Picture this scenario: students dressed neatly reciting a beautiful verse and have a selected time to practice their handwriting. This is not just an imagined scene but it is what goes on in featured schools that migrated from Engrade to ThinkWave. This is a secure digital platform that connects teachers, students and other parties concerned as regards a child’s progress at school.
Administrators can now have a unified system in which custom data, students’ attendance, and report cards can be accessed by teachers, parents, and students at any location where there is an internet connection. A cloud-based solution makes sense in this fast-paced environment where people need instant answers. Parents now want to be more involved in their children’s progress and will appreciate a platform where they can discuss any issue pertaining to their child’s performance. An all-inclusive pricing feature makes this platform an ideal option for many people. You can select a free trial period to test out fist its features.
Using the ThinkWave School Management Software
The student’s screen is where you can add and remove students from the program. It is also possible to adjust the dates a student was enrolled in a certain course as well as provide the student with Access login details so that they can view their grades. Here are the steps to add a student:
- Click on the button named “add student’’. It is easy to spot this box because on the platform it is highlighted in a prominent Orange color.
- Input the First and the last name of the student and click Save
- You can also fill out any additional information about the student and this box is found on the right side of the screen
- Customize the tables to your liking regarding citizenship or PSAT score
Most parents and teachers across the U.S are now appreciating cloud-based school management software programs such as Engrade and ThinkWave to monitor their child’s progress. It is now possible to communicate with staff, interact with parents and discuss any other relevant information.
The Enrollment Process
Adding or adjusting column on this withdrawal tab is easy. For school enrollment, a teacher can add the date a student was enrolled. Withdrawal dates can be left blank if the student was enrolled for a whole year.
For class enrollment, click on the Enroll link. The next box will take you to the appropriate class. Sometimes there may be too many classes on the left column list since the default number is 30. In this case, a second pull-down will appear and this is where you can select the appropriate list of classes you want. You can also reduce the number of classes displayed by going to the setup, then General and Maximum to display. Select the minimum number of classes you want to be displayed so that you do not have to navigate all those classes yet you are only interested in enrolling your student in a few of those.
Group enrolment process also has a similar process. Just click on the enroll link and go to the next box where you will select the appropriate group. From the student’s screen, he can access all the custom fields associated with that group. These custom fields are advantageous because they can be used to store any type of data or any demographic data.
Take for instance you want to create a group for the Baseball Team Group and want to monitor the batting average of each player. You can create a custom-made field called “Batting Average”. On this field, you can now enter all the students Batting averages. There are two main ways of doing this. The first option is to go to the students’ screen and select an individual name. Alternatively, you can click on the customs field found in the Groups tab and then fill in information regarding the whole team in that field.
Reports can be customized so that they only include the students in a certain group. When generating a report, you can select the group you want only and leave out the rest.
How Parents Can Access the Portal
One of the main features of Engrade and ThinkWave is the ability for parents to access their children’s’ progress even when out of school. Although students and parents can access this data, it must be noted that this is a password protected and SSL secured site. This makes it a very safe platform to use and ensures no unwarranted third party users can have access to a child’s educational data.
In order to access this portal, you will need to print out the Login Instructions Sheets and this can be found on the Reports Tab. There are specific instructions recorded therein for students and parents to follow before they can log in to their account.
A user will be provided with a 16-digit Access Code so that you can connect to specific data. If a student does not remember his login details, ThinkWave does not provide password recovery options for students because of security reasons. They will need to come up with a completely new login name and password. The platform only provides usernames if one has forgotten theirs.
The Gradebook Screen
This portal can help easily help teachers assign homework and set upgrading options so that all these can be collectively compiled at the end of a course and be submitted to the school’s administration. To create an assignment, go to the left navigation bar and select the term and class you intend to create an assignment.
Under the Name Tab, enter the name of the assignment on the gradebook screen. Remember to limit the name of the assignment to 17 characters. The next step is to select the assignment type. This can be described as homework or test. These can be either deleted or added at a later date.
An assignment weight Tab is used to measure all Grade methods. If you have a 20 point assignment, you will enter a 2.0 Assignment Weight.
