My name is Jay A. Klein, and I am the president of Grade Busters Corp and Jay Klein Productions. On this disk you'll find our very latest efforts, Version 7.6 of "Grade Busters Mac: Making the Grade™." It possesses everything found in our first program, "Grade Busters 1/2/3" (2nd Place Winner, 'Teacher Tool of the Decade,' Technology and Learning)--and much more. It's just as easy to use, contains more grading flexibility, and is all Macintosh, so CONGRATULATIONS on your choice!
A FEW POINTERS:
1. Be sure to load the Sample Gradebook and browse around to see what's possible with different program features and to see what a FULL class record looks like.
2. One feature of which we're very proud in MTG is the addition of FOUR MORE GRADING SCALES per class, for a total of FIVE systems you can use to evaluate student performance. In an age of shrinking budgets, we must often accommodate larger numbers of students of wider ability levels in our classes--and this is our solution to the additional challenge of fair and individualized grading. That is, you'll be able to assign different grading scales to students of different abilities in the same class, so that an 85% for one may be a B, with the same percentage being an A- for another. Another group can even have pictograms (apples or triangles) as its grading scale--or nothing at all. We're excited about this innovation and fully expect to see it in our competitors' offerings soon! We originate--other imitate.
3. By the way, under the SPECIAL menu, the item called "SELECT-A-STUDENT" is actually a chooser of students for participation in classroom activities. It'll remind you of "Wheel of Fortune" a bit, for it impartially selects students from a class roster as "volunteers." Its options include exempting students from a session, setting a maximum number of times someone may be selected before becoming "immune," and allowing you to edit the congratulatory messages to fit YOUR style and personality!
4. Please note that MTG is shipping as an integrated Gradebook, Daily Record, Seating Chart, Scantron®/NCS® machine-scoring package, Connectix QuickCam®/Apple QuickTake®, Newton®/eMate 300® package right now, but the upgrade into the new Internet Website module will be FREE of charge for Version 7.6 customers. In fact, ALL future updates/upgrades of MTG are FREE for the lifetime of our company! Since we already have two pages of enhancements on the drawing board (print preview options, more students per class, raw score decimals, and more), we know you'll want to take advantage of this incomparable warranty at least once a semester! Return ONE of your Program Disks to us in a diskette mailer--with a paltry $5.00 for postage and handling--and we'll do the rest.
OR . . . you can always download our latest version from AOL's Education Forum or our new website at http://www.gradebusters.com. What could be faster, easier, or cheaper?
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OUR LATEST FEATURES:
(the most recent at bottom of list)
• Look under SPECIAL in the gradebook menu bar, and you will find our innovative TEACHER AIDE mode. If, like us, you're overworked but can't find the courage to let someone else help with your gradebook, you'll LOVE this option. Once set, a student, paraprofessional, parent, or other kind soul can enter NEW assignment data into your gradebook files--but no one may do anything else therein. That is, no one may change old scores, print out confidential reports, or browse around in sensitive data without your permission. To return to a "normal" program setting, toggle the TEACHER AIDE mode, or click in any unauthorized area, and then enter your PASSWORD. Either method will reset MTG to its usual wide-open entry and editing mode.
• The QUICK, EASY, and SMART Transfer of students from one class to another has arrived and is located under the Edit > Students menus. The QUICK option transfers only student setup info and enters an EXCUSED mark for all past assignments. EASY transfers student setup info AND assignment data--but WITHOUT checking for compatibility of gradebook and Daily Record elements between the two classes. SMART transfers student setup info and assignment data--but carefully compares gradebook setup compatibility, assignment setups, Daily Record categories, and the like, and alerts you to potential problems as they arise. We recommend our SMART transfer over the EASY option under most circumstances, of course, but the choice is always yours!
• SELECT-A-GROUP is now available for cooperative learning situations! Found under the SPECIAL menu, this unique option enables you to group your students randomly, with impartiality, for screen and hardcopy display.
• The famous Grade Busters DITTO function is in! Whenever you wish to repeat a score (in SCORE ENTRY mode), press the (")/quotation marks key: That score will be repeated automatically! To fill ALL remaining student score boxes with the same score, press Command + (") and behold.
• We've greatly expanded the student DATA BASE portion of MTG, as seen in the slide bar at the bottom of the roster entry screen. Likewise, we've "beefed up" the EXPORT function (under the File Menu), enabling teachers and administrators to create 10 Export Templates for sending ASCII files to data processing departments and the like. Down with report card bubble sheets and daily attendance slips!
• The SINGLE PAGE GRADEBOOK is a reality! If you've recorded 15 or fewer assignments for a class, you may elect to print all varieties of this document in a one OR two page format.
◊ Major Upgrade: Just wait 'til you see the brand new SEATING CHART!
