Missing Assignments Notifications Coming Soon!

Problem:  Both parents and teachers have expressed a desire for a better notification system regarding “missing” assignments.  

Solution:  We’ve been working on a scenario where parents/guardians would be sent missing assignment notifications via email on a given day of the week.   Instead of just receiving a notice of missing assignments, parents would prefer to see an actual list of the missing assignments, viewable directly in the email. We are putting final touches on the notification system and hope to begin testing within the next week.

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Q1. How would this new feature work?  What would teachers mark in the gradebook that would trigger this?
Each week, the system (Infinite Campus) will query all grade books (6th grade thru 12th grade) and identify all assignments that have been marked “M” for missing by the teachers.  A district standardized email is  then sent to each guardian that has a student with 1 or more missing assignments.  If your child does not have any missing assignments – then no notification will be sent.   

Q2. What about assignments that are past the due date and have not been graded?
Those assignments will not be included in the notification, only the assignments that were manually marked as missing by the classroom teacher.

Q3. When will the notifications start?  and how often will they be sent?
We’re hoping to finish up the programming on this feature this week and will roll the feature out as soon as it’s ready.  We will start by sending the notifications out once a week – every Thursday evening. 

Q4. Why Thursday night? Why not Friday?
Parents were requesting the information prior to the weekend, so that students have a chance to return to school to get the missing work.  Parents were concerned that sending out the notifications during the weekened was nice – but would be frustrating because they couldn’t get back into the building during the weekend to collect materials that might be needed.

Q5.  Will the message be unique to each school?
No.  Since the message is sent from Infinite Campus, it must be standardized and apply to all students in all schools.   

Q6.  What will the notification look like? Could we see a sample?

To: < Parent email address>
Subject:Missing assignment reminder for <last name>, <first name> — A Message From: WDMCS Messages

Campus Messenger from the West Des Moines Community Schools

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Parent/Guardian of <student first name>  <student last name>:

 Your student <student first name> has the following missing assignment(s).

Course Number	Course Name	Teacher	Assignment Title	Due Date	Teacher Comments
MTH304	Algebra II – Trig B	Bakker	Quiz 8.1-8.3	02/13/2012

Please sign into your school’s parent portal at https://campus.wdm.k12.ia.us/campus/portal/westdesmoines.jsp to find more information.

Thank you for your support!

West Des Moines Community School District Missing Assignment Policy: Assignments marked as “M” are currently missing and have not been turned in to the teacher. Students are allowed to finish and submit all assignments designated as missing. Submitted missing assignments cannot receive a zero, however, they may not receive full credit as this is determined by the classroom teacher.

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Please do not respond via the email client Reply button. Your response to the Campus Notification will not be delivered to the person who originated this message

 

 Q7.  Why does the policy state that “zeros” are not allowed?
If we are going to notify students and parents about missing assignments – and if they go through the work of getting the assignments turned in, then a zero is not appropriate.  However, as to what portion of credit can be earned, that is at the discretion of the classroom teacher.

Stop saying “Hand it in” and start asking “Have you published it?”

Instead of asking your students “Have you turned it in?” , we need to start asking “Have you published it?”

– quote from John Kuglin, @jkuglin

 

I love this quote.  We’ve all been in this scenario before, where you produced a paper, presentation or other product – only to turn it in to an audience of one, the teacher.  We’re looking for classroom examples where students are given the opportunity to publish to a larger audience. Use the comment boxes below to add your examples!

 

Sarah Bird,  Valley High School,  Twitter: @sarahlynbird

Students in her digital communication tools course participated in the the flat classroom, an international project that partners students from around the globe to work collaboratively on a problem. Students were assigned to work students from another country to work on a problem.  Their final products were broadcast online, and were narrated live by the students, as well as reviewed by instructors from other locations. A great example of true on-line collaboration as well as publishing to broader audience.

 

Adam Nidey, Crestview Elementary, Twitter: @mrnidey

Many classes already use Kidblog.org for their student writing and reviewing, however, his class took it a step further.  They read and provide feedback to other 3rd graders in Pennsylvania.  Their writings is also reviewed by the same class in Pennsylvania.  In case, you’re wondering, the class in Pennsylvania found his classroom through their classroom twitter account!

Zac Sinram,  Valley Southwoods, Twitter: @zacsinram
As part of Global Cultural Studies (GCS), his class has opportunities for various enrichment activities, where student selects select an activity of interest.  One of the options is a restaurant review, which isn’t turned into the teacher, it’s posted on-line at a number of popular restaurant review sites.   This helps students “own” the review, knowing that it will posted in the public eye, where reviews are commonly responded to.  To ensure the experience meets the goals of the class, he provides a list of specific cultural dining options to select from, a suggested framework for structuring your review, and guidelines for where to publish the review.