2025-2026 Tapestry Weavers TOG Year 4 Co-op Nuts and Bolts:

Everything you ever needed to know about our co-op!

2025-26 Class times:

(All times are Eastern; all meetings are 1 hour except Rhetoric History and Literature which are 1.5 hours):

Grammar: Fridays, 2pm

Dialectic History: Thursdays, 12:30pm

Dialectic Literature: Thursdays, 2:30pm

Rhetoric History: Thursdays, 12:30pm

Rhetoric Literature: Thursdays, 2:30pm

2025-26 School Year Schedule:

Dates listed are Mondays, so read as “week of” and note in our class schedule below that all meetings will take place Thursday and Friday of each week:

Introduction Week: August 11

Week 1/2 Classes (combined content): August 25

Canadian Thanksgiving Break: October 6

Week 10: October 27

American Thanksgiving Break: November 24

Christmas Break: December 22 and December 29

Week 19: January 19

Not-Quite-Spring Break: February 16

Easter Break: March 30

Week 28: April 6

Weeks 35-36 (combined content): May 25

Summer break: June 1

Teacher/Facilitator Training:

Training sessions are available via the following links.  For help with how to navigate our website and use our conferencing platforms click here.

Co-op Fees:

Family with parent willing to teach: $0 

The number of weeks of teaching is determined based on the number of teachers available. Generally, you are expected to teach in the levels/classes in which you have a child participating, although participating teachers have the flexibility to trade subjects and levels with one another.

Family with non-teaching parents: $250 per family

Fees collected will be divided and distributed to teaching parents.

General Expectations 

All co-op participants (students and parents) agree to interact with one another in a Christ-like manner. Our group is made up of many different backgrounds, denominations, and spans the globe, so our life experiences may be vastly different from one another. This co-op's goal is to encourage, support, spur on, and share in the struggles of homeschooling and daily life while learning from the TOG curriculum. Our co-op is only as good as we all make it, so be willing to give input and be a part of the solution, if one is needed. 

Due to the nature of our co-op being open to any TOG user, you will not be asked about your faith or denomination. TOG is a curriculum with a Biblical foundation. The focus of our co-op will be learning TOG content and using the Bible as our common ground. If you choose to divulge your denomination, that is your choice, but it is by no means required. 

We typically do not grade work in literature and history classes, however IF there are enough participants interested in having their child's work graded, those interested parents are welcome to form a grading group and organize graders and will be given assistance with the technology to do so, if needed. 

Student Requirements 

  1. Come to class prepared to discuss thinking and accountability questions. Complete assigned readings and review or prepare using the questions or worksheets provided in the Student Activity Pages (SAPs). Written completion of questions or worksheets is typically at the discretion of the parent, although teachers may request specific assignments to be completed in advance to facilitate class discussion.
  2. Have relevant materials handy: books, Bible, notes, any questions you may have about what you've learned, SAPs, and any other specific items as requested by the teacher. 
  3. Be respectful of the teacher and peers. Opinions given need to be respected, considered, and refutes must be given in a gracious manner. Part of a Socratic discussion is the ability to articulate and refute opinions in a respectful way that does not cause divisiveness. This co-op is a safe place to practice this skill. 
  4. Participate appropriately in class—discussion will only be as good as you make it, so be engaged and invested. Volunteer to answer questions and prepare to be called on. Teachers facilitate, not lecture, so be ready to share thoughts and listen to peers’ ideas. Students are expected to be present with camera on for the entire discussion unless excused by the parent on a specific occasion basis. Do your best to be in a place with few distractions so it’s easy to hear discussion and to be understood when you are sharing. Headset/microphone use is strongly encouraged. Profile names and/or avatars are clearly and personally identifiable. Chat is used in a way that shows we are engaged in class. Distractions are to be minimized or eliminated. 

Parent Requirements 

  1. Make sure that your student's work is completed and that he or she is prepared to participate in class. While occasional off-weeks with low participation due to illness or other unforeseen circumstances are ok, our standard is that students are prepared and participate in all classes. Students in literature classes must have completed book readings to attend class so that plots are not spoiled.
  2. If your student is unable to attend class, please let the teacher know either directly or through a post to the parent lounge.
  3. Parents who are not teaching class are welcome to attend class with their child/children, if they choose to. Your presence is not required every week, although it is strongly encouraged that you sit in at least once a unit so you can observe your own student’s experience in class. If you choose to attend class, you may simply lurk or are welcome to participate in the discussion. Just be mindful that the goal is to get the students talking, not the parents! (We naturally seem to be good at that!) 

