   |
 2001-02 archive 2002-03 school year  2001-02 archive 2002-03 school year  2001-02 archive 2002-03 school year  2001-02 archive 2002-03 school year  2001-02 archive 2002-03 school year  2001-02 archive 2002-03 school year |
 PHOTO/ELYSE SCHATZ PowerSchool updates district record-keeping technology By Becky Shapiro PowerSchool, the district's newly implemented attendance and grading program, makes attendance procedures faster and class skipping more difficult, said science teacher Amy DeBonis, a Power-School teacher trainer. Teachers began taking attendance using the new program Oct. 8, she said. "PowerSchool has the capability of sending the attendance to [attendance secretary Abby] Hart in a minute," DeBonis said. "Since it's online, it's faster [than picking up attendance sheets from classrooms]." DeBonis said the district adopted the new program because its contract with its former attendance company expired. "The district was looking for new attendance software," she said. "PowerSchool was just better because it does both attendance and grades." However, band director Mike Manser said the program takes time away from class. "I have to leave class and go into my office to take attendance," Manser said. "That takes time." Sophomore Rachel Westman said PowerSchool detracts from usable class time by distracting teachers and students. "It takes a lot of time away from class because we have to wait for the teacher to put the attendance into the computer," Westman said. "We don't start on time because it takes so long." DeBonis said PowerSchool has advantages beyond taking attendance more efficiently; it helps detect truancies because the attendance office can easily receive attendance from teachers every period. "There are features on [PowerSchool] where teachers can see a student's attendance record for all day from their different classes immediately," she said. Manser said transitioning from paper-transferred attendance to PowerSchool may take time. "I like [PowerSchool] OK," Manser said. "But I think it will take some getting used to." However, DeBonis said she thinks taking the time to adapt to a new program will be worth the effort. "I know we're going to look back and be really happy that we switched," DeBonis said. The school has also recently implemented PowerGrade, a sub-program of PowerSchool, DeBonis said. Although many UAHS teachers had previously used the grading program Grade Machine, PowerGrade is web-based, with the capability to keep all students' grades on the school's server. This is not only helpful when it comes time for grade cards, but it will also eventually allow parents to access their students' grades on the Internet. |