PowerSchool Users

Here's some of the new features for PowerTeacher coming in the Fall

2009-05-19T15:19:00.003-05:00

Teachers,

PowerSchool is being upgraded during the summer to PowerTeacher 1.6. At a meeting in early May, one of the Pearson representatives shared with a user group some of the changes. Here are some things you may find interesting:

*You will be able to copy Multiple assignments into any class - at present you had to do them one at a time.

*Standards can also be entered in the gradebook and can now be seen by parents in the Quick Lookup (standards for grades 1-4 are the "Behaves appropriately, completes tasks on time, etc.) For kindergarten this means that parents will be able to see the measurements on line.

*The comment field will now have a 4000 character limit. Keep in mind though that our report cards will not accomodate that amount to be printed in the comment boxes.

As I learn more I will be more than happy to share :)

Not enough space on Report Cards for comments?

2009-04-08T10:42:00.003-05:00

Teachers,

The report cards we use in PowerSchool are set up in the same format as the hand written report cards. Just as the former paper copies, the space allotted for each quarter for comments is limited. Some teachers would like to take advantage of the ability to write more in depth for each child and would like more space. This seems to be more of a problem for middle level grades than lower grades since the student has many more teachers. More space on the report card is not possible, however, there is another avenue you can take.

Teacher comments can be entered through the "backpack." Although these comments do not appear on the report card it allows the teacher to write more verbiage than to share space with other teachers for the limited space on the report card. The report card comment can then read, "Please log onto your child's account and view the comments above your child's grades for (name of the subject) class."

Getting ready to Verify grades for Report Cards

2009-03-27T10:51:00.004-05:00

Teachers,

The third marking period is upon us. Your school office will let you know the cut off date for adding grades for this marking period. Remember, if you are entering grades after Friday, March 27th you must make sure you use a date of March 27th or before in order for the grades to calculate in the third marking period.

Kindergarten grades and grades 1-8 checks and pluses are found in PowerTeacher, through the backpack in the homeroom section only (grades 1-4, subject level for grades 5-8.)

Grades must be VERIFIED to the school office prior to closing date. You can use either the Progress report in PowerTeacher under Reports, or the Final grade and verification report in Power Teacher. Either way, make sure that the grades are correct - changing them later is difficult and can not be done at the school level.

Questions? E-mail me.

Important!! Upgrade will occur on March 31st

2009-03-09T18:14:00.002-05:00

Teachers,

An important upgrade is set for Tuesday, March 31st at 3 pm. This upgrade will fix a few issues that are important in all areas of PowerSchool. The ones that affect you the most are: Marking period dates are recorded correctly, the gradebook will now launch with JAVA version 6, and parents will now be able to SEE the checkmarks, late and missing icons!

PowerSchool should be down no more than a few hours. Please make sure you are not logged on and working in the program at this time or you will lose any information that was not saved correctly.

Thank you for your cooperation,
Adele

A Podcast on Completing Report Cards

2009-03-02T09:48:00.002-05:00

I'm rerunning a podcast I did over a year ago on how to get ready for report cards. Click on the play button to listen.

reportcard.mp3

Reminder - Clear out Progress Report comments before Report Card printing

2009-02-26T11:46:00.004-05:00

Teachers,

Now that the 3rd marking period comments have been sent in Progress Reports, you will probably want to clear them out prior to the printing of report cards. Most of the time those comments will no longer apply. In the beginning of this school year you needed to go into each child's quarter grade and open the comment and delete it. Since we had the upgrade in December there is an easier way to mass delete comments for all the children. Open up Fill Final Grades by right clicking on the quarter final grade for any student in the class with a comment (little blue "c".) Once you have Fill Final Grades open,first click in "replace all", then click on the "Manual Override" box and last at the bottom click in "Comment." Delete the comment in the box and click "Ok." All comments will be deleted and you will see the little red "i" in the grade column. This just shows that an override took place. You are then able to use the Score Inspector to add any new comments needed for 3rd marking period or any marking period of the school year.

My 100th Post! And, 3rd quarter Progress Reports are now available

2009-02-18T09:47:00.004-05:00

Happy 100th Post!!!

Too bad I didn't have the forethought to have it coincide last week with 100 days of school! Anyway, for those of you who use the Progress Reports to send mid quarter reminders to parents, the 3rd quarter data is now available. To run the reports, click on the little printer icon on the right side of your screen in PowerTeacher (in Homeroom only) and then choose the report from the menu (it will have some version of Progress Report in the title.) The report will be created for all of the children in the homeroom, however you can print it for all or chose individual reports. This report contains up to date information so as the gradebook changes running this report again will change.

New Info Regarding JAVA updates

2009-02-17T14:07:00.001-05:00

Teachers,

Pearson has sent a notice regarding updates for JAVA. Since some teachers have been experiencing an issue lately, please read the following and see if it pertains to you:

"An issue has been discovered with the recent release of Java 1.6.0_12, which prevents PowerTeacher 1.5 from launching on Windows clients. Teacher workstations should not be updated to this version of Java until this issue has been addressed. If a workstation has already been updated, reverting to Java 1.6.0_11 will restore PowerTeacher 1.5 functionality."

Adele

If you override the Final Quarter Grade

2009-02-03T10:14:00.004-05:00

Teachers,

This is an issue especially with those teachers who teach specialized subjects - if you override the quarter grade you MUST give a corresponding number to validate the grade for printing on the report card. For instance, if you override the grade using the Score Inspector and give a student a VG, you must insert a numerical value as well or the system counts the grade as "0" and will not print the letter since it has a value of zero.

Schools need to have all grades verified prior to storing grades for printing. Please follow the above directive to ensure your grades are saved and printed correctly. This will save valuable time and paper for the school office.

End of Second Marking Period is January 23rd

2009-01-22T17:55:00.002-05:00

Teachers,

The end of the marking period is here. Please remember, if you are adding assignments and grades during the weekend for the second marking period, you MUST date the assignment either January 23rd or before. Anything dated January 24th or beyond will count as 3rd marking period. Also note, you will not be able to see attendance for the quarter in your attendance view. If you need for any reason the absent or late dates for the 2nd marking period you can click on the child's Quick Lookup and click on the year totals for the the dates.

For reminders of pluses and checks and comments - see previous blog entries around November.

