PARENT ACCESS TRAINING

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PARENT ACCESS TRAINING

• Our Lady of Victory School
• Grades 3 thru 8

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What is PowerSchool?

• An electronic means of tracking student progress
• A planning tool for using Archdiocesan standards
  for all curricula
• A database for student and family information
  needed to best serve our school community.

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What is Parent Access?

• An additional means of communication between OLV
  and parents
• A means of receiving current feedback regarding
  your students performance
• A means of communicating regularly with your
  students teachers for support or clarification.

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Parent Access is NOT

• A replacement for any official school records or
  documentation
• A replacement for other means of communication
  from the school (letters, calendars, newsletters,
  progress reports)
• A means or a motive for increasing the pressure
  placed on students by parents or teachers!!

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DISCLAIMER by the Archdiocese of Baltimore

• Parent access to Powerschool is provided as a
  convenience. Grades and other information
  provided by this system are not official records
  and may or may not be accurate. Neither Our Lady
  of Victory, the Archdiocese of Baltimore, nor
  Pearson Learning, Inc. accepts any responsibility
  for information provided by this system and/or
  any damages resulting from information provided
  by this system. To obtain official grades and
  student records, or to request correction of
  information on this system, please contact Our
  Lady of Victory School.

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Who may be granted access to Powerschool?

• All parents or guardians who attend a training
  session for the Parent Access system and who thus
  receive a user name and password assigned by the
  school
• All parents or guardians who are current with
  tuition and fees
• Each student can have only one user name and
  password. Divorced/separated parents will be
  issued the same user name and password.

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AVAILABLE INFORMATION

• Attendance information both for the past two
  weeks and for the whole year by date
• Student schedule of classes, with immediate
  e-mail link to the teacher for each class
• Grade information, with detailed grade
  information as well as summary information

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HOW CURRENT IS IT??

• Attendance information is updated daily -
  occasionally there might be a lapse of one day
  due to illness or technical difficulty, but it is
  generally up to date
• Grades are generally updated at least once per
  cycle (A-F days plus Friday) our stated goal is
  to have grades entered by the corresponding day
  in the following cycle, except for some longer
  term assignments (Science Fair, Research Paper,
  etc.)

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LOGGING IN TO POWERSCHOOL

• Type (or link to through our website)
  https//www.baltimore7.powerschool.com into your
  browsers address bar
• When prompted by the sign-on screen, type your
  user name and password in the appropriate spaces
  (they are both case sensitive)
• Click the Enter button

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IM IN NOW WHAT??

• Your initial screen will show a Grades and
  Attendance summary, with the classes in which
  your student is enrolled
• The prior two weeks attendance is reflected
  (Last Week and This Week), with a key to the
  attendance codes at the bottom of the screen.

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NOW WHAT?? (cont.)

• Your students teachers are listed next to the
  course that they teach. To e-mail a teacher,
  simply click the name of that teacher, and it
  will link immediately to that teacher
• Columns T1, T2, T3 and Y1 correspond to
  the three trimesters and the current school year.
• Please focus only on the current trimester grade,
  as the Y1 grade uses trimester grades for
  calculation.

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NOW FOR THE DETAILS!!

• When you click on the numerical average for a
  course grade in the summary screen, a list of the
  assignments making up that grade will appear.
• It is critical that you understand the grading
  system that your childs teacher is using to
  assess progress, and note that different
  assignments probably have different weights
  assigned to them, either in terms of points that
  an assignment is worth or how it is classified.

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A COUPLE OF EXAMPLES

• Example 2
• Homework 1 10/10 A
• Quiz 1 49/50 A
• Unit Test 60/100 E
• Cumulative 119/160 D
• One poor test negatively affects otherwise good
  work.

• Example 1
• Homework 1 6/10 E
• Quiz 1 40/50 C
• Unit Test 95/100 A
• Cumulative 141/160 B
• One good test makes up for poor to mediocre other
  work.

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Grade Information (cont.)

• Teachers can communicate with parents with what
  is called an assignment note that gives
  information about a particular score. If they
  attach a note to an assignment, that numerical
  grade in the assignment list will appear in BLUE
  and can be clicked on to retrieve the note
  attached.

