Opening of School Technology Resources
What a great start to the year! Our entire student body is utilizing Office
365, accessing teacher webpages at Edline and parents can now check their
daughter’s grades online on a regular basis.
Students are also utilizing the expanded resources that come from online
textbooks and websites.
Office 365
Each student at Mercy receives an Office 365 account with her admission. With this account comes their school e-mail address as well as five free downloads of Office 2016 for their school and home devices. Office 2016 includes: Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook, OneNote, Access, Skype, Publisher and One Drive.
To access this resource, students need only sign in to http://portal.office.com using their school e-mail address and
ID#. The online applications for Office 365 and the link to download the Office Suite is there. If any students have any questions concerning
Office 365, they should see me to assist with the set-up.
Michael DePalma from Microsoft with teachers learning about Windows 10.
Edline
Each student and parent also have Edline accounts which
allow them to access teacher, club and activity webpages. Teachers use Edline to post
homework, test and quiz notices and items that might have been distributed in
class. Many teachers
post their PowerPoint presentations that have been used in class so that
students may review them. They also are able to post website links that could be
helpful to students.
Sample Edline page - teacher Lynn Curello's Technology Fundamentals class page
If any student or parent has not yet activated their
Edline account, please contact the main office or e-mail me at mbullock@mercyhigh.com and we will
send you your activation code.
Grade Access – MMS
This year we have expanded what is available to parents at the MMS Parent Portal. When parents go to the list of their daughter’s courses, they can now click on that course and see the itemized list of assignments with grades earned for that class as well as the current average. We are very excited about the increase in information that can now be shared through this portal.
Directions for creating your parent account to sign in to the MMS Parent Portal can be found on page 16 of the Student-Parent Handbook You will also find there, the dates throughout the quarter when teachers will have updated their gradebooks. The next grade posting date is Friday, October 7.
Online Textbooks
With more students bringing devices each year, the options for textbooks have expanded. The number of ebooks that are now in use across the curriculum has grown. This year we switched to a new
vendor for textbook purchases, K12 Direct. New
to the process was the ability for students to create accounts and have the
courses they were registered for appear with the needed textbooks. There is also now an e-library where students
go to obtain the information needed to access their digital textbooks.
Students are
now accessing digital materials smoothly and I am hearing reports of an
appreciation for the added resources that come from the online texts. Subjects such as Mathematics and the
Languages in particular are enjoying the added video, audio and practice
components that come with their texts.
Naviance
Our School Counselors have been meeting with students and
taking time in classrooms to make sure all have started the school year in a
strong way. They also make sure that
students are utilizing the program Naviance to assist in their career planning
and college application process.
Important information regarding how parents might also
log in and use this program to assist their daughter in the college search
process can be found at the Mercy website:
Upcoming Events:
October 6 – Retreat Day
October 7 – Special Schedule for Walk-a-thon Kick-off
October 10 – Columbus Day – No School
October 14 – Faculty In-service Day – No School
October 18 – Senior Class Trip
October 19 – PSAT Testing Day
October 22 – Yellow Rose Auction - Click Here for Ticket Info
October 27 – Dedication of New Spaces – Special Schedule
October 29 – Junior Ring Dance – 8:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.