Keep warm!
Adele

URGENT - A Necessary Upgrade for January 15-16, 2009

2009-01-15T07:10:00.003-05:00

Teachers,

We apologize for the short notice, but PowerSchool will not be available from just after midnight tonight, January 15th until midday tomorrow, January 16th. You will NOT BE ABLE TO TAKE ATTENDANCE OR INPUT GRADES AT THAT TIME. Once the system is back up in the afternoon you will be informed and you can then take attendance.

Thank you for your patience, this upgrade will help all teachers who use category weighing.

Adele

Kindergarten teachers - your report cards are standards based

2009-01-09T11:07:00.004-05:00

Teachers,

The elementary teachers who use the pluses and "x's" for behavioral and academic standing use them for an "as needed" basis. For the kindergarten teachers, the whole report card uses standards and is created in the same place.

Kindergarten teachers complete their report cards from the "backpack" in PowerTeacher. Click on the "backpack" from homeroom and choose a child's name on the left side. In the upper right hand corner, click on the choice arrow and choose "Final Grade Entry Standards." Complete all standards for quarter 2 and click submit on the bottom of the screen. Standard grades do not go through the storing process that other grades do which means the kindergarten teacher can change standards as necessary.

New Features of the PowerTeacher Grade Book Part II

2008-12-31T18:08:00.006-05:00

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

2008-12-30T15:53:00.006-05:00

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

2008-12-23T10:32:00.003-05:00

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

2008-12-15T15:46:00.003-05:00

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

2008-12-15T15:45:00.002-05:00

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

2008-11-24T12:04:00.002-05:00

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

2008-11-06T16:18:00.004-05:00

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

2008-11-03T14:50:00.003-05:00

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

2008-11-02T13:00:00.003-05:00

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

2008-10-28T19:09:00.003-05:00

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

2008-10-24T13:43:00.003-05:00

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

2008-10-17T05:30:00.007-05:00

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

2008-09-29T15:25:00.004-05:00

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

2008-09-28T18:22:00.008-05:00

The Free PowerSchool Tutorial is no longer available

2008-09-10T05:27:00.003-05:00

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

2008-09-03T10:02:00.004-05:00

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

2008-09-02T05:19:00.003-05:00

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!

2008-08-23T17:06:00.002-05:00

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

2008-08-18T09:44:00.001-05:00

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

2008-08-06T19:30:00.002-05:00

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

2008-08-03T17:59:00.002-05:00

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

2008-06-04T14:46:00.001-05:00

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

2008-04-24T05:00:00.002-05:00

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

2008-04-22T14:43:00.003-05:00

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

2008-04-01T13:39:00.003-05:00

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

2008-03-31T08:34:00.002-05:00

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

2008-03-25T14:57:00.005-05:00

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

2008-03-05T06:19:00.001-05:00

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

2008-02-26T16:00:00.005-05:00

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?

2008-02-22T13:14:00.001-05:00

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

2008-02-05T15:45:00.000-05:00

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

2008-01-27T18:59:00.001-05:00

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

2008-01-03T15:51:00.001-05:00

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

Grade Setup - Screencast III

2007-12-31T11:34:00.001-05:00

Teachers,

Here is the third screencast created by me to help you work with PowerTeacher. This one is on weighing categories to set up your grades. As in the two others below, you will need to click twice on the arrow in the middle of the page to start the video. It may take a minute to load depending on your Internet speed.

Click here Grade Setup Screen Cast.

Also, I would like to know if you find these screencasts helpful. Please take the time to take a three question survey. Click on the following link to the survey:
Click Here to take survey

Happy New Year - more to come in 2008!
Adele

Report Card Comments on PowerTeacher - ScreencastPart II

2007-12-28T14:03:00.001-05:00

Here's is the second screencast for putting comments on the Report Card through PowerTeacher Grade Book. This screen cast also includes information on more than one comment. Remember, click twice on the arrow in the center of the page and wait for it to load. Click here Report card comment part II.

Adele

Putting in Comments for Report Cards - Screencast

2007-12-28T11:56:00.000-05:00

Teachers,

Here is the first part of two screencasts to share how to put comments in PowerTeacher Gradebook that will print on the report card.

Click here Report Card Comments for Report Card

Again, it might take a little time to load and you will need to click on the large arrow in the middle of the page twice to run the video. Please let me know if this is helpful.

Adele

Screen cast on the new attendance codes

2007-12-21T09:45:00.002-05:00

Teachers,

I plan to be adding screen casts to this blog. For this one, click on the link Attendance Screencast and click on the arrow in the middle of the page. You may have to click twice. Make sure your speakers are on to hear the details. Let me know if you find this helpful.

Adele

New Codes for Absences

2007-12-14T14:45:00.000-05:00

Teachers,

Starting on Monday, December 17, 2007, there are two new attendance codes for you to use. Please NO LONGER use the “A” for absent code. It needs to be left in the choices because it was used in the beginning of the year, but it is not for use from this point on. If you are reading this message after the 17th, please do not be concerned if you used the code this week – until January 2, 2008 this is transitional. Here’s what you use:

If a child is absent and you are not aware of the reason, always choose “UA” which is unexcused absence. These are absences counted as absences. If a child is absent for the following reasons ONLY: this is when you choose “XA” which stands for excused absence. Excused absences do NOT count against the student’s attendance record. It shows the student was not in the building that day however it was an approved absence. The only reasons for an approved absence at this time (I will add as needed to this list) are: Attending the funeral of immediate family, court appearances, for eighth grade one day for freshman for a day, take your child to work day. Vacations, illnesses, personal days off for any reason are not excused absences. If you are unsure, check “UA”, the office can change it later if necessary.

Contact me if you have any questions. Thanks!

Adele

More info on getting rid of those pesky automatic fill-in 'dots' in the password box

2007-12-12T13:33:00.000-05:00

Tracy from St. Phillip and James shares the following:

IE 6 remembers passwords until you go in to delete them.
In case anyone needs a way to stop it, this is how:
Tools
Internet Options
Content tab
Auto Complete button
Then you can uncheck the 'Usernames and Passwords on
forms'
and the button that says 'Clear Passwords'
To get rid of all the old passwords.

Thanks Tracy!

Do you see the "Terminate Other Sessions" when you log on?

