ThinkWave Support

Gradebook Quickstart

To start a gradebook, go to thinkwave.com. Follow the link for solo teachers looking for a free personal gradebook.

Startup Wizard

Complete the three-page wizard to set up the basic structure of your gradebook. These settings can be fine tuned later.

When completing the wizard, add three students. To add more students, click the "Add Student" button in the top left orange rectangle. Enter the names of some students and click Save.

Enter Class

In the Classes tab, click the "Add Classes" button in the top left orange rectangle. Enter the name of a class and click Save.

On the right, click on "enroll".

• Check the box next to the students enrolled in that class.

• Click Save.

Add Assignment

In the Gradebook tab, click the "Add Assignment" button in the top left orange rectangle.

• Enter the name, type, and date due of the assignment.

• Enter the amount of points the assignment is worth. If you would like to grade with percent, letter, or custom grades, select Flexible Grading in the Grading Options tab (covered below).

• Enter a description of the assignment (available to parents and students online) and click Save.

Grade Assignment

In the Gradebook screen, click on the blue rectangle labeled Grade with a down arrow. A column of boxes will appear.

• Enter a grade in each box. For an excused assignment, enter "E", for a missing assignment, enter "M".

• Click Save.

Basic Setup

Grading Options

In the Gradebook screen, click on Grading Options, the third tab to the right. This is where you set the grading options for your Terms, Subterms and Classes. Click on the name of the class in the left navigation bar. Then, to set up your options, work from the top, left to right. Start by setting the first column: Step One: How Grade is Determined for the Term. The possible settings are:

• Average Subterm: This selection appears for top-level terms only (like Semester), not subterms (like Quarter or Final Exam). This choice means that the Term grade would be an average of the Subterms. For example if you want First Semester to be calculated from First Quarter - 40%, Second Quarter - 40% and Final Quarter - 20%, chose Average Subterm (the 40%, 40%, 20% would be set to the right, under Calculation options).

• Pure Points: If you want the Term grade to be determined by points, make this selection. This will not average any Subterms, it will just sum all the points in all the Subterms together without considerating which Subterm the assignments are in.

• Flexible Grading Options (percent, letter, custom grade types): If you want to use flexible grading options, select this option. You can mix a variety of grading types, but note that the Term will not be an average of Subterms, but an average of all assignment across the Terms, albeit with assignments with flexible grading types.

• Manually Assign Grade: The grade is manually assigned in the Finalize & Submit screen. You can still create and grade assignments, but you will need to assign the overall grade manually.

Next, set the second column: Step Two: Calculation Options for the Term. The possible settings are:

• For top-level Terms (like Semester): If you have selected "Average Subterms" in the first column, the second column (Step two: Calculation options) will have the options to set the relative percentages for the Subterms. Click "edit" and set the relative percentages for the subterms (for example: First Quarter 40%, Secong Quarter 40%, Final Exam 20%).

• For lower-level terms (like Quarter or Final Exam): If you would like to use Assignment-type weighting, check the box. Then set the relative percentages. For example, you can set Homework at 30%, Quizzes at 20%, Term Paper at 30% and Tests at 20%.

Grading Setup

Continue in the Setup by adjusting the grading options for your classes.

• Under Grading | School's Grade Types and under Grading | My Grade Types, adjust the percents for your grades. If you do not use certain grades, like A+, delete them. If you use numbers instead of letter grades, replace all the letter grades with numbers (if you use %, select that under Final Grade Type below, not here.) If you want certain uncalculated grades to appear in the pulldowns, enter those uncalculated grades below.

• The school's grading table defines the grades that appear on the report cards.

• Under My Grading Table you can define the grades you will use to grade your assignments. By default, A through F grades are defined. You can add your own grading tables. For example: Pass/Fail, 1 through 5, or almost any other custom table. To add a new grading table, click "add" next to the My Grading Table heading. Enter a name for the table and click Save. Then, to add a new grade to that table click "new grade". Enter the name of the new grade as well as the minimum percent a student needs to earn to receive that grade.

Terms, Periods and Day Schedules

To set up the schedule for your school, Click on Schedule | Terms. Note that if attendance is not important to you, ensure the start and end dates for the term are correct in order to mark assignments into the proper Term. The other settings are not as important.

• Important! Note that Term grades appear on the transcript, but Subterm grades do not (report cards can contain both Term and Subterm grades, however). Under Schedule | Terms and Subterms, ensure you have the term structure and dates correct. This is difficult to change later so make sure it is correct now. Subterm grades can be combined to form a Term grade (for example 1st Quarter 40%, 2nd Quarter 40% Final Exam 20%). However, you are not required to have Subterms. Many schools have four quarters or three trimesters as Terms, not Subterms.

• Under Schedule | Periods, ensure all the periods are input, and that the times are correct. If you want to take attendance in one period only, click on the name of the other Periods, and uncheck the "Take attendance" box.

• Under Schedule | Day Schedule, add any minimum days, or A and B days.

• Under Schedule | Days of Week, uncheck any non-meeting days.

• Under Schedule | Monthly Calendar and Holidays, add all the school holidays by editing each month.

Attendance Setup

Continue in the Setup by adjusting the attendance options for your school.

• Under Attendance | Attendance Types, enter the attendance types your school uses.

• Under Attendance | Average Daily Attendance, select how attendance is calculated in your school. Detailed explanations are in the Help menu (the Help menu is on the top blue line, on the right.)

Reports Tab: Printing Login Instruction Sheets for Students and Parents

To generate the Login Instruction Sheets for students and parents, go to the Reports tab. Each student and parent gets an individual handout. Each handout contains a unique Access Code, as well as instructions.

• Under Login Instruction Sheets click on Student (or Parent.)

• Select the proper Student and click Generate.

• Click the Print icon to print handouts.

Optional

If you would like to upload your school logo to customize all your reports, or if you would like your students and parents to first go to your school's web site to log in, perform the additional steps below.

Upload School Logo

Click on the Reports tab. Find the Setup link on the upper left. Then click on Logo.

• Select the image file with your logo by browsing to it on your computer. A .jpg file is preferable.

• Click Upload.

• Return to the Reports tab. Under the Setup on the upper left, click Header. Ensure "Include logo" is checked.

Link From Your School Web Site

If you would like students and parents to check grades via your school's web site, follow the below steps:

• Go here for .html code and several designs of login buttons.

• Edit the Student and Parent login sheets by replacing the relevant text. To do that, go to the Reports tab. Then under "Login Instruction Sheets" click on Parent (and later do the same for Student). Under Configure, within the Message Text, change: "1. Go to ThinkWave.com" to "1. Go to www.yourschoolsite.com." Change: "2. Click the "Login" button on the top right." to relevant instruction for your own school web site.