Getting Started

Email: First, check your email for communication from your student’s teacher. K-5 teachers will email the primary address on file to introduce themselves and give you more information. This communication from your K-5 teacher will include information about first day meetings and how to log in.  

Launch: To support the beginning of the year, TOL learners will engage in a Launch of sorts. Much of this will be done asynchronously; learning coaches may engage and learn alongside students.  

Teams: Students should log in to their district computer and Office 365. Student login username is their student number @tps10.org. Example: 1234567@tps10.org. Once logged in to Office 365, students should open Teams. Shortly before school starts, their class team will appear. This is where students will access live meetings.  

Flexible: TOL K-5 schedules will be different than in-person school schedules. At K-5, each class will have a whole group, community PACE meeting at 9AM daily. Each student will schedule one 15-minute meeting with their PACE coach. Aside from these regularly scheduled meetings, your student’s day will vary based on teacher recommendations and the learner experience your family selects. You can expect there to be approximately 30 hours of school work each week; some of this time will be live in small group meetings, some of it will be working online or with paper and pencil on asynchronous lessons. Additionally, TOL K-5 staff plan to host optional in person events. 

Weekly PACE 1:1 Meeting: Since Tacoma Online is an alternative learning experience (ALE), the attendance requirement is different than in-person schools. TOL teachers will take attendance on a weekly basis following their 1:1 PACE or PLP meetings. Students, with the support of their at home learning coach, will be expected to fill out a short, weekly form in advance of their 1:1 meeting.  

Monthly PACE PLP Meeting: Close to every 4th week, the PACE meeting will be a review of the student’s Personalize Learning Plan. A summary of this meeting will be emailed to families.  

Learning Space: First, ensure that your student has a quiet, comfortable place to complete their schoolwork. Students should be able to plug in their laptop, and also write comfortably on paper. Ideally, this could be a desk or table in a quiet room.   

Supplies: TOL will provide some supplies for students. Each trimester, TOL K-5 will host a supply pick up event where families may pick up a packet of learning materials to support that trimester’s content. Please let your PACE coach know if an in-person pick up does not work for your family and we may make alternative arrangements to support your needs. Our first  

Communication: Regularly checking your email for updates from your student’s PACE coach and Tacoma Online is a vital part of success at TOL. It will also be vital for K-5 families to use their Schoology access codes to log in to Schoology to gauge student progress. We are excited to partner with you and your student. Please notify TOL office of any changes to your contact information.  

TOL staff and instructors use Outlook email as our primary method of communication. The info you are looking for is more than likely been emailed to you. On your TPS laptop, you can open the Outlook app (Microsoft’s email program).

Tacoma Online uses the Edgenuity platform in partnership with Imagine Learning. Once you’re signed onto your TPS laptop, open your laptop’s Edge Internet Browser and go to: https://auth.edgenuity.com/Login/Login/Student . Your username is the same as your TPS email, StudentID@tps10.org (ex. 1234567@tps10.org). Your PACE Coach will tell you your password. Please email them. 

Be flexible and patient with yourself and your child. It can take a week or two to adjust to the program, how the curriculum works, and pacing. Some days, you may zip through work. Other days you may not, and that’s okay! Have fun learning and ask lots of questions.

We have learned that there are THREE critical success factors for students at Tacoma Online.

·      Check your TPS Outlook email daily – this is a habit you’ll need to build.

·      Communicate with and rely on your PACE Coach. They’re the first point of contact for students and families, know what’s going on, and can help you navigate anything TOL. Stay connected to them!

·      Develop and refine a schedule for doing your schoolwork. When you went to a traditional school building, the schedule was set for you and bells and adults moved you through your school day. At home doing online school, you need to manage your time and setup a schedule to do school. It can look quite different than traditional school and maybe even quite different than other TOL students – what’s important is that you have a schedule that works for you. Successful students build a schedule that provides at least 30 hours of schoolwork each week.

TOL’s PACE Program is the heart and soul of TOL. We connect every student to a mentor teacher who acts as their advocate and coach for online learning. Your PACE coach will be a teacher at TOL Middle or High School but may not be the teacher of one of your classes.

Your PACE Coach will hold (optional, but strongly suggested!) whole group PACE meetings for all their students on Monday and Friday mornings. There will be additional whole group PACE meetings as we launch each school year. This is a great way to meet other students in your grade at TOL! Community can be hard to find in online school and it can get lonely at home. These meetings are both fun and helpful!

Your PACE Coach is also your first point of contact at Tacoma Online and the very best person to ask a question about TOL. They will help you establish a schedule, monitor your progress, and help you succeed. They will meet with you each week for 15 minutes on MS Teams (videochat). This meeting is mandatory, required by state law for online schools, and counts as your attendance at school. If you fail to attend these meetings, it’s like missing school and you’re considered truant. Continuing to miss these meetings will require you to be removed from Tacoma Online.

You’ll work with your PACE coach to establish and adapt as you find a schedule that works for you. The key is that your schedule establishes at least 25 hours of schoolwork time per week.

Some students find success with a schedule that mimics the traditional building schedule where they do about an hour of each class, every day. Others find that it works better for them to do two hours of half of their classes every other day – a kind of block schedule.

What matters most is that you establish a schedule and stick to it. After a week or two, you might want to try another schedule. Go for it – just stick to what you design!