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Codes for Incomplete Assignments

• EX (Excused) the student has been excused from
  the assignment
• AB (Absent) the student was absent and has not
  yet turned in the assignment
• NHI (Not Handed In) the student has not yet
  turned in the expected work
• R (Re-Do) the student had the paper returned
  for additional work and re-submission

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INCOMPLETE POLICY

• The students will be given a reasonable amount of
  time to turn in missed assignments
• At the conclusion of that time, the student will
  be given at least 10 of the points for which the
  assignment was eligible usually failure to
  turn in assignments will be noted on Progress
  Report
• Zeros are only given if the student earned a 0
  by not getting any answers correct.

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OTHER BUTTONS FOR PARENT ACCESS

• Attendance History shows all YTD attendance
  information day by day
• Grades History not used
• Teacher Comments shows current teacher comments
  during trimester this will usually not be
  updated until Progress Reports are issued
• School Bulletin news and updates from school,
  usually a hard copy has been sent also.

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E-Mail NOTIFICATION OPTIONS

• You can have information sent to your e-mail
  address periodically instead of having to log on
  each time you want to check your students
  progress. Options you may choose from to be
  delivered
• Grades
• Attendance
• Assignments
• Bulletin

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TO USE E-MAIL NOTIFICATION

• Choose the E-Mail Notification from the menu bar
  at the top of the main page
• Choose which information you wish to see
• Choose (from the drop down menu) how often you
  wish to receive information
• Enter your e-mail address (carefully!!)
• Click the blue Submit button

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OTHER INFORMATION

• For technical difficulties, please contact the
  school office, where a message will be taken and
  your call returned
• Please refrain from accessing student records
  during the week between grades closing and
  progress reports coming home. Many changes, data
  entry tasks, comment insertions, and other time
  critical tasks are being performed, and
  additional server traffic slows the process.

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OTHER INFORMATION (cont.)

• Our school will make a computer available in the
  Library for parents seeking to access their
  students information but not having internet
  access at home or work it will be available
  from 300-500 p.m. daily, or by appointment
• We will be sending home interim reports once per
  trimester for signature.

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HOMEWORK SITE

• This is a tool for allowing parents and students
  to be reminded of assignments It DOES NOT
  replace the planner/homework assignment book.
• To access the site, go to the bottom of our
  schools home page at www.olvschoolmd.org and
  click on the link.
• You may establish an account by clicking on the
  Dont have a user name? Click Here! button.
  User Name for Upper Dept. students is Grade8-1
  plus math teachers initials (Hagan H,
  Hutcheson JH, MoserM, Judson J)

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HOMEWORK SITE (cont.)

• After signing in, go to User Profile and use
  the add classes button to choose your childs
  classes. If these change, then you will have to
  change your settings
• To choose the correct class, simply choose the
  number of classes to add (then hit the add
  button), choose the appropriate teacher from the
  drop down menu (the little arrow to the right of
  the box), and then hit enter.

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HOMEWORK SITE (cont.)

• A list of the teachers you have selected will
  appear. Choose the class your child has with that
  teacher from the drop down menu. When all classes
  are filled in, hit enter.
• Now you are ready to see the homework assigned by
  those teachers you can view the menu three
  different ways daily, weekly, or monthly!

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SPECIAL NOTES FOR THE HOMEWORK SITE

• There are two messages that may appear that might
  be confusing No Homework! and No homework
  posted yet. The first means nothing new was
  assigned for that evening the teacher
  specifically clicked a button. The second might
  mean that the teacher has not posted anything at
  that point in time. Homework is usually posted by
  400 pm, but there are exceptions, including the
  occasional Oops, I forgot. Remember the
  assignment book takes precedence!

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SPECIAL NOTES (cont.)

• Teachers can indicate assignment types (normal
  or test/project). If an assignment has been
  designated as a special assignment, it will
  appear with a shaded background on your screen.
  Many long-term assignments are assigned this way.
  If you use the weekly view, then the entire day
  will appear shaded if there is a special
  assignment that day. Its not a required
  designation, but some teachers use it.

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SPECIAL NOTES (cont.)

• Occasionally a teacher may attach a document to
  an assignment (instructions for a project, policy
  letters, etc.) so that parents can read the
  information that has generally already been given
  to the students. This is a useful option for
  long-term assignments, and can also be useful to
  review guidelines after a completed assignment is
  returned, especially if there are questions about
  instructions that may not have been followed. To
  view these documents, simply click on the link
  provided.

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FINAL REMINDERS!!

• All passwords are case sensitive.
• You are assigned a password for Parent Access
  (Powerschool), but you choose a password for the
  Homework Site.
• You can always make an e-mail inquiry from either
  the Parent Access site or from the school
  website
• Never be surprised! Use the tools we have shared
  this evening to enhance your childs experience
  at OLV!!