2007-12-10T14:55:00.000-05:00

Teachers,

If you see "Terminate Other Sessions", not to worry. This means that you did not log off of your last session properly or you accidently clicked twice to bring up your gradebook. No one has entered your account. To avoid seeing this in the future, log off by going to File and choose the log off option. If you did that and you still see the "Terminate Other Sessions" you may have clicked twice. Either way, just click on the "Terminate Other Sessions" to enter your gradebook.

Adele

Coming Soon - Screencasts!

2007-12-10T14:53:00.001-05:00

Teachers,

Coming toward the end of this week I will start posting short screencasts - it will be my voice over typing on the PowerSchool program. I will start with certain functions; Grade Setup, Categories, etc. Please feel free to email me with whatever you'd like to view.

Adele
aellis@diometuchen.org

Tired of erasing those "bubbles" in the password section that aren't right?

2007-11-16T06:03:00.001-05:00

Teachers,

For those of you that orginally said "yes" to remember this password and are frustrated by how you now have to try at least twice to enter PowerTeacher, here is a way to fix that issue if you have Internet Explorer 6, possibly 7. Go to Tools at the top of your page, click on Internet Options. It should be open to have a General Tab as the first tab. On that page click on Passwords to delete saved passwords. Then click OK at the bottom. This should take the passwords out. When you type in your password again and the dialog box comes up, Do you want to remember this password, before you say NO, click in the box that says do not ask this question again, then say NO. This will stop that problem of having the encrypted password saved incorrectly.

Adele

Attendance Issues

2007-11-16T05:58:00.001-05:00

Teachers,

At present if you look at the attendance of a child and it lists more days than you know the child was actually absent, look further into the details of the number for correct info. For example, the Quick Lookup may say that the child is absent 4 times when you know the child was absent 2 times and was early dismissed 2 times. If you click on the blue number 4, it will take you to a page that lists the 4 dates with the correct codes next to them - A for absent and ED for early dismissed. Computers "think" in two ways, either you're absent or you're not. Since the student was not in the full day, the system enters the data in the absent page. You don't have to worry about this, but if you have the circumstance of a parent concern, you can give them this information. Counting children toward perfect attendance is the discretion of the school.

NEW INFORMATION REGARDING REPORT CARDS

2007-11-06T10:07:00.000-05:00

We have new information regarding report card issues:

For the standards on the elementary report cards the checkmark was coming out on the report card as *a with a tilde above the a. PowerSchool acknowledges that the system can not recognize a checkmark so it was changed to the "X". For those of you who submitted the checkmark already, you need to go back in the system and resubmit the "X" for the correction to be made for the report card. This step will not be needed for the future quarters, you will only need to chose the plus sign or the X once for those quarters.

Also, unfortunately, it has been discovered that comments for the report card can only come from using Score Inspector in the webbased gradebook. The comment section from PowerTeacher and the backpack section are viewable by parents but do not print to the report card. It is probably best to put all comments in through the Score Inspector. Please make sure you are viewing the correct quarter at the time you are posting the comments.

Thanks for your patience as we continue to provide this avenue of communication to our parents for the sake of our children,

Adele

Replacing Checkmarks and Excused in the Webbased Gradebook with numerical grades

2007-10-31T17:30:00.000-05:00

Teachers,

It has come to our attention that when replacing the Ex for excused with a numerical grade the number is not calculating in the total. We have found the reason - the EX (or the checkmark) must be cleared before putting in a grade. When you want to replace the EX, first right click on the score and choose CLEAR SCORE. Once the score is cleared you can then type in a numerical grade that will calculate in the total. How do you know this will work? A grade that is not calculating in the total will have a "grayed" effect.

Adele

Last Day for Certificates is November 1st and I will be unavailable for Nov. 2-4th

2007-10-28T11:07:00.002-05:00

Teachers,

All must have completed the Webbased Gradebook training tutorial by Tuesday, October 30th. All requests for certificates MUST BE to me by email no later than Thursday, November 1st. I will no longer issue certificates after that date so please do not try to email me and tell me you forgot to tell me you finished it a while ago. There will be NO exceptions.

Also, I will not be available by phone or email from Friday, November 2nd to Sunday, November 4th. If PowerSchool is not working on Friday, please call 732-562-1990 and ask for the help desk. All other concerns can be sent to me by email and I will gladly answer them for you on Monday, November 5th.

Next step ~ Report cards for 1st Quarter ~ See below for instructions.

Thanks and have a great week!

Adele

Change of Address for PowerSchool on 11/2/07

2007-10-28T11:07:00.001-05:00

Teachers, please note that the address change for you is from:

http://powerschool.diometuchen.org/teachers

to

https://powerschool.diometuchen.org/teachers

The only addition is the "s" after the http.

Read the rest of the parent information.

Thanks!

Adele

Important Information regarding First Quarter Report Cards

2007-10-21T18:08:00.000-05:00

Teachers,

In a few weeks you will be getting ready to provide the first quarter grade for storage and report card printing. Those schools who are not printing the report cards from the system will still be required to provide a final grade in the system for storage and accuracy of student grades.

To prepare for grade verification that will prepare for storage and printing, teachers are required to do the following: either listen to the podcast provided through this link ReportCard podcast or read below:

For teachers who have been adding assignments and grades all quarter, please check the Q1 grade for each student in each of your classes. If you need to make any adjustments to the quarter grade, either right click on the Final Grade and bring up the score inspector to change the letter grade and numerical grade to match. Once the grades are confirmed, click on the reports icon on the top of the page. Choose the report Grade Summary and Verification Report and double click on it. Click on run report at the bottom right hand side of the page. A dialog box will appear and ask you where you want to save the file, it will save only on the computer you are working on. Once you have saved the file you can minimize the gradebook and go to the place you saved the file. Open the file and print it. Send it to the principal or school office for verification. Once the school receives all teachers verification sheets they will call me to store the grades. Report cards can then be printed out from the office only. Any questions please contact me.

For the two schools just starting, follow the above directions once you put in the system the grade that you plan on printing on the report card.

Checks and minuses on the report card

2007-10-17T05:58:00.002-05:00

Teachers,

In order to add the checks and minuses to the report cards for the schools that will be printing this first quarter (that is at least 15 schools), you must do that through PowerTeacher, not the gradebook. ****THIS CAN ONLY BE DONE BY THE HOMEROOM TEACHER. Here are the steps:

Once you open PowerTeacher, click on the "backpack" of the class to get to the student information. Student names will appear on the left hand side of the screen. Click on the student name (doesn't matter whether its first or last) and then look on the right side of the screen for the drop down arrow. Click on the arrow and chose "Final Grade Entry (Standards). This should open a screen that allows you to see the standards that are listed under the grades along with comment lines. PLEASE DO NOT FILL IN THE COMMENT LINES. Only chose the plus or minus sign as needed. You do not need to chose one for every child for every standard. Chose only the ones the parents need to see, pluses should be used sparingly and minuses should have a comment added to the first quarter box on the back of the report card. Information regarding comments will be posted later today or tomorrow.

