congratulations on choosing ascendsms, we look forward to working with you! the purpose of this...

Congratulations on choosing AscendSMS, we look forward to working with you!

The purpose of this guide to assist in creating, designing and populating your AscendSMS school.

Please feel free to contact us early and often! We love feedback and supporting our AscendSMS schools!

SMS help request: click the icon when logged inEmail: [email protected]: 513-682-5054

Welcome to AscendSMS

mailto:[email protected]

I. Building your AscendSMS school a) Your School’s AscendSMS

Accountb) Signing In to Your Schoolc) AscendSMS Screen Layou

td) Admin Home Tab

OverviewII. Designing Your School

a) School Yearb) Term Type, Datesc) Effort Card Templatesd) Grading Scale Templatese) Subjectsf) Subject Subheading Mark

sg) Assignment Categoriesh) Honor Criteriai) Create Homeroom and Le

veled Classes

Table of Contents

III. Populating Your School a) Import Students to Homer

oomsb) Assign Leveled Subjects t

o Studentsc) Import Teachersd) Assign Homerooms/Subjec

ts to Teachers

IV. Setup is finished … Now what?

Building your AscendSMS School

Perhaps you have (or someone at your school has) already created your school’s AscendSMS account by:• visiting going to ascendsms.com and setting it up on their own, or • working with someone at AscendSMS.

If your school already has an AscendSMS account, please skip ahead to the Intro to AscendSMS section. Note: You will need your login credentials.

If your school’s AscendSMS Account has not yet been built, please proceed to the next slide.

The first step is to build Your School’s AscendSMS Account

Has your school’s AscendSMS Account already been built?

Your School’s AscendSMS Account

Optional: Play Video of an AscendSMS Account being created.

What you’ll need: electronic image of school logo, sample report card, school calendar, basic information about your school (suggestion: review the following 5 slides before going to ascendsms.com.)

To create your school’s AscendSMS account:1. From your internet browser, go to www.ascendsms.com2. Scroll to where it reads

School Management Software. Redefined.3. Click on Get Started.

Go back to start of Building Your School

http://www.ascendsms.com/

http://youtu.be/ST-BX-HNX9Y

• Enter school name as you want to appear at the top of report cards

• Enter which District or Diocese your school is in

• Enter principal name as you want it to appear on report cards

• Enter a website root address name, and if it is still available, it’s yours. If not, you will be asked to try again after you have entered all of the required fields and have hit save.

• Enter your school’s address, city, state, zip and phone

• Enter your school’s school logo

• Enter your school’s website beginning with http://

• Select whether your students order lunch daily or monthly

• Choose to enable Google Translator for your school to allow your AscendSMS site to be translated for Spanish readers



• Set the password for the main admin account. All specialized accounts will share this password. You can change these later.

• Enter the email addresses for the admin contacts at your school *these are the people using the Ascend admin account

• Enter the email addresses for your school’s ACEs (Ascend Certified Experts)

• Enter which school told you about AscendSMS

• Enter the Security Check Code

• Click Next



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZdIh3_PWP8

• Choose which type of term your school year is divided into. (Annual, Semester, Trimester, Quarter)

• Choose a start date for each term and an end date for the school year. (The end date for each term will be automatically created.)

• Click Next to create your first School Year



Good News! Getting to this School Creation screen means your AscendSMS shell has been built. To pre-load default data (grading scales, effort codes, subjects, subject subheadings , assignment categories etc.,) we need to know what term structure your school uses.

*If you are creating an AscendSMS account in the middle of a school year use the dates for the current school year.

*If you are creating an AscendSMS account in preparation for a new school year still use the dates for the previous school year so you have a “practice” school year to use.

AN EXPLANATION OF “SCHOOL YEAR”: After you hit save, AscendSMS will load the defaults to build your school’s first “School Year”. Each year you will retire the last School Year and create a new School Year through a process called “Promotion”.



Congratulations – You have built your AscendSMS School and a created your school’s

first School Year!



Signing In to Your School


Click to go to your schools AscendSMS website.

Login using the username admin and the password you just setup.

