Schoology Parents

Add a sample student or demo student and login to Schoology as the parent

1. Navigate to the course

2. In the course, click Members on the left side

3. Click the Add Members button at the top

4. Change the school at the upper right to Howell Public Schools

5. Choose EL Sample, MS Sample, or HS Sample depending on your building level

6. Click the Add Members button at the bottom

7. Log out of Schoology, and log back in as the parent: parentsample@howellschools.com (for all the Sample students) and the password is hps12345

8. As the parent, can navigate between different Sample students by clicking the Parent Sample name in the upper right corner and selecting one of the Sample students.

9. Please remember to remove the sample student after you are done. The Sample accounts are public, and anyone can login and see your course while the Sample student is added to your course.

Option 1: Parent / family accounts have already been created for most parents / families (as of 8/15/20).

1. Instructions are available on the District website at HowellSchools.com/parents/schoology_for_families

2. Parents / families can login at app.schoology.com as:

Username: The parent's contact email address registered in PowerSchool

Password: Their student's 8 digit Student ID number

3. They can also click the "Forgot password" link to reset their password

4. Parents / families with multiple contact email accounts should try each of their contact email addresses as the username

5. Parents / families with multiple students should try each of their student's Student ID numbers as the password

Option 2: Teachers can provide parents / families with a "Parent Access Code" from Schoology

1. As the teacher, navigate to the course with the student enrolled

2. Click Members on the left side

3. Click Parent Access Codes on the far right

4. This will download a text file (can be uploaded into Google Drive as a spreadsheet) with all students and their 12 digit Parent Access Codes

video / animation

Note: The instructions below only work for accounts that are not part of the @howellschools.com Google domain.

To reset your own password, complete the following steps after logging into Schoology:

1. Click on the downward facing arrow in the upper right of the screen.

2. Select Settings.

3. Find Account Password.

4. Click Change your password.

5. Enter and confirm your new password.

6. Click Submit.

If you cannot login:

If you forgot your password with a free account, click on the Forgot your password link during login.

Note: You must use the email address associated with your Schoology account. If you don't have an email address associated with your Schoology account, please contact your teacher for the Parent Access Code(s) assigned to your student(s). Instructions on creating your parent / family account are available on the District website at HowellSchools.com/parents/schoology_for_families

1. Navigate to the course

2. Under the course profile picture on the left, under Course Options, select Send Message

3. Select the group of recipients for the course - All Members (students and teachers), Admins (teachers), Members (students), or Parents

4. Fill out the message, then click the Send button

5. The message will be sent through the Schoology messaging system, and may also be forwarded to the parents' email address depending on their Schoology notification settings (default is to forward to email).

To send a message to individual parent(s), you will need to know the parent's name(s):

1. Navigate to the course

2. Click the "Members" link on the left side

3. Parents' names are listed under each student

4. Click the envelope button in the upper right to create a new message

5. In the "To" field, type the last name of the parent to search for matches

Option 1: From The Message Center

If you know the teacher's name, you can use the message center to communicate with the teacher:

1. Click on the mail icon at the top right of the page

2. Click on New Message.

3. Begin typing the teacher's name and possible matches will appear

Option 2: From Your Student's Course

If you know the course but are not sure of the teacher's name, you can communicate with the teacher by going through your student's course:

1. Go to your student's account by clicking on your name in the upper right, and then selecting your student's name from the menu

2. Choose the course from the courses menu at the top left of the page

3. Click on the mail icon beside Admin on the right side.

(screenshot)

Notifications can be set up so that you receive your Schoology messages in your email. You can reply to a Schoology message directly from your email account.

Ask parent / family to make sure they have the Email Summary set to On in the parent / family account. To turn on Email Summary, they must:

• Log in to parent / family account

• Toggle into their child’s account using the down facing arrow in the upper right.

• Once they are in their child’s account, click the down arrow arrow in the upper right corner, and select Notifications from the drop-down menu.

• Make sure their Email Summary is set to On.

Ask the parent / family to confirm they verified their email address. Parents / families can see whether their email address has been verified in their Account Settings.

• Click the down facing arrow in the upper right corner of their screen to select Account Settings.

• If there is orange text below the Primary Email field that says Resend Verification Email, then their account is not yet verified. Users must verify their email address in order to receive email notifications.

• Check the box and click Save Changes to resend the verification email, and then follow the steps outlined in the email sent to the primary email address.

Ask the parent / family to Check Status on his or her email address.

• If the email address has been verified, there is an option to Check Status to the right of the Primary Email field in Account Settings.

  • If there is an issue with the email address that is preventing Schoology from successfully delivering emails to that address, the parent / family sees an error message when he or she clicks Check Status. If the parent / family is unsure of how to resolve the error, he or she can contact Schoology Support for assistance by clicking the Support link at the bottom of every Schoology page.

  • If the parent / family sees the message “There are no issues with your email address” then emails from Schoology are able to deliver to that address without a problem.

Ask the parent / family to check the spam folder in their email account, and/or contact their email provider for troubleshooting assistance.

Every parent / family account in Schoology created by the District as of 8/15 has already been added to an Introduction to Schoology for Families course that contains tutorials on how to use Schoology. If you just wanted to join that course yourself to work through the tutorials, you can use the following course codes:

• Elementary School: 6CT3-94PJ-HT3Z5

• Middle and High School: G4MW-BTX7-RDGRR

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Unit Zero for Teachers to use in their courses

The same material is inside the Unit Zero module in the Schoology Course Templates in the Group Resources areas.

1. In Schoology, click on the Resources area at the top

2. Click on the Group icon on the far left

3. Click on any o the grade level or school groups in the middle left (like 5th grade teachers or Howell High School)

4. Inside the Elementary Course Template, Middle School Course Template, or High School Course Template is a Unit Zero - How to Use Schoology module. Inside that module is a folder labeled Parent Account Features. Click on the gear icon to the right and select Add to Course

5. Check the box for the course you want to use, then click the Add button at the bottom.

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