The calendar shows all homework, tests, and other announcements for all dates. Homework is displayed on their due dates, and tests are displayed on their dates. Because space is limited, it shows only the titles, so students must click a date to see the descriptions and details.

The calendar is also useful for team practice schedules, club events, and so on. For example, if a student is on the Boys Varsity Basketball team and the Debate team, their calendar will include those events. See Sports & Clubs.

Homework

The Homework screen is actually a better place to view homework. Instead of listing all homework for all dates, it shows only the current homework that students should be working on now. That includes homework due tomorrow, tests they should study for, long-term homework due soon, and even homework that is overdue.

All assignments on your screen automatically appear on the students' Homework screen by default one day before they are due. For example, on Monday students see a list of everything due Tuesday, including tests and quizzes. You can make this longer; e.g., if an essay is due Friday, set "Students should start  5  days before it's due" so students are reminded all week. Or you can uncheck it so it is not displayed on the Homework screen or calendar, such as participation grades. You should show tests and quizzes as homework just so students are reminded to study.

Note: On Fridays it shows homework due Monday, even if you leave the default "1 days before it's due". In other words, it acts the same as if you set it to 3 days before due, but only for Monday assignments. If you set anything for "0 days before it's due", then it appears on the Homework screen on the due date, not before. If an assignment has a date range, such as speeches due on "9/20-22", it uses the first date as the due date, so it will be listed as homework only through 9/19.

You may also add a description of the assignment, and you may upload related files for students to download.

It is recommended to enter assignments in advance so your students can see upcoming homework. Leave them ungraded so they do not affect students' grades. (You don't need to excuse the assignments; just leave the scores blank.) Note: For independent study, you must enter a comment for the applicable student(s); that determines which students see this as homework.

On the screen, you may add any calendar notices, including homework notices that are not graded assignments, like "Read chapters 2-3". Click any date on the calendar to add a new notice. Like assignments, you can add a description and files, and specify how many days in advance students should start working. Also there are shortcuts to add or copy the same notices to more than one class.

To see what students see when they login, go to the screen.

Note: Any missing assignments are added to the student's Homework screen automatically. But it lists only the one most recent missing assignment for each subject/course. This is to help motivate students with achievable goals, rather than overwhelming them with a complete list of everything missing. They can always look on the Details screen for that.

General Announcement

On the screen, you may type a general announcement for your class. This has no date. Students and parents always see this on the "Overview" screen after they login, so this is the place to put urgent news. But do not put homework here.

For elementary teachers (depending on your gradebook format), the announcement applies to all subjects, but you can change the menu enter announcements specific to each subject. For secondary and college teachers, you may apply the same announcement to all sections of the same course, or to each section separately.

Note: If your announcement is long, students and parents see only the first 5 lines, then they must click to see the rest.

To type a note for a specific student, see Student Comments.

Formatting Text

In any description or announcement, type double **asterisks** for bold, and double //slashes// for italic. Or use HTML tags for <b>bold</b> and <i>italic</i>. Any other HTML is not accepted, but web and email addresses are hyperlinked automatically. (It is not necessary to type "http://" before web addresses.)


Troubleshooting

If an assignment or notice doesn't appear on the Homework or Calendar screen:
• Make sure the date is a standard format, like 12/31 or Dec 31, not 31-Dec, Dec/31, etc.
• Make sure the "Hide" checkbox is not checked.
• On the screen select "Show Entire Term" to look for items you placed on the wrong date.


See also: Announcements from Admins