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Coaching your student for a

“Winning” year!
We suggest you take 20 minutes daily to check in with your student as the “COACH” for their daily
progress. Don’t let your teenager fool you! What you say and think makes a huge difference in their
life! Just knowing that you are involved and aware of what they are doing in school helps them to
stay focused. Your attention can help motivate your student to continue when classes are most
challenging.

Coach Duties To Help Your Student “Win” At COVA:

• Print out the “20 Minute Mentor Cheat Sheet “on the last page and use the information from
this training to coach your student daily.

• Check your student’s progress and time spent daily in class. Use this information to help keep
your student on pace and passing.
• Log your student’s attendance daily.
• Read information from COVA staff sent in your k mail daily. Communicate with your advisor.
• Read and “track” the Weekly Progress Reports sent to your email.
• Use praise, recognition and reward to recognize effort and accomplishment.
• Help your student reach out to teachers for help.
• Pull your student out of play and “on the bench” to regroup and problem solve when they fall
behind.
• Help your student with time management and organization if it does not come naturally.
• Require more than “Fine” to explain how your student is doing in school. You are a full partner
in their schooling process at COVA- not just a spectator! You are on a “Need to Know”
Clearance level. Use the tools in this training to KNOW exactly how your student is
progressing in school.

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MINUTES:
Check Your Student’s Grades, Attendance and Assignments Due.

Watch Video at: http://covahighschool.org/mentor/MonitoringHSStudent.html

Click on the “MyInfo” tab in the mentor home page.

Click on your student’s name.

Click on the box marked “Courses and Classrooms”.

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Click on blue underlined section to the right of the class name in the progress area.
This will open a new window with information about that class. You will see boxes with
information for that class:

70
120 14 5/15/2010
20

Attendance: Time you have already entered as attendance for your student. This is important!
Colorado uses this information to determine if a student is truant.

Progress: The % is the current grade in this class. 90-100% =A, 80-89%=B, 70-79%=C, 60-
69%=D, 0-59%= F. To earn credit, a student must pass with 60% or higher.

Activity: This shows you how much time your student has spent on line in this course this
semester.
• Last login K12: last date student used their name and password and entered the K12 site.
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• Last Login LMS: last date student entered THIS CLASS (should be daily for each class). This
student last worked in this class on 5/15/10- although he logged into the COVA site last on
6/08. This means this student has not worked daily in this class and may be considered truant.

• Total Time Spent: this is minutes spent logged in to this class since the start of the semester.
Divide this number by 60 to get hours. Recommended time spent in class daily is 60 minutes
per day per class- about 5 hours per week (300 minutes per week).

To check assignments due and overdue: Click the tabs below the chart boxes labeled To
Do, Overdue, Submitted and Graded to see how your student is doing in the assignments and due
dates for this class. The “to do” list can be printed out for the student to use as a reminder and check
list.

Minutes:
Log Your Student’s Daily Attendance in the Mentor Account

COVA is both an at-home school with lots of flexibility AND a public High School that requires
attendance per Colorado Law. We are required to have daily attendance logged by a responsible
adult. This process is easy and takes about 5 minutes or less daily. If a mentor does not log
attendance, the student can be considered truant.

When there is no activity in a student’s LMS account during a school day, they are considered
absent. Just like when a student is absent from a public school, a COVA mentor should contact the
advisor immediately by K mail or phone to excuse any absences. Please pre-arrange any days off of
school for vacation at times other than scheduled school breaks. (School year calendar in “Building a
Bridge”-mentor training part 3)

For a quick explanation of how attendance works at COVA, please watch this
video: http://www.screencast.com/t/MTY4ZjJj

Ask your student to keep track of how much time they spend in each class. Some families like to
use the Student Time Tracker found at the end of this section, others use a calendar or day planner.

To learn how to log attendance, watch this video

http://k12.http.internapcdn.net/k12_vitalstream_com/SYSTEMS/OLS_HELP/COACH/CURR
ENT_RELEASE/coach_06.mov or follow directions written below.

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Here are the steps for logging attendance:

1) Go to www.k12.com/cova and log in using your Mentor username and password.

This is the Mentor home page.

This page shows an alert on the

attendance area-(shown with the red
exclamation mark on the calendar).
This Mentor has not logged
attendance for 1 day for this student.

3) The attendance box will pull up the next day of attendance that needs to be filled.
Please check the date BEFORE you enter your attendance. Use the arrows at
the top of the page to scroll back or forwards.

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4) Click the “Enter time” box next to the course for which you want to log
attendance. . The time will show 60 minutes automatically. You may click in this area to
enter more or less time as needed. (Remember: you are recording the total minutes that your
student worked online and off line in this class today. This would include off line work like
running for 30 minutes for PE) It will convert from minutes to hours for you.

5. If no work was done in a class, use Auto Fill to place a zero in the time column for that course.

Once done filling in the classes your child worked in

for this day, you may click Auto Enter to fill the rest of
the spaces with zeros.
Be careful! Make sure there has been no work
done in these classes before you hit save.

You may use the Auto enter to enter zeros for a day
when your child is absent.

