Subject-Based Lesson Plans App
In QuickSchools we have two different options when it comes to Lesson Plans tracking.
The newer version is our Subject-Based Lesson Plans app which allows you to create lesson plans that are directly linked to subjects. Our normal Lesson Plans under the Athena plan allows you to create Lesson Plan Sets, which can be applied to multiple subjects across different semesters.
To learn more about the differences to find out which is best for you, check out the table below:
| Lesson Plan (Athena Plan) | Subject-Based Lesson Plans (App) |
| You have to create a Lesson Plan Set first, and then apply it to a subject. You can re-apply the same lesson plan set to multiple subjects across different academic terms. | You simply select a subject, and the Lesson Plan Set is already created. When you select a different subject, you get a different Lesson Plan Set. |
| When you move to a new academic term/year, you can re-use the same Lesson Plan Set, and apply it to the new subject. | When you move to a new academic term/year, the old Lesson Plans are automatically archived, and you get a new (empty) Lesson Plan Set for the new term (similar to getting a new Gradebook for every term). |
| Lesson Plan Sets are always private, and are not shared with parents / students (EXCEPT when you post homework assignments to the Homework module) | Lesson Plans can be shared with parents / students (just like Gradebook and Homework can be shared with parents and students) |
New Release: Sprint E19
Here’s a list of the latest improvements in QuickSchools:
- Google Classroom Framework Improvements
- Ability to auto-map students and teachers
- General bug fixes
- Gradebook Improvements
- Relabel configuration elements
- Bug fix when admin access is removed from teachers
- Bug fix for Submit Grades
- Bug fix for alternating colors
- Mobile API Support for Homework and Attendance Notifications
- Miscellaneous Bug Fixes / Improvements
- Option to show running GPA in Parent Portal (Beta)
- Bug Fixes and Improvements for WYSIWYG Editor (Beta)
- Bug fix on Posting Homework to Subject
- Center the Period Name in Simplified Scheduling
- Show Subject Abbreviation in Dropdown for Subject-Based Report Cards
- Remove Save Button for Online Forms Tab for Student
- Fix Status for Parent Portal Invite
- Fix support for Pre-Enrolled Students in Messaging module
- Fix to enable paid messaging when credit is purchased for new accounts
This Sprint has mainly been focusing on bug fixes and minor improvements. The WYSIWYG Editor in the E-Mail Messaging module has been improved greatly since the last Sprint. And the Google Classroom app is also developing nicely. In the upcoming Sprint E20, we are working on several more substantial improvements related to the Attendance module. Stay tuned for those.
Google Classroom Integration
After several months of work, we now have a working integration app with Google Classroom. This is currently still an early Beta version, but the app is able to pull data from Google Classroom to your QuickSchools Gradebook.
Some things to note about this app (as it currently works):
- The app cannot EXPORT the roster. App assumes that you have already created student, teachers and courses in Google Classroom.
- However, once students, teachers and courses and mapped, when Synchronizing the Gradebook, the roster will be pulled into QuickSchools. This means that if a student gets enrolled into a course, you can invite the student in Google Classroom, and the student will be automatically enrolled into the mapped subject in QuickSchools when the Gradebooks are synchronized.
- Currently, the app does not support mapping of Mark Categories from Google Classroom. The API is not yet available, but when it does, we will be mapping and pulling this data as well.
- The app assumes a SINGLE Google Classroom account for the entire school. This means that teachers cannot use their own Google Account to map data. But with a single school-wide Google Classroom account, you can still map individual courses to specific teachers.
See you in Albany!
QuickSchools will be exhibiting at the 35th Annual Religious and Independent Schools Educators Conference in Albany, hosted by the New York State Coalition for Independent and Religious Schools (NYSCIRS). Conference runs on November 4 and 5 at the Albany Marriott Hotel. If you are in the area, or would like to have some face time with live folks, please drop by our booth, or let us know via email / chat.
For those of you in Louisville KY, we’ll be heading there next on Nov 7 – 8 for the 2019 Annual Conference hosted by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States (ISACS). Hope to see you guys there!
New Sign-In/Out App Reports
The Sign-Out/In App is a popular app in the QuickSchools app store. Schools use this app to handle many different needs such as tracking when parents drop off and pick up their students, tracking what time students enter and leave after school programs and activities, etc.
We recently added a few new reports to this app to help see your data in different ways. Once the app is installed you will see the reports under the Summary Reports tab:
Copy Schedule when Activating a New Term
Academic terms in QuickSchools are self-contained or designed to work independently of one another. When you edit/create subjects and enrollments in one semester, it does not affect other semesters within your account.
We understand that recreating all school data from scratch whenever a new term is created would be troublesome. So when you do activate a new academic term, you have the option of copying data to the new academic term, based on the previously active academic term. Aside from subjects and enrollments, a new copy of the schedule can also be created upon the activation of the new term. This simplifies the process of schools that have the same schedule throughout the year, and provides a starting point if you need to make scheduling changes that do not affect previous terms.
Here’s how to copy the schedule to the next term.
- Make sure that the source schedule is active.
- Activate the new term via New Semester Setup > View All Semesters
- Select ‘Yes, copy info’. The system will copy the setup of the previous term along with the schedule.
New Release: Sprint E18
Happy Thanksgiving to our customers in Canada!
Here’s a list of the latest improvements in QuickSchools:
- Google Classroom Framework Improvements (Beta)
- Messaging
- WYSIWYG Editor for Email Messaging (Beta) – See Below
- Exclude inactive students from dropdown
- Gradebook Improvements
- Option to Drop Lowest Grade – See Below
- Copy Locked Column when activating new academic term
- Gradebook Importer now handles duplicate Final Grade columns
- Fee Tracking
- Auto-Allocate by Date
- Mass Auto-Allocate
- Lesson Plans by Subject
- Can post Homework Assignments via the “By Month” screen
- Report Creator support for Lesson Plan fields
- Simplified Scheduling – See Below
- Option to rename Periods
- New menu to display schedules by Grade Level
- Display Subject Code / Abbreviation in Schedule tab
- Miscellaneous Bug Fixes / Improvements
- Typo in Axiom Integration File Name
- Sort students alphabetically in Private Messaging
- Properly delete related admissions record when student is permanently deleted
- Move custom fields to the left in Discipline Module
- Clean up labelling support for Discipline module
- Bug fix for Alternate Homeroom Teachers, where teacher is both Homeroom Teacher and Alternate Homeroom Teacher
WYSIWYG Editor for Email Messaging (BETA)
This is a highly requested feature, so we thought we’d release an early BETA version, for those interested to use it right away. There are still a few kinks in the system, and we’ll be solidifying this module in the next Sprint:
If you’d like to try out this new WYSIWYG Editor, please make a request to our support personnel, and we’ll turn it on for you. We’re looking for feedback to improve it. This feature will eventually be enabled for all schools, once it’s deemed stable for general use. So stay tuned!
Gradebook Option to Drop Lowest Grade
We have a new feature that will allow teachers to automatically exclude the lowest grade for any Gradebook Category. To allow teachers to use this feature, the School Admin will need to turn it on by configuring the “Gradebook / Report Cards” module, under “Setting” > “Turn Features On / Off”:
Once enabled, teachers will see a new section to allow the lowest grade for any selected Gradebook Category to be automatically excluded. The lowest grade for each category will appear in grey:
Read more…