As always, if you have questions please send an email. Thanks! Adele

Reminder for the PowerSchool Tutorial

2007-10-08T16:23:00.000-05:00

Teachers,

The last three weeks are here for the free tutorial. All elementary teachers are required to complete the training. Remember, your ID is the email address in its entirety you used to sign on to Pearson's program. The password is the one you entered as a new training user. Do NOT worry if you completed a unit and it does not change from "in progress" to "completed." It is a bug that is acknowledged by Pearson. As long as you know you completed the unit to the "Test Your Knowledge" section you are finished with that section. Once you have completed all six units contact me through email at aellis@diometuchen.org to receive your 6 hour professional development certificate. The certificates available on the site are for their employees only.

Progress Reports for Elementary Schools

2007-10-08T16:11:00.000-05:00

Teachers,

If your school is one that uses the diocesan Progress Report here are directions and reminders. If your school does not have access to the progress report and would like to see it, please send me an email.

REMINDER: for lower grades (grades K-4) comments for report cards and progress reports are only "pulled" from the homeroom, not the individual classes. Grades 5-8 can place comments in the individual classes.

If you are using the "canned" comments from the Comment Bank, when using more than one comment, you MUST put a space between the numbers or they will not print the comments, they will print the numbers instead.

The comments must be placed on the quarter grade for it to show on the progress report or report card. If you do not want the progress report comment to repeat on the report card you must remember to go into the student's record and either remove or change the comment prior to the printing of the report card.

PRINTING DIRECTIONS: From PowerTeacher: Either click on the button "Reports" on the left hand side of the screen or click on the printer icon on the right side of the screen. The choice of Class Attendance Audit or Progress Report will be available for any school that already has the progress report. If you do not see a Progress Report then your school does not have one yet. Choose whether to print for all students and click submit on the bottom of the page. You will then be taken to a screen that is called the "Report Queue." In the top right hand corner next to the log out button you will see what looks like a piece of paper being written on. In the middle of the page you will see the report name toward the left and the word "running" on the right. Above the list is a blue "refresh" word. Click on this word until the word "running" becomes the word "completed." Click on the word "Completed" and the reports will come up in another window, more than likely an Adobe file. You can print them for distribution.

This report is saved. If you ever want to go back to it and print any copies again, click on the small paper in the right upper corner by the log out button. Any reports you no longer need can be deleted from the Report Queue by clicking on the trash can on the right.

For teachers with a new grade scale (primary grades and specials)

2007-09-25T05:19:00.000-05:00

This year I have to assign the grade scales for grades 1-2 and specials to their classes. Once you have sent me your numerical scale and I have a chance to build and attach the scale to your classes it will be available. Thanks to Carolyn from Immaculate Conception, we have discovered there is a second step. In order to see your grade scale grades properly you will have to recalculate the final grade. This is very simple. Go to tools on the top of the gradebook page and click on "recalculate final grade." It will correct the grades already in your gradebook to the new scale.

What Parents see or don't see

2007-09-25T05:01:00.000-05:00

As we use the new program and features, it has come to our attention that some of the wonderful features that we see are not visible to the parents. The checkmark and the little late "L" are not shown on the parent side. PowerSchool has been made aware of this not only by me but many other schools as well. Hopefully it will be available in the next upgrade. In the meantime, please add comments to the grade through score inspector as necessary.

Also, although the sections do appear on the PowerTeacher main page, they are still not visible in the Gradebook. That has also been sent to PowerSchool.

Please remember that all things new need evaluation and revision. This program is a great tool for communication and the adjustments for our needs are secondary to the valuable asset of greater communication with parents for the success of the children.

Adele

Having Password Problems?

2007-09-17T08:14:00.000-05:00

The most common password problem comes from Internet Explorer. If at any time you answered "yes" to saving a password in Internet Explorer it will automatically enter it in a password entry box. Unfortunately, it will usually not be the password that you are using for PowerTeacher and you then will receive an error message. Since most users do not know how to delete the password from the automatic insertion, here's what you must do:

After typing in your user name, once you see the "bubbles" appear in the password box, delete the "bubbles." Once that is completed type in the correct password and hit enter. This should help you get into the program.

Looking to view section numbers next to the class info?

2007-09-17T08:13:00.000-05:00

PowerSchool listens to feedback. Starting Monday, September 24th you will have the option to view the section numbers of your classes next to the description in the upper left hand corner.

As updates are available I will continue to keep you informed.

Adele

Parent Portal

2007-09-12T12:30:00.000-05:00

Teachers,

The question has been raised regarding what parents see in the parent side of PowerSchool. You can see it yourselves - when you log on to PowerSchool Teacher and click on the "backpack" for a student go to the "Quick Lookup page." It's the page that has the attendance information and shows each of the classes the child has with the entered grade for the quarter. This is the grade that calculates as you add assignment grades in your gradebook. When they click on the grade itself they will be taken to a page with the assignments listed and the grade received for the assigments. If the name of the assignment is in blue they will see the instructions you have left for them to see. IF the grade is in blue they will click on it and see the comment you left for them to see. Try it. You WILL NOT be given the ID and password of the parents to get into the account at all. What you see on Quick Look UP is what they will see. Questions? Contact me.

Adele

Now available - Printable manual for PowerTeacher

2007-09-11T12:38:00.000-05:00

Hi all!

I hope you are working on the free tutorial ~ remember, it is no longer free after October 30th. In the meantime, I can email you a paper guide (it prints to 54 pages) that was covered in my training. You can print it for yourself. The last pages describe what the parents will see when your school opens the parent portal. Unless you are a parent that received the parent password from your school you will not have access to the portal. If you want to see what parents do see choose one of your students to view and click on Quick Lookup. That is the screen that is accessible to parents.

Send me an email to aellis@diometuchen.org to request the PowerTeacher training manual. Save it to your computer once you receive it or print it out.

