Monthly Mentions Newsletter – September 2020

For most of our schools, the Summer Transition steps have been completed and the new school year is underway. Reviewing your report cards is a very important step and should be completed during these first few weeks of school. This step involves looking over each grade level’s report cards to make sure all courses, sub-categories, grade scale and layouts look correct. When you complete this step early in the school year, you help support your teachers by making sure they have what they need and reduce last minute report card corrections at the end of the grading period. Please note that report card changes can take up to a week to process.

Here are the steps to view a report card:

1. Go to ‘Grades’
2. Choose a homeroom instructor in the ‘select instructor’ drop down then click the ‘view instructor’s grade book’ button
3. Click the button ‘view report cards’
4. When the homeroom roster appears, click ‘print’ next to any child’s name

Here are the components to review on a report card:

• Course names
• Course subcategories
• Grade scales/marking codes
• General formatting, for example school header, course list columns, layout

Click here to read the FAQ on how homeroom teachers can view their report cards!

Click here to read the FAQ on how administrators can view report cards!

We have added a new grade book category to help with teachers who enter grades into a separate Learning Management System, such as Google Classroom. This new grade book category is titled ‘LMS’. This will allow teachers to enter in a grade for that category so that it can be included in the student’s overall course grade. Here are the recommended steps for this feature:

Note: If you are using Category Weighting or Cumulative+Category Weighting, you will want to make sure and give the LMS category a weight in your grade book.

1. Open up a specific course’s grade book.
2. Create a new event with a title of ‘Google Classroom’ or the name of the LMS you are using and then set the event category to LMS; create the event
3. For student’s grades, enter in the overall grade that the student has received in the LMS

This event will now be averaged into the student’s overall FastDirect grade for the course.

For most schools, GPA calculations do not always include every course taught at your school. Administrators have to set the weight for courses to be included in the GPA calculations or apply a zero weight for courses to not be included at all.

Here are the steps to view the GPA Calculation Controls:

1. Go to Grades
2. Click on GPA Calculation Controls
3. Enter in the weight for any course.  Determine which courses will need to be included in the GPA calculations, which course that should
   be excluded or if any courses need to have additional weighting
4. Click Save Changes

Click here to read the FAQ about GPA Calculation Controls.

Click here to watch the video tutorial about GPA Calculation Controls as an MP4!

Click here to watch the video tutorial about GPA Calculation Controls in Youtube!

Here’s a little known secret – you can copy grade book events from one course to another.  This feature is such a time saver, especially for our speciality teachers! Here are the steps to copy events:

1. Open up the grade book for the course that needs the new events copied to it
2. In the top right hand menu, click on ‘Copy Events’
3. In the course selection drop down, select the course that has the events you want to copy
4. When the events appear, check mark which events you want to copy
5. If needed, change the date of the events (system will default to the current day)
6. Click ‘Copy Events’
7. If needed, you are able to edit the newly copied events by clicking on the event name

Assignment Calendars are an essential tool for all parents and guardians! Not only does it provide helpful information but in turn it will strengthen communication between school and home. Did you know that the events a teacher creates in her GradeBook are automatically fed to a student’s assignment calendar?  If a teacher creates events before they occur, the students and parents can be better informed and prepared. The assignments calendar can be found on a parent’s Home screen underneath their FDmail messages.  There will be a black and white grid showing you all the viewing options available for the child’s grades.  One of the columns is labeled ‘Assignment Calendar’.  Click the ‘View’  button and a new window/tab will appear displaying a month’s worth of dates.  The month can be changed so that the parent or student can see a different range of dates.

• How do I add a student or remove a student from a course?
• Can our lunch menu print the prices of items?
• How do I create a new Rate Program (in Timer)?

Helpful FAQs from September 2019:

• How are Progress Reports/Mid-term Reports handled in FastDirect?
• How can I create a Staff directory?
• Where do I find Attendance Reports from past years?
• What are the Grading Calc Options in my grade book?

Helpful FAQs from September 2018:

• Why can’t I make a lunch charge to a staff person’s account?
• How do I add the instructor’s name next to the course on a report card?
• What are my options for sharing my school’s newsletter?

Watch this video tutorial to find out how to Manage the Free and Reduced Lunch Programs:

• Click here to watch the video tutorial as an MP4!
• Click here to watch the video tutorial in YouTube!