Frequently Asked Questions

Clever:

The first page a student should log-into each day. It will allow access to many of the apps and websites that we use for our program. It should work as a single sign on so students don’t have to enter log-in information each time they visit one of our school sites.

https://clever.com/in/northshore/student

Schoology:

One website that students will access every day from Clever is Schoology. Schoology is where students can view their weekly schedule with links. They will use Schoology to view lessons and complete assignments from their Weekly Folder. Students can send messages on Schoology if they have any questions and will automatically send an email to their teacher.

Daily School Schedule:

We will be posting the week’s worth of lessons and assignments Sunday evening/Monday morning in Schoology. Families have the flexibility to plan the student’s day and the order they work on their subjects. 

Everyday with the exception of Wednesdays, Intermediate NOA students meet on Zoom for a class meeting from 9:00-10:00 AM

All students attend the 9:00-10:00 AM class meetings. Outside of this time, it is up to each student/family to determine what the school day will look like. The NOA program was designed to be flexible for students and families. The majority of Intermediate NOA students decide to stick to a “normal” school day. There are others, however, who choose to work early in the morning before our class meetings, while some choose to work in the afternoon/evening. Students are able to choose the order of the subjects they work on.

Students are able to receive support from their teacher in a number of ways. After the class meeting is ended, students are able to send their teacher a message via Schoology or Teams to let their teacher know they need help. The teacher may help through messages or most often, will have the student join a Zoom meeting for one-on-one support.

5th Grade students qualified for HiCap services in math: students meet with a Northshore SD math teacher once a week via Zoom. Their instruction and coursework is provided by Edgenuity. 

6th Grade students qualified for HiCap services in math: students are enrolled in an Edgenuity math course. Edgenuity provides the instruction and coursework through an Edgenuity instructor.

Students who are enrolled in HiCap ELA: extensions to the general ELA curriculum (advanced reading material, prompts and topics) are provided by the general education instructor. There is not a separate Edgenuity course for HiCap ELA.

SPED support is provided by specialist staff who meet separately in live one on one or small group sessions with students on their caseload. Specific support is dependent on the student’s IEP, but push ins, support with work, and daily check ins are all provided.

            Only supply pickups require an in-person presence. NOA is an online, asynchronous program, which means you will never be required to do any in-person extensions. Supplies being physical (such as textbooks, workbooks, prizes, reading books, whiteboards, etc.) must be picked up at the home campus of the program (The Bear Creek Campus). This is the only in person task that must be done. Supply pickups are set up and provided by the instructor and can be done any time the campus is open (not on a specific date or time).

            NOA does provide optional in person extensions for those who wish to have them. These optional opportunities include field trips, seasonal events (hosted at Bear Creek Campus) and information nights.

Elementary students do not use Edgenuity. NOA middle school and high school use the program, but elementary NOA uses district curriculum, taught by district teachers, in a classroom environment with daily (one hour) live sessions.

You may have heard that NOA elementary is asynchronous AND there are live sessions…and both are true! NOA elementary starts each day with a live one hour meeting with students and their instructor to build community, develop emotional learning, go over the day, share work, listen to read alouds and make art.

            The rest of the day is yours! Lessons are conducted just like they would be in person, with the instructors thinking out loud, demonstrating problems, conducting experiments, using whiteboards, manipulatives, and examples. These videos are pre-recorded and accessed on the Schoology platform, where students watch the video and then complete attached assignments.

So…it’s just like Edgenuity! Right?

             Not exactly. Just because students work asynchronously does not mean they are not “at school”. While students are doing their work, the instructors are online as they prepare future lessons and grade incoming work. Students and instructors reach out to each other to schedule one on one check ins about specific work, provide feedback via comments and email and submit grades all throughout the asynchronous day (9am – 3:30).

The exact same curriculum that can be found in Northshore School District physical classrooms are what the NOA elementary instructors use.

The beauty of NOA is that it can look different from home to home, to suit your learning needs. Some students like to get their work done early in the day to free up their afternoons for sports or other activities. Some like to ease into their day and work later into the evening. Some like to mimic the traditional school day and finish their work between 2 and 3pm.

            A universal aspect of NOA at home is that your student should have a quiet learning space, a stable internet connection, and a table for completing work. Even though the lessons are online, work is done with traditional methods (paper, pencil and books!)

NOA is taught by instructors who are Northshore School District teachers. This might seem like a no-brainer, but it means that these are teachers who know the area, the culture, towns and cities that you know too. These are not folks who are tuning in from another state or region. If the weather in your backyard is rainy, they’re having a rainy day too.

NOA, or the Northshore Online Academy, is NSD’s fully remote K-12 school housed at the Bear Creek Campus, in the Northshore Learning Options School (NLO).

NOA Secondary follows a mentorship model, where students complete their work asynchronously and attend a Mentor Meeting on Zoom at the beginning of every week with a certificated NSD teacher. Courses are completed using Imagine Learning’s Edgenuity program, where subject-specific teachers have created materials for students to engage with, connect with students frequently about their progress, and grade most student work by hand. Other Zoom meetings, such as synchronous study halls and extracurricular club meetings, are available depending on the Mentor Teacher’s schedule.

Edgenuity is an online education platform used by many school districts throughout the country. Its parent company, Imagine Learning, employs certificated teachers for all subject areas who help to guide students through their courses. While Edgenuity teachers do not hold regular class meetings each day, they are available to meet with when needed. In Edgenuity, students complete their work on their own time, but there are regularly due assignments and activities that keep students progressing forward with their learning.

Students must attend their weekly Mentor Meeting and complete a Weekly Goal Sheet to help keep them on track, but broadly for Washington State ALE requirements students are required to make 2-way contact each week with their Mentor Teacher or another certificated Northshore teacher, such as a Case Manager. Students must also be passing at least ½ of their classes with a 60% or higher at the end of each month to make Satisfactory Monthly progress, and to avoid being placed on an Intervention Plan.

Students interact with each other in Mentor Meetings, Study Hall meetings, and extracurricular club meetings such as Art Club or Chess Club. Students are also welcome and encouraged to attend all campus-wide events.