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Students may enter this program in a variety of ways, however, you cannot simply sign up for it as you would a course. Ideally, the student has a project idea and initiates an Independent Study by finding an adviser and contacting the Independent Study Coordinator. However, sometimes a teacher or a guidance counselor suggests Independent Study to a student. You will be expected to come to the Coordinator with some reasonably good idea of what you would like to do. Finding an adviser is a part of the responsibility of the student, but the Coordinator of the Program will make suggestions of possible advisers if the student doesn't know of one.

All relevant material explaining the program can be obtained from the Independent Study coordinator, Dr. Schneider in the social studies office, and through this site.  Read this material (found under "For Participants" and "Download Course Materials") carefully.

Student Responsibilities Are To:

• With your adviser, fill out the contract, have it signed by all relevant parties, and return it to the Coordinator, who will let you know the date for a meeting with the Independent Study Committee.

• Your meeting with this committee, during which your contract will be examined and accepted (sometimes in an altered form), is the formal entry into the program. A project may be dropped up to eight calendar weeks after this date without penalty. After this period, if you want to drop a project before completion, it will be evaluated on progress made, and receive appropriate credit.

• Create & maintain your Independent Study Portfolio (Under tab #2).

• Meet on the contracted schedule with your adviser. Your adviser is not expected to chase you.

• Keep your journals as you work, and be prepared to show it to your adviser whenever he or she asks to see it.

• An adviser may request that your project be terminated if you are seriously failing in your responsibilities.

• If your project departs radically from your contract, see the Coordinator . It may be necessary to meet with the Committee again.

• If you run into trouble, see your adviser or the Coordinator.

• If your project will take longer then the contracted time, see the Coordinator; extensions can be granted if the reasons for lateness are reasonable and are approved.

• Prepare for your presentation for the Evaluating Committee.  The presentation can use various formats, such as a PowerPoint presentation, a Prezi, a poster with highlights of the project, an audio component, a performance, or simply a discussion of your project.  You will, however, be required to walk the committee through your Independent Study Website. The presentation portion of your evaluation meeting should last about twenty minutes.

• Set a date with the Coordinator for your Final Presentation. Final presentations may be scheduled throughout the school year; however, year long projects will be presented during the month of May and the Coordinator will have a schedule for presentations available by mid-April.  See Calendar.

• Have your final copy of your journals available to the Coordinator and your Evaluating Committee five days before your presentation (these should already be shared with the Coordinator via your website).  Bring your completed Student Feedback Form with you to your presentation.

CREDIT IS AWARDED FOR THE PROJECT AT ITS COMPLETION AND UPON PRESENTATION TO THE EVALUATION COMMITTEE.  THE AMOUNT OF CREDIT IS GRANTED BASED ON THE SUBSTANTIATED EVIDENCE OF TIME SPENT WORKING AND LEARNING, WHICH WOULD REFLECT THE TIME SPENT IN A QUARTER, SEMESTER OR YEAR-LONG COURSE.  STUDENTS MUST KEEP AND PRESENT A JOURNAL (ON-LINE) AS WELL AS A TIME LOG AND ALL OTHER PERTINENT MATERIALS TO THE COMMITTEE.  STUDENTS MUST KEEP APPOINTMENTS WITH THEIR ADVISORS AND NOTIFY THE COORDINATOR OF PROBLEMS AS THEY MAY ARISE.

Follow these steps to create your Independent Study Portfolio:

1. Make sure you are logged in to your @ncps-k12.org Gmail account.

2. Go to the NCHS Independent Study Google Sites folder. 

3. Right click on the NCHS Independent Study Site Template filename. 

4. Select 'Make a Copy'. It may take a couple minutes for the copy to generate.

5. Locate your copy in your Google Drive or look for the email notification. You can also go to sites.google.com to access your site.

6. Open your copy of the site and click the 'Publish' button in the top right corner.

7. Enter your unique, descriptive name in the web address textbox,  "YourLastName-NCHS-Independent-Study-Site".

8. Click 'Publish'.

Independent Study's primary aim is not only for you to learn, but for you to reflect on your learning. The journal is an important (and required!) part of any IS project. It is a set of documents in which you record not only your rate of progress, but your thoughts on what you are doing. Journals vary greatly in length and complexity, but your evaluators will consider them very closely when judging the value of your project It is the journal that tells the committee what problems you had along the way, why you might have had to change direction, what you are learning, and what you are thinking of as you work. It also gives some indication of the degree of persistence you have dedicated to the project. You should expect your adviser to review your journal from time to time and to see it in its final form before it is passed on to your evaluating committee.

Here are some important details to remember about the journal:

• Begin your journal with a brief description of your project, along with the direction that you believe the project will take, and what you think you will learn.

• Each entry should be automatically dated by Google Sites when you create them, but make sure that they have a date. Keep track of the time you spend writing these, as they count towards your time sheet!

• Your entries should reflect what you are currently doing, how you are doing it, and the problems that you are encountering at that time. Analyze how to solve these problems and what you are learning throughout the process. Each entry will reflect on feelings, as well as factual information.

• As you continue working on your project, describe in your journal how you are solving problems, changes you are making, and how you think through each of your decisions. Describe what you are learning, and what your style of learning is.

• Be sure to record any changes in direction that your study takes. If your project is taking a severely different direction, remember that you need to discuss this with your adviser and the coordinator as your contact may need to be rewritten.

• Finally, write to think about the learning process and the progress that you are making in your study towards independent learning.

• The journal is much more than a diary of what you are doing. It is a document which will capture your learning process.

Your Google Site template (aka your Independent Student Portfolio under tab #2) includes a blog-style journal section where you can post each of your entries separately. This is where your journal will be kept and accessed.