Throughout our professional development with the Web Gradebook, we have learned that we can re-size column width and the size of sub-windows within the main window by clicking on the borders between columns or sections of the Gradebook and dragging.

Did you know that you can also make more space by eliminating the icons on the buttons at the top of the screen?



By shrinking the size of these tabs, you will be able to see the names of more students listed below.

Simply click the eject icon (below) in the upper left corner of the button/tab bar.



It will eliminate the icons, and you will see just the names of the tabs giving you more vertical space within the screen!



In order to view the icons once again, just click the (now upside-down) eject button again!

By the middle of the trimester, there are lots of assessments that have collected in your Scoresheet in the PowerTeacher Web Gradebook. When you add a new assessment at this point, it is placed in chronological order--typically all the way over to the right side of the screen if it is the newest assessment.

One very easy tip that can help “clean up” your Scoresheet screen while you enter is to use the “Reporting Term” filter pull-down menu near the top of the Web Gradebook window.

Simply, click on the pull-down menu and select “This Week.”



Now, only assignments with Due Dates from “this week” will actually appear. Unless it is the end of the week and your teammates have entered a lot of assessments this week, you should see very little there. This will result in the assignment column appearing next to or near the Final Grade and Student Name columns.

When you’re done, you can simply change it back to the trimester (i.e., T2) in order to view the assignments from throughout the trimester.

When working with lists on a computer, including in PowerSchool and the PowerTeacher Web Gradebook, you may want to select multiple items from that list at one time. If so, there are two ways to do so that will typically work.


Selecting multiple items in a row

Click on the first item that you want to select, such as Algebra below.


Then, go down to the last item in the column that you want selected. Hold down the shift key, and while holding down the shift key, click.


Voila! All of the items that you want selected are now highlighted.


Selecting multiple items that do not appear consecutively

This time, click first on any item that you want to select. (It does not matter where it falls in the order of the list.)


Now, if you are using a Mac, hold down the command (apple) key to the left or right of the spacebar. If you are using a Windows or Linux computer, hold down the control key.

While holding down either the command (Mac) or control (Windows/Linux) key, click on the other items you want selected.


Voila! Now, just the items you want selected are selected.

This little trick works in lots of different software and on lots of websites, so take advantage of it.

Throughout history, scam artists have used the culture and technology of the day to do their work, and the 21st Century is no different. Today, email is often used, and much of the world’s problem with viruses and identity theft is the result, not of computer or technological issues, but of us actually clicking on something that we should not.

Yesterday, at least two District 21 staff members received a phishing scam email that was more well done than is typical. In spite of this being more professional than most spam, it is still pretty easy to detect that there is nothing to worry about and that the email should simply be deleted. The email is pictured here with some tips for identifying a phishing email below.




Ways to detect a phishing scam…
• What is the actual email address, rather than the name, in the “From:” line?
In this example, which is fairly rare, it is tickets@nwa.com. Normally, it is some form of “mumbo-
jumbo” that changes daily. If it is not from the organization’s actual URL (after the @), it is not real.

• Is there a company logo, a privacy statement, or anything of the kind?
If not, it’s probably not real.

• Watch for inappropriate grammar or use of English
In this example, the “t” in “ticket” is not capitalized. In the last full sentence the word “printer” is written
as “printed”.

• Is it written like a real e-mail given the organization and purpose?
Airline ticket reservation emails do not begin with “Hello!”.

• Finally, if you are really unsure about something, call and talk with an actual
representative of the organization.