Three Digit School Codes

During our August professional development, several people asked where they can now look to find the three digit code for a school.

If you click on the Contact Us button at the top of any District page, the second link is a School Building Directory. The school codes are listed next to the school name. This page can be printed.

FYI

Portal for MS students

Just a quick acknowledgment that the parent and student portal do not always reflect the correct ongoing grade for courses with power standards. For example, if I teacher has recorded grades for one power standard in a course but not yet for the other two power standards, the grade book will use the graded work as 100% of the grade.

The portal will consider 0's for the other two power standards, and it will look as though the student is failing. Please point out to students and parents that this is an "in progress" grade and not a posted grade. It occurs only because that's the way Infinite Campus calculates.

Updates to Infinite Campus

One of our August participants asked if teachers could be made aware of Infinite Campus updates before they take place. Josh does include an announcement on the login page, but going forward, he will also include a link to the release notes for those who wish to know how the update will change Infinite Campus.

Passwords in Infinite Campus

Passwords are not case sensitive in Infinite Campus. Passwords are case sensitive in most other applications. If another application uses your Infinite Campus password, and you can't get into it, it's likely because you are not in the habit of typing the upper case letters in Infinite Campus.

Key in Enrollments Tab

Jeannie Retelle is working to provide a key for the school numbers in the Enrollments tab. Currently we see the school number but not the name of the school. Stay tuned.

Discovery Education/United Streaming

Discovery Education provides tens of thousands of digitized videos for student and teacher use. There are a multitude of other resources available as well.

We have a district license for use.

Discovery Education

Staff login is b number with b. Password is b number with b.

Student login is Student ID (or StudentIDmmsd). Password is madmetro

If you have questions, please contact Mark Lea.

Elluminate TCP

Several of us participated in an Elluminate Teacher Certification Program this summer. We now need to know how we can use what we learned in our school buildings. There were questions about ideas for use and questions about how to set up sessions. Kelly Pochop and Rick Johnson are working on documentation to keep this initiative alive. Stay tuned!

MS Grading Grid Tool and Group Picker

I've created a handout explaining how to use the Group Picker tool. You will find the handout here in the Lesson Planner section (after Monday, September 13): http://infosvcweb.madison.k12.wi.us/node/963

Someone asked if the Grading Grid tool can be open all year long. It will be open all year long. Ask and you shall receive.

Loading Schedules in Infinite Campus/Porta

Jeannie reported that she loads schedules as principals request that they are loaded.

Destiny Login

The Destiny login is your b number without the b.

Work Location Change Form

A few people asked where we can find the work location change form. Well, it's no longer necessary to complete this form. Human Resources updates our locations, and this information is passed through to Technical Services to make any necessary changes.

Moodle Update

As of September 6, we have reset almost all student Moodle passwords to x plus 6 digit DOB. The only exceptions are students who had successfully logged in to Moodle in the week previous. This will save teachers and students a great deal of trouble!

It's Spring!

Once again it's been much too long since my last update. There is much going on within our District and throughout the field of education. The BOE has been forced to make some tough decisions, and it's not over yet.

In technology news, there are several initiatives to report. One very significant update is a tool that will save middle school teachers a great deal of time while reporting grades. Chris Burch has developed a Grading Grid tool. Teachers can now easily log in, see all of their power standards and assignments on one screen, and enter trend scores on one page. The scores are then moved to Infinite Campus so teachers can post grades. A big thank you to Chris Burch!

In other news, we've had more vendor demos for a new student email system. The latest goal is to have a new system implemented by the time we come back to school in August.

We have purchased an enterprise license for Elluminate, which is web-conferencing software that we will all have an opportunity to use. During the summer, representatives from each building will participate in professional development so that each building will have a site-based resource to set up sessions and possibly provide professional development for users.

We have started the 3rd and final round of the current EETT grant which will expire in June 2010. We have a hard-working cohort of middle school teachers and library media specialists. Time is flying!

New Initiative!

It's been a while since I've posted. Since today is the first day of our Essential Infusions course through the Enhancing Education Through Technology grant (EETT), I thought it would be a good time to start blogging again.

I am excited to meet everyone in our face to face session this afternoon. I hope the group enjoys the course and walks away with useful strategies to challenge students using technology within their curriculum.

We've had a nice respite from the cold, and now it's back to the reality of a cold January. Hang in there!