New Features of the PowerTeacher Grade Book Part II

Teachers,

With 2009 we have upgraded to the new 1.5 PowerTeacher Gradebook. It still uses Java, however, again, do NOT upgrade to the latest version 6, the program still only works with JAVA 5 - up to version 17. If you have any problems with the JAVA please e-mail me and we will see how to work through it.

Here are some pictures of the changes - no new training is necessary. This is the last 3 of 7, the December 30th post has the first 4:

You'll notice now when you "right click" on the quarter or final grade you not only have the option of using "Score Inspector" but you also have the option to use the "Fill Scores" feature. This would be most helpful for specialized teachers.



In this next picture,it's my favorite new feature - Spell Check! Notice as I typed a word wrong the red line appears below it to show me a misspelling. I right click on the word and the program gives me correct spelling options to choose from similar to any word processing program.



In the final picture in this blog entry, notice the new look of the "Fill Scores" option. You can now choose more than one type of entry - "Late" as well as a score. There is a separate tab for comments that are from the diocese in the "canned comments" section.



More information in 2009!

Here's what's new in the new Gradebook! Part I

Happy New Year Teachers!

With 2009 we have upgraded to the new 1.5 PowerTeacher Gradebook. It still uses Java, however, again, do NOT upgrade to the latest version 6, the program still only works with JAVA 5 - up to version 17. If you have any problems with the JAVA please e-mail me and we will see how to work through it.

Here are some pictures of the changes - no new training is necessary. This is the first 4 of 7:



In this picture you can now see your "Categories" in the lower left hand side of your gradebook. You can also still reach the Category box using Tools-Categories. This makes it easier to see the categories for each class while you are creating assignments. This will help eliminate category weighing issues when the teacher uses the categories correctly.



In the second picture you can see two other new views. On the upper left you can see the quarter is listed as "Quarter in progress." Toward the right hand side you are able to view assignments by the assignment or final grade. The assignment view allows you to see the grade for the assignment while the final grade view allows the user to see the points earned versus the points possible.



You will notice in this third picture that the "Class Info" button is replaced by a "Class Content" button. The Class Content tab allows the user to type in information for the parents regarding the class description the same as the prior application. The addition has three buttons above the description box - Class Info, School Content and My Content. My Content allows you to add links to websites that are for you, the teacher to keep. These links stay with you EVERY YEAR NO MATTER WHICH CLASSES YOU TEACH. It is a great way to keep links to send to families or help with your lessons.

This fourth picture shares the information you can fill in for your Content Folder. School Content is a way for the school or diocese to place links and websites to use, however you can not add or delete them.



Part II will be posted tomorrow.

Scheduled Maintenance for December 16th

Teachers,

Holiday blessings to you all! In anticipation of the new upgrades to PowerTeacher, we have scheduled a maintenance upgrade for December 26 -29th. If the upgrade is assisted by Pearson, we will experience short intermittent downtimes. If you can not log onto the system during that time, please try back later. Any changes that occur from the upgrade will be posted here.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Adele

Reminder on how to put comments on the Progress Report

Teachers,

To put comments for Progress Reports or report cards, you MUST enter them through your gradebook - the comments you enter through the "backpack" in PowerTeacher DO NOT go in either of these places. Grades K-4 MUST put comments in homeroom for them to print, Grades 5-8 can put comments in by subject. This includes specials. Specials for Grades K-4 who have comments must submit them to the homeroom teacher.

To enter a comment, open you gradebook. Make sure that the quarter showing is the one you in which you want the comment to appear. Then right click on the quarter grade and the only choice you should have is Score Inspector. (Click on the image to see it bigger. To go back to this page, click the back arrow on the top of your screen.)



Once the Score Inspector is open, you can choose to hand write your own comments or choose comments from the comment bank. You can use the arrows next to the child's name to move from child to child. There is no save button, the comments automatically save. You will see a small blue "C" once you close the Score Inspector. If you want to change the comment you simple have to follow the directions above again and make the changes.

Repeating directions for using the Progress Report - Quarter 2

Teachers,

I have created a progress report that can be used at anytime and puts all grades and comments on one piece of paper for each child. Here's how you use it:

First, it can only be used by the homeroom teacher. Also, you can click on each of my pictures in this post to make them larger. Once you view them you can click the "back arrow" on your screen to go back to the directions and blog.

