Franklin Township Professional Development October 12, 2009

Overview  Today’s Training How do we enter the student’s level of progress in Genesis for the new Report Card?  “Nuts and Bolts” Session

Wasn’t there training already provided for posting grades in Genesis?  There was a brief training in Spring  Training was geared toward communicating assignments to parents.  This training is geared toward reporting achievement to parents.

What are we using Genesis for?  Teachers are already using Genesis for attendance and for obtaining information about students.  We will now be using Genesis to populate the report card.

Are we using Genesis as a grade book?  No.  Due to the new grading key for the report card, we will not be using the built-in grading system to generate a numeric grade.

So Genesis is not being used for grading? NNo, it is being used as a tool to report achievement. IIt is a tool to help report achievement!

Who will enter the student’s level of progress?  Homeroom teachers will be responsible for entering the student’s level of progress for the marking period of the subjects they teach.  Specialists will be responsible for entering the student’s level of progress for the subjects they teach.  If there is an area that more than one teacher handles (i.e. academic support, media specialist, etc.), the homeroom teacher will enter the student’s level of progress after the teachers collaborate.

Login into the Genesis Test Page  Login to the network and open Internet Explorer.  At the Franklin Township Home Page, look at the Shortcuts on the left side. You will see “Genesis Test Environment” at the bottom. Please click on this.  Login to Genesis with your normal Genesis login.  Please notice that you are now in the Genesis Test Database.

How do I enter the student’s level of progress ?  Click on the “Elem Grading” tab.  Next, click on the “Post Grades” tab.

Post Grades Screen

Please note…  The previous slide shows the homeroom teacher’s page first.  If you are a specialist, your screen will look different and will be discussed shortly.

Where should I click?  Look to the right of the screen.  In the grades column, click the “book” icon for the first student.  Don’t click on the student’s number. This will bring up student information instead of a place to enter the student’s level of progess.

Student Grade Page - Homeroom

Items to look for…  Please notice that there are dropdowns for each of the sections of the new report card.  There is a smaller dropdown for each of the headings. This is because there is no information in these dropdown as there is no level of progress given for the whole subject.  If you will not enter grades for that subject (i.e. art, computers, etc.), you will not see that subject.

What is in the dropdown list?  The dropdown list contains the codes that will be used on the report card.  These codes are: ES – Exceeding Grade Level Standards MS – Meeting Grade Level Standards AS – Approaches Grade Level Standards NS – Not Meeting Grade Level Standards “-” – Not Covered at this Grade Level / During this Marking Period  You cannot free type these grades.

Can I leave a section blank?  No.  Please make sure that you fill in every dropdown box that you have!

After updating the dropdowns…  You will need to click “save” at the bottom of the page.  Before you do, please keep in mind:  If you want to go to the comments section for the same student, have the radio button for “next tab” highlighted.  If you want to just enter grades in for all students and enter comments later, have the radio button for “next student” highlighted.

Save section of screen

Can I see the student’s level of progress from last marking period?  Click on “preview report card” or select the marking period to look at.  These sections will be read only. You will not be able to change or update the student’s level of progress from other marking periods once grading is closed for that particular marking period.

Where to click to see the report card

Now…  for the specialists grade page.

Student Grade Page for Specialists

Items to look for…  The students do not pop up automatically.  This is because specialists will have many different classes.  Need to use the dropdown section to load in the homeroom teacher.

Dropdown for teacher list

After teacher is selected…  Click on the book in the grades column.  This will allow you to enter the student’s level of progress that you are responsible for.

IMPORTANT NOTE!  You will notice that the dropdown box is bigger for the subject area for the specialists. This is a glitch that is being addressed.  Any level of progress placed in this box will not transfer to the report card.  Only levels of progress in the skills section will transfer!

After updating the dropdowns…  You will need to click “save” at the bottom of the page.  Before you do, please keep in mind:  If you want to go to the comments section for the same student, have the radio button for “next tab” highlighted.  If you want to just enter grades in for all students and enter comments later, have the radio button for “next student” highlighted.

What about the comments?

For Homeroom Teachers and Specialists  In order to enter comments, please click on the paper in the “comments” section.  A free type box will appear for you to type in.

How will I know who made the comment?  Your comments will automatically list the person making the comment at the beginning of your statement (i.e. Smith, John and then the comments).  This will allow the user to know who is making the comment.  If you collaborate on a grade, please mark the comments for the person with their name. The system will automatically assume it is you. (Example, collaborating with Academic Support)

How do I enter comments on the back of the report card?  The comments key that is in the top right of the back of the report card will need to be free typed in the box as well. There is not a dropdown for the back of the report card.

Comments Key  Exceeds grade level expectations/benchmarks  Uses strategies independently  Uses strategies with guidance from the teacher  Requires direct and frequent support  Not currently demonstrating this behavior and/or skills

A Suggestion to Copy and Paste from Word  This is only a suggestion.  It is suggested that you type and save your comments is Microsoft Word.  If Genesis is not accessible, you can still access your comments to edit, etc.  This will limit the time you spend in Genesis.  You can free type into Genesis rather that using Word. Again, this is just a suggestion!

You will notice a private comments section

Do not use this section!

Private Comments  If you have private comments to make, keep them off of the system.  You can save them on a flash drive, take notes in a notebook, etc.  Do not use this section!

Conferences Section  At this time, you do not need to be concerned with this tab.

When can I enter the levels of progress ?  The first marking period will end on Monday, November 2,  Marking period 1 will be open for data entry from November 2 – November 12, 2009.

Who will print the report cards?  The clerical staff at each building will print the report cards.

Review of Today’s Training  Only to be used to enter end of marking period levels of progress.  Not to be used as a grade book.  Genesis used as a tool to populate the new report card which, in turn, will report achievement.

Franklin Township Professional Development October 12, 2009 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.