6. Made a mistake? Click restore to clear the columns and start over!

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7. Check your totals and click SAVE to save information. Print this page for your records after you
save the information. The attendance that was last saved will be printed.

COVA Attendance Expectations:

Grades 9-12: expected MINIMUM attendance per year: 1056 hours

• 1 hour in working per course per day Monday through Friday

• 5 hours of each course weekly or an average of 30 hours attendance per week.
• Total amount of work in courses should show minimum of 6 hours daily for full time students
working in 6 courses.
• Class Connect attendance counts as additional time in school for the appropriate class.

.
Cooper’s Clue: Many Learning Coaches have discovered that
students will not be able to accurately report daily time
spent in classes without a routine in place that keeps track
of the time. Help your student set up a routine where they
write down time in each class as they finish it during the day.

You may want to print out and use the Student Time Tracker
from this training and place next to the computer for your
student to use as they work. This is especially helpful for
working parents!

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Daily Student Time Tracker

Time Spent on
Class Connect Name, Time and Link
Course Work

__ Monday Notes for my

English: Homeroom: 12 noon (add link here) Learning Coach
History:
Math:
Science:
Elective :
Elective :
__ Tuesday
English:
History:
Math:
Science:
Elective :
Elective :
__ Wednesday
English:
History:
Math:
Science:
Elective :
Elective :
__ Thursday
English:
History:
Math: Total Hours in
Science: class this week:
Elective :
Elective :
__ Friday
English: Missing time I
History: need to make up:
Math:
Science:
Elective :
Elective:

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Minutes Weekly:
Read the Weekly Progress Report sent to your email.

Look for a Weekly Progress report in your email at the address you gave K12 at registration.(Please
notify your advisor if this has changed). This report details the percentage that your student is
currently earning in each class. This is a quick snapshot of current grades that will allow you to
see progress on a weekly basis.

COVA HS uses a grading system that relies on the points earned for each assignment/quiz
and test. Each assignment has a specific point value. Students can earn all of the points possible
for that assignment if they turn in the assignment by the due date.

Late policy: A student has until 11:59 pm on the Sunday following the due date to hand in an
assignment for full credit. If the assignment is turned in during the week following the due date, the
student may earn up to 50% of the possible points. After that, teachers may choose to enter a zero
for that assignment and close it to the student.

Teachers add up the points earned by the student and divide that total by the total possible points to
get a percentage. This percentage determines the grade as follows:

90% and up =A, 80-89%=B, 70-79%=C, 60-69%=D, 0-59%=Failing

These letter grades are converted to the 4 point system to determine GPA and Honor roll status.
Some Honors classes are weighted, meaning that because of the higher difficulty of the course, a
student will receive 1 point higher for each letter grade earned.

If the grades on your student’s Weekly Progress Report do not match your expectations
please use the My Info in your mentor account to check your student’s activity and graded
assignments in that class. You may also check progress through each individual class. This will tell
you whether your student is working the time needed in class and if they need more support in
completing assignments on time. Contact your advisor if you and your student need support in this
area.
Cooper’s Clue: Print out the grades for your student each week from the
Progress Report and compare them week to week. Use this information to
recognize improvement and also to set goals to focus on “hungry classes”.

Set goals for each class with your student and talk about what they need to
help them reach that goal. Is there something that would help motivate them
to keep working to improve in a difficult class? One dad found that time
shooting hoops together was a real motivator for his son; a mom discovered
the power of movie tickets for her daughter!

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MINUTES:
Give Feedback and Listen to Your Student.
Discuss the information from MyInfo or the Weekly Progress Report relating to their current
grade and time spent in each class.

Ask them what assignments are due this week- do they need help? Tutor Time is time that
teachers schedule in an Elluminate Room during the week to help students in their courses in
small groups. Encourage your student to take the time to attend these sessions to receive
extra support from the teacher if needed.

Recognition: We all need an “Atta boy” or “Atta girl” every now and then! Your student wants
to know that you see the work they are doing and that you are proud of their efforts and
achievements. Catch them doing something right! Recognize time and effort as well as
improved grades. This can be as simple as a positive comment, a note placed on their pillow, a
candy bar or a grander gesture like treating them to a special treat once in a while.

Falling behind? You can help “catch them” before they become overwhelmed and stop
trying!! Teenagers often feel stuck when they are behind and will “wait it out” hoping a problem
will get better. This is where a mentor can make such a difference! By knowing when your
student has hit a bump, you can join them and start working together to model how to solve a
problem by contacting their teachers and advisor and helping them schedule extra time to
work through an assignment or difficult unit with you. Contact your advisor for help in this area-
we love supporting our mentors!

Review:
Every COVA student needs an active Learning Coach/Mentor to help
them be successful. By taking the time to learn the programs to access
the information about your student now, you will make a positive
difference for their progress this year!

Being a Mentor is a lot like being a Coach. You empower your student to
give their best “in the game”. You train them and encourage them and
recognize their efforts. You pull them into a huddle to discuss mistakes
and help them develop a winning strategy . You believe they can
succeeed and they in turn want to prove you right!

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