Click on the picture of the printer from PowerTeacher.


Then choose the report that has "Progress Report" in its name.



Once the Report Queue screen appears, you will see the word "running" on the right hand side. This means you need to click on the blue word "refresh" on the page until the word running turns into the word "completed."





Once you click on the word "completed" it will open up in a .pdf file (you need Adobe to do this, its free.) Then you can print the reports you want to send. It prints the whole class in the pdf file, however, you can choose to print some students from the Print screen.

News regarding PowerTeacher 1.5 - to be released sometime in December

Teachers,

I spoke during the summer of an upgrade to PowerTeacher that would be available around the holiday time. The release is set to happen in mid December and here is what I have found so far that it will contain:

* The ability to import scores

*A "final grades mode" button for you to let the office know your grades are ready to be published to the report cards

*A "mouse over" for comments, which means if you put your mouse over the area where you added a comment you will be able to see the comment without needing to click and reopen Score Inspector

*The Categories box has now been moved to the same place as the other icons on top of the page so you will no longer have to go to "Tools" to open create categories

What is NOT in the upgrade is a Seating Chart, something that was mentioned originally. There is a seating chart program that I can obtain from another company so I will look into it after the upgrade.

I will keep you informed as I receive information.

Happy Thanksgiving!
Adele

Good News! Checks and Plus marks can be input by the subject teachers

Thank you to Donna Haggerty of St. Augustine of Canterbury School for providing me data to help with a puzzling question: can we input our own check and plus marks?

In the past it could only be done by the homeroom teacher, however, one of the latest upgrades must have made it available to all teachers for the middle school grades. In order to input checks and plus marks go into PowerTeacher, click on the "backpack" and then choose one of the children. On the right side, click on the arrow and choose "Final Grade Entry (Standards). Input check and plus marks under Q1 by using the drop down arrows under your subject heading.

Adele

Faqs regarding preparation for Report Cards

Teachers,

The following must be done before report cards can be printed:

1) Input all assignment grades that are part of the first marking period(date should be no later than November 7th.)

2) Checks and plus signs need to be completed (see previous blog entry dated November 2nd.)

3) Comments need to be added to the quarter grade (see blog entry from September 29th.) Comments should be used sparingly - if you need to write more than one or two comments, set up a conference with the parent. Remember, anything you have in writing can be interpreted many ways by the viewer. Some things are better said than read.

4) If any grades require adjustment for any reason (quarter final grades) they can only be done by the score inspector (this information is also on this blog - 2 posts down.)

Once all of the above steps are done you need to let your principal, the office staff, or PowerSchool administrator know. Once all teachers, including special subject teachers have completed these steps in the required deadline announced at the school, report cards can then be printed.

Report cards look exactly like the ones you've been writing on in previous years. They can not be created for you to view and then make adjustments. Once the grades are stored changing them is a time consuming process. Please follow the above information for a successful report card printing.

Getting ready for Report Cards part II

Teachers,

While you are waiting to finish inputting grades for the quarter, you can also put in the checks and plusses for the students. It is available ONLY FOR THE HOMEROOM teachers. If other teachers want to have checks or plusses put on a student's report card they must inform the homeroom teacher.

To place checks or X's (in place of checkmarks in this system) the homeroom teacher logs onto PowerTeacher and clicks on the homeroom "backpack." Once the students appear on the left hand side, click on a student name. Then, on the right hand side choose "Final Grade Entry" or "Final Grade Entry (Standards)" whichever is available for your school. Once this field is chosen you will have drop down choices for all the standards. Choose the ones you need with the drop down and then click submit at the bottom of the page. The choices will stay until you change them if needed.

Time to prepare for reporting 1st Quarter Grades

Teachers,

Report cards will be printed in November. For those schools who are printing report cards from the PowerSchool system for the first time, this post is important to you. For those of you who are new to the system, even though you aren't printing report cards from this system you need to make sure that prior to November 21st the grade that is listed for the quarter is the grade that you wrote on the report card.

