Elementary School Comments in Other Languages
14.November.2007 03:05 Filed in: PowerSchool
This note
is specifically directed at 3rd through 5th grade
teachers who have intended to put comments on the
report cards in Spanish. For those
doing comments in Russian and Polish, unfortunately,
we will be using the Microsoft Word version of the
page 4 Comments page that was e-mailed to you.
If you have questions or need
another copy, please e-mail Jason
Klein.
For weeks/months, we have been working to ensure that we can successfully create and distribute report cards, including comments, in Spanish, Russian, and Polish. During this time, we have developed a number of creative solutions, and we are proud to say that we are in the final moments of successfully being the first known PowerSchool School District to produce report cards in four languages according to both PowerSchool and Phoenix Learning Systems.
What has proven to be “trickiest,” though, are the comments. We believe that the following steps will allow comments to work without becoming garbled with other symbols as the accents and punctuation in Spanish are “foreign” to PowerSchool’s programming and can corrupt—looking like a bunch of “mumbo jumbo” (the technical term!).
These steps must be followed exactly and in order.
1. Write your comments in Microsoft Word. Our Mac OS X computers do have an International window that can allow the computer to be set to Russian, Polish, or Spanish to make typing slightly easier. (We are in the process of buying keyboard stickers for Russian and Polish for students and teachers to use in the future when writing in those languages on the computer.) Using Microsoft Word has the added benefit of the fact that you can save your comments. If something problematic and unanticipated comes up, you will be able to print those comments and distribute them or re-copy and paste them into PowerSchool Teacher!
2. Copy and paste your comments in to the appropriate comment space in PowerSchool Teacher. Check to be sure that all of the characters look appropriate there before clicking “submit”. If they are not, please fix them at this time.
3. Check your work for both the Learner Qualities and Comments for this particular student. You will not be able to verify again later unlike people making comments in English.
4. Click “submit”.
***At this point, when we run the report card, the comments come out “just fine.”***
WARNING--If you go back to PowerSchool Teacher and look at your comments again, they will be corrupted. For example, “É” may come out instead as the symbol for the Euro or for Forte in a musical composition. Once you re-submit, those symbols will now be what prints!
For a general discussion of comments, please see this entry!
For weeks/months, we have been working to ensure that we can successfully create and distribute report cards, including comments, in Spanish, Russian, and Polish. During this time, we have developed a number of creative solutions, and we are proud to say that we are in the final moments of successfully being the first known PowerSchool School District to produce report cards in four languages according to both PowerSchool and Phoenix Learning Systems.
What has proven to be “trickiest,” though, are the comments. We believe that the following steps will allow comments to work without becoming garbled with other symbols as the accents and punctuation in Spanish are “foreign” to PowerSchool’s programming and can corrupt—looking like a bunch of “mumbo jumbo” (the technical term!).
These steps must be followed exactly and in order.
1. Write your comments in Microsoft Word. Our Mac OS X computers do have an International window that can allow the computer to be set to Russian, Polish, or Spanish to make typing slightly easier. (We are in the process of buying keyboard stickers for Russian and Polish for students and teachers to use in the future when writing in those languages on the computer.) Using Microsoft Word has the added benefit of the fact that you can save your comments. If something problematic and unanticipated comes up, you will be able to print those comments and distribute them or re-copy and paste them into PowerSchool Teacher!
2. Copy and paste your comments in to the appropriate comment space in PowerSchool Teacher. Check to be sure that all of the characters look appropriate there before clicking “submit”. If they are not, please fix them at this time.
3. Check your work for both the Learner Qualities and Comments for this particular student. You will not be able to verify again later unlike people making comments in English.
4. Click “submit”.
***At this point, when we run the report card, the comments come out “just fine.”***
WARNING--If you go back to PowerSchool Teacher and look at your comments again, they will be corrupted. For example, “É” may come out instead as the symbol for the Euro or for Forte in a musical composition. Once you re-submit, those symbols will now be what prints!
For a general discussion of comments, please see this entry!