Adele

News for the New PowerGrade Teacher

2007-08-30T05:13:00.000-05:00

Hi all!

The IT department is putting the finally touches on the webbased book, but PowerSchool is open again. If you have trouble getting in we did change the IP address so your old shortcuts or favorites will not work. Delete the shortcut or favorite and then type in this address on the address bar of your Internet Explorer or other browser: http://powerschool.diometuchen.org/admin for administrators or http://powerschool.diometuchen.org/teachers. Then save these as the new favorites.

The password to get into the classes for the webbased grade book is PSS@01GB. PowerSchool tells me its not case sensitive but I suggest you type as is. Please give this to your teachers, some of them are waiting for it to get started.

At present it is very hard to call back during the day - please email me and I can respond quicker by email. No worries - we will be ready!

More to come and this will be posted on the blog as well.

Adele

What kind of reports will you need?

2007-04-16T10:48:00.000-05:00

As you return from Easter break, 4th quarter is upon us and its time to think toward the future. At present there is a progress report available for all teachers to use. What other types of reports do you, as teachers, need access to for you to communicate better with parents? What reports will make it easier for you to determine in a glance how a student is doing? Send me an email so I can begin to find ways to provide these tools for your use.

Separating Comments Printed by Department

2007-04-03T14:13:00.000-05:00

For schools already printing report cards and those who will do so in the future, grades 5 - 8 pull comments for report cards from all core subjects. The problem has been that the comments are not separated by subject so the parent would not be able to know which teacher created which comment.

The teachers at Sts. Philip and James were experimenting with this concept and came up with a solution. They put a space before listing the subject, a dash then the comment numbers and another dash.

Here's the way you write it:

[space] SCI - [11], [9] [space] *you don't write [space] -this just means to click the space bar to create space.

Here's how it looks:

REL - Uses time wisely, Participates in activities. MATH - Good effort! LA- Contributes to discussion, Good test results. SS- Pleasure to have in class!

Grades 1-4 have comments for report cards only pulled from the homeroom.

Looking for a way to find Attendance Totals after the Marking Period ends?

2007-03-18T10:11:00.000-05:00

I've received many inquiries from teachers regarding finding attendance totals for the marking period after it has ended. In PowerSchool Teacher the only view a teacher is allowed is that of the present marking period. Once the start of the following marking period begins the dates are no longer visible. So other than asking the office to give the dates to the teacher what is an easier way to find them?

While training on the snowiest day in March at St. Bart's, we discovered the answer: using Attendance Totals from PowerGrade.

In order to use this function, you must be in the Homeroom section. The Homeroom is the only class from which daily attendance is recorded. Once in the Homeroom section of PowerGrade, across the top of the page, click on Windows. The third choice down from the list is "Attendance Totals." When this dialog box opens you will see the attendance totals on the left side of the page and the breakdown of the types of attendance codes on the right. At the top of the box you have the option to chose the dates you would like to view. From here you can change the dates to the previous or prior marking periods. Once the totals are available if you roll your mouse over the number in the attendance code box it will show you the dates of that code.

I also have a rudimentary video (my first try so forgive me until I get better at it) to show you how to chose the Attendance Totals. Let me know if any of this information is helpful.

Do you need PowerGrade to drop a lowest grade?

2007-03-06T11:10:00.000-05:00

Some teachers drop the lowest grade for a student in the marking period. In order to schedule the lowest grade to be dropped you need to input the information in the final grade setup for each of the classes you wish to drop the grade.

This is also where you choose the weight of categories. To enter this area, either click on "Windows" then "Final Grade Setup" or "Windows" then "Categories." If you chose using the "Categories" section then chose "Weighing" and it will take you to the "Final Grade Setup" screen.

The third choice in the dialog box is "Drop." This is where you chose to drop grades. The number needs to go in the specific category in which you want to drop a grade. For example, if you want to drop the lowest homework grade, chose the "Drop" box on the same line as "Homework." The program will drop the lowest grade for each category you chose.

The next step is to chose the number of grades you wish to drop. If you only drop one lowest grade, then the number "1" should go in the "Drop" box. That tells the program you want to drop only 1 grade in that category (please do not put the parenthesis there - I used them to focus on the number.) If you drop 2 lowest grades in that category then use the number "2."

Questions? Call or email.

More information on the new Web-based gradebook

2007-03-01T16:21:00.000-05:00

Taking a second look at the new PowerSchool Web-based gradebook here are more details:

First of all, those of you who are familiar with itunes, that is closer to what the new grade book looks like – it is easier on the eye than PowerGrade.

Here’s some cons:

*You will only be able to see one quarter at a time.

*The copy class information or assignment information from one class to another is NOT available in this first version.

*The “Fill Score” feature is also NOT available in this version.

*There is NO seating chart in this version.

*Attendance is not taken from the gradebook – not a problem for the Diocese since I have encouraged all of you to take attendance from PowerSchool Teacher anyway.

MORE PROs:

Midterm and Final Exam grades will be much easier to add to the quarter grades for a semester grade.

There are “sub” filters. You can view by Category and then assignments – i.e., Reading then broken down to tests, quizzes, etc.

You can create assignments that can be given a checkmark (no grade required) to show that it was handed in. You can also chose what assignments to make public to parents and which to hide from view.

There is a function called “Score Inspector” that allows you to do the above and flag an assignment as late or exempt. This is now where you can also type in comments related to that assignment.

Student alerts are now visible in the Grade book where they were only visible in PowerSchool Teacher in the past.

I will be testing the program probably in April. I will keep you informed. Schools already on PowerSchool for the 2006-2007 school year will have the option of choosing which gradebook they want to use for 2007-2008. New schools will start on PowerGrade for the first year.

Did you know you can personalize your student screen?

2007-02-25T06:53:00.000-05:00

On PowerSchool Teacher, when you click on the "backpack" to view information on the students in your classes, the default screen is the student's schedule. Many times teachers then click on the drop down arrow in the upper right hand corner to chose the screen they wish to view; most times being student demographics, others final grade entry.

Just as you can personalize your password, you can also personalize the student screen view. From the opening page, chose "Personalize" on the left hand menu. Chose "student screen" and then chose the screen that you view the most to be the default view. This should save some steps and time as you move through your students.

Getting ready for the webbased gradebook!

2007-02-16T14:00:00.000-05:00

Hi all!