You can also use any internet browser and go to https://yourschool.ascendsms.com to access your school’s account.

https://yourschool.ascendsms.com/

Signing In to Your School


Login using the username admin and the password you just setup.

The first time you login you will need to accept and digitally sign the user agreement.

On All Screens you will see …

AscendSMS Screen Layout


Your school logo – also a link to your school’s website.

School Name and Address

Clicking on the ASCENDSMS logo always brings you back to the main User Management screen.

+

Secure Area shows you which account you are using, information about the current term, and allows you to make changes to your account.

AscendSMS Screen Layout


On All Screens you will see …

The quantity and type of tabs displayed will be different depending on the account type and roles assigned to the user.

Each tab may also have different sub menus

Account Types• Admin

Accounts• admin• schooladmi

n• principal• rtiadmin• auctionadm

in• cafeadmin• instpecial

• teacher• student• Parent

Roles• Healthadmin• Healthreado

nly• Alumiadmin• Alumireadon

ly• Co-Teacher• RegAdmin

Admin Home Tab Overview MOST OFTEN USED DURING

THEDESCRIPTION DESIGN

PHASEPOPULATE

PHASESUPPORT

PHASE

Users Search student and parent accounts. Provides link to Parents Management X

School Year Manage current and prior school year databases X

Report Card Settings – Term

Manage term type (i.e., quarters, trimesters) set begin/end dates, enable Report Card Links X x

Report Card Settings – Grading Scale

Manage grading scale templates and codes, tailored to each grade level X

Report Card Settings – Effort Card

Manage effort card templates and codes, tailored to each grade level X

Report Card Settings – Subject Subheading Marks

Manage subject subheading marks templates and codes, tailored to each grade level X

Report Card Settings – Report Card Information

Manage report card title, Logo, teacher and principal electronic signatures X X

Report Card Settings - Report Card Legend

Manage legend on report card to show grading scale, effort scale, and subject subheading marks X

X

Subjects Manage subjects taught, create subject subheadings, tailored to each grade level X

Classes Manage homeroom/leveled classes, import/export, create/download report cards X X X

Assignment Category Manage assignment categories (i.e., Homework, Quiz, Test) X X

Promotion Populate upcoming school year with past year students and advancing them to next grade level

X

Shift Student Shift a homeroom student(s) to a different homeroom

Assign Subject Assign / reassign subject(s) to student(s) X X


Admin Home Tab Overview

MOST OFTEN USED DURING THE

DESCRIPTION DESIGNPHASE

POPULATEPHASE

SUPPORTPHASE

Honors – Reports Create Honor Grade reports that can be viewed on screen or downloaded as a CSV file X

Honors – Class Weights Manage the weight of each subject, by grade level, for honors calculation X

Honors - Criteria Manage minimum criteria for meeting first and second honors or enable/disable honors for school

X

Assignment Scanner Scan the number of assignments posted to each class X

Vitality View school student demographic data, with drill down to see what students make up that group

x x x

Data Export Export student, teacher or parent account profile data to a CSV file based on selected criteria

X

ACR Time Sheet Manage/Print/Export ACR Time Sheet data that was entered individually by teachers and staff

X

Registration – Link Manager

Registration – Form Manager

Registration - Application Bank

Registration – Re-Enrollment Manager

Parent Account Letter Print auto-generated letters containing AscendSMS login credentials to be sent home with student

X

Student Profile Manager

Social Media Links Manage Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn social media site links X


STEP NUMBER AND DESCRIPTION HAVE THIS INFORMATION AVAILABLE

School Year Step 1: Edit Current School Year Data NA

Report Card Settings - Term

Step 2: Set Term Type, Dates Current school year calendar

Report Card Settings - Effort Card

Step 3: Create Effort Card Templates Report card from each grade level

Report Card Settings - Grading Scale

Step 4: Create Grading Scale Templates Report card from each grade level

Subjects Step 5:Create Subjects Listing of all subjects taught

Classes Step 9:Create Homeroom/Leveled(non-Homeroom) Classes

Listing of all homeroom and non-homeroom class names

Report Card Settings - Subject Subheading Marks

Step 6: Create Subject Subheading Marks Report card from each grade level

Assignment Category Step 7: Create Default Assignment Categories The main assignment categories (i.e., homework, quiz, test.) used

Honors Step 8: Set Honor Criteria Report card from each grade level

Designing Your School

School Year

Go back to start of Designing Your School

1. Select School Year from the Home tab

2. Click Edit icon

3. Rename the School Year in the format to be displayed on the report card.

4. Scroll to the bottom and click

• The revised school year should look similar to the image above.