Teaching Requirements

"Teaching" in the co-op is less about lecturing and more about facilitating a discussion. A teacher's role and responsibilities in the co-op are as follows: 

  1. Participate in co-op teacher training and complete all required components. 
  2. Lead and facilitate discussions with the aid of the TOG teacher notes, following the TOG discussion outline and keeping student discussion on point. While supplemental content beyond the discussion outline may be relevant and engaging, the scope of the existing content will be the focus of scheduled class times. Additional resources can be shared through the website or additional class meetings may be scheduled for optional/extended discussion if there is interest. 
  3. Communicate omission of content components due to content sensitivity or lack of available time to parents of the students in that class so that material can be covered at home if desired. Teachers who are uncomfortable with or don’t feel equipped to further the discussion on a topic will refer to what the Bible says and then request the students discuss the topic further with their family after class.  
  4. Make slides for the class discussion and load onto our website no later than 2 days after class. 
  5. Find a substitute to cover your class if you are unable to be there or work with the parents of your students to reschedule class if needed. 
  6. Give feedback on individual class meetings via our website or email as need arises.  Parents are responsible for ensuring that their children are meeting the household standards they have established for their children’s education. Teachers are responsible for facilitating a conversation between the students and ensuring that it stays the course of a fruitful and productive conversation about the subject. While teachers can provide and parents can ask for feedback about student engagement in class discussions, the parent evaluates performance based on the combination of written work completed at home and participation in group discussions during co-op meetings.

Note: IF you are not gifted in teaching in some subjects, trading is always an option, that is, teaching Literature instead of History and vice versa.

Teaching Policy

  • Families have the option of participating in the co-op by paying a family participation fee or taking on a share of the teaching responsibility for the school year. The family participation fee is set annually and helps to cover the costs of maintaining our co-op’s web site as well as providing a small thank-you stipend to teachers at the end of the year.
  • Teaching allocations are assigned proportionately according to the number of classes in which each family participates. (For example, a family with students in all levels taking multiple classes will have a greater share of teaching responsibility than a family with one student taking only D History.) 

Responsibilities of Teachers

  • Teachers are expected to arrive on time and prepared – with slides ready, having reviewed the teacher background material and discussion outline in the Tapestry week-plan to prepare for class – to their assigned classes; to teach until the material for the week has been adequately covered or until the end of class time, whichever comes first; and to keep track of student participation in order to give feedback to parents, if desired by parents. To the best of their ability, teachers should remain focused on the lesson and discussion of the students to ensure they have correctly understood their work. 
  • Slides should be used for all classes to accommodate visual learners, even if they are just simple slides with the discussion questions on them. Slides should be loaded onto the web site no later than two days after class. 
  • Classes should be recorded using the Jitsi recording tool, if at all possible, and shared with the person responsible for uploading them to the co-op’s private channel so that students who miss class can watch it afterward.
  • Slides should be uploaded to the appropriate files area of the co-op website in the same spot you check to see if there's something already made you can work from/update/reuse. The Rhetoric directory is here (and there are others just like it for D and G): https://tapestry.lustrat.us/group/rhetoric/directories
  • You can email recordings or share a google drive folder to togvirtualcoop@gmail.com and then it will get posted to the co-op youtube to be able to share the replay link.
  • Teachers should stick to the Tapestry discussion guides when facilitating discussion, without introducing additional materials or topics. If discussion veers too far off track, please gently steer it back to the discussion guide. If additional or alternate materials are used, they must be viewed and approved by all class parents beforehand. 
  • If you skip any discussion topics due to sensitive material or running out of time, please communicate that to parents of the students in that class so that they can cover that material at home if desired. Teachers who are uncomfortable with or don’t feel equipped to expand on a particular topic should refer to what the Bible says and then request the students discuss the topic further with their family after class.
  • Please remember that your teaching assignments are an important responsibility and that, just as you rely on the other teachers for your child’s education, other parents and students are relying on you as well! If you must miss your assigned class, please make every effort to find a sub (as soon as you are aware of your unavailability) by posting on the relevant platforms and individually messaging other teachers. If you are not able to find a sub, you will need to notify students/parents in the Zulip group for that class as well as by individual messages, if possible, and coordinate rescheduling the class.
  • If you fail to come to class without notifying parents or students or trying to find a substitute, it will be considered a no-call no-show absence. Two such absences will result in a change of family status from a teaching family to a paying family. Your teaching assignments will be reassigned, and your family will be required to pay the family participation fee before your students can resume attending classes. You will also forfeit the thank-you stipend for teaching families.
  • If you will be tardy to your assigned class, please notify students/parents in the RocketChat group for the class, by private message, and/or in the classroom chat. An unannounced teacher tardy of 15 minutes or longer will be counted as a no-call no-show absence.**

 

How much time to prep for a class?

