Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Replacing Checkmarks and Excused in the Webbased Gradebook with numerical grades

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

Sunday, October 28, 2007

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

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

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

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Important Information regarding First Quarter Report Cards

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.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Checks and minuses on the report card

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

Monday, October 08, 2007

Reminder for the PowerSchool Tutorial

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

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.