Troubleshooting Parent Portal and SchoolMessenger

Parent Portal

There are two new articles on the knowledge base for tips on troubleshooting parent portal login issues. 

- One of the articles is for how you as staff can help troubleshoot before contacting the help desk.

- The other article can be shared with parents/guardians to have them check things on their end.

Knowledge Base - Parent and Student Portals

On another note, settings have been changed for the Knowledge Base and you will now need to login with your staff account credentials to view the articles. If you have any issues, contact Brittany Hice.

SchoolMessenger

There is a new knowledge base article to show how to see a broadcast report, check recipient delivery status, see if a recipient has blocked our communications, and remove them from the blocked list if needed.

Knowledge Base - SchoolMessenger

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Little SIS and Google Classroom Sync

An update is coming for Google Classroom sync from PowerSchool! A program called "Little SIS" pulls class information from PowerSchool and creates or updates classes in Google Classroom. This happens each night to ensure classes are always up to date based on the rosters in PowerSchool. 

This update will allow teachers to have better control of the classes pulled into Google Classrooms. 

When a Google Classroom is provisioned, an email with a link to the Teacher Review website will allow teachers to review the information.

The Teacher Review will allow teachers to:

• Review the class information pulled from PowerSchool
• Merge multiple classes into a single class
• Link a provisioned class with an existing Google Classroom 

This is accomplished using a drag and drop feature.

We think this will be a great tool to help ensure student rosters and classes are always up to date, while allowing teachers more control over their Google Classroom structure.

Keep an eye out for more information coming later this week!

Google for Education Updates

Google has been working hard to give new and improved features to Google for Education programs, such as Google Classroom, Google Meet, and Google Drive. They used feedback from distance learning during the pandemic to update and create some helpful tools. 

Below is a list of some new features available now and coming soon!

Google Classroom Updates

    Coming Soon

• Schedule assignments to multiple classes at the same time
• Student engagement and activity tracking
• Use offline in the Android app, then submit when back online

Google Meet Updates

    Available

• Identify and notify a person if they are causing an echo

    Coming Soon 

• Students can't join if the host isn't on the meeting
• Only students in Google Classroom can join the meeting
• Co-teachers in Google Classroom are automatically made co-hosts of the meeting
• Pin or unpin presentation or other tiles for display
• Improved hand raise sound and icon (shows list  in order and automatically removed when done speaking)
• Turn off all videos at once

Google Workspace Updates

    Available

• New fonts available!
• Google Docs
• Smart Chips - Tag people or files
• Checkboxes for lists
• Grammar suggestions (including inclusive language suggestions)
• Google Drive
• Make files available offline
• Google Sheets
• Intelligent formula suggestions
• Google Forms
• Automatically save responses to return to later
• YouTube
• Students set to under 18 no longer able to create videos or comment
• Search
• Safe Search enabled for users under 18 if using Google Chrome and logged in (even if using incognito mode)

    Coming soon

• Google Docs 
• Tables with voting
• Meeting note templates
• Table templates
• Google Drive
• Embed Microsoft Office files in Google Files
• Google Forms
• Simplify settings with a new "Settings" tab at the top
• Chromebooks
• 6-Digit Pin login

Hopefully these changes will help you and your students this school year! As always, if you have any questions, contact the Tech Department.