#GOCOWLS

The weekly newsletter for Gwinnett Online Campus

Thursday, March 9, 2023

Daylight savings time will begin at 2 a.m. local time on Sunday, March 12. Please be sure to adjust your clocks by one hour.

We will continue to have Milestone Benchmark testing next week through Thursday, March 16. All grade levels will have VIRTUAL LABS from home. The virtual lab schedule will mirror the same grade level lab schedule we follow on campus each week. Please be mindful that the District deadline for these Milestone Benchmarks closes on Thursday, March 16. Students who do not test during this time are unable to receive a score to enter in the gradebook for this assessment after this date.

On-campus labs will resume the week of March 20.

GOC will also have VIRTUAL LABS the week of March 27-31 due to additional on-campus testing. Again, students will follow their grade level lab schedule from home unless their are testing on campus.



#CARE

#OnlineWeLearnSuccessfully

Grades 4-12: Roost & Boost

There will be no Roost & Boost on campus during Milestone Benchmark testing scheduled for March 13 through March 16. Students who are not testing will have VIRTUAL LABS from home during this time.

Roost & Boost will resume the week of March 20.

Grade 12: 2023 Graduates

First, congratulations on being a potential GOC graduate of the Class of 2023. Please be mindful that students must pass all course and graduation requirements in order to qualify for graduation.

Second, it is MANDATORY that you take approximately 5 minutes to complete a Senior Exit Survey. Please click HERE for instructions on how to access and complete this quick survey.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter!

Please click HERE to contact your High School Counselor with questions.

Grade 8: What is a Carnegie Unit?

Carnegie Units are credits needed for graduation. A parent must accept the Carnegie Unit Credit at the end of the school year, indicating whether the credit for the course(s) taken will be for middle school credit or as a Carnegie unit towards high school graduation. Students may only earn credit for the whole year, one Carnegie credit for each course. If the state of Georgia mandates a Milestones End of Course assessment, the student must participate to earn the Carnegie credit. Both semester grades will be used to determine credit earned.

If the student successfully passes both semesters, a 'P' will be placed on the transcript, not a grade. A 'P' will equal 1.0 units of credit earned. Courses that earn a high school Carnegie credit in middle school will not be used in the high school's grade point average (GPA) calculation.

According to current Georgia Student Finance Commission rules for HOPE, courses that earn a high school Carnegie credit in middle school will not be used in GPA calculations for the HOPE scholarship.

For more information about high school credits, please visit GOC's website by clicking HERE or the Georgia Department of Education website by clicking HERE.

Please contact your Counselor with questions.

Grades 9-12: Lifelines Prevention Curriculum

During the month of March, GOC's high school counselors will deliver the Lifelines Suicide Prevention Curriculum to students currently taking Health this semester. Additional information about this important topic has been emailed home to parents.

Please contact your High School Counselor with questions.

Grades 4-8: Geography & History Bees

Are you interested in testing your Geography or History skills? Do you like to compete with other people? Then you should consider competing in a Geography or History Bee!

Geography and History Bees are now hosted by International Academic Competitions. To learn more, please click HERE.

Registration and participation are easy and free! Interested students will need to register for and take an Online Regional Qualifying Exam. This is a 20-minute qualifying exam with 50 multiple choice questions, and this exam can be taken at home!

If students qualify in any of the subject areas, they will be eligible to register for the North Georgia Regional Finals, which will be held on Saturday, April 15 at Commerce High School, in Commerce, Georgia. If you qualify, please click HERE to register for this competition by the Sunday, April 2 deadline. Again, students may only register for the North Georgia Regional Finals if they qualify on the Online Regional Qualifying Exam.

If students are interested, they can also register for the Science Bee offered by this organization if they qualify. The North Georgia Regional Finals for Science will be held at Commerce High School on the same day.

Students may only register for the North Georgia Regional Finals if they qualify on the Online Regional Qualifying Exam.

Please contact Mr. Zain Malik with questions.

Grades K-12: Spring Musical Cast & Crew Calendar and Ticket Sales

Please contact Mr. Miro Gomez with questions.

