Mid-year Transfer Student Information

Welcome to the spring semester at the Well-Trained Mind Academy. We’re glad that you’re here!


Here’s an overview of how to get situated in your class. The class you’re joining has been meeting since the beginning of the academic year, so there are a few things you’ll want to do now, before the spring semester starts, that will help you hit the ground running.

This guide will show you where to look for an overview of the class and learn about important tasks, show you how to submit work, how to find the assignment schedule, and how to access class recordings. Please take a few minutes now to become familiar with your course!

student accessing homeschool course materials online

Syllabus


The syllabus contains key information for succeeding in class. It includes class expectations, the types of assignments you’ll complete, and an overview of topics you’ll cover in the course. Since you are joining the class half-way into the year, it’s good for you to review the topics that have already been covered. The calendar shows you what your classmates have already learned about. You can use the dates listed next to the topic to look up class recordings.

Please note: ALL class recordings are available to you. These recordings conveniently list the date next to them, so it’s easy for you to find any given lecture and watch on your own time. As you prepare to jump into class, you should watch the orientation video from the beginning of the year to familiarize yourself with the classroom.

Accessing Blackboard


We provide tutorials on how to navigate your Blackboard page. You’ll want to take a moment to familiarize yourself with the other tutorials; there are also links below to specific tutorials relevant to getting started.

Assignment Schedule


Students are expected to meet the deadlines set by the instructor. Assignment due dates are listed in the Eastern Time Zone. The deadlines can be found on each assignment, and there’s also a course calendar that alerts students to upcoming due dates.

Turning In Work


You’ll submit assignments through Blackboard. Blackboard allows instructors to provide feedback directly on Word documents and PDFs. We’ve created a tutorial to show you how to convert any file, whether it’s a Word document on a PC or Mac, a Google Document, or an Apple Pages document, into a PDF for easy grading.

Finding Recordings


All live class sessions are recorded so that you can review lectures as many times as you’d like. Here’s a tutorial on how to access those recordings. Try accessing the orientation session from the beginning of the year now; it will be the very first recording from the year. Be sure to set the date range to include all of August, since that’s when the orientation session would have been recorded.

Meet Your Instructor


As a new student, it’s your responsibility to schedule a meeting with your instructor before the first class. You’ll schedule a meeting with your instructor via email. The meeting provides you with the opportunity to meet your instructor one-on-one. It’s also an opportunity for you to ask any questions you have that weren’t answered by the syllabus or watching the orientation video.

Familiarize Yourself with the Fall Course Content


You will receive access to your class on Blackboard before the start of the spring semester so that you can review material on your own. We recommend students and parents go through the syllabus together, including the calendar. The calendar provides information about what the class covered in the fall semester and when it was covered. For example, your math class covered quadratic equations in the fall and you aren’t comfortable working with them, then you would check the syllabus to find which week quadratic equations were covered in class and then you can watch the lectures for that week.

If you have any questions, please email [email protected].