TAM+General+Information

If the student is from another “wise” county, you will receive all of that information. However, the previous district will have to withdraw the student from their school(s) in order for your data manager to enroll them in your school and then attach them to your class. None of these steps are lengthy, but could slow the process if not completed timely. If done correctly, a student could be withdrawn from one and appear on your roster with all of their information in a matter of minutes. If they are not from a “wise” county, you will be able to view only the information entered by those at your school responsible for enrolling them. All data is not required to enroll. You may be in a tab that requires information to be entered once you arrive. This rarely happens, but the observation tab in basic demographics is one of them. If you are in that tab and begin to compose an alert (maybe you only clicked in the checkbox for shared access or entered a date), it will require you to enter something in the text box for the alert. It has begun to record this alert and is notifying you that it is incomplete. The easiest way out, is to type anything in the narrative and immediately hit “Del” to delete it. Then you will be able to exit. Remember that the status bar located in the bottom left corner will usually provide a tip in order to correct a problem. Minimize the TAM window and look at the “gray box” screen. You may see a black bar across the top that is the popup blocker. You can right-click on this bar to temporarily disable it or permanently disable it for the NCWise website. The first time you do it, it may close your connection to NCWise and you will need to refresh and login again. You also may need to update your Adobe Reader. It is easy to do. Just Google “Adobe Reader Download” and follow the steps. It is free and safe to download. Either way, if you are going to be away from your computer for even a few minutes, the best practice would be to log out of NCWise as well as the computer. Hopefully, students are using the computer in your class for assignments as well and should log on using their user name and password. Also, keep in mind that NCWise contains an enormous amount of personal and confidential information about your students that other students cannot access. ** ttendance **
 * // Q. //** **All of this information looks really great, but do I have to enter all of this data?**
 * // A. //** No. As a teacher, you and I can only enter attendance and grades for the students we teach and view the information for the students that may have been assigned to our teams. In other words, not only is data entry outside of your responsibility, it is impossible with your login.
 * // Q. //** **When I get a new student, will I have his/her data too? How long does it take?**
 * // A. //** You should receive a class changes note when you log in whenever you have new students enrolled or students leaving your class (es). Their information is then available to you.
 * // Q. //** **I went to an option and now I cannot get out even when I press the “door” icon. What is going on?**
 * // A. //** Several things could have happened. If you pressed F7 to start a query, you have put NCWise in “query mode,” and it will not let you leave until you search for information. You can press Ctrl + Q and it will cancel the query mode or any query it may have already been searching. You could press F8 to execute a query, but it will then look up all the information you have, which could take some time.
 * // Q. //** **That one roster report with the grid lines looked pretty useful. Where is it though?**
 * // A. //** You will first want to select the class or homeroom that you would like to use. Then select Reports at the bottom of the screen. It will be the second button titled either Class Record or Hm Rm Record. This is the report you will want to run for substitutes.
 * // Q. //**** I thought we were told not to click on the close icon (the “x”) in NCWise. What if I do not have a door? **
 * // A. //** You probably ran a report. Once the report appears, you are not actually in TAM or NCWise any longer. You are actually looking at an Adobe PDF file (that looks nicer for printing). You can select the close icon here.
 * // Q. //** **I tried to run a report, but nothing happened. What went wrong?**
 * // A. //** Many of our computers have a popup blocker. Since the reports are actually PDF files displayed by Adobe in a different window, the blocker thinks it is a popup.
 * // Q. //** **Can I keep NCWise up on my computer all day long so that I do not have to login each time?**
 * // A. //** NCWise has a feature called the lock, which will lock the NCWise interface on your screen. In order to lock your window, you will select the lock command at the top of the screen and you will enter your password to unlock it. However, NCWise will eventually timeout.
 * // Q. //** **I have an athletic team or a club. I really need to keep track of their grades to make sure they maintain their eligibility. How can I do this for the students I do not have in my classes?**
 * // A. //** The data manager can make a team for a staff member of any group of students that they are responsible for in a different capacity. You will need to provide a roster of those students, but will then have access to the same information for these students as you do for those in your classes or homeroom.
 * // Q. //** **What do I really have to do to take attendance? Is it going to take me forever to do it every morning?**
 * // A. //** Attendance is really only a few clicks of the mouse and will take you a couple of minutes once you have mastered it. Once you log in, you will click on a class and begin clicking the checkboxes beside the names of those students absent. After you are done, you will click the Attendance Complete checkbox, the save icon and exit through the door. That’s it!
 * // Q. //** **I have an assistant and a parent volunteer; could they just do this for me while I teach?**
 * // A. //** No. The NCWise login is yours and yours alone. Not only does NCWise contain confidential information that a volunteer should not see, it tracks the entries made by each user. When dealing with something as significant as grades, you do not want anyone else impersonating you when you have to be able to support the data it generates.
 * // Q. //** **No one is absent today. Do I have to take attendance? How do I complete it if there is nothing to enter?**
 * // A. //** You can click the checkbox beside the class from the main screen of TAM. This saves the attendance and will inform the data manager that you are done (even though no one is absent).
 * // Q. //** **What happens if I have a substitute or worse, take an extended leave of absence?**
 * // A. //** Our LEA recommends printing a Class Record report and having the substitute mark attendance on paper. This should be sent to your data manager who could mark the attendance for you. Substitutes for extended leaves will be granted access, with their own user name and password, in order to enter attendance and, in the future, grades.
 * // Q. //** **Do** **I have to mark the reasons for each of the students’ absences?**
 * // A. //** Yes, for elementary school teachers. Middle schools have made site-based decisions here. You will need to return to attendance for that day and change the reason for the absence or late regardless of unexcused or excused. If the absence is unexcused, you must mark the reason, “unexcused absence.” For lates, you must use either “unexcused late” or “excused late.” Please do mark these reasons because they impact not only the students’ records, but many of the reports sent to the LEA, DPI, and federal government. Lates marked with other reasons, will appear as absences. An absence or late must have the A or L checked **AND** a reason selected to be counted in all of the reports.
 * // Q. //** **Can I change the attendance for yesterday or even a few days ago if I made a mistake?**
 * // A. //** Yes. You can change the date by clicking the bottom in the upper right corner of the list attendance screen and mark attendance for whatever day you like. However, our LEA has set a threshold of 5 days for attendance, meaning that you can edit attendance for today and the 4 previous days. Your school’s data manager can still edit beyond that date.