• The school year name will be transferred to the report card.• The start and end dates define your school year.• The Current School Year check shows that this is the school

year being used system wide.

School Year


Select Report Card Settings - Term from the Home tab.

NOTE: Once set, the only way to change the term type (Annual, Semester, Trimester, or Quarter) is to go through the promotion process which creates a new school year.

Term Type, Dates


To change the name of the term, click in the Term Name box

To change the name of individual grading periods, click on the Term Detail for that grading period.

To define dates within your schools grading periods, click on the Start Date or End Date for that grading period.

Click to Save changes

Hint: When a term ends on a Friday, many schools will use Sunday as the last day of the term in AscendSMS. This allows teachers to post homework on the weekend and the default dates will still fall within the term the just completed.

Term Type, Dates


Sample of the defined terms after revision.

No Gaps: Please note that the terms do not have any dates undefined within the school year. After a term ends, the next term begins the following day (not next school day.)

Select Report Card Settings – Effort Card from the Home tab

Click name to edit the effort card marks and descriptions.-next page to see details

Effort Card


Change the name of the effort card.

Add a new Effort Card

Delete effort card if not needed.

Effort Card


Edit effort markings.

Add new effort mark for the selected effort card.

Update after changes.

Can be any character on the keyboard.

Edit marks for an effort card

Select Report Card Settings - Grading Scale from the Home tab.

Grading Scale


Add grading scale if the default ones don’t work for your school.

Click name to edit markings and percentages in the grading scale to fit your school. – See next page for details

Delete grading scale if you do not use it.

Edit the name of the grading scale.

Grading ScalesGrading Scale


Click to edit the minimum value to achieve the letter grade.

Must delete the letter grade to change the letter.Delete letter grade if not needed.

Click to edit the description of the letter grade.

Add a new letter to the grading scale.

Add/Edit scale for a Grading Scale

Edit value for GPA

Select Subjects from the Home tab.

Subjects appear on the report card and receive a grade.


Subjects

If a default subject does not apply to your school, simply delete the subject.

Subjects


Triple confirmation of deletion

Subjects


1

2

3

Add New Subject

Click Add Subject

Type the name for your new subject.

Subjects


You will need to add a new subject when different grade levels use different subheadings for the same subject or if your school teaches a subject not on the default list. **This can cause spacing issues when printing report cards.

You can have subjects with the same name, but with different subheadings so they display properly on the report card.

1

2

Use the description to tell which grade levels the subject is for.

3

Click Save4

After saving, click edit to enter the subheadings of the new subject.

Subject Subheadings


Click to Add a new Subheading for the subject

5

6

7 Enter Subheading title as you want it to appear on the report card and a description if necessary.

Click save when finished.

8

Click Add Assignment Category

Default Assignment Categories


You can create default assignment categories that will be used by teachers at your school when they create graded assignments. The most common categories for assignments are Homework, Quiz and Test.

Teachers have the ability to create their own individual assignment categories, and can also delete categories from their list. When a teacher makes changes to assignment categories, it only effects that teacher.

Create Default Assignment Categories

1

Type the name of the assignment category (.i.e., Homework.)

Default Assignment Categories


2

Click Save to add the assignment category to the list. – a record will be created for each teacher for each subject they teach. They can only be deleted one at a time so be sure to check spelling before clicking Save.

3

Honor Criteria

Enter the minimum GPA required for

highest honors with distinction.

Enter the minimum GPA

required for first honors.

Enter the minimum GPA required for

second honors.

Check if your school

does not calculate

GPA for your students.

Click Save when finished making

changes.