Grades K-12: Spring Musical Toy Donation Drive

SWAG (Students Working Around Gwinnett) will be hosting a Toy Donation Drive on Thursday, March 23 and Friday, March 24 during the Spring Musical, Mary Poppins Jr., at GOC. By bringing in new/lightly used toys, you can help decide what characters will get a Spoonful of Sugar after the show!!

Grades 4-12: In-Person Club & Activities Friday

We hope to see everyone at our next in-person Club and Activities Friday scheduled for Friday, March 17. Please wear something green to show your school spirit!

Please click HERE to RSVP for this event. Also, students who wish to participate in the Art Rich Experience must register and pay on the student's MyPaymentsPlus account. Space is limited for the Art Rich Experience, please register soon.

For those that don't participate in the Art Rich Experience, there will be other activities on campus during this time including SLT Focus Groups, Gamer Group, Rec Games and Study Group in the Connect Center.



Mark your calendar for our last Club Friday of the school year which will be held on Friday, April 21.

Please contact Ms. Hope Campbell with questions.

Grades 4-12: Club & Activities Friday - Art Rich Experience

The Art Department will be offering a fun and creative class about texture painting during Clubs & Activities Friday scheduled for Friday, March 17 from 9:45-10:45 a.m. Come create an original work of art as you experiment with texture and color mixing.

Students who wish to participate in this event must pay a $5 participation fee by visiting the student's MyPaymentsPlus account. Also, please be sure to RSVP for this event by clicking HERE.

Please email Ms. Nola Bryant with questions.

Grades 4-12: Virtual Gaming Tournament

Please join us for a Virtual Gaming Tournament and Social on Friday, March 17 from 1-3 p.m. In addition to gaming, there will be time to check in with our counselors and find out more about getting connected at GOC.

Please RSVP by clicking HERE and you will receive more information about this event.

Please contact Mr. Mike Mouton or Ms. Hope Campbell with questions.

Grades K-8: 2022-2023 Art Tapestry

Please email Ms. Nola Bryant with questions.

Grades 9-12: Prom/Spring Dance

Students in grades 9-12, please mark your calendar to save the date for GOC's Prom/Spring Dance scheduled for Friday, April 21 from 7-10 p.m. The theme will be Met Gala - A Night in Paris and will be Semi-Formal/Formal attire.

This year our venue will be 550 Trackside in Downtown Lawrenceville. Please note the date and venue change due to issues with the original location.

Please visit the student's MyPaymentsPlus account by Friday, March 31 to take advantage of early bird ticket pricing ($50 per person). Students may purchase one additional guest ticket (for a similar age peer) to accompany them to this event. Prices will increase soon so please get your tickets now!

Student's, please check your GCPS email to participate in a survey to submit your nominations for Superlatives, Prom Court and song requests.

Please contact Ms. Hope Campbell with questions.

Grades 9-12: Donations for a Dinner Drawing -Prom/Spring Dance

Are you heading to the Prom/Spring Dance in April? SWAG is offering an opportunity for students to win a complimentary dinner on the Square in Downtown Lawrenceville for you and your guest on Friday, April 21 before Prom/Spring Dance. In order to be eligible to win, students must have purchased their Prom/Spring Dance ticket by the drawing.

SWAG (Students Working Around Gwinnett) will be offering an opportunity for students to donate items for the Gwinnett Co-Op. Our collection dates will be Friday, March 17 during Clubs & Activities Friday and during on-campus labs on Wednesday, March 29 and Wednesday, April 12.

SWAG will be collecting the following new/unopened items for the Gwinnett Co-Op. Students will receive one raffle ticket for each item donated. The more you donate, the more chances to win! The drawing will be held the afternoon of Wednesday, April 12.

Students in grades K-8 are also welcome to make donations of hygiene items for the Gwinnett Co-Op through Friday, April 14.

Please contact Ms. Lindsey Woodward or Ms. Hope Campbell with questions.

Grades K-12: GOC Family Skate Night

Come out and support GOC and PAC (Parent Advisory Committee) at our Family Skate Fundraiser. All proceeds will go to support our GOC PAC and all the great work they do here at GOC. We had a great turn out in February and hope to see even more of our families in March.

