My name is Jeff Harris, I teach Focus, Web Design, and Flash at Snohomish High School.  I try to design my class so an average student will barely finish all of the work in class, if they attend every day.  If you are unable to finish for any reason, please make arrangements to come in before school, after school, or during panther period.

With regards to deadlines, I try to be vey reasonable with the date so working students finish, due to different speeds that students work. Deadlines help to motivate students to finish work, help reduce cheating, help train students for work, and reduce favoritism because everybody will comply to one standard. When I write a deadline, some students with an IEP, or absent students will get more time. I won't include this on the calendar, remind me on the filename if you are absent or in person if your IEP allows for extra time, if I forget. If your IEP allows for more time, it is usually limited to what your IEP allows.

In Web Design, please keep in mind it is commonly expected that it takes as long to fix and diagnose problems with web pages as it does to write the origninal web pages. Lately, some students have made web pages that don't work, and have tried to hold me responsible for fixing these problems. I am generally willing to help, however it is impossible to quickly fix some problems that come up. I wasn't there when the problem was created, which makes it more difficult to figure out what caused the problem. Also, f I were to fix your problems your web pages, I would be robbing you of the opportunity to learn how to fix your problems, and would reduce your motivation to avoid problems.

Usually the web page problems come down to files being saved in the wrong spot, perhaps a web page being opened that isn't the same one being edited. With Flash, students often put in many items and delete partial items, or there are problems with students working on the wrong layer.

Unless I am absent, I'll update the grades once per day, before I leave each day, with the exception of large projects. Please keep in mind that if I upgrade your 5th period grades during my 4th period planning period, your assignment from 5th period that you turned in might not be updated until the following day.. Please be sure to check your grades at least every other day and let me know of problems with your grade within four school days of the deadline. Often, students claim I have lost their work that is very old, anywhere from 1 week to 3 months. If this happens to you, it is your fault, not mine, because you didn't bring it to my attention within four days.

Aproximately ten times per semester, students claim I didn't give them credit after they told me several times they turned in their assignment. If you feel this happened to you, wait until it appears I am not in the middle of something, come up and tell me what happened, and we'll look for your file. If you tried this twice and you received no help, have your parent email me. All of this should happen within seven school days. My goals are to give credit to students who are completing the work on time, and to encourage students to work with deadlines as they would in a job.

Please be considerate of your classmates, yourself, and Mr. Harris. Please don't talk so loudly that it keeps others from working or concentrating. Many students will not say something like, "your extremely loud talking is distracting me." I also ask that you be considerate of anyone giving a presentation, even me, and I'll do the same and expect others to do so.

I try to have a short presentation nearly every class day, I try to make it quick, then students start working on a project. I ask that you listen to my short presentation and try to work through the examples that come up on the overhead. It is tough to recreate what was covered on the overhead when students who followed the presentation have questions, so please be considerate of everybody's time.

Don't talk on the phone in my classroom, or I'll send you to your administrator, and email him or her to make sure you showed up.

I'll call or email home anytime I think it will help my class or you to become more productive. I'll email grades home often, usually after about 3 weeks until near the end of the semester.

Don’t use a flash disk or floppy disk in class without talking with me first, even if it is just to print out an assignment.  I reserve the right to ask you to open the disk so I can see what is on the disk.  My fear is the flash disk will have games or software on it that might damage the computer, or other student’s assignments.

Feel free to email me at jeff.harris@sno.wednet.edu with assignment questions. I prefer you turn in work to the share drive. If you can't due to a legitimate reason, and need to email it to me, email me at both my school email listed above, and at jawharris@gmail.com. I only check this email when I have been emailed saying that a student emailed me an assignment.