Teacherplus portal user guide (august 27 2013)

Complete School Management

Getting Started with TeacherPlus Portal


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Contents An Overview of TeacherPlus ...........................................................................................................................2

What is TeacherPlus? .............................................................................................................................................2

Logging in to the TeacherPlus Portal ......................................................................................................................2

Accessing Class Pages and Gradebooks ..................................................................................................................4

Viewing School Information and Announcements Quickly ....................................................................................4

Customizing the Class Page ............................................................................................................................5

Adding a Class Summary.........................................................................................................................................6

Viewing Class Announcements ...............................................................................................................................7

Posting Class Announcements for Parents and/or Students .................................................................................7

Adding Class Files and Links ....................................................................................................................................8

Managing a Class through the Class Navigation Menu ..........................................................................................9

Viewing and Editing Calendar Events ............................................................................................................ 12

Viewing Calendar Events ..................................................................................................................................... 12

Adding Calendar Events ....................................................................................................................................... 12

Managing Existing Calendar Events ..................................................................................................................... 13

Sending Messages to Parents and Students .................................................................................................. 14

Viewing Student Homework through E-Locker .............................................................................................. 15

Viewing Staff and Parents Directory ............................................................................................................. 16


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An Overview of TeacherPlus

What is TeacherPlus?

TeacherPlus is your primary access point as a teacher to have everything you need. A big part of TeacherPlus is the TeacherPlus Gradebook. By logging in to TeacherPlus, you gain direct access to your Gradebook for grading and taking attendance without needing to log in again. You can also manage your class pages by adding homework, class resources, and class announcements. Easily view students’ progress and other information. When you log in, everything is readily accessible, which you will see in this guide.

Logging in to the TeacherPlus Portal

Your school was provided a login. Just access your school’s link, which looks something like this: https://www.plusportals.com/SchoolName

Once you are on the portal, log in with your existing TeacherPlus Gradebook username and password. The logins for Gradebook and the Portal are the same for your convenience.

Note: If you ever lose your password and have trouble accessing your account, click the Can’t access your account? link on the login page to recover the password.

https://www.plusportals.com/SchoolName


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When you log in, you will be able to:

View your classes Directly access your gradebook View school announcements View school notifications and alerts View school resources (links and files)

View school calendar and events Send messages to classes Send e-mails to classes (available 8/30) Access students’ submitted homework View school directory and more

Note: You can return to the above Home page at any point by clicking Home on the main navigation menu.


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Accessing Class Pages and Gradebooks

You can quickly access all of your classes and their gradebooks from the Home page.

1. Click a class title (e.g.: Homeroom) to access its class page. 2. Click the Gradebook link under a class to access its gradebook. Gradebook appears on a new browser

window, automatically logging you in and listing the gradebook for the class you chose.

Note: Clicking the top Gradebook link on the main navigation menu also takes you to Gradebook, displaying the gradebook for the first class by default.

Viewing School Information and Announcements Quickly

In the Home panel, located at the bottom of the Home page, you can briefly access the following types of information the school has shared with staff members:

• Notifications & Alerts: Stay updated on alerts such as snow days. • School Announcements: Be notified of school events and other day-to-day announcements. • Calendar: Get a glimpse of upcoming school events. • School Links And Files: View files and links the school has shared with staff.


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Customizing the Class Page The class page is a structured page that allows you to communicate effectively with parents and students. On the main page, you can edit your class summary, assign homework, post announcements, and share links and files with the parents and students of your class:


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Adding a Class Summary

1. To post a summary of your class, click Edit (located at the upper-right corner of the Class Summary panel). You can take advantage of the text editor when editing the class summary to expedite formatting and add photos.

2. Click Save when you have finished editing the class summary to save your changes.

Note: The Class Summary panel is the first area parents and students will see when they access the class page. Adding and Editing Homework Assignments

1. To post and share homework, click Add New at the upper-right corner of the Homework panel. You can select a due date and even attach a file for parents and/or students to access:

2. Click Save to complete creating the assignment. The assignment is now listed in the Homework panel. 3. To edit or delete an existing homework assignment, click Edit or Delete to the right of the assignment:


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Viewing Class Announcements

1. Use the Announcements panel on the main page of a class to view announcements for that class:

2. Click the blue list icon beside each announcement to view details about it. The Announcement Details dialog box appears, listing further information about the announcement.

