Mini-Grant Opportunities

Did you know that there are a variety of mini-grant possibilities available during the 2009-2010 school year. These grant applications require some research but they are not all-consuming and are obtainable.

If you have an idea that you believe is worthy of some funding, please consider the mini-grants available. You can find pertinent information about each grant in the box.net widget below. The file is called Mini-Grant Program Comparative Chart. If you select it, you can download it and open it.

Student Nicknames in Infinite Campus

Did you know that school secretaries can add nicknames for students in the demographic tab in Infinite Campus? This is particularly helpful when students have given names that are completely different than the names they use with their peers and teachers.

FYI

Information about the M: drive for video work

The M: drive is now up and running. If you can't see it or save to it, please make a work order for your technician.

Here are the specifics from Technical Services. Please share this information with others who may find it useful!

Each school has a separate M:\.
The drive will show up as (M:) Media on ...
Staff have full rights to M:\ and subdirectories. Students should have read rights to M:\ and full rights to M:\Students
The space limit will be 2GB for Elementaries, 20GB for Middle Schools, and 50GB for High Schools. This is a work space not an archive! Space will not be increased!
File management is up to the school. Files should be deleted each summer. The end of each semester would be even better.
M:\ will not be backed up.
Only video files will be allowed. Over 300 file extensions have been white-listed. If the file format is not white-listed the user will receive an error on save.

Infinite Campus Support Site

Please keep in mind that when you are in Infinite Campus, there is a link on the left navigation panel called the Infinite Campus Support Site.

When you click on the link, you'll see that the first bullet says "Teacher Help."

You will find many helpful documents here including the grading window dates and canned comments in English, Hmong and Spanish.

If you want me to include anything else specific on this page, please let me know.

Messenger and Newsletter

It's great to hear that more and more teachers are using the Messenger feature in Infinite Campus to communicate with students and parents through the portal and via email. It's a great method of easily sending email to groups of students and groups of parents.

Please keep in mind that copying and pasting messages from Word into any Infinite Campus module can be problematic. Word has some hidden formatting that causes strange things to happen. The most common issue is that apostrophes show up as question marks.

It is okay to copy and paste from Wordpad if you wish. That works well. You can find Wordpad in Start-Programs-Accessories.

If you would like more information about using Messenger, please see page 113 of your 2009-2010 Teacher Guide.

I've also posted a handout explaining how to use the Newsletter in Infinite Campus. You will find it in my box.net files in the panel on the right of my blog.

Comment Fill Tool

We were asked by Learning Coordinators to open the progress report grading window a few days early.

As a result, the new and improved Comment Fill Tool is not quite ready. Chris is working on it and hopes to have it functioning properly by the end of the day Wednesday, September 23.

Please keep in mind that progress reports are not due until Wednesday, September 30.

Infinite Campus/Emerging Technology PD

If you would like to set up an Infinite Campus/Emerging Technology course in your school, please see the link below for instructions:

http://infosvcweb.madison.k12.wi.us/node/170

You can get there from Infinite Campus. On the left navigation panel, select Infinite Campus Support Site. Then select the bullet called Setting Up School-Based Infinite Campus Professional Development.

Moodle Link in Infinite Campus

We've added a link to Moodle from Infinite Campus. You'll find the link under Instruction. When you select it, Moodle will open in a new window or tab.

FYI

Update on User Drive for Video Files

The drive that will be available in each building for large video files will be m:\media. You will be able to save a variety of video file formats here but not other file formats.

This drive will be ready for you and your students to use early next week. All users will have full rights to create, modify and delete anything in this folder. This will be a wonderful means for students and teachers to manage, share and edit video files. However, please keep in mind that this should space should not be used to store finished products. As the space fills, files will be deleted from oldest to newest.

If you have technical issues using the new space, please let me know so we can get it working properly as quickly as possible.

Group Picker

During the August Infinite Campus Professional Development, someone noticed that there were a few standards groups missing for science. This has been corrected.

If you try to log in to the Group Picker and you are denied:
1-Make sure you are in the correct year. It won't work if you are in previous year in IC.
2-Do your courses have groups? For example, Family and Consumer Education and Wellness do not have groups. If your courses do not have groups, then you won't be able to log in to the Group Picker.

Happy Picking!

Infinite Campus Videos

Did you know that there are Infinite Campus support videos available?

"Designed for the busy teacher, these short videos present quick tips to manage classroom activities and more. Access the videos here, at www.infinitecampus.com/teacherpower or via YouTube or TeacherTube.

Topics include taking attendance, setting up seating charts and setting up teacher newsletters.

Check them out!

Professional Development

It's been a very busy week, assisting teachers getting back up and running using Infinite Campus and various applications to assist in productivity.

I spoke with Kurt Kiefer yesterday and told him I would write a summary of our conversation. If you would like to provide professional development in your building related to Infinite Campus and emerging technology, Kurt can pay you and your participants if you hold your sessions outside of contract time.

