Schoology and Powerschool

Schoology and Powerschool: How to track your student’s progress

With the shift to proficiency based learning, we are adapting our methods of communicating your student’s progress.  

You can find your student’s homework assignments (POWs, spelling lists, IS and LA projects, math homework) in Schoology.  Think of this as a digital assignment book.  

Powerschool will be used to communicate progress on proficiencies.   Once students have had some practice, and the lessons towards a particular proficiency, we will report on how they are doing with it.  You will know if your student is on track if your student has received a P (Proficient) or an AD (Advanced).  If your student has received a E (Emerging) or B (Beginning), it means that they have not met proficiency, yet.  Students may still be working towards this proficiency, so look back at this proficiency again to see if they improve to a P later in the year.  

For homework:   We will calculate homework on a three point scale.  This will fall under the Habit of Work, Responsibility and Organization.  If your student has a ‘P’ (proficient), that means they submitted their work on time.  If they have an ‘E’ (Emerging), that means they submitted their work late, or that it is incomplete.  If your student has ‘B’ (Beginning), it means that the assignment was not handed in.     

POWs:  POWs are going to be given once a week, like last year.  The subject area will rotate.  One week the POW will be given in IS, the next week it will be given in LA.  For LA, students should still submit their POWs to Schoology.  I will be assessing these in Powerschool as a homework assignment (see above).  I will write comments on these POWs in Schoology, to further student’s thinking, and as a communication tool for their writing.  I will give students opportunities to look at Schoology in class.  Their grade will appear to be a 0 in Schoology, as Schoology will not allow an assignment without a number attached to it. However, understand that the scores will be in Powerschool, not Schoology, and you should look there for their progress.

This is a new system for us!  We are working diligently to make it as smooth of a process as possible.  Feel free to communicate with us any questions you have.

iBlock

iBlock

iBlock Defined: The "i" in iBlock stands for "individual".  iBlock is a 30-minute block that happens each day, and is focused on the specific needs of individual students as determined by a combination of local assessments, teacher observation and opinion, and student voice. Each iBlock session will last 6 weeks.  During iBlock, we aim to bring in additional school-wide staff members to partner with core staff and keep iBlock groups small and focused. The goal of iBlock is simply to put a daily focus on the needs of individual students in order to bring timely improvement to those specific areas.  Examples of areas of focus for this block can include, but are not limited to:

• math reasoning and strategies,
• reading comprehension and fluency,
• geography and spelling skills,
• technology skills such as keyboarding and website design,
• individual areas of focus such as foreign language acquisition
• organizational and social skills.

iBlock Session 1 is starting on Monday, September 12th and will last until Friday, October 21st.  Students were placed in iBlocks to best meet their individual needs.  There will be 6 sessions throughout the school year.  If your student has needs outside of their assigned Session 1 group, we will do our best to try and meet those needs during a different session.

All students will receive their Session 1 placements Monday morning.

September 9, 2016

Layers of the Earth Project
This week students will be working on creating a model of the Layers of the Earth.  This project will take the place of the POW.  Students have started their research and should finish the models after school or at home.  If students choose to make an 'Edible Earth' the expectation is not to share it with the class.  However, if they do intend to share, please bring enough for a class of 21 students.  Rubrics and expectations for this assignment can be found here.


Questions to ask your students:
Do you need help with your Layers of the Earth project?