• The famous Poor Man's Printer Buffer is now active for Mac as well as for our Apple II version! Choose the type of document you wish to print for a class, and then select as many as 14 OTHER CLASSES from which to print the same report! Load your printer with oodles of paper, sit back, and relax while we save hours of your precious time communicating with students and parents.
• Gradebook, Daily Record, and Seating Chart windows now EXPAND fully to take advantage of larger monitors! Just click the zoom box in the upper right corner of each window and enjoy the "big picture" of student data.
* Major Upgrade: We now work interactively with Parlant Technology’s ParentLink™ to provide up-to-date student grade and attendance information automatically over the telephone! You'll find our ParentLink macro in the Export section (under the File menu), and you'll find Parlant Technology in Provo, Utah at 800-735-2930. If you're interested in state-of-the-art voice processing of student data and the ultimate in school/community relations, be sure to give Parlant a call!
• Our Happy Birthday reminder function is now operational! Record your students' birthdays in the class data base, and a special greeting card will appear on screen for everyone whose special day it is.
• The Highlight Special Scores option has been added under the SPECIAL menu in the gradebook. Set the percentage threshold below, above, or between which student scores fall into a "special" area, and see those scores on screen as outline fonts. (They're really hard to miss this way!)
• The Print Macros option is now operational under the File menu. Every time you set up a special kind of report for yourself or your students, you may save that "formula" in the macros section and never have to set up that document again!
• The Customized Letter Grades option is now available under the Special menu. Create your own unique set of marks, or enable the traditional A through F system from your keyboard.
• Individual Line Library Comments may now be attached to student take-home reports from the data base or Special menu. Each student’s progress report may contain a unique set of remarks, as well as a "batch file" of comments attached to all printouts. Mix and match observations, as you decide.
• The new Calculate INC's as . . . option (under the Special and Preferences menus) gives you the power to record all assignments for a grading period and then evaluate only those which students have completed to date! That is, if you wish to consider all Incomplete Scores as Excused, students can work at their own pace and be graded only on the work they’ve handed in.
◊ Major Upgrade: Making the Grade Mac® is now fully cross-platform compatible, for it reads and shares class files from Making the Grade Windows® as well! No matter what operating system a teacher uses (even DOS with our Record Breaker ), it's "Have Data Disk Will Travel" with MTG!
• Brand new bar chart reports are now available for whatever statistical analysis you might need under the Reports > For the CLASS menus. You may graphically compare as many group of students in your class(es) as you wish——in any fashion you wish. It's completely up to you how you display single or multiple class data with these attractive reports!
• Individual Category Effort Marks are now assignable within the MTG Student Data Base. No longer must elementary teachers, for example, assign a single, comprehensive evaluation to a student’s performance--break that effort down now by specific skill category and send even more information home to parents!
◊ Major Upgrade: The Connectix QuickCam® (black/white and color versions) is now part of "Making the Grade" and can be found under Window in the main menu bar! Take students' pictures in class, attach them permanently or temporarily to the MTG student base, and then print them in student progress reports and seating charts. MTG has finally joined the ranks of multimedia-based programs!
• Individual category totals are now displayed for each student in the MTG Daily Record. What you've seen for years in the hardcopy printout is now yours on-screen!
• MTG is now Pentamation® compatible! Student information and class rosters can now be imported directly from this renowned program, with academic, behavioral, and attendance information being exported back to it. Once again we stand firm in our commitment to liberate teachers from number two pencils and bubble sheets at grade time!
• The Page Up/Page Down keys are now fully functional within the Gradebook, Daily Record, and Seating Chart screens! (Anything we can do to save time and mouse clicks, you know . . . .)
• Speaking of our Pentamation connection, MTG is now compatible with Campus America® too! Sharing our data with district and state-wide MIS departments is a primary objective at Jay Klein Productions, and we enthusiastically welcome CA to our family of vendors!
• Drop down menus are now available for faster student selection in the Display > Student data portions of the Gradebook and Daily Record. Click on the student name bar at the top of each screen and see your entire class roster in menu form, ready for the choosing!
• The Gradebook, Daily Record, and Seating Chart modules can now be "emptied, blanked, and cleared" of all data in preparation for your next grading period. All you have to do is click on Edit in the main menu bar and slide down to Empty/Blank/Clear within each program segment. In previous versions of MTG, teachers had to create new files and then import rosters and setup information from older classes. But no more! Now you can "zero out" existing class records, modifying them as necessary for the next marking period, and then save them under new titles. Indeed, MTG becomes easier to use and more flexible each and every year!
• And speaking of our Campus America connection, MTG is now compatible with Skyward® too! Sharing our data with district and state-wide MIS departments is a primary objective at Jay Klein Productions, and we enthusiastically welcome Skyward to our family of cooperating vendors!
