Keeping track of grades seems a little harder

[Tori]

I'm finding that I not only have to check infinite campus, but I have to check the teacher's sites as well to track my son's grades and progress.

He has one teacher that uses BrainHoney and it is more up to date than infinite campus.

(But, the level of detail I can see in BrainHoney is great!)

As a solution:

I've created a set of bookmarks for every one of his classes. It's actually only 5 (7 when I include the textbook sites), so it's not too bad. 

I had to get his username/pwd for some of them, but once it was setup it's pretty easy.

 

[Lura]

I've heard this from other people too.  I'm personally not having this problem, but it seems like something the school is going to need to address.  I think Infinite Campus is used much more widely than just BVSD and is the accepted place for parents to check on their kids, so teachers should at least try to make sure it's kept up to date.  But until then, thanks for the tips!

[Kendra Kane]

I have one student at MHS and two at Eldorado K-8.  I've noticed one key difference in this aspect of parental monitoring - Eldorado has all of the Middle School teachers post weekly to a Weekly Update which is available online to all parents.  This is not for grade monitoring, but more for the pre-grade steps - it keeps parents updated with what's going on right now.  So, I don't have to wait until after a project has been completed, turned in and graded before I know what's going on, and before I've stepped in to help my student do his/her best.  I can check on the Weekly Update and see that one child has been assigned a group activity in, say, a study of the solar system.  I can then follow-up with my child and ask how this is going, and see if there are any areas I can help.  This is especially helpful for parents who have children like mine who only answer in vague terms when asked "so, what did you do in school today?"

This might be something MHS could look at facilitating.  I'm sure the time teachers spend putting the posts together is worth the return in parental involvement.

Kendra

Mother of Freshman

On Friday, October 26, 2012 10:48:17 AM UTC-6, Tori wrote:

[Lura]

I think that's a great idea.  The only problem that I see with it would be that in high school, the students are supposed to be learning to take control of their grades and learning how to monitor their work themselves.  I know for some, it's a very slow process between their freshman year and their senior year!  Maybe a modification of your idea could be that this would be posted for students who are in danger of doing poorly in the class - as you said, a way for the parent to know BEFORE the bad grade comes through.