Formatting student Edline reports

                Would you like more control over your reports in Edline?  There are a few things you can easily change that will make your reports more meaningful.

1.  While in Gradequick, and in one of your classes,  click on Reports, then on Edline Reports, and then on Single Term Only.  (This one is formatted for Edline, so is your best bet.)
2. You’ll see a possible report for one student.
3. Under Options, you may wish to uncheck Print Grade Scale (since it’s not the SBS grade scale).  You uncheck it by clicking on the check mark that’s there.
4. Under Tests, click on Test Info.  Here you’ll have many choices.  Do you want your students to compare themselves to the average (Mean), or do you want them to compare themselves to the high score (High Score).  I click on Use long test names so that the long description of each assignment is on the main part of the report, rather than at the bottom (reduces parent and student questions). 

You may want to experiment to see what you like.  You’ll have to click on OK to see what each of your choices looks like. 

Similarly under Tests there is Score Info.  You have some choices here, too. 

1.  Under  Students and Student Overall Statistics, you can add some statistical information to each student’s report.  Many reports when we first see them from Edline start with Rank showing, but I find it makes kids nastily competitive, so I have unchecked rank. 
2. When you have the report the way you want it, you want to save what you’ve selected.  This will save the report format for all your classes.  Click on Print, then Save Report Configuration.  That saves the report format for the Single Term Only report.

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Shortcut for posting to Edline

Finding posting your Gradequick grades to Edline rather tedious?  Here’s a shortcut that sends all your grade reports at the same time.

1. Click on Reports, then Edline Reports, then Single Term Only.
2. Click on Print, then Send to Edline.
3. Here, click on Send several files and click on OK (usually you do this a class at a time).
4. Click on the classes you want to include.  Click on OK.
5. Click on Select all to select all your students. Click on OK.
6. Enter the name of the report, or just use a report name you have already used (click on the down arrow, then on the name you want to use).  I use Progress Report.
7. Click on Send this report.
8. You’ll get an Edline message telling you how many student records were updated for each class.

Other questions?  Let me know.

Fran Lo       Room 224

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Posting grades to Edline

1. First, enter your grades for each class and student in GradeQuick.
   1. Sign in to Edline, then click on Gradebook (top of page) and then on Semester 1.  (Next semester, you’ll click on Semester 2.)
   2. Create a new test/assignment/quiz  by clicking to the right of the last test/assignment/quiz, (or to the right of student names if this is the first assignment.)
   3. Add a short name – this is required, since this is what shows on Edline reports.
   4. You may add a long name, which can help explain more about the specific assignment.
   5. Unless you are weighting grades (20% for quizzes, 40% for tests, 40% for homework, for example), leave the category field blank.  Weighting gets handled separately.  If you need help with this, please ask me for help. 
   6. Leave the weighting field blank. 
   7. If you want the date to reflect the date an assignment was due, change the date (Edline automatically uses the date you first create the test/assignment/quiz.)   I have found it’s worth using the due date to reduce parent and student questions.
   8. Enter the number of points for this assignment under Possible.
   9. Enter grades for each student.  Be sure to press enter after the last grade is entered (says the voice of experience).
2. Then post the grades to Edline.
   1. Within one class in GradeQuick:
   2. Click on Reports, then Edline Reports, then Single Term Only.  You’ll see what the report looks like for one of the students.
   3. c.       (I’ll provide more help with the fine points of reports in a future email.)
   4. Then click on Print (top left of screen).
   5. e.      You then have a choice:  if you’re doing a whole class, click next to Select All Students of Current File. 
   6. You have other choices if you want to just post one student or a few students.  “Send several files” doesn’t work, so don’t click on that.
   7. Click on OK.
   8. WWW Report Description shows.  Don’t change the class ID.  Under Enter Report Description, click in the blank space.  I find it easiest to enter the words Progress Report and then press Send this report.  Next time, click in the blank space, and Progress Report will show – click on that, then on Send this report.  Some people like to have different names for each report, but this isn’t necessary (however, if you name them all Progress Report, only the most recent one will show.)
   9. Another Edline page will load, and you’ll eventually get a message about how many records were updated.  Wait for this to display before doing anything further in GradeQuick. 
   10. To post for another class, go back to GradeQuick, click on the red X in the top right corner to close that report, and select the new class. 

If you need help, please let me know.