Posting Class Announcements for Parents and/or Students

1. Click Announcements on the class navigation menu:

2. Choose a type of announcement (Class Announcements, Class Notifications, or Class Alerts), and click Add New at the upper-right corner of the announcement panel. The New Announcement dialog box appears:


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3. Edit the announcement’s title, description, and date, choose whether or not the announcement is visible to parents and/or students, and select the class or classes to which the announcement applies.

4. Click Publish to post the announcement.

Adding Class Files and Links

1. Use the Links and Files panels to post any class-related files or links you want to share with students and parents on your class page:

2. To post a link for a class, click Add New at the upper-right corner of the Links panel. The New Link dialog box appears:

3. Enter the link’s description, name, and URL, and click Save. Your new link is added to the Links panel. 4. To add a file, click Add New at the upper-right corner of the Files panel. The New File dialog box appears:

5. Enter the file’s description, click Choose File to attach the file, and click Save. Your new file appears in the Files panel.


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Note: Class links and files are immediately visible to both parents and students.

Managing a Class through the Class Navigation Menu

The class navigation menu has all the tools you need to manage your class:

Class Home: Post your class summary, homework, announcements, and resources.

Class Progress (Coming Soon): View graphs, charts, and analyses of students in your classroom.

Class Students: Select any of your students to view information about him or her, including his or her demographics, recent grades, progress, attendance, and discipline:


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Class Attendance: View absence and tardy totals for your class. See attendance trends by date as well as by month:

Class Scores: View assignment scores, individual student scores (with annotations), and missing work information (also with annotations). All information conveniently comes from Gradebook:


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Class Homework: Access the homework assignments students have submitted via Homework Hand-in in their E-Locker. Whenever you create a homework assignment, that assignment appears on the Homework drop-down menu. Just select an assignment from the list to see what students have submitted!

Class Announcements: Manage all of your class announcements as well as edit or delete them. Any announcements you create appear on the main class page.

Class Resources: Add links and files to a class. The class links and files are shown on the main class page.

Viewing: Switch easily between classes by clicking the Viewing drop-down menu:


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Viewing and Editing Calendar Events On the Calendar page, you can quickly view, post, and edit events for your classes.

Viewing Calendar Events

1. Click Calendar on the main navigation menu. The Calendar page appears.

2. On the Calendar page, click an event to view details about it:

Note: Events colored in blue indicate those events that have been published by the school, whereas events in orange signify the events created by teachers.

Adding Calendar Events

1. Click New Event on the Calendar page. The Calendar Event dialog box appears.

2. Enter the event’s title, summary, location, time, choose whether or not the event is visible to parents and/or students, and select to which classes the event applies:


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3. Click Publish to publicize the event.

Managing Existing Calendar Events

1. On the Calendar page, click Manage Events. 2. Click Edit to edit an existing event or Delete to delete an event:


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Sending Messages to Parents and Students You can send messages to parents and students within the Portal. This feature is especially useful if your students do not have e-mail addresses. The E-Mail feature (coming soon) will allow you to send e-mails to parents and students in your classes.

1. Click E-Mail and Messages on the main navigation menu. The E-Mail and Messages page appears. 2. Click the Messages tab. 3. Click New Message. The New Message dialog box appears:

4. Enter the message’s subject, details, select whether or not to send the message to the student and/or parent, and select a class section or specific student.

5. Click Send when you are finished. Your message has been sent!


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Viewing Student Homework through E-Locker Viewing homework assignments your students have submitted is as simple as accessing the E-Locker page, where you can quickly access any submitted assignments for any class.

1. Click E-Locker on the main navigation menu. The E-Locker page is displayed. 2. Click the Homework Hand-in tab:

3. Select a class from the Class drop-down menu, and select a homework assignment for that class from the Homework drop-down menu. A list of student submissions for the homework assignment appears.

Note: The E-Portfolio feature (coming soon) will allow you to view or upload items into your own staff portfolio. For example, these items may include your awards and professional certifications, which are shared with the school. The school will also be able to share files with you (e.g.: recommendation letters, teacher evaluations, and teacher discipline letters).


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Viewing Staff and Parents Directory If enabled by your school, you can quickly view a directory of staff and/or parents on the Directory page.

1. Click Directory on the main navigation menu. The Directory page appears. 2. Click Staff Directory or Parents Directory, depending on which directory you wish to access:

3. To find a specific staff member or parent, type his or her name in the search bar, and click Search. 4. To obtain a list of staff members or parents by their last name, click a letter on Search by Alphabet.

Documents

Teacherplus portal user guide (august 27 2013)