• Taking full advantage of the Connectix QuickCam affiliation, MTG now displays students' pictures in the "Select-A-Student" and "Happy Birthday" windows!
• The MTG Preferences section has been expanded with two new options (under File in the main menu). You can now save toner in your laser printers by choosing not to fill "empty" areas between seats with a grayed-out pattern. Instead, non-seating areas will show and print as blank, white spaces. The second preference enables you to remove the due date from the title field when setting up an assignment. MTG "defaults" to include the date, but the choice is always yours whether to keep it there.
• For those of us whose eyes "ain't what they used to be," Gradebook and Daily Record printouts can now be shaded on every other line of student data as a reading aid! Go to File > MtG Preferences > Shading Gradebook and Daily Records, and chose the format that's right for you!
◊ Major Upgrade: MTG is now Newton® and eMate 300® compliant! Download the most recent 12 assignments from the MTGM Gradebook and the last three weeks' attendance from the Daily Record into a MessagePad 120/130/2000 or eMate and edit at will. You can also add another 12 new assignments for all students and another two weeks of attendance data. Portability, flexibility, and affordability take on completely new meanings with these new Personal Data Assistants from Apple Computer!
• MTG now remembers and saves all open window positions! That is, each time you save a class, we record precisely where the Gradebook, Daily Record, and Seating Chart windows are located, how large they are, and which is "forwardmost" on the screen. Want to have your Seating Chart open and expanded to its fullest size for a student aide to take attendance at the beginning of class? You can now . . . and without violating students' confidentiality rights!
• Student pictures taken with Apple's QuickTake® 100/150/200 are now importable into the MTG student data base! In fact, "pict" files obtained from any source (in 320x240 landscape mode) are now fair game for importation into your seating charts, the Select-A-Student module, and the like.
Also: Pictures taken with the QuickCam® via the MTG connection can now be exported
for use in other word processing or layout programs!
• Reports for an entire class now include category analysis, as well as that for the entire marking period and individual assignments! Printouts by table, histogram, and bar chart now reveal student progress in individual or multiple categories . . . in a single class or multiple classes (up to a maximum of 15)! Want to find out who the best speller is in all of your classes? Now you can!
• Making the Grade now supports the ScanMark 2000 25-channel optical mark reader as well as the 48-channel device added in Version 4.0. Rest assured that whenever current technologies are refined and streamlined, we'll be right there to support you with all the necessary modifications!
• And speaking of our new Campus America and Skyward connections, MTG is now compatible with Schoolmaster® as well! Exchanging student records with MIS departments remains a primary objective at Jay Klein Productions, and we enthusiastically welcome Schoolmaster to our growing family of cooperating vendors!
◊ Major Upgrade: MTG v7.5 is more powerfully "networkable" than ever! That is, site-licensed network copies now support up to 100 different teachers PER WORKSTATION, along with their individual setup information, preferences, print macros, Line Libraries, and the like. Grade Busters site-licenses have never been more economical and cost-effective!
• Los Angeles Unified School District is now part of the MTG conglomerate, for we now import their class files and export data back to Schoenburg Consulting's "GradeBubbler®," the ultimate solution to your bubble-sheeting woes! Call Bob Schoenburg at (818) 887-4466 for more information.
• Select-A-Group "volunteers" may now be printed in text list form and/or graphic certificate form for posting in class. Your many voices HAVE been heard, my colleagues!
• Select-A-Student now automatically "immunizes" students who have been marked absent for the day it is activated.
• Version 7.5 features a host of new missing assignment displays and hardcopy reports. You may focus the content of these documents upon individual students or upon individual assignments; either way, those who still owe you work will have nowhere to hide!
• The MTG Portrait Studio now supports the importation of JPEG student pictures as well as the Mac-traditional PICT ones.
• Report Card Summary Reports for the teacher are now much easier to access! Instead of having to wade through half-a-dozen student report screens first, all you must do now is click Reports > Teacher > Report Card Summaries and you're there!
• Setting up a class is even simpler and faster now, for the "Annotations" screen has been moved into the Special menu (COMPOSE score annotations).
• If you've always wanted to be able to "dump" information contained in the MTG Student Database, your wish has just come true. Go to the Special menu and select EXPORT the student database, and you'll receive all of that information in ASCII format for importation into the Word or Works program of your choice!
• Have you ever opened a gradebook file and been notified of a student's birthday . . . only to forget to print out his or her BIRTHDAY CARD? Unless you're comfortable changing the date in your Mac's system clock, that card would be lost to you forever . . . until now. Version 7.5 features the ability to display and print student birthday cards for the day, the week, the month, and the entire grading term; so you'll never be caught with your congratulations down again!
