-----Original Message----- From: myschoolonline1 [mailto:myschoolonline1@send.fen.com] Sent: Friday, November 30, 2001 8:48 AM To: myschoolonline Subject: Best Practices Newsletter -- November 30, 2001 Best Practices Newsletter -- November 30, 2001 This biweekly newsletter offers practical tips, advice, and examples of how teachers are using Learning Network's MyGradeBook, Quiz Lab, and MySchoolOnline to integrate technology into their classrooms and motivate students. ***************************************************************** In This Issue: *Introducing the Best Practices Newsletter *Using Auto-Email in MyGradeBook *Importing a Class List into Quiz Lab *Ideas of the Month from MySchoolOnline *Specials for Teachers ***************************************************************** Introducing the Best Practices Newsletter One of the best features of my job is getting to meet some of you at conferences in different areas of the country. I enjoy talking to teachers and administrators and learning how you use our tools in your classrooms. I'm always surprised, however, by the number of you who use one of our products but don't know anything at all about the others. Others use only one small part of a tool and don't know how to turn on the rest of the special features built into the tool itself. That's the focus of this newsletter -- a risk-free chance for you to take a power-user look at how other teachers are integrating MyGradeBook, Quiz Lab, and MySchoolOnline into their regular classroom routines. Cheers! Pat O'Donnell Producer, Educator Applications Got a question or comment? Email me at teachertips@fen.com ***************************************************************** MyGradeBook: Notify Parents of New Grades A strategy for motivating students and engaging parents By collecting parent and student email addresses and adding them to your gradebook, you can easily let parents and students know when their grades have been updated. To make this task as simple as possible for you, we have provided a letter you can send out to parents, letting them know that their child's grades are now online and requesting their email addresses. You can find this letter under the Reports tab. Once you collect these email addresses, simply enter them in the Student tab, under Passwords and Contact Information. When you want to be sure that parents know new grades have been posted, you can send an email with a direct link to their child's grading summary as you log off. You can also use the email addresses to send other messages to parents and/or students. For example, talk one-on-one with a parent, let the whole class know that field-trip slips are due on Friday, or give your kids a heads-up about an upcoming quiz on Wednesday. To send emails, select the Toolkit tab and then select the class and the group of people you want to email. Enter your subject line and message on the following screen. To learn more about MyGradeBook, take our new tour. <a href="http://send.familyeducation.com:9956/T/A2.101.2894.1.1684632"> http://send.familyeducation.com:9956/T/A2.101.2894.1.1684632 </a> ***************************************************************** Quiz Lab: Import a Class List Quiz Lab users have asked for this for a long time and now it's ready! Save time and simplify things by importing a class list directly into your QL Pro class. It's quick and easy to do. With this added feature, you may want to use the verified name and password login to keep your quizzes and gradebook more secure. Log in to your Quiz Lab account and select a class with no class list. Click on the List of Students link in the Classroom section. At the top of this screen, click on the link to Import Class List. You'll see some basic directions to set up your class list. Create or open a list of your students in a word document. Make sure you only list one student's name on each line. Add Student Email and Parent Email addresses if you know them and want to email directly to either of these groups. Use commas to separate these pieces of information. When your list is ready, highlight and copy it, then paste the list into the blank text box. Click the Import Student List button at the bottom of the page. ***************************************************************** MySchoolOnline: Making the Home-School Link ***************************************************************** Many of our MSO subscribers can be classified as casual users. They have a welcome page and links to some Content Connection features or articles. They rarely use the other ready-to-use templates listed on their main menu. But others, like Mrs. Mathews of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, use all of the special features in their websites: the class calendar, weekly assignments, student showcase, and more. Mrs. Mathews uses her site to keep her fifth grade class organized and on target. She posts assignments and lists special events on the Class Calendar and Weekly Assignment page. She created an Advanced Page to list her monthly book report themes for the entire school year so students and parents can plan well in advance. Linking her classroom to the community is also an important part of this site. Mrs. Mathews highlights Thanksgiving projects and activities in the Student Showcase. Another page gives us a quick look at parents and kids interacting during last month's Family Focus Day. Links to educational games and sites for students and tips for parents round out the site. Take the time to visit and collect some great ideas for your own website. <a href="http://send.familyeducation.com:9956/T/A2.101.2894.2.1684632"> http://send.familyeducation.com:9956/T/A2.101.2894.2.1684632 </a> *Using MSO Templates There are six templates built into the MSO web-building tool Welcome Page Events Calendar Homework Assignments Student Showcase Class Newsletter Helpful Links Each of the templates does all the formatting and coding for you. You simply key in the text you want displayed on the page and add images with a few clicks of the mouse. Click Save and Publish and you're done. Learn more in the online tutorial on templates -- <a href="http://send.familyeducation.com:9956/T/A2.101.2894.3.1684632"> http://send.familyeducation.com:9956/T/A2.101.2894.3.1684632 </a> *Adding Backgrounds to Your Site Some of our teacher websites are full of images and magical, floating cursors that enchant us and bring smiles to our faces. Adding these to a page requires knowing just a small amount of HyperText Markup Language (HTML) or finding the right script to paste into the source code. Here's where you can find more help on these topics: Backgrounds <a href="http://send.familyeducation.com:9956/T/A2.101.2894.4.1684632"> http://send.familyeducation.com:9956/T/A2.101.2894.4.1684632 </a> Cursor Images <a href="http://send.familyeducation.com:9956/T/A2.101.2894.5.1684632"> http://send.familyeducation.com:9956/T/A2.101.2894.5.1684632 </a> Falling Images <a href="http://send.familyeducation.com:9956/T/A2.101.2894.6.1684632"> http://send.familyeducation.com:9956/T/A2.101.2894.6.1684632 </a> ***************************************************************** Specials for Teachers *Free Software Check out this free software offer! Find titles such as Carmen Sandiego, Compton's 3D World Atlas, Reader Rabbit, and more. You pay only shipping and handling. This is an excellent way to build up your classroom software library. <a href="http://send.familyeducation.com:9956/T/A2.101.2894.7.1684632"> http://send.familyeducation.com:9956/T/A2.101.2894.7.1684632 </a> *Win a Holiday Shopping Spree on School Cash! Enter to win gifts from over 250 merchants like JC Penney, Sharper Image, KB Kids, Land’s End, and OfficeMax. Win for you, your family, and your school. We’re giving away over $18,000 in prizes! <a href="http://send.familyeducation.com:9956/T/A2.101.2894.8.1684632"> http://send.familyeducation.com:9956/T/A2.101.2894.8.1684632 </a> To unsubscribe from this newsletter, please email teachertips@fen.com and write "unsubscribe" in the subject line. Please note that it may take a couple of weeks before you are removed from the mailing list.
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