You can add a file attachment of up to 3MB. After you save the files you will be able to download them at any time from your gradebook. These will also be accessible to both parents and students. This is how to Grade an Assignment:
- Go to the left navigation bar and select the term and class you want
- On the right side, you will see a gradebook like grid
- You will see a blue Grade button below the assignment you want to grade
- You will notice empty boxes in the column and this is where you will enter the desired grades and save
- Other assignments might be saved as excused and these will be marked as E meaning they will not be subjected to grade calculations
The Attendance Screen
To record the attendance of a class, you need to first select the name of the class on the left. Then select the date which is found on the left top corner. The right window will display the class. You can also view the student’s attendance from a different date and even make comments about a particular day’s attendance.
Custom Reports on ThinkWave
More and more Americans are now appreciating digital platforms such as Engrade and ThinkWave as educational tools that connect parents, students, and teachers. ThinkWave has created an in-house tool that enables teachers to make visually appealing custom made reports, transcripts, attendance reports and other create other files.
The custom report builder can initiate dialogue at an early stage and this is an important step when trying to guide students especially during their development. Experts now agree that this is very important when trying to analyze a child’s overall school’s performance.
Featured Schools
- WEST DALLAS COMMUNITY SCHOOLS: this school was started up in 1995 and back then it was predominantly African-American then. It has faced challenges epically being a Christian school in a rather hostile environment and an impoverished society. Many of these children in this school hail from poor families and of course this has a certain effect in their studies. That is why its founder cannot overemphasize the importance of introducing this online platform to students. ThinkWave helps teachers and parents to interact on a platform, monitor their children’s grades and discuss any other issues that might be affecting their children’s performance. There are also language issues since most of the children could not speak English upon admittance to the school. There are children who have ADHD. However, the school’s administration along with the support of digital educational platforms such as Engrade Pro and ThinkWave has very open communication lines between parents and teachers. Parents are always invited for dialogue on how to improve their student’s grades and these meetings are held in a friendly atmosphere.
- THE HILL SCHOOL: this school is located in a small town in Virginia and the educational community is keen on ensuring students get out of this institution knowing exactly who they want to be. It was founded in 1926 with a vision where students were the focus of the attention. The school is committed to its philosophy and traditions. The children have found an environment where they can find their voices. They are exposed to interesting extracurricular activities such as studying insects in the school’s garden or learning a foreign language. These activities depend on a child’s level of interest, age and learning abilities. By using ThinkWave Cloud-based school management system parents and teachers have further promoted this friendly atmosphere where they can access a student’s report cards, view schools’ spreadsheet and be informed of any upcoming assignments. Students at the Hill School fee supported to explore their own weakness and strengths. Children are not limited to pursuing only one academic interest or hobby. They are free to try out almost anything; from soccer to playing the violin. The campus is used as a learning environment and most group classes are limited to only 15 students, this enables easy monitoring of a child’s progress.
- PINEAPPLE COVE CLASSICAL ACADEMY: This public charter school near Palm Bay on Florida’s Atlantic coast houses children in grades K-7 and has 35 full-time teachers who base their educational principles rooted in Greek and Roman Civilization. The school’s mission statement is to “build intelligent Virtuous American Citizens”. They aim at helping the students to be proud of their citizenship and realize the responsibility that attitude comes with. We see today’s kids being so much hooked to computers so that they become inactive because they fix their eyes on screens all day. This school promotes healthy learning outside the classroom such as participating in stained glass projects in art class and also learns various aspects of Middle Age history. The founder of this school admits that using /think/wave has simplified the work of her staff and saves time. ThinkWave has enabled the administration to create middle school schedules for 135 students and the parents and teachers both love the platform.
- KIETTISACK INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL –LAOS: The name of the school means honor which best describes the school’s atmosphere which is a multicultural setting. The school aims at educating the young nation to attain internationally recognized qualifications. The campus sometimes experiences very busy times of the year and at such times it can be very frustrating to teachers and the staff at large. The school celebrates three different types of New Year’s Events as a sign of recognizing the diverse culture. Besides, several languages are taught in the school and the students hail from different countries. This is where this digital platform comes in. Planning for these events, compiling students’ reports and communicating with parents is made easy as long as one has an internet connection and has a supported browser. Children are not admitted into the school based on their social status. As long as a student is willing to work hard, the school administration is willing to accept them into the system.
