Dan Stuntebeck – PDP evidence #2 – sample teacher training handouts/guides (PowerSchool grades & FirstClass webpages). While these aren’t directly tied to student learning, they are key pieces in showing my connection (as a tech leader) for other staff members. Furthermore, by helping teaching do grading more efficiently, they have additional time for developing lessons. The webpages allow teachers to connect with students and/or parents via the school web site.

Power Teacher –Final Grades Guide

1. Login and select the appropriate class and term (note you will need to put in grades for all academic areas and Life Skills and Q1, Q2, and Q3).

2. Control-click or right-click in the final Grades column. Select Fill Scores.

3. Click buttons/boxes (Replace All, Manual Override, Grade – Enter in P for pass). Click OK.

Grades will be filled in – do not worry about percentage displayed!

4. If a student is failing, double click on their row and replace grade with F. Click Close.

5. Repeat steps for other classes and reporting terms.


FirstClass Web Pages – Quick Guide

Getting started:

Your first class page should be accessible through the desktop of firstclass – likely just your last name. To edit your home page, open up your web area and then open up your home page (**be sure not to change the name of this file**). To see most of the page, click on the black triangle underneath the top portion/header.

CONTENTS

1. Adding a picture/graphic/document

2. Adding an external link (to a web page)

3. Creating a new page

4. Linking to the new page

5. Guidelines/suggestions

1. Adding a picture/graphic/document

- Open the firstclass page that will get the picture/graphic/document.

- Click and drag image/graphic/document (from desktop or folder) into the page.

OR

Select the insert pull-down menu, and select “Image/File.” – see screen shots below. You will then need to locate that image. It’s simplest to position the cursor where you want the image before inserting it although you can move the image around once it is on your page by cutting and pasting.

**NOTE: It is best to resize the image before moving it into your webpage. If it is a small image that you stretch out, it will likely get pixilated/blurry. Conversely, if you take a large image and make it smaller, it will load slowly for parents who are looking at it. You can open most images in Microsoft Picture manager and use Picture: Resize… to resize a picture (I’d recommend 800x600 or 640x480 or smaller).

2. Adding an external link (for a web page)

- Open the firstclass page that will get the new link

- Enter in the name/text you want to receive the link (eg Wikipedia)

- Highlight the text entered

- Click the add link button (see screenshot below)

- Enter in URL/web address and title and then click OK

3. Creating a new page

- Open up web area (not homepage – see screenshot below)

- Click on “Add Web Page” button

- Select “Blank RWD Page” and click OK

- Enter in Page Name and Title (keep them fairly short)

- Click “Save and Close” (should now appear in web space for editing)

4. Linking to another firstclass web page

- Open up home space (so you can see your homepage and the page to be linked)

- Right-click on your homepage

- Open homepage in a new window (see right ->)

- Position the windows (your homepage and the folder/home space where the other

web page is located – see below)

- Click and drag the webpage file onto your homepage.

- Edit text link as you like

5. Design considerations/guidelines

A. Page size

Be aware that your page shouldn’t get too wide (as there are menu bars on both the left and right side of the high school site. You can resize your working window to compare it with a browser window to get a good estimate of actual size. Additionally, avoid too much content on page vertically. Either stack information horizontally (with a table or tabs) or add a second page with the extra content.

B. Colors

For consistency across the website, choose the dark red. Access by highlight text and picking font color, then other, and then dark red (1st column, 3rd up from bottom).

C. Fonts

Fonts can add some extra character to a web page; however, they can also add distraction/decrease readability if done to an extreme. A general rule of thumb is try to be consistent (eg have similar heading the same font type, size, and color) and to also use no more than 2 font types per page.

D. Background

While backgrounds can fill in a plain white space quickly, there are downsides. A picture background can get busy in appearance and render some text unreadable. Simple colored backgrounds are better, but for consistency, white is the best background – a little flair can be added in other ways.

E. Student info (privacy)

Due to privacy issues, please try to avoid having individual or pair shots of students. Also avoid using full names of students. Either refrain from using names or simply use a first name to keep student personal information safe.

To preview your page, load the district site (www.columbus.k12.wi.us) , and select your school and then staff to find your linked page.

For faculty, a shortcut would be to got to:

http://cesweb.columbus.k12.wi.us/Teachers - for elementary teachers

http://cmsweb.columbus.k12.wi.us/Teachers - for middle school teachers

http://chsweb.columbus.k12.wi.us/Teachers - for high school teachers