A Class in AscendSMS is a unique collection of students. For each unique collection of students, a separate class needs to be created. There are two different types of classes:

1. Homeroom Classes• Involved in the taking of attendance and lunch counts• Each student belongs to exactly one Homeroom class• May or may not contain subjects.

2. Leveled/non-homeroom classes• Collection of students grouped for the purpose of learning a subject(s).• If a subject uses a different grading scale than the rest of the subjects in a

class you will need a different leveled class for that subject.• All leveled classes contain at least one subject.• Examples:

o 5 Accelerated Math: Some students in homerooms Gr 5A and Gr 5B take math in Grade 5 Accelerated Math instead of taking math with their homeroom class. In this example, the three possible places a fifth grade student could be taking math is Gr 5A, Gr 5B, and Grade 5 Accelerated Math.

o 5 Blue: Students in homerooms Gr 5A and Gr 5B take most subjects with their homeroom. However, for Language Arts and Math, students were randomly divided into 2 groups. Half of the students are in 5 Blue, the other half are in 5 Gold. In this example, Math is not offered in a homeroom, leaving only 2 possible places a fifth grade student could be taking math: 5Blue and 5Gold.

Homeroom and Leveled Classes


Overview

We recommend first adding all of your homeroom classes, then adding non-homeroom classes. In fact, you may decide first to populate each of your homerooms with students, then coming back later to add your leveled/non-homeroom classes.



Adding Classes

1Click on HOME-CLASSES

2 Click on ADD CLASS



Adding Classes continued

3 Enter Name of the class as it will appear for teachers.

Select the Grade level.

4

Select Grading Scale

5Select Report Card Style

6

Select Effort Grading Scale

7




Check if class needs GPA calculated.

8Check if class is a Homeroom.Do not Check if class is leveled (non-homeroom).

9

Check to only display letter grade for parents, no overall percentage grade.

10

Check all of the subjects students will take as a class. Uncheck subjects they will not take with this class.These subjects will appear on the report card.

11Click SAVE to finish creating the class.

12




Repeat the process until all homerooms and leveled (aka non homeroom) classes have been added.

Once you have completed your school setup and have placed the students into their homerooms and leveled classes, you may be asked to make changes.

To do so, you will use either shift student or assign subject. It is important to know the difference between these two functions.



Moving students between homerooms / assigning students to leveled classes

Shift Student • use Shift Student ONLY when changing the homeroom of students• un-enrolls the selected student(s) from one homeroom (and any

subjects taught in that homeroom) and enrolls them into the homeroom (and subjects) of the homeroom selected.

• Both the “from” AND “to” classes involved are Homerooms.• Moves Student(s)

From Homeroom Class X To Homeroom Class Y

Assign Subject • un-enrolls the selected students(s) from the subject(s) of one

class to the subjects of a leveled/non-homeroom class. • You have to assign each student to each subject they will be

taking in the leveled class.• The “from” class can be either a Homeroom class or

leveled/non-homeroom class, but the “to” class is always a leveled/non-homeroom class.

• You can assign students from multiple classes to a single leveled class.

Moves Student(s)From Homeroom Class X Subject A

or To Leveled Class Y Subject A

From Leveled Class X Subject A



Moving students between homerooms / assigning students to leveled classes

continued

Now that your AscendSMS school is built and designed, it is time to populate your school with students and teachers.

If you are migrating from a different management system or have a spreadsheet with student/parent information, please contact us at [email protected] to get a detailed import spreadsheet to fill out and have us help you with your initial import.

Optional: Watch video on the student export / import if you would like to do it on your own.

Populating Your School

mailto:[email protected]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=F6gUn9FwO8A

From the Classes screen (HOME-CLASSES), click the Import icon.

Importing Students on your ownCreating your import file

Go back to start of Populating Your School


Download and save the CSV template to your computer.

1

2



Enter the student info (at minimum ID, Last, First).

Importing Students on your ownCreating your import file

continued

Save the CSV file with an appropriate file name.

3 4

5 Repeat these steps for each Homeroom class. You will need a separate CSV file for each Homeroom.

Click Import to upload the class list. By adding students through the import tool, a parent account is automatically created.