We had a demonstration today of the webbased gradebook. It will be available for use in September and I will begin training at that time. Some news to note:

The webbased gradebook will be accessed through PowerSchool Teacher - you'll need to go to only one icon and both programs will exist on the web directly into the Diocesan server. The look of the webbased grade book is "cleaner" than the PowerGrade book and does have some easy to use features that capture the good portions of PowerGrade.

What's new:

- the ability to click on an assignment and then a student's grade in that assignment to highlight that student's information across the row.

-the ability to see a student's medical alert on PowerGrade, not just on PowerSchool.

-even easier way to leave notes for parents to view on individual assignments.

-you can create subgroups of students in a class. For instance, in your Language Arts class you may have three different groups of students; lions, seals, and turtles. These children can have different assignments assigned to just their group.

-assignments that are handed in but not graded can be input and only checkmarks to show the assignment was handed in are visible (daily homework as an example.)

-you can hide assignments from view and set a release date for the viewing in advance (nice feature!)

What's not there presently:

-the ability to view more than one quarter at a time. Although grades calculate for the year when you enter grades for the quarter, you will need to switch views to see the year.

What's still there:

-the same reports are available for printing.

-the same ability to override grades as necessary.

We are considering the option of allowing those who wish to still use the PowerGrade program to do so, however the decision must be a whole school decision, not teacher by teacher in the school. Also, you can not switch from one program to another during the school year so in September the decision will be final. Unfortunately, the decision must be made by the beginning of the school year before the students arrive. I will be in touch with your principals so decisions can be made at the returning faculty meetings prior to the first day of school for the students. I do not have access to share the webbased grade book to all until after the summer.

I will keep you posted, but start thinking now of which sounds like a good choice for you and your school.

Timing Out when working on Attendance or Grades

2007-01-19T14:54:00.000-05:00

The connection to PowerSchool, either through PowerSchool Teacher or PowerGrade, like many other internet programs "times out" when not in use. If you leave the window open and come back to work later you will see the page, however the information will not be sent to the PowerSchool server.

Here is an example:

In the morning you open the PowerSchool Teacher website and click on your homeroom "chair" to prepare to take attendance. After the children come in and a number of other events take place you go to the computer and click on the choices for attendance codes to complete the attendance on the children. When you click the "submit" button the login page suddenly appears again. YOUR INFORMATION WAS NOT SENT. You will need to login again to complete the attendance.

The same could happen inputting grades. PowerGrade and PowerSchool are recommended to use and close when not in use. These guidelines will save your work more efficiently.

Interested in Hiding or Showing Other Quarters in PowerGrade?

2007-01-14T07:07:00.000-05:00

If you are not interested in seeing all 4 quarters or year end in your PowerGrade, or if you are interested in seeing only those with grades, here are the instructions to do so:

Showing Other Quarters

Note: This has to be done for each class

1. Open a class
2. Go to Windows, Final Grades Setup
3. Use the drop down arrow and choose the quarter that you want to display
4. Check the box that says, Show on Spreadsheet
5. Click Accept
6. Your spreadsheet will now display a column for the quarter you chose

Hiding Quarters in PowerGrade

Note: This has to be done for each class

1. Open a class
2. Go to Windows, Final Grades Setup
3. Uncheck the box that says, Show on Spreadsheet
4. Click Accept
5. Your spreadsheet will no longer display a column for Q1

PowerSchool Teacher - what do you want to see first?

2007-01-11T15:26:00.000-05:00

As we approach report card time again, you might want to check attendance records for your students. Schools that print the report cards directly from the PowerSchool program will have attendance automatically recorded on the form for them.

Schools who are still handwriting report cards at this time can use the following feature to determine absences and tardies.

On PowerSchool Teacher - click the "backpack" of your homeroom (at this time only homeroom attendance counts as daily attendance.) Click on the individual child's name on the right hand side. The page will have a drop down menu on the upper right section - to view attendance choose "Quick Look up" and attendance records should appear with class schedule and grades.

If the Quick Look Up is not the default page and you would like it to be, you can change the page appearance.

Click on the PowerSchool logo in the upper left hand corner to return to the opening page. On the left side chose "Preferences." Here you have the ability to change your password and your default student screen. Choose "Quick Look up" and submit. Now when you return to the classes and follow the above instructions the Quick Look Up page will automatically appear for each child as you choose their name.

Revision to the last blog regarding upgrade PowerGrade

2007-01-04T13:31:00.001-05:00

Teachers - it has been brought to my attention that the upgrade is not available at this time on PowerSchool Teacher. The upgrade must be done from PowerGrade itself. In order to do this, open PowerGrade, Open any class, and then click on File -Close Class. Once you go to log off, a prompt will appear and ask you if you want to upgrade to the newest version - say "YES." Follow the instructions from there.

For some reason it was taken off of the PowerSchool Teacher site. I will let you know when it's back.

Adele

Do you want to Preview a Report while working on it?

2006-12-21T15:46:00.001-05:00

How to Preview a Report While Creating the Template

Preview the report while you are creating the template. Click Preview at the bottom of the
window before clicking OK. The resulting report displays your selections.
You can do any of the following:
• Click the Zoom icon to increase the size of the report display.
• Click the Forward and Back icons to move from page to page.
• If you are satisfied with the results of the report, you can print it by clicking the Print
icon. For more information on printing reports, see the section “Print a Report.”
• Click the Close icon to return to the spreadsheet. The report saves before
previewing.
• Press and hold OPTION (Mac) or ALT (Windows) and click the Close icon to edit the
report. For more information on how to edit the report, see the section “Modify a
Report.”

Did you know you can make your own reports?

2006-12-21T15:38:00.000-05:00

In PowerGrade, once you have a class file open, you can click on the Reports tab and chose "Create."

There are five types of reports you can create using PowerGrade:
• Individual student reports provide assignment scores and final grade information for
one student at a time.
• Roster reports create class rosters using the parameters you define. Choose what
information to include on the roster.
• Spreadsheet format reports help you create a spreadsheet-style report of all
assignments, assignment categories, grades, and other class information.
• Missing assignments reports display which students lack which assignments.
PowerGrade adds a cutting guide so that you can cut out each student's report.
• Attendance grid reports list all students and provide an area to take attendance quickly
and easily. For example, Physical Education teachers use this report since they are not
at a computer during roll call.

