CONFERENCES
Spanish Version
Dear Parents and Guardians,
It is hard to believe that it’s been one year since the initial shutdown due to COVID-19. After much planning and intentional efforts by staff, I am proud to say that we have all of our students back learning on-campus. The Pandemic has required us to make several changes to adapt to the needs of our students and community. The information below outlines the changes and signup process for Spring Parent/Teacher/Student conferences, which will take place on March 17th and 18th.
Grading
Grades are an essential part of any school and should serve as a measure of academic performance and progression towards mastery of standards. We have created guidelines for grading to develop consistency in our grading practices from teacher to teacher for grades to be the best representation of skills and knowledge.
The guidelines are as follows:
• Grades are a measurement of achievement only and will not include student behaviors (effort, participation, adherence to class rules, other compliance measures, etc.)
• Late assignments will be accepted and will not be marked down unless submitted after the Quarter.
• Absences will not impact the grade. Please note: Class attendance and academic achievement are highly correlated.
• Students will receive individual achievement scores in group assignments. There will not be any group grades.
• Clear descriptions of achievement expectations will be provided (i.e., rubrics aligned to standards, clear grading expectations for assignments, etc).
• Student’s performance will be assessed based on a preset standard or learning target.
o Students are allowed to have multiple attempts on assignments. When appropriate, students can retake assignments or assessments for mastery. Note: some assignments may not require a retake in the progression towards mastery.
Conferences:
Conferences are essential to creating partnerships, especially during our current hybrid / in-person learning model. To support the complexity of holding conferences, while maintaining social distancing and accessibility for our families, we will be conducting conferences remotely, via Zoom, with some option for in-person conferences. As in the Fall, we will use the integrated conference scheduling system Power PTC. It integrates with PowerSchool and is very easy to use. The Conference schedule and directions on how to access Power PTC are as follows:
Conference Schedule:
Wednesday 3/17/21: 4:00 - 8:00 pm
Thursday 3/18/2021: 8:30 am – 11:30 am
12:30 pm - 4:00 pm
5:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Friday 3/19/21: No school or conferences – no assignments will be posted required.
Each conference will be 15 minutes sharp. Some conferences may be held in person; however, it is recommended to keep the conference over Zoom to maximize the time and transitions. Zoom links will be embedded in the schedule created.
Sign-ups for Conferences will open on Wednesday March 10th at 11:00 am
We value you, our students, and our community so much are working tirelessly to provide the best possible learning environment for our Skyhawks. We are learning and growing every day and look forward to the opportunity to meet with you to discuss your student’s academic progress. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any concerns or questions.
Respectfully,
Nathan Plummer
Proud Principal
Sultan Middle School
Quick Start Guide
Log into your PowerSchool’s Parent Portal
1. Open a web browser and navigate your school or district’s PowerSchool Parent Portal
2. Log into Parent Portal with your username and password.
3. Click on the Applications menu in the upper right-hand corner.
4. Click on the PowerPTC menu item to log into PowerPTC to schedule your conferences.
Scheduling Your Conferences
1. Click on Conference Schedule.
2. Select the date you would like to schedule your appointments on.
3. Select a starting time for your appointments.
4. If you would not like to attend conferences with certain courses, uncheck the box under the Schedule column.
5. Click Build Your Schedule Now!
6. Finally, click Print Schedule to create a hard copy of your parent-teacher conference schedule.
7. If you are scheduling for more than one student, you can switch the active student you are scheduled for by clicking on the Select a Student link from the left-hand menu.
Check out our SMS YouTube Channel to stay up-to-date on the latest school Information:
CLICK HERE FOR SMS YOUTUBE CHANNEL