What is Online Highschool Like?

DISCLAIMER: The information given is specific to FCPS and what we knew as students at the time of writing this post.

As we all know, online school is very different from in-person school. Beyond the platform, Mondays are an asynchronous work period when students can go to teachers during office hours for help or clarification. Please use this period for what it’s for! It is highly recommended to go to teachers. This way they know who you are and if you are struggling for some reason you can communicate it to them and they will be aware. Keep in mind that your senior year you will need college recommendations and it’s a lot easier to write a positive one for someone with who a teacher has connected.

Tuesday to Friday is synchronous class periods with 80 min class periods, 15 minutes break in between, and an hour-long lunch. Fourth period is on Tuesdays and Thursdays 9:45-11:05 which encompasses learning seminar and office hours (or time for a short nap).

Blackboard Collaborate

For class, you pretty much sit in front of a computer and listen to your teacher give a presentation, do class practice problems, or work collaboratively with other students. There’s a chat to answer and ask questions, but sometimes teachers prefer you use the mic.

Start the discussion in breakout rooms

All you have to do is say hi and we promise it will be a lot less awkward and you will get a lot more work done. You won’t waste time, you’ll learn, and you’ll get to know classmates a little better.

Follow along with presentations

Most teachers post presentations before class and having that open in another window saves you from asking the teacher to go back a slide. You can also reference previous slides at your convenience. Highly recommended if you’re doing a pear deck on teacher pace.

Stay after with questions

Teachers stay on a little while after class for questions. So, if you have any questions on homework, projects, or something specific we’d ask them during this time, but only if it’s a short response. Otherwise, office hours are recommended.

Tips

1. Keep your laptop charged at all times

   1. Especially for school laptops. The battery lasts a very short time and you wouldn’t want to disconnect mid-class.

2. Breaks are a lot shorter than they seem

   1. Try not to cook a whole meal. Time flies.

3. Put your phone out of sight

   1. Fewer distractions are best when there’s no accountability during class.

4. Keep other materials (pencil, calculator, paper) closeby for classes like math

   1. Saves you time and is a lot more convenient

5. Make sure to do work to prepare for class beforehand

   1. Or you’ll be lost and caught off-guard

6. Keep track of textbook logins, or star them in your google drive

   1. Resetting passwords is a pain so just keep them somewhere safe

7. Title your documents with specific names

   1. If you have 50 documents titled essay, you won’t have a fun time.

8. School laptops take forever to turn on, literally like 8 minutes