global Hub site.

If you evaluate or support CFS on your campus, please feel free to visit that page on the hub (linked in the above section) or check out that document. Also, if there is info they don't have that you'd like us to share, please let us know!

Below you'll see images of the Buzz landing page, which is what students "land on" when they sign into the application. We have standardized this layout across all of our courses so that students know what to expect and where to find their most important links. Additionally, all teachers' landing pages are enhanced with consistent buttons across all courses to help students schedule appointments, find syllabi and information about their teacher, as well as access the GGA Grading and Academic Integrity guides. Our goal is that students always as confident with navigating the platform as they would be their brick and mortar campus.

Below are explanations of our most used tools.

We know it takes an entire community to help support our students until they cross that stage at the end of their journey. We appreciate the collaboration we have developed with each of our partner schools and all of the departments that keep students going.

If we can do anything to help you help students better, or to provide additional tools, resources or accessibility, please let us know!