Parents can expect a big change this year in regards to their access to student grades. This program was piloted last year and the feedback from parents was overwhelmingly supportive. Teachers will no longer have the ability to send out progress reports as mass mailers in the new system since the district has gone to a new online program that incorporates attendance and the ability for parents to view teachers gradebooks at any time. Parents who have provided their student's school with an email address should be receiving the activation code and website address that will allow them to access student records at their discretion. The gradebook is projected to go live on September 1, giving the district ample time to train teachers at the secondary level, bring them up to speed on the inner workings of Gradebook.

If you're using Internet Explorer as your browser, chances are that you're experiencing a handful of problems logging in from time to time.  It usually depends on who's computer you're using.  One of the most common problems involves cookies.  You may receive an error message stating that cookies are not enabled.  It's frustrating because you will not be able to create an account or login.

When you log in to the site, there's a certain amount of information that is necessary and required in order for that site to recognize you as a valid member and not a spammer or hacker.  This involves writing a very small file onto your system with information that is very specific about you and just you.   The site looks for this file the next time you try to login.  Once it finds the file and confirms that the information is valid, it determines that it's safe to let you in.  All of this boils down to privacy issues, something that can be controlled in Internet Explorer.  Most systems are set to Medium High privacy protection, which isn't a bad thing since some sites write cookies onto your computer in order to track your internet usage and target you for advertising.  However, it will sometimes block a safe site from writing a cookie to your system, thereby causing that site to reject your attempts to become member. . .which is exactly what occurs at www.smithjh.org.  So, you have three options.   Use Firefox as your browser (www.mozilla.org), lower the privacy settings in Internet Explorer or tell Internet Explorer to make an exception and allow the class site to write the cookie to your system.   The last option is probably the safest if you've chosen to continue using Internet Explorer.  I have Firefox installed and often go between the two browsers whenever I develop issues that don't seem to resolve themselves in IE.  It comes down to a personal choice.  The district currently installs both browsers on all new computers brought into the classroom.

Since we're still using IE at this point, we're going to tell your computer that smithjh.org is a safe site and it's ok to have the cookie on your computer.

Do this while you have Explorer open. . .

Go to Tools/Internet Options and click on the Privacy tab.  Click on the Site button.  Enter the following two site URLs (web address) and make sure you click on the button that says Allow as you enter each of the two URLs.

 www.excellearning.org (This is where the site is being hosted.)

www.smithjh.org

That should fix any future errors you receive in regards to cookies not being enabled.