Pinnacle+Tricks+and+Traps

Pinnacle: Tricks and Traps

Rachel's handout:

Link to Help: http://support.pinnaclesuite.com/client_content/PinnacleWeb/Help/RoboHelpFiles/78/PinnacleWebHelp.htm Link to Tutorials: http://support.pinnaclesuite.com/client_content/PinnacleWeb/Help/RoboHelpFiles/78/PinnacleWebHelp.htm

If you use the seating chart menu, the parents can pull that up on PIV. The parents don't really attach to our gradebook server; a snapshot is taken and server over to them when they login to PIV. They can set all types of bells and whistles to notify them when a grade falls below a certain point or when a grade changes. Mr. Orr expects teachers to enter grades regularly like once a week because if not, the parents call and ask about why the child has no grades in your class.

Find in "Options" menu how to hide or unhide classes; you would use this if you switch kids and course titles at semester. But you can unhide and rehide, no problem.

Find in the top of a roster list for a class--a tiny triangle. Click on it to hide and unhide inactive students. When you have to go back to put a first nine weeks grade in for a student who just got here, the names will be grayed out at the bottom of the previous roster only if you have unhide inactive students selected on that pulldown for EACH class.

Z inserted into a grade box means the student has to make up the work. This is a good tool as the parent can pull a report of all missing assignments only if the teacher uses the Z. Leaving it blank just skews their grade like they don't have to make it up. The Z counts a zero until the work is made up and is good incentive to make up work quickly. An X or a blank mean the student doesn't have to make up the work and it will not count against them.

Incompletes must show up correctly on your printed reports are they are incorrect. The same is true of the EX for exempt. If they don't show up when you print the class report then you have entered them in the wrong place or in only one place when you may have to do 2 places (as in I for no semester test then add an I for course grade/semester grade). To get to course grade, click on the tab that says 'Semester test' and in the far right top there is a little triangle that is a pull down menu. Change it to 'course grade' and enter another I there.

Exempts: Open you class roster, click on the bottom tab that reads "semester test' and it will be blank; click on "new' and add a grade called exam, test, or semester test and put weight 1 and how many points (it doesn't have to be 100 as it is weighted already as 20%. Then click to tell it which periods to add this grade to. Next by the names of those that are exempt for finals, go to the far right column and double click. A mini menu pops up and put a dot by the one that you can change to say incomplete. Then you can put an X in the actual grade spot if you want to. Check your print out to make sure it says EX on the test column.

Removing Incompletes:If a student has come back and made up classwork or a final, enter the tab at bottom for the correct time period like 1st Semester Test. Then double click on the II you see there. A mini menu pops up and you see which box to enter a grade in and then click to 'calculate normally" and it will reaverage the child's grade. Note the new 9 weeks grade or semester final grade and report that to Joyce via email.