Filling in a class description for Parent View

2006-12-14T15:21:00.000-05:00

As we provide more information to increase our communication with our students, it is a good idea to fill in the Class Description that can be viewed from the parent portal. Listen to the podcast for directions. Please email with suggestions or just to let me know you found this helpful.

Adele

Class description podcast

2006-12-10T15:15:00.000-05:00

Hi all!
I'm trying to begin using Podcasting to share information through this blog. This first podcast is only with audio. To hear it you must have either QuickTime or Windows Media Player. Send an email and let me know if you heard it or could not hear it.

Adele's First Podcast (brief) on Progress Reports.

Adele

Saving Comments to Parents

2006-12-06T09:33:00.000-05:00

If you have comments for the first quarter that do not pertain to the second quarter, you will need to take them off of the student's comment bank.

However, if you want to remember and save those comments, double click the student ID number to bring up the dialog box for comments. Copy the comments in the Parent Notes section and paste them in the Private Notes section. Date the comments for future reference. This can be done each quarter for final year end evaluation.

Have you thought about creating a Group?

2006-12-05T11:39:00.000-05:00

For those of you who might have the same assignment for different classes; i.e. teaching 2-8^th grade science courses, 3-5^th grade math sections, there is a way to enter the information once without going to each section individually.

CREATE A GROUP

Open any class in the ‘group’. Choose Windows>Class Information.

When the dialog box opens fill in a Class Group name under “Class Group.”

Do this for each of the classes that are in the group. Make sure you use the exact spelling for each section.

The next time you create an assignment for one of the classes in the group, select the checkbox to apply the assignment to the other classes in the group. You only had to enter it once.

Want to change unrecorded grades to something other than ( )?

2006-12-04T16:03:00.000-05:00

If you'd like to have unrecord grades have a different look that you can catch easier than the standard ( ) - you can change them in your PowerGrade. For example, what if you'd like to see unrecorded grades represented as ** or xx? Here's how to personalize it for yourself:

Choose File>Preferences ( or click the Preferences icon on the class spreadsheet.)

Click the Scores tab.

At the first choice - Display unrecorded scores as - fill in your new choice in the box to replace the ( ) that is there.

Click OK when done.

This should change unrecorded scores to your own preferred look.

Weighting Grades

2006-11-30T14:37:00.000-05:00

INFORMATION REGARDING CALCULATION OF END OF YEAR GRADE

Teachers;

As we are entering Q2 grades some teachers have noticed that if you add Q1 and Q2 then divide by 2 it does not necessary equal the Y1 average. This occurs with classes that have weighted categories, i.e. Tests 50%,
Quizzes 30%, Classwork 15%, Homework 5%.The reason is this: Q1 categories are calculating all scores for that section of time only. Q2 is doing
the same for its specific dates. However, Y1 is calculating from September to June – so it is averaging all dates during the year.

If you have 30 grades for Q1 and say only have 6 for Q2
since it is not at the halfway point yet, the Y1 is giving more weight to the
quarter with the larger number of assignments. It is averaging 36 grades together, not Q1 then Q2. There are two ways to handle how you wish to view Y1.

First, you can leave everything the way it is. At the end of the school year Y1 will be mathematically very accurate as it will measure the progress for the complete year.

If you wish to calculate Q1+Q2+Q3+Q4 divided by 4 =Y1 because you feel the average amount of assignments in each quarter will not be a fair assessment you may use the following instead for Y1:

Go to Windows>Final Grade Setup. Click on the drop down arrow in the FG
Name field and choose Y1.

In the Factor Type section, click on the drop down arrow and choose “% from another final grade.” In the Asmt/Cat/FG Name section, click on the drop down arrow and choose “Q1”(this will probably show up by default.) In the Weight section, type in 25. Click on the “+” sign above the Weight section to add the next line. Follow the above directions to add in Q2, Q3, and Q4 to equal 100. Save the changes.

Remember, either choice is acceptable; this is teacher or school preference.

Adele

Best way to Shut Down PowerGrade

2006-11-29T15:16:00.000-05:00

Teachers,

For the safest way to save your information on PowerGrade, please shut down in the following manner:

1. To save your work, choose File>Save.

2. Choose File>Make Backup. A copy of the data file is stored on the PowerSchool server. A message appears indicating the data was successfully backed up.

Note: PowerGrade sends your entire data file to the backup folder on the PowerSchool server. If your local computer crashes, you can retrieve your data file from the backup quickly and easily. PowerGrade notifies you when the backup process completes.

3. Click OK.

4. On the class spreadsheet, choose File>Quit. The class closes and the application shuts down.

This is the best way to have your grades saved.
Adele

Something of interest for schools already open to parents

2006-11-20T16:09:00.000-05:00

Teachers can check to see if parents are logging on and checking student grades once the parent has been given a web id and password. In PowerSchool teacher, click on the "backpack" of the class of students that you wish to investigate. When the student list comes up on the left hand side of the page, click on the student name to provide the student's Quick Lookup screen. In the drop down menu on the right side - click on "Net/Phone Access Summary." For those who have access a list of dates, times and durations will appear for when a parent has logged on. This is very helpful in parent-teacher interacts to encourage parents to check student grades and assignments more frequently if needed.

Hiding 1st Quarter assignments and deleting assignments

2006-11-14T06:25:00.000-05:00

Teachers,

As we have entered 2nd quarter here are some tips:

You can "hide" the assignments from the 1st quarter. In PowerGrade click on the icon that looks like a lightswitch "Preferences." On the "Display" tab look toward the bottom of the page and you can see where you can choose what dates you would like visible. Fill in second quarter start and end dates and the page will clean up for you. Also, you can add a column for showing you the student's absences and tardies on that page as well.

You can delete assignments as well. Double click on the top of the column in PowerGrade that has the assignment listed (the column in which you input the student grades.) When the dialog box opens, click on "delete" and the assignment is deleted.

Please email to share more tips - Adele

Storing Process Has Begun & Printing Tip

2006-11-10T16:21:00.000-05:00

As of 4pm on Friday, November 10th - grade storing process has started. The Principal of SJV shared when printing report cards place them back in the printer in the same order they were printed on the first side to match the back of the print.

Report card printing can begin on Monday.

Adele

Attendance Changes for 1st Quarter

2006-11-09T15:39:00.000-05:00

Administrators have rights to change the attendance for a student for 1st quarter during 2nd quarter. To see 1st quarter attendance grids, log in and click on the blue "Term" link at the top center of the page. Choose the quarter you wish to work in and then change attendance as necessary.

