If you run a Weekend School (or any school that doesn’t run the traditional 5-day Monday-thru-Friday schedule), you can use the “Edit Overall Settings” feature under “Settings” > “Turn Features On / Off” to configure your School Days in QuickSchools:
As mentioned on the screen, this setting currently only applies to Lesson plans, Attendance, and the Lunch Ordering App. If you have a specific module that you’d like this feature to include, please do let us know know:
School Days in Lesson Plans
Here’s an example screen from the “By Month” view of the Subject-Based Lesson Plans. Notice that it only shows the school days for Sunday and Saturday, as configured in the previous example:
For school administrators who are new to QuickSchools, there is an area under “Settings” that gives you access to features regardless of the subscription plan you’re on. This area can be accessed by clicking on “Edit Overall Settings”:
“Edit Overal Settings” from the “Features” page for Administrators
If you’re using the Master Scheduler in QuickSchools, the Alternate Bell Schedule can be used to reformat the main Bell Schedule into a weekly schedule. This includes displaying classes that meet at different times throughout the week. Here’s an example:
In this example, Math, Science and English meet 3 times a week, while the remaining classes meet only twice a week. In order to produce a weekly schedule like this, you’ll need to configure a main Bell Schedule that contains all distinct periods, in this case 7 classes that meet twice a week (designated as “A” periods), and 3 classes that meet 3 times a week (designated as “B” periods):
With the release of the new Assignments module (which is an improvement over the previous Homework module), we’ve expanded the flow for handling assignments over the portals in QuickSchools. Here’s a rough summary:
Posting Assignments
Teachers can now post assignments in real-time, or schedule an assignment to be published at a specific date / time in the future. This means that teachers can plan out and configure assignments for the entire academic term, and the system will publish them automatically:
Create Assignments in QuickSchools
When creating an assignment, teachers can specify if the assignment requires a submission, and whether the assignment will be graded. For graded assignments, a column in the Gradebook can be created and linked automatically.
Submitting Assignments
Students can very easily view all upcoming assignments. Assignments can be filtered by subject, and sorted by the column headers:
With 2021 now in full swing, it’s important to understand how teachers can utilize QuickSchools to communicate and engage with students effectively. Here we highlight a few sample scenarios, how teachers can communicate with students.
Group Discussion
Discussing Assignments
Private Messaging
Announcements
Group Discussion
The “Class Discussion” feature (part of the “Homework” and “Assignments” modules) is a great way to discuss topics online. Only students enrolled into the class are able to post messages for any given subject:
Post Messages to Students via Class Discussions
As a teacher, you can also post a new discussion thread to multiple subjects at the same time using the “Also post to subjects” box. Simply select one or more subjects from the dropdown:
We recently announced that QuickSchools now provides Single Sign-On (SSO) functionality via the SAML protocol. This means that for schools on the Google ecosystem, you can use Google SAML as the Identity Provider (IDP), and have it manage users centrally.
QuickSchools Single Sign-On (SSO) via Google SAML
The SSO functionality is still in Private Beta, but schools can start using it at their own discretion. You will need to have the District (or Group) School feature enabled, in order to use this feature. We are looking for feedback to make the experience better. For more information on the new SSO functionality, you can check out this article:
For Google SAML in particular, we’ve written up some quick notes on how to set it up (with screenshots and instructions). You can check it out on our support site here:
You can now set up categories within each student transcript, and the system will add up all credits for subjects with the category name in the subject name. For example, if you set up one of the category names as “Spanish” (example below), the system will find all courses with the keyword “Spanish” in the name (across all academic years), and will add up the credits for those courses:
Set up Categories and display Credits for each Category in the Transcripts
This setting is currently on a per student basis. This means that you can set up different categories for each student. But you do have to set up the categories for each student individually. The values can also be manually overwritten.
Tests & Assessments (Custom School Section)
The “Test & Assessments” section is what we call a Custom School Section. This means that you can use the “Customize Template” function to add rows to this table, and it will be applied to all student transcripts. This is useful for areas where all students need the same entries, but different scores/values for each entry:
In our last webinar, we went over how to customize beautiful Report Cards in QuickSchools. The Transcripts module is an extension of that framework, and can also be used to create professional-looking transcripts that convey your school’s brand and image.
Here are some highlights of the Transcripts module in QuickSchools:
Visually Intuitive (Add Semesters, and Grades)
Selection of Templates
Configurable (Relabel Fields and Enable Sections)
Customizable (Custom Sections and Calculations)
Powerful Administrative Features
Visually Intuitive Interface
Use the Transcripts menu to see how the transcripts look like BEFORE printing anything. You can make changes directly to the transcripts, by clicking on fields, and updating them. You can even hide subjects that you don’t need.
Selection of Templates
We have a library of templates to choose from depending on the type of school you run:
If you’re using standards / criteria in your Report Cards, then you know there are many ways to set up standards / criteria in QuickSchools, including via the Standards-Based Gradebook. But did you know you can standardize your report cards while allowing teachers to skip the gradebook and submit grades directly to the report cards? Here we discuss how you can use Standard Groupings (or Standard Set Groupings) to configure standards that appear in your report cards.
Edit Groupings for Standards to appear in Report Cards
REMINDER: If you’re thinking of using Standards in your QuickSchools Report Cards for the first time, be sure to select a Report Card Template that supports Standards.
Setting up Standards
Before you begin, you’ll need to install the Standards-Based Gradebook app. More details on setup can be found here:
It’s that time of year where you’re scrambling to send parents / students some information about their academic performance. In many cases, you can send home a report card via our Report Cards module. But if you’re looking for something quick and easy, you could optionally send a snapshot of the Gradebook, and use that as a Progress Report in QuickSchools.
Here’s how it works:
What is in the Progress Report
If enabled, Students and Parents can actually access grades from the Gradebook directly from their portal.
Only published and public information is available. So unpublished/hidden columns and subjects are invisible, as well as any Private Comments
If your gradebook has a published formula, the system will display a running calculation for that formula
Emailing Progress Reports
As an administrator, you can bulk email the current Progress Reports from the Gradebooks, from the main Students Listing. Simply select the students via the check boxes on the left, and select “Bulk Email Gradebook” from the table menu:
