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Re: Infinite Campus grade book
Posted by ufbdifs on 10/25/08

I think our school probably chose IC because it is cheap. I suspect
that Power School is cheap also - a lot of schools around here have
that also. When things are cheap and not good, they can't expect good
word of mouth advertising.
At our school they keep giving instructions on how to use it. For
example the last thing they told us (we had another faculty meeting
where we went through this with step-by-step instructions by a teacher
who loves the program) was how to move grades from first quarter to
second quarter. Here is what you do (pretty close to what I can remember).
Go to Lesson Planner.
It will list
"+ Term F2ndqtr Fall First Quarter,"
"+ Daily Work" (for mine and for others whatever categories they
named), etc.
Click on the plus sign and it will open up, listing all the daily work
names with folders.
Then click on any one of the assignment names and an Assign.Detail
window opens where you can again click to open a list box and choose
"Term F3rd qtr Fall Second Quarter."
Now you MUST click the tiny "Save" button. I have done it hundreds of
times and I still find myself looking for that little button. But
you'll want to click that button. It would seem that you don't have to
because it allows you to click the next daily work assignment and just
displays a msg.box kind of asking if you want to save. The msg.box
only has one option - "ok." When you click the "ok" button you might
think it saved for you, but it doesn't. You have to go find that tiny
save button and save by clicking that. I learned this the hard way by
doing all 39 daily work assigns and then going to my gradebook to find
only four assigns were moved to 2nd quarter. I should have known -
stupid me. If it only has one option, then obviously there must be
another step. After redoing the transfers I discovered that you can
tell if an assignment moved because it disappears from the "+ Term
F2ndqtr Fall First Quarter," list.
There is one good thing about IC. I think it puts in your id so when
you log in by habit, you always just put in your password. I hate
those internet programs that USUALLY automatically put in your user id,
but not always. The few times they don't, what do we automatically do?
Yes, we enter our password in plain site in the user id input box - in
plain site for all savy users on the internet to see. That is probably
their intention - they know eventually all the passwords will be recorded.
I guess those are the ones that might pose as a parent and call my
principal. Yeah, and I would not be surprised if the programmers of IC
might not be all that morally good. I suspect they could possibly be
more of the social genius types, spreading all of their diseases, using
street smarts on all of us “Joe Plummers,” etc. They might know enough
programming to just make money from education for themselves. I really
don’t know, but it is actually a concern. Hopefully it is just that it
is a cheap program and no more than that.

On 2/25/08, Bea wrote:
> So defensive! Since you are the expert New User... can you please
> explain to me how the IC gradebook calculates proficiency toward
> standard? I long ago abandoned the IC gradebook to use Excelsior's
> Pinnacle Plus because of the inclusion of the "Power Law"
> calculation. And that's just one example. Line up a list of features
> side-by-side and Infinite Campus starts to look pretty weak. So
> compelling is this comparison that my site principal is considering
> anteing up to buy Pinnacle for each of us.
> http://www.excelsiorsoftware.com/solutions/sys_pinnPLUS.aspx
>
> On 2/08/08, New User wrote:
>> You make it too easy... STOP USING HANDWRITTEN GRADE BOOKS!
>> You step into the 21st century just to use what my grandfather
>> used in the early 1900s for his class. You want to talk about too
>> many steps? You've just created an unlimited number of
>> unnecessary steps. I hate to be negative but a lot of you are
>> complaining about things that are easily fixed by following best
>> practices. I have used SASI, SkyWard, PowerSchool and all have
>> similar issues. We started using Campus and sure it's not
>> perfect, but because it's integrated into every other part of
>> Campus I save tons of time. I can communicate with Parents
>> (though some of you are afraid to because you still use antiquated
>> methods) in real time, so much easier than exporting and importing
>> from each different program under the sun. We COULD use a
>> standalone grade book and get an updated UI (pretty colors for you
>> kiddies out there) but it lacks full functionality in the district
>> and you just can't put a price on that.
>> My two cents... those of you still looking for pretty grade books
>> and the one-click solution please ignore this post. Teacher
>> serious about making data driven decisions in the classroom take heed.
>>
>>
>> On 9/17/07, Wil Wiemann wrote:
>>> I am trying to figure out how to move students up and down in my
>>> grade book. We have roster changes all the time and i don't
>>> want them to be put in my grade book in alpha order. I want
>>> them at the bottom to mirror my handwritten grade book, so when
>>> I put grades in I don't have to pay attention to where the new
>>> kids are, they are at the bottom. Any suggestions
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>>


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Posts on this thread, including this one


• Infinite Campus Woes, 8/16/06, by Brandon Jones.
• Re: Infinite Campus Woes, 8/21/06, by DM.
• Re: Infinite Campus Woes, 9/21/06, by Julie Holmes.
• Re: Infinite Campus Woes, 10/07/06, by abaca.
• Re: Infinite Campus Woes, 11/12/06, by carrie.
• Re: Infinite Campus Woes, 1/17/07, by Gustavo.
• Re: Infinite Campus Woes, 5/04/07, by Brandon Jones.
• Re: Infinite Campus Woes, 7/14/07, by maggie.
• Re: Infinite Campus Woes, 7/20/07, by New User.
• Re: Infinite Campus Woes, 7/20/07, by New .
• Re: Infinite Campus Woes, 7/20/07, by New User.
• Re: Infinite Campus Woes, 8/01/07, by Newest user/teacher.
• Re: Infinite Campus Woes, 8/04/07, by New User.
• Re: Infinite Campus Woes, 8/19/07, by IT Mike.
• Re: Infinite Campus Woes, 9/04/07, by cali matos.
• Re: Infinite Campus Woes, 9/15/07, by Jeff.
• Re: Infinite Campus grade book, 9/17/07, by Wil Wiemann.
• Re: Infinite Campus grade book, 9/26/07, by Mike P..
• Re: Infinite Campus grade book, 10/09/07, by Deb.
• Re: Infinite Campus grade book, 10/09/07, by Kate.
• Re: Infinite Campus grade book, 11/08/07, by Deb in NJ .
• Re: Infinite Campus grade book, 11/14/07, by Greg Plowman.
• Re: Infinite Campus grade book, 12/22/07, by Bill.
• Re: Infinite Campus Woes, 1/09/08, by Evilfactman.
• Re: Infinite Campus grade book, 1/21/08, by Lisa.
• Re: Infinite Campus grade book, 2/08/08, by New User.
• Re: Infinite Campus Woes, 2/08/08, by Captain Kdog.
• Re: Infinite Campus grade book, 2/25/08, by Bea.
• Re: Infinite Campus grade book, 4/28/08, by Pruny.
• Re: Infinite Campus grade book, 6/10/08, by New User.
• Re: Infinite Campus grade book, 6/29/08, by Teacher.
• Re: Infinite Campus grade book, 6/29/08, by Teacher.
• Re: Infinite Campus grade book, 7/17/08, by N/A.
• Re: Infinite Campus Woes, 9/17/08, by misc.
• Re: Infinite Campus grade book, 9/25/08, by ufbdifs.
• Re: Infinite Campus Woes, 9/26/08, by sdzbgdr.
• Re: Infinite Campus grade book, 10/25/08, by ufbdifs.
• Re: Infinite Campus grade book, 12/15/08, by KY Teacher.
• Re: Infinite Campus grade book, 12/23/08, by An IC User Too.
• Re: Infinite Campus Woes, 1/07/09, by Ladybug.