Anybody have Power School at their kiddos' schools? We've just moved up to where it starts, with DS11(!) in MS.

I'm beginning to think it should come with instructions not to log in until after the first six weeks, or maybe the first quarter.

I've been checking it regularly, and I keep panicking because DS shows a D grade in some class, which at this point in the year is, of course, because he hasn't turned something in yet. One from yesterday, I emailed the teacher to ask why, and it turned out he hadn't put his name on his paper. So he went from a 100/A+ to a 69/D+ to a 96/A, in three days. And now he's got a 63/D in another class, which is undoubtedly the same thing.

I think perhaps one should wait until there are sufficient grades in the system so that one assignment doesn't foul the whole barrel.

Yeah-- this is how DD's school system operates. It's really hair-raising for about the first six weeks. It's horrible for perfectionistic kids, because the secondary students have continuous, real-time access to their scores.

We have an online database we can access that lets us see our kids attendance in each class, homework assignments and all grades that have been entered into the system... as well as DPS/PRS (demerits and positive behavior points). I am a big fan. You get used to seeing the grades fluctuate wildly sometimes the first few days/weeks of a 6-week period.

The gifted ed teacher announced at the start of the year that she'll put up grades halfway through the quarter, and again at the end, because she knows she's dealing with perfectionists.

I do like being able to know when my kid is flaking, not filling out his planner, or just forgetting to turn things in.

DeeDee

I was under the impression that assignments would show up in Power School, but apparently it's only attendance and grades. It would be ever so much more useful if it had assignments and when they were due. My kid flakes pretty much constantly!

And (yes, I went back again, sigh) that 63/D grade is already back to an A again, by the end of the day. Hair-raising, indeed!

Power School is like perfectionists' crack.

rofl

QFT. Allowing students to access this continuously is one of the worst ideas ever with GT kids. Seriously.

The only thing worse is making 70-90% of a student's grade summative assessments, multiple choice and autograded for a little all-or-nothing action on top of the instant gratification/punishment. Better still if you never have subject experts have anything to do with assessments so that the level of questions and their intent relative to the curriculum jumps all over the place, too.







Heyyyyyyyyyy....

That is what Connections DOES do. HA. I'd laugh along with f&jmom, but honestly, I have spent too many years wanting to cry along with my DD over it.

DD's school has some kind of thing like this and I have intentionally never logged in.

We're new to powerschool this year as well. At the "Navigating The Middle School Experience" event our school held for parents the first week of school, the principal basically told parents not to get obsessed with Powerschool and that we'd be best off signing up for weekly emails and not checking daily!

I do believe there's a way to see assigments -- I think it's embedded in the My Calendars section -- but I haven't played around with it yet. I'm trying to control my obsessive nature.