Monthly Mentions Newsletter May 2019

Opening up teacher input for 4th Quarter Report will require:

• Confirming the quarter dates in ‘Grades’ then ‘Report Card Input Controls’
• Changing input for the mid-quarter report from ‘Allow Input’ to ‘Input Complete’
• Changing input for the 4th quarter report cards from ‘Not Yet’ to ‘Allow Input’
• Having teachers go through the quarter report card input process
• Closing the input process by changing ‘Allow Input’ to ‘Input Complete’
• Some schools also have a ‘Semester 2’ and/or a ‘Final’ column on their report cards. If this has been set-up at your school, then you will need to open up input for those grading periods as well.

Summer Transition!  In mid-May, we will post the Summer Transition steps on your Home screen. Here are explanations of what your school will need to complete before the end of the summer:

• Creating a statement to appear on report cards declaring that the student will be moving forward to the next grade level
• Marking any students who will not be moving forward as ‘Not Promoted’
• Creating any new Homeroom teacher accounts
• Establishing the Homeroom teacher changes for next year
• Moving the students forward to their new homerooms and grade levels
• Assigning courses to teachers and filling those courses with students

HelpDesk is dedicated to helping make the Summer Transition an easy process and allow you more time to enjoy your summer break.  Please contact HelpDesk if you have any questions about getting started.  Once these steps have been completed, please notify HelpDesk so that they can move your school forward to the new school year. On the Summer Transition steps, there are a few details to note:

• After each step is a blue question mark, which are links. When you click one, the system will pull up an FAQ which will provide more information about that step.
• After some of the steps are links to a video tutorial. When you click one, the system will pull up an FAQ/video tutorial which will provide more information about that step.
• There is a button underneath the Summer Transition title, which will allow you to ‘hide’ these steps.  This is helpful if you have already completed the steps or will not start on the steps until later this summer.
• The last and final step to ensure that your system is ready to operate for the 2018-2019 school year  is to have HelpDesk move your forward.  This requires you to contact HelpDesk so that we can verify everything has been completed and confirm with you that your school is ready to move forward.

Opening up teacher input for 3rd Trimester Report will require:

• Confirming the 3rd trimester dates in ‘Grades’ then ‘Report Card Input Controls’
• Changing input for the 3rd trimester from ‘Not Yet’ to ‘Allow Input’
• Having teachers go through the trimester report card input process
• Closing the input process by changing ‘Allow Input’ to ‘Input Complete’

Summer Transition!  In mid-May, we will post the Summer Transition steps on your Home screen. Here are explanations of what your school will need to complete before the end of the summer:

• Creating a statement to appear on report cards declaring that the student will be moving forward to the next grade level
• Marking any students who will not be moving forward as ‘Not Promoted’
• Creating any new Homeroom teacher accounts
• Establishing the Homeroom teacher changes for next year
• Moving the students forward to their new homerooms and grade levels
• Assigning courses to teachers and filling those courses with students

HelpDesk is dedicated to helping make the Summer Transition an easy process and allow you more time to enjoy your summer break.  Please contact HelpDesk if you have any questions about getting started.  Once these steps have been completed, please notify HelpDesk so that they can move your school forward to the new school year. On the Summer Transition steps, there are a few details to note:

• After each step is a blue question mark, which are links. When you click one, the system will pull up an FAQ which will provide more information about that step.
• After some of the steps are links to a video tutorial. When you click one, the system will pull up an FAQ/video tutorial which will provide more information about that step.
• There is a button underneath the Summer Transition title, which will allow you to ‘hide’ these steps.  This is helpful if you have already completed the steps or will not start on the steps until later this summer.
• The last and final step to ensure that your system is ready to operate for the 2018-2019 school year  is to have HelpDesk move your forward.  This requires you to contact HelpDesk so that we can verify everything has been completed and confirm with you that your school is ready to move forward.

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At the end of the year, there are often empty/unused courses (in pink) at the bottom of each teacher’s list in Show Who Teaches What. When moving into a new school year, these empty courses can cause confusion, especially if a teacher has switched grade levels or curriculum. May is a great time to remove these courses!

To remove an empty/unused course, follow these steps:

• Go to Grades
• Click on Show Who Teaches What
• Select an instructor’s name in the drop down, then click ‘Edit’
• At the bottom of the list of courses might be unused or empty courses (highlighted in pink).  On the far right of these courses are ‘Remove’ buttons.  Click ‘Remove’ to delete the empty course

If an instructor has a course that is no longer needed but you do not see a Remove button, then that course might still have students assigned to it.  You will need to remove the students first before you can remove the course.

If there is an empty course but no remove button, then that course has grades (report card or grade book) entered and can not be removed by an administrator.

Incorporating an exam score into a semester or final ReportCard grade is possible in FastDirect.  The system will calculate the exam scores and depending on your specified percentages, will be calculated into the course’s final grade.  Here is an explanation of how exam scores can be set up in FastDirect:

• The courses that have exams will be given a subcategory that reads ‘Exam Score’
• An exam score percentage is entered into the system to be used for calculating overall grades.  Typically, this percentage is 20%
• On the 2nd and 4th quarters, the teacher will add the student’s exam score to the subcategory
• For the 1st Semester ReportCard, the system will provide the teacher will a final grade using this equation: (Q1Q2GPA x 80%) + (Q2exam x 20%) / 100
• A similar equation will be used for the 2nd semester ReportCard

Click here to read the FAQ on exam scores

To set up an exam score for a course, please have an administrator contact HelpDesk to get started.

Even though the ReportCard from the current grading period only has the comments for that period, you are still able to view/print the comments from the whole year. The same is also true for attendance. Here are the steps to view your child’s comments for the whole year:

1. Go to ‘Home’
2. Click the ‘View’ button in the ReportCard column
3. When the ReportCard appears, click on the word ‘Comments’
4. That student’s comments for the whole year will appear on a separate screen which is printable

These steps can be followed for viewing Attendance as well.

• How is the final grade calculated on the report card?
• How do I add a student to the system who is applying for the next school year?
• For WISEdata, what do I do at the END of the school year?

Helpful FAQs from May 2018:

• What values are used when importing midterm/semester 1, semester 2, and/or final grades?
• How do I print out my attendance and comments from the whole school year?
• What is the Honors report?

Watch this video tutorial to find out how to edit a transaction in Finance!

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