When changes are completed, you can either log off or click on "Term" again and choose the current marking period.

Adele

Report Card Verification form

2006-11-09T06:24:00.000-05:00

A report card verification form has been created and can be printed by administrators and teachers. Follow the same procedure as printing progress reports. The report card verification form does not have the comments attached for viewing at this time.

All grades MUST be verify by Friday, November 10th at 2pm, please, no exceptions. Report cards need to be run first thing Monday morning for the schools who will be using the computer version.

Thank you for meeting this deadline!
email if you need assistance - aellis@diometuchen.org

Adele

Checking for Final Grade for First Quarter

2006-11-07T06:11:00.000-05:00

Teachers,

To check if your final grade for first quarter is correct, or to override the grade to give extra credit, here is the procedure:

Log on to PowerSchool Teacher: powerschool.diometuchen.org/teachers

Click on the "backpack" of a class (not homeroom, there is no grades there.) Click on the individual child's name that is listed on the left hand side of the page. When the demographics screen appears, click on the drop down arrow on the right side of the page and choose the option "Final Grade Entry-traditional." You will then see a screen that shows the Q1 and Y1 grades as they are now. Do NOT touch or be concerned about the Y1 grade at this time, we are only storing the Q1 grades. If you want to make any changes to that grade here is where you do so. If no changes are needed then just click submit. This MUST BE DONE BY FRIDAY, November 10th. Please contact me if you have any questions.

Thank you!
Adele

Final Grade Set Up Must be completed for all Quarters and Year End

2006-11-07T06:06:00.000-05:00

Teachers,

In order for your grades to calculate correctly for all 4 quarters and the year end, you must create the same weighted categories for all 5 terms. After you decide your categories (Using Windows-Categories) and click on set up "Weighting" you will see in the upper left hand quarter of the dialog box a drop down line that has "Q1" in it (until 11/9 when it will automatically change to "Q2".)

You must use the same categories and weight for Q1, Q2,Q3,Q4, and Y1 to have your grades calculate correctly.

This can be checked by going to Windows-Final Grade Setup and click on each quarter and the year end to see if they are the same.

Checking end of the quarter grades

2006-11-03T07:24:00.000-05:00

Teachers - you can use PowerSchool Teacher to check your grades for you students. Click on a student and view the current grades screen from the User Look Up page.

One week until storage of grades!

Adele

Storing grades for 1st Quarter

2006-11-01T05:30:00.000-05:00

The date for the end of 1st Quarter is November 8th. All grades must be correct and final by 10 am on Monday, November 13th. That afternoon I will be completing a process which stores those grades in Historical records. Report cards can be printed starting November 15th. If there are any questions regarding grade corrections, please contact me.

Happy November!
Adele

Powergrade upgrades in process

2006-10-31T09:26:00.001-05:00

We have almost complete the pgrade upgradeds, choosing yes to upgrade once prompted. We are not forcing the upgrade, as almost all teachers have completed this task.
Regards!

PowerSchool Users

Here's some of the new features for PowerTeacher coming in the Fall

Not enough space on Report Cards for comments?

Getting ready to Verify grades for Report Cards

Important!! Upgrade will occur on March 31st

A Podcast on Completing Report Cards

Reminder - Clear out Progress Report comments before Report Card printing

***My 100th Post!*** And, 3rd quarter Progress Reports are now available

New Info Regarding JAVA updates

If you override the Final Quarter Grade

End of Second Marking Period is January 23rd

URGENT - A Necessary Upgrade for January 15-16, 2009

Kindergarten teachers - your report cards are standards based

New Features of the PowerTeacher Grade Book Part II

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

Scheduled Maintenance for December 16th

Reminder on how to put comments on the Progress Report

Repeating directions for using the Progress Report - Quarter 2

News regarding PowerTeacher 1.5 - to be released sometime in December

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

Faqs regarding preparation for Report Cards

Getting ready for Report Cards part II

Time to prepare for reporting 1st Quarter Grades

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

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

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

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

The Free PowerSchool Tutorial is no longer available

Please be careful with Attendance Codes

Welcome Back Teachers - check your student information

GRADEBOOK NOW UP AND WORKING!

A delay in the gradebook

GradeBooks will be open on August 15th

New Year! Time for preparing your gradebook with Grade Setup

Important End of Year Information

April 24th - Take your child to Work Day

Year End Weights

Here are some of the new items on PowerTeacher 1.1

PowerSchool up and upgrade completed on Monday, March 31st

It's Report Card Time Again

Upgrades planned for Easter Break

Progress Reports for Elementary Schools

Interested in offering your opinion on revising Report Cards?

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

Reminders for Attendance and Report Cards

Screencast - Creating Assignments Part I

Grade Setup - Screencast III

Report Card Comments on PowerTeacher - ScreencastPart II

Putting in Comments for Report Cards - Screencast

Screen cast on the new attendance codes

New Codes for Absences

More info on getting rid of those pesky automatic fill-in 'dots' in the password box

Do you see the "Terminate Other Sessions" when you log on?

Coming Soon - Screencasts!

Tired of erasing those "bubbles" in the password section that aren't right?

Attendance Issues

NEW INFORMATION REGARDING REPORT CARDS

Replacing Checkmarks and Excused in the Webbased Gradebook with numerical grades

Last Day for Certificates is November 1st and I will be unavailable for Nov. 2-4th

Change of Address for PowerSchool on 11/2/07

Important Information regarding First Quarter Report Cards

Checks and minuses on the report card

Reminder for the PowerSchool Tutorial

Progress Reports for Elementary Schools

For teachers with a new grade scale (primary grades and specials)

What Parents see or don't see

Having Password Problems?

Looking to view section numbers next to the class info?

Parent Portal

Now available - Printable manual for PowerTeacher

News for the New PowerGrade Teacher

What kind of reports will you need?

Separating Comments Printed by Department

Looking for a way to find Attendance Totals after the Marking Period ends?

Do you need PowerGrade to drop a lowest grade?

More information on the new Web-based gradebook

Did you know you can personalize your student screen?

Getting ready for the webbased gradebook!

Timing Out when working on Attendance or Grades

Interested in Hiding or Showing Other Quarters in PowerGrade?

My 100th Post! And, 3rd quarter Progress Reports are now available