THIS STEP NEEDS TO BE COMPLETED AT LEAST THREE DAYS PRIOR TO REPORT CARD PRINTING:

For each class you teach make sure all grades for the quarter have been input in the system. Once you have all grades for each student, look at the Q1 final grade. If you wish to make any adjustments, right click on the score. The only choice you will have is "Score Inspector." Once the dialog box opens up, click in the box "Manually Override Grade" to make the adjustment. Remember to change the number grade as well as the letter grade. This is also the box in which you input comments that will print out on the back of the report card.

Once all grades are correct, let either the office staff or assignment PowerSchool coordinator in your school know that your classes have been verified. You can use the Final Grade Verification Report in PowerTeacher gradebook or the single page Progress Report available in PowerTeacher.

Need more information? E-mail me at aellis@diometuchen.org

PowerSchool was down for the morning - October 24th - has been back up before lunch

Teachers,

There was a major power outage in Piscataway that affected the diocese. There was no electrical power at all until shortly after 11 a.m. Many schools e-mailed me they could not access PowerSchool, however, due to the electrical problem I could not access my e-mail and my telephone and voicemail were not accessible either. I have sent an e-mail to your principals asking for at least one member of the school to call my cell phone in this type of situation in the future. If PowerSchool is not available for more than 1/2 hour, one person should call my cell - if I'm not available to talk to you, as the case was today, I will leave my voicemail message to let the caller know the status of PowerSchool. This will be helpful to get more people the information quickly.

Thanks for your patience in this uncontrollable situations.

How to Check if a Parent is Logging On to see the child's grades

Teachers,

Since many of our schools are "live" to the parents, its important to know if certain parents are logging on to the system to see grades. If there is a child who's grades are a concern, you might want to check and see if the parent is aware of the grades. You have the ability to check in PowerTeacher.

First, log on to PowerTeacher and click on the "backpack."


Once you are in the class, click on the child's name on the left side of the screen until the child's information appears toward the right side of the screen. A choice bar will appear in the right upper corner of that screen. Click on the arrow and choose "Net/Phone Access Summary."



You should see under the Parent Summary dates, times, and how long the parent was visiting the child's account. If you do not see those items then it would be a good time to contact the parent and remind them to visit the account.

How to Put Comments in the system for Progress Reports and Report Cards

Teachers,

To put comments for Progress Reports or report cards, you MUST enter them through your gradebook - the comments you enter through the "backpack" in PowerTeacher DO NOT go in either of these places.

To enter a comment, open you gradebook. Make sure that the quarter showing is the one you in which you want the comment to appear. Then right click on the quarter grade and the only choice you should have is Score Inspector. (Click on the image to see it bigger. To go back to this page, click the back arrow on the top of your screen.)



Once the Score Inspector is open, you can choose to hand write your own comments or choose comments from the comment bank. You can use the arrows next to the child's name to move from child to child. There is no save button, the comments automatically save. You will see a small blue "C" once you close the Score Inspector. If you want to change the comment you simple have to follow the directions above again and make the changes.

It's Progress Report Time - Use the one created for you

Teachers,

I have created a progress report that can be used at anytime and puts all grades and comments on one piece of paper for each child. Here's how you use it:

First, it can only be used by the homeroom teacher. Also, you can click on each of my pictures in this post to make them larger. Once you view them you can click the "back arrow" on your screen to go back to the directions and blog.

Click on the picture of the printer from PowerTeacher.


Then choose the report that has "Progress Report" in its name.



Once the Report Queue screen appears, you will see the word "running" on the right hand side. This means you need to click on the blue word "refresh" on the page until the word running turns into the word "completed."





Once you click on the word "completed" it will open up in a .pdf file (you need Adobe to do this, its free.) Then you can print the reports you want to send. It prints the whole class in the pdf file, however, you can choose to print some students from the Print screen.

The Free PowerSchool Tutorial is no longer available

Teachers,

The free tutorial on the bottom of the page in PowerTeacher where you launch your gradebook will no longer be available effective September 15th. PowerSchool has launched a distance learning division in which classes will be charged. The first class I have seen cost $25.00 per class. I do believe blocks of classes can be purchased, however at this time that will not be necessary. Refer to the blog or contact me if you need additional training.

