ALEKS Newsletter
September/October 2016 - High School Campus
Great Start!
Wow! I can't believe that it is already October and we are almost halfway through the first sememster. Time just keeps flying by!
We are off to a great start! We are still tweaking a couple of things, but the students are working hard!
No Assessment this Week!
The last two weeks have been crazy-busy with homecoming and then the super short week last week! So, since students took an assessment last Wednesday, we are extending the work week through this week. This means topics are not due until Sunday, October 23rd at 6pm, and the next assessment will be on Monday, October 24th. Please note that since we extended the week, we also increased the number of topics required.
Math Lab
Math Lab begins this week! Any ALEKS Math student can work after school in the computer lab until 3:40pm on Wednesdays at the high school campus.
This is an excellent option for a student wanting to get ahead in their course, work on weekly topics, work on math facts, or if they just need help with a difficult concept. No need to sign up, just show up when needed. Cancellations will be relayed through Remind.
Weekly ALEKS Emails
This is an area that I am still tweaking. I had planned on using the assignment section within ALEKS to 'assign' a specific number of topics to each student. However, the current system only allows for assignments to be assigned to all students in a class. This does not work for us as each student has a different requirement depending on how far they are in their course. So, the ALEKS emails entered the picture. Hopefully you all received the email asking if you wanted to 'opt in' to the weekly email from ALEKS. Currently, these emails are delivered very early on Friday mornings, which hasn't given us a very accurate view of how many topics were completed for the week. The weekly email will now be sent early on Sunday morning of each week, beginning next Sunday, October 23rd. This will be a better view of how many topics were completed, but as students can still learn on Sundays until 6pm, any topics learned on Sunday will be included in the next weekly report, resulting in an inaccurate topic count for that week. While definitely not perfect, it's still a good reminder to check with your student to see if they have all of their topics for the week. It also lets you know where your student is in the current course. The progress percent complete is how far the student is in the current course.
Other Stuff
Weekly Review: Students should still complete their weekly review on Sunday each week (stars only). Some students have been completing their review on Friday during class because they have all of their topics in for the week. However, it's still a good idea, especially after a long weekend, to do a quick review on Sunday of the topics they found difficult during the week.
Student ALEKS Emails: Because the 'assignment' section of ALEKS did not work out as planned, I have been emailing students their weekly topic requirement within the ALEKS email system. This allows them to check on the topics needed at any time throughout the week.