Confirmation message “Data Imported” will appear after importing successfully.


Click Choose File to find the import file on your computer.

2

Importing Students on your ownUsing the import file you created

From the Classes screen (HOME-CLASSES), click the Import icon next to the class you are importing into.

1

3

4Repeat these steps for each class.

5


Once you have imported your students users will appear when selecting Home-Users.


Parent accounts are automatically created for each student.

Populating Your SchoolImporting Students on your own

Creating your import filecontinued

Students are automatically enrolled in subjects offered in their homeroom.

To enroll a student into subject(s) offered in a leveled/non-homeroom class, Select Assign Subject from the home tab.


Populating Your SchoolAssign Leveled Subjects to Students


Populating Your SchoolAssign Leveled Subjects to Students continued

Open a blank spreadsheet using Excel or other spreadsheet software.


Importing Teachers on your ownCreating your import file


1 2 Prepare your teacher list Column: A=Salutation, B=First Name, C=Last Name, D= email addressNote: There is no header row.

3 Save your teacher import file with an appropriate name and be sure to choose to save it as a CSV (Comma Delimited).

From the main menu bar, select import teachers from the Teachers tab.


Populating Your SchoolImporting Teachers on your ownUsing the import file you created

1

Click Choose File to find the import file on your computer.

2

Click Import to upload the teachers.

Confirmation message “Data Imported” will appear after importing successfully.

3

4

Hover the mouse pointer over a teacher’s name to view the teacher’s password.

Click a teacher’s name to view/edit the teacher’s profile.

Click on a teacher’s LoginID to login as the teacher.


Populating Your SchoolImporting Teachers on your own

Teacher Screen Overview

Click Teachers to go to the Teachers Listing screen

Click on the number of classes to assign classes and subjects to teachers.

Click on the number of Roles to assign a special Role to a teacher.

Click to add a teacher.

Click to delete a teacher.

Click the number under the column, Classes, to view, add, and/or remove the teacher’s assigned classes.

Select Assign Class to assign a class to a teacher.


Populating Your SchoolAssign Classes to Teachers

1

2

Check all subjects within the Class that are assigned to the selected teacher.

Check Home Room Teacher if the selected teacher takes morning attendance/lunch count for the class.


Populating Your SchoolAssign Classes to Teachers continued

Choose the class the subject you want to assign the teacher is in.

3

4

Click Save to save the changes.

5

Using your teacher matrix as a guide, continue assigning classes until all subjects at every grade level have been assigned.


6


Once you have gone through your teacher matrix:• all homeroom classes will be assigned to a teacher• all subjects within a class will be assigned to a teacher, except:

• Personal Development• Work / Study

• The subheadings of Personal Development and Work / Study areas are made available to ALL teachers through the subject report to be include on the report cards.

7



8 9To check and be sure you do not have any subjects not assigned to a teacher. Go to HOME-HONORS-CLASS WEIGHTS.

Choose a grade level to see a list of subjects for that grade and the teacher assigned to teach that subject.If there are any subjects without a teacher you can go back and add that subject to the teacher.

Setup is finished…. Now what?

CONGRATULATIONS!Your school is setup and ready to use!

Now it is time to get your teacher’s their accounts so they can learn how to use AscendSMS and get parents their accounts at the beginning of school.

There is no special letter for a teacher.

Teacher accounts are setup to be: (Dave Smith)UserID: FirstInitial&LastName (dsmith)Password: LastName (Smith)

Have them go to your school’s Ascend site and login with their account. They have user guides and videos they can access for help. You can print a Teacher Guide for them to review here.

https://ascend.ascendsms.com/images/FileStorage/40S3910A8A2014%2012B20B16%20AMTeacher%20Guidev2.pptx

Setup is finished…. Now what?

To print an account letter for parents go to Home-Parent Account Letter

Check the top checkbox to select all parents.

Check a single check box to print a letter for select parents.

Search for parents

Download PDF file of the parent account letter(s) to print.

congratulations on choosing ascendsms, we look forward to working with you! the purpose of this...

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