Adele

Please be careful with Attendance Codes

Teachers,

At present the old code "Absent" is still in the system. Please DO NOT use that code for this school year. The absent codes that are to be used exclusively are "UA" or "XA." If you need clarification on which code to use for what purpose please feel free to e-mail me. Once the school year settles, I will remove the old "A" for absent code from the system.

Thanks!
Adele

Welcome Back Teachers - check your student information

Teachers,

Welcome Back! We have new and great things coming in the system to help you communicate even better with your students and their families. For now, please click on the "backpack" and check your student information. If there are any descrepancies, please notify the school office or person in charge of PowerSchool in your school building. Each school now has a person who can make administrative changes.

Contact me for any grading issues. Have a wonderful school year!
Adele

GRADEBOOK NOW UP AND WORKING!

Teachers,

The problem with the gradebook was the children did not show up even though they were visible in your "backpacks" and the Grade Setup folders for the year and quarters were not visible either. Now all of those things are available and you can take the time to set up your gradebook.

Also, if you feel you need a refresher - the online course from Pearson is still available. If you forgot your id - its the email address you used to sign up originally. If you forgot your password, unfortunately, I can't help you and the site did not save it either. Create yourself as a new user with a different email address and you can then go back into the program. Use the code pss@01gb

Welcome back! Contact me as you need me :)

A delay in the gradebook

Teachers,

Unfortunately, PowerSchool is having an issue with our gradebook. It is not available without problems at this time. I will post when the problems have been fixed. In the meantime, your students will be listed under the "backpack" so you can review that information. I will keep you informed on the progress.

Sorry for the delay,
Adele

GradeBooks will be open on August 15th

Welcome Back Teachers!

Starting on August 15th your gradebooks will be available with your student list if it was input into the system by that time. You will not be able to see 1st Quarter until the first day of the quarter, September 2nd. You can see the year, so if your students are not visible immediately, Click in the upper left hand corner of your gradebook and choose "2008-2009" school year. E-mail me if you have a problem.

Don't forget to set up your term weights in Grade Setup - everyone MUST do the Y1 folder, choosing "Term Weights."

Adele

New Year! Time for preparing your gradebook with Grade Setup

Teachers,

Welcome Back!! I hope you had a wonderful summer and had time to relax.

It's important for all of you to know that you must set up the grade setup in the beginning of each school year. The system does not assume you will do the same thing. Look at the blog history of past entries for directions.

IMPORTANT: EVERYONE MUST do the grade setup for Y1. You must go to "Grade Setup", click on the Y1 folder. Look at the bottom half of the page and click in the circle choice for "Term Weights." It will bring all 4 quarters to 100% each. Click submit and you are done. This should be done for every class except homeroom.

Not sure? Feel free to email me - aellis@diometuchen.org.

Adele

Important End of Year Information

Teachers and administrators,

The following deadlines MUST be adhered to for the end of the school year process. Normally we shut PowerSchool down for the roll over to the next school year on June 30th, however, this year PowerSchool is coming to reconfigure our 5 servers and needs to shut us down a week earlier on June 23rd. This makes it "crunch" time for all of you and especially me.

FOR SCHOOLS PRINTING REPORT CARDS FROM THE SYSTEM:

You MUST have your grades completed by the date given to you by your school. Any changes that need to be made by me MUST be done no later than June 17th.

SCHOOLS NOT PRINTING REPORT CARDS BUT HAVE ENTERED GRADES THIS SCHOOL YEAR:

I will be storing all grades for this schools as permanent records on June 17th. No changes can be made after that date. Please make sure your grades are accurate.

The system will be down and not available to anyone from June 23rd to July 15th. Once the system is up, it will reflect the new school year of 2008-2009 and all students will have been moved up in grade level. School staff can then start adding more new students and place the students in classes. Please contact me if you need help in these areas. Thank you!

April 24th - Take your child to Work Day

Teachers,

Today can be considered an excused absence. This means that the day does not count toward perfect attendance. If a child has given you a note prior to this day stating they are participating in a parent's Take Your Child to Work day activities, the day counts as excused and use the code, XA. If there is no note, the child is considered unexcused absence as usual.