Edline, Uncategorized, gradequick | Comments (2)

New ideas delivered to your emailbox

 Part of teaching is sharing ideas with other teachers, and the Internet has made sharing with teachers around the world easier than ever.  All it takes it subscribing to an email newsletter.  Some of these come daily, some weekly.  Here are some you may wish to explore:

 

Some weekly compendiums of teaching ideas that use Internet resources:

 

• TeachersFirst  is one of the best. Tells you topic area, age group, how tech-savvy you need to be to use a resource, and any concerns (such as potential access to inappropriate content).   http://www.teachersfirst.com    (scroll to the bottom to signup for weekly enewsletter. )

 

• National Council of Teachers of English (but you don’t have to be a member) http://ncte.org/newsletter

 

• Secondary educators http://712educators.about.com/

 

If you like getting lots of idea every day, here are some daily reviews of teaching resources:

 

• Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/. Larry works with high school ESL (English as a second language) students, particularly in English and Social Studies.  His groupings of resources are among the finest on the Internet, and his ideas are worth hearing.  Strong on ideas, but leaves evaluation of appropriateness up to you.  (Scroll down – email subscription tucked into right hand side.)

 

• Free Technology for Teachers http://www.freetech4teachers.com/.  Strong on ideas, and a very strong proponent of technology use, but leaves evaluation up to you. 

 

On a more variable publication schedule:

 

• Pro-Con provides in depth information about many controversial issues.  http://www.procon.org/  Very rich resources here.  (Email signup is on lower left-hand side.)

 

Will every idea work for you?  No.  But you will find new ideas that freshen your approach in the classroom and give you links you may want to add to your class Edline pages to enrich your students’ learning. 

 

How to subscribe.  Click on the blue link above.  If you decide you want to subscribe, look for the place to subscribe to emails somewhere on the webpage (if it’s hard to find I’ve described its location above).  You give your email address, and sometimes will have to verify that you’ve actually requested to receive these emails.  Then, every time the publisher writes a new entry, you’ll receive an email.  (And each email will tell you how to stop the emails if you decide you don’t want them any more.)

 

Have you found a good resource like this that you can share with the rest of us?

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Adding documents and links to Edline

Edline top part of adding document

Documents

 

Suppose you want to add your syllabus, or a study guide, to a class Edline page.   Here’s how to do it:

 Roll over My Classes and Shortcuts, and click on the class you want to add the document to.  Don’t worry that you want to add it to more than one class – you’ll get a chance to do that.

Click to the right of Contents. 

Click on Add to add a document.

 Enter a document name that will be meaningful to your students.  For example, Syllabus.   You can also add other information, and even a date, if you want this to display on the calendar. 

 On this same page, your next choice is how to add the document.  You can enter text by hand or import an existing file (like a Word document).  Click on Import an existing file.

Hint:  Formatting within Edline is tricky in Enter Text By Hand, especially if you copy from a Word document.  Save yourself a lot of grief and just import the Word document (says the voice of experience). 

You will see a new choice, which is to Browse through your files to find the one you want to post.  Click on Browse, and you’ll see your files, so that you can click through where your files are to find the one you want.  I like to save documents I’ve prepared for Edline on my desktop, so that they’re easier to find.  (If you are having difficulty navigating through your files, let me know and I’ll give you a quick tutorial.)

Find your file, and click on it.  Then click on Import.    If you got the wrong document, click on delete, and go look for the right document. 

Now you get a chance to select which other classes you want to add this document to.  For example, perhaps you have two sections of the same class.  This will save you having to go through all these steps for each section.  Hint:  you won’t see the name of the class you’re working with, only the names of your other classes.  Click on the classes you want to add, then click on Add, at the bottom of the list.  If you added the wrong one, click on it and click Remove.

Then scroll down to the bottom and save your work.  You can Save and Return (go back to general activities in Edline), Save & Add Another (add another document), or Cancel (start over because you made mistakes and this isn’t what you want to do). 

Don’t stop now, though.  You have one more step.  Click on Done.  Then you’re really done!

You’re back at your class page, and the document you added is now there!

 

Links

Adding links is almost the same, but instead of clicking to the right of Contents, you click to the right of Links.  You will have the opportunity to enter the actual URL (internet address) of the link.  Hint:  copy and paste the actual address, so that you have everything you need (including the http:// at the start of the address) and you haven’t made any typos.

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