Did you sign up for e-mail notifications using an AOL account?

Parents,

We seem to be narrowing down the "lost" e-mail notifications to mainly AOL users. At present, AOL seems to see the notifications as SPAM. You might want to go into your filter or call AOL to let them know you need to allow mail from the address powerschool.diometuchen.org or even diometuchen.org.

This should help with e-mail notifications.

As the end of this school year nears...

Parents,

During the third week of June all e-mail notifications and access to PowerSchool will be turned off for the summer. Access for parents will resume starting the first few days of school in September. The system is turned off for a good part of July to make adjustments and promote the students. Once those items are completed then the process of adding the students to the correct teachers and classes begins in August.

Have a wonderful summer with your family,
Sincerely,
Dr. Adele Ellis
Assistant Superintendent of Technology
Diocese of Metuchen

Would you like to have your child's assignments added to your Google calendar?

Parents,

Some of you want to use the iCal feature in PowerSchool to add assignments to a calendar. This system at present is not working effectively with Outlook calendar, however, there is a way to have it work with Google Calendar.

I've attached a link to a You Tube video that is a little more than 2 minutes long that shows and explains the process.

Watch the video from this web address:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyUPP5raFnQ or click here

Are you having a problem receiving your e-mail notifications?

Some parents have reported not receiving e-mail notifications recently. We are trying to find the problem. If you have received e-mail notices in the past and are not receiving them now, please e-mail me at aellis@diometuchen.org and let me know your child's name, school, and how frequently you were receiving the e-mails in the past.

Thank you as we try to work through this issue.

Adele Ellis

Did you know you can e-mail the teacher through PowerSchool?

Parents,

If you have a question or concern regarding your child's grades you can send an e-mail to the teacher through the PowerSchool program. Once you log onto your child's account, click on the blue name link under the course name. This will open Microsoft Outlook Word Editor to allow you to type an e-mail. Once you are done click send and the teacher will be able to respond to your e-mail.

If you do not see the teacher's name in a blue link under the course name, please contact the school.

Upgrade scheduled for March 31st

An important upgrade is set for Tuesday, March 31st at 3 pm. This upgrade will fix a few issues that are important in all areas of PowerSchool. For parents, this upgrade will allow you to see collected or checkmarks in your child's account as well as a late or missing icon if the teacher has assigned these symbols.

PowerSchool should be down no more than a few hours. If you try to sign on the program at any time after 3 pm and can not get on, please try again in an hour.

Coming Soon - Seeing checkmarks, late notices and missing on the parent side

Parents,

Teachers have had the ability all year to make little marks in the gradebook that they can see - a checkmark to let them know a student handed in an assignment (usually those not graded within a week), a small "L" icon that represents the assignment is late, and a small "M" icon that represents the assignment is "missing." Most of the time the teacher will contact you in another form since you are not able to see these items from the parent side, something that Pearson did not consider at the time they provided these tools. However, since many school districts requested this ability, Pearson will make an upgrade available within the next month to make these items visible to you.

I will post more information when I have a definite date. We are working to make this program work even better to keep you informed of your child's progress.

Have you seen what's available on the Diocesan Website?

Parents,

PowerSchool gives you information regarding your children's academic progress and attendance. Have you also had a chance to visit the diocesan website? On the schools section we have up-to-date information on What's new in our schools, school events, updated curriculum information, just as a start. Visit it often and bookmark the page - in the next several weeks there will be forms that you can download.

http://www.diometuchen.org/schools


What would you like to see there? Send me an email or comment on this post and let me know.

Dr. Adele Ellis
aellis@diometuchen.org

Access to Parent Portal may be suspended for some schools temporarily

Parents,

Some schools may suspend your access to PowerSchool for no more than one week while final grades and comments for the second quarter are calculated. If your school is one of them the school will let you know. Please rely on your child during this time period to bring home homework assignments and graded papers.

Parents - Please take our survey regarding the Diocesan website

Parents,

We have been updating the Diocesan Website to add content to bring up-to-date information to you and your families. Please visit the website and take the survey either on the PowerSchool School Bulletin or on the Parent Page of the Schools webpage.

Thank you for your feedback as we work to provide as much information as possible to affirm your choice to send your child to Catholic Schools.

Click on the title of this post to go to the diocesan website. Click here for the survey address: http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e2fxdhvgfq2hn4rw/start.

Thank you for your help - Happy Catholic Schools Week!

URGENT - A Necessary Upgrade for January 15-16, 2009

Parents,

I apologize for the short notice, however, we need to add an upgrade for the new teacher gradebook. The system will be done from just after midnight, today, January 15th to midday Friday, January 16th.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.