Year End Weights

Teachers,

Blogger is having a problem loading images today. Please check back tomorrow to see the image of the Year End Weights. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Adele

Here are some of the new items on PowerTeacher 1.1

You will see a few changes that are very helpful in the 1.1 version of PowerTeacher gradebook. The first thing you will see when you open your PowerTeacher is the new "attendance dot." It will turn green (as shown in the picture below) when you have taken attendance that day and it has been reported to the server. Also, you will now notice that when you open your grade book in Java that the scoresheet opens to the actual quarter you are in, it no longer opens to the Y1 and you have to remember to open to the quarter. More information to come...

Also, if you want to go back into the Training program from Pearson, they have added a component that explains the 1.1 gradebook. A lot of it will be review and familiar, but it might be helpful seeing the rest of the added features.

PowerSchool up and upgrade completed on Monday, March 31st

Teachers,

The system has been back up since 10:30am this morning. The new upgrades are in and listed on your PowerGrade page in PowerTeacher. Try printing reports from your gradebook and see how much easier it is to do. Contact me if you have any questions.

Adele

It's Report Card Time Again

Teachers,

As you prepare your grades for the end of the third quarter, please remember to use the Grade Verification Report from the Reports Menu in PowerTeacher gradebook to finalize your grades. This report should be run to view the final letter and numerical grade for each student in each of your classes. This will avoid the necessity to change historical grades later on. The following views are from PowerTeacher to show you the necessary screens. If you need help with the report please email me.

Upgrades planned for Easter Break

We will be working on upgrading the servers during Easter Break, from Thursday, March 20th to Friday, March 28th. Any interruptions in service will be minimal. If the system is not functioning at the time you log on, try again in an hour or two.

We continue to upgrade to provide the best service to our families. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Progress Reports for Elementary Schools

It's that time again. Progress Reports. For those of you who do not have them built into the PowerSchool system yet or have not used them, this post is to share a screencast that will show you how to print them and what they should look like.

Click here to get to the screencast:

Progress Reports

Let me know if this is helpful. What else would you like to see? Email me at aellis@diometuchen.org.

Interested in offering your opinion on revising Report Cards?

Teachers,

The Diocese is collecting feedback from teachers regarding the report card format created before the use of PowerSchool. We are interested in what changes are needed and what additions might be necessary. Please keep in mind with your responses that parents from all diocesan schools will be able to see grades on line as well as report card grades. Comments can be posted for parents to see at anytime during the semester and even for individual assignments.

Please complete the survey that corresponds to the grade level you are teaching. There is a survey specific to special classes as well. The report cards are listed by middle school first, third and fourth second, then first and second, kindergarten and last for special subjects. Click next on the bottom of the pages until you arrive at the survey for your grade. Each section is followed by a Thank you page.

Click Here to take survey

PowerSchool will be down for Maintenance from Feb. 15-Feb.19

Teachers,

The system will receive a maintenance upgrade starting from noon on Friday, February 15th through 8 a.m. Tuesday, February 19th. THIS UPGRADE SHOULD NOT INTERFERE WITH YOUR ABILITY TO TAKE ATTENDANCE THOSE DAYS. Although there may be times that PowerTeacher will not be available, the gradebook is the part of the system that may be affected the most during the upgrade. It should be available for use various times within that time frame, however, to save frustration, enter grades either prior to or after the scheduled maintenance. If you have any trouble after that time frame please contact me.

Thanks!
Adele

Reminders for Attendance and Report Cards

Teachers,

Remember, when taking attendance DO NOT use the "A" for absent code anymore. You must use either "UA" or "XA." Email me if you need to know the difference.

To provide report card comments you MUST enter them only through Score Inspector in the PowerTeacher Gradebook on the Final Grade. Any comments you put through Teacher Comments in PowerTeacher through the Backpack will be visible to parents but will not print on the report card. I reported this information in November and December on this blog.

More screen casts and podcasts to come to help you fine tune your use of the program.

Adele

Screencast - Creating Assignments Part I

Teachers,

Here's another refresher screencast, How to create assignments. There have been some questions on how to choose the date of the assignment, it is one of the points highlighted in this 5th screencast. Part II coming soon.

Click hereCreating Assignments Part I for screen cast. As in prior instructions, click on the large arrow in the middle of the screen twice and wait for the video to activate.

Please take the short survey that is listed on the December 31st blog entry to let me know how these screencasts are helping you and what else you would like to see.

Adele