1.0-THE BASICS

Welcome to Mission Vista Academy!

Today you are embarking on an elegant journey into the world of homeschooling. If you are familiar with this educational format, you know how wonderful this educational model can be. For those of you entering this arena for the first time, welcome!

Remember that you are the educator/counselor/support person and evaluator for your homeschooling families. Knowing your student's educational program inside and out is the responsibility of the Homeschool Teacher, but we are here to assist you in this learning curve and journey along the way!

When utilizing the Homeschool Teacher Handbook all documents are internal documents only, unless otherwise specified. Information authorized to be shared with families must be downloaded and forwarded to the families. The Homeschool Teacher Handbook is specifically for employees of Mission Vista Academy.

Understanding the Job

Communication is of the utmost importance in this environment. We work remotely, and often, our communications are limited to email most of the time. Here is a breakdown of communication timelines:

• All correspondence, including but not limited to: Email, Phone Calls, Fax and Text messages require a response of 24 business hours. It is expected that if an answer is unknown to the inquiry, a response will be sent indicating that you are locating the answer. It is then your responsibility to follow up within the time frame suggested.
• Is a system not working? We want to know. Contact your Regional Coordinator. Typically the first course of action is to view the Homeschool Teacher Handbook. A search can be performed to locate items quickly. If you are unable to determine the answer from this initial search, reach out to your Regional Coordinator.

The roles of a Homeschool Teacher:

A Homeschool Teacher wears many hats while supporting families in our communities. Here are the roles you may often find yourself in throughout this school year:

Homeschool Teacher as part of the community

• Attending local events
• Participating in Community Connections events

Homeschool Teacher as part of family support system

• Organization
• Finding additional resources
• Support in creating the student's education plan

Homeschool Teacher as the family resource "Go To" person

• Assisting with ordering
• Helping to select curriculum
• Providing lesson planning

Homeschool Teacher as the family office assistant

• schedule Learning Period (LP) Meetings, provide assessment and LP dates
• share forms
• set up a group email list maintaining family confidentiality
• keep family organized by collecting and maintaining records
• Checking the Homeschool Hub to review enrichment orders daily.

Homeschool Teacher as an MVA Team Member

• Have fun!
• Offer help where you see a need
• Be on time
• Participate actively in staff meetings
• Volunteer to take on tasks
• Part-time and Full-time staff are to check emails twice a day every school day
• Respond to requests, questions, and deadlines within 24 business hours
• Reach out when you are confused, and ask questions
• Maintain student records appropriately so that we fulfill our obligations as a school

Homeschool Teacher as Teacher of Record

• attendance
• Assignment & Work Records (AWRs)/grades/report cards
• curriculum guidelines
• high school planning
• promotion of students
• work records
• yearly assessments, including PFT and State Testing
• Star 360 assessments
• SST/IEP/504 team member

Homeschool Teacher as a Professional

• Contact your supervisor for information about setting your school email signature line
• Attend professional development courses
• Dress professionally
• Professional communication via phone, email, and text

Homeschool Teacher as a Marketer/Roster Builder

• Attend recruiting events
• Create your own recruiting events
• Join homeschool Facebook groups

Communication Etiquette

Now that you have your school email address and signature set up, here are a few important reminders on etiquette.

Email:

• Remember that your email correspondence is a reflection upon you and our school
• Please be professional in your email correspondence with staff, departments, students and families by using a greeting (Dear xxx or Good Morning)
• Use appropriate language (refrain from using text shorthand in emails)
  • Refrain from over-punctuation
  • Use of ‘Reply All’
    • DO NOT use ‘reply all’ to emails sent to "All Staff" such as ‘Welcome’ or ‘Congratulations’ emails. Instead, reply only to the person being welcomed or congratulated
    • DO use the ‘reply all’ feature in all other cases so no one is cut out of the loop
  • Be careful about forwarding information that includes long threads. Often times, the person receiving the forwarded information does not need to see all threaded responses
  • If you are not readily available to respond to your families by email for any reason (Conference, Training, etc.) please remember to set an out of office message on your email that states you are out of the office, your estimated return, and who to contact if they need immediate assistance.
• Use "BCC" when emailing multiple families to protect confidentiality
• Emails are documents that can be requested for legal review and shared with all parties

Phone:

• It is very important that the number you are using for work is monitored/answered by you only.
• When answering the phone let the families know they’ve reached you
  • ‘Hello, this is’….. or ‘Thank you for calling’.
  • Learn how to create a Free Google Voice phone number as an optional dedicated line for work calls. .
• Record a professional voicemail
  • Sample message:
    • Hello, you have reached ___________, teacher with Mission Vista Academy. I am either supporting a student or away from my desk. Please leave a detailed message and I will return your call within 24 business hours. Thank you and have a great day!

Social Media:

• Please send all posts and fliers to your director for approval prior to posting on social media or printing.
• It is very important that as a school we have consistent and clear messaging. We need to maintain professionalism at all times when responding to posts as an MVA employee.
• Maintaining a professional tone and response is expected.
• Please DO NOT under any circumstances provide information on our program that is false as that is a misrepresentation and can result in negative consequences.
• All information needs to be 100% accurate.
• If ever in doubt, please seek the answer directly from your director before posting a response.
• As school employees, we need to be advocates of accuracy and ensure accuracy 100% of the time.