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.

PARENTS: How to sign up for emergency notification calls from West Des Moines Schools.

West Des Moines Community Schools utilizes an automated calling system to notify families of weather and other emergency notifications.

Here are some things to keep in mind:

• The caller ID on your phone will show the number 515-633-5599.
• The numbers that will be called are the phone numbers you submitted to your school, which are stored in Infinite Campus (IC). You can go into IC to indicate which numbers will receive the call. Directions are below.
• If you do not receive a test call, please contact your school office to let them know you did not receive a call and would like to update your Infinite Campus information.

How do I indicate which phone number(s) will be called for the weather notifications?

NOTE: these steps are only for PARENTS, not for staff only.

1. Log on to Infinite Campus
2. Once in Campus, click on CONTACT PREFERENCES at the bottom left.
3. Under EMERGENCY, click on the box to place a check mark next the phone number(s) you wish to receive the weather notification alerts.
4. Click Save.

What if I have a phone number that is not listed and I want to add it?
In Infinite Campus, click on FAMILY MEMBERS, next to each member is an UPDATE button, you use this feature to add/edit/change phone numbers or email addresses for individuals in your family.

I’m logged in as myself and I can change my personal preferences for whether I get a call, email or text –  but how can I change these preferences for my spouse?
With your account you can only change your preferences you can not changes someone elses preferences, to change their preferences they must log into Campus with their account.

I don’t have an Infinite Campus account. How do I change my weather notification preferences?
You can call your school office and they can provide you with an account or they can change your preferences for you.