Monthly Mentions Newsletter – October 2021

As the end of the quarter approaches, your teachers will need to go through the ReportCard input process.  This means an administrator will allow input, the teachers will enter grades into the ReportCards and then the administrator will close input.  From there, you can either print the ReportCards or permission them to be viewed by parents online.

Opening up teacher input for 1st Quarter ReportCards will require:

• Changing input for 1st mid-quarter from ‘Allow Input’ to ‘Input Complete’ in ‘ReportCard Input Controls’
• Changing input for 1st quarter ReportCards from ‘Not Yet’ to ‘Allow Input’ in ‘ReportCard Input Controls’
• Having teachers go through the 1st quarter ReportCard input process
• Closing the input process by changing ‘allow input’ to ‘input complete’

If your school started in late August or early September, then you may be gearing up for mid-quarter reports.  FastDirect allows you to create mid-quarter reports in two different ways.

Click here to read about the two different ways to create progress reports.

If your school has chosen the import process, then here are the functions that will need to be addressed:

• Confirming the 1st mid-quarter dates in ‘Grades’ then ‘ReportCard Input Controls’
• Changing input for mid-quarter from ‘Not Yet’ to ‘Allow Input’ in ‘ReportCard Input Controls’
• Having teachers go through the mid-quarter ReportCard input process
• Closing the input process by changing ‘allow input’ to ‘input complete’

Previewing 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 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!

If your school uses trimester scheduling, then you may be gearing up for mid-trimester reports.  FastDirect allows you to create mid-trimester reports in two different ways.

Click here to read about the two different ways to create progress reports.

If your school has chosen the import process, then here are the functions that will need to be addressed:

• Confirming the 1st mid-trimester dates in ‘Grades’ then ‘ReportCard Input Controls’
• Changing input for mid-trimester from ‘Not Yet’ to ‘Allow Input’ in ‘ReportCard Input Controls’
• Having teachers go through the mid-trimester ReportCard input process
• Closing the input process by changing ‘allow input’ to ‘input complete’

Previewing 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 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!

The bottom section of the staff list in FastDirect contains all of the inactive staff accounts at your school. FastDirect has a feature which allows you to hide any of those accounts. By ‘retiring’ those old, inactive accounts, you will increase performance and loading time and reduce scrolling. Here are the steps to retire inactive accounts:

1. Go to ‘People’ then ‘Teachers’
2. Scroll down to the accounts in gray (near the bottom)
3. Click ‘Edit’ next to an account your would like to retire
4. The fourth line of their information allows you to choose ‘Yes’ for ‘Really Retire’
5. Change the ClassID to something very unique (for example, by adding the person’s initials)
6. Click the ‘Change’ button

Once a staff account has been retired, it will be removed from the list of staff, but can still be retrieved. Here are the steps to retrieve a retired account:

1. Go to ‘People’ then ‘Teachers’
2. Scroll down to the very bottom of the page
3. In the drop down next to ‘Retire’ choose a name
4. Click the ‘Un-retire’ button

The account will now appear in the gray section of inactive staff.

If a teacher does not have any grade book grades, then those teachers will most likely be manually entering in a report card grade, as importing a grade from their grade book isn’t an option.

Here are two FAQs that explain some options and alternatives for manually entering in report card grades:

How do I enter T (Taught but not graded) or P (Pass) on the report card?

With Distance Learning, can our school adjust the Final grade calculations?

Parents can schedule automatic online payments in FDpay! If your school has activated FDpay, our payments processing feature, then parents can set up and schedule automatic payments from either a credit/debit card or a bank account (ACH).

Click here to learn how to schedule automatic or recurring payments (for parents)

• Can events in my GradeBook be automatically published to my Bulletin Board and Calendar?
• Is there a preview of the FDimages? I cannot find a preview of them without sending one to myself in FDmail.
• How can my parents sign up to have FDmail messages forwarded to their email (Email Forward feature)?

Helpful FAQs from October 2020:

• How does a teacher/staff change their ScreenName and/or Password?
• How can I move students from one homeroom to another?
• How do I clear files from my File Manager and use file sharing sites?

Helpful FAQs from October 2019:

• How do I find past enrollment numbers?
• Are there instructions for parents/guardians for preordering lunch online?
• How can I assign extra credit in my GradeBook?
• What is NurseMode?

Watch this video tutorial to find out more about using the Deposits and Charges Report in Finance:

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