Desoto County Schools
2012-2013
Taking Attendance
Setting up the
Gradebook
Inputting Grades
Printing Reports
Log onto the PowerTeacher Site
• www.desotopowerschool.com/teachers
• Enter Correct Username (School # + teacher number -32999)
• Press Tab
• Enter Correct Password (see your PS Administrator for
password). For security purposes, please change your
password once in PowerTeacher.
• Press Enter OR Click Sign In
32999
desoto
When you log into PowerTeacher, the start page appears.
This page serves as the central point from which you begin
your PowerTeacher session.
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We will not be
using the Meals or
Recommendations
Option at this time.
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Start Page - This is the home
screen where you can view
the current classes.
Daily Bulletin – Click to read
your school’s daily bulletin (if
applicable.)
Staff Directory – Click to
access your school’s staff
directory
Personalize – Click to change
your password.
Gradebook – Click to launch
PowerTeacher Gradebook
Reports – Click to launch the
Reports window
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Period – Course
Chair – To take attendance
Dot beside chair –
◦ Clear Attendance not taken
◦ Yellow Partial attendance taken
◦ Green Attendance has been taken
Calendar and Calendar/Chair - single and multi-day
attendance
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Lunch Counts – We WILL
NOT USE
Student Information – Demographics, Attendance,
Schedule, Alerts, etc.
Printer - Class Reports
Using the student information pages, you can view a variety of student data,
as well as enter final grades and log necessary issues.
•Click the Backpack icon to
access student information.
•Click the last name of the student
whose record you want to view.
The student information displays
the default page previously
selected. The following pages are
available from the Selected
screens pop-up menu:
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When looking at the student demographics,
there may be numerous Alert Symbols for the
student you are viewing.
Click on a symbol to provide details of the
alert information.
Medical Caduceus- Medical Alert
Silhouette-Parent Alert
Scales-Discipline Alert
Candle-Birthday Alert
Warning Triangle-Other alert
IEP Alert-IEP in effect
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To take attendance, click on the chair beside the
class in which you want to take attendance. The
Record Meeting Attendance page appears enabling
you to record attendance.
If all of your students are present, you will still need
to click the chair icon to open the attendance screen
and click Submit to save the attendance information.
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Choose the attendance code
you want to assign from the
Current attendance code popup menu.
Click the box next to the name
of each student to whom you
want to assign this attendance
code.
Repeat Steps 1 and 2 for each
different attendance code you
want to assign. It is not
necessary to perform this task
for students who are present.
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Click Submit. The attendance
codes are saved to the
PowerSchool system, and the
start page appears.
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Please DO NOT use the Multi-Day attendance to take attendance,
but it may be used to view attendance for the entire class in a
grid-like view on one page.
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The Calendar/Chair icon, will allow you to work with
the seating chart. This includes designing and editing
a seating chart layout, taking attendance and more.
Click on Gradebook. The
PowerTeacher
Gradebook appears.
Click “Launch Gradebook.”
The File Download window appears
accompanied by a Warning Security
window.
Click Run.
A minimum of Java 5 is required.
The Java Web Start and Gradebook
version windows briefly appear.
PowerTeacher gradebook then
opens.
Classes
Student Groups
Categories
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The Student Groups pane appears in the middleleft side of the PowerTeacher Gradebook window
and displays student groups for a selected class.
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What is a category?
Categories are groups of the same types of assignments.
Categories are global, not class-specific, eliminating the
need to create the same categories multiple times for
each class.
Once a category is created, it should never, NEVER be
deleted because.
Most all of
DeSoto County
teachers use
percentages and
letter grades.
 If you prefer to
use a point
scale, see your
PowerTeacher
Administrator.
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What is the
Grade Setup?
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The Grade Setup determines the calculating method
of the gradebook.
The category weight method calculates final grades
based on the value (or weight) of each category or
assignment within the weighted Category weights.
Check with your PowerSchool Administrator before
setting your category weights.
SAMPLE Grade Setup
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is imperative that the Grade Setup be
done at the beginning of the year for ALL
Reporting Terms and all Periods/Subjects.
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PowerTeacher gradebook uses grade scales that
are set up and managed by DeSoto County School's
district administrators, which is set by the Board of
Education.
This scale comes from the administrative side of
PowerSchool and cannot be edited.
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Once Categories are added and the Grading Setup
is completed, you may begin to add Assignments
from the Assignments Tab.
Details for adding assignments will be in the
video given to your PowerTeacher Administrator.
NOTE: Always be sure that you are in the desired
Reporting Term when adding assignments.
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Once an assignment has
been added, be sure to
click on the Publish Tab
and set the assignment to
Publish Immediately and
check Publish Score.
By doing this, the
assignments will
immediately be available
in Parent Portal.
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If you repeatedly teach
a subject or have
assignments
duplicated in other
class periods, you can
copy assignments
from one class period
to another, eliminating
the need to create
them in each class
period.
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If you have created an
assignment that is no longer
needed, there is an option to
delete that assignment.
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Once Assignments have been added, scores for
individual students/assignments may be added from
the Scoresheet Tab.
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There may be times when an
assignment will result in
most students having the
same score. You can fill an
entire column of scores for
that assignment very quickly
using the Fill Scores feature.
Using the Reports window, you can generate reports for all
students who are enrolled in a class, for all students who are
enrolled in all your classes, or for a specific set, group,
individual student, selection of students, or any combination.
Student Multi-Section Report
Student Roster Report
Scoresheet Report
Individual Student Report
• This is a new feature in
PowerTeacher.
• When you click this
icon, it will open a
window that will link
you to the same
attendance mode that
is accessed from the
Home Screen.
•Who has a birthday coming up?
•Have any new students been added?
•Have any students dropped?
•Has an administrator accessed my gradebook?
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PowerSchool can be set to Email reports to
parents once a month, if we have the parent
email in PowerSchool.
On the ParentPortal, each parent has the ability to
request Email notification more often
When parents log into PowerSchool ParentPortal
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Access Email Notification
Select what information they would like to receive
Select how often they would like to receive it
Give their email address
PowerSchool will email requested information
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When you are finished working in
PowerTeacher gradebook, it is recommended
that you click the File menu and choose SAVE.
It is important to quit the application for
security purposes. The protection of student
data is imperative.
I love
my
job!