Please make sure that your sessions have at least 10 people, and that you ask Kurt for approval prior to offering the professional development.

Have a safe and relaxing holiday weekend!

Logging in at other schools

I talked to Lynda Chen about logging in when we are not in our home building. It seems that some of us were told that after the migration, we would be able to log in using our b number and password at any MMSD location.

As it turns out, there is an issue with group membership. You may be able to log in using your b number at other buildings, but you may or may not see the NAL menu with all of the applications.

At this point, it's best to use the t1 login with a hyphen and the school number. For instance, at Doyle the login would be t1-301. If you don't know the password, drop me a line and I'll send it to you.

Label Maker in IC

I got an email from one of the August participants reminding me that the label making feature in IC works well and saves lots of time. You can find it in Instruction --> Reports --> Roster Label.

Use a page of labels with 10 down and 3 across. I believe one of the Avery numbers is 8160.

I didn't mention this during our sessions this year so thought I should add it here.

Welcome Back Conference!

I'm just finishing my second session during our district-wide professional development day.

I spent time with Jill Olson learning about Google docs which have given me the courage to start to let go of Office. Maybe some of you would like to jump on the bandwagon with me?

I also had an opportunity to participate in a web 2.0 session with Staci Limberger and Stacy McCullough. They presented so many good ideas to a captive audience!

It's been a fantastic afternoon.

Social Media Revolution

Working with Video and other large files

I'm sorry to say that I don't yet have an update on the specific location or use of a shared drive to store large media files.

There will be a space for us to work with video files; I just can't tell you yet where it will be. Stay tuned for details.

Parent Portal Powerpoint

I have the parent portal presentation ready to go. I'll post it in my box.net widget when I can figure out a bug. If you want the presentation now, please send me an email and I'll get it to you directly.

Drupal

The District website migrated to the new Drupal web management system as of August 1, 2009.

Logging In
To sign in, enter your B ID number ("b" and your 6 digit identification number) and your password is "x" and your 6-digit date of birth (for example, x010269). If you receive the message "Sorry, unrecognized username or password," click the "Request new password" tab, enter your b-number, and click "E-mail new password." Your new password and instructions will be sent to your GroupWise account. You are strongly encouraged to then change your Drupal password. Many persons have changed their password so that it is the same as their staff account (Novell) password.

Navigation
Navigation is difficult initially but keep in mind that there is a search box (on the left) and an Index (on the bottom). If you are logged in to Drupal, your search results may be different than if you are not logged in. There's more information under "Our New Look" http://www.madison.k12.wi.us/node/4019 on the home page, including navigation tips.

Home Addresses
Several participants expressed concern about their home addresses showing up in the staff directory in Drupal. Please keep in mind that this is an internal page and one must be logged in to see this information. The information displayed has been on the Employee Information form for many years, so there is nothing displayed that hasn't been published in the staff directory. If you would like to remove your home information from the online directory, you will find a link here.

Creating PDFs at School

If you need to create a .pdf file, you have access to the application CutePDF. If you need help installing or configuring, please make a work order for your technician.

Moodle

If you are interested in learning Moodle, please visit the Moodle site at Madison Virtual Campus. This additional Moodle learning link was suggested by one of our participants, Donna Fogell.

Teacher Guide PDF

The 2009-2010 Teacher Guide PDF can be found here.

Middle School Report Card Survey Results

Middle school report card survey results

Grading Guides Link

Elementary and middle school grading guides

Using PLP module for Spanish/Hmong progress reports

Remember that this is an option to create and print Spanish/Hmong progress reports. Get there by searching for a student. Then go to the Index and expand Student Information. This is where you’ll find the PLP option.

Posting Notices to the Parent and Student Portal

Did you know that your principal can post notices to the portal for all students and parents to see? This is one more method of communicating with parents and students about what's happening at school.

Communicating with Families

We discussed Messenger, Newsletter and using the “New Activity” button in the Lesson Planner.

• Messenger will go to the inbox in the parent/student portal and/or will also be sent to email addresses if this option is checked.
• The Newsletter does not appear in the inbox but can be accessed from the student’s schedule. If there is some way to make the newsletter appear in the inbox, it will be taken care of in the next few weeks.
• Creating New Activities is an effective way to communicate with students and parents because the activities appear on the family calendar.

Wish List

The following Wish List was developed by participants during our August 17-24 professional development:

Wish list:

• Ability to use Infinite Campus to track textbook checkout in a central location that could be managed by classroom teachers, office staff, etc.
• Keep tweaking progress report and report card due dates at middle school. One suggestion is to have an earlier cut off time for teachers so that building based staff can work on their missing grades before the grading window is closed. May have fewer missing grades if cutoff time for teachers is Midnight rather than during the school day.
• Auto add grading scale for high school courses.
• Method for each school to assist teachers new to their building with all things technology, including how to access the network, get their documents and login activated, change their voicemail, know where they’re printing, how to use the copier, etc.
• District endorsed social networking site
• Library overdue notices in IC