It depends. If you are making slides in addition to teaching and are well versed in making PowerPoints, it could be less than an hour. If you really want to digest all the material, make awesome PowerPoints, or are a little slow on the tech side of making slides, it could take 3-6 hours. If you have a child who is good at the tech side, it might pay to hire them to make your slides for you! (Some parents did it the first year of starting this co-op because of the huge amount of technology I was trying to learn. My son was 8 or 9 and I paid him $5 a week for making my slides! He eventually taught me how to make my own slides. ?)

Materials Needed

  • Tapestry of Grace Curriculum Year Plan. Print or Digital is fine. We teach from the current updated digital curriculum. If you have an older edition print, you can still participate but anticipate that you may need to adjust your literature reading selections occasionally. TOG has a print workbook available for a nominal fee that would provide you with current discussion questions. The literature books might be different from time to time, but you would have the option to either miss those classes or read the suggested book for the week and be a part of the discussion. For history, our philosophy is that if you are addressing the discussion questions, it doesn’t matter if you are using current resource books or not. (It may be a little extra work for your student, but it can be done.) The history topic is what is being discussed, not necessarily the reading assignment. Having different perspectives on the same topic always makes for interesting discussion.
  • Computer (preferred), Tablet, or Mobile Phone. Mobile phones do work for our conferencing system, but with some limitations. They work great in a pinch though if you are traveling, dealing with technical issues, or have multiple children in class and not enough computers.  You may want to download the conferencing apps if you are not working from a desktop.  Click here for more info on how to do that.
  • Microphone Headset. A microphone and speaker on your computer are sufficient if you are in a quiet room, generally, but if you have others in the room, or even other students in class in the same room, a headset is really key to avoiding feedback, background noise, and the ability to focus in the classroom. They are readily available on Amazon or your local big box stores for under $20.

Participants with Multiple Co-op Children

  • If you have multiple children in class, you have a few options:
  • A computer for each child with a microphone headset OR place in separate rooms.
  • Use a computer, tablet, and/or mobile device. Again, with headset or in separate rooms.
  • Share a computer. With this option, you will have to login as one person and just let everyone know that you are sharing the computer. You can notify the class through the chat box that you are sharing a computer. When you answer or ask a question, just identify yourself first.

Privacy Policy 

This policy applies solely to information collected by this web site. It will notify you of the following: 

  1. What personally identifiable information is collected from you through the web site, how it is used and with whom it may be shared. 
  2. What choices are available to you regarding the use of your data. 
  3. The security procedures in place to protect the misuse of your information. 
  4. How you can correct any inaccuracies in the information. 

Information Collection, Use, and Sharing 

We are the sole owners of the information collected on this site. We only have access to/collect information that you voluntarily give us via email or other direct contact from you. We will not sell or rent this information to anyone. 

We will use your information to respond to you, regarding the reason you contacted us. We will not share your information with any third party outside of our organization, other than as necessary to fulfill your request. 

Unless you ask us not to, we may contact you via email in the future to tell you about events, member correspondence, or changes to this privacy policy. 

Your Access to and Control Over Information 

You may opt out of any future contacts from us at any time. You can do the following at any time by contacting us via the email address given on our website, or from your user settings/preferences. You may request to: 

   • See what data we have about you, if any. 

   • Change/correct any data we have about you. 

   • Have us delete any data we have about you. 

   • Express any concern you have about our use of your data. 

Security 

We take precautions to protect your information. When you submit sensitive information via the website, your information is protected both online and offline. 

Wherever we collect sensitive information that information is encrypted and transmitted to us in a secure way. You can verify this by looking for a closed lock icon at the bottom or top of your web browser, or looking for "https" at the beginning of the address of the web page. 

While we use encryption to protect sensitive information transmitted online, we also protect your information offline. Only administrators who need the information to perform a specific job (for correspondence or assistance are granted access to personally identifiable information. The computers/servers in which we store personally identifiable information are kept in a secure environment.