Rubistar You can create a rubric by selecting a subject, then the specific criteria you want to use.

Simple rubric template Template can just be filled in with your own criteria and performance guidelines.

Rubrics in a nutshell The basics of creating a rubric.

Rubric collection 1 Collection from a graduate school that works with educators

Rubric collection 2 Another collection for educators

Rubric collection 3 Another collection for educators

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.

1.  Click on Reports, then Spreadsheets, then Single term gradebook spreadsheet.
2. You will see a report that first lists all the assignments for the quarter (showing the long names), then a listing showing each student name going down the left side of the page, with each assignment (using the short name) going across the page.   The assignment information includes the date, possible points, and average score.
3. Print the report and now you have a paper backup.

                Sometimes you want to record student grades away from the computer.  Maybe you’re grading a discussion, or you have a pile of essays and want to record all the results in one place (so that you can enter it into Gradequick later).  Here’s how to do it:

1.  While in the specific class in Gradequick, click on Reports, then Spreadsheet.
2. There are several choices here:  blank spreadsheet, blank spreadsheet with numbered columns in portrait format (tall) , and blank spreadsheet with numbered columns in landscape format (sideways).
3. Choose the one you want and print it.

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

If you need help, please let me know.

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?

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.

Edline summary of add at bottom

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.

When you need to tell a parent about a concern, give praise for particularly good work, or tell all parents about something that’s happening in your class, you can email either individual parents or all parents in the entire class. You can also email all students, if you wish.

From your Edline Home page, roll over My classes and shortcuts to see a list of all your classes. Click on the class you want to communicate with (or the class that has the student you want to communicate about).
Then roll over Command Center and click on Send email.

You will see a list of all student Edline accounts in this class. Ignore the Administrator system user ID at the top of the page. You can see, by last name, which accounts are active, which have parent email and which have student email.

To send an email to an individual parent
Click on the box to the left of the information about that student. Then scroll down to the bottom of the page. Click on Compose Message.

Then click on who to send the message to, and click on Continue.

You’ll now have a lot of information.

• You can double-check who is receiving the message by click on Who.
• You can see the email address where replies are being sent. Edline will also send you a copy of the email to this address unless you tell it not to.

Then you can add subject and message.
When finished, click on Send the Message to Recipients, below the message.

Remember that email is written and it’s forever, so consider:
• Is email the best way to communicate with this parent?
• Is my tone friendly and approachable? If you are upset with the student or parent, it’s wise to draft your message in Word, then sleep on it, then even get another teacher to read what you wrote, until the message best represents you and SBS.

To send an email to all the parents in the class (at least those who have Edline accounts)

Instead of clicking on the box next to the name of a specific student, scroll down to the bottom of the page, and click on Select all.

Then follow all the steps for sending an email to an individual parent.

One item you may want to check is the Email Recipient Summary, as this will tell you which parents will receive the message, and which won’t. Click on who to see who won’t get the message; these are parents who either don’t have an Edline account at all, or who have not provided an email address.
You cannot control which parents have current Edline accounts, unfortunately. Every effort is made to get parents to set up their accounts. But if the parent hasn’t provided an email, and it’s urgent to contact a parent, use more traditional methods.

• Set up your Edline pages for the year (most of you know how to do this)
• Copy images and other materials from last year’s Edline pages

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Refreshing Your Edline Class Pages for the New School Year

We have a slightly different home page.

• My classes and shortcuts is where your classes are. See below how to make changes.
• My content is where your “old class materials,” previous year’s classes are. If you want to copy images, assignments, class description from last year, you’ll start here.
• Command center is where your Gradequick gradebook is accessed. (Gradequick is also accessible from the top menu.)

To edit your Edline page

• First roll your mouse pointer over My classes and shortcuts, and you’ll see a list of your classes for this year.
• Click on the class you want to edit
• Click on Contents (on the right).
• To make changes in class description and picture, click on Manage class.
• You can change the class description to something a little more meaningful, but don’t touch the class ID number.

Class Description is a good place to add information about your class.

To add a different image, scroll down, click on Browse, and find an image that you have stored in your computer, for example under . Click on the image you want and the address will be stored on the edit page.

Click on Save and then click on Done.

To copy over last year’s picture, class description, and so on

On your home page, roll your mouse over My Content, then click on Old Class Materials.

You’ll see a long list of classes from previous years. “Be sure you get the class from the correct school year,” says the voice of experience, so look at both the class title and the date the page was last modified. Click on the class you want to use. You will see a menu with choices to copy.

Select the items you want to copy over, such as

• Group info (image and class description)
• Links

Click on Copy to.
You’ll have the opportunity to say which classes you want to copy it to (you can copy it to more than one). Don’t forget to click Done.