Work With the Seating Chart
Use the seating chart in PowerGrade to take attendance. Attendance
taken by the attendance clerk using PowerSchool overwrites any attendance
you take in PowerGrade.
You can also print the seating chart, in case you want to take
attendance away from your computer. For example, you can print the
seating chart and take it with you on a field trip.
How to Take Attendance Using the Seating Chart
Though you can view attendance for your classes after you take
attendance in PowerGrade, you cannot change it. Only the attendance
clerk using PowerSchool can make changes.
You can only take attendance on days when school is in session.
- Choose an available class from the Classes menu. The class page
for the selected class appears. For more information on accessing
classes, see the section "Open
Classes."
- Choose Windows > Seating Chart (or click the Seating icon).
The Seating Chart page appears.
- Click the Take Attendance tab. The Take Attendance page appears.
The available options that appear depend on whether the class
uses meeting attendance mode or interval attendance mode. The
attendace mode is specified on the server when defining sections.
While meeting attendance allows only one opportunity to take attendance
for a class interval attendance can allow multiple opportunities
depending on the lngth of the period and the specified interval
duration.
Meeting Class
Interval Class
- For Interval classes select the appropriate period
and interval in the Period/Interval pop-up selection.
- Click a seat. The Attendance menu displays all available attendance
codes. Meeting classes will not show the code for "present"
since no code indicates a present. Interval classes do not assume
a student is present so a code for "present" will be
included.
- Choose an attendance code from the menu. The indicator
above the student’s seat changes from green (for present)
to a different color based on the attendance code you selected.
For example, if you selected absent the indicator above the student’s
seat changes from green to red. If you selected tardy the indicator
above the student’s seat changes from green to yellow.
Note: To change attendance back to present
for a meeting class, select the blank menu item below "Attendance
for: [student’s name]." To change attendance back
to present for a interval class select the code for present.
- Either click Save or press Return (Mac) or Enter (Windows) to
save and close the seating chart.
Mass Attendance for Interval Classes
Since interval attendance does not assume the student is present
or absent you must provide an attendance code for each student and
for each interval. To make this easier interval classes provide
a pop-up selector called "Set Blanks To". By choosing
an attendance code from this pop-up you will tell the system to
set all students without an existing code to the selected code.
One way of using this feature is to immediately select the present
code upon entering the attendance tab and selecting an interval.
This will set all students to present since all students will be
blank at this point. Then set the proper attendance code for any
students that are not present (i.e. tardy or absent).
How to Print the Seating Chart
When you print the seating chart, each student's seat appears,
including the student's photo (if available) and name.
- Choose an available class from the Classes menu. The class page
for the selected class appears. For more information on accessing
classes, see the section "Open
Classes."
- Choose Windows > Seating Chart (or click the Seating icon).
The Seating Chart page appears.
- Click the Take Attendance tab. The Take Attendance page appears.
- Click the Print icon. The seating chart prints.
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