Our next off-campus family event at Sparkles Family Fun Center, Gwinnett is scheduled for Tuesday, March 28 from 5-8:30 p.m. This is NOT a drop off event; every student should have a parent or guardian accompany them to this event. On school skate nights, the venue offers special pricing of $7 admission which includes skates. Non-skating parents are free. There is also a $15 Meal Deal which includes 1 large cheese pizza and 1 pitcher of your choice beverage.

Please click HERE to RSVP for this event.

Please contact GOC's Parent Advisory Committee with questions. Also, be sure to add their email address (gwinnettonlineparents@gmail.com) to your address book to prevent emails from going to spam.

Grades K-12: PAC (Parent Advisory Committee) Meeting

Calling all parents!! We need your help to plan lots of fun student events here at Gwinnett Online Campus!

Please join us on Friday, March 17 from 10:45-11:45 a.m. for a parent volunteer meeting to discuss how you can help with upcoming events.



The PAC (Parent Advisory Committee) would like to reach out to the parents who are not already involved this year. To stay up to date on the upcoming events and other information for the rest of this year and next year, please complete and submit the Parent Information Form.

For questions and to RSVP for the in-person parent meeting, please email

GOC's PAC (Parent Advisory Committee).

Extracurricular Podcast

Make sure to check out the latest episode of Extracurricular, GOC's podcast about the amazing hobbies and interests GOC students, staff, and faculty members have outside of school. There are two episodes this week. You can listen by clicking on the links below or searching for Extracurricular on your podcast app.

Grades 6-12: Science Research Club Meeting

GOC's Science Research Club will NOT meet on Friday, March 17 during Club & Activities Friday. We will have our final meeting in April where we will discuss the schedule and projects for next year.

Any students interested for next year can also attend the April meeting to get information. Please watch for more details in the upcoming #GOCOWLS.

Please contact Ms. Jennifer Barnes with questions.

Grades K-12: Purchase Your 2022-23 GOC Lookbook

We have some exciting news! GOC will have our version of a yearbook again this year called The GOC Lookbook!

We have a group of students who have been working with one of our teachers on designing and publishing our Lookbook since August, and we are happy to announce that they are now available for you to purchase. Our GOC Lookbook will capture full-time students on campus in grades K-12, including classroom shots as well as pictures from clubs and activities throughout the school year. We hope this will be a book that your student can keep as a memory of their year at Gwinnett Online Campus. The GOC Lookbook will not include individual portraits of students.

Please note that the GOC Lookbook can only be purchased by the deadline of Friday, March 31. We will NOT have extra or additional copies for sale when the books are delivered.

Please click HERE for instructions on purchasing your very own 2022-23 GOC Lookbook.

Grades 4-5: Virtual Success Skills Counseling Lessons

Ms. Santiago-Fecht, GOC Counselor, will be hosting a series of 10 virtual counseling lessons focusing on the success skills of good character to real life situations starting Thursday, February 23 for 4th and 5th grade students. There will be 10 sport-themed lessons on the following topics: respect, responsibility, thankfulness, caring, self-discipline, cooperation, honesty, good citizenship and courage. Each week will focus on a different character skill and the last lesson will be a summary of all the character skills discussed.

Please watch for an email from Ms. Santiago with the link, dates and times for the 4th and 5th grade counseling lessons. Students do not need to attend all the lessons, but it is recommended.

Please contact Ms. Santiago-Fecht with questions.

Grades 8-9: Spring GOC College Bus Tour

The GOC Counselors are happy to announce that Gwinnett Online Campus will be offering a spring College Bus Tour for students in grades 8 and 9. The trip is scheduled for Thursday, March 30 and we will meet at GOC at 7 a.m. and return to GOC by 4 p.m. We have space available for 25 8th grade students and 25 9th grade students to participate on a campus tour of Georgia State University, Kennesaw State Marietta Campus with a drive through of KSU Main Campus!

We have limited spots available which will be filled on a first come, first serve basis via MyPaymentsPlus. Please plan to bring a sack lunch.

Please click HERE to register your student on their MyPaymentsPlus account. Once all spots are full, this item will not longer be available on MyPaymentsPlus.

Please contact your counselor Ms.Teshia Dula, Ms. Nikita Johnson, or Ms. Jessica Pompilus with questions.

Grades 6-8: Maxwell School of Technology Middle School Summer Camp

Grades 6-8: Grayson Tech Middle School Summer Camp