Planning Success

Successful implementation of Gradelink requires strong teacher adoption. Learn how to make your teachers realize the value of Gradelink with a successful implementation plan.


Appoint a full time staff member to be the school’s local "Gradelink Guru."  This person should be dedicated to learning all about Gradelink and contacting Gradelink if they have questions.  Gradelink will be able to support this person with setting up report cards, staff in-services and rolling out new features.  When school faculty have questions they should be directed to the school’s Guru instead of Gradelink support. This is because there are often multiple ways to do something, so your staff could become confused about which method they should employ. If questions go through the school’s local guru, it gives schools leadership opportunity to determine the best method for your school.


Successful implementation occurs in phases. You don’t need to roll out every feature on the first day.  Most schools start off with attendance, grade books and report cards and introduce more features after teachers feel comfortable. Rolling out too many features too quickly runs the risk of teachers feeling under trained or overwhelmed.  Communicating an orderly, phased roll-out plan with your staff will help staff stay focused and plan ahead. Speak with your account rep. for assistance developing a realistic schedule.


Introducing Gradelink

Let teachers know you are planning to start with Gradelink early on so they can prepare mentally for the transition. Encourage them to visit www.gradelink.com and take the tour to build the excitement.


Initial Training

Gradebooks, attendance, progress reports and report cards


Preparation


Before rolling the initial training, we recommend the following to be completed:

  • Grade books are created for all of the teachers
  • You have seen samples of the report card and don’t plan to make any major changes to it
  • Students are populated into their classes for the current term
  • You have seen the teacher video training. Contact Gradelink support about anything you predict a teacher will ask you.


Use Gradelink to tell teachers about the Gradelink training

Announce the teacher training with an All Staff email from the Communicate tab. If all staff have the same initial password, you can send them their login info at the same time. Below is a sample e-mail.


Hello,

We have adopted Gradelink as our SIS.  Teacher training will be held on Wednesday and Friday from 3-4:15 pm.  On Wednesday we will cover chapters 1-6 of the teacher video tutorial and chapters 7-14 on Friday.  Prior to the training, you are free to explore the videos tutorials and/or login and explore.

Login Information:
  • Visit gradelink.com and press the orange login button on the top right
  • School ID: # 12345
  • Username: Your first initial + your last name
  • Password: School123 (The letter “S” is capitalized)


Single Day Workshop: (2.5 hours)

The key to a good workshop is to make it fun, have food and keep the tone lighthearted. Your staff are apt to retain more knowledge if the event is enjoyable. If your staff are not comfortable with technology this is even more important.


Present the teacher training videos to your teaching staff.  The tutorials are divided into 14 short chapters with a total running time of 54 minutes.  After each chapter, ask the teachers to log into their account and do what was demonstrated before proceeding to the next video.


Two Day Workshop:

The key to a good workshop is to make it fun, have food and keep the tone lighthearted. Your staff are apt to retain more knowledge if the event is enjoyable. If your staff are not comfortable with technology this is even more important.


Day 1 (1 hour 15 minutes):

Present the chapters 1-6 of the teacher training videos to your teaching staff. After each chapter, ask the teachers to log into their account and do what was demonstrated before proceeding to the next video.


Day 2 (1 hour 15 minutes): 

Present the chapters 7-14 of the teacher training videos to your teaching staff. After each chapter, ask the teachers to log into their account and do what was demonstrated before proceeding to the next video.


Follow Up:

Most teachers don’t have any questions after watching the training but do develop questions once they start using it. Remind teachers that the video tutorials can be seen online anytime. Also ask them to forward their questions to you as they occur so they can be properly addressed. At the end of the week you may want to forward the answers to your entire staff.


To confirm the answers to staff questions you can:

  • Forward the questions to Gradelink support
  • Schedule a Q&A session for just you and Gradelink
  • Schedule a Q&A session for all of your teachers and Gradelink

Annual Training

We recommend reviewing the training once or twice a year to discuss best practices and new features. Prior to conducting training, your guru should review new features on www.gradelink.com.

Sandboxes and Testing

If teachers want to have a "sandbox":
  1. Create a group of fake students
  2. Put one in each teacher’s class
  3. Give the teacher the login for the fake student(s)
Let them experiment with the student so they can see what parents would see in various situations. The more comfortable teachers are with the system the more they will use it.

If administrators want to have a "sandbox", you can make a fake teacher account, parent account and academic/attn class for the administrator to experiment with.