Saturday, June 30, 2012

Next Step at TTU ISD

You have enrolled your child at TTU ISD (Texas Tech University Independent School District), what do you do next?  You need to order the textbook next.  The next day, you need to go to the Course Portal:

Log in to your account. Click on the icon for "Access Your Course Online."  There are explanations for the meanings of the icons. After you have clicked on "Access Your Course Online," then the browser takes you to another page and at the very top of the next page there is a link labeled "Start Here."  That has some information.  However, the link below that which says "Course Introduction" identifies the textbook for the class.  Order that book immediately.  There will be 2 books in the school bookstore.
The "Course Introduction" will tell you which book to purchase.

Further below are the assignments.  The assignments are the homework to be performed, scanned, and uploaded to the TTU ISD site.

Getting started is the hard part.  Once you are started, you become increasingly familiar with the website and how it works.  You just need to establish a schedule that will complete the course before it expires.

Good luck!

Robert

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Enrolling at TTU ISD

The Texas Tech University Independent School District is a treasure.  I will offer suggestions on how to enroll your child through the TTU website:  https://www.depts.ttu.edu/uc/ec2k/Heading.asp

I used TTU ISD to supplement my child's education, but the TTU ISD is not setup for this purpose, so registration is awkward.  If you say your child is enrolled at the Plano ISD, then they expect that the PISD has approved your taking a course from TTU ISD instead of at PISD.  We did not plan to skip the course at PISD, we only wanted to supplement it, which forced us to say we were home schooling.

You will need to create an account for your child.  I recommend you give your email and not your child's email so you can be better informed.  Once you have enrolled your child, there is no way to change the email you give them when you setup the account.  Now let us walk through the process of enrolling in a course.

Go to the catalog webpage, the link I gave earlier, and click on elementary, or middle, or high school.  Find the online class you want and click on it.  Review the description. At the bottom it says "Add to Shopping Cart".  There is a digital pad featured that is recommended.  If you can scan a homework assignment and turn it into a PDF file, then you do not need the digital pad.  Do not waste your time in reading about it.  Click on the "Add to Shopping Cart" button to add the school course to your shopping cart..

The list the price, which is $155 for a high school course.  That is very reasonable.  Next you click on "proceed to checkout."  Next you have to sign in or create an account.  They want the student's name.  Once you sign in or create an account, you have lost the shopping cart.  But look and you will see a link that says "view shopping cart".  Click on it and you are back to where you were.  Click on "Proceed to checkout."  Now you have a page where you enter your mailing address.  This is where you enter an email for the account.  This is where you should give your email, the parent's email.

Notice that the child's name is listed for the credit card.  Change that.  Have your child's social security number handy.  They will want it.  List your child as being home schooled even if your child is enrolled in the Plano ISD.  This is assuming you are enrolling your child in TTU ISD to supplement your child's education.  You are not relying on the TTU ISD course being granted credit from the PISD.

When you see the contact info for the TTU ISD, you might want to copy that information.  When they have processed your credit card info, they invite you to buy a textbook from their bookstore.  Wait until you receive an email telling you which textbook to use. Then go to this link to buy the correct textook:
http://bookstore.mbsdirect.net/ttuisd.htm

I have found TTU ISD a good resource for educating my child.  They do not seem to be setup for supplementing your child's education.  They are setup for providing the one and only official course for your child.  If you select "Home School" then you must find a college testing facility that will agree to administer the final exam for your child's course.  We skipped taking the final exam from the TTU ISD course because my child gets credit from the PISD.  That might lead to problems with the TTU ISD.

I was very pleased with the textbook selected for Algebra 1.  I recommend using TTU ISD for math.

Robert

Saturday, June 2, 2012

International Baccalaureate Diploma Rates

My previous post was about the International Baccalaureate program.  A friend of mine pointed out that Plano has an above average diploma rate.  It turns out that not all graduates of the IB program actually receive an International Baccalaureate diploma.  In 2011 twenty-nine percent (29%) of the students failed to receive the diploma.  Nationwide the rate was 33% that failed to receive a diploma.  So if your child works through the program to the end, your child has a 1 in 3 chance of not getting the diploma.  I think that is worth knowing.  Here is a copy of the diploma rates in PDF.

Robert