Teacher Portal Computer Services 2009-2010
The PowerTeacher Portal The PowerTeacher Portal gives Darlington County School District teachers access to a myriad of tools and information at their fingertips. It is like One Stop Shopping for accessing student information, taking attendance, accessing the teacher gradebook, an online tool for entering discipline, an online bulletin board, and a way to access and print student reports. To access PowerTeacher go the following website: https://powerschool.darlington.k12.sc.us/teachers Put in your username and password. This is the same username and password that you use daily to login to your computer (Novell login). Property of Darlington County School District Page 1
Navigating PowerTeacher Report Queue Help Logout before closing PowerTeacher Logo- Click on this to return to the main PowerTeacher page. School and Current Term Adjusts automatically at the beginning of each term Main Menu Click on the Chair icon to take attendance. You can only take attendance for classes that are in session that day. (i.e., A/B Schedule) Property of Darlington County School District Page 2
We will not be using the Utensil icon. Districts can use this to take daily lunch count. To access information about student demographic information or enter a discipline log, click on the Backpack. To view or print student reports, click on the Printer icon. Property of Darlington County School District Page 3
Personalizing PowerSchool You can change your password at any time. To change your password follow these steps. 1. Click Personalize on the main menu. 2. Select Change Password. 3. Enter the current password in the Old Password box. 4. Enter and confirm the new password. 5. Click on Submit. Property of Darlington County School District Page 4
Setting the Default Student Screen You can set the default student screen by following these steps. 1. Click Personalize on the main menu. 2. From the Personalize screen select Default Student Screen. 3. Choose a default student screen from the list. The student screen you select from the drop down list will be the first screen that appears when you open a student record. Property of Darlington County School District Page 5
Taking Attendance Make sure you are on the Start page. If not, you can click on the PowerTeacher logo or click Start Page on the Main Menu. To take attendance for a class click the Chair Icon next to that class. The Record Meeting Attendance page defaults to today s date. To mark a student absent 1. Choose Absent from the Current Attendance Code menu on the Attendance page. 2. Click the box next to an absent student s name. The code for the absence code will populate the box. Do this for each absent student. 3. To submit the attendance scroll down to the bottom of the attendance page and select Submit. Property of Darlington County School District Page 6
You can now see a green dot next to the class. This means you have taken attendance for this class. If no one is absent you still MUST take attendance. Click on the Chair icon next to the class. Scroll down to the bottom of the attendance screen and select Submit. You will see a green dot next to that class meaning attendance has been taken. Changing a Student s Attendance Your school s attendance policy will dictate what to do if a student comes to class late after you have already marked him absent. Make sure that you follow your school s policy when taking attendance or changing a student s attendance. Property of Darlington County School District Page 7
Submitting Lunch Counts At this time we will not be using the lunch program software option in PowerSchool. The Utensil icon next to your classes is where this could happen. Viewing Student Information Click the Backpack icon next to the class the student is enrolled in. The student navigation pane on the left shows the class roster. To access the default student information page for a student click on his/her last name. The screen that appears is the screen that you set as the default student screen. There are more than a dozen additional pages available if you need to locate additional information about a student. Property of Darlington County School District Page 8
To access additional information, go to the Select Screens drop down box. When student and parent access is made available you can check to see how often that a student and his parents have viewed those students records. To view that information you select the Net Access Summary screen. Meeting Attendance The Meeting Attendance page shows student s attendance record for the current term. This is a View Only screen. Days without a code indicate that a student was present. If the school is on an A/B schedule, a dot will appear on days when course is not is session. Dashes indicate holidays or any day that school is not in session. Term Grades The Term Grades page shows a student s end of term grades. These are historical grades, which means they have already been stored as part of his permanent record. To see the details of assignments and grades for a particular class, click the blue grade average next to that class. If the assignment title appears as an active link, click it to display a description of that assignment. Property of Darlington County School District Page 9
Cumulative Grade Information The look of this page will vary depending on the district setup. It will contain items such as the student s GPA and Cumulative Credit Hours. Making Course Recommendations To add a new recommendation for a student follow these steps. 1. Click the Backpack icon. 2. Select that student s name from the class roster. 3. From the student default screen select Recommendations from the Select Screen menu. 4. Click Create New Recommendation. 5. Enter the course number for the recommended course. If you are not sure what the entire course number is, begin typing in the recommended field and a menu of course numbers will appear. Select the correct course number. 6. Select the Scheduling Year to which the recommendation applies. Property of Darlington County School District Page 10
7. Enter a comment as to why the student should be allowed to request this course in the Comments field. 8. Click Submit to record this course recommendation. To view all the recommendations you have made for your students follow these steps. 1. Return to the PowerTeacher Start Page. 2. Click Recommendations. 3. By default the list of recommendations is stored by date. Submitting a Student Log Entry You can use this page to create a log entry for discipline or other antidotal information for a student. To submit a login entry, begin on the Start Page. 1. Click the Backpack icon next to the section that the student is enrolled in. 2. Click on the last name of the student In the Student Navigation pane. 3. Select Submit Log Entry from the Select Screens drop down list box. 4. Enter the subject and description and all other needed information. 5. Click Submit. This information will become part of the student s permanent record. When you submit it sends to PowerSchool and the assigned email recipients. Property of Darlington County School District Page 11
Three Ways to Print PowerSchool Reports Printing Reports for Individual Students 1. Begin on the Start page. 2. Click the Backpack icon next to the section in which the student is enrolled. 3. Example: If you want to print a form letter that contains the login information for a student s family to get into PowerSchool web access from home a. Select the student s last name. b. On student s default information page select Print a Report from the Screen select list. c. From the Print a Report page, select the type of report that you would like to print. d. Click Submit to View or Print the report. Printing a Report for an Entire Class 1. Begin on the Start page and click on the Printer icon next to the class. 2. Select the report type you want to print from the Print Class Report page. 3. Click Submit to run the report. If the status stills shows Running click Refresh next to My Jobs. 4. Click View to download the PDF. You can now View, Save, and Print the file. Property of Darlington County School District Page 12
Printing a Report for All Classes (All Sections You Teach) 1. Begin on the Start page and click Reports from the Main Menu. 2. On the Reports for All Students page, select the report you would like to print. 3. Click Submit to run the report. 4. If the status of your report indicates that it is still being run, click Refresh next to My Jobs. Once the report is ready, the status will change to Completed. 5. Click View to download the PDF. 6. You can now View, Save, and Print the file. Each class will appear on a separate page. Viewing the Daily Bulletin There is an online bulletin board available. It is a tool for administrators to post reminders, announcements to staff members, students and parents. Teachers can view the Daily Bulletin through PowerTeacher. How to View the Daily Bulletin To view the Daily Bulletin, click Daily Bulletin from the Main Menu. You can view bulletins for other dates by clicking the date links at the bottom to move forward or backwards through the page. There is an email link at bottom. You can click the email link to send an email to the administrator in charge of the daily bulletin to request an announcement be posted on the Daily Bulletin. Property of Darlington County School District Page 13
Staff Directory Teachers can access the staff directory through PowerTeacher. How to View the Staff Directory Click on Staff Directory on the main menu of the Start Page. Email addresses are clickable links making it possible to click on link to send an email to a staff member. You can filter to look for only teachers by clicking on the Teachers link at the top of the page. Group Email Scroll down to bottom to see an email listing of all staff in a group email box. If you want to send an email to all staff members you can copy and paste them into a mail message of your email client. Property of Darlington County School District Page 14