As the holidays are approaching, so is the end of another semester. Let's look at some helpful tips to make sure your students have a good start after the Christmas break.

Switched-On Schoolhouse - Term Settings

Depending upon which School Year Type was chosen at the beginning of the year, your SOS administrator may need to set the second semester (or third quarter) as your school's current lesson planning term. This is necessary unless the Year Only term was originally selected, then no term adjustment is necessary.

To set the current term, log in as Admin, and click on the School Setup tab under Administration. Choose Terms Settings from the Edit drop down menu in the upper left hand corner. Right-click on the second semester or third quarter, and choose Set to Current. This will take all students and teachers to this term as soon as they log in. Students may not see any work in one or all courses at this point. This is caused by the last semester or quarter's work not yet being finished. You can remedy this one of two ways:

1. Temporarily change the student's current term to the previous semester/quarter by checking the Custom Calendar option under the student's profile with the Student Setup tab. When the student is finished, bring him back into the current term by simply unchecking this option.
2. Bring incomplete units into the current term by utilizing the Edit Subject button. This can be found under the Assignments tab when logged into SOS as a teacher. Simply drag the incomplete units from the previous semester/quarter into the current semester/quarter. SOS will then ask you to regenerate the student's lesson plan. The student will now be able to continue working.

Switched-On Online

Review your students' lesson plan progress to verify they are on track. If the progress bar does not show 50% or more, your students are not on track to finish by year's end. If within the students' Edit control the Calendar option is checked, your students are seeing a Monday-Friday layout. If a student has procrastinated in his lesson plan, this layout may not be accurate, only showing one assignment due per day, when two or three should be being accomplished by your student. Chart out a revised plan for the student for completion. This may include extending the end date into the summer, shortening the amount of work required by skipping end units, or simply informing the student of his current progress and encouraging them to do more each day in order to complete the course in the time allotted.

Ignitia

Lesson plan review is possible a couple ways. The Assignment Alerts tab will show a yellow triangle with an exclamation point as the status of overdue items. Assignment Alerts are removed after they are five days old, so this may not be a complete representation of overdue work. The Reports tab has a report called Student Lesson Plan Report. This is an excellent tool as it lists the current status of all assignments in the selected date range. This can be a quick way to see all of your students in one report as opposed to looking at each individually via the Gradebook tab.

If a student is overdue in a course, try to assess the reason. If rescheduling is necessary, simply go to the Course Enrollment tab and use the Reschedule link found along with the listing of the student's course. If completion by original end date is still the goal, choose the original term, and all incomplete work will now be evenly distributed between the day of rescheduling and the term end date. You could also choose a new custom term and extend the time into the summer to give the student a little less to do each day.

As with any curriculum, SOS, SOO, and Ignitia are only successful when teachers and students involve themselves in everyday lesson management. Take advantage of the time saved by these wonderful tools to help your students complete their second semester work.