• MTG now publishes a greater variety of teacher gradebook printouts than ever before! Witness the new “Supersized Grid” option, a single-page, large-type printout perfect for recording scores in an “upscale” fashion. And, check out the new “right side” options for printing multiple page gradebooks: You may now choose whether you wish to have the student last name, student first name, or student number on the rightmost gradebook page.
• In version 7.6, Gradebook Category Titles support lower case letters as well as the previous upper-case-only entries.
• The percentage = letter grade rounding option has been put back into the new class setup sequence, following its brief move to the "Special" menu in previous versions.
• The MtG Portrait Studio now imports/exports any and all picture formats supported by Apple's QuickTime® software. (Be sure to obtain version 3.0.2 or later of this Mac OS extension set from Apple Computer's Software Updates website!)
• Another Portrait Studio enhancement in v7.6: You may now take student pictures in portrait mode (more vertical than horizontal) as well as in the more traditional landscape mode (more horizontal than vertical)! Feel free to import students' portraits from the CD-ROM collections some photo studios offer; they usually appear in portrait mode, and MtG supports them completely now!
• Multiple-class data extracted via the MtG Export Student Data feature can be merged now into a single "megafile" to make things as simple for district MIS staffers as humanly possible!
• Version 7.6 now enables our MtG Windows users to open .mtg files on Macintosh computers without PC File Exchange being installed and active! Transparent program usage is one of our highest goals at Jay Klein Productions!
• The date option found within the assignment title line can be displayed in the British date format (DD/MM) as well as the traditional US one (MM/DD). Go to File > MtG Preferences > Including date in assignments, and make your preferences known!
• Speaking of preferences . . . teachers now have the option of automatically displaying scores for students who earn no points on an Extra Credit assignment either as 0 (the default) or EXC (Excused). Go to File > MtG Preferences > Setting Extra Credit defaults, and make your preferences known once again!
• For the ultimate in accountability measures . . . MtG 7.6 now boasts a brand new Sign-Out Sheet option for the teacher, perfect for documenting students' receipt of their Progress Reports or any other events you should confirm with a student signature! (Go to Reports > For the TEACHER > Sign-Out Sheets to obtain this document in a variety of formats.)
• For those who regularly use MtG's Select-A-Group feature (under Special), we now offer the option of distributing "left-over" students to other groups, as well as the current practice of leaving them in their own smaller ones!
• MtG 7.6 now sports the option of printing only the active days within the teacher Daily Record report. If your classes meet on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, for example, you may elect to print only those days in your spreadsheet, without the current "NO SCHOOL" events.
• You may now print Seating Charts with student pictures and student numbers. These reports MUST be kept confidential and away from students' prying eyes, of course, but they're perfect for substitutes who need all the information they can get when you're gone!
• The "Current Student Totals" box in the upper right corner of the main Gradebook window features a brand new item! Click the left triangle there just once, and you'll be able to record individual student Line Library Comments directly from the gradebook screen!
Well, that’s about it for now . . . . I hope you become as excited about "Making the Grade" as we are at Jay Klein Productions, for even in its eighth year now, we think it our finest, most ambitious program. Hundreds of thousands of educators worldwide have been using the "Grade Busters" line of teacher productivity tools since 1984; it was their reactions that garnered us the accolade in ELECTRONIC LEARNING as One of America’s 7 Favorite Software Companies (Aldus, The Learning Company, Microsoft, Scholastic, Sunburst, and WordPerfect are the other six) and One of Six Software Companies That Produce GREAT Programs. This past year the Computer Learning Foundation named us one of only 23 hardware and software companies to earn their prestigious Seal of Approval For Schools. (Apple Computer, Microsoft, IBM/EduQuest, Claris, Brøderbund, and Hewlett-Packard were among the other winners.) A few months ago we received the Best Bet award from CREATIVE CLASSROOM (Children's Television Workshop) as one of only six software packages that EVERY elementary school teacher should have. ("Print Shop Deluxe" and "The Teacher Tool Kit" were two others.) Also last year, TECHNOLOGY AND LEARNING awarded MTG its Award of Excellence, and in May MEDIA AND METHODS bestowed its coveted Portfolio Award on the program. To say the very least, we're mighty grateful and proud . . . .
PLEASE don't hesitate to contact us again at 719-599-8786, 719-594-0271 (Fax: 719-599-8312) or write at 2930 Austin Bluffs Parkway, Suite 104, Colorado Springs 80918 or gradebust1@aol.com if there is anything we can do to help you master the state-of-the-art Macintosh (and now Windows®) Gradebook, Daily Record, Seating Chart, Machine-Scoring, Automatic Voice Processing, Picture-Taking, PDA package, "Making the Grade"!
