School Loop is a tool designed to allow teachers, students, and parents to better communicate about students’ academic achievement.  Follow these few simple steps, and you will be able to check on grades and email teachers in seconds. 

Objectives:

Given a home or library computer with internet capabilities, the parents of WHS students will identify their student's current grades by gathering school loop information from each of their child's classes that teachers have entered information for.

Given information about their student’s school achievement through school loop, the parents of WHS students will discuss positive and negative aspects of their findings with their children. 

Step 1: Find School loop on the web

First go to Watsonville High School’s website:  www.watsonvillehs.net

Step 2: Register

If you aren’t already registered, you will need to do so.  Click on the register now icon and then choose if you are a student or parent.  You will need the student’s ID number in order to complete this step. 

Step 3: The Dashboard

Once you are registered, you are ready to start using the program.  Don’t forget your user name and password; you will need it to access School Loop in the future.  As soon as you log in you will see the “dashboard”.  This is an overview of grades and important events.  On the right you will also see a list of the classes with links to individual course homepages and links to email teachers.  In general, any words or symbols that appear in blue are hyperlinks meaning that if you click on them, you will get more information related to what you clicked on.  Look at the snap shot below; do you notice all the words in blue? 

Step 4: What to look for

The dashboard is where you will find a lot of helpful information.  Notice that there is a list of all classes that the student is enrolled in.  The next column is the student’s current overall grade.  The next column is very important; it shows how many zeros the student has in the class.  In other words, those are assignments that the student didn’t turn in all and could possibly complete in order to improve his or her grade.  The last column in the dashboard says “progress report”, notice that it is in blue.  Click on it and see what happens. 

Step 5: Progress Reports

This is the student progress report for the Algebra class.  From looking at the dashboard I learned that the student has a “D” in the class and has not turned in 2 assignments.  Now that I am looking at the progress report, I can figure out what those assignments were as well as when they were due.  I might also want to look for assignments or tests that the student scored low in and then email the teacher to see if the student could make them up. 

Many teachers use weighting in their grades.  The very bottom of the progress report is where you can find that information.  This teacher gives tests a weight of 70%, homework 25% and discussion is 5%.  This is important information to know because a student in this class can turn in most of the homework and still have a low grade if they don’t make up tests.  Ask the teacher of the course if you don’t understand how this is effecting a grade.  Go ahead and click on the back arrow of your browser to take you back to the dashboard. 

Step 6: Analyzing Grades

Many teachers use weighting in their grades.  The very bottom of the progress report is where you can find that information.  This teacher gives tests a weight of 70%, homework 25% and discussion is 5%.  This is important information to know because a student in this class can turn in most of the homework and still have a low grade if they don’t make up tests.  Ask the teacher of the course if you don’t understand how this is effecting a grade.  Go ahead and click on the back arrow of your browser to take you back to the dashboard.