Ready for Classes – Student and Parent Essential Information
Contents
Welcome! This guide provides all the information you need to get ready for the first day of class for a TPS course.
- GP7 live classrooms are not accessible until approximately one week before the start of the course.
- StudyPlace course pages (messages, syllabus, assignments) are not fully accessible until a few days before the start of the course.
Academic Calendar
Important dates (e.g., classes start, classes end, last day for assignments, school breaks) are found on the Academic Calendar:
Going to Class
You don’t have any assignments or working ahead you need to do before your first class. All you must do is make sure you’re ready to attend your first live class meeting.
TPS provides a fully interactive classroom to students worldwide, even in remote locations with limited connectivity. We do this through our GatherPlace (GP7) classroom software. Setting up, testing, and getting to your live classroom is easy — here are the directions:
https://support.at-tps.org/doc/go-to-class/
Course Messages, Assignments, Feedback, and Grades
TPS uses a powerful course content, assignment management, and grade-keeping program called StudyPlace. In your first class meeting for each course, your teacher will walk you through the specific course in StudyPlace.
To learn how to use StudyPlace to manage all your courses, please view this video (you may want to wait until the first week of the course so you can follow along with the video by viewing your own course).
Student StudyPlace
To view or manage assignments, feedback, and grades, a student must login to StudyPlace with his or her own student username and password, not the credentials of the family account or a sibling.
Parent StudyPlace
Parents can view assignments, feedback, and grades for all students in the family from a single parent portal (i.e., you do not need to login separately as each student). However, the parent StudyPlace cannot manage or submit assignments:
eTexts and Online Courseware
If your course includes access to an eText or online courseware which is provided by TPS, information for accessing these items will be provided to you in the first week of class in a class message in your student StudyPlace. It is not available sooner and it is found only in the student StudyPlace. Your teacher will provide you more information on the first day of class.
Conduct Guidelines
Please review our conduct guidelines before your first class:
https://support.at-tps.org/doc/conduct/
Classroom Sharing and Prayer
TPS is a non-denominational Christian school. The first 10 minutes of most classes is allowed for general fellowship, sharing, and teacher prayer in the Christian faith tradition (there is no direct Bible teaching, homily, or formal devotional). Student participation is optional, but must be respectful and not disruptive. Students who prefer may also quietly leave for this period.
First Week Assignments
- There are no assignments due before the first class of any TPS course.
- However, every TPS course has standard required reviews of guidelines and policies for students and parents that must be completed prior to the second class and reported by the student in a StudyPlace “poll” assignment.
- These reviews are required every year for new and returning students and parents. They take approximately one hour to complete.
- These reviews are identical for every course, and so are required only once for Summer classes and once for Fall/Spring classes each year (i.e., the polls may be submitted for all courses after doing one set of reviews with each student).
- These reviews should be completed after your first class of the academic term because in the first class the teacher will provide helpful information to facilitate the reviews.
Class Recordings
TPS courses are designed to be taken live and interactively. Students must pay attention, participate, and take notes in class. Some courses (e.g., AP, college dual credit, summer classes) allow for Recording Only enrollment. We also record all classes in case a student misses one occasionally. Accessing a recorded class is easy — here are the directions:
https://support.at-tps.org/doc/recorded-class-playback/
Weekly Reports
You will be sent two reports each week, one for Assignments (upcoming and past due) and one for Grades from the past week. These reports are only a small summary of the detailed information that can be found in StudyPlace. (Note: If you allow the weekly reports to go to your spam folder, you will stop receiving them because our mail service will stop sending them, to comply with anti-spam laws.)
Getting Help (TPS Support)
Getting to TPS Support is quick and easy:
Live Support Hours
We have live support anytime live classes are being taught.
Summer
Friday: No live support
Fall/Spring
Friday: 8 am to 7 pm ET
TPS Live Support is usually available immediately with no waiting queue. However, during the first week of classes it may be busier with a waiting queue and longer wait times. We recommend you test your classroom access and resolve any questions or issues well before your first class.
We look forward to seeing you in class!