by Roberta A. Johnson, M.Ed.
Seattle Public Schools - Instructional Technology Specialist
Created Fall 2002
by Roberta A. Johnson, M.Ed.
Seattle Public Schools - Instructional Technology Specialist
Created Fall 2002
One can succeed at almost anything for which he has enthusiasm. Charles Schwab
1. When creating a new grade book, you will be asked to name it.
2. Think about what you usually write on the cover of a paper
grade book perhaps your last name and the year?
1. The next thing you will be asked is to add classes. You might want to include the period of the day in your class names 1st French I, 2nd French I, for example.
2. You can also select (click box in front of option) Term I to indicate the first part of the year or Term II to indicate the second half of the year.
3. If you like, you can change these to read Semester 1 or 2nd Semester whatever you usually use.
4. After naming the first class, click Next to go
on to name the next class and so on. When
finished, click on Finish.
At
the top of the Easy Grade Pro window, you will find some very important
shortcuts to help you set up your grade book.
Note that the classes you have named can be viewed and selected in the
box on the left of the third row.
One of the most important buttons is just under and between the Student and Assign tabs.
Pressing this icon takes you to the following Class
Options menu, which gives you access to the grade books most important
functions. This is what it looks
like.
1. Click on the Calendar tab.
2. Note that the first thing you need to do is click on the first day your class begins in the first section under First Day of Term.
3. The second task is to click on the date of the last day your class meets in the right section under Last Day of Term.
4. Then, you need to go to the middle section and click on any days your classes will not meet during the term you are working found under No-School Days. These would include non-student days, early dismissals, and holidays. This will tell the grade book not to expect grades for the selected dates.
5. Go to Copying settings from one class to others to copy your Calendar Settings to the rest of your classes.
6. Click on Done when you are finished.
1. One other area each teacher needs to define is Attendance. To find these, click on the Attend. tab.
2. Using the scroll bar, you will find several attendance options. You can delete any of these you choose not to use. However, your options must not have any blank lines between them. So you may wish to copy and past your choices in the order and the way you want them to appear. For example, Unexcused absence may become Absent.
3. You can change the settings in the Code column, as well. Absent may become A instead of AE. It's up to you.
4. You do need to pay attention to the Value column. If absence is worth 1.00, it means the student will not get credit for a full period or day's attendance. On a tardy, however, you might want to enter 0.00 so the student does get credit for attending class. If yours is a school where 3 tardies equal 1 absence, a tardy's value might be 0.33.
5. Each item in the 3 white column has to be highlighted and deleted separately. You cannot select multiple lines to delete at once.
6. In order to take attendance right off your seating chart, click the Seat tab.
7. As seen below, click the On-screen Attendance button and Done.
8. Go to Copying settings from one class to others to copy your Attendance Categories to the rest of your classes.
Press the Scale tab at the far left of the Class
Options menu. The Scale
menu looks like this.
1. The first think you should notice is that the Standard Scale may not include all the + and grades you usually use. Also, the F grade needs to be changed to an N grade for some high schools.
2. Changes can easily be done by simply highlighting the grade you wish to adjust A to A+, for example, then highlighting the number value and adjusting it as well 93 to 97 for an A+, for example.
3. When you have created the grade scale you usually use,
click on Done.
4. Go to Copying settings from one class to others to copy your Grade Scales to the rest of your classes.
1. You can copy your calendar and grade scale from one class to as many of your other classes as you like. To do this you use the other very important button on the Easy Grade Pro menu bar. It is found below and to the right of the Assign tab.
When you click this icon, you will see this menu.
1. Note that you should select (click on) the class you have been working on (Current) in the Class to Copy FROM menu.
2. Next, select the classes you want to copy your settings to in the Classes to Copy TO menu.
3. Finally, on the right, select what settings you wish to copy in this case, the Grade Scales and Calendar Settings.
4. When you have selected all the options you are copying,
click on Copy. Within
seconds, all selected classes share the copied settings.
Some teachers like to make test grades, for example, be a larger part of students grades than say, homework assignments. Easy Grade Pro allows teachers to do this.
1. Click on the Class Options icon.
3. You need to
click in the circle in front of Yes after Use Category Weights? at
the bottom of the menu to weight different types of assignments.
4. Note that you
can have up to 15 categories if you like, but the total of the weights must add
up to 100.
5. Once you decide
upon your weighting scale, you may wish to copy it to your other classes.
6. On the Copy Class Data menu, you will select Score Categories.
1. Click on the Student tab to access the student list for a class. You can also add students on the Attendance and Score pages.)
2. Click on the ADD STUDENT+ tab at the beginning of the list in a new class, or at the bottom of the list of an existing class. You will get the following menu...
3. Type in the Last and First names of the student along with some type of ID number. You can put in your own numbers like 1, 2, 3, etc. Or you might use the last three digits of students' actual ID numbers. You need some number in this field, so eventually you can choose to print student grades listed by sorted ID numbers - NOT by names.
4. You can fill in as many other types of information as you choose. Addresses are good to enter if you intend to print mailing labels.
5. Click Next Student and continue to list all students. When finished, click Done.
1. Click on the Assign. tab, then click on ADD ASSIGNMENT + to find the following menu...
2. Enter the Name of the assignment.
3. After Max. Score, enter the total number of points the assignment is worth.
4. The box after Points should remain at 100, which means 100%. In other words, in this assignment, 25 correct questions equals a 100% score. IF you are NOT using weighting categories, a higher number can be entered into the Points box. Entering 200 would double the worth of an assignment.
5. Be sure to click on the date the assignment is due.
6. In the Note box, you might consider listing the main standards the
assignment addresses. A Standards Addressed column can appear on Progress
Reports.
1. Each time you close your grade book, Easy Grade Pro asks if you want to save a copy. This does not have to be done every time.
2. When you do decide to save a copy, NEVER save your copy to the same location as your grade book - usually the H drive of your computer. This is done automatically for you each time you close the program.
3. Other places you can save copies to are: My Documents, a Floppy Disk, or your Desktop. No matter where you save copies of your grade book, be sure to include the date in the title of the copy. This makes it easy to choose the most recent version of your records.
4. If you are going to save copies of your grade book on your desktop, consider creating a folder on the desktop for this purpose. This will keep your copies in a single neat location instead of cluttering up your screen.
5. E-mail option: If you save a copy of your grade book on the desktop, it is easy to email it to yourself at home - perhaps the easiest way to transfer grades from work to home and back. To do this, simply right click on the copy of the grade book you want and select Send To and then Mail Recipient. An email window will appear with the grade book already attached. All you have to do is type in your email address and press Send.
6. When you open a copy of your grade book on your workstation computer and enter information, your official Easy Grade Pro grade book on your computer network will save the changes once you close it, even if you don't save a copy of the update. Go ahead, try it. Often that's the only way to trust that this works.
to be continued...
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Learners With Technology
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