By this time, parents have had a chance to receive their credentials at Open House, to create an account with Illuminate Home Connection. This is the portal that both parents can use to stay in touch with what is happening with their child. It is the same URL as the scholars use, catalystschools.illuminatehc.com.
For the scholars, a reminder, that their Username is their ID# which should begin with either a 4 or 5 (It is the same number that is in Illuminate). Their password can be set by teachers. For the older scholars, they should be using their 8 digit birthdate. For the younger scholars, teachers can choose to use a simple word as to help make the log in more efficient and quicker. As teachers, you have control over the passwords so that you can reset quickly for scholars that have forgotten their passwords. The instructions for managing passwords, resetting or creating is here. Of course, the scholars now can not only take an assessment within the portal, they can access their schedule, grades, gradebooks and attendance information within the portal. If you haven't seen the scholar portal, you can take a look at what the scholars see on the student profile page within Illuminate. If you scroll down, there is a window that shows you that specific scholar's portal. So if you want to check how something looks within the portal, that is an option.
The parent portal looks just like the above picture. If the parent has more than one child in our system, they will have the ability to click the drop down menu on the scholar name and toggle between their children. If you would like to see what options the parents have when in their portal, you can read about them here.
There are a few items that we have not yet "turned on" including the messaging feature. We will roll that out at a later date as we wanted to get started with some of the basics before we add some of the advanced features. Because parents now have the opportunity to see gradebooks, it is important to make sure that you keep them updated, pay close attention to the due dates (assignment doesn't count for or against until the due date hits). Also use the X to exempt scholars. Remember a missing assignment will default automatically to a zero and count against the scholar. Check earlier blog posts for detailed instructions on how to customize the gradebook.
The Call Log/Notes that are available in each one of your gradebook is where you should be logging parent calls and communications about grades and academic items. That call log/notes can either be private (only you) or public (you and any teacher you share your gradebook with). These notes or call logs do NOT end up on the parent or scholar portal.
Also, remember, if you want to make a call home on a behavior of a scholar, log that into the behavior comment section. You should have a tile on your Illuminate page to take you directly to the behavior comment area. If the behavior is something that warrants an incident report, use the tile on your page to enter a minor incident form per your Dean Team instructions.
Information that has been given to parents include:
For parents who are trying to download the Home Connection App, we have had some people who cannot find it in their app store. If that happens, they should check with their service provider to see if there is a limitation on their app store. If parents need help with this process, they should visit their main office to get their access code or assistance.
Lastly, there is an app for teachers to use. It is limited as to what it can do but you could give it a try. IE Educator is the app that you can download in the App store (either iTunes or Google Play)
Have a great Week 4!!